Add the argument DEFAULT of minibuffer input functions to Incompatible Lisp Changes.
[bpt/emacs.git] / etc / NEWS
1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2
3 Copyright (C) 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
5
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
8
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 23.
10
11 See files NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18, and NEWS.1-17
12 for changes in older Emacs versions.
13
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
16
17 Temporary note:
18 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
19 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
20 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
21 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
22
23 \f
24 * About external Lisp packages
25
26 \f
27 * Installation Changes in Emacs 23.1
28
29 ** The default X toolkit is now Gtk+, rather than Lucid.
30
31 ** Fonts are handled by new code capable of dealing with multiple font
32 backends. This requires the freetype and fontconfig libraries, and
33 supports local fonts (fonts installed on the machine where Emacs is
34 running). Additionally, the Xft library can be used for antialiasing
35 support, the otf library for complex text layout by OpenType fonts,
36 and the m17n library for text shaping. Fontconfig-like font names
37 (e.g. monospace-12) are accepted. The old font handling code can
38 be used by passing the configure option `--disable-font-backend'
39 (also available as a run-time option).
40
41 ** The new configuration option "--with-dbus" enables D-Bus language
42 bindings for Emacs.
43
44 ** The Mac Carbon port is no longer supported.
45 Instead, use... [FIXME what?]
46
47 ** configure now checks for libgif before libungif when searching for
48 a GIF library.
49
50 ** Support for systems without alloca has been removed.
51
52 ** Support for Sun windows has been removed.
53
54 ** Support for many obsolete platforms has been removed.
55 See the list at the end of etc/MACHINES for details.
56
57 ** The `emacstool' utility has been removed.
58
59 ** The configure options `--with-gcc', `--without-gcc' have been removed.
60 Configure will use gcc by default. Set the CC environment variable if
61 you need control over which C compiler is used.
62
63 ** The configure option `--with-gtk' has been removed. Gtk is now the
64 default toolkit, but you can use --with-x-toolkit=gtk if necessary.
65 \f
66 * Changes in Emacs 23.1
67
68 ** Completion.
69 *** `completion-style' can be customized to choose your favorite completion.
70 *** `completion-auto-help' can be set to `lazy' to list the completions only
71 if you repeat the completion. This was already supported in
72 `partial-completion-mode'.
73
74 ** Emacs now supports using both X displays and ttys in one session.
75 Start the server (M-x server-start). Then `emacsclient -t' creates a
76 tty frame connected to the running emacs server. You can also use any
77 number of different ttys. `emacsclient -c' creates a new X11 frame on
78 the current $DISPLAY or a tty frame if $DISPLAY is not set.
79
80 You can test for the presence of this feature in your Lisp code by
81 testing for the `multi-tty' feature.
82
83 ** The Emacs character set is now a superset of Unicode.
84 (It has about four times the code space, which should be plenty).
85
86 The internal encoding used for buffers and strings is now
87 Unicode-based and called `utf-8-emacs'. utf-8-emacs is backwards
88 compatible with the UTF-8 encoding of Unicode. The `emacs-mule'
89 coding system can still read and write data in the old internal encoding.
90
91 Since the internal encoding is also used by default for byte-compiled
92 files -- i.e. the normal coding system for byte-compiled Lisp files is
93 now utf-8-Emacs -- Lisp containing non-ASCII characters which is
94 compiled by Emacs 23 can't be read by earlier versions of Emacs. Files
95 compiled by Emacs 20, 21, or 22 are loaded correctly as emacs-mule
96 (whether or not they contain multibyte characters), which makes loading
97 them somewhat slower than Emacs 23-compiled files. Thus it may be worth
98 recompiling existing .elc files which don't need to be shared with older
99 Emacsen.
100
101 ** There are assorted new coding systems/aliases -- see M-x list-coding-systems.
102
103 ** There is a new charset implementation with many new charsets.
104 See M-x list-character-sets. New charsets can be defined conveniently
105 as tables of unicodes.
106
107 The dimension of a charset is now 1, 2, 3, or 4, and the size of each
108 dimension is no longer limited to 94 or 96.
109
110 A dynamic charset priority list is used to infer the charset of
111 characters for display.
112
113 ** There are new Chinese-GBK, Chinese-GB18030, Khmer, Bengali,
114 Punjabi, Gujarati, Oriya, Telugu, Sinhala, and TaiViet language
115 environments.
116
117 ** Emacs now supports the XEmbed specification.
118 You can embed Emacs in another application on X11. The new command line option
119 --parent-id is used to pass the parent window id to Emacs. See
120 http://standards.freedesktop.org/xembed-spec/xembed-spec-latest.html
121 for details about XEmbed.
122
123 ** Emacs comes with a new set of default icons.
124 Various resolutions are available as etc/images/icons/hicolor/*/apps/emacs.png.
125 The Emacs 22 icon is available as `emacs22.png' in the same location.
126
127 ** Built-in functions (subr) can now have an interactive specification
128 that is not a prompt string. If the `intspec' parameter of a `DEFUN'
129 starts with a `(', the string is evaluated as a Lisp form.
130
131 ** set-file-modes is now interactive and can take the mode value in
132 symbolic notation thanks to auxiliary functions.
133
134 ** split-window-preferred-function specifies whether display-buffer should
135 split windows vertically or horizontally.
136
137 ** Emacsclient has been extended to support opening a new terminal
138 frame. Its behavior has been changed to open a new Emacs frame by
139 default. Use the -c option to get the old behavior of opening files in
140 the currently selected Emacs frame.
141
142 ** The refcards are now shipped as PDF files.
143
144 ** Emacs now supports the SVG image format through librsvg2.
145
146 ** If you set find-file-confirm-nonexistent-file to t, then C-x C-f
147 requires confirmation before opening a non-existent file.
148
149 ** If the gpm mouse server is running and t-mouse-mode enabled, Emacs uses a
150 Unix socket in a GNU/Linux console to talk to server, rather than faking events
151 using the client program mev. This C level approach provides mouse
152 highlighting, and help echoing in the minibuffer.
153
154 ** Recentering changes
155
156 *** The new variable next-error-recenter specifies how next-error should
157 recenter the visited source file. Its value can be a number (for example,
158 0 for top line, -1 for bottom line), or nil for no recentering.
159
160 *** New command recenter-top-bottom moves the current line to window
161 center, top and bottom on successive invokations.
162
163 *** C-l is bound to the new command recenter-top-bottom, rather than recenter.
164
165 ** The mode-line displays a `@' if the default-directory for the current buffer
166 is on a remote machine, or a hyphen otherwise.
167
168 ** The mode-line displays a mode menu when mouse-1 is clicked on a minor mode,
169 in the same way as it already did for major modes.
170
171 ** The new command balance-windows-area balances windows both vertically
172 and horizontally.
173
174 ** The new command close-display-connection can be used to close a connection
175 to a remote display, e.g. because the display is about to become unreachable.
176
177 ** The command shell prompts for the default directory, when it is
178 called with a prefix, and the default directory is a remote file name.
179 This is because some file name handlers (like ange-ftp) are not able to
180 run processes remotely.
181
182 ** The new command `display-time-world' starts an updating time display
183 using several time zones, in a buffer.
184
185 ** The new function `format-seconds' converts a number of seconds into a
186 readable string of days, hours, etc.
187
188 ** The new variables `before-init-time' and `after-init-time' record the
189 value of `current-time' before and after Emacs loads the init files.
190
191 ** The new function `emacs-uptime' returns the uptime of an Emacs instance.
192
193 ** The new function `emacs-init-time' returns the duration of the
194 Emacs initialization.
195
196 ** The minor modes unify-8859-on-encoding-mode, unify-8859-on-decoding-mode
197 are obsolete.
198
199 ** The new commands `pp-macroexpand-expression' and `pp-macroexpand-last-sexp'
200 pretty-print macro expansions.
201
202 \f
203 * Startup Changes in Emacs 23.1
204
205 ** The option `inhibit-startup-screen' (with aliases to old names
206 `inhibit-splash-screen' and `inhibit-startup-message') doesn't inhibit
207 display of the initial message in the *scratch* buffer. If you don't
208 want to display the initial message in the *scratch* buffer at startup,
209 you can set the option `initial-scratch-message' to nil.
210
211 ** New user option `initial-buffer-choice' specifies what to display
212 after starting Emacs: startup screen, *scratch* buffer, visiting a
213 file or directory.
214
215 ** New alias `argv' for `command-line-args-left'
216 This is a convenience alias, so that one can write `(pop argv)'
217 inside of --eval command line arguments in order to access
218 following arguments.
219
220 ** The new command-line option `--disable-font-backend' disables the
221 new font backend code at runtime. This option is not available if
222 Emacs was compiled without font-backend support.
223
224 ** The abbrev file is no longer read at startup in batch mode.
225 \f
226 * Incompatible Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
227
228 +++
229 ** In Dired-x, all command guesses for ! are now added to the default
230 list accessible by M-n instead of pushing all guesses temporarily into
231 the history list.
232
233 \f
234 * Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
235
236 ** Mark changes
237
238 +++
239 *** Transient Mark mode is now on by default.
240
241 +++
242 *** mark-even-if-inactive now defaults to t
243
244 +++
245 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, C-SPC C-SPC pushes a mark without activating it.
246
247 +++
248 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-q now fills the region if the
249 region is active. Otherwise, it fills the current paragraph.
250
251 +++
252 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-$ now checks spelling of the
253 region if the region is active. Otherwise, it checks spelling of the
254 word at point.
255
256 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, TAB now indents the region if the
257 region is active.
258
259 *** `use-empty-active-region' controls whether an empty active region
260 in Transient Mark mode should make commands operate on that empty
261 region.
262
263 ** Temporarily active regions
264
265 *** The new variable shift-select-mode, non-nil by default, controls
266 shift-selection. When Shift Select mode is on, shift-translated
267 motion keys (e.g. S-left and S-down) activate and extend a temporary
268 region, similar to mouse-selection.
269
270 *** Temporarily active regions, created using shift-selection or
271 mouse-selection, are not necessarily deactivated in the next command.
272 They are only deactivated after point motion commands that are not
273 shift-translated, or after commands that would ordinarily deactivate
274 the mark in Transient Mark mode (e.g., any command that modifies the
275 buffer).
276
277 +++
278 ** C-M-% now shows replacement as it would look in the buffer, with
279 `\N' and `\&' substituted according to the match. Old behavior can be
280 restored by customizing `query-replace-show-replacement'.
281
282 ** C-z now invokes `suspend-frame', C-x C-c now invokes
283 `save-buffers-kill-terminal'.
284
285 ** New command kill-matching-buffers kills buffers whose name matches a regexp.
286
287 ** You can disable kill ring commands from accessing the primary selection
288 by setting `x-select-enable-primary' to nil.
289
290 ** If `select-active-regions' is t, setting the mark automatically
291 makes the new region into the primary selection (for interaction with
292 other window applications). If you enable this, you might want to bind
293 `mouse-yank-primary' to Mouse-2.
294
295 ** If `yank-pop-change-selection' is t, rotating the kill ring
296 also updates the selection or clipboard to the current yank,
297 just as M-w would do so with the text it copies to the kill ring.
298
299 ** Minibuffer changes
300
301 *** Minibuffer input of shell commands now comes with completion.
302
303 *** Operations like C-x b and C-x C-f which use switch-to-buffer do not fail
304 any more when used in a minibuffer or a dedicated window. Instead, they
305 fallback on using pop-to-buffer which will use some other window.
306
307 *** When M-n in the minibuffer reaches the end of the list of defaults,
308 it adds the completion list to the end, so next M-n continues putting
309 completion items to the minibuffer. The same principle applies to
310 incremental search commands as well: C-s or C-M-s starts searching
311 the default values and after the end of defaults they continue
312 searching minibuffer completion items.
313
314 *** In C-x d, if you type M-n you get the visited file name of the
315 current buffer.
316
317 *** A list of default commands extracted from mailcap according to
318 file extensions are available in the list of default values
319 accessible by M-n in the minibuffer that reads a shell command
320 for M-! (shell-command) and fills a list of commands for the current
321 file, and in Dired for ! (dired-do-shell-command) that fills a list of
322 commands for the intersection of file types of marked Dired files.
323
324 *** A list of regexp default values is available via M-n for `occur',
325 `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many'. This list includes the active
326 region in transient-mark-mode, the word under the cursor, the last isearch
327 regexp, the last isearch string and the last replacement regexp.
328
329 *** isearch started in the minibuffer searches in the minibuffer history.
330 Reverse isearch commands (C-r, C-M-r) search in previous minibuffer
331 history elements, and forward isearch commands (C-s, C-M-s) search in
332 next history elements. When the reverse search reaches the first history
333 element, it wraps to the last history element, and the forward search
334 wraps to the first history element. When the search is terminated, the
335 history element containing the search string becomes the current.
336
337 ** New faces
338
339 *** `mode-line-emphasis' is used to highlight certain mode-line information;
340 for example while waiting for a VC command to finish.
341
342 ** Face changes
343
344 *** The new function `face-all-attributes' returns an alist describing
345 all the basic attributes of a given face.
346
347 \f
348 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
349
350 ** FIXME add details of new packages imported from lisp/gnus.
351 [Maybe some information from doc/misc/gnus-coding.texi can be reused]
352
353 ** The package doc-view.el has been added. It supports viewing of PDF,
354 PostScript and DVI documents inside an Emacs buffer by converting the
355 document to a set of PNG images first. One can also search for a
356 regular expression in the document. The commentary of the file explains
357 its usage.
358
359 ** The nXML package has been added. It is a new mode for editing XML
360 documents. nXML mode allows a schema to be associated with the XML
361 document being edited. nXML mode uses Relax NG as its schema
362 language. The schema is used to provide two key features:
363
364 *** Continuous validation. nXML validates as you type, highlighting
365 any invalid parts of your document.
366
367 *** Completion. nXML can assist you in entering an element name,
368 attribute name or data value by using information about what is
369 allowed by the schema in that context.
370
371 ** A new game called `bubbles' has been added. This is a version of
372 the "Same Game" with configurable difficulty level.
373
374 ** minibuffer-indicate-depth-mode shows the minibuffer depth in the prompt.
375
376 ** Remember Mode (remember.el) is now included with Emacs. It is a
377 mode for quickly jotting down things to remember. Included with
378 remember.el is a backend that can save notes to a Diary file. Please
379 consult the Remember Manual for usage details.
380
381 ** D-Bus language bindings for Elisp are provided by the package
382 dbus.el and by extensions to the C modules of Emacs. D-Bus is an
383 inter-process communication mechanism for applications residing on the
384 same host, based on messages. See the manual for further details.
385
386 ** zeroconf.el offers service discovery and service publishing
387 interfaces according to the zeroconf specification. It communicates
388 with Avahi, a zeroconf implementation, via D-Bus messages on systems
389 which have installed this software.
390
391 ** EasyPG is now part of the Emacs distribution. It is an all-in-one
392 GnuPG interface which includes GnuPG keyring browser, cryptographic
393 operations on regions and files, and automatic encryption of *.gpg
394 files. See the EasyPG Assistant User's Manual for further details.
395
396 ** json.el is now included with Emacs. It is a library for parsing
397 and generating JSON (JavaScript Object Notation). JSON is a
398 lightweight data-interchange format.
399
400 ** Auto Composition Mode is a minor mode that composes characters
401 automatically when they are displayed. It is globally on by default.
402 It uses `auto-composition-function' (default `auto-compose-chars').
403
404 ** The package linum.el is now included with Emacs. It it a new minor
405 mode to display line numbers for the current buffer.
406
407 ** proced.el has been added. It operates on processes like dired.
408 Proced makes an Emacs buffer containing a listing of the current processes
409 (using ps(1)). You can use the normal Emacs commands to move around in
410 this buffer, and special Proced commands to operate on the processes listed.
411
412 ** bug-reference.el provides clickable links to bug reports.
413
414 \f
415 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
416
417 ** A new `whitespace' package has been installed, and the pre-existing one
418 renamed to `old-whitespace'.
419 [FIXME someone explain why this is good, if it is...]
420
421 ** abbrev was rewritten in Elisp and extended with more flexibility.
422 *** New functions: abbrev-get, abbrev-put, abbrev-table-get, abbrev-table-put,
423 abbrev-table-p, abbrev-insert, abbrev-table-menu.
424 *** Special hook `abbrev-expand-functions' obsoletes `pre-abbrev-expand-hook'.
425 *** `make-abbrev-table', `define-abbrev', `define-abbrev-table' all take
426 extra arguments for arbitrary properties.
427 *** New variable `abbrev-minor-mode-table-alist'.
428 *** `local-abbrev-table' can hold a list of abbrev-tables.
429 *** Abbrevs have now the following special properties:
430 `:count', `:system', `:enable-function', `:case-fixed'.
431 *** Abbrev-tables have now the following special properties:
432 `:parents', `:case-fixed', `:enable-function', `:regexp',
433 `abbrev-table-modiff'.
434
435 ** Help mode
436 *** New macro `with-help-window' should set up help windows better
437 than `with-output-to-temp-buffer' with `print-help-return-message'.
438 *** New option `help-window-select' permits to customize whether help
439 window shall be automatically selected when invoking help.
440 *** New variable `help-window-point-marker' permits to specify new
441 position of point in help window (for example in `view-lossage').
442
443 ** view-remove-frame-by-deleting is now by default t
444 since users found iconification of view-mode frames distracting.
445
446 ** Isearch mode
447
448 *** New command `isearch-occur' bound to `M-s o' in isearch mode
449 runs `occur' with the current search string.
450
451 *** isearch can now search through multiple ChangeLog files.
452 When running isearch in a ChangeLog file, if the search fails,
453 then another C-s tries searching the previous ChangeLog,
454 if there is one (e.g. go from ChangeLog to ChangeLog.12).
455
456 This is enabled if isearch-buffers-multi is non-nil.
457
458 *** The part of an isearch that failed to match is highlighted in `isearch-fail'
459 face.
460
461 *** `C-h C-h' in isearch mode displays isearch-specific Help screen,
462 `C-h b' displays all isearch key bindings, `C-h k' displays the full
463 documentation of the given isearch key sequence, `C-h m' displays
464 documentation of isearch mode. All the rest Help commands exit isearch mode
465 and execute their global definitions.
466
467 ** archive-mode has basic support to browse Rar archives.
468
469 ** talk.el has been extended for multiple tty support.
470
471 ** Compile and grep modes
472
473 *** The mode-line entry for the *compilation* and *grep* buffer is color coded.
474 It has different colors for to show that: (a) the command is still
475 running, (b) successful completion, (c) error.
476
477 *** compilation-auto-jump-to-first-error tells `compile' to jump to
478 the first error encountered during compilations.
479
480 ** In the `copyright' package, you can specify your copyright holders' names.
481 Only copyright lines with holders matching copyright-names-regexp will be
482 considered for update.
483
484 ** The `copyright' package looks for copyright at the end of the buffer
485 if `copyright-at-end-flag' is non-nil (change-log-mode sets this).
486
487 ** eldoc highlights the function argument under point
488 with the face `eldoc-highlight-function-argument'.
489
490 ** hide-ifdef-mode permits to shadow ifdef-blocks instead of hiding them.
491 See option `hide-ifdef-shadow' and function `hide-ifdef-toggle-shadowing'.
492
493 +++
494 ** defcustom accepts new keyword arguments, `:safe' and `:risky', which
495 set a variable's `safe-local-variable' and `risky-local-variable' property.
496
497 ** Etags changes
498 *** The --members option is now the default.
499
500 Use --no-members if you want the old default behaviour of not tagging
501 struct members in C, members variables in C++ and variables in PHP.
502
503 ** VC
504
505 *** VC now supports applying VC operations to a set of files at a time.
506 This enables VC to work much more effectively with changeset-oriented
507 version-control systems such as Subversion, GNU Arch, Mercurial, Git
508 and Bzr. VC will now pass a multiple-file commit to these systems as
509 a single changeset.
510
511 *** vc-dir is a new command that displays file names and their VC
512 status. It allows to apply various VC operations to a file or a
513 set of files.
514
515 *** Clicking on the VC mode-line entry now pops the VC menu.
516
517 *** The VC mode-line entry now has a tooltip that explains the VC file status.
518
519 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type V to toggle the annotation visibility.
520
521 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type f to show the file revision on
522 the current line.
523
524 *** vc-git supports the "git grep" command.
525
526 *** Asynchronous VC commands display [Waiting...] in the mode-line
527 of the corresponding buffer as long as the asynchronous process is
528 active.
529
530 *** Log entries can be modified using the key "e" in log-view.
531 For now only CVS, RCS, SCCS and SVN support this functionality.
532 This is done by the `modify-change-comment' backend function.
533
534 ** smerge-refine highlights word-level details of changes in conflict.
535 It's used automatically as you move through conflicts, see smerge-auto-refine.
536
537 ** Diff mode
538
539 *** diff-refine-hunk highlights word-level details of changes in a diff hunk.
540 It's used automatically as you move through hunks, see
541 diff-auto-refine. It is bound to `C-c C-b'.
542
543 *** diff-add-change-log-entries-other-window iterates through the diff
544 buffer and tries to create ChangeLog entries for each change.
545 It is bound to `C-x 4 A'.
546
547 ** log-edit now has a command bound to C-c C-d to show the diff for
548 the files involved.
549
550 ** In Change Log mode, the new function `change-log-find-file', bound to
551 C-c C-f, finds the file associated with the current log entry.
552
553 ** sgml-electric-tag-pair-mode lets you simultaneously edit matched tag pairs.
554
555 ** The appearance of superscript and subscript in TeX is more customizable.
556 See the documentation of the variables: tex-fontify-script,
557 tex-font-script-display, tex-suscript-height-ratio, and
558 tex-suscript-height-minimum.
559
560 ** BibTeX mode
561
562 *** New command `bibtex-initialize' (re)initializes BibTeX buffers.
563
564 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' options `whitespace', `braces', and
565 `string', disabled by default.
566
567 *** New variable `bibtex-cite-matcher-alist' contains rules to
568 identify cited keys in BibTeX entries, used by `bibtex-find-crossref'.
569
570 *** Command `bibtex-url' allows multiple URLs per entry.
571
572 +++
573 ** Tramp
574
575 *** New connection methods.
576 The new methods "plinkx", "plink2", "psftp", "sftp" and "fish" have
577 been introduced. There are also new so-called gateway methods
578 "tunnel" and "socks".
579
580 *** Multihop syntax has been removed.
581 The pseudo-method "multi" has been removed. Instead of, multi hops
582 can be specified by the new variable `tramp-default-proxies-alist'.
583
584 *** More default settings.
585 Default values can be set via the variables `tramp-default-user',
586 `tramp-default-user-alist' and `tramp-default-host'.
587
588 *** Connection information is cached.
589 In order to reduce connection setup, information about used
590 connections are kept persistent in a file. The name of this file is
591 defined in the variable `tramp-persistency-file-name'.
592
593 *** Control of remote processes.
594 Running processes on a remote host can be controlled by settings in
595 `tramp-remote-path' and `tramp-remote-process-environment'.
596
597 *** Success of remote copy is checked.
598 When the variable `file-precious-flag' is set, the success of a remote
599 file copy is checked via the file's checksum.
600
601 ** Calendar and diary
602
603 +++
604 *** There is a new date style, `iso', essentially year/month/day.
605 The variable `european-calendar-style' is obsolete - use `calendar-date-style'.
606 Similarly, the commands `american-calendar' and `european-calendar'
607 should be replaced by `calendar-set-date-style'.
608
609 +++
610 *** The calendar namespace has been rationalized.
611 All functions and variables now begin with a `calendar-', `diary-', or
612 `holiday-' prefix. The various calendar systems have secondary
613 prefixes, eg `calendar-french-'. The old names you are likely to use
614 directly still exist, for the time being, as aliases, but please start
615 using the new names.
616
617 *** The function `holiday-chinese' computes holidays on the Chinese calendar.
618 It has been used to add items to the list `holiday-oriental-holidays'.
619
620 *** `diary-remind' accepts a negative number -DAYS as a shorthand for
621 the list (1 2 ... DAYS).
622
623 ** Miscellaneous programming mode changes
624
625 *** The file etc/emacs.py now supports both Python 2 and 3, meaning
626 that either version can be used as inferior Python by python.el.
627
628 *** Python mode now has `pdbtrack' functionality. When using pdb to
629 debug a Python program, pdbtrack notices the pdb prompt and displays
630 the source file and line that the program is stopped at, much the same
631 way as gud-mode does for debugging C programs with gdb.
632
633 *** The variable `fortran-line-length' can change the fixed-form line-length.
634
635 *** In Fortran mode, M-; is now bound to the standard comment-dwim,
636 rather than fortran-indent-comment.
637
638 +++
639 *** (The increasingly misnamed) F90 mode supports Fortran 2003 syntax.
640
641 ** Gnus package
642
643 *** The Gnus package has been updated
644
645 *** In Emacs 23, Gnus uses Emacs' new internal coding system `utf-8-emacs' for
646 saving articles drafts and ~/.newsrc.eld. These file may not be read
647 correctly in Emacs 22 and below. If you want to Gnus across different Emacs
648 versions, you may set `mm-auto-save-coding-system' to `emacs-mule'.
649
650 *** There are many news features, bug fixes and improvements.
651
652 See the file GNUS-NEWS or the node "No Gnus" in the Gnus manual for details.
653
654 ** Miscellaneous
655
656 *** goto-address.el provides two new minor modes, goto-address-mode and
657 goto-address-prog-mode, which buttonize URLS and email addresses.
658
659 *** comint-mode uses `start-file-process' now (see Lisp Changes).
660 If `default-directory' is a remote file name, subprocesses are started
661 on the corresponding remote system.
662
663 *** C-x C-q in dired-mode now runs the command wdired-change-to-wdired-mode,
664 and C-x C-q in wdired-mode exits it with asking a question about
665 saving changes.
666
667 *** The new command `eshell/info' runs info in an eshell buffer.
668
669 *** The pcmpl-unix package supports hostname completion for ssh and scp.
670
671 *** WoMan tries to add locale-specific manual page directories to the
672 search path. This can be disabled by setting `woman-locale' to nil.
673
674 *** The new variable `ffap-rfc-directories' specifies a list of local
675 directories in which `ffap-rfc' will first search for RFCs.
676
677 *** net-utils has an `iwconfig' command, similar to the existing `ifconfig'.
678 It is used to configure wireless interfaces.
679
680 \f
681 * Changes in Emacs 23.1 on non-free operating systems
682
683 ---
684 ** IPv6 is supported on MS-Windows.
685 Emacs now supports IPv6 on Windows XP and later, and earlier versions
686 of Windows with third party IPv6 stacks installed. In Emacs 22, IPv6 was
687 supported on other platforms, but not on Windows due to using the winsock
688 1.1 header file, even though Emacs was linking to the winsock 2 library.
689
690 ---
691 ** Busy cursor (hourglass) now displays on MS-Windows.
692 When Emacs is busy, an hourglass mouse cursor is displayed on Windows.
693 In Emacs 22 only X supported the busy cursor.
694
695 ---
696 ** Battery status is available on MS-Windows
697 Emacs can now display the battery status in the mode-line when enabled with
698 display-battery-mode or from the Options menu. More verbose battery
699 information is also available with the command `battery'. In Emacs 22
700 battery status was supported only on GNU/Linux and Mac.
701
702 ** More keys available on MS-Windows.
703 Keys normally associated with IMEs, and some exotic keys not normally found
704 on standard keyboards have been given names so they can be bound to functions
705 inside Emacs. If there are keys on your keyboard that have not been exposed
706 to Emacs in the past, try C-h k to see if they are available now.
707
708 Emacs can now bind functions to the extra buttons for media player and
709 browser control present on some keyboards. These buttons are disabled
710 by default, since enabling them prevents their system-wide use when
711 Emacs has focus. To enable them, set the variable
712 w32-pass-multimedia-buttons to nil. See the doc string of that variable
713 for the list of extra keys that are available.
714
715 \f
716 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
717
718 ** The argument DEFAULT of minibuffer input functions `read-from-minibuffer',
719 `read-string', `completing-read', `read-buffer', `read-command',
720 `read-variable' now can be a list of default values. The elements of
721 this list are available for inserting to the minibuffer with `M-n'.
722 If the user enters empty input, the first element is used as the default.
723
724 ** `functionp' returns nil for special forms.
725 I.e., it only returns t for objects that can be passed to `funcall'.
726
727 +++
728 ** The multibyteness of process filters is determined by the coding-system
729 used for decoding. The functions `process-filter-multibyte-p' and
730 `set-process-filter-multibyte' are obsolete.
731
732 ** The behavior of map-char-table has changed. It may call the
733 specified function with a cons (FROM . TO) as a key if characters in
734 that range have the same value.
735
736 ** The value of the function `charset-id' is now always 0.
737
738 ** The functions `register-char-codings' and `coding-system-spec'
739 have been removed.
740
741 ** The cpXXX coding systems are now supported automatically. The
742 functions cp-...-codepage, which you had to use in Emacs 22 to enable
743 support for these coding systems, have been deleted.
744
745 +++
746 ** The function `dired-call-process' has been removed.
747
748 ** The variable `byte-compile-warnings' can now be a list starting with `not',
749 meaning to disable the specified warnings. The meaning of this list
750 may therefore be the reverse of what you expect (of course, this is
751 only an issue if you make use of the new `not' syntax). Rather than
752 checking/manipulating elements directly, use the new functions
753 `byte-compile-warning-enabled-p', `byte-compile-disable-warning', and
754 `byte-compile-enable-warning.'
755
756 ** `mode-name' is no longer guaranteed to be a string.
757 Use `(format-mode-line mode-name)' to ensure a string value.
758
759 ** The following features have been removed. They were used for
760 displaying various scripts with specific fonts, and are no longer
761 needed now that OpenType font support is available:
762
763 *** `devanagari' and `devan-util', and all associated devanagari-* and
764 dev-* functions and variables (formerly used for Devanagari script).
765
766 *** `kannada' and `knd-util', and all associated kannada-* and knd-*
767 functions and variables (formerly used for Kannada script).
768
769 *** `malayalam' and `mlm-util', and all associated malayalam-* and
770 mlm-* functions and variables (formerly used for Malayalam script).
771
772 *** `tamil' and `tml-util, and all associated tamil-* and tml-*
773 functions and variables (formerly used for Tamil script).
774
775 \f
776 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
777
778 ** `all-completions' may now return the base size in the last cdr.
779 Since this means the returned list is not properly nil-terminated, this
780 is an incompatible change and is thus enabled by the new variable
781 completion-all-completions-with-base-size.
782
783 ** New function `apply-partially' for curried application.
784
785 ** `fill-forward-paragraph-function' specifies which function the filling
786 code should use to find paragraph boundaries.
787
788 ** The variable `this-command-keys-shift-translated' is non-nil if the
789 key sequence invoking the current command was found by
790 shift-translation.
791
792 ** The new interactive spec code ^ says to first call
793 handle-shift-selection if shift-select-mode is non-nil, before reading
794 the command arguments.
795
796 ** When deleting a terminal, run the special hook `delete-terminal-functions'.
797
798 ** The `read-shell-command' function does what its name says, with completion.
799 It uses the minibuffer-local-shell-command-map for that.
800
801 ** The `buffer-swap-text' function can swap the text between two buffers.
802 This can be useful for modes such as tar-mode, archive-mode, RMAIL.
803
804 ** `clear-image-cache' can be told to flush only images of a specific file.
805
806 ** clone-indirect-buffer now runs the clone-indirect-buffer-hook.
807
808 ** `beginning-of-defun-function' now takes one argument, the count
809 given to `beginning-of-defun'.
810
811 ** The variable `inhibit-changing-match-data', if non-nil, prevents the
812 search and match primitives from changing the match data.
813
814 +++
815 ** New function `match-substitute-replacement' returns the result of
816 `replace-match' without actually using it in the buffer.
817
818 ** If a local hook function has a non-nil `permanent-local-hook'
819 property, then `kill-all-local-variables' does not remove it from
820 the local value of the hook variable. This means it remains
821 even if you change major modes.
822
823 +++
824 ** A list of default values can be specified for the DEFAULT argument of
825 functions `read-from-minibuffer', `read-string', `read-command',
826 `read-variable', `read-buffer', `completing-read'. Elements of this list
827 are available for inserting into the minibuffer by typing `M-n'.
828 For empty input these functions return the first element of this list.
829
830 ** `custom-note-var-changed' tells Custom to treat the change in a certain
831 variable as having been made within Custom.
832
833 ** `frame-inherited-parameters' lets new frames inherit parameters from
834 the selected frame.
835
836 ** Commands should use `use-region-p' to test whether there is
837 an active region that they should operate on.
838
839 ** `region-active-p' returns non-nil when Transient Mark mode
840 is enabled and there is an active region. This is NOT the best function
841 to use to test whether a command should operate on the region instead
842 of the usual behavior -- for that, use `use-region-p'.
843
844 ** If a command sets `transient-mark-mode' to (only . OLDVAL), that
845 means to activate transient-mark-mode temporarily, until the next
846 unshifted point motion command or mark deactivation. Afterwards,
847 reset transient-mark-mode to the value OLDVAL. The values `only' and
848 `identity', introduced in Emacs 22, are now deprecated.
849
850 ** New keymap `input-decode-map' overrides like key-translation-map, but
851 applies before function-key-map. Also it is terminal-local contrary to
852 key-translation-map. Terminal-specific key-sequences are generally added to
853 this map rather than to function-key-map now.
854
855 ** The new macro `declare-function' suppresses compiler warnings about
856 undefined functions. The new `check-declare' package verifies that such
857 statements are accurate (i.e. the functions are actually defined in
858 the specified files).
859
860 ** The new function `read-color' reads a color name using the minibuffer.
861
862 ** `interprogram-paste-function' can now return one string or a list
863 of strings. In the latter case, Emacs puts the second and following
864 strings on the kill ring.
865
866 ** Character code, representation, and charset changes.
867
868 The character code space is now 0x0..0x3FFFFF with no gap.
869 Characters of code 0x0..0x10FFFF are Unicode characters of the same code points.
870 Characters of code 0x3FFF80..0x3FFFFF are raw 8-bit bytes.
871
872 Generic characters no longer exist.
873
874 In buffer and string, characters are represented by UTF-8 byte
875 sequence in a multibyte buffer/string.
876
877 The concept of a charset has changed. A single character may belong to
878 multiple charsets (e.g. a-grave, U+00E0, belongs to charsets unicode,
879 iso-8859-1, iso-8859-3, etc).
880
881 *** The new function `characterp' returns t if and only if the argument
882 is a character. This replaces `char-valid-p', which is now obsolete.
883
884 *** The new function `max-char' returns the maximum character code
885 (currently it is #x3FFFFF).
886
887 *** The functions `encode-char' and `decode-char' now accept any character sets.
888
889 *** The function `define-charset' now accepts a completely different
890 form of arguments (old-style arguments still work).
891
892 *** The new function `define-charset-alias' defines an alias of a charset.
893
894 *** The value of the function `char-charset' depends on the current
895 priorities of charsets.
896
897 *** The new function `charset-priority-list' returns the list of
898 charsets ordered by priority.
899
900 *** The new function `set-charset-priority' sets priorities of charsets.
901
902 *** The new function `unibyte-string' make a unibyte string from bytes.
903
904 *** The new function `define-char-code-property' defines a character
905 code property.
906
907 *** The new function `char-code-property-description' returns the
908 description string of a character code property.
909
910 *** The function get-char-code-property now accepts many Unicode base
911 character properties. They are `name', `general-category',
912 `canonical-combining-class', `bidi-class', `decomposition',
913 `decimal-digit-value', `digit-value', `numeric-value', `mirrored',
914 `old-name', `iso-10646-comment', `uppercase', `lowercase', and
915 `titlecase'.
916
917 *** The new variable `find-word-boundary-function-table' is a
918 char-table of functions to search for a word boundary.
919
920 *** The new variable `char-script-table' is a char-table of script names.
921
922 *** The new variable `char-width-table' is a char-table of character widths.
923
924 *** The new variable `print-charset-text-property' controls how to
925 handle `charset' text property on printing a string.
926
927 *** The new variable `printable-chars' is a char-table defining if a
928 character is printable or not.
929
930 *** The functions `modify-syntax-entry' and `modify-category-entry' now
931 accepts a cons of characters as the first argument, and modify all
932 entries in that range of characters.
933 +++
934 *** `translation-table-for-input' is now obsolete.
935
936 ** Code conversion changes
937
938 *** The new function `define-coding-system' should be used to define a
939 coding system instead of `make-coding-system' (which is now obsolete).
940
941 *** The functions `encode-coding-region' and `decode-coding-region'
942 have an optional 4th argument to specify where the result of
943 conversion should go.
944
945 *** The functions `encode-coding-string' and `decode-coding-string'
946 have an optional 4th argument specifying a buffer to store the result
947 of conversion.
948
949 *** The new function `with-coding-priority' executes the body part with
950 the specified coding system priority order.
951
952 *** The new function `check-coding-systems-region' checks if the text
953 in the region is encodable by the specified coding systems.
954
955 *** The new function `coding-system-aliases' returns a list of aliases
956 of a coding system.
957
958 *** The new function `coding-system-charset-list' returns a list of
959 charsets supported by a coding system.
960
961 *** The new function `coding-system-priority-list' returns a list of
962 coding systems ordered by their priorities.
963
964 *** The new function `set-coding-system-priority' sets priorities of
965 coding systems.
966
967 *** The functions `set-coding-priority' and `make-coding-system' are obsolete.
968
969 ** There is a new input method, Robin, different from Quail.
970 It has three functionalities:
971 i) a simple input method (converts an ASCII sequence into a string).
972 ii) converts an existing buffer substring into another string
973 iii) reverse conversion (each character produced by a
974 robin rule can hold the original ASCII sequence as a char-code-property)
975
976 *** The new function `robin-define-package' defines a Robin package.
977
978 *** The new function `robin-modify-package' modifies an existing Robin package.
979
980 *** The new function `robin-use-package' starts using a Robin package
981 as an input method.
982
983 ** Changes related to the new font backend
984
985 Which font backends to use can be specified by the X resource "FontBackend".
986 For instance, to use both X core fonts and Xft fonts:
987
988 Emacs.FontBackend: x,xft
989
990 If this resource is not set, Emacs tries to use all font backends
991 available on your graphic device.
992
993 *** New frame parameter `font-backend' specifies a list of
994 font-backends supported by the frame's graphic device. On X, they are
995 currently `x' and `xft'.
996
997 *** New function `fontp' checks if the argument is a font-spec or font-entity.
998
999 *** New function `font-spec' creates a new font-spec object.
1000
1001 *** New function `font-get' returns a font property value.
1002
1003 *** New function `font-put' sets a font property value.
1004
1005 *** New function `list-fonts' returns a list of font-entities matching
1006 the given specification.
1007
1008 *** New function `list-families' returns a list of family names of
1009 available fonts.
1010
1011 *** New function `font-font' returns a font-entity best matching with
1012 the given specification.
1013
1014 *** New function `font-xlfd-name' returns an XLFD name of a given font
1015 (font-spec, font-entity, or font-object).
1016
1017 *** New function `clear-font-cache' clears all font caches.
1018
1019 *** The function `set-fontset-font' now accepts a script name as the
1020 second argument, and has an optional 5th argument to control how to
1021 set the font.
1022
1023 ** Changes related to multiple tty support
1024
1025 *** $TERM is now set to `dumb' for subprocesses. If you want to know the
1026 $TERM inherited by Emacs you will have to look inside initial-environment.
1027
1028 *** $DISPLAY is now dynamically inherited from the frame's `display'.
1029
1030 *** The `window-system' variable has been made frame-local. The new
1031 `initial-window-system' variable contains the `window-system' value
1032 for the first frame. `window-system' is also now a function that
1033 takes a frame argument.
1034
1035 *** You can specify a terminal device (`tty' parameter) and a terminal
1036 type (`tty-type' parameter) to `make-terminal-frame'.
1037
1038 *** The new function `make-frame-on-tty' allows you to create a new
1039 frame on another tty device interactively.
1040
1041 *** The function `make-frame-on-display' now works during a tty
1042 session, and `make-frame-on-tty' works during a graphical session.
1043
1044 *** New functions: `delete-tty', `suspend-tty', `resume-tty'.
1045
1046 *** A new data type for terminals with functions: `get-device-terminal',
1047 `terminal-parameters', `terminal-parameter', `set-terminal-parameter'.
1048
1049 *** New hooks: `suspend-tty-functions' and `resume-tty-functions'
1050 are called after a tty frame has been suspended or resumed,
1051 respectively. The functions are called with the terminal id of the frame
1052 being suspended/resumed as a parameter.
1053
1054 *** New function: `environment'.
1055
1056 *** New variable: `local-function-key-map'.
1057 This in addition to the global function-key-map variable that
1058 already existed. The global variable is not used directly any more;
1059 instead, the local-function-key-map is initialized so as to inherit from
1060 function-key-map.
1061
1062 *** `initial-environment' holds the environment inherited from Emacs's parent.
1063
1064 *** The `keyboard-translate-table' variable and the terminal and
1065 keyboard coding systems have been made terminal-local.
1066
1067 *** In addition to the global function-key-map, Emacs has terminal-local
1068 local-function-key-map variables, and uses them instead of the
1069 global keymaps to set up translations and function key sequences
1070 relevant to a specific terminal device.
1071
1072
1073 ** You can now also pass the value of the `invisible' property to invisible-p
1074 to check whether it would cause the text to be invisible. Convenient when
1075 checking invisibility of text which has no buffer position
1076 (e.g. in before/after-strings).
1077
1078 ** Non-breaking space now acts as whitespace.
1079
1080 +++
1081 ** In `condition-case', a handler can specify "let the debugger run first".
1082
1083 You do this by writing `debug' in the list of conditions to be handled,
1084 like this:
1085
1086 (condition-case nil
1087 (foo bar)
1088 ((debug error) nil))
1089
1090 ** The `require-match' argument to `completing-read' accepts a new value
1091 `confirm-only'.
1092
1093 +++
1094 ** The regexp form \(?<num>:<regexp>\) specifies the group number explicitly.
1095
1096 ** New function `window-full-width-p' returns t if a window is as wide
1097 as its frame.
1098
1099 ** The new function `split-string-and-unquote' does (what?)
1100
1101 ** The new function `combine-and-quote-strings' does (what?)
1102
1103 ** The new function `image-refresh' refreshes all images associated
1104 with a given image specification.
1105
1106 +++
1107 ** New variable `user-emacs-directory'.
1108 Use this instead of "~/.emacs.d".
1109
1110 +++
1111 ** The new function `start-file-process' is similar to `start-process',
1112 but obeys file handlers. The file handler is chosen based on
1113 `default-directory'. The functions `start-file-process-shell-command'
1114 and `process-file-shell-command' are also new; they call internally
1115 `start-file-process' and `process-file', respectively.
1116
1117 ** The new function `process-lines' executes an external program and
1118 returns its output as a list of lines.
1119
1120 +++
1121 ** `file-remote-p' has new optional parameters IDENTIFICATION and CONNECTED.
1122 IDENTIFICATION specifies which part of the remote identifier has to be
1123 returned. With CONNECTED passed non-nil, it is checked whether a
1124 remote connection has been established already.
1125
1126 ** The two new functions `looking-at-p' and `string-match-p' can do
1127 the same matching as `looking-at' and `string-match' without changing
1128 the match data.
1129
1130 ** The interactive-form of a function can be added post-facto via the
1131 `interactive-form' symbol property. Mostly useful to add complex interactive
1132 forms to subroutines.
1133 \f
1134 * New Packages for Lisp Programming in Emacs 23.1
1135
1136 ** find-cmd.el can build `find' commands using lisp syntax.
1137
1138 ** The package isearch-multi.el has been added. It implements a new mode
1139 `isearch-buffers-minor-mode' that allows isearch to search through
1140 multiple buffers. In this mode a new variable
1141 `isearch-buffers-next-buffer-function' defines the function to call
1142 to get the next buffer to search in the series of multiple buffers.
1143
1144 ** The new package avl-tree.el deals with the AVL tree data structure.
1145
1146 \f
1147 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1148 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
1149
1150 GNU Emacs is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
1151 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1152 the Free Software Foundation; either version 3, or (at your option)
1153 any later version.
1154
1155 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1156 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1157 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1158 GNU General Public License for more details.
1159
1160 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1161 along with GNU Emacs; see the file COPYING. If not, write to the
1162 Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor,
1163 Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
1164
1165 \f
1166 Local variables:
1167 mode: outline
1168 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
1169 end:
1170
1171 arch-tag: e759449d-88b3-4de4-9900-3a6c3dfa23e2