b42fbe40e124bb7bab3ca123cd66c52530271771
[bpt/emacs.git] / etc / NEWS
1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
5
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
8
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 24.
10
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.
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 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.3
25
26 ** New configure option '--without-all' to disable additional features.
27 This disables most of the features that are normally enabled by default.
28
29 ** New configure option '--enable-link-time-optimization' to utilize
30 an appropriate feature provided by GCC since version 4.5.0.
31
32 ** New configure option '--enable-gcc-warnings', intended for developers.
33 If building with GCC, this enables compile-time checks that warn about
34 possibly-questionable C code. On a recent GNU system there should be
35 no warnings; on older and on non-GNU systems the generated warnings
36 may be useful.
37
38 ** The configure option '--disable-maintainer-mode' has been removed,
39 as it was confusingly-named and rarely useful.
40
41 ---
42 ** You can use `NO_BIN_LINK=t make install' to prevent the installation
43 overwriting "emacs" in the installation bin/ directory with a link
44 to emacs-VERSION.
45
46 ---
47 ** Emacs uses libtinfo in preference to libncurses, if available.
48
49 ---
50 ** On FreeBSD and NetBSD, configure no longer adds /usr/local/lib and
51 /usr/pkg/lib to the linker search path. You must add them yourself if
52 you want them.
53
54 ---
55 ** On Mac OS X, configure no longer automatically adds the Fink /sw
56 directories to the search path. You must add them yourself if you want them.
57
58 ---
59 ** The standalone scripts rcs-checkin and vcdiff have been removed
60 (from the bin and libexec directories, respectively). The former is
61 no longer relevant, the latter is replaced by lisp (in vc-sccs.el).
62
63 ** The configuration option '--enable-use-lisp-union-type' has been
64 renamed to '--enable-check-lisp-object-type', as the resulting
65 Lisp_Object type no longer uses a union to implement the compile time
66 check that this option enables.
67
68 ---
69 ** The default toolkit has been changed to Gtk+ version 3.
70 If you don't pass --with-x-toolkit to configure or if you pass
71 --with-x-toolkit=gtk or --with-x-toolkit=yes, configure will try to build
72 with Gtk+ version 3, and if that fails, try Gtk+ version 2.
73 You can explicitly require a specific version by passing
74 --with-x-toolkit=gtk2 or --with-x-toolkit=gtk3 to configure.
75
76 \f
77 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.3
78
79 ** Emacs no longer searches for `leim-list.el' files beneath the standard
80 lisp/ directory. There should not be any there anyway. If you have
81 been adding them there, put them somewhere else, eg site-lisp.
82
83 ---
84 ** The `--no-site-lisp' command line option now works for Nextstep builds.
85
86 \f
87 * Changes in Emacs 24.3
88
89 ** Most y-or-n prompts now allow you to scroll the selected window.
90 Typing C-v or M-v at a y-or-n prompt scrolls forward or backward
91 respectively, without exiting from the prompt.
92
93 ** In minibuffer filename prompts, `C-M-f' and `C-M-b' now move to the
94 next and previous path separator, respectively.
95
96 ** Mode line changes
97 ---
98 *** New option `mode-line-default-help-echo' specifies the help text
99 (shown in a tooltip or in the echo area) for any part of the mode line
100 that does not have its own specialized help text.
101
102 *** You can now click mouse-3 in the coding system indicator to
103 invokes `set-buffer-file-coding-system'.
104
105 ** Help changes
106
107 *** `C-h f' (describe-function) can now perform autoloading.
108 When this command is called for an autoloaded function whose docstring
109 contains a key substitution construct, that function's library is
110 automatically loaded, so that the documentation can be shown
111 correctly. To disable this, set `help-enable-auto-load' to nil.
112
113 *** `C-h f' now reports previously-autoloaded functions as "autoloaded",
114 even after their associated libraries have been loaded (and the
115 autoloads have been redefined as functions).
116
117 ** ImageMagick support, if available, is automatically enabled.
118 It is no longer necessary to call `imagemagick-register-types'
119 explicitly to install ImageMagick image types; that function is called
120 automatically at startup, or when customizing a relevant imagemagick-
121 option.
122
123 *** Setting `imagemagick-types-inhibit' to t now disables the use of
124 ImageMagick to view images. You must call imagemagick-register-types
125 afterwards if you do not use customize to change this.
126
127 *** The new variable `imagemagick-enabled-types' also affects which
128 ImageMagick types are treated as images. The function
129 `imagemagick-filter-types' returns the list of types that will be
130 treated as images.
131
132 *** Images displayed via ImageMagick now support transparency and the
133 :background image spec property.
134
135 ** Server and client changes
136
137 *** emacsclient now obeys string values for `initial-buffer-choice',
138 if it is told to open a new frame without specifying any file to visit
139 or expression to evaluate.
140
141 *** New option `server-auth-key' specifies a shared server key.
142
143 ** In the Package Menu, newly-available packages are listed as "new",
144 and sorted above the other "available" packages by default.
145
146 +++
147 ** `C-x C-q' is now bound to the new minor mode `read-only-mode'.
148 This minor mode replaces `toggle-read-only', which is now obsolete.
149
150 ** Emacs now generates backtraces on fatal errors.
151 On encountering a fatal error, Emacs now outputs a textual description
152 of the fatal signal, and a short backtrace on platforms like glibc
153 that support backtraces.
154
155 ** If your Emacs was built from a bzr checkout, the new variable
156 `emacs-bzr-version' contains information about the bzr revision used.
157
158 +++
159 ** New variable `create-lockfiles' specifies usage of lockfiles.
160 It defaults to t. Changing it to nil inhibits the creation of lock
161 files (use this with caution).
162
163 +++
164 ** Using "unibyte: t" in Lisp source files is obsolete.
165 Use "coding: raw-text" instead.
166
167 +++
168 ** Setting `enable-remote-dir-locals' to non-nil allows directory
169 local variables on remote hosts.
170
171 ---
172 ** The entry for PCL-CVS has been removed from the Tools menu.
173 The PCL-CVS commands are still available via the keyboard.
174
175 ** Internationalization changes
176 ---
177 *** New language environment: Persian.
178 ---
179 *** New input method `vietnamese-vni'.
180
181 \f
182 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.3
183
184 +++
185 ** `C-x 8 RET' is now bound to `insert-char', which is now a command.
186 `ucs-insert' is now an obsolete alias for `insert-char'.
187
188 ---
189 ** The `z' key no longer has a binding in most special modes.
190 It used to be bound to `kill-this-buffer', but `z' is too easy to
191 accidentally type.
192
193 ** New option `delete-trailing-lines' specifies whether
194 M-x delete-trailing-whitespace should delete trailing lines at the end
195 of the buffer. It defaults to t.
196
197 ** Search and Replace changes
198
199 *** Non-regexp Isearch now performs "lax" space matching.
200 Each sequence of spaces in the supplied search string may match any
201 sequence of one or more whitespace characters, as specified by the
202 variable `search-whitespace-regexp'. (This variable is also used by a
203 similar existing feature for regexp Isearch).
204
205 *** New Isearch command `M-s SPC' toggles lax space matching.
206 This applies to both ordinary and regexp Isearch.
207
208 *** New option `replace-lax-whitespace'.
209 If non-nil, `query-replace' uses flexible whitespace matching too.
210 The default is nil.
211
212 *** Global `M-s _' starts a symbol (identifier) incremental search,
213 and `M-s _' in Isearch toggles symbol search mode.
214 `M-s c' in Isearch toggles search case-sensitivity.
215
216 ** Register changes
217 +++
218 *** `C-x r +' is now overloaded to invoke `append-to-register.
219 +++
220 *** New option `register-separator' specifies the register containing
221 the text to put between collected texts for use with M-x
222 append-to-register and M-x prepend-to-register.
223
224 ** `C-u M-=' now counts lines/words/characters in the entire buffer.
225
226 ** New binding `M-g c' for `goto-char'.
227
228 ** M-x move-to-column, if called interactively with no prefix arg, now
229 prompts for a column number.
230
231 ** New command `C-x r M-w' (copy-rectangle-as-kill).
232 It copies the region-rectangle as the last rectangle kill.
233
234 ** New option `yank-handled-properties' allows processing of text
235 properties on yanked text, in more ways that are more general than
236 just removing them, as done by `yank-excluded-properties'.
237
238 \f
239 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.3
240
241 ** Apropos
242
243 *** The faces used by Apropos are now directly customizable.
244 These faces are named `apropos-symbol', `apropos-keybinding', and so on;
245 see the `apropos' Custom group for details.
246
247 **** The old options whose values specified faces to use were removed
248 (i.e. `apropos-symbol-face', `apropos-keybinding-face', etc.).
249
250 ** Buffer Menu
251 This package has been rewritten to use Tabulated List mode.
252
253 *** Option `Buffer-menu-buffer+size-width' is now obsolete.
254 Use `Buffer-menu-name-width' and `Buffer-menu-size-width' instead.
255
256 ** Calendar
257
258 *** You can customize the header text that appears above each calendar month.
259 See the variable `calendar-month-header'.
260
261 *** The calendars produced by cal-html include holidays.
262 Customize cal-html-holidays to change this.
263
264 ** CL
265
266 *** CL's main entry is now (require 'cl-lib).
267 `cl-lib' is like the old `cl' except that it uses the namespace cleanly,
268 i.e. all its definitions have the "cl-" prefix (and internal definitions use
269 the "cl--" prefix).
270
271 If `cl' provided a feature under the name `foo', then `cl-lib' provides it
272 under the name `cl-foo' instead, with the exceptions of the few definitions
273 that had to use `foo*' to avoid conflicts with pre-existing Elisp entities,
274 which have not been renamed to `cl-foo*' but just `cl-foo'.
275
276 The old `cl' is now deprecated and is just a bunch of aliases that
277 provide the old non-prefixed names.
278
279 *** `cl-flet' is not like `flet' (which is deprecated).
280 Instead it obeys the behavior of Common-Lisp's `flet'.
281
282 *** `cl-labels' is slightly different from `labels'.
283 The difference is that it relies on the `lexical-binding' machinery (as opposed
284 to the `lexical-let' machinery used previously) to capture definitions in
285 closures, so such closures will only work if `lexical-binding' is in use.
286
287 *** `progv' was rewritten to use the `let' machinery.
288 A side effect is that vars without corresponding value are bound to nil
289 rather than making them unbound.
290
291 ** Compilation mode
292
293 *** New option `compilation-always-kill'.
294
295 ** Customize
296
297 *** `custom-reset-button-menu' now defaults to t.
298
299 *** Non-option variables are never matched in `customize-apropos' and
300 `customize-apropos-options' (i.e. the prefix argument does nothing for
301 these commands now).
302
303 ** Desktop
304
305 *** `desktop-path' no longer includes the "." directory. Desktop
306 files are now located in ~/.emacs.d by default.
307
308 ** D-Bus
309
310 +++
311 *** New variables `dbus-compiled-version' and `dbus-runtime-version'.
312
313 +++
314 *** The D-Bus object manager interface is implemented.
315
316 +++
317 *** Variables of type :(u)int32 and :(u)int64 accept floating points,
318 if their value does not fit into Emacs's integer range.
319
320 +++
321 *** The function `dbus-call-method' works non-blocking now, it can be
322 interrupted by C-g. `dbus-call-method-non-blocking' is obsolete.
323
324 +++
325 *** Signals can be sent also as unicast message.
326
327 +++
328 *** The argument list of `dbus-register-signal' has been extended,
329 according to the new match rule types of D-Bus. See the manual for
330 details.
331
332 +++
333 *** `dbus-init-bus' supports private connections.
334
335 +++
336 *** There is a new function `dbus-setenv'.
337
338 ** Diff mode
339
340 *** Changes are now highlighted using the same color scheme as in
341 modern VCSes. Deletions are displayed in red (new faces
342 `diff-refine-removed' and `smerge-refined-removed' and new definition
343 of `diff-removed'), insertions in green (new faces `diff-refine-added'
344 and `smerge-refined-added' and new definition of `diff-added').
345
346 *** The variable `diff-use-changed-face' defines whether to use the
347 face `diff-changed', or `diff-removed' and `diff-added' to highlight
348 changes in context diffs.
349
350 *** The new command `diff-remove-trailing-whitespace' fixes trailing
351 whitespace problems introduced by the diff.
352
353 ** Dired
354
355 *** `dired-do-async-shell-command' executes each file sequentially
356 if the command ends in `;' (when operating on multiple files).
357 Otherwise, it executes the command on each file in parallel.
358
359 *** Typing M-n in the minibuffer of `dired-do-chmod', `dired-do-chgrp',
360 `dired-do-chown', `dired-do-touch' pulls the file attributes of the
361 file at point.
362
363 *** When the region is active, `m' (`dired-mark'), `u' (`dired-unmark'),
364 `DEL' (`dired-unmark-backward'), `d' (`dired-flag-file-deletion')
365 mark/unmark/flag all files in the active region.
366
367 *** The minibuffer default for `=' (`dired-diff) has changed.
368 It is now the backup file for the file at point, if one exists.
369 In Transient Mark mode the default is the file at the active mark.
370
371 *** `M-=' is no longer bound to `dired-backup-diff' in Dired buffers.
372 The global binding for `M-=', `count-words-region' is in effect.
373
374 ** Ediff now uses the same color scheme as Diff mode.
375
376 ** erc will look up server/channel names via auth-source and use the
377 channel keys found, if any.
378
379 ** Flymake uses fringe bitmaps to indicate errors and warnings.
380 See flymake-fringe-indicator-position, flymake-error-bitmap and
381 flymake-warning-bitmap.
382
383 ** Follow mode
384
385 *** The obsolete variable `follow-mode-off-hook' has been removed.
386
387 *** Follow mode no longer works by using advice.
388 The option `follow-intercept-processes' has been removed.
389
390 ** FFAP
391
392 *** The option `ffap-url-unwrap-remote' can now be a list of strings,
393 specifying URL types which should be converted to remote file names at
394 the FFAP prompt. The default is now '("ftp").
395
396 ** Ibuffer
397
398 *** New `derived-mode' filter, bound to `/ M'.
399 The old binding for `/ M' (filter by used-mode) is now bound to `/ m'.
400
401 ** Mouse Avoidance mode
402
403 The new variable `mouse-avoidance-banish-position' can now be used to
404 customize Mouse Avoidance mode further.
405
406 +++
407 ** notifications.el supports now version 1.2 of the Notifications API.
408 The function `notifications-get-capabilities' returns the supported
409 server properties.
410
411 ** In Perl mode, new option `perl-indent-parens-as-block' causes non-block
412 closing brackets to be aligned with the line of the opening bracket.
413
414 ** In Proced mode, new command `proced-renice' renices marked processes.
415
416 ** Python mode
417
418 A new version of python.el, which provides several new features, including:
419 per-buffer shells, better indentation, Python 3 support, and improved
420 shell-interaction compatible with iPython (and virtually any other
421 text based shell).
422
423 *** Some user options have been replaced/renamed:
424 Old defcustom: | New defcustom:
425 python-indent | python-indent-offset
426 python-guess-indent | python-indent-guess-indent-offset
427 python-pdbtrack-do-tracking-p | python-pdbtrack-activate
428 python-use-skeletons | python-skeleton-autoinsert
429
430 *** Some user options have been removed:
431
432 **** `python-indent-string-contents': Strings are never indented.
433
434 **** `python-honour-comment-indentation':
435 Comments are never considered as indentation markers themselves.
436
437 **** `python-continuation-offset': Indentation is automatically
438 calculated in a pep8 compliant way depending on the context.
439
440 **** `python-shell-prompt-alist', `python-shell-continuation-prompt-alist':
441 Have no direct mapping as the shell interaction is completely different.
442
443 **** `python-python-command', `python-jython-command':
444 Replaced by `python-shell-interpreter'.
445
446 **** `inferior-python-filter-regexp', `python-remove-cwd-from-path',
447 `python-pdbtrack-minor-mode-string', `python-source-modes':
448 No longer relevant.
449
450 *** Some commands have been replaced:
451 Old command | New command
452 python-insert-class | python-skeleton-class
453 python-insert-def | python-skeleton-def
454 python-insert-for | python-skeleton-for
455 python-insert-if | python-skeleton-if
456 python-insert-try/except | python-skeleton-try
457 python-insert-try/finally | python-skeleton-try
458 python-insert-while | python-skeleton-while
459 python-find-function | python-nav-jump-to-defun
460 python-next-statement | python-nav-forward-sentence
461 python-previous-statement | python-nav-backward-sentence
462 python-send-buffer | python-shell-send-buffer
463 python-send-defun | python-shell-send-defun
464 python-send-region | python-shell-send-region
465 python-send-region-and-go | Emulate with python-shell-send-region and
466 python-shell-switch-to-shell
467 python-send-string | python-shell-send-string
468 python-switch-to-python | python-shell-switch-to-shell
469 python-describe-symbol | python-eldoc-at-point
470
471 ** reStructuredText mode
472
473 *** Rebind nearly all keys making room for more keys and complying
474 better to usage in other modes. Describe bindings with C-c C-h.
475
476 *** Major revision of indentation working very similar to other
477 modes. TAB is your friend.
478
479 *** Major revision of filling working fine with most of
480 reStructuredText syntax. Support auto-filling.
481
482 *** Major revision of comment handling.
483
484 *** Major revision of fontification working with `jit-lock-mode'.
485
486 *** Cover reStructuredText syntax more closely. Improve
487 the experience for Sphinx users.
488
489 *** `rst-insert-list' inserts new list or continues existing lists.
490
491 *** Extend correct and improve customization.
492
493 *** Negative prefix argument always works for `rst-adjust'.
494
495 *** Reset window configuration after displaying TOC.
496
497 *** Package version in `rst-version'.
498
499 *** Support `imenu' and `which-func'.
500
501 ** SH Script mode
502
503 *** Pairing of parens/quotes uses electric-pair-mode instead of skeleton-pair.
504
505 *** `sh-electric-here-document-mode' now controls auto-insertion of here-docs.
506
507 *** `sh-use-smie' lets you choose a new indentation and navigation code.
508
509 ** Shell
510
511 *** New option `async-shell-command-buffer' specifies what buffer to use
512 for a new asynchronous shell command when the default output buffer
513 `*Async Shell Command*' is already taken by another running command.
514
515 ** SQL Mode
516
517 *** DB2 added `sql-db2-escape-newlines'
518
519 If non-nil, newlines sent to the command interpreter will be escaped
520 by a backslash. The default does not escape the newlines and assumes
521 that the sql statement will be terminated by a semicolon.
522
523 ** Tabulated List and packages derived from it
524
525 *** New command `tabulated-list-sort', bound to `S', sorts the column
526 at point, or the Nth column if a numeric prefix argument is given.
527
528 ** Term
529
530 The variables `term-default-fg-color' and `term-default-bg-color' are
531 now deprecated in favor of the `term-face' face, that you can
532 customize. Also, it is now possible to customize how are displayed the
533 ANSI terminal colors and styles by customizing the corresponding
534 `term-color-<COLOR>', `term-color-underline' and `term-color-bold'
535 faces.
536
537 ** Tramp
538 +++
539 *** The syntax has been extended in order to allow ad-hoc proxy
540 definitions. See the manual for details.
541 +++
542 *** Remote processes are now supported also on remote Windows host.
543
544 ** URL
545
546 *** Structs made by `url-generic-parse-url' have nil `attributes' slot.
547 Previously, this slot stored semicolon-separated attribute-value pairs
548 appended to some imap URLs, but this is not compatible with RFC 3986.
549 So now the `filename' slot stores the entire path and query components
550 and the `attributes' slot is always nil.
551
552 *** New function `url-encode-url' for encoding a URI string.
553 The `url-retrieve' function now uses this to encode its URL argument,
554 in case that is not properly encoded.
555
556 ** VHDL mode
557
558 *** The free software compiler GHDL is supported (and now the default).
559
560 *** Support for the VHDL-AMS packages has been added/updated.
561
562 *** Updated to the 2002 revision of the VHDL standard.
563
564 *** Accepts \r and \f as whitespace.
565
566 ** which-function-mode now applies to all applicable major modes by default.
567
568
569 ** FIXME something happened to ses.el, 2012-04-17.
570
571
572 ** Obsolete packages:
573
574 *** assoc.el
575 In most cases, assoc+member+push+delq work just as well.
576 And in any case it's just a terrible package: ugly semantics, terrible
577 inefficiency, and not namespace-clean.
578
579 *** bruce.el
580
581 *** ledit.el
582
583 *** mailpost.el
584
585 *** mouse-sel.el
586
587 *** patcomp.el
588
589 *** cust-print.el
590
591 \f
592 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.3
593 \f
594 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.3
595
596 ** (random) by default now returns a different random sequence in
597 every Emacs run. Use (random S), where S is a string, to set the
598 random seed to a value based on S, in order to get a repeatable
599 sequence in later calls.
600
601 ** The function `x-select-font' can return a font spec, instead of a
602 font name as a string. Whether it returns a font spec or a font name
603 depends on the graphical library.
604
605 ** If the NEWTEXT arg to `replace-match' contains a substring "\?",
606 that substring is inserted literally even if the LITERAL arg is
607 non-nil, instead of causing an error to be signaled.
608
609 +++
610 ** Docstrings starting with `*' no longer indicate user options.
611 Only variables defined using `defcustom' are considered user options.
612 The function `user-variable-p' is now an obsolete alias for
613 `custom-variable-p'.
614
615 +++
616 ** The return values of `defalias', `defun' and `defmacro' have changed,
617 and are now undefined. For backwards compatibility, defun and
618 defmacro currently return the name of the newly defined function/macro
619 but this should not be relied upon.
620
621 ** `face-spec-set' no longer sets frame-specific attributes when the
622 third argument is a frame (that usage was obsolete since Emacs 22.2).
623
624 +++
625 ** The arguments of `dbus-register-signal' are no longer just strings,
626 but keywords or keyword-string pairs. The old argument list will
627 still be supported for Emacs 24.x.
628
629 ** Spelling changes.
630 Some Lisp symbols have been renamed to avoid problems with spelling
631 that is incorrect or inconsistent with how Emacs normally spells a word.
632
633 *** Renamed functions
634
635 **** hangul-input-method-inactivate -> hangul-input-method-deactivate
636 **** inactivate-input-method -> deactivate-input-method
637 **** quail-inactivate -> quail-deactivate
638 **** robin-inactivate -> robin-deactivate
639 **** viper-inactivate-input-method -> viper-deactivate-input-method
640 **** viper-inactivate-input-method-action ->
641 viper-deactivate-input-method-action
642 **** ucs-input-inactivate -> ucs-input-deactivate
643
644 *** Renamed hooks
645 The old hooks are still supported for backward compatibility, but they
646 are deprecated and will be removed eventually.
647
648 **** input-method-inactivate-hook -> input-method-deactivate-hook
649 **** robin-inactivate-hook -> robin-deactivate-hook
650 **** quail-inactivate-hook -> quail-deactivate-hook
651
652 *** Renamed Lisp variables
653
654 **** follow-deactive-menu -> follow-inactive-menu
655 **** inactivate-current-input-method-function ->
656 deactivate-current-input-method-function
657
658 ** Some obsolete variables and variable aliases were removed:
659
660 *** `facemenu-unlisted-faces'
661 *** `rmail-decode-mime-charset'
662 *** `last-input-char', `last-command-char', `unread-command-char'.
663
664 \f
665 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.3
666
667 ** CL-style generalized variables are now in core Elisp.
668 `setf' is autoloaded; `push' and `pop' accept generalized variables.
669
670 ** `defun' also accepts a (declare DECLS) form, like `defmacro'.
671 The interpretation of the DECLS is determined by `defun-declarations-alist'.
672
673 ** Completion
674
675 *** New function `completion-table-with-quoting' to handle completion
676 in the presence of quoting, such as file completion in shell buffers.
677
678 *** New function `completion-table-subvert' to use an existing completion
679 table, but with a different prefix.
680
681 ** Debugger changes
682
683 *** New error type and new function `user-error'.
684 These do not trigger the debugger.
685
686 *** New option `debugger-bury-or-kill'.
687
688 *** Set `debug-on-message' to enter the debugger when a certain
689 message is displayed in the echo area. This can be useful when trying
690 to work out which code is doing something.
691
692 *** New var `inhibit-debugger', automatically set to prevent accidental
693 recursive invocations.
694
695 ** Minibuffer
696
697 *** `read-regexp' has a new argument HISTORY; the first argument PROMPT
698 of `read-regexp' accepts a string ending with a colon and space, and its
699 second argument DEFAULTS can be a list of strings accessible via M-n
700 in the minibuffer ahead of other hard-coded useful regexp-related values.
701 More commands use `read-regexp' now to read their regexp arguments.
702
703 ** Window changes
704
705 *** The functions get-lru-window, get-mru-window and get-largest-window
706 now accept a third argument to avoid choosing the selected window.
707
708 *** Additional values recognized for option `window-combination-limit'.
709
710 *** New macro `with-temp-buffer-window'.
711
712 *** New options `temp-buffer-resize-frames' and
713 `temp-buffer-resize-regexps'.
714
715 *** `temp-buffer-resize-mode' no longer resizes windows that have been
716 reused.
717
718 *** New function `fit-frame-to-buffer' and new option
719 `fit-frame-to-buffer-bottom-margin'.
720
721 *** New display action functions `display-buffer-below-selected',
722 `display-buffer-at-bottom' and `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
723
724 *** New display action alist entry `inhibit-switch-frame', if non-nil,
725 tells display action functions to avoid changing which frame is
726 selected.
727
728 *** New display action alist entry `pop-up-frame-parameters', if
729 non-nil, specifies frame parameters to give any newly-created frame.
730
731 *** New display action alist entry `previous-window', if non-nil,
732 specifies window to reuse in `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
733
734 *** The following variables are obsolete, as they can be replaced by
735 appropriate entries in the `display-buffer-alist' function introduced
736 in Emacs 24.1:
737 +++
738 **** `display-buffer-reuse-frames'
739 **** `special-display-regexps'
740 **** `special-display-frame-alist'
741 **** `special-display-buffer-names'
742 **** `special-display-function'
743 **** `display-buffer-function'
744
745 ** Time
746
747 *** `current-time-string' no longer requires that its argument's year
748 must be in the range 1000..9999. It now works with any year supported
749 by the underlying C implementation.
750
751 *** `current-time' now returns extended-format time stamps
752 (HIGH LOW USEC PSEC), where the new PSEC slot specifies picoseconds.
753 PSEC is typically a multiple of 1000 on current machines. Other
754 functions that use this format, such as file-attributes and
755 format-time-string, have been changed accordingly. Old-format time
756 stamps are still accepted.
757
758 *** The format of timers in timer-list and timer-idle-list is now
759 [TRIGGERED-P HI-SECS LO-SECS USECS REPEAT-DELAY FUNCTION ARGS IDLE-DELAY PSECS].
760 The PSECS slot is new, and uses picosecond resolution. It can be
761 accessed via the new timer--psecs accessor.
762
763 ** Floating point functions now always return special values like NaN,
764 instead of signaling errors, if given invalid args, e.g. (log -1.0).
765 Previously, they returned NaNs on some platforms but signaled errors
766 on others. The affected functions are acos, asin, tan, exp, expt,
767 log, log10, sqrt, and mod.
768
769 ** Interpreted files are eagerly macro-expanded during load.
770 This can significantly speed up execution of non-byte-compiled code,
771 but can also bump into harmless and previously unnoticed cyclic
772 dependencies. These should not be fatal: they will simply cause the
773 macro-calls to be left for later expansion (as before), but will also
774 result in a warning describing the cycle.
775
776 ** Misc new functions:
777
778 *** `autoloadp'
779 *** `autoload-do-load'.
780 *** `buffer-narrowed-p' tests if the buffer is narrowed.
781 *** `file-name-base' returns a file name sans directory and extension.
782 *** `function-get' fetches a function property, following aliases.
783 *** `posnp' tests if an object is a `posn'.
784 *** `set-temporary-overlay-map' sets up a temporary overlay map.
785 *** `system-users' returns the user names on the system.
786 *** `system-groups' returns the group names on the system.
787 *** `tty-top-frame' returns the topmost frame of a text terminal.
788
789 ** New macros `setq-local' and `defvar-local'.
790
791 ** New fringe bitmap exclamation-mark.
792
793 ** Face underlining can now use a wave.
794 See the "Face Attributes" section of the Elisp manual.
795
796 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
797
798 *** `automount-dir-prefix'
799 *** `buffer-has-markers-at'
800 *** `macro-declaration-function' (use `macro-declarations-alist').
801 *** `window-system-version'
802
803 \f
804 * Changes in Emacs 24.3 on non-free operating systems
805
806 ** New configure.bat options on MS-Windows:
807
808 *** --without-libxml2 omits support for libxml2, even if its presence
809 is detected.
810
811 ** When invoked with the -nw switch to run on the Windows text-mode terminal,
812 Emacs now supports mouse highlight, help-echo (in the echo area), and
813 mouse-autoselect-window.
814
815 ** On MS-Windows Vista and later Emacs now supports symbolic links.
816 \f
817 * Changes in Emacs 24.2
818
819 ** This is mainly a bug-fix release.
820
821 \f
822 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
823
824 ** Emacs can be compiled with Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
825 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
826 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
827 --without-gconf.
828
829 ** Emacs can be compiled with GnuTLS support.
830 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
831 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
832 `--without-gnutls'. See below for GnuTLS features.
833
834 ** Emacs can be compiled with SELinux support.
835 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
836 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
837 `--without-selinux'. See below for SELinux features.
838
839 ** Emacs can be compiled with ImageMagick support.
840 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
841 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
842 `--without-imagemagick'. See below for ImageMagick features.
843 This feature is not available for the Nextstep or MS ports.
844
845 ** Emacs can be compiled with libxml2 support.
846 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
847 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
848 `--without-xml2'. See below for libxml2 features.
849
850 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
851 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
852
853 ** New configure option --with-wide-int.
854 With it, Emacs integers typically have 62 bits, even on 32-bit machines.
855 On 32-bit hosts, this raises the limit on buffer sizes from about 512 MiB
856 to about 2 GiB.
857
858 ** New configure options: --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
859 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
860 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
861
862 ** New configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
863 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
864 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
865
866 ** The standalone programs digest-doc and sorted-doc are removed.
867 Emacs now uses Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
868
869 ** The standalone program `fakemail' is removed.
870 If you need it, feedmail.el provides a superset of the functionality.
871
872 \f
873 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
874
875 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
876 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
877 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
878
879 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
880 from load-path. -Q now implies this. This option does not affect the
881 EMACSLOADPATH environment variable (and hence has no effect for
882 Nextstep builds).
883
884 \f
885 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
886
887 ** Completion
888
889 *** Many packages now use the `completion-at-point' command,
890 rather than implementing separate completion commands.
891
892 *** `completion-at-point' now handles tags and semantic completion.
893
894 *** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
895 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
896
897 *** New option `completion-cycle-threshold' allows completion cycling.
898
899 *** New option `completion-category-overrides' for overriding the
900 default completion style in certain circumstances.
901
902 *** New completion style `substring'.
903
904 *** Completion of buffer names uses `substring' completion by default.
905
906 *** The option `widget-complete-field' has been removed.
907
908 ** Mail changes
909
910 *** The first time you try sending mail, Emacs asks for a mail method.
911 This is implemented by a new default for `send-mail-function', which
912 is `sendmail-query-once'. This offers to use the smtpmail package, or
913 to use the old defaults relying on external mail facilities
914 (`sendmail-send-it' on GNU/Linux and other Unix-like systems, and
915 `mailclient-send-it' on Windows).
916
917 *** Typing C-c m in the buffer made by M-x report-emacs-bug transfers
918 the report to your desktop's preferred mail client, if there is one.
919 This uses either the "xdg-email" utility, or Mac OS's "open" command.
920
921 *** See Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages for SMTPmail changes
922 and Mail mode changes
923
924 ** Emacs server and client changes
925
926 *** New option `server-port' specifies the port for TCP Emacs servers.
927
928 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
929
930 *** New emacsclient argument --frame-parameters specifies the frame
931 parameters of any newly-created graphical frame.
932
933 *** If emacsclient shuts down due to Emacs signaling an error,
934 its exit status is 1.
935
936 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID.
937 This opens a client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed, similar
938 to the --parent-id argument to Emacs.
939
940 ** Internationalization changes
941
942 *** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
943 Right-to-left (RTL) scripts, such as Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew, are
944 displayed in the correct visual order as expected by users of those
945 scripts. The display reordering is a "full bidirectionality" class
946 implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm (UBA). Buffers
947 with no RTL text should look exactly the same as before.
948
949 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-display-reordering'.
950 To disable display reordering in a buffer, change this to nil.
951
952 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction'.
953 If nil (the default), Emacs determines the base direction of each
954 paragraph from its text, as specified by the UBA. Setting the value
955 to `right-to-left' or `left-to-right' forces a base direction on each
956 paragraph.
957
958 Paragraphs with right-to-left base direction are displayed starting at
959 the right window edge.
960
961 *** Enhanced support for characters with no glyphs in available fonts,
962 or, on text terminals, characters that cannot be encoded by the
963 terminal coding system. The new option `glyphless-char-display-control'
964 specifies how to display them: as a hexadecimal code in a box, a thin
965 1-pixel space, an empty box, etc.
966
967 *** New input methods for Farsi and Bulgarian
968 (farsi-isiri-9147, farsi-transliterate-banan, bulgarian-alt-phonetic).
969
970 *** `nobreak-char-display' now also highlights Unicode hyphen chars
971 (U+2010 and U+2011).
972
973 *** New Hebrew translation of the Emacs Tutorial.
974 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
975 automatically select it.
976
977 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
978 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
979 from a package repository at http://elpa.gnu.org.
980
981 *** M-x list-packages shows a list of packages, which can be
982 selected for installation.
983
984 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
985
986 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded automatically when
987 Emacs starts up. To disable this, set `package-enable-at-startup' to
988 nil. To specify the packages to load, customize `package-load-list'.
989
990 ** Custom theme changes
991
992 *** New command `M-x customize-themes', which provides a convenient
993 interface for enabling and disabling Custom themes.
994
995 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
996 Emacs no longer looks for Custom themes in `load-path'. The default
997 value of `custom-theme-load-path' says to look for themes in
998 `custom-theme-directory', followed by a subdirectory of
999 `data-directory' named "themes/", which contains a small selection of
1000 built-in Custom themes.
1001
1002 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
1003 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
1004 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
1005 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
1006
1007 ** Improved GTK integration
1008
1009 *** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
1010 The function `set-scroll-bar-mode' can change this.
1011
1012 *** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
1013 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose the style. On a Gnome desktop,
1014 the default is taken from desktop settings.
1015
1016 *** GTK tool bars can be placed on any edge of the frame.
1017 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the
1018 values top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has
1019 entries for this.
1020
1021 *** The default colors for selected text (the `region' face) are taken
1022 from the GTK theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
1023
1024 *** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK.
1025 You can disable this by changing `x-gtk-use-system-tooltips' to nil.
1026
1027 ** Graphical interface changes
1028
1029 *** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
1030 Also, the first dash (which does not indicate anything) is just
1031 displayed as a space.
1032
1033 *** `menu-bar-select-buffer-function' lets you choose another operation
1034 instead of `switch-to-buffer' when selecting an item in the Buffers menu.
1035
1036 *** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is
1037 built with Xft. These fonts can be set via X resources, for example:
1038 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
1039
1040 ** Exiting changes
1041
1042 *** Emacs now calls `kill-emacs' if it receives SIGTERM or SIGHUP,
1043 or if it receives a SIGINT signal in batch mode.
1044
1045 *** `kill-emacs-hook' is now also run in batch mode.
1046 Third-party code which adds to `kill-emacs-hook' should check if they
1047 do the right thing in batch mode.
1048
1049 ** Scrolling changes
1050
1051 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
1052 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
1053 of buffer at first key-press (instead they move to top/bottom of buffer)
1054 when `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
1055
1056 *** New option `scroll-error-top-bottom' (see above).
1057
1058 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
1059 scroll a line instead of full screen.
1060
1061 *** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
1062 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
1063
1064 *** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
1065 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
1066 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
1067 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
1068 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
1069
1070 *** "Aggressive" scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
1071 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
1072 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
1073 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
1074 margin.
1075
1076 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
1077 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
1078
1079 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up.
1080 Also, the function `copy-file' has an extra optional argument for
1081 preserving SELinux context, and the return value of `backup-buffer'
1082 now includes the SELinux context.
1083
1084 *** New functions `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
1085 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
1086
1087 ** Trash changes
1088
1089 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
1090 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
1091
1092 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
1093 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
1094
1095 ** File- and directory-local variable changes
1096
1097 *** You can stop directory local vars from applying to subdirectories.
1098 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
1099 settings to indicate that the section should not apply to
1100 subdirectories.
1101
1102 *** Directory local variables can apply to some file-less buffers.
1103 Affected modes include dired, vc-dir, and log-edit. For example,
1104 adding "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to .dir-locals.el will
1105 turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should call
1106 `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
1107
1108 *** Using "mode: MINOR-MODE" to enable a minor mode is deprecated.
1109 Instead, use "eval: (minor-mode 1)".
1110
1111 *** The variable `inhibit-first-line-modes-regexps' has been renamed
1112 to `inhibit-local-variables-regexps'. As the name suggests, it now
1113 applies to ALL file local variables, not just -*- lines. The
1114 associated `inhibit-first-line-modes-suffixes' has been renamed in the
1115 corresponding way.
1116
1117 ** Window changes
1118
1119 *** The `quit-window' command now restores the last buffer displayed
1120 in the quitted window.
1121
1122 *** Resizing an Emacs frame now preserves proportional window sizes,
1123 modulo restrictions like window minimum sizes and fixed-size windows.
1124
1125 *** The behavior of `display-buffer' is now customizable in detail.
1126
1127 **** New option `display-buffer-base-action' specifies a list of
1128 user-determined display "actions" (functions and optional arguments
1129 for choosing the displaying window).
1130
1131 This takes precedence over the default display action, which is
1132 specified by `display-buffer-fallback-action'.
1133
1134 **** New option `display-buffer-alist' maps buffer name regexps to
1135 display actions, taking precedence over `display-buffer-base-action'.
1136
1137 *** New option `window-combination-limit'.
1138 The new option `window-combination-limit' allows to return the space
1139 obtained for resizing or creating a window more reliably to the window
1140 from which such space was obtained.
1141
1142 *** New option `window-combination-resize'.
1143 The new option `window-combination-resize' allows to split a window that
1144 otherwise cannot be split because it's too small by stealing space from
1145 other windows in the same combination. Subsequent resizing or deletion
1146 of the window will resize all windows in the same combination as well.
1147
1148 *** New option `frame-auto-hide-function' lets you choose between
1149 iconifying or deleting a frame when burying a buffer in a dedicated
1150 frame, or quitting a window showing a buffer in a frame of its own.
1151
1152 *** New commands `maximize-window' and `minimize-window'.
1153 These maximize and minimize the size of a window within its frame.
1154
1155 *** New commands `switch-to-prev-buffer' and `switch-to-next-buffer'.
1156 These functions allow to navigate through the live buffers that have
1157 been shown in a specific window.
1158
1159 ** Minibuffer changes
1160
1161 *** The inactive minibuffer has its own major mode `minibuffer-inactive-mode'.
1162 This is handy for minibuffer-only frames, and is also used for the feature
1163 where mouse-1 pops up *Messages*"', which can now easily be changed.
1164
1165 *** Minibuffers set `truncate-lines' to nil.
1166 If you want to change the value to something else, you could use
1167 for example `minibuffer-setup-hook'.
1168
1169 ** `auto-mode-case-fold' is now enabled by default.
1170
1171 ** `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' now defaults to t.
1172
1173 ** New basic faces `error', `warning', `success'.
1174 These are used to highlight text indicating failure, caution or
1175 successful operation.
1176
1177 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
1178 for `list-colors-display'.
1179
1180 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
1181
1182 \f
1183 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
1184
1185 ** Search changes
1186
1187 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-kill', instead of
1188 `isearch-yank-line'.
1189
1190 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-pop', instead of
1191 `isearch-yank-kill'.
1192
1193 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-line'.
1194
1195 ** New commands `count-words-region' and `count-words'.
1196
1197 *** M-= is bound to `count-words-region', not `count-lines-region'.
1198 The `count-words-region' command, when called interactively, reports
1199 the number of lines, words, and characters in the region. It is a
1200 superset of the old `count-lines-region', which is now an obsolete
1201 alias for it.
1202
1203 ** The command `just-one-space' (M-SPC), if given a negative argument,
1204 also deletes newlines around point.
1205
1206 ** Deletion changes
1207
1208 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
1209 If non-nil, [delete] and DEL delete the region if it is active and no
1210 prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', those commands kill
1211 instead.
1212
1213 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to [delete].
1214 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
1215 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
1216
1217 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
1218 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
1219 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; Lisp
1220 callers should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
1221
1222 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
1223
1224 ** Selection changes.
1225
1226 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections has been
1227 changed to conform with modern X applications. In short, most
1228 commands for killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while
1229 mouse commands use the primary selection.
1230
1231 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
1232 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
1233
1234 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
1235 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
1236 the kill ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
1237 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
1238
1239 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
1240 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
1241 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
1242 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
1243 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
1244
1245 **** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
1246
1247 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
1248 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
1249 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
1250
1251 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
1252
1253 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
1254 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
1255 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
1256
1257 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
1258 exactly equivalent to M-w, C-w, and C-y respectively.
1259
1260 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
1261 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
1262 between applications.
1263
1264 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
1265
1266 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
1267 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
1268 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
1269 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
1270 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
1271
1272 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
1273
1274 *** X clipboard managers are now supported.
1275 To inhibit this, change `x-select-enable-clipboard-manager' to nil.
1276
1277 ** New command `C-x r N' (`rectangle-number-lines') numbers the lines
1278 in the current rectangle. With a prefix argument, this prompts for a
1279 number to count from and for a format string.
1280
1281 ** `redisplay-dont-pause' now defaults to t.
1282 This makes Emacs feel more responsive to editing commands that arrive
1283 at high rate, e.g. if you lean on some key, because stopping redisplay
1284 in the middle (when this variable is nil) forces more expensive
1285 updates later on, and Emacs appears to be unable to keep up.
1286
1287 ** The behavior of <TAB> for active regions in Text mode has changed.
1288 In Text and related modes, typing <TAB> (`indent-for-tab-command')
1289 when the region is active causes Emacs to indent all the lines in the
1290 region, aligning them with the line previous to the first line in the
1291 region (or with the left margin if there is no previous line).
1292
1293 ** When `occur' is called with a prefix argument, matching strings are
1294 collected into the `*Occur*' buffer without line numbers. If there
1295 are parenthesized subexpressions in the specified regexp, `occur'
1296 reads replacement text that may contain \\& and \\N whose convention
1297 follows `replace-match'.
1298
1299 \f
1300 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
1301
1302 ** Archive Mode has basic support for browsing and updating 7z archives.
1303
1304 ** BibTeX mode
1305
1306 *** BibTeX mode now supports biblatex.
1307 Use the variable `bibtex-dialect' to select different BibTeX dialects.
1308 `bibtex-entry-field-alist' is now an obsolete alias for
1309 `bibtex-BibTeX-entry-alist'.
1310
1311 *** New command `bibtex-search-entries', bound to C-c C-a.
1312
1313 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `sort-fields', disabled by default.
1314
1315 *** New variable `bibtex-search-entry-globally'.
1316
1317 ** Browse-url
1318
1319 *** New option `browse-url-mailto-function' specifies how to handle "mailto:"s.
1320
1321 *** The default browser used by the package is now the "xdg-open" program,
1322 on platforms that support it. This calls your desktop's preferred browser.
1323
1324 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
1325
1326 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing "comments".
1327 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
1328
1329 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
1330 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
1331
1332 *** The function specified by `appt-disp-window-function' may be passed
1333 lists of arguments if multiple appointments are due at similar times.
1334 If you are using a custom function for this, you should update it.
1335
1336 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
1337
1338 *** Elements of `calendar-day-abbrev-array' and `calendar-month-abbrev-array'
1339 may no longer be nil, but must all be strings.
1340
1341 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt
1342 package by adding `appt-make-list' to `diary-hook' has been removed.
1343 Use `appt-activate' instead.
1344
1345 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
1346 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
1347 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
1348
1349 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
1350 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
1351
1352 ** CC Mode
1353
1354 *** New feature to "guess" the style in an existing buffer.
1355 The main entry point is M-x c-guess.
1356
1357 *** Java Mode now supports Java 5.0 (Tiger) and 6 (Mustang).
1358
1359 *** `c-beginning-of-defun' and `c-end-of-defun' now respect nested scopes.
1360 Thus C-M-a will, by default, go to the beginning of the immediate function,
1361 not the top level.
1362
1363 *** "Macros with semicolons" can be registered for correct indentation.
1364 Where such a macro ends a line (no semicolon) the next statement is no longer
1365 parsed as a statement continuation.
1366
1367 ** Comint and modes derived from it use the standard completion code.
1368
1369 ** Compilation mode
1370
1371 *** Compilation mode can be used without Font Lock mode.
1372 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
1373
1374 *** New variable `compilation-filter-start', which is bound while
1375 `compilation-filter-hook' runs. It records the start position of the
1376 text inserted by `compilation-filter'.
1377
1378 *** `compilation-error-screen-columns' and `compilation-first-column'
1379 are obeyed in the editing buffer. So programming language modes can
1380 set them, whereas previously only the value in the *Compilation*
1381 buffer was used.
1382
1383 ** Customize
1384
1385 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
1386 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
1387 To turn off the search field, set `custom-search-field' to nil.
1388
1389 *** Options in customize group buffers start out hidden if not customized.
1390 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
1391
1392 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
1393
1394 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
1395 choose a color via `list-colors-display'.
1396
1397 ** D-Bus
1398
1399 *** It is now possible to access buses other than the default system
1400 or session bus.
1401
1402 *** The `dbus-register-method' and `dbus-register-property' functions
1403 optionally do not register names.
1404
1405 *** The new function `dbus-register-service' registers a known service
1406 name on a D-Bus without also registering a property or a method.
1407
1408 ** Dired-x
1409
1410 *** C-x C-j (`dired-jump') and C-x 4 C-j (`dired-jump-other-window'),
1411 if called with a prefix argument, read a file name from the minibuffer
1412 instead of using the current buffer.
1413
1414 *** The "dired local variables" feature of Dired-x is obsolete.
1415 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
1416
1417 ** ERC changes
1418
1419 *** New options `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay',
1420 controlling attempts to autojoin a channel.
1421
1422 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
1423 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
1424 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
1425 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
1426
1427 ** Eshell changes
1428
1429 *** The default value of `eshell-directory-name' has changed
1430 to be an "eshell" directory in `user-emacs-directory'.
1431 The old "~/.eshell/" directory is still used if it exists, though.
1432
1433 ** gdb-mi
1434
1435 *** The M-x gdb command now uses the GDB Machine Interface protocol.
1436 It now supports multithread non-stop debugging and simultaneous
1437 debugging of several threads.
1438
1439 ** Image mode
1440
1441 *** RET (`image-toggle-animation') toggles animation, if applicable.
1442 Animation plays once, unless the option `image-animate-loop' is non-nil.
1443
1444 ** Info
1445
1446 *** New command M-x info-display-manual displays a named Info manual.
1447 If that manual is already visited in some Info buffer, it displays
1448 that buffer. (This is handy if you have many manuals in many *info*
1449 buffers, and don't remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual
1450 you want to consult.) Otherwise, it loads and displays the manual.
1451
1452 *** `e' is now bound to `end-of-buffer' rather than to `Info-edit'.
1453 This is for compatibility with the stand-alone Info reader program,
1454 and also because `Info-edit' is a rarely used command that is disabled
1455 by default.
1456
1457 ** Mail mode changes (not Message mode)
1458
1459 *** New command M-x mail-add-attachment for adding MIME attachments
1460
1461 *** The command M-x mail-attach-file was renamed to M-x mail-insert-file.
1462 (Its name is misleading, since it has nothing to do with MIME
1463 attachments.) The old name is now an obsolete alias to the new name.
1464
1465 ** MH-E has been updated to MH-E version 8.3.1.
1466 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
1467
1468 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
1469
1470 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
1471
1472 ** nXML mode no longer binds C-RET to `nxml-complete'.
1473 Completion is now performed via `completion-at-point', bound to C-M-i
1474 or M-TAB. If `nxml-bind-meta-tab-to-complete-flag' is non-nil (the
1475 default), this performs tag completion.
1476
1477 ** Org mode has been updated to version 7.8.09.
1478 See ORG-NEWS for details.
1479
1480 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
1481 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity,
1482 support for more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
1483
1484 ** Rmail
1485
1486 *** The command `rmail-epa-decrypt' decrypts OpenPGP data
1487 in the Rmail incoming message.
1488
1489 *** The variable `rmail-message-filter' no longer has any effect.
1490 This change was made in Emacs 23.1 but was not advertised at the time.
1491 Try using `rmail-show-message-hook' instead.
1492
1493 ** Shell mode
1494
1495 *** M-x shell prompts for the shell path name if the default directory
1496 is a remote file name and neither the environment variable $ESHELL nor
1497 the variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
1498
1499 *** TAB is now bound to the standard `completion-at-point' command,
1500 which now implements the pcomplete rules for shell command completion.
1501
1502 ** SMTPmail
1503
1504 *** SMTPmail now uses encrypted connections (via STARTTLS) by default
1505 if the mail server supports them. This uses either built-in GnuTLS
1506 support, or the starttls.el library. Customize `smtpmail-stream-type'
1507 to change this.
1508
1509 *** The variable `smtpmail-auth-credentials' has been removed.
1510 By default, the information is now stored in the file ~/.authinfo.
1511 This was the default value of smtpmail-auth-credentials. If you had
1512 customized smtpmail-auth-credentials to a list of user names and
1513 passwords, those settings are not used. During your first connection
1514 to the smtp server, Emacs will prompt for the user name and password,
1515 and offer to save them to ~/.authinfo. Or you can manually copy the
1516 credentials to ~/.authinfo. For example, if you had
1517
1518 (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials
1519 '(("mail.example.org" 25 "jim" "s!cret")))
1520
1521 then the equivalent line in ~/.authinfo would be
1522
1523 machine mail.example.org port 25 login jim password s!cret
1524
1525 See the auth-source manual for more information, e.g. on encrypting
1526 the credentials file.
1527
1528 *** The variable `smtpmail-starttls-credentials' has been removed.
1529 If you had that set, you need to put
1530
1531 machine smtp.whatever.foo port 25 key "~/.my_smtp_tls.key" cert "~/.my_smtp_tls.cert"
1532
1533 in your ~/.authinfo file instead.
1534
1535 *** SMTPmail defaults to using the address in the From: header as the
1536 SMTP MAIL FROM envelope. To override this, set `mail-envelope-from'
1537 to the address you wish to use instead.
1538
1539 ** SQL mode
1540
1541 *** New options `sql-port', `sql-connection-alist', `sql-send-terminator',
1542 and `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
1543
1544 *** New options controlling prompting for login parameters.
1545 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params',
1546 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
1547 connection is established.
1548
1549 *** The command `sql-product-interactive' now takes a prefix argument,
1550 which causes it to prompt for an SQL product.
1551
1552 *** Product-specific SQL interactive commands now take prefix arguments.
1553 These commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres', `sql-mysql', etc.),
1554 given a prefix argument, prompt for a name for the SQL interactive
1555 buffer. This reduces the need for calling `sql-rename-buffer'.
1556
1557 *** SQL interactive modes suppress command continuation prompts, and
1558 replace tabs with spaces. The first change impacts multiple line SQL
1559 statements entered with C-j between each line, statements yanked into
1560 the buffer and statements sent with `sql-send-*' functions. The
1561 second prevents the MySQL and Postgres interpreters from listing
1562 object name completions when sent text via `sql-send-*' functions.
1563
1564 *** New command `sql-connect' starts a predefined SQLi session,
1565 using the login parameters from `sql-connection-alist'.
1566
1567 *** New "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
1568 This gathers the login params specified for the SQLi session, if it
1569 was not started by a connection, and saves them as a new connection.
1570
1571 *** New commands for listing database objects and details:
1572 sql-list-all and sql-list-table.
1573
1574 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
1575
1576 ** TeX modes
1577
1578 *** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
1579
1580 ** Tramp
1581
1582 *** New inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
1583
1584 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
1585 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
1586
1587 *** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
1588 remote file attributes are cached for better performance.
1589
1590 *** The option `ange-ftp-binary-file-name-regexp' has changed its
1591 default value to "".
1592
1593 *** Handlers for `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
1594 for remote machines which support SELinux.
1595
1596 ** New function `url-queue-retrieve', which behaves like url-retrieve,
1597 but with limits (`url-queue-parallel-processes', `url-queue-timeout') on
1598 the degree of parallelism.
1599
1600 ** VC and related modes
1601
1602 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
1603 The command C-x v + (`vc-pull') runs a "pull" operation, if it is
1604 supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to update the
1605 current branch and working tree. A prefix argument means to prompt
1606 the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
1607
1608 *** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
1609
1610 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
1611 The command C-x v m (`vc-merge') now runs a "merge" operation, if it
1612 is supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to merge
1613 changes from another branch into the current one. It prompts for
1614 specifics, e.g. a merge source.
1615
1616 *** New option `vc-revert-show-diff' controls whether `vc-revert'
1617 shows a diff while querying the user. It defaults to t.
1618
1619 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
1620 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
1621 This is currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial (to support
1622 another backend, define a `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function').
1623 In the Log View buffers made by C-x v L (`vc-print-root-log'), you can
1624 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
1625
1626 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
1627 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
1628
1629 *** The option `vc-initial-comment' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but
1630 this was not advertised at the time.
1631
1632 *** `vc-toggle-read-only' is an obsolete alias for `toggle-read-only'.
1633 Since Emacs 23, it has done the same thing as `toggle-read-only', but
1634 this was not advertised at the time.
1635
1636 ** Obsolete modes
1637
1638 *** abbrevlist.el
1639
1640 *** erc-hecomplete.el (use erc-pcomplete.el instead)
1641
1642 *** partial-completion-mode (complete.el) is obsolete.
1643 You can get a comparable behavior with:
1644 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
1645 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
1646
1647 *** pc-mode.el is obsolete (CUA mode is much more comprehensive).
1648
1649 *** pgg is obsolete (use EasyPG instead).
1650
1651 *** sregex.el is obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
1652
1653 *** s-region.el and pc-select.el are obsolete.
1654 They are superseded by shift-select-mode, enabled by default since 23.1.
1655
1656 *** vc-mcvs.el is obsolete (for lack of a maintainer).
1657
1658 ** Miscellaneous
1659
1660 *** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
1661 Its functions and variables have been similarly renamed.
1662
1663 *** In `ido-file-completion-map', C-v is no longer bound to `ido-toggle-vc'.
1664 (This interfered with cua-mode.)
1665
1666 *** f90.el has some support for Fortran 2008 syntax.
1667
1668 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
1669
1670 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
1671
1672 \f
1673 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
1674
1675 ** Occur Edit mode applies edits made in *Occur* buffers to the
1676 original buffers. It is bound to "e" in Occur mode.
1677
1678 ** New global minor mode electric-pair-mode.
1679 When enabled, typing an open parenthesis automatically inserts the
1680 matching closing one.
1681
1682 ** New global minor mode electric-indent-mode.
1683 When enabled, typing certain characters triggers reindentation.
1684 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-indent-chars or
1685 electric-indent-functions.
1686
1687 ** New global minor mode electric-layout-mode.
1688 When enabled, typing certain characters automatically inserts newlines.
1689 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-layout-rules.
1690
1691 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
1692 from which other modes can be derived.
1693
1694 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
1695
1696 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
1697 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
1698 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
1699 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
1700 secrets.
1701
1702 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
1703 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
1704
1705 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
1706 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
1707
1708 ** New generic mode, xmodmap-generic-mode, for xmodmap files.
1709
1710 ** New emacs-lock.el package.
1711 The previous version has been moved to obsolete/old-emacs-lock.el.
1712 Now, there is a proper minor mode `emacs-lock-mode'. Protection
1713 against exiting Emacs and killing the buffer can be set separately.
1714 The mechanism for automatically turning off protection for buffers
1715 with dead inferior processes has been generalized.
1716
1717 \f
1718 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
1719
1720 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function call now ENABLES
1721 the minor mode unconditionally. This is so that you can write e.g.
1722
1723 (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'foo-mode)
1724
1725 to enable foo-mode in Text mode buffers, removing the need for
1726 `turn-on-foo-mode' style functions. This affects all mode commands
1727 defined by `define-minor-mode'. If called interactively, the mode
1728 command still toggles the minor mode.
1729
1730 ** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
1731 It is now a list of three elements, where the second element is a list
1732 describing the original file's SELinux context. If Emacs or the
1733 system lacks SELinux support, the context list is (nil nil nil nil).
1734 See "Basic SELinux support" above, under "Changes in Emacs 24.1".
1735
1736 ** `char-direction-table' and the `char-direction' function were deleted.
1737 They were buggy and inferior to the new support of bidirectional
1738 editing introduced in Emacs 24. If you need the bidirectional
1739 properties of a character, use `get-char-code-property' with the last
1740 argument `bidi-class'.
1741
1742 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
1743 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
1744 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
1745 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
1746
1747 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
1748 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
1749 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
1750 of the header line.
1751
1752 ** Support for "old-style" backquotes, obsolete for 10+ years, has
1753 been further reduced. Now a backquote not followed by a space is
1754 always treated as a "new-style" backquote. Please remove all
1755 "old-style" backquotes from your code. If your code uses backquotes
1756 as documented in the Elisp manual, and compiles without warning, then
1757 you have nothing to do in this regard. Code not following the
1758 appropriate conventions may fail to compile.
1759
1760 The most common cause of trouble seems to be an old-style backquote
1761 followed by a newline. Another cause of trouble is vector notation
1762 for key sequence notation: instead of [(control ,)] and [(control ')],
1763 you should write [(control ?,)] and [(control ?')], which will work in
1764 older Emacsen too.
1765
1766 ** The macro `eval-at-startup' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but this
1767 was not advertised at the time. The function `custom-initialize-delay'
1768 replaced all known uses.
1769
1770 ** `view-buffer' now treats special mode-class in the same way that
1771 `view-file' has since Emacs 22 (i.e. it won't enable View mode if the
1772 major mode is special).
1773
1774 ** Menu and tool bar changes
1775
1776 *** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
1777 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
1778 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
1779 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
1780 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
1781 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
1782
1783 *** The menu bar bindings's caches are not used any more.
1784 Use (where-is-internal <def> nil t) instead.
1785
1786 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
1787 similar to those created by shift-selection (see Selection changes
1788 above). In previous Emacs versions, these regions were delineated by
1789 `mouse-drag-overlay'; that variable has been removed.
1790
1791 ** The fourth argument of `filter-buffer-substring' has been removed.
1792 If you want to remove text properties from the final result, simply
1793 pass the result through substring-no-properties.
1794
1795 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
1796
1797 ** The following obsolete functions and aliases have been removed
1798 (the appropriate new function is given in parentheses; "not needed"
1799 means you can just remove all calls to the function in question):
1800
1801 *** `comint-kill-output' (`comint-delete-output')
1802 *** `decompose-composite-char' (`char-to-string')
1803 *** `outline-visible' (`outline-invisible-p')
1804 *** `internal-find-face' (`facep')
1805 *** `internal-get-face' (`facep and check-face')
1806 *** `frame-update-faces' (not needed)
1807 *** `frame-update-face-colors' (`frame-set-background-mode')
1808 *** `x-frob-font-weight' and `x-frob-font-slant' (`make-face-*' functions)
1809 *** `x-make-font-bold and x-make-font-demibold (`make-face-bold')
1810 *** `x-make-font-italic' and `x-make-font-oblique' (`make-face-italic')
1811 *** `x-make-font-bold-italic' (`make-face-bold-italic')
1812 *** `x-make-font-unbold' (`make-face-unbold')
1813 *** `x-make-font-unitalic' (`make-face-unitalic')
1814 *** `mldrag-drag-mode-line' (`mouse-drag-mode-line')
1815 *** `mldrag-drag-vertical-line' (`mouse-drag-vertical-line')
1816 *** `iswitchb-default-keybindings' (`iswitchb-mode')
1817 *** `char-bytes' (== 1)
1818 *** `isearch-return-char' (`isearch-printing-char')
1819 *** `make-local-hook' (not needed)
1820 *** `set-screen-height' (`set-frame-height')
1821 *** `set-screen-width' (`set-frame-width')
1822
1823 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed
1824 (the appropriate new variable is given in parentheses):
1825
1826 *** `checkdoc-minor-keymap' (`checkdoc-minor-mode-map')
1827 *** `vc-header-alist' (`vc-BACKEND-header')
1828 *** `directory-sep-char' (== ?/)
1829 *** `font-lock-defaults-alist' (`font-lock-defaults')
1830 *** `e' (`float-e').
1831
1832 ** The following obsolete files were removed:
1833 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
1834
1835 ** The format of the finder-inf.el file has changed, since the Finder
1836 mechanism is now based on the package system. The variable
1837 `finder-package-info' is replaced by `package--builtins' and
1838 `finder-keywords-hash'.
1839
1840 ** When generating autoloads, `update-directory-autoloads' no longer
1841 assumes every inspected file is in your `load-path'. It instead
1842 generates relative names according to the current `load-path'.
1843
1844 \f
1845 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.1
1846
1847 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
1848 The `lexical-binding' variable enables lexical scoping for local
1849 variables. It is typically set via a file-local variable in the first
1850 line of the file, in which case it applies to all the code in that
1851 file.
1852
1853 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
1854 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
1855
1856 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
1857 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
1858
1859 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
1860
1861 *** `defvar' and `defconst' now mark the variable as special (dynamic).
1862 So do `defcustom' and other forms that call `defvar' as a subroutine.
1863
1864 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
1865 declared as dynamically bound.
1866
1867 *** The form ((lambda ...) ...) is deprecated.
1868
1869 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
1870 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
1871 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
1872
1873 ** Changes for bidirectional display and editing
1874
1875 *** New function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction'.
1876 This returns the base direction of the paragraph at point.
1877
1878 *** New function `bidi-string-mark-left-to-right'.
1879 Given a string containing characters from right-to-left scripts, this
1880 function returns another string which can be safely inserted into a
1881 buffer, such that any following text will be always displayed to the
1882 right of that string. (This works by appending an invisible Unicode
1883 "LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK" character if the argument string might need it.)
1884
1885 This is useful when the buffer has overall left-to-right paragraph
1886 direction and you need to insert a string whose contents are not known
1887 in advance, without disrupting the layout of the line.
1888
1889 ** Window changes
1890
1891 *** Window tree functions are accessible in Elisp.
1892 Functions are provided to return the parent, siblings or child windows
1893 of any window including internal windows (windows not associated with a
1894 buffer) in the window tree.
1895
1896 **** New function `window-valid-p' gives non-nil for live and internal
1897 windows.
1898
1899 **** Window manipulation can deal with internal windows.
1900 Many window handling functions like `split-window', `delete-window', or
1901 `delete-other-windows' as well as the window resizing functions can now
1902 act on any window including internal ones.
1903
1904 *** window-total-height/-width vs window-body-height/-width.
1905 The function `window-height' has been renamed to `window-total-height'
1906 and `window-width' has been renamed to `window-body-width'. The old
1907 names are provided as aliases. Two new functions `window-total-width'
1908 and `window-body-height' are provided.
1909
1910 *** Window parameters specific to window handling functions.
1911 For each window you can specify a parameter to override the default
1912 behavior of a number of functions like `split-window', `delete-window'
1913 and `delete-other-windows'. The variable `ignore-window-parameters'
1914 allows to ignore processing such parameters.
1915
1916 *** New semantics of third argument of `split-window'.
1917 The third argument of `split-window' has been renamed to SIDE and can be
1918 set to any of the values 'below, 'right, 'above, or 'left to make the
1919 new window appear on the corresponding side of the window that shall be
1920 split. Any other value of SIDE will cause `split-window' to split the
1921 window into two side-by-side windows as before.
1922
1923 *** Window resizing functions.
1924 A new standard function for resizing windows called `window-resize' has
1925 been introduced. This and all other functions for resizing windows no
1926 longer delete any windows when they become too small.
1927
1928 *** Deleting the selected window now selects the most recently selected
1929 live window on that frame instead.
1930
1931 *** `adjust-window-trailing-edge' adjustments.
1932 `adjust-window-trailing-edge' can now deal with fixed-size windows and
1933 is able to resize other windows if a window adjacent to the trailing
1934 edge cannot be shrunk any more. This makes its behavior more similar to
1935 that of Emacs 21 without compromising, however, its inability to delete
1936 windows which was introduced in Emacs 22.
1937
1938 *** Window-local buffer lists.
1939 Windows now have local buffer lists. This means that removing a buffer
1940 from display in a window will preferably show the buffer previously
1941 shown in that window with its previous window-start and window-point
1942 positions. This also means that the same buffer may be automatically
1943 shown twice even if it already appears in another window.
1944
1945 *** `switch-to-buffer' has a new optional argument FORCE-SAME-WINDOW,
1946 which if non-nil requires the buffer to be displayed in the currently
1947 selected window, signaling an error otherwise. If nil, another window
1948 can be used, e.g. if the selected one is strongly dedicated.
1949
1950 *** `split-window-vertically' and `split-window-horizontally' renamed
1951 to `split-window-below' and `split-window-right' respectively.
1952 The old names are kept as aliases.
1953
1954 *** Display actions
1955
1956 **** The second arg to `display-buffer' and `pop-to-buffer' is now
1957 named ACTION, and takes a display action of the same form as
1958 `display-buffer-base-action' (see Changes, above). A non-nil,
1959 non-list value is treated specially, as the old meaning.
1960
1961 **** New variable `display-buffer-overriding-action'.
1962
1963 **** The procedure of `display-buffer' etc. to choose a window is
1964 determined by combining `display-buffer-overriding-action',
1965 `display-buffer-alist', the ACTION arg, `display-buffer-base-action',
1966 and `display-buffer-fallback-action'. The second and fourth of these
1967 are user-customizable variables.
1968
1969 See the docstring of `display-buffer' for details.
1970
1971 *** New functions `window-state-get' and `window-state-put'.
1972 These functions allow to save and restore the state of an arbitrary
1973 frame or window as an Elisp object.
1974
1975 ** Completion
1976
1977 *** New variable `completion-extra-properties' used to specify extra
1978 properties of the current completion:
1979 - :annotate-function, same as the old completion-annotate-function.
1980 - :exit-function, function to call after completion took place.
1981
1982 *** Functions on `completion-at-point-functions' can return any of the
1983 properties valid for `completion-extra-properties'.
1984
1985 *** `completion-annotate-function' is obsolete.
1986
1987 *** New `metadata' method for completion tables. The metadata thus returned
1988 can specify various details of the data returned by `all-completions':
1989 - `category' is the kind of objects returned (e.g., `buffer', `file', ...),
1990 used to select a style in completion-category-overrides.
1991 - `annotation-function' to add annotations in *Completions*.
1992 - `display-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries in *Completions*.
1993 - `cycle-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries when cycling.
1994
1995 *** `minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map' is not used any more.
1996 Instead, the bindings in `minibuffer-local-filename-completion-map'
1997 are combined with `minibuffer-local-must-match-map'.
1998
1999 *** New variable `completing-read-function' allows overriding the
2000 behavior of `completing-read'.
2001
2002 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
2003 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
2004
2005 ** `pre-command-hook'/`post-command-hook' are not reset to nil on error.
2006 Instead, the offending function is removed.
2007
2008 ** New hook types
2009
2010 *** New function `run-hook-wrapped' for running an abnormal hook by
2011 passing the hook functions as arguments to a "wrapping" function.
2012 Like `run-hook-with-args-until-success', it stops at the first
2013 non-nil return value.
2014
2015 *** New macro `with-wrapper-hook' for running an abnormal hook as a
2016 set of "wrapping" filters, similar to around advice.
2017 (A version of this macro was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not
2018 advertised at the time.)
2019
2020 ** Debugger changes
2021
2022 *** New macro `condition-case-unless-debug' (this was actually added in
2023 Emacs 23.1 as condition-case-no-debug, but not advertised)
2024
2025 *** The macro `with-demoted-errors' was added in Emacs 23.1, but not advertised.
2026
2027 *** Variable `stack-trace-on-error' removed.
2028
2029 *** The debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will
2030 jump to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked
2031 instead of jumping all the way to the top-level.
2032
2033 *** Set `debug-on-event' to enter the debugger on events like SIGUSR1.
2034 This can be useful when `inhibit-quit' is set.
2035
2036 ** The new function `server-eval-at' allows evaluation of Lisp forms on
2037 named Emacs server instances.
2038
2039 ** `call-process' and `call-process-region' allow a `(:file "file")' spec
2040 to redirect STDOUT to a file.
2041
2042 ** The function `format-time-string' now supports the %N directive,
2043 for higher-resolution time stamps.
2044
2045 ** New input reading functions
2046
2047 *** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of
2048 characters, discarding any inputs not inside the set.
2049
2050 *** The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name
2051 or RGB triplet, instead of signaling an error if the user provides
2052 invalid input.
2053
2054 **** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
2055
2056 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
2057 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
2058 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
2059 obsolete alias.
2060
2061 ** Syntax parsing changes
2062
2063 *** New variable `syntax-propertize-function'.
2064 This replaces `font-lock-syntactic-keywords' which is now obsolete.
2065 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
2066 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
2067 Together with this new variable come a new hook
2068 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
2069 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
2070 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
2071 syntactic rules.
2072
2073 *** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
2074
2075 ** New hook `post-self-insert-hook', run after `self-insert-command'.
2076
2077 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
2078
2079 ** Major and minor mode changes
2080
2081 *** `set-auto-mode' now respects mode: local variables at the end of files,
2082 as well as those in the -*- line.
2083
2084 *** `prog-mode' is a new major mode from which programming modes
2085 should be derived.
2086
2087 **** `prog-mode-hook' can be used to enable features for programming
2088 modes, e.g. (add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'flyspell-prog-mode) to enable
2089 on-the-fly spell checking for comments and strings.
2090
2091 *** New hook `change-major-mode-after-body-hook', run by
2092 `run-mode-hooks' just before any other mode hooks.
2093
2094 *** Enabled globalized minor modes can be disabled in specific major modes.
2095 If the global mode is global-FOO-mode, then run (FOO-mode -1) in the
2096 major mode's hook, where FOO-mode toggles the mode on a per-buffer basis.
2097
2098 *** `define-minor-mode' accepts new keywords :variable, :after-hook.
2099
2100 ** File-handling changes
2101
2102 *** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
2103 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
2104 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
2105 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
2106
2107 *** New file predicates: `file-equal-p', `file-in-directory-p'.
2108
2109 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
2110 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
2111 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
2112
2113 ** Image API
2114
2115 *** Animated images support (currently animated gifs only).
2116
2117 **** `image-animated-p' returns non-nil if an image can be animated.
2118
2119 **** `image-animate' animates a supplied image spec.
2120
2121 **** `image-animate-timer' returns the timer object for an image that
2122 is being animated.
2123
2124 *** `image-extension-data' has been renamed to `image-metadata'.
2125 The old name is an obsolete alias to the new one.
2126
2127 *** Image mode can view any image type that ImageMagick supports.
2128 This requires Emacs to be built with ImageMagick support.
2129
2130 **** New function `imagemagick-types', defined if ImageMagick support
2131 is enabled, returns a list of image file extensions that your
2132 ImageMagick installation supports.
2133
2134 **** New function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick
2135 image types in Image mode and in `create-image' and other helper
2136 functions.
2137
2138 **** New option `imagemagick-types-inhibit' excludes certain
2139 ImageMagick image types from `imagemagick-register-types'.
2140
2141 **** With ImageMagick support, there are extra Image mode commands to
2142 resize and rotate images: `image-transform-fit-to-height',
2143 `image-transform-fit-to-width', `image-transform-set-rotation', and
2144 `image-transform-set-scale'.
2145
2146 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
2147 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
2148 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail. For
2149 example, this is used by Rmail to optionally delete a mail window.
2150
2151 ** XML and HTML parsing
2152 If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support, there are two new
2153 functions: `libxml-parse-html-region' (which parses "real world" HTML)
2154 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
2155 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
2156
2157 ** Networking and encryption changes
2158
2159 *** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
2160 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
2161 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
2162 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
2163 must also be supplied.
2164
2165 *** New library gnutls.el.
2166 The new function `gnutls-available-p' returns non-nil if Emacs is
2167 built with GnuTLS support. The main entry points are
2168 `open-gnutls-stream' and `gnutls-negotiate'. It's easiest to use
2169 these functions through `open-network-stream', because that can
2170 upgrade connections through STARTTLS opportunistically or use plain
2171 SSL, depending on your needs. For debugging, set `gnutls-log-level'
2172 greater than 0.
2173
2174 *** New primitive `secure-hash' that supports many secure hash algorithms:
2175 md5, sha1, sha2, sha224, sha256, sha384, and sha512. The lisp library
2176 sha1.el has been removed. The `sha1' feature is provided by default.
2177
2178 ** Isearch
2179
2180 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
2181
2182 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
2183 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
2184 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
2185 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
2186 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
2187 displayed with a "spinning bar".
2188
2189 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
2190 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
2191
2192 ** New variables `delayed-warnings-list' and `delayed-warnings-hook'.
2193 If delayed-warnings-list is non-nil, the command loop calls
2194 `delayed-warnings-hook' after `post-command-hook'. At present, this
2195 is only used by Emacs on some platforms to display warnings during
2196 startup, which might otherwise not be noticed. This uses the
2197 functions `display-delayed-warnings' and `collapse-delayed-warnings'.
2198
2199 ** rx.el has a new `group-n' construct for explicitly numbered groups.
2200
2201 ** New function `make-composed-keymap' that constructs a new keymap
2202 from multiple input maps. You can use this to make a keymap that
2203 inherits from multiple maps, eg:
2204 (set-keymap-parent newmap (make-composed-keymap othermap parent))
2205
2206 ** New function `string-prefix-p'.
2207 (This was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not advertised at the time.)
2208
2209 ** New reader macro ## that stands for the empty symbol.
2210 This means that the empty symbol can now be read back. Also, #: by itself
2211 (when not immediately followed by a possible symbol character) stands for
2212 an empty uninterned symbol.
2213
2214 ** New math functions `isnan', `copysign', `frexp', `ldexp'.
2215
2216 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
2217
2218 *** `tooltip-use-echo-area' is obsolete.
2219 Rather than setting this to t, disable Tooltip mode instead.
2220
2221 *** buffer-substring-filters is obsolete.
2222 Use `filter-buffer-substring-functions' instead.
2223
2224 *** `byte-compile-disable-print-circle' is obsolete.
2225
2226 *** `deferred-action-list' and `deferred-action-function' are obsolete.
2227 Use `post-command-hook' instead.
2228
2229 *** `font-lock-maximum-size' is obsolete.
2230
2231 \f
2232 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on non-free operating systems
2233
2234 ** On MS Windows, Emacs warns when using the obsolete init file _emacs,
2235 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
2236
2237 ** New configure.bat options
2238
2239 *** --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra runtime checks.
2240
2241 *** --distfiles specifies files to be included in binary distribution.
2242
2243 *** --without-gnutls disables automatic GnuTLS detection.
2244
2245 *** --lib for general library linkage, works with the USER_LIBS build variable.
2246
2247 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
2248
2249 ** The Lisp function `w32-default-color-map' is now obsolete.
2250 (It is only used internally in the Emacs C code.)
2251
2252 ** Customize ns-auto-hide-menu-bar to have the menu-bar hidden, but
2253 reappear on mouse-over. (Requires OS X 10.6 or later.)
2254
2255 ** On Mac OS X, dragging a file into Emacs visits the file, like on
2256 other platforms, rather than inserting its contents into the buffer.
2257
2258 \f
2259 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
2260 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
2261
2262 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
2263 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2264 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
2265 (at your option) any later version.
2266
2267 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2268 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2269 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2270 GNU General Public License for more details.
2271
2272 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2273 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
2274
2275 \f
2276 Local variables:
2277 mode: outline
2278 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
2279 end: