1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2012 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 24.2
26 ** New configure option '--enable-gcc-warnings', intended for developers.
27 If building with GCC, this enables compile-time checks that warn about
28 possibly-questionable C code. On a recent GNU system there should be
29 no warnings; on older and on non-GNU systems the generated warnings
33 ** Emacs uses libtinfo in preference to libncurses, if available.
36 ** On FreeBSD and NetBSD, configure no longer adds /usr/local/lib and
37 /usr/pkg/lib to the linker search path. You must add them yourself if
41 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.2
43 ** Emacs no longer searches for `leim-list.el' files beneath the standard
44 lisp/ directory. There should not be any there anyway. If you have
45 been adding them there, put them somewhere else, eg site-lisp.
48 * Changes in Emacs 24.2
50 ** New functions `system-users', `system-groups' return lists of the user
51 name, group names known to the system (where possible).
53 ** If your Emacs was built from a bzr checkout, the new variable
54 `emacs-bzr-version' contains information about which bzr revision was used.
56 ** ImageMagick support, if available, is automatically enabled.
57 It is no longer necessary to call `imagemagick-register-types'
58 explicitly to install ImageMagick image types; that function is called
59 automatically when setting `imagemagick-types-inhibit'.
61 *** Setting `imagemagick-types-inhibit' to t now disables the use of
62 ImageMagick to view images, set
64 ** String values for `initial-buffer-choice' also apply to emacsclient
65 frames, if emacsclient is only told to open a new frame without
66 specifying any file to visit or expression to evaluate.
69 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.2
71 ** M-x move-to-column, if called interactively with no prefix arg, now
72 prompts for a column number.
74 ** `mouse-avoidance-banish-position' can now be used to customize
75 `mouse-avoidance-mode' further.
77 ** `C-M-f' and `C-M-b' will now move to the path name separator
78 character when doing minibuffer filename prompts.
80 ** `goto-char' is now bound to `M-g c'.
83 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.2
85 ** New `derived-mode' filter for Ibuffer, bound to `/ M'.
86 `/ m' is now bound to filter by used-mode, which used to be bound to `/ M'.
90 *** The faces used by Apropos are now directly customizable.
91 These faces are named `apropos-symbol', `apropos-keybinding', and so on;
92 see the `apropos' Custom group for details.
94 **** The old options whose values specified faces to use were removed
95 (i.e. `apropos-symbol-face', `apropos-keybinding-face', etc.).
99 *** `custom-reset-button-menu' now defaults to t.
101 *** Non-option variables are never matched in `customize-apropos' and
102 `customize-apropos-options' (i.e. the prefix argument does nothing for
105 ** erc will look up server/channel names via auth-source and use the
106 channel keys found, if any.
110 *** The obsolete variable `follow-mode-off-hook' has been removed.
112 *** Follow mode no longer works by using advice.
113 The option `follow-intercept-processes' has been removed.
115 ** The `server-auth-key' variable can be used to set a permanent
116 shared key for Emacs Server.
118 ** In Perl mode, new option `perl-indent-parens-as-block' causes non-block
119 closing brackets to be aligned with the line of the opening bracket.
121 ** FIXME something happened to ses.el, 2012-04-17.
123 ** which-function-mode now applies to all applicable major modes by default.
128 *** New variables `dbus-compiled-version' and `dbus-runtime-version'.
131 *** The D-Bus object manager interface is implemented.
134 *** Variables of type :(u)int32 and :(u)int64 accept floating points,
135 if their value does not fit into Emacs's integer range.
138 *** The function `dbus-call-method' works non-blocking now, it can be
139 interrupted by C-g. `dbus-call-method-non-blocking' is obsolete.
142 *** Signals can be sent also as unicast message.
145 *** The argument list of `dbus-register-signal' has been extended,
146 according to the new match rule types of D-Bus. See the manual for
150 *** `dbus-init-bus' supports private connections.
153 *** There is a new function `dbus-setenv'.
156 ** notifications.el supports now version 1.2 of the Notifications API.
157 The function `notifications-get-capabilities' returns the supported
160 ** Obsolete packages:
163 In most cases, assoc+member+push+delq work just as well.
164 And in any case it's just a terrible package: ugly semantics, terrible
165 inefficiency, and not namespace-clean.
172 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.2
174 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.2
177 ** Docstrings starting with `*' no longer indicate user options.
178 Only variables defined using `defcustom' are considered user options.
179 The function `user-variable-p' is now an obsolete alias for
182 ** `face-spec-set' no longer sets frame-specific attributes when the
183 third argument is a frame (that usage was obsolete since Emacs 22.2).
186 ** The arguments of `dbus-register-signal' are no longer just strings,
187 but keywords or keyword-string pairs. The old argument list will
188 still be supported for Emacs 24.x.
191 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.2
195 *** New function `completion-table-with-quoting' to handle completion
196 in the presence of quoting, such as file completion in shell buffers.
198 *** New function `completion-table-subvert' to use an existing completion
199 table, but with a different prefix.
203 *** `current-time-string' no longer requires that its argument's year
204 must be in the range 1000..9999. It now works with any year supported
205 by the underlying C implementation.
207 * Changes in Emacs 24.2 on non-free operating systems
209 ** New configure.bat options on MS-Windows:
211 *** --without-libxml2 omits support for libxml2, even if its presence
215 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
217 ** Emacs can be compiled with Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
218 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
219 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
222 ** Emacs can be compiled with GnuTLS support.
223 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
224 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
225 `--without-gnutls'. See below for GnuTLS features.
227 ** Emacs can be compiled with SELinux support.
228 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
229 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
230 `--without-selinux'. See below for SELinux features.
232 ** Emacs can be compiled with ImageMagick support.
233 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
234 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
235 `--without-imagemagick'. See below for ImageMagick features.
236 This feature is not available for the Nextstep or MS ports.
238 ** Emacs can be compiled with libxml2 support.
239 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
240 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
241 `--without-xml2'. See below for libxml2 features.
243 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
244 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
246 ** New configure option --with-wide-int.
247 With it, Emacs integers typically have 62 bits, even on 32-bit machines.
248 On 32-bit hosts, this raises the limit on buffer sizes from about 512 MiB
251 ** New configure options: --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
252 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
253 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
255 ** New configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
256 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
257 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
259 ** The standalone programs digest-doc and sorted-doc are removed.
260 Emacs now uses Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
262 ** The standalone program `fakemail' is removed.
263 If you need it, feedmail.el provides a superset of the functionality.
266 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
268 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
269 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
270 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
272 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
273 from load-path. -Q now implies this. This option does not affect the
274 EMACSLOADPATH environment variable (and hence has no effect for
278 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
282 *** Many packages now use the `completion-at-point' command,
283 rather than implementing separate completion commands.
285 *** `completion-at-point' now handles tags and semantic completion.
287 *** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
288 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
290 *** New option `completion-cycle-threshold' allows completion cycling.
292 *** New option `completion-category-overrides' for overriding the
293 default completion style in certain circumstances.
295 *** New completion style `substring'.
297 *** Completion of buffer names uses `substring' completion by default.
299 *** The option `widget-complete-field' has been removed.
303 *** The first time you try sending mail, Emacs asks for a mail method.
304 This is implemented by a new default for `send-mail-function', which
305 is `sendmail-query-once'. This offers to use the smtpmail package, or
306 to use the old defaults relying on external mail facilities
307 (`sendmail-send-it' on GNU/Linux and other Unix-like systems, and
308 `mailclient-send-it' on Windows).
310 *** Typing C-c m in the buffer made by M-x report-emacs-bug transfers
311 the report to your desktop's preferred mail client, if there is one.
312 This uses either the "xdg-email" utility, or Mac OS's "open" command.
314 *** See Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages for SMTPmail changes
315 and Mail mode changes
317 ** Emacs server and client changes
319 *** New option `server-port' specifies the port for TCP Emacs servers.
321 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
323 *** New emacsclient argument --frame-parameters specifies the frame
324 parameters of any newly-created graphical frame.
326 *** If emacsclient shuts down due to Emacs signaling an error,
327 its exit status is 1.
329 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID.
330 This opens a client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed, similar
331 to the --parent-id argument to Emacs.
333 ** Internationalization changes
335 *** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
336 Right-to-left (RTL) scripts, such as Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew, are
337 displayed in the correct visual order as expected by users of those
338 scripts. The display reordering is a "full bidirectionality" class
339 implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm (UBA). Buffers
340 with no RTL text should look exactly the same as before.
342 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-display-reordering'.
343 To disable display reordering in a buffer, change this to nil.
345 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction'.
346 If nil (the default), Emacs determines the base direction of each
347 paragraph from its text, as specified by the UBA. Setting the value
348 to `right-to-left' or `left-to-right' forces a base direction on each
351 Paragraphs with right-to-left base direction are displayed starting at
352 the right window edge.
354 *** Enhanced support for characters with no glyphs in available fonts,
355 or, on text terminals, characters that cannot be encoded by the
356 terminal coding system. The new option `glyphless-char-display-control'
357 specifies how to display them: as a hexadecimal code in a box, a thin
358 1-pixel space, an empty box, etc.
360 *** New input methods: farsi, farsi-translit, bulgarian-alt-phonetic.
362 *** `nobreak-char-display' now also highlights Unicode hyphen chars
365 *** New Hebrew translation of the Emacs Tutorial.
366 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
367 automatically select it.
369 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
370 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
371 from a package repository at http://elpa.gnu.org.
373 *** M-x list-packages shows a list of packages, which can be
374 selected for installation.
376 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
378 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded automatically when
379 Emacs starts up. To disable this, set `package-enable-at-startup' to
380 nil. To specify the packages to load, customize `package-load-list'.
382 ** Custom theme changes
384 *** New command `M-x customize-themes', which provides a convenient
385 interface for enabling and disabling Custom themes.
387 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
388 Emacs no longer looks for Custom themes in `load-path'. The default
389 value of `custom-theme-load-path' says to look for themes in
390 `custom-theme-directory', followed by a subdirectory of
391 `data-directory' named "themes/", which contains a small selection of
392 built-in Custom themes.
394 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
395 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
396 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
397 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
399 ** Improved GTK integration
401 *** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
402 The function `set-scroll-bar-mode' can change this.
404 *** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
405 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose the style. On a Gnome desktop,
406 the default is taken from desktop settings.
408 *** GTK tool bars can be placed on any edge of the frame.
409 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the
410 values top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has
413 *** The default colors for selected text (the `region' face) are taken
414 from the GTK theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
416 *** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK.
417 You can disable this by changing `x-gtk-use-system-tooltips' to nil.
419 ** Graphical interface changes
421 *** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
422 Also, the first dash (which does not indicate anything) is just
423 displayed as a space.
425 *** `menu-bar-select-buffer-function' lets you choose another operation
426 instead of `switch-to-buffer' when selecting an item in the Buffers menu.
428 *** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is
429 built with Xft. These fonts can be set via X resources, for example:
430 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
434 *** Emacs now calls `kill-emacs' if it receives SIGTERM or SIGHUP,
435 or if it receives a SIGINT signal in batch mode.
437 *** `kill-emacs-hook' is now also run in batch mode.
438 Third-party code which adds to `kill-emacs-hook' should check if they
439 do the right thing in batch mode.
443 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
444 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
445 of buffer at first key-press (instead they move to top/bottom of buffer)
446 when `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
448 *** New option `scroll-error-top-bottom' (see above).
450 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
451 scroll a line instead of full screen.
453 *** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
454 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
456 *** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
457 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
458 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
459 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
460 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
462 *** "Aggressive" scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
463 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
464 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
465 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
468 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
469 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
471 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up.
472 Also, the function `copy-file' has an extra optional argument for
473 preserving SELinux context, and the return value of `backup-buffer'
474 now includes the SELinux context.
476 *** New functions `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
477 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
481 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
482 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
484 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
485 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
487 ** File- and directory-local variable changes
489 *** You can stop directory local vars from applying to subdirectories.
490 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
491 settings to indicate that the section should not apply to
494 *** Directory local variables can apply to some file-less buffers.
495 Affected modes include dired, vc-dir, and log-edit. For example,
496 adding "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to .dir-locals.el will
497 turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should call
498 `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
500 *** Using "mode: MINOR-MODE" to enable a minor mode is deprecated.
501 Instead, use "eval: (minor-mode 1)".
503 *** The variable `inhibit-first-line-modes-regexps' has been renamed
504 to `inhibit-local-variables-regexps'. As the name suggests, it now
505 applies to ALL file local variables, not just -*- lines. The
506 associated `inhibit-first-line-modes-suffixes' has been renamed in the
511 *** The `quit-window' command now restores the last buffer displayed
512 in the quitted window.
514 *** Resizing an Emacs frame now preserves proportional window sizes,
515 modulo restrictions like window minimum sizes and fixed-size windows.
517 *** The behavior of `display-buffer' is now customizable in detail.
519 **** New option `display-buffer-base-action' specifies a list of
520 user-determined display "actions" (functions and optional arguments
521 for choosing the displaying window).
523 This takes precedence over the default display action, which is
524 specified by `display-buffer-fallback-action'.
526 **** New option `display-buffer-alist' maps buffer name regexps to
527 display actions, taking precedence over `display-buffer-base-action'.
529 *** New option `window-combination-limit'.
530 The new option `window-combination-limit' allows to return the space
531 obtained for resizing or creating a window more reliably to the window
532 from which such space was obtained.
534 *** New option `window-combination-resize'.
535 The new option `window-combination-resize' allows to split a window that
536 otherwise cannot be split because it's too small by stealing space from
537 other windows in the same combination. Subsequent resizing or deletion
538 of the window will resize all windows in the same combination as well.
540 *** New option `frame-auto-hide-function' lets you choose between
541 iconifying or deleting a frame when burying a buffer in a dedicated
542 frame, or quitting a window showing a buffer in a frame of its own.
544 *** New commands `maximize-window' and `minimize-window'.
545 These maximize and minimize the size of a window within its frame.
547 *** New commands `switch-to-prev-buffer' and `switch-to-next-buffer'.
548 These functions allow to navigate through the live buffers that have
549 been shown in a specific window.
551 ** Minibuffer changes
553 *** The inactive minibuffer has its own major mode `minibuffer-inactive-mode'.
554 This is handy for minibuffer-only frames, and is also used for the feature
555 where mouse-1 pops up *Messages*"', which can now easily be changed.
557 *** Minibuffers set `truncate-lines' to nil.
558 If you want to change the value to something else, you could use
559 for example `minibuffer-setup-hook'.
561 ** `auto-mode-case-fold' is now enabled by default.
563 ** `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' now defaults to t.
565 ** New basic faces `error', `warning', `success'.
566 These are used to highlight text indicating failure, caution or
567 successful operation.
569 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
570 for `list-colors-display'.
572 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
575 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
579 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-kill', instead of
582 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-pop', instead of
585 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-line'.
587 ** New commands `count-words-region' and `count-words'.
589 *** M-= is bound to `count-words-region', not `count-lines-region'.
590 The `count-words-region' command, when called interactively, reports
591 the number of lines, words, and characters in the region. It is a
592 superset of the old `count-lines-region', which is now an obsolete
595 ** The command `just-one-space' (M-SPC), if given a negative argument,
596 also deletes newlines around point.
600 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
601 If non-nil, [delete] and DEL delete the region if it is active and no
602 prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', those commands kill
605 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to [delete].
606 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
607 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
609 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
610 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
611 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; Lisp
612 callers should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
614 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
616 ** Selection changes.
618 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections has been
619 changed to conform with modern X applications. In short, most
620 commands for killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while
621 mouse commands use the primary selection.
623 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
624 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
626 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
627 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
628 the kill ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
629 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
631 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
632 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
633 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
634 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
635 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
637 **** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
639 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
640 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
641 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
643 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
645 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
646 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
647 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
649 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
650 exactly equivalent to M-w, C-w, and C-y respectively.
652 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
653 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
654 between applications.
656 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
658 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
659 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
660 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
661 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
662 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
664 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
666 *** X clipboard managers are now supported.
667 To inhibit this, change `x-select-enable-clipboard-manager' to nil.
669 ** New command `C-x r N' (`rectangle-number-lines') numbers the lines
670 in the current rectangle. With a prefix argument, this prompts for a
671 number to count from and for a format string.
673 ** `redisplay-dont-pause' now defaults to t.
674 This makes Emacs feel more responsive to editing commands that arrive
675 at high rate, e.g. if you lean on some key, because stopping redisplay
676 in the middle (when this variable is nil) forces more expensive
677 updates later on, and Emacs appears to be unable to keep up.
679 ** The behavior of <TAB> for active regions in Text mode has changed.
680 In Text and related modes, typing <TAB> (`indent-for-tab-command')
681 when the region is active causes Emacs to indent all the lines in the
682 region, aligning them with the line previous to the first line in the
683 region (or with the left margin if there is no previous line).
685 ** When `occur' is called with a prefix argument, matching strings are
686 collected into the `*Occur*' buffer without line numbers. If there
687 are parenthesized subexpressions in the specified regexp, `occur'
688 reads replacement text that may contain \\& and \\N whose convention
689 follows `replace-match'.
692 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
694 ** Archive Mode has basic support for browsing and updating 7z archives.
698 *** BibTeX mode now supports biblatex.
699 Use the variable `bibtex-dialect' to select different BibTeX dialects.
700 `bibtex-entry-field-alist' is now an obsolete alias for
701 `bibtex-BibTeX-entry-alist'.
703 *** New command `bibtex-search-entries', bound to C-c C-a.
705 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `sort-fields', disabled by default.
707 *** New variable `bibtex-search-entry-globally'.
711 *** New option `browse-url-mailto-function' specifies how to handle "mailto:"s.
713 *** The default browser used by the package is now the "xdg-open" program,
714 on platforms that support it. This calls your desktop's preferred browser.
716 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
718 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing "comments".
719 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
721 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
722 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
724 *** The function specified by `appt-disp-window-function' may be passed
725 lists of arguments if multiple appointments are due at similar times.
726 If you are using a custom function for this, you should update it.
728 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
730 *** Elements of `calendar-day-abbrev-array' and `calendar-month-abbrev-array'
731 may no longer be nil, but must all be strings.
733 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt
734 package by adding `appt-make-list' to `diary-hook' has been removed.
735 Use `appt-activate' instead.
737 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
738 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
739 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
741 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
742 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
746 *** New feature to "guess" the style in an existing buffer.
747 The main entry point is M-x c-guess.
749 *** Java Mode now supports Java 5.0 (Tiger) and 6 (Mustang).
751 *** `c-beginning-of-defun' and `c-end-of-defun' now respect nested scopes.
752 Thus C-M-a will, by default, go to the beginning of the immediate function,
755 *** "Macros with semicolons" can be registered for correct indentation.
756 Where such a macro ends a line (no semicolon) the next statement is no longer
757 parsed as a statement continuation.
759 ** Comint and modes derived from it use the standard completion code.
763 *** Compilation mode can be used without Font Lock mode.
764 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
766 *** New variable `compilation-filter-start', which is bound while
767 `compilation-filter-hook' runs. It records the start position of the
768 text inserted by `compilation-filter'.
770 *** `compilation-error-screen-columns' and `compilation-first-column'
771 are obeyed in the editing buffer. So programming language modes can
772 set them, whereas previously only the value in the *Compilation*
777 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
778 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
779 To turn off the search field, set `custom-search-field' to nil.
781 *** Custom options now start out hidden if at their default values.
782 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
784 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
786 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
787 choose a color via `list-colors-display'.
791 *** It is now possible to access buses other than the default system
794 *** The `dbus-register-method' and `dbus-register-property' functions
795 optionally do not register names.
797 *** The new function `dbus-register-service' registers a known service
798 name on a D-Bus without also registering a property or a method.
802 *** C-x C-j (`dired-jump') and C-x 4 C-j (`dired-jump-other-window'),
803 if called with a prefix argument, read a file name from the minibuffer
804 instead of using the current buffer.
806 *** The "dired local variables" feature of Dired-x is obsolete.
807 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
811 *** New options `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay',
812 controlling attempts to autojoin a channel.
814 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
815 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
816 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
817 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
821 *** The default value of `eshell-directory-name' has changed
822 to be an "eshell" directory in `user-emacs-directory'.
823 The old "~/.eshell/" directory is still used if it exists, though.
827 *** The M-x gdb command now uses the GDB Machine Interface protocol.
828 It now supports multithread non-stop debugging and simultaneous
829 debugging of several threads.
833 *** RET (`image-toggle-animation') toggles animation, if applicable.
834 Animation plays once, unless the option `image-animate-loop' is non-nil.
838 *** New command M-x info-display-manual displays a named Info manual.
839 If that manual is already visited in some Info buffer, it displays
840 that buffer. (This is handy if you have many manuals in many *info*
841 buffers, and don't remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual
842 you want to consult.) Otherwise, it loads and displays the manual.
844 *** `e' is now bound to `end-of-buffer' rather than to `Info-edit'.
845 This is for compatibility with the stand-alone Info reader program,
846 and also because `Info-edit' is a rarely used command that is disabled
849 ** Mail mode changes (not Message mode)
851 *** New command M-x mail-add-attachment for adding MIME attachments
853 *** The command M-x mail-attach-file was renamed to M-x mail-insert-file.
854 (Its name is misleading, since it has nothing to do with MIME
855 attachments.) The old name is now an obsolete alias to the new name.
857 ** MH-E has been updated to MH-E version 8.3.1.
858 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
860 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
862 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
864 ** nXML mode no longer binds C-RET to `nxml-complete'.
865 Completion is now performed via `completion-at-point', bound to C-M-i
866 or M-TAB. If `nxml-bind-meta-tab-to-complete-flag' is non-nil (the
867 default), this performs tag completion.
869 ** Org mode has been updated to version 7.8.09.
870 See ORG-NEWS for details.
872 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
873 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity,
874 support for more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
878 *** The command `rmail-epa-decrypt' decrypts OpenPGP data
879 in the Rmail incoming message.
881 *** The variable `rmail-message-filter' no longer has any effect.
882 This change was made in Emacs 23.1 but was not advertised at the time.
883 Try using `rmail-show-message-hook' instead.
887 *** M-x shell prompts for the shell path name if the default directory
888 is a remote file name and neither the environment variable $ESHELL nor
889 the variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
891 *** TAB is now bound to the standard `completion-at-point' command,
892 which now implements the pcomplete rules for shell command completion.
896 *** SMTPmail now uses encrypted connections (via STARTTLS) by default
897 if the mail server supports them. This uses either built-in GnuTLS
898 support, or the starttls.el library. Customize `smtpmail-stream-type'
901 *** The variable `smtpmail-auth-credentials' has been removed.
902 By default, the information is now stored in the file ~/.authinfo.
903 This was the default value of smtpmail-auth-credentials. If you had
904 customized smtpmail-auth-credentials to a list of user names and
905 passwords, those settings are not used. During your first connection
906 to the smtp server, Emacs will prompt for the user name and password,
907 and offer to save them to ~/.authinfo. Or you can manually copy the
908 credentials to ~/.authinfo. For example, if you had
910 (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials
911 '(("mail.example.org" 25 "jim" "s!cret")))
913 then the equivalent line in ~/.authinfo would be
915 machine mail.example.org port 25 login jim password s!cret
917 See the auth-source manual for more information, e.g. on encrypting
918 the credentials file.
920 *** The variable `smtpmail-starttls-credentials' has been removed.
921 If you had that set, you need to put
923 machine smtp.whatever.foo port 25 key "~/.my_smtp_tls.key" cert "~/.my_smtp_tls.cert"
925 in your ~/.authinfo file instead.
929 *** New options `sql-port', `sql-connection-alist', `sql-send-terminator',
930 and `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
932 *** New options controlling prompting for login parameters.
933 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params',
934 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
935 connection is established.
937 *** The command `sql-product-interactive' now takes a prefix argument,
938 which causes it to prompt for an SQL product.
940 *** Product-specific SQL interactive commands now take prefix arguments.
941 These commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres', `sql-mysql', etc.),
942 given a prefix argument, prompt for a name for the SQL interactive
943 buffer. This reduces the need for calling `sql-rename-buffer'.
945 *** SQL interactive modes suppress command continuation prompts, and
946 replace tabs with spaces. The first change impacts multiple line SQL
947 statements entered with C-j between each line, statements yanked into
948 the buffer and statements sent with `sql-send-*' functions. The
949 second prevents the MySQL and Postgres interpreters from listing
950 object name completions when sent text via `sql-send-*' functions.
952 *** New command `sql-connect' starts a predefined SQLi session,
953 using the login parameters from `sql-connection-alist'.
955 *** New "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
956 This gathers the login params specified for the SQLi session, if it
957 was not started by a connection, and saves them as a new connection.
959 *** New commands for listing database objects and details:
960 sql-list-all and sql-list-table.
962 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
966 *** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
970 *** New inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
972 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
973 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
975 *** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
976 remote file attributes are cached for better performance.
978 *** The option `ange-ftp-binary-file-name-regexp' has changed its
981 *** Handlers for `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
982 for remote machines which support SELinux.
984 ** New function `url-queue-retrieve', which behaves like url-retrieve,
985 but with limits (`url-queue-parallel-processes', `url-queue-timeout') on
986 the degree of parallelism.
988 ** VC and related modes
990 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
991 The command C-x v + (`vc-pull') runs a "pull" operation, if it is
992 supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to update the
993 current branch and working tree. A prefix argument means to prompt
994 the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
996 *** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
998 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
999 The command C-x v m (`vc-merge') now runs a "merge" operation, if it
1000 is supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to merge
1001 changes from another branch into the current one. It prompts for
1002 specifics, e.g. a merge source.
1004 *** New option `vc-revert-show-diff' controls whether `vc-revert'
1005 shows a diff while querying the user. It defaults to t.
1007 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
1008 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
1009 This is currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial (to support
1010 another backend, define a `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function').
1011 In the Log View buffers made by C-x v L (`vc-print-root-log'), you can
1012 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
1014 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
1015 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
1017 *** The option `vc-initial-comment' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but
1018 this was not advertised at the time.
1020 *** `vc-toggle-read-only' is an obsolete alias for `toggle-read-only'.
1021 Since Emacs 23, it has done the same thing as `toggle-read-only', but
1022 this was not advertised at the time.
1028 *** erc-hecomplete.el (use erc-pcomplete.el instead)
1030 *** partial-completion-mode (complete.el) is obsolete.
1031 You can get a comparable behavior with:
1032 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
1033 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
1035 *** pc-mode.el is obsolete (CUA mode is much more comprehensive).
1037 *** pgg is obsolete (use EasyPG instead).
1039 *** sregex.el is obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
1041 *** s-region.el and pc-select.el are obsolete.
1042 They are superseded by shift-select-mode, enabled by default since 23.1.
1044 *** vc-mcvs.el is obsolete (for lack of a maintainer).
1048 *** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
1049 Its functions and variables have been similarly renamed.
1051 *** In `ido-file-completion-map', C-v is no longer bound to `ido-toggle-vc'.
1052 (This interfered with cua-mode.)
1054 *** f90.el has some support for Fortran 2008 syntax.
1056 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
1058 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
1061 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
1063 ** Occur Edit mode applies edits made in *Occur* buffers to the
1064 original buffers. It is bound to "e" in Occur mode.
1066 ** New global minor mode electric-pair-mode.
1067 When enabled, typing an open parenthesis automatically inserts the
1068 matching closing one.
1070 ** New global minor mode electric-indent-mode.
1071 When enabled, typing certain characters triggers reindentation.
1072 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-indent-chars or
1073 electric-indent-functions.
1075 ** New global minor mode electric-layout-mode.
1076 When enabled, typing certain characters automatically inserts newlines.
1077 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-layout-rules.
1079 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
1080 from which other modes can be derived.
1082 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
1084 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
1085 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
1086 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
1087 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
1090 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
1091 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
1093 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
1094 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
1096 ** New generic mode, xmodmap-generic-mode, for xmodmap files.
1098 ** New emacs-lock.el package.
1099 The previous version has been moved to obsolete/old-emacs-lock.el.
1100 Now, there is a proper minor mode `emacs-lock-mode'. Protection
1101 against exiting Emacs and killing the buffer can be set separately.
1102 The mechanism for automatically turning off protection for buffers
1103 with dead inferior processes has been generalized.
1106 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
1108 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function call now ENABLES
1109 the minor mode unconditionally. This is so that you can write e.g.
1111 (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'foo-mode)
1113 to enable foo-mode in Text mode buffers, removing the need for
1114 `turn-on-foo-mode' style functions. This affects all mode commands
1115 defined by `define-minor-mode'. If called interactively, the mode
1116 command still toggles the minor mode.
1118 ** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
1119 It is now a list of three elements, where the second element is a list
1120 describing the original file's SELinux context. If Emacs or the
1121 system lacks SELinux support, the context list is (nil nil nil nil).
1122 See "Basic SELinux support" above, under "Changes in Emacs 24.1".
1124 ** `char-direction-table' and the `char-direction' function were deleted.
1125 They were buggy and inferior to the new support of bidirectional
1126 editing introduced in Emacs 24. If you need the bidirectional
1127 properties of a character, use `get-char-code-property' with the last
1128 argument `bidi-class'.
1130 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
1131 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
1132 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
1133 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
1135 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
1136 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
1137 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
1140 ** Support for "old-style" backquotes, obsolete for 10+ years, has
1141 been further reduced. Now a backquote not followed by a space is
1142 always treated as a "new-style" backquote. Please remove all
1143 "old-style" backquotes from your code. If your code uses backquotes
1144 as documented in the Elisp manual, and compiles without warning, then
1145 you have nothing to do in this regard. Code not following the
1146 appropriate conventions may fail to compile.
1148 The most common cause of trouble seems to be an old-style backquote
1149 followed by a newline. Another cause of trouble is vector notation
1150 for key sequence notation: instead of [(control ,)] and [(control ')],
1151 you should write [(control ?,)] and [(control ?')], which will work in
1154 ** The macro `eval-at-startup' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but this
1155 was not advertised at the time. The function `custom-initialize-delay'
1156 replaced all known uses.
1158 ** `view-buffer' now treats special mode-class in the same way that
1159 `view-file' has since Emacs 22 (i.e. it won't enable View mode if the
1160 major mode is special).
1162 ** Menu and tool bar changes
1164 *** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
1165 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
1166 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
1167 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
1168 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
1169 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
1171 *** The menu bar bindings's caches are not used any more.
1172 Use (where-is-internal <def> nil t) instead.
1174 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
1175 similar to those created by shift-selection (see Selection changes
1176 above). In previous Emacs versions, these regions were delineated by
1177 `mouse-drag-overlay'; that variable has been removed.
1179 ** The fourth argument of `filter-buffer-substring' has been removed.
1180 If you want to remove text properties from the final result, simply
1181 pass the result through substring-no-properties.
1183 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
1185 ** The following obsolete functions and aliases have been removed
1186 (the appropriate new function is given in parentheses; "not needed"
1187 means you can just remove all calls to the function in question):
1189 *** `comint-kill-output' (`comint-delete-output')
1190 *** `decompose-composite-char' (`char-to-string')
1191 *** `outline-visible' (`outline-invisible-p')
1192 *** `internal-find-face' (`facep')
1193 *** `internal-get-face' (`facep and check-face')
1194 *** `frame-update-faces' (not needed)
1195 *** `frame-update-face-colors' (`frame-set-background-mode')
1196 *** `x-frob-font-weight' and `x-frob-font-slant' (`make-face-*' functions)
1197 *** `x-make-font-bold and x-make-font-demibold (`make-face-bold')
1198 *** `x-make-font-italic' and `x-make-font-oblique' (`make-face-italic')
1199 *** `x-make-font-bold-italic' (`make-face-bold-italic')
1200 *** `x-make-font-unbold' (`make-face-unbold')
1201 *** `x-make-font-unitalic' (`make-face-unitalic')
1202 *** `mldrag-drag-mode-line' (`mouse-drag-mode-line')
1203 *** `mldrag-drag-vertical-line' (`mouse-drag-vertical-line')
1204 *** `iswitchb-default-keybindings' (`iswitchb-mode')
1205 *** `char-bytes' (== 1)
1206 *** `isearch-return-char' (`isearch-printing-char')
1207 *** `make-local-hook' (not needed)
1208 *** `set-screen-height' (`set-frame-height')
1209 *** `set-screen-width' (`set-frame-width')
1211 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed
1212 (the appropriate new variable is given in parentheses):
1214 *** `checkdoc-minor-keymap' (`checkdoc-minor-mode-map')
1215 *** `vc-header-alist' (`vc-BACKEND-header')
1216 *** `directory-sep-char' (== ?/)
1217 *** `font-lock-defaults-alist' (`font-lock-defaults')
1218 *** `e' (`float-e').
1220 ** The following obsolete files were removed:
1221 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
1223 ** The format of the finder-inf.el file has changed, since the Finder
1224 mechanism is now based on the package system. The variable
1225 `finder-package-info' is replaced by `package--builtins' and
1226 `finder-keywords-hash'.
1228 ** When generating autoloads, `update-directory-autoloads' no longer
1229 assumes every inspected file is in your `load-path'. It instead
1230 generates relative names according to the current `load-path'.
1233 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.1
1235 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
1236 The `lexical-binding' variable enables lexical scoping for local
1237 variables. It is typically set via a file-local variable in the first
1238 line of the file, in which case it applies to all the code in that
1241 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
1242 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
1244 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
1245 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
1247 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
1249 *** `defvar' and `defconst' now mark the variable as special (dynamic).
1250 So do `defcustom' and other forms that call `defvar' as a subroutine.
1252 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
1253 declared as dynamically bound.
1255 *** The form ((lambda ...) ...) is deprecated.
1257 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
1258 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
1259 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
1261 ** Changes for bidirectional display and editing
1263 *** New function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction'.
1264 This returns the base direction of the paragraph at point.
1266 *** New function `bidi-string-mark-left-to-right'.
1267 Given a string containing characters from right-to-left scripts, this
1268 function returns another string which can be safely inserted into a
1269 buffer, such that any following text will be always displayed to the
1270 right of that string. (This works by appending an invisible Unicode
1271 "LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK" character if the argument string might need it.)
1273 This is useful when the buffer has overall left-to-right paragraph
1274 direction and you need to insert a string whose contents are not known
1275 in advance, without disrupting the layout of the line.
1279 *** Window tree functions are accessible in Elisp.
1280 Functions are provided to return the parent, siblings or child windows
1281 of any window including internal windows (windows not associated with a
1282 buffer) in the window tree.
1284 **** New function `window-valid-p' gives non-nil for live and internal
1287 **** Window manipulation can deal with internal windows.
1288 Many window handling functions like `split-window', `delete-window', or
1289 `delete-other-windows' as well as the window resizing functions can now
1290 act on any window including internal ones.
1292 *** window-total-height/-width vs window-body-height/-width.
1293 The function `window-height' has been renamed to `window-total-height'
1294 and `window-width' has been renamed to `window-body-width'. The old
1295 names are provided as aliases. Two new functions `window-total-width'
1296 and `window-body-height' are provided.
1298 *** Window parameters specific to window handling functions.
1299 For each window you can specify a parameter to override the default
1300 behavior of a number of functions like `split-window', `delete-window'
1301 and `delete-other-windows'. The variable `ignore-window-parameters'
1302 allows to ignore processing such parameters.
1304 *** New semantics of third argument of `split-window'.
1305 The third argument of `split-window' has been renamed to SIDE and can be
1306 set to any of the values 'below, 'right, 'above, or 'left to make the
1307 new window appear on the corresponding side of the window that shall be
1308 split. Any other value of SIDE will cause `split-window' to split the
1309 window into two side-by-side windows as before.
1311 *** Window resizing functions.
1312 A new standard function for resizing windows called `window-resize' has
1313 been introduced. This and all other functions for resizing windows no
1314 longer delete any windows when they become too small.
1316 *** Deleting the selected window now selects the most recently selected
1317 live window on that frame instead.
1319 *** `adjust-window-trailing-edge' adjustments.
1320 `adjust-window-trailing-edge' can now deal with fixed-size windows and
1321 is able to resize other windows if a window adjacent to the trailing
1322 edge cannot be shrunk any more. This makes its behavior more similar to
1323 that of Emacs 21 without compromising, however, its inability to delete
1324 windows which was introduced in Emacs 22.
1326 *** Window-local buffer lists.
1327 Windows now have local buffer lists. This means that removing a buffer
1328 from display in a window will preferably show the buffer previously
1329 shown in that window with its previous window-start and window-point
1330 positions. This also means that the same buffer may be automatically
1331 shown twice even if it already appears in another window.
1333 *** `switch-to-buffer' has a new optional argument FORCE-SAME-WINDOW,
1334 which if non-nil requires the buffer to be displayed in the currently
1335 selected window, signaling an error otherwise. If nil, another window
1336 can be used, e.g. if the selected one is strongly dedicated.
1338 *** `split-window-vertically' and `split-window-horizontally' renamed
1339 to `split-window-below' and `split-window-right' respectively.
1340 The old names are kept as aliases.
1344 **** The second arg to `display-buffer' and `pop-to-buffer' is now
1345 named ACTION, and takes a display action of the same form as
1346 `display-buffer-base-action' (see Changes, above). A non-nil,
1347 non-list value is treated specially, as the old meaning.
1349 **** New variable `display-buffer-overriding-action'.
1351 **** The procedure of `display-buffer' etc. to choose a window is
1352 determined by combining `display-buffer-overriding-action',
1353 `display-buffer-alist', the ACTION arg, `display-buffer-base-action',
1354 and `display-buffer-fallback-action'. The second and fourth of these
1355 are user-customizable variables.
1357 See the docstring of `display-buffer' for details.
1359 *** New functions `window-state-get' and `window-state-put'.
1360 These functions allow to save and restore the state of an arbitrary
1361 frame or window as an Elisp object.
1365 *** New variable `completion-extra-properties' used to specify extra
1366 properties of the current completion:
1367 - :annotate-function, same as the old completion-annotate-function.
1368 - :exit-function, function to call after completion took place.
1370 *** Functions on `completion-at-point-functions' can return any of the
1371 properties valid for `completion-extra-properties'.
1373 *** `completion-annotate-function' is obsolete.
1375 *** New `metadata' method for completion tables. The metadata thus returned
1376 can specify various details of the data returned by `all-completions':
1377 - `category' is the kind of objects returned (e.g., `buffer', `file', ...),
1378 used to select a style in completion-category-overrides.
1379 - `annotation-function' to add annotations in *Completions*.
1380 - `display-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries in *Completions*.
1381 - `cycle-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries when cycling.
1383 *** `minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map' is not used any more.
1384 Instead, the bindings in `minibuffer-local-filename-completion-map'
1385 are combined with `minibuffer-local-must-match-map'.
1387 *** New variable `completing-read-function' allows overriding the
1388 behavior of `completing-read'.
1390 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
1391 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
1393 ** `pre-command-hook'/`post-command-hook' are not reset to nil on error.
1394 Instead, the offending function is removed.
1398 *** New function `run-hook-wrapped' for running an abnormal hook by
1399 passing the hook functions as arguments to a "wrapping" function.
1400 Like `run-hook-with-args-until-success', it stops at the first
1401 non-nil return value.
1403 *** New macro `with-wrapper-hook' for running an abnormal hook as a
1404 set of "wrapping" filters, similar to around advice.
1405 (A version of this macro was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not
1406 advertised at the time.)
1410 *** New macro `condition-case-unless-debug' (this was actually added in
1411 Emacs 23.1 as condition-case-no-debug, but not advertised)
1413 *** The macro `with-demoted-errors' was added in Emacs 23.1, but not advertised.
1415 *** Variable `stack-trace-on-error' removed.
1417 *** The debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will
1418 jump to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked
1419 instead of jumping all the way to the top-level.
1421 *** Set `debug-on-event' to enter the debugger on events like SIGUSR1.
1422 This can be useful when `inhibit-quit' is set.
1424 ** The new function `server-eval-at' allows evaluation of Lisp forms on
1425 named Emacs server instances.
1427 ** `call-process' and `call-process-region' allow a `(:file "file")' spec
1428 to redirect STDOUT to a file.
1430 ** The function `format-time-string' now supports the %N directive,
1431 for higher-resolution time stamps.
1433 ** New input reading functions
1435 *** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of
1436 characters, discarding any inputs not inside the set.
1438 *** The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name
1439 or RGB triplet, instead of signaling an error if the user provides
1442 **** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
1444 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
1445 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
1446 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
1449 ** Syntax parsing changes
1451 *** New variable `syntax-propertize-function'.
1452 This replaces `font-lock-syntactic-keywords' which is now obsolete.
1453 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
1454 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
1455 Together with this new variable come a new hook
1456 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
1457 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
1458 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
1461 *** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
1463 ** New hook `post-self-insert-hook', run after `self-insert-command'.
1465 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
1467 ** Major and minor mode changes
1469 *** `set-auto-mode' now respects mode: local variables at the end of files,
1470 as well as those in the -*- line.
1472 *** `prog-mode' is a new major mode from which programming modes
1475 **** `prog-mode-hook' can be used to enable features for programming
1476 modes, e.g. (add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'flyspell-prog-mode) to enable
1477 on-the-fly spell checking for comments and strings.
1479 *** New hook `change-major-mode-after-body-hook', run by
1480 `run-mode-hooks' just before any other mode hooks.
1482 *** Enabled globalized minor modes can be disabled in specific major modes.
1483 If the global mode is global-FOO-mode, then run (FOO-mode -1) in the
1484 major mode's hook, where FOO-mode toggles the mode on a per-buffer basis.
1486 *** `define-minor-mode' accepts new keywords :variable, :after-hook.
1488 ** File-handling changes
1490 *** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
1491 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
1492 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
1493 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
1495 *** New file predicates: `file-equal-p', `file-in-directory-p'.
1497 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
1498 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
1499 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
1503 *** Animated images support (currently animated gifs only).
1505 **** `image-animated-p' returns non-nil if an image can be animated.
1507 **** `image-animate' animates a supplied image spec.
1509 **** `image-animate-timer' returns the timer object for an image that
1512 *** `image-extension-data' has been renamed to `image-metadata'.
1513 The old name is an obsolete alias to the new one.
1515 *** Image mode can view any image type that ImageMagick supports.
1516 This requires Emacs to be built with ImageMagick support.
1518 **** New function `imagemagick-types', defined if ImageMagick support
1519 is enabled, returns a list of image file extensions that your
1520 ImageMagick installation supports.
1522 **** New function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick
1523 image types in Image mode and in `create-image' and other helper
1526 **** New option `imagemagick-types-inhibit' excludes certain
1527 ImageMagick image types from `imagemagick-register-types'.
1529 **** With ImageMagick support, there are extra Image mode commands to
1530 resize and rotate images: `image-transform-fit-to-height',
1531 `image-transform-fit-to-width', `image-transform-set-rotation', and
1532 `image-transform-set-scale'.
1534 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
1535 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
1536 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail. For
1537 example, this is used by Rmail to optionally delete a mail window.
1539 ** XML and HTML parsing
1540 If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support, there are two new
1541 functions: `libxml-parse-html-region' (which parses "real world" HTML)
1542 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
1543 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
1545 ** Networking and encryption changes
1547 *** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
1548 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
1549 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
1550 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
1551 must also be supplied.
1553 *** New library gnutls.el.
1554 The new function `gnutls-available-p' returns non-nil if Emacs is
1555 built with GnuTLS support. The main entry points are
1556 `open-gnutls-stream' and `gnutls-negotiate'. It's easiest to use
1557 these functions through `open-network-stream', because that can
1558 upgrade connections through STARTTLS opportunistically or use plain
1559 SSL, depending on your needs. For debugging, set `gnutls-log-level'
1562 *** New primitive `secure-hash' that supports many secure hash algorithms:
1563 md5, sha1, sha2, sha224, sha256, sha384, and sha512. The lisp library
1564 sha1.el has been removed. The `sha1' feature is provided by default.
1568 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
1570 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
1571 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
1572 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
1573 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
1574 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
1575 displayed with a "spinning bar".
1577 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
1578 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
1580 ** New variables `delayed-warnings-list' and `delayed-warnings-hook'.
1581 If delayed-warnings-list is non-nil, the command loop calls
1582 `delayed-warnings-hook' after `post-command-hook'. At present, this
1583 is only used by Emacs on some platforms to display warnings during
1584 startup, which might otherwise not be noticed. This uses the
1585 functions `display-delayed-warnings' and `collapse-delayed-warnings'.
1587 ** rx.el has a new `group-n' construct for explicitly numbered groups.
1589 ** New function `make-composed-keymap' that constructs a new keymap
1590 from multiple input maps. You can use this to make a keymap that
1591 inherits from multiple maps, eg:
1592 (set-keymap-parent newmap (make-composed-keymap othermap parent))
1594 ** New function `string-prefix-p'.
1595 (This was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not advertised at the time.)
1597 ** New reader macro ## that stands for the empty symbol.
1598 This means that the empty symbol can now be read back. Also, #: by itself
1599 (when not immediately followed by a possible symbol character) stands for
1600 an empty uninterned symbol.
1602 ** New math functions `isnan', `copysign', `frexp', `ldexp'.
1604 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
1606 *** `tooltip-use-echo-area' is obsolete.
1607 Rather than setting this to t, disable Tooltip mode instead.
1609 *** buffer-substring-filters is obsolete.
1610 Use `filter-buffer-substring-functions' instead.
1612 *** `byte-compile-disable-print-circle' is obsolete.
1614 *** `deferred-action-list' and `deferred-action-function' are obsolete.
1615 Use `post-command-hook' instead.
1617 *** `font-lock-maximum-size' is obsolete.
1620 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on non-free operating systems
1622 ** On MS Windows, Emacs warns when using the obsolete init file _emacs,
1623 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
1625 ** New configure.bat options
1627 *** --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra runtime checks.
1629 *** --distfiles specifies files to be included in binary distribution.
1631 *** --without-gnutls disables automatic GnuTLS detection.
1633 *** --lib for general library linkage, works with the USER_LIBS build variable.
1635 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
1637 ** The Lisp function `w32-default-color-map' is now obsolete.
1638 (It is only used internally in the Emacs C code.)
1640 ** Customize ns-auto-hide-menu-bar to have the menu-bar hidden, but
1641 reappear on mouse-over. (Requires OS X 10.6 or later.)
1643 ** On Mac OS X, dragging a file into Emacs visits the file, like on
1644 other platforms, rather than inserting its contents into the buffer.
1647 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1648 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
1650 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1651 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1652 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1653 (at your option) any later version.
1655 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1656 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1657 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1658 GNU General Public License for more details.
1660 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1661 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
1666 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"