1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2001-03-15
2 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
6 For older news, see the file ONEWS
9 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
10 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
11 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
12 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
15 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.4
18 ** Emacs can now be built without sound support.
21 ** Emacs now supports new configure options `--program-prefix',
22 `--program-suffix' and `--program-transform-name' that affect the names of
26 ** By default, Emacs now uses a setgid helper program to update game
27 scores. The directory ${localstatedir}/games/emacs is the normal
28 place for game scores to be stored. This may be controlled by the
29 configure option `--with-game-dir'. The specific user that Emacs uses
30 to own the game scores is controlled by `--with-game-user'. If access
31 to a game user is not available, then scores will be stored separately
32 in each user's home directory.
35 ** Leim is now part of the Emacs distribution.
36 You no longer need to download a separate tarball in order to build
40 ** Support for AIX 5.1 was added.
43 ** Support for FreeBSD/Alpha has been added.
46 ** Support for BSD/OS 5.0 was added.
49 ** Support for GNU/Linux systems on S390 machines was added.
52 ** Support for MacOS X was added.
53 See the files mac/README and mac/INSTALL for build instructions.
56 ** Support for GNU/Linux systems on X86-64 machines was added.
58 * Changes in Emacs 21.4
60 ** The new command `ediff-backup' compares a file with its most recent
61 backup using `ediff'. If you specify the name of a backup file,
62 `ediff-backup' compares it with the file of which it is a backup.
65 ** The mode line position information now comes before the major mode.
66 When the file is maintained under version control, that information
67 appears between the position information and the major mode.
70 ** You can now customize the use of window fringes. To control this
71 for all frames, use M-x fringe-mode or the Show/Hide submenu of the
72 top-level Options menu, or customize the `fringe-mode' variable. To
73 control this for a specific frame, use the command M-x
77 ** There is a new user option `mail-default-directory' that allows you
78 to specify the value of `default-directory' for mail buffers. This
79 directory is used for auto-save files of mail buffers. It defaults to
83 ** When you are root, and you visit a file whose modes specify
84 read-only, the Emacs buffer is now read-only too. Type C-x C-q if you
85 want to make the buffer writable. (As root, you will in fact be able
88 ** The new command `revert-buffer-with-coding-system' (C-x RET r)
89 revisits the current file using a coding system that you specify.
92 ** `ps-print' can now print Unicode characters.
94 Printing text with characters from the mule-unicode-* sets works with
95 ps-print, provided that you have installed the appropriate BDF fonts.
96 See the file INSTALL for URLs where you can find these fonts.
99 ** The new options `buffers-menu-show-directories' and
100 `buffers-menu-show-status' let you control how buffers are displayed
101 in the menu dropped down when you click "Buffers" from the menu bar.
103 `buffers-menu-show-directories' controls whether the menu displays
104 leading directories as part of the file name visited by the buffer.
105 If its value is `unless-uniquify', the default, directories will be
106 shown unless uniquify-buffer-name-style' is non-nil. The value of nil
107 and t turn the display of directories off and on, respectively.
109 `buffers-menu-show-status' controls whether the Buffers menu includes
110 the modified and read-only status of the buffers. By default it is
111 t, and the status is shown.
113 Setting these variables directly does not take effect until next time
114 the Buffers menu is regenerated.
117 ** `C-u C-x =' now displays text properties of the character at point.
120 ** The commands M-x customize-face and M-x customize-face-other-window
121 now look at the character after point. If a face or faces are
122 specified for that character, the commands by default customize those
125 ** New language environments: French, Cyrillic-KOI8-U, Windows-1251,
126 Cyrillic-KOI8-T, Bulgarian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, UTF-8,
127 Windows-1255, Welsh, Latin-7, Lithuanian, Latvian.
129 ** New input methods: latin-alt-postfix, latin-postfix, latin-prefix,
130 ukrainian-computer, belarusian, bulgarian-bds, russian-computer,
131 vietnamese-telex, lithuanian-numeric, lithuanian-keyboard,
132 latvian-keyboard, welsh, georgian, rfc1345, ucs, sgml,
133 bulgarian-phonetic, dutch.
135 ** Many new coding systems are available by loading the `code-pages'
136 library. These include complete versions of most of those in
137 codepage.el, based Unicode mappings.
139 ** The utf-8 coding system has been enhanced. Untranslatable utf-8
140 sequences (mostly representing CJK characters) are composed into
141 single quasi-characters. By loading the library utf-8-subst, you can
142 arrange to translate many utf-8 CJK character sequences into real
143 Emacs characters in a similar way to the Mule-UCS system. The utf-8
144 coding system will now encode characters from most of Emacs's
145 one-dimensional internal charsets, specifically the ISO-8859 ones.
147 ** New command `ucs-insert' inserts a character specified by its
151 ** Limited support for character unification has been added.
152 Emacs now knows how to translate Latin-N chars between their charset
153 and some other Latin-N charset or Unicode. By default this
154 translation will happen automatically on encoding. Quail input
155 methods use the translations to make the input conformant with the
156 encoding of the buffer in which it's being used where possible.
158 You can force a more complete unification with the user option
159 unify-8859-on-decoding-mode. That maps all the Latin-N character sets
160 into Unicode characters (from the latin-iso8859-1 and
161 mule-unicode-0100-24ff charsets) on decoding.
163 ** There is support for decoding Greek and Cyrillic characters into
164 either Unicode (the mule-unicode charsets) or the iso-8859 charsets,
165 when possible. The latter are more space-efficient. This is
166 controlled by user option utf-8-fragment-on-decoding.
169 ** The scrollbar under LessTif or Motif has a smoother drag-scrolling.
170 On the other hand, the size of the thumb does not represent the actual
171 amount of text shown any more (only a crude approximation of it).
174 ** Emacs can produce an underscore-like (horizontal bar) cursor.
175 The underscore cursor is set by putting `(cursor-type . hbar)' in
176 default-frame-alist. It supports variable heights, like the `bar'
179 ** Filesets are collections of files. You can define a fileset in
180 various ways, such as based on a directory tree or based on
181 program files that include other program files.
183 Once you have defined a fileset, you can perform various operations on
184 all the files in it, such as visiting them or searching and replacing
188 ** PO translation files are decoded according to their MIME headers
189 when Emacs visits them.
192 ** The game `mpuz' is enhanced.
194 `mpuz' now allows the 2nd factor not to have two identical digits. By
195 default, all trivial operations involving whole lines are performed
196 automatically. The game uses faces for better visual feedback.
199 ** On X and MS Windows, the blinking cursor's "off" state is now shown
200 as a hollow box or a thin bar.
203 ** Emacs now supports compound-text Extended Segments in X selections.
205 Some versions of X, notably XFree86, use Extended Segments to encode
206 in X selections characters that belong to character sets which are not
207 part of the list of approved standard encodings defined by the ICCCM
208 spec. Examples of such non-standard encodings include ISO 8859-14, ISO
209 8859-15, KOI8-R, and BIG5. The new coding system
210 `compound-text-with-extensions' supports these extensions, and is now
211 used by default for encoding and decoding X selections. If you don't
212 want this support, set `selection-coding-system' to `compound-text'.
215 ** The parameters of automatic hscrolling can now be customized.
216 The variable `hscroll-margin' determines how many columns away from
217 the window edge point is allowed to get before automatic hscrolling
218 will horizontally scroll the window. The default value is 5.
220 The variable `hscroll-step' determines how many columns automatic
221 hscrolling will scroll the window when point gets too close to the
222 window edge. If its value is zero, the default, Emacs scrolls the
223 window so as to center point. If its value is an integer, it says how
224 many columns to scroll. If the value is a floating-point number, it
225 gives the fraction of the window's width to scroll the window.
228 ** The user option `tex-start-options-string' has been replaced
229 by two new user options: `tex-start-options', which should hold
230 command-line options to feed to TeX, and `tex-start-commands' which should hold
231 TeX commands to use at startup.
234 ** The variable `automatic-hscrolling' was renamed to `auto-hscroll-mode'.
235 The old name is still available as an alias.
238 ** New display feature: focus follows mouse. If you set the variable
239 mouse-autoselect-window to non-nil value, moving the mouse to a different
240 Emacs window will select that window (minibuffer window can be selected
241 only when it is active). The default is nil, so that this feature is not
245 ** The new command `describe-char' (C-u C-x =) pops up a buffer with
246 description various information about a character, including its
247 encodings and syntax, its text properties, overlays, and widgets at
248 point. You can get more information about some of them, by clicking
249 on mouse-sensitive areas or moving there and pressing RET.
252 ** The new command `multi-occur' is just like `occur', except it can
253 search multiple buffers. There is also a new command
254 `multi-occur-by-filename-regexp' which allows you to specify the
255 buffers to search by their filename. Internally, Occur mode has been
256 rewritten, and now uses font-lock, among other changes.
259 ** Emacs normally highlights mouse sensitive text whenever the mouse
260 is over the text. By setting the new variable `mouse-highlight', you
261 can optionally enable mouse highlighting only after you move the
262 mouse, so that highlighting disappears when you press a key. You can
263 also disable mouse highlighting.
266 ** font-lock: in modes like C and Lisp where the fontification assumes that
267 an open-paren in column 0 is always outside of any string or comment,
268 font-lock now highlights any such open-paren-in-column-zero in bold-red
269 if it is inside a string or a comment, to indicate that it can cause
270 trouble with fontification and/or indentation.
273 ** There's a new face `minibuffer-prompt'.
274 Emacs adds this face to the list of text properties stored in the
275 variable `minibuffer-prompt-properties', which is used to display the
279 ** The new face `mode-line-inactive' is used to display the mode line
280 of non-selected windows. The `mode-line' face is now used to display
281 the mode line of the currently selected window.
283 The new variable `mode-line-in-non-selected-windows' controls whether
284 the `mode-line-inactive' face is used.
287 ** A menu item "Show/Hide" was added to the top-level menu "Options".
288 This menu allows you to turn various display features on and off (such
289 as the fringes, the tool bar, the speedbar, and the menu bar itself).
290 You can also move the vertical scroll bar to either side here or turn
291 it off completely. There is also a menu-item to toggle displaying of
292 current date and time, current line and column number in the
296 ** Speedbar has moved from the "Tools" top level menu to "Show/Hide".
299 ** Emacs can now indicate in the mode-line the presence of new e-mails
300 in a directory or in a file. See the documentation of the user option
301 `display-time-mail-directory'.
304 ** The new option `Info-scroll-prefer-subnodes' causes Info to behave
305 like the stand-alone Info reader (from the GNU Texinfo package) as far
306 as motion between nodes and their subnodes is concerned. If it is t
307 (the default), Emacs behaves as before when you type SPC in a menu: it
308 visits the subnode pointed to by the first menu entry. If this option
309 is nil, SPC scrolls to the end of the current node, and only then goes
310 to the first menu item, like the stand-alone reader does.
312 This change was already in Emacs 21.1, but wasn't advertised in the
316 ** LDAP support now defaults to ldapsearch from OpenLDAP version 2.
319 ** You can now disable pc-selection-mode after enabling it.
320 M-x pc-selection-mode behaves like a proper minor mode, and with no
321 argument it toggles the mode.
323 Turning off PC-Selection mode restores the global key bindings
324 that were replaced by turning on the mode.
327 ** Emacs now displays a splash screen by default even if command-line
328 arguments were given. The new command-line option --no-splash
329 disables the splash screen; see also the variable
330 `inhibit-startup-message' (which is also aliased as
331 `inhibit-splash-screen').
333 ** Changes in support of colors on character terminals
336 *** The new command-line option --color=MODE lets you specify a standard
337 mode for a tty color support. It is meant to be used on character
338 terminals whose capabilities are not set correctly in the terminal
339 database, or with terminal emulators which support colors, but don't
340 set the TERM environment variable to a name of a color-capable
341 terminal. "emacs --color" uses the same color commands as GNU `ls'
342 when invoked with "ls --color", so if your terminal can support colors
343 in "ls --color", it will support "emacs --color" as well. See the
344 user manual for the possible values of the MODE parameter.
347 *** Emacs now supports several character terminals which provide more
348 than 8 colors. For example, for `xterm', 16-color, 88-color, and
349 256-color modes are supported. Emacs automatically notes at startup
350 the extended number of colors, and defines the appropriate entries for
354 *** There's a new support for colors on `rxvt' terminal emulator.
357 ** Emacs can now be invoked in full-screen mode on a windowed display.
359 When Emacs is invoked on a window system, the new command-line options
360 `--fullwidth', `--fullheight', and `--fullscreen' produce a frame
361 whose width, height, or both width and height take up the entire
362 screen size. (For now, this does not work with some window managers.)
365 ** Info-index offers completion.
368 ** shell-mode now supports programmable completion using `pcomplete'.
371 ** Emacs now tries to set up buffer coding systems for HTML/XML files
375 ** The new command `comint-input-previous-argument' in comint-derived
376 modes (shell-mode etc) inserts arguments from previous command lines,
377 like bash's `ESC .' binding. It is bound by default to `C-c .', but
378 otherwise behaves quite similarly to the bash version.
381 ** Changes in C-h bindings:
383 C-h e displays the *Messages* buffer.
385 C-h followed by a control character is used for displaying files
388 C-h C-f displays the FAQ.
389 C-h C-e displays the PROBLEMS file.
391 The info-search bindings on C-h C-f, C-h C-k and C-h C-i
392 have been moved to C-h F, C-h K and C-h S.
394 C-h c, C-h k, C-h w, and C-h f now handle remapped interactive commands.
396 - C-h c and C-h k report the actual command (after possible remapping)
397 run by the key sequence.
399 - C-h w and C-h f on a command which has been remapped now report the
400 command it is remapped to, and the keys which can be used to run
403 For example, if C-k is bound to kill-line, and kill-line is remapped
404 to new-kill-line, these commands now report:
406 - C-h c and C-h k C-k reports:
407 C-k runs the command new-kill-line
409 - C-h w and C-h f kill-line reports:
410 kill-line is remapped to new-kill-line which is on C-k, <deleteline>
412 - C-h w and C-h f new-kill-line reports:
413 new-kill-line is on C-k
416 ** C-w in incremental search now grabs either a character or a word,
417 making the decision in a heuristic way. This new job is done by the
418 command `isearch-yank-word-or-char'. To restore the old behavior,
419 bind C-w to `isearch-yank-word' in `isearch-mode-map'.
422 ** Yanking text now discards certain text properties that can
423 be inconvenient when you did not expect them. The variable
424 `yank-excluded-properties' specifies which ones. Insertion
425 of register contents and rectangles also discards these properties.
428 ** Occur, Info, and comint-derived modes now support using
429 M-x font-lock-mode to toggle fontification. The variable
430 `Info-fontify' is no longer applicable; to disable fontification,
431 remove `turn-on-font-lock' from `Info-mode-hook'.
434 ** M-x grep now tries to avoid appending `/dev/null' to the command line
435 by using GNU grep `-H' option instead. M-x grep will automatically
436 detect whether this is possible or not the first time it is invoked.
437 When `-H' is used, the grep command line supplied by the user is passed
438 unchanged to the system to execute, which allows more complicated
439 command lines to be used than was possible before.
442 ** The face-customization widget has been reworked to be less confusing.
443 In particular, when you enable a face attribute using the corresponding
444 check-box, there's no longer a redundant `*' option in value selection
445 for that attribute; the values you can choose are only those which make
446 sense for the attribute. When an attribute is de-selected by unchecking
447 its check-box, then the (now ignored, but still present temporarily in
448 case you re-select the attribute) value is hidden.
451 ** In GUD mode, when talking to GDB, C-x C-a C-j "jumps" the program
452 counter to the specified source line (the one where point is).
455 ** GUD mode improvements for jdb:
457 *** Search for source files using jdb classpath and class
458 information. Fast startup since there is no need to scan all
459 source files up front. There is also no need to create and maintain
460 lists of source directories to scan. Look at `gud-jdb-use-classpath'
461 and `gud-jdb-classpath' customization variables documentation.
463 *** Supports the standard breakpoint (gud-break, gud-clear)
464 set/clear operations from java source files under the classpath, stack
465 traversal (gud-up, gud-down), and run until current stack finish
468 *** Supports new jdb (Java 1.2 and later) in addition to oldjdb
471 *** The previous method of searching for source files has been
472 preserved in case someone still wants/needs to use it.
473 Set gud-jdb-use-classpath to nil.
475 Added Customization Variables
477 *** gud-jdb-command-name. What command line to use to invoke jdb.
479 *** gud-jdb-use-classpath. Allows selection of java source file searching
480 method: set to t for new method, nil to scan gud-jdb-directories for
481 java sources (previous method).
483 *** gud-jdb-directories. List of directories to scan and search for java
484 classes using the original gud-jdb method (if gud-jdb-use-classpath
489 *** Do not allow debugger output history variable to grow without bounds.
492 ** hide-ifdef-mode now uses overlays rather than selective-display
493 to hide its text. This should be mostly transparent but slightly
494 changes the behavior of motion commands line C-e and C-p.
497 ** In Dired's ! command (dired-do-shell-command), `*' and `?' now
498 control substitution of the file names only when they are surrounded
499 by whitespace. This means you can now use them as shell wildcards
500 too. If you want to use just plain `*' as a wildcard, type `*""'; the
501 doublequotes make no difference in the shell, but they prevent
502 special treatment in `dired-do-shell-command'.
505 ** Dired's v command now runs external viewers to view certain
506 types of files. The variable `dired-view-command-alist' controls
507 what external viewers to use and when.
510 ** Unquoted `$' in file names do not signal an error any more when
511 the corresponding environment variable does not exist.
512 Instead, the `$ENVVAR' text is left as is, so that `$$' quoting
513 is only rarely needed.
516 ** jit-lock can now be delayed with `jit-lock-defer-time'.
518 If this variable is non-nil, its value should be the amount of Emacs
519 idle time in seconds to wait before starting fontification. For
520 example, if you set `jit-lock-defer-time' to 0.25, fontification will
521 only happen after 0.25s of idle time.
524 ** Marking commands extend the region when invoked multiple times. If
525 you hit M-C-SPC (mark-sexp), M-@ (mark-word), M-h (mark-paragraph), or
526 C-M-h (mark-defun) repeatedly, the marked region will now be extended
527 each time, so you can mark the next two sexps with M-C-SPC M-C-SPC,
528 for example. This feature also works for mark-end-of-sentence, if you
532 ** Some commands do something special in Transient Mark mode when the
533 mark is active--for instance, they limit their operation to the
534 region. Even if you don't normally use Transient Mark mode, you might
535 want to get this behavior from a particular command. There are two
536 ways you can enable Transient Mark mode and activate the mark, for one
539 One method is to type C-SPC C-SPC; this enables Transient Mark mode
540 and sets the mark at point. The other method is to type C-u C-x C-x.
541 This enables Transient Mark mode temporarily but does not alter the
544 After these commands, Transient Mark mode remains enabled until you
545 deactivate the mark. That typically happens when you type a command
546 that alters the buffer, but you can also deactivate the mark by typing
550 ** A prefix argument is no longer required to repeat a jump to a
551 previous mark, i.e. C-u C-SPC C-SPC C-SPC ... will cycle through the
552 mark ring. Use C-u C-u C-SPC to set the mark immediately after a jump.
555 ** In the *Occur* buffer, `o' switches to it in another window, and
556 C-o displays the current line's occurrence in another window without
560 ** When you specify a frame size with --geometry, the size applies to
561 all frames you create. A position specified with --geometry only
562 affects the initial frame.
565 ** M-h (mark-paragraph) now accepts a prefix arg.
566 With positive arg, M-h marks the current and the following paragraphs;
567 if the arg is negative, it marks the current and the preceding
570 ** In Dired, the w command now copies the current line's file name
574 ** The variables dired-free-space-program and dired-free-space-args
575 have been renamed to directory-free-space-program and
576 directory-free-space-args, and they now apply whenever Emacs puts a
577 directory listing into a buffer.
580 ** mouse-wheels can now scroll a specific fraction of the window
581 (rather than a fixed number of lines) and the scrolling is `progressive'.
584 ** The keyboard-coding-system is now automatically set based on
585 your current locale settings. If it turns out that your terminal
586 does not support the encoding implied by your locale (for example,
587 it inserts non-ASCII chars if you hit M-i), you will need to add
589 (set-keyboard-coding-system nil)
591 to your .emacs to revert to the old behavior.
594 ** A new coding system `euc-tw' has been added for traditional Chinese
595 in CNS encoding; it accepts both Big 5 and CNS as input; on saving,
596 Big 5 is then converted to CNS.
599 ** Emacs now reads the standard abbrevs file ~/.abbrev_defs
600 automatically at startup, if it exists. When Emacs offers to save
601 modified buffers, it saves the abbrevs too if they have changed. It
602 can do this either silently or asking for confirmation first,
603 according to the value of `save-abbrevs'.
606 ** Display of hollow cursors now obeys the buffer-local value (if any)
607 of `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' in the buffer that the cursor
611 ** The default values of `tooltip-delay' and `tooltip-hide-delay'
615 ** On terminals whose erase-char is ^H (Backspace), Emacs
616 now uses normal-erase-is-backspace-mode.
619 ** The variable `auto-save-file-name-transforms' now has a third element that
620 controls whether or not the function `make-auto-save-file-name' will
621 attempt to construct a unique auto-save name (e.g. for remote files).
624 ** Diary sexp entries can have custom marking in the calendar.
625 Diary sexp functions which only apply to certain days (such as
626 `diary-block' or `diary-cyclic' now take an optional parameter MARK,
627 which is the name of a face or a single-character string indicating
628 how to highlight the day in the calendar display. Specifying a
629 single-character string as @var{mark} places the character next to the
630 day in the calendar. Specifying a face highlights the day with that
631 face. This lets you have different colors or markings for vacations,
632 appointments, paydays or anything else using a sexp.
636 *** The key C-x C-q no longer checks files in or out, it only changes
637 the read-only state of the buffer (toggle-read-only). We made this
638 change because we held a poll and found that many users were unhappy
639 with the previous behavior. If you do prefer this behavior, you
640 can bind `vc-toggle-read-only' to C-x C-q in your .emacs:
642 (global-set-key "\C-x\C-q" 'vc-toggle-read-only)
644 The function `vc-toggle-read-only' will continue to exist.
647 *** There is a new user option `vc-cvs-global-switches' that allows
648 you to specify switches that are passed to any CVS command invoked
649 by VC. These switches are used as "global options" for CVS, which
650 means they are inserted before the command name. For example, this
651 allows you to specify a compression level using the "-z#" option for
657 *** When comparing directories.
658 Typing D brings up a buffer that lists the differences between the contents of
659 directories. Now it is possible to use this buffer to copy the missing files
660 from one directory to another.
663 *** When comparing files or buffers.
664 Typing the = key now offers to perform the word-by-word comparison of the
665 currently highlighted regions in an inferior Ediff session. If you answer 'n'
666 then it reverts to the old behavior and asks the user to select regions for
672 *** New regular expressions features
674 **** New syntax for regular expressions, multi-line regular expressions.
675 The syntax --ignore-case-regexp=/regex/ is now undocumented and retained
676 only for backward compatibility. The new equivalent syntax is
677 --regex=/regex/i. More generally, it is --regex=/TAGREGEX/TAGNAME/MODS,
678 where `/TAGNAME' is optional, as usual, and MODS is a string of 0 or
679 more characters among `i' (ignore case), `m' (multi-line) and `s'
680 (single-line). The `m' and `s' modifiers behave as in Perl regular
681 expressions: `m' allows regexps to match more than one line, while `s'
682 (which implies `m') means that `.' matches newlines. The ability to
683 span newlines allows writing of much more powerful regular expressions
684 and rapid prototyping for tagging new languages.
686 **** Regular expressions can use char escape sequences as in Gcc
687 The escaped character sequence \a, \b, \d, \e, \f, \n, \r, \t, \v,
688 respectively, stand for the ASCII characters BEL, BS, DEL, ESC, FF, NL,
691 **** Regular expressions can be bound to a given language
692 The syntax --regex={LANGUAGE}REGEX means that REGEX is used to make tags
693 only for files of language LANGUAGE, and ignored otherwise. This is
694 particularly useful when storing regexps in a file.
696 **** Regular expressions can be read from a file
697 The --regex=@regexfile option means read the regexps from a file, one
698 per line. Lines beginning with space or tab are ignored.
700 *** New language parsing features
702 **** In Perl, packages are tags.
703 Subroutine tags are named from their package. You can jump to sub tags
704 as you did before, by the sub name, or additionally by looking for
707 **** New language PHP: tags are functions, classes and defines.
708 If the --members option is specified to etags, tags are vars also.
710 **** New default keywords for TeX.
711 The new keywords are def, newcommand, renewcommand, newenvironment and
714 **** In Makefiles, constants are tagged
715 If you want the old behaviour instead, thus avoiding to increase the
716 size of the tags file, use the --no-globals option.
718 **** In Prolog, etags creates tags for rules in addition to predicates.
720 *** Honour #line directives.
721 When Etags parses an input file that contains C preprocessor's #line
722 directives, it creates tags using the file name and line number
723 specified in those directives. This is useful when dealing with code
724 created from Cweb source files. When Etags tags the generated file, it
725 writes tags pointing to the source file.
727 *** New option --parse-stdin=FILE
728 This option is mostly useful when calling etags from programs. It can
729 be used (only once) in place of a file name on the command line. Etags
730 will read from standard input and mark the produced tags as belonging to
734 ** The command line option --no-windows has been changed to
735 --no-window-system. The old one still works, but is deprecated.
738 ** The command `list-text-properties-at' has been deleted because
739 C-u C-x = gives the same information and more.
742 ** `buffer-menu' and `list-buffers' now list buffers whose names begin
743 with a space, when those buffers are visiting files. Normally buffers
744 whose names begin with space are omitted.
747 ** You can now customize fill-nobreak-predicate to control where
748 filling can break lines. We provide two sample predicates,
749 fill-single-word-nobreak-p and fill-french-nobreak-p.
752 ** New user option `add-log-always-start-new-record'.
753 When this option is enabled, M-x add-change-log-entry will always
754 start a new record regardless of when the last record is.
757 ** SGML mode has indentation and supports XML syntax.
758 The new variable `sgml-xml-mode' tells SGML mode to use XML syntax.
759 When this option is enabled, SGML tags are inserted in XML style,
760 i.e., there is always a closing tag.
761 By default, its setting is inferred on a buffer-by-buffer basis
762 from the file name or buffer contents.
765 ** `xml-mode' is now an alias for `smgl-mode', which has XML support.
768 ** New user option `isearch-resume-enabled'.
769 This option can be disabled, to avoid the normal behaviour of isearch
770 which puts calls to `isearch-resume' in the command history.
773 ** When the *scratch* buffer is recreated, its mode is set from
774 initial-major-mode, which normally is lisp-interaction-mode,
775 instead of using default-major-mode.
778 ** Lisp mode now uses font-lock-doc-face for the docstrings.
781 ** Perl mode has a new variable `perl-indent-continued-arguments'.
784 ** Fortran mode has a new variable `fortran-directive-re'.
785 Adapt this to match the format of any compiler directives you use.
786 Lines that match are never indented, and are given distinctive font-locking.
789 ** F90 mode has new navigation commands `f90-end-of-block',
790 `f90-beginning-of-block', `f90-next-block', `f90-previous-block'.
793 ** Prolog mode has a new variable `prolog-font-lock-keywords'
794 to support use of font-lock.
797 ** `special-display-buffer-names' and `special-display-regexps' now
798 understand two new boolean pseudo-frame-parameters `same-frame' and
802 ** M-x setenv now expands environment variables of the form `$foo' and
803 `${foo}' in the specified new value of the environment variable. To
804 include a `$' in the value, use `$$'.
807 ** File-name completion can now ignore directories.
808 If an element of the list in `completion-ignored-extensions' ends in a
809 slash `/', it indicates a subdirectory that should be ignored when
810 completing file names. Elements of `completion-ignored-extensions'
811 which do not end in a slash are never considered when a completion
812 candidate is a directory.
815 ** The completion commands TAB, SPC and ? in the minibuffer apply only
816 to the text before point. If there is text in the buffer after point,
817 it remains unchanged.
820 ** New user option `inhibit-startup-buffer-menu'.
821 When loading many files, for instance with `emacs *', Emacs normally
822 displays a buffer menu. This option turns the buffer menu off.
825 ** Rmail now displays 5-digit message ids in its summary buffer.
828 ** On MS Windows, the "system caret" now follows the cursor.
829 This enables Emacs to work better with programs that need to track
830 the cursor, for example screen magnifiers and text to speech programs.
833 ** Tooltips now work on MS Windows.
834 See the Emacs 21.1 NEWS entry for tooltips for details.
837 ** Some images are now supported on Windows.
838 PBM and XBM images are supported, other formats which require external
839 libraries may be supported in future.
842 ** Pointing devices with more than 3 buttons are now supported on MS Windows.
843 The new variable `w32-pass-extra-mouse-buttons-to-system' controls
844 whether Emacs should handle the extra buttons itself (the default), or
845 pass them to Windows to be handled with system-wide functions.
848 ** Under X11, it is possible to swap Alt and Meta (and Super and Hyper).
849 The new variables `x-alt-keysym', `x-hyper-keysym', `x-meta-keysym',
850 and `x-super-keysym' can be used to choose which keysyms Emacs should
851 use for the modifiers. For example, the following two lines swap
853 (setq x-alt-keysym 'meta)
854 (setq x-meta-keysym 'alt)
857 ** A French translation of the `Emacs Survival Guide' is available.
860 ** A French translation of the Emacs Tutorial is available.
862 ** New modes and packages
865 *** The new ido package is an extension of the iswitchb package
866 to do interactive opening of files and directories in addition to
867 interactive buffer switching. Ido is a superset of iswitchb (with a
868 few exceptions), so don't enable both packages.
871 *** The new cua package provides CUA-like keybindings using C-x for
872 cut (kill), C-c for copy, C-v for paste (yank), and C-z for undo.
873 With cua, the region can be set and extended using shifted movement
874 keys (like pc-selection-mode) and typed text replaces the active
875 region (like delete-selection-mode). Do not enable these modes with
876 cua-mode. Customize the variable `cua-mode' to enable cua.
878 In addition, cua provides unified rectangle support with visible
879 rectangle highlighting: Use S-return to start a rectangle, extend it
880 using the movement commands (or mouse-3), and cut or copy it using C-x
881 or C-c (using C-w and M-w also works).
883 Use M-o and M-c to `open' or `close' the rectangle, use M-b or M-f, to
884 fill it with blanks or another character, use M-u or M-l to upcase or
885 downcase the rectangle, use M-i to increment the numbers in the
886 rectangle, use M-n to fill the rectangle with a numeric sequence (such
887 as 10 20 30...), use M-r to replace a regexp in the rectangle, and use
888 M-' or M-/ to restrict command on the rectangle to a subset of the
889 rows. See the commentary in cua-base.el for more rectangle commands.
891 Cua also provides unified support for registers: Use a numeric
892 prefix argument between 0 and 9, i.e. M-0 .. M-9, for C-x, C-c, and
893 C-v to cut or copy into register 0-9, or paste from register 0-9.
895 The last text deleted (not killed) is automatically stored in
896 register 0. This includes text deleted by typing text.
898 Finally, cua provides a global mark which is set using S-C-space.
899 When the global mark is active, any text which is cut or copied is
900 automatically inserted at the global mark position. See the
901 commentary in cua-base.el for more global mark related commands.
903 The features of cua also works with the standard emacs bindings for
904 kill, copy, yank, and undo. If you want to use cua mode, but don't
905 want the C-x, C-c, C-v, and C-z bindings, you may customize the
906 `cua-enable-cua-keys' variable.
908 *** The new keypad setup package provides simplified configuration
909 of the numeric keypad which is available on most keyboards.
911 *** The new kmacro package provides a simpler user interface to
912 emacs' keyboard macro facilities.
914 Basically, it uses two function keys (default F7 and F8) like this:
915 F7 starts a macro, F8 ends the macro, and pressing F8 again executes
916 the last macro. While defining the macro, F7 inserts a counter value
917 which automatically increments every time the macro is executed.
919 M-F7 edits the last macro, C-F7 sets the counter, and S-F7 sets the
920 counter format. S-F8 executes the previous macro (actually the head of
921 the keyboard macro ring), and C-F8 cycles through the keyboard macro
922 ring. C-u F8 swaps the last macro with the head of the macro ring.
925 *** Calc is now part of the Emacs distribution.
927 Calc is an advanced desk calculator and mathematical tool written in
928 Emacs Lisp. Its documentation is in a separate manual; within Emacs,
929 type "C-h i m calc RET" to read that manual. A reference card is
930 available in `etc/calccard.tex' and `etc/calccard.ps'.
933 *** The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual is now part of the distribution.
935 The ELisp reference manual in Info format is built as part of the
936 Emacs build procedure and installed together with the Emacs User
937 Manual. A menu item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy
938 accessible (Help->More Manuals->Emacs Lisp Reference).
941 *** Tramp is now part of the distribution.
943 This package is similar to Ange-FTP: it allows you to edit remote
944 files. But whereas Ange-FTP uses FTP to access the remote host,
945 Tramp uses a shell connection. The shell connection is always used
946 for filename completion and directory listings and suchlike, but for
947 the actual file transfer, you can choose between the so-called
948 `inline' methods (which transfer the files through the shell
949 connection using base64 or uu encoding) and the `out-of-band' methods
950 (which invoke an external copying program such as `rcp' or `scp' or
951 `rsync' to do the copying).
953 Shell connections can be acquired via `rsh', `ssh', `telnet' and also
957 *** The Introduction to Programming in Emacs Lisp manual is now part of
960 This manual is now part of the standard distribution and is installed,
961 together with the Emacs User Manual, into the Info directory. A menu
962 item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy accessible
963 (Help->More Manuals->Introduction to Emacs Lisp).
966 *** The new global minor mode `read-file-name-electric-shadow-mode'
967 modifies the way filenames being entered by the user in the minibuffer are
968 displayed, so that it's clear when part of the entered filename will be
969 ignored due to emacs' filename parsing rules. The ignored portion can be
970 made dim, invisible, or otherwise less visually noticable. The display
971 method may be displayed by customizing the variable
972 `read-file-name-electric-shadow-properties'.
975 *** The ruler-mode.el library provides a minor mode for displaying an
976 "active" ruler in the header line. You can use the mouse to visually
977 change the `fill-column', `window-margins' and `tab-stop-list'
981 *** The minor mode Reveal mode makes text visible on the fly as you
982 move your cursor into hidden region of the buffer.
983 It should work with any package that uses overlays to hide parts
984 of a buffer, such as outline-minor-mode, hs-minor-mode, hide-ifdef-mode, ...
986 There is also Global Reveal mode which affects all buffers.
989 *** The new package ibuffer provides a powerful, completely
990 customizable replacement for buff-menu.el.
993 ** Support for `magic cookie' standout modes has been removed.
994 Emacs will still work on terminals that require magic cookies in order
995 to use standout mode, however they will not be able to display
996 mode-lines in inverse-video.
998 ** The obsolete C mode (c-mode.el) has been removed to avoid problems
1002 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 21.4
1004 ** New CCL functions `lookup-character' and `lookup-integer' access
1005 hash tables defined by the Lisp function `define-translation-hash-table'.
1007 ** The new function `minibufferp' returns non-nil if the current buffer
1010 ** There is a new Warnings facility; see the functions `warn'
1011 and `display-warning'.
1013 ** The functions all-completions and try-completion now accept lists
1014 of strings as well as hash-tables additionally to alists, obarrays
1015 and functions. Furthermore, the function `test-completion' is now
1018 ** When pure storage overflows while dumping, Emacs now prints how
1019 much pure storage it will approximately need.
1021 ** The new variable `auto-coding-functions' lets you specify functions
1022 to examine a file being visited and deduce the proper coding system
1023 for it. (If the coding system is detected incorrectly for a specific
1024 file, you can put a `coding:' tags to override it.)
1026 ** The new function `merge-coding-systems' fills in unspecified aspects
1027 of one coding system from another coding system.
1029 ** The variable `safe-local-eval-forms' specifies a list of forms that
1030 are ok to evaluate when they appear in an `eval' local variables
1031 specification. Normally Emacs asks for confirmation before evaluating
1032 such a form, but if the form appears in this list, no confirmation is
1035 ** If a function has a non-nil `safe-local-eval-function' property,
1036 that means it is ok to evaluate some calls to that function when it
1037 appears in an `eval' local variables specification. If the property
1038 is t, then any form calling that function with constant arguments is
1039 ok. If the property is a function or list of functions, they are called
1040 with the form as argument, and if any returns t, the form is ok to call.
1042 If the form is not "ok to call", that means Emacs asks for
1043 confirmation as before.
1045 ** Controlling the left and right fringe widths.
1047 The left and right fringe widths can now be controlled by setting the
1048 `left-fringe' and `right-fringe' frame parameters to an integer value
1049 specifying the width in pixels. Setting the width to 0 effectively
1050 removes the corresponding fringe.
1052 The actual fringe widths may deviate from the specified widths, since
1053 the combined fringe widths must match an integral number of columns.
1054 The extra width is distributed evenly between the left and right fringe.
1055 For force a specific fringe width, specify the width as a negative
1056 integer (if both widths are negative, only the left fringe gets the
1059 Setting the width to nil (the default), restores the default fringe
1060 width which is the minimum number of pixels necessary to display any
1061 of the currently defined fringe bitmaps. The width of the built-in
1062 fringe bitmaps is 8 pixels.
1065 ** Renamed file hooks to follow the convention:
1066 find-file-hooks to find-file-hook,
1067 find-file-not-found-hooks to find-file-not-found-functions,
1068 write-file-hooks to write-file-functions,
1069 write-contents-hooks to write-contents-functions.
1070 Marked local-write-file-hooks as obsolete (use the LOCAL arg of `add-hook').
1072 ** The `read-file-name' function now takes an additional argument which
1073 specifies a predicate which the file name read must satify. The
1074 new variable `read-file-name-predicate' contains the predicate argument
1075 while reading the file name from the minibuffer; the predicate in this
1076 variable is used by read-file-name-internal to filter the completion list.
1078 ** The new variable `read-file-name-function' can be used by lisp code
1079 to override the internal read-file-name function.
1081 ** The new function `read-directory-name' can be used instead of
1082 `read-file-name' to read a directory name; when used, completion
1083 will only show directories.
1085 ** The new function `file-remote-p' tests a file name and returns
1086 non-nil if it specifies a remote file (one that Emacs accesses using
1087 its own special methods and not directly through the file system).
1089 ** When a Lisp file uses CL functions at run-time, compiling the file
1090 now issues warnings about these calls, unless the file performs
1091 (require 'cl) when loaded.
1093 ** The new Lisp library fringe.el controls the apperance of fringes.
1095 ** The `defmacro' form may contain declarations specifying how to
1096 indent the macro in Lisp mode and how to debug it with Edebug. The
1097 syntax of defmacro has been extended to
1099 (defmacro NAME LAMBDA-LIST [DOC-STRING] [DECLARATION ...] ...)
1101 DECLARATION is a list `(declare DECLARATION-SPECIFIER ...)'. The
1102 declaration specifiers supported are:
1105 Set NAME's `lisp-indent-function' property to INDENT.
1108 Set NAME's `edebug-form-spec' property to DEBUG. (This is
1109 equivalent to writing a `def-edebug-spec' for the macro.
1111 ** Interactive commands can be remapped through keymaps.
1113 This is an alternative to using defadvice or substitute-key-definition
1114 to modify the behaviour of a key binding using the normal keymap
1115 binding and lookup functionality.
1117 When a key sequence is bound to a command, and that command is
1118 remapped to another command, that command is run instead of the
1122 Suppose that minor mode my-mode has defined the commands
1123 my-kill-line and my-kill-word, and it wants C-k (and any other key
1124 bound to kill-line) to run the command my-kill-line instead of
1125 kill-line, and likewise it wants to run my-kill-word instead of
1128 Instead of rebinding C-k and the other keys in the minor mode map,
1129 command remapping allows you to directly map kill-line into
1130 my-kill-line and kill-word into my-kill-word through the minor mode
1131 map using define-key:
1133 (define-key my-mode-map [remap kill-line] 'my-kill-line)
1134 (define-key my-mode-map [remap kill-word] 'my-kill-word)
1136 Now, when my-mode is enabled, and the user enters C-k or M-d,
1137 the commands my-kill-line and my-kill-word are run.
1139 Notice that only one level of remapping is supported. In the above
1140 example, this means that if my-kill-line is remapped to other-kill,
1141 then C-k still runs my-kill-line.
1143 The following changes have been made to provide command remapping:
1145 - Command remappings are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
1146 `remap', i.e. `(define-key MAP [remap CMD] DEF)' remaps command CMD
1147 to definition DEF in keymap MAP. The definition is not limited to
1148 another command; it can be anything accepted for a normal binding.
1150 - The new function `remap-command' returns the binding for a remapped
1151 command in the current keymaps, or nil if it isn't remapped.
1153 - key-binding now remaps interactive commands unless the optional
1154 third argument NO-REMAP is non-nil.
1156 - where-is-internal now returns nil for a remapped command (e.g.
1157 kill-line if my-mode is enabled), and the actual key binding for
1158 the command it is remapped to (e.g. C-k for my-kill-line).
1159 It also has a new optional fifth argument, NO-REMAP, which inhibits
1160 remapping if non-nil (e.g. it returns C-k for kill-line and
1161 <kill-line> for my-kill-line).
1163 - The new variable `this-original-command' contains the original
1164 command before remapping. It is equal to `this-command' when the
1165 command was not remapped.
1167 ** New variable emulation-mode-map-alists.
1169 Lisp packages using many minor mode keymaps can now maintain their own
1170 keymap alist separate from minor-mode-map-alist by adding their keymap
1173 ** Atomic change groups.
1175 To perform some changes in the current buffer "atomically" so that
1176 they either all succeed or are all undone, use `atomic-change-group'
1177 around the code that makes changes. For instance:
1179 (atomic-change-group
1181 (delete-region x y))
1183 If an error (or other nonlocal exit) occurs inside the body of
1184 `atomic-change-group', it unmakes all the changes in that buffer that
1185 were during the execution of the body. The change group has no effect
1186 on any other buffers--any such changes remain.
1188 If you need something more sophisticated, you can directly call the
1189 lower-level functions that `atomic-change-group' uses. Here is how.
1191 To set up a change group for one buffer, call `prepare-change-group'.
1192 Specify the buffer as argument; it defaults to the current buffer.
1193 This function returns a "handle" for the change group. You must save
1194 the handle to activate the change group and then finish it.
1196 Before you change the buffer again, you must activate the change
1197 group. Pass the handle to `activate-change-group' afterward to
1200 After you make the changes, you must finish the change group. You can
1201 either accept the changes or cancel them all. Call
1202 `accept-change-group' to accept the changes in the group as final;
1203 call `cancel-change-group' to undo them all.
1205 You should use `unwind-protect' to make sure the group is always
1206 finished. The call to `activate-change-group' should be inside the
1207 `unwind-protect', in case the user types C-g just after it runs.
1208 (This is one reason why `prepare-change-group' and
1209 `activate-change-group' are separate functions.) Once you finish the
1210 group, don't use the handle again--don't try to finish the same group
1213 To make a multibuffer change group, call `prepare-change-group' once
1214 for each buffer you want to cover, then use `nconc' to combine the
1215 returned values, like this:
1217 (nconc (prepare-change-group buffer-1)
1218 (prepare-change-group buffer-2))
1220 You can then activate the multibuffer change group with a single call
1221 to `activate-change-group', and finish it with a single call to
1222 `accept-change-group' or `cancel-change-group'.
1224 Nested use of several change groups for the same buffer works as you
1225 would expect. Non-nested use of change groups for the same buffer
1226 will lead to undesirable results, so don't let it happen; the first
1227 change group you start for any given buffer should be the last one
1231 ** New variable char-property-alias-alist.
1233 This variable allows you to create alternative names for text
1234 properties. It works at the same level as `default-text-properties',
1235 although it applies to overlays as well. This variable was introduced
1236 to implement the `font-lock-face' property.
1238 ** New special text property `font-lock-face'.
1240 This property acts like the `face' property, but it is controlled by
1241 M-x font-lock-mode. It is not, strictly speaking, a builtin text
1242 property. Instead, it is implemented inside font-core.el, using the
1243 new variable `char-property-alias-alist'.
1245 ** New function remove-list-of-text-properties.
1247 The new function `remove-list-of-text-properties' is almost the same
1248 as `remove-text-properties'. The only difference is that it takes
1249 a list of property names as argument rather than a property list.
1251 ** New functions insert-for-yank and insert-buffer-substring-as-yank.
1253 These functions work like `insert' and `insert-buffer-substring', but
1254 removes the text properties in the `yank-excluded-properties' list.
1256 ** New function insert-buffer-substring-no-properties.
1258 ** New function display-supports-face-attributes-p may be used to test
1259 whether a given set of face attributes is actually displayable.
1261 A new predicate `supports' has also been added to the `defface' face
1262 specification language, which can be used to do this test for faces
1263 defined with defface.
1265 ** face-attribute, face-foreground, face-background, and face-stipple now
1266 accept a new optional argument, INHERIT, which controls how face
1267 inheritance is used when determining the value of a face attribute.
1269 ** New functions face-attribute-relative-p and merge-face-attribute
1270 help with handling relative face attributes.
1272 ** Enhanced networking support.
1274 *** There is a new `make-network-process' function which supports
1275 opening of stream and datagram connections to a server, as well as
1276 create a stream or datagram server inside emacs.
1278 - A server is started using :server t arg.
1279 - Datagram connection is selected using :type 'datagram arg.
1280 - A server can open on a random port using :service t arg.
1281 - Local sockets are supported using :family 'local arg.
1282 - Non-blocking connect is supported using :nowait t arg.
1284 To test for the availability of a given feature, use featurep like this:
1285 (featurep 'make-network-process '(:type datagram))
1287 *** Original open-network-stream is now emulated using make-network-process.
1289 *** New function open-network-stream-nowait.
1291 This function initiates a non-blocking connect and returns immediately
1292 before the connection is established. The filter and sentinel
1293 functions can be specified as arguments to open-network-stream-nowait.
1294 When the non-blocking connect completes, the sentinel is called with
1295 the status matching "open" or "failed".
1297 *** New function open-network-stream-server.
1298 MORE INFO NEEDED HERE.
1300 *** New functions process-datagram-address and set-process-datagram-address.
1301 MORE INFO NEEDED HERE.
1303 *** By default, the function process-contact still returns (HOST SERVICE)
1304 for a network process. Using the new optional KEY arg, the complete list
1305 of network process properties or a specific property can be selected.
1307 Using :local and :remote as the KEY, the address of the local or
1308 remote end-point is returned. An Inet address is represented as a 5
1309 element vector, where the first 4 elements contain the IP address and
1310 the fifth is the port number.
1312 *** Network processes can now be stopped and restarted with
1313 `stop-process' and `continue-process'. For a server process, no
1314 connections are accepted in the stopped state. For a client process,
1315 no input is received in the stopped state.
1317 *** Function list-processes now has an optional argument; if non-nil,
1318 only the processes whose query-on-exit flag is set are listed.
1320 *** New set-process-query-on-exit-flag and process-query-on-exit-flag
1321 functions. The existing process-kill-without-query function is still
1322 supported, but new code should use the new functions.
1324 ** New function copy-tree.
1326 ** New function substring-no-properties.
1328 ** New function minibuffer-selected-window.
1330 ** New function `call-process-shell-command'.
1332 ** The dummy function keys made by easymenu
1333 are now always lower case. If you specify the
1334 menu item name "Ada", for instance, it uses `ada'
1335 as the "key" bound by that key binding.
1337 This is relevant only if Lisp code looks for
1338 the bindings that were made with easymenu.
1340 ** The function `commandp' takes an additional optional
1341 argument. If it is non-nil, then `commandp' checks
1342 for a function that could be called with `call-interactively',
1343 and does not return t for keyboard macros.
1345 ** master-mode.el implements a minor mode for scrolling a slave
1346 buffer without leaving your current buffer, the master buffer.
1348 It can be used by sql.el, for example: the SQL buffer is the master
1349 and its SQLi buffer is the slave. This allows you to scroll the SQLi
1350 buffer containing the output from the SQL buffer containing the
1353 This is how to use sql.el and master.el together: the variable
1354 sql-buffer contains the slave buffer. It is a local variable in the
1357 (add-hook 'sql-mode-hook
1358 (function (lambda ()
1360 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
1361 (add-hook 'sql-set-sqli-hook
1362 (function (lambda ()
1363 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
1365 ** File local variables.
1367 A file local variables list cannot specify a string with text
1368 properties--any specified text properties are discarded.
1371 *** The meanings of scroll-up-aggressively and scroll-down-aggressively
1372 have been interchanged, so that the former now controls scrolling up,
1373 and the latter now controls scrolling down.
1376 ** New function window-body-height.
1378 This is like window-height but does not count the mode line
1381 ** New function format-mode-line.
1383 This returns the mode-line or header-line of the selected (or a
1384 specified) window as a string with or without text properties.
1386 ** New functions `lax-plist-get' and `lax-plist-put'.
1388 These functions are like `plist-get' and `plist-put' except that they
1389 compare the property name using `equal' rather than `eq'.
1391 ** New function `tool-bar-local-item-from-menu'
1393 The `tool-bar-add-item-from-menu' most not be used (as previously
1394 recommended) for making entries in the tool bar for local keymaps.
1395 Instead, use the function `tool-bar-local-item-from-menu', which lets
1396 you specify the map to use as an argument.
1399 ** The function `atan' now accepts an optional second argument.
1401 When called with 2 arguments, as in `(atan Y X)', `atan' returns the
1402 angle in radians between the vector [X, Y] and the X axis. (This is
1403 equivalent to the standard C library function `atan2'.)
1406 ** You can now make a window as short as one line.
1408 A window that is just one line tall does not display either a mode
1409 line or a header line, even if the variables `mode-line-format' and
1410 `header-line-format' call for them. A window that is two lines tall
1411 cannot display both a mode line and a header line at once; if the
1412 variables call for both, only the mode line actually appears.
1415 ** The new frame parameter `tty-color-mode' specifies the mode to use
1416 for color support on character terminal frames. Its value can be a
1417 number of colors to support, or a symbol. See the Emacs Lisp
1418 Reference manual for more detailed documentation.
1420 ** Mode line display ignores text properties in the value
1421 of a variable whose `risky-local-variables' property is nil.
1424 ** Indentation of simple and extended loop forms has been added to the
1425 cl-indent package. The new user options
1426 `lisp-loop-keyword-indentation', `lisp-loop-forms-indentation', and
1427 `lisp-simple-loop-indentation' can be used to customize the
1428 indentation of keywords and forms in loop forms.
1431 ** Indentation of backquoted forms has been made customizable in the
1432 cl-indent package. See the new user option `lisp-backquote-indentation'.
1434 ** Already true in Emacs 21.1, but not emphasized clearly enough:
1436 Multibyte buffers can now faithfully record all 256 character codes
1437 from 0 to 255. As a result, most of the past reasons to use unibyte
1438 buffers no longer exist. We only know of three reasons to use them
1441 1. If you prefer to use unibyte text all of the time.
1443 2. For reading files into temporary buffers, when you want to avoid
1444 the time it takes to convert the format.
1446 3. For binary files where format conversion would be pointless and
1449 ** If text has a `keymap' property, that keymap takes precedence
1450 over minor mode keymaps.
1452 ** A hex escape in a string forces the string to be multibyte.
1453 An octal escape makes it unibyte.
1455 ** Only one of the beginning or end of an invisible, intangible region is
1456 considered an acceptable value for point; which one is determined by
1457 examining how the invisible/intangible properties are inherited when new
1458 text is inserted adjacent to them. If text inserted at the beginning would
1459 inherit the invisible/intangible properties, then that position is
1460 considered unacceptable, and point is forced to the position following the
1461 invisible/intangible text. If text inserted at the end would inherit the
1462 properties, then the opposite happens.
1464 Thus, point can only go to one end of an invisible, intangible region, but
1465 not the other one. This prevents C-f and C-b from appearing to stand still
1468 ** field-beginning and field-end now accept an additional optional
1472 ** define-abbrev now accepts an optional argument SYSTEM-FLAG. If
1473 non-nil, this marks the abbrev as a "system" abbrev, which means that
1474 it won't be stored in the user's abbrevs file if he saves the abbrevs.
1475 Major modes that predefine some abbrevs should always specify this
1478 ** Support for Mocklisp has been removed.
1480 ** The function insert-string is now obsolete.
1482 ** The precedence of file-name-handlers has been changed.
1483 Instead of blindly choosing the first handler that matches,
1484 find-file-name-handler now gives precedence to a file-name handler
1485 that matches near the end of the file name. More specifically, the
1486 handler whose (match-beginning 0) is the largest is chosen.
1487 In case of ties, the old "first matched" rule applies.
1489 ** Dense keymaps now handle inheritance correctly.
1490 Previously a dense keymap would hide all of the simple-char key
1491 bindings of the parent keymap.
1493 ** jit-lock obeys a new text-property `jit-lock-defer-multiline'.
1494 If a piece of text with that property gets contextually refontified
1495 (see jit-lock-defer-contextually), then all of that text will
1496 be refontified. This is useful when the syntax of a textual element
1497 depends on text several lines further down (and when font-lock-multiline
1498 is not appropriate to solve that problem). For example in Perl:
1506 Adding/removing the last `e' changes the `bar' from being a piece of
1507 text to being a piece of code, so you'd put a jit-lock-defer-multiline
1508 property over the second half of the command to force (deferred)
1509 refontification of `bar' whenever the `e' is added/removed.
1511 ** describe-vector now takes a second argument `describer' which is
1512 called to print the entries' values. It defaults to `princ'.
1514 ** defcustom and other custom declarations now use a default group
1515 (the last group defined in the same file) when no :group was given.
1517 ** emacsserver now runs pre-command-hook and post-command-hook when
1518 it receives a request from emacsclient.
1520 ** The variable `recursive-load-depth-limit' has been deleted.
1521 Emacs now signals an error if the same file is loaded with more
1522 than 3 levels of nesting.
1524 ** The default values of paragraph-start and indent-line-function have
1525 been changed to reflect those used in Text mode rather than those used
1526 in Indented-Text mode.
1528 ** If a major mode function has a non-nil `no-clone-indirect'
1529 property, `clone-indirect-buffer' signals an error if you use
1532 ** If you set `query-replace-skip-read-only' non-nil,
1533 `query-replace' and related functions simply ignore
1534 a match if part of it has a read-only property.
1536 ** In `replace-match', the replacement text no longer inherits
1537 properties from surrounding text.
1539 ** New function `buffer-local-value'.
1541 - Function: buffer-local-value variable buffer
1543 This function returns the buffer-local binding of VARIABLE (a symbol)
1544 in buffer BUFFER. If VARIABLE does not have a buffer-local binding in
1545 buffer BUFFER, it returns the default value of VARIABLE instead.
1547 ** New function `text-clone-create'. Text clones are chunks of text
1548 that are kept identical by transparently propagating changes from one
1551 ** font-lock can manage arbitrary text-properties beside `face'.
1552 *** the FACENAME returned in font-lock-keywords can be a list
1553 of the form (face FACE PROP1 VAL1 PROP2 VAL2 ...) so you can set
1554 other properties than `face'.
1555 *** font-lock-extra-managed-props can be set to make sure those extra
1556 properties are automatically cleaned up by font-lock.
1558 ** The special treatment of faces whose names are of the form `fg:COLOR'
1559 or `bg:COLOR' has been removed. Lisp programs should use the
1560 `defface' facility for defining faces with specific colors.
1562 ** The new function `run-mode-hooks' and the new macro `delay-mode-hooks'
1563 are used by define-derived-mode to make sure the mode hook for the
1564 parent mode is run at the end of the child mode.
1567 ** `provide' and `featurep' now accept an optional second argument
1568 to test/provide subfeatures. Also `provide' now checks `after-load-alist'
1569 and run any code associated with the provided feature.
1571 ** The variable `compilation-parse-errors-filename-function' can
1572 be used to transform filenames found in compilation output.
1575 ** Functions `file-name-sans-extension' and `file-name-extension' now
1576 ignore the leading dots in file names, so that file names such as
1577 `.emacs' are treated as extensionless.
1579 ** Functions `user-uid' and `user-real-uid' now return floats if the
1580 user UID doesn't fit in a Lisp integer. Function `user-full-name'
1581 accepts a float as UID parameter.
1583 ** `define-key-after' now accepts keys longer than 1.
1585 ** `define-derived-mode' now accepts nil as the parent.
1587 ** The local variable `no-byte-compile' in elisp files is now obeyed.
1589 ** The Emacs Lisp byte-compiler now displays the actual line and
1590 character position of errors, where possible. Additionally, the form
1591 of its warning and error messages have been brought more in line with
1592 the output of other GNU tools.
1594 ** New functions `keymap-prompt' and `current-active-maps'.
1596 ** New function `describe-buffer-bindings'.
1598 ** New vars `exec-suffixes' and `load-suffixes' used when
1599 searching for an executable resp. an elisp file.
1601 ** Variable aliases have been implemented:
1603 - Function: defvaralias ALIAS-VAR BASE-VAR [DOCSTRING]
1605 This function defines the symbol ALIAS-VAR as a variable alias for
1606 symbol BASE-VAR. This means that retrieving the value of ALIAS-VAR
1607 returns the value of BASE-VAR, and changing the value of ALIAS-VAR
1608 changes the value of BASE-VAR.
1610 DOCSTRING, if present, is the documentation for ALIAS-VAR; else it has
1611 the same documentation as BASE-VAR.
1613 - Function: indirect-variable VARIABLE
1615 This function returns the variable at the end of the chain of aliases
1616 of VARIABLE. If VARIABLE is not a symbol, or if VARIABLE is not
1617 defined as an alias, the function returns VARIABLE.
1619 It might be noteworthy that variables aliases work for all kinds of
1620 variables, including buffer-local and frame-local variables.
1622 ** Functions from `post-gc-hook' are run at the end of garbage
1623 collection. The hook is run with GC inhibited, so use it with care.
1625 ** If the second argument to `copy-file' is the name of a directory,
1626 the file is copied to that directory instead of signaling an error.
1628 ** The variables most-positive-fixnum and most-negative-fixnum
1629 have been moved from the CL package to the core.
1631 ** On MS Windows, locale-coding-system is used to interact with the OS.
1632 The Windows specific variable w32-system-coding-system, which was
1633 formerly used for that purpose is now an alias for locale-coding-system.
1635 ** Functions y-or-n-p, read-char, read-keysequence and alike that
1636 display a prompt but don't use the minibuffer now display the prompt
1637 using the text properties (esp. the face) of the prompt string.
1641 *** The new package syntax.el provides an efficient way to find the
1642 current syntactic context (as returned by parse-partial-sexp).
1644 *** The new package bindat.el provides functions to unpack and pack
1645 binary data structures, such as network packets, to and from Lisp
1648 *** The TCL package tcl-mode.el was replaced by tcl.el.
1649 This was actually done in Emacs-21.1, and was not documented.
1651 *** The new package button.el implements simple and fast `clickable buttons'
1652 in emacs buffers. `buttons' are much lighter-weight than the `widgets'
1653 implemented by widget.el, and can be used by lisp code that doesn't
1654 require the full power of widgets. Emacs uses buttons for such things
1655 as help and apropos buffers.
1658 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
1660 See the INSTALL file for information on installing extra libraries and
1661 fonts to take advantage of the new graphical features and extra
1662 charsets in this release.
1664 ** Support for GNU/Linux on IA64 machines has been added.
1666 ** Support for LynxOS has been added.
1668 ** There are new configure options associated with the support for
1669 images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option in `configure'
1672 ** You can build a 64-bit Emacs for SPARC/Solaris systems which
1673 support 64-bit executables and also on Irix 6.5. This increases the
1674 maximum buffer size. See etc/MACHINES for instructions. Changes to
1675 build on other 64-bit systems should be straightforward modulo any
1676 necessary changes to unexec.
1678 ** There is a new configure option `--disable-largefile' to omit
1679 Unix-98-style support for large files if that is available.
1681 ** There is a new configure option `--without-xim' that instructs
1682 Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if these are available.
1684 ** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
1685 the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
1687 ** This version can be built for the Macintosh, but does not implement
1688 all of the new display features described below. The port currently
1689 lacks unexec, asynchronous processes, and networking support. See the
1690 "Emacs and the Mac OS" appendix in the Emacs manual, for the
1691 description of aspects specific to the Mac.
1693 ** Note that the MS-Windows port does not yet implement various of the
1694 new display features described below.
1697 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
1699 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
1701 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
1702 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
1703 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
1704 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
1707 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
1709 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
1710 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
1711 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
1712 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
1715 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
1716 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
1717 under Lisp changes, below.
1719 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
1721 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
1722 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
1723 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
1724 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
1725 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
1726 attributes such as `overline', `strike-through', and `box' are ignored
1729 The command-line options `-fg COLOR', `-bg COLOR', and `-rv' are now
1730 supported on character terminals.
1732 Emacs automatically remaps all X-style color specifications to one of
1733 the colors supported by the terminal. This means you could have the
1734 same color customizations that work both on a windowed display and on
1735 a TTY or when Emacs is invoked with the -nw option.
1737 ** New default font is Courier 12pt under X.
1741 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD (Voxware
1742 driver and native BSD driver, a.k.a. Luigi's driver). Currently
1743 supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio (*.au).
1744 You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes' to enable
1747 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
1749 If a message is longer than one line, or minibuffer contents are
1750 longer than one line, Emacs can resize the minibuffer window unless it
1751 is on a frame of its own. You can control resizing and the maximum
1752 minibuffer window size by setting the following variables:
1754 - User option: max-mini-window-height
1756 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
1757 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
1758 specifies a number of lines.
1762 - User option: resize-mini-windows
1764 How to resize mini-windows. If nil, don't resize. If t, always
1765 resize to fit the size of the text. If `grow-only', let mini-windows
1766 grow only, until they become empty, at which point they are shrunk
1769 Default is `grow-only'.
1773 Emacs now runs with the LessTif toolkit (see
1774 <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will need version 0.92.26, or later.
1776 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
1778 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
1779 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
1782 ** File selection dialog on MS-Windows is supported.
1784 When a file is visited by clicking File->Open, the MS-Windows version
1785 now pops up a standard file selection dialog where you can select a
1786 file to visit. File->Save As also pops up that dialog.
1788 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
1790 Emacs now uses toolkit scroll bars if available. When configured for
1791 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scroll bar. Otherwise, when
1792 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
1793 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
1794 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
1797 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
1798 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
1799 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
1800 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
1801 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
1802 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
1804 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
1805 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
1806 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
1807 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
1808 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
1809 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
1811 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
1812 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
1813 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
1814 imake configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
1815 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
1817 ** Tool bar support.
1819 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
1820 of how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level
1821 changes. Tool-bar global minor mode controls whether or not it is
1822 displayed and is on by default. The appearance of the bar is improved
1823 if Emacs has been built with XPM image support. Otherwise monochrome
1826 To make the tool bar more useful, we need contributions of extra icons
1827 for specific modes (with copyright assignments).
1831 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
1832 mouse position. The Lisp package `tooltip' implements them. You can
1833 turn them off via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
1835 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
1836 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
1837 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
1838 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
1840 ** Automatic Hscrolling
1842 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
1843 `automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
1846 If a window is scrolled horizontally with set-window-hscroll, or
1847 scroll-left/scroll-right (C-x <, C-x >), this serves as a lower bound
1848 for automatic horizontal scrolling. Automatic scrolling will scroll
1849 the text more to the left if necessary, but won't scroll the text more
1850 to the right than the column set with set-window-hscroll etc.
1852 ** When using a windowing terminal, each Emacs window now has a cursor
1853 of its own. By default, when a window is selected, the cursor is
1854 solid; otherwise, it is hollow. The user-option
1855 `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to display the
1856 cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is shown, if
1857 non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown.
1859 ** Fringes to the left and right of windows are used to display
1860 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
1861 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
1862 customizing face `fringe'.
1864 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default.
1865 You can change its appearance by modifying the face `mode-line'.
1866 In particular, setting the `:box' attribute to nil turns off the 3D
1867 appearance of the mode line. (The 3D appearance makes the mode line
1868 occupy more space, and thus might cause the first or the last line of
1869 the window to be partially obscured.)
1871 The variable `mode-line-inverse-video', which was used in older
1872 versions of emacs to make the mode-line stand out, is now deprecated.
1873 However, setting it to nil will cause the `mode-line' face to be
1874 ignored, and mode-lines to be drawn using the default text face.
1876 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
1878 Different parts of the mode line have been made mouse-sensitive on all
1879 systems which support the mouse. Moving the mouse to a
1880 mouse-sensitive part in the mode line changes the appearance of the
1881 mouse pointer to an arrow, and help about available mouse actions is
1882 displayed either in the echo area, or in the tooltip window if you
1885 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
1887 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line goes to the next buffer.
1889 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name goes to the previous buffer.
1891 - Mouse-2 on the read-only or modified status in the mode line (`%' or
1892 `*') toggles the status.
1894 - Mouse-3 on the mode name displays a minor-mode menu.
1896 ** Hourglass pointer
1898 Emacs can optionally display an hourglass pointer under X. You can
1899 turn the display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
1903 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
1904 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
1905 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
1908 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
1910 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
1911 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
1912 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
1915 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
1916 have to do anything to activate it.
1918 ** The default binding of the Delete key has changed.
1920 The new user-option `normal-erase-is-backspace' can be set to
1921 determine the effect of the Delete and Backspace function keys.
1923 On window systems, the default value of this option is chosen
1924 according to the keyboard used. If the keyboard has both a Backspace
1925 key and a Delete key, and both are mapped to their usual meanings, the
1926 option's default value is set to t, so that Backspace can be used to
1927 delete backward, and Delete can be used to delete forward. On
1928 keyboards which either have only one key (usually labeled DEL), or two
1929 keys DEL and BS which produce the same effect, the option's value is
1930 set to nil, and these keys delete backward.
1932 If not running under a window system, setting this option accomplishes
1933 a similar effect by mapping C-h, which is usually generated by the
1934 Backspace key, to DEL, and by mapping DEL to C-d via
1935 `keyboard-translate'. The former functionality of C-h is available on
1936 the F1 key. You should probably not use this setting on a text-only
1937 terminal if you don't have both Backspace, Delete and F1 keys.
1939 Programmatically, you can call function normal-erase-is-backspace-mode
1940 to toggle the behavior of the Delete and Backspace keys.
1942 ** The default for user-option `next-line-add-newlines' has been
1943 changed to nil, i.e. C-n will no longer add newlines at the end of a
1946 ** The <home> and <end> keys now move to the beginning or end of the
1947 current line, respectively. C-<home> and C-<end> move to the
1948 beginning and end of the buffer.
1950 ** Emacs now checks for recursive loads of Lisp files. If the
1951 recursion depth exceeds `recursive-load-depth-limit', an error is
1954 ** When an error is signaled during the loading of the user's init
1955 file, Emacs now pops up the *Messages* buffer.
1957 ** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
1958 compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
1961 The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs's byte
1962 compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
1965 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
1967 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
1968 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
1969 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
1971 ** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
1972 more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
1973 now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
1975 ** Item Save Options on the Options menu allows saving options set
1978 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
1980 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
1981 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
1982 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
1983 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
1984 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
1987 ** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
1988 all frames except the selected one.
1990 ** The new user-option `confirm-kill-emacs' can be customized to
1991 let Emacs ask for confirmation before exiting.
1993 ** The header line in an Info buffer is now displayed as an emacs
1994 header-line (which is like a mode-line, but at the top of the window),
1995 so that it remains visible even when the buffer has been scrolled.
1996 This behavior may be disabled by customizing the option
1997 `Info-use-header-line'.
1999 ** Polish, Czech, German, and French translations of Emacs' reference card
2000 have been added. They are named `pl-refcard.tex', `cs-refcard.tex',
2001 `de-refcard.tex' and `fr-refcard.tex'. Postscript files are included.
2003 ** An `Emacs Survival Guide', etc/survival.tex, is available.
2005 ** A reference card for Dired has been added. Its name is
2006 `dired-ref.tex'. A French translation is available in
2009 ** C-down-mouse-3 is bound differently. Now if the menu bar is not
2010 displayed it pops up a menu containing the items which would be on the
2011 menu bar. If the menu bar is displayed, it pops up the major mode
2012 menu or the Edit menu if there is no major mode menu.
2014 ** Variable `load-path' is no longer customizable through Customize.
2016 You can no longer use `M-x customize-variable' to customize `load-path'
2017 because it now contains a version-dependent component. You can still
2018 use `add-to-list' and `setq' to customize this variable in your
2019 `~/.emacs' init file or to modify it from any Lisp program in general.
2021 ** C-u C-x = provides detailed information about the character at
2022 point in a pop-up window.
2024 ** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
2025 under XFree86. To enable this, use the `mouse-wheel-mode' command, or
2026 customize the variable `mouse-wheel-mode'.
2028 The variables `mouse-wheel-follow-mouse' and `mouse-wheel-scroll-amount'
2029 determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
2031 ** Emacs' auto-save list files are now by default stored in a
2032 sub-directory `.emacs.d/auto-save-list/' of the user's home directory.
2033 (On MS-DOS, this subdirectory's name is `_emacs.d/auto-save.list/'.)
2034 You can customize `auto-save-list-file-prefix' to change this location.
2036 ** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
2038 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
2039 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
2041 ** The new command M-x delete-trailing-whitespace RET will delete the
2042 trailing whitespace within the current restriction. You can also add
2043 this function to `write-file-hooks' or `local-write-file-hooks'.
2045 ** When visiting a file with M-x find-file-literally, no newlines will
2046 be added to the end of the buffer even if `require-final-newline' is
2049 ** The new user-option `find-file-suppress-same-file-warnings' can be
2050 set to suppress warnings ``X and Y are the same file'' when visiting a
2051 file that is already visited under a different name.
2053 ** The new user-option `electric-help-shrink-window' can be set to
2054 nil to prevent adjusting the help window size to the buffer size.
2056 ** New command M-x describe-character-set reads a character set name
2057 and displays information about that.
2059 ** The new variable `auto-mode-interpreter-regexp' contains a regular
2060 expression matching interpreters, for file mode determination.
2062 This regular expression is matched against the first line of a file to
2063 determine the file's mode in `set-auto-mode' when Emacs can't deduce a
2064 mode from the file's name. If it matches, the file is assumed to be
2065 interpreted by the interpreter matched by the second group of the
2066 regular expression. The mode is then determined as the mode
2067 associated with that interpreter in `interpreter-mode-alist'.
2069 ** New function executable-make-buffer-file-executable-if-script-p is
2070 suitable as an after-save-hook as an alternative to `executable-chmod'.
2072 ** The most preferred coding-system is now used to save a buffer if
2073 buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and it is safe for the buffer
2074 contents. (The most preferred is set by set-language-environment or
2075 by M-x prefer-coding-system.) Thus if you visit an ASCII file and
2076 insert a non-ASCII character from your current language environment,
2077 the file will be saved silently with the appropriate coding.
2078 Previously you would be prompted for a safe coding system.
2080 ** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
2081 been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
2083 ** The new Custom option `keyboard-coding-system' specifies a coding
2084 system for keyboard input.
2086 ** New variable `inhibit-iso-escape-detection' determines if Emacs'
2087 coding system detection algorithm should pay attention to ISO2022's
2088 escape sequences. If this variable is non-nil, the algorithm ignores
2089 such escape sequences. The default value is nil, and it is
2090 recommended not to change it except for the special case that you
2091 always want to read any escape code verbatim. If you just want to
2092 read a specific file without decoding escape codes, use C-x RET c
2093 (`universal-coding-system-argument'). For instance, C-x RET c latin-1
2094 RET C-x C-f filename RET.
2096 ** Variable `default-korean-keyboard' is initialized properly from the
2097 environment variable `HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE'.
2099 ** New command M-x list-charset-chars reads a character set name and
2100 displays all characters in that character set.
2102 ** M-x set-terminal-coding-system (C-x RET t) now allows CCL-based
2103 coding systems such as cpXXX and cyrillic-koi8.
2105 ** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
2106 and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
2107 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
2109 ** New language environments `Polish', `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
2110 Latin-8 and Latin-9 correspond respectively to the ISO character sets
2111 8859-14 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign).
2112 GNU Intlfonts doesn't support these yet but recent X releases have
2113 8859-15. See etc/INSTALL for information on obtaining extra fonts.
2114 There are new Leim input methods for Latin-8 and Latin-9 prefix (only)
2117 ** New language environments `Dutch' and `Spanish'.
2118 These new environments mainly select appropriate translations
2121 ** In Ethiopic language environment, special key bindings for
2122 function keys are changed as follows. This is to conform to "Emacs
2123 Lisp Coding Convention".
2125 new command old-binding
2126 --- ------- -----------
2127 f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-buffer f5
2128 S-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-region f5
2129 C-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-mail-or-marker f5
2131 f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-buffer unchanged
2132 S-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-region unchanged
2133 C-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-mail-or-marker unchanged
2135 S-f5 ethio-toggle-punctuation f3
2136 S-f6 ethio-modify-vowel f6
2137 S-f7 ethio-replace-space f7
2138 S-f8 ethio-input-special-character f8
2139 S-f9 ethio-replace-space unchanged
2140 C-f9 ethio-toggle-space f2
2142 ** There are new Leim input methods.
2143 New input methods "turkish-postfix", "turkish-alt-postfix",
2144 "greek-mizuochi", "TeX", and "greek-babel" are now part of the Leim
2147 ** The rule of input method "slovak" is slightly changed. Now the
2148 rules for translating "q" and "Q" to "`" (backquote) are deleted, thus
2149 typing them inserts "q" and "Q" respectively. Rules for translating
2150 "=q", "+q", "=Q", and "+Q" to "`" are also deleted. Now, to input
2151 "`", you must type "=q".
2153 ** When your terminal can't display characters from some of the ISO
2154 8859 character sets but can display Latin-1, you can display
2155 more-or-less mnemonic sequences of ASCII/Latin-1 characters instead of
2156 empty boxes (under a window system) or question marks (not under a
2157 window system). Customize the option `latin1-display' to turn this
2160 ** M-; now calls comment-dwim which tries to do something clever based
2161 on the context. M-x kill-comment is now an alias to comment-kill,
2162 defined in newcomment.el. You can choose different styles of region
2163 commenting with the variable `comment-style'.
2165 ** New user options `display-time-mail-face' and
2166 `display-time-use-mail-icon' control the appearance of mode-line mail
2167 indicator used by the display-time package. On a suitable display the
2168 indicator can be an icon and is mouse-sensitive.
2170 ** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
2171 on the display using several methods
2173 - By setting frame parameter `line-spacing' to PIXELS. PIXELS must be
2174 a positive integer, and specifies that PIXELS number of pixels should
2175 be put below text lines on the affected frame or frames.
2177 - By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
2178 equivalent to specifying the frame parameter.
2180 - By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
2182 - By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
2183 the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
2185 ** The new command `clone-indirect-buffer' can be used to create
2186 an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. The
2187 command `clone-indirect-buffer-other-window', bound to C-x 4 c,
2188 does the same but displays the indirect buffer in another window.
2190 ** New user options `backup-directory-alist' and
2191 `make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
2192 typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
2194 ** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
2195 characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
2197 ** New X resources recognized
2199 *** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
2200 whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
2201 is useful for debugging X problems.
2205 emacs.synchronous: true
2207 *** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
2208 visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
2209 the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
2210 and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
2211 visual class names are
2220 Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
2221 `pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
2224 The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
2225 supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
2226 `visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
2231 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
2233 *** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
2234 specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
2235 default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
2236 resource values are `true' or `on'.
2240 emacs.privateColormap: true
2242 ** Faces and frame parameters.
2244 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
2245 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
2246 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
2247 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
2248 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
2249 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
2250 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
2252 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
2253 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
2254 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
2255 `default' face and vice versa.
2259 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
2261 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
2263 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
2264 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
2265 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
2266 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
2268 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
2269 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
2270 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
2272 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
2275 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
2277 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
2278 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
2279 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
2280 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
2282 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
2284 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
2286 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
2288 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
2291 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
2294 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
2296 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
2297 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
2298 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
2300 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
2301 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi and Less).
2303 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
2304 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
2305 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
2307 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
2309 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
2310 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggressively' is a
2311 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
2312 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
2314 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
2315 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggressively' is a
2316 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
2317 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
2319 ** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either
2320 M-x clone-buffer, C-u m <entry> RET or C-u g <entry> RET.
2321 M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and several other special
2324 ** The command `Info-search' now uses a search history.
2326 ** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
2327 abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
2328 `directory-abbrev-alist'.
2330 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
2331 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
2332 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
2333 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
2334 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
2335 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
2337 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
2339 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
2340 notably at the end of lines.
2342 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
2343 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
2345 ** The function `replace-rectangle' is an alias for `string-rectangle'.
2347 ** The new command M-x string-insert-rectangle is like `string-rectangle',
2348 but inserts text instead of replacing it.
2350 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
2351 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
2352 after each match to get the replacement text.
2354 ** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `e' (or `E') that lets
2355 you edit the replacement string.
2357 ** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB'
2358 (if you load the library `mailabbrev'), lets you complete mail aliases
2359 in the text, analogous to lisp-complete-symbol.
2361 ** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
2363 ** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
2364 to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
2366 ** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
2367 the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X, on MS-Windows, and
2368 MS-DOS, either in the echo area or with tooltips. Many standard menus
2369 displayed by Emacs now have help strings.
2372 ** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
2373 read mail from the menu etc.
2375 ** The environment variable `EMACSLOCKDIR' is no longer used on MS-Windows.
2376 This environment variable was used when creating lock files. Emacs on
2377 MS-Windows does not use this variable anymore. This change was made
2378 before Emacs 21.1, but wasn't documented until now.
2380 ** Highlighting of mouse-sensitive regions is now supported in the
2381 MS-DOS version of Emacs.
2383 ** The new command `msdos-set-mouse-buttons' forces the MS-DOS version
2384 of Emacs to behave as if the mouse had a specified number of buttons.
2385 This comes handy with mice that don't report their number of buttons
2386 correctly. One example is the wheeled mice, which report 3 buttons,
2387 but clicks on the middle button are not passed to the MS-DOS version
2390 ** Customize changes
2392 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
2393 `State' menu to add comments, or give a prefix argument to
2394 M-x customize-set-variable or M-x customize-set-value. Note that
2395 customization comments will cause the customizations to fail in
2396 earlier versions of Emacs.
2398 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
2399 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
2402 *** If Emacs was invoked with the `-q' or `--no-init-file' options, it
2403 does not allow you to save customizations in your `~/.emacs' init
2404 file. This is because saving customizations from such a session would
2405 wipe out all the other customizationss you might have on your init
2408 ** If Emacs was invoked with the `-q' or `--no-init-file' options, it
2409 does not save disabled and enabled commands for future sessions, to
2410 avoid overwriting existing customizations of this kind that are
2411 already in your init file.
2413 ** New features in evaluation commands
2415 *** The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
2416 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
2417 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the new
2418 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
2419 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
2421 The default values for the first two of these variables are 12 and 4
2422 respectively, which means that `eval-expression' now prints at most
2423 the first 12 members of a list and at most 4 nesting levels deep (if
2424 the list is longer or deeper than that, an ellipsis `...' is
2427 <RET> or <mouse-2> on the printed text toggles between an abbreviated
2428 printed representation and an unabbreviated one.
2430 The default value of eval-expression-debug-on-error is t, so any error
2431 during evaluation produces a backtrace.
2433 *** The function `eval-defun' (C-M-x) now loads Edebug and instruments
2434 code when called with a prefix argument.
2438 Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
2439 current user setups (although it's believed that these
2440 incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
2441 However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
2442 back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
2443 compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
2446 *** The hardcoded switch to "java" style in Java mode is gone.
2447 CC Mode used to automatically set the style to "java" when Java mode
2448 is entered. This has now been removed since it caused too much
2451 However, to keep backward compatibility to a certain extent, the
2452 default value for c-default-style now specifies the "java" style for
2453 java-mode, but "gnu" for all other modes (as before). So you won't
2454 notice the change if you haven't touched that variable.
2456 *** New cleanups, space-before-funcall and compact-empty-funcall.
2457 Two new cleanups have been added to c-cleanup-list:
2459 space-before-funcall causes a space to be inserted before the opening
2460 parenthesis of a function call, which gives the style "foo (bar)".
2462 compact-empty-funcall causes any space before a function call opening
2463 parenthesis to be removed if there are no arguments to the function.
2464 It's typically useful together with space-before-funcall to get the
2465 style "foo (bar)" and "foo()".
2467 *** Some keywords now automatically trigger reindentation.
2468 Keywords like "else", "while", "catch" and "finally" have been made
2469 "electric" to make them reindent automatically when they continue an
2470 earlier statement. An example:
2472 for (i = 0; i < 17; i++)
2474 res += a[i]->offset;
2477 Here, the "else" should be indented like the preceding "if", since it
2478 continues that statement. CC Mode will automatically reindent it after
2479 the "else" has been typed in full, since it's not until then it's
2480 possible to decide whether it's a new statement or a continuation of
2483 CC Mode uses Abbrev mode to achieve this, which is therefore turned on
2486 *** M-a and M-e now moves by sentence in multiline strings.
2487 Previously these two keys only moved by sentence in comments, which
2488 meant that sentence movement didn't work in strings containing
2489 documentation or other natural language text.
2491 The reason it's only activated in multiline strings (i.e. strings that
2492 contain a newline, even when escaped by a '\') is to avoid stopping in
2493 the short strings that often reside inside statements. Multiline
2494 strings almost always contain text in a natural language, as opposed
2495 to other strings that typically contain format specifications,
2496 commands, etc. Also, it's not that bothersome that M-a and M-e misses
2497 sentences in single line strings, since they're short anyway.
2499 *** Support for autodoc comments in Pike mode.
2500 Autodoc comments for Pike are used to extract documentation from the
2501 source, like Javadoc in Java. Pike mode now recognize this markup in
2502 comment prefixes and paragraph starts.
2504 *** The comment prefix regexps on c-comment-prefix may be mode specific.
2505 When c-comment-prefix is an association list, it specifies the comment
2506 line prefix on a per-mode basis, like c-default-style does. This
2507 change came about to support the special autodoc comment prefix in
2510 *** Better handling of syntactic errors.
2511 The recovery after unbalanced parens earlier in the buffer has been
2512 improved; CC Mode now reports them by dinging and giving a message
2513 stating the offending line, but still recovers and indent the
2514 following lines in a sane way (most of the time). An "else" with no
2515 matching "if" is handled similarly. If an error is discovered while
2516 indenting a region, the whole region is still indented and the error
2517 is reported afterwards.
2519 *** Lineup functions may now return absolute columns.
2520 A lineup function can give an absolute column to indent the line to by
2521 returning a vector with the desired column as the first element.
2523 *** More robust and warning-free byte compilation.
2524 Although this is strictly not a user visible change (well, depending
2525 on the view of a user), it's still worth mentioning that CC Mode now
2526 can be compiled in the standard ways without causing trouble. Some
2527 code have also been moved between the subpackages to enhance the
2528 modularity somewhat. Thanks to Martin Buchholz for doing the
2531 *** c-style-variables-are-local-p now defaults to t.
2532 This is an incompatible change that has been made to make the behavior
2533 of the style system wrt global variable settings less confusing for
2534 non-advanced users. If you know what this variable does you might
2535 want to set it to nil in your .emacs, otherwise you probably don't
2538 Defaulting c-style-variables-are-local-p to t avoids the confusing
2539 situation that occurs when a user sets some style variables globally
2540 and edits both a Java and a non-Java file in the same Emacs session.
2541 If the style variables aren't buffer local in this case, loading of
2542 the second file will cause the default style (either "gnu" or "java"
2543 by default) to override the global settings made by the user.
2545 *** New initialization procedure for the style system.
2546 When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
2547 variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
2548 take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
2549 is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
2550 settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
2551 possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
2552 Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
2554 By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
2555 special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
2556 the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
2557 of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
2560 Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
2561 when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
2562 function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
2563 call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
2564 then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
2565 values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
2566 only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
2567 function documentation for more info.
2569 The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
2570 especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
2571 with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
2572 intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
2573 such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
2574 is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
2575 configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
2576 global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
2578 (Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
2580 **** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
2581 This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
2583 This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
2584 variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
2585 completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
2586 the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
2587 empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
2590 **** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
2591 In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
2592 c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
2595 *** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
2596 CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
2597 surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
2598 chapter about this in the manual.
2600 **** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
2601 The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
2602 recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
2603 primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
2604 adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
2606 **** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
2607 This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
2608 c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
2610 **** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
2611 This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
2613 It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
2614 Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
2615 A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
2618 Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
2619 causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
2620 the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
2621 available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
2624 **** The variables `c-hanging-comment-starter-p' and
2625 `c-hanging-comment-ender-p', which controlled how comment starters and
2626 enders were filled, are not used anymore. The new version of the
2627 function `c-fill-paragraph' keeps the comment starters and enders as
2628 they were before the filling.
2630 **** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
2631 The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
2632 specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
2635 **** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
2636 It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
2637 prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
2638 you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
2641 *** Fixes to IDL mode.
2642 It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
2643 to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
2644 struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
2645 Thanks to Eric Eide.
2647 *** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
2648 It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
2649 opening braces hangs and when they don't.
2651 **** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
2653 *** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
2654 See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
2655 better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
2656 and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
2658 *** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
2659 previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
2660 the column specified by comment-column.
2662 *** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
2663 In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
2664 is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
2665 prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
2666 contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
2667 don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
2669 *** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
2670 instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
2673 *** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
2675 *** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
2676 c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
2677 c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
2678 variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
2681 *** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
2685 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
2686 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
2687 is, delete only empty directories.
2689 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
2690 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
2691 copy directories recursively.
2693 *** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
2694 in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
2695 the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
2697 *** The new command `dired-find-alternate-file' (usually bound to `a')
2698 replaces the Dired buffer with the buffer for an alternate file or
2701 *** The new command `dired-show-file-type' (usually bound to `y') shows
2702 a message in the echo area describing what type of file the point is on.
2703 This command invokes the external program `file' do its work, and so
2704 will only work on systems with that program, and will be only as
2705 accurate or inaccurate as it is.
2707 *** Dired now properly handles undo changes of adding/removing `-R'
2710 *** Dired commands that prompt for a destination file now allow the use
2711 of the `M-n' command in the minibuffer to insert the source filename,
2712 which the user can then edit. This only works if there is a single
2713 source file, not when operating on multiple marked files.
2717 The Gnus NEWS entries are short, but they reflect sweeping changes in
2718 four areas: Article display treatment, MIME treatment,
2719 internationalization and mail-fetching.
2721 *** The mail-fetching functions have changed. See the manual for the
2722 many details. In particular, all procmail fetching variables are gone.
2724 If you used procmail like in
2726 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
2727 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
2728 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/mail/incoming/")
2729 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "\\.in")
2731 this now has changed to
2734 '((directory :path "~/mail/incoming/"
2737 More information is available in the info doc at Select Methods ->
2738 Getting Mail -> Mail Sources
2740 *** Gnus is now a MIME-capable reader. This affects many parts of
2741 Gnus, and adds a slew of new commands. See the manual for details.
2742 Separate MIME packages like RMIME, mime-compose etc., will probably no
2743 longer work; remove them and use the native facilities.
2745 The FLIM/SEMI package still works with Emacs 21, but if you want to
2746 use the native facilities, you must remove any mailcap.el[c] that was
2747 installed by FLIM/SEMI version 1.13 or earlier.
2749 *** Gnus has also been multilingualized. This also affects too many
2750 parts of Gnus to summarize here, and adds many new variables. There
2751 are built-in facilities equivalent to those of gnus-mule.el, which is
2752 now just a compatibility layer.
2754 *** gnus-mule.el is now just a compatibility layer over the built-in
2757 *** gnus-auto-select-first can now be a function to be
2758 called to position point.
2760 *** The user can now decide which extra headers should be included in
2761 summary buffers and NOV files.
2763 *** `gnus-article-display-hook' has been removed. Instead, a number
2764 of variables starting with `gnus-treat-' have been added.
2766 *** The Gnus posting styles have been redone again and now work in a
2767 subtly different manner.
2769 *** New web-based backends have been added: nnslashdot, nnwarchive
2770 and nnultimate. nnweb has been revamped, again, to keep up with
2771 ever-changing layouts.
2773 *** Gnus can now read IMAP mail via nnimap.
2775 *** There is image support of various kinds and some sound support.
2777 ** Changes in Texinfo mode.
2779 *** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
2783 -------------------------
2787 C-c C-c q @quotation
2789 C-c C-o @<block> ... @end <block>
2792 *** The " key now inserts either " or `` or '' depending on context.
2794 ** Changes in Outline mode.
2796 There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
2797 `outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
2798 the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
2800 ** Changes to Emacs Server
2802 *** The new option `server-kill-new-buffers' specifies what to do
2803 with buffers when done with them. If non-nil, the default, buffers
2804 are killed, unless they were already present before visiting them with
2805 Emacs Server. If nil, `server-temp-file-regexp' specifies which
2806 buffers to kill, as before.
2808 Please note that only buffers are killed that still have a client,
2809 i.e. buffers visited with `emacsclient --no-wait' are never killed in
2812 ** Both emacsclient and Emacs itself now accept command line options
2813 of the form +LINE:COLUMN in addition to +LINE.
2815 ** Changes to Show Paren mode.
2817 *** Overlays used by Show Paren mode now use a priority property.
2818 The new user option show-paren-priority specifies the priority to
2819 use. Default is 1000.
2821 ** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
2822 groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
2824 ** Changes to hideshow.el
2826 *** Generalized block selection and traversal
2828 A block is now recognized by its start and end regexps (both strings),
2829 and an integer specifying which sub-expression in the start regexp
2830 serves as the place where a `forward-sexp'-like function can operate.
2831 See the documentation of variable `hs-special-modes-alist'.
2833 *** During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active,
2834 hidden blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' can
2835 be used in the mode line format to show the line at the beginning of
2838 *** User option `hs-hide-all-non-comment-function' specifies a
2839 function to be called at each top-level block beginning, instead of
2840 the normal block-hiding function.
2842 *** The command `hs-show-region' has been removed.
2844 *** The key bindings have changed to fit the Emacs conventions,
2845 roughly imitating those of Outline minor mode. Notably, the prefix
2846 for all bindings is now `C-c @'. For details, see the documentation
2847 for `hs-minor-mode'.
2849 *** The variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' has been removed, and
2850 hideshow.el now always behaves as if this variable were set to t.
2852 ** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
2854 *** If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes
2855 an entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
2856 log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
2858 **** New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the
2861 *** New command M-x change-log-redate fixes any old-style date entries
2864 *** Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log
2865 entries if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
2866 Unless the file is under version control the search for a file's
2867 version number is performed based on regular expressions from
2868 `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be customized.
2869 Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of a file.
2871 *** Change Log mode now defines its own faces for font-lock highlighting.
2873 ** Changes to cmuscheme
2875 *** The user-option `scheme-program-name' has been renamed
2876 `cmuscheme-program-name' due to conflicts with xscheme.el.
2878 ** Changes in Font Lock
2880 *** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
2881 font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major mode.
2883 *** Multi-line patterns are now supported. Modes using this, should
2884 set font-lock-multiline to t in their font-lock-defaults.
2886 *** `font-lock-syntactic-face-function' allows major-modes to choose
2887 the face used for each string/comment.
2889 *** A new standard face `font-lock-doc-face'.
2890 Meant for Lisp docstrings, Javadoc comments and other "documentation in code".
2892 ** Changes to Shell mode
2894 *** The `shell' command now accepts an optional argument to specify the buffer
2895 to use, which defaults to "*shell*". When used interactively, a
2896 non-default buffer may be specified by giving the `shell' command a
2897 prefix argument (causing it to prompt for the buffer name).
2899 ** Comint (subshell) changes
2901 These changes generally affect all modes derived from comint mode, which
2902 include shell-mode, gdb-mode, scheme-interaction-mode, etc.
2904 *** Comint now by default interprets some carriage-control characters.
2905 Comint now removes CRs from CR LF sequences, and treats single CRs and
2906 BSs in the output in a way similar to a terminal (by deleting to the
2907 beginning of the line, or deleting the previous character,
2908 respectively). This is achieved by adding `comint-carriage-motion' to
2909 the `comint-output-filter-functions' hook by default.
2911 *** By default, comint no longer uses the variable `comint-prompt-regexp'
2912 to distinguish prompts from user-input. Instead, it notices which
2913 parts of the text were output by the process, and which entered by the
2914 user, and attaches `field' properties to allow emacs commands to use
2915 this information. Common movement commands, notably beginning-of-line,
2916 respect field boundaries in a fairly natural manner. To disable this
2917 feature, and use the old behavior, customize the user option
2918 `comint-use-prompt-regexp-instead-of-fields'.
2920 *** Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
2921 and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
2923 *** The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
2924 buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
2925 buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
2927 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
2928 M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
2929 the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
2931 *** Packages based on comint now highlight user input and program prompts,
2932 and support choosing previous input with mouse-2. To control these features,
2933 see the user-options `comint-highlight-input' and `comint-highlight-prompt'.
2935 *** The new command `comint-write-output' (usually bound to `C-c C-s')
2936 saves the output from the most recent command to a file. With a prefix
2937 argument, it appends to the file.
2939 *** The command `comint-kill-output' has been renamed `comint-delete-output'
2940 (usually bound to `C-c C-o'); the old name is aliased to it for
2943 *** The new function `comint-add-to-input-history' adds commands to the input
2946 *** The new variable `comint-input-history-ignore' is a regexp for
2947 identifying history lines that should be ignored, like tcsh time-stamp
2948 strings, starting with a `#'. The default value of this variable is "^#".
2950 ** Changes to Rmail mode
2952 *** The new user-option rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
2953 set to fine tune the identification of the correspondent when
2954 receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
2955 recipient is taken as correspondent of a mail. If nil, the default,
2956 `user-login-name' and `user-mail-address' are used to exclude yourself
2959 Usually you don't have to set this variable, except if you collect
2960 mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
2961 regexp matching your mail addresses.
2963 *** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
2964 to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
2965 Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
2966 with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
2967 for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
2969 *** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
2972 *** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
2973 specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
2976 *** The new user option `rmail-automatic-folder-directives' specifies
2977 in which folder to put messages automatically.
2979 *** The new function `rmail-redecode-body' allows to fix a message
2980 with non-ASCII characters if Emacs happens to decode it incorrectly
2981 due to missing or malformed "charset=" header.
2983 ** The new user-option `mail-envelope-from' can be used to specify
2984 an envelope-from address different from user-mail-address.
2986 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
2987 use the -f option when sending mail.
2989 ** The Rmail command `o' (`rmail-output-to-rmail-file') now writes the
2990 current message in the internal `emacs-mule' encoding, rather than in
2991 the encoding taken from the variable `buffer-file-coding-system'.
2992 This allows to save messages whose characters cannot be safely encoded
2993 by the buffer's coding system, and makes sure the message will be
2994 displayed correctly when you later visit the target Rmail file.
2996 If you want your Rmail files be encoded in a specific coding system
2997 other than `emacs-mule', you can customize the variable
2998 `rmail-file-coding-system' to set its value to that coding system.
3000 ** Changes to TeX mode
3002 *** The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
3005 *** latex-mode now has a simple indentation algorithm.
3007 *** M-f and M-p jump around \begin...\end pairs.
3009 *** Added support for outline-minor-mode.
3011 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
3013 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
3014 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
3015 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
3016 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
3017 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
3018 can be edited from that buffer.
3020 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
3021 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
3022 `A' to use all marked entries).
3024 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
3025 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
3027 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
3028 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
3029 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
3032 ** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
3033 The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
3034 semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
3035 in column 1 are always made leaves.
3037 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
3038 has the following new features:
3040 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
3041 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
3042 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
3043 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
3045 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
3046 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
3047 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
3048 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
3049 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
3052 ** Partial Completion mode now completes environment variables in
3057 *** The command `ispell' now spell-checks a region if
3058 transient-mark-mode is on, and the mark is active. Otherwise it
3059 spell-checks the current buffer.
3061 *** Support for synchronous subprocesses - DOS/Windoze - has been
3064 *** An "alignment error" bug was fixed when a manual spelling
3065 correction is made and re-checked.
3067 *** An Italian, Portuguese, and Slovak dictionary definition has been added.
3069 *** Region skipping performance has been vastly improved in some
3072 *** Spell checking HTML buffers has been improved and isn't so strict
3075 *** The buffer-local words are now always placed on a new line at the
3078 *** Spell checking now works in the MS-DOS version of Emacs.
3080 ** Makefile mode changes
3082 *** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
3084 *** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
3085 Fontlock mode is active.
3089 *** Isearch now puts a call to `isearch-resume' in the command history,
3090 so that searches can be resumed.
3092 *** In Isearch mode, C-M-s and C-M-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
3093 respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
3094 that started the search.
3096 *** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
3097 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
3099 *** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
3101 Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
3102 `isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
3103 search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
3104 before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
3105 highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
3106 `secondary-selection'.
3108 The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
3109 will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
3110 Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
3111 using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
3112 usual snappy response.
3114 If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
3115 matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
3116 set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
3117 isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
3121 VC has been overhauled internally. It is now modular, making it
3122 easier to plug-in arbitrary version control backends. (See Lisp
3123 Changes for details on the new structure.) As a result, the mechanism
3124 to enable and disable support for particular version systems has
3125 changed: everything is now controlled by the new variable
3126 `vc-handled-backends'. Its value is a list of symbols that identify
3127 version systems; the default is '(RCS CVS SCCS). When finding a file,
3128 each of the backends in that list is tried in order to see whether the
3129 file is registered in that backend.
3131 When registering a new file, VC first tries each of the listed
3132 backends to see if any of them considers itself "responsible" for the
3133 directory of the file (e.g. because a corresponding subdirectory for
3134 master files exists). If none of the backends is responsible, then
3135 the first backend in the list that could register the file is chosen.
3136 As a consequence, the variable `vc-default-back-end' is now obsolete.
3138 The old variable `vc-master-templates' is also obsolete, although VC
3139 still supports it for backward compatibility. To define templates for
3140 RCS or SCCS, you should rather use the new variables
3141 vc-{rcs,sccs}-master-templates. (There is no such feature under CVS
3142 where it doesn't make sense.)
3144 The variables `vc-ignore-vc-files' and `vc-handle-cvs' are also
3145 obsolete now, you must set `vc-handled-backends' to nil or exclude
3146 `CVS' from the list, respectively, to achieve their effect now.
3150 The variable `vc-checkout-carefully' is obsolete: the corresponding
3151 checks are always done now.
3153 VC Dired buffers are now kept up-to-date during all version control
3156 `vc-diff' output is now displayed in `diff-mode'.
3157 `vc-print-log' uses `log-view-mode'.
3158 `vc-log-mode' (used for *VC-Log*) has been replaced by `log-edit-mode'.
3160 The command C-x v m (vc-merge) now accepts an empty argument as the
3161 first revision number. This means that any recent changes on the
3162 current branch should be picked up from the repository and merged into
3163 the working file (``merge news'').
3165 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
3166 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) now ask for a directory name from which to work
3169 *** Multiple Backends
3171 VC now lets you register files in more than one backend. This is
3172 useful, for example, if you are working with a slow remote CVS
3173 repository. You can then use RCS for local editing, and occasionally
3174 commit your changes back to CVS, or pick up changes from CVS into your
3177 To make this work, the ``more local'' backend (RCS in our example)
3178 should come first in `vc-handled-backends', and the ``more remote''
3179 backend (CVS) should come later. (The default value of
3180 `vc-handled-backends' already has it that way.)
3182 You can then commit changes to another backend (say, RCS), by typing
3183 C-u C-x v v RCS RET (i.e. vc-next-action now accepts a backend name as
3184 a revision number). VC registers the file in the more local backend
3185 if that hasn't already happened, and commits to a branch based on the
3186 current revision number from the more remote backend.
3188 If a file is registered in multiple backends, you can switch to
3189 another one using C-x v b (vc-switch-backend). This does not change
3190 any files, it only changes VC's perspective on the file. Use this to
3191 pick up changes from CVS while working under RCS locally.
3193 After you are done with your local RCS editing, you can commit your
3194 changes back to CVS using C-u C-x v v CVS RET. In this case, the
3195 local RCS archive is removed after the commit, and the log entry
3196 buffer is initialized to contain the entire RCS change log of the file.
3200 There is a new user option, `vc-cvs-stay-local'. If it is `t' (the
3201 default), then VC avoids network queries for files registered in
3202 remote repositories. The state of such files is then only determined
3203 by heuristics and past information. `vc-cvs-stay-local' can also be a
3204 regexp to match against repository hostnames; only files from hosts
3205 that match it are treated locally. If the variable is nil, then VC
3206 queries the repository just as often as it does for local files.
3208 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, then VC also makes local backups of
3209 repository versions. This means that ordinary diffs (C-x v =) and
3210 revert operations (C-x v u) can be done completely locally, without
3211 any repository interactions at all. The name of a local version
3212 backup of FILE is FILE.~REV.~, where REV is the repository version
3213 number. This format is similar to that used by C-x v ~
3214 (vc-version-other-window), except for the trailing dot. As a matter
3215 of fact, the two features can each use the files created by the other,
3216 the only difference being that files with a trailing `.' are deleted
3217 automatically after commit. (This feature doesn't work on MS-DOS,
3218 since DOS disallows more than a single dot in the trunk of a file
3221 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, and there have been changes in the
3222 repository, VC notifies you about it when you actually try to commit.
3223 If you want to check for updates from the repository without trying to
3224 commit, you can either use C-x v m RET to perform an update on the
3225 current file, or you can use C-x v r RET to get an update for an
3226 entire directory tree.
3228 The new user option `vc-cvs-use-edit' indicates whether VC should call
3229 "cvs edit" to make files writeable; it defaults to `t'. (This option
3230 is only meaningful if the CVSREAD variable is set, or if files are
3231 "watched" by other developers.)
3233 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
3234 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) are now also implemented for CVS. If you give
3235 an empty snapshot name to the latter, that performs a `cvs update',
3236 starting at the given directory.
3238 *** Lisp Changes in VC
3240 VC has been restructured internally to make it modular. You can now
3241 add support for arbitrary version control backends by writing a
3242 library that provides a certain set of backend-specific functions, and
3243 then telling VC to use that library. For example, to add support for
3244 a version system named SYS, you write a library named vc-sys.el, which
3245 provides a number of functions vc-sys-... (see commentary at the top
3246 of vc.el for a detailed list of them). To make VC use that library,
3247 you need to put it somewhere into Emacs' load path and add the symbol
3248 `SYS' to the list `vc-handled-backends'.
3250 ** The customizable EDT emulation package now supports the EDT
3251 SUBS command and EDT scroll margins. It also works with more
3252 terminal/keyboard configurations and it now works under XEmacs.
3253 See etc/edt-user.doc for more information.
3255 ** New modes and packages
3257 *** The new global minor mode `minibuffer-electric-default-mode'
3258 automatically hides the `(default ...)' part of minibuffer prompts when
3259 the default is not applicable.
3261 *** Artist is an Emacs lisp package that allows you to draw lines,
3262 rectangles and ellipses by using your mouse and/or keyboard. The
3263 shapes are made up with the ascii characters |, -, / and \.
3267 - Intersecting: When a `|' intersects with a `-', a `+' is
3268 drawn, like this: | \ /
3272 - Rubber-banding: When drawing lines you can interactively see the
3273 result while holding the mouse button down and moving the mouse. If
3274 your machine is not fast enough (a 386 is a bit too slow, but a
3275 pentium is well enough), you can turn this feature off. You will
3276 then see 1's and 2's which mark the 1st and 2nd endpoint of the line
3279 - Arrows: After having drawn a (straight) line or a (straight)
3280 poly-line, you can set arrows on the line-ends by typing < or >.
3282 - Flood-filling: You can fill any area with a certain character by
3285 - Cut copy and paste: You can cut, copy and paste rectangular
3286 regions. Artist also interfaces with the rect package (this can be
3287 turned off if it causes you any trouble) so anything you cut in
3288 artist can be yanked with C-x r y and vice versa.
3290 - Drawing with keys: Everything you can do with the mouse, you can
3291 also do without the mouse.
3293 - Aspect-ratio: You can set the variable artist-aspect-ratio to
3294 reflect the height-width ratio for the font you are using. Squares
3295 and circles are then drawn square/round. Note, that once your
3296 ascii-file is shown with font with a different height-width ratio,
3297 the squares won't be square and the circles won't be round.
3299 - Drawing operations: The following drawing operations are implemented:
3301 lines straight-lines
3303 poly-lines straight poly-lines
3305 text (see-thru) text (overwrite)
3306 spray-can setting size for spraying
3307 vaporize line vaporize lines
3308 erase characters erase rectangles
3310 Straight lines are lines that go horizontally, vertically or
3311 diagonally. Plain lines go in any direction. The operations in
3312 the right column are accessed by holding down the shift key while
3315 It is possible to vaporize (erase) entire lines and connected lines
3316 (rectangles for example) as long as the lines being vaporized are
3317 straight and connected at their endpoints. Vaporizing is inspired
3318 by the drawrect package by Jari Aalto <jari.aalto@poboxes.com>.
3320 - Picture mode compatibility: Artist is picture mode compatible (this
3323 *** The new package Eshell is an operating system command shell
3324 implemented entirely in Emacs Lisp. Use `M-x eshell' to invoke it.
3325 It functions similarly to bash and zsh, and allows running of Lisp
3326 functions and external commands using the same syntax. It supports
3327 history lists, aliases, extended globbing, smart scrolling, etc. It
3328 will work on any platform Emacs has been ported to. And since most of
3329 the basic commands -- ls, rm, mv, cp, ln, du, cat, etc. -- have been
3330 rewritten in Lisp, it offers an operating-system independent shell,
3331 all within the scope of your Emacs process.
3333 *** The new package timeclock.el is a mode is for keeping track of time
3334 intervals. You can use it for whatever purpose you like, but the
3335 typical scenario is to keep track of how much time you spend working
3336 on certain projects.
3338 *** The new package hi-lock.el provides commands to highlight matches
3339 of interactively entered regexps. For example,
3341 M-x highlight-regexp RET clearly RET RET
3343 will highlight all occurrences of `clearly' using a yellow background
3344 face. New occurrences of `clearly' will be highlighted as they are
3345 typed. `M-x unhighlight-regexp RET' will remove the highlighting.
3346 Any existing face can be used for highlighting and a set of
3347 appropriate faces is provided. The regexps can be written into the
3348 current buffer in a form that will be recognized the next time the
3349 corresponding file is read. There are commands to highlight matches
3350 to phrases and to highlight entire lines containing a match.
3352 *** The new package zone.el plays games with Emacs' display when
3355 *** The new package tildify.el allows to add hard spaces or other text
3356 fragments in accordance with the current major mode.
3358 *** The new package xml.el provides a simple but generic XML
3359 parser. It doesn't parse the DTDs however.
3361 *** The comment operations are now provided by the newcomment.el
3362 package which allows different styles of comment-region and should
3363 be more robust while offering the same functionality.
3364 `comment-region' now doesn't always comment a-line-at-a-time, but only
3365 comments the region, breaking the line at point if necessary.
3367 *** The Ebrowse package implements a C++ class browser and tags
3368 facilities tailored for use with C++. It is documented in a
3369 separate Texinfo file.
3371 *** The PCL-CVS package available by either running M-x cvs-examine or
3372 by visiting a CVS administrative directory (with a prefix argument)
3373 provides an alternative interface to VC-dired for CVS. It comes with
3374 `log-view-mode' to view RCS and SCCS logs and `log-edit-mode' used to
3375 enter check-in log messages.
3377 *** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
3378 without invoking external programs.
3380 The command `M-x woman' formats manual pages entirely in Emacs Lisp
3381 and then displays them, like `M-x manual-entry' does. Unlike
3382 `manual-entry', `woman' does not invoke any external programs, so it
3383 is useful on systems such as MS-DOS/MS-Windows where the `man' and
3384 Groff or `troff' commands are not readily available.
3386 The command `M-x woman-find-file' asks for the file name of a man
3387 page, then formats and displays it like `M-x woman' does.
3389 *** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
3390 authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
3392 The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
3393 the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
3394 the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
3395 Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
3396 even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
3399 On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
3400 matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
3401 probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
3402 contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
3404 *** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
3405 unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
3406 actually modifying content of a buffer.
3408 *** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
3411 Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
3413 The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
3415 ; comment (until end of line)
3419 $A default non-terminal
3420 $"C" default terminal
3421 $?C? default special
3422 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
3423 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
3424 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
3425 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
3426 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
3427 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
3428 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
3429 C+ one or more occurrences of C
3430 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
3431 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
3432 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
3433 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
3434 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
3435 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
3436 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
3438 Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
3440 *** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
3441 align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
3442 determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
3443 example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
3444 equal signs of assignments.
3446 *** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
3447 paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
3449 *** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
3450 list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
3451 buffer menu with this package. See the Custom group `bs'.
3453 *** find-lisp.el is a package emulating the Unix find command in Lisp.
3455 *** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
3456 replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
3457 is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
3458 and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
3459 not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
3460 which answers different needs.
3462 *** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
3463 suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
3464 expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
3465 course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
3466 reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
3469 *** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
3470 containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
3472 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
3474 *** hl-line.el provides `hl-line-mode', a minor mode to highlight the
3475 current line in the current buffer. It also provides
3476 `global-hl-line-mode' to provide the same behaviour in all buffers.
3478 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
3480 Please note: if `ansi-color-for-comint-mode' and
3481 `global-font-lock-mode' are non-nil, loading ansi-color.el will
3482 disable font-lock and add `ansi-color-apply' to
3483 `comint-preoutput-filter-functions' for all shell-mode buffers. This
3484 displays the output of "ls --color=yes" using the correct foreground
3485 and background colors.
3487 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
3490 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
3493 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
3495 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
3497 *** whitespace.el is a package for warning about and cleaning bogus
3498 whitespace in a file.
3500 *** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
3501 files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
3502 (very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
3503 interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
3504 often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
3505 uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
3506 codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
3508 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
3510 Here is an example of columns:
3513 dog pineapple car EXTRA
3514 porcupine strawberry airplane
3516 Doing the following settings:
3518 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
3519 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
3520 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
3521 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
3524 Selecting the lines above and typing:
3526 M-x delimit-columns-region
3530 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
3531 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
3532 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
3534 delim-col has the following options:
3536 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
3539 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
3540 between each column.
3542 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
3545 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
3548 delim-col has the following commands:
3550 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
3551 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
3553 *** Recentf mode maintains a menu for visiting files that were
3554 operated on recently. User option recentf-menu-filter specifies a
3555 menu filter function to change the menu appearance. For example, the
3556 recent file list can be displayed:
3558 - organized by major modes, directories or user defined rules.
3559 - sorted by file paths, file names, ascending or descending.
3560 - showing paths relative to the current default-directory
3562 The `recentf-filter-changer' menu filter function allows to
3563 dynamically change the menu appearance.
3565 *** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
3568 *** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
3569 of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
3570 specific to Message mode.
3572 *** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
3573 viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
3574 with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
3576 *** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
3577 interface to access directory servers using different directory
3578 protocols. It has a separate manual.
3580 *** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
3581 for Autoconf, selected automatically.
3583 *** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
3585 *** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
3586 minibuffer with completion.
3588 *** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
3589 with the diary features.
3591 *** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
3592 numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
3594 *** The function `turn-off-auto-fill' unconditionally turns off Auto
3597 *** pcomplete.el is a library that provides programmable completion
3598 facilities for Emacs, similar to what zsh and tcsh offer. The main
3599 difference is that completion functions are written in Lisp, meaning
3600 they can be profiled, debugged, etc.
3602 *** antlr-mode is a new major mode for editing ANTLR grammar files.
3603 It is automatically turned on for files whose names have the extension
3606 ** Changes in sort.el
3608 The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
3609 as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
3610 new user-option sort-numeric-base can be used to specify a default
3613 ** Changes to Ange-ftp
3615 *** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
3616 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
3617 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
3619 *** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
3620 ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
3622 *** Ange-ftp handles the output of the w32-style clients which
3623 output ^M at the end of lines.
3625 ** The recommended way of using Iswitchb is via the new global minor
3626 mode `iswitchb-mode'.
3628 ** Just loading the msb package doesn't switch on Msb mode anymore.
3629 If you have `(require 'msb)' in your .emacs, please replace it with
3632 ** Flyspell mode has various new options. See the `flyspell' Custom
3635 ** The user option `backward-delete-char-untabify-method' controls the
3636 behavior of `backward-delete-char-untabify'. The following values
3639 `untabify' -- turn a tab to many spaces, then delete one space;
3640 `hungry' -- delete all whitespace, both tabs and spaces;
3641 `all' -- delete all whitespace, including tabs, spaces and newlines;
3642 nil -- just delete one character.
3644 Default value is `untabify'.
3646 [This change was made in Emacs 20.3 but not mentioned then.]
3648 ** In Cperl mode `cperl-invalid-face' should now be a normal face
3649 symbol, not double-quoted.
3651 ** Some packages are declared obsolete, to be removed in a future
3652 version. They are: auto-show, c-mode, hilit19, hscroll, ooutline,
3653 profile, rnews, rnewspost, and sc. Their implementations have been
3654 moved to lisp/obsolete.
3656 ** auto-compression mode is no longer enabled just by loading jka-compr.el.
3657 To control it, set `auto-compression-mode' via Custom or use the
3658 `auto-compression-mode' command.
3660 ** `browse-url-gnome-moz' is a new option for
3661 `browse-url-browser-function', invoking Mozilla in GNOME, and
3662 `browse-url-kde' can be chosen for invoking the KDE browser.
3664 ** The user-option `browse-url-new-window-p' has been renamed to
3665 `browse-url-new-window-flag'.
3667 ** The functions `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many' now
3668 operate on the active region in Transient Mark mode.
3670 ** `gnus-user-agent' is a new possibility for `mail-user-agent'. It
3671 is like `message-user-agent', but with all the Gnus paraphernalia.
3673 ** The Strokes package has been updated. If your Emacs has XPM
3674 support, you can use it for pictographic editing. In Strokes mode,
3675 use C-mouse-2 to compose a complex stoke and insert it into the
3676 buffer. You can encode or decode a strokes buffer with new commands
3677 M-x strokes-encode-buffer and M-x strokes-decode-buffer. There is a
3678 new command M-x strokes-list-strokes.
3680 ** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
3681 a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
3683 ** Hexl mode allows to insert non-ASCII characters.
3685 The non-ASCII characters are encoded using the same encoding as the
3686 file you are visiting in Hexl mode.
3688 ** Shell script mode changes.
3690 Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
3691 derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizable, and
3692 sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
3696 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
3698 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
3699 possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
3700 {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
3701 This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
3702 a regular expression. The manual contains details.
3704 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
3705 declarations when given the --declarations option.
3707 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
3708 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
3710 *** You shouldn't generally need any more the -C or -c++ option: etags
3711 automatically switches to C++ parsing when it meets the `class' or
3712 `template' keywords.
3714 *** Etags now is able to delve at arbitrary deeps into nested structures in
3715 C-like languages. Previously, it was limited to one or two brace levels.
3717 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
3720 *** In Fortran, `procedure' is not tagged.
3722 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
3724 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
3727 *** In makefiles, tags the targets.
3729 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
3730 variables are tagged.
3732 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
3734 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
3737 ** Changes in etags.el
3739 *** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
3740 tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
3741 is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
3743 *** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
3744 the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
3746 If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
3747 FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
3748 TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
3749 obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
3751 TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
3753 FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
3754 List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
3756 A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
3758 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
3759 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
3760 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
3762 *** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
3763 of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
3765 *** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
3766 names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
3768 *** You can now search for tags that are part of the filename itself.
3769 If you have tagged the files topfile.c subdir/subfile.c
3770 /tmp/tempfile.c, you can now search for tags "topfile.c", "subfile.c",
3771 "dir/sub", "tempfile", "tempfile.c". If the tag matches the file name,
3772 point will go to the beginning of the file.
3774 *** Compressed files are now transparently supported if
3775 auto-compression-mode is active. You can tag (with Etags) and search
3776 (with find-tag) both compressed and uncompressed files.
3778 *** Tags commands like M-x tags-search no longer change point
3779 in buffers where no match is found. In buffers where a match is
3780 found, the original value of point is pushed on the marker ring.
3782 ** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sequence-nos' to
3783 remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
3784 appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
3786 ** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
3788 ** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
3790 ** The Dabbrev package has a new user-option `dabbrev-ignored-regexps'
3791 containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
3792 expression from that list, are not checked.
3794 ** Emacs can now figure out modification times of remote files.
3795 When you do C-x C-f /user@host:/path/file RET and edit the file,
3796 and someone else modifies the file, you will be prompted to revert
3797 the buffer, just like for the local files.
3799 ** The buffer menu (C-x C-b) no longer lists the *Buffer List* buffer.
3801 ** When invoked with a prefix argument, the command `list-abbrevs' now
3802 displays local abbrevs, only.
3804 ** Refill minor mode provides preliminary support for keeping
3805 paragraphs filled as you modify them.
3807 ** The variable `double-click-fuzz' specifies how much the mouse
3808 may be moved between clicks that are recognized as a pair. Its value
3809 is measured in pixels.
3811 ** The new global minor mode `auto-image-file-mode' allows image files
3812 to be visited as images.
3814 ** Two new user-options `grep-command' and `grep-find-command'
3815 were added to compile.el.
3817 ** Withdrawn packages
3819 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
3820 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
3822 *** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
3824 *** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
3827 * Incompatible Lisp changes
3829 There are a few Lisp changes which are not backwards-compatible and
3830 may require changes to existing code. Here is a list for reference.
3831 See the sections below for details.
3833 ** Since `format' preserves text properties, the idiom
3834 `(format "%s" foo)' no longer works to copy and remove properties.
3835 Use `copy-sequence' to copy the string, then use `set-text-properties'
3836 to remove the properties of the copy.
3838 ** Since the `keymap' text property now has significance, some code
3839 which uses both `local-map' and `keymap' properties (for portability)
3840 may, for instance, give rise to duplicate menus when the keymaps from
3841 these properties are active.
3843 ** The change in the treatment of non-ASCII characters in search
3844 ranges may affect some code.
3846 ** A non-nil value for the LOCAL arg of add-hook makes the hook
3847 buffer-local even if `make-local-hook' hasn't been called, which might
3848 make a difference to some code.
3850 ** The new treatment of the minibuffer prompt might affect code which
3851 operates on the minibuffer.
3853 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
3854 cause `no-conversion' and `emacs-mule-unix' coding systems to produce
3855 different results when reading files with non-ASCII characters
3856 (previously, both coding systems would produce the same results).
3857 Specifically, `no-conversion' interprets each 8-bit byte as a separate
3858 character. This makes `no-conversion' inappropriate for reading
3859 multibyte text, e.g. buffers written to disk in their internal MULE
3860 encoding (auto-saving does that, for example). If a Lisp program
3861 reads such files with `no-conversion', each byte of the multibyte
3862 sequence, including the MULE leading codes such as \201, is treated as
3863 a separate character, which prevents them from being interpreted in
3864 the buffer as multibyte characters.
3866 Therefore, Lisp programs that read files which contain the internal
3867 MULE encoding should use `emacs-mule-unix'. `no-conversion' is only
3868 appropriate for reading truly binary files.
3870 ** Code that relies on the obsolete `before-change-function' and
3871 `after-change-function' to detect buffer changes will now fail. Use
3872 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions' instead.
3874 ** Code that uses `concat' with integer args now gets an error, as
3875 long promised. So does any code that uses derivatives of `concat',
3876 such as `mapconcat'.
3878 ** The function base64-decode-string now always returns a unibyte
3881 ** Not a Lisp incompatibility as such but, with the introduction of
3882 extra private charsets, there is now only one slot free for a new
3883 dimension-2 private charset. User code which tries to add more than
3884 one extra will fail unless you rebuild Emacs with some standard
3885 charset(s) removed; that is probably inadvisable because it changes
3886 the emacs-mule encoding. Also, files stored in the emacs-mule
3887 encoding using Emacs 20 with additional private charsets defined will
3888 probably not be read correctly by Emacs 21.
3890 ** The variable `directory-sep-char' is slated for removal.
3891 Not really a change (yet), but a projected one that you should be
3892 aware of: The variable `directory-sep-char' is deprecated, and should
3893 not be used. It was always ignored on GNU/Linux and Unix systems and
3894 on MS-DOS, but the MS-Windows port tried to support it by adapting the
3895 behavior of certain primitives to the value of this variable. It
3896 turned out that such support cannot be reliable, so it was decided to
3897 remove this variable in the near future. Lisp programs are well
3898 advised not to set it to anything but '/', because any different value
3899 will not have any effect when support for this variable is removed.
3902 * Lisp changes made after edition 2.6 of the Emacs Lisp Manual,
3903 (Display-related features are described in a page of their own below.)
3905 ** Function assq-delete-all replaces function assoc-delete-all.
3907 ** The new function animate-string, from lisp/play/animate.el
3908 allows the animated display of strings.
3910 ** The new function `interactive-form' can be used to obtain the
3911 interactive form of a function.
3913 ** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
3914 between custom options. Example:
3916 (defcustom default-input-method nil
3917 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
3918 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
3919 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
3921 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
3922 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
3924 This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
3925 current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
3926 first in a custom-set-variables statement.
3928 ** The new hook `kbd-macro-termination-hook' is run at the end of
3929 function execute-kbd-macro. Functions on this hook are called with no
3930 args. The hook is run independent of how the macro was terminated
3931 (signal or normal termination).
3933 ** Functions `butlast' and `nbutlast' for removing trailing elements
3934 from a list are now available without requiring the CL package.
3936 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
3937 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
3939 ** The user-option `face-font-registry-alternatives' specifies
3940 alternative font registry names to try when looking for a font.
3942 ** Function `md5' calculates the MD5 "message digest"/"checksum".
3944 ** Function `delete-frame' runs `delete-frame-hook' before actually
3945 deleting the frame. The hook is called with one arg, the frame
3948 ** `add-hook' now makes the hook local if called with a non-nil LOCAL arg.
3950 ** The treatment of non-ASCII characters in search ranges has changed.
3951 If a range in a regular expression or the arg of
3952 skip-chars-forward/backward starts with a unibyte character C and ends
3953 with a multibyte character C2, the range is divided into two: one is
3954 C..?\377, the other is C1..C2, where C1 is the first character of C2's
3957 ** The new function `display-message-or-buffer' displays a message in
3958 the echo area or pops up a buffer, depending on the length of the
3961 ** The new macro `with-auto-compression-mode' allows evaluating an
3962 expression with auto-compression-mode enabled.
3964 ** In image specifications, `:heuristic-mask' has been replaced
3965 with the more general `:mask' property.
3967 ** Image specifications accept more `:conversion's.
3969 ** A `?' can be used in a symbol name without escaping it with a
3972 ** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
3973 is running in batch mode. For example,
3975 (message "%s" (read t))
3977 will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
3980 ** The argument of `down-list', `backward-up-list', `up-list',
3981 `kill-sexp', `backward-kill-sexp' and `mark-sexp' is now optional.
3983 ** If `display-buffer-reuse-frames' is set, function `display-buffer'
3984 will raise frames displaying a buffer, instead of creating a new
3987 ** Two new functions for removing elements from lists/sequences
3990 - Function: remove ELT SEQ
3992 Return a copy of SEQ with all occurrences of ELT removed. SEQ must be
3993 a list, vector, or string. The comparison is done with `equal'.
3995 - Function: remq ELT LIST
3997 Return a copy of LIST with all occurrences of ELT removed. The
3998 comparison is done with `eq'.
4000 ** The function `delete' now also works with vectors and strings.
4002 ** The meaning of the `:weakness WEAK' argument of make-hash-table
4003 has been changed: WEAK can now have new values `key-or-value' and
4004 `key-and-value', in addition the `nil', `key', `value', and `t'.
4006 ** Function `aset' stores any multibyte character in any string
4007 without signaling "Attempt to change char length of a string". It may
4008 convert a unibyte string to multibyte if necessary.
4010 ** The value of the `help-echo' text property is called as a function
4011 or evaluated, if it is not a string already, to obtain a help string.
4013 ** Function `make-obsolete' now has an optional arg to say when the
4014 function was declared obsolete.
4016 ** Function `plist-member' is renamed from `widget-plist-member' (which is
4017 retained as an alias).
4019 ** Easy-menu's :filter now works as in XEmacs.
4020 It takes the unconverted (i.e. XEmacs) form of the menu and the result
4021 is automatically converted to Emacs' form.
4023 ** The new function `window-list' has been defined
4025 - Function: window-list &optional FRAME WINDOW MINIBUF
4027 Return a list of windows on FRAME, starting with WINDOW. FRAME nil or
4028 omitted means use the selected frame. WINDOW nil or omitted means use
4029 the selected window. MINIBUF t means include the minibuffer window,
4030 even if it isn't active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means include the
4031 minibuffer window only if it's active. MINIBUF neither nil nor t
4032 means never include the minibuffer window.
4034 ** There's a new function `get-window-with-predicate' defined as follows
4036 - Function: get-window-with-predicate PREDICATE &optional MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES DEFAULT
4038 Return a window satisfying PREDICATE.
4040 This function cycles through all visible windows using `walk-windows',
4041 calling PREDICATE on each one. PREDICATE is called with a window as
4042 argument. The first window for which PREDICATE returns a non-nil
4043 value is returned. If no window satisfies PREDICATE, DEFAULT is
4046 Optional second arg MINIBUF t means count the minibuffer window even
4047 if not active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means count the minibuffer iff
4048 it is active. MINIBUF neither t nor nil means not to count the
4049 minibuffer even if it is active.
4051 Several frames may share a single minibuffer; if the minibuffer
4052 counts, all windows on all frames that share that minibuffer count
4053 too. Therefore, if you are using a separate minibuffer frame
4054 and the minibuffer is active and MINIBUF says it counts,
4055 `walk-windows' includes the windows in the frame from which you
4056 entered the minibuffer, as well as the minibuffer window.
4058 ALL-FRAMES is the optional third argument.
4059 ALL-FRAMES nil or omitted means cycle within the frames as specified above.
4060 ALL-FRAMES = `visible' means include windows on all visible frames.
4061 ALL-FRAMES = 0 means include windows on all visible and iconified frames.
4062 ALL-FRAMES = t means include windows on all frames including invisible frames.
4063 If ALL-FRAMES is a frame, it means include windows on that frame.
4064 Anything else means restrict to the selected frame.
4066 ** The function `single-key-description' now encloses function key and
4067 event names in angle brackets. When called with a second optional
4068 argument non-nil, angle brackets won't be printed.
4070 ** If the variable `message-truncate-lines' is bound to t around a
4071 call to `message', the echo area will not be resized to display that
4072 message; it will be truncated instead, as it was done in 20.x.
4073 Default value is nil.
4075 ** The user option `line-number-display-limit' can now be set to nil,
4078 ** The new user option `line-number-display-limit-width' controls
4079 the maximum width of lines in a buffer for which Emacs displays line
4080 numbers in the mode line. The default is 200.
4082 ** `select-safe-coding-system' now also checks the most preferred
4083 coding-system if buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and
4084 DEFAULT-CODING-SYSTEM is not specified,
4086 ** The function `subr-arity' provides information about the argument
4087 list of a primitive.
4089 ** `where-is-internal' now also accepts a list of keymaps.
4091 ** The text property `keymap' specifies a key map which overrides the
4092 buffer's local map and the map specified by the `local-map' property.
4093 This is probably what most current uses of `local-map' want, rather
4094 than replacing the local map.
4096 ** The obsolete variables `before-change-function' and
4097 `after-change-function' are no longer acted upon and have been
4098 removed. Use `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions'
4101 ** The function `apropos-mode' runs the hook `apropos-mode-hook'.
4103 ** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments,
4104 as promised long ago.
4106 ** The new function `float-time' returns the current time as a float.
4108 ** The new variable auto-coding-regexp-alist specifies coding systems
4109 for reading specific files, analogous to auto-coding-alist, but
4110 patterns are checked against file contents instead of file names.
4113 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
4115 ** The new package rx.el provides an alternative sexp notation for
4116 regular expressions.
4118 - Function: rx-to-string SEXP
4120 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
4124 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
4126 The following are valid subforms of regular expressions in sexp
4130 matches string STRING literally.
4133 matches character CHAR literally.
4136 matches any character except a newline.
4139 matches any character
4142 matches any character in SET. SET may be a character or string.
4143 Ranges of characters can be specified as `A-Z' in strings.
4149 matches any character not in SET
4152 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of a line
4153 in the text being matched
4156 is similar to `line-start' but matches only at the end of a line
4159 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
4160 string being matched against.
4163 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
4164 string being matched against.
4167 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
4168 buffer being matched against.
4171 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
4172 buffer being matched against.
4175 matches the empty string, but only at point.
4178 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
4182 matches the empty string, but only at the end of a word.
4185 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
4188 `(not word-boundary)'
4189 matches the empty string, but not at the beginning or end of a
4193 matches 0 through 9.
4196 matches ASCII control characters.
4199 matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
4202 matches space and tab only.
4205 matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
4209 matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
4213 matches letters and digits. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
4214 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
4217 matches letters. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
4218 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
4221 matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
4224 matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
4227 matches anything lower-case.
4230 matches anything upper-case.
4233 matches punctuation. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
4234 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
4237 matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
4240 matches anything that has word syntax.
4243 matches a character with syntax SYNTAX. SYNTAX must be one
4244 of the following symbols.
4246 `whitespace' (\\s- in string notation)
4247 `punctuation' (\\s.)
4250 `open-parenthesis' (\\s()
4251 `close-parenthesis' (\\s))
4252 `expression-prefix' (\\s')
4253 `string-quote' (\\s\")
4254 `paired-delimiter' (\\s$)
4256 `character-quote' (\\s/)
4257 `comment-start' (\\s<)
4258 `comment-end' (\\s>)
4260 `(not (syntax SYNTAX))'
4261 matches a character that has not syntax SYNTAX.
4263 `(category CATEGORY)'
4264 matches a character with category CATEGORY. CATEGORY must be
4265 either a character to use for C, or one of the following symbols.
4267 `consonant' (\\c0 in string notation)
4269 `upper-diacritical-mark' (\\c2)
4270 `lower-diacritical-mark' (\\c3)
4274 `vowel-modifying-diacritical-mark' (\\c7)
4276 `semivowel-lower' (\\c9)
4277 `not-at-end-of-line' (\\c<)
4278 `not-at-beginning-of-line' (\\c>)
4279 `alpha-numeric-two-byte' (\\cA)
4280 `chinse-two-byte' (\\cC)
4281 `greek-two-byte' (\\cG)
4282 `japanese-hiragana-two-byte' (\\cH)
4283 `indian-tow-byte' (\\cI)
4284 `japanese-katakana-two-byte' (\\cK)
4285 `korean-hangul-two-byte' (\\cN)
4286 `cyrillic-two-byte' (\\cY)
4295 `japanese-katakana' (\\ck)
4299 `japanese-roman' (\\cr)
4306 `(not (category CATEGORY))'
4307 matches a character that has not category CATEGORY.
4309 `(and SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
4310 matches what SEXP1 matches, followed by what SEXP2 matches, etc.
4312 `(submatch SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
4313 like `and', but makes the match accessible with `match-end',
4314 `match-beginning', and `match-string'.
4316 `(group SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
4317 another name for `submatch'.
4319 `(or SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
4320 matches anything that matches SEXP1 or SEXP2, etc. If all
4321 args are strings, use `regexp-opt' to optimize the resulting
4324 `(minimal-match SEXP)'
4325 produce a non-greedy regexp for SEXP. Normally, regexps matching
4326 zero or more occurrences of something are \"greedy\" in that they
4327 match as much as they can, as long as the overall regexp can
4328 still match. A non-greedy regexp matches as little as possible.
4330 `(maximal-match SEXP)'
4331 produce a greedy regexp for SEXP. This is the default.
4333 `(zero-or-more SEXP)'
4334 matches zero or more occurrences of what SEXP matches.
4337 like `zero-or-more'.
4340 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
4343 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
4345 `(one-or-more SEXP)'
4346 matches one or more occurrences of A.
4352 like `one-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
4355 like `one-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
4357 `(zero-or-one SEXP)'
4358 matches zero or one occurrences of A.
4364 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a greedy regexp.
4367 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
4370 matches N occurrences of what SEXP matches.
4373 matches N to M occurrences of what SEXP matches.
4376 evaluate FORM and insert result. If result is a string,
4380 include REGEXP in string notation in the result.
4382 *** The features `md5' and `overlay' are now provided by default.
4384 *** The special form `save-restriction' now works correctly even if the
4385 buffer is widened inside the save-restriction and changes made outside
4386 the original restriction. Previously, doing this would cause the saved
4387 restriction to be restored incorrectly.
4389 *** The functions `find-charset-region' and `find-charset-string' include
4390 `eight-bit-control' and/or `eight-bit-graphic' in the returned list
4391 when they find 8-bit characters. Previously, they included `ascii' in a
4392 multibyte buffer and `unknown' in a unibyte buffer.
4394 *** The functions `set-buffer-multibyte', `string-as-multibyte' and
4395 `string-as-unibyte' change the byte sequence of a buffer or a string
4396 if it contains a character from the `eight-bit-control' character set.
4398 *** The handling of multibyte sequences in a multibyte buffer is
4399 changed. Previously, a byte sequence matching the pattern
4400 [\200-\237][\240-\377]+ was interpreted as a single character
4401 regardless of the length of the trailing bytes [\240-\377]+. Thus, if
4402 the sequence was longer than what the leading byte indicated, the
4403 extra trailing bytes were ignored by Lisp functions. Now such extra
4404 bytes are independent 8-bit characters belonging to the charset
4407 ** Fontsets are now implemented using char-tables.
4409 A fontset can now be specified for each independent character, for
4410 a group of characters or for a character set rather than just for a
4411 character set as previously.
4413 *** The arguments of the function `set-fontset-font' are changed.
4414 They are NAME, CHARACTER, FONTNAME, and optional FRAME. The function
4415 modifies fontset NAME to use FONTNAME for CHARACTER.
4417 CHARACTER may be a cons (FROM . TO), where FROM and TO are non-generic
4418 characters. In that case FONTNAME is used for all characters in the
4419 range FROM and TO (inclusive). CHARACTER may be a charset. In that
4420 case FONTNAME is used for all character in the charset.
4422 FONTNAME may be a cons (FAMILY . REGISTRY), where FAMILY is the family
4423 name of a font and REGISTRY is a registry name of a font.
4425 *** Variable x-charset-registry has been deleted. The default charset
4426 registries of character sets are set in the default fontset
4429 *** The function `create-fontset-from-fontset-spec' ignores the second
4430 argument STYLE-VARIANT. It never creates style-variant fontsets.
4432 ** The method of composing characters is changed. Now character
4433 composition is done by a special text property `composition' in
4434 buffers and strings.
4436 *** Charset composition is deleted. Emacs never creates a `composite
4437 character' which is an independent character with a unique character
4438 code. Thus the following functions handling `composite characters'
4439 have been deleted: composite-char-component,
4440 composite-char-component-count, composite-char-composition-rule,
4441 composite-char-composition-rule and decompose-composite-char delete.
4442 The variables leading-code-composition and min-composite-char have
4445 *** Three more glyph reference points are added. They can be used to
4446 specify a composition rule. See the documentation of the variable
4447 `reference-point-alist' for more detail.
4449 *** The function `compose-region' takes new arguments COMPONENTS and
4450 MODIFICATION-FUNC. With COMPONENTS, you can specify not only a
4451 composition rule but also characters to be composed. Such characters
4452 may differ between buffer and string text.
4454 *** The function `compose-string' takes new arguments START, END,
4455 COMPONENTS, and MODIFICATION-FUNC.
4457 *** The function `compose-string' puts text property `composition'
4458 directly on the argument STRING instead of returning a new string.
4459 Likewise, the function `decompose-string' just removes text property
4460 `composition' from STRING.
4462 *** The new function `find-composition' returns information about
4463 a composition at a specified position in a buffer or a string.
4465 *** The function `decompose-composite-char' is now labeled as
4468 ** The new coding system `mac-roman' is primarily intended for use on
4469 the Macintosh but may be used generally for Macintosh-encoded text.
4471 ** The new character sets `mule-unicode-0100-24ff',
4472 `mule-unicode-2500-33ff', and `mule-unicode-e000-ffff' have been
4473 introduced for Unicode characters in the range U+0100..U+24FF,
4474 U+2500..U+33FF, U+E000..U+FFFF respectively.
4476 Note that the character sets are not yet unified in Emacs, so
4477 characters which belong to charsets such as Latin-2, Greek, Hebrew,
4478 etc. and the same characters in the `mule-unicode-*' charsets are
4479 different characters, as far as Emacs is concerned. For example, text
4480 which includes Unicode characters from the Latin-2 locale cannot be
4481 encoded by Emacs with ISO 8859-2 coding system.
4483 ** The new coding system `mule-utf-8' has been added.
4484 It provides limited support for decoding/encoding UTF-8 text. For
4485 details, please see the documentation string of this coding system.
4487 ** The new character sets `japanese-jisx0213-1' and
4488 `japanese-jisx0213-2' have been introduced for the new Japanese
4489 standard JIS X 0213 Plane 1 and Plane 2.
4491 ** The new character sets `latin-iso8859-14' and `latin-iso8859-15'
4492 have been introduced.
4494 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
4495 have been introduced for 8-bit characters in the ranges 0x80..0x9F and
4496 0xA0..0xFF respectively. Note that the multibyte representation of
4497 eight-bit-control is never exposed; this leads to an exception in the
4498 emacs-mule coding system, which encodes everything else to the
4499 buffer/string internal representation. Note that to search for
4500 eight-bit-graphic characters in a multibyte buffer, the search string
4501 must be multibyte, otherwise such characters will be converted to
4502 their multibyte equivalent.
4504 ** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
4505 that offset in the file before writing.
4507 ** The function `add-minor-mode' has been added for convenience and
4508 compatibility with XEmacs (and is used internally by define-minor-mode).
4510 ** The function `shell-command' now sets the default directory of the
4511 `*Shell Command Output*' buffer to the default directory of the buffer
4512 from which the command was issued.
4514 ** The functions `query-replace', `query-replace-regexp',
4515 `query-replace-regexp-eval' `map-query-replace-regexp',
4516 `replace-string', `replace-regexp', and `perform-replace' take two
4517 additional optional arguments START and END that specify the region to
4520 ** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
4521 to `window-buffer-height'.
4523 - Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
4525 Return the number of screen lines in the region between BEG and END.
4526 The number of screen lines may be different from the number of actual
4527 lines, due to line breaking, display table, etc.
4529 Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
4532 If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optional third argument
4533 COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
4535 The optional fourth argument WINDOW specifies the window used for
4536 obtaining parameters such as width, horizontal scrolling, and so
4537 on. The default is to use the selected window's parameters.
4539 Like `vertical-motion', `count-screen-lines' always uses the current
4540 buffer, regardless of which buffer is displayed in WINDOW. This makes
4541 possible to use `count-screen-lines' in any buffer, whether or not it
4542 is currently displayed in some window.
4544 ** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
4545 argument function's results.
4547 ** The functions base64-decode-region and base64-decode-string now
4548 signal an error instead of returning nil if decoding fails. Also,
4549 `base64-decode-string' now always returns a unibyte string (in Emacs
4550 20, it returned a multibyte string when the result was a valid multibyte
4553 ** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
4554 header in the list of headers passed to it.
4556 ** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
4557 ignores differences in case and text representation.
4559 ** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
4560 cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
4563 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
4564 nil don't display a cursor
4565 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
4566 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
4567 others display a box cursor.
4569 ** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
4570 an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
4571 defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
4572 set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
4574 ** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
4575 specifications in string form as accepted by `modify-syntax-entry' to
4576 the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
4577 text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
4581 (string-to-syntax "()")
4584 ** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
4587 *** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
4588 INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
4595 *** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
4600 *** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
4605 *** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
4612 ** The function `documentation-property' now evaluates the value of
4613 the given property to obtain a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
4616 ** If called for a symbol, the function `documentation' now looks for
4617 a `function-documentation' property of that symbol. If it has a non-nil
4618 value, the documentation is taken from that value. If the value is
4619 not a string, it is evaluated to obtain a string.
4621 ** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
4623 ** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
4624 for a regexp in a string.
4626 ** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
4627 `mouse-position-function'.
4629 ** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
4630 that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
4632 ** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
4633 Keywords are now always considered constants.
4635 ** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
4638 ** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
4639 returned by function `recent-keys'.
4641 ** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
4642 can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
4643 Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding C-M-a
4644 etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
4647 ** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
4648 and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
4650 ** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
4651 has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
4652 function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
4653 returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
4656 When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
4657 and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
4658 hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
4659 then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
4661 ** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
4662 In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
4663 and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
4665 ** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
4666 with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
4669 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
4671 Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
4672 TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
4673 saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
4676 ** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
4677 Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
4678 Also back-references like \2 are now considered as an error if the
4679 corresponding subgroup does not exist (or is not closed yet).
4680 Previously it would have been silently turned into `2' (ignoring the `\').
4682 ** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
4683 removed since it wasn't used by anything.
4685 ** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
4686 instead of being optional.
4688 ** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
4689 modify read-only text.
4691 ** New functions and variables for locales.
4693 The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
4694 decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
4695 time functions like strftime. The new variables
4696 `system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
4697 locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
4699 The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
4700 environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
4701 the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
4702 environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
4703 not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
4704 `locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
4705 `locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
4707 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
4708 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
4709 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
4712 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
4713 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
4715 ** New function `propertize'
4717 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
4718 strings with text properties.
4720 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
4722 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
4723 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
4724 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
4725 specified value of that property. Example:
4727 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
4729 ** push and pop macros.
4731 Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
4732 are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
4733 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
4735 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
4736 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
4737 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
4739 ** New dolist and dotimes macros.
4741 Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
4742 are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
4744 (dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
4745 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
4746 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
4747 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
4749 (dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
4750 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
4751 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
4752 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
4754 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such as
4755 [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on. These must be used within a character
4756 class--for instance, [-[:digit:].+] matches digits or a period
4759 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
4760 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
4761 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
4762 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
4763 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
4765 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
4767 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
4768 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
4769 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
4770 [:alpha:] matches letters.
4771 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
4772 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
4773 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
4774 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
4775 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
4776 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
4777 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
4778 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
4779 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
4780 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
4781 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
4783 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
4785 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
4787 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
4789 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
4790 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
4794 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
4795 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
4796 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
4800 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
4801 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
4803 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
4805 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
4806 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
4807 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
4808 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
4809 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
4811 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
4813 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
4814 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
4815 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
4819 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value',
4820 `key-or-value', `key-and-value', or t, meaning the same as
4821 `key-and-value'. Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage
4822 collection if their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere
4823 outside of the hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
4825 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
4827 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
4829 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
4831 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
4833 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
4835 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
4838 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
4840 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
4842 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
4844 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
4846 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
4848 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
4850 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
4852 Returns the size of TABLE.
4854 - Function: hash-table-test TABLE
4856 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
4858 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
4860 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
4862 - Function: clrhash TABLE
4866 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
4868 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
4871 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
4873 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
4874 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
4876 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
4878 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
4880 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
4882 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
4883 arguments KEY and VALUE.
4885 - Function: sxhash OBJ
4887 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
4889 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
4891 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
4892 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
4893 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
4894 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
4895 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
4897 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
4899 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
4900 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
4901 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
4903 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
4904 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
4906 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
4907 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
4909 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
4910 (sxhash (upcase a)))
4912 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
4913 'case-fold-string-hash))
4915 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
4917 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
4919 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
4920 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
4921 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
4923 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
4925 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
4926 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
4928 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
4929 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
4930 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
4931 is too short to reach that column.
4933 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
4934 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
4935 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
4936 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
4938 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
4939 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
4940 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
4942 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
4943 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
4945 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
4946 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
4948 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
4949 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
4950 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
4951 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
4952 temporary-file-directory instead.
4954 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
4955 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
4956 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
4957 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
4959 ** assq-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
4960 elements of an alist which have a car `eq' to a particular value.
4962 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
4964 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
4965 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
4966 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
4968 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
4970 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
4971 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
4972 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
4973 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
4974 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
4975 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
4977 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
4978 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
4979 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
4980 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
4982 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
4984 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
4985 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
4986 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
4989 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
4990 string where arguments appear in the result string.
4994 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
4996 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
4997 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
5000 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
5002 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
5004 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
5005 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
5008 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
5010 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
5011 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
5016 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
5017 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
5019 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
5020 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
5021 to enable sound support.
5023 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
5024 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
5025 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
5026 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
5027 sound to play, before playing the sound.
5029 The following sound properties are supported:
5033 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
5034 searched relative to `data-directory'.
5038 DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
5039 may be present, but not both.
5043 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
5044 0..1. This property is optional.
5048 DEVICE is a string specifying the system device on which to play the
5049 sound. The default device is system-dependent.
5051 Other properties are ignored.
5053 An alternative interface is called as
5054 (play-sound-file FILE &optional VOLUME DEVICE).
5056 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
5058 ** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
5061 ** Changes to garbage collection
5063 *** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
5064 of live and free strings.
5066 *** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
5067 strings that have been consed so far.
5070 * Lisp-level Display features added after release 2.6 of the Emacs
5073 ** The user-option `resize-mini-windows' controls how Emacs resizes
5076 ** The function `pos-visible-in-window-p' now has a third optional
5077 argument, PARTIALLY. If a character is only partially visible, nil is
5078 returned, unless PARTIALLY is non-nil.
5080 ** On window systems, `glyph-table' is no longer used.
5082 ** Help strings in menu items are now used to provide `help-echo' text.
5084 ** The function `image-size' can be used to determine the size of an
5087 - Function: image-size SPEC &optional PIXELS FRAME
5089 Return the size of an image as a pair (WIDTH . HEIGHT).
5091 SPEC is an image specification. PIXELS non-nil means return sizes
5092 measured in pixels, otherwise return sizes measured in canonical
5093 character units (fractions of the width/height of the frame's default
5094 font). FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed.
5095 FRAME nil or omitted means use the selected frame.
5097 ** The function `image-mask-p' can be used to determine if an image
5100 - Function: image-mask-p SPEC &optional FRAME
5102 Return t if image SPEC has a mask bitmap.
5103 FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed. FRAME nil
5104 or omitted means use the selected frame.
5106 ** The function `find-image' can be used to find a usable image
5107 satisfying one of a list of specifications.
5109 ** The STRING argument of `put-image' and `insert-image' is now
5112 ** Image specifications may contain the property `:ascent center' (see
5116 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
5118 ** The function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors can be used
5119 to make Emacs avoid displaying text with bold black foreground on TTYs.
5121 Some terminals, notably PC consoles, emulate bold text by displaying
5122 text in brighter colors. On such a console, a bold black foreground
5123 is displayed in a gray color. If this turns out to be hard to read on
5124 your monitor---the problem occurred with the mode line on
5125 laptops---you can instruct Emacs to ignore the text's boldness, and to
5126 just display it black instead.
5128 This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
5131 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
5135 ** New face implementation.
5137 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
5138 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
5142 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
5144 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
5146 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
5147 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
5149 3. Font height in 1/10pt
5151 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
5153 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
5155 6. Foreground color.
5157 7. Background color.
5159 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
5161 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
5163 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
5165 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
5167 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
5170 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
5171 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
5173 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
5174 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
5175 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
5176 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
5177 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each of the face
5178 attributes mentioned above.
5180 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
5181 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
5184 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
5185 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
5190 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
5191 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
5192 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
5193 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
5194 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
5195 results in a fully-specified face.
5197 *** Face realization.
5199 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
5200 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
5201 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
5202 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
5203 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
5204 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
5206 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
5207 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
5208 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
5209 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
5211 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
5212 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
5213 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
5214 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
5215 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
5217 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
5218 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
5219 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
5220 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
5221 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
5224 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
5225 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
5226 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
5227 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
5229 **** Clearing face caches.
5231 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
5232 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
5237 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
5238 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
5239 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
5241 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
5242 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
5243 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
5244 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
5245 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
5247 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
5248 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
5249 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
5251 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
5253 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
5254 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
5255 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
5256 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
5257 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
5258 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
5259 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
5261 Setting `face-font-family-alternatives' allows the user to specify
5262 alternative font families to try if a family specified by a face
5265 Setting `face-font-registry-alternatives' allows the user to specify
5266 all alternative font registry names to try for a face specifying a
5269 Please note that the interpretations of the above two variables are
5272 Setting face-ignored-fonts allows the user to ignore specific fonts.
5277 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
5278 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
5281 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
5282 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
5283 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
5284 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
5285 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
5288 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
5290 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
5292 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
5294 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
5296 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
5297 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
5298 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
5300 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
5301 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
5302 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
5303 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
5304 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
5305 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
5306 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
5307 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
5308 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
5309 of the face font sort order.
5311 - Function: x-font-family-list
5313 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
5314 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
5315 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
5316 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
5318 - Variable: font-list-limit
5320 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
5321 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
5322 matching font. The default is currently 100.
5324 *** Setting face attributes.
5326 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
5327 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
5328 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
5331 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
5332 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
5334 The following attributes are recognized:
5338 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
5339 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
5340 and `?' are allowed.
5344 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
5345 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
5346 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
5347 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
5351 VALUE must be either an integer specifying the height of the font to use
5352 in 1/10 pt, a floating point number specifying the amount by which to
5353 scale any underlying face, or a function, which is called with the old
5354 height (from the underlying face), and should return the new height.
5358 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
5359 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
5360 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
5364 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
5365 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
5368 `:foreground', `:background'
5370 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
5374 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
5375 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
5376 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
5381 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
5382 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
5383 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
5388 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
5389 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
5390 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
5391 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
5395 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
5396 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
5397 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
5398 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
5399 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
5400 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
5401 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
5402 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
5403 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
5404 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
5405 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
5406 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
5407 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
5408 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
5409 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
5410 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
5415 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
5416 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
5420 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
5421 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
5422 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
5423 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
5424 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
5425 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
5427 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
5428 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
5432 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
5433 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
5434 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
5437 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
5438 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
5439 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
5441 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
5446 VALUE is the name of a face from which to inherit attributes, or a list
5447 of face names. Attributes from inherited faces are merged into the face
5448 like an underlying face would be, with higher priority than underlying faces.
5450 *** Face attributes and X resources
5452 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
5455 Face attribute X resource class
5456 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
5457 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
5458 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
5459 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
5460 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
5461 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
5462 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
5463 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
5464 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
5465 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
5466 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
5467 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
5468 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
5469 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
5470 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
5471 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
5472 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
5473 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
5474 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
5475 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
5477 *** Text property `face'.
5479 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
5480 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
5481 specification can be
5483 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
5485 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
5486 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
5487 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
5488 for face attribute names.
5490 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
5491 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
5492 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
5494 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
5496 The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
5497 on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
5498 the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
5499 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
5500 `defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
5501 used to clear the mapping table.
5503 ** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
5505 The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
5506 and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
5507 type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
5508 color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
5509 display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
5510 old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
5511 `x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
5512 compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
5513 should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
5514 modify their color-related behavior.
5516 The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
5519 ** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
5521 The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
5522 `display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
5523 `display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
5524 `display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
5525 `display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
5526 `display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
5527 display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
5528 the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
5529 platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
5531 The new function `display-images-p' returns non-nil if a particular
5532 display can display image files.
5534 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
5536 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
5537 To disallow this completely (like previous versions of emacs), customize
5538 the variable `minibuffer-prompt-properties', and turn on the
5539 `Inviolable' option.
5541 The function `minibuffer-prompt-end' returns the current position of the
5542 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
5543 Otherwise, it returns `(point-min)'.
5545 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
5547 There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
5548 buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
5549 property (which can be a text property or an overlay).
5551 Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
5552 forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
5553 to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
5554 not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
5555 commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
5556 boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
5557 `inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
5560 Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
5561 a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
5562 editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
5564 The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
5566 - Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY
5568 Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
5570 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
5571 If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
5572 constrained position if that is different.
5574 If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
5575 positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
5576 ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
5577 constrained to the field that has the same `field' char-property
5578 as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
5579 is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
5580 fields. Additionally, if two fields are separated by another field with
5581 the special value `boundary', then any point within this special field is
5582 also considered to be `on the boundary'.
5584 If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
5585 NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
5586 unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
5587 C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
5588 only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
5590 If the optional argument INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY is non-nil, and OLD-POS has
5591 a non-nil property of that name, then any field boundaries are ignored.
5593 Field boundaries are not noticed if `inhibit-field-text-motion' is non-nil.
5595 - Function: delete-field &optional POS
5597 Delete the field surrounding POS.
5598 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
5599 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
5601 - Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
5603 Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
5604 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
5605 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
5606 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the beginning of its
5607 field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
5609 - Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
5611 Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
5612 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
5613 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
5614 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the end of its field,
5615 then the end of the *following* field is returned.
5617 - Function: field-string &optional POS
5619 Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
5620 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
5621 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
5623 - Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
5625 Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
5626 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
5627 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
5631 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
5632 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
5633 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
5634 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
5636 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
5637 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
5638 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
5639 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
5642 IMAGE is an image specification.
5644 *** Image specifications
5646 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
5647 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
5648 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
5649 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
5650 described below are ignored.
5652 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
5656 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, or the symbol `center'.
5657 If it is a number, it specifies the percentage of the image's height
5658 to use for its ascent.
5660 If not specified, ASCENT defaults to the value 50 which means that the
5661 image will be centered with the base line of the row it appears in.
5663 If ASCENT is `center' the image is vertically centered around a
5664 centerline which is the vertical center of text drawn at the position
5665 of the image, in the manner specified by the text properties and
5666 overlays that apply to the image.
5670 MARGIN must be either a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put
5671 as margin around the image, or a pair (X . Y) with X specifying the
5672 horizontal margin and Y specifying the vertical margin. Default is 0.
5676 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
5681 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it.
5683 ALGO `laplace' or `emboss' means apply a Laplace or ``emboss''
5684 edge-detection algorithm to the image.
5686 ALGO `(edge-detection :matrix MATRIX :color-adjust ADJUST)' means
5687 apply a general edge-detection algorithm. MATRIX must be either a
5688 nine-element list or a nine-element vector of numbers. A pixel at
5689 position x/y in the transformed image is computed from original pixels
5690 around that position. MATRIX specifies, for each pixel in the
5691 neighborhood of x/y, a factor with which that pixel will influence the
5692 transformed pixel; element 0 specifies the factor for the pixel at
5693 x-1/y-1, element 1 the factor for the pixel at x/y-1 etc. as shown
5696 (x-1/y-1 x/y-1 x+1/y-1
5698 x-1/y+1 x/y+1 x+1/y+1)
5700 The resulting pixel is computed from the color intensity of the color
5701 resulting from summing up the RGB values of surrounding pixels,
5702 multiplied by the specified factors, and dividing that sum by the sum
5703 of the factors' absolute values.
5705 Laplace edge-detection currently uses a matrix of
5711 Emboss edge-detection uses a matrix of
5717 ALGO `disabled' means transform the image so that it looks
5722 If MASK is `heuristic' or `(heuristic BG)', build a clipping mask for
5723 the image, so that the background of a frame is visible behind the
5724 image. If BG is not specified, or if BG is t, determine the
5725 background color of the image by looking at the 4 corners of the
5726 image, assuming the most frequently occurring color from the corners is
5727 the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must be a list `(RED
5728 GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the background of the
5731 If MASK is nil, remove a mask from the image, if it has one. Images
5732 in some formats include a mask which can be removed by specifying
5737 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
5738 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
5739 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
5740 may be present in the image specification.
5744 Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
5745 supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
5746 present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
5747 support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
5749 *** Supported image types
5751 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
5753 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
5754 properties supported are
5758 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
5759 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground.
5763 BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
5764 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
5766 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
5767 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
5768 instead of a `:file' property.
5772 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
5776 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
5782 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
5783 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
5785 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
5787 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
5790 4. a string that's an in-memory XBM file. Neither width nor
5791 height may be specified in this case because these are defined
5794 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
5796 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
5797 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
5798 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
5799 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
5801 Additional image properties supported are:
5803 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
5805 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
5806 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
5809 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
5810 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
5812 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
5813 to display compressed images.
5815 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
5817 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
5818 mono images are supported. Additional image properties supported for
5823 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
5824 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground.
5828 BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
5829 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
5831 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
5833 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
5834 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. Additional image properties
5837 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
5839 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
5840 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
5843 **** GIF, image type `gif'
5845 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
5846 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
5848 Additional image properties supported are:
5852 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
5853 multi-image GIF file. An error is signaled if INDEX is too large.
5855 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
5856 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
5857 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
5860 (defun show-anim (file max)
5861 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
5862 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
5864 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
5867 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
5870 (goto-char (point-min))
5871 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
5872 (insert-image img "x"))
5873 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
5875 **** PNG, image type `png'
5877 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
5878 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
5881 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
5883 Additional image properties supported are:
5887 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
5888 integer. This is a required property.
5892 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
5893 must be a integer. This is an required property.
5897 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
5898 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
5899 files. This is an required property.
5901 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
5906 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
5907 which are supported in the current configuration.
5909 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
5910 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
5911 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
5912 manually. Images in the cache are compared with `equal', i.e. all
5913 images with `equal' specifications share the same image.
5915 *** Simplified image API, image.el
5917 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
5918 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
5919 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
5920 define an image based on available image types. The functions
5921 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
5926 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
5929 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
5930 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
5931 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
5932 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
5933 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
5934 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
5935 of the display margins.
5937 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
5938 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
5939 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
5940 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
5945 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
5946 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
5947 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
5948 that have a `help-echo' property.
5950 If the value of the `help-echo' property is a function, that function
5951 is called with three arguments WINDOW, OBJECT and POSITION. WINDOW is
5952 the window in which the help was found.
5954 If OBJECT is a buffer, POS is the position in the buffer where the
5955 `help-echo' text property was found.
5957 If OBJECT is an overlay, that overlay has a `help-echo' property, and
5958 POS is the position in the overlay's buffer under the mouse.
5960 If OBJECT is a string (an overlay string or a string displayed with
5961 the `display' property), POS is the position in that string under the
5964 If the value of the `help-echo' property is neither a function nor a
5965 string, it is evaluated to obtain a help string.
5967 For tool-bar and menu-bar items, their key definition is used to
5968 determine the help to display. If their definition contains a
5969 property `:help FORM', FORM is evaluated to determine the help string.
5970 For tool-bar items without a help form, the caption of the item is
5971 used as help string.
5973 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
5974 the help string differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window
5975 causes the help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
5977 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
5979 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
5980 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
5982 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
5983 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
5984 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
5985 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
5988 (global-set-key [A-down]
5991 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
5992 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
5993 (global-set-key [A-up]
5996 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
5997 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
5999 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
6001 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
6002 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
6003 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
6004 is called with one argument, POS.
6006 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
6007 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
6008 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
6009 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
6010 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
6012 ** Tool bar support.
6014 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
6015 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
6016 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
6017 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
6018 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
6019 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
6021 *** Tool bar item definitions
6023 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
6024 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
6025 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
6027 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
6028 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
6029 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
6030 property (see below).
6032 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
6033 binding are currently ignored.
6035 The following properties are recognized:
6039 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
6044 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
6048 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
6049 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
6050 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
6052 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
6054 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
6055 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
6059 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
6060 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
6061 meaning of each of the four elements:
6063 Index Use when item is
6064 ----------------------------------------
6065 0 enabled and selected
6066 1 enabled and deselected
6067 2 disabled and selected
6068 3 disabled and deselected
6070 If IMAGE is a single image specification, a Laplace edge-detection
6071 algorithm is used on that image to draw the image in disabled state.
6073 `:help HELP-STRING'.
6075 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
6076 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
6078 The function `toolbar-add-item' is a convenience function for adding
6079 toolbar items generally, and `tool-bar-add-item-from-menu' can be used
6080 to define a toolbar item with a binding copied from an item on the
6083 The default bindings use a menu-item :filter to derive the tool-bar
6084 dynamically from variable `tool-bar-map' which may be set
6085 buffer-locally to override the global map.
6087 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
6089 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
6090 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
6091 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
6093 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
6094 raised when the mouse moves over them.
6096 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
6097 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
6098 pixels, or a pair of integers (X . Y) specifying horizontal and
6099 vertical margins . Default is 1.
6101 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
6102 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
6104 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
6106 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
6109 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
6110 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
6111 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
6113 is the original tool bar item definition, then
6115 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
6117 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
6120 ** Mode line changes.
6122 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
6124 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
6125 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
6126 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
6128 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
6129 a `local-map' text property.
6131 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
6132 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
6134 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
6135 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
6136 `local-map' property.
6138 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
6139 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
6142 *** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
6143 evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
6145 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
6146 variable mode-line-format to nil.
6148 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
6150 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
6151 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
6152 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
6153 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
6156 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
6159 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
6160 position in the header-line.
6162 ** Text property `display'
6164 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text,
6165 replace text with other text, display text in marginal area, and it is
6166 also used to control other aspects of how text displays. The value of
6167 the `display' property should be a display specification, as described
6168 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
6170 *** Replacing text, displaying text in marginal areas
6172 To replace the text having the `display' property with some other
6173 text, use a display specification of the form `(LOCATION STRING)'.
6175 If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)', STRING is displayed in the left
6176 marginal area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in
6177 the right marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' STRING
6178 is displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
6179 simpler form STRING as property value.
6181 *** Variable width and height spaces
6183 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
6184 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
6185 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
6186 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
6187 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
6188 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
6189 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
6191 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
6192 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
6193 properties described below.
6195 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
6196 characters having the `display' property.
6200 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
6201 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
6203 - :relative-width FACTOR
6205 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
6206 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
6207 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
6208 width of that character by FACTOR.
6212 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
6213 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
6215 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
6219 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
6222 - :relative-height FACTOR
6224 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
6225 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
6229 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
6230 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
6231 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
6234 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
6238 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
6239 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
6240 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
6241 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
6242 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
6243 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
6244 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
6245 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
6246 as display specification.
6248 *** Other display properties
6250 - (space-width FACTOR)
6252 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
6253 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
6258 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
6260 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
6261 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
6262 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
6263 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
6264 a font is available counts as a step.
6266 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
6267 as tall as the frame's default font.
6269 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
6270 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
6272 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
6273 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
6277 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
6278 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
6279 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
6280 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
6281 `height' subproperty.
6283 *** Conditional display properties
6285 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
6286 has the form `(when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC applies
6287 only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated. During the
6288 evaluation, `object' is bound to the string or buffer having the
6289 conditional display property; `position' and `buffer-position' are
6290 bound to the position within `object' and the buffer position where
6291 the display property was found, respectively. Both positions can be
6292 different when object is a string.
6294 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
6297 ** New menu separator types.
6299 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
6300 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
6301 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
6302 to specify other menu separator types.
6304 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
6306 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
6309 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
6311 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
6313 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
6315 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
6317 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
6319 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
6321 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
6323 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
6325 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
6327 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the form
6328 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
6330 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
6332 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
6334 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
6336 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
6338 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
6340 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
6342 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
6344 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
6346 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
6348 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
6350 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
6352 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
6354 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
6356 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
6358 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
6359 the corresponding single-line separators.
6361 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
6363 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
6364 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
6365 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
6366 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
6367 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
6368 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
6369 default foreground is black.
6371 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
6372 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
6373 `ScrollBarBackground').
6375 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
6376 settings for scroll bar colors.
6378 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
6379 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
6381 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
6382 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
6383 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
6384 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
6385 the original window start.
6387 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
6388 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
6389 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
6391 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
6393 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
6394 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
6395 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
6396 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
6398 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
6399 fixed-width and fixed-height.
6401 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
6403 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
6404 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
6405 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
6406 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
6407 temporarily to nil, for example
6409 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
6410 (enlarge-window 10))
6412 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
6413 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
6415 ** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
6416 terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
6417 to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
6418 overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
6419 horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
6420 support a vertical-bar cursor).
6424 * Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes
6426 ** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard
6429 ** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos.
6431 ** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages.
6433 ** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not
6434 only for character input, but also in incremental search. The
6435 exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets
6436 (e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence
6437 (e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search.
6439 ** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has
6443 * Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change
6445 ** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added.
6449 * Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
6451 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
6452 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
6454 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
6456 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
6458 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
6459 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
6460 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
6462 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
6463 is the one that is used.
6465 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
6466 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
6467 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
6468 separate from the command's regular output.
6469 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
6470 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
6471 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
6474 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
6475 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
6476 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
6477 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
6479 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
6480 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
6481 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
6482 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
6484 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
6485 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
6486 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
6487 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
6489 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
6490 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
6491 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
6492 they never ignore case.
6494 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
6495 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
6496 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
6497 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
6498 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
6499 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
6500 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
6502 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
6503 the same format that was used in the file before.
6505 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
6506 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
6508 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
6509 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
6510 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
6512 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
6513 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
6514 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
6515 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
6516 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
6517 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
6518 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
6520 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
6521 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
6522 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
6523 format. You can now customize these variables.
6525 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
6526 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
6527 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
6528 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
6530 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
6531 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
6532 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
6534 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
6535 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
6536 doesn't have any effect.
6538 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
6541 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
6542 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
6543 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
6545 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
6546 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
6547 `auto-show-mode' command.
6549 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
6550 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
6551 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
6552 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
6553 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
6555 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
6556 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
6558 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
6559 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
6560 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
6562 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
6563 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
6564 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
6565 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
6567 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
6569 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
6570 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
6571 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
6572 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
6573 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
6575 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
6576 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
6578 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
6579 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
6580 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
6581 `?' on other systems.
6583 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
6584 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
6587 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
6588 current codepage when it starts.
6592 *** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
6593 `mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
6594 appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
6595 non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
6596 MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
6597 headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
6601 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
6602 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
6604 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
6605 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
6606 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
6607 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
6608 buffer-file-coding-system.
6610 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
6611 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
6614 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
6615 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
6616 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
6617 list of possible coding systems.
6621 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
6622 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
6623 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
6624 docstring for details.
6626 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
6627 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
6628 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
6629 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
6630 lineup functions use this feature currently.
6632 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
6633 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
6635 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
6636 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
6638 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
6639 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
6640 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
6641 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
6644 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
6645 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
6647 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
6648 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
6649 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
6650 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
6652 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
6653 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
6654 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
6655 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
6656 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
6658 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
6660 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
6662 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
6663 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
6665 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
6667 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
6668 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
6669 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
6670 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
6671 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
6675 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
6676 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
6677 Gnus manual for the full story.
6679 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
6680 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
6681 group, which is created automatically.
6683 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
6686 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
6688 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
6689 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
6691 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
6694 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
6696 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
6697 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
6699 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
6701 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
6702 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
6704 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
6705 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
6707 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
6708 control over simplification.
6710 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
6712 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
6715 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
6717 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
6719 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
6720 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
6721 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
6723 *** Canceling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
6724 `a' forces normal posting method.
6726 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
6729 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
6732 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
6733 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
6735 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
6738 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
6740 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
6742 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
6743 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
6745 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
6746 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
6748 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
6750 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
6753 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
6754 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
6756 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
6757 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
6759 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
6761 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
6763 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
6765 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
6767 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
6768 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
6769 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
6771 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
6772 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
6773 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
6774 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
6775 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
6777 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
6778 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
6779 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
6780 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
6782 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
6783 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
6784 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
6787 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
6789 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
6790 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
6792 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
6793 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
6794 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
6795 removed from the label.
6797 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
6798 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
6800 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
6801 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
6803 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
6804 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
6807 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
6809 ** New/deleted modes and packages
6811 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
6812 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
6814 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
6815 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
6816 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
6818 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
6819 changes with a special face.
6821 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
6822 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
6823 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
6825 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
6827 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
6828 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
6829 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
6830 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
6831 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
6833 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
6834 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
6835 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
6837 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
6838 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
6839 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
6840 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
6841 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
6842 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
6843 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
6844 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
6845 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
6847 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
6848 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
6849 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
6850 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
6851 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
6854 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
6855 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
6856 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
6857 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
6858 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
6859 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
6861 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
6862 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
6863 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
6864 was not documented clearly before.
6866 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
6867 This includes Tetris and Snake.
6869 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
6871 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
6872 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
6873 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
6874 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
6876 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
6877 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
6878 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
6880 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
6882 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
6883 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
6885 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
6886 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
6889 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
6890 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
6891 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
6892 file names and attributes are returned.
6894 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
6895 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
6896 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its attributes.
6897 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
6900 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
6901 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
6903 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
6905 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
6906 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
6907 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
6910 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
6911 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
6914 The new function process-running-child-p
6915 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
6916 terminal to its own child process.
6918 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
6919 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
6920 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
6921 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
6923 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
6924 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
6926 ** easymenu.el now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
6927 :included is an alias for :visible.
6929 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
6930 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
6931 to move or copy menu entries.
6933 ** Multibyte editing changes
6935 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
6936 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
6937 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
6938 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
6939 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
6940 (setq char (sref str idx)
6941 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
6942 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
6944 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
6945 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
6946 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
6948 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
6949 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
6950 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
6952 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibited
6954 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
6955 across the boundary.
6957 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
6958 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
6959 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
6960 contains 8-bit characters.
6961 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
6962 contains invalid characters.
6964 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
6965 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
6966 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
6967 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
6970 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
6971 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
6972 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
6973 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
6975 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
6976 compose Thai characters in a string.
6978 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
6979 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
6980 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
6981 menus should always use the third argument.
6983 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
6984 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
6985 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
6986 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
6988 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
6989 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
6990 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
6991 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
6993 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
6994 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
6995 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
6998 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
7000 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
7001 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
7002 requested feature cannot be loaded.
7004 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
7005 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
7006 means to clear out that attribute.
7008 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
7009 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
7011 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
7012 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
7013 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
7014 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
7016 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
7017 the gap of the current buffer.
7019 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
7020 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
7023 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
7024 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
7025 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
7026 it back in after any modifications have been made.
7028 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
7030 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
7031 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
7032 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
7033 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
7034 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
7036 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
7037 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
7038 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
7039 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
7040 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
7042 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
7043 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
7044 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
7046 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
7047 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
7048 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
7049 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
7050 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
7053 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
7054 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
7055 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
7056 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
7058 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
7060 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
7061 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
7062 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
7063 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
7065 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
7066 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
7067 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
7068 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
7069 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
7070 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
7071 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
7074 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
7077 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
7078 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
7079 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
7080 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
7081 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
7083 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
7084 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
7085 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
7086 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
7088 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
7089 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
7090 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
7091 something that most users not do.
7093 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
7094 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
7095 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
7098 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
7101 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
7102 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
7103 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
7104 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
7107 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
7108 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
7109 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
7110 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
7111 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
7114 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
7115 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
7116 to be confused by TeX commands.
7118 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
7119 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
7120 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
7121 of various alternative replacements and actions.
7123 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
7124 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
7125 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
7126 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
7127 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
7129 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
7130 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
7132 ** Changes in input method usage.
7134 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
7135 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
7138 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
7140 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
7141 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
7143 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
7144 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
7146 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
7148 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
7150 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
7151 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
7153 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
7154 given in the following case:
7155 o When you are using a complex input method.
7156 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
7158 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
7159 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
7160 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
7161 setting it to t is helpful.
7163 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
7165 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
7167 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
7168 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
7169 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
7170 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
7173 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
7174 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
7175 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
7178 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
7180 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
7182 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
7183 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
7185 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
7186 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
7187 its owner and group.
7189 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
7190 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
7192 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
7193 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
7195 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
7196 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
7197 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
7198 by the left edge of the rectangle.
7200 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
7201 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
7202 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
7203 for writing keyboard macros.
7205 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
7206 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
7207 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
7208 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
7209 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
7212 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
7214 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
7215 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
7218 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
7219 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
7220 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
7221 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
7223 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
7224 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
7225 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
7227 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
7228 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
7229 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
7230 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
7232 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
7233 failure if the command produces no output.
7235 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
7236 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
7239 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
7240 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
7241 function and variable names.
7243 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
7244 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
7245 file-coding-system-alist.
7247 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
7248 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
7249 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
7250 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
7251 according to the current fontset.
7253 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
7255 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
7256 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
7257 nonascii-insert-offset.
7259 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
7260 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
7261 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
7262 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
7264 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
7265 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
7267 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
7268 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
7270 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
7271 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
7274 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
7275 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
7277 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
7278 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
7279 all variables that have documentation.
7281 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
7282 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
7283 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
7284 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
7285 it should show; the default is 20.
7287 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
7288 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
7291 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
7292 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
7293 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
7294 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
7295 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
7296 Newly added options are included as well.
7298 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
7299 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
7300 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
7302 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
7305 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
7306 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
7308 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
7309 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
7312 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
7313 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
7316 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
7317 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
7318 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
7319 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
7322 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
7324 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
7325 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
7326 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
7328 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
7329 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
7330 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
7335 *** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
7336 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
7338 *** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
7339 and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
7341 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
7342 read and post multi-lingual articles.
7344 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
7345 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
7346 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
7347 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
7348 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
7349 made invisible again.
7351 ** Mail reading and sending changes
7353 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
7354 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
7355 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
7358 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
7359 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
7360 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
7361 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
7362 rmail-default-body-file.
7364 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
7365 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
7366 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
7368 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
7369 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
7370 is evaluated to insert the signature.
7372 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
7373 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
7374 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
7375 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
7376 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
7377 especially interested in trying feedmail.
7379 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
7380 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
7381 provided by feedmail are:
7383 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
7384 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
7385 there is also a queue for draft messages
7387 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
7388 be prompted for confirmation
7390 **** does smart filling of address headers
7392 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
7393 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
7394 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
7396 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
7397 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
7398 /usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
7399 function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
7403 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
7404 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
7406 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
7407 run Dired on the directory name at point.
7409 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
7410 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
7411 for a specified regexp.
7415 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
7418 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
7419 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
7422 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
7423 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
7424 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
7425 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
7427 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
7428 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
7429 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
7430 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
7431 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
7433 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
7434 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
7435 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
7436 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
7437 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
7439 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
7440 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
7441 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
7442 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
7444 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
7445 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
7446 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
7448 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
7449 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
7450 session to resolve them.
7452 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
7453 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
7454 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
7457 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
7458 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
7459 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
7460 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
7461 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
7462 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
7465 ** Changes in Font Lock
7467 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
7468 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
7469 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
7470 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
7471 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
7473 ** Frame name display changes
7475 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
7476 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
7477 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
7478 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
7480 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
7481 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
7484 ** Comint (subshell) changes
7486 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
7487 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
7488 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
7490 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
7492 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
7493 that is, the line after the last line you got.
7494 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
7496 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
7497 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
7500 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
7501 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
7502 previously sent input.
7504 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
7505 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
7506 as the search string.
7508 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
7509 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
7513 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
7514 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
7515 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
7518 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
7519 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
7520 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
7521 style is still the default however.
7523 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
7525 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
7526 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
7527 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
7529 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
7530 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
7532 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
7533 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
7535 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
7536 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
7538 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
7539 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
7541 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
7542 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
7543 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
7544 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
7546 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
7548 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
7549 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
7550 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
7552 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
7553 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
7554 expanding dynamically.
7556 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
7557 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
7559 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
7560 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
7561 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
7562 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
7564 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
7566 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
7568 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
7569 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
7570 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
7571 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
7572 against the first word in the title.
7574 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
7575 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
7576 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
7577 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
7578 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
7579 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
7581 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
7582 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
7583 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
7584 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
7586 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
7588 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
7589 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
7590 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
7591 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
7592 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
7593 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
7595 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
7596 Editing group once the package is loaded.
7598 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
7599 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
7600 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behavior.
7602 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
7603 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
7607 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
7608 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
7609 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
7611 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
7612 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
7613 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
7614 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
7617 o URLs are automatically skipped
7618 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
7620 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
7622 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
7624 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
7625 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
7626 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
7627 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
7629 *** New recursive parser.
7631 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
7632 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
7633 recursive parser scans the individual files.
7635 *** Parsing only part of a document.
7637 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
7638 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
7639 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
7641 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
7643 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
7645 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
7647 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
7649 *** Using multiple selection buffers
7651 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
7652 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
7654 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
7656 *** References to external documents.
7658 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
7659 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
7660 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
7661 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
7662 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
7663 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
7664 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
7666 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
7668 The built-in command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
7669 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
7671 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
7672 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
7674 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
7676 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
7677 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
7679 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
7681 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
7682 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
7683 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
7684 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
7685 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
7686 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
7689 *** Support for the varioref package
7691 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
7695 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
7696 and citations are created. These hooks are
7697 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
7698 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
7700 *** Citations outside LaTeX
7702 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
7703 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
7705 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
7707 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
7708 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
7711 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
7713 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
7714 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
7715 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
7716 directories that contain the same file name.
7718 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
7719 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
7720 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
7721 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
7722 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
7723 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
7724 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
7727 ** New modes and packages
7729 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
7730 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
7731 it, but some do not.
7733 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
7736 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
7737 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
7740 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
7742 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
7743 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
7744 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
7745 established system of notation similar to Chess.
7747 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
7748 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
7749 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
7751 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
7752 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
7753 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
7754 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
7755 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
7758 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
7759 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
7761 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
7762 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
7763 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
7764 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
7766 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
7768 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
7769 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
7770 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
7771 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
7772 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
7773 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
7774 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
7775 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
7776 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
7777 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
7778 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
7780 Platform-specific modes:
7782 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
7783 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
7784 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
7785 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
7786 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
7787 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
7788 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
7789 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
7790 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
7792 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
7794 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
7795 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
7796 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
7797 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
7799 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
7800 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
7801 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
7803 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
7804 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
7805 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
7806 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
7808 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
7809 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
7810 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
7813 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
7814 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
7815 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
7816 current input method for reading this one event.
7818 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
7819 now control whether to output certain characters as
7820 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
7821 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
7822 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
7823 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
7825 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
7827 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
7828 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
7830 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
7831 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
7832 always increases point by 1.
7834 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
7835 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
7837 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
7839 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
7840 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
7841 default value changed. For example,
7843 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
7848 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
7851 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
7852 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
7853 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
7854 `:version' in the top level group.
7856 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
7858 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
7859 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
7861 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
7862 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
7863 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
7866 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
7867 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
7870 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
7871 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
7872 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
7874 ** Frame-local variables.
7876 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
7877 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
7878 local bindings for that variable.
7880 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
7881 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
7882 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
7885 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
7886 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
7887 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
7888 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
7890 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
7891 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
7892 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
7893 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
7895 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
7896 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
7897 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
7898 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
7899 See the documentation in sregex.el.
7901 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
7902 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
7903 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
7904 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
7906 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
7907 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
7909 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
7910 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
7911 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
7913 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
7914 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
7915 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
7916 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
7918 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
7919 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
7922 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
7923 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
7924 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
7925 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
7926 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
7928 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
7929 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
7930 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
7931 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
7933 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
7934 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
7935 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
7936 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
7937 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
7939 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
7940 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
7941 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
7942 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
7944 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
7945 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
7946 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
7948 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
7949 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
7950 was directed to display this buffer.
7952 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
7953 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
7954 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
7955 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
7956 set-window-configuration.
7958 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
7959 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
7960 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
7961 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
7963 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
7964 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
7965 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
7967 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
7968 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
7969 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
7971 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
7972 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
7974 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
7975 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
7977 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
7978 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
7979 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
7981 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
7982 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
7983 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
7984 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
7988 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
7989 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
7992 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
7993 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
7994 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
7995 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
7996 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
7998 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
8000 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
8001 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
8002 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
8003 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
8006 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
8007 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
8008 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
8009 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
8010 The supported properties include
8012 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
8014 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
8015 item should appear in the menu.
8017 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
8018 which will be REAL-BINDING.
8019 It should return a binding to use instead.
8021 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
8022 binding for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
8023 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
8024 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
8025 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
8028 This means that the command normally has no
8029 keyboard equivalent.
8030 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
8031 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
8032 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
8033 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
8034 value says whether this button is currently selected.
8036 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
8037 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
8039 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
8043 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
8044 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
8045 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
8046 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
8048 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
8050 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
8051 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
8052 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
8053 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
8054 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
8055 forward, away from the user.
8057 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
8059 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
8060 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
8061 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
8062 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
8063 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
8065 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
8067 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
8068 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
8069 that were dragged and dropped.
8071 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
8073 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
8075 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
8076 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
8077 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
8079 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
8080 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
8081 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
8083 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
8084 in Emacs 19 and before.
8086 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
8087 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
8089 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
8090 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
8091 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
8092 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
8094 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
8095 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
8096 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
8097 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
8098 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
8100 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
8101 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
8102 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
8103 consistent with the new representation.
8105 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
8106 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
8107 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
8108 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
8110 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
8111 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
8112 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
8114 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
8115 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
8116 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
8118 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
8119 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
8120 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
8122 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
8123 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
8125 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
8126 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
8128 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
8129 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
8130 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
8131 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
8133 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
8134 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
8136 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
8137 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
8138 buffer or string being searched.
8140 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
8141 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
8142 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
8143 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
8144 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
8145 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
8146 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
8148 *** Structure of coding system changed.
8150 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
8151 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
8152 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
8153 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
8154 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
8155 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
8156 define-coding-system-alias.
8158 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
8159 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
8160 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
8161 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
8162 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
8163 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
8164 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
8167 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
8168 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
8169 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
8170 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
8172 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
8173 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
8174 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
8175 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
8177 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
8178 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
8179 This function requires a user interaction.
8181 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
8182 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
8183 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
8184 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
8185 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
8186 select-safe-coding-system.
8188 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
8189 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
8190 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
8193 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
8194 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
8195 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
8197 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
8198 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
8199 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
8200 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
8202 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
8203 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
8204 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
8207 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
8208 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
8210 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
8211 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
8212 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
8213 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
8214 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
8215 range of characters.
8217 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
8218 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
8220 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
8221 in the current buffer at position POS.
8223 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
8224 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
8225 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
8226 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
8227 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
8228 binding input-method-function to nil.
8230 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
8231 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
8232 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
8233 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
8234 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
8236 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
8237 subsequent events of a key sequence.
8239 *** You can customize any language environment by using
8240 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
8242 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
8243 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
8244 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
8245 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
8246 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
8248 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
8250 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
8251 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
8252 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
8255 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
8256 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
8258 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
8259 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
8260 in your .emacs file.)
8262 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
8263 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
8265 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
8266 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
8268 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
8269 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
8272 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
8273 delete the character before point, as usual.
8275 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
8276 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
8277 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
8279 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
8280 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
8281 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
8282 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
8283 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
8286 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
8287 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
8288 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
8289 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
8290 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
8292 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
8293 and is an alias for it.
8295 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
8296 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
8298 ** Scrolling changes
8300 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
8301 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
8303 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
8304 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
8307 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
8308 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
8309 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
8310 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
8312 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
8313 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
8314 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
8315 recenters the window.
8317 ** International character set support (MULE)
8319 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
8320 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
8321 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
8322 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
8323 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
8324 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
8326 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
8327 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
8328 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
8329 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
8330 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
8332 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
8333 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
8334 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
8335 language, to make it possible to type them.
8337 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
8338 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
8340 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
8341 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
8343 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
8345 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
8347 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
8348 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
8349 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
8350 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
8351 characters for their work until they want to change.
8355 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
8356 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
8357 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
8358 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
8359 support several input methods.
8361 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
8362 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
8365 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
8366 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
8367 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
8368 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
8369 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
8372 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
8373 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
8374 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
8375 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
8376 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
8378 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
8379 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
8380 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
8381 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
8383 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
8384 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
8385 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
8386 the first guess is wrong.
8388 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
8389 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
8391 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
8392 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
8393 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
8394 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
8396 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
8397 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
8398 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
8399 translate automatically to and from either one.
8401 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
8403 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
8404 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
8405 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
8408 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
8409 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
8410 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
8411 multibyte characters in that buffer.
8413 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
8414 character conversion as well.
8416 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
8418 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
8419 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
8420 requires using many fonts.
8422 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
8423 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
8425 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
8426 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
8427 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
8428 you would use a font.
8430 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
8431 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
8432 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
8434 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
8435 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
8438 *** Defining fontsets.
8440 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
8441 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
8442 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
8444 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
8445 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
8446 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
8447 standard fontset are created automatically.
8449 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
8450 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
8451 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
8452 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
8453 name is `fontset-startup'.
8455 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
8456 The resource value should have this form:
8457 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
8458 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
8459 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
8460 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
8461 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
8462 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
8463 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
8464 CHARSET-NAME should be the name of a character set, and FONT-NAME
8465 should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
8467 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
8468 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
8469 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
8471 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
8472 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
8474 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
8475 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
8476 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
8477 Here is the substitution rule:
8478 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
8479 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
8480 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
8481 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
8482 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
8484 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
8485 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
8486 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
8488 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
8489 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
8490 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
8491 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
8494 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
8495 defaults for a particular choice of language.
8497 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
8498 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
8499 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
8500 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
8501 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
8502 system for new files that you create.
8504 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
8505 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
8506 whole Emacs session.
8508 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
8509 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
8510 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
8512 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
8513 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
8514 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
8515 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
8516 coding systems that Emacs supports.
8518 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
8519 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
8520 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
8521 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
8522 is used for *the immediately following command*.
8524 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
8525 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
8527 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
8528 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
8530 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
8531 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
8533 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
8534 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
8535 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
8536 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
8539 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
8540 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
8541 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
8542 translated into that character code.
8544 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
8545 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
8547 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
8549 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
8550 the coding system for keyboard input.
8552 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
8553 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
8554 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
8556 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
8558 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
8559 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
8560 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
8561 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
8562 designed to work with terminals.
8564 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
8565 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
8566 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
8567 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
8568 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
8569 in the corresponding buffer.
8571 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
8573 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
8574 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
8575 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
8577 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
8578 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
8579 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
8582 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
8583 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
8585 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
8586 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
8587 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
8588 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
8590 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
8591 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
8592 related information.
8594 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
8595 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
8598 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
8599 information about the support for a particular language.
8600 You specify the language as an argument.
8602 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
8603 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
8606 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
8607 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
8608 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
8609 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
8611 A alternativnyj (Russian)
8613 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
8614 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
8615 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
8616 E euc-japan (Japanese)
8617 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
8618 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
8619 K euc-korea (Korean)
8622 S shift_jis (Japanese)
8625 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
8626 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
8627 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
8631 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
8632 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
8633 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
8634 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
8636 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
8637 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
8639 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
8640 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
8641 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
8642 Rmail files themselves.
8644 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
8645 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
8647 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
8650 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
8651 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
8652 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
8653 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
8654 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
8656 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
8657 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
8658 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
8661 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
8662 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
8663 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
8664 without any conversion.
8666 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
8667 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
8668 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
8669 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
8671 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
8672 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
8674 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
8675 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
8677 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
8678 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
8680 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
8681 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
8682 in the buffer before point.
8684 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
8685 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
8688 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
8689 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
8691 ** File locking works with NFS now.
8693 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
8694 in the same directory as FILENAME.
8696 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
8697 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
8698 can become a bottleneck.
8700 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
8701 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
8702 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
8703 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
8704 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
8705 so useful that the change is worth while.
8707 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
8708 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
8709 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
8710 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
8712 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
8713 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
8716 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
8717 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
8718 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
8720 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
8721 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
8722 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
8724 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
8725 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
8726 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
8728 ** Changes in View mode.
8730 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
8731 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
8733 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
8734 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
8736 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
8739 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
8740 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
8742 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
8743 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
8744 not just the selected window.
8746 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
8747 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
8748 turns View mode on or off.
8750 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
8751 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
8752 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
8754 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
8755 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
8757 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
8758 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
8759 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
8760 which version to compare with.
8762 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
8763 blocks if a match is inside the block.
8765 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
8766 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
8767 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
8768 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
8770 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
8771 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
8772 blocks, all of them or none.
8774 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
8775 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
8778 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
8779 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
8780 However, the mode will not be changed if
8781 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
8782 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
8783 not suitable for ordinary files, or
8784 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
8786 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
8788 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
8789 these commands do not change the major mode.
8791 ** M-x occur changes.
8793 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
8794 it performs a case-sensitive search.
8796 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
8797 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
8798 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
8800 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
8801 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
8802 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
8803 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
8804 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
8806 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
8807 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
8808 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
8809 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
8811 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
8812 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
8813 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
8815 ** Outline mode changes.
8817 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
8819 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
8821 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
8822 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
8823 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
8826 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
8827 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
8830 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
8831 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
8833 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
8835 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
8836 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
8837 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
8838 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
8840 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
8841 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
8842 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
8844 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
8845 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
8848 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
8849 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
8850 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
8851 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
8853 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
8854 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
8855 can be. The default value is 30.
8857 ** Changes in Mail mode.
8859 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
8860 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
8861 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
8862 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
8863 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
8866 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
8867 compose-mail-other-frame.
8869 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
8870 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
8871 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
8872 buffer that shows the original message.
8874 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
8875 with separator lines around the contents.
8877 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
8878 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
8879 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
8880 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
8882 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
8884 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
8885 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
8886 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
8887 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
8889 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
8890 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
8893 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
8894 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
8897 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
8898 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
8899 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
8900 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
8902 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
8903 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
8904 be taken to be magic.
8906 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
8907 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
8908 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
8910 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
8911 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
8913 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
8914 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
8916 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
8918 new key dired.el binding old key
8919 ------- ---------------- -------
8920 * c dired-change-marks c
8922 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
8923 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
8924 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
8926 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
8927 * ? dired-unmark-all-files C-M-?
8928 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
8929 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
8930 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
8931 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
8935 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
8936 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
8937 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
8938 each time you run it.
8940 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
8941 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
8943 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
8944 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
8945 means to move in the opposite direction.
8947 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
8948 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
8950 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
8951 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
8952 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
8953 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
8958 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
8960 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
8963 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
8964 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
8966 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
8969 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
8971 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
8973 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
8975 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
8976 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
8977 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
8979 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
8981 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
8983 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
8984 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
8986 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
8987 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
8988 used to pick articles.
8990 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
8991 another have been added.
8993 `M-x gnus-change-server'
8995 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
8996 generating lines in buffers.
8998 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
9001 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
9003 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
9005 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
9007 *** Scores can be decayed.
9009 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
9011 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
9012 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
9014 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
9017 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
9019 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
9020 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `C-M-d'.
9022 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
9024 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
9025 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
9027 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
9028 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
9030 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
9033 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
9034 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
9036 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
9038 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
9040 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
9042 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
9044 Use the `Y c' command.
9046 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
9048 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
9050 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
9052 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
9053 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
9055 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
9057 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
9059 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
9060 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
9062 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
9064 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
9065 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
9066 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
9067 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
9070 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
9071 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
9072 particular news group. This can be done by:
9074 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
9076 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
9077 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
9078 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
9079 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
9080 for reading and posting).
9082 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
9083 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
9084 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
9085 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
9088 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
9089 default. Here are some of these default settings:
9091 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
9092 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
9093 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
9094 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
9095 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
9097 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
9098 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
9102 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
9103 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
9104 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
9105 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
9106 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
9109 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
9110 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
9111 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
9112 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
9113 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
9114 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
9116 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
9117 of the current buffer.
9119 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
9120 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
9121 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
9123 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
9124 style that the Python developers like.
9126 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
9127 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
9128 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
9132 *** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
9133 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
9134 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
9136 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
9137 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
9140 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
9141 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
9143 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
9144 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
9145 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
9146 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
9148 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
9149 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
9151 ** Calendar changes.
9153 *** A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or
9154 subclasses of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow
9155 you do this for the year of the selected date, or the
9156 following/previous years.
9158 *** There is now support for the Baha'i calendar system. Use `pb' in
9159 the *Calendar* buffer to display the current Baha'i date. The Baha'i
9160 calendar, or "Badi calendar" is a system of 19 months with 19 days
9161 each, and 4 intercalary days (5 during a Gregorian leap year). The
9162 calendar begins May 23, 1844, with each of the months named after a
9163 supposed attribute of God.
9167 There are some new user variables and subgroups for customizing the page
9170 *** Headers & Footers (subgroup)
9172 Some printer systems print a header page and force the first page to
9173 be printed on the back of the header page when using duplex. If your
9174 printer system has this behavior, set variable
9175 `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' to t.
9177 If variable `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' is non-nil, it prints a
9178 blank page as the very first printed page. So, it behaves as if the
9179 very first character of buffer (or region) were a form feed ^L (\014).
9181 The variable `ps-spool-config' specifies who is responsible for
9182 setting duplex mode and page size. Valid values are:
9184 lpr-switches duplex and page size are configured by `ps-lpr-switches'.
9185 Don't forget to set `ps-lpr-switches' to select duplex
9186 printing for your printer.
9188 setpagedevice duplex and page size are configured by ps-print using the
9189 setpagedevice PostScript operator.
9191 nil duplex and page size are configured by ps-print *not* using
9192 the setpagedevice PostScript operator.
9194 The variable `ps-spool-tumble' specifies how the page images on
9195 opposite sides of a sheet are oriented with respect to each other. If
9196 `ps-spool-tumble' is nil, ps-print produces output suitable for
9197 bindings on the left or right. If `ps-spool-tumble' is non-nil,
9198 ps-print produces output suitable for bindings at the top or bottom.
9199 This variable takes effect only if `ps-spool-duplex' is non-nil.
9200 The default value is nil.
9202 The variable `ps-header-frame-alist' specifies a header frame
9203 properties alist. Valid frame properties are:
9205 fore-color Specify the foreground frame color.
9206 Value should be a float number between 0.0 (black
9207 color) and 1.0 (white color), or a string which is a
9208 color name, or a list of 3 float numbers which
9209 correspond to the Red Green Blue color scale, each
9210 float number between 0.0 (dark color) and 1.0 (bright
9211 color). The default is 0 ("black").
9213 back-color Specify the background frame color (similar to fore-color).
9214 The default is 0.9 ("gray90").
9216 shadow-color Specify the shadow color (similar to fore-color).
9217 The default is 0 ("black").
9219 border-color Specify the border color (similar to fore-color).
9220 The default is 0 ("black").
9222 border-width Specify the border width.
9225 Any other property is ignored.
9227 Don't change this alist directly; instead use Custom, or the
9228 `ps-value', `ps-get', `ps-put' and `ps-del' functions (see there for
9231 Ps-print can also print footers. The footer variables are:
9232 `ps-print-footer', `ps-footer-offset', `ps-print-footer-frame',
9233 `ps-footer-font-family', `ps-footer-font-size', `ps-footer-line-pad',
9234 `ps-footer-lines', `ps-left-footer', `ps-right-footer' and
9235 `ps-footer-frame-alist'. These variables are similar to those
9236 controlling headers.
9238 *** Color management (subgroup)
9240 If `ps-print-color-p' is non-nil, the buffer's text will be printed in
9243 *** Face Management (subgroup)
9245 If you need to print without worrying about face background colors,
9246 set the variable `ps-use-face-background' which specifies if face
9247 background should be used. Valid values are:
9249 t always use face background color.
9250 nil never use face background color.
9251 (face...) list of faces whose background color will be used.
9253 *** N-up printing (subgroup)
9255 The variable `ps-n-up-printing' specifies the number of pages per
9258 The variable `ps-n-up-margin' specifies the margin in points (pt)
9259 between the sheet border and the n-up printing.
9261 If variable `ps-n-up-border-p' is non-nil, a border is drawn around
9264 The variable `ps-n-up-filling' specifies how the page matrix is filled
9265 on each sheet of paper. Following are the valid values for
9266 `ps-n-up-filling' with a filling example using a 3x4 page matrix:
9268 `left-top' 1 2 3 4 `left-bottom' 9 10 11 12
9272 `right-top' 4 3 2 1 `right-bottom' 12 11 10 9
9276 `top-left' 1 4 7 10 `bottom-left' 3 6 9 12
9280 `top-right' 10 7 4 1 `bottom-right' 12 9 6 3
9284 Any other value is treated as `left-top'.
9286 *** Zebra stripes (subgroup)
9288 The variable `ps-zebra-color' controls the zebra stripes grayscale or
9291 The variable `ps-zebra-stripe-follow' specifies how zebra stripes
9292 continue on next page. Visually, valid values are (the character `+'
9293 to the right of each column indicates that a line is printed):
9295 `nil' `follow' `full' `full-follow'
9296 Current Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
9297 1 XXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXX + 1 XXXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
9298 2 XXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXX + 2 XXXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
9299 3 XXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXX + 3 XXXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
9303 7 XXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXX + 7 XXXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
9304 8 XXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXX + 8 XXXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
9305 9 XXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXX + 9 XXXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
9308 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
9309 Next Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
9310 12 XXXXX + 12 + 10 XXXXXX + 10 +
9311 13 XXXXX + 13 XXXXXXXX + 11 XXXXXX + 11 +
9312 14 XXXXX + 14 XXXXXXXX + 12 XXXXXX + 12 +
9313 15 + 15 XXXXXXXX + 13 + 13 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
9314 16 + 16 + 14 + 14 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
9315 17 + 17 + 15 + 15 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
9316 18 XXXXX + 18 + 16 XXXXXX + 16 +
9317 19 XXXXX + 19 XXXXXXXX + 17 XXXXXX + 17 +
9318 20 XXXXX + 20 XXXXXXXX + 18 XXXXXX + 18 +
9321 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
9323 Any other value is treated as `nil'.
9326 *** Printer management (subgroup)
9328 The variable `ps-printer-name-option' determines the option used by
9329 some utilities to indicate the printer name; it's used only when
9330 `ps-printer-name' is a non-empty string. If you're using the lpr
9331 utility to print, for example, `ps-printer-name-option' should be set
9334 The variable `ps-manual-feed' indicates if the printer requires manual
9335 paper feeding. If it's nil, automatic feeding takes place. If it's
9336 non-nil, manual feeding takes place.
9338 The variable `ps-end-with-control-d' specifies whether C-d (\x04)
9339 should be inserted at end of the generated PostScript. Non-nil means
9342 *** Page settings (subgroup)
9344 If variable `ps-warn-paper-type' is nil, it's *not* treated as an
9345 error if the PostScript printer doesn't have a paper with the size
9346 indicated by `ps-paper-type'; the default paper size will be used
9347 instead. If `ps-warn-paper-type' is non-nil, an error is signaled if
9348 the PostScript printer doesn't support a paper with the size indicated
9349 by `ps-paper-type'. This is used when `ps-spool-config' is set to
9352 The variable `ps-print-upside-down' determines the orientation for
9353 printing pages: nil means `normal' printing, non-nil means
9354 `upside-down' printing (that is, the page is rotated by 180 degrees).
9356 The variable `ps-selected-pages' specifies which pages to print. If
9357 it's nil, all pages are printed. If it's a list, list elements may be
9358 integers specifying a single page to print, or cons cells (FROM . TO)
9359 specifying to print from page FROM to TO. Invalid list elements, that
9360 is integers smaller than one, or elements whose FROM is greater than
9361 its TO, are ignored.
9363 The variable `ps-even-or-odd-pages' specifies how to print even/odd
9364 pages. Valid values are:
9366 nil print all pages.
9368 `even-page' print only even pages.
9370 `odd-page' print only odd pages.
9372 `even-sheet' print only even sheets.
9373 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
9374 `even-page', but for values greater than 1, it'll
9375 print only the even sheet of paper.
9377 `odd-sheet' print only odd sheets.
9378 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
9379 `odd-page'; but for values greater than 1, it'll print
9380 only the odd sheet of paper.
9382 Any other value is treated as nil.
9384 If you set `ps-selected-pages' (see there for documentation), pages
9385 are filtered by `ps-selected-pages', and then by
9386 `ps-even-or-odd-pages'. For example, if we have:
9388 (setq ps-selected-pages '(1 4 (6 . 10) (12 . 16) 20))
9390 and we combine this with `ps-even-or-odd-pages' and
9391 `ps-n-up-printing', we get:
9393 `ps-n-up-printing' = 1:
9394 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
9395 nil 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20
9396 even-page 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
9397 odd-page 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
9398 even-sheet 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
9399 odd-sheet 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
9401 `ps-n-up-printing' = 2:
9402 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
9403 nil 1/4, 6/7, 8/9, 10/12, 13/14, 15/16, 20
9404 even-page 4/6, 8/10, 12/14, 16/20
9405 odd-page 1/7, 9/13, 15
9406 even-sheet 6/7, 10/12, 15/16
9407 odd-sheet 1/4, 8/9, 13/14, 20
9409 *** Miscellany (subgroup)
9411 The variable `ps-error-handler-message' specifies where error handler
9412 messages should be sent.
9414 It is also possible to add a user-defined PostScript prologue code in
9415 front of all generated prologue code by setting the variable
9416 `ps-user-defined-prologue'.
9418 The variable `ps-line-number-font' specifies the font for line numbers.
9420 The variable `ps-line-number-font-size' specifies the font size in
9421 points for line numbers.
9423 The variable `ps-line-number-color' specifies the color for line
9424 numbers. See `ps-zebra-color' for documentation.
9426 The variable `ps-line-number-step' specifies the interval in which
9427 line numbers are printed. For example, if `ps-line-number-step' is set
9428 to 2, the printing will look like:
9440 integer an integer specifying the interval in which line numbers are
9441 printed. If it's smaller than or equal to zero, 1
9444 `zebra' specifies that only the line number of the first line in a
9445 zebra stripe is to be printed.
9447 Any other value is treated as `zebra'.
9449 The variable `ps-line-number-start' specifies the starting point in
9450 the interval given by `ps-line-number-step'. For example, if
9451 `ps-line-number-step' is set to 3, and `ps-line-number-start' is set to
9452 3, the output will look like:
9466 The variable `ps-postscript-code-directory' specifies the directory
9467 where the PostScript prologue file used by ps-print is found.
9469 The variable `ps-line-spacing' determines the line spacing in points,
9470 for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
9473 The variable `ps-paragraph-spacing' determines the paragraph spacing,
9474 in points, for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
9477 The variable `ps-paragraph-regexp' specifies the paragraph delimiter.
9479 The variable `ps-begin-cut-regexp' and `ps-end-cut-regexp' specify the
9480 start and end of a region to cut out when printing.
9482 ** hideshow changes.
9484 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
9487 *** Support for java-mode added.
9489 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
9490 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
9492 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the comments at
9493 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
9494 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
9496 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
9497 robust and a lot faster.
9499 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
9501 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
9502 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
9503 documentation for more details.
9505 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
9507 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
9508 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
9509 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
9510 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
9511 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
9513 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
9514 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
9515 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
9516 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
9522 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
9523 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
9524 faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
9525 group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
9526 your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
9527 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
9529 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
9531 *** Maximum decoration
9533 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
9534 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
9535 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
9536 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
9537 to get the old behavior.
9541 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
9543 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
9544 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
9546 *** Configurable support
9548 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
9549 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
9550 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
9551 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
9552 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
9553 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
9554 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
9556 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
9557 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
9558 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
9560 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
9562 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
9563 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
9566 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
9568 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
9574 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
9575 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
9576 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
9577 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
9579 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
9581 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
9582 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
9583 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
9585 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
9587 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
9588 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
9589 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
9590 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
9591 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
9592 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
9593 Lock mode behaviour and the behaviour of Font Lock mode.
9595 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
9596 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
9597 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
9598 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
9599 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
9600 the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
9602 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
9604 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
9605 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
9606 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
9607 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
9609 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
9612 ** Ada mode changes.
9614 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
9615 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
9616 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
9617 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
9620 *** There are two new commands:
9621 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
9622 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
9624 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
9625 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
9626 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
9628 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
9629 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
9630 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
9632 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
9633 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
9634 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
9635 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
9637 ** Scheme mode changes.
9639 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
9640 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
9641 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
9642 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
9645 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
9646 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
9647 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
9648 variables as buffer-local variables.
9650 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
9653 ** Changes to the emacsclient program
9655 *** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
9656 USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
9657 associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
9658 can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
9660 *** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
9661 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
9664 *** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
9665 use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
9666 ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
9667 option takes precedence.
9669 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
9670 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
9671 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
9673 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
9674 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
9677 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
9678 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
9680 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
9681 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
9684 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
9685 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
9686 these register values no longer become completely useless.
9687 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
9688 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
9689 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
9691 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
9692 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
9693 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
9694 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
9696 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
9697 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
9698 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
9699 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
9700 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
9702 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
9703 since it applies only to the current frame.
9705 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
9706 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
9707 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
9709 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
9710 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
9711 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
9712 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
9713 instead of just the file you are editing.
9717 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
9718 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
9719 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
9720 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
9721 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
9724 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
9725 knows which kind of label is needed.
9727 C-c ) reftex-reference
9728 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
9729 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
9731 C-c [ reftex-citation
9732 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
9733 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
9735 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
9736 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
9739 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
9740 can quickly jump to every section.
9742 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
9743 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
9744 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
9745 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
9746 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
9748 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
9750 *** Info documentation is now available.
9752 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
9753 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
9755 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
9756 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
9758 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
9759 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
9761 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
9762 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
9763 appropriate functions.
9765 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
9766 entries. They are bound by default to C-M-l and C-M-h.
9768 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
9771 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
9772 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
9774 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
9777 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
9778 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
9779 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
9781 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
9782 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
9783 prefixed with `ALT'.
9785 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
9786 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
9787 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
9790 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
9791 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
9792 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
9794 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
9795 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
9797 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
9798 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
9799 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
9801 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
9803 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
9805 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
9808 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
9809 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
9812 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
9815 *** Added support for imenu.
9817 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
9818 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
9819 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
9820 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
9822 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
9823 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
9825 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
9827 ** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
9829 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
9830 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
9831 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
9834 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
9835 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
9837 ** browse-url changes
9839 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
9840 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
9841 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
9842 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
9843 customization variables.
9845 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
9847 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
9848 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
9849 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
9853 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
9854 pops up the Info file for this command.
9856 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
9857 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
9858 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
9861 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
9862 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
9863 files in the same directory.
9865 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
9866 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
9867 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
9871 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
9872 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
9874 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
9875 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
9876 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
9877 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
9878 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
9879 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
9880 color when Viper is in insert state.
9881 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
9882 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
9883 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
9887 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
9888 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
9889 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
9890 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
9891 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
9893 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
9895 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
9896 constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
9898 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
9899 recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
9900 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
9902 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
9903 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
9904 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
9905 methods and protocols.
9907 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
9908 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
9909 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
9912 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
9913 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
9914 at least M times and as many as N times.
9916 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
9917 in files has changed slightly.
9919 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
9920 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
9921 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
9922 with old time-stamp-format values.
9924 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
9925 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
9926 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
9929 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
9930 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
9931 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
9932 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
9933 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
9934 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
9936 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
9937 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
9938 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
9940 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
9941 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
9942 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
9943 recommended now will continue to work then.
9945 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
9948 ** There are some additional major modes:
9950 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
9951 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
9952 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
9954 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
9955 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
9958 ** New Lisp packages include:
9960 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
9962 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
9963 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
9965 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
9967 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
9970 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
9971 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
9974 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
9975 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
9976 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
9977 strings or comments.
9979 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
9980 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
9981 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
9982 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
9985 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
9986 can visit them by short forms of their names.
9988 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
9989 Emacs Lisp function at point.
9991 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
9993 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
9994 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
9996 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
9998 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
10000 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
10002 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
10003 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
10005 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
10006 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
10007 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
10008 original place after inserting the copy.
10010 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
10013 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
10014 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
10015 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
10017 Enable mouse-drag with:
10018 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
10020 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
10022 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
10023 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
10025 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
10026 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
10030 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
10031 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
10032 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
10033 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
10034 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
10035 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
10036 instance) and vice versa.
10038 To use this package load it using
10039 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
10040 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
10041 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
10042 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
10043 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
10044 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
10046 *** Interface to ph.
10048 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
10050 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
10051 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
10054 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
10056 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
10057 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
10058 while the real cursor does not move.
10060 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
10061 for visiting your favorite web sites.
10063 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
10064 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
10068 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
10069 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
10070 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
10071 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
10073 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
10075 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
10077 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
10079 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
10080 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
10081 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
10082 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
10083 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
10085 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
10086 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
10087 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
10088 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
10089 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
10090 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
10092 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
10094 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
10095 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
10096 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
10097 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
10099 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
10100 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
10102 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
10103 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
10106 ** Basic Lisp changes
10108 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
10109 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
10111 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
10112 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
10115 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
10117 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
10119 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
10120 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
10122 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
10123 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
10126 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
10128 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
10130 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
10132 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
10133 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
10134 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
10137 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
10138 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
10139 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
10141 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
10142 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
10143 adding one of these suffixes.
10145 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
10146 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
10147 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
10149 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
10150 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
10152 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
10154 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
10155 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
10157 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
10158 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
10160 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
10162 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
10163 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
10165 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
10166 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
10167 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
10168 works using `save-current-buffer'.
10170 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
10171 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
10174 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
10175 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
10176 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
10179 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
10180 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
10183 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
10185 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
10186 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
10187 Then it returns that string.
10189 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
10191 (with-output-to-string
10192 (princ "The buffer is ")
10193 (princ (buffer-name)))
10195 returns "The buffer is foo".
10197 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
10200 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
10201 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
10202 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
10204 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
10205 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
10207 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
10208 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
10209 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
10210 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
10211 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
10212 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
10214 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
10215 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
10216 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
10219 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
10220 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
10221 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
10222 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
10223 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
10225 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
10226 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
10227 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
10228 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
10230 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
10231 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
10233 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
10235 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
10236 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
10237 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
10238 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
10241 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
10242 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
10245 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
10247 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
10248 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
10249 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
10250 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
10251 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
10253 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
10255 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
10256 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
10257 more than the number of characters.
10259 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
10260 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
10261 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
10262 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
10263 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
10264 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
10266 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
10267 and returns a string containing those characters.
10269 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
10270 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
10271 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
10272 character, sref signals an error.
10274 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
10275 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
10276 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
10278 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
10279 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
10280 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
10282 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
10283 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
10284 to a vector of the characters in it.
10286 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
10287 of a string. You call it as follows:
10289 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
10291 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
10292 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
10293 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
10294 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
10295 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
10297 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
10298 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
10300 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
10301 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
10303 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
10304 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
10305 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
10306 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
10308 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
10310 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
10312 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
10313 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
10314 are not included in the resulting value.
10316 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
10317 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
10318 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
10319 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
10321 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
10322 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
10323 character extends across that column), then the padding character
10324 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
10325 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
10326 column START-COLUMN.
10328 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
10329 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
10330 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
10331 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
10332 changed text, before the change.
10334 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
10335 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
10336 one character set for each script, not for each language.
10338 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
10340 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
10342 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
10343 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
10345 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
10346 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
10347 which identify the character within that character set.
10349 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
10350 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
10351 opposite of split-char.
10353 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
10354 of all the characters between BEG and END.
10356 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
10357 of all the characters in a string.
10359 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
10360 and specifying coding systems.
10362 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
10363 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
10364 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
10365 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
10366 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
10367 as what to do about code conversion.)
10369 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
10370 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
10372 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
10373 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
10374 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
10376 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
10377 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
10378 to match against a file name.
10380 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
10381 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
10382 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
10383 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
10384 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
10385 specifies the coding system for encoding.
10387 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
10388 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
10390 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
10391 the coding system to use for network sockets.
10393 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
10394 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
10395 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
10398 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
10399 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
10400 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
10401 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
10402 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
10403 specifies the coding system for encoding.
10405 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
10406 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
10408 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
10409 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
10410 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
10411 start the subprocess.
10413 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
10414 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
10415 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
10416 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
10417 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
10419 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
10420 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
10423 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
10424 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
10425 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
10426 connection permanently or until overridden.
10428 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
10429 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
10430 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
10431 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
10432 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
10433 system for one operation at a time.
10435 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
10436 files, subprocesses or network connections.
10438 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
10439 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
10440 The value is a cons cell,
10441 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
10442 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
10443 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
10444 input to the subprocess.
10446 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
10447 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
10449 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
10450 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
10451 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
10453 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
10454 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
10455 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
10456 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
10459 Thus, instead of writing
10461 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
10462 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
10464 you would now write this:
10466 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
10467 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
10471 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
10472 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
10473 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
10474 for a description of them.
10476 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
10477 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
10479 (defgroup ispell nil
10480 "Spell checking using Ispell."
10483 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
10484 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
10485 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
10486 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
10487 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
10489 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
10490 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
10491 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
10492 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
10493 first-level subgroups.
10495 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
10497 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
10498 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
10502 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
10503 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
10504 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
10505 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
10506 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
10507 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
10509 ** Text property changes
10511 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
10514 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
10515 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
10516 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
10517 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
10518 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
10520 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
10521 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
10522 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
10523 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
10525 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
10526 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
10527 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
10529 ** Changes in invisibility features
10531 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
10532 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
10533 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
10534 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
10535 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
10536 make the overlay visible.
10538 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
10539 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
10540 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
10541 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
10542 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
10543 t when it should hide it.
10545 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
10547 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
10548 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
10549 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
10550 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
10551 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
10552 Here is an example of how to do this:
10554 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
10555 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
10556 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
10557 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
10560 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
10563 ;; When done with the overlays:
10564 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
10565 ;; Or respectively:
10566 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
10568 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
10570 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
10571 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
10572 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
10573 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
10575 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
10576 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
10577 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
10579 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
10580 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
10582 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
10583 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
10585 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
10586 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
10587 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
10589 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
10590 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
10591 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
10592 determine the syntax type of the character.
10594 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
10595 of the current buffer.
10597 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
10598 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
10599 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
10601 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
10602 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
10603 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
10604 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
10605 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
10607 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
10610 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
10611 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
10612 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
10614 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
10615 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
10616 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
10617 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
10618 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
10620 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
10621 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
10622 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
10624 ** Changes in face features
10626 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
10627 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
10629 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
10630 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
10632 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
10633 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
10635 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
10636 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
10638 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
10639 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
10640 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
10641 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
10644 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
10645 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
10647 ** Changes in file-handling functions
10649 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
10650 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
10651 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
10652 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
10654 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
10657 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
10658 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
10660 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
10661 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
10663 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
10664 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
10666 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
10667 character code conversion as well as other things.
10669 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
10670 (formerly it did not).
10672 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
10673 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
10675 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
10676 instead of constant strings.
10678 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
10679 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
10680 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
10682 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
10683 in the same way as before.
10685 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
10686 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
10687 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
10689 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
10690 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
10691 else, and returns nil.
10693 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
10694 directory cannot be listed.
10696 ** Changes in minibuffer input
10698 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
10699 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
10700 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
10701 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
10704 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
10705 It is available through the history command M-n.
10707 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
10708 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
10709 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
10710 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
10711 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
10713 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
10714 argument in this way.
10716 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
10717 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
10718 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
10720 ** Echo area features
10722 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
10723 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
10724 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
10725 after the echo area is cleared.
10727 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
10728 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
10730 ** Keyboard input features
10732 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
10733 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
10735 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
10736 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
10737 by keyboard macros.
10739 ** Frame-related changes
10741 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
10742 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
10743 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
10745 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
10746 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
10747 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
10749 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
10750 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
10751 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
10752 in the selected frame.
10754 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
10755 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
10756 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
10758 ** X Windows features
10760 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
10761 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
10762 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
10764 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
10765 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
10767 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
10768 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
10769 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
10771 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
10772 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
10774 ** Subprocess features
10776 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
10777 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
10780 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
10781 and returns the output from the command as a string.
10783 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
10784 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
10786 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
10787 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
10789 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
10790 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
10791 goes after the other menu items.
10793 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
10794 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
10795 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
10798 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
10799 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
10801 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
10802 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
10805 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
10806 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
10807 but its hook is still run.
10809 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
10810 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
10812 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
10813 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
10814 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
10816 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
10817 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
10818 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
10821 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
10822 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
10824 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
10825 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
10826 functions like display-time.
10828 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
10829 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
10831 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
10832 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
10833 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
10835 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
10836 if there is an error in compilation.
10838 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
10839 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
10840 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
10841 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
10843 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
10844 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
10845 the *scratch* buffer.
10847 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
10848 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
10849 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
10850 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
10852 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
10853 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
10854 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
10856 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
10857 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
10858 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
10859 and compose-mail-other-frame.
10861 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
10862 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
10863 full name of the specified user will be returned.
10865 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
10866 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
10867 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
10868 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
10869 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
10872 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
10873 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
10874 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
10875 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
10877 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
10878 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
10879 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
10880 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
10882 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
10884 ** imenu.el changes.
10886 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
10887 item from menu created by imenu.
10889 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
10890 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
10891 select one of those items.
10893 * For older news, see the file ONEWS
10895 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
10896 Copyright information:
10898 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
10900 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
10901 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
10902 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
10903 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
10905 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
10906 of this document, or of portions of it,
10907 under the above conditions, provided also that they
10908 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
10912 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"