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1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2011 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
18 Temporary note:
19 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
20 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
21 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
22 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
23
24 \f
25 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
26
27 ** Configure links against libselinux if it is found.
28 You can disable this by using --without-selinux.
29
30 ---
31 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
32 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
33
34 ---
35 ** There are new configure options:
36 --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
37 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
38 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
39
40 ---
41 ** Emacs can be compiled against Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
42 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
43 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
44 --without-gconf.
45
46 ** There is a new configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
47 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
48 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
49
50 ** There is a new configure option --with-wide-int.
51 With it, Emacs integers typically have 62 bits, even on 32-bit machines.
52
53 ---
54 ** New translation of the Emacs Tutorial in Hebrew is available.
55 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
56 automatically select it.
57
58 \f
59 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
60
61 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
62 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
63 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
64
65 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
66 from load-path. -Q now implies this.
67
68 ** On Windows, Emacs now warns when the obsolete _emacs init file is used,
69 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
70
71 \f
72 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
73
74 ** The inactive minibuffer has its own major mode `minibuffer-inactive-mode'.
75 This is handy for minibuffer-only frames, and is also used for the "mouse-1
76 pops up *Messages*" feature, which can now easily be changed.
77
78 ** emacsclient changes
79
80 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID can be used to open a
81 client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed. This works like the
82 --parent-id argument to Emacs.
83
84 +++
85 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
86
87 +++
88 *** New emacsclient argument --frame-parameters can be used to set the
89 frame parameters of a newly-created graphical frame.
90
91 *** If emacsclient shuts down as a result of Emacs signalling an
92 error, its exit status is 1.
93
94 ** Completion
95 *** shell-mode uses pcomplete rules, with the standard completion UI.
96
97 *** Many packages have been changed to use completion-at-point rather than
98 their own completion code.
99
100 *** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
101 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
102
103 *** Completion can cycle, depending on completion-cycle-threshold.
104
105 *** New completion style `substring'.
106
107 *** Completion style can be set per-category `completion-category-overrides'.
108
109 *** Completion of buffers now uses substring completion by default.
110
111 *** `completing-read' can be customized using the new variable
112 `completing-read-function'.
113
114 ** auto-mode-case-fold is now enabled by default.
115
116 ** smtpmail changes
117
118 ** smtpmail has been largely rewritten to upgrade to STARTTLS if
119 possible, and uses the auth-source framework for getting credentials.
120 The rewrite should be largely compatible with previous versions of
121 smtpmail, but there are two major incompatibilities:
122
123 ** `smtpmail-auth-credentials' no longer exists. That variable could
124 be either ~/.authinfo (in which case you're fine -- you won't see any
125 difference), but if it were a direct list of user names and passwords,
126 you will be prompted for the user name and the password instead, and
127 they will then be saved to ~/.authinfo.
128
129 ** Similarly, if you had `smtpmail-starttls-credentials' set, then
130 then you need to put
131
132 machine smtp.whatever.foo port 25 key "~/.my_smtp_tls.key" cert "~/.my_smtp_tls.cert"
133
134 in your ~/.authinfo file instead.
135
136 ** Internationalization changes
137
138 +++
139 *** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
140
141 See the node "Bidirectional Editing" in the Emacs Manual for some
142 initial documentation.
143
144 To turn this on in any given buffer, set the buffer-local variable
145 `bidi-display-reordering' to a non-nil value. The default is nil.
146
147 The buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction', if non-nil,
148 forces each paragraph in the buffer to have its base direction
149 according to the value of this variable. Possible values are
150 `right-to-left' and `left-to-right'. If the value is nil (the
151 default), Emacs determines the base direction of each paragraph from
152 its text, as specified by the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm.
153
154 The function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction' returns the actual
155 value of paragraph base direction at point.
156
157 Reordering of bidirectional text for display in Emacs is a "Full
158 bidirectionality" class implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional
159 Algorithm.
160
161 Note that some advanced display features, such as overlay strings and
162 `display' text properties, do not yet work correctly when
163 bidirectional text is reordered for display.
164
165 +++
166 *** Enhanced support for characters that have no glyphs in available fonts.
167 If a character has no glyphs in any of the available fonts, Emacs by
168 default will display it either as a hexadecimal code in a box or as a
169 thin 1-pixel space. In addition to these two methods, Emacs can
170 display these characters as empty box, as an acronym, or not display
171 them at all. To change how these characters are displayed, customize
172 the variable `glyphless-char-display-control'.
173
174 On character terminals these methods are used for characters that
175 cannot be encoded by the `terminal-coding-system'.
176
177 *** There are two new input methods for Persian/Farsi: farsi and farsi-translit.
178
179 ** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
180 Use `set-scroll-bar-mode' to change this.
181
182 ** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
183 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose style. On a Gnome desktop, the default
184 is taken from the desktop settings.
185
186 ** GTK tool bars can be placed on the left/right or top/bottom of the frame.
187 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the values
188 top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has entries
189 for this.
190
191 ** ImageMagick support.
192 It is now possible to use the ImageMagick library to load many new
193 image formats in Emacs. By default, Emacs links with the ImageMagick
194 libraries if they are present at build time. This needs ImageMagick
195 6.2.8 or newer (versions newer than 6.0.7 _may_ work but have not been
196 tested). To disable ImageMagick support, use the configure option
197 `--without-imagemagick'.
198
199 The new function `imagemagick-types' returns a list of image file
200 extensions that your installation of ImageMagick supports. The
201 function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick support for
202 these image types, minus those listed in `imagemagick-types-inhibit'.
203
204 See the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual for more information.
205
206 ** The colors for selected text (the region face) are taken from the GTK
207 theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
208
209 ** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK. You can turn that
210 off by customizing x-gtk-use-system-tooltips.
211
212 ** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is built
213 with Xft. To change font, use the X resource font, for example:
214 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
215
216 ** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
217 Also, the first dash (which does not indicate anything) is just
218 displayed as a space.
219
220 ** On Nextstep/OSX, the menu bar can be hidden by customizing
221 ns-auto-hide-menu-bar.
222
223 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
224 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
225
226 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up, and
227 optionally when copying files. To this end, copy-file has an extra
228 optional argument, and backup-buffer and friends include the SELinux
229 context in their return values.
230
231 *** The new functions file-selinux-context and set-file-selinux-context
232 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
233
234 *** Tramp offers handlers for file-selinux-context and set-file-selinux-context
235 for remote machines which support SELinux.
236
237 +++
238 ** The function format-time-string now supports the %N directive, for
239 higher-resolution time stamps.
240
241 ** The function kill-emacs is now run upon receipt of the signals SIGTERM
242 and SIGHUP, and upon SIGINT in batch mode.
243
244 ** kill-emacs-hook is now also run in batch mode.
245 If you have code that adds something to kill-emacs-hook, you should
246 consider if it is still appropriate to add it in the noninteractive case.
247
248 ** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
249 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
250 of buffer at first key-press (instead move to top/bottom of buffer)
251 when a new variable `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
252
253 ** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
254 scroll a line instead of full screen.
255
256 ** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
257 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
258
259 +++
260 ** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
261 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
262 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
263 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
264 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
265
266 ---
267 ** ``Aggressive'' scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
268 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
269 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
270 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
271 margin.
272
273 ** Trash changes
274
275 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
276 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
277
278 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
279 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
280
281 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
282 for `list-colors-display'.
283
284 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
285 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
286 from a package repository at elpa.gnu.org.
287
288 *** `M-x list-packages' shows a list of packages, which can be
289 selected for installation.
290
291 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
292
293 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded and activated
294 automatically when Emacs starts up. To disable this, set
295 `package-enable-at-startup' to nil. To change which packages are
296 loaded, customize `package-load-list'.
297
298 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
299 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
300 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
301
302 ** Custom Themes
303
304 *** `M-x customize-themes' lists Custom themes which can be enabled.
305
306 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
307 Emacs no longer looks for custom themes in `load-path'. The default
308 is to search in `custom-theme-directory', followed by a built-in theme
309 directory named "themes/" in `data-directory'.
310
311 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
312 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
313 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
314 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
315
316 ** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
317 the remote file-name cache is used for read access.
318
319 +++
320 ** The use of a "mode: minor" specification in a file local variables section
321 to enable a minor-mode is deprecated. Instead, use "eval: (minor-mode 1)".
322
323 ** The standalone programs lib-src/digest-doc and sorted-doc have been
324 replaced with Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
325
326 ---
327 ** The standalone program `fakemail' has been removed.
328 If you need it, feedmail.el ought to provide a superset of the functionality.
329
330 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
331
332 ** New primitive `secure-hash' that supports many secure hash algorithms
333 including md5, sha-1 and sha-2 (sha-224, sha-256, sha-384 and sha-512).
334 The elisp implementation sha1.el is removed. Feature sha1 is provided
335 by default.
336
337 ** Menu-bar changes
338
339 *** `menu-bar-select-buffer-function' lets you choose another operation
340 instead of `switch-to-buffer' when selecting an item in the Buffers menu.
341
342 \f
343 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
344
345 ** Search changes
346
347 +++
348 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to isearch-yank-kill, instead of
349 isearch-yank-line.
350
351 ---
352 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to isearch-yank-pop, instead of
353 isearch-yank-kill.
354
355 +++
356 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to isearch-yank-line.
357
358 +++
359 ** There is a new command `count-words-region', which does what you expect.
360
361 ** completion-at-point now handles tags and semantic completion.
362
363 ** The default value of `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' is now t.
364
365 ** The command `just-one-space' (C-SPC), if given a negative argument,
366 also deletes newlines around point.
367
368 ** Deletion changes
369
370 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
371 If non-nil, C-d, [delete], and DEL delete the region if it is active
372 and no prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', these commands
373 kill instead.
374
375 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to C-d and [delete].
376 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
377 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
378
379 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
380 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
381 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; you
382 should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
383
384 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
385
386 ** Selection changes.
387
388 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections was changed
389 to conform with modern X applications. In short, most commands for
390 killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while mouse commands
391 use the primary selection.
392
393 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
394 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
395
396 *** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
397 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
398 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
399 the kill-ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
400 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
401
402 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
403 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
404 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
405 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
406 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
407
408 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
409 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
410 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
411
412 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
413 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
414 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
415 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
416
417 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
418 exactly equivalent to, respectively M-w, C-w, and C-y.
419
420 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
421 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
422 between applications.
423
424 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
425
426 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
427 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
428 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
429 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
430 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
431
432 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
433
434 *** Support for X clipboard managers has been added.
435
436 **** To inhibit use of the clipboard manager, set
437 `x-select-enable-clipboard-manager' to nil.
438
439 ** New command `rectangle-number-lines', bound to `C-x r N', numbers
440 the lines in the current rectangle. With an prefix argument, this
441 prompts for a number to count from and for a format string.
442
443 ** The command shell prompts for the shell path name, when the default
444 directory is a remote file name and neither environment variable
445 $ESHELL nor variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
446
447 \f
448 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
449
450 ** comint and modes derived from it use the generic completion code.
451
452 ** Compilation mode
453
454 *** Compilation mode can be used without font-lock-mode.
455 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
456
457 *** `compilation-filter-start' is let-bound to the start of the text
458 inserted by the compilation filter function, when calling
459 compilation-filter-hook.
460
461 ** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
462
463 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
464 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity, support for
465 more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
466
467 ** shell-mode can track your cwd by reading it from your prompt.
468 Just set shell-dir-cookie-re to an appropriate regexp.
469
470 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
471
472 ** BibTeX mode
473
474 *** New command `bibtex-search-entries' bound to C-c C-a.
475
476 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `sort-fields', disabled by default.
477
478 *** New variable `bibtex-search-entry-globally'.
479
480 ** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
481
482 ** FIXME: xdg-open for browse-url and reportbug, 2010/08.
483
484 ** Archive Mode has basic support to browse 7z archives.
485
486 ** browse-url has gotten a new variable that is used for mailto: URLs,
487 `browse-url-mailto-function', which defaults to `browse-url-mail'.
488
489 ** `url-queue-retrieve' downloads web pages asynchronously, but allow
490 controlling the degree of parallelism.
491
492 ** Directory local variables can apply to file-less buffers, in certain modes
493 (eg dired, vc-dir, log-edit). For example, adding
494 "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to your .dir-locals.el file,
495 will turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should
496 call `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
497
498 +++
499 ** You can prevent directory local variables from applying to subdirectories.
500 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
501 settings to indicate said section should not be applied to subdirectories.
502
503 ** ERC changes
504
505 *** New vars `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay'.
506 If the value of `erc-autojoin-timing' is 'ident, ERC autojoins after a
507 successful NickServ identification, or after `erc-autojoin-delay'
508 seconds. The default value, 'ident, means to autojoin immediately
509 after connecting.
510
511 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
512 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
513 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
514 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
515
516 ** Eshell changes
517
518 *** The default value of eshell-directory-name is a directory named
519 "eshell" in `user-emacs-directory'. If the old "~/.eshell/" directory
520 exists, that is used instead.
521
522 ** In ido-mode, C-v is no longer bound to ido-toggle-vc.
523 The reason is that this interferes with cua-mode.
524
525 ** partial-completion-mode is now obsolete.
526 You can get a comparable behavior with:
527 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
528 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
529
530 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
531
532 ** server can listen on a specific port using the server-port option.
533
534 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
535
536 +++
537 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing `comments'.
538 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
539
540 +++
541 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
542 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
543
544 ---
545 *** The function specified by `appt-disp-window-function' may be passed
546 lists of arguments if multiple appointments are due at similar times.
547 If you are using a custom function for this, you should update it.
548
549 +++
550 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
551
552 ---
553 *** Elements of `calendar-day-abbrev-array' and `calendar-month-abbrev-array'
554 may no longer be nil, but must all be strings.
555
556 ---
557 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt package
558 by adding appt-make-list to diary-hook has been removed. Use appt-activate.
559
560 ---
561 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
562 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
563 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
564
565 ---
566 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
567 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
568
569 ** Customize
570
571 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
572 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
573 To turn off the search field, set custom-search-field to nil.
574
575 *** Custom options now start out hidden if at their default values.
576 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
577
578 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
579
580 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
581 choose a color via list-colors-display.
582
583 ** Dired-x
584
585 *** dired-jump and dired-jump-other-window called with a prefix argument
586 read a file name from the minibuffer instead of using buffer-file-name.
587
588 +++
589 *** The `dired local variables' feature provided by Dired-x is obsolete.
590 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
591
592 ** SQL Mode enhancements.
593
594 *** `sql-dialect' is a synonym for `sql-product'.
595
596 *** Added ability to login with a port on MySQL and Postgres.
597 The custom variable `sql-port' can be specified for connection to
598 MySQL or Postgres servers. By default, the port is not listed in
599 either login parameter, but will be added to the command line if set
600 to a non-zero value.
601
602 *** Dynamic selection of product in an SQL interactive session.
603 If you use `sql-product-interactive' to start an SQL interactive
604 session it uses the current value of `sql-product'. Preceding the
605 invocation with C-u will force it to ask for the product before
606 creating the session.
607
608 *** Renaming a SQL interactive buffer when it is created.
609 Prefixing the SQL interactive commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres',
610 `sql-mysql', etc.) with C-u will force a new interactive session to be
611 started and will prompt for the new name. This will reduce the need
612 for `sql-rename-buffer' is most common use cases.
613
614 *** Command continuation prompts in SQL interactive mode are suppressed.
615 Multiple line commands in SQL interactive mode, generate command
616 continuation prompts which needlessly confuse the output. These
617 prompts are now filtered out from the output. This change impacts
618 multiple line SQL statements entered with C-j between each line,
619 statements yanked into the buffer and statements sent with
620 `sql-send-*' functions.
621
622 *** Custom variables control prompting for login parameters.
623 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params'
624 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
625 connection is established.
626
627 The lists consist of the following five tokens: `user', `password',
628 `database', `server', and `port'. The order in which they appear is
629 the order in which they are prompted. The tokens symbols can be
630 replaced by a sublist starting with the token and followed by a plist
631 which control the prompting for values. The tokens `user',
632 `database', and `server' each can take a property of :default which
633 specifies the value to be used if no value is entered. The
634 `database', `server', and `port' tokens handle the :completion
635 property which restricts the entry to either one of the values in the
636 list or to one of the values returned by the function provided as the
637 property value. The `database' and `server' tokens also accept the
638 :file property whose value is a regexp to identify useful file names.
639
640 (user :default DEF)
641 (database :default DEF
642 :file FILEPAT
643 :completion COMPLETE)
644 (server :default DEF
645 :file FILEPAT
646 :completion COMPLETE)
647
648 The FILEPAT when :file is specified is a regexp that will match valid
649 file names (without the directory portion). Generally these strings
650 will be of the form ".+\.SUF" where SUF is the desired file suffix.
651
652 When :completion is specified, the COMPLETE corresponds to the
653 PREDICATE argument to the `completing-read' function (a list of
654 possible values or a function returning such a list).
655
656 *** Added `sql-connection-alist' to record login parameter values.
657 An alist for recording different username, database and server
658 values. If there are multiple databases that you connect to the
659 parameters needed can be stored in this alist.
660
661 For example, the following might be set in the user's init.el:
662
663 (setq sql-connection-alist
664 '((dev (sql-product 'sqlite)
665 (sql-database "/home/mmaug/dev.db"))
666 (prd (sql-product 'oracle)
667 (sql-user "mmaug")
668 (sql-database "iprd2a"))))
669
670 This defines two connections named "dev" and "prd".
671
672 *** Added `sql-connect' to use predefined connections.
673 Sets the login parameters based on the values in the
674 `sql-connection-alist' and start a SQL interactive session. Any
675 values specified in the connection will not be prompted for.
676
677 In the example above, if the user were to invoke M-x sql-connect, they
678 would be prompted for the connection. The user can respond with
679 either "dev" or "prd". The "dev" connection would connect to the
680 SQLite database without prompting; the "prd" connection would prompt
681 for the users password and then connect to the Oracle database.
682
683 **** Added SQL->Start... submenu when connections are defined.
684 When connections have been defined, there is a submenu available that
685 allows the user to select one to start a SQLi session. The "Start
686 SQLi Session" item moves to the "Start..." submenu when cnnections
687 have been defined.
688
689 **** Added "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
690 When a SQLi session is not started by a connection then
691 `sql-save-connection' will gather the login params specified for the
692 session and save them as a new connection.
693
694 *** List database objects and details.
695 Once a SQL interactive session has been started, you can get a list of
696 the objects in the database and see details of those objects. The
697 objects shown and the details available are product specific.
698
699 **** List all objects.
700 Using `M-x sql-list-all', `C-c C-l a' or selecting "SQL->List all
701 objects" will list all the objects in the database. At a minimum it
702 lists the tables and views in the database. Preceding the command by
703 universal argument may provide additional details or extend the
704 listing to include other schemas objects. The list will appear in a
705 separate window in view-mode.
706
707 **** List Table details.
708 Using `M-x sql-list-table', `C-c C-l t' or selecting "SQL->List Table
709 details" will ask for the name of a database table or view and display
710 the list of columns in the relation. Preceding the command with the
711 universal argument may provide additional details about each column.
712 The list will appear in a separate window in view-mode.
713
714 *** Added option `sql-send-terminator'.
715 When set makes sure that each command sent with `sql-send-*' commands
716 are properly terminated and submitted to the SQL processor.
717
718 *** Added option `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
719 When set commands sent to Oracle's SQL*Plus are scanned for strings
720 starting with an ampersand and the user is asked for replacement text.
721 In general, the SQL*Plus option SCAN should always be set OFF under
722 SQL interactive mode and this option used in its place.
723
724 *** SQL interactive mode will replace tabs with spaces.
725 This prevents the command interpreter for MySQL and Postgres from
726 listing object name completions when being sent text via
727 `sql-send-*' functions.
728
729 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
730
731 ** Image mode
732
733 *** RET (`image-toggle-animation') toggles animation, if the displayed
734 image can be animated.
735
736 *** Option `image-animate-loop', if non-nil, loops the animation.
737 If nil, `image-toggle-animation' plays the animation once.
738
739 ** sregex.el is now obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
740
741 ** s-region.el and pc-select are now declared obsolete,
742 superseded by shift-select-mode enabled by default in 23.1.
743 ** pc-mode.el is also declared obsolete.
744 ** gdb-mi
745
746 *** GDB User Interface migrated to GDB Machine Interface and now
747 supports multithread non-stop debugging and debugging of several
748 threads simultaneously.
749
750 ** D-Bus
751
752 *** It is possible now, to access alternative buses than the default
753 system or session bus.
754
755 *** dbus-register-{service,method,property}
756 The -method and -property functions do not automatically register
757 names anymore.
758
759 The new function dbus-register-service registers a service known name
760 on a D-Bus without simultaneously registering a property or a method.
761
762 ** Tramp
763
764 *** There exists a new inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
765
766 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
767 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
768
769 *** The option `ange-ftp-binary-file-name-regexp' has changed its
770 default value to "".
771
772 ** VC and related modes
773
774 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
775 The vc-pull command runs a "pull" operation, if it is supported.
776 This updates the current branch from upstream. A prefix argument
777 means to prompt the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
778
779 **** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
780
781 **** Currently supported by Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
782
783 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
784 The vc-merge command now runs a "merge" operation, if it is supported.
785 This merges another branch into the current one. This command prompts
786 the user for specifics, e.g. a merge source.
787
788 **** Currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
789
790 *** New option `vc-revert-show-diff' controls whether `vc-revert'
791 shows a diff while querying the user. It defaults to t.
792
793 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
794 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
795 In the Log View buffers made by `C-x v L' (vc-print-root-log), you can
796 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
797
798 **** Currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
799
800 **** Packages using Log View mode can enable this functionality by
801 binding `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function' to a suitable function.
802
803 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
804 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
805
806 ** CC Mode (C, C++, etc.)
807
808 *** New feature to "guess" the style in an existing buffer.
809
810 ** Miscellaneous
811
812 +++
813 *** f90.el has some support for Fortran 2008 syntax.
814
815 ---
816 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
817
818 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
819
820 *** The new command `info-display-manual' will display an Info manual
821 specified by its name. If that manual is already visited in some Info
822 buffer within the current session, the command will display that
823 buffer. Otherwise, it will load the manual and display it. This is
824 handy if you have many manuals in many Info buffers, and don't
825 remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual you want to
826 consult.
827
828 \f
829 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
830
831 ** Occur Edit mode applies edits made in *Occur* buffers to the
832 original buffers. It is bound to C-x C-q in Occur mode.
833
834 ** New global minor modes electric-pair-mode, electric-indent-mode,
835 and electric-layout-mode.
836
837 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
838 from which other modes can be derived.
839
840 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
841
842 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
843 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
844 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
845 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
846 secrets.
847
848 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
849 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
850
851 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
852 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
853
854 ** xmodmap-generic-mode for xmodmap files.
855
856 \f
857 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
858
859 ---
860 ** `char-direction-table' and the associated function `char-direction'
861 were deleted. They were buggy and inferior to the new support of
862 bidirectional editing introduced in Emacs 24. If you need the
863 bidirectional properties of a character, use `get-char-code-property'
864 with the last argument `bidi-class'.
865
866 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
867 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
868 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
869 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
870
871 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
872 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
873 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail.
874 This is currently used by Rmail to delete a mail window.
875
876 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
877 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
878 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
879 of the header line.
880
881 ** Remove obsolete name `e' (use `float-e' instead).
882
883 ** A backquote not followed by a space is now always treated as new-style.
884
885 ** Test for special mode-class was moved from view-file to view-buffer.
886 FIXME: This only says what was changed, but not what are the
887 programmer-visible consequences.
888
889 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function now turns the mode
890 ON unconditionally.
891
892 ** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
893 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
894 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
895 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
896 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
897 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
898
899 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
900 similar to the ones created by shift-selection. In previous Emacs
901 versions, these regions were delineated by `mouse-drag-overlay', which
902 has now been removed.
903
904 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
905
906 ** The following functions and aliases, obsolete since at least Emacs 21.1,
907 have been removed:
908 comint-kill-output, decompose-composite-char, outline-visible,
909 internal-find-face, internal-get-face, frame-update-faces,
910 frame-update-face-colors, x-frob-font-weight, x-frob-font-slant,
911 x-make-font-bold, x-make-font-demibold, x-make-font-unbold
912 x-make-font-italic, x-make-font-oblique, x-make-font-unitalic
913 x-make-font-bold-italic, mldrag-drag-mode-line, mldrag-drag-vertical-line,
914 iswitchb-default-keybindings, char-bytes, isearch-return-char,
915 make-local-hook
916
917 ** The following variables and aliases, obsolete since at least Emacs 21.1,
918 have been removed:
919 checkdoc-minor-keymap, vc-header-alist, directory-sep-char,
920 font-lock-defaults-alist
921
922 ** The following files, obsolete since at least Emacs 21.1, have been removed:
923 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
924
925 ** FIXME finder-inf.el changes.
926
927 \f
928 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.1
929
930 ** Completion
931 *** New variable completion-extra-properties used to specify extra properties
932 of the current completion:
933 - :annotate-function, same as the old completion-annotate-function.
934 - :exit-function, function to call after completion took place.
935
936 *** Functions on completion-at-point-functions can return any of the properties
937 valid for completion-extra-properties.
938
939 *** completion-annotate-function is obsolete.
940
941 *** New `metadata' method for completion tables. The metadata thus returned
942 can specify various details of the data returned by `all-completions':
943 - `category' is the kind of objects returned (e.g., `buffer', `file', ...),
944 used to select a style in completion-category-overrides.
945 - `annotation-function' to add annotations in *Completions*.
946 - `display-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries in *Completions*.
947 - `cycle-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries when cycling.
948
949 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
950 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
951
952 ** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
953 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
954 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
955 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
956 must also be supplied.
957
958 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
959 The `lexical-binding' variable lets code use lexical scoping for local
960 variables. It is typically set via file-local variables, in which case it
961 applies to all the code in that file.
962
963 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
964 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
965
966 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
967 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
968
969 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
970
971 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
972 declared as dynamically bound.
973
974 ** pre/post-command-hook are not reset to nil upon error.
975 Instead, the offending function is removed.
976
977 ** New low-level function run-hook-wrapped.
978
979 ** `server-eval-at' is provided to allow evaluating forms on different
980 Emacs server instances.
981
982 ** `call-process' allows a `(:file "file")' spec to redirect STDOUT to
983 a file.
984
985 ** byte-compile-disable-print-circle is obsolete.
986 ** deferred-action-list and deferred-action-function are obsolete.
987 ** Removed the stack-trace-on-error variable.
988 Also the debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will jump
989 to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked instead of
990 jumping all the way to the top-level.
991
992 ** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of characters,
993 discarding any inputs not inside the set.
994
995 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
996 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
997 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
998 obsolete alias.
999
1000 ** New variable syntax-propertize-function to set syntax-table properties.
1001 Replaces font-lock-syntactic-keywords which are now obsolete.
1002 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
1003 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
1004 Together with this new variable come a new hook
1005 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
1006 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
1007 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
1008 syntactic rules.
1009
1010 ** New hook post-self-insert-hook run at the end of self-insert-command.
1011
1012 +++
1013 ** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
1014 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
1015 ** prog-mode is a new major-mode meant to be the parent of programming mode.
1016 ** define-minor-mode accepts a new keyword :variable.
1017
1018 ** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
1019 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
1020 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
1021 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
1022
1023 ** buffer-substring-filters is obsoleted by filter-buffer-substring-functions.
1024
1025 ** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
1026 The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name or RGB
1027 triplet, instead of signalling an error if the user provides a invalid
1028 input.
1029
1030 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
1031 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
1032 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
1033
1034 ** Image API
1035
1036 *** Animated images support (currently animated gifs only).
1037
1038 **** `image-animated-p' returns non-nil if an image can be animated.
1039
1040 **** `image-animate' animates a supplied image spec.
1041
1042 **** `image-animate-timer' returns the timer object for an image that
1043 is being animated.
1044
1045 *** `image-extension-data' is renamed to `image-metadata'.
1046
1047 ** XML and HTML parsing
1048
1049 *** If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support (which is the default),
1050 two new Emacs Lisp-level functions are defined:
1051 `libxml-parse-html-region' (which will parse "real world" HTML)
1052 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
1053 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
1054
1055 FIXME: These should be front-ended by xml.el.
1056
1057 ** GnuTLS
1058
1059 *** Emacs can be compiled with libgnutls support
1060 This is the default. You will then be able to use the functionality
1061 in gnutls.el, namely the `open-gnutls-stream' and `gnutls-negotiate'
1062 functions. It's easiest to use these functions through
1063 `open-network-stream' because it can upgrade connections through
1064 STARTTLS opportunistically or use plain SSL, depending on your needs.
1065
1066 Only versions 2.8.x and higher or GnuTLS have been tested.
1067
1068 *** gnutls-log-level
1069 Set `gnutls-log-level' higher than 0 to get debug output. 1 is for
1070 important messages, 2 is for debug data, and higher numbers are as per
1071 the GnuTLS logging conventions. The output is in *Messages*.
1072
1073 ** Isearch
1074
1075 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
1076
1077 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
1078 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
1079 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
1080 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
1081 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
1082 displayed with a "spinning bar".
1083
1084 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
1085 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
1086
1087 ** New variables `delayed-warnings-list' and `delayed-warnings-hook' allow
1088 deferring warnings until the main command loop is executed.
1089
1090 +++
1091 ** `set-auto-mode' now respects mode: local variables at the end of files,
1092 as well as those in the -*- line.
1093
1094 ---
1095 ** rx.el has a new `group-n' construct for explicitly numbered groups.
1096
1097 \f
1098 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on non-free operating systems
1099
1100 ** New configure.bat option --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra
1101 runtime checks.
1102
1103 ** New configure.bat option --distfiles to specify files to be
1104 included in binary distribution.
1105
1106 ** New configure.bat option --without-gnutls to disable automatic
1107 GnuTLS detection.
1108
1109 ** New configure.bat option --lib for general library linkage, works
1110 with the USER_LIBS build variable.
1111
1112 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
1113
1114 \f
1115 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1116 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
1117
1118 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1119 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1120 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1121 (at your option) any later version.
1122
1123 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1124 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1125 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1126 GNU General Public License for more details.
1127
1128 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1129 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
1130
1131 \f
1132 Local variables:
1133 mode: outline
1134 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
1135 end: