1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 24.
11 See files NEWS.23, NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18,
12 and NEWS.1-17 for changes in older Emacs versions.
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
18 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
19 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
20 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
21 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
24 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.4
26 ** Emacs can be compiled with ACL support.
27 This happens by default if a suitable support library is found at
28 build time, like libacl on GNU/Linux. To prevent this, use the
29 configure option `--disable-acl'.
31 ** Emacs can be compiled with file notification support.
32 The configure option `--with-file-notification=LIB' enables file
33 notification support in Emacs. This option's value should be `yes',
34 `no', `gfile', `inotify' or `w32'. `yes' is a synonym for `w32' on
35 MS-Windows, and for `gfile' otherwise. The default value is `yes'.
37 ** The configure option --with-crt-dir has been removed.
38 It is no longer needed, as the crt*.o files are no longer linked
41 ** Emacs for MS-Windows can now be built by running the configure script
42 using the MSYS environment and MinGW development tools.
43 This is from now on the preferred method of building Emacs on
44 MS-Windows. The Windows-specific configure.bat and makefile.w32-in
45 files are deprecated. See the file nt/INSTALL.MSYS for detailed
48 Using the Posix configure script and Makefile's also means a change in
49 the directory structure of the Emacs installation on Windows. It is
50 now the same as on GNU and Unix systems. In particular, the auxiliary
51 programs, such as cmdproxy.exe and hexl.exe, are in
52 libexec/emacs/VERSION/i686-pc-mingw32 (where VERSION is the Emacs
53 version), version-independent site-lisp is in share/emacs/site-lisp,
54 version-specific Lisp files are in share/emacs/VERSION/lisp and in
55 share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, Info docs are in share/info, and data
56 files are in share/emacs/VERSION/etc. (Emacs knows about all these
57 directories and will find the files in there automatically; there's no
58 need to set any variables due to this change.)
60 ** Directories passed to configure option `--enable-locallisppath' are
61 no longer created during installation.
64 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.4
67 * Changes in Emacs 24.4
69 ** Key ? also describes prefix bindings like C-h.
72 ** `apropos-variable' is now `apropos-user-option'
73 `apropos-user-option' shows all user options while `apropos-variable'
74 shows all variables. When called with a universal prefix argument,
75 the two commands swap their behaviors. When `apropos-do-all' is
76 non-nil, they output the same results.
79 ** `eval-defun' on an already defined defcustom calls the :set function,
82 ** If the new variable `enable-dir-local-variables' is nil,
83 directory local variables are ignored. May be useful for some modes
84 that want to ignore directory-locals while still respecting file-locals.
86 ** The option `set-mark-default-inactive' has been deleted.
87 This unfinished feature was introduced by accident in Emacs 23.1;
88 simply disabling Transient Mark mode does the same thing.
90 ** `initial-buffer-choice' can now specify a function to set up the
93 ** `remember-notes' creates a buffer whose content is saved on kill-emacs.
94 You may think of it as a *scratch* buffer whose content is preserved.
95 In fact, it was designed as a replacement for *scratch* buffer and can
96 be used that way by setting `initial-buffer-choice' to `remember-notes'
97 and `remember-notes-buffer-name' to "*scratch*". Without the second
98 change, *scratch* buffer will still be there for notes that do not
101 ** `write-region-inhibit-fsync' now defaults to t in batch mode.
103 ** ACL support has been added.
105 *** Emacs preserves the ACL entries of files when backing up.
107 *** New functions `file-acl' and `set-file-acl' get and set the ACL
108 entries of a file. On GNU/Linux, the POSIX ACL interface is used via
109 libacl. On MS-Windows, the NT Security APIs are used to emulate the
110 POSIX ACL interfaces.
112 ** New option `scroll-bar-adjust-thumb-portion'.
113 Available only on X, this option allows to control over-scrolling
114 using the scroll bar (i.e. dragging the thumb down even when the end
115 of the buffer is visible).
117 ** New function `add-face-text-property' has been added, which can be
118 used to conveniently prepend/append new face attributes to text.
120 ** In compiled Lisp files, the header no longer includes a timestamp.
122 ** Multi-monitor support has been added.
124 *** New functions `display-monitor-attributes-list' and
125 `frame-monitor-attributes' can be used to obtain information about
126 each physical monitor on multi-monitor setups.
129 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.4
131 ** `split-window' is no longer a command, just a non-interactive function.
132 As a command it was a special case of `split-window-below', and as such
133 superfluous. After being reimplemented in Lisp, its interactive form
134 was mistakenly retained.
136 ** New commands `toggle-frame-fullscreen' and `toggle-frame-maximized',
137 bound to <f11> and M-<f10>, respectively.
139 ** In keymaps where SPC scrolls, S-SPC now scrolls in the reverse direction.
143 ** New option `visual-order-cursor-movement'.
144 If this is non-nil, cursor motion with arrow keys will follow the
145 visual order of characters on the screen: <left> always moves to the
146 left, <right> always moves to the right, disregarding the surrounding
147 bidirectional context.
149 ** New command `kmacro-to-register' to store keyboard macros in registers.
153 *** `sh-mode' now has the mode own `add-log-current-defun-function'.
154 You can pick the name of the function and the variables with `C-x 4 a'.
157 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.4
159 ** `eshell' now supports visual subcommands and options
160 Eshell has been able to handle "visual" commands (interactive,
161 non-line oriented commands such as top that require display
162 capabilities not provided by eshell) by running them in an Emacs
163 terminal emulator. See `eshell-visual-commands'.
165 This feature has been extended to subcommands and options that make a
166 usually line-oriented command a visual command. Typical examples are
167 "git log" and "git <command> --help" which display their output in a
168 pager by default. See `eshell-visual-subcommands' and
169 `eshell-visual-options'.
171 ** If your Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support, you can use the new
172 built-in web browser `eww'.
174 ** `remember' can now store notes in separates files
175 You can use the new function `remember-store-in-files' within the
176 `remember-handler-functions' option.
178 See `remember-data-directory' and `remember-directory-file-name-format'
179 for new options related to this function.
180 ** `ido-decorations' has been slightly extended to give a bit more control.
182 ** More packages look for ~/.emacs.d/<foo> additionally to ~/.<foo>.
184 ~/.emacs.d/timelog replaces ~/.timelog
185 ~/.emacs.d/vip replaces ~/.vip
186 ~/.emacs.d/viper replaces ~/.viper
187 ~/.emacs.d/ido.last replaces ~/.ido.last
188 ~/.emacs.d/kkcrc replaces ~/.kkcrc
189 ~/.emacs.d/quickurls replaces ~/.quickurls
190 ~/.emacs.d/idlwave replaces ~/.idlwave
191 ~/.emacs.d/bdfcache.el replaces ~/.bdfcache.el
192 ~/.emacs.d/places replaces ~/.emacs-places
193 ~/.emacs.d/shadows replaces ~/.shadows
194 ~/.emacs.d/shadow_todo replaces ~/.shadow_todo
195 ~/.emacs.d/strokes replaces ~/.strokes
196 ~/.emacs.d/notes replaces ~/.notes
197 ~/.emacs.d/type-break replaces ~/.type-break
198 Also the following files used by the now obsolete otodo-mode.el:
199 ~/.emacs.d/todo-do replaces ~/.todo-do
200 ~/.emacs.d/todo-done replaces ~/.todo-done
201 ~/.emacs.d/todo-top replaces ~/.todo-top
204 ** Delphi mode is now called OPascal mode.
205 *** All delphi-* variables and functions have been renamed to opascal-*.
206 *** `delphi-newline-always-indents' is not supported any more.
207 Use `electric-indent-mode' instead.
208 *** `delphi-tab' is gone, replaced by `indent-for-tab-command'.
210 ** Eldoc Mode works properly in the minibuffer.
212 ** jit-lock-debug-mode lets you use the debuggers on code run via jit-lock.
214 ** completing-read-multiple's separator can now be a regexp.
215 The default separator is changed to allow surrounding spaces around the comma.
219 *** Battery information via the BSD `apm' utility is now supported.
223 *** `M-s a C-o' shows lines matching a regexp in marked buffers using Occur.
225 ** Calendar and Diary
228 *** New variable `diary-from-outlook-function', used by the command
229 `diary-from-outlook'.
233 *** New macro cl-tagbody.
236 *** letf is now just an alias for cl-letf.
240 *** Calc by default now uses the Gregorian calendar for all dates, and
241 uses January 1, 1 AD as its day number 1. Previously Calc used the
242 Julian calendar for dates before September 14, 1752, and it used
243 December 31, 1 BC as its day number 1; the new scheme is more
244 consistent with Calendar's calendrical system and day numbering.
246 *** The new variable `calc-gregorian-switch' lets you configure the
247 date when Calc switches from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar.
248 Nil, the default value, means to always use the Gregorian calendar.
249 The value (YEAR MONTH DAY) means to start using the Gregorian calendar
252 *** Support for ISO 8601 dates.
256 *** `desktop-auto-save-timeout' defines the number of seconds between
257 auto-saves of the desktop.
259 *** `desktop-restore-frames enables saving and restoring the window/frame
264 *** New minor mode `dired-hide-details-mode' hides details.
268 *** New option `erc-accidental-paste-threshold-seconds'.
269 If set to a number, this can be used to avoid accidentally paste large
270 amounts of data into the ERC input.
273 ** New F90 mode option `f90-smart-end-names'.
275 ** Icomplete is a bit more like Ido.
276 *** key bindings to navigate through and select the completions.
277 *** The icomplete-separator is customizable, and its default has changed.
278 *** Removed icomplete-show-key-bindings.
282 *** New commands `n' (`image-next-file') and `p' (`image-previous-file')
283 visit the next image file and the previous image file in the same
284 directory, respectively.
286 *** New commands to show specific frames of multi-frame images.
287 `f' (`image-next-frame') and `b' (`image-previous-frame') visit the
288 next or previous frame. `F' (`image-goto-frame') shows a specific frame.
291 *** The command `image-mode-fit-frame' deletes other windows.
292 When toggling, it restores the frame's previous window configuration.
293 It also has an optional frame argument, which can be used by Lisp
294 callers to fit the image to a frame other than the selected frame.
298 *** New face `info-index-match' is used to highlight matches in index
299 entries displayed by `Info-index-next', `Info-virtual-index' and
304 *** New option `hi-lock-auto-select-face'. When non-nil, hi-lock commands
305 will cycle through faces in `hi-lock-face-defaults' without prompting.
308 *** New global command `M-s h .' (`highlight-symbol-at-point')
309 highlights the symbol found near point without prompting,
310 using the next face automatically.
312 ** Search and Replace
314 *** New global command `M-s .' (`isearch-forward-symbol-at-point')
315 starts a symbol (identifier) incremental search forward with the
316 symbol found near point added to the search string initially.
318 *** `C-x 8 RET' in Isearch mode reads a character by its Unicode name
319 and adds it to the search string.
321 *** `M-s i' in Isearch mode toggles the variable `isearch-invisible'
322 between nil and the value of the option `search-invisible' (or `open'
325 *** `query-replace' skips invisible text when `search-invisible' is nil,
326 and opens overlays with hidden text when `search-invisible' is `open'.
329 *** By default, prefix arguments do not now terminate Isearch mode.
330 Set `isearch-allow-prefix' to nil to restore old behavior.
332 *** More Isearch commands accept prefix arguments, namely
333 `isearch-printing-char', `isearch-quote-char', `isearch-yank-word',
336 *** Word search now matches whitespace at the beginning/end
337 of the search string if it contains leading/trailing whitespace.
338 In an incremental word search or when using a non-nil LAX argument
339 of `word-search-regexp', the lax matching can also match part of
340 the first word (in addition to the lax matching of the last word).
341 The same rules are now applied to the symbol search with the difference
342 that it matches symbols, and non-symbol characters between symbols.
344 ** MH-E has been updated to MH-E version 8.5.
345 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
348 ** The unrmail command converts from BABYL to mboxrd rather than mboxo.
349 Customize `unrmail-mbox-format' to change this.
352 ** Similarly, customize `rmail-mbox-format' to influence some minor aspects
353 of how Rmail displays non-MIME messages.
356 ** New function `ses-rename-cell' to give SES cells arbitrary names.
358 ** trace-function was largely rewritten.
359 New features include:
360 - no prompting for the destination buffer, unless a prefix-arg was used.
361 - additionally to prompting for a destination buffer, when a prefix-arg is
362 used, the user can enter a "context", i.e. Lisp expression whose value at the
363 time the function is entered/exited will be printed along with the function
364 name and arguments. Useful to trace the value of (current-buffer) or
365 (point) when the function is invoked.
367 ** New command `delete-duplicate-lines' has new types of operation:
368 When its arg ADJACENT is non-nil (when called interactively with C-u C-u)
369 it works like the utility `uniq'. Otherwise by default it deletes
370 duplicate lines everywhere in the region without regard to adjacency.
371 When its arg KEEP-BLANKS is non-nil (when called interactively with
372 C-u C-u C-u), duplicate blank lines are preserved.
374 ** New `cycle-spacing' command allows cycling between having just one
375 space, no spaces, or reverting to the original spacing. Like
376 `just-one-space' command it can handle or ignore newlines and
377 leave different number of spaces.
379 ** Todo mode has been rewritten and enhanced.
380 New features include:
381 - support for multiple todo files and archive files of done items;
382 - renaming, reordering, moving, merging, and deleting categories;
383 - sortable tabular summaries of categories and the types of items they contain;
384 - cross-category lists of items filtered by specific criteria;
385 - more fine-grained interaction with the Emacs diary, by being able to decide
386 for each todo item whether it appears in the Fancy Diary display;
387 - highly flexible new item insertion and item editing;
388 - moving items between categories, storing done items in their category or in
389 archive files, undoing or unarchiving done items;
390 - reprioritizing items by inputting a numerical priority;
391 - extensive customizability of operation and display, including numerous faces.
392 To support some of these features, a new file format is used, which is
393 incompatible with the old format; however, you can convert old todo and done
394 item files to the new format on initializing the first new todo file, or at any
395 later time with the provided conversion command. The old version of
396 todo-mode.el has been made obsolete and renamed otodo-mode.el.
401 *** New connection method "adb", which allows to access Android
402 devices by the Android Debug Bridge. The variable `tramp-adb-program'
403 can be used to adapt the path of the "adb" program, if needed.
405 *** The connection methods "plink1", "ssh1", "ssh2", "scp1", "scp2",
406 "scpc" and "rsyncc" are discontinued. The ssh option
407 "ControlMaster=auto" is set automatically in all ssh-based methods,
411 *** Handlers for `file-acl' and `set-file-acl' for remote machines
412 which support POSIX ACLs.
416 *** New options: `vhdl-actual-generic-name', `vhdl-beautify-options'.
418 *** New commands: `vhdl-fix-statement-region', `vhdl-fix-statement-buffer'.
422 *** The commands `woman-default-faces' and `woman-monochrome-faces'
423 are obsolete. Customize the `woman-* faces instead.
427 *** Added Eshell-TRAMP module
428 External su and sudo commands are now the default; the internal,
429 TRAMP-using variants can still be used by enabling the eshell-tramp
432 ** New term.el option `term-suppress-hard-newline'.
434 ** Obsolete packages:
436 *** longlines.el is obsolete; use visual-line-mode instead.
441 *** terminal.el is obsolete; use term.el instead.
443 *** The previous version of todo-mode.el is obsolete and renamed otodo-mode.el.
448 *** yow.el is obsolete; use fortune.el or cookie1.el instead.
451 *** The Info-edit command is obsolete. Editing Info nodes by hand
452 has not been relevant for some time.
455 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.4
457 ** New `superword-mode' in subword.el
458 `superword-mode' overrides the default word motion commands to treat
459 symbol_words as a single word, similar to what `subword-mode' does and
460 using the same internal functions.
462 ** New nadvice.el package offering lighter-weight advice facilities.
464 - add-function/remove-function which can be used to add/remove code on any
465 function-carrying place, such as process-filters or `<foo>-function' hooks.
466 - advice-add/advice-remove to add/remove a piece of advice on a named function,
467 much like `defadvice' does.
470 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.4
472 ** The syntax of ?» and ?« is now punctuation instead of matched parens.
473 Some languages match those as »...« and others as «...» so better stay neutral.
475 ** The default file coding for Emacs Lisp files is now utf-8.
476 (See file-coding-system-alist.) In most cases, this change is transparent, but
477 files that contain unusual characters without specifying an explicit coding
478 system may fail to load with obscure errors.
479 You should either convert them to utf-8 or add an explicit `coding:' cookie.
481 ** overriding-terminal-local-map does not replace the local keymaps any more.
482 It used to disable the minor mode, major mode, and text-property keymaps,
483 whereas now it simply has higher precedence.
485 ** Default process filters and sentinels are not nil any more.
486 Instead they default to a function which does what the nil value used to do.
488 ** `read-event' does not return decoded chars in ttys any more.
489 Just as was the case in Emacs-22 and before, decoding of tty input according to
490 keyboard-coding-system is not performed in read-event any more. But contrary
491 to that past, it is still done before input-decode-map/function-key-map/...
493 ** Removed inhibit-local-menu-bar-menus.
495 ** frame-local variables that affect redisplay do not work any more.
496 More specifically, the redisplay does not bother to check for a frame-local
497 value when looking up variables.
499 ** nil and "unbound" are indistinguishable in symbol-function.
500 `symbol-function' never signals `void-function' any more.
501 `fboundp' returns non-nil if the symbol was `fset' to nil.
503 ** `defadvice' does not honor the `freeze' flag and cannot advise
504 special-forms any more.
506 ** `dolist' in lexical-binding mode does not bind VAR in RESULT any more.
507 VAR was bound to nil which was not tremendously useful and just lead to
508 spurious warnings about an unused var.
510 ** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
511 The second argument is no longer an SELinux context, instead it is an
512 alist of extended attributes as returned by the new function
513 `file-extended-attributes'. The attributes can be applied to another
514 file using `set-file-extended-attributes'.
517 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.4
520 ** New macro with-eval-after-load. Like eval-after-load, but better behaved.
522 ** Obsoleted functions:
525 *** `lisp-complete-symbol'
527 *** `minibuffer-completion-contents'
528 *** `isearch-nonincremental-exit-minibuffer'
529 *** `isearch-filter-visible'
530 *** `generic-make-keywords-list'
532 ** `with-wrapper-hook' is obsoleted by `add-function'.
533 The few hooks that used with-wrapper-hook are replaced as follows:
534 *** `abbrev-expand-function' obsoletes `abbrev-expand-functions'.
535 *** `completion-in-region-function' obsoletes `completion-in-region-functions'.
536 *** `filter-buffer-substring-function' obsoletes `filter-buffer-substring-functions'.
539 ** `get-upcase-table' is obsoleted by the new `case-table-get-table'.
541 ** Support for filesystem notifications.
542 Emacs now supports notifications of filesystem changes, such as
543 creation, modification, and deletion of files. This requires the
544 `glib' API, or the 'inotify' API (on GNU/Linux systems only). On
545 MS-Windows systems, this is supported for Windows XP and newer
548 ** Changes in autorevert.el
551 *** If Emacs is compiled with file notification support, notifications
552 are used instead of checking the time stamp of the files. You can
553 disable this by setting the user option `auto-revert-use-notify' to
554 nil. Alternatively, a regular expression of directories to be
555 excluded from file notifications can be specified by
556 `auto-revert-notify-exclude-dir-regexp'.
559 *** The new user option `auto-revert-remote-files' enables reversion
560 of remote files when set to non-nil.
564 *** The function `face-spec-set' is now analogous to `setq' for face specs.
565 Its third arg now accepts values specifying exactly which face spec to
566 set (defface, custom, or user spec), and it directly sets the relevant
567 property using the supplied face spec.
569 *** Face specs set via Custom themes now replace the `defface' spec
570 rather than inheriting from it (as do face specs set via Customize).
572 *** New face characteristic (supports :underline (:style wave))
573 specifies whether or not the terminal can display a wavy line.
578 *** `image-animated-p' is now `image-multi-frame-p'.
579 It returns non-nil for any image that contains multiple frames,
580 whether or not it specifies a frame delay.
583 *** When animating images that do not specify a frame delay,
584 Emacs uses `image-default-frame-delay'.
587 *** New functions `image-current-frame' and `image-show-frame' for getting
588 and setting the current frame of a multi-frame image.
590 ** time-to-seconds is not obsolete any more.
591 ** New function special-form-p.
592 ** Docstrings can be made dynamic by adding a `dynamic-docstring-function'
593 text-property on the first char.
595 ** The `defalias-fset-function' property lets you catch calls to defalias
596 and redirect them to your own function instead of `fset'.
598 ** The lock for 'DIR/FILE' is now 'DIR/.#FILE' and may be a regular file.
599 When you edit DIR/FILE, Emacs normally creates a symbolic link
600 DIR/.#FILE as a lock that warns other instances of Emacs that DIR/FILE
601 is being edited. Formerly, if there was already a non-symlink file
602 named DIR/.#FILE, Emacs fell back on the lock names DIR/.#FILE.0
603 through DIR/.#FILE.9. These fallbacks have been removed, so that
604 Emacs now no longer locks DIR/FILE in that case.
606 On file systems that do not support symbolic links, the lock is now a
607 regular file with contents being what would have been in the symlink.
609 ** The 9th element returned by `file-attributes' is now unspecified.
610 Formerly, it was t if the file's gid would change if file were deleted
611 and recreated. This value has been inaccurate for years on many
612 platforms, and nobody seems to have noticed or cared.
614 ** The function `file-ownership-preserved-p' now has an optional
615 argument GROUP which causes it check for file group too. This can be
616 used in place of the 9th element of `file-attributes'.
618 ** New functions `group-gid' and `group-real-gid'.
620 ** The 6th argument to `copy-file' has been renamed to
621 `preserve-extended-attributes' as it now handles both SELinux context
624 ** Changes to the Emacs Lisp Coding Conventions in Emacs 24.4
626 *** The package descriptor and name of global variables, constants,
627 and functions should be separated by two hyphens if the symbol is not
628 meant to be used by other packages.
631 * Changes in Emacs 24.4 on Non-Free Operating Systems
634 ** The "generate a backtrace on fatal error" feature now works on MS Windows.
635 The backtrace is written to the 'emacs_backtrace.txt' file in the
636 directory where Emacs was running.
639 ** The variable `buffer-file-type' is no longer supported.
640 Setting it has no effect, and %t in the mode-line format is ignored.
641 Likewise, `file-name-buffer-file-type-alist' is now obsolete, and
642 modifying it has no effect.
645 ** Lock files now work on MS-Windows.
646 This allows to avoid losing your edits if the same file is being
647 edited in another Emacs session or by another user. See the node
648 "Interlocking" in the Emacs User Manual for the details. To disable
649 file locking, customize `create-lockfiles' to nil.
651 ** Improved fullscreen support on Mac OS X.
652 Both native (>= OSX 10.7) and "old style" fullscreen are supported.
653 Customize `ns-use-native-fullscreen' to change style. For >= 10.7
654 native is the default.
657 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.3
659 ** The default X toolkit is now Gtk+ version 3.
660 If you don't pass `--with-x-toolkit' to configure, or if you use
661 `--with-x-toolkit=gtk' or `--with-x-toolkit=yes', configure will try
662 to build with Gtk+ version 3, and if that fails, try Gtk+ version 2.
663 You can explicitly require a specific version by passing
664 `--with-x-toolkit=gtk2' or `--with-x-toolkit=gtk3' to configure.
666 ** New configure option `--enable-link-time-optimization', to utilize
667 an appropriate feature provided by GCC since version 4.5.0.
669 ** New configure option `--without-all' to disable most of the optional
670 features (image support, etc.) that are normally enabled by default.
672 ** New configure option `--enable-gcc-warnings' (for developing/debugging
673 Emacs). If building with GCC, this enables compile-time checks that
674 warn/give errors about possibly-questionable C code. On a recent GNU
675 system there should be no warnings; on older and on non-GNU systems
676 the results may be useful to developers.
678 ** The configure option `--enable-use-lisp-union-type' has been
679 renamed to `--enable-check-lisp-object-type', as the resulting
680 Lisp_Object type no longer uses a union to implement the compile time
681 check that this option enables.
683 ** The configure option `--disable-maintainer-mode' has been removed,
684 as it was confusingly-named and rarely useful.
686 ** The configure options `--program-prefix', `--program-suffix', and
687 `--program-transform-name' apply to more than just the installed
688 binaries. Now they also affect the man pages, icons, and the
689 etc/emacs.desktop file; but not the info pages, since this would break
690 links between the various manuals.
692 ** You can use `NO_BIN_LINK=t make install' to prevent the installation
693 overwriting "emacs" in the installation bin/ directory with a link
696 ** Emacs uses libtinfo in preference to libncurses, if available.
698 ** On FreeBSD and NetBSD, configure no longer adds /usr/local/lib and
699 /usr/pkg/lib to the linker search path. You must add them yourself if
702 ** The standalone scripts `rcs-checkin' and `vcdiff' have been removed
703 (from the bin and libexec directories, respectively). The former is
704 no longer relevant, the latter is replaced by lisp (in vc-sccs.el).
707 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.3
709 ** Emacs no longer searches for `leim-list.el' files beneath the standard
710 lisp/ directory. There should not be any there anyway. If you have
711 been adding them there, put them somewhere else; e.g., site-lisp.
713 ** The `--no-site-lisp' command line option now works for Nextstep builds.
716 * Changes in Emacs 24.3
720 *** `C-h f' (`describe-function') can now perform autoloading.
721 When this command is called for an autoloaded function whose docstring
722 contains a key substitution construct, that function's library is
723 automatically loaded, so that the documentation can be shown
724 correctly. To disable this, set `help-enable-auto-load' to nil.
726 *** `C-h f' now reports previously-autoloaded functions as "autoloaded",
727 even after their associated libraries have been loaded (and the
728 autoloads have been redefined as functions).
732 *** Images displayed via ImageMagick now support transparency and the
733 :background image specification property.
735 *** When available, ImageMagick support is automatically enabled.
736 It is no longer necessary to call `imagemagick-register-types'
737 explicitly to install ImageMagick image types; that function is called
738 automatically at startup, or when customizing an imagemagick- option.
740 *** Setting `imagemagick-types-inhibit' to t now disables the use of
741 ImageMagick to view images. (You must call `imagemagick-register-types'
742 afterwards if you do not use customize to change this.)
744 *** The new variable `imagemagick-enabled-types' also affects which
745 ImageMagick types are treated as images. The function
746 `imagemagick-filter-types' returns the list of types that will be
749 *** ImageMagick images now support the :max-width and :max-height
754 *** In minibuffer filename prompts, `C-M-f' and `C-M-b' now move to the
755 next and previous path separator, respectively.
757 *** `minibuffer-electric-default-mode' can shorten "(default ...)" to "[...]"
758 in minibuffer prompts. Just set `minibuffer-eldef-shorten-default'
759 non-nil before enabling the mode.
763 *** New option `mode-line-default-help-echo' specifies the help text
764 (shown in a tooltip or in the echo area) for any part of the mode line
765 that does not have its own specialized help text.
767 *** You can now click mouse-3 in the coding system indicator to invoke
768 `set-buffer-file-coding-system'.
772 *** emacsclient now obeys string values for `initial-buffer-choice',
773 if it is told to open a new frame without specifying any file to visit
774 or expression to evaluate.
776 *** New option `server-auth-key' specifies a shared server key.
778 ** Emacs now generates backtraces on fatal errors.
779 On encountering a fatal error, Emacs now outputs a textual description
780 of the fatal signal, and a short backtrace on platforms like glibc
781 that support backtraces.
783 ** `C-x C-q' is now bound to the new minor mode `read-only-mode'.
784 This minor mode replaces `toggle-read-only', which is now obsolete.
786 ** Most `y-or-n' prompts now allow you to scroll the selected window.
787 Typing `C-v' or `M-v' at a y-or-n prompt scrolls forward or backward
788 respectively, without exiting from the prompt.
790 ** In the Package Menu, newly-available packages are listed as "new",
791 and sorted above the other "available" packages by default.
793 ** If your Emacs was built from a bzr checkout, the new variable
794 `emacs-bzr-version' contains information about the bzr revision used.
796 ** New option `create-lockfiles' specifies usage of lockfiles.
797 It defaults to t. Changing it to nil inhibits the creation of lock
798 files (use this with caution).
800 ** New option `enable-remote-dir-locals', if non-nil, allows directory-local
801 variables on remote hosts.
803 ** The entry for PCL-CVS has been removed from the Tools menu.
804 The PCL-CVS commands are still available via the keyboard.
806 ** Using "unibyte: t" in Lisp source files is obsolete.
807 Use "coding: raw-text" instead.
809 ** In the buffer made by `M-x report-emacs-bug', the `C-c m' binding
810 has been changed to `C-c M-i' (`report-emacs-bug-insert-to-mailer').
811 The previous binding, introduced in Emacs 24.1, was a mistake, because
812 `C-c LETTER' bindings are reserved for user customizations.
814 ** Internationalization
816 *** New language environment: Persian.
818 *** New input method `vietnamese-vni'.
820 ** Nextstep (GNUstep / Mac OS X) port
822 *** Support for fullscreen and the frame parameter fullscreen.
824 *** A file dialog is used for open/save operations initiated from the
828 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.3
830 ** Search and Replace
832 *** Non-regexp Isearch now performs "lax" space matching.
833 Each sequence of spaces in the supplied search string may match any
834 sequence of one or more whitespace characters, as specified by the
835 variable `search-whitespace-regexp'. (This variable is also used by a
836 similar existing feature for regexp Isearch.)
838 *** New Isearch command `M-s SPC' toggles lax space matching.
839 This applies to both ordinary and regexp Isearch.
841 *** New option `replace-lax-whitespace'.
842 If non-nil, `query-replace' uses flexible whitespace matching too.
845 *** Global `M-s _' starts a symbol (identifier) incremental search,
846 and `M-s _' in Isearch toggles symbol search mode.
847 `M-s c' in Isearch toggles search case-sensitivity.
849 ** Navigation commands
851 *** New binding `M-g c' for `goto-char'.
853 *** New binding `M-g TAB' for `move-to-column'.
855 *** `M-g TAB' (`move-to-column') prompts for a column number if called
856 interactively with no prefix arg. Previously, it moved to column 1.
858 ** New option `yank-handled-properties' allows processing of text
859 properties on yanked text, in ways that are more general than just
860 removing them (as is done by `yank-excluded-properties').
862 ** New option `delete-trailing-lines' specifies whether
863 M-x delete-trailing-whitespace should delete trailing lines at the end
864 of the buffer. It defaults to t.
866 ** `C-u M-=' now counts lines/words/characters in the entire buffer.
868 ** `C-x 8 RET' is now bound to `insert-char', which is now a command.
869 `ucs-insert' is now an obsolete alias for `insert-char'.
871 ** The `z' key no longer has a binding in most special modes.
872 It used to be bound to `kill-this-buffer', but `z' is too easy to
875 ** New command `C-x r M-w' (`copy-rectangle-as-kill').
876 It copies the region-rectangle as the last rectangle kill.
880 *** `C-x r +' is now overloaded to invoke `append-to-register'.
882 *** New option `register-separator' specifies the register containing
883 the text to put between collected texts for use with
884 M-x append-to-register and M-x prepend-to-register.
887 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.3
889 ** Common Lisp emulation (CL)
891 *** CL's main entry is now (require 'cl-lib).
892 `cl-lib' is like the old `cl' except that it uses the namespace cleanly;
893 i.e., all its definitions have the "cl-" prefix (and internal definitions
894 use the "cl--" prefix).
896 If `cl' provided a feature under the name `foo', then `cl-lib'
897 provides it under the name `cl-foo' instead; with the exceptions of the
898 few `cl' definitions that had to use `foo*' to avoid conflicts with
899 pre-existing Elisp entities. These have been renamed to `cl-foo'
900 rather than `cl-foo*'.
902 The old `cl' is now deprecated and is mainly just a bunch of aliases that
903 provide the old, non-prefixed names. Some exceptions are listed below:
905 *** `cl-flet' is not like `flet' (which is deprecated).
906 Instead it obeys the behavior of Common-Lisp's `flet'.
907 In particular, in cl-flet function definitions are lexically scoped,
908 whereas in flet the scoping is dynamic.
910 *** `cl-labels' is slightly different from `labels'.
911 The difference is that it relies on the `lexical-binding' machinery
912 (as opposed to the `lexical-let' machinery used previously) to capture
913 definitions in closures, so such closures will only work if `lexical-binding'
916 *** `cl-letf' is not exactly like `letf'.
917 The only difference is in details that relate to some deprecated usage
918 of `symbol-function' in place forms.
920 *** `progv' was rewritten to use the `let' machinery.
921 A side effect is that variables without corresponding values are bound
922 to nil rather than being made unbound.
924 *** The following methods of extending `setf' are obsolete
925 (use features from gv.el instead):
926 `define-modify-macro' (use `gv-letplace')
927 `defsetf' (use `gv-define-simple-setter' or `gv-define-setter')
928 `define-setf-expander' (use `gv-define-setter' or `gv-define-expander')
929 `get-setf-method' no longer exists (see "Incompatible Lisp Changes")
933 *** Changes are now highlighted using the same color scheme as in
934 modern VCSes. Deletions are displayed in red (new faces
935 `diff-refine-removed' and `smerge-refined-removed', and new definition
936 of `diff-removed'), insertions in green (new faces `diff-refine-added'
937 and `smerge-refined-added', and new definition of `diff-added').
939 *** The variable `diff-use-changed-face' defines whether to use the
940 face `diff-changed', or `diff-removed' and `diff-added' to highlight
941 changes in context diffs.
943 *** The new command `diff-delete-trailing-whitespace' removes trailing
944 whitespace introduced by a diff.
946 ** Ediff now uses the same color scheme as Diff mode.
950 A new version of python.el, which provides several new features, including:
951 per-buffer shells, better indentation, Python 3 support, and improved
952 shell-interaction compatible with iPython (and virtually any other
955 *** Some user options have been replaced/renamed, including (old -> new):
956 **** python-indent -> python-indent-offset
957 **** python-guess-indent -> python-indent-guess-indent-offset
958 **** python-pdbtrack-do-tracking-p -> python-pdbtrack-activate
959 **** python-use-skeletons -> python-skeleton-autoinsert
961 *** Some user options have been removed, including:
963 **** `python-indent-string-contents': Strings are never indented.
965 **** `python-honour-comment-indentation':
966 Comments are always considered as indentation markers.
968 **** `python-continuation-offset': Indentation is automatically
969 calculated in a pep8 compliant way depending on the context.
971 **** `python-shell-prompt-alist', `python-shell-continuation-prompt-alist':
972 Have no direct mapping as the shell interaction is completely different.
974 **** `python-python-command', `python-jython-command':
975 Replaced by `python-shell-interpreter'.
977 **** `inferior-python-filter-regexp', `python-remove-cwd-from-path',
978 `python-pdbtrack-minor-mode-string', `python-source-modes':
981 *** Some commands have been replaced (old -> new):
982 **** python-insert-class -> python-skeleton-class
983 **** python-insert-def -> python-skeleton-def
984 **** python-insert-for -> python-skeleton-for
985 **** python-insert-if -> python-skeleton-if
986 **** python-insert-try/except -> python-skeleton-try
987 **** python-insert-try/finally -> python-skeleton-try
988 **** python-insert-while -> python-skeleton-while
989 **** python-find-function -> python-nav-jump-to-defun
990 **** python-next-statement -> python-nav-forward-sentence
991 **** python-previous-statement -> python-nav-backward-sentence
992 **** python-beginning-of-defun-function -> python-nav-beginning-of-defun
993 **** python-end-of-defun-function -> python-nav-end-of-defun
994 **** python-send-buffer -> python-shell-send-buffer
995 **** python-send-defun -> python-shell-send-defun
996 **** python-send-region -> python-shell-send-region
997 **** python-send-region-and-go -> emulate with python-shell-send-region
998 and python-shell-switch-to-shell
999 **** python-send-string -> python-shell-send-string
1000 **** python-switch-to-python -> python-shell-switch-to-shell
1001 **** python-describe-symbol -> python-eldoc-at-point
1005 *** New variables `dbus-compiled-version' and `dbus-runtime-version'.
1007 *** The D-Bus object manager interface is implemented.
1009 *** Variables of type :(u)int32 and :(u)int64 accept floating points,
1010 if their value does not fit into Emacs's integer range.
1012 *** The function `dbus-call-method' is now non-blocking.
1013 It can be interrupted by `C-g'. `dbus-call-method-non-blocking' is obsolete.
1015 *** Signals can also be sent as unicast messages.
1017 *** The argument list of `dbus-register-signal' has been extended,
1018 according to the new match rule types of D-Bus.
1020 *** `dbus-init-bus' supports private connections.
1022 *** There is a new function `dbus-setenv'.
1024 ** `desktop-path' no longer includes the "." directory.
1025 Desktop files are now located in ~/.emacs.d by default.
1029 *** `dired-do-async-shell-command' executes each file sequentially
1030 if the command ends in `;' (when operating on multiple files).
1031 Otherwise, it executes the command on each file in parallel.
1033 *** Typing `M-n' in the minibuffer of `dired-do-chmod', `dired-do-chgrp',
1034 `dired-do-chown', and `dired-do-touch' yanks the attributes of the
1037 *** When the region is active, `m' (`dired-mark'), `u' (`dired-unmark'),
1038 `DEL' (`dired-unmark-backward'), and `d' (`dired-flag-file-deletion')
1039 mark/unmark/flag all files in the active region.
1041 *** The minibuffer default for `=' (`dired-diff) has changed.
1042 It is now the backup file for the file at point, if one exists.
1043 In Transient Mark mode the default is the file at the active mark.
1045 *** `M-=' is no longer bound to `dired-backup-diff' in Dired buffers.
1046 The global binding for `M-=', `count-words-region' is in effect.
1050 *** New module "notifications", which can send a notification when you
1051 receive a private message or your nickname is mentioned.
1053 *** ERC will look up server/channel names via auth-source and use any
1056 *** New option `erc-lurker-hide-list', similar to `erc-hide-list', but
1057 only applies to messages sent by lurkers.
1059 ** reStructuredText mode
1061 *** Keybindings (see `C-c C-h'), TAB indentation, filling and auto-filling,
1062 fontification, comment handling, and customization have all been revised
1065 *** Support for `imenu' and `which-function-mode'.
1067 *** The reStructuredText syntax is more closely covered.
1068 Sphinx support has been improved.
1070 *** `rst-insert-list' inserts new list or continues existing lists.
1072 *** A negative prefix argument always works for `rst-adjust'.
1074 *** The window configuration is reset after displaying a TOC.
1076 *** The constant `rst-version' describes the rst.el package version.
1080 *** Support for percent literals and recognition of regular expressions
1081 in method calls without parentheses with more methods, including Cucumber
1084 *** Improved syntax highlighting and indentation.
1086 *** New command `ruby-toggle-block', bound to `C-c {'.
1088 *** Some non-standard keybindings/commands have been removed:
1090 **** `ruby-electric-brace'; use `electric-indent-mode' instead.
1092 **** `ruby-mark-defun'; use `mark-defun'.
1094 **** `ruby-beginning-of-defun' and `ruby-end-of-defun' are replaced by
1095 appropriate settings for the variables `beginning-of-defun-function'
1096 and `end-of-defun-function'.
1098 **** Non-standard keybindings for `backward-kill-word', `comment-region',
1099 `reindent-then-newline-and-indent' and `newline' have been removed.
1101 ** Shell Script mode
1103 *** Pairing of parens/quotes uses `electric-pair-mode' instead of skeleton-pair.
1105 *** `sh-electric-here-document-mode' now controls auto-insertion of here-docs.
1107 *** `sh-use-smie' lets you choose a new indentation and navigation code.
1111 *** The free software compiler GHDL is supported (and now the default).
1113 *** Support for the VHDL-AMS packages has been added/updated.
1115 *** Updated to the 2002 revision of the VHDL standard.
1117 *** Accepts \r and \f as whitespace.
1121 *** The faces used by Apropos are now directly customizable.
1122 These faces are named `apropos-symbol', `apropos-keybinding', and so on;
1123 see the `apropos' Custom group for details.
1125 *** The old options whose values specified faces to use have been removed
1126 (i.e. `apropos-symbol-face', `apropos-keybinding-face', etc.).
1130 *** This package has been rewritten to use Tabulated List mode.
1132 *** Option `Buffer-menu-buffer+size-width' is now obsolete.
1133 Use `Buffer-menu-name-width' and `Buffer-menu-size-width' instead.
1137 *** Algebraic simplification mode is now the default.
1138 To restrict to the limited simplifications given by the former
1139 default simplification mode, use `m I'.
1143 *** You can customize the header text that appears above each calendar month.
1144 See the variable `calendar-month-header'.
1146 *** New LaTeX calendar style, produced by `cal-tex-cursor-week2-summary'.
1148 *** The calendars produced by cal-html include holidays.
1149 Customize `cal-html-holidays' to change this.
1153 *** The major modes from the parser generators "Bovine" and "Wisent"
1154 are now properly integrated in Emacs. The file suffixes ".by" and ".wy"
1155 are in `auto-mode-alist', and the corresponding manuals are included.
1159 **** Menu support for the "Configuration" feature. This allows users to
1160 choose the active configuration (such as debug or install) from the menu.
1162 **** New command `ede-set' to interactively set project-local variables.
1164 **** Support for compiling, debugging, and running in "generic" projects.
1166 **** Autoconf editing support for M4 macros with complex arguments.
1168 **** Compilation support for the "linux" project type.
1170 **** "simple" projects have been removed; use "generic" projects instead.
1174 **** Support for parsing #include statements inside a namespace in C/C++.
1176 **** Improved support for 'extern "C"' declarations in C/C++.
1178 **** The ability to ignore more common special C/C++ preprocessor symbols,
1179 such as '__nonnull' and '__asm'. Add '__cplusplus' macro when parsing C++.
1180 If available, include cdefs.h as an additional source of preprocessor symbols.
1182 **** Improved C/C++ function pointer parsing.
1184 **** In Python, support for converting imports to include file names.
1186 **** Ability to dynamically determine the Python load path.
1188 **** Support for the Python 'WITH' and 'AT' keywords.
1190 **** Improved tooltip completion.
1194 **** The SRecode manual is now included.
1196 **** Tag generation supports constructor/destructor settings and system
1197 include differentiation.
1199 **** Addition of 'Framework' support: Frameworks are specified when a
1200 particular kind of library (such as Android) is needed in a common language
1203 **** Support for nested templates and let variables override based on priority.
1205 **** Support for merging tables from multiple related modes, such as
1206 default -> c++ -> arduino.
1208 ** Compile has a new option `compilation-always-kill'.
1212 *** `custom-reset-button-menu' now defaults to t.
1214 *** Non-option variables are never matched in `customize-apropos' and
1215 `customize-apropos-options' (i.e., the prefix argument does nothing for
1216 these commands now).
1220 *** The variables `term-default-fg-color' and `term-default-bg-color'
1221 are now deprecated in favor of the customizable face `term'.
1223 *** You can customize how to display ANSI terminal colors and styles
1224 by customizing the corresponding `term-color-<COLOR>',
1225 `term-color-underline' and `term-color-bold' faces.
1229 *** The syntax has been extended in order to allow ad-hoc proxy definitions.
1231 *** Remote processes are now also supported on remote MS-Windows hosts.
1235 *** Structs made by `url-generic-parse-url' have nil `attributes' slot.
1236 Previously, this slot stored semicolon-separated attribute-value pairs
1237 appended to some imap URLs, but this is not compatible with RFC 3986.
1238 So now the `filename' slot stores the entire path and query components,
1239 and the `attributes' slot is always nil.
1241 *** New function `url-encode-url' for encoding a URI string.
1242 The `url-retrieve' function now uses this to encode its URL argument,
1243 in case that is not properly encoded.
1245 *** New command `url-cookie-list' displays all the current cookies, and
1246 allows deleting selected cookies.
1248 ** notifications.el supports now version 1.2 of the Notifications API.
1249 The function `notifications-get-capabilities' returns the supported
1252 ** Flymake uses fringe bitmaps to indicate errors and warnings.
1253 See `flymake-fringe-indicator-position', `flymake-error-bitmap' and
1254 `flymake-warning-bitmap'.
1256 ** The FFAP option `ffap-url-unwrap-remote' can now be a list of strings,
1257 specifying URL types that should be converted to remote file names at
1258 the FFAP prompt. The default is now '("ftp").
1260 ** New Ibuffer `derived-mode' filter, bound to `/ M'.
1261 The old binding for `/ M' (filter by used-mode) is now bound to `/ m'.
1263 ** New option `mouse-avoidance-banish-position' specifies where the
1264 `banish' mouse avoidance setting moves the mouse.
1266 ** In Perl mode, new option `perl-indent-parens-as-block' causes non-block
1267 closing brackets to be aligned with the line of the opening bracket.
1269 ** In Proced mode, new command `proced-renice' renices marked processes.
1271 ** New option `async-shell-command-buffer' specifies the buffer to use
1272 for a new asynchronous `shell-command' when the default output buffer
1273 `*Async Shell Command*' is already in use.
1275 ** SQL mode has a new option `sql-db2-escape-newlines'.
1276 If non-nil, newlines sent to the command interpreter will be escaped
1277 by a backslash. The default does not escape the newlines and assumes
1278 that the sql statement will be terminated by a semicolon.
1280 ** New command `tabulated-list-sort', bound to `S' in Tabulated List mode
1281 (and modes that derive from it), sorts the column at point, or the Nth
1282 column if a numeric prefix argument is given.
1284 ** `which-func-modes' now defaults to t, so Which Function mode, when
1285 enabled, applies to all applicable major modes.
1287 ** `winner-mode-hook' now runs when the mode is disabled, as well as when
1290 ** Follow mode no longer works by using advice.
1291 The option `follow-intercept-processes' has been removed.
1293 ** `javascript-generic-mode' is now an obsolete alias for `js-mode'.
1295 ** Hooks renamed to avoid obsolete "-hooks" suffix:
1296 *** semantic-lex-reset-hooks -> semantic-lex-reset-functions
1297 *** semantic-change-hooks -> semantic-change-functions
1298 *** semantic-edits-new-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-new-change-functions
1299 *** semantic-edits-delete-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-delete-change-functions
1300 *** semantic-edits-reparse-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-reparse-change-functions
1301 *** semanticdb-save-database-hooks -> semanticdb-save-database-functions
1302 *** c-prepare-bug-report-hooks -> c-prepare-bug-report-hook
1303 *** rcirc-sentinel-hooks -> rcirc-sentinel-functions
1304 *** rcirc-receive-message-hooks -> rcirc-receive-message-functions
1305 *** rcirc-activity-hooks -> rcirc-activity-functions
1306 *** rcirc-print-hooks -> rcirc-print-functions
1307 *** dbus-event-error-hooks -> dbus-event-error-functions
1308 *** eieio-pre-method-execution-hooks -> eieio-pre-method-execution-functions
1309 *** checkdoc-style-hooks -> checkdoc-style-functions
1310 *** checkdoc-comment-style-hooks -> checkdoc-comment-style-functions
1311 *** archive-extract-hooks -> archive-extract-hook
1312 *** filesets-cache-fill-content-hooks -> filesets-cache-fill-content-hook
1313 *** hfy-post-html-hooks -> hfy-post-html-hook
1314 *** nndiary-request-create-group-hooks -> nndiary-request-create-group-functions
1315 *** nndiary-request-update-info-hooks -> nndiary-request-update-info-functions
1316 *** nndiary-request-accept-article-hooks -> nndiary-request-accept-article-functions
1317 *** gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-hooks -> gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-functions
1319 ** Obsolete packages
1322 In most cases, assoc+member+push+delq work just as well.
1323 And in any case it's just a terrible package: ugly semantics, terrible
1324 inefficiency, and not namespace-clean.
1333 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.3
1335 ** Docstrings starting with `*' no longer indicate user options.
1336 Only variables defined using `defcustom' are considered user options.
1337 The function `user-variable-p' is now an obsolete alias for
1338 `custom-variable-p'.
1340 ** The return values of `defalias', `defun' and `defmacro' have changed,
1341 and are now undefined. For backwards compatibility, `defun' and
1342 `defmacro' currently return the name of the newly defined
1343 function/macro, but this should not be relied upon.
1345 ** `random' by default now returns a different random sequence in
1346 every Emacs run. Use `(random S)', where S is a string, to set the
1347 random seed to a value based on S, in order to get a repeatable
1348 sequence in later calls.
1350 ** If the NEWTEXT arg to `replace-match' contains a substring "\?",
1351 that substring is inserted literally even if the LITERAL arg is
1352 non-nil, instead of causing an error to be signaled.
1354 ** `select-window' now always makes the window's buffer current.
1355 It does so even if the window was selected before.
1357 ** The function `x-select-font' can return a font spec, instead of a
1358 font name as a string. Whether it returns a font spec or a font name
1359 depends on the graphical library.
1361 ** `face-spec-set' no longer sets frame-specific attributes when the
1362 third argument is a frame (that usage was obsolete since Emacs 22.2).
1364 ** `set-buffer-multibyte' now signals an error in narrowed buffers.
1366 ** The CL package's `get-setf-method' function no longer exists.
1367 Generalized variables are now part of core Emacs Lisp, and implemented
1368 differently to the way cl.el used to do it. It is not possible to
1369 define a compatible replacement for `get-setf-method'. See the file
1370 gv.el for internal details of the new implementation.
1372 ** The arguments of `dbus-register-signal' are no longer just strings,
1373 but keywords or keyword-string pairs. The old argument list will
1374 still be supported for Emacs 24.x.
1376 ** Miscellaneous name changes
1377 Some Lisp symbols have been renamed to correct their spelling,
1378 or to be more consistent with standard Emacs terminology.
1380 *** Renamed functions
1381 **** hangul-input-method-inactivate -> hangul-input-method-deactivate
1382 **** inactivate-input-method -> deactivate-input-method
1383 **** quail-inactivate -> quail-deactivate
1384 **** robin-inactivate -> robin-deactivate
1385 **** viper-inactivate-input-method -> viper-deactivate-input-method
1386 **** viper-inactivate-input-method-action ->
1387 viper-deactivate-input-method-action
1388 **** ucs-input-inactivate -> ucs-input-deactivate
1391 The old hooks are still supported for backward compatibility, but they
1392 are deprecated and will be removed eventually.
1393 **** input-method-inactivate-hook -> input-method-deactivate-hook
1394 **** robin-inactivate-hook -> robin-deactivate-hook
1395 **** quail-inactivate-hook -> quail-deactivate-hook
1397 *** Renamed variables
1398 **** follow-deactive-menu -> follow-inactive-menu
1399 **** inactivate-current-input-method-function ->
1400 deactivate-current-input-method-function
1402 ** Some obsolete functions, variables, and faces have been removed:
1403 *** `last-input-char', `last-command-char', `unread-command-char'
1404 *** `facemenu-unlisted-faces'
1405 *** `rmail-decode-mime-charset'
1406 *** `iswitchb-read-buffer'
1407 *** `sc-version', `sc-submit-bug-report'
1408 *** `set-char-table-default'
1409 *** `string-to-sequence' (use `string-to-list' or `string-to-vector')
1410 *** `compile-internal'
1412 *** `mode-line-inverse-video'
1413 *** `follow-mode-off-hook'
1414 *** `cvs-commit-buffer-require-final-newline'
1415 (use `log-edit-require-final-newline' instead)
1416 *** `cvs-changelog-full-paragraphs'
1417 (use `log-edit-changelog-full-paragraphs' instead)
1418 *** `cvs-diff-ignore-marks', `cvs-diff-buffer-name'
1419 *** `vc-ignore-vc-files' (use `vc-handled-backends' instead)
1420 *** `vc-master-templates' (use `vc-handled-backends' instead)
1421 *** `vc-checkout-carefully'
1424 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.3
1426 ** CL-style generalized variables are now in core Elisp.
1427 `setf' is autoloaded; `push' and `pop' accept generalized variables.
1428 You can define your own generalized variables using `gv-define-simple-setter',
1429 `gv-define-setter', etc.
1431 ** Emacs tries to macroexpand interpreted (non-compiled) files during load.
1432 This can significantly speed up execution of non-byte-compiled code,
1433 but can also bump into previously unnoticed cyclic dependencies.
1434 These are generally harmless: they will simply cause the macro calls
1435 to be left for later expansion (as before), but will result in a
1436 warning ("Eager macro-expansion skipped due to cycle") describing the cycle.
1437 You may wish to restructure your code so this does not happen.
1439 ** New sampling-based Elisp profiler.
1440 Try M-x profiler-start, do some work, and then call M-x profiler-report.
1441 When finished, use M-x profiler-stop. The sampling rate can be based on
1442 CPU time or memory allocations.
1444 ** `defun' also accepts a (declare DECLS) form, like `defmacro'.
1445 The interpretation of the DECLS is determined by `defun-declarations-alist'.
1447 ** New macros `setq-local' and `defvar-local'.
1449 ** Face underlining can now use a wave.
1451 ** `read-regexp' has a new argument HISTORY; the first argument PROMPT
1452 of `read-regexp' accepts a string ending with a colon and space, and its
1453 second argument DEFAULTS can be a list of strings accessible via `M-n'
1454 in the minibuffer ahead of other hard-coded useful regexp-related values.
1455 More commands use `read-regexp' now to read their regexp arguments.
1459 *** New function `completion-table-with-quoting' to handle completion
1460 in the presence of quoting, such as file completion in shell buffers.
1462 *** New function `completion-table-subvert' to use an existing completion
1463 table, but with a different prefix.
1467 *** New error type and new function `user-error'.
1468 These do not trigger the debugger.
1470 *** New option `debugger-bury-or-kill', saying what to do with the
1471 debugger buffer when exiting debug.
1473 *** Set `debug-on-message' to enter the debugger when a certain
1474 message is displayed in the echo area. This can be useful when trying
1475 to work out which code is doing something.
1477 *** New var `inhibit-debugger', automatically set to prevent accidental
1478 recursive invocations.
1482 *** New command `fit-frame-to-buffer' adjusts the frame height to
1485 *** The command `fit-window-to-buffer' can adjust the frame height
1486 if the new option `fit-frame-to-buffer' is non-nil.
1488 *** New macro `with-temp-buffer-window', similar to
1489 `with-output-to-temp-buffer'.
1491 *** `temp-buffer-resize-mode' no longer resizes windows that have been
1494 *** New option `switch-to-buffer-preserve-window-point' to restore a
1495 window's point when switching buffers.
1497 *** New display action alist entries `window-height' and `window-width'
1498 specify the size of new windows created by `display-buffer'.
1500 *** New display action alist entry `pop-up-frame-parameters', if
1501 non-nil, specifies frame parameters to give any newly-created frame.
1503 *** New display action alist entry `inhibit-switch-frame', if non-nil,
1504 tells display action functions to avoid changing which frame is
1507 *** New display action alist entry `previous-window', if non-nil,
1508 specifies window to reuse in `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
1510 *** New display action functions `display-buffer-below-selected',
1511 and `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
1513 *** The functions `get-lru-window', `get-mru-window' and `get-largest-window'
1514 now accept a third argument to avoid choosing the selected window.
1516 *** Additional values recognized for option `window-combination-limit'.
1518 *** The following variables are obsolete, as they can be replaced by
1519 appropriate entries in the `display-buffer-alist' function introduced
1521 **** `dired-shrink-to-fit'
1522 **** `display-buffer-reuse-frames'
1523 **** `display-buffer-function'
1524 **** `special-display-buffer-names'
1525 **** `special-display-frame-alist'
1526 **** `special-display-function'
1527 **** `special-display-regexps'
1531 *** `current-time-string' no longer requires that its argument's year
1532 must be in the range 1000..9999. It now works with any year supported
1533 by the underlying C implementation.
1535 *** `current-time' now returns extended-format time stamps
1536 (HIGH LOW USEC PSEC), where the new PSEC slot specifies picoseconds.
1537 PSEC is typically a multiple of 1000 on current machines. Other
1538 functions that use this format, such as `file-attributes' and
1539 `format-time-string', have been changed accordingly. Old-format time
1540 stamps are still accepted.
1542 *** The format of timers in `timer-list' and `timer-idle-list' is now
1543 [TRIGGERED-P HI-SECS LO-SECS USECS REPEAT-DELAY FUNCTION ARGS IDLE-DELAY PSECS].
1544 The PSECS slot is new, and uses picosecond resolution. It can be
1545 accessed via the new `timer--psecs' accessor.
1547 *** Last-modified time stamps in undo lists now are of the form
1548 (t HI-SECS LO-SECS USECS PSECS) instead of (t HI-SECS . LO-SECS).
1552 *** Improved security when handling persistent objects:
1554 **** `eieio-persistent-read' now features optional arguments for specifying
1555 the class to load, as well as a flag stating whether subclasses are allowed;
1556 if provided, other classes will be rejected by the reader. For
1557 compatibility with existing code, if the class is omitted only a
1560 **** New specialized reader for pulling in classes and signaling errors
1561 without evaluation of suspicious code.
1563 **** All slots that contain objects must have a :type. Slots with lists
1564 of objects must use a new type predicate for a list of an object type.
1566 *** Support for `find-function' and similar utilities, through the addition
1567 of filename support to generated symbols.
1569 ** Floating point functions now always return special values like NaN,
1570 instead of signaling errors, if given invalid args; e.g., (log -1.0).
1571 Previously, they returned NaNs on some platforms but signaled errors
1572 on others. The affected functions are acos, asin, tan, exp, expt,
1573 log, log10, sqrt, and mod.
1575 ** New fringe bitmap `exclamation-mark'.
1577 ** Miscellaneous changes to special forms and macros
1579 *** `defun' and `defmacro' are now macros rather than special forms.
1581 *** `kbd' is now a function rather than a macro.
1583 ** Miscellaneous new functions
1585 *** `set-temporary-overlay-map' sets up a temporary keymap that
1586 takes precedence over most other maps for a short while (normally one key).
1588 *** `autoloadp' tests if its argument is an autoloaded object.
1590 *** `autoload-do-load' performs the autoloading operation.
1592 *** `buffer-narrowed-p' tests if the buffer is narrowed.
1594 *** `file-name-base' returns a file name sans directory and extension.
1596 *** `function-get' fetches a function property, following aliases.
1598 *** `posnp' tests if an object is a `posn'.
1600 *** `system-users' returns the user names on the system.
1602 *** `system-groups' returns the group names on the system.
1604 *** `tty-top-frame' returns the topmost frame of a text terminal.
1606 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
1607 *** `automount-dir-prefix' (use `directory-abbrev-alist')
1608 *** `buffer-has-markers-at'
1609 *** `macro-declaration-function' (use `macro-declarations-alist')
1610 *** `window-system-version' (provides no useful information)
1611 *** `dired-pop-to-buffer' (use `dired-mark-pop-up')
1612 *** `query-replace-interactive'
1613 *** `font-list-limit' (has had no effect since Emacs < 23)
1616 * Changes in Emacs 24.3 on Non-Free Operating Systems
1618 ** Cygwin builds can use the native MS Windows user interface.
1619 Pass `--with-w32' to configure. The default remains the X11 interface.
1621 ** Two new functions are available in Cygwin builds:
1622 `cygwin-convert-file-name-from-windows' and
1623 `cygwin-convert-file-name-to-windows'. These functions allow Lisp
1624 code to access the Cygwin file-name mapping machinery to convert
1625 between Cygwin and Windows-native file and directory names.
1627 ** When invoked with the -nw switch to run on the Windows text-mode terminal,
1628 Emacs now supports `mouse-highlight', help-echo (in the echo area), and
1629 `mouse-autoselect-window'.
1631 ** On MS Windows Vista and later Emacs now supports symbolic links.
1633 ** On MS Windows, you can pass `--without-libxml2' to configure.bat to omit
1634 support for libxml2, even if its presence is detected.
1636 ** On Mac OS X, the Nextstep port requires OS X 10.4 or later.
1638 ** On Mac OS X, configure no longer automatically adds the Fink "/sw"
1639 directories to the search path. You must add them yourself if you want them.
1642 * Changes in Emacs 24.2
1644 ** This is mainly a bug-fix release.
1647 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
1649 ** Emacs can be compiled with Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
1650 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
1651 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
1654 ** Emacs can be compiled with GnuTLS support.
1655 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
1656 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
1657 `--without-gnutls'. See below for GnuTLS features.
1659 ** Emacs can be compiled with SELinux support.
1660 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
1661 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
1662 `--without-selinux'. See below for SELinux features.
1664 ** Emacs can be compiled with ImageMagick support.
1665 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
1666 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
1667 `--without-imagemagick'. See below for ImageMagick features.
1668 This feature is not available for the Nextstep or MS ports.
1670 ** Emacs can be compiled with libxml2 support.
1671 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
1672 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
1673 `--without-xml2'. See below for libxml2 features.
1675 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
1676 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
1678 ** New configure option --with-wide-int.
1679 With it, Emacs integers typically have 62 bits, even on 32-bit machines.
1680 On 32-bit hosts, this raises the limit on buffer sizes from about 512 MiB
1683 ** New configure options: --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
1684 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
1685 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
1687 ** New configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
1688 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
1689 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
1691 ** The standalone programs digest-doc and sorted-doc are removed.
1692 Emacs now uses Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
1694 ** The standalone program `fakemail' is removed.
1695 If you need it, feedmail.el provides a superset of the functionality.
1698 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
1700 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
1701 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
1702 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
1704 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
1705 from load-path. -Q now implies this. This option does not affect the
1706 EMACSLOADPATH environment variable (and hence has no effect for
1710 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
1714 *** Many packages now use the `completion-at-point' command,
1715 rather than implementing separate completion commands.
1717 *** `completion-at-point' now handles tags and semantic completion.
1719 *** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
1720 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
1722 *** New option `completion-cycle-threshold' allows completion cycling.
1724 *** New option `completion-category-overrides' for overriding the
1725 default completion style in certain circumstances.
1727 *** New completion style `substring'.
1729 *** Completion of buffer names uses `substring' completion by default.
1731 *** The option `widget-complete-field' has been removed.
1735 *** The first time you try sending mail, Emacs asks for a mail method.
1736 This is implemented by a new default for `send-mail-function', which
1737 is `sendmail-query-once'. This offers to use the smtpmail package, or
1738 to use the old defaults relying on external mail facilities
1739 (`sendmail-send-it' on GNU/Linux and other Unix-like systems, and
1740 `mailclient-send-it' on Windows).
1742 *** Typing `C-c m' in the buffer made by `M-x report-emacs-bug'
1743 transfers the report to your desktop's preferred mail client, if there
1744 is one. This uses either the "xdg-email" utility, or Mac OS's "open"
1747 *** See Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages for SMTPmail changes
1748 and Mail mode changes
1750 ** Emacs server and client changes
1752 *** New option `server-port' specifies the port for TCP Emacs servers.
1754 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
1756 *** New emacsclient argument --frame-parameters specifies the frame
1757 parameters of any newly-created graphical frame.
1759 *** If emacsclient shuts down due to Emacs signaling an error,
1760 its exit status is 1.
1762 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID.
1763 This opens a client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed, similar
1764 to the --parent-id argument to Emacs.
1766 ** Internationalization changes
1768 *** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
1769 Right-to-left (RTL) scripts, such as Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew, are
1770 displayed in the correct visual order as expected by users of those
1771 scripts. The display reordering is a "full bidirectionality" class
1772 implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm (UBA). Buffers
1773 with no RTL text should look exactly the same as before.
1775 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-display-reordering'.
1776 To disable display reordering in a buffer, change this to nil.
1778 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction'.
1779 If nil (the default), Emacs determines the base direction of each
1780 paragraph from its text, as specified by the UBA. Setting the value
1781 to `right-to-left' or `left-to-right' forces a base direction on each
1784 Paragraphs with right-to-left base direction are displayed starting at
1785 the right window edge.
1787 *** Enhanced support for characters with no glyphs in available fonts,
1788 or, on text terminals, characters that cannot be encoded by the
1789 terminal coding system. The new option `glyphless-char-display-control'
1790 specifies how to display them: as a hexadecimal code in a box, a thin
1791 1-pixel space, an empty box, etc.
1793 *** New input methods for Farsi and Bulgarian
1794 (farsi-isiri-9147, farsi-transliterate-banan, bulgarian-alt-phonetic).
1796 *** `nobreak-char-display' now also highlights Unicode hyphen chars
1797 (U+2010 and U+2011).
1799 *** New Hebrew translation of the Emacs Tutorial.
1800 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
1801 automatically select it.
1803 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
1804 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
1805 from a package repository at http://elpa.gnu.org.
1807 *** M-x list-packages shows a list of packages, which can be
1808 selected for installation.
1810 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
1812 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded automatically when
1813 Emacs starts up. To disable this, set `package-enable-at-startup' to
1814 nil. To specify the packages to load, customize `package-load-list'.
1816 ** Custom theme changes
1818 *** New command `M-x customize-themes', which provides a convenient
1819 interface for enabling and disabling Custom themes.
1821 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
1822 Emacs no longer looks for Custom themes in `load-path'. The default
1823 value of `custom-theme-load-path' says to look for themes in
1824 `custom-theme-directory', followed by a subdirectory of
1825 `data-directory' named "themes/", which contains a small selection of
1826 built-in Custom themes.
1828 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
1829 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
1830 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
1831 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
1833 ** Improved GTK integration
1835 *** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
1836 The function `set-scroll-bar-mode' can change this.
1838 *** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
1839 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose the style. On a Gnome desktop,
1840 the default is taken from desktop settings.
1842 *** GTK tool bars can be placed on any edge of the frame.
1843 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the
1844 values top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has
1847 *** The default colors for selected text (the `region' face) are taken
1848 from the GTK theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
1850 *** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK.
1851 You can disable this by changing `x-gtk-use-system-tooltips' to nil.
1853 ** Graphical interface changes
1855 *** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
1856 Also, the first dash (which does not indicate anything) is just
1857 displayed as a space.
1859 *** `menu-bar-select-buffer-function' lets you choose another operation
1860 instead of `switch-to-buffer' when selecting an item in the Buffers menu.
1862 *** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is
1863 built with Xft. These fonts can be set via X resources, for example:
1864 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
1868 *** Emacs now calls `kill-emacs' if it receives SIGTERM or SIGHUP,
1869 or if it receives a SIGINT signal in batch mode.
1871 *** `kill-emacs-hook' is now also run in batch mode.
1872 Third-party code which adds to `kill-emacs-hook' should check if they
1873 do the right thing in batch mode.
1875 ** Scrolling changes
1877 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
1878 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
1879 of buffer at first key-press (instead they move to top/bottom of buffer)
1880 when `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
1882 *** New option `scroll-error-top-bottom' (see above).
1884 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
1885 scroll a line instead of full screen.
1887 *** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
1888 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
1890 *** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
1891 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
1892 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
1893 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
1894 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
1896 *** "Aggressive" scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
1897 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
1898 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
1899 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
1902 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
1903 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
1905 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up.
1906 Also, the function `copy-file' has an extra optional argument for
1907 preserving SELinux context, and the return value of `backup-buffer'
1908 now includes the SELinux context.
1910 *** New functions `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
1911 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
1915 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
1916 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
1918 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
1919 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
1921 ** File- and directory-local variable changes
1923 *** You can stop directory local vars from applying to subdirectories.
1924 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
1925 settings to indicate that the section should not apply to
1928 *** Directory local variables can apply to some file-less buffers.
1929 Affected modes include dired, vc-dir, and log-edit. For example,
1930 adding "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to .dir-locals.el will
1931 turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should call
1932 `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
1934 *** Using "mode: MINOR-MODE" to enable a minor mode is deprecated.
1935 Instead, use "eval: (minor-mode 1)".
1937 *** The variable `inhibit-first-line-modes-regexps' has been renamed
1938 to `inhibit-local-variables-regexps'. As the name suggests, it now
1939 applies to ALL file local variables, not just -*- lines. The
1940 associated `inhibit-first-line-modes-suffixes' has been renamed in the
1945 *** The `quit-window' command now restores the last buffer displayed
1946 in the quitted window.
1948 *** Resizing an Emacs frame now preserves proportional window sizes,
1949 modulo restrictions like window minimum sizes and fixed-size windows.
1951 *** The behavior of `display-buffer' is now customizable in detail.
1953 **** New option `display-buffer-base-action' specifies a list of
1954 user-determined display "actions" (functions and optional arguments
1955 for choosing the displaying window).
1957 This takes precedence over the default display action, which is
1958 specified by `display-buffer-fallback-action'.
1960 **** New option `display-buffer-alist' maps buffer name regexps to
1961 display actions, taking precedence over `display-buffer-base-action'.
1963 *** New option `window-combination-limit'.
1964 The new option `window-combination-limit' allows to return the space
1965 obtained for resizing or creating a window more reliably to the window
1966 from which such space was obtained.
1968 *** New option `window-combination-resize'.
1969 The new option `window-combination-resize' allows to split a window that
1970 otherwise cannot be split because it's too small by stealing space from
1971 other windows in the same combination. Subsequent resizing or deletion
1972 of the window will resize all windows in the same combination as well.
1974 *** New option `frame-auto-hide-function' lets you choose between
1975 iconifying or deleting a frame when burying a buffer in a dedicated
1976 frame, or quitting a window showing a buffer in a frame of its own.
1978 *** New commands `maximize-window' and `minimize-window'.
1979 These maximize and minimize the size of a window within its frame.
1981 *** New commands `switch-to-prev-buffer' and `switch-to-next-buffer'.
1982 These functions allow to navigate through the live buffers that have
1983 been shown in a specific window.
1985 ** Minibuffer changes
1987 *** The inactive minibuffer has its own major mode `minibuffer-inactive-mode'.
1988 This is handy for minibuffer-only frames, and is also used for the feature
1989 where mouse-1 pops up *Messages*"', which can now easily be changed.
1991 *** Minibuffers set `truncate-lines' to nil.
1992 If you want to change the value to something else, you could use
1993 for example `minibuffer-setup-hook'.
1995 ** `auto-mode-case-fold' is now enabled by default.
1997 ** `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' now defaults to t.
1999 ** New basic faces `error', `warning', `success'.
2000 These are used to highlight text indicating failure, caution or
2001 successful operation.
2003 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
2004 for `list-colors-display'.
2006 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
2009 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
2013 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-kill', instead of
2014 `isearch-yank-line'.
2016 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-pop', instead of
2017 `isearch-yank-kill'.
2019 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-line'.
2021 ** New commands `count-words-region' and `count-words'.
2023 *** M-= is bound to `count-words-region', not `count-lines-region'.
2024 The `count-words-region' command, when called interactively, reports
2025 the number of lines, words, and characters in the region. It is a
2026 superset of the old `count-lines-region', which is now an obsolete
2029 ** The command `just-one-space' (M-SPC), if given a negative argument,
2030 also deletes newlines around point.
2034 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
2035 If non-nil, [delete] and DEL delete the region if it is active and no
2036 prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', those commands kill
2039 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to [delete].
2040 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
2041 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
2043 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
2044 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
2045 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; Lisp
2046 callers should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
2048 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
2050 ** Selection changes.
2052 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections has been
2053 changed to conform with modern X applications. In short, most
2054 commands for killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while
2055 mouse commands use the primary selection.
2057 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
2058 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
2060 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
2061 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
2062 the kill ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
2063 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
2065 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
2066 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
2067 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
2068 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
2069 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
2071 **** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
2073 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
2074 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
2075 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
2077 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
2079 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
2080 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
2081 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
2083 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
2084 exactly equivalent to M-w, C-w, and C-y respectively.
2086 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
2087 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
2088 between applications.
2090 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
2092 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
2093 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
2094 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
2095 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
2096 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
2098 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
2100 *** X clipboard managers are now supported.
2101 To inhibit this, change `x-select-enable-clipboard-manager' to nil.
2103 ** New command `C-x r N' (`rectangle-number-lines') numbers the lines
2104 in the current rectangle. With a prefix argument, this prompts for a
2105 number to count from and for a format string.
2107 ** `redisplay-dont-pause' now defaults to t.
2108 This makes Emacs feel more responsive to editing commands that arrive
2109 at high rate, e.g. if you lean on some key, because stopping redisplay
2110 in the middle (when this variable is nil) forces more expensive
2111 updates later on, and Emacs appears to be unable to keep up.
2113 ** The behavior of <TAB> for active regions in Text mode has changed.
2114 In Text and related modes, typing <TAB> (`indent-for-tab-command')
2115 when the region is active causes Emacs to indent all the lines in the
2116 region, aligning them with the line previous to the first line in the
2117 region (or with the left margin if there is no previous line).
2119 ** When `occur' is called with a prefix argument, matching strings are
2120 collected into the `*Occur*' buffer without line numbers. If there
2121 are parenthesized subexpressions in the specified regexp, `occur'
2122 reads replacement text that may contain \\& and \\N whose convention
2123 follows `replace-match'.
2126 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
2128 ** Archive Mode has basic support for browsing and updating 7z archives.
2132 *** BibTeX mode now supports biblatex.
2133 Use the variable `bibtex-dialect' to select different BibTeX dialects.
2134 `bibtex-entry-field-alist' is now an obsolete alias for
2135 `bibtex-BibTeX-entry-alist'.
2137 *** New command `bibtex-search-entries', bound to C-c C-a.
2139 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `sort-fields', disabled by default.
2141 *** New variable `bibtex-search-entry-globally'.
2145 *** New option `browse-url-mailto-function' specifies how to handle "mailto:"s.
2147 *** The default browser used by the package is now the "xdg-open" program,
2148 on platforms that support it. This calls your desktop's preferred browser.
2152 *** Support for musical notes.
2154 *** Support for logarithmic units.
2156 *** No longer uses the tex prefix for TeX specific unit names when
2157 using TeX or LaTeX mode.
2159 *** New option to highlight selections using faces.
2161 *** `calc-histogram' has the option of using a vector to determine the bins.
2163 *** New "O" option prefix.
2165 *** Use the "O" prefix to "d r" (`calc-radix') to turn on twos-complement mode.
2167 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
2169 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing "comments".
2170 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
2172 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
2173 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
2175 *** The function specified by `appt-disp-window-function' may be passed
2176 lists of arguments if multiple appointments are due at similar times.
2177 If you are using a custom function for this, you should update it.
2179 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
2181 *** Elements of `calendar-day-abbrev-array' and `calendar-month-abbrev-array'
2182 may no longer be nil, but must all be strings.
2184 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt
2185 package by adding `appt-make-list' to `diary-hook' has been removed.
2186 Use `appt-activate' instead.
2188 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
2189 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
2190 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
2192 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
2193 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
2197 *** New feature to "guess" the style in an existing buffer.
2198 The main entry point is M-x c-guess.
2200 *** Java Mode now supports Java 5.0 (Tiger) and 6 (Mustang).
2202 *** `c-beginning-of-defun' and `c-end-of-defun' now respect nested scopes.
2203 Thus C-M-a will, by default, go to the beginning of the immediate function,
2206 *** "Macros with semicolons" can be registered for correct indentation.
2207 Where such a macro ends a line (no semicolon) the next statement is no longer
2208 parsed as a statement continuation.
2210 ** Comint and modes derived from it use the standard completion code.
2214 *** Compilation mode can be used without Font Lock mode.
2215 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
2217 *** New variable `compilation-filter-start', which is bound while
2218 `compilation-filter-hook' runs. It records the start position of the
2219 text inserted by `compilation-filter'.
2221 *** `compilation-error-screen-columns' and `compilation-first-column'
2222 are obeyed in the editing buffer. So programming language modes can
2223 set them, whereas previously only the value in the *Compilation*
2228 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
2229 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
2230 To turn off the search field, set `custom-search-field' to nil.
2232 *** Options in customize group buffers start out hidden if not customized.
2233 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
2235 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
2237 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
2238 choose a color via `list-colors-display'.
2242 *** It is now possible to access buses other than the default system
2245 *** The `dbus-register-method' and `dbus-register-property' functions
2246 optionally do not register names.
2248 *** The new function `dbus-register-service' registers a known service
2249 name on a D-Bus without also registering a property or a method.
2253 *** C-x C-j (`dired-jump') and C-x 4 C-j (`dired-jump-other-window'),
2254 if called with a prefix argument, read a file name from the minibuffer
2255 instead of using the current buffer.
2257 *** The "dired local variables" feature of Dired-x is obsolete.
2258 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
2262 *** New options `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay',
2263 controlling attempts to autojoin a channel.
2265 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
2266 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
2267 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
2268 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
2272 *** The default value of `eshell-directory-name' has changed
2273 to be an "eshell" directory in `user-emacs-directory'.
2274 The old "~/.eshell/" directory is still used if it exists, though.
2278 *** The M-x gdb command now uses the GDB Machine Interface protocol.
2279 It now supports multithread non-stop debugging and simultaneous
2280 debugging of several threads.
2284 *** RET (`image-toggle-animation') toggles animation, if applicable.
2285 Animation plays once, unless the option `image-animate-loop' is non-nil.
2289 *** New command M-x info-display-manual displays a named Info manual.
2290 If that manual is already visited in some Info buffer, it displays
2291 that buffer. (This is handy if you have many manuals in many *info*
2292 buffers, and don't remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual
2293 you want to consult.) Otherwise, it loads and displays the manual.
2295 *** `e' is now bound to `end-of-buffer' rather than to `Info-edit'.
2296 This is for compatibility with the stand-alone Info reader program,
2297 and also because `Info-edit' is a rarely used command that is disabled
2300 ** Mail mode changes (not Message mode)
2302 *** New command M-x mail-add-attachment for adding MIME attachments
2304 *** The command M-x mail-attach-file was renamed to M-x mail-insert-file.
2305 (Its name is misleading, since it has nothing to do with MIME
2306 attachments.) The old name is now an obsolete alias to the new name.
2308 ** MH-E has been updated to MH-E version 8.3.1.
2309 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
2311 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
2313 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
2315 ** nXML mode no longer binds C-RET to `nxml-complete'.
2316 Completion is now performed via `completion-at-point', bound to C-M-i
2317 or M-TAB. If `nxml-bind-meta-tab-to-complete-flag' is non-nil (the
2318 default), this performs tag completion.
2320 ** Org mode has been updated to version 7.8.09.
2321 See ORG-NEWS for details.
2323 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
2324 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity,
2325 support for more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
2329 *** The command `rmail-epa-decrypt' decrypts OpenPGP data
2330 in the Rmail incoming message.
2332 *** The variable `rmail-message-filter' no longer has any effect.
2333 This change was made in Emacs 23.1 but was not advertised at the time.
2334 Try using `rmail-show-message-hook' instead.
2338 *** M-x shell prompts for the shell path name if the default directory
2339 is a remote file name and neither the environment variable $ESHELL nor
2340 the variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
2342 *** TAB is now bound to the standard `completion-at-point' command,
2343 which now implements the pcomplete rules for shell command completion.
2347 *** SMTPmail now uses encrypted connections (via STARTTLS) by default
2348 if the mail server supports them. This uses either built-in GnuTLS
2349 support, or the starttls.el library. Customize `smtpmail-stream-type'
2352 *** The variable `smtpmail-auth-credentials' has been removed.
2353 By default, the information is now stored in the file ~/.authinfo.
2354 This was the default value of smtpmail-auth-credentials. If you had
2355 customized smtpmail-auth-credentials to a list of user names and
2356 passwords, those settings are not used. During your first connection
2357 to the smtp server, Emacs will prompt for the user name and password,
2358 and offer to save them to ~/.authinfo. Or you can manually copy the
2359 credentials to ~/.authinfo. For example, if you had
2361 (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials
2362 '(("mail.example.org" 25 "jim" "s!cret")))
2364 then the equivalent line in ~/.authinfo would be
2366 machine mail.example.org port 25 login jim password s!cret
2368 See the auth-source manual for more information, e.g. on encrypting
2369 the credentials file.
2371 *** The variable `smtpmail-starttls-credentials' has been removed.
2372 If you had that set, you need to put
2374 machine smtp.whatever.foo port 25 key "~/.my_smtp_tls.key" cert "~/.my_smtp_tls.cert"
2376 in your ~/.authinfo file instead.
2378 *** SMTPmail defaults to using the address in the From: header as the
2379 SMTP MAIL FROM envelope. To override this, set `mail-envelope-from'
2380 to the address you wish to use instead.
2384 *** New options `sql-port', `sql-connection-alist', `sql-send-terminator',
2385 and `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
2387 *** New options controlling prompting for login parameters.
2388 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params',
2389 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
2390 connection is established.
2392 *** The command `sql-product-interactive' now takes a prefix argument,
2393 which causes it to prompt for an SQL product.
2395 *** Product-specific SQL interactive commands now take prefix arguments.
2396 These commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres', `sql-mysql', etc.),
2397 given a prefix argument, prompt for a name for the SQL interactive
2398 buffer. This reduces the need for calling `sql-rename-buffer'.
2400 *** SQL interactive modes suppress command continuation prompts, and
2401 replace tabs with spaces. The first change impacts multiple line SQL
2402 statements entered with C-j between each line, statements yanked into
2403 the buffer and statements sent with `sql-send-*' functions. The
2404 second prevents the MySQL and Postgres interpreters from listing
2405 object name completions when sent text via `sql-send-*' functions.
2407 *** New command `sql-connect' starts a predefined SQLi session,
2408 using the login parameters from `sql-connection-alist'.
2410 *** New "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
2411 This gathers the login params specified for the SQLi session, if it
2412 was not started by a connection, and saves them as a new connection.
2414 *** New commands for listing database objects and details:
2415 sql-list-all and sql-list-table.
2417 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
2421 *** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
2425 *** New inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
2427 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
2428 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
2430 *** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
2431 remote file attributes are cached for better performance.
2433 *** The option `ange-ftp-binary-file-name-regexp' has changed its
2434 default value to "".
2436 *** Handlers for `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
2437 for remote machines which support SELinux.
2439 ** New function `url-queue-retrieve', which behaves like url-retrieve,
2440 but with limits (`url-queue-parallel-processes', `url-queue-timeout') on
2441 the degree of parallelism.
2443 ** VC and related modes
2445 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
2446 The command C-x v + (`vc-pull') runs a "pull" operation, if it is
2447 supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to update the
2448 current branch and working tree. A prefix argument means to prompt
2449 the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
2451 *** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
2453 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
2454 The command C-x v m (`vc-merge') now runs a "merge" operation, if it
2455 is supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to merge
2456 changes from another branch into the current one. It prompts for
2457 specifics, e.g. a merge source.
2459 *** New option `vc-revert-show-diff' controls whether `vc-revert'
2460 shows a diff while querying the user. It defaults to t.
2462 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
2463 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
2464 This is currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial (to support
2465 another backend, define a `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function').
2466 In the Log View buffers made by C-x v L (`vc-print-root-log'), you can
2467 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
2469 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
2470 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
2472 *** The option `vc-initial-comment' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but
2473 this was not advertised at the time.
2475 *** `vc-toggle-read-only' is an obsolete alias for `toggle-read-only'.
2476 Since Emacs 23, it has done the same thing as `toggle-read-only', but
2477 this was not advertised at the time.
2483 *** erc-hecomplete.el (use erc-pcomplete.el instead)
2485 *** partial-completion-mode (complete.el) is obsolete.
2486 You can get a comparable behavior with:
2487 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
2488 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
2490 *** pc-mode.el is obsolete (CUA mode is much more comprehensive).
2492 *** pgg is obsolete (use EasyPG instead).
2494 *** sregex.el is obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
2496 *** s-region.el and pc-select.el are obsolete.
2497 They are superseded by shift-select-mode, enabled by default since 23.1.
2499 *** vc-mcvs.el is obsolete (for lack of a maintainer).
2503 *** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
2504 Its functions and variables have been similarly renamed.
2506 *** In `ido-file-completion-map', C-v is no longer bound to `ido-toggle-vc'.
2507 (This interfered with cua-mode.)
2509 *** f90.el has some support for Fortran 2008 syntax.
2511 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
2513 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
2516 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
2518 ** Occur Edit mode applies edits made in *Occur* buffers to the
2519 original buffers. It is bound to "e" in Occur mode.
2521 ** New global minor mode electric-pair-mode.
2522 When enabled, typing an open parenthesis automatically inserts the
2523 matching closing one.
2525 ** New global minor mode electric-indent-mode.
2526 When enabled, typing certain characters triggers reindentation.
2527 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-indent-chars or
2528 electric-indent-functions.
2530 ** New global minor mode electric-layout-mode.
2531 When enabled, typing certain characters automatically inserts newlines.
2532 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-layout-rules.
2534 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
2535 from which other modes can be derived.
2537 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
2539 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
2540 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
2541 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
2542 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
2545 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
2546 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
2548 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
2549 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
2551 ** New generic mode, xmodmap-generic-mode, for xmodmap files.
2553 ** New emacs-lock.el package.
2554 The previous version has been moved to obsolete/old-emacs-lock.el.
2555 Now, there is a proper minor mode `emacs-lock-mode'. Protection
2556 against exiting Emacs and killing the buffer can be set separately.
2557 The mechanism for automatically turning off protection for buffers
2558 with dead inferior processes has been generalized.
2561 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
2563 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function call now ENABLES
2564 the minor mode unconditionally. This is so that you can write e.g.
2566 (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'foo-mode)
2568 to enable foo-mode in Text mode buffers, removing the need for
2569 `turn-on-foo-mode' style functions. This affects all mode commands
2570 defined by `define-minor-mode'. If called interactively, the mode
2571 command still toggles the minor mode.
2573 ** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
2574 It is now a list of three elements, where the second element is a list
2575 describing the original file's SELinux context. If Emacs or the
2576 system lacks SELinux support, the context list is (nil nil nil nil).
2577 See "Basic SELinux support" above, under "Changes in Emacs 24.1".
2579 ** `char-direction-table' and the `char-direction' function were deleted.
2580 They were buggy and inferior to the new support of bidirectional
2581 editing introduced in Emacs 24. If you need the bidirectional
2582 properties of a character, use `get-char-code-property' with the last
2583 argument `bidi-class'.
2585 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
2586 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
2587 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
2588 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
2590 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
2591 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
2592 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
2595 ** Support for "old-style" backquotes, obsolete for 10+ years, has
2596 been further reduced. Now a backquote not followed by a space is
2597 always treated as a "new-style" backquote. Please remove all
2598 "old-style" backquotes from your code. If your code uses backquotes
2599 as documented in the Elisp manual, and compiles without warning, then
2600 you have nothing to do in this regard. Code not following the
2601 appropriate conventions may fail to compile.
2603 The most common cause of trouble seems to be an old-style backquote
2604 followed by a newline. Another cause of trouble is vector notation
2605 for key sequence notation: instead of [(control ,)] and [(control ')],
2606 you should write [(control ?,)] and [(control ?')], which will work in
2609 ** The macro `eval-at-startup' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but this
2610 was not advertised at the time. The function `custom-initialize-delay'
2611 replaced all known uses.
2613 ** `view-buffer' now treats special mode-class in the same way that
2614 `view-file' has since Emacs 22 (i.e. it won't enable View mode if the
2615 major mode is special).
2617 ** Menu and tool bar changes
2619 *** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
2620 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
2621 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
2622 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
2623 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
2624 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
2626 *** The menu bar bindings's caches are not used any more.
2627 Use (where-is-internal <def> nil t) instead.
2629 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
2630 similar to those created by shift-selection (see Selection changes
2631 above). In previous Emacs versions, these regions were delineated by
2632 `mouse-drag-overlay'; that variable has been removed.
2634 ** The fourth argument of `filter-buffer-substring' has been removed.
2635 If you want to remove text properties from the final result, simply
2636 pass the result through substring-no-properties.
2638 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
2640 ** The following obsolete functions and aliases have been removed
2641 (the appropriate new function is given in parentheses; "not needed"
2642 means you can just remove all calls to the function in question):
2644 *** `comint-kill-output' (`comint-delete-output')
2645 *** `decompose-composite-char' (`char-to-string')
2646 *** `outline-visible' (`outline-invisible-p')
2647 *** `internal-find-face' (`facep')
2648 *** `internal-get-face' (`facep and check-face')
2649 *** `frame-update-faces' (not needed)
2650 *** `frame-update-face-colors' (`frame-set-background-mode')
2651 *** `x-frob-font-weight' and `x-frob-font-slant' (`make-face-*' functions)
2652 *** `x-make-font-bold and x-make-font-demibold (`make-face-bold')
2653 *** `x-make-font-italic' and `x-make-font-oblique' (`make-face-italic')
2654 *** `x-make-font-bold-italic' (`make-face-bold-italic')
2655 *** `x-make-font-unbold' (`make-face-unbold')
2656 *** `x-make-font-unitalic' (`make-face-unitalic')
2657 *** `mldrag-drag-mode-line' (`mouse-drag-mode-line')
2658 *** `mldrag-drag-vertical-line' (`mouse-drag-vertical-line')
2659 *** `iswitchb-default-keybindings' (`iswitchb-mode')
2660 *** `char-bytes' (== 1)
2661 *** `isearch-return-char' (`isearch-printing-char')
2662 *** `make-local-hook' (not needed)
2663 *** `set-screen-height' (`set-frame-height')
2664 *** `set-screen-width' (`set-frame-width')
2666 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed
2667 (the appropriate new variable is given in parentheses):
2669 *** `checkdoc-minor-keymap' (`checkdoc-minor-mode-map')
2670 *** `vc-header-alist' (`vc-BACKEND-header')
2671 *** `directory-sep-char' (== ?/)
2672 *** `font-lock-defaults-alist' (`font-lock-defaults')
2673 *** `e' (`float-e').
2675 ** The following obsolete files were removed:
2676 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
2678 ** The format of the finder-inf.el file has changed, since the Finder
2679 mechanism is now based on the package system. The variable
2680 `finder-package-info' is replaced by `package--builtins' and
2681 `finder-keywords-hash'.
2683 ** When generating autoloads, `update-directory-autoloads' no longer
2684 assumes every inspected file is in your `load-path'. It instead
2685 generates relative names according to the current `load-path'.
2688 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
2690 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
2691 The `lexical-binding' variable enables lexical scoping for local
2692 variables. It is typically set via a file-local variable in the first
2693 line of the file, in which case it applies to all the code in that
2696 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
2697 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
2699 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
2700 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
2702 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
2704 *** `defvar' and `defconst' now mark the variable as special (dynamic).
2705 So do `defcustom' and other forms that call `defvar' as a subroutine.
2707 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
2708 declared as dynamically bound.
2710 *** The form ((lambda ...) ...) is deprecated.
2712 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
2713 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
2714 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
2716 ** Changes for bidirectional display and editing
2718 *** New function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction'.
2719 This returns the base direction of the paragraph at point.
2721 *** New function `bidi-string-mark-left-to-right'.
2722 Given a string containing characters from right-to-left scripts, this
2723 function returns another string which can be safely inserted into a
2724 buffer, such that any following text will be always displayed to the
2725 right of that string. (This works by appending an invisible Unicode
2726 "LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK" character if the argument string might need it.)
2728 This is useful when the buffer has overall left-to-right paragraph
2729 direction and you need to insert a string whose contents are not known
2730 in advance, without disrupting the layout of the line.
2734 *** Window tree functions are accessible in Elisp.
2735 Functions are provided to return the parent, siblings or child windows
2736 of any window including internal windows (windows not associated with a
2737 buffer) in the window tree.
2739 **** New function `window-valid-p' gives non-nil for live and internal
2742 **** Window manipulation can deal with internal windows.
2743 Many window handling functions like `split-window', `delete-window', or
2744 `delete-other-windows' as well as the window resizing functions can now
2745 act on any window including internal ones.
2747 *** window-total-height/-width vs window-body-height/-width.
2748 The function `window-height' has been renamed to `window-total-height'
2749 and `window-width' has been renamed to `window-body-width'. The old
2750 names are provided as aliases. Two new functions `window-total-width'
2751 and `window-body-height' are provided.
2753 *** Window parameters specific to window handling functions.
2754 For each window you can specify a parameter to override the default
2755 behavior of a number of functions like `split-window', `delete-window'
2756 and `delete-other-windows'. The variable `ignore-window-parameters'
2757 allows to ignore processing such parameters.
2759 *** New semantics of third argument of `split-window'.
2760 The third argument of `split-window' has been renamed to SIDE and can be
2761 set to any of the values 'below, 'right, 'above, or 'left to make the
2762 new window appear on the corresponding side of the window that shall be
2763 split. Any other value of SIDE will cause `split-window' to split the
2764 window into two side-by-side windows as before.
2766 *** Window resizing functions.
2767 A new standard function for resizing windows called `window-resize' has
2768 been introduced. This and all other functions for resizing windows no
2769 longer delete any windows when they become too small.
2771 *** Deleting the selected window now selects the most recently selected
2772 live window on that frame instead.
2774 *** `adjust-window-trailing-edge' adjustments.
2775 `adjust-window-trailing-edge' can now deal with fixed-size windows and
2776 is able to resize other windows if a window adjacent to the trailing
2777 edge cannot be shrunk any more. This makes its behavior more similar to
2778 that of Emacs 21 without compromising, however, its inability to delete
2779 windows which was introduced in Emacs 22.
2781 *** Window-local buffer lists.
2782 Windows now have local buffer lists. This means that removing a buffer
2783 from display in a window will preferably show the buffer previously
2784 shown in that window with its previous window-start and window-point
2785 positions. This also means that the same buffer may be automatically
2786 shown twice even if it already appears in another window.
2788 *** `switch-to-buffer' has a new optional argument FORCE-SAME-WINDOW,
2789 which if non-nil requires the buffer to be displayed in the currently
2790 selected window, signaling an error otherwise. If nil, another window
2791 can be used, e.g. if the selected one is strongly dedicated.
2793 *** `split-window-vertically' and `split-window-horizontally' renamed
2794 to `split-window-below' and `split-window-right' respectively.
2795 The old names are kept as aliases.
2799 **** The second arg to `display-buffer' and `pop-to-buffer' is now
2800 named ACTION, and takes a display action of the same form as
2801 `display-buffer-base-action' (see Changes, above). A non-nil,
2802 non-list value is treated specially, as the old meaning.
2804 **** New variable `display-buffer-overriding-action'.
2806 **** The procedure of `display-buffer' etc. to choose a window is
2807 determined by combining `display-buffer-overriding-action',
2808 `display-buffer-alist', the ACTION arg, `display-buffer-base-action',
2809 and `display-buffer-fallback-action'. The second and fourth of these
2810 are user-customizable variables.
2812 See the docstring of `display-buffer' for details.
2814 *** New functions `window-state-get' and `window-state-put'.
2815 These functions allow to save and restore the state of an arbitrary
2816 frame or window as an Elisp object.
2820 *** New variable `completion-extra-properties' used to specify extra
2821 properties of the current completion:
2822 - :annotate-function, same as the old completion-annotate-function.
2823 - :exit-function, function to call after completion took place.
2825 *** Functions on `completion-at-point-functions' can return any of the
2826 properties valid for `completion-extra-properties'.
2828 *** `completion-annotate-function' is obsolete.
2830 *** New `metadata' method for completion tables. The metadata thus returned
2831 can specify various details of the data returned by `all-completions':
2832 - `category' is the kind of objects returned (e.g., `buffer', `file', ...),
2833 used to select a style in completion-category-overrides.
2834 - `annotation-function' to add annotations in *Completions*.
2835 - `display-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries in *Completions*.
2836 - `cycle-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries when cycling.
2838 *** `minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map' is not used any more.
2839 Instead, the bindings in `minibuffer-local-filename-completion-map'
2840 are combined with `minibuffer-local-must-match-map'.
2842 *** New variable `completing-read-function' allows overriding the
2843 behavior of `completing-read'.
2845 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
2846 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
2848 ** `pre-command-hook'/`post-command-hook' are not reset to nil on error.
2849 Instead, the offending function is removed.
2853 *** New function `run-hook-wrapped' for running an abnormal hook by
2854 passing the hook functions as arguments to a "wrapping" function.
2855 Like `run-hook-with-args-until-success', it stops at the first
2856 non-nil return value.
2858 *** New macro `with-wrapper-hook' for running an abnormal hook as a
2859 set of "wrapping" filters, similar to around advice.
2860 (A version of this macro was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not
2861 advertised at the time.)
2865 *** New macro `condition-case-unless-debug' (this was actually added in
2866 Emacs 23.1 as condition-case-no-debug, but not advertised)
2868 *** The macro `with-demoted-errors' was added in Emacs 23.1, but not advertised.
2870 *** Variable `stack-trace-on-error' removed.
2872 *** The debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will
2873 jump to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked
2874 instead of jumping all the way to the top-level.
2876 *** Set `debug-on-event' to enter the debugger on events like SIGUSR1.
2877 This can be useful when `inhibit-quit' is set.
2879 ** The new function `server-eval-at' allows evaluation of Lisp forms on
2880 named Emacs server instances.
2882 ** `call-process' and `call-process-region' allow a `(:file "file")' spec
2883 to redirect STDOUT to a file.
2885 ** The function `format-time-string' now supports the %N directive,
2886 for higher-resolution time stamps.
2888 ** New input reading functions
2890 *** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of
2891 characters, discarding any inputs not inside the set.
2893 *** The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name
2894 or RGB triplet, instead of signaling an error if the user provides
2897 **** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
2899 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
2900 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
2901 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
2904 ** Syntax parsing changes
2906 *** New variable `syntax-propertize-function'.
2907 This replaces `font-lock-syntactic-keywords' which is now obsolete.
2908 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
2909 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
2910 Together with this new variable come a new hook
2911 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
2912 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
2913 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
2916 *** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
2918 ** New hook `post-self-insert-hook', run after `self-insert-command'.
2920 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
2922 ** Major and minor mode changes
2924 *** `set-auto-mode' now respects mode: local variables at the end of files,
2925 as well as those in the -*- line.
2927 *** `prog-mode' is a new major mode from which programming modes
2930 **** `prog-mode-hook' can be used to enable features for programming
2931 modes, e.g. (add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'flyspell-prog-mode) to enable
2932 on-the-fly spell checking for comments and strings.
2934 **** New minor modes `prettify-symbols-mode' and
2935 `global-prettify-symbols-mode' let the user enable symbol
2936 prettification (replacing a string like "lambda" with the Greek lambda
2939 *** New hook `change-major-mode-after-body-hook', run by
2940 `run-mode-hooks' just before any other mode hooks.
2942 *** Enabled globalized minor modes can be disabled in specific major modes.
2943 If the global mode is global-FOO-mode, then run (FOO-mode -1) in the
2944 major mode's hook, where FOO-mode toggles the mode on a per-buffer basis.
2946 *** `define-minor-mode' accepts new keywords :variable, :after-hook.
2948 ** File-handling changes
2950 *** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
2951 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
2952 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
2953 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
2955 *** New file predicates: `file-equal-p', `file-in-directory-p'.
2957 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
2958 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
2959 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
2963 *** Animated images support (currently animated gifs only).
2965 **** `image-animated-p' returns non-nil if an image can be animated.
2967 **** `image-animate' animates a supplied image spec.
2969 **** `image-animate-timer' returns the timer object for an image that
2972 *** `image-extension-data' has been renamed to `image-metadata'.
2973 The old name is an obsolete alias to the new one.
2975 *** Image mode can view any image type that ImageMagick supports.
2976 This requires Emacs to be built with ImageMagick support.
2978 **** New function `imagemagick-types', defined if ImageMagick support
2979 is enabled, returns a list of image file extensions that your
2980 ImageMagick installation supports.
2982 **** New function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick
2983 image types in Image mode and in `create-image' and other helper
2986 **** New option `imagemagick-types-inhibit' excludes certain
2987 ImageMagick image types from `imagemagick-register-types'.
2989 **** With ImageMagick support, there are extra Image mode commands to
2990 resize and rotate images: `image-transform-fit-to-height',
2991 `image-transform-fit-to-width', `image-transform-set-rotation', and
2992 `image-transform-set-scale'.
2994 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
2995 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
2996 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail. For
2997 example, this is used by Rmail to optionally delete a mail window.
2999 ** XML and HTML parsing
3000 If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support, there are two new
3001 functions: `libxml-parse-html-region' (which parses "real world" HTML)
3002 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
3003 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
3005 ** Networking and encryption changes
3007 *** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
3008 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
3009 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
3010 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
3011 must also be supplied.
3013 *** New library gnutls.el.
3014 The new function `gnutls-available-p' returns non-nil if Emacs is
3015 built with GnuTLS support. The main entry points are
3016 `open-gnutls-stream' and `gnutls-negotiate'. It's easiest to use
3017 these functions through `open-network-stream', because that can
3018 upgrade connections through STARTTLS opportunistically or use plain
3019 SSL, depending on your needs. For debugging, set `gnutls-log-level'
3022 *** New primitive `secure-hash' that supports many secure hash algorithms:
3023 md5, sha1, sha2, sha224, sha256, sha384, and sha512. The lisp library
3024 sha1.el has been removed. The `sha1' feature is provided by default.
3028 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
3030 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
3031 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
3032 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
3033 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
3034 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
3035 displayed with a "spinning bar".
3037 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
3038 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
3040 ** New variables `delayed-warnings-list' and `delayed-warnings-hook'.
3041 If delayed-warnings-list is non-nil, the command loop calls
3042 `delayed-warnings-hook' after `post-command-hook'. At present, this
3043 is only used by Emacs on some platforms to display warnings during
3044 startup, which might otherwise not be noticed. This uses the
3045 functions `display-delayed-warnings' and `collapse-delayed-warnings'.
3047 ** rx.el has a new `group-n' construct for explicitly numbered groups.
3049 ** New function `make-composed-keymap' that constructs a new keymap
3050 from multiple input maps. You can use this to make a keymap that
3051 inherits from multiple maps, eg:
3052 (set-keymap-parent newmap (make-composed-keymap othermap parent))
3054 ** New function `string-prefix-p'.
3055 (This was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not advertised at the time.)
3057 ** New reader macro ## that stands for the empty symbol.
3058 This means that the empty symbol can now be read back. Also, #: by itself
3059 (when not immediately followed by a possible symbol character) stands for
3060 an empty uninterned symbol.
3062 ** New math functions `isnan', `copysign', `frexp', `ldexp'.
3064 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
3066 *** `tooltip-use-echo-area' is obsolete.
3067 Rather than setting this to t, disable Tooltip mode instead.
3069 *** buffer-substring-filters is obsolete.
3070 Use `filter-buffer-substring-functions' instead.
3072 *** `byte-compile-disable-print-circle' is obsolete.
3074 *** `deferred-action-list' and `deferred-action-function' are obsolete.
3075 Use `post-command-hook' instead.
3077 *** `font-lock-maximum-size' is obsolete.
3080 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on Non-Free Operating Systems
3082 ** On MS Windows, Emacs warns when using the obsolete init file _emacs,
3083 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
3085 ** New configure.bat options
3087 *** --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra runtime checks.
3089 *** --distfiles specifies files to be included in binary distribution.
3091 *** --without-gnutls disables automatic GnuTLS detection.
3093 *** --lib for general library linkage, works with the USER_LIBS build variable.
3095 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
3097 ** The Lisp function `w32-default-color-map' is now obsolete.
3098 (It is only used internally in the Emacs C code.)
3100 ** Customize ns-auto-hide-menu-bar to have the menu-bar hidden, but
3101 reappear on mouse-over. (Requires OS X 10.6 or later.)
3103 ** On Mac OS X, dragging a file into Emacs visits the file, like on
3104 other platforms, rather than inserting its contents into the buffer.
3107 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
3108 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
3110 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
3111 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
3112 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
3113 (at your option) any later version.
3115 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
3116 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
3117 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
3118 GNU General Public License for more details.
3120 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
3121 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
3126 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"