ebeab85e403a77bb719bc6013043b8ae885aefb3
[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 ** `C-x C-q' is now bound to the new minor mode `read-only-mode'.
147 This minor mode replaces `toggle-read-only', which is now obsolete.
148
149 ** Emacs now generates backtraces on fatal errors.
150 On encountering a fatal error, Emacs now outputs a textual description
151 of the fatal signal, and a short backtrace on platforms like glibc
152 that support backtraces.
153
154 ** If your Emacs was built from a bzr checkout, the new variable
155 `emacs-bzr-version' contains information about the bzr revision used.
156
157 +++
158 ** New variable `create-lockfiles' specifies usage of lockfiles.
159 It defaults to t. Changing it to nil inhibits the creation of lock
160 files (use this with caution).
161
162 +++
163 ** Using "unibyte: t" in Lisp source files is obsolete.
164 Use "coding: raw-text" instead.
165
166 +++
167 ** Setting `enable-remote-dir-locals' to non-nil allows directory
168 local variables on remote hosts.
169
170 ---
171 ** The entry for PCL-CVS has been removed from the Tools menu.
172 The PCL-CVS commands are still available via the keyboard.
173
174 ** Internationalization changes
175 ---
176 *** New language environment: Persian.
177 ---
178 *** New input method `vietnamese-vni'.
179
180 \f
181 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.3
182
183 +++
184 ** `C-x 8 RET' is now bound to `insert-char', which is now a command.
185 `ucs-insert' is now an obsolete alias for `insert-char'.
186
187 ---
188 ** The `z' key no longer has a binding in most special modes.
189 It used to be bound to `kill-this-buffer', but `z' is too easy to
190 accidentally type.
191
192 ** New option `delete-trailing-lines' specifies whether
193 M-x delete-trailing-whitespace should delete trailing lines at the end
194 of the buffer. It defaults to t.
195
196 ** Search and Replace changes
197
198 *** Non-regexp Isearch now performs "lax" space matching.
199 Each sequence of spaces in the supplied search string may match any
200 sequence of one or more whitespace characters, as specified by the
201 variable `search-whitespace-regexp'. (This variable is also used by a
202 similar existing feature for regexp Isearch).
203
204 *** New Isearch command `M-s SPC' toggles lax space matching.
205 This applies to both ordinary and regexp Isearch.
206
207 *** New option `replace-lax-whitespace'.
208 If non-nil, `query-replace' uses flexible whitespace matching too.
209 The default is nil.
210
211 *** Global `M-s _' starts a symbol (identifier) incremental search,
212 and `M-s _' in Isearch toggles symbol search mode.
213 `M-s c' in Isearch toggles search case-sensitivity.
214
215 ** Register changes
216 +++
217 *** `C-x r +' is now overloaded to invoke `append-to-register.
218 +++
219 *** New option `register-separator' specifies the register containing
220 the text to put between collected texts for use with M-x
221 append-to-register and M-x prepend-to-register.
222
223 ** `C-u M-=' now counts lines/words/characters in the entire buffer.
224
225 ** New binding `M-g c' for `goto-char'.
226
227 ** M-x move-to-column, if called interactively with no prefix arg, now
228 prompts for a column number.
229
230 ** New command `C-x r M-w' (copy-rectangle-as-kill).
231 It copies the region-rectangle as the last rectangle kill.
232
233 ** New option `yank-handled-properties' allows processing of text
234 properties on yanked text, in more ways that are more general than
235 just removing them, as done by `yank-excluded-properties'.
236
237 \f
238 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.3
239
240 ** Apropos
241
242 *** The faces used by Apropos are now directly customizable.
243 These faces are named `apropos-symbol', `apropos-keybinding', and so on;
244 see the `apropos' Custom group for details.
245
246 **** The old options whose values specified faces to use were removed
247 (i.e. `apropos-symbol-face', `apropos-keybinding-face', etc.).
248
249 ** Buffer Menu
250 This package has been rewritten to use Tabulated List mode.
251
252 *** Option `Buffer-menu-buffer+size-width' is now obsolete.
253 Use `Buffer-menu-name-width' and `Buffer-menu-size-width' instead.
254
255 ** Calendar
256
257 *** You can customize the header text that appears above each calendar month.
258 See the variable `calendar-month-header'.
259
260 *** The calendars produced by cal-html include holidays.
261 Customize cal-html-holidays to change this.
262
263 ** CL
264
265 *** CL's main entry is now (require 'cl-lib).
266 `cl-lib' is like the old `cl' except that it uses the namespace cleanly,
267 i.e. all its definitions have the "cl-" prefix (and internal definitions use
268 the "cl--" prefix).
269
270 If `cl' provided a feature under the name `foo', then `cl-lib' provides it
271 under the name `cl-foo' instead, with the exceptions of the few definitions
272 that had to use `foo*' to avoid conflicts with pre-existing Elisp entities,
273 which have not been renamed to `cl-foo*' but just `cl-foo'.
274
275 The old `cl' is now deprecated and is just a bunch of aliases that
276 provide the old non-prefixed names.
277
278 *** `cl-flet' is not like `flet' (which is deprecated).
279 Instead it obeys the behavior of Common-Lisp's `flet'.
280
281 *** `cl-labels' is slightly different from `labels'.
282 The difference is that it relies on the `lexical-binding' machinery (as opposed
283 to the `lexical-let' machinery used previously) to capture definitions in
284 closures, so such closures will only work if `lexical-binding' is in use.
285
286 *** `progv' was rewritten to use the `let' machinery.
287 A side effect is that vars without corresponding value are bound to nil
288 rather than making them unbound.
289
290 ** Compilation mode
291
292 *** New option `compilation-always-kill'.
293
294 ** Customize
295
296 *** `custom-reset-button-menu' now defaults to t.
297
298 *** Non-option variables are never matched in `customize-apropos' and
299 `customize-apropos-options' (i.e. the prefix argument does nothing for
300 these commands now).
301
302 ** Desktop
303
304 *** `desktop-path' no longer includes the "." directory. Desktop
305 files are now located in ~/.emacs.d by default.
306
307 ** D-Bus
308
309 +++
310 *** New variables `dbus-compiled-version' and `dbus-runtime-version'.
311
312 +++
313 *** The D-Bus object manager interface is implemented.
314
315 +++
316 *** Variables of type :(u)int32 and :(u)int64 accept floating points,
317 if their value does not fit into Emacs's integer range.
318
319 +++
320 *** The function `dbus-call-method' works non-blocking now, it can be
321 interrupted by C-g. `dbus-call-method-non-blocking' is obsolete.
322
323 +++
324 *** Signals can be sent also as unicast message.
325
326 +++
327 *** The argument list of `dbus-register-signal' has been extended,
328 according to the new match rule types of D-Bus. See the manual for
329 details.
330
331 +++
332 *** `dbus-init-bus' supports private connections.
333
334 +++
335 *** There is a new function `dbus-setenv'.
336
337 ** Diff mode
338
339 *** Changes are now highlighted using the same color scheme as in
340 modern VCSes. Deletions are displayed in red (new faces
341 `diff-refine-removed' and `smerge-refined-removed' and new definition
342 of `diff-removed'), insertions in green (new faces `diff-refine-added'
343 and `smerge-refined-added' and new definition of `diff-added').
344
345 *** The variable `diff-use-changed-face' defines whether to use the
346 face `diff-changed', or `diff-removed' and `diff-added' to highlight
347 changes in context diffs.
348
349 *** The new command `diff-remove-trailing-whitespace' fixes trailing
350 whitespace problems introduced by the diff.
351
352 ** Dired
353
354 *** `dired-do-async-shell-command' executes each file sequentially
355 if the command ends in `;' (when operating on multiple files).
356 Otherwise, it executes the command on each file in parallel.
357
358 *** Typing M-n in the minibuffer of `dired-do-chmod', `dired-do-chgrp',
359 `dired-do-chown', `dired-do-touch' pulls the file attributes of the
360 file at point.
361
362 *** When the region is active, `m' (`dired-mark'), `u' (`dired-unmark'),
363 `DEL' (`dired-unmark-backward'), `d' (`dired-flag-file-deletion')
364 mark/unmark/flag all files in the active region.
365
366 *** The minibuffer default for `=' (`dired-diff) has changed.
367 It is now the backup file for the file at point, if one exists.
368 In Transient Mark mode the default is the file at the active mark.
369
370 *** `M-=' is no longer bound to `dired-backup-diff' in Dired buffers.
371 The global binding for `M-=', `count-words-region' is in effect.
372
373 ** Ediff now uses the same color scheme as Diff mode.
374
375 ** erc will look up server/channel names via auth-source and use the
376 channel keys found, if any.
377
378 ** Flymake uses fringe bitmaps to indicate errors and warnings.
379 See flymake-fringe-indicator-position, flymake-error-bitmap and
380 flymake-warning-bitmap.
381
382 ** Follow mode
383
384 *** The obsolete variable `follow-mode-off-hook' has been removed.
385
386 *** Follow mode no longer works by using advice.
387 The option `follow-intercept-processes' has been removed.
388
389 ** FFAP
390
391 *** The option `ffap-url-unwrap-remote' can now be a list of strings,
392 specifying URL types which should be converted to remote file names at
393 the FFAP prompt. The default is now '("ftp").
394
395 ** Ibuffer
396
397 *** New `derived-mode' filter, bound to `/ M'.
398 The old binding for `/ M' (filter by used-mode) is now bound to `/ m'.
399
400 ** Mouse Avoidance mode
401
402 The new variable `mouse-avoidance-banish-position' can now be used to
403 customize Mouse Avoidance mode further.
404
405 +++
406 ** notifications.el supports now version 1.2 of the Notifications API.
407 The function `notifications-get-capabilities' returns the supported
408 server properties.
409
410 ** In Perl mode, new option `perl-indent-parens-as-block' causes non-block
411 closing brackets to be aligned with the line of the opening bracket.
412
413 ** Python mode
414
415 A new version of python.el, which provides several new features, including:
416 per-buffer shells, better indentation, Python 3 support, and improved
417 shell-interaction compatible with iPython (and virtually any other
418 text based shell).
419
420 *** Some user options have been replaced/renamed:
421 Old defcustom: | New defcustom:
422 python-indent | python-indent-offset
423 python-guess-indent | python-indent-guess-indent-offset
424 python-pdbtrack-do-tracking-p | python-pdbtrack-activate
425 python-use-skeletons | python-skeleton-autoinsert
426
427 *** Some user options have been removed:
428
429 **** `python-indent-string-contents': Strings are never indented.
430
431 **** `python-honour-comment-indentation':
432 Comments are never considered as indentation markers themselves.
433
434 **** `python-continuation-offset': Indentation is automatically
435 calculated in a pep8 compliant way depending on the context.
436
437 **** `python-shell-prompt-alist', `python-shell-continuation-prompt-alist':
438 Have no direct mapping as the shell interaction is completely different.
439
440 **** `python-python-command', `python-jython-command':
441 Replaced by `python-shell-interpreter'.
442
443 **** `inferior-python-filter-regexp', `python-remove-cwd-from-path',
444 `python-pdbtrack-minor-mode-string', `python-source-modes':
445 No longer relevant.
446
447 *** Some commands have been replaced:
448 Old command | New command
449 python-insert-class | python-skeleton-class
450 python-insert-def | python-skeleton-def
451 python-insert-for | python-skeleton-for
452 python-insert-if | python-skeleton-if
453 python-insert-try/except | python-skeleton-try
454 python-insert-try/finally | python-skeleton-try
455 python-insert-while | python-skeleton-while
456 python-find-function | python-nav-jump-to-defun
457 python-next-statement | python-nav-forward-sentence
458 python-previous-statement | python-nav-backward-sentence
459 python-send-buffer | python-shell-send-buffer
460 python-send-defun | python-shell-send-defun
461 python-send-region | python-shell-send-region
462 python-send-region-and-go | Emulate with python-shell-send-region and
463 python-shell-switch-to-shell
464 python-send-string | python-shell-send-string
465 python-switch-to-python | python-shell-switch-to-shell
466 python-describe-symbol | python-eldoc-at-point
467
468 ** reStructuredText mode
469
470 *** Rebind nearly all keys making room for more keys and complying
471 better to usage in other modes. Describe bindings with C-c C-h.
472
473 *** Major revision of indentation working very similar to other
474 modes. TAB is your friend.
475
476 *** Major revision of filling working fine with most of
477 reStructuredText syntax. Support auto-filling.
478
479 *** Major revision of comment handling.
480
481 *** Major revision of fontification working with `jit-lock-mode'.
482
483 *** Cover reStructuredText syntax more closely. Improve
484 the experience for Sphinx users.
485
486 *** `rst-insert-list' inserts new list or continues existing lists.
487
488 *** Extend correct and improve customization.
489
490 *** Negative prefix argument always works for `rst-adjust'.
491
492 *** Reset window configuration after displaying TOC.
493
494 *** Package version in `rst-version'.
495
496 *** Support `imenu' and `which-func'.
497
498 ** SH Script mode
499
500 *** Pairing of parens/quotes uses electric-pair-mode instead of skeleton-pair.
501
502 *** `sh-electric-here-document-mode' now controls auto-insertion of here-docs.
503
504 *** `sh-use-smie' lets you choose a new indentation and navigation code.
505
506 ** Shell
507
508 *** New option `async-shell-command-buffer' specifies what buffer to use
509 for a new asynchronous shell command when the default output buffer
510 `*Async Shell Command*' is already taken by another running command.
511
512 ** SQL Mode
513
514 *** DB2 added `sql-db2-escape-newlines'
515
516 If non-nil, newlines sent to the command interpreter will be escaped
517 by a backslash. The default does not escape the newlines and assumes
518 that the sql statement will be terminated by a semicolon.
519
520 ** Tabulated List and packages derived from it
521
522 *** New command `tabulated-list-sort', bound to `S', sorts the column
523 at point, or the Nth column if a numeric prefix argument is given.
524
525 ** Term
526
527 The variables `term-default-fg-color' and `term-default-bg-color' are
528 now deprecated in favor of the `term-face' face, that you can
529 customize. Also, it is now possible to customize how are displayed the
530 ANSI terminal colors and styles by customizing the corresponding
531 `term-color-<COLOR>', `term-color-underline' and `term-color-bold'
532 faces.
533
534 ** Tramp
535 +++
536 *** The syntax has been extended in order to allow ad-hoc proxy
537 definitions. See the manual for details.
538 +++
539 *** Remote processes are now supported also on remote Windows host.
540
541 ** URL
542
543 *** Structs made by `url-generic-parse-url' have nil `attributes' slot.
544 Previously, this slot stored semicolon-separated attribute-value pairs
545 appended to some imap URLs, but this is not compatible with RFC 3986.
546 So now the `filename' slot stores the entire path and query components
547 and the `attributes' slot is always nil.
548
549 *** New function `url-encode-url' for encoding a URI string.
550 The `url-retrieve' function now uses this to encode its URL argument,
551 in case that is not properly encoded.
552
553 ** VHDL mode
554
555 *** The free software compiler GHDL is supported (and now the default).
556
557 *** Support for the VHDL-AMS packages has been added/updated.
558
559 *** Updated to the 2002 revision of the VHDL standard.
560
561 *** Accepts \r and \f as whitespace.
562
563 ** which-function-mode now applies to all applicable major modes by default.
564
565
566 ** FIXME something happened to ses.el, 2012-04-17.
567
568
569 ** Obsolete packages:
570
571 *** assoc.el
572 In most cases, assoc+member+push+delq work just as well.
573 And in any case it's just a terrible package: ugly semantics, terrible
574 inefficiency, and not namespace-clean.
575
576 *** bruce.el
577
578 *** ledit.el
579
580 *** mailpost.el
581
582 *** mouse-sel.el
583
584 *** patcomp.el
585
586 *** cust-print.el
587
588 \f
589 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.3
590 \f
591 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.3
592
593 ** (random) by default now returns a different random sequence in
594 every Emacs run. Use (random S), where S is a string, to set the
595 random seed to a value based on S, in order to get a repeatable
596 sequence in later calls.
597
598 ** The function `x-select-font' can return a font spec, instead of a
599 font name as a string. Whether it returns a font spec or a font name
600 depends on the graphical library.
601
602 ** If the NEWTEXT arg to `replace-match' contains a substring "\?",
603 that substring is inserted literally even if the LITERAL arg is
604 non-nil, instead of causing an error to be signaled.
605
606 +++
607 ** Docstrings starting with `*' no longer indicate user options.
608 Only variables defined using `defcustom' are considered user options.
609 The function `user-variable-p' is now an obsolete alias for
610 `custom-variable-p'.
611
612 +++
613 ** The return values of `defalias', `defun' and `defmacro' have changed,
614 and are now undefined. For backwards compatibility, defun and
615 defmacro currently return the name of the newly defined function/macro
616 but this should not be relied upon.
617
618 ** `face-spec-set' no longer sets frame-specific attributes when the
619 third argument is a frame (that usage was obsolete since Emacs 22.2).
620
621 +++
622 ** The arguments of `dbus-register-signal' are no longer just strings,
623 but keywords or keyword-string pairs. The old argument list will
624 still be supported for Emacs 24.x.
625
626 ** Spelling changes.
627 Some Lisp symbols have been renamed to avoid problems with spelling
628 that is incorrect or inconsistent with how Emacs normally spells a word.
629
630 *** Renamed functions
631
632 **** hangul-input-method-inactivate -> hangul-input-method-deactivate
633 **** inactivate-input-method -> deactivate-input-method
634 **** quail-inactivate -> quail-deactivate
635 **** robin-inactivate -> robin-deactivate
636 **** viper-inactivate-input-method -> viper-deactivate-input-method
637 **** viper-inactivate-input-method-action ->
638 viper-deactivate-input-method-action
639 **** ucs-input-inactivate -> ucs-input-deactivate
640
641 *** Renamed hooks
642 The old hooks are still supported for backward compatibility, but they
643 are deprecated and will be removed eventually.
644
645 **** input-method-inactivate-hook -> input-method-deactivate-hook
646 **** robin-inactivate-hook -> robin-deactivate-hook
647 **** quail-inactivate-hook -> quail-deactivate-hook
648
649 *** Renamed Lisp variables
650
651 **** follow-deactive-menu -> follow-inactive-menu
652 **** inactivate-current-input-method-function ->
653 deactivate-current-input-method-function
654
655 ** Some obsolete variables and variable aliases were removed:
656
657 *** `facemenu-unlisted-faces'
658 *** `rmail-decode-mime-charset'
659 *** `last-input-char', `last-command-char', `unread-command-char'.
660
661 \f
662 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.3
663
664 ** CL-style generalized variables are now in core Elisp.
665 `setf' is autoloaded; `push' and `pop' accept generalized variables.
666
667 ** `defun' also accepts a (declare DECLS) form, like `defmacro'.
668 The interpretation of the DECLS is determined by `defun-declarations-alist'.
669
670 ** Completion
671
672 *** New function `completion-table-with-quoting' to handle completion
673 in the presence of quoting, such as file completion in shell buffers.
674
675 *** New function `completion-table-subvert' to use an existing completion
676 table, but with a different prefix.
677
678 ** Debugger changes
679
680 *** New error type and new function `user-error'.
681 These do not trigger the debugger.
682
683 *** New option `debugger-bury-or-kill'.
684
685 *** Set `debug-on-message' to enter the debugger when a certain
686 message is displayed in the echo area. This can be useful when trying
687 to work out which code is doing something.
688
689 *** New var `inhibit-debugger', automatically set to prevent accidental
690 recursive invocations.
691
692 ** Minibuffer
693
694 *** `read-regexp' has a new argument HISTORY; the first argument PROMPT
695 of `read-regexp' accepts a string ending with a colon and space, and its
696 second argument DEFAULTS can be a list of strings accessible via M-n
697 in the minibuffer ahead of other hard-coded useful regexp-related values.
698 More commands use `read-regexp' now to read their regexp arguments.
699
700 ** Window changes
701
702 *** The functions get-lru-window, get-mru-window and get-largest-window
703 now accept a third argument to avoid choosing the selected window.
704
705 *** Additional values recognized for option `window-combination-limit'.
706
707 *** New macro `with-temp-buffer-window'.
708
709 *** New options `temp-buffer-resize-frames' and
710 `temp-buffer-resize-regexps'.
711
712 *** `temp-buffer-resize-mode' no longer resizes windows that have been
713 reused.
714
715 *** New function `fit-frame-to-buffer' and new option
716 `fit-frame-to-buffer-bottom-margin'.
717
718 *** New display action functions `display-buffer-below-selected',
719 `display-buffer-at-bottom' and `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
720
721 *** New display action alist entry `inhibit-switch-frame', if non-nil,
722 tells display action functions to avoid changing which frame is
723 selected.
724
725 *** New display action alist entry `pop-up-frame-parameters', if
726 non-nil, specifies frame parameters to give any newly-created frame.
727
728 *** New display action alist entry `previous-window', if non-nil,
729 specifies window to reuse in `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
730
731 *** The following variables are obsolete, as they can be replaced by
732 appropriate entries in the `display-buffer-alist' function introduced
733 in Emacs 24.1:
734 +++
735 **** `display-buffer-reuse-frames'
736 **** `special-display-regexps'
737 **** `special-display-frame-alist'
738 **** `special-display-buffer-names'
739 **** `special-display-function'
740 **** `display-buffer-function'
741
742 ** Time
743
744 *** `current-time-string' no longer requires that its argument's year
745 must be in the range 1000..9999. It now works with any year supported
746 by the underlying C implementation.
747
748 *** `current-time' now returns extended-format time stamps
749 (HIGH LOW USEC PSEC), where the new PSEC slot specifies picoseconds.
750 PSEC is typically a multiple of 1000 on current machines. Other
751 functions that use this format, such as file-attributes and
752 format-time-string, have been changed accordingly. Old-format time
753 stamps are still accepted.
754
755 *** The format of timers in timer-list and timer-idle-list is now
756 [TRIGGERED-P HI-SECS LO-SECS USECS REPEAT-DELAY FUNCTION ARGS IDLE-DELAY PSECS].
757 The PSECS slot is new, and uses picosecond resolution. It can be
758 accessed via the new timer--psecs accessor.
759
760 ** Floating point functions now always return special values like NaN,
761 instead of signaling errors, if given invalid args, e.g. (log -1.0).
762 Previously, they returned NaNs on some platforms but signaled errors
763 on others. The affected functions are acos, asin, tan, exp, expt,
764 log, log10, sqrt, and mod.
765
766 ** Interpreted files are eagerly macro-expanded during load.
767 This can significantly speed up execution of non-byte-compiled code,
768 but can also bump into harmless and previously unnoticed cyclic
769 dependencies. These should not be fatal: they will simply cause the
770 macro-calls to be left for later expansion (as before), but will also
771 result in a warning describing the cycle.
772
773 ** Misc new functions:
774
775 *** `autoloadp'
776 *** `autoload-do-load'.
777 *** `buffer-narrowed-p' tests if the buffer is narrowed.
778 *** `file-name-base' returns a file name sans directory and extension.
779 *** `function-get' fetches a function property, following aliases.
780 *** `posnp' tests if an object is a `posn'.
781 *** `set-temporary-overlay-map' sets up a temporary overlay map.
782 *** `system-users' returns the user names on the system.
783 *** `system-groups' returns the group names on the system.
784 *** `tty-top-frame' returns the topmost frame of a text terminal.
785
786 ** New macros `setq-local' and `defvar-local'.
787
788 ** New fringe bitmap exclamation-mark.
789
790 ** Face underlining can now use a wave.
791 See the "Face Attributes" section of the Elisp manual.
792
793 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
794
795 *** `automount-dir-prefix'
796 *** `buffer-has-markers-at'
797 *** `macro-declaration-function' (use `macro-declarations-alist').
798 *** `window-system-version'
799
800 \f
801 * Changes in Emacs 24.3 on non-free operating systems
802
803 ** New configure.bat options on MS-Windows:
804
805 *** --without-libxml2 omits support for libxml2, even if its presence
806 is detected.
807
808 ** When invoked with the -nw switch to run on the Windows text-mode terminal,
809 Emacs now supports mouse highlight, help-echo (in the echo area), and
810 mouse-autoselect-window.
811
812 ** On MS-Windows Vista and later Emacs now supports symbolic links.
813 \f
814 * Changes in Emacs 24.2
815
816 ** This is mainly a bug-fix release.
817
818 \f
819 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
820
821 ** Emacs can be compiled with Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
822 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
823 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
824 --without-gconf.
825
826 ** Emacs can be compiled with GnuTLS support.
827 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
828 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
829 `--without-gnutls'. See below for GnuTLS features.
830
831 ** Emacs can be compiled with SELinux support.
832 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
833 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
834 `--without-selinux'. See below for SELinux features.
835
836 ** Emacs can be compiled with ImageMagick support.
837 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
838 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
839 `--without-imagemagick'. See below for ImageMagick features.
840 This feature is not available for the Nextstep or MS ports.
841
842 ** Emacs can be compiled with libxml2 support.
843 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
844 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
845 `--without-xml2'. See below for libxml2 features.
846
847 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
848 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
849
850 ** New configure option --with-wide-int.
851 With it, Emacs integers typically have 62 bits, even on 32-bit machines.
852 On 32-bit hosts, this raises the limit on buffer sizes from about 512 MiB
853 to about 2 GiB.
854
855 ** New configure options: --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
856 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
857 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
858
859 ** New configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
860 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
861 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
862
863 ** The standalone programs digest-doc and sorted-doc are removed.
864 Emacs now uses Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
865
866 ** The standalone program `fakemail' is removed.
867 If you need it, feedmail.el provides a superset of the functionality.
868
869 \f
870 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
871
872 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
873 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
874 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
875
876 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
877 from load-path. -Q now implies this. This option does not affect the
878 EMACSLOADPATH environment variable (and hence has no effect for
879 Nextstep builds).
880
881 \f
882 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
883
884 ** Completion
885
886 *** Many packages now use the `completion-at-point' command,
887 rather than implementing separate completion commands.
888
889 *** `completion-at-point' now handles tags and semantic completion.
890
891 *** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
892 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
893
894 *** New option `completion-cycle-threshold' allows completion cycling.
895
896 *** New option `completion-category-overrides' for overriding the
897 default completion style in certain circumstances.
898
899 *** New completion style `substring'.
900
901 *** Completion of buffer names uses `substring' completion by default.
902
903 *** The option `widget-complete-field' has been removed.
904
905 ** Mail changes
906
907 *** The first time you try sending mail, Emacs asks for a mail method.
908 This is implemented by a new default for `send-mail-function', which
909 is `sendmail-query-once'. This offers to use the smtpmail package, or
910 to use the old defaults relying on external mail facilities
911 (`sendmail-send-it' on GNU/Linux and other Unix-like systems, and
912 `mailclient-send-it' on Windows).
913
914 *** Typing C-c m in the buffer made by M-x report-emacs-bug transfers
915 the report to your desktop's preferred mail client, if there is one.
916 This uses either the "xdg-email" utility, or Mac OS's "open" command.
917
918 *** See Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages for SMTPmail changes
919 and Mail mode changes
920
921 ** Emacs server and client changes
922
923 *** New option `server-port' specifies the port for TCP Emacs servers.
924
925 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
926
927 *** New emacsclient argument --frame-parameters specifies the frame
928 parameters of any newly-created graphical frame.
929
930 *** If emacsclient shuts down due to Emacs signaling an error,
931 its exit status is 1.
932
933 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID.
934 This opens a client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed, similar
935 to the --parent-id argument to Emacs.
936
937 ** Internationalization changes
938
939 *** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
940 Right-to-left (RTL) scripts, such as Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew, are
941 displayed in the correct visual order as expected by users of those
942 scripts. The display reordering is a "full bidirectionality" class
943 implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm (UBA). Buffers
944 with no RTL text should look exactly the same as before.
945
946 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-display-reordering'.
947 To disable display reordering in a buffer, change this to nil.
948
949 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction'.
950 If nil (the default), Emacs determines the base direction of each
951 paragraph from its text, as specified by the UBA. Setting the value
952 to `right-to-left' or `left-to-right' forces a base direction on each
953 paragraph.
954
955 Paragraphs with right-to-left base direction are displayed starting at
956 the right window edge.
957
958 *** Enhanced support for characters with no glyphs in available fonts,
959 or, on text terminals, characters that cannot be encoded by the
960 terminal coding system. The new option `glyphless-char-display-control'
961 specifies how to display them: as a hexadecimal code in a box, a thin
962 1-pixel space, an empty box, etc.
963
964 *** New input methods for Farsi and Bulgarian
965 (farsi-isiri-9147, farsi-transliterate-banan, bulgarian-alt-phonetic).
966
967 *** `nobreak-char-display' now also highlights Unicode hyphen chars
968 (U+2010 and U+2011).
969
970 *** New Hebrew translation of the Emacs Tutorial.
971 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
972 automatically select it.
973
974 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
975 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
976 from a package repository at http://elpa.gnu.org.
977
978 *** M-x list-packages shows a list of packages, which can be
979 selected for installation.
980
981 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
982
983 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded automatically when
984 Emacs starts up. To disable this, set `package-enable-at-startup' to
985 nil. To specify the packages to load, customize `package-load-list'.
986
987 ** Custom theme changes
988
989 *** New command `M-x customize-themes', which provides a convenient
990 interface for enabling and disabling Custom themes.
991
992 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
993 Emacs no longer looks for Custom themes in `load-path'. The default
994 value of `custom-theme-load-path' says to look for themes in
995 `custom-theme-directory', followed by a subdirectory of
996 `data-directory' named "themes/", which contains a small selection of
997 built-in Custom themes.
998
999 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
1000 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
1001 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
1002 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
1003
1004 ** Improved GTK integration
1005
1006 *** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
1007 The function `set-scroll-bar-mode' can change this.
1008
1009 *** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
1010 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose the style. On a Gnome desktop,
1011 the default is taken from desktop settings.
1012
1013 *** GTK tool bars can be placed on any edge of the frame.
1014 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the
1015 values top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has
1016 entries for this.
1017
1018 *** The default colors for selected text (the `region' face) are taken
1019 from the GTK theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
1020
1021 *** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK.
1022 You can disable this by changing `x-gtk-use-system-tooltips' to nil.
1023
1024 ** Graphical interface changes
1025
1026 *** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
1027 Also, the first dash (which does not indicate anything) is just
1028 displayed as a space.
1029
1030 *** `menu-bar-select-buffer-function' lets you choose another operation
1031 instead of `switch-to-buffer' when selecting an item in the Buffers menu.
1032
1033 *** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is
1034 built with Xft. These fonts can be set via X resources, for example:
1035 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
1036
1037 ** Exiting changes
1038
1039 *** Emacs now calls `kill-emacs' if it receives SIGTERM or SIGHUP,
1040 or if it receives a SIGINT signal in batch mode.
1041
1042 *** `kill-emacs-hook' is now also run in batch mode.
1043 Third-party code which adds to `kill-emacs-hook' should check if they
1044 do the right thing in batch mode.
1045
1046 ** Scrolling changes
1047
1048 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
1049 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
1050 of buffer at first key-press (instead they move to top/bottom of buffer)
1051 when `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
1052
1053 *** New option `scroll-error-top-bottom' (see above).
1054
1055 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
1056 scroll a line instead of full screen.
1057
1058 *** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
1059 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
1060
1061 *** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
1062 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
1063 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
1064 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
1065 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
1066
1067 *** "Aggressive" scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
1068 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
1069 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
1070 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
1071 margin.
1072
1073 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
1074 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
1075
1076 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up.
1077 Also, the function `copy-file' has an extra optional argument for
1078 preserving SELinux context, and the return value of `backup-buffer'
1079 now includes the SELinux context.
1080
1081 *** New functions `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
1082 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
1083
1084 ** Trash changes
1085
1086 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
1087 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
1088
1089 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
1090 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
1091
1092 ** File- and directory-local variable changes
1093
1094 *** You can stop directory local vars from applying to subdirectories.
1095 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
1096 settings to indicate that the section should not apply to
1097 subdirectories.
1098
1099 *** Directory local variables can apply to some file-less buffers.
1100 Affected modes include dired, vc-dir, and log-edit. For example,
1101 adding "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to .dir-locals.el will
1102 turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should call
1103 `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
1104
1105 *** Using "mode: MINOR-MODE" to enable a minor mode is deprecated.
1106 Instead, use "eval: (minor-mode 1)".
1107
1108 *** The variable `inhibit-first-line-modes-regexps' has been renamed
1109 to `inhibit-local-variables-regexps'. As the name suggests, it now
1110 applies to ALL file local variables, not just -*- lines. The
1111 associated `inhibit-first-line-modes-suffixes' has been renamed in the
1112 corresponding way.
1113
1114 ** Window changes
1115
1116 *** The `quit-window' command now restores the last buffer displayed
1117 in the quitted window.
1118
1119 *** Resizing an Emacs frame now preserves proportional window sizes,
1120 modulo restrictions like window minimum sizes and fixed-size windows.
1121
1122 *** The behavior of `display-buffer' is now customizable in detail.
1123
1124 **** New option `display-buffer-base-action' specifies a list of
1125 user-determined display "actions" (functions and optional arguments
1126 for choosing the displaying window).
1127
1128 This takes precedence over the default display action, which is
1129 specified by `display-buffer-fallback-action'.
1130
1131 **** New option `display-buffer-alist' maps buffer name regexps to
1132 display actions, taking precedence over `display-buffer-base-action'.
1133
1134 *** New option `window-combination-limit'.
1135 The new option `window-combination-limit' allows to return the space
1136 obtained for resizing or creating a window more reliably to the window
1137 from which such space was obtained.
1138
1139 *** New option `window-combination-resize'.
1140 The new option `window-combination-resize' allows to split a window that
1141 otherwise cannot be split because it's too small by stealing space from
1142 other windows in the same combination. Subsequent resizing or deletion
1143 of the window will resize all windows in the same combination as well.
1144
1145 *** New option `frame-auto-hide-function' lets you choose between
1146 iconifying or deleting a frame when burying a buffer in a dedicated
1147 frame, or quitting a window showing a buffer in a frame of its own.
1148
1149 *** New commands `maximize-window' and `minimize-window'.
1150 These maximize and minimize the size of a window within its frame.
1151
1152 *** New commands `switch-to-prev-buffer' and `switch-to-next-buffer'.
1153 These functions allow to navigate through the live buffers that have
1154 been shown in a specific window.
1155
1156 ** Minibuffer changes
1157
1158 *** The inactive minibuffer has its own major mode `minibuffer-inactive-mode'.
1159 This is handy for minibuffer-only frames, and is also used for the feature
1160 where mouse-1 pops up *Messages*"', which can now easily be changed.
1161
1162 *** Minibuffers set `truncate-lines' to nil.
1163 If you want to change the value to something else, you could use
1164 for example `minibuffer-setup-hook'.
1165
1166 ** `auto-mode-case-fold' is now enabled by default.
1167
1168 ** `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' now defaults to t.
1169
1170 ** New basic faces `error', `warning', `success'.
1171 These are used to highlight text indicating failure, caution or
1172 successful operation.
1173
1174 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
1175 for `list-colors-display'.
1176
1177 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
1178
1179 \f
1180 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
1181
1182 ** Search changes
1183
1184 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-kill', instead of
1185 `isearch-yank-line'.
1186
1187 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-pop', instead of
1188 `isearch-yank-kill'.
1189
1190 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-line'.
1191
1192 ** New commands `count-words-region' and `count-words'.
1193
1194 *** M-= is bound to `count-words-region', not `count-lines-region'.
1195 The `count-words-region' command, when called interactively, reports
1196 the number of lines, words, and characters in the region. It is a
1197 superset of the old `count-lines-region', which is now an obsolete
1198 alias for it.
1199
1200 ** The command `just-one-space' (M-SPC), if given a negative argument,
1201 also deletes newlines around point.
1202
1203 ** Deletion changes
1204
1205 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
1206 If non-nil, [delete] and DEL delete the region if it is active and no
1207 prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', those commands kill
1208 instead.
1209
1210 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to [delete].
1211 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
1212 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
1213
1214 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
1215 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
1216 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; Lisp
1217 callers should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
1218
1219 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
1220
1221 ** Selection changes.
1222
1223 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections has been
1224 changed to conform with modern X applications. In short, most
1225 commands for killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while
1226 mouse commands use the primary selection.
1227
1228 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
1229 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
1230
1231 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
1232 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
1233 the kill ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
1234 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
1235
1236 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
1237 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
1238 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
1239 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
1240 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
1241
1242 **** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
1243
1244 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
1245 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
1246 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
1247
1248 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
1249
1250 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
1251 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
1252 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
1253
1254 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
1255 exactly equivalent to M-w, C-w, and C-y respectively.
1256
1257 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
1258 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
1259 between applications.
1260
1261 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
1262
1263 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
1264 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
1265 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
1266 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
1267 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
1268
1269 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
1270
1271 *** X clipboard managers are now supported.
1272 To inhibit this, change `x-select-enable-clipboard-manager' to nil.
1273
1274 ** New command `C-x r N' (`rectangle-number-lines') numbers the lines
1275 in the current rectangle. With a prefix argument, this prompts for a
1276 number to count from and for a format string.
1277
1278 ** `redisplay-dont-pause' now defaults to t.
1279 This makes Emacs feel more responsive to editing commands that arrive
1280 at high rate, e.g. if you lean on some key, because stopping redisplay
1281 in the middle (when this variable is nil) forces more expensive
1282 updates later on, and Emacs appears to be unable to keep up.
1283
1284 ** The behavior of <TAB> for active regions in Text mode has changed.
1285 In Text and related modes, typing <TAB> (`indent-for-tab-command')
1286 when the region is active causes Emacs to indent all the lines in the
1287 region, aligning them with the line previous to the first line in the
1288 region (or with the left margin if there is no previous line).
1289
1290 ** When `occur' is called with a prefix argument, matching strings are
1291 collected into the `*Occur*' buffer without line numbers. If there
1292 are parenthesized subexpressions in the specified regexp, `occur'
1293 reads replacement text that may contain \\& and \\N whose convention
1294 follows `replace-match'.
1295
1296 \f
1297 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
1298
1299 ** Archive Mode has basic support for browsing and updating 7z archives.
1300
1301 ** BibTeX mode
1302
1303 *** BibTeX mode now supports biblatex.
1304 Use the variable `bibtex-dialect' to select different BibTeX dialects.
1305 `bibtex-entry-field-alist' is now an obsolete alias for
1306 `bibtex-BibTeX-entry-alist'.
1307
1308 *** New command `bibtex-search-entries', bound to C-c C-a.
1309
1310 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `sort-fields', disabled by default.
1311
1312 *** New variable `bibtex-search-entry-globally'.
1313
1314 ** Browse-url
1315
1316 *** New option `browse-url-mailto-function' specifies how to handle "mailto:"s.
1317
1318 *** The default browser used by the package is now the "xdg-open" program,
1319 on platforms that support it. This calls your desktop's preferred browser.
1320
1321 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
1322
1323 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing "comments".
1324 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
1325
1326 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
1327 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
1328
1329 *** The function specified by `appt-disp-window-function' may be passed
1330 lists of arguments if multiple appointments are due at similar times.
1331 If you are using a custom function for this, you should update it.
1332
1333 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
1334
1335 *** Elements of `calendar-day-abbrev-array' and `calendar-month-abbrev-array'
1336 may no longer be nil, but must all be strings.
1337
1338 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt
1339 package by adding `appt-make-list' to `diary-hook' has been removed.
1340 Use `appt-activate' instead.
1341
1342 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
1343 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
1344 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
1345
1346 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
1347 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
1348
1349 ** CC Mode
1350
1351 *** New feature to "guess" the style in an existing buffer.
1352 The main entry point is M-x c-guess.
1353
1354 *** Java Mode now supports Java 5.0 (Tiger) and 6 (Mustang).
1355
1356 *** `c-beginning-of-defun' and `c-end-of-defun' now respect nested scopes.
1357 Thus C-M-a will, by default, go to the beginning of the immediate function,
1358 not the top level.
1359
1360 *** "Macros with semicolons" can be registered for correct indentation.
1361 Where such a macro ends a line (no semicolon) the next statement is no longer
1362 parsed as a statement continuation.
1363
1364 ** Comint and modes derived from it use the standard completion code.
1365
1366 ** Compilation mode
1367
1368 *** Compilation mode can be used without Font Lock mode.
1369 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
1370
1371 *** New variable `compilation-filter-start', which is bound while
1372 `compilation-filter-hook' runs. It records the start position of the
1373 text inserted by `compilation-filter'.
1374
1375 *** `compilation-error-screen-columns' and `compilation-first-column'
1376 are obeyed in the editing buffer. So programming language modes can
1377 set them, whereas previously only the value in the *Compilation*
1378 buffer was used.
1379
1380 ** Customize
1381
1382 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
1383 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
1384 To turn off the search field, set `custom-search-field' to nil.
1385
1386 *** Options in customize group buffers start out hidden if not customized.
1387 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
1388
1389 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
1390
1391 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
1392 choose a color via `list-colors-display'.
1393
1394 ** D-Bus
1395
1396 *** It is now possible to access buses other than the default system
1397 or session bus.
1398
1399 *** The `dbus-register-method' and `dbus-register-property' functions
1400 optionally do not register names.
1401
1402 *** The new function `dbus-register-service' registers a known service
1403 name on a D-Bus without also registering a property or a method.
1404
1405 ** Dired-x
1406
1407 *** C-x C-j (`dired-jump') and C-x 4 C-j (`dired-jump-other-window'),
1408 if called with a prefix argument, read a file name from the minibuffer
1409 instead of using the current buffer.
1410
1411 *** The "dired local variables" feature of Dired-x is obsolete.
1412 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
1413
1414 ** ERC changes
1415
1416 *** New options `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay',
1417 controlling attempts to autojoin a channel.
1418
1419 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
1420 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
1421 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
1422 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
1423
1424 ** Eshell changes
1425
1426 *** The default value of `eshell-directory-name' has changed
1427 to be an "eshell" directory in `user-emacs-directory'.
1428 The old "~/.eshell/" directory is still used if it exists, though.
1429
1430 ** gdb-mi
1431
1432 *** The M-x gdb command now uses the GDB Machine Interface protocol.
1433 It now supports multithread non-stop debugging and simultaneous
1434 debugging of several threads.
1435
1436 ** Image mode
1437
1438 *** RET (`image-toggle-animation') toggles animation, if applicable.
1439 Animation plays once, unless the option `image-animate-loop' is non-nil.
1440
1441 ** Info
1442
1443 *** New command M-x info-display-manual displays a named Info manual.
1444 If that manual is already visited in some Info buffer, it displays
1445 that buffer. (This is handy if you have many manuals in many *info*
1446 buffers, and don't remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual
1447 you want to consult.) Otherwise, it loads and displays the manual.
1448
1449 *** `e' is now bound to `end-of-buffer' rather than to `Info-edit'.
1450 This is for compatibility with the stand-alone Info reader program,
1451 and also because `Info-edit' is a rarely used command that is disabled
1452 by default.
1453
1454 ** Mail mode changes (not Message mode)
1455
1456 *** New command M-x mail-add-attachment for adding MIME attachments
1457
1458 *** The command M-x mail-attach-file was renamed to M-x mail-insert-file.
1459 (Its name is misleading, since it has nothing to do with MIME
1460 attachments.) The old name is now an obsolete alias to the new name.
1461
1462 ** MH-E has been updated to MH-E version 8.3.1.
1463 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
1464
1465 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
1466
1467 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
1468
1469 ** nXML mode no longer binds C-RET to `nxml-complete'.
1470 Completion is now performed via `completion-at-point', bound to C-M-i
1471 or M-TAB. If `nxml-bind-meta-tab-to-complete-flag' is non-nil (the
1472 default), this performs tag completion.
1473
1474 ** Org mode has been updated to version 7.8.09.
1475 See ORG-NEWS for details.
1476
1477 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
1478 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity,
1479 support for more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
1480
1481 ** Rmail
1482
1483 *** The command `rmail-epa-decrypt' decrypts OpenPGP data
1484 in the Rmail incoming message.
1485
1486 *** The variable `rmail-message-filter' no longer has any effect.
1487 This change was made in Emacs 23.1 but was not advertised at the time.
1488 Try using `rmail-show-message-hook' instead.
1489
1490 ** Shell mode
1491
1492 *** M-x shell prompts for the shell path name if the default directory
1493 is a remote file name and neither the environment variable $ESHELL nor
1494 the variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
1495
1496 *** TAB is now bound to the standard `completion-at-point' command,
1497 which now implements the pcomplete rules for shell command completion.
1498
1499 ** SMTPmail
1500
1501 *** SMTPmail now uses encrypted connections (via STARTTLS) by default
1502 if the mail server supports them. This uses either built-in GnuTLS
1503 support, or the starttls.el library. Customize `smtpmail-stream-type'
1504 to change this.
1505
1506 *** The variable `smtpmail-auth-credentials' has been removed.
1507 By default, the information is now stored in the file ~/.authinfo.
1508 This was the default value of smtpmail-auth-credentials. If you had
1509 customized smtpmail-auth-credentials to a list of user names and
1510 passwords, those settings are not used. During your first connection
1511 to the smtp server, Emacs will prompt for the user name and password,
1512 and offer to save them to ~/.authinfo. Or you can manually copy the
1513 credentials to ~/.authinfo. For example, if you had
1514
1515 (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials
1516 '(("mail.example.org" 25 "jim" "s!cret")))
1517
1518 then the equivalent line in ~/.authinfo would be
1519
1520 machine mail.example.org port 25 login jim password s!cret
1521
1522 See the auth-source manual for more information, e.g. on encrypting
1523 the credentials file.
1524
1525 *** The variable `smtpmail-starttls-credentials' has been removed.
1526 If you had that set, you need to put
1527
1528 machine smtp.whatever.foo port 25 key "~/.my_smtp_tls.key" cert "~/.my_smtp_tls.cert"
1529
1530 in your ~/.authinfo file instead.
1531
1532 *** SMTPmail defaults to using the address in the From: header as the
1533 SMTP MAIL FROM envelope. To override this, set `mail-envelope-from'
1534 to the address you wish to use instead.
1535
1536 ** SQL mode
1537
1538 *** New options `sql-port', `sql-connection-alist', `sql-send-terminator',
1539 and `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
1540
1541 *** New options controlling prompting for login parameters.
1542 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params',
1543 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
1544 connection is established.
1545
1546 *** The command `sql-product-interactive' now takes a prefix argument,
1547 which causes it to prompt for an SQL product.
1548
1549 *** Product-specific SQL interactive commands now take prefix arguments.
1550 These commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres', `sql-mysql', etc.),
1551 given a prefix argument, prompt for a name for the SQL interactive
1552 buffer. This reduces the need for calling `sql-rename-buffer'.
1553
1554 *** SQL interactive modes suppress command continuation prompts, and
1555 replace tabs with spaces. The first change impacts multiple line SQL
1556 statements entered with C-j between each line, statements yanked into
1557 the buffer and statements sent with `sql-send-*' functions. The
1558 second prevents the MySQL and Postgres interpreters from listing
1559 object name completions when sent text via `sql-send-*' functions.
1560
1561 *** New command `sql-connect' starts a predefined SQLi session,
1562 using the login parameters from `sql-connection-alist'.
1563
1564 *** New "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
1565 This gathers the login params specified for the SQLi session, if it
1566 was not started by a connection, and saves them as a new connection.
1567
1568 *** New commands for listing database objects and details:
1569 sql-list-all and sql-list-table.
1570
1571 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
1572
1573 ** TeX modes
1574
1575 *** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
1576
1577 ** Tramp
1578
1579 *** New inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
1580
1581 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
1582 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
1583
1584 *** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
1585 remote file attributes are cached for better performance.
1586
1587 *** The option `ange-ftp-binary-file-name-regexp' has changed its
1588 default value to "".
1589
1590 *** Handlers for `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
1591 for remote machines which support SELinux.
1592
1593 ** New function `url-queue-retrieve', which behaves like url-retrieve,
1594 but with limits (`url-queue-parallel-processes', `url-queue-timeout') on
1595 the degree of parallelism.
1596
1597 ** VC and related modes
1598
1599 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
1600 The command C-x v + (`vc-pull') runs a "pull" operation, if it is
1601 supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to update the
1602 current branch and working tree. A prefix argument means to prompt
1603 the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
1604
1605 *** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
1606
1607 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
1608 The command C-x v m (`vc-merge') now runs a "merge" operation, if it
1609 is supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to merge
1610 changes from another branch into the current one. It prompts for
1611 specifics, e.g. a merge source.
1612
1613 *** New option `vc-revert-show-diff' controls whether `vc-revert'
1614 shows a diff while querying the user. It defaults to t.
1615
1616 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
1617 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
1618 This is currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial (to support
1619 another backend, define a `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function').
1620 In the Log View buffers made by C-x v L (`vc-print-root-log'), you can
1621 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
1622
1623 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
1624 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
1625
1626 *** The option `vc-initial-comment' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but
1627 this was not advertised at the time.
1628
1629 *** `vc-toggle-read-only' is an obsolete alias for `toggle-read-only'.
1630 Since Emacs 23, it has done the same thing as `toggle-read-only', but
1631 this was not advertised at the time.
1632
1633 ** Obsolete modes
1634
1635 *** abbrevlist.el
1636
1637 *** erc-hecomplete.el (use erc-pcomplete.el instead)
1638
1639 *** partial-completion-mode (complete.el) is obsolete.
1640 You can get a comparable behavior with:
1641 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
1642 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
1643
1644 *** pc-mode.el is obsolete (CUA mode is much more comprehensive).
1645
1646 *** pgg is obsolete (use EasyPG instead).
1647
1648 *** sregex.el is obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
1649
1650 *** s-region.el and pc-select.el are obsolete.
1651 They are superseded by shift-select-mode, enabled by default since 23.1.
1652
1653 *** vc-mcvs.el is obsolete (for lack of a maintainer).
1654
1655 ** Miscellaneous
1656
1657 *** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
1658 Its functions and variables have been similarly renamed.
1659
1660 *** In `ido-file-completion-map', C-v is no longer bound to `ido-toggle-vc'.
1661 (This interfered with cua-mode.)
1662
1663 *** f90.el has some support for Fortran 2008 syntax.
1664
1665 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
1666
1667 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
1668
1669 \f
1670 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
1671
1672 ** Occur Edit mode applies edits made in *Occur* buffers to the
1673 original buffers. It is bound to "e" in Occur mode.
1674
1675 ** New global minor mode electric-pair-mode.
1676 When enabled, typing an open parenthesis automatically inserts the
1677 matching closing one.
1678
1679 ** New global minor mode electric-indent-mode.
1680 When enabled, typing certain characters triggers reindentation.
1681 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-indent-chars or
1682 electric-indent-functions.
1683
1684 ** New global minor mode electric-layout-mode.
1685 When enabled, typing certain characters automatically inserts newlines.
1686 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-layout-rules.
1687
1688 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
1689 from which other modes can be derived.
1690
1691 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
1692
1693 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
1694 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
1695 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
1696 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
1697 secrets.
1698
1699 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
1700 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
1701
1702 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
1703 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
1704
1705 ** New generic mode, xmodmap-generic-mode, for xmodmap files.
1706
1707 ** New emacs-lock.el package.
1708 The previous version has been moved to obsolete/old-emacs-lock.el.
1709 Now, there is a proper minor mode `emacs-lock-mode'. Protection
1710 against exiting Emacs and killing the buffer can be set separately.
1711 The mechanism for automatically turning off protection for buffers
1712 with dead inferior processes has been generalized.
1713
1714 \f
1715 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
1716
1717 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function call now ENABLES
1718 the minor mode unconditionally. This is so that you can write e.g.
1719
1720 (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'foo-mode)
1721
1722 to enable foo-mode in Text mode buffers, removing the need for
1723 `turn-on-foo-mode' style functions. This affects all mode commands
1724 defined by `define-minor-mode'. If called interactively, the mode
1725 command still toggles the minor mode.
1726
1727 ** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
1728 It is now a list of three elements, where the second element is a list
1729 describing the original file's SELinux context. If Emacs or the
1730 system lacks SELinux support, the context list is (nil nil nil nil).
1731 See "Basic SELinux support" above, under "Changes in Emacs 24.1".
1732
1733 ** `char-direction-table' and the `char-direction' function were deleted.
1734 They were buggy and inferior to the new support of bidirectional
1735 editing introduced in Emacs 24. If you need the bidirectional
1736 properties of a character, use `get-char-code-property' with the last
1737 argument `bidi-class'.
1738
1739 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
1740 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
1741 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
1742 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
1743
1744 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
1745 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
1746 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
1747 of the header line.
1748
1749 ** Support for "old-style" backquotes, obsolete for 10+ years, has
1750 been further reduced. Now a backquote not followed by a space is
1751 always treated as a "new-style" backquote. Please remove all
1752 "old-style" backquotes from your code. If your code uses backquotes
1753 as documented in the Elisp manual, and compiles without warning, then
1754 you have nothing to do in this regard. Code not following the
1755 appropriate conventions may fail to compile.
1756
1757 The most common cause of trouble seems to be an old-style backquote
1758 followed by a newline. Another cause of trouble is vector notation
1759 for key sequence notation: instead of [(control ,)] and [(control ')],
1760 you should write [(control ?,)] and [(control ?')], which will work in
1761 older Emacsen too.
1762
1763 ** The macro `eval-at-startup' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but this
1764 was not advertised at the time. The function `custom-initialize-delay'
1765 replaced all known uses.
1766
1767 ** `view-buffer' now treats special mode-class in the same way that
1768 `view-file' has since Emacs 22 (i.e. it won't enable View mode if the
1769 major mode is special).
1770
1771 ** Menu and tool bar changes
1772
1773 *** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
1774 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
1775 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
1776 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
1777 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
1778 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
1779
1780 *** The menu bar bindings's caches are not used any more.
1781 Use (where-is-internal <def> nil t) instead.
1782
1783 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
1784 similar to those created by shift-selection (see Selection changes
1785 above). In previous Emacs versions, these regions were delineated by
1786 `mouse-drag-overlay'; that variable has been removed.
1787
1788 ** The fourth argument of `filter-buffer-substring' has been removed.
1789 If you want to remove text properties from the final result, simply
1790 pass the result through substring-no-properties.
1791
1792 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
1793
1794 ** The following obsolete functions and aliases have been removed
1795 (the appropriate new function is given in parentheses; "not needed"
1796 means you can just remove all calls to the function in question):
1797
1798 *** `comint-kill-output' (`comint-delete-output')
1799 *** `decompose-composite-char' (`char-to-string')
1800 *** `outline-visible' (`outline-invisible-p')
1801 *** `internal-find-face' (`facep')
1802 *** `internal-get-face' (`facep and check-face')
1803 *** `frame-update-faces' (not needed)
1804 *** `frame-update-face-colors' (`frame-set-background-mode')
1805 *** `x-frob-font-weight' and `x-frob-font-slant' (`make-face-*' functions)
1806 *** `x-make-font-bold and x-make-font-demibold (`make-face-bold')
1807 *** `x-make-font-italic' and `x-make-font-oblique' (`make-face-italic')
1808 *** `x-make-font-bold-italic' (`make-face-bold-italic')
1809 *** `x-make-font-unbold' (`make-face-unbold')
1810 *** `x-make-font-unitalic' (`make-face-unitalic')
1811 *** `mldrag-drag-mode-line' (`mouse-drag-mode-line')
1812 *** `mldrag-drag-vertical-line' (`mouse-drag-vertical-line')
1813 *** `iswitchb-default-keybindings' (`iswitchb-mode')
1814 *** `char-bytes' (== 1)
1815 *** `isearch-return-char' (`isearch-printing-char')
1816 *** `make-local-hook' (not needed)
1817 *** `set-screen-height' (`set-frame-height')
1818 *** `set-screen-width' (`set-frame-width')
1819
1820 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed
1821 (the appropriate new variable is given in parentheses):
1822
1823 *** `checkdoc-minor-keymap' (`checkdoc-minor-mode-map')
1824 *** `vc-header-alist' (`vc-BACKEND-header')
1825 *** `directory-sep-char' (== ?/)
1826 *** `font-lock-defaults-alist' (`font-lock-defaults')
1827 *** `e' (`float-e').
1828
1829 ** The following obsolete files were removed:
1830 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
1831
1832 ** The format of the finder-inf.el file has changed, since the Finder
1833 mechanism is now based on the package system. The variable
1834 `finder-package-info' is replaced by `package--builtins' and
1835 `finder-keywords-hash'.
1836
1837 ** When generating autoloads, `update-directory-autoloads' no longer
1838 assumes every inspected file is in your `load-path'. It instead
1839 generates relative names according to the current `load-path'.
1840
1841 \f
1842 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.1
1843
1844 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
1845 The `lexical-binding' variable enables lexical scoping for local
1846 variables. It is typically set via a file-local variable in the first
1847 line of the file, in which case it applies to all the code in that
1848 file.
1849
1850 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
1851 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
1852
1853 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
1854 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
1855
1856 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
1857
1858 *** `defvar' and `defconst' now mark the variable as special (dynamic).
1859 So do `defcustom' and other forms that call `defvar' as a subroutine.
1860
1861 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
1862 declared as dynamically bound.
1863
1864 *** The form ((lambda ...) ...) is deprecated.
1865
1866 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
1867 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
1868 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
1869
1870 ** Changes for bidirectional display and editing
1871
1872 *** New function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction'.
1873 This returns the base direction of the paragraph at point.
1874
1875 *** New function `bidi-string-mark-left-to-right'.
1876 Given a string containing characters from right-to-left scripts, this
1877 function returns another string which can be safely inserted into a
1878 buffer, such that any following text will be always displayed to the
1879 right of that string. (This works by appending an invisible Unicode
1880 "LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK" character if the argument string might need it.)
1881
1882 This is useful when the buffer has overall left-to-right paragraph
1883 direction and you need to insert a string whose contents are not known
1884 in advance, without disrupting the layout of the line.
1885
1886 ** Window changes
1887
1888 *** Window tree functions are accessible in Elisp.
1889 Functions are provided to return the parent, siblings or child windows
1890 of any window including internal windows (windows not associated with a
1891 buffer) in the window tree.
1892
1893 **** New function `window-valid-p' gives non-nil for live and internal
1894 windows.
1895
1896 **** Window manipulation can deal with internal windows.
1897 Many window handling functions like `split-window', `delete-window', or
1898 `delete-other-windows' as well as the window resizing functions can now
1899 act on any window including internal ones.
1900
1901 *** window-total-height/-width vs window-body-height/-width.
1902 The function `window-height' has been renamed to `window-total-height'
1903 and `window-width' has been renamed to `window-body-width'. The old
1904 names are provided as aliases. Two new functions `window-total-width'
1905 and `window-body-height' are provided.
1906
1907 *** Window parameters specific to window handling functions.
1908 For each window you can specify a parameter to override the default
1909 behavior of a number of functions like `split-window', `delete-window'
1910 and `delete-other-windows'. The variable `ignore-window-parameters'
1911 allows to ignore processing such parameters.
1912
1913 *** New semantics of third argument of `split-window'.
1914 The third argument of `split-window' has been renamed to SIDE and can be
1915 set to any of the values 'below, 'right, 'above, or 'left to make the
1916 new window appear on the corresponding side of the window that shall be
1917 split. Any other value of SIDE will cause `split-window' to split the
1918 window into two side-by-side windows as before.
1919
1920 *** Window resizing functions.
1921 A new standard function for resizing windows called `window-resize' has
1922 been introduced. This and all other functions for resizing windows no
1923 longer delete any windows when they become too small.
1924
1925 *** Deleting the selected window now selects the most recently selected
1926 live window on that frame instead.
1927
1928 *** `adjust-window-trailing-edge' adjustments.
1929 `adjust-window-trailing-edge' can now deal with fixed-size windows and
1930 is able to resize other windows if a window adjacent to the trailing
1931 edge cannot be shrunk any more. This makes its behavior more similar to
1932 that of Emacs 21 without compromising, however, its inability to delete
1933 windows which was introduced in Emacs 22.
1934
1935 *** Window-local buffer lists.
1936 Windows now have local buffer lists. This means that removing a buffer
1937 from display in a window will preferably show the buffer previously
1938 shown in that window with its previous window-start and window-point
1939 positions. This also means that the same buffer may be automatically
1940 shown twice even if it already appears in another window.
1941
1942 *** `switch-to-buffer' has a new optional argument FORCE-SAME-WINDOW,
1943 which if non-nil requires the buffer to be displayed in the currently
1944 selected window, signaling an error otherwise. If nil, another window
1945 can be used, e.g. if the selected one is strongly dedicated.
1946
1947 *** `split-window-vertically' and `split-window-horizontally' renamed
1948 to `split-window-below' and `split-window-right' respectively.
1949 The old names are kept as aliases.
1950
1951 *** Display actions
1952
1953 **** The second arg to `display-buffer' and `pop-to-buffer' is now
1954 named ACTION, and takes a display action of the same form as
1955 `display-buffer-base-action' (see Changes, above). A non-nil,
1956 non-list value is treated specially, as the old meaning.
1957
1958 **** New variable `display-buffer-overriding-action'.
1959
1960 **** The procedure of `display-buffer' etc. to choose a window is
1961 determined by combining `display-buffer-overriding-action',
1962 `display-buffer-alist', the ACTION arg, `display-buffer-base-action',
1963 and `display-buffer-fallback-action'. The second and fourth of these
1964 are user-customizable variables.
1965
1966 See the docstring of `display-buffer' for details.
1967
1968 *** New functions `window-state-get' and `window-state-put'.
1969 These functions allow to save and restore the state of an arbitrary
1970 frame or window as an Elisp object.
1971
1972 ** Completion
1973
1974 *** New variable `completion-extra-properties' used to specify extra
1975 properties of the current completion:
1976 - :annotate-function, same as the old completion-annotate-function.
1977 - :exit-function, function to call after completion took place.
1978
1979 *** Functions on `completion-at-point-functions' can return any of the
1980 properties valid for `completion-extra-properties'.
1981
1982 *** `completion-annotate-function' is obsolete.
1983
1984 *** New `metadata' method for completion tables. The metadata thus returned
1985 can specify various details of the data returned by `all-completions':
1986 - `category' is the kind of objects returned (e.g., `buffer', `file', ...),
1987 used to select a style in completion-category-overrides.
1988 - `annotation-function' to add annotations in *Completions*.
1989 - `display-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries in *Completions*.
1990 - `cycle-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries when cycling.
1991
1992 *** `minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map' is not used any more.
1993 Instead, the bindings in `minibuffer-local-filename-completion-map'
1994 are combined with `minibuffer-local-must-match-map'.
1995
1996 *** New variable `completing-read-function' allows overriding the
1997 behavior of `completing-read'.
1998
1999 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
2000 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
2001
2002 ** `pre-command-hook'/`post-command-hook' are not reset to nil on error.
2003 Instead, the offending function is removed.
2004
2005 ** New hook types
2006
2007 *** New function `run-hook-wrapped' for running an abnormal hook by
2008 passing the hook functions as arguments to a "wrapping" function.
2009 Like `run-hook-with-args-until-success', it stops at the first
2010 non-nil return value.
2011
2012 *** New macro `with-wrapper-hook' for running an abnormal hook as a
2013 set of "wrapping" filters, similar to around advice.
2014 (A version of this macro was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not
2015 advertised at the time.)
2016
2017 ** Debugger changes
2018
2019 *** New macro `condition-case-unless-debug' (this was actually added in
2020 Emacs 23.1 as condition-case-no-debug, but not advertised)
2021
2022 *** The macro `with-demoted-errors' was added in Emacs 23.1, but not advertised.
2023
2024 *** Variable `stack-trace-on-error' removed.
2025
2026 *** The debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will
2027 jump to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked
2028 instead of jumping all the way to the top-level.
2029
2030 *** Set `debug-on-event' to enter the debugger on events like SIGUSR1.
2031 This can be useful when `inhibit-quit' is set.
2032
2033 ** The new function `server-eval-at' allows evaluation of Lisp forms on
2034 named Emacs server instances.
2035
2036 ** `call-process' and `call-process-region' allow a `(:file "file")' spec
2037 to redirect STDOUT to a file.
2038
2039 ** The function `format-time-string' now supports the %N directive,
2040 for higher-resolution time stamps.
2041
2042 ** New input reading functions
2043
2044 *** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of
2045 characters, discarding any inputs not inside the set.
2046
2047 *** The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name
2048 or RGB triplet, instead of signaling an error if the user provides
2049 invalid input.
2050
2051 **** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
2052
2053 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
2054 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
2055 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
2056 obsolete alias.
2057
2058 ** Syntax parsing changes
2059
2060 *** New variable `syntax-propertize-function'.
2061 This replaces `font-lock-syntactic-keywords' which is now obsolete.
2062 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
2063 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
2064 Together with this new variable come a new hook
2065 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
2066 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
2067 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
2068 syntactic rules.
2069
2070 *** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
2071
2072 ** New hook `post-self-insert-hook', run after `self-insert-command'.
2073
2074 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
2075
2076 ** Major and minor mode changes
2077
2078 *** `set-auto-mode' now respects mode: local variables at the end of files,
2079 as well as those in the -*- line.
2080
2081 *** `prog-mode' is a new major mode from which programming modes
2082 should be derived.
2083
2084 **** `prog-mode-hook' can be used to enable features for programming
2085 modes, e.g. (add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'flyspell-prog-mode) to enable
2086 on-the-fly spell checking for comments and strings.
2087
2088 *** New hook `change-major-mode-after-body-hook', run by
2089 `run-mode-hooks' just before any other mode hooks.
2090
2091 *** Enabled globalized minor modes can be disabled in specific major modes.
2092 If the global mode is global-FOO-mode, then run (FOO-mode -1) in the
2093 major mode's hook, where FOO-mode toggles the mode on a per-buffer basis.
2094
2095 *** `define-minor-mode' accepts new keywords :variable, :after-hook.
2096
2097 ** File-handling changes
2098
2099 *** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
2100 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
2101 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
2102 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
2103
2104 *** New file predicates: `file-equal-p', `file-in-directory-p'.
2105
2106 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
2107 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
2108 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
2109
2110 ** Image API
2111
2112 *** Animated images support (currently animated gifs only).
2113
2114 **** `image-animated-p' returns non-nil if an image can be animated.
2115
2116 **** `image-animate' animates a supplied image spec.
2117
2118 **** `image-animate-timer' returns the timer object for an image that
2119 is being animated.
2120
2121 *** `image-extension-data' has been renamed to `image-metadata'.
2122 The old name is an obsolete alias to the new one.
2123
2124 *** Image mode can view any image type that ImageMagick supports.
2125 This requires Emacs to be built with ImageMagick support.
2126
2127 **** New function `imagemagick-types', defined if ImageMagick support
2128 is enabled, returns a list of image file extensions that your
2129 ImageMagick installation supports.
2130
2131 **** New function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick
2132 image types in Image mode and in `create-image' and other helper
2133 functions.
2134
2135 **** New option `imagemagick-types-inhibit' excludes certain
2136 ImageMagick image types from `imagemagick-register-types'.
2137
2138 **** With ImageMagick support, there are extra Image mode commands to
2139 resize and rotate images: `image-transform-fit-to-height',
2140 `image-transform-fit-to-width', `image-transform-set-rotation', and
2141 `image-transform-set-scale'.
2142
2143 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
2144 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
2145 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail. For
2146 example, this is used by Rmail to optionally delete a mail window.
2147
2148 ** XML and HTML parsing
2149 If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support, there are two new
2150 functions: `libxml-parse-html-region' (which parses "real world" HTML)
2151 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
2152 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
2153
2154 ** Networking and encryption changes
2155
2156 *** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
2157 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
2158 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
2159 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
2160 must also be supplied.
2161
2162 *** New library gnutls.el.
2163 The new function `gnutls-available-p' returns non-nil if Emacs is
2164 built with GnuTLS support. The main entry points are
2165 `open-gnutls-stream' and `gnutls-negotiate'. It's easiest to use
2166 these functions through `open-network-stream', because that can
2167 upgrade connections through STARTTLS opportunistically or use plain
2168 SSL, depending on your needs. For debugging, set `gnutls-log-level'
2169 greater than 0.
2170
2171 *** New primitive `secure-hash' that supports many secure hash algorithms:
2172 md5, sha1, sha2, sha224, sha256, sha384, and sha512. The lisp library
2173 sha1.el has been removed. The `sha1' feature is provided by default.
2174
2175 ** Isearch
2176
2177 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
2178
2179 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
2180 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
2181 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
2182 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
2183 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
2184 displayed with a "spinning bar".
2185
2186 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
2187 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
2188
2189 ** New variables `delayed-warnings-list' and `delayed-warnings-hook'.
2190 If delayed-warnings-list is non-nil, the command loop calls
2191 `delayed-warnings-hook' after `post-command-hook'. At present, this
2192 is only used by Emacs on some platforms to display warnings during
2193 startup, which might otherwise not be noticed. This uses the
2194 functions `display-delayed-warnings' and `collapse-delayed-warnings'.
2195
2196 ** rx.el has a new `group-n' construct for explicitly numbered groups.
2197
2198 ** New function `make-composed-keymap' that constructs a new keymap
2199 from multiple input maps. You can use this to make a keymap that
2200 inherits from multiple maps, eg:
2201 (set-keymap-parent newmap (make-composed-keymap othermap parent))
2202
2203 ** New function `string-prefix-p'.
2204 (This was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not advertised at the time.)
2205
2206 ** New reader macro ## that stands for the empty symbol.
2207 This means that the empty symbol can now be read back. Also, #: by itself
2208 (when not immediately followed by a possible symbol character) stands for
2209 an empty uninterned symbol.
2210
2211 ** New math functions `isnan', `copysign', `frexp', `ldexp'.
2212
2213 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
2214
2215 *** `tooltip-use-echo-area' is obsolete.
2216 Rather than setting this to t, disable Tooltip mode instead.
2217
2218 *** buffer-substring-filters is obsolete.
2219 Use `filter-buffer-substring-functions' instead.
2220
2221 *** `byte-compile-disable-print-circle' is obsolete.
2222
2223 *** `deferred-action-list' and `deferred-action-function' are obsolete.
2224 Use `post-command-hook' instead.
2225
2226 *** `font-lock-maximum-size' is obsolete.
2227
2228 \f
2229 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on non-free operating systems
2230
2231 ** On MS Windows, Emacs warns when using the obsolete init file _emacs,
2232 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
2233
2234 ** New configure.bat options
2235
2236 *** --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra runtime checks.
2237
2238 *** --distfiles specifies files to be included in binary distribution.
2239
2240 *** --without-gnutls disables automatic GnuTLS detection.
2241
2242 *** --lib for general library linkage, works with the USER_LIBS build variable.
2243
2244 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
2245
2246 ** The Lisp function `w32-default-color-map' is now obsolete.
2247 (It is only used internally in the Emacs C code.)
2248
2249 ** Customize ns-auto-hide-menu-bar to have the menu-bar hidden, but
2250 reappear on mouse-over. (Requires OS X 10.6 or later.)
2251
2252 ** On Mac OS X, dragging a file into Emacs visits the file, like on
2253 other platforms, rather than inserting its contents into the buffer.
2254
2255 \f
2256 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
2257 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
2258
2259 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
2260 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2261 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
2262 (at your option) any later version.
2263
2264 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2265 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2266 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2267 GNU General Public License for more details.
2268
2269 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2270 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
2271
2272 \f
2273 Local variables:
2274 mode: outline
2275 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
2276 end: