1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2003-05-21
2 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
6 For older news, see the file ONEWS
7 You can narrow news to the specific version by calling
8 `view-emacs-news' with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
11 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
12 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
13 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
14 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
17 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.4
20 ** A Bulgarian translation of the Emacs Tutorial is available.
22 ** You can build Emacs with Gtk+ widgets by specifying `--with-x-toolkit=gtk'
23 when you run configure. This requires Gtk+ 2.0 or newer. This port
24 provides a way to display multilingual text in menus (with some caveats).
27 ** Emacs can now be built without sound support.
29 ** The `emacsserver' program has been removed, replaced with elisp code.
32 ** Emacs now supports new configure options `--program-prefix',
33 `--program-suffix' and `--program-transform-name' that affect the names of
37 ** By default, Emacs now uses a setgid helper program to update game
38 scores. The directory ${localstatedir}/games/emacs is the normal
39 place for game scores to be stored. This may be controlled by the
40 configure option `--with-game-dir'. The specific user that Emacs uses
41 to own the game scores is controlled by `--with-game-user'. If access
42 to a game user is not available, then scores will be stored separately
43 in each user's home directory.
46 ** Leim is now part of the Emacs distribution.
47 You no longer need to download a separate tarball in order to build
51 ** The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual is now part of the distribution.
53 The ELisp reference manual in Info format is built as part of the
54 Emacs build procedure and installed together with the Emacs User
55 Manual. A menu item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy
56 accessible (Help->More Manuals->Emacs Lisp Reference).
59 ** The Introduction to Programming in Emacs Lisp manual is now part of
62 This manual is now part of the standard distribution and is installed,
63 together with the Emacs User Manual, into the Info directory. A menu
64 item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy accessible
65 (Help->More Manuals->Introduction to Emacs Lisp).
67 ** Support for Cygwin was added.
70 ** Support for FreeBSD/Alpha has been added.
73 ** Support for GNU/Linux systems on S390 machines was added.
76 ** Support for MacOS X was added.
77 See the files mac/README and mac/INSTALL for build instructions.
80 ** Support for GNU/Linux systems on X86-64 machines was added.
83 ** A French translation of the `Emacs Survival Guide' is available.
86 ** A French translation of the Emacs Tutorial is available.
87 ** Building with -DENABLE_CHECKING does not automatically build with union
88 types any more. Add -DUSE_LISP_UNION_TYPE if you want union types.
91 * Changes in Emacs 21.4
94 ** The IELM prompt is now, by default, read-only. This can be
95 controlled with the new user option `ielm-prompt-read-only'.
97 ** You can now use next-error (C-x `) and previous-error to advance to
98 the next/previous matching line found by M-x occur.
100 ** Telnet will now prompt you for a port number with C-u M-x telnet.
103 ** New command line option -Q.
105 This is like using -q --no-site-file, but in addition it also disables
106 the menu-bar, the tool-bar, the scroll-bars, tool tips, the blinking
107 cursor, and the fancy startup screen.
109 ** C-h v and C-h f commands now include a hyperlink to the C source for
110 variables and functions defined in C (if the C source is available).
112 ** When used interactively, `format-write-file' now asks for confirmation
113 before overwriting an existing file, unless a prefix argument is
114 supplied. This behavior is analogous to `write-file'.
116 ** You can now use Auto Revert mode to `tail' a file.
117 If point is at the end of a file buffer before reverting, Auto Revert
118 mode keeps it at the end after reverting. Similarly if point is
119 displayed at the end of a file buffer in any window, it will stay at
120 the end of the buffer in that window. This allows to tail a file:
121 just put point at the end of the buffer and it will stay there. This
122 rule applies to file buffers. For non-file buffers, the behavior may
125 ** Auto Revert mode is now more careful to avoid excessive reverts and
126 other potential problems when deciding which non-file buffers to
127 revert. This matters especially if Global Auto Revert mode is enabled
128 and `global-auto-revert-non-file-buffers' is non-nil. Auto Revert
129 mode will only revert a non-file buffer if the buffer has a non-nil
130 `revert-buffer-function' and a non-nil `buffer-stale-function', which
131 decides whether the buffer should be reverted. Currently, this means
132 that auto reverting works for Dired buffers (although this may not
133 work properly on all operating systems) and for the Buffer Menu.
135 ** If the new user option `auto-revert-check-vc-info' is non-nil, Auto
136 Revert mode reliably updates version control info (such as the version
137 control number in the mode line), in all version controlled buffers in
138 which it is active. If the option is nil, the default, then this info
139 only gets updated whenever the buffer gets reverted.
141 ** New command `Buffer-menu-toggle-files-only' toggles display of file
142 buffers only in the Buffer Menu. It is bound to `T' in Buffer Menu
145 ** M-x compile has become more robust and reliable
147 Quite a few more kinds of messages are recognized. Messages that are
148 recognized as warnings or informational come in orange or green, instead of
149 red. Informational messages are by default skipped with `next-error'
150 (controlled by `compilation-skip-threshold').
152 Location data is collected on the fly as the *compilation* buffer changes.
153 This means you could modify messages to make them point to different files.
154 This also means you can not go to locations of messages you may have deleted.
156 The variable `compilation-error-regexp-alist' has now become customizable. If
157 you had added your own regexps to this, you'll probably need to include a
158 leading `^', otherwise they'll match anywhere on a line. There is now also a
159 `compilation-mode-font-lock-keywords' and it nicely handles all the checks
160 that configure outputs and -o options so you see at a glance where you are.
162 The new file etc/compilation.txt gives examples of each type of message.
164 ** M-x grep has been adapted to new compile
166 Hits are fontified in green, and hits in binary files in orange. Grep buffers
167 can be saved and will again be loaded with the new `grep-mode'.
169 ** M-x diff uses diff-mode instead of compilation-mode.
171 ** M-x compare-windows now can automatically skip non-matching text to
172 resync points in both windows.
174 ** New command `strokes-global-set-stroke-string'.
175 This is like `strokes-global-set-stroke', but it allows you to bind
176 the stroke directly to a string to insert. This is convenient for
177 using strokes as an input method.
180 ** The saveplace.el package now filters out unreadable files.
181 When you exit Emacs, the saved positions in visited files no longer
182 include files that aren't readable, e.g. files that don't exist.
183 Customize the new option `save-place-forget-unreadable-files' to nil
184 to get the old behavior. The new options `save-place-save-skipped'
185 and `save-place-skip-check-regexp' allow further fine-tuning of this
188 ** You can have several Emacs servers on the same machine.
190 % emacs --eval '(setq server-name "foo")' -f server-start &
191 % emacs --eval '(setq server-name "bar")' -f server-start &
192 % emacsclient -s foo file1
193 % emacsclient -s bar file2
195 ** On window systems, lines which are exactly as wide as the window
196 (not counting the final newline character) are no longer broken into
197 two lines on the display (with just the newline on the second line).
198 Instead, the newline now "overflows" into the right fringe, and the
199 cursor will be displayed in the fringe when positioned on that newline.
201 The new user option 'overflow-newline-into-fringe' may be set to nil to
202 revert to the old behaviour of continuing such lines.
204 ** The buffer boundaries (i.e. first and last line in the buffer) may
205 now be marked with angle bitmaps in the fringes. In addition, up and
206 down arrow bitmaps may be shown at the top and bottom of the left or
207 right fringe if the window can be scrolled in either direction.
209 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
210 `indicate-buffer-boundaries' to a non-nil value. The default value of
211 this variable is found in `default-indicate-buffer-boundaries'.
213 If value is `left' or `right', both angle and arrow bitmaps are
214 displayed in the left or right fringe, resp. Any other non-nil value
215 causes the bitmap on the top line to be displayed in the left fringe,
216 and the bitmap on the bottom line in the right fringe.
218 If value is a cons (ANGLES . ARROWS), the car specifies the position
219 of the angle bitmaps, and the cdr specifies the position of the arrow
222 For example, (t . right) places the top angle bitmap in left fringe,
223 the bottom angle bitmap in right fringe, and both arrow bitmaps in
224 right fringe. To show just the angle bitmaps in the left fringe, but
225 no arrow bitmaps, use (left . nil).
227 ** New command `display-local-help' displays any local help at point
228 in the echo area. It is bound to `C-h .'. It normally displays the
229 same string that would be displayed on mouse-over using the
230 `help-echo' property, but, in certain cases, it can display a more
231 keyboard oriented alternative.
233 ** New user option `help-at-pt-display-when-idle' allows to
234 automatically show the help provided by `display-local-help' on
235 point-over, after suitable idle time. The amount of idle time is
236 determined by the user option `help-at-pt-timer-delay' and defaults
237 to one second. This feature is turned off by default.
239 ** New commands `scan-buf-next-region' and `scan-buf-previous-region'
240 move to the start of the next (previous, respectively) region with
241 non-nil help-echo property and display any help found there in the
242 echo area, using `display-local-help'.
245 ** Help mode now only makes hyperlinks for faces when the face name is
246 preceded or followed by the word `face'. It no longer makes
247 hyperlinks for variables without variable documentation, unless
248 preceded by one of the words `variable' or `option'. It now makes
249 hyperlinks to Info anchors (or nodes) if the anchor (or node) name is
250 enclosed in single quotes and preceded by `info anchor' or `Info
251 anchor' (in addition to earlier `info node' and `Info node').
253 ** The max size of buffers and integers has been doubled.
254 On 32bit machines, it is now 256M (i.e. 268435455).
257 ** The -f option, used from the command line to call a function,
258 now reads arguments for the function interactively if it is
259 an interactively callable function.
264 *** The variable `sql-product' controls the highlightng of different
265 SQL dialects. This variable can be set globally via Customize, on a
266 buffer-specific basis via local variable settings, or for the current
267 session using the new SQL->Product submenu. (This menu replaces the
268 SQL->Highlighting submenu.)
270 The following values are supported:
272 ansi ANSI Standard (default)
286 The current product name will be shown on the mode line following the
289 The technique of setting `sql-mode-font-lock-defaults' directly in
290 your .emacs will no longer establish the default highlighting -- Use
291 `sql-product' to accomplish this.
293 *** The function `sql-add-product-keywords' can be used to add
294 font-lock rules to the product specific rules. For example, to have
295 all identifiers ending in "_t" under MS SQLServer treated as a type,
296 you would use the following line in your .emacs file:
298 (sql-add-product-keywords 'ms
299 '("\\<\\w+_t\\>" . font-lock-type-face))
301 *** Oracle support includes keyword highlighting for Oracle 9i. Most
302 SQL and PL/SQL keywords are implemented. SQL*Plus commands are
303 highlighted in `font-lock-doc-face'.
305 *** Microsoft SQLServer support has been significantly improved.
306 Keyword highlighting for SqlServer 2000 is implemented.
307 sql-interactive-mode defaults to use osql, rather than isql, because
308 osql flushes its error stream more frequently. Thus error messages
309 are displayed when they occur rather than when the session is
312 If the username and password are not provided to `sql-ms', osql is
313 called with the -E command line argument to use the operating system
314 credentials to authenticate the user.
316 *** Imenu support has been enhanced to locate tables, views, indexes,
317 packages, procedures, functions, triggers, sequences, rules, and
320 *** Added SQL->Start SQLi Session menu entry which calls the
321 appropriate sql-interactive-mode wrapper for the current setting of
324 ** M-x view-file and commands that use it now avoid interfering
325 with special modes such as Tar mode.
327 ** Enhancements to apropos commands:
329 *** The apropos commands will now accept a list of words to match.
330 When more than one word is specified, at least two of those words must
331 be present for an item to match. Regular expression matching is still
334 *** The new option `apropos-sort-by-scores' causes the matching items
335 to be sorted according to their score. The score for an item is a
336 number calculated to indicate how well the item matches the words or
337 regular expression that you entered to the apropos command. The best
338 match is listed first, and the calculated score is shown for each
342 ** The old bindings C-M-delete and C-M-backspace have been deleted,
343 since there are situations where one or the other will shut down
344 the operating system or your X server.
346 ** New minor mode, Visible mode, toggles invisibility in the current buffer.
347 When enabled, it makes all invisible text visible. When disabled, it
348 restores the previous value of `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
350 ** New command `kill-whole-line' kills an entire line at once.
351 By default, it is bound to C-S-<backspace>.
355 *** New faces dired-header, dired-mark, dired-marked, dired-flagged,
356 dired-ignored, dired-directory, dired-symlink, dired-warning
357 introduced for Dired mode instead of font-lock faces.
359 *** New Dired command `dired-compare-directories' to mark files with
360 different file attributes in two dired buffers.
363 *** In Dired's ! command (dired-do-shell-command), `*' and `?' now
364 control substitution of the file names only when they are surrounded
365 by whitespace. This means you can now use them as shell wildcards
366 too. If you want to use just plain `*' as a wildcard, type `*""'; the
367 doublequotes make no difference in the shell, but they prevent
368 special treatment in `dired-do-shell-command'.
371 *** Dired's v command now runs external viewers to view certain
372 types of files. The variable `dired-view-command-alist' controls
373 what external viewers to use and when.
375 *** In Dired, the w command now copies the current line's file name
380 *** Info now hides node names in menus and cross references by default.
381 If you prefer the old behavior, you can set the new user option
382 `Info-hide-note-references' to nil.
384 *** The new command `info-apropos' searches the indices of the known
385 Info files on your system for a string, and builds a menu of the
388 *** Images in Info pages are supported.
389 Info pages show embedded images, in Emacs frames with image support.
390 Info documentation that includes images, processed with makeinfo
391 version 4.7 or newer, compiles to Info pages with embedded images.
394 *** The default value for `Info-scroll-prefer-subnodes' is now nil.
397 *** Info-index offers completion.
399 ** Support for the SQLite interpreter has been added to sql.el by calling
403 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `required-fields', enabled by default.
404 *** bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries can take values `plain',
405 `crossref', and `entry-class' which control the sorting scheme used
406 for BibTeX entries. `bibtex-sort-entry-class' controls the sorting
407 scheme `entry-class'. TAB completion for reference keys and
408 automatic detection of duplicates does not require anymore that
409 bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is non-nil.
411 *** If the new variable bibtex-parse-keys-fast is non-nil,
412 use fast but simplified algorithm for parsing BibTeX keys.
414 *** If the new variable bibtex-autoadd-commas is non-nil,
415 automatically add missing commas at end of BibTeX fields.
417 *** The new variable bibtex-autofill-types contains a list of entry
418 types for which fields are filled automatically (if possible).
420 *** The new command bibtex-complete completes word fragment before
421 point according to context (bound to M-tab).
423 *** The new commands bibtex-find-entry and bibtex-find-crossref
424 locate entries and crossref'd entries.
426 *** In BibTeX mode the command fill-paragraph (bound to M-q) fills
427 individual fields of a BibTeX entry.
429 ** When display margins are present in a window, the fringes are now
430 displayed between the margins and the buffer's text area, rather than
431 at the edges of the window.
433 ** A window may now have individual fringe and scroll-bar settings,
434 in addition to the individual display margin settings.
436 Such individual settings are now preserved when windows are split
437 horizontally or vertically, a saved window configuration is restored,
438 or when the frame is resized.
440 ** New functions frame-current-scroll-bars and window-current-scroll-bars.
442 These functions return the current locations of the vertical and
443 horizontal scroll bars in a frame or window.
446 ** Emacs now supports drag and drop for X. Dropping a file on a window
447 opens it, dropping text inserts the text. Dropping a file on a dired
448 buffer copies or moves the file to that directory.
450 ** Under X, mouse-wheel-mode is turned on by default.
452 ** The X resource useXIM can be used to turn off use of XIM, which may
453 speed up Emacs with slow networking to the X server.
455 If the configure option `--without-xim' was used to turn off use of
456 XIM by default, the X resource useXIM can be used to turn it on.
458 ** `undo-only' does an undo which does not redo any previous undo.
460 ** `uniquify-strip-common-suffix' tells uniquify to prefer
461 `file|dir1' and `file|dir2' to `file|dir1/subdir' and `file|dir2/subdir'.
463 ** If the user visits a file larger than `large-file-warning-threshold',
464 Emacs will prompt her for confirmation.
466 ** A UTF-7 coding system is available in the library `utf-7'.
468 ** GUD mode has its own tool bar for controlling execution of the inferior
469 and other common debugger commands.
473 The recent file list is now automatically cleanup when recentf mode is
474 enabled. The new option `recentf-auto-cleanup' controls when to do
477 With the more advanced option: `recentf-filename-handler', you can
478 specify a function that transforms filenames handled by recentf. For
479 example, if set to `file-truename', the same file will not be in the
480 recent list with different symbolic links.
482 To follow naming convention, `recentf-keep-non-readable-files-flag'
483 and `recentf-menu-append-commands-flag' respectively replace the
484 misnamed options `recentf-keep-non-readable-files-p' and
485 `recentf-menu-append-commands-p'. The old names remain available as
486 aliases, but have been marked obsolete.
488 ** The default for the paper size (variable ps-paper-type) is taken
493 You can now put the init files .emacs and .emacs_SHELL under
494 ~/.emacs.d or directly under ~. Emacs will find them in either place.
496 ** partial-completion-mode now does partial completion on directory names.
498 ** skeleton.el now supports using - to mark the skeleton-point without
499 interregion interaction. @ has reverted to only setting
500 skeleton-positions and no longer sets skeleton-point. Skeletons
501 which used @ to mark skeleton-point independent of _ should now use -
502 instead. The updated skeleton-insert docstring explains these new
503 features along with other details of skeleton construction.
507 Upgraded to MH-E version 7.3. There have been major changes since
508 version 5.0.2; see MH-E-NEWS for details.
511 ** The `emacsclient' command understands the options `--eval' and
512 `--display' which tell Emacs respectively to evaluate the given elisp
513 expression and to use the given display when visiting files.
515 ** User option `server-mode' can be used to start a server process.
518 ** The mode line position information now comes before the major mode.
519 When the file is maintained under version control, that information
520 appears between the position information and the major mode.
522 ** C-x s (save-some-buffers) now offers an option `d' to diff a buffer
523 against its file, so you can see what changes you would be saving.
526 ** You can now customize the use of window fringes. To control this
527 for all frames, use M-x fringe-mode or the Show/Hide submenu of the
528 top-level Options menu, or customize the `fringe-mode' variable. To
529 control this for a specific frame, use the command M-x
533 ** There is a new user option `mail-default-directory' that allows you
534 to specify the value of `default-directory' for mail buffers. This
535 directory is used for auto-save files of mail buffers. It defaults to
539 ** When you are root, and you visit a file whose modes specify
540 read-only, the Emacs buffer is now read-only too. Type C-x C-q if you
541 want to make the buffer writable. (As root, you will in fact be able
544 ** The new command `revert-buffer-with-coding-system' (C-x RET r)
545 revisits the current file using a coding system that you specify.
547 ** The new command `recode-file-name' changes the encoding of the name
551 ** `ps-print' can now print characters from the mule-unicode charsets.
553 Printing text with characters from the mule-unicode-* sets works with
554 ps-print, provided that you have installed the appropriate BDF fonts.
555 See the file INSTALL for URLs where you can find these fonts.
558 ** The new options `buffers-menu-show-directories' and
559 `buffers-menu-show-status' let you control how buffers are displayed
560 in the menu dropped down when you click "Buffers" from the menu bar.
562 `buffers-menu-show-directories' controls whether the menu displays
563 leading directories as part of the file name visited by the buffer.
564 If its value is `unless-uniquify', the default, directories will be
565 shown unless uniquify-buffer-name-style' is non-nil. The value of nil
566 and t turn the display of directories off and on, respectively.
568 `buffers-menu-show-status' controls whether the Buffers menu includes
569 the modified and read-only status of the buffers. By default it is
570 t, and the status is shown.
572 Setting these variables directly does not take effect until next time
573 the Buffers menu is regenerated.
576 ** The commands M-x customize-face and M-x customize-face-other-window
577 now look at the character after point. If a face or faces are
578 specified for that character, the commands by default customize those
581 ** New language environments: French, Ukrainian, Tajik,
582 Bulgarian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, UTF-8, Windows-1255, Welsh, Latin-6,
583 Latin-7, Lithuanian, Latvian, Swedish, Slovenian, Croatian, Georgian,
584 Italian, Russian, Malayalam, Tamil, Russian, Chinese-EUC-TW. (Set up
585 automatically according to the locale.)
587 ** Indian support has been updated.
588 The in-is13194 coding system is now Unicode-based. CDAC fonts are
589 assumed. There is a framework for supporting various
590 Indian scripts, but currently only Devanagari, Malayalam and Tamil are
594 ** New input methods: latin-alt-postfix, latin-postfix, latin-prefix,
595 ukrainian-computer, belarusian, bulgarian-bds, russian-computer,
596 vietnamese-telex, lithuanian-numeric, lithuanian-keyboard,
597 latvian-keyboard, welsh, georgian, rfc1345, ucs, sgml,
598 bulgarian-phonetic, dutch, slovenian, croatian, malayalam-inscript,
602 ** A new coding system `euc-tw' has been added for traditional Chinese
603 in CNS encoding; it accepts both Big 5 and CNS as input; on saving,
604 Big 5 is then converted to CNS.
607 ** Many new coding systems are available by loading the `code-pages'
608 library. These include complete versions of most of those in
609 codepage.el, based on Unicode mappings. `codepage-setup' is now
610 obsolete and is used only in the MS-DOS port of Emacs. windows-1252
611 and windows-1251 are preloaded since the former is so common and the
612 latter is used by GNU locales.
614 ** The utf-8/16 coding systems have been enhanced.
615 By default, untranslatable utf-8 sequences (mostly representing CJK
616 characters) are simply composed into single quasi-characters. User
617 option `utf-translate-cjk' arranges to translate many utf-8 CJK
618 character sequences into real Emacs characters in a similar way to the
619 Mule-UCS system. This uses significant space, so is not the default.
620 You can augment/amend the CJK translation via hash tables
621 `ucs-mule-cjk-to-unicode' and `ucs-unicode-to-mule-cjk'. The utf-8
622 coding system now also encodes characters from most of Emacs's
623 one-dimensional internal charsets, specifically the ISO-8859 ones.
624 The utf-16 coding system is affected similarly.
626 ** iso-10646-1 (`Unicode') fonts can be used to display any range of
627 characters encodable by the utf-8 coding system. Just specify the
628 fontset appropriately.
630 ** New command `ucs-insert' inserts a character specified by its
634 ** Limited support for character `unification' has been added.
635 Emacs now knows how to translate between different representations of
636 the same characters in various Emacs charsets according to standard
637 Unicode mappings. This applies mainly to characters in the ISO 8859
638 sets plus some other 8-bit sets, but can be extended. For instance,
639 translation works amongst the Emacs ...-iso8859-... charsets and the
640 mule-unicode-... ones.
642 By default this translation will happen automatically on encoding.
643 Self-inserting characters are translated to make the input conformant
644 with the encoding of the buffer in which it's being used, where
647 You can force a more complete unification with the user option
648 unify-8859-on-decoding-mode. That maps all the Latin-N character sets
649 into Unicode characters (from the latin-iso8859-1 and
650 mule-unicode-0100-24ff charsets) on decoding. Note that this mode
651 will often effectively clobber data with an iso-2022 encoding.
653 ** There is support for decoding Greek and Cyrillic characters into
654 either Unicode (the mule-unicode charsets) or the iso-8859 charsets,
655 when possible. The latter are more space-efficient. This is
656 controlled by user option utf-fragment-on-decoding.
658 ** The new command `set-file-name-coding-system' (C-x RET F) sets
659 coding system for encoding and decoding file names. A new menu item
660 (Options->Mule->Set Coding Systems->For File Name) invokes this
664 ** The scrollbar under LessTif or Motif has a smoother drag-scrolling.
665 On the other hand, the size of the thumb does not represent the actual
666 amount of text shown any more (only a crude approximation of it).
669 ** The pop up menus for Lucid now stay up if you do a fast click and can
670 be navigated with the arrow keys (like Gtk+ and W32).
673 ** Dialogs for Lucid/Athena and Lesstif/Motif pops down when pressing ESC.
676 ** The file selection dialog for Gtk+, W32 and Motif/Lesstif can be
677 disabled by customizing the variable `use-file-dialog'.
680 ** Emacs can produce an underscore-like (horizontal bar) cursor.
681 The underscore cursor is set by putting `(cursor-type . hbar)' in
682 default-frame-alist. It supports variable heights, like the `bar'
686 ** On X, MS Windows, and Mac OS, the blinking cursor's "off" state is
687 now controlled by the variable `blink-cursor-alist'.
689 ** Filesets are collections of files. You can define a fileset in
690 various ways, such as based on a directory tree or based on
691 program files that include other program files.
693 Once you have defined a fileset, you can perform various operations on
694 all the files in it, such as visiting them or searching and replacing
698 ** PO translation files are decoded according to their MIME headers
699 when Emacs visits them.
702 ** The game `mpuz' is enhanced.
704 `mpuz' now allows the 2nd factor not to have two identical digits. By
705 default, all trivial operations involving whole lines are performed
706 automatically. The game uses faces for better visual feedback.
708 ** The new variable `x-select-request-type' controls how Emacs
709 requests X selection. The default value is nil, which means that
710 Emacs requests X selection with types COMPOUND_TEXT and UTF8_STRING,
711 and use the more appropriately result.
714 ** The parameters of automatic hscrolling can now be customized.
715 The variable `hscroll-margin' determines how many columns away from
716 the window edge point is allowed to get before automatic hscrolling
717 will horizontally scroll the window. The default value is 5.
719 The variable `hscroll-step' determines how many columns automatic
720 hscrolling will scroll the window when point gets too close to the
721 window edge. If its value is zero, the default, Emacs scrolls the
722 window so as to center point. If its value is an integer, it says how
723 many columns to scroll. If the value is a floating-point number, it
724 gives the fraction of the window's width to scroll the window.
726 The variable `automatic-hscrolling' was renamed to
727 `auto-hscroll-mode'. The old name is still available as an alias.
730 *** C-c C-c prompts for a command to run, and tries to offer a good default.
732 *** The user option `tex-start-options-string' has been replaced
733 by two new user options: `tex-start-options', which should hold
734 command-line options to feed to TeX, and `tex-start-commands' which should hold
735 TeX commands to use at startup.
736 *** verbatim environments are now highlighted in courier by font-lock
737 and super/sub-scripts are made into super/sub-scripts.
739 *** New major mode doctex-mode for *.dtx files.
742 ** New display feature: focus follows the mouse from one Emacs window
743 to another, even within a frame. If you set the variable
744 mouse-autoselect-window to non-nil value, moving the mouse to a
745 different Emacs window will select that window (minibuffer window can
746 be selected only when it is active). The default is nil, so that this
747 feature is not enabled.
749 ** On X, when the window manager requires that you click on a frame to
750 select it (give it focus), the selected window and cursor position
751 normally changes according to the mouse click position. If you set
752 the variable x-mouse-click-focus-ignore-position to t, the selected
753 window and cursor position do not change when you click on a frame
757 ** The new command `describe-char' (C-u C-x =) pops up a buffer with
758 description various information about a character, including its
759 encodings and syntax, its text properties, overlays, and widgets at
760 point. You can get more information about some of them, by clicking
761 on mouse-sensitive areas or moving there and pressing RET.
764 ** The new command `multi-occur' is just like `occur', except it can
765 search multiple buffers. There is also a new command
766 `multi-occur-by-filename-regexp' which allows you to specify the
767 buffers to search by their filename. Internally, Occur mode has been
768 rewritten, and now uses font-lock, among other changes.
771 ** Emacs normally highlights mouse sensitive text whenever the mouse
772 is over the text. By setting the new variable `mouse-highlight', you
773 can optionally enable mouse highlighting only after you move the
774 mouse, so that highlighting disappears when you press a key. You can
775 also disable mouse highlighting.
778 ** font-lock: in modes like C and Lisp where the fontification assumes that
779 an open-paren in column 0 is always outside of any string or comment,
780 font-lock now highlights any such open-paren-in-column-zero in bold-red
781 if it is inside a string or a comment, to indicate that it can cause
782 trouble with fontification and/or indentation.
785 ** There's a new face `minibuffer-prompt'.
786 Emacs adds this face to the list of text properties stored in the
787 variable `minibuffer-prompt-properties', which is used to display the
791 ** The new face `mode-line-inactive' is used to display the mode line
792 of non-selected windows. The `mode-line' face is now used to display
793 the mode line of the currently selected window.
795 The new variable `mode-line-in-non-selected-windows' controls whether
796 the `mode-line-inactive' face is used.
799 ** A menu item "Show/Hide" was added to the top-level menu "Options".
800 This menu allows you to turn various display features on and off (such
801 as the fringes, the tool bar, the speedbar, and the menu bar itself).
802 You can also move the vertical scroll bar to either side here or turn
803 it off completely. There is also a menu-item to toggle displaying of
804 current date and time, current line and column number in the
808 ** Speedbar has moved from the "Tools" top level menu to "Show/Hide".
811 ** Emacs can now indicate in the mode-line the presence of new e-mail
812 in a directory or in a file. See the documentation of the user option
813 `display-time-mail-directory'.
816 ** LDAP support now defaults to ldapsearch from OpenLDAP version 2.
819 ** You can now disable pc-selection-mode after enabling it.
820 M-x pc-selection-mode behaves like a proper minor mode, and with no
821 argument it toggles the mode.
823 Turning off PC-Selection mode restores the global key bindings
824 that were replaced by turning on the mode.
827 ** Emacs now displays a splash screen by default even if command-line
828 arguments were given. The new command-line option --no-splash
829 disables the splash screen; see also the variable
830 `inhibit-startup-message' (which is also aliased as
831 `inhibit-splash-screen').
833 ** Changes in support of colors on character terminals
836 *** The new command-line option --color=MODE lets you specify a standard
837 mode for a tty color support. It is meant to be used on character
838 terminals whose capabilities are not set correctly in the terminal
839 database, or with terminal emulators which support colors, but don't
840 set the TERM environment variable to a name of a color-capable
841 terminal. "emacs --color" uses the same color commands as GNU `ls'
842 when invoked with "ls --color", so if your terminal can support colors
843 in "ls --color", it will support "emacs --color" as well. See the
844 user manual for the possible values of the MODE parameter.
847 *** Emacs now supports several character terminals which provide more
848 than 8 colors. For example, for `xterm', 16-color, 88-color, and
849 256-color modes are supported. Emacs automatically notes at startup
850 the extended number of colors, and defines the appropriate entries for
854 *** Emacs now uses the full range of available colors for the default
855 faces when running on a color terminal, including 16-, 88-, and
856 256-color xterms. This means that when you run "emacs -nw" on an
857 88-color or 256-color xterm, you will see essentially the same face
861 *** There's a new support for colors on `rxvt' terminal emulator.
864 ** Emacs can now be invoked in full-screen mode on a windowed display.
866 When Emacs is invoked on a window system, the new command-line options
867 `--fullwidth', `--fullheight', and `--fullscreen' produce a frame
868 whose width, height, or both width and height take up the entire
869 screen size. (For now, this does not work with some window managers.)
872 ** Emacs now tries to set up buffer coding systems for HTML/XML files
876 ** The new command `comint-insert-previous-argument' in comint-derived
877 modes (shell-mode etc) inserts arguments from previous command lines,
878 like bash's `ESC .' binding. It is bound by default to `C-c .', but
879 otherwise behaves quite similarly to the bash version.
882 ** Changes in C-h bindings:
884 C-h e displays the *Messages* buffer.
886 C-h followed by a control character is used for displaying files
889 C-h C-f displays the FAQ.
890 C-h C-e displays the PROBLEMS file.
892 The info-search bindings on C-h C-f, C-h C-k and C-h C-i
893 have been moved to C-h F, C-h K and C-h S.
895 C-h c, C-h k, C-h w, and C-h f now handle remapped interactive commands.
897 - C-h c and C-h k report the actual command (after possible remapping)
898 run by the key sequence.
900 - C-h w and C-h f on a command which has been remapped now report the
901 command it is remapped to, and the keys which can be used to run
904 For example, if C-k is bound to kill-line, and kill-line is remapped
905 to new-kill-line, these commands now report:
907 - C-h c and C-h k C-k reports:
908 C-k runs the command new-kill-line
910 - C-h w and C-h f kill-line reports:
911 kill-line is remapped to new-kill-line which is on C-k, <deleteline>
913 - C-h w and C-h f new-kill-line reports:
914 new-kill-line is on C-k
917 ** C-w in incremental search now grabs either a character or a word,
918 making the decision in a heuristic way. This new job is done by the
919 command `isearch-yank-word-or-char'. To restore the old behavior,
920 bind C-w to `isearch-yank-word' in `isearch-mode-map'.
923 ** Yanking text now discards certain text properties that can
924 be inconvenient when you did not expect them. The variable
925 `yank-excluded-properties' specifies which ones. Insertion
926 of register contents and rectangles also discards these properties.
929 ** Occur, Info, and comint-derived modes now support using
930 M-x font-lock-mode to toggle fontification. The variable
931 `Info-fontify' is no longer applicable; to disable fontification,
932 remove `turn-on-font-lock' from `Info-mode-hook'.
935 ** M-x grep now tries to avoid appending `/dev/null' to the command line
936 by using GNU grep `-H' option instead. M-x grep will automatically
937 detect whether this is possible or not the first time it is invoked.
938 When `-H' is used, the grep command line supplied by the user is passed
939 unchanged to the system to execute, which allows more complicated
940 command lines to be used than was possible before.
943 ** The face-customization widget has been reworked to be less confusing.
944 In particular, when you enable a face attribute using the corresponding
945 check-box, there's no longer a redundant `*' option in value selection
946 for that attribute; the values you can choose are only those which make
947 sense for the attribute. When an attribute is de-selected by unchecking
948 its check-box, then the (now ignored, but still present temporarily in
949 case you re-select the attribute) value is hidden.
952 ** When you set or reset a variable's value in a Customize buffer,
953 the previous value becomes the "backup value" of the variable.
954 You can go back to that backup value by selecting "Use Backup Value"
955 under the "[State]" button.
957 ** The new customization type `float' specifies numbers with floating
958 point (no integers are allowed).
961 ** In GUD mode, when talking to GDB, C-x C-a C-j "jumps" the program
962 counter to the specified source line (the one where point is).
965 ** GUD mode improvements for jdb:
967 *** Search for source files using jdb classpath and class
968 information. Fast startup since there is no need to scan all
969 source files up front. There is also no need to create and maintain
970 lists of source directories to scan. Look at `gud-jdb-use-classpath'
971 and `gud-jdb-classpath' customization variables documentation.
973 *** Supports the standard breakpoint (gud-break, gud-clear)
974 set/clear operations from java source files under the classpath, stack
975 traversal (gud-up, gud-down), and run until current stack finish
978 *** Supports new jdb (Java 1.2 and later) in addition to oldjdb
981 *** The previous method of searching for source files has been
982 preserved in case someone still wants/needs to use it.
983 Set gud-jdb-use-classpath to nil.
985 Added Customization Variables
987 *** gud-jdb-command-name. What command line to use to invoke jdb.
989 *** gud-jdb-use-classpath. Allows selection of java source file searching
990 method: set to t for new method, nil to scan gud-jdb-directories for
991 java sources (previous method).
993 *** gud-jdb-directories. List of directories to scan and search for java
994 classes using the original gud-jdb method (if gud-jdb-use-classpath
999 *** Do not allow debugger output history variable to grow without bounds.
1002 ** hide-ifdef-mode now uses overlays rather than selective-display
1003 to hide its text. This should be mostly transparent but slightly
1004 changes the behavior of motion commands like C-e and C-p.
1007 ** Unquoted `$' in file names do not signal an error any more when
1008 the corresponding environment variable does not exist.
1009 Instead, the `$ENVVAR' text is left as is, so that `$$' quoting
1010 is only rarely needed.
1014 *** jit-lock can now be delayed with `jit-lock-defer-time'.
1016 If this variable is non-nil, its value should be the amount of Emacs
1017 idle time in seconds to wait before starting fontification. For
1018 example, if you set `jit-lock-defer-time' to 0.25, fontification will
1019 only happen after 0.25s of idle time.
1021 *** contextual refontification is now separate from stealth fontification.
1023 jit-lock-defer-contextually is renamed jit-lock-contextually and
1024 jit-lock-context-time determines the delay after which contextual
1025 refontification takes place.
1028 ** Marking commands extend the region when invoked multiple times. If
1029 you hit M-C-SPC (mark-sexp), M-@ (mark-word), M-h (mark-paragraph), or
1030 C-M-h (mark-defun) repeatedly, the marked region will now be extended
1031 each time, so you can mark the next two sexps with M-C-SPC M-C-SPC,
1032 for example. This feature also works for mark-end-of-sentence, if you
1036 ** Some commands do something special in Transient Mark mode when the
1037 mark is active--for instance, they limit their operation to the
1038 region. Even if you don't normally use Transient Mark mode, you might
1039 want to get this behavior from a particular command. There are two
1040 ways you can enable Transient Mark mode and activate the mark, for one
1043 One method is to type C-SPC C-SPC; this enables Transient Mark mode
1044 and sets the mark at point. The other method is to type C-u C-x C-x.
1045 This enables Transient Mark mode temporarily but does not alter the
1048 After these commands, Transient Mark mode remains enabled until you
1049 deactivate the mark. That typically happens when you type a command
1050 that alters the buffer, but you can also deactivate the mark by typing
1054 ** A prefix argument is no longer required to repeat a jump to a
1055 previous mark, i.e. C-u C-SPC C-SPC C-SPC ... will cycle through the
1056 mark ring. Use C-u C-u C-SPC to set the mark immediately after a jump.
1059 ** In the *Occur* buffer, `o' switches to it in another window, and
1060 C-o displays the current line's occurrence in another window without
1064 ** When you specify a frame size with --geometry, the size applies to
1065 all frames you create. A position specified with --geometry only
1066 affects the initial frame.
1069 ** M-h (mark-paragraph) now accepts a prefix arg.
1070 With positive arg, M-h marks the current and the following paragraphs;
1071 if the arg is negative, it marks the current and the preceding
1075 ** The variables dired-free-space-program and dired-free-space-args
1076 have been renamed to directory-free-space-program and
1077 directory-free-space-args, and they now apply whenever Emacs puts a
1078 directory listing into a buffer.
1081 ** mouse-wheels can now scroll a specific fraction of the window
1082 (rather than a fixed number of lines) and the scrolling is `progressive'.
1084 ** Unexpected yanking of text due to accidental clicking on the mouse
1085 wheel button (typically mouse-2) during wheel scrolling is now avoided.
1086 This behaviour can be customized via the mouse-wheel-click-event and
1087 mouse-wheel-inhibit-click-time variables.
1090 ** The keyboard-coding-system is now automatically set based on your
1091 current locale settings if you are not using a window system. This
1092 may mean that the META key doesn't work but generates non-ASCII
1093 characters instead, depending on how the terminal (or terminal
1094 emulator) works. Use `set-keyboard-coding-system' (or customize
1095 keyboard-coding-system) if you prefer META to work (the old default)
1096 or if the locale doesn't describe the character set actually generated
1097 by the keyboard. See Info node `Single-Byte Character Support'.
1100 ** Emacs now reads the standard abbrevs file ~/.abbrev_defs
1101 automatically at startup, if it exists. When Emacs offers to save
1102 modified buffers, it saves the abbrevs too if they have changed. It
1103 can do this either silently or asking for confirmation first,
1104 according to the value of `save-abbrevs'.
1107 ** Display of hollow cursors now obeys the buffer-local value (if any)
1108 of `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' in the buffer that the cursor
1111 ** The variable `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' can now be set to any
1112 of the recognized cursor types.
1115 ** The variable `auto-save-file-name-transforms' now has a third element that
1116 controls whether or not the function `make-auto-save-file-name' will
1117 attempt to construct a unique auto-save name (e.g. for remote files).
1120 ** Diary sexp entries can have custom marking in the calendar.
1121 Diary sexp functions which only apply to certain days (such as
1122 `diary-block' or `diary-cyclic') now take an optional parameter MARK,
1123 which is the name of a face or a single-character string indicating
1124 how to highlight the day in the calendar display. Specifying a
1125 single-character string as @var{mark} places the character next to the
1126 day in the calendar. Specifying a face highlights the day with that
1127 face. This lets you have different colors or markings for vacations,
1128 appointments, paydays or anything else using a sexp.
1131 ** The new function `calendar-goto-day-of-year' (g D) prompts for a
1132 year and day number, and moves to that date. Negative day numbers
1133 count backward from the end of the year.
1135 ** The function `simple-diary-display' now by default sets a header line.
1136 This can be controlled through the variables `diary-header-line-flag'
1137 and `diary-header-line-format'.
1140 ** The procedure for activating appointment reminders has changed: use
1141 the new function `appt-activate'. The new variable
1142 `appt-display-format' controls how reminders are displayed, replacing
1143 appt-issue-message, appt-visible, and appt-msg-window.
1147 *** The key C-x C-q no longer checks files in or out, it only changes
1148 the read-only state of the buffer (toggle-read-only). We made this
1149 change because we held a poll and found that many users were unhappy
1150 with the previous behavior. If you do prefer this behavior, you
1151 can bind `vc-toggle-read-only' to C-x C-q in your .emacs:
1153 (global-set-key "\C-x\C-q" 'vc-toggle-read-only)
1155 The function `vc-toggle-read-only' will continue to exist.
1158 *** There is a new user option `vc-cvs-global-switches' that allows
1159 you to specify switches that are passed to any CVS command invoked
1160 by VC. These switches are used as "global options" for CVS, which
1161 means they are inserted before the command name. For example, this
1162 allows you to specify a compression level using the "-z#" option for
1165 *** New backends for Subversion and Meta-CVS.
1170 *** When comparing directories.
1171 Typing D brings up a buffer that lists the differences between the contents of
1172 directories. Now it is possible to use this buffer to copy the missing files
1173 from one directory to another.
1176 *** When comparing files or buffers.
1177 Typing the = key now offers to perform the word-by-word comparison of the
1178 currently highlighted regions in an inferior Ediff session. If you answer 'n'
1179 then it reverts to the old behavior and asks the user to select regions for
1182 *** The new command `ediff-backup' compares a file with its most recent
1183 backup using `ediff'. If you specify the name of a backup file,
1184 `ediff-backup' compares it with the file of which it is a backup.
1189 *** New regular expressions features
1191 **** New syntax for regular expressions, multi-line regular expressions.
1192 The syntax --ignore-case-regexp=/regex/ is now undocumented and retained
1193 only for backward compatibility. The new equivalent syntax is
1194 --regex=/regex/i. More generally, it is --regex=/TAGREGEX/TAGNAME/MODS,
1195 where `/TAGNAME' is optional, as usual, and MODS is a string of 0 or
1196 more characters among `i' (ignore case), `m' (multi-line) and `s'
1197 (single-line). The `m' and `s' modifiers behave as in Perl regular
1198 expressions: `m' allows regexps to match more than one line, while `s'
1199 (which implies `m') means that `.' matches newlines. The ability to
1200 span newlines allows writing of much more powerful regular expressions
1201 and rapid prototyping for tagging new languages.
1203 **** Regular expressions can use char escape sequences as in Gcc.
1204 The escaped character sequence \a, \b, \d, \e, \f, \n, \r, \t, \v,
1205 respectively, stand for the ASCII characters BEL, BS, DEL, ESC, FF, NL,
1208 **** Regular expressions can be bound to a given language.
1209 The syntax --regex={LANGUAGE}REGEX means that REGEX is used to make tags
1210 only for files of language LANGUAGE, and ignored otherwise. This is
1211 particularly useful when storing regexps in a file.
1213 **** Regular expressions can be read from a file.
1214 The --regex=@regexfile option means read the regexps from a file, one
1215 per line. Lines beginning with space or tab are ignored.
1217 *** New language parsing features
1219 **** The `::' qualifier triggers C++ parsing in C file.
1220 Previously, only the `template' and `class' keywords had this effect.
1222 **** In Perl, packages are tags.
1223 Subroutine tags are named from their package. You can jump to sub tags
1224 as you did before, by the sub name, or additionally by looking for
1227 **** New language PHP.
1228 Tags are functions, classes and defines.
1229 If the --members option is specified to etags, tags are vars also.
1231 **** New language HTML.
1232 Title and h1, h2, h3 are tagged. Also, tags are generated when name= is
1233 used inside an anchor and whenever id= is used.
1235 **** New default keywords for TeX.
1236 The new keywords are def, newcommand, renewcommand, newenvironment and
1239 **** In Makefiles, constants are tagged.
1240 If you want the old behavior instead, thus avoiding to increase the
1241 size of the tags file, use the --no-globals option.
1243 **** In Prolog, etags creates tags for rules in addition to predicates.
1245 *** Honour #line directives.
1246 When Etags parses an input file that contains C preprocessor's #line
1247 directives, it creates tags using the file name and line number
1248 specified in those directives. This is useful when dealing with code
1249 created from Cweb source files. When Etags tags the generated file, it
1250 writes tags pointing to the source file.
1252 *** New option --parse-stdin=FILE.
1253 This option is mostly useful when calling etags from programs. It can
1254 be used (only once) in place of a file name on the command line. Etags
1255 will read from standard input and mark the produced tags as belonging to
1261 *** Font lock support.
1262 CC Mode now provides font lock support for all its languages. This
1263 supersedes the font lock patterns that have been in the core font lock
1264 package for C, C++, Java and Objective-C. Like indentation, font
1265 locking is done in a uniform way across all languages (except the new
1266 AWK mode - see below). That means that the new font locking will be
1267 different from the old patterns in various details for most languages.
1269 The main goal of the font locking in CC Mode is accuracy, to provide a
1270 dependable aid in recognizing the various constructs. Some, like
1271 strings and comments, are easy to recognize while others like
1272 declarations and types can be very tricky. CC Mode can go to great
1273 lengths to recognize declarations and casts correctly, especially when
1274 the types aren't recognized by standard patterns. This is a fairly
1275 demanding analysis which can be slow on older hardware, and it can
1276 therefore be disabled by choosing a lower decoration level with the
1277 variable font-lock-maximum-decoration.
1279 Note that the most demanding font lock level has been tuned with lazy
1280 fontification in mind, i.e. there should be a support mode that waits
1281 with the fontification until the text is actually shown
1282 (e.g. Just-in-time Lock mode, which is the default, or Lazy Lock
1283 mode). Fontifying a file with several thousand lines in one go can
1284 take the better part of a minute.
1286 **** The (c|c++|objc|java|idl|pike)-font-lock-extra-types variables
1287 are now used by CC Mode to recognize identifiers that are certain to
1288 be types. (They are also used in cases that aren't related to font
1289 locking.) At the maximum decoration level, types are often recognized
1290 properly anyway, so these variables should be fairly restrictive and
1291 not contain patterns for uncertain types.
1293 **** Support for documentation comments.
1294 There is a "plugin" system to fontify documentation comments like
1295 Javadoc and the markup within them. It's independent of the host
1296 language, so it's possible to e.g. turn on Javadoc font locking in C
1297 buffers. See the variable c-doc-comment-style for details.
1299 Currently two kinds of doc comment styles are recognized: Suns Javadoc
1300 and Autodoc which is used in Pike. This is by no means a complete
1301 list of the most common tools; if your doc comment extractor of choice
1302 is missing then please drop a note to bug-cc-mode@gnu.org.
1304 **** Better handling of C++ templates.
1305 As a side effect of the more accurate font locking, C++ templates are
1306 now handled much better. The angle brackets that delimit them are
1307 given parenthesis syntax so that they can be navigated like other
1310 This also improves indentation of templates, although there still is
1311 work to be done in that area. E.g. it's required that multiline
1312 template clauses are written in full and then refontified to be
1313 recognized, and the indentation of nested templates is a bit odd and
1314 not as configurable as it ought to be.
1316 **** Improved handling of Objective-C and CORBA IDL.
1317 Especially the support for Objective-C and IDL has gotten an overhaul.
1318 The special "@" declarations in Objective-C are handled correctly.
1319 All the keywords used in CORBA IDL, PSDL, and CIDL are recognized and
1320 handled correctly, also wrt indentation.
1322 *** Support for the AWK language.
1323 Support for the AWK language has been introduced. The implementation is
1324 based around GNU AWK version 3.1, but it should work pretty well with
1325 any AWK. As yet, not all features of CC Mode have been adapted for AWK.
1328 **** Indentation Engine
1329 The CC Mode indentation engine fully supports AWK mode.
1331 AWK mode handles code formatted in the conventional AWK fashion: `{'s
1332 which start actions, user-defined functions, or compound statements are
1333 placed on the same line as the associated construct; the matching `}'s
1334 are normally placed under the start of the respective pattern, function
1335 definition, or structured statement.
1337 The predefined indentation functions haven't yet been adapted for AWK
1338 mode, though some of them may work serendipitously. There shouldn't be
1339 any problems writing custom indentation functions for AWK mode.
1341 The command C-c C-q (c-indent-defun) hasn't yet been adapted for AWK,
1342 though in practice it works properly nearly all the time. Should it
1343 fail, explicitly set the region around the function (using C-u C-SPC:
1344 C-M-h probably won't work either) then do C-M-\ (indent-region).
1347 There is a single level of font locking in AWK mode, rather than the
1348 three distinct levels the other modes have. There are several
1349 idiosyncrasies in AWK mode's font-locking due to the peculiarities of
1350 the AWK language itself.
1352 **** Comment Commands
1353 M-; (indent-for-comment) works fine. None of the other CC Mode
1354 comment formatting commands have yet been adapted for AWK mode.
1356 **** Movement Commands
1357 Most of the movement commands work in AWK mode. The most important
1358 exceptions are M-a (c-beginning-of-statement) and M-e
1359 (c-end-of-statement) which haven't yet been adapted.
1361 The notion of "defun" has been augmented to include AWK pattern-action
1362 pairs. C-M-a (c-awk-beginning-of-defun) and C-M-e (c-awk-end-of-defun)
1363 recognise these pattern-action pairs, as well as user defined
1366 **** Auto-newline Insertion and Clean-ups
1367 Auto-newline insertion hasn't yet been adapted for AWK. Some of
1368 the clean-ups can actually convert good AWK code into syntactically
1369 invalid code. These features are best disabled in AWK buffers.
1371 *** New syntactic symbols in IDL mode.
1372 The top level constructs "module" and "composition" (from CIDL) are
1373 now handled like "namespace" in C++: They are given syntactic symbols
1374 module-open, module-close, inmodule, composition-open,
1375 composition-close, and incomposition.
1377 *** New functions to do hungry delete without enabling hungry delete mode.
1378 The functions c-hungry-backspace and c-hungry-delete-forward can be
1379 bound to keys to get this feature without toggling a mode.
1380 Contributed by Kevin Ryde.
1382 *** Better control over require-final-newline.
1383 The variable that controls how to handle a final newline when the
1384 buffer is saved, require-final-newline, is now customizable on a
1385 per-mode basis through c-require-final-newline. The default is to set
1386 it to t only in languages that mandate a final newline in source files
1387 (C, C++ and Objective-C).
1389 *** Format change for syntactic context elements.
1390 The elements in the syntactic context returned by c-guess-basic-syntax
1391 and stored in c-syntactic-context has been changed somewhat to allow
1392 attaching more information. They are now lists instead of single cons
1393 cells. E.g. a line that previously had the syntactic analysis
1395 ((inclass . 11) (topmost-intro . 13))
1399 ((inclass 11) (topmost-intro 13))
1401 In some cases there are more than one position given for a syntactic
1404 This change might affect code that call c-guess-basic-syntax directly,
1405 and custom lineup functions if they use c-syntactic-context. However,
1406 the argument given to lineup functions is still a single cons cell
1407 with nil or an integer in the cdr.
1409 *** API changes for derived modes.
1410 There have been extensive changes "under the hood" which can affect
1411 derived mode writers. Some of these changes are likely to cause
1412 incompatibilities with existing derived modes, but on the other hand
1413 care has now been taken to make it possible to extend and modify CC
1414 Mode with less risk of such problems in the future.
1416 **** New language variable system.
1417 See the comment blurb near the top of cc-langs.el.
1419 **** New initialization functions.
1420 The initialization procedure has been split up into more functions to
1421 give better control: c-basic-common-init, c-font-lock-init, and
1422 c-init-language-vars.
1424 *** Changes in analysis of nested syntactic constructs.
1425 The syntactic analysis engine has better handling of cases where
1426 several syntactic constructs appear nested on the same line. They are
1427 now handled as if each construct started on a line of its own.
1429 This means that CC Mode now indents some cases differently, and
1430 although it's more consistent there might be cases where the old way
1431 gave results that's more to one's liking. So if you find a situation
1432 where you think that the indentation has become worse, please report
1433 it to bug-cc-mode@gnu.org.
1435 **** New syntactic symbol substatement-label.
1436 This symbol is used when a label is inserted between a statement and
1437 its substatement. E.g:
1443 *** Better handling of multiline macros.
1445 **** Syntactic indentation inside macros.
1446 The contents of multiline #define's are now analyzed and indented
1447 syntactically just like other code. This can be disabled by the new
1448 variable c-syntactic-indentation-in-macros. A new syntactic symbol
1449 cpp-define-intro has been added to control the initial indentation
1452 **** New lineup function c-lineup-cpp-define.
1453 Now used by default to line up macro continuation lines. The behavior
1454 of this function closely mimics the indentation one gets if the macro
1455 is indented while the line continuation backslashes are temporarily
1456 removed. If syntactic indentation in macros is turned off, it works
1457 much line c-lineup-dont-change, which was used earlier, but handles
1458 empty lines within the macro better.
1460 **** Automatically inserted newlines continues the macro if used within one.
1461 This applies to the newlines inserted by the auto-newline mode, and to
1462 c-context-line-break and c-context-open-line.
1464 **** Better alignment of line continuation backslashes.
1465 c-backslash-region tries to adapt to surrounding backslashes. New
1466 variable c-backslash-max-column which put a limit on how far out
1467 backslashes can be moved.
1469 **** Automatic alignment of line continuation backslashes.
1470 This is controlled by the new variable c-auto-align-backslashes. It
1471 affects c-context-line-break, c-context-open-line and newlines
1472 inserted in auto-newline mode.
1474 **** Line indentation works better inside macros.
1475 Regardless whether syntactic indentation and syntactic indentation
1476 inside macros are enabled or not, line indentation now ignores the
1477 line continuation backslashes. This is most noticeable when syntactic
1478 indentation is turned off and there are empty lines (save for the
1479 backslash) in the macro.
1481 *** indent-for-comment is more customizable.
1482 The behavior of M-; (indent-for-comment) is now configurable through
1483 the variable c-indent-comment-alist. The indentation behavior based
1484 on the preceding code on the line, e.g. to get two spaces after #else
1485 and #endif but indentation to comment-column in most other cases
1486 (something which was hardcoded earlier).
1488 *** New function c-context-open-line.
1489 It's the open-line equivalent of c-context-line-break.
1491 *** New lineup functions
1493 **** c-lineup-string-cont
1494 This lineup function lines up a continued string under the one it
1497 result = prefix + "A message "
1498 "string."; <- c-lineup-string-cont
1500 **** c-lineup-cascaded-calls
1501 Lines up series of calls separated by "->" or ".".
1503 **** c-lineup-knr-region-comment
1504 Gives (what most people think is) better indentation of comments in
1505 the "K&R region" between the function header and its body.
1507 **** c-lineup-gcc-asm-reg
1508 Provides better indentation inside asm blocks. Contributed by Kevin
1511 **** c-lineup-argcont
1512 Lines up continued function arguments after the preceding comma.
1513 Contributed by Kevin Ryde.
1515 *** Better caching of the syntactic context.
1516 CC Mode caches the positions of the opening parentheses (of any kind)
1517 of the lists surrounding the point. Those positions are used in many
1518 places as anchor points for various searches. The cache is now
1519 improved so that it can be reused to a large extent when the point is
1520 moved. The less it moves, the less needs to be recalculated.
1522 The effect is that CC Mode should be fast most of the time even when
1523 opening parens are hung (i.e. aren't in column zero). It's typically
1524 only the first time after the point is moved far down in a complex
1525 file that it'll take noticeable time to find out the syntactic
1528 *** Statements are recognized in a more robust way.
1529 Statements are recognized most of the time even when they occur in an
1530 "invalid" context, e.g. in a function argument. In practice that can
1531 happen when macros are involved.
1533 *** Improved the way c-indent-exp chooses the block to indent.
1534 It now indents the block for the closest sexp following the point
1535 whose closing paren ends on a different line. This means that the
1536 point doesn't have to be immediately before the block to indent.
1537 Also, only the block and the closing line is indented; the current
1538 line is left untouched.
1540 *** Added toggle for syntactic indentation.
1541 The function c-toggle-syntactic-indentation can be used to toggle
1542 syntactic indentation.
1544 ** The command line option --no-windows has been changed to
1545 --no-window-system. The old one still works, but is deprecated.
1548 ** The command `list-text-properties-at' has been deleted because
1549 C-u C-x = gives the same information and more.
1552 ** `buffer-menu' and `list-buffers' now list buffers whose names begin
1553 with a space, when those buffers are visiting files. Normally buffers
1554 whose names begin with space are omitted.
1557 ** You can now customize fill-nobreak-predicate to control where
1558 filling can break lines. We provide two sample predicates,
1559 fill-single-word-nobreak-p and fill-french-nobreak-p.
1562 ** New user option `add-log-always-start-new-record'.
1563 When this option is enabled, M-x add-change-log-entry will always
1564 start a new record regardless of when the last record is.
1567 ** SGML mode has indentation and supports XML syntax.
1568 The new variable `sgml-xml-mode' tells SGML mode to use XML syntax.
1569 When this option is enabled, SGML tags are inserted in XML style,
1570 i.e., there is always a closing tag.
1571 By default, its setting is inferred on a buffer-by-buffer basis
1572 from the file name or buffer contents.
1575 ** `xml-mode' is now an alias for `sgml-mode', which has XML support.
1578 ** New user option `isearch-resume-enabled'.
1579 This option can be disabled, to avoid the normal behavior of isearch
1580 which puts calls to `isearch-resume' in the command history.
1583 ** Lisp mode now uses font-lock-doc-face for the docstrings.
1586 ** Perl mode has a new variable `perl-indent-continued-arguments'.
1589 ** Fortran mode has a new variable `fortran-directive-re'.
1590 Adapt this to match the format of any compiler directives you use.
1591 Lines that match are never indented, and are given distinctive font-locking.
1594 ** F90 mode has new navigation commands `f90-end-of-block',
1595 `f90-beginning-of-block', `f90-next-block', `f90-previous-block'.
1598 ** Prolog mode has a new variable `prolog-font-lock-keywords'
1599 to support use of font-lock.
1602 ** `special-display-buffer-names' and `special-display-regexps' now
1603 understand two new boolean pseudo-frame-parameters `same-frame' and
1607 ** M-x setenv now expands environment variables of the form `$foo' and
1608 `${foo}' in the specified new value of the environment variable. To
1609 include a `$' in the value, use `$$'.
1612 ** File-name completion can now ignore directories.
1613 If an element of the list in `completion-ignored-extensions' ends in a
1614 slash `/', it indicates a subdirectory that should be ignored when
1615 completing file names. Elements of `completion-ignored-extensions'
1616 which do not end in a slash are never considered when a completion
1617 candidate is a directory.
1620 ** The completion commands TAB, SPC and ? in the minibuffer apply only
1621 to the text before point. If there is text in the buffer after point,
1622 it remains unchanged.
1624 ** Enhanced visual feedback in *Completions* buffer.
1626 Completions lists use faces to highlight what all completions
1627 have in common and where they begin to differ.
1629 The common prefix shared by all possible completions uses the face
1630 `completions-common-part', while the first character that isn't the
1631 same uses the face `completions-first-difference'. By default,
1632 `completions-common-part' inherits from `default', and
1633 `completions-first-difference' inherits from `bold'. The idea of
1634 `completions-common-part' is that you can use it to make the common
1635 parts less visible than normal, so that the rest of the differing
1636 parts is, by contrast, slightly highlighted.
1639 ** New user option `inhibit-startup-buffer-menu'.
1640 When loading many files, for instance with `emacs *', Emacs normally
1641 displays a buffer menu. This option turns the buffer menu off.
1643 ** Compilation mode enhancements:
1645 *** New user option `compilation-environment'.
1646 This option allows you to specify environment variables for inferior
1647 compilation processes without affecting the environment that all
1648 subprocesses inherit.
1650 *** `next-error' now temporarily highlights the corresponding source line.
1652 ** Grep has been decoupled from compilation mode setup.
1654 *** Grep commands now have their own submenu and customization group.
1656 *** The new variables `grep-window-height', `grep-auto-highlight', and
1657 `grep-scroll-output' can be used to override the corresponding
1658 compilation mode settings for grep commands.
1660 *** Source line is temporarily highlighted when going to next match.
1662 *** New key bindings in grep output window:
1663 SPC and DEL scrolls window up and down. C-n and C-p moves to next and
1664 previous match in the grep window. RET jumps to the source line of
1665 the current match. `n' and `p' shows next and previous match in
1666 other window, but does not switch buffer. `{' and `}' jumps to the
1667 previous or next file in the grep output. TAB also jumps to the next
1671 ** Rmail now displays 5-digit message ids in its summary buffer.
1674 ** On MS Windows, the "system caret" now follows the cursor.
1675 This enables Emacs to work better with programs that need to track
1676 the cursor, for example screen magnifiers and text to speech programs.
1679 ** Tooltips now work on MS Windows.
1680 See the Emacs 21.1 NEWS entry for tooltips for details.
1683 ** Images are now supported on MS Windows.
1684 PBM and XBM images are supported out of the box. Other image formats
1685 depend on external libraries. All of these libraries have been ported
1686 to Windows, and can be found in both source and binary form at
1687 http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/. Note that libpng also depends on
1688 zlib, and tiff depends on the version of jpeg that it was compiled
1692 ** Sound is now supported on MS Windows.
1693 WAV format is supported on all versions of Windows, other formats such
1694 as AU, AIFF and MP3 may be supported in the more recent versions of
1695 Windows, or when other software provides hooks into the system level
1696 sound support for those formats.
1699 ** Different shaped mouse pointers are supported on MS Windows.
1700 The mouse pointer changes shape depending on what is under the pointer.
1703 ** Pointing devices with more than 3 buttons are now supported on MS Windows.
1704 The new variable `w32-pass-extra-mouse-buttons-to-system' controls
1705 whether Emacs should handle the extra buttons itself (the default), or
1706 pass them to Windows to be handled with system-wide functions.
1709 ** Emacs takes note of colors defined in Control Panel on MS-Windows.
1710 The Control Panel defines some default colors for applications in
1711 much the same way as wildcard X Resources do on X. Emacs now
1712 adds these colors to the colormap prefixed by System (eg SystemMenu
1713 for the default Menu background, SystemMenuText for the foreground),
1714 and uses some of them to initialize some of the default faces.
1715 `list-colors-display' will show the list of System color names if you
1716 wish to use them in other faces.
1719 ** Under X11, it is possible to swap Alt and Meta (and Super and Hyper).
1720 The new variables `x-alt-keysym', `x-hyper-keysym', `x-meta-keysym',
1721 and `x-super-keysym' can be used to choose which keysyms Emacs should
1722 use for the modifiers. For example, the following two lines swap
1724 (setq x-alt-keysym 'meta)
1725 (setq x-meta-keysym 'alt)
1728 ** vc-annotate-mode enhancements
1730 In vc-annotate mode, you can now use the following key bindings for
1731 enhanced functionality to browse the annotations of past revisions, or
1732 to view diffs or log entries directly from vc-annotate-mode:
1734 P: annotates the previous revision
1735 N: annotates the next revision
1736 J: annotates the revision at line
1737 A: annotates the revision previous to line
1738 D: shows the diff of the revision at line with its previous revision
1739 L: shows the log of the revision at line
1740 W: annotates the workfile (most up to date) version
1742 * New modes and packages in Emacs 21.4
1744 ** The new python.el package is used to edit Python and Jython programs.
1746 ** The URL package (which had been part of W3) is now part of Emacs.
1749 ** The new global minor mode `size-indication-mode' (off by default)
1750 shows the size of accessible part of the buffer on the mode line.
1752 ** GDB-Script-mode is used for files like .gdbinit.
1755 ** Ido mode is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1757 The ido (interactively do) package is an extension of the iswitchb
1758 package to do interactive opening of files and directories in addition
1759 to interactive buffer switching. Ido is a superset of iswitchb (with
1760 a few exceptions), so don't enable both packages.
1763 ** CUA mode is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1765 The new cua package provides CUA-like keybindings using C-x for
1766 cut (kill), C-c for copy, C-v for paste (yank), and C-z for undo.
1767 With cua, the region can be set and extended using shifted movement
1768 keys (like pc-selection-mode) and typed text replaces the active
1769 region (like delete-selection-mode). Do not enable these modes with
1770 cua-mode. Customize the variable `cua-mode' to enable cua.
1772 In addition, cua provides unified rectangle support with visible
1773 rectangle highlighting: Use S-return to start a rectangle, extend it
1774 using the movement commands (or mouse-3), and cut or copy it using C-x
1775 or C-c (using C-w and M-w also works).
1777 Use M-o and M-c to `open' or `close' the rectangle, use M-b or M-f, to
1778 fill it with blanks or another character, use M-u or M-l to upcase or
1779 downcase the rectangle, use M-i to increment the numbers in the
1780 rectangle, use M-n to fill the rectangle with a numeric sequence (such
1781 as 10 20 30...), use M-r to replace a regexp in the rectangle, and use
1782 M-' or M-/ to restrict command on the rectangle to a subset of the
1783 rows. See the commentary in cua-base.el for more rectangle commands.
1785 Cua also provides unified support for registers: Use a numeric
1786 prefix argument between 0 and 9, i.e. M-0 .. M-9, for C-x, C-c, and
1787 C-v to cut or copy into register 0-9, or paste from register 0-9.
1789 The last text deleted (not killed) is automatically stored in
1790 register 0. This includes text deleted by typing text.
1792 Finally, cua provides a global mark which is set using S-C-space.
1793 When the global mark is active, any text which is cut or copied is
1794 automatically inserted at the global mark position. See the
1795 commentary in cua-base.el for more global mark related commands.
1797 The features of cua also works with the standard emacs bindings for
1798 kill, copy, yank, and undo. If you want to use cua mode, but don't
1799 want the C-x, C-c, C-v, and C-z bindings, you may customize the
1800 `cua-enable-cua-keys' variable.
1802 Note: This version of cua mode is not backwards compatible with older
1803 versions of cua.el and cua-mode.el. To ensure proper operation, you
1804 must remove older versions of cua.el or cua-mode.el as well as the
1805 loading and customization of those packages from the .emacs file.
1807 ** The new keypad setup package provides several common bindings for
1808 the numeric keypad which is available on most keyboards. The numeric
1809 keypad typically has the digits 0 to 9, a decimal point, keys marked
1810 +, -, /, and *, an Enter key, and a NumLock toggle key. The keypad
1811 package only controls the use of the digit and decimal keys.
1813 By customizing the variables `keypad-setup', `keypad-shifted-setup',
1814 `keypad-numlock-setup', and `keypad-numlock-shifted-setup', or by
1815 using the function `keypad-setup', you can rebind all digit keys and
1816 the decimal key of the keypad in one step for each of the four
1817 possible combinations of the Shift key state (not pressed/pressed) and
1818 the NumLock toggle state (off/on).
1820 The choices for the keypad keys in each of the above states are:
1821 `Plain numeric keypad' where the keys generates plain digits,
1822 `Numeric keypad with decimal key' where the character produced by the
1823 decimal key can be customized individually (for internationalization),
1824 `Numeric Prefix Arg' where the keypad keys produce numeric prefix args
1825 for emacs editing commands, `Cursor keys' and `Shifted Cursor keys'
1826 where the keys work like (shifted) arrow keys, home/end, etc., and
1827 `Unspecified/User-defined' where the keypad keys (kp-0, kp-1, etc.)
1828 are left unspecified and can be bound individually through the global
1831 ** The new kmacro package provides a simpler user interface to
1832 emacs' keyboard macro facilities.
1834 Basically, it uses two function keys (default F3 and F4) like this:
1835 F3 starts a macro, F4 ends the macro, and pressing F4 again executes
1836 the last macro. While defining the macro, F3 inserts a counter value
1837 which automatically increments every time the macro is executed.
1839 There is now a keyboard macro ring which stores the most recently
1842 The C-x C-k sequence is now a prefix for the kmacro keymap which
1843 defines bindings for moving through the keyboard macro ring,
1844 C-x C-k C-p and C-x C-k C-n, editing the last macro C-x C-k C-e,
1845 manipulating the macro counter and format via C-x C-k C-c,
1846 C-x C-k C-a, and C-x C-k C-f. See the commentary in kmacro.el
1849 The normal macro bindings C-x (, C-x ), and C-x e now interfaces to
1850 the keyboard macro ring.
1852 The C-x e command now automatically terminates the current macro
1853 before calling it, if used while defining a macro.
1855 In addition, when ending or calling a macro with C-x e, the macro can
1856 be repeated immediately by typing just the `e'. You can customize
1857 this behaviour via the variable kmacro-call-repeat-key and
1858 kmacro-call-repeat-with-arg.
1860 Keyboard macros can now be debugged and edited interactively.
1861 C-x C-k SPC will step through the last keyboard macro one key sequence
1862 at a time, prompting for the actions to take.
1865 ** The old Octave mode bindings C-c f and C-c i have been changed
1866 to C-c C-f and C-c C-i. The C-c C-i subcommands now have duplicate
1867 bindings on control characters--thus, C-c C-i C-b is the same as
1868 C-c C-i b, and so on.
1870 ** The printing package is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1872 If you enable the printing package by including (require 'printing) in
1873 the .emacs file, the normal Print item on the File menu is replaced
1874 with a Print sub-menu which allows you to preview output through
1875 ghostview, use ghostscript to print (if you don't have a PostScript
1876 printer) or send directly to printer a PostScript code generated by
1877 `ps-print' package. Use M-x pr-help for more information.
1880 ** Calc is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1882 Calc is an advanced desk calculator and mathematical tool written in
1883 Emacs Lisp. Its documentation is in a separate manual; within Emacs,
1884 type "C-h i m calc RET" to read that manual. A reference card is
1885 available in `etc/calccard.tex' and `etc/calccard.ps'.
1888 ** Tramp is now part of the distribution.
1890 This package is similar to Ange-FTP: it allows you to edit remote
1891 files. But whereas Ange-FTP uses FTP to access the remote host,
1892 Tramp uses a shell connection. The shell connection is always used
1893 for filename completion and directory listings and suchlike, but for
1894 the actual file transfer, you can choose between the so-called
1895 `inline' methods (which transfer the files through the shell
1896 connection using base64 or uu encoding) and the `out-of-band' methods
1897 (which invoke an external copying program such as `rcp' or `scp' or
1898 `rsync' to do the copying).
1900 Shell connections can be acquired via `rsh', `ssh', `telnet' and also
1904 ** The new global minor mode `file-name-shadow-mode' modifies the way
1905 filenames being entered by the user in the minibuffer are displayed, so
1906 that it's clear when part of the entered filename will be ignored due to
1907 emacs' filename parsing rules. The ignored portion can be made dim,
1908 invisible, or otherwise less visually noticable. The display method may
1909 be displayed by customizing the variable `file-name-shadow-properties'.
1912 ** The ruler-mode.el library provides a minor mode for displaying an
1913 "active" ruler in the header line. You can use the mouse to visually
1914 change the `fill-column', `window-margins' and `tab-stop-list'
1918 ** The minor mode Reveal mode makes text visible on the fly as you
1919 move your cursor into hidden regions of the buffer.
1920 It should work with any package that uses overlays to hide parts
1921 of a buffer, such as outline-minor-mode, hs-minor-mode, hide-ifdef-mode, ...
1923 There is also Global Reveal mode which affects all buffers.
1926 ** The new package ibuffer provides a powerful, completely
1927 customizable replacement for buff-menu.el.
1929 ** The new package table.el implements editable, WYSIWYG, embedded
1930 `text tables' in Emacs buffers. It simulates the effect of putting
1931 these tables in a special major mode. The package emulates WYSIWYG
1932 table editing available in modern word processors. The package also
1933 can generate a table source in typesetting and markup languages such
1934 as latex and html from the visually laid out text table.
1937 ** SES mode (ses-mode) is a new major mode for creating and editing
1938 spreadsheet files. Besides the usual Emacs features (intuitive command
1939 letters, undo, cell formulas in Lisp, plaintext files, etc.) it also offers
1940 viral immunity and import/export of tab-separated values.
1943 ** Support for `magic cookie' standout modes has been removed.
1944 Emacs will still work on terminals that require magic cookies in order
1945 to use standout mode, however they will not be able to display
1946 mode-lines in inverse-video.
1949 ** cplus-md.el has been removed to avoid problems with Custom.
1951 ** New package benchmark.el contains simple support for convenient
1952 timing measurements of code (including the garbage collection component).
1954 ** The default values of paragraph-start and indent-line-function have
1955 been changed to reflect those used in Text mode rather than those used
1956 in Indented-Text mode.
1958 ** If you set `query-replace-skip-read-only' non-nil,
1959 `query-replace' and related functions simply ignore
1960 a match if part of it has a read-only property.
1962 ** The new Lisp library fringe.el controls the apperance of fringes.
1964 ** `cfengine-mode' is a major mode for editing GNU Cfengine
1965 configuration files.
1967 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 21.4
1969 ** New functions posn-at-point and posn-at-x-y returns
1970 click-event-style position information for a given visible buffer
1971 position or for a given window pixel coordinate.
1973 ** Function pos-visible-in-window-p now returns the pixel coordinates
1974 and partial visiblity state of the corresponding row, if the PARTIALLY
1977 ** The function `eql' is now available without requiring the CL package.
1980 ** The new primitive `set-file-times' sets a file's access and
1981 modification times. Magic file name handlers can handle this
1984 ** The display space :width and :align-to text properties are now
1985 supported on text terminals.
1987 ** Support for displaying image slices
1989 *** New display property (slice X Y WIDTH HEIGHT) may be used with
1990 an image property to display only a specific slice of the image.
1992 *** Function insert-image has new optional fourth arg to
1993 specify image slice (X Y WIDTH HEIGHT).
1995 *** New function insert-sliced-image inserts a given image as a
1996 specified number of evenly sized slices (rows x columns).
1998 ** New line-height and line-spacing properties for newline characters
2000 A newline may now have line-height and line-spacing text properties that
2001 control the height of the corresponding display row.
2003 If the line-height property value is 0, the newline does not
2004 contribute to the height of the display row; instead the height of the
2005 newline glyph is reduced. This can be used to tile small images or
2006 image slices without adding blank areas between the images.
2008 If the line-height property value is a positive integer, the value
2009 specifies the minimum line height in pixels. If necessary, the line
2010 height it increased by increasing the line's ascent.
2012 If the line-height property value is a float, the minimum line height
2013 is calculated by multiplying the height of the current face font by
2016 If the line-height property value is t, the minimum line height is
2017 the height of the default frame font.
2019 If the line-spacing property value is an integer, the value is used as
2020 additional space to put after the display line; this overrides the
2021 default frame line-spacing and any buffer local value of the
2022 line-spacing variable.
2024 If the line-spacing property value is a float, the value is multiplied
2025 by the current height of the display row to determine the additional
2026 space to put after the display line.
2028 ** Enhancements to stretch display properties
2030 The display property stretch specification form `(space PROPS)', where
2031 PROPS is a property list now allows pixel based width and height
2032 specifications, as well as enhanced horizontal text alignment.
2034 The value of these properties can now be a (primitive) expression
2035 which is evaluated during redisplay. The following expressions
2038 EXPR ::= NUM | (NUM) | UNIT | ELEM | POS | IMAGE | FORM
2039 NUM ::= INTEGER | FLOAT | SYMBOL
2040 UNIT ::= in | mm | cm | width | height
2041 ELEM ::= left-fringe | right-fringe | left-margin | right-margin
2043 POS ::= left | center | right
2044 FORM ::= (NUM . EXPR) | (OP EXPR ...)
2047 The form `NUM' specifies a fractional width or height of the default
2048 frame font size. The form `(NUM)' specifies an absolute number of
2049 pixels. If a symbol is specified, its buffer-local variable binding
2050 is used. The `in', `mm', and `cm' units specifies the number of
2051 pixels per inch, milli-meter, and centi-meter, resp. The `width' and
2052 `height' units correspond to the width and height of the current face
2053 font. An image specification corresponds to the width or height of
2056 The `left-fringe', `right-fringe', `left-margin', `right-margin',
2057 `scroll-bar', and `text' elements specify to the width of the
2058 corresponding area of the window.
2060 The `left', `center', and `right' positions can be used with :align-to
2061 to specify a position relative to the left edge, center, or right edge
2062 of the text area. One of the above window elements (except `text')
2063 can also be used with :align-to to specify that the position is
2064 relative to the left edge of the given area. Once the base offset for
2065 a relative position has been set (by the first occurrence of one of
2066 these symbols), further occurences of these symbols are interpreted as
2067 the width of the area.
2069 For example, to align to the center of the left-margin, use
2070 :align-to (+ left-margin (0.5 . left-margin))
2072 If no specific base offset is set for alignment, it is always relative
2073 to the left edge of the text area. For example, :align-to 0 in a
2074 header-line aligns with the first text column in the text area.
2076 The value of the form `(NUM . EXPR)' is the value of NUM multiplied by
2077 the value of the expression EXPR. For example, (2 . in) specifies a
2078 width of 2 inches, while (0.5 . IMAGE) specifies half the width (or
2079 height) of the specified image.
2081 The form `(+ EXPR ...)' adds up the value of the expressions.
2082 The form `(- EXPR ...)' negates or subtracts the value of the expressions.
2084 ** New macro with-local-quit temporarily sets inhibit-quit to nil for use
2085 around potentially blocking or long-running code in timers
2086 and post-command-hooks.
2089 ** New face attribute `min-colors' can be used to tailor the face color
2090 to the number of colors supported by a display, and define the
2091 foreground and background colors accordingly so that they look best on
2092 a terminal that supports at least this many colors. This is now the
2093 preferred method for defining default faces in a way that makes a good
2094 use of the capabilities of the display.
2096 ** New function 'define-fringe-bitmap' can now be used to change the
2097 built-in fringe bitmaps, as well as create new fringe bitmaps.
2098 The return value is a number identifying the new fringe bitmap.
2100 To change a built-in bitmap, do (require 'fringe) and identify the
2101 bitmap to change with the value of the corresponding symbol, like
2102 `left-truncation-fringe-bitmap' or `continued-line-fringe-bitmap'.
2104 ** New function 'destroy-fringe-bitmap' may be used to destroy a
2105 previously created bitmap, or restore a built-in bitmap.
2107 ** New function 'set-fringe-bitmap-face' can now be used to set a
2108 specific face to be used for a specific fringe bitmap. Normally,
2109 this should be a face derived from the `fringe' face, specifying
2110 the foreground color as the desired color of the bitmap.
2112 ** There are new display properties, left-fringe and right-fringe,
2113 that can be used to show a specific bitmap in the left or right fringe
2114 bitmap of the display line.
2116 Format is 'display '(left-fringe BITMAP [FACE]), where BITMAP is a
2117 number identifying a fringe bitmap, either built-in or as returned by
2118 `define-fringe-bitmap', and FACE is an optional face name to be used
2119 for displaying the bitmap.
2121 ** New function `fringe-bitmaps-at-pos' returns a cons (LEFT . RIGHT)
2122 identifying the current fringe bitmaps in the display line at a given
2123 buffer position. A nil value means no bitmap.
2125 ** Multiple overlay arrows can now be defined and managed via the new
2126 variable `overlay-arrow-variable-list'. It contains a list of
2127 varibles which contain overlay arrow position markers, including
2128 the original `overlay-arrow-position' variable.
2130 Each variable on this list may have individual `overlay-arrow-string'
2131 and `overlay-arrow-bitmap' properties that specify an overlay arrow
2132 string (for non-window terminals) or fringe bitmap (for window
2133 systems) to display at the corresponding overlay arrow position.
2134 If either property is not set, the default `overlay-arrow-string' or
2135 'overlay-arrow-fringe-bitmap' will be used.
2138 ** New function `line-number-at-pos' returns line number of current
2139 line in current buffer, or if optional buffer position is given, line
2140 number of corresponding line in current buffer.
2142 ** The default value of `sentence-end' is now defined using the new
2143 variable `sentence-end-without-space' which contains such characters
2144 that end a sentence without following spaces.
2146 ** The function `sentence-end' should be used to obtain the value of
2147 the variable `sentence-end'. If the variable `sentence-end' is nil,
2148 then this function returns the regexp constructed from the variables
2149 `sentence-end-without-period', `sentence-end-double-space' and
2150 `sentence-end-without-space'.
2153 ** The flags, width, and precision options for %-specifications in function
2154 `format' are now documented. Some flags that were accepted but not
2155 implemented (such as "*") are no longer accepted.
2157 ** New function `macroexpand-all' expands all macros in a form.
2158 It is similar to the Common-Lisp function of the same name.
2159 One difference is that it guarantees to return the original argument
2160 if no expansion is done, which may be tested using `eq'.
2163 ** New function `delete-dups' destructively removes `equal' duplicates
2164 from a list. Of several `equal' occurrences of an element in the list,
2165 the first one is kept.
2168 ** `declare' is now a macro. This change was made mostly for
2169 documentation purposes and should have no real effect on Lisp code.
2171 ** The new hook `before-save-hook' is invoked by `basic-save-buffer'
2172 before saving buffers. This allows packages to perform various final
2173 tasks, for example; it can be used by the copyright package to make
2174 sure saved files have the current year in any copyright headers.
2177 ** The function `insert-for-yank' now supports strings where the
2178 `yank-handler' property does not span the first character of the
2179 string. The old behavior is available if you call
2180 `insert-for-yank-1' instead.
2182 ** New function `get-char-property-and-overlay' accepts the same
2183 arguments as `get-char-property' and returns a cons whose car is the
2184 return value of `get-char-property' called with those arguments and
2185 whose cdr is the overlay in which the property was found, or nil if
2186 it was found as a text property or not found at all.
2188 ** The mouse pointer shape in void text areas (i.e. after the end of a
2189 line or below the last line in the buffer) of the text window is now
2190 controlled by the new variable `void-text-area-pointer'. The default
2191 is to use the `arrow' (non-text) pointer. Other choices are `text'
2192 (or nil), `hand', `vdrag', `hdrag', `modeline', and `hourglass'.
2194 ** The mouse pointer shape over an image can now be controlled by the
2195 :pointer image property.
2197 ** The mouse pointer shape over ordinary text or images may now be
2198 controlled/overriden via the `pointer' text property.
2200 ** Images may now have an associated image map via the :map property.
2202 An image map is an alist where each element has the format (AREA ID PLIST).
2203 An AREA is specified as either a rectangle, a circle, or a polygon:
2204 A rectangle is a cons (rect . ((x0 . y0) . (x1 . y1))) specifying the
2205 pixel coordinates of the upper left and bottom right corners.
2206 A circle is a cons (circle . ((x0 . y0) . r)) specifying the center
2207 and the radius of the circle; r may be a float or integer.
2208 A polygon is a cons (poly . [x0 y0 x1 y1 ...]) where each pair in the
2209 vector describes one corner in the polygon.
2211 When the mouse pointer is above a hot-spot area of an image, the
2212 PLIST of that hot-spot is consulted; if it contains a `help-echo'
2213 property it defines a tool-tip for the hot-spot, and if it contains
2214 a `pointer' property, it defines the shape of the mouse cursor when
2215 it is over the hot-spot. See the variable 'void-area-text-pointer'
2216 for possible pointer shapes.
2218 When you click the mouse when the mouse pointer is over a hot-spot,
2219 an event is composed by combining the ID of the hot-spot with the
2220 mouse event, e.g. [area4 mouse-1] if the hot-spot's ID is `area4'.
2222 ** Mouse event enhancements:
2224 *** Mouse clicks on fringes now generates left-fringe or right-fringes
2225 events, rather than a text area click event.
2227 *** Mouse clicks in the left and right marginal areas now includes a
2228 sensible buffer position corresponding to the first character in the
2229 corresponding text row.
2231 *** Function `mouse-set-point' now works for events outside text area.
2234 *** Mouse events now includes buffer position for all event types.
2237 *** `posn-point' now returns buffer position for non-text area events.
2240 *** New function `posn-area' returns window area clicked on (nil means
2244 *** Mouse events include actual glyph column and row for all event types.
2247 *** New function `posn-actual-col-row' returns actual glyph coordinates.
2250 *** Mouse events may now include image object in addition to string object.
2253 *** Mouse events include relative x and y pixel coordinates relative to
2254 the top left corner of the object (image or character) clicked on.
2257 *** Mouse events include the pixel width and height of the object
2258 (image or character) clicked on.
2261 *** New functions 'posn-object', 'posn-object-x-y', and
2262 'posn-object-width-height' return the image or string object of a mouse
2263 click, the x and y pixel coordinates relative to the top left corner
2264 of that object, and the total width and height of that object.
2266 ** New function `force-window-update' can initiate a full redisplay of
2267 one or all windows. Normally, this is not needed as changes in window
2268 contents are detected automatically. However, certain implicit
2269 changes to mode lines, header lines, or display properties may require
2270 forcing an explicit window update.
2272 ** New function `redirect-debugging-output' can be used to redirect
2273 debugging output on the stderr file handle to a file.
2276 ** `split-string' now includes null substrings in the returned list if
2277 the optional argument SEPARATORS is non-nil and there are matches for
2278 SEPARATORS at the beginning or end of the string. If SEPARATORS is
2279 nil, or if the new optional third argument OMIT-NULLS is non-nil, all
2280 empty matches are omitted from the returned list.
2283 ** `makehash' is now obsolete. Use `make-hash-table' instead.
2286 ** If optional third argument APPEND to `add-to-list' is non-nil, a
2287 new element gets added at the end of the list instead of at the
2288 beginning. This change actually occurred in Emacs-21.1, but was not
2291 ** Major modes can define `eldoc-print-current-symbol-info-function'
2292 locally to provide Eldoc functionality by some method appropriate to
2296 ** New coding system property `mime-text-unsuitable' indicates that
2297 the coding system's `mime-charset' is not suitable for MIME text
2301 ** The argument to forward-word, backward-word, forward-to-indentation
2302 and backward-to-indentation is now optional, and defaults to 1.
2305 ** (char-displayable-p CHAR) returns non-nil if Emacs ought to be able
2306 to display CHAR. More precisely, if the selected frame's fontset has
2307 a font to display the character set that CHAR belongs to.
2309 Fontsets can specify a font on a per-character basis; when the fontset
2310 does that, this value may not be accurate.
2313 ** The new function `window-inside-edges' returns the edges of the
2314 actual text portion of the window, not including the scroll bar or
2315 divider line, the fringes, the display margins, the header line and
2319 ** The new functions `window-pixel-edges' and `window-inside-pixel-edges'
2320 return window edges in units of pixels, rather than columns and lines.
2323 ** The kill-buffer-hook is now permanent-local.
2326 ** `select-window' takes an optional second argument `norecord', like
2330 ** The new macro `with-selected-window' temporarily switches the
2331 selected window without impacting the order of buffer-list.
2334 ** The `keymap' property now also works at the ends of overlays and
2335 text-properties, according to their stickiness. This also means that it
2336 works with empty overlays. The same hold for the `local-map' property.
2339 ** (map-keymap FUNCTION KEYMAP) applies the function to each binding
2343 ** VC changes for backends:
2344 *** (vc-switches BACKEND OPERATION) is a new function for use by backends.
2345 *** The new `find-version' backend function replaces the `destfile'
2346 parameter of the `checkout' backend function.
2347 Old code still works thanks to a default `find-version' behavior that
2348 uses the old `destfile' parameter.
2351 ** The new macro dynamic-completion-table supports using functions
2352 as a dynamic completion table.
2354 (dynamic-completion-table FUN)
2356 FUN is called with one argument, the string for which completion is required,
2357 and it should return an alist containing all the intended possible
2358 completions. This alist may be a full list of possible completions so that FUN
2359 can ignore the value of its argument. If completion is performed in the
2360 minibuffer, FUN will be called in the buffer from which the minibuffer was
2361 entered. dynamic-completion-table then computes the completion.
2364 ** The new macro lazy-completion-table initializes a variable
2365 as a lazy completion table.
2367 (lazy-completion-table VAR FUN &rest ARGS)
2369 If the completion table VAR is used for the first time (e.g., by passing VAR
2370 as an argument to `try-completion'), the function FUN is called with arguments
2371 ARGS. FUN must return the completion table that will be stored in VAR. If
2372 completion is requested in the minibuffer, FUN will be called in the buffer
2373 from which the minibuffer was entered. The return value of
2374 `lazy-completion-table' must be used to initialize the value of VAR.
2377 ** `minor-mode-list' now holds a list of minor mode commands.
2380 ** The new function `modify-all-frames-parameters' modifies parameters
2381 for all (existing and future) frames.
2384 ** `sit-for' can now be called with args (SECONDS &optional NODISP).
2387 ** New standard font-lock face `font-lock-preprocessor-face'.
2390 ** The macro `with-syntax-table' does not copy the table any more.
2393 ** The variable `face-font-rescale-alist' specifies how much larger
2394 (or smaller) font we should use. For instance, if the value is
2395 '((SOME-FONTNAME-PATTERN . 1.3)) and a face requests a font of 10
2396 point, we actually use a font of 13 point if the font matches
2397 SOME-FONTNAME-PATTERN.
2400 ** The function `number-sequence' returns a list of equally-separated
2401 numbers. For instance, (number-sequence 4 9) returns (4 5 6 7 8 9).
2402 By default, the separation is 1, but you can specify a different separation
2403 as the third argument. (number-sequence 1.5 6 2) returns (1.5 3.5 5.5).
2406 ** `file-chase-links' now takes an optional second argument LIMIT which
2407 specifies the maximum number of links to chase through. If after that
2408 many iterations the file name obtained is still a symbolic link,
2409 `file-chase-links' returns it anyway.
2412 ** `set-fontset-font', `fontset-info', `fontset-font' now operate on
2413 the default fontset if the argument NAME is nil..
2416 ** The escape sequence \s is now interpreted as a SPACE character,
2417 unless it is followed by a `-' in a character constant (e.g. ?\s-A),
2418 in which case it is still interpreted as the super modifier.
2419 In strings, \s is always interpreted as a space.
2422 ** New function `set-process-filter-multibyte' sets the multibyteness
2423 of a string given to a process's filter.
2426 ** New function `process-filter-multibyte-p' returns t if
2427 a string given to a process's filter is multibyte.
2430 ** A filter function of a process is called with a multibyte string if
2431 the filter's multibyteness is t. That multibyteness is decided by the
2432 value of `default-enable-multibyte-characters' when the process is
2433 created and can be changed later by `set-process-filter-multibyte'.
2436 ** If a process's coding system is raw-text or no-conversion and its
2437 buffer is multibyte, the output of the process is at first converted
2438 to multibyte by `string-to-multibyte' then inserted in the buffer.
2439 Previously, it was converted to multibyte by `string-as-multibyte',
2440 which was not compatible with the behaviour of file reading.
2443 ** New function `string-to-multibyte' converts a unibyte string to a
2444 multibyte string with the same individual character codes.
2447 ** New variables `gc-elapsed' and `gcs-done' provide extra information
2448 on garbage collection.
2451 ** New function `decode-coding-inserted-region' decodes a region as if
2452 it is read from a file without decoding.
2455 ** New function `locale-info' accesses locale information.
2458 ** `save-selected-window' now saves and restores the selected window
2459 of every frame. This way, it restores everything that can be changed
2460 by calling `select-window'.
2463 ** `easy-menu-define' now allows you to use nil for the symbol name
2464 if you don't need to give the menu a name. If you install the menu
2465 into other keymaps right away (MAPS is non-nil), it usually doesn't
2466 need to have a name.
2468 ** Byte compiler changes:
2471 *** `(featurep 'xemacs)' is treated by the compiler as nil. This
2472 helps to avoid noisy compiler warnings in code meant to run under both
2473 Emacs and XEmacs and may sometimes make the result significantly more
2474 efficient. Since byte code from recent versions of XEmacs won't
2475 generally run in Emacs and vice versa, this optimization doesn't lose
2479 *** You can avoid warnings for possibly-undefined symbols with a
2480 simple convention that the compiler understands. (This is mostly
2481 useful in code meant to be portable to different Emacs versions.)
2482 Write forms like the following, or code that macroexpands into such
2485 (if (fboundp 'foo) <then> <else>)
2486 (if (boundp 'foo) <then> <else)
2488 In the first case, using `foo' as a function inside the <then> form
2489 won't produce a warning if it's not defined as a function, and in the
2490 second case, using `foo' as a variable won't produce a warning if it's
2491 unbound. The test must be in exactly one of the above forms (after
2492 macro expansion), but such tests may be nested. Note that `when' and
2493 `unless' expand to `if', but `cond' doesn't.
2496 *** The new macro `with-no-warnings' suppresses all compiler warnings
2497 inside its body. In terms of execution, it is equivalent to `progn'.
2500 ** The new translation table `translation-table-for-input'
2501 is used for customizing self-insertion. The character to
2502 be inserted is translated through it.
2505 ** `load-history' can now have elements of the form (t . FUNNAME),
2506 which means FUNNAME was previously defined as an autoload (before the
2507 current file redefined it).
2510 ** New Lisp library testcover.el works with edebug to help you determine
2511 whether you've tested all your Lisp code. Function testcover-start
2512 instruments all functions in a given file. Then test your code. Function
2513 testcover-mark-all adds overlay "splotches" to the Lisp file's buffer to
2514 show where coverage is lacking. Command testcover-next-mark (bind it to
2515 a key!) will move point forward to the next spot that has a splotch.
2517 *** Normally, a red splotch indicates the form was never completely evaluated;
2518 a brown splotch means it always evaluated to the same value. The red
2519 splotches are skipped for forms that can't possibly complete their evaluation,
2520 such as `error'. The brown splotches are skipped for forms that are expected
2521 to always evaluate to the same value, such as (setq x 14).
2523 *** For difficult cases, you can add do-nothing macros to your code to help
2524 out the test coverage tool. The macro `noreturn' suppresses a red splotch.
2525 It is an error if the argument to `noreturn' does return. The macro 1value
2526 suppresses a brown splotch for its argument. This macro is a no-op except
2527 during test-coverage -- then it signals an error if the argument actually
2528 returns differing values.
2531 ** New function unsafep returns nil if the given Lisp form can't possibly
2532 do anything dangerous; otherwise it returns a reason why the form might be
2533 unsafe (calls dangerous function, alters global variable, etc).
2536 ** The new variable `print-continuous-numbering', when non-nil, says
2537 that successive calls to print functions should use the same
2538 numberings for circular structure references. This is only relevant
2539 when `print-circle' is non-nil.
2541 When you bind `print-continuous-numbering' to t, you should
2542 also bind `print-number-table' to nil.
2545 ** When using non-toolkit scroll bars with the default width,
2546 the scroll-bar-width frame parameter value is nil.
2549 ** The new function copy-abbrev-table returns a new abbrev table that
2550 is a copy of a given abbrev table.
2553 ** The option --script FILE runs Emacs in batch mode and loads FILE.
2554 It is useful for writing Emacs Lisp shell script files, because they
2555 can start with this line:
2557 #!/usr/bin/emacs --script
2560 ** A function's docstring can now hold the function's usage info on
2561 its last line. It should match the regexp "\n\n(fn.*)\\'".
2564 ** New CCL functions `lookup-character' and `lookup-integer' access
2565 hash tables defined by the Lisp function `define-translation-hash-table'.
2568 ** The new function `minibufferp' returns non-nil if its optional buffer
2569 argument is a minibuffer. If the argument is omitted it defaults to
2573 ** There is a new Warnings facility; see the functions `warn'
2574 and `display-warning'.
2577 ** The functions all-completions and try-completion now accept lists
2578 of strings as well as hash-tables additionally to alists, obarrays
2579 and functions. Furthermore, the function `test-completion' is now
2583 ** When pure storage overflows while dumping, Emacs now prints how
2584 much pure storage it will approximately need.
2587 ** The new variable `auto-coding-functions' lets you specify functions
2588 to examine a file being visited and deduce the proper coding system
2589 for it. (If the coding system is detected incorrectly for a specific
2590 file, you can put a `coding:' tags to override it.)
2593 ** The new function `merge-coding-systems' fills in unspecified aspects
2594 of one coding system from another coding system.
2597 ** The variable `safe-local-eval-forms' specifies a list of forms that
2598 are ok to evaluate when they appear in an `eval' local variables
2599 specification. Normally Emacs asks for confirmation before evaluating
2600 such a form, but if the form appears in this list, no confirmation is
2604 ** If a function has a non-nil `safe-local-eval-function' property,
2605 that means it is ok to evaluate some calls to that function when it
2606 appears in an `eval' local variables specification. If the property
2607 is t, then any form calling that function with constant arguments is
2608 ok. If the property is a function or list of functions, they are called
2609 with the form as argument, and if any returns t, the form is ok to call.
2611 If the form is not "ok to call", that means Emacs asks for
2612 confirmation as before.
2615 ** Controlling the default left and right fringe widths.
2617 The default left and right fringe widths for all windows of a frame
2618 can now be controlled by setting the `left-fringe' and `right-fringe'
2619 frame parameters to an integer value specifying the width in pixels.
2620 Setting the width to 0 effectively removes the corresponding fringe.
2622 The actual default fringe widths for the frame may deviate from the
2623 specified widths, since the combined fringe widths must match an
2624 integral number of columns. The extra width is distributed evenly
2625 between the left and right fringe. For force a specific fringe width,
2626 specify the width as a negative integer (if both widths are negative,
2627 only the left fringe gets the specified width).
2629 Setting the width to nil (the default), restores the default fringe
2630 width which is the minimum number of pixels necessary to display any
2631 of the currently defined fringe bitmaps. The width of the built-in
2632 fringe bitmaps is 8 pixels.
2635 ** Per-window fringes settings
2637 Windows can now have their own individual fringe widths and position
2640 To control the fringe widths of a window, either set the buffer-local
2641 variables `left-fringe-width', `right-fringe-width', or call
2642 `set-window-fringes'.
2644 To control the fringe position in a window, that is, whether fringes
2645 are positioned between the display margins and the window's text area,
2646 or at the edges of the window, either set the buffer-local variable
2647 `fringes-outside-margins' or call `set-window-fringes'.
2649 The function `window-fringes' can be used to obtain the current
2650 settings. To make `left-fringe-width', `right-fringe-width', and
2651 `fringes-outside-margins' take effect, you must set them before
2652 displaying the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force
2653 an update of the display margins.
2656 ** Per-window vertical scroll-bar settings
2658 Windows can now have their own individual scroll-bar settings
2659 controlling the width and position of scroll-bars.
2661 To control the scroll-bar of a window, either set the buffer-local
2662 variables `scroll-bar-mode' and `scroll-bar-width', or call
2663 `set-window-scroll-bars'. The function `window-scroll-bars' can be
2664 used to obtain the current settings. To make `scroll-bar-mode' and
2665 `scroll-bar-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
2666 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
2667 of the display margins.
2670 ** The function `set-window-buffer' now has an optional third argument
2671 KEEP-MARGINS which will preserve the window's current margin, fringe,
2672 and scroll-bar settings if non-nil.
2675 ** Renamed file hooks to follow the convention:
2676 find-file-hooks to find-file-hook,
2677 find-file-not-found-hooks to find-file-not-found-functions,
2678 write-file-hooks to write-file-functions,
2679 write-contents-hooks to write-contents-functions.
2680 Marked local-write-file-hooks as obsolete (use the LOCAL arg of `add-hook').
2683 ** The new variable `delete-frame-functions' replaces `delete-frame-hook'.
2684 It was renamed to follow the naming conventions for abnormal hooks. The old
2685 name remains available as an alias, but has been marked obsolete.
2688 ** The `read-file-name' function now takes an additional argument which
2689 specifies a predicate which the file name read must satify. The
2690 new variable `read-file-name-predicate' contains the predicate argument
2691 while reading the file name from the minibuffer; the predicate in this
2692 variable is used by read-file-name-internal to filter the completion list.
2695 ** The new variable `read-file-name-function' can be used by lisp code
2696 to override the internal read-file-name function.
2699 ** The new function `read-directory-name' can be used instead of
2700 `read-file-name' to read a directory name; when used, completion
2701 will only show directories.
2704 ** The new function `file-remote-p' tests a file name and returns
2705 non-nil if it specifies a remote file (one that Emacs accesses using
2706 its own special methods and not directly through the file system).
2709 ** When a Lisp file uses CL functions at run-time, compiling the file
2710 now issues warnings about these calls, unless the file performs
2711 (require 'cl) when loaded.
2714 ** The `defmacro' form may contain declarations specifying how to
2715 indent the macro in Lisp mode and how to debug it with Edebug. The
2716 syntax of defmacro has been extended to
2718 (defmacro NAME LAMBDA-LIST [DOC-STRING] [DECLARATION ...] ...)
2720 DECLARATION is a list `(declare DECLARATION-SPECIFIER ...)'. The
2721 declaration specifiers supported are:
2724 Set NAME's `lisp-indent-function' property to INDENT.
2727 Set NAME's `edebug-form-spec' property to DEBUG. (This is
2728 equivalent to writing a `def-edebug-spec' for the macro.
2731 ** Interactive commands can be remapped through keymaps.
2733 This is an alternative to using defadvice or substitute-key-definition
2734 to modify the behavior of a key binding using the normal keymap
2735 binding and lookup functionality.
2737 When a key sequence is bound to a command, and that command is
2738 remapped to another command, that command is run instead of the
2742 Suppose that minor mode my-mode has defined the commands
2743 my-kill-line and my-kill-word, and it wants C-k (and any other key
2744 bound to kill-line) to run the command my-kill-line instead of
2745 kill-line, and likewise it wants to run my-kill-word instead of
2748 Instead of rebinding C-k and the other keys in the minor mode map,
2749 command remapping allows you to directly map kill-line into
2750 my-kill-line and kill-word into my-kill-word through the minor mode
2751 map using define-key:
2753 (define-key my-mode-map [remap kill-line] 'my-kill-line)
2754 (define-key my-mode-map [remap kill-word] 'my-kill-word)
2756 Now, when my-mode is enabled, and the user enters C-k or M-d,
2757 the commands my-kill-line and my-kill-word are run.
2759 Notice that only one level of remapping is supported. In the above
2760 example, this means that if my-kill-line is remapped to other-kill,
2761 then C-k still runs my-kill-line.
2763 The following changes have been made to provide command remapping:
2765 - Command remappings are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
2766 `remap', i.e. `(define-key MAP [remap CMD] DEF)' remaps command CMD
2767 to definition DEF in keymap MAP. The definition is not limited to
2768 another command; it can be anything accepted for a normal binding.
2770 - The new function `command-remapping' returns the binding for a
2771 remapped command in the current keymaps, or nil if not remapped.
2773 - key-binding now remaps interactive commands unless the optional
2774 third argument NO-REMAP is non-nil.
2776 - where-is-internal now returns nil for a remapped command (e.g.
2777 kill-line if my-mode is enabled), and the actual key binding for
2778 the command it is remapped to (e.g. C-k for my-kill-line).
2779 It also has a new optional fifth argument, NO-REMAP, which inhibits
2780 remapping if non-nil (e.g. it returns C-k for kill-line and
2781 <kill-line> for my-kill-line).
2783 - The new variable `this-original-command' contains the original
2784 command before remapping. It is equal to `this-command' when the
2785 command was not remapped.
2788 ** New variable emulation-mode-map-alists.
2790 Lisp packages using many minor mode keymaps can now maintain their own
2791 keymap alist separate from minor-mode-map-alist by adding their keymap
2795 ** Atomic change groups.
2797 To perform some changes in the current buffer "atomically" so that
2798 they either all succeed or are all undone, use `atomic-change-group'
2799 around the code that makes changes. For instance:
2801 (atomic-change-group
2803 (delete-region x y))
2805 If an error (or other nonlocal exit) occurs inside the body of
2806 `atomic-change-group', it unmakes all the changes in that buffer that
2807 were during the execution of the body. The change group has no effect
2808 on any other buffers--any such changes remain.
2810 If you need something more sophisticated, you can directly call the
2811 lower-level functions that `atomic-change-group' uses. Here is how.
2813 To set up a change group for one buffer, call `prepare-change-group'.
2814 Specify the buffer as argument; it defaults to the current buffer.
2815 This function returns a "handle" for the change group. You must save
2816 the handle to activate the change group and then finish it.
2818 Before you change the buffer again, you must activate the change
2819 group. Pass the handle to `activate-change-group' afterward to
2822 After you make the changes, you must finish the change group. You can
2823 either accept the changes or cancel them all. Call
2824 `accept-change-group' to accept the changes in the group as final;
2825 call `cancel-change-group' to undo them all.
2827 You should use `unwind-protect' to make sure the group is always
2828 finished. The call to `activate-change-group' should be inside the
2829 `unwind-protect', in case the user types C-g just after it runs.
2830 (This is one reason why `prepare-change-group' and
2831 `activate-change-group' are separate functions.) Once you finish the
2832 group, don't use the handle again--don't try to finish the same group
2835 To make a multibuffer change group, call `prepare-change-group' once
2836 for each buffer you want to cover, then use `nconc' to combine the
2837 returned values, like this:
2839 (nconc (prepare-change-group buffer-1)
2840 (prepare-change-group buffer-2))
2842 You can then activate the multibuffer change group with a single call
2843 to `activate-change-group', and finish it with a single call to
2844 `accept-change-group' or `cancel-change-group'.
2846 Nested use of several change groups for the same buffer works as you
2847 would expect. Non-nested use of change groups for the same buffer
2848 will lead to undesirable results, so don't let it happen; the first
2849 change group you start for any given buffer should be the last one
2853 ** New variable char-property-alias-alist.
2855 This variable allows you to create alternative names for text
2856 properties. It works at the same level as `default-text-properties',
2857 although it applies to overlays as well. This variable was introduced
2858 to implement the `font-lock-face' property.
2861 ** New special text property `font-lock-face'.
2863 This property acts like the `face' property, but it is controlled by
2864 M-x font-lock-mode. It is not, strictly speaking, a builtin text
2865 property. Instead, it is implemented inside font-core.el, using the
2866 new variable `char-property-alias-alist'.
2869 ** New function remove-list-of-text-properties.
2871 The new function `remove-list-of-text-properties' is almost the same
2872 as `remove-text-properties'. The only difference is that it takes
2873 a list of property names as argument rather than a property list.
2876 ** New function insert-for-yank.
2878 This function normally works like `insert' but removes the text
2879 properties in the `yank-excluded-properties' list. However, if the
2880 inserted text has a `yank-handler' text property on the first
2881 character of the string, the insertion of the text may be modified in
2882 a number of ways. See the description of `yank-handler' below.
2885 ** New function insert-buffer-substring-as-yank.
2887 This function works like `insert-buffer-substring', but removes the
2888 text properties in the `yank-excluded-properties' list.
2891 ** New function insert-buffer-substring-no-properties.
2893 This function is like insert-buffer-substring, but removes all
2894 text properties from the inserted substring.
2897 ** New `yank-handler' text property may be used to control how
2898 previously killed text on the kill-ring is reinserted.
2900 The value of the yank-handler property must be a list with one to four
2901 elements with the following format:
2902 (FUNCTION PARAM NOEXCLUDE UNDO).
2904 The `insert-for-yank' function looks for a yank-handler property on
2905 the first character on its string argument (typically the first
2906 element on the kill-ring). If a yank-handler property is found,
2907 the normal behaviour of `insert-for-yank' is modified in various ways:
2909 When FUNCTION is present and non-nil, it is called instead of `insert'
2910 to insert the string. FUNCTION takes one argument--the object to insert.
2911 If PARAM is present and non-nil, it replaces STRING as the object
2912 passed to FUNCTION (or `insert'); for example, if FUNCTION is
2913 `yank-rectangle', PARAM should be a list of strings to insert as a
2915 If NOEXCLUDE is present and non-nil, the normal removal of the
2916 yank-excluded-properties is not performed; instead FUNCTION is
2917 responsible for removing those properties. This may be necessary
2918 if FUNCTION adjusts point before or after inserting the object.
2919 If UNDO is present and non-nil, it is a function that will be called
2920 by `yank-pop' to undo the insertion of the current object. It is
2921 called with two arguments, the start and end of the current region.
2922 FUNCTION may set `yank-undo-function' to override the UNDO value.
2924 *** The functions kill-new, kill-append, and kill-region now have an
2925 optional argument to specify the yank-handler text property to put on
2928 *** The function yank-pop will now use a non-nil value of the variable
2929 `yank-undo-function' (instead of delete-region) to undo the previous
2930 yank or yank-pop command (or a call to insert-for-yank). The function
2931 insert-for-yank automatically sets that variable according to the UNDO
2932 element of the string argument's yank-handler text property if present.
2935 ** New function display-supports-face-attributes-p may be used to test
2936 whether a given set of face attributes is actually displayable.
2938 A new predicate `supports' has also been added to the `defface' face
2939 specification language, which can be used to do this test for faces
2940 defined with defface.
2943 ** face-attribute, face-foreground, face-background, and face-stipple now
2944 accept a new optional argument, INHERIT, which controls how face
2945 inheritance is used when determining the value of a face attribute.
2948 ** New functions face-attribute-relative-p and merge-face-attribute
2949 help with handling relative face attributes.
2952 ** Enhancements to process support
2954 *** Function list-processes now has an optional argument; if non-nil,
2955 only the processes whose query-on-exit flag is set are listed.
2957 *** New set-process-query-on-exit-flag and process-query-on-exit-flag
2958 functions. The existing process-kill-without-query function is still
2959 supported, but new code should use the new functions.
2961 *** Function signal-process now accepts a process object or process
2962 name in addition to a process id to identify the signalled process.
2964 *** Processes now have an associated property list where programs can
2965 maintain process state and other per-process related information.
2967 The new functions process-get and process-put are used to access, add,
2968 and modify elements on this property list.
2970 The new low-level functions process-plist and set-process-plist are
2971 used to access and replace the entire property list of a process.
2974 *** Adaptive read buffering of subprocess output.
2976 On some systems, when emacs reads the output from a subprocess, the
2977 output data is read in very small blocks, potentially resulting in
2978 very poor performance. This behaviour can be remedied to some extent
2979 by setting the new variable process-adaptive-read-buffering to a
2980 non-nil value (the default), as it will automatically delay reading
2981 from such processes, to allowing them to produce more output before
2982 emacs tries to read it.
2985 ** Enhanced networking support.
2987 *** There is a new `make-network-process' function which supports
2988 opening of stream and datagram connections to a server, as well as
2989 create a stream or datagram server inside emacs.
2991 - A server is started using :server t arg.
2992 - Datagram connection is selected using :type 'datagram arg.
2993 - A server can open on a random port using :service t arg.
2994 - Local sockets are supported using :family 'local arg.
2995 - Non-blocking connect is supported using :nowait t arg.
2996 - The process' property list may be initialized using :plist PLIST arg;
2997 a copy of the server process' property list is automatically inherited
2998 by new client processes created to handle incoming connections.
3000 To test for the availability of a given feature, use featurep like this:
3001 (featurep 'make-network-process '(:type datagram))
3003 *** Original open-network-stream is now emulated using make-network-process.
3005 *** New function open-network-stream-nowait.
3007 This function initiates a non-blocking connect and returns immediately
3008 without waiting for the connection to be established. It takes the
3009 filter and sentinel functions as arguments; when the non-blocking
3010 connect completes, the sentinel is called with a status string
3011 matching "open" or "failed".
3013 *** New function open-network-stream-server.
3015 This function creates a network server process for a TCP service.
3016 When a client connects to the specified service, a new subprocess
3017 is created to handle the new connection, and the sentinel function
3018 is called for the new process.
3020 *** New functions process-datagram-address and set-process-datagram-address.
3022 These functions are used with datagram-based network processes to get
3023 and set the current address of the remote partner.
3025 *** New function format-network-address.
3027 This function reformats the lisp representation of a network address
3028 to a printable string. For example, an IP address A.B.C.D and port
3029 number P is represented as a five element vector [A B C D P], and the
3030 printable string returned for this vector is "A.B.C.D:P". See the doc
3031 string for other formatting options.
3033 *** By default, the function process-contact still returns (HOST SERVICE)
3034 for a network process. Using the new optional KEY arg, the complete list
3035 of network process properties or a specific property can be selected.
3037 Using :local and :remote as the KEY, the address of the local or
3038 remote end-point is returned. An Inet address is represented as a 5
3039 element vector, where the first 4 elements contain the IP address and
3040 the fifth is the port number.
3042 *** Network processes can now be stopped and restarted with
3043 `stop-process' and `continue-process'. For a server process, no
3044 connections are accepted in the stopped state. For a client process,
3045 no input is received in the stopped state.
3047 *** New function network-interface-list.
3049 This function returns a list of network interface names and their
3050 current network addresses.
3052 *** New function network-interface-info.
3054 This function returns the network address, hardware address, current
3055 status, and other information about a specific network interface.
3058 ** New function copy-tree.
3061 ** New function substring-no-properties.
3064 ** New function minibuffer-selected-window.
3067 ** New function `call-process-shell-command'.
3070 ** The dummy function keys made by easymenu
3071 are now always lower case. If you specify the
3072 menu item name "Ada", for instance, it uses `ada'
3073 as the "key" bound by that key binding.
3075 This is relevant only if Lisp code looks for
3076 the bindings that were made with easymenu.
3079 ** The function `commandp' takes an additional optional
3080 argument. If it is non-nil, then `commandp' checks
3081 for a function that could be called with `call-interactively',
3082 and does not return t for keyboard macros.
3085 ** master-mode.el implements a minor mode for scrolling a slave
3086 buffer without leaving your current buffer, the master buffer.
3088 It can be used by sql.el, for example: the SQL buffer is the master
3089 and its SQLi buffer is the slave. This allows you to scroll the SQLi
3090 buffer containing the output from the SQL buffer containing the
3093 This is how to use sql.el and master.el together: the variable
3094 sql-buffer contains the slave buffer. It is a local variable in the
3097 (add-hook 'sql-mode-hook
3098 (function (lambda ()
3100 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
3101 (add-hook 'sql-set-sqli-hook
3102 (function (lambda ()
3103 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
3106 ** File local variables.
3108 A file local variables list cannot specify a string with text
3109 properties--any specified text properties are discarded.
3112 ** New function window-body-height.
3114 This is like window-height but does not count the mode line
3118 ** New function format-mode-line.
3120 This returns the mode-line or header-line of the selected (or a
3121 specified) window as a string with or without text properties.
3124 ** New functions `lax-plist-get' and `lax-plist-put'.
3126 These functions are like `plist-get' and `plist-put' except that they
3127 compare the property name using `equal' rather than `eq'.
3130 ** New function `tool-bar-local-item-from-menu'
3132 The `tool-bar-add-item-from-menu' must not be used (as previously
3133 recommended) for making entries in the tool bar for local keymaps.
3134 Instead, use the function `tool-bar-local-item-from-menu', which lets
3135 you specify the map to use as an argument.
3138 ** The function `atan' now accepts an optional second argument.
3140 When called with 2 arguments, as in `(atan Y X)', `atan' returns the
3141 angle in radians between the vector [X, Y] and the X axis. (This is
3142 equivalent to the standard C library function `atan2'.)
3145 ** You can now make a window as short as one line.
3147 A window that is just one line tall does not display either a mode
3148 line or a header line, even if the variables `mode-line-format' and
3149 `header-line-format' call for them. A window that is two lines tall
3150 cannot display both a mode line and a header line at once; if the
3151 variables call for both, only the mode line actually appears.
3154 ** The new frame parameter `tty-color-mode' specifies the mode to use
3155 for color support on character terminal frames. Its value can be a
3156 number of colors to support, or a symbol. See the Emacs Lisp
3157 Reference manual for more detailed documentation.
3160 ** The new mode-line construct `(:propertize ELT PROPS...)' can be
3161 used to add text properties to mode-line elements.
3164 ** Mode line display ignores text properties as well as the
3165 :propertize and :eval forms in the value of a variable whose
3166 `risky-local-variable' property is nil.
3169 ** The new `%i' and `%I' constructs for `mode-line-format' can be used
3170 to display the size of the accessible part of the buffer on the mode
3174 ** Indentation of simple and extended loop forms has been added to the
3175 cl-indent package. The new user options
3176 `lisp-loop-keyword-indentation', `lisp-loop-forms-indentation', and
3177 `lisp-simple-loop-indentation' can be used to customize the
3178 indentation of keywords and forms in loop forms.
3181 ** Indentation of backquoted forms has been made customizable in the
3182 cl-indent package. See the new user option `lisp-backquote-indentation'.
3185 ** Already true in Emacs 21.1, but not emphasized clearly enough:
3187 Multibyte buffers can now faithfully record all 256 character codes
3188 from 0 to 255. As a result, most of the past reasons to use unibyte
3189 buffers no longer exist. We only know of three reasons to use them
3192 1. If you prefer to use unibyte text all of the time.
3194 2. For reading files into temporary buffers, when you want to avoid
3195 the time it takes to convert the format.
3197 3. For binary files where format conversion would be pointless and
3201 ** If text has a `keymap' property, that keymap takes precedence
3202 over minor mode keymaps.
3205 ** A hex escape in a string forces the string to be multibyte.
3206 An octal escape makes it unibyte.
3209 ** At the end of a command, point moves out from within invisible
3210 text, in the same way it moves out from within text covered by an
3211 image or composition property.
3213 This makes it generally unnecessary to mark invisible text as intangible.
3214 This is particularly good because the intangible property often has
3215 unexpected side-effects since the property applies to everything
3216 (including `goto-char', ...) whereas this new code is only run after
3217 post-command-hook and thus does not care about intermediate states.
3220 ** field-beginning and field-end now accept an additional optional
3224 ** define-abbrev now accepts an optional argument SYSTEM-FLAG. If
3225 non-nil, this marks the abbrev as a "system" abbrev, which means that
3226 it won't be stored in the user's abbrevs file if he saves the abbrevs.
3227 Major modes that predefine some abbrevs should always specify this
3231 ** Support for Mocklisp has been removed.
3234 ** The function insert-string is now obsolete.
3237 ** The precedence of file-name-handlers has been changed.
3238 Instead of blindly choosing the first handler that matches,
3239 find-file-name-handler now gives precedence to a file-name handler
3240 that matches near the end of the file name. More specifically, the
3241 handler whose (match-beginning 0) is the largest is chosen.
3242 In case of ties, the old "first matched" rule applies.
3245 ** Dense keymaps now handle inheritance correctly.
3246 Previously a dense keymap would hide all of the simple-char key
3247 bindings of the parent keymap.
3250 ** jit-lock obeys a new text-property `jit-lock-defer-multiline'.
3251 If a piece of text with that property gets contextually refontified
3252 (see jit-lock-defer-contextually), then all of that text will
3253 be refontified. This is useful when the syntax of a textual element
3254 depends on text several lines further down (and when font-lock-multiline
3255 is not appropriate to solve that problem). For example in Perl:
3263 Adding/removing the last `e' changes the `bar' from being a piece of
3264 text to being a piece of code, so you'd put a jit-lock-defer-multiline
3265 property over the second half of the command to force (deferred)
3266 refontification of `bar' whenever the `e' is added/removed.
3269 ** describe-vector now takes a second argument `describer' which is
3270 called to print the entries' values. It defaults to `princ'.
3272 ** defcustom and other custom declarations now use a default group
3273 (the last prior group defined in the same file) when no :group was given.
3276 ** emacsserver now runs pre-command-hook and post-command-hook when
3277 it receives a request from emacsclient.
3280 ** The variable `recursive-load-depth-limit' has been deleted.
3281 Emacs now signals an error if the same file is loaded with more
3282 than 3 levels of nesting.
3285 ** If a major mode function has a non-nil `no-clone-indirect'
3286 property, `clone-indirect-buffer' signals an error if you use
3290 ** In `replace-match', the replacement text no longer inherits
3291 properties from surrounding text.
3294 ** New function `buffer-local-value'.
3296 This function returns the buffer-local binding of VARIABLE (a symbol)
3297 in buffer BUFFER. If VARIABLE does not have a buffer-local binding in
3298 buffer BUFFER, it returns the default value of VARIABLE instead.
3301 ** New function `text-clone-create'. Text clones are chunks of text
3302 that are kept identical by transparently propagating changes from one
3306 ** font-lock can manage arbitrary text-properties beside `face'.
3307 *** the FACENAME returned in font-lock-keywords can be a list
3308 of the form (face FACE PROP1 VAL1 PROP2 VAL2 ...) so you can set
3309 other properties than `face'.
3310 *** font-lock-extra-managed-props can be set to make sure those extra
3311 properties are automatically cleaned up by font-lock.
3314 ** The special treatment of faces whose names are of the form `fg:COLOR'
3315 or `bg:COLOR' has been removed. Lisp programs should use the
3316 `defface' facility for defining faces with specific colors, or use
3317 the feature of specifying the face attributes :foreground and :background
3318 directly in the `face' property instead of using a named face.
3321 ** The new function `run-mode-hooks' and the new macro `delay-mode-hooks'
3322 are used by define-derived-mode to make sure the mode hook for the
3323 parent mode is run at the end of the child mode.
3326 ** define-minor-mode now accepts arbitrary additional keyword arguments
3327 and simply passes them to defcustom, if applicable.
3330 ** define-derived-mode by default creates a new empty abbrev table.
3331 It does not copy abbrevs from the parent mode's abbrev table.
3334 ** `provide' and `featurep' now accept an optional second argument
3335 to test/provide subfeatures. Also `provide' now checks `after-load-alist'
3336 and runs any code associated with the provided feature.
3339 ** Functions `file-name-sans-extension' and `file-name-extension' now
3340 ignore the leading dots in file names, so that file names such as
3341 `.emacs' are treated as extensionless.
3344 ** Functions `user-uid' and `user-real-uid' now return floats if the
3345 user UID doesn't fit in a Lisp integer. Function `user-full-name'
3346 accepts a float as UID parameter.
3349 ** `define-key-after' now accepts keys longer than 1.
3352 ** The local variable `no-byte-compile' in elisp files is now obeyed.
3355 ** The Emacs Lisp byte-compiler now displays the actual line and
3356 character position of errors, where possible. Additionally, the form
3357 of its warning and error messages have been brought more in line with
3358 the output of other GNU tools.
3361 ** New functions `keymap-prompt' and `current-active-maps'.
3364 ** New function `describe-buffer-bindings'.
3367 ** New vars `exec-suffixes' and `load-suffixes' used when
3368 searching for an executable resp. an elisp file.
3371 ** Variable aliases have been implemented:
3373 *** defvaralias ALIAS-VAR BASE-VAR [DOCSTRING]
3375 This function defines the symbol ALIAS-VAR as a variable alias for
3376 symbol BASE-VAR. This means that retrieving the value of ALIAS-VAR
3377 returns the value of BASE-VAR, and changing the value of ALIAS-VAR
3378 changes the value of BASE-VAR.
3380 DOCSTRING, if present, is the documentation for ALIAS-VAR; else it has
3381 the same documentation as BASE-VAR.
3383 *** indirect-variable VARIABLE
3385 This function returns the variable at the end of the chain of aliases
3386 of VARIABLE. If VARIABLE is not a symbol, or if VARIABLE is not
3387 defined as an alias, the function returns VARIABLE.
3389 It might be noteworthy that variables aliases work for all kinds of
3390 variables, including buffer-local and frame-local variables.
3393 ** Functions from `post-gc-hook' are run at the end of garbage
3394 collection. The hook is run with GC inhibited, so use it with care.
3397 ** If the second argument to `copy-file' is the name of a directory,
3398 the file is copied to that directory instead of signaling an error.
3401 ** The variables most-positive-fixnum and most-negative-fixnum
3402 hold the largest and smallest possible integer values.
3405 ** On MS Windows, locale-coding-system is used to interact with the OS.
3406 The Windows specific variable w32-system-coding-system, which was
3407 formerly used for that purpose is now an alias for locale-coding-system.
3409 ** Functions y-or-n-p, read-char, read-key-sequence and the like, that
3410 display a prompt but don't use the minibuffer, now display the prompt
3411 using the text properties (esp. the face) of the prompt string.
3413 ** New function x-send-client-message sends a client message when
3416 ** Arguments for remove-overlays are now optional, so that you can remove
3417 all overlays in the buffer by just calling (remove-overlay).
3421 *** The new package gdb-ui.el provides an enhanced graphical interface to
3422 GDB. You can interact with GDB through the GUD buffer in the usual way, but
3423 there are also further buffers which control the execution and describe the
3424 state of your program. It separates the input/output of your program from
3425 that of GDB and watches expressions in the speedbar. It also uses features of
3426 Emacs 21 such as the display margin for breakpoints, and the toolbar.
3428 Use M-x gdba to start GDB-UI.
3430 *** The new package syntax.el provides an efficient way to find the
3431 current syntactic context (as returned by parse-partial-sexp).
3433 *** The new package bindat.el provides functions to unpack and pack
3434 binary data structures, such as network packets, to and from Lisp
3437 *** The TCL package tcl-mode.el was replaced by tcl.el.
3438 This was actually done in Emacs-21.1, and was not documented.
3440 *** The new package button.el implements simple and fast `clickable buttons'
3441 in emacs buffers. `buttons' are much lighter-weight than the `widgets'
3442 implemented by widget.el, and can be used by lisp code that doesn't
3443 require the full power of widgets. Emacs uses buttons for such things
3444 as help and apropos buffers.
3447 * Installation changes in Emacs 21.3
3449 ** Support for GNU/Linux on little-endian MIPS and on IBM S390 has
3453 * Changes in Emacs 21.3
3455 ** The obsolete C mode (c-mode.el) has been removed to avoid problems
3458 ** UTF-16 coding systems are available, encoding the same characters
3459 as mule-utf-8. Coding system `utf-16-le-dos' is useful as the value
3460 of `selection-coding-system' in MS Windows, allowing you to paste
3461 multilingual text from the clipboard. Set it interactively with
3462 C-x RET x or in .emacs with `(set-selection-coding-system 'utf-16-le-dos)'.
3464 ** There is a new language environment for UTF-8 (set up automatically
3467 ** Translation tables are available between equivalent characters in
3468 different Emacs charsets -- for instance `e with acute' coming from the
3469 Latin-1 and Latin-2 charsets. User options `unify-8859-on-encoding-mode'
3470 and `unify-8859-on-decoding-mode' respectively turn on translation
3471 between ISO 8859 character sets (`unification') on encoding
3472 (e.g. writing a file) and decoding (e.g. reading a file). Note that
3473 `unify-8859-on-encoding-mode' is useful and safe, but
3474 `unify-8859-on-decoding-mode' can cause text to change when you read
3475 it and write it out again without edits, so it is not generally advisable.
3476 By default `unify-8859-on-encoding-mode' is turned on.
3478 ** In Emacs running on the X window system, the default value of
3479 `selection-coding-system' is now `compound-text-with-extensions'.
3481 If you want the old behavior, set selection-coding-system to
3482 compound-text, which may be significantly more efficient. Using
3483 compound-text-with-extensions seems to be necessary only for decoding
3484 text from applications under XFree86 4.2, whose behaviour is actually
3485 contrary to the compound text specification.
3488 * Installation changes in Emacs 21.2
3490 ** Support for BSD/OS 5.0 has been added.
3492 ** Support for AIX 5.1 was added.
3495 * Changes in Emacs 21.2
3497 ** Emacs now supports compound-text extended segments in X selections.
3499 X applications can use `extended segments' to encode characters in
3500 compound text that belong to character sets which are not part of the
3501 list of approved standard encodings for X, e.g. Big5. To paste
3502 selections with such characters into Emacs, use the new coding system
3503 compound-text-with-extensions as the value of selection-coding-system.
3505 ** The default values of `tooltip-delay' and `tooltip-hide-delay'
3508 ** On terminals whose erase-char is ^H (Backspace), Emacs
3509 now uses normal-erase-is-backspace-mode.
3511 ** When the *scratch* buffer is recreated, its mode is set from
3512 initial-major-mode, which normally is lisp-interaction-mode,
3513 instead of using default-major-mode.
3515 ** The new option `Info-scroll-prefer-subnodes' causes Info to behave
3516 like the stand-alone Info reader (from the GNU Texinfo package) as far
3517 as motion between nodes and their subnodes is concerned. If it is t
3518 (the default), Emacs behaves as before when you type SPC in a menu: it
3519 visits the subnode pointed to by the first menu entry. If this option
3520 is nil, SPC scrolls to the end of the current node, and only then goes
3521 to the first menu item, like the stand-alone reader does.
3523 This change was already in Emacs 21.1, but wasn't advertised in the
3527 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 21.2
3529 ** The meanings of scroll-up-aggressively and scroll-down-aggressively
3530 have been interchanged, so that the former now controls scrolling up,
3531 and the latter now controls scrolling down.
3533 ** The variable `compilation-parse-errors-filename-function' can
3534 be used to transform filenames found in compilation output.
3537 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
3539 See the INSTALL file for information on installing extra libraries and
3540 fonts to take advantage of the new graphical features and extra
3541 charsets in this release.
3543 ** Support for GNU/Linux on IA64 machines has been added.
3545 ** Support for LynxOS has been added.
3547 ** There are new configure options associated with the support for
3548 images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option in `configure'
3551 ** You can build a 64-bit Emacs for SPARC/Solaris systems which
3552 support 64-bit executables and also on Irix 6.5. This increases the
3553 maximum buffer size. See etc/MACHINES for instructions. Changes to
3554 build on other 64-bit systems should be straightforward modulo any
3555 necessary changes to unexec.
3557 ** There is a new configure option `--disable-largefile' to omit
3558 Unix-98-style support for large files if that is available.
3560 ** There is a new configure option `--without-xim' that instructs
3561 Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if these are available.
3563 ** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
3564 the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
3566 ** This version can be built for the Macintosh, but does not implement
3567 all of the new display features described below. The port currently
3568 lacks unexec, asynchronous processes, and networking support. See the
3569 "Emacs and the Mac OS" appendix in the Emacs manual, for the
3570 description of aspects specific to the Mac.
3572 ** Note that the MS-Windows port does not yet implement various of the
3573 new display features described below.
3576 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
3578 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
3580 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
3581 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
3582 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
3583 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
3586 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
3588 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
3589 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
3590 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
3591 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
3594 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
3595 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
3596 under Lisp changes, below.
3598 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
3600 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
3601 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
3602 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
3603 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
3604 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
3605 attributes such as `overline', `strike-through', and `box' are ignored
3608 The command-line options `-fg COLOR', `-bg COLOR', and `-rv' are now
3609 supported on character terminals.
3611 Emacs automatically remaps all X-style color specifications to one of
3612 the colors supported by the terminal. This means you could have the
3613 same color customizations that work both on a windowed display and on
3614 a TTY or when Emacs is invoked with the -nw option.
3616 ** New default font is Courier 12pt under X.
3620 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD (Voxware
3621 driver and native BSD driver, a.k.a. Luigi's driver). Currently
3622 supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio (*.au).
3623 You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes' to enable
3626 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
3628 If a message is longer than one line, or minibuffer contents are
3629 longer than one line, Emacs can resize the minibuffer window unless it
3630 is on a frame of its own. You can control resizing and the maximum
3631 minibuffer window size by setting the following variables:
3633 - User option: max-mini-window-height
3635 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
3636 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
3637 specifies a number of lines.
3641 - User option: resize-mini-windows
3643 How to resize mini-windows. If nil, don't resize. If t, always
3644 resize to fit the size of the text. If `grow-only', let mini-windows
3645 grow only, until they become empty, at which point they are shrunk
3648 Default is `grow-only'.
3652 Emacs now runs with the LessTif toolkit (see
3653 <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will need version 0.92.26, or later.
3655 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
3657 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
3658 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
3661 ** File selection dialog on MS-Windows is supported.
3663 When a file is visited by clicking File->Open, the MS-Windows version
3664 now pops up a standard file selection dialog where you can select a
3665 file to visit. File->Save As also pops up that dialog.
3667 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
3669 Emacs now uses toolkit scroll bars if available. When configured for
3670 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scroll bar. Otherwise, when
3671 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
3672 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
3673 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
3676 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
3677 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
3678 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
3679 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
3680 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
3681 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
3683 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
3684 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
3685 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
3686 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
3687 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
3688 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
3690 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
3691 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
3692 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
3693 imake configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
3694 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
3696 ** Tool bar support.
3698 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
3699 of how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level
3700 changes. Tool-bar global minor mode controls whether or not it is
3701 displayed and is on by default. The appearance of the bar is improved
3702 if Emacs has been built with XPM image support. Otherwise monochrome
3705 To make the tool bar more useful, we need contributions of extra icons
3706 for specific modes (with copyright assignments).
3710 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
3711 mouse position. The Lisp package `tooltip' implements them. You can
3712 turn them off via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
3714 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
3715 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
3716 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
3717 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
3719 ** Automatic Hscrolling
3721 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
3722 `automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
3725 If a window is scrolled horizontally with set-window-hscroll, or
3726 scroll-left/scroll-right (C-x <, C-x >), this serves as a lower bound
3727 for automatic horizontal scrolling. Automatic scrolling will scroll
3728 the text more to the left if necessary, but won't scroll the text more
3729 to the right than the column set with set-window-hscroll etc.
3731 ** When using a windowing terminal, each Emacs window now has a cursor
3732 of its own. By default, when a window is selected, the cursor is
3733 solid; otherwise, it is hollow. The user-option
3734 `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to display the
3735 cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is shown, if
3736 non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown.
3738 ** Fringes to the left and right of windows are used to display
3739 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
3740 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
3741 customizing face `fringe'.
3743 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default.
3744 You can change its appearance by modifying the face `mode-line'.
3745 In particular, setting the `:box' attribute to nil turns off the 3D
3746 appearance of the mode line. (The 3D appearance makes the mode line
3747 occupy more space, and thus might cause the first or the last line of
3748 the window to be partially obscured.)
3750 The variable `mode-line-inverse-video', which was used in older
3751 versions of emacs to make the mode-line stand out, is now deprecated.
3752 However, setting it to nil will cause the `mode-line' face to be
3753 ignored, and mode-lines to be drawn using the default text face.
3755 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
3757 Different parts of the mode line have been made mouse-sensitive on all
3758 systems which support the mouse. Moving the mouse to a
3759 mouse-sensitive part in the mode line changes the appearance of the
3760 mouse pointer to an arrow, and help about available mouse actions is
3761 displayed either in the echo area, or in the tooltip window if you
3764 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
3766 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line goes to the next buffer.
3768 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name goes to the previous buffer.
3770 - Mouse-2 on the read-only or modified status in the mode line (`%' or
3771 `*') toggles the status.
3773 - Mouse-3 on the mode name displays a minor-mode menu.
3775 ** Hourglass pointer
3777 Emacs can optionally display an hourglass pointer under X. You can
3778 turn the display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
3782 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
3783 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
3784 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
3787 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
3789 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
3790 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
3791 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
3794 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
3795 have to do anything to activate it.
3797 ** The default binding of the Delete key has changed.
3799 The new user-option `normal-erase-is-backspace' can be set to
3800 determine the effect of the Delete and Backspace function keys.
3802 On window systems, the default value of this option is chosen
3803 according to the keyboard used. If the keyboard has both a Backspace
3804 key and a Delete key, and both are mapped to their usual meanings, the
3805 option's default value is set to t, so that Backspace can be used to
3806 delete backward, and Delete can be used to delete forward. On
3807 keyboards which either have only one key (usually labeled DEL), or two
3808 keys DEL and BS which produce the same effect, the option's value is
3809 set to nil, and these keys delete backward.
3811 If not running under a window system, setting this option accomplishes
3812 a similar effect by mapping C-h, which is usually generated by the
3813 Backspace key, to DEL, and by mapping DEL to C-d via
3814 `keyboard-translate'. The former functionality of C-h is available on
3815 the F1 key. You should probably not use this setting on a text-only
3816 terminal if you don't have both Backspace, Delete and F1 keys.
3818 Programmatically, you can call function normal-erase-is-backspace-mode
3819 to toggle the behavior of the Delete and Backspace keys.
3821 ** The default for user-option `next-line-add-newlines' has been
3822 changed to nil, i.e. C-n will no longer add newlines at the end of a
3825 ** The <home> and <end> keys now move to the beginning or end of the
3826 current line, respectively. C-<home> and C-<end> move to the
3827 beginning and end of the buffer.
3829 ** Emacs now checks for recursive loads of Lisp files. If the
3830 recursion depth exceeds `recursive-load-depth-limit', an error is
3833 ** When an error is signaled during the loading of the user's init
3834 file, Emacs now pops up the *Messages* buffer.
3836 ** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
3837 compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
3840 The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs's byte
3841 compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
3844 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
3846 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
3847 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
3848 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
3850 ** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
3851 more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
3852 now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
3854 ** Item Save Options on the Options menu allows saving options set
3857 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
3859 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
3860 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
3861 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
3862 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
3863 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
3866 ** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
3867 all frames except the selected one.
3869 ** The new user-option `confirm-kill-emacs' can be customized to
3870 let Emacs ask for confirmation before exiting.
3872 ** The header line in an Info buffer is now displayed as an emacs
3873 header-line (which is like a mode-line, but at the top of the window),
3874 so that it remains visible even when the buffer has been scrolled.
3875 This behavior may be disabled by customizing the option
3876 `Info-use-header-line'.
3878 ** Polish, Czech, German, and French translations of Emacs' reference card
3879 have been added. They are named `pl-refcard.tex', `cs-refcard.tex',
3880 `de-refcard.tex' and `fr-refcard.tex'. Postscript files are included.
3882 ** An `Emacs Survival Guide', etc/survival.tex, is available.
3884 ** A reference card for Dired has been added. Its name is
3885 `dired-ref.tex'. A French translation is available in
3888 ** C-down-mouse-3 is bound differently. Now if the menu bar is not
3889 displayed it pops up a menu containing the items which would be on the
3890 menu bar. If the menu bar is displayed, it pops up the major mode
3891 menu or the Edit menu if there is no major mode menu.
3893 ** Variable `load-path' is no longer customizable through Customize.
3895 You can no longer use `M-x customize-variable' to customize `load-path'
3896 because it now contains a version-dependent component. You can still
3897 use `add-to-list' and `setq' to customize this variable in your
3898 `~/.emacs' init file or to modify it from any Lisp program in general.
3900 ** C-u C-x = provides detailed information about the character at
3901 point in a pop-up window.
3903 ** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
3904 under XFree86. To enable this, use the `mouse-wheel-mode' command, or
3905 customize the variable `mouse-wheel-mode'.
3907 The variables `mouse-wheel-follow-mouse' and `mouse-wheel-scroll-amount'
3908 determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
3910 ** Emacs' auto-save list files are now by default stored in a
3911 sub-directory `.emacs.d/auto-save-list/' of the user's home directory.
3912 (On MS-DOS, this subdirectory's name is `_emacs.d/auto-save.list/'.)
3913 You can customize `auto-save-list-file-prefix' to change this location.
3915 ** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
3917 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
3918 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
3920 ** The new command M-x delete-trailing-whitespace RET will delete the
3921 trailing whitespace within the current restriction. You can also add
3922 this function to `write-file-hooks' or `local-write-file-hooks'.
3924 ** When visiting a file with M-x find-file-literally, no newlines will
3925 be added to the end of the buffer even if `require-final-newline' is
3928 ** The new user-option `find-file-suppress-same-file-warnings' can be
3929 set to suppress warnings ``X and Y are the same file'' when visiting a
3930 file that is already visited under a different name.
3932 ** The new user-option `electric-help-shrink-window' can be set to
3933 nil to prevent adjusting the help window size to the buffer size.
3935 ** New command M-x describe-character-set reads a character set name
3936 and displays information about that.
3938 ** The new variable `auto-mode-interpreter-regexp' contains a regular
3939 expression matching interpreters, for file mode determination.
3941 This regular expression is matched against the first line of a file to
3942 determine the file's mode in `set-auto-mode' when Emacs can't deduce a
3943 mode from the file's name. If it matches, the file is assumed to be
3944 interpreted by the interpreter matched by the second group of the
3945 regular expression. The mode is then determined as the mode
3946 associated with that interpreter in `interpreter-mode-alist'.
3948 ** New function executable-make-buffer-file-executable-if-script-p is
3949 suitable as an after-save-hook as an alternative to `executable-chmod'.
3951 ** The most preferred coding-system is now used to save a buffer if
3952 buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and it is safe for the buffer
3953 contents. (The most preferred is set by set-language-environment or
3954 by M-x prefer-coding-system.) Thus if you visit an ASCII file and
3955 insert a non-ASCII character from your current language environment,
3956 the file will be saved silently with the appropriate coding.
3957 Previously you would be prompted for a safe coding system.
3959 ** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
3960 been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
3962 ** The new Custom option `keyboard-coding-system' specifies a coding
3963 system for keyboard input.
3965 ** New variable `inhibit-iso-escape-detection' determines if Emacs'
3966 coding system detection algorithm should pay attention to ISO2022's
3967 escape sequences. If this variable is non-nil, the algorithm ignores
3968 such escape sequences. The default value is nil, and it is
3969 recommended not to change it except for the special case that you
3970 always want to read any escape code verbatim. If you just want to
3971 read a specific file without decoding escape codes, use C-x RET c
3972 (`universal-coding-system-argument'). For instance, C-x RET c latin-1
3973 RET C-x C-f filename RET.
3975 ** Variable `default-korean-keyboard' is initialized properly from the
3976 environment variable `HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE'.
3978 ** New command M-x list-charset-chars reads a character set name and
3979 displays all characters in that character set.
3981 ** M-x set-terminal-coding-system (C-x RET t) now allows CCL-based
3982 coding systems such as cpXXX and cyrillic-koi8.
3984 ** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
3985 and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
3986 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
3988 ** New language environments `Polish', `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
3989 Latin-8 and Latin-9 correspond respectively to the ISO character sets
3990 8859-14 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign).
3991 GNU Intlfonts doesn't support these yet but recent X releases have
3992 8859-15. See etc/INSTALL for information on obtaining extra fonts.
3993 There are new Leim input methods for Latin-8 and Latin-9 prefix (only)
3996 ** New language environments `Dutch' and `Spanish'.
3997 These new environments mainly select appropriate translations
4000 ** In Ethiopic language environment, special key bindings for
4001 function keys are changed as follows. This is to conform to "Emacs
4002 Lisp Coding Convention".
4004 new command old-binding
4005 --- ------- -----------
4006 f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-buffer f5
4007 S-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-region f5
4008 C-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-mail-or-marker f5
4010 f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-buffer unchanged
4011 S-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-region unchanged
4012 C-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-mail-or-marker unchanged
4014 S-f5 ethio-toggle-punctuation f3
4015 S-f6 ethio-modify-vowel f6
4016 S-f7 ethio-replace-space f7
4017 S-f8 ethio-input-special-character f8
4018 S-f9 ethio-replace-space unchanged
4019 C-f9 ethio-toggle-space f2
4021 ** There are new Leim input methods.
4022 New input methods "turkish-postfix", "turkish-alt-postfix",
4023 "greek-mizuochi", "TeX", and "greek-babel" are now part of the Leim
4026 ** The rule of input method "slovak" is slightly changed. Now the
4027 rules for translating "q" and "Q" to "`" (backquote) are deleted, thus
4028 typing them inserts "q" and "Q" respectively. Rules for translating
4029 "=q", "+q", "=Q", and "+Q" to "`" are also deleted. Now, to input
4030 "`", you must type "=q".
4032 ** When your terminal can't display characters from some of the ISO
4033 8859 character sets but can display Latin-1, you can display
4034 more-or-less mnemonic sequences of ASCII/Latin-1 characters instead of
4035 empty boxes (under a window system) or question marks (not under a
4036 window system). Customize the option `latin1-display' to turn this
4039 ** M-; now calls comment-dwim which tries to do something clever based
4040 on the context. M-x kill-comment is now an alias to comment-kill,
4041 defined in newcomment.el. You can choose different styles of region
4042 commenting with the variable `comment-style'.
4044 ** New user options `display-time-mail-face' and
4045 `display-time-use-mail-icon' control the appearance of mode-line mail
4046 indicator used by the display-time package. On a suitable display the
4047 indicator can be an icon and is mouse-sensitive.
4049 ** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
4050 on the display using several methods
4052 - By setting frame parameter `line-spacing' to PIXELS. PIXELS must be
4053 a positive integer, and specifies that PIXELS number of pixels should
4054 be put below text lines on the affected frame or frames.
4056 - By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
4057 equivalent to specifying the frame parameter.
4059 - By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
4061 - By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
4062 the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
4064 ** The new command `clone-indirect-buffer' can be used to create
4065 an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. The
4066 command `clone-indirect-buffer-other-window', bound to C-x 4 c,
4067 does the same but displays the indirect buffer in another window.
4069 ** New user options `backup-directory-alist' and
4070 `make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
4071 typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
4073 ** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
4074 characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
4076 ** New X resources recognized
4078 *** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
4079 whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
4080 is useful for debugging X problems.
4084 emacs.synchronous: true
4086 *** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
4087 visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
4088 the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
4089 and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
4090 visual class names are
4099 Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
4100 `pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
4103 The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
4104 supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
4105 `visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
4110 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
4112 *** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
4113 specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
4114 default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
4115 resource values are `true' or `on'.
4119 emacs.privateColormap: true
4121 ** Faces and frame parameters.
4123 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
4124 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
4125 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
4126 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
4127 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
4128 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
4129 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
4131 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
4132 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
4133 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
4134 `default' face and vice versa.
4138 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
4140 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
4142 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
4143 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
4144 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
4145 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
4147 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
4148 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
4149 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
4151 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
4154 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
4156 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
4157 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
4158 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
4159 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
4161 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
4163 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
4165 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
4167 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
4170 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
4173 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
4175 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
4176 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
4177 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
4179 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
4180 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi and Less).
4182 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
4183 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
4184 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
4186 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
4188 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
4189 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggressively' is a
4190 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
4191 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
4193 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
4194 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggressively' is a
4195 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
4196 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
4198 ** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either
4199 M-x clone-buffer, C-u m <entry> RET or C-u g <entry> RET.
4200 M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and several other special
4203 ** The command `Info-search' now uses a search history.
4205 ** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
4206 abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
4207 `directory-abbrev-alist'.
4209 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
4210 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
4211 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
4212 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
4213 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
4214 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
4216 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
4218 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
4219 notably at the end of lines.
4221 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
4222 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
4224 ** The function `replace-rectangle' is an alias for `string-rectangle'.
4226 ** The new command M-x string-insert-rectangle is like `string-rectangle',
4227 but inserts text instead of replacing it.
4229 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
4230 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
4231 after each match to get the replacement text.
4233 ** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `e' (or `E') that lets
4234 you edit the replacement string.
4236 ** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB'
4237 (if you load the library `mailabbrev'), lets you complete mail aliases
4238 in the text, analogous to lisp-complete-symbol.
4240 ** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
4242 ** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
4243 to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
4245 ** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
4246 the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X, on MS-Windows, and
4247 MS-DOS, either in the echo area or with tooltips. Many standard menus
4248 displayed by Emacs now have help strings.
4251 ** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
4252 read mail from the menu etc.
4254 ** The environment variable `EMACSLOCKDIR' is no longer used on MS-Windows.
4255 This environment variable was used when creating lock files. Emacs on
4256 MS-Windows does not use this variable anymore. This change was made
4257 before Emacs 21.1, but wasn't documented until now.
4259 ** Highlighting of mouse-sensitive regions is now supported in the
4260 MS-DOS version of Emacs.
4262 ** The new command `msdos-set-mouse-buttons' forces the MS-DOS version
4263 of Emacs to behave as if the mouse had a specified number of buttons.
4264 This comes handy with mice that don't report their number of buttons
4265 correctly. One example is the wheeled mice, which report 3 buttons,
4266 but clicks on the middle button are not passed to the MS-DOS version
4269 ** Customize changes
4271 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
4272 `State' menu to add comments, or give a prefix argument to
4273 M-x customize-set-variable or M-x customize-set-value. Note that
4274 customization comments will cause the customizations to fail in
4275 earlier versions of Emacs.
4277 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
4278 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
4281 *** If Emacs was invoked with the `-q' or `--no-init-file' options, it
4282 does not allow you to save customizations in your `~/.emacs' init
4283 file. This is because saving customizations from such a session would
4284 wipe out all the other customizationss you might have on your init
4287 ** If Emacs was invoked with the `-q' or `--no-init-file' options, it
4288 does not save disabled and enabled commands for future sessions, to
4289 avoid overwriting existing customizations of this kind that are
4290 already in your init file.
4292 ** New features in evaluation commands
4294 *** The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
4295 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
4296 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the new
4297 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
4298 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
4300 The default values for the first two of these variables are 12 and 4
4301 respectively, which means that `eval-expression' now prints at most
4302 the first 12 members of a list and at most 4 nesting levels deep (if
4303 the list is longer or deeper than that, an ellipsis `...' is
4306 <RET> or <mouse-2> on the printed text toggles between an abbreviated
4307 printed representation and an unabbreviated one.
4309 The default value of eval-expression-debug-on-error is t, so any error
4310 during evaluation produces a backtrace.
4312 *** The function `eval-defun' (C-M-x) now loads Edebug and instruments
4313 code when called with a prefix argument.
4317 Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
4318 current user setups (although it's believed that these
4319 incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
4320 However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
4321 back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
4322 compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
4325 *** The hardcoded switch to "java" style in Java mode is gone.
4326 CC Mode used to automatically set the style to "java" when Java mode
4327 is entered. This has now been removed since it caused too much
4330 However, to keep backward compatibility to a certain extent, the
4331 default value for c-default-style now specifies the "java" style for
4332 java-mode, but "gnu" for all other modes (as before). So you won't
4333 notice the change if you haven't touched that variable.
4335 *** New cleanups, space-before-funcall and compact-empty-funcall.
4336 Two new cleanups have been added to c-cleanup-list:
4338 space-before-funcall causes a space to be inserted before the opening
4339 parenthesis of a function call, which gives the style "foo (bar)".
4341 compact-empty-funcall causes any space before a function call opening
4342 parenthesis to be removed if there are no arguments to the function.
4343 It's typically useful together with space-before-funcall to get the
4344 style "foo (bar)" and "foo()".
4346 *** Some keywords now automatically trigger reindentation.
4347 Keywords like "else", "while", "catch" and "finally" have been made
4348 "electric" to make them reindent automatically when they continue an
4349 earlier statement. An example:
4351 for (i = 0; i < 17; i++)
4353 res += a[i]->offset;
4356 Here, the "else" should be indented like the preceding "if", since it
4357 continues that statement. CC Mode will automatically reindent it after
4358 the "else" has been typed in full, since it's not until then it's
4359 possible to decide whether it's a new statement or a continuation of
4362 CC Mode uses Abbrev mode to achieve this, which is therefore turned on
4365 *** M-a and M-e now moves by sentence in multiline strings.
4366 Previously these two keys only moved by sentence in comments, which
4367 meant that sentence movement didn't work in strings containing
4368 documentation or other natural language text.
4370 The reason it's only activated in multiline strings (i.e. strings that
4371 contain a newline, even when escaped by a '\') is to avoid stopping in
4372 the short strings that often reside inside statements. Multiline
4373 strings almost always contain text in a natural language, as opposed
4374 to other strings that typically contain format specifications,
4375 commands, etc. Also, it's not that bothersome that M-a and M-e misses
4376 sentences in single line strings, since they're short anyway.
4378 *** Support for autodoc comments in Pike mode.
4379 Autodoc comments for Pike are used to extract documentation from the
4380 source, like Javadoc in Java. Pike mode now recognize this markup in
4381 comment prefixes and paragraph starts.
4383 *** The comment prefix regexps on c-comment-prefix may be mode specific.
4384 When c-comment-prefix is an association list, it specifies the comment
4385 line prefix on a per-mode basis, like c-default-style does. This
4386 change came about to support the special autodoc comment prefix in
4389 *** Better handling of syntactic errors.
4390 The recovery after unbalanced parens earlier in the buffer has been
4391 improved; CC Mode now reports them by dinging and giving a message
4392 stating the offending line, but still recovers and indent the
4393 following lines in a sane way (most of the time). An "else" with no
4394 matching "if" is handled similarly. If an error is discovered while
4395 indenting a region, the whole region is still indented and the error
4396 is reported afterwards.
4398 *** Lineup functions may now return absolute columns.
4399 A lineup function can give an absolute column to indent the line to by
4400 returning a vector with the desired column as the first element.
4402 *** More robust and warning-free byte compilation.
4403 Although this is strictly not a user visible change (well, depending
4404 on the view of a user), it's still worth mentioning that CC Mode now
4405 can be compiled in the standard ways without causing trouble. Some
4406 code have also been moved between the subpackages to enhance the
4407 modularity somewhat. Thanks to Martin Buchholz for doing the
4410 *** c-style-variables-are-local-p now defaults to t.
4411 This is an incompatible change that has been made to make the behavior
4412 of the style system wrt global variable settings less confusing for
4413 non-advanced users. If you know what this variable does you might
4414 want to set it to nil in your .emacs, otherwise you probably don't
4417 Defaulting c-style-variables-are-local-p to t avoids the confusing
4418 situation that occurs when a user sets some style variables globally
4419 and edits both a Java and a non-Java file in the same Emacs session.
4420 If the style variables aren't buffer local in this case, loading of
4421 the second file will cause the default style (either "gnu" or "java"
4422 by default) to override the global settings made by the user.
4424 *** New initialization procedure for the style system.
4425 When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
4426 variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
4427 take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
4428 is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
4429 settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
4430 possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
4431 Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
4433 By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
4434 special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
4435 the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
4436 of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
4439 Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
4440 when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
4441 function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
4442 call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
4443 then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
4444 values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
4445 only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
4446 function documentation for more info.
4448 The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
4449 especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
4450 with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
4451 intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
4452 such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
4453 is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
4454 configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
4455 global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
4457 (Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
4459 **** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
4460 This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
4462 This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
4463 variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
4464 completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
4465 the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
4466 empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
4469 **** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
4470 In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
4471 c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
4474 *** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
4475 CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
4476 surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
4477 chapter about this in the manual.
4479 **** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
4480 The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
4481 recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
4482 primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
4483 adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
4485 **** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
4486 This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
4487 c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
4489 **** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
4490 This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
4492 It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
4493 Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
4494 A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
4497 Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
4498 causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
4499 the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
4500 available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
4503 **** The variables `c-hanging-comment-starter-p' and
4504 `c-hanging-comment-ender-p', which controlled how comment starters and
4505 enders were filled, are not used anymore. The new version of the
4506 function `c-fill-paragraph' keeps the comment starters and enders as
4507 they were before the filling.
4509 **** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
4510 The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
4511 specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
4514 **** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
4515 It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
4516 prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
4517 you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
4520 *** Fixes to IDL mode.
4521 It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
4522 to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
4523 struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
4524 Thanks to Eric Eide.
4526 *** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
4527 It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
4528 opening braces hangs and when they don't.
4530 **** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
4532 *** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
4533 See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
4534 better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
4535 and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
4537 *** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
4538 previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
4539 the column specified by comment-column.
4541 *** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
4542 In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
4543 is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
4544 prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
4545 contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
4546 don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
4548 *** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
4549 instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
4552 *** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
4554 *** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
4555 c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
4556 c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
4557 variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
4560 *** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
4564 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
4565 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
4566 is, delete only empty directories.
4568 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
4569 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
4570 copy directories recursively.
4572 *** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
4573 in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
4574 the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
4576 *** The new command `dired-find-alternate-file' (usually bound to `a')
4577 replaces the Dired buffer with the buffer for an alternate file or
4580 *** The new command `dired-show-file-type' (usually bound to `y') shows
4581 a message in the echo area describing what type of file the point is on.
4582 This command invokes the external program `file' do its work, and so
4583 will only work on systems with that program, and will be only as
4584 accurate or inaccurate as it is.
4586 *** Dired now properly handles undo changes of adding/removing `-R'
4589 *** Dired commands that prompt for a destination file now allow the use
4590 of the `M-n' command in the minibuffer to insert the source filename,
4591 which the user can then edit. This only works if there is a single
4592 source file, not when operating on multiple marked files.
4596 The Gnus NEWS entries are short, but they reflect sweeping changes in
4597 four areas: Article display treatment, MIME treatment,
4598 internationalization and mail-fetching.
4600 *** The mail-fetching functions have changed. See the manual for the
4601 many details. In particular, all procmail fetching variables are gone.
4603 If you used procmail like in
4605 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
4606 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
4607 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/mail/incoming/")
4608 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "\\.in")
4610 this now has changed to
4613 '((directory :path "~/mail/incoming/"
4616 More information is available in the info doc at Select Methods ->
4617 Getting Mail -> Mail Sources
4619 *** Gnus is now a MIME-capable reader. This affects many parts of
4620 Gnus, and adds a slew of new commands. See the manual for details.
4621 Separate MIME packages like RMIME, mime-compose etc., will probably no
4622 longer work; remove them and use the native facilities.
4624 The FLIM/SEMI package still works with Emacs 21, but if you want to
4625 use the native facilities, you must remove any mailcap.el[c] that was
4626 installed by FLIM/SEMI version 1.13 or earlier.
4628 *** Gnus has also been multilingualized. This also affects too many
4629 parts of Gnus to summarize here, and adds many new variables. There
4630 are built-in facilities equivalent to those of gnus-mule.el, which is
4631 now just a compatibility layer.
4633 *** gnus-mule.el is now just a compatibility layer over the built-in
4636 *** gnus-auto-select-first can now be a function to be
4637 called to position point.
4639 *** The user can now decide which extra headers should be included in
4640 summary buffers and NOV files.
4642 *** `gnus-article-display-hook' has been removed. Instead, a number
4643 of variables starting with `gnus-treat-' have been added.
4645 *** The Gnus posting styles have been redone again and now work in a
4646 subtly different manner.
4648 *** New web-based backends have been added: nnslashdot, nnwarchive
4649 and nnultimate. nnweb has been revamped, again, to keep up with
4650 ever-changing layouts.
4652 *** Gnus can now read IMAP mail via nnimap.
4654 *** There is image support of various kinds and some sound support.
4656 ** Changes in Texinfo mode.
4658 *** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
4662 -------------------------
4666 C-c C-c q @quotation
4668 C-c C-o @<block> ... @end <block>
4671 *** The " key now inserts either " or `` or '' depending on context.
4673 ** Changes in Outline mode.
4675 There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
4676 `outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
4677 the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
4679 ** Changes to Emacs Server
4681 *** The new option `server-kill-new-buffers' specifies what to do
4682 with buffers when done with them. If non-nil, the default, buffers
4683 are killed, unless they were already present before visiting them with
4684 Emacs Server. If nil, `server-temp-file-regexp' specifies which
4685 buffers to kill, as before.
4687 Please note that only buffers are killed that still have a client,
4688 i.e. buffers visited with `emacsclient --no-wait' are never killed in
4691 ** Both emacsclient and Emacs itself now accept command line options
4692 of the form +LINE:COLUMN in addition to +LINE.
4694 ** Changes to Show Paren mode.
4696 *** Overlays used by Show Paren mode now use a priority property.
4697 The new user option show-paren-priority specifies the priority to
4698 use. Default is 1000.
4700 ** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
4701 groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
4703 ** Changes to hideshow.el
4705 *** Generalized block selection and traversal
4707 A block is now recognized by its start and end regexps (both strings),
4708 and an integer specifying which sub-expression in the start regexp
4709 serves as the place where a `forward-sexp'-like function can operate.
4710 See the documentation of variable `hs-special-modes-alist'.
4712 *** During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active,
4713 hidden blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' can
4714 be used in the mode line format to show the line at the beginning of
4717 *** User option `hs-hide-all-non-comment-function' specifies a
4718 function to be called at each top-level block beginning, instead of
4719 the normal block-hiding function.
4721 *** The command `hs-show-region' has been removed.
4723 *** The key bindings have changed to fit the Emacs conventions,
4724 roughly imitating those of Outline minor mode. Notably, the prefix
4725 for all bindings is now `C-c @'. For details, see the documentation
4726 for `hs-minor-mode'.
4728 *** The variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' has been removed, and
4729 hideshow.el now always behaves as if this variable were set to t.
4731 ** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
4733 *** If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes
4734 an entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
4735 log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
4737 **** New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the
4740 *** New command M-x change-log-redate fixes any old-style date entries
4743 *** Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log
4744 entries if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
4745 Unless the file is under version control the search for a file's
4746 version number is performed based on regular expressions from
4747 `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be customized.
4748 Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of a file.
4750 *** Change Log mode now defines its own faces for font-lock highlighting.
4752 ** Changes to cmuscheme
4754 *** The user-option `scheme-program-name' has been renamed
4755 `cmuscheme-program-name' due to conflicts with xscheme.el.
4757 ** Changes in Font Lock
4759 *** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
4760 font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major mode.
4762 *** Multi-line patterns are now supported. Modes using this, should
4763 set font-lock-multiline to t in their font-lock-defaults.
4765 *** `font-lock-syntactic-face-function' allows major-modes to choose
4766 the face used for each string/comment.
4768 *** A new standard face `font-lock-doc-face'.
4769 Meant for Lisp docstrings, Javadoc comments and other "documentation in code".
4771 ** Changes to Shell mode
4773 *** The `shell' command now accepts an optional argument to specify the buffer
4774 to use, which defaults to "*shell*". When used interactively, a
4775 non-default buffer may be specified by giving the `shell' command a
4776 prefix argument (causing it to prompt for the buffer name).
4778 ** Comint (subshell) changes
4780 These changes generally affect all modes derived from comint mode, which
4781 include shell-mode, gdb-mode, scheme-interaction-mode, etc.
4783 *** Comint now by default interprets some carriage-control characters.
4784 Comint now removes CRs from CR LF sequences, and treats single CRs and
4785 BSs in the output in a way similar to a terminal (by deleting to the
4786 beginning of the line, or deleting the previous character,
4787 respectively). This is achieved by adding `comint-carriage-motion' to
4788 the `comint-output-filter-functions' hook by default.
4790 *** By default, comint no longer uses the variable `comint-prompt-regexp'
4791 to distinguish prompts from user-input. Instead, it notices which
4792 parts of the text were output by the process, and which entered by the
4793 user, and attaches `field' properties to allow emacs commands to use
4794 this information. Common movement commands, notably beginning-of-line,
4795 respect field boundaries in a fairly natural manner. To disable this
4796 feature, and use the old behavior, customize the user option
4797 `comint-use-prompt-regexp-instead-of-fields'.
4799 *** Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
4800 and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
4802 *** The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
4803 buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
4804 buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
4806 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
4807 M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
4808 the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
4810 *** Packages based on comint now highlight user input and program prompts,
4811 and support choosing previous input with mouse-2. To control these features,
4812 see the user-options `comint-highlight-input' and `comint-highlight-prompt'.
4814 *** The new command `comint-write-output' (usually bound to `C-c C-s')
4815 saves the output from the most recent command to a file. With a prefix
4816 argument, it appends to the file.
4818 *** The command `comint-kill-output' has been renamed `comint-delete-output'
4819 (usually bound to `C-c C-o'); the old name is aliased to it for
4822 *** The new function `comint-add-to-input-history' adds commands to the input
4825 *** The new variable `comint-input-history-ignore' is a regexp for
4826 identifying history lines that should be ignored, like tcsh time-stamp
4827 strings, starting with a `#'. The default value of this variable is "^#".
4829 ** Changes to Rmail mode
4831 *** The new user-option rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
4832 set to fine tune the identification of the correspondent when
4833 receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
4834 recipient is taken as correspondent of a mail. If nil, the default,
4835 `user-login-name' and `user-mail-address' are used to exclude yourself
4838 Usually you don't have to set this variable, except if you collect
4839 mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
4840 regexp matching your mail addresses.
4842 *** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
4843 to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
4844 Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
4845 with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
4846 for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
4848 *** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
4851 *** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
4852 specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
4855 *** The new user option `rmail-automatic-folder-directives' specifies
4856 in which folder to put messages automatically.
4858 *** The new function `rmail-redecode-body' allows to fix a message
4859 with non-ASCII characters if Emacs happens to decode it incorrectly
4860 due to missing or malformed "charset=" header.
4862 ** The new user-option `mail-envelope-from' can be used to specify
4863 an envelope-from address different from user-mail-address.
4865 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
4866 use the -f option when sending mail.
4868 ** The Rmail command `o' (`rmail-output-to-rmail-file') now writes the
4869 current message in the internal `emacs-mule' encoding, rather than in
4870 the encoding taken from the variable `buffer-file-coding-system'.
4871 This allows to save messages whose characters cannot be safely encoded
4872 by the buffer's coding system, and makes sure the message will be
4873 displayed correctly when you later visit the target Rmail file.
4875 If you want your Rmail files be encoded in a specific coding system
4876 other than `emacs-mule', you can customize the variable
4877 `rmail-file-coding-system' to set its value to that coding system.
4879 ** Changes to TeX mode
4881 *** The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
4884 *** latex-mode now has a simple indentation algorithm.
4886 *** M-f and M-p jump around \begin...\end pairs.
4888 *** Added support for outline-minor-mode.
4890 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
4892 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
4893 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
4894 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
4895 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
4896 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
4897 can be edited from that buffer.
4899 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
4900 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
4901 `A' to use all marked entries).
4903 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
4904 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
4906 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
4907 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
4908 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
4911 ** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
4912 The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
4913 semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
4914 in column 1 are always made leaves.
4916 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
4917 has the following new features:
4919 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
4920 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
4921 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
4922 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
4924 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
4925 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
4926 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
4927 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
4928 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
4931 ** Partial Completion mode now completes environment variables in
4936 *** The command `ispell' now spell-checks a region if
4937 transient-mark-mode is on, and the mark is active. Otherwise it
4938 spell-checks the current buffer.
4940 *** Support for synchronous subprocesses - DOS/Windoze - has been
4943 *** An "alignment error" bug was fixed when a manual spelling
4944 correction is made and re-checked.
4946 *** Italian, Portuguese, and Slovak dictionary definitions have been added.
4948 *** Region skipping performance has been vastly improved in some
4951 *** Spell checking HTML buffers has been improved and isn't so strict
4954 *** The buffer-local words are now always placed on a new line at the
4957 *** Spell checking now works in the MS-DOS version of Emacs.
4959 ** Makefile mode changes
4961 *** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
4963 *** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
4964 Fontlock mode is active.
4968 *** Isearch now puts a call to `isearch-resume' in the command history,
4969 so that searches can be resumed.
4971 *** In Isearch mode, C-M-s and C-M-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
4972 respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
4973 that started the search.
4975 *** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
4976 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
4978 *** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
4980 Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
4981 `isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
4982 search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
4983 before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
4984 highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
4985 `secondary-selection'.
4987 The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
4988 will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
4989 Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
4990 using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
4991 usual snappy response.
4993 If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
4994 matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
4995 set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
4996 isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
5000 VC has been overhauled internally. It is now modular, making it
5001 easier to plug-in arbitrary version control backends. (See Lisp
5002 Changes for details on the new structure.) As a result, the mechanism
5003 to enable and disable support for particular version systems has
5004 changed: everything is now controlled by the new variable
5005 `vc-handled-backends'. Its value is a list of symbols that identify
5006 version systems; the default is '(RCS CVS SCCS). When finding a file,
5007 each of the backends in that list is tried in order to see whether the
5008 file is registered in that backend.
5010 When registering a new file, VC first tries each of the listed
5011 backends to see if any of them considers itself "responsible" for the
5012 directory of the file (e.g. because a corresponding subdirectory for
5013 master files exists). If none of the backends is responsible, then
5014 the first backend in the list that could register the file is chosen.
5015 As a consequence, the variable `vc-default-back-end' is now obsolete.
5017 The old variable `vc-master-templates' is also obsolete, although VC
5018 still supports it for backward compatibility. To define templates for
5019 RCS or SCCS, you should rather use the new variables
5020 vc-{rcs,sccs}-master-templates. (There is no such feature under CVS
5021 where it doesn't make sense.)
5023 The variables `vc-ignore-vc-files' and `vc-handle-cvs' are also
5024 obsolete now, you must set `vc-handled-backends' to nil or exclude
5025 `CVS' from the list, respectively, to achieve their effect now.
5029 The variable `vc-checkout-carefully' is obsolete: the corresponding
5030 checks are always done now.
5032 VC Dired buffers are now kept up-to-date during all version control
5035 `vc-diff' output is now displayed in `diff-mode'.
5036 `vc-print-log' uses `log-view-mode'.
5037 `vc-log-mode' (used for *VC-Log*) has been replaced by `log-edit-mode'.
5039 The command C-x v m (vc-merge) now accepts an empty argument as the
5040 first revision number. This means that any recent changes on the
5041 current branch should be picked up from the repository and merged into
5042 the working file (``merge news'').
5044 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
5045 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) now ask for a directory name from which to work
5048 *** Multiple Backends
5050 VC now lets you register files in more than one backend. This is
5051 useful, for example, if you are working with a slow remote CVS
5052 repository. You can then use RCS for local editing, and occasionally
5053 commit your changes back to CVS, or pick up changes from CVS into your
5056 To make this work, the ``more local'' backend (RCS in our example)
5057 should come first in `vc-handled-backends', and the ``more remote''
5058 backend (CVS) should come later. (The default value of
5059 `vc-handled-backends' already has it that way.)
5061 You can then commit changes to another backend (say, RCS), by typing
5062 C-u C-x v v RCS RET (i.e. vc-next-action now accepts a backend name as
5063 a revision number). VC registers the file in the more local backend
5064 if that hasn't already happened, and commits to a branch based on the
5065 current revision number from the more remote backend.
5067 If a file is registered in multiple backends, you can switch to
5068 another one using C-x v b (vc-switch-backend). This does not change
5069 any files, it only changes VC's perspective on the file. Use this to
5070 pick up changes from CVS while working under RCS locally.
5072 After you are done with your local RCS editing, you can commit your
5073 changes back to CVS using C-u C-x v v CVS RET. In this case, the
5074 local RCS archive is removed after the commit, and the log entry
5075 buffer is initialized to contain the entire RCS change log of the file.
5079 There is a new user option, `vc-cvs-stay-local'. If it is `t' (the
5080 default), then VC avoids network queries for files registered in
5081 remote repositories. The state of such files is then only determined
5082 by heuristics and past information. `vc-cvs-stay-local' can also be a
5083 regexp to match against repository hostnames; only files from hosts
5084 that match it are treated locally. If the variable is nil, then VC
5085 queries the repository just as often as it does for local files.
5087 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, then VC also makes local backups of
5088 repository versions. This means that ordinary diffs (C-x v =) and
5089 revert operations (C-x v u) can be done completely locally, without
5090 any repository interactions at all. The name of a local version
5091 backup of FILE is FILE.~REV.~, where REV is the repository version
5092 number. This format is similar to that used by C-x v ~
5093 (vc-version-other-window), except for the trailing dot. As a matter
5094 of fact, the two features can each use the files created by the other,
5095 the only difference being that files with a trailing `.' are deleted
5096 automatically after commit. (This feature doesn't work on MS-DOS,
5097 since DOS disallows more than a single dot in the trunk of a file
5100 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, and there have been changes in the
5101 repository, VC notifies you about it when you actually try to commit.
5102 If you want to check for updates from the repository without trying to
5103 commit, you can either use C-x v m RET to perform an update on the
5104 current file, or you can use C-x v r RET to get an update for an
5105 entire directory tree.
5107 The new user option `vc-cvs-use-edit' indicates whether VC should call
5108 "cvs edit" to make files writeable; it defaults to `t'. (This option
5109 is only meaningful if the CVSREAD variable is set, or if files are
5110 "watched" by other developers.)
5112 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
5113 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) are now also implemented for CVS. If you give
5114 an empty snapshot name to the latter, that performs a `cvs update',
5115 starting at the given directory.
5117 *** Lisp Changes in VC
5119 VC has been restructured internally to make it modular. You can now
5120 add support for arbitrary version control backends by writing a
5121 library that provides a certain set of backend-specific functions, and
5122 then telling VC to use that library. For example, to add support for
5123 a version system named SYS, you write a library named vc-sys.el, which
5124 provides a number of functions vc-sys-... (see commentary at the top
5125 of vc.el for a detailed list of them). To make VC use that library,
5126 you need to put it somewhere into Emacs' load path and add the symbol
5127 `SYS' to the list `vc-handled-backends'.
5129 ** The customizable EDT emulation package now supports the EDT
5130 SUBS command and EDT scroll margins. It also works with more
5131 terminal/keyboard configurations and it now works under XEmacs.
5132 See etc/edt-user.doc for more information.
5134 ** New modes and packages
5136 *** The new global minor mode `minibuffer-electric-default-mode'
5137 automatically hides the `(default ...)' part of minibuffer prompts when
5138 the default is not applicable.
5140 *** Artist is an Emacs lisp package that allows you to draw lines,
5141 rectangles and ellipses by using your mouse and/or keyboard. The
5142 shapes are made up with the ascii characters |, -, / and \.
5146 - Intersecting: When a `|' intersects with a `-', a `+' is
5147 drawn, like this: | \ /
5151 - Rubber-banding: When drawing lines you can interactively see the
5152 result while holding the mouse button down and moving the mouse. If
5153 your machine is not fast enough (a 386 is a bit too slow, but a
5154 pentium is well enough), you can turn this feature off. You will
5155 then see 1's and 2's which mark the 1st and 2nd endpoint of the line
5158 - Arrows: After having drawn a (straight) line or a (straight)
5159 poly-line, you can set arrows on the line-ends by typing < or >.
5161 - Flood-filling: You can fill any area with a certain character by
5164 - Cut copy and paste: You can cut, copy and paste rectangular
5165 regions. Artist also interfaces with the rect package (this can be
5166 turned off if it causes you any trouble) so anything you cut in
5167 artist can be yanked with C-x r y and vice versa.
5169 - Drawing with keys: Everything you can do with the mouse, you can
5170 also do without the mouse.
5172 - Aspect-ratio: You can set the variable artist-aspect-ratio to
5173 reflect the height-width ratio for the font you are using. Squares
5174 and circles are then drawn square/round. Note, that once your
5175 ascii-file is shown with font with a different height-width ratio,
5176 the squares won't be square and the circles won't be round.
5178 - Drawing operations: The following drawing operations are implemented:
5180 lines straight-lines
5182 poly-lines straight poly-lines
5184 text (see-thru) text (overwrite)
5185 spray-can setting size for spraying
5186 vaporize line vaporize lines
5187 erase characters erase rectangles
5189 Straight lines are lines that go horizontally, vertically or
5190 diagonally. Plain lines go in any direction. The operations in
5191 the right column are accessed by holding down the shift key while
5194 It is possible to vaporize (erase) entire lines and connected lines
5195 (rectangles for example) as long as the lines being vaporized are
5196 straight and connected at their endpoints. Vaporizing is inspired
5197 by the drawrect package by Jari Aalto <jari.aalto@poboxes.com>.
5199 - Picture mode compatibility: Artist is picture mode compatible (this
5202 *** The new package Eshell is an operating system command shell
5203 implemented entirely in Emacs Lisp. Use `M-x eshell' to invoke it.
5204 It functions similarly to bash and zsh, and allows running of Lisp
5205 functions and external commands using the same syntax. It supports
5206 history lists, aliases, extended globbing, smart scrolling, etc. It
5207 will work on any platform Emacs has been ported to. And since most of
5208 the basic commands -- ls, rm, mv, cp, ln, du, cat, etc. -- have been
5209 rewritten in Lisp, it offers an operating-system independent shell,
5210 all within the scope of your Emacs process.
5212 *** The new package timeclock.el is a mode is for keeping track of time
5213 intervals. You can use it for whatever purpose you like, but the
5214 typical scenario is to keep track of how much time you spend working
5215 on certain projects.
5217 *** The new package hi-lock.el provides commands to highlight matches
5218 of interactively entered regexps. For example,
5220 M-x highlight-regexp RET clearly RET RET
5222 will highlight all occurrences of `clearly' using a yellow background
5223 face. New occurrences of `clearly' will be highlighted as they are
5224 typed. `M-x unhighlight-regexp RET' will remove the highlighting.
5225 Any existing face can be used for highlighting and a set of
5226 appropriate faces is provided. The regexps can be written into the
5227 current buffer in a form that will be recognized the next time the
5228 corresponding file is read. There are commands to highlight matches
5229 to phrases and to highlight entire lines containing a match.
5231 *** The new package zone.el plays games with Emacs' display when
5234 *** The new package tildify.el allows to add hard spaces or other text
5235 fragments in accordance with the current major mode.
5237 *** The new package xml.el provides a simple but generic XML
5238 parser. It doesn't parse the DTDs however.
5240 *** The comment operations are now provided by the newcomment.el
5241 package which allows different styles of comment-region and should
5242 be more robust while offering the same functionality.
5243 `comment-region' now doesn't always comment a-line-at-a-time, but only
5244 comments the region, breaking the line at point if necessary.
5246 *** The Ebrowse package implements a C++ class browser and tags
5247 facilities tailored for use with C++. It is documented in a
5248 separate Texinfo file.
5250 *** The PCL-CVS package available by either running M-x cvs-examine or
5251 by visiting a CVS administrative directory (with a prefix argument)
5252 provides an alternative interface to VC-dired for CVS. It comes with
5253 `log-view-mode' to view RCS and SCCS logs and `log-edit-mode' used to
5254 enter check-in log messages.
5256 *** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
5257 without invoking external programs.
5259 The command `M-x woman' formats manual pages entirely in Emacs Lisp
5260 and then displays them, like `M-x manual-entry' does. Unlike
5261 `manual-entry', `woman' does not invoke any external programs, so it
5262 is useful on systems such as MS-DOS/MS-Windows where the `man' and
5263 Groff or `troff' commands are not readily available.
5265 The command `M-x woman-find-file' asks for the file name of a man
5266 page, then formats and displays it like `M-x woman' does.
5268 *** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
5269 authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
5271 The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
5272 the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
5273 the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
5274 Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
5275 even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
5278 On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
5279 matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
5280 probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
5281 contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
5283 *** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
5284 unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
5285 actually modifying content of a buffer.
5287 *** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
5290 Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
5292 The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
5294 ; comment (until end of line)
5298 $A default non-terminal
5299 $"C" default terminal
5300 $?C? default special
5301 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
5302 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
5303 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
5304 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
5305 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
5306 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
5307 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
5308 C+ one or more occurrences of C
5309 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
5310 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
5311 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
5312 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
5313 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
5314 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
5315 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
5317 Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
5319 *** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
5320 align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
5321 determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
5322 example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
5323 equal signs of assignments.
5325 *** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
5326 paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
5328 *** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
5329 list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
5330 buffer menu with this package. See the Custom group `bs'.
5332 *** find-lisp.el is a package emulating the Unix find command in Lisp.
5334 *** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
5335 replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
5336 is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
5337 and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
5338 not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
5339 which answers different needs.
5341 *** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
5342 suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
5343 expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
5344 course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
5345 reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
5348 *** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
5349 containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
5351 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
5353 *** hl-line.el provides `hl-line-mode', a minor mode to highlight the
5354 current line in the current buffer. It also provides
5355 `global-hl-line-mode' to provide the same behavior in all buffers.
5357 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
5359 Please note: if `ansi-color-for-comint-mode' and
5360 `global-font-lock-mode' are non-nil, loading ansi-color.el will
5361 disable font-lock and add `ansi-color-apply' to
5362 `comint-preoutput-filter-functions' for all shell-mode buffers. This
5363 displays the output of "ls --color=yes" using the correct foreground
5364 and background colors.
5366 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
5369 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
5372 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
5374 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
5376 *** whitespace.el is a package for warning about and cleaning bogus
5377 whitespace in a file.
5379 *** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
5380 files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
5381 (very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
5382 interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
5383 often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
5384 uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
5385 codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
5387 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
5389 Here is an example of columns:
5392 dog pineapple car EXTRA
5393 porcupine strawberry airplane
5395 Doing the following settings:
5397 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
5398 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
5399 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
5400 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
5403 Selecting the lines above and typing:
5405 M-x delimit-columns-region
5409 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
5410 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
5411 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
5413 delim-col has the following options:
5415 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
5418 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
5419 between each column.
5421 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
5424 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
5427 delim-col has the following commands:
5429 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
5430 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
5432 *** Recentf mode maintains a menu for visiting files that were
5433 operated on recently. User option recentf-menu-filter specifies a
5434 menu filter function to change the menu appearance. For example, the
5435 recent file list can be displayed:
5437 - organized by major modes, directories or user defined rules.
5438 - sorted by file paths, file names, ascending or descending.
5439 - showing paths relative to the current default-directory
5441 The `recentf-filter-changer' menu filter function allows to
5442 dynamically change the menu appearance.
5444 *** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
5447 *** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
5448 of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
5449 specific to Message mode.
5451 *** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
5452 viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
5453 with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
5455 *** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
5456 interface to access directory servers using different directory
5457 protocols. It has a separate manual.
5459 *** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
5460 for Autoconf, selected automatically.
5462 *** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
5464 *** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
5465 minibuffer with completion.
5467 *** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
5468 with the diary features.
5470 *** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
5471 numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
5473 *** The function `turn-off-auto-fill' unconditionally turns off Auto
5476 *** pcomplete.el is a library that provides programmable completion
5477 facilities for Emacs, similar to what zsh and tcsh offer. The main
5478 difference is that completion functions are written in Lisp, meaning
5479 they can be profiled, debugged, etc.
5481 *** antlr-mode is a new major mode for editing ANTLR grammar files.
5482 It is automatically turned on for files whose names have the extension
5485 ** Changes in sort.el
5487 The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
5488 as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
5489 new user-option sort-numeric-base can be used to specify a default
5492 ** Changes to Ange-ftp
5494 *** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
5495 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
5496 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
5498 *** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
5499 ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
5501 *** Ange-ftp handles the output of the w32-style clients which
5502 output ^M at the end of lines.
5504 ** The recommended way of using Iswitchb is via the new global minor
5505 mode `iswitchb-mode'.
5507 ** Just loading the msb package doesn't switch on Msb mode anymore.
5508 If you have `(require 'msb)' in your .emacs, please replace it with
5511 ** Flyspell mode has various new options. See the `flyspell' Custom
5514 ** The user option `backward-delete-char-untabify-method' controls the
5515 behavior of `backward-delete-char-untabify'. The following values
5518 `untabify' -- turn a tab to many spaces, then delete one space;
5519 `hungry' -- delete all whitespace, both tabs and spaces;
5520 `all' -- delete all whitespace, including tabs, spaces and newlines;
5521 nil -- just delete one character.
5523 Default value is `untabify'.
5525 [This change was made in Emacs 20.3 but not mentioned then.]
5527 ** In Cperl mode `cperl-invalid-face' should now be a normal face
5528 symbol, not double-quoted.
5530 ** Some packages are declared obsolete, to be removed in a future
5531 version. They are: auto-show, c-mode, hilit19, hscroll, ooutline,
5532 profile, rnews, rnewspost, and sc. Their implementations have been
5533 moved to lisp/obsolete.
5535 ** auto-compression mode is no longer enabled just by loading jka-compr.el.
5536 To control it, set `auto-compression-mode' via Custom or use the
5537 `auto-compression-mode' command.
5539 ** `browse-url-gnome-moz' is a new option for
5540 `browse-url-browser-function', invoking Mozilla in GNOME, and
5541 `browse-url-kde' can be chosen for invoking the KDE browser.
5543 ** The user-option `browse-url-new-window-p' has been renamed to
5544 `browse-url-new-window-flag'.
5546 ** The functions `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many' now
5547 operate on the active region in Transient Mark mode.
5549 ** `gnus-user-agent' is a new possibility for `mail-user-agent'. It
5550 is like `message-user-agent', but with all the Gnus paraphernalia.
5552 ** The Strokes package has been updated. If your Emacs has XPM
5553 support, you can use it for pictographic editing. In Strokes mode,
5554 use C-mouse-2 to compose a complex stoke and insert it into the
5555 buffer. You can encode or decode a strokes buffer with new commands
5556 M-x strokes-encode-buffer and M-x strokes-decode-buffer. There is a
5557 new command M-x strokes-list-strokes.
5559 ** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
5560 a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
5562 ** Hexl mode allows to insert non-ASCII characters.
5564 The non-ASCII characters are encoded using the same encoding as the
5565 file you are visiting in Hexl mode.
5567 ** Shell script mode changes.
5569 Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
5570 derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizable, and
5571 sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
5575 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
5577 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
5578 possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
5579 {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
5580 This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
5581 a regular expression. The manual contains details.
5583 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
5584 declarations when given the --declarations option.
5586 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
5587 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
5589 *** You shouldn't generally need any more the -C or -c++ option: etags
5590 automatically switches to C++ parsing when it meets the `class' or
5591 `template' keywords.
5593 *** Etags now is able to delve at arbitrary deeps into nested structures in
5594 C-like languages. Previously, it was limited to one or two brace levels.
5596 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
5599 *** In Fortran, `procedure' is not tagged.
5601 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
5603 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
5606 *** In makefiles, tags the targets.
5608 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
5609 variables are tagged.
5611 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
5613 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
5616 ** Changes in etags.el
5618 *** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
5619 tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
5620 is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
5622 *** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
5623 the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
5625 If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
5626 FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
5627 TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
5628 obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
5630 TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
5632 FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
5633 List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
5635 A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
5637 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
5638 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
5639 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
5641 *** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
5642 of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
5644 *** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
5645 names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
5647 *** You can now search for tags that are part of the filename itself.
5648 If you have tagged the files topfile.c subdir/subfile.c
5649 /tmp/tempfile.c, you can now search for tags "topfile.c", "subfile.c",
5650 "dir/sub", "tempfile", "tempfile.c". If the tag matches the file name,
5651 point will go to the beginning of the file.
5653 *** Compressed files are now transparently supported if
5654 auto-compression-mode is active. You can tag (with Etags) and search
5655 (with find-tag) both compressed and uncompressed files.
5657 *** Tags commands like M-x tags-search no longer change point
5658 in buffers where no match is found. In buffers where a match is
5659 found, the original value of point is pushed on the marker ring.
5661 ** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sequence-nos' to
5662 remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
5663 appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
5665 ** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
5667 ** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
5669 ** The Dabbrev package has a new user-option `dabbrev-ignored-regexps'
5670 containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
5671 expression from that list, are not checked.
5673 ** Emacs can now figure out modification times of remote files.
5674 When you do C-x C-f /user@host:/path/file RET and edit the file,
5675 and someone else modifies the file, you will be prompted to revert
5676 the buffer, just like for the local files.
5678 ** The buffer menu (C-x C-b) no longer lists the *Buffer List* buffer.
5680 ** When invoked with a prefix argument, the command `list-abbrevs' now
5681 displays local abbrevs, only.
5683 ** Refill minor mode provides preliminary support for keeping
5684 paragraphs filled as you modify them.
5686 ** The variable `double-click-fuzz' specifies how much the mouse
5687 may be moved between clicks that are recognized as a pair. Its value
5688 is measured in pixels.
5690 ** The new global minor mode `auto-image-file-mode' allows image files
5691 to be visited as images.
5693 ** Two new user-options `grep-command' and `grep-find-command'
5694 were added to compile.el.
5696 ** Withdrawn packages
5698 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
5699 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
5701 *** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
5703 *** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
5706 * Incompatible Lisp changes
5708 There are a few Lisp changes which are not backwards-compatible and
5709 may require changes to existing code. Here is a list for reference.
5710 See the sections below for details.
5712 ** Since `format' preserves text properties, the idiom
5713 `(format "%s" foo)' no longer works to copy and remove properties.
5714 Use `copy-sequence' to copy the string, then use `set-text-properties'
5715 to remove the properties of the copy.
5717 ** Since the `keymap' text property now has significance, some code
5718 which uses both `local-map' and `keymap' properties (for portability)
5719 may, for instance, give rise to duplicate menus when the keymaps from
5720 these properties are active.
5722 ** The change in the treatment of non-ASCII characters in search
5723 ranges may affect some code.
5725 ** A non-nil value for the LOCAL arg of add-hook makes the hook
5726 buffer-local even if `make-local-hook' hasn't been called, which might
5727 make a difference to some code.
5729 ** The new treatment of the minibuffer prompt might affect code which
5730 operates on the minibuffer.
5732 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
5733 cause `no-conversion' and `emacs-mule-unix' coding systems to produce
5734 different results when reading files with non-ASCII characters
5735 (previously, both coding systems would produce the same results).
5736 Specifically, `no-conversion' interprets each 8-bit byte as a separate
5737 character. This makes `no-conversion' inappropriate for reading
5738 multibyte text, e.g. buffers written to disk in their internal MULE
5739 encoding (auto-saving does that, for example). If a Lisp program
5740 reads such files with `no-conversion', each byte of the multibyte
5741 sequence, including the MULE leading codes such as \201, is treated as
5742 a separate character, which prevents them from being interpreted in
5743 the buffer as multibyte characters.
5745 Therefore, Lisp programs that read files which contain the internal
5746 MULE encoding should use `emacs-mule-unix'. `no-conversion' is only
5747 appropriate for reading truly binary files.
5749 ** Code that relies on the obsolete `before-change-function' and
5750 `after-change-function' to detect buffer changes will now fail. Use
5751 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions' instead.
5753 ** Code that uses `concat' with integer args now gets an error, as
5754 long promised. So does any code that uses derivatives of `concat',
5755 such as `mapconcat'.
5757 ** The function base64-decode-string now always returns a unibyte
5760 ** Not a Lisp incompatibility as such but, with the introduction of
5761 extra private charsets, there is now only one slot free for a new
5762 dimension-2 private charset. User code which tries to add more than
5763 one extra will fail unless you rebuild Emacs with some standard
5764 charset(s) removed; that is probably inadvisable because it changes
5765 the emacs-mule encoding. Also, files stored in the emacs-mule
5766 encoding using Emacs 20 with additional private charsets defined will
5767 probably not be read correctly by Emacs 21.
5769 ** The variable `directory-sep-char' is slated for removal.
5770 Not really a change (yet), but a projected one that you should be
5771 aware of: The variable `directory-sep-char' is deprecated, and should
5772 not be used. It was always ignored on GNU/Linux and Unix systems and
5773 on MS-DOS, but the MS-Windows port tried to support it by adapting the
5774 behavior of certain primitives to the value of this variable. It
5775 turned out that such support cannot be reliable, so it was decided to
5776 remove this variable in the near future. Lisp programs are well
5777 advised not to set it to anything but '/', because any different value
5778 will not have any effect when support for this variable is removed.
5781 * Lisp changes made after edition 2.6 of the Emacs Lisp Manual,
5782 (Display-related features are described in a page of their own below.)
5784 ** Function assq-delete-all replaces function assoc-delete-all.
5786 ** The new function animate-string, from lisp/play/animate.el
5787 allows the animated display of strings.
5789 ** The new function `interactive-form' can be used to obtain the
5790 interactive form of a function.
5792 ** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
5793 between custom options. Example:
5795 (defcustom default-input-method nil
5796 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
5797 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
5798 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
5800 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
5801 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
5803 This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
5804 current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
5805 first in a custom-set-variables statement.
5807 ** The new hook `kbd-macro-termination-hook' is run at the end of
5808 function execute-kbd-macro. Functions on this hook are called with no
5809 args. The hook is run independent of how the macro was terminated
5810 (signal or normal termination).
5812 ** Functions `butlast' and `nbutlast' for removing trailing elements
5813 from a list are now available without requiring the CL package.
5815 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
5816 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
5818 ** The user-option `face-font-registry-alternatives' specifies
5819 alternative font registry names to try when looking for a font.
5821 ** Function `md5' calculates the MD5 "message digest"/"checksum".
5823 ** Function `delete-frame' runs `delete-frame-hook' before actually
5824 deleting the frame. The hook is called with one arg, the frame
5827 ** `add-hook' now makes the hook local if called with a non-nil LOCAL arg.
5829 ** The treatment of non-ASCII characters in search ranges has changed.
5830 If a range in a regular expression or the arg of
5831 skip-chars-forward/backward starts with a unibyte character C and ends
5832 with a multibyte character C2, the range is divided into two: one is
5833 C..?\377, the other is C1..C2, where C1 is the first character of C2's
5836 ** The new function `display-message-or-buffer' displays a message in
5837 the echo area or pops up a buffer, depending on the length of the
5840 ** The new macro `with-auto-compression-mode' allows evaluating an
5841 expression with auto-compression-mode enabled.
5843 ** In image specifications, `:heuristic-mask' has been replaced
5844 with the more general `:mask' property.
5846 ** Image specifications accept more `:conversion's.
5848 ** A `?' can be used in a symbol name without escaping it with a
5851 ** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
5852 is running in batch mode. For example,
5854 (message "%s" (read t))
5856 will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
5859 ** The argument of `down-list', `backward-up-list', `up-list',
5860 `kill-sexp', `backward-kill-sexp' and `mark-sexp' is now optional.
5862 ** If `display-buffer-reuse-frames' is set, function `display-buffer'
5863 will raise frames displaying a buffer, instead of creating a new
5866 ** Two new functions for removing elements from lists/sequences
5869 - Function: remove ELT SEQ
5871 Return a copy of SEQ with all occurrences of ELT removed. SEQ must be
5872 a list, vector, or string. The comparison is done with `equal'.
5874 - Function: remq ELT LIST
5876 Return a copy of LIST with all occurrences of ELT removed. The
5877 comparison is done with `eq'.
5879 ** The function `delete' now also works with vectors and strings.
5881 ** The meaning of the `:weakness WEAK' argument of make-hash-table
5882 has been changed: WEAK can now have new values `key-or-value' and
5883 `key-and-value', in addition to `nil', `key', `value', and `t'.
5885 ** Function `aset' stores any multibyte character in any string
5886 without signaling "Attempt to change char length of a string". It may
5887 convert a unibyte string to multibyte if necessary.
5889 ** The value of the `help-echo' text property is called as a function
5890 or evaluated, if it is not a string already, to obtain a help string.
5892 ** Function `make-obsolete' now has an optional arg to say when the
5893 function was declared obsolete.
5895 ** Function `plist-member' is renamed from `widget-plist-member' (which is
5896 retained as an alias).
5898 ** Easy-menu's :filter now works as in XEmacs.
5899 It takes the unconverted (i.e. XEmacs) form of the menu and the result
5900 is automatically converted to Emacs' form.
5902 ** The new function `window-list' has been defined
5904 - Function: window-list &optional FRAME WINDOW MINIBUF
5906 Return a list of windows on FRAME, starting with WINDOW. FRAME nil or
5907 omitted means use the selected frame. WINDOW nil or omitted means use
5908 the selected window. MINIBUF t means include the minibuffer window,
5909 even if it isn't active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means include the
5910 minibuffer window only if it's active. MINIBUF neither nil nor t
5911 means never include the minibuffer window.
5913 ** There's a new function `get-window-with-predicate' defined as follows
5915 - Function: get-window-with-predicate PREDICATE &optional MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES DEFAULT
5917 Return a window satisfying PREDICATE.
5919 This function cycles through all visible windows using `walk-windows',
5920 calling PREDICATE on each one. PREDICATE is called with a window as
5921 argument. The first window for which PREDICATE returns a non-nil
5922 value is returned. If no window satisfies PREDICATE, DEFAULT is
5925 Optional second arg MINIBUF t means count the minibuffer window even
5926 if not active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means count the minibuffer iff
5927 it is active. MINIBUF neither t nor nil means not to count the
5928 minibuffer even if it is active.
5930 Several frames may share a single minibuffer; if the minibuffer
5931 counts, all windows on all frames that share that minibuffer count
5932 too. Therefore, if you are using a separate minibuffer frame
5933 and the minibuffer is active and MINIBUF says it counts,
5934 `walk-windows' includes the windows in the frame from which you
5935 entered the minibuffer, as well as the minibuffer window.
5937 ALL-FRAMES is the optional third argument.
5938 ALL-FRAMES nil or omitted means cycle within the frames as specified above.
5939 ALL-FRAMES = `visible' means include windows on all visible frames.
5940 ALL-FRAMES = 0 means include windows on all visible and iconified frames.
5941 ALL-FRAMES = t means include windows on all frames including invisible frames.
5942 If ALL-FRAMES is a frame, it means include windows on that frame.
5943 Anything else means restrict to the selected frame.
5945 ** The function `single-key-description' now encloses function key and
5946 event names in angle brackets. When called with a second optional
5947 argument non-nil, angle brackets won't be printed.
5949 ** If the variable `message-truncate-lines' is bound to t around a
5950 call to `message', the echo area will not be resized to display that
5951 message; it will be truncated instead, as it was done in 20.x.
5952 Default value is nil.
5954 ** The user option `line-number-display-limit' can now be set to nil,
5957 ** The new user option `line-number-display-limit-width' controls
5958 the maximum width of lines in a buffer for which Emacs displays line
5959 numbers in the mode line. The default is 200.
5961 ** `select-safe-coding-system' now also checks the most preferred
5962 coding-system if buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and
5963 DEFAULT-CODING-SYSTEM is not specified,
5965 ** The function `subr-arity' provides information about the argument
5966 list of a primitive.
5968 ** `where-is-internal' now also accepts a list of keymaps.
5970 ** The text property `keymap' specifies a key map which overrides the
5971 buffer's local map and the map specified by the `local-map' property.
5972 This is probably what most current uses of `local-map' want, rather
5973 than replacing the local map.
5975 ** The obsolete variables `before-change-function' and
5976 `after-change-function' are no longer acted upon and have been
5977 removed. Use `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions'
5980 ** The function `apropos-mode' runs the hook `apropos-mode-hook'.
5982 ** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments,
5983 as promised long ago.
5985 ** The new function `float-time' returns the current time as a float.
5987 ** The new variable auto-coding-regexp-alist specifies coding systems
5988 for reading specific files, analogous to auto-coding-alist, but
5989 patterns are checked against file contents instead of file names.
5992 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
5994 ** The new package rx.el provides an alternative sexp notation for
5995 regular expressions.
5997 - Function: rx-to-string SEXP
5999 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
6003 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
6005 The following are valid subforms of regular expressions in sexp
6009 matches string STRING literally.
6012 matches character CHAR literally.
6015 matches any character except a newline.
6018 matches any character
6021 matches any character in SET. SET may be a character or string.
6022 Ranges of characters can be specified as `A-Z' in strings.
6028 matches any character not in SET
6031 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of a line
6032 in the text being matched
6035 is similar to `line-start' but matches only at the end of a line
6038 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
6039 string being matched against.
6042 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
6043 string being matched against.
6046 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
6047 buffer being matched against.
6050 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
6051 buffer being matched against.
6054 matches the empty string, but only at point.
6057 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
6061 matches the empty string, but only at the end of a word.
6064 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
6067 `(not word-boundary)'
6068 matches the empty string, but not at the beginning or end of a
6072 matches 0 through 9.
6075 matches ASCII control characters.
6078 matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
6081 matches space and tab only.
6084 matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
6088 matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
6092 matches letters and digits. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
6093 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
6096 matches letters. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
6097 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
6100 matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
6103 matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
6106 matches anything lower-case.
6109 matches anything upper-case.
6112 matches punctuation. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
6113 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
6116 matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
6119 matches anything that has word syntax.
6122 matches a character with syntax SYNTAX. SYNTAX must be one
6123 of the following symbols.
6125 `whitespace' (\\s- in string notation)
6126 `punctuation' (\\s.)
6129 `open-parenthesis' (\\s()
6130 `close-parenthesis' (\\s))
6131 `expression-prefix' (\\s')
6132 `string-quote' (\\s\")
6133 `paired-delimiter' (\\s$)
6135 `character-quote' (\\s/)
6136 `comment-start' (\\s<)
6137 `comment-end' (\\s>)
6139 `(not (syntax SYNTAX))'
6140 matches a character that has not syntax SYNTAX.
6142 `(category CATEGORY)'
6143 matches a character with category CATEGORY. CATEGORY must be
6144 either a character to use for C, or one of the following symbols.
6146 `consonant' (\\c0 in string notation)
6148 `upper-diacritical-mark' (\\c2)
6149 `lower-diacritical-mark' (\\c3)
6153 `vowel-modifying-diacritical-mark' (\\c7)
6155 `semivowel-lower' (\\c9)
6156 `not-at-end-of-line' (\\c<)
6157 `not-at-beginning-of-line' (\\c>)
6158 `alpha-numeric-two-byte' (\\cA)
6159 `chinse-two-byte' (\\cC)
6160 `greek-two-byte' (\\cG)
6161 `japanese-hiragana-two-byte' (\\cH)
6162 `indian-two-byte' (\\cI)
6163 `japanese-katakana-two-byte' (\\cK)
6164 `korean-hangul-two-byte' (\\cN)
6165 `cyrillic-two-byte' (\\cY)
6174 `japanese-katakana' (\\ck)
6178 `japanese-roman' (\\cr)
6185 `(not (category CATEGORY))'
6186 matches a character that has not category CATEGORY.
6188 `(and SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
6189 matches what SEXP1 matches, followed by what SEXP2 matches, etc.
6191 `(submatch SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
6192 like `and', but makes the match accessible with `match-end',
6193 `match-beginning', and `match-string'.
6195 `(group SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
6196 another name for `submatch'.
6198 `(or SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
6199 matches anything that matches SEXP1 or SEXP2, etc. If all
6200 args are strings, use `regexp-opt' to optimize the resulting
6203 `(minimal-match SEXP)'
6204 produce a non-greedy regexp for SEXP. Normally, regexps matching
6205 zero or more occurrences of something are \"greedy\" in that they
6206 match as much as they can, as long as the overall regexp can
6207 still match. A non-greedy regexp matches as little as possible.
6209 `(maximal-match SEXP)'
6210 produce a greedy regexp for SEXP. This is the default.
6212 `(zero-or-more SEXP)'
6213 matches zero or more occurrences of what SEXP matches.
6216 like `zero-or-more'.
6219 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
6222 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
6224 `(one-or-more SEXP)'
6225 matches one or more occurrences of A.
6231 like `one-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
6234 like `one-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
6236 `(zero-or-one SEXP)'
6237 matches zero or one occurrences of A.
6243 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a greedy regexp.
6246 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
6249 matches N occurrences of what SEXP matches.
6252 matches N to M occurrences of what SEXP matches.
6255 evaluate FORM and insert result. If result is a string,
6259 include REGEXP in string notation in the result.
6261 *** The features `md5' and `overlay' are now provided by default.
6263 *** The special form `save-restriction' now works correctly even if the
6264 buffer is widened inside the save-restriction and changes made outside
6265 the original restriction. Previously, doing this would cause the saved
6266 restriction to be restored incorrectly.
6268 *** The functions `find-charset-region' and `find-charset-string' include
6269 `eight-bit-control' and/or `eight-bit-graphic' in the returned list
6270 when they find 8-bit characters. Previously, they included `ascii' in a
6271 multibyte buffer and `unknown' in a unibyte buffer.
6273 *** The functions `set-buffer-multibyte', `string-as-multibyte' and
6274 `string-as-unibyte' change the byte sequence of a buffer or a string
6275 if it contains a character from the `eight-bit-control' character set.
6277 *** The handling of multibyte sequences in a multibyte buffer is
6278 changed. Previously, a byte sequence matching the pattern
6279 [\200-\237][\240-\377]+ was interpreted as a single character
6280 regardless of the length of the trailing bytes [\240-\377]+. Thus, if
6281 the sequence was longer than what the leading byte indicated, the
6282 extra trailing bytes were ignored by Lisp functions. Now such extra
6283 bytes are independent 8-bit characters belonging to the charset
6286 ** Fontsets are now implemented using char-tables.
6288 A fontset can now be specified for each independent character, for
6289 a group of characters or for a character set rather than just for a
6290 character set as previously.
6292 *** The arguments of the function `set-fontset-font' are changed.
6293 They are NAME, CHARACTER, FONTNAME, and optional FRAME. The function
6294 modifies fontset NAME to use FONTNAME for CHARACTER.
6296 CHARACTER may be a cons (FROM . TO), where FROM and TO are non-generic
6297 characters. In that case FONTNAME is used for all characters in the
6298 range FROM and TO (inclusive). CHARACTER may be a charset. In that
6299 case FONTNAME is used for all character in the charset.
6301 FONTNAME may be a cons (FAMILY . REGISTRY), where FAMILY is the family
6302 name of a font and REGISTRY is a registry name of a font.
6304 *** Variable x-charset-registry has been deleted. The default charset
6305 registries of character sets are set in the default fontset
6308 *** The function `create-fontset-from-fontset-spec' ignores the second
6309 argument STYLE-VARIANT. It never creates style-variant fontsets.
6311 ** The method of composing characters is changed. Now character
6312 composition is done by a special text property `composition' in
6313 buffers and strings.
6315 *** Charset composition is deleted. Emacs never creates a `composite
6316 character' which is an independent character with a unique character
6317 code. Thus the following functions handling `composite characters'
6318 have been deleted: composite-char-component,
6319 composite-char-component-count, composite-char-composition-rule,
6320 composite-char-composition-rule and decompose-composite-char delete.
6321 The variables leading-code-composition and min-composite-char have
6324 *** Three more glyph reference points are added. They can be used to
6325 specify a composition rule. See the documentation of the variable
6326 `reference-point-alist' for more detail.
6328 *** The function `compose-region' takes new arguments COMPONENTS and
6329 MODIFICATION-FUNC. With COMPONENTS, you can specify not only a
6330 composition rule but also characters to be composed. Such characters
6331 may differ between buffer and string text.
6333 *** The function `compose-string' takes new arguments START, END,
6334 COMPONENTS, and MODIFICATION-FUNC.
6336 *** The function `compose-string' puts text property `composition'
6337 directly on the argument STRING instead of returning a new string.
6338 Likewise, the function `decompose-string' just removes text property
6339 `composition' from STRING.
6341 *** The new function `find-composition' returns information about
6342 a composition at a specified position in a buffer or a string.
6344 *** The function `decompose-composite-char' is now labeled as
6347 ** The new coding system `mac-roman' is primarily intended for use on
6348 the Macintosh but may be used generally for Macintosh-encoded text.
6350 ** The new character sets `mule-unicode-0100-24ff',
6351 `mule-unicode-2500-33ff', and `mule-unicode-e000-ffff' have been
6352 introduced for Unicode characters in the range U+0100..U+24FF,
6353 U+2500..U+33FF, U+E000..U+FFFF respectively.
6355 Note that the character sets are not yet unified in Emacs, so
6356 characters which belong to charsets such as Latin-2, Greek, Hebrew,
6357 etc. and the same characters in the `mule-unicode-*' charsets are
6358 different characters, as far as Emacs is concerned. For example, text
6359 which includes Unicode characters from the Latin-2 locale cannot be
6360 encoded by Emacs with ISO 8859-2 coding system.
6362 ** The new coding system `mule-utf-8' has been added.
6363 It provides limited support for decoding/encoding UTF-8 text. For
6364 details, please see the documentation string of this coding system.
6366 ** The new character sets `japanese-jisx0213-1' and
6367 `japanese-jisx0213-2' have been introduced for the new Japanese
6368 standard JIS X 0213 Plane 1 and Plane 2.
6370 ** The new character sets `latin-iso8859-14' and `latin-iso8859-15'
6371 have been introduced.
6373 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
6374 have been introduced for 8-bit characters in the ranges 0x80..0x9F and
6375 0xA0..0xFF respectively. Note that the multibyte representation of
6376 eight-bit-control is never exposed; this leads to an exception in the
6377 emacs-mule coding system, which encodes everything else to the
6378 buffer/string internal representation. Note that to search for
6379 eight-bit-graphic characters in a multibyte buffer, the search string
6380 must be multibyte, otherwise such characters will be converted to
6381 their multibyte equivalent.
6383 ** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
6384 that offset in the file before writing.
6386 ** The function `add-minor-mode' has been added for convenience and
6387 compatibility with XEmacs (and is used internally by define-minor-mode).
6389 ** The function `shell-command' now sets the default directory of the
6390 `*Shell Command Output*' buffer to the default directory of the buffer
6391 from which the command was issued.
6393 ** The functions `query-replace', `query-replace-regexp',
6394 `query-replace-regexp-eval' `map-query-replace-regexp',
6395 `replace-string', `replace-regexp', and `perform-replace' take two
6396 additional optional arguments START and END that specify the region to
6399 ** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
6400 to `window-buffer-height'.
6402 - Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
6404 Return the number of screen lines in the region between BEG and END.
6405 The number of screen lines may be different from the number of actual
6406 lines, due to line breaking, display table, etc.
6408 Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
6411 If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optional third argument
6412 COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
6414 The optional fourth argument WINDOW specifies the window used for
6415 obtaining parameters such as width, horizontal scrolling, and so
6416 on. The default is to use the selected window's parameters.
6418 Like `vertical-motion', `count-screen-lines' always uses the current
6419 buffer, regardless of which buffer is displayed in WINDOW. This makes
6420 possible to use `count-screen-lines' in any buffer, whether or not it
6421 is currently displayed in some window.
6423 ** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
6424 argument function's results.
6426 ** The functions base64-decode-region and base64-decode-string now
6427 signal an error instead of returning nil if decoding fails. Also,
6428 `base64-decode-string' now always returns a unibyte string (in Emacs
6429 20, it returned a multibyte string when the result was a valid multibyte
6432 ** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
6433 header in the list of headers passed to it.
6435 ** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
6436 ignores differences in case and text representation.
6438 ** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
6439 cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
6442 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
6443 nil don't display a cursor
6444 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
6445 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
6446 others display a box cursor.
6448 ** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
6449 an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
6450 defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
6451 set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
6453 ** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
6454 specifications in string form as accepted by `modify-syntax-entry' to
6455 the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
6456 text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
6460 (string-to-syntax "()")
6463 ** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
6466 *** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
6467 INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
6474 *** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
6479 *** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
6484 *** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
6491 ** The function `documentation-property' now evaluates the value of
6492 the given property to obtain a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
6495 ** If called for a symbol, the function `documentation' now looks for
6496 a `function-documentation' property of that symbol. If it has a non-nil
6497 value, the documentation is taken from that value. If the value is
6498 not a string, it is evaluated to obtain a string.
6500 ** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
6502 ** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
6503 for a regexp in a string.
6505 ** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
6506 `mouse-position-function'.
6508 ** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
6509 that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
6511 ** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
6512 Keywords are now always considered constants.
6514 ** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
6517 ** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
6518 returned by function `recent-keys'.
6520 ** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
6521 can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
6522 Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding C-M-a
6523 etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
6526 ** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
6527 and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
6529 ** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
6530 has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
6531 function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
6532 returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
6535 When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
6536 and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
6537 hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
6538 then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
6540 ** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
6541 In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
6542 and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
6544 ** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
6545 with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
6548 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
6550 Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
6551 TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
6552 saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
6555 ** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
6556 Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
6557 Also back-references like \2 are now considered as an error if the
6558 corresponding subgroup does not exist (or is not closed yet).
6559 Previously it would have been silently turned into `2' (ignoring the `\').
6561 ** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
6562 removed since it wasn't used by anything.
6564 ** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
6565 instead of being optional.
6567 ** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
6568 modify read-only text.
6570 ** New functions and variables for locales.
6572 The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
6573 decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
6574 time functions like strftime. The new variables
6575 `system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
6576 locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
6578 The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
6579 environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
6580 the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
6581 environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
6582 not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
6583 `locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
6584 `locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
6586 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
6587 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
6588 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
6591 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
6592 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
6594 ** New function `propertize'
6596 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
6597 strings with text properties.
6599 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
6601 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
6602 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
6603 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
6604 specified value of that property. Example:
6606 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
6608 ** push and pop macros.
6610 Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
6611 are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
6612 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
6614 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
6615 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
6616 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
6618 ** New dolist and dotimes macros.
6620 Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
6621 are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
6623 (dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
6624 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
6625 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
6626 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
6628 (dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
6629 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
6630 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
6631 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
6633 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such as
6634 [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on. These must be used within a character
6635 class--for instance, [-[:digit:].+] matches digits or a period
6638 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
6639 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
6640 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
6641 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
6642 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
6644 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
6646 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
6647 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
6648 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
6649 [:alpha:] matches letters.
6650 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
6651 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
6652 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
6653 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
6654 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
6655 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
6656 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
6657 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
6658 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
6659 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
6660 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
6662 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
6664 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
6666 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
6668 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
6669 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
6673 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
6674 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
6675 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
6679 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
6680 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
6682 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
6684 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
6685 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
6686 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
6687 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
6688 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
6690 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
6692 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
6693 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
6694 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
6698 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value',
6699 `key-or-value', `key-and-value', or t, meaning the same as
6700 `key-and-value'. Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage
6701 collection if their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere
6702 outside of the hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
6704 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
6706 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
6708 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
6710 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
6712 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
6714 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
6717 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
6719 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
6721 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
6723 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
6725 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
6727 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
6729 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
6731 Returns the size of TABLE.
6733 - Function: hash-table-test TABLE
6735 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
6737 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
6739 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
6741 - Function: clrhash TABLE
6745 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
6747 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
6750 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
6752 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
6753 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
6755 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
6757 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
6759 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
6761 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
6762 arguments KEY and VALUE.
6764 - Function: sxhash OBJ
6766 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
6768 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
6770 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
6771 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
6772 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
6773 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
6774 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
6776 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
6778 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
6779 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
6780 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
6782 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
6783 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
6785 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
6786 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
6788 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
6789 (sxhash (upcase a)))
6791 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
6792 'case-fold-string-hash))
6794 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
6796 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
6798 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
6799 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
6800 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
6802 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
6804 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
6805 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
6807 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
6808 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
6809 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
6810 is too short to reach that column.
6812 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
6813 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
6814 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
6815 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
6817 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
6818 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
6819 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
6821 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
6822 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
6824 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
6825 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
6827 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
6828 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
6829 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
6830 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
6831 temporary-file-directory instead.
6833 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
6834 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
6835 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
6836 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
6838 ** assq-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
6839 elements of an alist which have a car `eq' to a particular value.
6841 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
6843 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
6844 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
6845 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
6847 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
6849 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
6850 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
6851 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
6852 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
6853 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
6854 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
6856 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
6857 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
6858 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
6859 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
6861 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
6863 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
6864 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
6865 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
6868 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
6869 string where arguments appear in the result string.
6873 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
6875 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
6876 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
6879 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
6881 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
6883 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
6884 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
6887 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
6889 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
6890 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
6895 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
6896 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
6898 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
6899 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
6900 to enable sound support.
6902 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
6903 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
6904 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
6905 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
6906 sound to play, before playing the sound.
6908 The following sound properties are supported:
6912 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
6913 searched relative to `data-directory'.
6917 DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
6918 may be present, but not both.
6922 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
6923 0..1. This property is optional.
6927 DEVICE is a string specifying the system device on which to play the
6928 sound. The default device is system-dependent.
6930 Other properties are ignored.
6932 An alternative interface is called as
6933 (play-sound-file FILE &optional VOLUME DEVICE).
6935 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
6937 ** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
6940 ** Changes to garbage collection
6942 *** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
6943 of live and free strings.
6945 *** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
6946 strings that have been consed so far.
6949 * Lisp-level Display features added after release 2.6 of the Emacs
6952 ** The user-option `resize-mini-windows' controls how Emacs resizes
6955 ** The function `pos-visible-in-window-p' now has a third optional
6956 argument, PARTIALLY. If a character is only partially visible, nil is
6957 returned, unless PARTIALLY is non-nil.
6959 ** On window systems, `glyph-table' is no longer used.
6961 ** Help strings in menu items are now used to provide `help-echo' text.
6963 ** The function `image-size' can be used to determine the size of an
6966 - Function: image-size SPEC &optional PIXELS FRAME
6968 Return the size of an image as a pair (WIDTH . HEIGHT).
6970 SPEC is an image specification. PIXELS non-nil means return sizes
6971 measured in pixels, otherwise return sizes measured in canonical
6972 character units (fractions of the width/height of the frame's default
6973 font). FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed.
6974 FRAME nil or omitted means use the selected frame.
6976 ** The function `image-mask-p' can be used to determine if an image
6979 - Function: image-mask-p SPEC &optional FRAME
6981 Return t if image SPEC has a mask bitmap.
6982 FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed. FRAME nil
6983 or omitted means use the selected frame.
6985 ** The function `find-image' can be used to find a usable image
6986 satisfying one of a list of specifications.
6988 ** The STRING argument of `put-image' and `insert-image' is now
6991 ** Image specifications may contain the property `:ascent center' (see
6995 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
6997 ** The function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors can be used
6998 to make Emacs avoid displaying text with bold black foreground on TTYs.
7000 Some terminals, notably PC consoles, emulate bold text by displaying
7001 text in brighter colors. On such a console, a bold black foreground
7002 is displayed in a gray color. If this turns out to be hard to read on
7003 your monitor---the problem occurred with the mode line on
7004 laptops---you can instruct Emacs to ignore the text's boldness, and to
7005 just display it black instead.
7007 This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
7010 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
7014 ** New face implementation.
7016 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
7017 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
7021 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
7023 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
7025 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
7026 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
7028 3. Font height in 1/10pt
7030 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
7032 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
7034 6. Foreground color.
7036 7. Background color.
7038 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
7040 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
7042 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
7044 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
7046 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
7049 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
7050 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
7052 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
7053 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
7054 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
7055 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
7056 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each of the face
7057 attributes mentioned above.
7059 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
7060 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
7063 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
7064 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
7069 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
7070 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
7071 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
7072 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
7073 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
7074 results in a fully-specified face.
7076 *** Face realization.
7078 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
7079 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
7080 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
7081 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
7082 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
7083 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
7085 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
7086 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
7087 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
7088 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
7090 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
7091 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
7092 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
7093 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
7094 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
7096 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
7097 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
7098 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
7099 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
7100 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
7103 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
7104 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
7105 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
7106 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
7108 **** Clearing face caches.
7110 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
7111 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
7116 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
7117 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
7118 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
7120 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
7121 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
7122 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
7123 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
7124 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
7126 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
7127 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
7128 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
7130 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
7132 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
7133 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
7134 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
7135 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
7136 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
7137 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
7138 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
7140 Setting `face-font-family-alternatives' allows the user to specify
7141 alternative font families to try if a family specified by a face
7144 Setting `face-font-registry-alternatives' allows the user to specify
7145 all alternative font registry names to try for a face specifying a
7148 Please note that the interpretations of the above two variables are
7151 Setting face-ignored-fonts allows the user to ignore specific fonts.
7156 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
7157 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
7160 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
7161 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
7162 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
7163 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
7164 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
7167 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
7169 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
7171 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
7173 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
7175 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
7176 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
7177 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
7179 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
7180 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
7181 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
7182 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
7183 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
7184 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
7185 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
7186 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
7187 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
7188 of the face font sort order.
7190 - Function: x-font-family-list
7192 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
7193 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
7194 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
7195 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
7197 - Variable: font-list-limit
7199 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
7200 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
7201 matching font. The default is currently 100.
7203 *** Setting face attributes.
7205 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
7206 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
7207 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
7210 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
7211 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
7213 The following attributes are recognized:
7217 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
7218 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
7219 and `?' are allowed.
7223 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
7224 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
7225 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
7226 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
7230 VALUE must be either an integer specifying the height of the font to use
7231 in 1/10 pt, a floating point number specifying the amount by which to
7232 scale any underlying face, or a function, which is called with the old
7233 height (from the underlying face), and should return the new height.
7237 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
7238 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
7239 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
7243 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
7244 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
7247 `:foreground', `:background'
7249 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
7253 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
7254 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
7255 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
7260 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
7261 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
7262 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
7267 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
7268 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
7269 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
7270 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
7274 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
7275 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
7276 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
7277 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
7278 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
7279 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
7280 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
7281 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
7282 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
7283 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
7284 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
7285 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
7286 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
7287 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
7288 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
7289 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
7294 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
7295 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
7299 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
7300 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
7301 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
7302 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
7303 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
7304 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
7306 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
7307 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
7311 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
7312 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
7313 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
7316 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
7317 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
7318 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
7320 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
7325 VALUE is the name of a face from which to inherit attributes, or a list
7326 of face names. Attributes from inherited faces are merged into the face
7327 like an underlying face would be, with higher priority than underlying faces.
7329 *** Face attributes and X resources
7331 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
7334 Face attribute X resource class
7335 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
7336 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
7337 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
7338 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
7339 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
7340 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
7341 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
7342 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
7343 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
7344 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
7345 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
7346 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
7347 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
7348 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
7349 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
7350 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
7351 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
7352 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
7353 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
7354 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
7356 *** Text property `face'.
7358 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
7359 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
7360 specification can be
7362 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
7364 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
7365 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
7366 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
7367 for face attribute names.
7369 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
7370 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
7371 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
7373 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
7375 The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
7376 on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
7377 the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
7378 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
7379 `defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
7380 used to clear the mapping table.
7382 ** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
7384 The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
7385 and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
7386 type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
7387 color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
7388 display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
7389 old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
7390 `x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
7391 compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
7392 should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
7393 modify their color-related behavior.
7395 The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
7398 ** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
7400 The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
7401 `display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
7402 `display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
7403 `display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
7404 `display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
7405 `display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
7406 display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
7407 the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
7408 platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
7410 The new function `display-images-p' returns non-nil if a particular
7411 display can display image files.
7413 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
7415 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
7416 To disallow this completely (like previous versions of emacs), customize
7417 the variable `minibuffer-prompt-properties', and turn on the
7418 `Inviolable' option.
7420 The function `minibuffer-prompt-end' returns the current position of the
7421 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
7422 Otherwise, it returns `(point-min)'.
7424 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
7426 There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
7427 buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
7428 property (which can be a text property or an overlay).
7430 Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
7431 forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
7432 to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
7433 not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
7434 commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
7435 boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
7436 `inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
7439 Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
7440 a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
7441 editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
7443 The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
7445 - Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY
7447 Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
7449 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
7450 If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
7451 constrained position if that is different.
7453 If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
7454 positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
7455 ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
7456 constrained to the field that has the same `field' char-property
7457 as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
7458 is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
7459 fields. Additionally, if two fields are separated by another field with
7460 the special value `boundary', then any point within this special field is
7461 also considered to be `on the boundary'.
7463 If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
7464 NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
7465 unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
7466 C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
7467 only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
7469 If the optional argument INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY is non-nil, and OLD-POS has
7470 a non-nil property of that name, then any field boundaries are ignored.
7472 Field boundaries are not noticed if `inhibit-field-text-motion' is non-nil.
7474 - Function: delete-field &optional POS
7476 Delete the field surrounding POS.
7477 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
7478 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
7480 - Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
7482 Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
7483 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
7484 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
7485 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the beginning of its
7486 field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
7488 - Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
7490 Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
7491 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
7492 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
7493 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the end of its field,
7494 then the end of the *following* field is returned.
7496 - Function: field-string &optional POS
7498 Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
7499 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
7500 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
7502 - Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
7504 Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
7505 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
7506 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
7510 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
7511 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
7512 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
7513 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
7515 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
7516 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
7517 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
7518 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
7521 IMAGE is an image specification.
7523 *** Image specifications
7525 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
7526 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
7527 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
7528 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
7529 described below are ignored.
7531 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
7535 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, or the symbol `center'.
7536 If it is a number, it specifies the percentage of the image's height
7537 to use for its ascent.
7539 If not specified, ASCENT defaults to the value 50 which means that the
7540 image will be centered with the base line of the row it appears in.
7542 If ASCENT is `center' the image is vertically centered around a
7543 centerline which is the vertical center of text drawn at the position
7544 of the image, in the manner specified by the text properties and
7545 overlays that apply to the image.
7549 MARGIN must be either a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put
7550 as margin around the image, or a pair (X . Y) with X specifying the
7551 horizontal margin and Y specifying the vertical margin. Default is 0.
7555 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
7560 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it.
7562 ALGO `laplace' or `emboss' means apply a Laplace or ``emboss''
7563 edge-detection algorithm to the image.
7565 ALGO `(edge-detection :matrix MATRIX :color-adjust ADJUST)' means
7566 apply a general edge-detection algorithm. MATRIX must be either a
7567 nine-element list or a nine-element vector of numbers. A pixel at
7568 position x/y in the transformed image is computed from original pixels
7569 around that position. MATRIX specifies, for each pixel in the
7570 neighborhood of x/y, a factor with which that pixel will influence the
7571 transformed pixel; element 0 specifies the factor for the pixel at
7572 x-1/y-1, element 1 the factor for the pixel at x/y-1 etc. as shown
7575 (x-1/y-1 x/y-1 x+1/y-1
7577 x-1/y+1 x/y+1 x+1/y+1)
7579 The resulting pixel is computed from the color intensity of the color
7580 resulting from summing up the RGB values of surrounding pixels,
7581 multiplied by the specified factors, and dividing that sum by the sum
7582 of the factors' absolute values.
7584 Laplace edge-detection currently uses a matrix of
7590 Emboss edge-detection uses a matrix of
7596 ALGO `disabled' means transform the image so that it looks
7601 If MASK is `heuristic' or `(heuristic BG)', build a clipping mask for
7602 the image, so that the background of a frame is visible behind the
7603 image. If BG is not specified, or if BG is t, determine the
7604 background color of the image by looking at the 4 corners of the
7605 image, assuming the most frequently occurring color from the corners is
7606 the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must be a list `(RED
7607 GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the background of the
7610 If MASK is nil, remove a mask from the image, if it has one. Images
7611 in some formats include a mask which can be removed by specifying
7616 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
7617 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
7618 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
7619 may be present in the image specification.
7623 Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
7624 supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
7625 present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
7626 support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
7628 *** Supported image types
7630 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
7632 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
7633 properties supported are:
7637 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
7638 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground color.
7642 BG must be a string specifying the image background color, or nil
7643 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
7645 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
7646 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
7647 instead of a `:file' property.
7651 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
7655 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
7661 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
7662 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
7664 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
7666 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
7669 4. a string that's an in-memory XBM file. Neither width nor
7670 height may be specified in this case because these are defined
7673 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
7675 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
7676 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
7677 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
7678 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
7680 Additional image properties supported are:
7682 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
7684 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
7685 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
7688 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
7689 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
7691 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
7692 to display compressed images.
7694 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
7696 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
7697 mono images are supported. Additional image properties supported for
7702 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
7703 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground color.
7707 BG must be a string specifying the image background color, or nil
7708 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
7710 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
7712 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
7713 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
7716 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
7718 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
7719 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
7722 **** GIF, image type `gif'
7724 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
7725 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
7727 Additional image properties supported are:
7731 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
7732 multi-image GIF file. If INDEX is too large, the image displays
7735 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
7736 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
7737 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
7740 (defun show-anim (file max)
7741 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
7742 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
7744 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
7747 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
7750 (goto-char (point-min))
7751 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
7752 (insert-image img "x"))
7753 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
7755 **** PNG, image type `png'
7757 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
7758 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
7761 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
7763 Additional image properties supported are:
7767 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
7768 integer. This is a required property.
7772 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
7773 must be a integer. This is an required property.
7777 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
7778 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
7779 files. This is an required property.
7781 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
7786 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
7787 which are supported in the current configuration.
7789 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
7790 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
7791 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
7792 manually. Images in the cache are compared with `equal', i.e. all
7793 images with `equal' specifications share the same image.
7795 *** Simplified image API, image.el
7797 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
7798 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
7799 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
7800 define an image based on available image types. The functions
7801 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
7806 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
7809 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
7810 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
7811 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
7812 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
7813 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
7814 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
7815 of the display margins.
7817 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
7818 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
7819 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
7820 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
7825 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
7826 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
7827 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
7828 that have a `help-echo' property.
7830 If the value of the `help-echo' property is a function, that function
7831 is called with three arguments WINDOW, OBJECT and POSITION. WINDOW is
7832 the window in which the help was found.
7834 If OBJECT is a buffer, POS is the position in the buffer where the
7835 `help-echo' text property was found.
7837 If OBJECT is an overlay, that overlay has a `help-echo' property, and
7838 POS is the position in the overlay's buffer under the mouse.
7840 If OBJECT is a string (an overlay string or a string displayed with
7841 the `display' property), POS is the position in that string under the
7844 If the value of the `help-echo' property is neither a function nor a
7845 string, it is evaluated to obtain a help string.
7847 For tool-bar and menu-bar items, their key definition is used to
7848 determine the help to display. If their definition contains a
7849 property `:help FORM', FORM is evaluated to determine the help string.
7850 For tool-bar items without a help form, the caption of the item is
7851 used as help string.
7853 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
7854 the help string differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window
7855 causes the help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
7857 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
7859 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
7860 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
7862 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
7863 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
7864 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
7865 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
7868 (global-set-key [A-down]
7871 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
7872 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
7873 (global-set-key [A-up]
7876 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
7877 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
7879 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
7881 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
7882 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
7883 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
7884 is called with one argument, POS.
7886 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
7887 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
7888 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
7889 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
7890 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
7892 ** Tool bar support.
7894 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
7895 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
7896 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
7897 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
7898 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
7899 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
7901 *** Tool bar item definitions
7903 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
7904 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
7905 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
7907 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
7908 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
7909 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
7910 property (see below).
7912 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
7913 binding are currently ignored.
7915 The following properties are recognized:
7919 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
7924 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
7928 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
7929 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
7930 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
7932 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
7934 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
7935 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
7939 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
7940 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
7941 meaning of each of the four elements:
7943 Index Use when item is
7944 ----------------------------------------
7945 0 enabled and selected
7946 1 enabled and deselected
7947 2 disabled and selected
7948 3 disabled and deselected
7950 If IMAGE is a single image specification, a Laplace edge-detection
7951 algorithm is used on that image to draw the image in disabled state.
7953 `:help HELP-STRING'.
7955 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
7956 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
7958 The function `toolbar-add-item' is a convenience function for adding
7959 toolbar items generally, and `tool-bar-add-item-from-menu' can be used
7960 to define a toolbar item with a binding copied from an item on the
7963 The default bindings use a menu-item :filter to derive the tool-bar
7964 dynamically from variable `tool-bar-map' which may be set
7965 buffer-locally to override the global map.
7967 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
7969 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
7970 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
7971 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
7973 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
7974 raised when the mouse moves over them.
7976 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
7977 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
7978 pixels, or a pair of integers (X . Y) specifying horizontal and
7979 vertical margins . Default is 1.
7981 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
7982 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
7984 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
7986 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
7989 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
7990 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
7991 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
7993 is the original tool bar item definition, then
7995 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
7997 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
8000 ** Mode line changes.
8002 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
8004 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
8005 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
8006 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
8008 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
8009 a `local-map' text property.
8011 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
8012 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
8014 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
8015 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
8016 `local-map' property.
8018 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
8019 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
8022 *** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
8023 evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
8025 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
8026 variable mode-line-format to nil.
8028 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
8030 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
8031 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
8032 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
8033 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
8036 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
8039 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
8040 position in the header-line.
8042 ** Text property `display'
8044 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text,
8045 replace text with other text, display text in marginal area, and it is
8046 also used to control other aspects of how text displays. The value of
8047 the `display' property should be a display specification, as described
8048 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
8050 *** Replacing text, displaying text in marginal areas
8052 To replace the text having the `display' property with some other
8053 text, use a display specification of the form `(LOCATION STRING)'.
8055 If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)', STRING is displayed in the left
8056 marginal area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in
8057 the right marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' STRING
8058 is displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
8059 simpler form STRING as property value.
8061 *** Variable width and height spaces
8063 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
8064 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
8065 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
8066 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
8067 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
8068 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
8069 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
8071 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
8072 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
8073 properties described below.
8075 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
8076 characters having the `display' property.
8080 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
8081 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
8083 - :relative-width FACTOR
8085 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
8086 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
8087 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
8088 width of that character by FACTOR.
8092 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
8093 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
8095 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
8099 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
8102 - :relative-height FACTOR
8104 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
8105 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
8109 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
8110 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
8111 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
8114 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
8118 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
8119 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
8120 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
8121 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
8122 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
8123 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
8124 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
8125 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
8126 as display specification.
8128 *** Other display properties
8130 - (space-width FACTOR)
8132 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
8133 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
8138 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
8140 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
8141 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
8142 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
8143 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
8144 a font is available counts as a step.
8146 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
8147 as tall as the frame's default font.
8149 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
8150 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
8152 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
8153 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
8157 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
8158 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
8159 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
8160 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
8161 `height' subproperty.
8163 *** Conditional display properties
8165 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
8166 has the form `(when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC applies
8167 only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated. During the
8168 evaluation, `object' is bound to the string or buffer having the
8169 conditional display property; `position' and `buffer-position' are
8170 bound to the position within `object' and the buffer position where
8171 the display property was found, respectively. Both positions can be
8172 different when object is a string.
8174 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
8177 ** New menu separator types.
8179 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
8180 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
8181 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
8182 to specify other menu separator types.
8184 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
8186 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
8189 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
8191 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
8193 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
8195 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
8197 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
8199 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
8201 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
8203 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
8205 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
8207 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the form
8208 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
8210 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
8212 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
8214 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
8216 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
8218 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
8220 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
8222 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
8224 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
8226 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
8228 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
8230 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
8232 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
8234 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
8236 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
8238 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
8239 the corresponding single-line separators.
8241 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
8243 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
8244 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
8245 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
8246 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
8247 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
8248 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
8249 default foreground is black.
8251 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
8252 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
8253 `ScrollBarBackground').
8255 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
8256 settings for scroll bar colors.
8258 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
8259 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
8261 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
8262 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
8263 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
8264 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
8265 the original window start.
8267 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
8268 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
8269 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
8271 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
8273 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
8274 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
8275 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
8276 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
8278 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
8279 fixed-width and fixed-height.
8281 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
8283 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
8284 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
8285 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
8286 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
8287 temporarily to nil, for example
8289 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
8290 (enlarge-window 10))
8292 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
8293 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
8295 ** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
8296 terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
8297 to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
8298 overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
8299 horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
8300 support a vertical-bar cursor).
8304 * Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes
8306 ** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard
8309 ** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos.
8311 ** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages.
8313 ** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not
8314 only for character input, but also in incremental search. The
8315 exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets
8316 (e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence
8317 (e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search.
8319 ** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has
8323 * Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change
8325 ** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added.
8329 * Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
8331 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
8332 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
8334 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
8336 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
8338 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
8339 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
8340 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
8342 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
8343 is the one that is used.
8345 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
8346 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
8347 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
8348 separate from the command's regular output.
8349 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
8350 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
8351 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
8354 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
8355 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
8356 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
8357 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
8359 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
8360 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
8361 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
8362 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
8364 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
8365 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
8366 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
8367 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
8369 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
8370 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
8371 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
8372 they never ignore case.
8374 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
8375 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
8376 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
8377 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
8378 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
8379 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
8380 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
8382 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
8383 the same format that was used in the file before.
8385 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
8386 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
8388 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
8389 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
8390 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
8392 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
8393 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
8394 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
8395 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
8396 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
8397 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
8398 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
8400 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
8401 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
8402 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
8403 format. You can now customize these variables.
8405 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
8406 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
8407 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
8408 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
8410 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
8411 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
8412 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
8414 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
8415 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
8416 doesn't have any effect.
8418 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
8421 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
8422 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
8423 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
8425 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
8426 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
8427 `auto-show-mode' command.
8429 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
8430 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
8431 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
8432 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
8433 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
8435 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
8436 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
8438 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
8439 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
8440 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
8442 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
8443 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
8444 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
8445 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
8447 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
8449 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
8450 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
8451 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
8452 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
8453 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
8455 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
8456 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
8458 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
8459 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
8460 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
8461 `?' on other systems.
8463 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
8464 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
8467 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
8468 current codepage when it starts.
8472 *** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
8473 `mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
8474 appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
8475 non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
8476 MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
8477 headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
8481 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
8482 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
8484 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
8485 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
8486 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
8487 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
8488 buffer-file-coding-system.
8490 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
8491 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
8494 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
8495 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
8496 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
8497 list of possible coding systems.
8501 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
8502 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
8503 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
8504 docstring for details.
8506 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
8507 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
8508 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
8509 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
8510 lineup functions use this feature currently.
8512 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
8513 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
8515 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
8516 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
8518 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
8519 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
8520 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
8521 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
8524 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
8525 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
8527 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
8528 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
8529 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
8530 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
8532 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
8533 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
8534 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
8535 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
8536 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
8538 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
8540 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
8542 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
8543 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
8545 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
8547 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
8548 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
8549 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
8550 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
8551 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
8555 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
8556 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
8557 Gnus manual for the full story.
8559 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
8560 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
8561 group, which is created automatically.
8563 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
8566 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
8568 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
8569 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
8571 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
8574 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
8576 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
8577 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
8579 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
8581 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
8582 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
8584 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
8585 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
8587 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
8588 control over simplification.
8590 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
8592 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
8595 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
8597 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
8599 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
8600 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
8601 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
8603 *** Canceling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
8604 `a' forces normal posting method.
8606 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
8609 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
8612 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
8613 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
8615 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
8618 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
8620 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
8622 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
8623 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
8625 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
8626 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
8628 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
8630 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
8633 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
8634 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
8636 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
8637 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
8639 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
8641 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
8643 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
8645 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
8647 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
8648 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
8649 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
8651 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
8652 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
8653 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
8654 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
8655 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
8657 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
8658 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
8659 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
8660 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
8662 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
8663 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
8664 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
8667 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
8669 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
8670 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
8672 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
8673 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
8674 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
8675 removed from the label.
8677 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
8678 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
8680 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
8681 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
8683 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
8684 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
8687 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
8689 ** New/deleted modes and packages
8691 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
8692 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
8694 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
8695 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
8696 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
8698 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
8699 changes with a special face.
8701 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
8702 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
8703 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
8705 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
8707 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
8708 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
8709 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
8710 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
8711 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
8713 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
8714 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
8715 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
8717 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
8718 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
8719 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
8720 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
8721 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
8722 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
8723 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
8724 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
8725 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
8727 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
8728 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
8729 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
8730 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
8731 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
8734 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
8735 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
8736 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
8737 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
8738 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
8739 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
8741 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
8742 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
8743 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
8744 was not documented clearly before.
8746 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
8747 This includes Tetris and Snake.
8749 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
8751 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
8752 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
8753 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
8754 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
8756 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
8757 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
8758 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
8760 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
8762 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
8763 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
8765 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
8766 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
8769 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
8770 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
8771 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
8772 file names and attributes are returned.
8774 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
8775 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
8776 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its attributes.
8777 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
8780 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
8781 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
8783 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
8785 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
8786 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
8787 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
8790 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
8791 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
8794 The new function process-running-child-p
8795 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
8796 terminal to its own child process.
8798 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
8799 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
8800 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
8801 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
8803 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
8804 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
8806 ** easymenu.el now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
8807 :included is an alias for :visible.
8809 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
8810 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
8811 to move or copy menu entries.
8813 ** Multibyte editing changes
8815 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
8816 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
8817 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
8818 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
8819 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
8820 (setq char (sref str idx)
8821 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
8822 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
8824 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
8825 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
8826 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
8828 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
8829 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
8830 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
8832 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibited
8834 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
8835 across the boundary.
8837 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
8838 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
8839 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
8840 contains 8-bit characters.
8841 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
8842 contains invalid characters.
8844 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
8845 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
8846 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
8847 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
8850 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
8851 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
8852 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
8853 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
8855 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
8856 compose Thai characters in a string.
8858 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
8859 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
8860 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
8861 menus should always use the third argument.
8863 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
8864 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
8865 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
8866 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
8868 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
8869 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
8870 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
8871 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
8873 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
8874 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
8875 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
8878 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
8880 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
8881 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
8882 requested feature cannot be loaded.
8884 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
8885 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
8886 means to clear out that attribute.
8888 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
8889 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
8891 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
8892 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
8893 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
8894 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
8896 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
8897 the gap of the current buffer.
8899 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
8900 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
8903 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
8904 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
8905 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
8906 it back in after any modifications have been made.
8908 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
8910 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
8911 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
8912 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
8913 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
8914 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
8916 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
8917 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
8918 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
8919 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
8920 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
8922 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
8923 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
8924 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
8926 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
8927 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
8928 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
8929 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
8930 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
8933 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
8934 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
8935 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
8936 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
8938 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
8940 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
8941 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
8942 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
8943 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
8945 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
8946 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
8947 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
8948 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
8949 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
8950 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
8951 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
8954 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
8957 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
8958 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
8959 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
8960 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
8961 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
8963 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
8964 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
8965 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
8966 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
8968 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
8969 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
8970 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
8971 something that most users not do.
8973 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
8974 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
8975 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
8978 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
8981 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
8982 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
8983 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
8984 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
8987 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
8988 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
8989 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
8990 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
8991 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
8994 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
8995 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
8996 to be confused by TeX commands.
8998 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
8999 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
9000 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
9001 of various alternative replacements and actions.
9003 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
9004 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
9005 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
9006 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
9007 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
9009 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
9010 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
9012 ** Changes in input method usage.
9014 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
9015 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
9018 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
9020 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
9021 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
9023 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
9024 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
9026 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
9028 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
9030 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
9031 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
9033 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
9034 given in the following case:
9035 o When you are using a complex input method.
9036 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
9038 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
9039 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
9040 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
9041 setting it to t is helpful.
9043 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
9045 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
9047 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
9048 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
9049 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
9050 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
9053 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
9054 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
9055 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
9058 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
9060 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
9062 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
9063 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
9065 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
9066 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
9067 its owner and group.
9069 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
9070 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
9072 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
9073 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
9075 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
9076 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
9077 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
9078 by the left edge of the rectangle.
9080 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
9081 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
9082 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
9083 for writing keyboard macros.
9085 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
9086 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
9087 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
9088 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
9089 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
9092 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
9094 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
9095 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
9098 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
9099 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
9100 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
9101 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
9103 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
9104 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
9105 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
9107 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
9108 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
9109 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
9110 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
9112 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
9113 failure if the command produces no output.
9115 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
9116 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
9119 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
9120 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
9121 function and variable names.
9123 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
9124 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
9125 file-coding-system-alist.
9127 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
9128 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
9129 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
9130 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
9131 according to the current fontset.
9133 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
9135 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
9136 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
9137 nonascii-insert-offset.
9139 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
9140 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
9141 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
9142 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
9144 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
9145 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
9147 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
9148 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
9150 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
9151 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
9154 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
9155 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
9157 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
9158 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
9159 all variables that have documentation.
9161 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
9162 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
9163 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
9164 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
9165 it should show; the default is 20.
9167 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
9168 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
9171 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
9172 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
9173 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
9174 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
9175 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
9176 Newly added options are included as well.
9178 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
9179 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
9180 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
9182 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
9185 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
9186 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
9188 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
9189 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
9192 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
9193 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
9196 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
9197 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
9198 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
9199 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
9202 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
9204 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
9205 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
9206 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
9208 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
9209 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
9210 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
9215 *** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
9216 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
9218 *** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
9219 and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
9221 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
9222 read and post multi-lingual articles.
9224 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
9225 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
9226 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
9227 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
9228 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
9229 made invisible again.
9231 ** Mail reading and sending changes
9233 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
9234 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
9235 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
9238 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
9239 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
9240 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
9241 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
9242 rmail-default-body-file.
9244 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
9245 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
9246 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
9248 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
9249 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
9250 is evaluated to insert the signature.
9252 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
9253 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
9254 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
9255 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
9256 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
9257 especially interested in trying feedmail.
9259 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
9260 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
9261 provided by feedmail are:
9263 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
9264 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
9265 there is also a queue for draft messages
9267 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
9268 be prompted for confirmation
9270 **** does smart filling of address headers
9272 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
9273 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
9274 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
9276 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
9277 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
9278 /usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
9279 function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
9283 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
9284 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
9286 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
9287 run Dired on the directory name at point.
9289 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
9290 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
9291 for a specified regexp.
9295 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
9298 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
9299 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
9302 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
9303 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
9304 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
9305 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
9307 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
9308 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
9309 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
9310 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
9311 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
9313 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
9314 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
9315 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
9316 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
9317 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
9319 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
9320 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
9321 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
9322 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
9324 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
9325 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
9326 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
9328 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
9329 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
9330 session to resolve them.
9332 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
9333 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
9334 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
9337 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
9338 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
9339 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
9340 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
9341 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
9342 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
9345 ** Changes in Font Lock
9347 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
9348 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
9349 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
9350 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
9351 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
9353 ** Frame name display changes
9355 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
9356 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
9357 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
9358 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
9360 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
9361 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
9364 ** Comint (subshell) changes
9366 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
9367 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
9368 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
9370 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
9372 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
9373 that is, the line after the last line you got.
9374 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
9376 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
9377 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
9380 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
9381 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
9382 previously sent input.
9384 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
9385 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
9386 as the search string.
9388 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
9389 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
9393 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
9394 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
9395 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
9398 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
9399 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
9400 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
9401 style is still the default however.
9403 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
9405 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
9406 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
9407 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
9409 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
9410 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
9412 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
9413 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
9415 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
9416 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
9418 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
9419 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
9421 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
9422 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
9423 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
9424 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
9426 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
9428 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
9429 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
9430 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
9432 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
9433 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
9434 expanding dynamically.
9436 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
9437 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
9439 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
9440 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
9441 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
9442 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
9444 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
9446 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
9448 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
9449 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
9450 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
9451 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
9452 against the first word in the title.
9454 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
9455 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
9456 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
9457 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
9458 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
9459 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
9461 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
9462 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
9463 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
9464 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
9466 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
9468 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
9469 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
9470 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
9471 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
9472 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
9473 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
9475 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
9476 Editing group once the package is loaded.
9478 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
9479 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
9480 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behavior.
9482 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
9483 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
9487 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
9488 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
9489 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
9491 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
9492 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
9493 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
9494 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
9497 o URLs are automatically skipped
9498 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
9500 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
9502 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
9504 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
9505 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
9506 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
9507 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
9509 *** New recursive parser.
9511 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
9512 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
9513 recursive parser scans the individual files.
9515 *** Parsing only part of a document.
9517 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
9518 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
9519 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
9521 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
9523 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
9525 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
9527 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
9529 *** Using multiple selection buffers
9531 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
9532 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
9534 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
9536 *** References to external documents.
9538 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
9539 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
9540 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
9541 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
9542 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
9543 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
9544 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
9546 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
9548 The built-in command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
9549 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
9551 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
9552 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
9554 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
9556 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
9557 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
9559 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
9561 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
9562 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
9563 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
9564 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
9565 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
9566 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
9569 *** Support for the varioref package
9571 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
9575 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
9576 and citations are created. These hooks are
9577 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
9578 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
9580 *** Citations outside LaTeX
9582 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
9583 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
9585 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
9587 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
9588 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
9591 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
9593 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
9594 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
9595 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
9596 directories that contain the same file name.
9598 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
9599 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
9600 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
9601 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
9602 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
9603 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
9604 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
9607 ** New modes and packages
9609 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
9610 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
9611 it, but some do not.
9613 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
9616 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
9617 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
9620 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
9622 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
9623 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
9624 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
9625 established system of notation similar to Chess.
9627 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
9628 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
9629 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
9631 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
9632 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
9633 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
9634 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
9635 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
9638 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
9639 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
9641 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
9642 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
9643 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
9644 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
9646 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
9648 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
9649 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
9650 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
9651 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
9652 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
9653 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
9654 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
9655 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
9656 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
9657 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
9658 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
9660 Platform-specific modes:
9662 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
9663 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
9664 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
9665 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
9666 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
9667 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
9668 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
9669 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
9670 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
9672 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
9674 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
9675 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
9676 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
9677 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
9679 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
9680 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
9681 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
9683 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
9684 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
9685 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
9686 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
9688 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
9689 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
9690 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
9693 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
9694 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
9695 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
9696 current input method for reading this one event.
9698 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
9699 now control whether to output certain characters as
9700 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
9701 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
9702 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
9703 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
9705 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
9707 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
9708 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
9710 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
9711 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
9712 always increases point by 1.
9714 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
9715 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
9717 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
9719 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
9720 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
9721 default value changed. For example,
9723 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
9728 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
9731 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
9732 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
9733 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
9734 `:version' in the top level group.
9736 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
9738 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
9739 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
9741 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
9742 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
9743 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
9746 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
9747 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
9750 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
9751 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
9752 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
9754 ** Frame-local variables.
9756 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
9757 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
9758 local bindings for that variable.
9760 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
9761 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
9762 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
9765 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
9766 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
9767 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
9768 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
9770 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
9771 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
9772 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
9773 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
9775 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
9776 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
9777 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
9778 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
9779 See the documentation in sregex.el.
9781 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
9782 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
9783 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
9784 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
9786 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
9787 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
9789 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
9790 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
9791 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
9793 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
9794 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
9795 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
9796 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
9798 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
9799 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
9802 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
9803 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
9804 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
9805 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
9806 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
9808 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
9809 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
9810 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
9811 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
9813 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
9814 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
9815 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
9816 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
9817 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
9819 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
9820 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
9821 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
9822 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
9824 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
9825 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
9826 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
9828 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
9829 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
9830 was directed to display this buffer.
9832 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
9833 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
9834 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
9835 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
9836 set-window-configuration.
9838 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
9839 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
9840 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
9841 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
9843 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
9844 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
9845 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
9847 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
9848 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
9849 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
9851 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
9852 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
9854 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
9855 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
9857 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
9858 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
9859 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
9861 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
9862 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
9863 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
9864 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
9868 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
9869 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
9872 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
9873 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
9874 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
9875 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
9876 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
9878 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
9880 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
9881 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
9882 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
9883 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
9886 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
9887 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
9888 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
9889 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
9890 The supported properties include
9892 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
9894 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
9895 item should appear in the menu.
9897 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
9898 which will be REAL-BINDING.
9899 It should return a binding to use instead.
9901 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
9902 binding for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
9903 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
9904 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
9905 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
9908 This means that the command normally has no
9909 keyboard equivalent.
9910 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
9911 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
9912 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
9913 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
9914 value says whether this button is currently selected.
9916 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
9917 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
9919 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
9923 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
9924 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
9925 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
9926 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
9928 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
9930 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
9931 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
9932 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
9933 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
9934 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
9935 forward, away from the user.
9937 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
9939 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
9940 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
9941 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
9942 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
9943 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
9945 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
9947 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
9948 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
9949 that were dragged and dropped.
9951 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
9953 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
9955 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
9956 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
9957 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
9959 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
9960 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
9961 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
9963 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
9964 in Emacs 19 and before.
9966 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
9967 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
9969 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
9970 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
9971 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
9972 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
9974 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
9975 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
9976 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
9977 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
9978 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
9980 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
9981 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
9982 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
9983 consistent with the new representation.
9985 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
9986 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
9987 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
9988 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
9990 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
9991 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
9992 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
9994 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
9995 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
9996 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
9998 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
9999 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
10000 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
10002 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
10003 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
10005 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
10006 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
10008 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
10009 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
10010 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
10011 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
10013 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
10014 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
10016 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
10017 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
10018 buffer or string being searched.
10020 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
10021 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
10022 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
10023 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
10024 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
10025 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
10026 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
10028 *** Structure of coding system changed.
10030 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
10031 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
10032 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
10033 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
10034 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
10035 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
10036 define-coding-system-alias.
10038 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
10039 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
10040 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
10041 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
10042 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
10043 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
10044 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
10047 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
10048 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
10049 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
10050 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
10052 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
10053 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
10054 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
10055 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
10057 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
10058 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
10059 This function requires a user interaction.
10061 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
10062 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
10063 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
10064 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
10065 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
10066 select-safe-coding-system.
10068 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
10069 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
10070 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
10073 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
10074 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
10075 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
10077 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
10078 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
10079 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
10080 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
10082 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
10083 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
10084 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
10087 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
10088 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
10090 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
10091 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
10092 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
10093 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
10094 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
10095 range of characters.
10097 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
10098 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
10100 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
10101 in the current buffer at position POS.
10103 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
10104 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
10105 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
10106 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
10107 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
10108 binding input-method-function to nil.
10110 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
10111 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
10112 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
10113 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
10114 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
10116 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
10117 subsequent events of a key sequence.
10119 *** You can customize any language environment by using
10120 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
10122 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
10123 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
10124 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
10125 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
10126 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
10128 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
10130 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
10131 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
10132 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
10135 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
10136 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
10138 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
10139 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
10140 in your .emacs file.)
10142 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
10143 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
10145 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
10146 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
10148 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
10149 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
10152 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
10153 delete the character before point, as usual.
10155 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
10156 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
10157 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
10159 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
10160 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
10161 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
10162 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
10163 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
10166 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
10167 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
10168 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
10169 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
10170 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
10172 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
10173 and is an alias for it.
10175 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
10176 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
10178 ** Scrolling changes
10180 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
10181 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
10183 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
10184 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
10187 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
10188 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
10189 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
10190 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
10192 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
10193 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
10194 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
10195 recenters the window.
10197 ** International character set support (MULE)
10199 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
10200 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
10201 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
10202 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
10203 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
10204 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
10206 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
10207 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
10208 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
10209 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
10210 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
10212 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
10213 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
10214 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
10215 language, to make it possible to type them.
10217 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
10218 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
10220 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
10221 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
10223 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
10225 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
10227 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
10228 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
10229 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
10230 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
10231 characters for their work until they want to change.
10235 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
10236 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
10237 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
10238 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
10239 support several input methods.
10241 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
10242 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
10245 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
10246 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
10247 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
10248 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
10249 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
10252 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
10253 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
10254 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
10255 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
10256 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
10258 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
10259 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
10260 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
10261 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
10263 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
10264 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
10265 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
10266 the first guess is wrong.
10268 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
10269 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
10271 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
10272 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
10273 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
10274 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
10276 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
10277 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
10278 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
10279 translate automatically to and from either one.
10281 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
10283 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
10284 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
10285 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
10288 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
10289 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
10290 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
10291 multibyte characters in that buffer.
10293 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
10294 character conversion as well.
10296 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
10298 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
10299 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
10300 requires using many fonts.
10302 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
10303 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
10305 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
10306 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
10307 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
10308 you would use a font.
10310 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
10311 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
10312 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
10314 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
10315 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
10318 *** Defining fontsets.
10320 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
10321 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
10322 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
10324 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
10325 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
10326 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
10327 standard fontset are created automatically.
10329 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
10330 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
10331 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
10332 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
10333 name is `fontset-startup'.
10335 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
10336 The resource value should have this form:
10337 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
10338 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
10339 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
10340 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
10341 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
10342 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
10343 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
10344 CHARSET-NAME should be the name of a character set, and FONT-NAME
10345 should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
10347 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
10348 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
10349 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
10351 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
10352 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
10353 following resource,
10354 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
10355 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
10356 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
10357 Here is the substitution rule:
10358 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
10359 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
10360 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
10361 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
10362 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
10364 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
10365 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
10366 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
10368 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
10369 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
10370 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
10371 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
10374 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
10375 defaults for a particular choice of language.
10377 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
10378 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
10379 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
10380 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
10381 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
10382 system for new files that you create.
10384 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
10385 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
10386 whole Emacs session.
10388 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
10389 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
10390 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
10392 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
10393 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
10394 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
10395 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
10396 coding systems that Emacs supports.
10398 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
10399 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
10400 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
10401 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
10402 is used for *the immediately following command*.
10404 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
10405 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
10407 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
10408 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
10410 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
10411 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
10413 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
10414 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
10415 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
10416 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
10419 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
10420 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
10421 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
10422 translated into that character code.
10424 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
10425 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
10427 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
10429 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
10430 the coding system for keyboard input.
10432 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
10433 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
10434 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
10436 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
10438 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
10439 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
10440 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
10441 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
10442 designed to work with terminals.
10444 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
10445 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
10446 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
10447 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
10448 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
10449 in the corresponding buffer.
10451 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
10453 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
10454 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
10455 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
10457 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
10458 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
10459 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
10462 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
10463 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
10465 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
10466 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
10467 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
10468 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
10470 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
10471 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
10472 related information.
10474 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
10475 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
10478 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
10479 information about the support for a particular language.
10480 You specify the language as an argument.
10482 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
10483 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
10486 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
10487 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
10488 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
10489 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
10491 A alternativnyj (Russian)
10493 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
10494 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
10495 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
10496 E euc-japan (Japanese)
10497 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
10498 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
10499 K euc-korea (Korean)
10502 S shift_jis (Japanese)
10505 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
10506 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
10507 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
10508 v viqr (Vietnamese)
10511 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
10512 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
10513 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
10514 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
10516 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
10517 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
10519 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
10520 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
10521 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
10522 Rmail files themselves.
10524 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
10525 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
10527 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
10530 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
10531 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
10532 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
10533 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
10534 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
10536 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
10537 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
10538 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
10541 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
10542 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
10543 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
10544 without any conversion.
10546 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
10547 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
10548 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
10549 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
10551 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
10552 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
10554 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
10555 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
10557 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
10558 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
10560 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
10561 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
10562 in the buffer before point.
10564 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
10565 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
10568 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
10569 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
10571 ** File locking works with NFS now.
10573 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
10574 in the same directory as FILENAME.
10576 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
10577 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
10578 can become a bottleneck.
10580 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
10581 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
10582 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
10583 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
10584 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
10585 so useful that the change is worth while.
10587 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
10588 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
10589 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
10590 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
10592 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
10593 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
10596 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
10597 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
10598 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
10600 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
10601 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
10602 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
10604 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
10605 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
10606 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
10608 ** Changes in View mode.
10610 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
10611 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
10613 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
10614 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
10616 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
10619 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
10620 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
10622 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
10623 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
10624 not just the selected window.
10626 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
10627 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
10628 turns View mode on or off.
10630 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
10631 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
10632 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
10634 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
10635 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
10637 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
10638 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
10639 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
10640 which version to compare with.
10642 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
10643 blocks if a match is inside the block.
10645 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
10646 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
10647 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
10648 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
10650 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
10651 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
10652 blocks, all of them or none.
10654 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
10655 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
10656 confirmation first.
10658 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
10659 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
10660 However, the mode will not be changed if
10661 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
10662 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
10663 not suitable for ordinary files, or
10664 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
10666 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
10668 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
10669 these commands do not change the major mode.
10671 ** M-x occur changes.
10673 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
10674 it performs a case-sensitive search.
10676 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
10677 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
10678 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
10680 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
10681 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
10682 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
10683 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
10684 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
10686 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
10687 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
10688 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
10689 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
10691 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
10692 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
10693 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
10695 ** Outline mode changes.
10697 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
10699 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
10701 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
10702 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
10703 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
10704 was already active.
10706 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
10707 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
10708 get confused by it.
10710 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
10711 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
10713 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
10715 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
10716 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
10717 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
10718 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
10720 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
10721 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
10722 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
10724 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
10725 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
10728 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
10729 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
10730 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
10731 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
10733 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
10734 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
10735 can be. The default value is 30.
10737 ** Changes in Mail mode.
10739 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
10740 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
10741 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
10742 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
10743 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
10746 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
10747 compose-mail-other-frame.
10749 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
10750 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
10751 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
10752 buffer that shows the original message.
10754 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
10755 with separator lines around the contents.
10757 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
10758 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
10759 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
10760 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
10762 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
10764 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
10765 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
10766 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
10767 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
10769 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
10770 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
10773 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
10774 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
10777 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
10778 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
10779 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
10780 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
10782 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
10783 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
10784 be taken to be magic.
10786 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
10787 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
10788 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
10790 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
10791 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
10793 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
10794 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
10796 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
10798 new key dired.el binding old key
10799 ------- ---------------- -------
10800 * c dired-change-marks c
10802 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
10803 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
10804 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
10806 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
10807 * ? dired-unmark-all-files C-M-?
10808 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
10809 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
10810 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
10811 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
10815 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
10816 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
10817 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
10818 each time you run it.
10820 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
10821 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
10823 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
10824 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
10825 means to move in the opposite direction.
10827 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
10828 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
10830 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
10831 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
10832 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
10833 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
10838 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
10840 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
10843 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
10844 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
10846 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
10849 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
10851 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
10853 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
10855 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
10856 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
10857 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
10859 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
10861 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
10863 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
10864 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
10866 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
10867 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
10868 used to pick articles.
10870 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
10871 another have been added.
10873 `M-x gnus-change-server'
10875 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
10876 generating lines in buffers.
10878 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
10881 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
10883 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
10885 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
10887 *** Scores can be decayed.
10889 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
10891 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
10892 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
10894 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
10897 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
10899 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
10900 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `C-M-d'.
10902 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
10904 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
10905 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
10907 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
10908 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
10910 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
10913 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
10914 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
10916 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
10918 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
10920 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
10922 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
10924 Use the `Y c' command.
10926 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
10928 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
10930 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
10932 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
10933 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
10935 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
10937 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
10939 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
10940 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
10942 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
10944 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
10945 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
10946 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
10947 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
10950 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
10951 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
10952 particular news group. This can be done by:
10954 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
10956 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
10957 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
10958 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
10959 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
10960 for reading and posting).
10962 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
10963 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
10964 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
10965 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
10968 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
10969 default. Here are some of these default settings:
10971 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
10972 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
10973 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
10974 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
10975 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
10977 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
10978 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
10980 ** CC mode changes.
10982 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
10983 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
10984 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
10985 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
10986 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
10989 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
10990 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
10991 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
10992 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
10993 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
10994 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
10996 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
10997 of the current buffer.
10999 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
11000 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
11001 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
11003 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
11004 style that the Python developers like.
11006 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
11007 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
11008 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
11010 ** VC Changes [new]
11012 *** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
11013 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
11014 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
11016 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
11017 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
11020 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
11021 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
11023 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
11024 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
11025 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
11026 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
11028 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
11029 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
11031 ** Calendar changes.
11033 *** A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or
11034 subclasses of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow
11035 you do this for the year of the selected date, or the
11036 following/previous years.
11038 *** There is now support for the Baha'i calendar system. Use `pb' in
11039 the *Calendar* buffer to display the current Baha'i date. The Baha'i
11040 calendar, or "Badi calendar" is a system of 19 months with 19 days
11041 each, and 4 intercalary days (5 during a Gregorian leap year). The
11042 calendar begins May 23, 1844, with each of the months named after a
11043 supposed attribute of God.
11045 ** ps-print changes
11047 There are some new user variables and subgroups for customizing the page
11050 *** Headers & Footers (subgroup)
11052 Some printer systems print a header page and force the first page to
11053 be printed on the back of the header page when using duplex. If your
11054 printer system has this behavior, set variable
11055 `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' to t.
11057 If variable `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' is non-nil, it prints a
11058 blank page as the very first printed page. So, it behaves as if the
11059 very first character of buffer (or region) were a form feed ^L (\014).
11061 The variable `ps-spool-config' specifies who is responsible for
11062 setting duplex mode and page size. Valid values are:
11064 lpr-switches duplex and page size are configured by `ps-lpr-switches'.
11065 Don't forget to set `ps-lpr-switches' to select duplex
11066 printing for your printer.
11068 setpagedevice duplex and page size are configured by ps-print using the
11069 setpagedevice PostScript operator.
11071 nil duplex and page size are configured by ps-print *not* using
11072 the setpagedevice PostScript operator.
11074 The variable `ps-spool-tumble' specifies how the page images on
11075 opposite sides of a sheet are oriented with respect to each other. If
11076 `ps-spool-tumble' is nil, ps-print produces output suitable for
11077 bindings on the left or right. If `ps-spool-tumble' is non-nil,
11078 ps-print produces output suitable for bindings at the top or bottom.
11079 This variable takes effect only if `ps-spool-duplex' is non-nil.
11080 The default value is nil.
11082 The variable `ps-header-frame-alist' specifies a header frame
11083 properties alist. Valid frame properties are:
11085 fore-color Specify the foreground frame color.
11086 Value should be a float number between 0.0 (black
11087 color) and 1.0 (white color), or a string which is a
11088 color name, or a list of 3 float numbers which
11089 correspond to the Red Green Blue color scale, each
11090 float number between 0.0 (dark color) and 1.0 (bright
11091 color). The default is 0 ("black").
11093 back-color Specify the background frame color (similar to fore-color).
11094 The default is 0.9 ("gray90").
11096 shadow-color Specify the shadow color (similar to fore-color).
11097 The default is 0 ("black").
11099 border-color Specify the border color (similar to fore-color).
11100 The default is 0 ("black").
11102 border-width Specify the border width.
11103 The default is 0.4.
11105 Any other property is ignored.
11107 Don't change this alist directly; instead use Custom, or the
11108 `ps-value', `ps-get', `ps-put' and `ps-del' functions (see there for
11111 Ps-print can also print footers. The footer variables are:
11112 `ps-print-footer', `ps-footer-offset', `ps-print-footer-frame',
11113 `ps-footer-font-family', `ps-footer-font-size', `ps-footer-line-pad',
11114 `ps-footer-lines', `ps-left-footer', `ps-right-footer' and
11115 `ps-footer-frame-alist'. These variables are similar to those
11116 controlling headers.
11118 *** Color management (subgroup)
11120 If `ps-print-color-p' is non-nil, the buffer's text will be printed in
11123 *** Face Management (subgroup)
11125 If you need to print without worrying about face background colors,
11126 set the variable `ps-use-face-background' which specifies if face
11127 background should be used. Valid values are:
11129 t always use face background color.
11130 nil never use face background color.
11131 (face...) list of faces whose background color will be used.
11133 *** N-up printing (subgroup)
11135 The variable `ps-n-up-printing' specifies the number of pages per
11138 The variable `ps-n-up-margin' specifies the margin in points (pt)
11139 between the sheet border and the n-up printing.
11141 If variable `ps-n-up-border-p' is non-nil, a border is drawn around
11144 The variable `ps-n-up-filling' specifies how the page matrix is filled
11145 on each sheet of paper. Following are the valid values for
11146 `ps-n-up-filling' with a filling example using a 3x4 page matrix:
11148 `left-top' 1 2 3 4 `left-bottom' 9 10 11 12
11152 `right-top' 4 3 2 1 `right-bottom' 12 11 10 9
11156 `top-left' 1 4 7 10 `bottom-left' 3 6 9 12
11160 `top-right' 10 7 4 1 `bottom-right' 12 9 6 3
11164 Any other value is treated as `left-top'.
11166 *** Zebra stripes (subgroup)
11168 The variable `ps-zebra-color' controls the zebra stripes grayscale or
11171 The variable `ps-zebra-stripe-follow' specifies how zebra stripes
11172 continue on next page. Visually, valid values are (the character `+'
11173 to the right of each column indicates that a line is printed):
11175 `nil' `follow' `full' `full-follow'
11176 Current Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
11177 1 XXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXX + 1 XXXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11178 2 XXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXX + 2 XXXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11179 3 XXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXX + 3 XXXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11183 7 XXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXX + 7 XXXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11184 8 XXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXX + 8 XXXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11185 9 XXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXX + 9 XXXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11188 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
11189 Next Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
11190 12 XXXXX + 12 + 10 XXXXXX + 10 +
11191 13 XXXXX + 13 XXXXXXXX + 11 XXXXXX + 11 +
11192 14 XXXXX + 14 XXXXXXXX + 12 XXXXXX + 12 +
11193 15 + 15 XXXXXXXX + 13 + 13 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11194 16 + 16 + 14 + 14 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11195 17 + 17 + 15 + 15 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11196 18 XXXXX + 18 + 16 XXXXXX + 16 +
11197 19 XXXXX + 19 XXXXXXXX + 17 XXXXXX + 17 +
11198 20 XXXXX + 20 XXXXXXXX + 18 XXXXXX + 18 +
11201 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
11203 Any other value is treated as `nil'.
11206 *** Printer management (subgroup)
11208 The variable `ps-printer-name-option' determines the option used by
11209 some utilities to indicate the printer name; it's used only when
11210 `ps-printer-name' is a non-empty string. If you're using the lpr
11211 utility to print, for example, `ps-printer-name-option' should be set
11214 The variable `ps-manual-feed' indicates if the printer requires manual
11215 paper feeding. If it's nil, automatic feeding takes place. If it's
11216 non-nil, manual feeding takes place.
11218 The variable `ps-end-with-control-d' specifies whether C-d (\x04)
11219 should be inserted at end of the generated PostScript. Non-nil means
11222 *** Page settings (subgroup)
11224 If variable `ps-warn-paper-type' is nil, it's *not* treated as an
11225 error if the PostScript printer doesn't have a paper with the size
11226 indicated by `ps-paper-type'; the default paper size will be used
11227 instead. If `ps-warn-paper-type' is non-nil, an error is signaled if
11228 the PostScript printer doesn't support a paper with the size indicated
11229 by `ps-paper-type'. This is used when `ps-spool-config' is set to
11232 The variable `ps-print-upside-down' determines the orientation for
11233 printing pages: nil means `normal' printing, non-nil means
11234 `upside-down' printing (that is, the page is rotated by 180 degrees).
11236 The variable `ps-selected-pages' specifies which pages to print. If
11237 it's nil, all pages are printed. If it's a list, list elements may be
11238 integers specifying a single page to print, or cons cells (FROM . TO)
11239 specifying to print from page FROM to TO. Invalid list elements, that
11240 is integers smaller than one, or elements whose FROM is greater than
11241 its TO, are ignored.
11243 The variable `ps-even-or-odd-pages' specifies how to print even/odd
11244 pages. Valid values are:
11246 nil print all pages.
11248 `even-page' print only even pages.
11250 `odd-page' print only odd pages.
11252 `even-sheet' print only even sheets.
11253 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
11254 `even-page', but for values greater than 1, it'll
11255 print only the even sheet of paper.
11257 `odd-sheet' print only odd sheets.
11258 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
11259 `odd-page'; but for values greater than 1, it'll print
11260 only the odd sheet of paper.
11262 Any other value is treated as nil.
11264 If you set `ps-selected-pages' (see there for documentation), pages
11265 are filtered by `ps-selected-pages', and then by
11266 `ps-even-or-odd-pages'. For example, if we have:
11268 (setq ps-selected-pages '(1 4 (6 . 10) (12 . 16) 20))
11270 and we combine this with `ps-even-or-odd-pages' and
11271 `ps-n-up-printing', we get:
11273 `ps-n-up-printing' = 1:
11274 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
11275 nil 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20
11276 even-page 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
11277 odd-page 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
11278 even-sheet 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
11279 odd-sheet 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
11281 `ps-n-up-printing' = 2:
11282 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
11283 nil 1/4, 6/7, 8/9, 10/12, 13/14, 15/16, 20
11284 even-page 4/6, 8/10, 12/14, 16/20
11285 odd-page 1/7, 9/13, 15
11286 even-sheet 6/7, 10/12, 15/16
11287 odd-sheet 1/4, 8/9, 13/14, 20
11289 *** Miscellany (subgroup)
11291 The variable `ps-error-handler-message' specifies where error handler
11292 messages should be sent.
11294 It is also possible to add a user-defined PostScript prologue code in
11295 front of all generated prologue code by setting the variable
11296 `ps-user-defined-prologue'.
11298 The variable `ps-line-number-font' specifies the font for line numbers.
11300 The variable `ps-line-number-font-size' specifies the font size in
11301 points for line numbers.
11303 The variable `ps-line-number-color' specifies the color for line
11304 numbers. See `ps-zebra-color' for documentation.
11306 The variable `ps-line-number-step' specifies the interval in which
11307 line numbers are printed. For example, if `ps-line-number-step' is set
11308 to 2, the printing will look like:
11320 integer an integer specifying the interval in which line numbers are
11321 printed. If it's smaller than or equal to zero, 1
11324 `zebra' specifies that only the line number of the first line in a
11325 zebra stripe is to be printed.
11327 Any other value is treated as `zebra'.
11329 The variable `ps-line-number-start' specifies the starting point in
11330 the interval given by `ps-line-number-step'. For example, if
11331 `ps-line-number-step' is set to 3, and `ps-line-number-start' is set to
11332 3, the output will look like:
11346 The variable `ps-postscript-code-directory' specifies the directory
11347 where the PostScript prologue file used by ps-print is found.
11349 The variable `ps-line-spacing' determines the line spacing in points,
11350 for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
11353 The variable `ps-paragraph-spacing' determines the paragraph spacing,
11354 in points, for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
11357 The variable `ps-paragraph-regexp' specifies the paragraph delimiter.
11359 The variable `ps-begin-cut-regexp' and `ps-end-cut-regexp' specify the
11360 start and end of a region to cut out when printing.
11362 ** hideshow changes.
11364 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
11367 *** Support for java-mode added.
11369 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
11370 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
11372 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the comments at
11373 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
11374 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
11376 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
11377 robust and a lot faster.
11379 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
11381 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
11382 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
11383 documentation for more details.
11385 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
11387 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
11388 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
11389 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
11390 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
11391 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
11393 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
11394 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
11395 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
11396 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
11402 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
11403 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
11404 faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
11405 group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
11406 your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
11407 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
11409 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
11411 *** Maximum decoration
11413 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
11414 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
11415 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
11416 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
11417 to get the old behavior.
11421 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
11423 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
11424 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
11426 *** Configurable support
11428 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
11429 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
11430 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
11431 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
11432 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
11433 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
11434 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
11436 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
11437 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
11438 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
11440 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
11442 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
11443 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
11446 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
11448 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
11454 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
11455 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
11456 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
11457 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
11459 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
11461 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
11462 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
11463 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
11465 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
11467 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
11468 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
11469 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
11470 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
11471 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
11472 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
11473 Lock mode behavior and the behavior of Font Lock mode.
11475 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
11476 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
11477 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
11478 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
11479 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
11480 the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
11482 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
11484 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
11485 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
11486 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
11487 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
11489 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
11492 ** Ada mode changes.
11494 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
11495 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
11496 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
11497 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
11500 *** There are two new commands:
11501 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
11502 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
11504 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
11505 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
11506 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
11508 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
11509 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
11510 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
11512 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
11513 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
11514 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
11515 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
11517 ** Scheme mode changes.
11519 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
11520 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
11521 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
11522 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
11525 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
11526 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
11527 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
11528 variables as buffer-local variables.
11530 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
11531 Use M-x dsssl-mode.
11533 ** Changes to the emacsclient program
11535 *** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
11536 USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
11537 associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
11538 can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
11540 *** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
11541 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
11544 *** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
11545 use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
11546 ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
11547 option takes precedence.
11549 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
11550 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
11551 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
11553 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
11554 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
11557 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
11558 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
11560 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
11561 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
11564 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
11565 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
11566 these register values no longer become completely useless.
11567 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
11568 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
11569 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
11571 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
11572 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
11573 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
11574 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
11576 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
11577 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
11578 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
11579 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
11580 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
11582 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
11583 since it applies only to the current frame.
11585 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
11586 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
11587 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
11589 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
11590 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
11591 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
11592 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
11593 instead of just the file you are editing.
11597 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
11598 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
11599 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
11600 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
11601 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
11604 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
11605 knows which kind of label is needed.
11607 C-c ) reftex-reference
11608 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
11609 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
11611 C-c [ reftex-citation
11612 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
11613 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
11615 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
11616 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
11619 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
11620 can quickly jump to every section.
11622 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
11623 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
11624 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
11625 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
11626 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
11628 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
11630 *** Info documentation is now available.
11632 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
11633 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
11635 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
11636 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
11638 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
11639 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
11641 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
11642 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
11643 appropriate functions.
11645 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
11646 entries. They are bound by default to C-M-l and C-M-h.
11648 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
11651 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
11652 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
11654 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
11655 shall be delimited.
11657 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
11658 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
11659 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
11661 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
11662 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
11663 prefixed with `ALT'.
11665 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
11666 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
11667 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
11670 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
11671 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
11672 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
11674 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
11675 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
11677 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
11678 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
11679 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
11681 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
11683 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
11685 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
11686 from alien sources.
11688 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
11689 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
11692 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
11695 *** Added support for imenu.
11697 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
11698 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
11699 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
11700 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
11702 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
11703 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
11705 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
11707 ** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
11709 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
11710 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
11711 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
11714 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
11715 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
11717 ** browse-url changes
11719 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
11720 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
11721 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
11722 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
11723 customization variables.
11725 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
11727 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
11728 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
11729 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
11731 ** Changes in Ediff
11733 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
11734 pops up the Info file for this command.
11736 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
11737 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
11738 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
11741 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
11742 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
11743 files in the same directory.
11745 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
11746 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
11747 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
11749 ** Changes in Viper
11751 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
11752 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
11754 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
11755 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
11756 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
11757 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
11758 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
11759 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
11760 color when Viper is in insert state.
11761 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
11762 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
11763 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
11767 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
11768 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
11769 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
11770 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
11771 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
11773 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
11775 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
11776 constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
11778 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
11779 recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
11780 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
11782 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
11783 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
11784 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
11785 methods and protocols.
11787 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
11788 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
11789 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
11792 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
11793 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
11794 at least M times and as many as N times.
11796 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
11797 in files has changed slightly.
11799 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
11800 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
11801 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
11802 with old time-stamp-format values.
11804 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
11805 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
11806 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
11809 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
11810 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
11811 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
11812 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
11813 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
11814 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
11816 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
11817 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
11818 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
11820 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
11821 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
11822 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
11823 recommended now will continue to work then.
11825 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
11828 ** There are some additional major modes:
11830 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
11831 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
11832 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
11834 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
11835 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
11838 ** New Lisp packages include:
11840 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
11842 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
11843 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
11845 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
11847 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
11850 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
11851 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
11854 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
11855 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
11856 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
11857 strings or comments.
11859 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
11860 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
11861 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
11862 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
11865 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
11866 can visit them by short forms of their names.
11868 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
11869 Emacs Lisp function at point.
11871 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
11873 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
11874 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
11876 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
11878 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
11880 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
11882 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
11883 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
11885 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
11886 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
11887 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
11888 original place after inserting the copy.
11890 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
11893 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
11894 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
11895 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
11897 Enable mouse-drag with:
11898 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
11900 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
11902 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
11903 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
11905 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
11906 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
11910 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
11911 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
11912 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
11913 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
11914 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
11915 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
11916 instance) and vice versa.
11918 To use this package load it using
11919 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
11920 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
11921 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
11922 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
11923 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
11924 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
11926 *** Interface to ph.
11928 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
11930 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
11931 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
11934 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
11936 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
11937 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
11938 while the real cursor does not move.
11940 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
11941 for visiting your favorite web sites.
11943 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
11944 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
11948 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
11949 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
11950 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
11951 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
11953 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
11955 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
11957 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
11959 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
11960 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
11961 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
11962 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
11963 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
11965 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
11966 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
11967 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
11968 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
11969 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
11970 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
11972 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
11974 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
11975 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
11976 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
11977 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
11979 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
11980 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
11982 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
11983 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
11986 ** Basic Lisp changes
11988 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
11989 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
11991 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
11992 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
11995 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
11997 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
11999 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
12000 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
12002 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
12003 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
12006 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
12008 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
12010 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
12012 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
12013 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
12014 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
12017 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
12018 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
12019 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
12021 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
12022 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
12023 adding one of these suffixes.
12025 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
12026 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
12027 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
12029 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
12030 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
12032 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
12034 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
12035 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
12037 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
12038 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
12040 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
12042 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
12043 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
12045 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
12046 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
12047 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
12048 works using `save-current-buffer'.
12050 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
12051 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
12054 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
12055 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
12056 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
12059 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
12060 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
12063 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
12065 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
12066 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
12067 Then it returns that string.
12069 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
12071 (with-output-to-string
12072 (princ "The buffer is ")
12073 (princ (buffer-name)))
12075 returns "The buffer is foo".
12077 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
12080 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
12081 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
12082 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
12084 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
12085 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
12087 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
12088 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
12089 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
12090 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
12091 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
12092 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
12094 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
12095 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
12096 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
12099 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
12100 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
12101 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
12102 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
12103 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
12105 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
12106 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
12107 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
12108 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
12110 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
12111 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
12113 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
12115 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
12116 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
12117 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
12118 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
12121 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
12122 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
12125 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
12127 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
12128 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
12129 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
12130 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
12131 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
12133 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
12135 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
12136 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
12137 more than the number of characters.
12139 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
12140 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
12141 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
12142 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
12143 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
12144 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
12146 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
12147 and returns a string containing those characters.
12149 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
12150 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
12151 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
12152 character, sref signals an error.
12154 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
12155 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
12156 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
12158 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
12159 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
12160 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
12162 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
12163 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
12164 to a vector of the characters in it.
12166 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
12167 of a string. You call it as follows:
12169 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
12171 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
12172 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
12173 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
12174 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
12175 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
12177 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
12178 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
12180 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
12181 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
12183 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
12184 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
12185 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
12186 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
12188 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
12190 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
12192 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
12193 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
12194 are not included in the resulting value.
12196 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
12197 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
12198 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
12199 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
12201 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
12202 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
12203 character extends across that column), then the padding character
12204 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
12205 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
12206 column START-COLUMN.
12208 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
12209 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
12210 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
12211 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
12212 changed text, before the change.
12214 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
12215 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
12216 one character set for each script, not for each language.
12218 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
12220 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
12222 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
12223 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
12225 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
12226 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
12227 which identify the character within that character set.
12229 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
12230 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
12231 opposite of split-char.
12233 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
12234 of all the characters between BEG and END.
12236 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
12237 of all the characters in a string.
12239 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
12240 and specifying coding systems.
12242 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
12243 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
12244 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
12245 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
12246 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
12247 as what to do about code conversion.)
12249 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
12250 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
12252 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
12253 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
12254 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
12256 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
12257 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
12258 to match against a file name.
12260 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
12261 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
12262 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
12263 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
12264 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
12265 specifies the coding system for encoding.
12267 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
12268 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
12270 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
12271 the coding system to use for network sockets.
12273 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
12274 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
12275 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
12278 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
12279 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
12280 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
12281 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
12282 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
12283 specifies the coding system for encoding.
12285 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
12286 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
12288 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
12289 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
12290 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
12291 start the subprocess.
12293 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
12294 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
12295 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
12296 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
12297 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
12299 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
12300 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
12303 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
12304 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
12305 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
12306 connection permanently or until overridden.
12308 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
12309 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
12310 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
12311 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
12312 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
12313 system for one operation at a time.
12315 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
12316 files, subprocesses or network connections.
12318 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
12319 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
12320 The value is a cons cell,
12321 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
12322 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
12323 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
12324 input to the subprocess.
12326 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
12327 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
12329 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
12330 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
12331 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
12333 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
12334 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
12335 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
12336 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
12339 Thus, instead of writing
12341 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
12342 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
12344 you would now write this:
12346 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
12347 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
12351 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
12352 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
12353 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
12354 for a description of them.
12356 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
12357 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
12359 (defgroup ispell nil
12360 "Spell checking using Ispell."
12363 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
12364 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
12365 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
12366 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
12367 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
12369 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
12370 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
12371 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
12372 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
12373 first-level subgroups.
12375 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
12377 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
12378 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
12382 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
12383 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
12384 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
12385 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
12386 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
12387 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
12389 ** Text property changes
12391 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
12394 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
12395 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
12396 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
12397 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
12398 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
12400 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
12401 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
12402 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
12403 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
12405 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
12406 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
12407 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
12409 ** Changes in invisibility features
12411 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
12412 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
12413 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
12414 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
12415 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
12416 make the overlay visible.
12418 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
12419 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
12420 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
12421 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
12422 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
12423 t when it should hide it.
12425 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
12427 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
12428 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
12429 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
12430 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
12431 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
12432 Here is an example of how to do this:
12434 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
12435 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
12436 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
12437 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
12440 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
12443 ;; When done with the overlays:
12444 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
12445 ;; Or respectively:
12446 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
12448 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
12450 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
12451 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
12452 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
12453 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
12455 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
12456 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
12457 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
12459 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
12460 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
12462 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
12463 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
12465 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
12466 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
12467 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
12469 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
12470 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
12471 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
12472 determine the syntax type of the character.
12474 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
12475 of the current buffer.
12477 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
12478 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
12479 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
12481 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
12482 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
12483 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
12484 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
12485 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
12487 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
12490 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
12491 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
12492 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
12494 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
12495 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
12496 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
12497 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
12498 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
12500 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
12501 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
12502 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
12504 ** Changes in face features
12506 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
12507 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
12509 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
12510 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
12512 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
12513 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
12515 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
12516 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
12518 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
12519 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
12520 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
12521 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
12524 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
12525 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
12527 ** Changes in file-handling functions
12529 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
12530 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
12531 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
12532 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
12534 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
12537 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
12538 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
12540 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
12541 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
12543 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
12544 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
12546 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
12547 character code conversion as well as other things.
12549 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
12550 (formerly it did not).
12552 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
12553 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
12555 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
12556 instead of constant strings.
12558 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
12559 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
12560 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
12562 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
12563 in the same way as before.
12565 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
12566 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
12567 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
12569 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
12570 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
12571 else, and returns nil.
12573 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
12574 directory cannot be listed.
12576 ** Changes in minibuffer input
12578 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
12579 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
12580 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
12581 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
12584 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
12585 It is available through the history command M-n.
12587 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
12588 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
12589 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
12590 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
12591 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
12593 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
12594 argument in this way.
12596 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
12597 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
12598 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
12600 ** Echo area features
12602 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
12603 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
12604 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
12605 after the echo area is cleared.
12607 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
12608 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
12610 ** Keyboard input features
12612 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
12613 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
12615 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
12616 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
12617 by keyboard macros.
12619 ** Frame-related changes
12621 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
12622 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
12623 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
12625 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
12626 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
12627 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
12629 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
12630 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
12631 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
12632 in the selected frame.
12634 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
12635 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
12636 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
12638 ** X Windows features
12640 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
12641 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
12642 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
12644 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
12645 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
12647 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
12648 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
12649 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
12651 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
12652 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
12654 ** Subprocess features
12656 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
12657 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
12660 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
12661 and returns the output from the command as a string.
12663 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
12664 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
12666 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
12667 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
12669 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
12670 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
12671 goes after the other menu items.
12673 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
12674 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
12675 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
12678 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
12679 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
12681 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
12682 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
12685 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
12686 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
12687 but its hook is still run.
12689 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
12690 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
12692 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
12693 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
12694 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
12696 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
12697 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
12698 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
12701 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
12702 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
12704 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
12705 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
12706 functions like display-time.
12708 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
12709 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
12711 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
12712 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
12713 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
12715 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
12716 if there is an error in compilation.
12718 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
12719 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
12720 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
12721 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
12723 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
12724 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
12725 the *scratch* buffer.
12727 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
12728 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
12729 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
12730 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
12732 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
12733 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
12734 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
12736 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
12737 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
12738 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
12739 and compose-mail-other-frame.
12741 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
12742 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
12743 full name of the specified user will be returned.
12745 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
12746 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
12747 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
12748 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
12749 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
12752 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
12753 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
12754 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
12755 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
12757 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
12758 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
12759 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
12760 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
12762 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
12764 ** imenu.el changes.
12766 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
12767 item from menu created by imenu.
12769 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
12770 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
12771 select one of those items.
12773 * For older news, see the file ONEWS
12775 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
12776 Copyright information:
12778 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
12780 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
12781 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
12782 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
12783 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
12785 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
12786 of this document, or of portions of it,
12787 under the above conditions, provided also that they
12788 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
12792 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"
12795 arch-tag: 1aca9dfa-2ac4-4d14-bebf-0007cee12793