1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
3 Copyright (C) 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 23.
11 See files NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18, and NEWS.1-17
12 for changes in older Emacs versions.
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
18 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
19 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
20 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
21 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
24 * About external Lisp packages
27 * Installation Changes in Emacs 23.1
29 ** The default X toolkit is now Gtk+, rather than Lucid.
31 ** Fonts are handled by new code capable of dealing with multiple font
32 backends. This requires the freetype and fontconfig libraries, and
33 supports local fonts (fonts installed on the machine where Emacs is
34 running). Additionally, the Xft library can be used for antialiasing
35 support, the otf library for complex text layout by OpenType fonts,
36 and the m17n library for text shaping. Fontconfig-like font names
37 (e.g. monospace-12) are accepted. The old font handling code can
38 be used by passing the configure option `--disable-font-backend'
39 (also available as a run-time option).
41 ** The new configuration option "--with-dbus" enables D-Bus language
44 ** The Mac Carbon port is no longer supported.
45 Instead, use... [FIXME what?]
47 ** configure now checks for libgif before libungif when searching for
50 ** Support for systems without alloca has been removed.
52 ** Support for Sun windows has been removed.
54 ** Support for many obsolete platforms has been removed.
55 See the list at the end of etc/MACHINES for details.
57 ** The `emacstool' utility has been removed.
59 ** The configure options `--with-gcc', `--without-gcc' have been removed.
60 Configure will use gcc by default. Set the CC environment variable if
61 you need control over which C compiler is used.
63 ** The configure option `--with-gtk' has been removed. Gtk is now the
64 default toolkit, but you can use --with-x-toolkit=gtk if necessary.
66 * Changes in Emacs 23.1
68 ** `completion-auto-help' can be set to `lazy' to list the completions only
69 if you repeat the completion. This was already supported in
70 `partial-completion-mode'.
72 ** Emacs now supports using both X displays and ttys in one session.
73 Start the server (M-x server-start). Then `emacsclient -t' creates a
74 tty frame connected to the running emacs server. You can also use any
75 number of different ttys. `emacsclient -c' creates a new X11 frame on
76 the current $DISPLAY or a tty frame if $DISPLAY is not set.
78 You can test for the presence of this feature in your Lisp code by
79 testing for the `multi-tty' feature.
81 ** The Emacs character set is now a superset of Unicode.
82 (It has about four times the code space, which should be plenty).
84 The internal encoding used for buffers and strings is now
85 Unicode-based and called `utf-8-emacs'. utf-8-emacs is backwards
86 compatible with the UTF-8 encoding of Unicode. The `emacs-mule'
87 coding system can still read and write data in the old internal encoding.
89 Since the internal encoding is also used by default for byte-compiled
90 files -- i.e. the normal coding system for byte-compiled Lisp files is
91 now utf-8-Emacs -- Lisp containing non-ASCII characters which is
92 compiled by Emacs 23 can't be read by earlier versions of Emacs. Files
93 compiled by Emacs 20, 21, or 22 are loaded correctly as emacs-mule
94 (whether or not they contain multibyte characters), which makes loading
95 them somewhat slower than Emacs 23-compiled files. Thus it may be worth
96 recompiling existing .elc files which don't need to be shared with older
99 ** There are assorted new coding systems/aliases -- see M-x list-coding-systems.
101 ** There is a new charset implementation with many new charsets.
102 See M-x list-character-sets. New charsets can be defined conveniently
103 as tables of unicodes.
105 The dimension of a charset is now 1, 2, 3, or 4, and the size of each
106 dimension is no longer limited to 94 or 96.
108 A dynamic charset priority list is used to infer the charset of
109 characters for display.
111 ** There are new Chinese-GBK, Chinese-GB18030, Khmer, Bengali,
112 Punjabi, Gujarati, Oriya, Telugu, Sinhala, and TaiViet language
115 ** Emacs now supports the XEmbed specification.
116 You can embed Emacs in another application on X11. The new command line option
117 --parent-id is used to pass the parent window id to Emacs. See
118 http://standards.freedesktop.org/xembed-spec/xembed-spec-latest.html
119 for details about XEmbed.
121 ** Emacs comes with a new set of default icons.
122 Various resolutions are available as etc/images/icons/hicolor/*/apps/emacs.png.
123 The Emacs 22 icon is available as `emacs22.png' in the same location.
125 ** Built-in functions (subr) can now have an interactive specification
126 that is not a prompt string. If the `intspec' parameter of a `DEFUN'
127 starts with a `(', the string is evaluated as a Lisp form.
129 ** set-file-modes is now interactive and can take the mode value in
130 symbolic notation thanks to auxiliary functions.
132 ** split-window-preferred-function specifies whether display-buffer should
133 split windows vertically or horizontally.
135 ** Emacsclient has been extended to support opening a new terminal
136 frame. Its behavior has been changed to open a new Emacs frame by
137 default. Use the -c option to get the old behavior of opening files in
138 the currently selected Emacs frame.
140 ** The refcards are now shipped as PDF files.
142 ** Emacs now supports the SVG image format through librsvg2.
144 ** If you set find-file-confirm-nonexistent-file to t, then C-x C-f
145 requires confirmation before opening a non-existent file.
147 ** If the gpm mouse server is running and t-mouse-mode enabled, Emacs uses a
148 Unix socket in a GNU/Linux console to talk to server, rather than faking events
149 using the client program mev. This C level approach provides mouse
150 highlighting, and help echoing in the minibuffer.
152 ** Recentering changes
154 *** The new variable next-error-recenter specifies how next-error should
155 recenter the visited source file. Its value can be a number (for example,
156 0 for top line, -1 for bottom line), or nil for no recentering.
158 *** New command recenter-top-bottom moves the current line to window
159 center, top and bottom on successive invokations.
161 *** C-l is bound to the new command recenter-top-bottom, rather than recenter.
163 ** The mode-line displays a `@' if the default-directory for the current buffer
164 is on a remote machine, or a hyphen otherwise.
166 ** The mode-line displays a mode menu when mouse-1 is clicked on a minor mode,
167 in the same way as it already did for major modes.
169 ** The new command balance-windows-area balances windows both vertically
172 ** The new command close-display-connection can be used to close a connection
173 to a remote display, e.g. because the display is about to become unreachable.
175 ** The command shell prompts for the default directory, when it is
176 called with a prefix, and the default directory is a remote file name.
177 This is because some file name handlers (like ange-ftp) are not able to
178 run processes remotely.
180 ** The new command `display-time-world' starts an updating time display
181 using several time zones, in a buffer.
183 ** The new function `format-seconds' converts a number of seconds into a
184 readable string of days, hours, etc.
186 ** The new variables `before-init-time' and `after-init-time' record the
187 value of `current-time' before and after Emacs loads the init files.
189 ** The new function `emacs-uptime' returns the uptime of an Emacs instance.
191 ** The new function `emacs-init-time' returns the duration of the
192 Emacs initialization.
194 ** The minor modes unify-8859-on-encoding-mode, unify-8859-on-decoding-mode
198 * Startup Changes in Emacs 23.1
200 ** The option `inhibit-startup-screen' (with aliases to old names
201 `inhibit-splash-screen' and `inhibit-startup-message') doesn't inhibit
202 display of the initial message in the *scratch* buffer. If you don't
203 want to display the initial message in the *scratch* buffer at startup,
204 you can set the option `initial-scratch-message' to nil.
206 ** New user option `initial-buffer-choice' specifies what to display
207 after starting Emacs: startup screen, *scratch* buffer, visiting a
210 ** New alias `argv' for `command-line-args-left'
211 This is a convenience alias, so that one can write `(pop argv)'
212 inside of --eval command line arguments in order to access
215 ** The new command-line option `--disable-font-backend' disables the
216 new font backend code at runtime. This option is not available if
217 Emacs was compiled without font-backend support.
219 ** The abbrev file is no longer read at startup in batch mode.
221 * Incompatible Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
224 ** In Dired-x, all command guesses for ! are now added to the default
225 list accessible by M-n instead of pushing all guesses temporarily into
229 * Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
234 *** Transient Mark mode is now on by default.
237 *** mark-even-if-inactive now defaults to t
240 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, C-SPC C-SPC pushes a mark without activating it.
243 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-q now fills the region if the
244 region is active. Otherwise, it fills the current paragraph.
247 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-$ now checks spelling of the
248 region if the region is active. Otherwise, it checks spelling of the
251 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, TAB now indents the region if the
254 *** `use-empty-active-region' controls whether an empty active region
255 in Transient Mark mode should make commands operate on that empty
258 ** Temporarily active regions
260 *** The new variable shift-select-mode, non-nil by default, controls
261 shift-selection. When Shift Select mode is on, shift-translated
262 motion keys (e.g. S-left and S-down) activate and extend a temporary
263 region, similar to mouse-selection.
265 *** Temporarily active regions, created using shift-selection or
266 mouse-selection, are not necessarily deactivated in the next command.
267 They are only deactivated after point motion commands that are not
268 shift-translated, or after commands that would ordinarily deactivate
269 the mark in Transient Mark mode (e.g., any command that modifies the
273 ** C-M-% now shows replacement as it would look in the buffer, with
274 `\N' and `\&' substituted according to the match. Old behavior can be
275 restored by customizing `query-replace-show-replacement'.
277 ** C-z now invokes `suspend-frame', C-x C-c now invokes
278 `save-buffers-kill-terminal'.
280 ** New command kill-matching-buffers kills buffers whose name matches a regexp.
282 ** You can disable kill ring commands from accessing the primary selection
283 by setting `x-select-enable-primary' to nil.
285 ** If `select-active-regions' is t, setting the mark automatically
286 makes the new region into the primary selection (for interaction with
287 other window applications). If you enable this, you might want to bind
288 `mouse-yank-primary' to Mouse-2.
290 ** If `yank-pop-change-selection' is t, rotating the kill ring
291 also updates the selection or clipboard to the current yank,
292 just as M-w would do so with the text it copies to the kill ring.
294 ** Minibuffer changes
296 *** Minibuffer input of shell commands now comes with completion.
298 *** Operations like C-x b and C-x C-f which use switch-to-buffer do not fail
299 any more when used in a minibuffer or a dedicated window. Instead, they
300 fallback on using pop-to-buffer which will use some other window.
302 *** When M-n in the minibuffer reaches the end of the list of defaults,
303 it adds the completion list to the end, so next M-n continues putting
304 completion items to the minibuffer. The same principle applies to
305 incremental search commands as well: C-s or C-M-s starts searching
306 the default values and after the end of defaults they continue
307 searching minibuffer completion items.
309 *** In C-x d, if you type M-n you get the visited file name of the
312 *** A list of default commands extracted from mailcap according to
313 file extensions are available in the list of default values
314 accessible by M-n in the minibuffer that reads a shell command
315 for M-! (shell-command) and fills a list of commands for the current
316 file, and in Dired for ! (dired-do-shell-command) that fills a list of
317 commands for the intersection of file types of marked Dired files.
319 *** A list of regexp default values is available via M-n for `occur',
320 `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many'. This list includes the active
321 region in transient-mark-mode, the word under the cursor, the last isearch
322 regexp, the last isearch string and the last replacement regexp.
324 *** isearch started in the minibuffer searches in the minibuffer history.
325 Reverse isearch commands (C-r, C-M-r) search in previous minibuffer
326 history elements, and forward isearch commands (C-s, C-M-s) search in
327 next history elements. When the reverse search reaches the first history
328 element, it wraps to the last history element, and the forward search
329 wraps to the first history element. When the search is terminated, the
330 history element containing the search string becomes the current.
334 *** `mode-line-emphasis' is used to highlight certain mode-line information;
335 for example while waiting for a VC command to finish.
339 *** The new function `face-all-attributes' returns an alist describing
340 all the basic attributes of a given face.
343 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
345 ** FIXME add details of new packages imported from lisp/gnus.
346 [Maybe some information from doc/misc/gnus-coding.texi can be reused]
348 ** The package doc-view.el has been added. It supports viewing of PDF,
349 PostScript and DVI documents inside an Emacs buffer by converting the
350 document to a set of PNG images first. One can also search for a
351 regular expression in the document. The commentary of the file explains
354 ** The nXML package has been added. It is a new mode for editing XML
355 documents. nXML mode allows a schema to be associated with the XML
356 document being edited. nXML mode uses Relax NG as its schema
357 language. The schema is used to provide two key features:
359 *** Continuous validation. nXML validates as you type, highlighting
360 any invalid parts of your document.
362 *** Completion. nXML can assist you in entering an element name,
363 attribute name or data value by using information about what is
364 allowed by the schema in that context.
366 ** A new game called `bubbles' has been added. This is a version of
367 the "Same Game" with configurable difficulty level.
369 ** minibuffer-indicate-depth-mode shows the minibuffer depth in the prompt.
371 ** Remember Mode (remember.el) is now included with Emacs. It is a
372 mode for quickly jotting down things to remember. Included with
373 remember.el is a backend that can save notes to a Diary file. Please
374 consult the Remember Manual for usage details.
376 ** D-Bus language bindings for Elisp are provided by the package
377 dbus.el and by extensions to the C modules of Emacs. D-Bus is an
378 inter-process communication mechanism for applications residing on the
379 same host, based on messages. See the manual for further details.
381 ** zeroconf.el offers service discovery and service publishing
382 interfaces according to the zeroconf specification. It communicates
383 with Avahi, a zeroconf implementation, via D-Bus messages on systems
384 which have installed this software.
386 ** EasyPG is now part of the Emacs distribution. It is an all-in-one
387 GnuPG interface which includes GnuPG keyring browser, cryptographic
388 operations on regions and files, and automatic encryption of *.gpg
389 files. See the EasyPG Assistant User's Manual for further details.
391 ** json.el is now included with Emacs. It is a library for parsing
392 and generating JSON (JavaScript Object Notation). JSON is a
393 lightweight data-interchange format.
395 ** Auto Composition Mode is a minor mode that composes characters
396 automatically when they are displayed. It is globally on by default.
397 It uses `auto-composition-function' (default `auto-compose-chars').
399 ** The package linum.el is now included with Emacs. It it a new minor
400 mode to display line numbers for the current buffer.
402 ** proced.el has been added. It operates on processes like dired.
403 Proced makes an Emacs buffer containing a listing of the current processes
404 (using ps(1)). You can use the normal Emacs commands to move around in
405 this buffer, and special Proced commands to operate on the processes listed.
407 ** bug-reference.el provides clickable links to bug reports.
410 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
412 ** A new `whitespace' package has been installed, and the pre-existing one
413 renamed to `old-whitespace'.
414 [FIXME someone explain why this is good, if it is...]
416 ** In Change Log mode, the new function `change-log-find-file', bound to
417 C-c C-f, finds the file associated with the current log entry.
419 ** abbrev was rewritten in Elisp and extended with more flexibility.
420 *** New functions: abbrev-get, abbrev-put, abbrev-table-get, abbrev-table-put,
421 abbrev-table-p, abbrev-insert, abbrev-table-menu.
422 *** Special hook `abbrev-expand-functions' obsoletes `pre-abbrev-expand-hook'.
423 *** `make-abbrev-table', `define-abbrev', `define-abbrev-table' all take
424 extra arguments for arbitrary properties.
425 *** New variable `abbrev-minor-mode-table-alist'.
426 *** `local-abbrev-table' can hold a list of abbrev-tables.
427 *** Abbrevs have now the following special properties:
428 `:count', `:system', `:enable-function', `:case-fixed'.
429 *** Abbrev-tables have now the following special properties:
430 `:parents', `:case-fixed', `:enable-function', `:regexp',
431 `abbrev-table-modiff'.
434 *** New macro `with-help-window' should set up help windows better
435 than `with-output-to-temp-buffer' with `print-help-return-message'.
436 *** New option `help-window-select' permits to customize whether help
437 window shall be automatically selected when invoking help.
438 *** New variable `help-window-point-marker' permits to specify new
439 position of point in help window (for example in `view-lossage').
441 ** view-remove-frame-by-deleting is now by default t
442 since users found iconification of view-mode frames distracting.
446 *** New command `isearch-occur' bound to `M-s o' in isearch mode
447 runs `occur' with the current search string.
449 *** isearch can now search through multiple ChangeLog files.
450 When running isearch in a ChangeLog file, if the search fails,
451 then another C-s tries searching the previous ChangeLog,
452 if there is one (e.g. go from ChangeLog to ChangeLog.12).
454 This is enabled if isearch-buffers-multi is non-nil.
456 *** The part of an isearch that failed to match is highlighted in `isearch-fail'
459 *** `C-h C-h' in isearch mode displays isearch-specific Help screen,
460 `C-h b' displays all isearch key bindings, `C-h k' displays the full
461 documentation of the given isearch key sequence, `C-h m' displays
462 documentation of isearch mode. All the rest Help commands exit isearch mode
463 and execute their global definitions.
465 ** smerge-refine highlights word-level details of changes in conflict.
466 It's used automatically as you move through conflicts, see smerge-auto-refine.
470 *** diff-refine-hunk highlights word-level details of changes in a diff hunk.
471 It's used automatically as you move through hunks, see
472 diff-auto-refine. It is bound to `C-c C-b'.
474 *** diff-add-change-log-entries-other-window iterates through the diff
475 buffer and tries to create ChangeLog entries for each change.
476 It is bound to `C-x 4 A'.
478 ** archive-mode has basic support to browse Rar archives.
480 ** talk.el has been extended for multiple tty support.
482 ** Compile and grep modes
484 *** The mode-line entry for the *compilation* and *grep* buffer is color coded.
485 It has different colors for to show that: (a) the command is still
486 running, (b) successful completion, (c) error.
488 *** compilation-auto-jump-to-first-error tells `compile' to jump to
489 the first error encountered during compilations.
491 ** In the `copyright' package, you can specify your copyright holders' names.
492 Only copyright lines with holders matching copyright-names-regexp will be
493 considered for update.
495 ** The `copyright' package looks for copyright at the end of the buffer
496 if `copyright-at-end-flag' is non-nil (change-log-mode sets this).
498 ** eldoc highlights the function argument under point
499 with the face `eldoc-highlight-function-argument'.
501 ** hide-ifdef-mode permits to shadow ifdef-blocks instead of hiding them.
502 See option `hide-ifdef-shadow' and function `hide-ifdef-toggle-shadowing'.
505 ** defcustom accepts new keyword arguments, `:safe' and `:risky', which
506 set a variable's `safe-local-variable' and `risky-local-variable' property.
509 *** The --members option is now the default.
511 Use --no-members if you want the old default behaviour of not tagging
512 struct members in C, members variables in C++ and variables in PHP.
516 *** VC now supports applying VC operations to a set of files at a time.
517 This enables VC to work much more effectively with changeset-oriented
518 version-control systems such as Subversion, GNU Arch, Mercurial, Git
519 and Bzr. VC will now pass a multiple-file commit to these systems as
522 *** vc-dir is a new command that displays file names and their VC
523 status. It allows to apply various VC operations to apply a file or a
526 *** Clicking on the VC mode-line entry now pops the VC menu.
528 *** The VC mode-line entry now has a tooltip that explains the VC file status.
530 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type V to toggle the annotation visibility.
532 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type f to show the file revision on
535 *** vc-git supports the "git grep" command.
537 *** Asynchronous VC commands display [Waiting...] in the mode-line
538 of the corresponding buffer as long as the asynchronous process is
541 *** Log entries can be modified using the key "e" in log-view.
542 For now only CVS, RCS, SCCS and SVN support this functionality.
543 This is done by the `modify-change-comment' backend function.
545 ** log-edit now has a command bound to C-c C-d to show the diff for
548 ** sgml-electric-tag-pair-mode lets you simultaneously edit matched tag pairs.
550 ** The appearance of superscript and subscript in TeX is more customizable.
551 See the documentation of the variables: tex-fontify-script,
552 tex-font-script-display, tex-suscript-height-ratio, and
553 tex-suscript-height-minimum.
557 *** New command `bibtex-initialize' (re)initializes BibTeX buffers.
559 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' options `whitespace', `braces', and
560 `string', disabled by default.
562 *** New variable `bibtex-cite-matcher-alist' contains rules to
563 identify cited keys in BibTeX entries, used by `bibtex-find-crossref'.
565 *** Command `bibtex-url' allows multiple URLs per entry.
570 *** New connection methods.
571 The new methods "plinkx", "plink2", "psftp", "sftp" and "fish" have
572 been introduced. There are also new so-called gateway methods
573 "tunnel" and "socks".
575 *** Multihop syntax has been removed.
576 The pseudo-method "multi" has been removed. Instead of, multi hops
577 can be specified by the new variable `tramp-default-proxies-alist'.
579 *** More default settings.
580 Default values can be set via the variables `tramp-default-user',
581 `tramp-default-user-alist' and `tramp-default-host'.
583 *** Connection information is cached.
584 In order to reduce connection setup, information about used
585 connections are kept persistent in a file. The name of this file is
586 defined in the variable `tramp-persistency-file-name'.
588 *** Control of remote processes.
589 Running processes on a remote host can be controlled by settings in
590 `tramp-remote-path' and `tramp-remote-process-environment'.
592 *** Success of remote copy is checked.
593 When the variable `file-precious-flag' is set, the success of a remote
594 file copy is checked via the file's checksum.
596 ** Calendar and diary
599 *** There is a new date style, `iso', essentially year/month/day.
600 The variable `european-calendar-style' is obsolete - use `calendar-date-style'.
601 Similarly, the commands `american-calendar' and `european-calendar'
602 should be replaced by `calendar-set-date-style'.
605 *** The calendar namespace has been rationalized.
606 All functions and variables now begin with a `calendar-', `diary-', or
607 `holiday-' prefix. The various calendar systems have secondary
608 prefixes, eg `calendar-french-'. The old names you are likely to use
609 directly still exist, for the time being, as aliases, but please start
612 *** The function `holiday-chinese' computes holidays on the Chinese calendar.
613 It has been used to add items to the list `holiday-oriental-holidays'.
615 *** `diary-remind' accepts a negative number -DAYS as a shorthand for
616 the list (1 2 ... DAYS).
618 ** Miscellaneous programming mode changes
620 *** The file etc/emacs.py now supports both Python 2 and 3, meaning
621 that either version can be used as inferior Python by python.el.
623 *** Python mode now has `pdbtrack' functionality. When using pdb to
624 debug a Python program, pdbtrack notices the pdb prompt and displays
625 the source file and line that the program is stopped at, much the same
626 way as gud-mode does for debugging C programs with gdb.
628 *** The variable `fortran-line-length' can change the fixed-form line-length.
630 *** In Fortran mode, M-; is now bound to the standard comment-dwim,
631 rather than fortran-indent-comment.
634 *** (The increasingly misnamed) F90 mode supports Fortran 2003 syntax.
638 *** The Gnus package has been updated
640 *** In Emacs 23, Gnus uses Emacs' new internal coding system `utf-8-emacs' for
641 saving articles drafts and ~/.newsrc.eld. These file may not be read
642 correctly in Emacs 22 and below. If you want to Gnus across different Emacs
643 versions, you may set `mm-auto-save-coding-system' to `emacs-mule'.
645 *** There are many news features, bug fixes and improvements.
647 See the file GNUS-NEWS or the node "No Gnus" in the Gnus manual for details.
651 *** goto-address.el provides two new minor modes, goto-address-mode and
652 goto-address-prog-mode, which buttonize URLS and email addresses.
654 *** comint-mode uses `start-file-process' now (see Lisp Changes).
655 If `default-directory' is a remote file name, subprocesses are started
656 on the corresponding remote system.
658 *** C-x C-q in dired-mode now runs the command wdired-change-to-wdired-mode,
659 and C-x C-q in wdired-mode exits it with asking a question about
662 *** The new command `eshell/info' runs info in an eshell buffer.
664 *** The pcmpl-unix package supports hostname completion for ssh and scp.
666 *** WoMan tries to add locale-specific manual page directories to the
667 search path. This can be disabled by setting `woman-locale' to nil.
669 *** The new variable `ffap-rfc-directories' specifies a list of local
670 directories in which `ffap-rfc' will first search for RFCs.
672 *** net-utils has an `iwconfig' command, similar to the existing `ifconfig'.
673 It is used to configure wireless interfaces.
676 * Changes in Emacs 23.1 on non-free operating systems
679 ** IPv6 is supported on MS-Windows.
680 Emacs now supports IPv6 on Windows XP and later, and earlier versions
681 of Windows with third party IPv6 stacks installed. Previously IPv6 was
682 supported on other platforms, but not on Windows due to using the winsock
683 1.1 header file, even though Emacs was linking to the winsock 2 library.
686 ** Busy cursor (hourglass) now displays on MS-Windows.
687 When Emacs is busy, an hourglass mouse cursor is displayed on Windows.
688 Previously only X supported the busy cursor.
690 ** More keys available on MS-Windows.
691 Keys normally associated with IMEs, and some exotic keys not normally found
692 on standard keyboards have been given names so they can be bound to functions
693 inside Emacs. If there are keys on your keyboard that have not been exposed
694 to Emacs in the past, try C-h k to see if they are available now.
696 Emacs can now bind functions to the extra buttons for media player and
697 browser control present on some keyboards. These buttons are disabled
698 by default, since enabling them prevents their system-wide use when
699 Emacs has focus. To enable them, set the variable
700 w32-pass-multimedia-buttons to nil. See the doc string of that variable
701 for the list of extra keys that are available.
703 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
705 ** `functionp' returns nil for special forms.
706 I.e., it only returns t for objects that can be passed to `funcall'.
709 ** The multibyteness of process filters is determined by the coding-system
710 used for decoding. The functions `process-filter-multibyte-p' and
711 `set-process-filter-multibyte' are obsolete.
713 ** The behavior of map-char-table has changed. It may call the
714 specified function with a cons (FROM . TO) as a key if characters in
715 that range have the same value.
717 ** The value of the function `charset-id' is now always 0.
719 ** The functions `register-char-codings' and `coding-system-spec'
722 ** The cpXXX coding systems are now supported automatically. The
723 functions cp-...-codepage, which you had to use in Emacs 22 to enable
724 support for these coding systems, have been deleted.
727 ** The function `dired-call-process' has been removed.
729 ** The variable `byte-compile-warnings' can now be a list starting with `not',
730 meaning to disable the specified warnings. The meaning of this list
731 may therefore be the reverse of what you expect (of course, this is
732 only an issue if you make use of the new `not' syntax). Rather than
733 checking/manipulating elements directly, use the new functions
734 `byte-compile-warning-enabled-p', `byte-compile-disable-warning', and
735 `byte-compile-enable-warning.'
737 ** `mode-name' is no longer guaranteed to be a string.
738 Use `(format-mode-line mode-name)' to ensure a string value.
740 ** The following features have been removed. They were used for
741 displaying various scripts with specific fonts, and are no longer
742 needed now that OpenType font support is available:
744 *** `devanagari' and `devan-util', and all associated devanagari-* and
745 dev-* functions and variables (formerly used for Devanagari script).
747 *** `kannada' and `knd-util', and all associated kannada-* and knd-*
748 functions and variables (formerly used for Kannada script).
750 *** `malayalam' and `mlm-util', and all associated malayalam-* and
751 mlm-* functions and variables (formerly used for Malayalam script).
753 *** `tamil' and `tml-util, and all associated tamil-* and tml-*
754 functions and variables (formerly used for Tamil script).
757 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
759 ** `all-completions' may now return the base size in the last cdr.
760 Since this means the returned list is not properly nil-terminated, this
761 is an incompatible change and is thus enabled by the new variable
762 completion-all-completions-with-base-size.
764 ** New function `apply-partially' for curried application.
766 ** `fill-forward-paragraph-function' specifies which function the filling
767 code should use to find paragraph boundaries.
769 ** The variable `this-command-keys-shift-translated' is non-nil if the
770 key sequence invoking the current command was found by
773 ** The new interactive spec code ^ says to first call
774 handle-shift-selection if shift-select-mode is non-nil, before reading
775 the command arguments.
777 ** When deleting a terminal, run the special hook `delete-terminal-functions'.
779 ** The `read-shell-command' function does what its name says, with completion.
780 It uses the minibuffer-local-shell-command-map for that.
782 ** The `buffer-swap-text' function can swap the text between two buffers.
783 This can be useful for modes such as tar-mode, archive-mode, RMAIL.
785 ** `clear-image-cache' can be told to flush only images of a specific file.
787 ** clone-indirect-buffer now runs the clone-indirect-buffer-hook.
789 ** `beginning-of-defun-function' now takes one argument, the count
790 given to `beginning-of-defun'.
792 ** The variable `inhibit-changing-match-data', if non-nil, prevents the
793 search and match primitives from changing the match data.
796 ** New function `match-substitute-replacement' returns the result of
797 `replace-match' without actually using it in the buffer.
799 ** If a local hook function has a non-nil `permanent-local-hook'
800 property, then `kill-all-local-variables' does not remove it from
801 the local value of the hook variable. This means it remains
802 even if you change major modes.
805 ** A list of default values can be specified for the DEFAULT argument of
806 functions `read-from-minibuffer', `read-string', `read-command',
807 `read-variable', `read-buffer', `completing-read'. Elements of this list
808 are available for inserting into the minibuffer by typing `M-n'.
809 For empty input these functions return the first element of this list.
811 ** `custom-note-var-changed' tells Custom to treat the change in a certain
812 variable as having been made within Custom.
814 ** `frame-inherited-parameters' lets new frames inherit parameters from
817 ** Commands should use `use-region-p' to test whether there is
818 an active region that they should operate on.
820 ** `region-active-p' returns non-nil when Transient Mark mode
821 is enabled and there is an active region. This is NOT the best function
822 to use to test whether a command should operate on the region instead
823 of the usual behavior -- for that, use `use-region-p'.
825 ** If a command sets `transient-mark-mode' to (only . OLDVAL), that
826 means to activate transient-mark-mode temporarily, until the next
827 unshifted point motion command or mark deactivation. Afterwards,
828 reset transient-mark-mode to the value OLDVAL. The values `only' and
829 `identity', introduced in Emacs 22, are now deprecated.
831 ** New keymap `input-decode-map' overrides like key-translation-map, but
832 applies before function-key-map. Also it is terminal-local contrary to
833 key-translation-map. Terminal-specific key-sequences are generally added to
834 this map rather than to function-key-map now.
836 ** The new macro `declare-function' suppresses compiler warnings about
837 undefined functions. The new `check-declare' package verifies that such
838 statements are accurate (i.e. the functions are actually defined in
839 the specified files).
841 ** The new function `read-color' reads a color name using the minibuffer.
843 ** `interprogram-paste-function' can now return one string or a list
844 of strings. In the latter case, Emacs puts the second and following
845 strings on the kill ring.
847 ** Character code, representation, and charset changes.
849 The character code space is now 0x0..0x3FFFFF with no gap.
850 Characters of code 0x0..0x10FFFF are Unicode characters of the same code points.
851 Characters of code 0x3FFF80..0x3FFFFF are raw 8-bit bytes.
853 Generic characters no longer exist.
855 In buffer and string, characters are represented by UTF-8 byte
856 sequence in a multibyte buffer/string.
858 The concept of a charset has changed. A single character may belong to
859 multiple charsets (e.g. a-grave, U+00E0, belongs to charsets unicode,
860 iso-8859-1, iso-8859-3, etc).
862 *** The new function `characterp' returns t if and only if the argument
863 is a character. This replaces `char-valid-p', which is now obsolete.
865 *** The new function `max-char' returns the maximum character code
866 (currently it is #x3FFFFF).
868 *** The functions `encode-char' and `decode-char' now accept any character sets.
870 *** The function `define-charset' now accepts a completely different
871 form of arguments (old-style arguments still work).
873 *** The new function `define-charset-alias' defines an alias of a charset.
875 *** The value of the function `char-charset' depends on the current
876 priorities of charsets.
878 *** The new function `charset-priority-list' returns the list of
879 charsets ordered by priority.
881 *** The new function `set-charset-priority' sets priorities of charsets.
883 *** The new function `unibyte-string' make a unibyte string from bytes.
885 *** The new function `define-char-code-property' defines a character
888 *** The new function `char-code-property-description' returns the
889 description string of a character code property.
891 *** The function get-char-code-property now accepts many Unicode base
892 character properties. They are `name', `general-category',
893 `canonical-combining-class', `bidi-class', `decomposition',
894 `decimal-digit-value', `digit-value', `numeric-value', `mirrored',
895 `old-name', `iso-10646-comment', `uppercase', `lowercase', and
898 *** The new variable `find-word-boundary-function-table' is a
899 char-table of functions to search for a word boundary.
901 *** The new variable `char-script-table' is a char-table of script names.
903 *** The new variable `char-width-table' is a char-table of character widths.
905 *** The new variable `print-charset-text-property' controls how to
906 handle `charset' text property on printing a string.
908 *** The new variable `printable-chars' is a char-table defining if a
909 character is printable or not.
911 *** The functions `modify-syntax-entry' and `modify-category-entry' now
912 accepts a cons of characters as the first argument, and modify all
913 entries in that range of characters.
915 ** Code conversion changes
917 *** The new function `define-coding-system' should be used to define a
918 coding system instead of `make-coding-system' (which is now obsolete).
920 *** The functions `encode-coding-region' and `decode-coding-region'
921 have an optional 4th argument to specify where the result of
922 conversion should go.
924 *** The functions `encode-coding-string' and `decode-coding-string'
925 have an optional 4th argument specifying a buffer to store the result
928 *** The new function `with-coding-priority' executes the body part with
929 the specified coding system priority order.
931 *** The new function `check-coding-systems-region' checks if the text
932 in the region is encodable by the specified coding systems.
934 *** The new function `coding-system-aliases' returns a list of aliases
937 *** The new function `coding-system-charset-list' returns a list of
938 charsets supported by a coding system.
940 *** The new function `coding-system-priority-list' returns a list of
941 coding systems ordered by their priorities.
943 *** The new function `set-coding-system-priority' sets priorities of
946 *** The functions `set-coding-priority' and `make-coding-system' are obsolete.
948 ** There is a new input method, Robin, different from Quail.
949 It has three functionalities:
950 i) a simple input method (converts an ASCII sequence into a string).
951 ii) converts an existing buffer substring into another string
952 iii) reverse conversion (each character produced by a
953 robin rule can hold the original ASCII sequence as a char-code-property)
955 *** The new function `robin-define-package' defines a Robin package.
957 *** The new function `robin-modify-package' modifies an existing Robin package.
959 *** The new function `robin-use-package' starts using a Robin package
962 ** Changes related to the new font backend
964 Which font backends to use can be specified by the X resource "FontBackend".
965 For instance, to use both X core fonts and Xft fonts:
967 Emacs.FontBackend: x,xft
969 If this resource is not set, Emacs tries to use all font backends
970 available on your graphic device.
972 *** New frame parameter `font-backend' specifies a list of
973 font-backends supported by the frame's graphic device. On X, they are
974 currently `x' and `xft'.
976 *** New function `fontp' checks if the argument is a font-spec or font-entity.
978 *** New function `font-spec' creates a new font-spec object.
980 *** New function `font-get' returns a font property value.
982 *** New function `font-put' sets a font property value.
984 *** New function `list-fonts' returns a list of font-entities matching
985 the given specification.
987 *** New function `list-families' returns a list of family names of
990 *** New function `font-font' returns a font-entity best matching with
991 the given specification.
993 *** New function `font-xlfd-name' returns an XLFD name of a given font
994 (font-spec, font-entity, or font-object).
996 *** New function `clear-font-cache' clears all font caches.
998 *** The function `set-fontset-font' now accepts a script name as the
999 second argument, and has an optional 5th argument to control how to
1002 ** Changes related to multiple tty support
1004 *** $TERM is now set to `dumb' for subprocesses. If you want to know the
1005 $TERM inherited by Emacs you will have to look inside initial-environment.
1007 *** $DISPLAY is now dynamically inherited from the frame's `display'.
1009 *** The `window-system' variable has been made frame-local. The new
1010 `initial-window-system' variable contains the `window-system' value
1011 for the first frame. `window-system' is also now a function that
1012 takes a frame argument.
1014 *** You can specify a terminal device (`tty' parameter) and a terminal
1015 type (`tty-type' parameter) to `make-terminal-frame'.
1017 *** The new function `make-frame-on-tty' allows you to create a new
1018 frame on another tty device interactively.
1020 *** The function `make-frame-on-display' now works during a tty
1021 session, and `make-frame-on-tty' works during a graphical session.
1023 *** New functions: `delete-tty', `suspend-tty', `resume-tty'.
1025 *** A new data type for terminals with functions: `get-device-terminal',
1026 `terminal-parameters', `terminal-parameter', `set-terminal-parameter'.
1028 *** New hooks: `suspend-tty-functions' and `resume-tty-functions'
1029 are called after a tty frame has been suspended or resumed,
1030 respectively. The functions are called with the terminal id of the frame
1031 being suspended/resumed as a parameter.
1033 *** New function: `environment'.
1035 *** New variable: `local-function-key-map'.
1036 This in addition to the global function-key-map variable that
1037 already existed. The global variable is not used directly any more;
1038 instead, the local-function-key-map is initialized so as to inherit from
1041 *** `initial-environment' holds the environment inherited from Emacs's parent.
1043 *** The `keyboard-translate-table' variable and the terminal and
1044 keyboard coding systems have been made terminal-local.
1046 *** In addition to the global function-key-map, Emacs has terminal-local
1047 local-function-key-map variables, and uses them instead of the
1048 global keymaps to set up translations and function key sequences
1049 relevant to a specific terminal device.
1052 ** You can now also pass the value of the `invisible' property to invisible-p
1053 to check whether it would cause the text to be invisible. Convenient when
1054 checking invisibility of text which has no buffer position
1055 (e.g. in before/after-strings).
1057 ** Non-breaking space now acts as whitespace.
1060 ** In `condition-case', a handler can specify "let the debugger run first".
1062 You do this by writing `debug' in the list of conditions to be handled,
1067 ((debug error) nil))
1069 ** The `require-match' argument to `completing-read' accepts a new value
1073 ** The regexp form \(?<num>:<regexp>\) specifies the group number explicitly.
1075 ** New function `window-full-width-p' returns t if a window is as wide
1078 ** The new function `split-string-and-unquote' does (what?)
1080 ** The new function `combine-and-quote-strings' does (what?)
1082 ** The new function `image-refresh' refreshes all images associated
1083 with a given image specification.
1086 ** New variable `user-emacs-directory'.
1087 Use this instead of "~/.emacs.d".
1090 ** The new function `start-file-process' is similar to `start-process',
1091 but obeys file handlers. The file handler is chosen based on
1092 `default-directory'. The functions `start-file-process-shell-command'
1093 and `process-file-shell-command' are also new; they call internally
1094 `start-file-process' and `process-file', respectively.
1096 ** The new function `process-lines' executes an external program and
1097 returns its output as a list of lines.
1100 ** `file-remote-p' has new optional parameters IDENTIFICATION and CONNECTED.
1101 IDENTIFICATION specifies which part of the remote identifier has to be
1102 returned. With CONNECTED passed non-nil, it is checked whether a
1103 remote connection has been established already.
1105 ** The two new functions `looking-at-p' and `string-match-p' can do
1106 the same matching as `looking-at' and `string-match' without changing
1109 ** The interactive-form of a function can be added post-facto via the
1110 `interactive-form' symbol property. Mostly useful to add complex interactive
1111 forms to subroutines.
1113 * New Packages for Lisp Programming in Emacs 23.1
1115 ** The package isearch-multi.el has been added. It implements a new mode
1116 `isearch-buffers-minor-mode' that allows isearch to search through
1117 multiple buffers. In this mode a new variable
1118 `isearch-buffers-next-buffer-function' defines the function to call
1119 to get the next buffer to search in the series of multiple buffers.
1121 ** The new package avl-tree.el deals with the AVL tree data structure.
1124 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1125 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
1127 GNU Emacs is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
1128 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1129 the Free Software Foundation; either version 3, or (at your option)
1132 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1133 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1134 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1135 GNU General Public License for more details.
1137 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1138 along with GNU Emacs; see the file COPYING. If not, write to the
1139 Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor,
1140 Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
1145 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"
1148 arch-tag: e759449d-88b3-4de4-9900-3a6c3dfa23e2