1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 24.
11 See files NEWS.23, NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18,
12 and NEWS.1-17 for changes in older Emacs versions.
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
18 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
19 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
20 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
21 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
24 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.2
26 ** New configure option '--enable-gcc-warnings', intended for developers.
27 If building with GCC, this enables compile-time checks that warn about
28 possibly-questionable C code. On a recent GNU system there should be
29 no warnings; on older and on non-GNU systems the generated warnings
33 ** Emacs uses libtinfo in preference to libncurses, if available.
36 ** On FreeBSD and NetBSD, configure no longer adds /usr/local/lib and
37 /usr/pkg/lib to the linker search path. You must add them yourself if
41 ** On Mac OS X, configure no longer automatically adds the Fink /sw
42 directories to the search path. You must add them yourself if you want them.
45 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.2
47 ** Emacs no longer searches for `leim-list.el' files beneath the standard
48 lisp/ directory. There should not be any there anyway. If you have
49 been adding them there, put them somewhere else, eg site-lisp.
52 * Changes in Emacs 24.2
54 ** New functions `system-users', `system-groups' return lists of the user
55 name, group names known to the system (where possible).
57 ** If your Emacs was built from a bzr checkout, the new variable
58 `emacs-bzr-version' contains information about which bzr revision was used.
60 ** ImageMagick support, if available, is automatically enabled.
61 It is no longer necessary to call `imagemagick-register-types'
62 explicitly to install ImageMagick image types; that function is called
63 automatically at startup or when customizing `imagemagick-types-inhibit'.
65 *** Setting `imagemagick-types-inhibit' to t now disables the use of
66 ImageMagick to view images. You must call imagemagick-register-types
67 afterwards if you do not use customize to change this.
69 ** String values for `initial-buffer-choice' also apply to emacsclient
70 frames, if emacsclient is only told to open a new frame without
71 specifying any file to visit or expression to evaluate.
74 ** You can prevent the creation of lock files by setting `create-lockfiles'
75 to nil. Use with caution, and only if you really need to.
78 ** Using "unibyte: t" in Lisp source files is obsolete.
79 Use "coding: raw-text" instead.
82 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.2
84 ** M-x move-to-column, if called interactively with no prefix arg, now
85 prompts for a column number.
87 ** `mouse-avoidance-banish-position' can now be used to customize
88 `mouse-avoidance-mode' further.
90 ** `C-M-f' and `C-M-b' will now move to the path name separator
91 character when doing minibuffer filename prompts.
93 ** `goto-char' is now bound to `M-g c'.
96 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.2
99 - Support for ghdl (free vhdl compiler). Now default.
100 - Add/update support for VHDL-AMS packages.
101 - Update to VHDL'02 standard.
102 - Accept \r and \f as whitespace.
106 Faces for changes now use the same diff color scheme as in modern VCSes
107 where deletions are displayed in red (new faces `diff-refine-removed'
108 and `smerge-refined-removed' and new definition of `diff-removed'),
109 insertions in green (new faces `diff-refine-added' and
110 `smerge-refined-added' and new definition of `diff-added').
111 The variable `diff-use-changed-face' defines whether to use
112 the face `diff-changed', or `diff-removed' and `diff-added'
113 to highlight changes in context diffs.
116 *** Pairing of parens/quotes uses electric-pair-mode instead of skeleton-pair.
117 *** `sh-electric-here-document-mode' now controls auto-insertion of here-docs.
118 *** `sh-use-smie' lets you choose a new indentation and navigation code.
120 ** reStructuredText mode
122 *** Nearly all keys are rebound making room for more keys and comply
123 better to usage in other modes. Bindings are described with C-c C-h.
125 *** Major revision of indentation. Now works very similarly to other modes.
128 *** Major revision of filling. Works fine with most of
129 reStructuredText syntax. Auto-filling is also supported.
131 *** Major revision of comment handling.
133 *** Major revision of fontification. Now works with `jit-lock-mode'.
135 *** reStructuredText syntax is covered more closely in many cases.
136 Among other things this improves the experience for Sphinx users.
138 *** `rst-insert-list' inserts a new list or continues existing lists.
140 *** Customization is extended, corrected and improved.
142 *** Negative prefix argument always works for `rst-adjust'.
144 *** Window configuration is reset after displaying TOC.
146 *** There is a package version in `rst-version'.
148 ** New `derived-mode' filter for Ibuffer, bound to `/ M'.
149 `/ m' is now bound to filter by used-mode, which used to be bound to `/ M'.
153 *** The faces used by Apropos are now directly customizable.
154 These faces are named `apropos-symbol', `apropos-keybinding', and so on;
155 see the `apropos' Custom group for details.
157 **** The old options whose values specified faces to use were removed
158 (i.e. `apropos-symbol-face', `apropos-keybinding-face', etc.).
162 *** The calendars produced by cal-html include holidays.
163 Customize cal-html-holidays to change this.
167 *** `custom-reset-button-menu' now defaults to t.
169 *** Non-option variables are never matched in `customize-apropos' and
170 `customize-apropos-options' (i.e. the prefix argument does nothing for
173 ** erc will look up server/channel names via auth-source and use the
174 channel keys found, if any.
178 *** The option `ffap-url-unwrap-remote' can now be a list of strings,
179 specifying URL types which should be converted to remote file names at
180 the FFAP prompt. The default is now '("ftp").
184 *** The obsolete variable `follow-mode-off-hook' has been removed.
186 *** Follow mode no longer works by using advice.
187 The option `follow-intercept-processes' has been removed.
189 ** The `server-auth-key' variable can be used to set a permanent
190 shared key for Emacs Server.
192 ** In Perl mode, new option `perl-indent-parens-as-block' causes non-block
193 closing brackets to be aligned with the line of the opening bracket.
195 ** FIXME something happened to ses.el, 2012-04-17.
197 ** which-function-mode now applies to all applicable major modes by default.
202 *** New variables `dbus-compiled-version' and `dbus-runtime-version'.
205 *** The D-Bus object manager interface is implemented.
208 *** Variables of type :(u)int32 and :(u)int64 accept floating points,
209 if their value does not fit into Emacs's integer range.
212 *** The function `dbus-call-method' works non-blocking now, it can be
213 interrupted by C-g. `dbus-call-method-non-blocking' is obsolete.
216 *** Signals can be sent also as unicast message.
219 *** The argument list of `dbus-register-signal' has been extended,
220 according to the new match rule types of D-Bus. See the manual for
224 *** `dbus-init-bus' supports private connections.
227 *** There is a new function `dbus-setenv'.
230 ** notifications.el supports now version 1.2 of the Notifications API.
231 The function `notifications-get-capabilities' returns the supported
234 ** Tabulated List and packages derived from it
236 *** New command `tabulated-list-sort', bound to `S', sorts the column
237 at point, or the Nth column if a numeric prefix argument is given.
241 *** Structs made by `url-generic-parse-url' have nil `attributes' slot.
242 Previously, this slot stored semicolon-separated attribute-value pairs
243 appended to some imap URLs, but this is not compatible with RFC 3986.
244 So now the `filename' slot stores the entire path and query components
245 and the `attributes' slot is always nil.
247 *** New function `url-encode-url' for encoding a URI string.
248 The `url-retrieve' function now uses this to encode its URL argument,
249 in case that is not properly encoded.
251 ** Obsolete packages:
254 In most cases, assoc+member+push+delq work just as well.
255 And in any case it's just a terrible package: ugly semantics, terrible
256 inefficiency, and not namespace-clean.
267 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.2
269 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.2
272 ** Docstrings starting with `*' no longer indicate user options.
273 Only variables defined using `defcustom' are considered user options.
274 The function `user-variable-p' is now an obsolete alias for
277 ** `face-spec-set' no longer sets frame-specific attributes when the
278 third argument is a frame (that usage was obsolete since Emacs 22.2).
281 ** The arguments of `dbus-register-signal' are no longer just strings,
282 but keywords or keyword-string pairs. The old argument list will
283 still be supported for Emacs 24.x.
285 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed:
287 *** `facemenu-unlisted-faces'
288 *** `rmail-decode-mime-charset'
291 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.2
293 ** New function `set-temporary-overlay-map'.
295 ** New macros `setq-local' and `defvar-local'.
297 ** New error type and new function `user-error'. Doesn't trigger the debugger.
301 *** New function `completion-table-with-quoting' to handle completion
302 in the presence of quoting, such as file completion in shell buffers.
304 *** New function `completion-table-subvert' to use an existing completion
305 table, but with a different prefix.
309 *** `current-time-string' no longer requires that its argument's year
310 must be in the range 1000..9999. It now works with any year supported
311 by the underlying C implementation.
313 ** `automount-dir-prefix' is obsolete.
314 ** `buffer-has-markers-at' is obsolete.
316 * Changes in Emacs 24.2 on non-free operating systems
318 ** New configure.bat options on MS-Windows:
320 *** --without-libxml2 omits support for libxml2, even if its presence
323 ** When invoked with the -nw switch to run on the Windows text-mode terminal,
324 Emacs now supports mouse highlight, help-echo (in the echo area), and
325 mouse-autoselect-window.
328 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
330 ** Emacs can be compiled with Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
331 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
332 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
335 ** Emacs can be compiled with GnuTLS support.
336 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
337 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
338 `--without-gnutls'. See below for GnuTLS features.
340 ** Emacs can be compiled with SELinux support.
341 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
342 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
343 `--without-selinux'. See below for SELinux features.
345 ** Emacs can be compiled with ImageMagick support.
346 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
347 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
348 `--without-imagemagick'. See below for ImageMagick features.
349 This feature is not available for the Nextstep or MS ports.
351 ** Emacs can be compiled with libxml2 support.
352 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
353 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
354 `--without-xml2'. See below for libxml2 features.
356 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
357 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
359 ** New configure option --with-wide-int.
360 With it, Emacs integers typically have 62 bits, even on 32-bit machines.
361 On 32-bit hosts, this raises the limit on buffer sizes from about 512 MiB
364 ** New configure options: --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
365 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
366 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
368 ** New configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
369 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
370 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
372 ** The standalone programs digest-doc and sorted-doc are removed.
373 Emacs now uses Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
375 ** The standalone program `fakemail' is removed.
376 If you need it, feedmail.el provides a superset of the functionality.
379 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
381 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
382 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
383 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
385 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
386 from load-path. -Q now implies this. This option does not affect the
387 EMACSLOADPATH environment variable (and hence has no effect for
391 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
395 *** Many packages now use the `completion-at-point' command,
396 rather than implementing separate completion commands.
398 *** `completion-at-point' now handles tags and semantic completion.
400 *** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
401 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
403 *** New option `completion-cycle-threshold' allows completion cycling.
405 *** New option `completion-category-overrides' for overriding the
406 default completion style in certain circumstances.
408 *** New completion style `substring'.
410 *** Completion of buffer names uses `substring' completion by default.
412 *** The option `widget-complete-field' has been removed.
416 *** The first time you try sending mail, Emacs asks for a mail method.
417 This is implemented by a new default for `send-mail-function', which
418 is `sendmail-query-once'. This offers to use the smtpmail package, or
419 to use the old defaults relying on external mail facilities
420 (`sendmail-send-it' on GNU/Linux and other Unix-like systems, and
421 `mailclient-send-it' on Windows).
423 *** Typing C-c m in the buffer made by M-x report-emacs-bug transfers
424 the report to your desktop's preferred mail client, if there is one.
425 This uses either the "xdg-email" utility, or Mac OS's "open" command.
427 *** See Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages for SMTPmail changes
428 and Mail mode changes
430 ** Emacs server and client changes
432 *** New option `server-port' specifies the port for TCP Emacs servers.
434 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
436 *** New emacsclient argument --frame-parameters specifies the frame
437 parameters of any newly-created graphical frame.
439 *** If emacsclient shuts down due to Emacs signaling an error,
440 its exit status is 1.
442 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID.
443 This opens a client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed, similar
444 to the --parent-id argument to Emacs.
446 ** Internationalization changes
448 *** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
449 Right-to-left (RTL) scripts, such as Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew, are
450 displayed in the correct visual order as expected by users of those
451 scripts. The display reordering is a "full bidirectionality" class
452 implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm (UBA). Buffers
453 with no RTL text should look exactly the same as before.
455 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-display-reordering'.
456 To disable display reordering in a buffer, change this to nil.
458 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction'.
459 If nil (the default), Emacs determines the base direction of each
460 paragraph from its text, as specified by the UBA. Setting the value
461 to `right-to-left' or `left-to-right' forces a base direction on each
464 Paragraphs with right-to-left base direction are displayed starting at
465 the right window edge.
467 *** Enhanced support for characters with no glyphs in available fonts,
468 or, on text terminals, characters that cannot be encoded by the
469 terminal coding system. The new option `glyphless-char-display-control'
470 specifies how to display them: as a hexadecimal code in a box, a thin
471 1-pixel space, an empty box, etc.
473 *** New input methods: farsi, farsi-translit, bulgarian-alt-phonetic.
475 *** `nobreak-char-display' now also highlights Unicode hyphen chars
478 *** New Hebrew translation of the Emacs Tutorial.
479 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
480 automatically select it.
482 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
483 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
484 from a package repository at http://elpa.gnu.org.
486 *** M-x list-packages shows a list of packages, which can be
487 selected for installation.
489 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
491 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded automatically when
492 Emacs starts up. To disable this, set `package-enable-at-startup' to
493 nil. To specify the packages to load, customize `package-load-list'.
495 ** Custom theme changes
497 *** New command `M-x customize-themes', which provides a convenient
498 interface for enabling and disabling Custom themes.
500 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
501 Emacs no longer looks for Custom themes in `load-path'. The default
502 value of `custom-theme-load-path' says to look for themes in
503 `custom-theme-directory', followed by a subdirectory of
504 `data-directory' named "themes/", which contains a small selection of
505 built-in Custom themes.
507 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
508 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
509 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
510 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
512 ** Improved GTK integration
514 *** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
515 The function `set-scroll-bar-mode' can change this.
517 *** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
518 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose the style. On a Gnome desktop,
519 the default is taken from desktop settings.
521 *** GTK tool bars can be placed on any edge of the frame.
522 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the
523 values top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has
526 *** The default colors for selected text (the `region' face) are taken
527 from the GTK theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
529 *** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK.
530 You can disable this by changing `x-gtk-use-system-tooltips' to nil.
532 ** Graphical interface changes
534 *** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
535 Also, the first dash (which does not indicate anything) is just
536 displayed as a space.
538 *** `menu-bar-select-buffer-function' lets you choose another operation
539 instead of `switch-to-buffer' when selecting an item in the Buffers menu.
541 *** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is
542 built with Xft. These fonts can be set via X resources, for example:
543 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
547 *** Emacs now calls `kill-emacs' if it receives SIGTERM or SIGHUP,
548 or if it receives a SIGINT signal in batch mode.
550 *** `kill-emacs-hook' is now also run in batch mode.
551 Third-party code which adds to `kill-emacs-hook' should check if they
552 do the right thing in batch mode.
556 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
557 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
558 of buffer at first key-press (instead they move to top/bottom of buffer)
559 when `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
561 *** New option `scroll-error-top-bottom' (see above).
563 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
564 scroll a line instead of full screen.
566 *** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
567 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
569 *** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
570 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
571 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
572 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
573 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
575 *** "Aggressive" scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
576 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
577 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
578 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
581 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
582 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
584 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up.
585 Also, the function `copy-file' has an extra optional argument for
586 preserving SELinux context, and the return value of `backup-buffer'
587 now includes the SELinux context.
589 *** New functions `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
590 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
594 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
595 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
597 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
598 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
600 ** File- and directory-local variable changes
602 *** You can stop directory local vars from applying to subdirectories.
603 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
604 settings to indicate that the section should not apply to
607 *** Directory local variables can apply to some file-less buffers.
608 Affected modes include dired, vc-dir, and log-edit. For example,
609 adding "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to .dir-locals.el will
610 turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should call
611 `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
613 *** Using "mode: MINOR-MODE" to enable a minor mode is deprecated.
614 Instead, use "eval: (minor-mode 1)".
616 *** The variable `inhibit-first-line-modes-regexps' has been renamed
617 to `inhibit-local-variables-regexps'. As the name suggests, it now
618 applies to ALL file local variables, not just -*- lines. The
619 associated `inhibit-first-line-modes-suffixes' has been renamed in the
624 *** The `quit-window' command now restores the last buffer displayed
625 in the quitted window.
627 *** Resizing an Emacs frame now preserves proportional window sizes,
628 modulo restrictions like window minimum sizes and fixed-size windows.
630 *** The behavior of `display-buffer' is now customizable in detail.
632 **** New option `display-buffer-base-action' specifies a list of
633 user-determined display "actions" (functions and optional arguments
634 for choosing the displaying window).
636 This takes precedence over the default display action, which is
637 specified by `display-buffer-fallback-action'.
639 **** New option `display-buffer-alist' maps buffer name regexps to
640 display actions, taking precedence over `display-buffer-base-action'.
642 *** New option `window-combination-limit'.
643 The new option `window-combination-limit' allows to return the space
644 obtained for resizing or creating a window more reliably to the window
645 from which such space was obtained.
647 *** New option `window-combination-resize'.
648 The new option `window-combination-resize' allows to split a window that
649 otherwise cannot be split because it's too small by stealing space from
650 other windows in the same combination. Subsequent resizing or deletion
651 of the window will resize all windows in the same combination as well.
653 *** New option `frame-auto-hide-function' lets you choose between
654 iconifying or deleting a frame when burying a buffer in a dedicated
655 frame, or quitting a window showing a buffer in a frame of its own.
657 *** New commands `maximize-window' and `minimize-window'.
658 These maximize and minimize the size of a window within its frame.
660 *** New commands `switch-to-prev-buffer' and `switch-to-next-buffer'.
661 These functions allow to navigate through the live buffers that have
662 been shown in a specific window.
664 ** Minibuffer changes
666 *** The inactive minibuffer has its own major mode `minibuffer-inactive-mode'.
667 This is handy for minibuffer-only frames, and is also used for the feature
668 where mouse-1 pops up *Messages*"', which can now easily be changed.
670 *** Minibuffers set `truncate-lines' to nil.
671 If you want to change the value to something else, you could use
672 for example `minibuffer-setup-hook'.
674 ** `auto-mode-case-fold' is now enabled by default.
676 ** `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' now defaults to t.
678 ** New basic faces `error', `warning', `success'.
679 These are used to highlight text indicating failure, caution or
680 successful operation.
682 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
683 for `list-colors-display'.
685 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
688 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
692 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-kill', instead of
695 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-pop', instead of
698 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-line'.
700 ** New commands `count-words-region' and `count-words'.
702 *** M-= is bound to `count-words-region', not `count-lines-region'.
703 The `count-words-region' command, when called interactively, reports
704 the number of lines, words, and characters in the region. It is a
705 superset of the old `count-lines-region', which is now an obsolete
708 ** The command `just-one-space' (M-SPC), if given a negative argument,
709 also deletes newlines around point.
713 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
714 If non-nil, [delete] and DEL delete the region if it is active and no
715 prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', those commands kill
718 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to [delete].
719 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
720 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
722 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
723 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
724 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; Lisp
725 callers should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
727 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
729 ** Selection changes.
731 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections has been
732 changed to conform with modern X applications. In short, most
733 commands for killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while
734 mouse commands use the primary selection.
736 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
737 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
739 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
740 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
741 the kill ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
742 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
744 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
745 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
746 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
747 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
748 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
750 **** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
752 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
753 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
754 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
756 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
758 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
759 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
760 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
762 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
763 exactly equivalent to M-w, C-w, and C-y respectively.
765 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
766 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
767 between applications.
769 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
771 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
772 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
773 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
774 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
775 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
777 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
779 *** X clipboard managers are now supported.
780 To inhibit this, change `x-select-enable-clipboard-manager' to nil.
782 ** New command `C-x r N' (`rectangle-number-lines') numbers the lines
783 in the current rectangle. With a prefix argument, this prompts for a
784 number to count from and for a format string.
786 ** `redisplay-dont-pause' now defaults to t.
787 This makes Emacs feel more responsive to editing commands that arrive
788 at high rate, e.g. if you lean on some key, because stopping redisplay
789 in the middle (when this variable is nil) forces more expensive
790 updates later on, and Emacs appears to be unable to keep up.
792 ** The behavior of <TAB> for active regions in Text mode has changed.
793 In Text and related modes, typing <TAB> (`indent-for-tab-command')
794 when the region is active causes Emacs to indent all the lines in the
795 region, aligning them with the line previous to the first line in the
796 region (or with the left margin if there is no previous line).
798 ** When `occur' is called with a prefix argument, matching strings are
799 collected into the `*Occur*' buffer without line numbers. If there
800 are parenthesized subexpressions in the specified regexp, `occur'
801 reads replacement text that may contain \\& and \\N whose convention
802 follows `replace-match'.
805 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
807 ** Archive Mode has basic support for browsing and updating 7z archives.
811 *** BibTeX mode now supports biblatex.
812 Use the variable `bibtex-dialect' to select different BibTeX dialects.
813 `bibtex-entry-field-alist' is now an obsolete alias for
814 `bibtex-BibTeX-entry-alist'.
816 *** New command `bibtex-search-entries', bound to C-c C-a.
818 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `sort-fields', disabled by default.
820 *** New variable `bibtex-search-entry-globally'.
824 *** New option `browse-url-mailto-function' specifies how to handle "mailto:"s.
826 *** The default browser used by the package is now the "xdg-open" program,
827 on platforms that support it. This calls your desktop's preferred browser.
829 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
831 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing "comments".
832 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
834 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
835 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
837 *** The function specified by `appt-disp-window-function' may be passed
838 lists of arguments if multiple appointments are due at similar times.
839 If you are using a custom function for this, you should update it.
841 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
843 *** Elements of `calendar-day-abbrev-array' and `calendar-month-abbrev-array'
844 may no longer be nil, but must all be strings.
846 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt
847 package by adding `appt-make-list' to `diary-hook' has been removed.
848 Use `appt-activate' instead.
850 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
851 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
852 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
854 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
855 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
859 *** New feature to "guess" the style in an existing buffer.
860 The main entry point is M-x c-guess.
862 *** Java Mode now supports Java 5.0 (Tiger) and 6 (Mustang).
864 *** `c-beginning-of-defun' and `c-end-of-defun' now respect nested scopes.
865 Thus C-M-a will, by default, go to the beginning of the immediate function,
868 *** "Macros with semicolons" can be registered for correct indentation.
869 Where such a macro ends a line (no semicolon) the next statement is no longer
870 parsed as a statement continuation.
872 ** Comint and modes derived from it use the standard completion code.
876 *** Compilation mode can be used without Font Lock mode.
877 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
879 *** New variable `compilation-filter-start', which is bound while
880 `compilation-filter-hook' runs. It records the start position of the
881 text inserted by `compilation-filter'.
883 *** `compilation-error-screen-columns' and `compilation-first-column'
884 are obeyed in the editing buffer. So programming language modes can
885 set them, whereas previously only the value in the *Compilation*
890 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
891 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
892 To turn off the search field, set `custom-search-field' to nil.
894 *** Custom options now start out hidden if at their default values.
895 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
897 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
899 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
900 choose a color via `list-colors-display'.
904 *** It is now possible to access buses other than the default system
907 *** The `dbus-register-method' and `dbus-register-property' functions
908 optionally do not register names.
910 *** The new function `dbus-register-service' registers a known service
911 name on a D-Bus without also registering a property or a method.
915 *** C-x C-j (`dired-jump') and C-x 4 C-j (`dired-jump-other-window'),
916 if called with a prefix argument, read a file name from the minibuffer
917 instead of using the current buffer.
919 *** The "dired local variables" feature of Dired-x is obsolete.
920 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
924 *** New options `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay',
925 controlling attempts to autojoin a channel.
927 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
928 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
929 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
930 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
934 *** The default value of `eshell-directory-name' has changed
935 to be an "eshell" directory in `user-emacs-directory'.
936 The old "~/.eshell/" directory is still used if it exists, though.
940 *** The M-x gdb command now uses the GDB Machine Interface protocol.
941 It now supports multithread non-stop debugging and simultaneous
942 debugging of several threads.
946 *** RET (`image-toggle-animation') toggles animation, if applicable.
947 Animation plays once, unless the option `image-animate-loop' is non-nil.
951 *** New command M-x info-display-manual displays a named Info manual.
952 If that manual is already visited in some Info buffer, it displays
953 that buffer. (This is handy if you have many manuals in many *info*
954 buffers, and don't remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual
955 you want to consult.) Otherwise, it loads and displays the manual.
957 *** `e' is now bound to `end-of-buffer' rather than to `Info-edit'.
958 This is for compatibility with the stand-alone Info reader program,
959 and also because `Info-edit' is a rarely used command that is disabled
962 ** Mail mode changes (not Message mode)
964 *** New command M-x mail-add-attachment for adding MIME attachments
966 *** The command M-x mail-attach-file was renamed to M-x mail-insert-file.
967 (Its name is misleading, since it has nothing to do with MIME
968 attachments.) The old name is now an obsolete alias to the new name.
970 ** MH-E has been updated to MH-E version 8.3.1.
971 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
973 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
975 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
977 ** nXML mode no longer binds C-RET to `nxml-complete'.
978 Completion is now performed via `completion-at-point', bound to C-M-i
979 or M-TAB. If `nxml-bind-meta-tab-to-complete-flag' is non-nil (the
980 default), this performs tag completion.
982 ** Org mode has been updated to version 7.8.09.
983 See ORG-NEWS for details.
985 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
986 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity,
987 support for more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
991 *** The command `rmail-epa-decrypt' decrypts OpenPGP data
992 in the Rmail incoming message.
994 *** The variable `rmail-message-filter' no longer has any effect.
995 This change was made in Emacs 23.1 but was not advertised at the time.
996 Try using `rmail-show-message-hook' instead.
1000 *** M-x shell prompts for the shell path name if the default directory
1001 is a remote file name and neither the environment variable $ESHELL nor
1002 the variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
1004 *** TAB is now bound to the standard `completion-at-point' command,
1005 which now implements the pcomplete rules for shell command completion.
1009 *** SMTPmail now uses encrypted connections (via STARTTLS) by default
1010 if the mail server supports them. This uses either built-in GnuTLS
1011 support, or the starttls.el library. Customize `smtpmail-stream-type'
1014 *** The variable `smtpmail-auth-credentials' has been removed.
1015 By default, the information is now stored in the file ~/.authinfo.
1016 This was the default value of smtpmail-auth-credentials. If you had
1017 customized smtpmail-auth-credentials to a list of user names and
1018 passwords, those settings are not used. During your first connection
1019 to the smtp server, Emacs will prompt for the user name and password,
1020 and offer to save them to ~/.authinfo. Or you can manually copy the
1021 credentials to ~/.authinfo. For example, if you had
1023 (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials
1024 '(("mail.example.org" 25 "jim" "s!cret")))
1026 then the equivalent line in ~/.authinfo would be
1028 machine mail.example.org port 25 login jim password s!cret
1030 See the auth-source manual for more information, e.g. on encrypting
1031 the credentials file.
1033 *** The variable `smtpmail-starttls-credentials' has been removed.
1034 If you had that set, you need to put
1036 machine smtp.whatever.foo port 25 key "~/.my_smtp_tls.key" cert "~/.my_smtp_tls.cert"
1038 in your ~/.authinfo file instead.
1042 *** New options `sql-port', `sql-connection-alist', `sql-send-terminator',
1043 and `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
1045 *** New options controlling prompting for login parameters.
1046 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params',
1047 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
1048 connection is established.
1050 *** The command `sql-product-interactive' now takes a prefix argument,
1051 which causes it to prompt for an SQL product.
1053 *** Product-specific SQL interactive commands now take prefix arguments.
1054 These commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres', `sql-mysql', etc.),
1055 given a prefix argument, prompt for a name for the SQL interactive
1056 buffer. This reduces the need for calling `sql-rename-buffer'.
1058 *** SQL interactive modes suppress command continuation prompts, and
1059 replace tabs with spaces. The first change impacts multiple line SQL
1060 statements entered with C-j between each line, statements yanked into
1061 the buffer and statements sent with `sql-send-*' functions. The
1062 second prevents the MySQL and Postgres interpreters from listing
1063 object name completions when sent text via `sql-send-*' functions.
1065 *** New command `sql-connect' starts a predefined SQLi session,
1066 using the login parameters from `sql-connection-alist'.
1068 *** New "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
1069 This gathers the login params specified for the SQLi session, if it
1070 was not started by a connection, and saves them as a new connection.
1072 *** New commands for listing database objects and details:
1073 sql-list-all and sql-list-table.
1075 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
1079 *** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
1083 *** New inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
1085 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
1086 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
1088 *** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
1089 remote file attributes are cached for better performance.
1091 *** The option `ange-ftp-binary-file-name-regexp' has changed its
1092 default value to "".
1094 *** Handlers for `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
1095 for remote machines which support SELinux.
1097 ** New function `url-queue-retrieve', which behaves like url-retrieve,
1098 but with limits (`url-queue-parallel-processes', `url-queue-timeout') on
1099 the degree of parallelism.
1101 ** VC and related modes
1103 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
1104 The command C-x v + (`vc-pull') runs a "pull" operation, if it is
1105 supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to update the
1106 current branch and working tree. A prefix argument means to prompt
1107 the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
1109 *** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
1111 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
1112 The command C-x v m (`vc-merge') now runs a "merge" operation, if it
1113 is supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to merge
1114 changes from another branch into the current one. It prompts for
1115 specifics, e.g. a merge source.
1117 *** New option `vc-revert-show-diff' controls whether `vc-revert'
1118 shows a diff while querying the user. It defaults to t.
1120 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
1121 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
1122 This is currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial (to support
1123 another backend, define a `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function').
1124 In the Log View buffers made by C-x v L (`vc-print-root-log'), you can
1125 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
1127 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
1128 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
1130 *** The option `vc-initial-comment' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but
1131 this was not advertised at the time.
1133 *** `vc-toggle-read-only' is an obsolete alias for `toggle-read-only'.
1134 Since Emacs 23, it has done the same thing as `toggle-read-only', but
1135 this was not advertised at the time.
1141 *** erc-hecomplete.el (use erc-pcomplete.el instead)
1143 *** partial-completion-mode (complete.el) is obsolete.
1144 You can get a comparable behavior with:
1145 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
1146 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
1148 *** pc-mode.el is obsolete (CUA mode is much more comprehensive).
1150 *** pgg is obsolete (use EasyPG instead).
1152 *** sregex.el is obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
1154 *** s-region.el and pc-select.el are obsolete.
1155 They are superseded by shift-select-mode, enabled by default since 23.1.
1157 *** vc-mcvs.el is obsolete (for lack of a maintainer).
1161 *** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
1162 Its functions and variables have been similarly renamed.
1164 *** In `ido-file-completion-map', C-v is no longer bound to `ido-toggle-vc'.
1165 (This interfered with cua-mode.)
1167 *** f90.el has some support for Fortran 2008 syntax.
1169 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
1171 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
1174 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
1176 ** Occur Edit mode applies edits made in *Occur* buffers to the
1177 original buffers. It is bound to "e" in Occur mode.
1179 ** New global minor mode electric-pair-mode.
1180 When enabled, typing an open parenthesis automatically inserts the
1181 matching closing one.
1183 ** New global minor mode electric-indent-mode.
1184 When enabled, typing certain characters triggers reindentation.
1185 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-indent-chars or
1186 electric-indent-functions.
1188 ** New global minor mode electric-layout-mode.
1189 When enabled, typing certain characters automatically inserts newlines.
1190 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-layout-rules.
1192 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
1193 from which other modes can be derived.
1195 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
1197 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
1198 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
1199 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
1200 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
1203 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
1204 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
1206 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
1207 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
1209 ** New generic mode, xmodmap-generic-mode, for xmodmap files.
1211 ** New emacs-lock.el package.
1212 The previous version has been moved to obsolete/old-emacs-lock.el.
1213 Now, there is a proper minor mode `emacs-lock-mode'. Protection
1214 against exiting Emacs and killing the buffer can be set separately.
1215 The mechanism for automatically turning off protection for buffers
1216 with dead inferior processes has been generalized.
1219 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
1221 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function call now ENABLES
1222 the minor mode unconditionally. This is so that you can write e.g.
1224 (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'foo-mode)
1226 to enable foo-mode in Text mode buffers, removing the need for
1227 `turn-on-foo-mode' style functions. This affects all mode commands
1228 defined by `define-minor-mode'. If called interactively, the mode
1229 command still toggles the minor mode.
1231 ** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
1232 It is now a list of three elements, where the second element is a list
1233 describing the original file's SELinux context. If Emacs or the
1234 system lacks SELinux support, the context list is (nil nil nil nil).
1235 See "Basic SELinux support" above, under "Changes in Emacs 24.1".
1237 ** `char-direction-table' and the `char-direction' function were deleted.
1238 They were buggy and inferior to the new support of bidirectional
1239 editing introduced in Emacs 24. If you need the bidirectional
1240 properties of a character, use `get-char-code-property' with the last
1241 argument `bidi-class'.
1243 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
1244 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
1245 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
1246 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
1248 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
1249 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
1250 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
1253 ** Support for "old-style" backquotes, obsolete for 10+ years, has
1254 been further reduced. Now a backquote not followed by a space is
1255 always treated as a "new-style" backquote. Please remove all
1256 "old-style" backquotes from your code. If your code uses backquotes
1257 as documented in the Elisp manual, and compiles without warning, then
1258 you have nothing to do in this regard. Code not following the
1259 appropriate conventions may fail to compile.
1261 The most common cause of trouble seems to be an old-style backquote
1262 followed by a newline. Another cause of trouble is vector notation
1263 for key sequence notation: instead of [(control ,)] and [(control ')],
1264 you should write [(control ?,)] and [(control ?')], which will work in
1267 ** The macro `eval-at-startup' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but this
1268 was not advertised at the time. The function `custom-initialize-delay'
1269 replaced all known uses.
1271 ** `view-buffer' now treats special mode-class in the same way that
1272 `view-file' has since Emacs 22 (i.e. it won't enable View mode if the
1273 major mode is special).
1275 ** Menu and tool bar changes
1277 *** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
1278 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
1279 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
1280 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
1281 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
1282 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
1284 *** The menu bar bindings's caches are not used any more.
1285 Use (where-is-internal <def> nil t) instead.
1287 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
1288 similar to those created by shift-selection (see Selection changes
1289 above). In previous Emacs versions, these regions were delineated by
1290 `mouse-drag-overlay'; that variable has been removed.
1292 ** The fourth argument of `filter-buffer-substring' has been removed.
1293 If you want to remove text properties from the final result, simply
1294 pass the result through substring-no-properties.
1296 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
1298 ** The following obsolete functions and aliases have been removed
1299 (the appropriate new function is given in parentheses; "not needed"
1300 means you can just remove all calls to the function in question):
1302 *** `comint-kill-output' (`comint-delete-output')
1303 *** `decompose-composite-char' (`char-to-string')
1304 *** `outline-visible' (`outline-invisible-p')
1305 *** `internal-find-face' (`facep')
1306 *** `internal-get-face' (`facep and check-face')
1307 *** `frame-update-faces' (not needed)
1308 *** `frame-update-face-colors' (`frame-set-background-mode')
1309 *** `x-frob-font-weight' and `x-frob-font-slant' (`make-face-*' functions)
1310 *** `x-make-font-bold and x-make-font-demibold (`make-face-bold')
1311 *** `x-make-font-italic' and `x-make-font-oblique' (`make-face-italic')
1312 *** `x-make-font-bold-italic' (`make-face-bold-italic')
1313 *** `x-make-font-unbold' (`make-face-unbold')
1314 *** `x-make-font-unitalic' (`make-face-unitalic')
1315 *** `mldrag-drag-mode-line' (`mouse-drag-mode-line')
1316 *** `mldrag-drag-vertical-line' (`mouse-drag-vertical-line')
1317 *** `iswitchb-default-keybindings' (`iswitchb-mode')
1318 *** `char-bytes' (== 1)
1319 *** `isearch-return-char' (`isearch-printing-char')
1320 *** `make-local-hook' (not needed)
1321 *** `set-screen-height' (`set-frame-height')
1322 *** `set-screen-width' (`set-frame-width')
1324 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed
1325 (the appropriate new variable is given in parentheses):
1327 *** `checkdoc-minor-keymap' (`checkdoc-minor-mode-map')
1328 *** `vc-header-alist' (`vc-BACKEND-header')
1329 *** `directory-sep-char' (== ?/)
1330 *** `font-lock-defaults-alist' (`font-lock-defaults')
1331 *** `e' (`float-e').
1333 ** The following obsolete files were removed:
1334 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
1336 ** The format of the finder-inf.el file has changed, since the Finder
1337 mechanism is now based on the package system. The variable
1338 `finder-package-info' is replaced by `package--builtins' and
1339 `finder-keywords-hash'.
1341 ** When generating autoloads, `update-directory-autoloads' no longer
1342 assumes every inspected file is in your `load-path'. It instead
1343 generates relative names according to the current `load-path'.
1346 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.1
1348 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
1349 The `lexical-binding' variable enables lexical scoping for local
1350 variables. It is typically set via a file-local variable in the first
1351 line of the file, in which case it applies to all the code in that
1354 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
1355 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
1357 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
1358 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
1360 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
1362 *** `defvar' and `defconst' now mark the variable as special (dynamic).
1363 So do `defcustom' and other forms that call `defvar' as a subroutine.
1365 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
1366 declared as dynamically bound.
1368 *** The form ((lambda ...) ...) is deprecated.
1370 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
1371 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
1372 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
1374 ** Changes for bidirectional display and editing
1376 *** New function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction'.
1377 This returns the base direction of the paragraph at point.
1379 *** New function `bidi-string-mark-left-to-right'.
1380 Given a string containing characters from right-to-left scripts, this
1381 function returns another string which can be safely inserted into a
1382 buffer, such that any following text will be always displayed to the
1383 right of that string. (This works by appending an invisible Unicode
1384 "LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK" character if the argument string might need it.)
1386 This is useful when the buffer has overall left-to-right paragraph
1387 direction and you need to insert a string whose contents are not known
1388 in advance, without disrupting the layout of the line.
1392 *** Window tree functions are accessible in Elisp.
1393 Functions are provided to return the parent, siblings or child windows
1394 of any window including internal windows (windows not associated with a
1395 buffer) in the window tree.
1397 **** New function `window-valid-p' gives non-nil for live and internal
1400 **** Window manipulation can deal with internal windows.
1401 Many window handling functions like `split-window', `delete-window', or
1402 `delete-other-windows' as well as the window resizing functions can now
1403 act on any window including internal ones.
1405 *** window-total-height/-width vs window-body-height/-width.
1406 The function `window-height' has been renamed to `window-total-height'
1407 and `window-width' has been renamed to `window-body-width'. The old
1408 names are provided as aliases. Two new functions `window-total-width'
1409 and `window-body-height' are provided.
1411 *** Window parameters specific to window handling functions.
1412 For each window you can specify a parameter to override the default
1413 behavior of a number of functions like `split-window', `delete-window'
1414 and `delete-other-windows'. The variable `ignore-window-parameters'
1415 allows to ignore processing such parameters.
1417 *** New semantics of third argument of `split-window'.
1418 The third argument of `split-window' has been renamed to SIDE and can be
1419 set to any of the values 'below, 'right, 'above, or 'left to make the
1420 new window appear on the corresponding side of the window that shall be
1421 split. Any other value of SIDE will cause `split-window' to split the
1422 window into two side-by-side windows as before.
1424 *** Window resizing functions.
1425 A new standard function for resizing windows called `window-resize' has
1426 been introduced. This and all other functions for resizing windows no
1427 longer delete any windows when they become too small.
1429 *** Deleting the selected window now selects the most recently selected
1430 live window on that frame instead.
1432 *** `adjust-window-trailing-edge' adjustments.
1433 `adjust-window-trailing-edge' can now deal with fixed-size windows and
1434 is able to resize other windows if a window adjacent to the trailing
1435 edge cannot be shrunk any more. This makes its behavior more similar to
1436 that of Emacs 21 without compromising, however, its inability to delete
1437 windows which was introduced in Emacs 22.
1439 *** Window-local buffer lists.
1440 Windows now have local buffer lists. This means that removing a buffer
1441 from display in a window will preferably show the buffer previously
1442 shown in that window with its previous window-start and window-point
1443 positions. This also means that the same buffer may be automatically
1444 shown twice even if it already appears in another window.
1446 *** `switch-to-buffer' has a new optional argument FORCE-SAME-WINDOW,
1447 which if non-nil requires the buffer to be displayed in the currently
1448 selected window, signaling an error otherwise. If nil, another window
1449 can be used, e.g. if the selected one is strongly dedicated.
1451 *** `split-window-vertically' and `split-window-horizontally' renamed
1452 to `split-window-below' and `split-window-right' respectively.
1453 The old names are kept as aliases.
1457 **** The second arg to `display-buffer' and `pop-to-buffer' is now
1458 named ACTION, and takes a display action of the same form as
1459 `display-buffer-base-action' (see Changes, above). A non-nil,
1460 non-list value is treated specially, as the old meaning.
1462 **** New variable `display-buffer-overriding-action'.
1464 **** The procedure of `display-buffer' etc. to choose a window is
1465 determined by combining `display-buffer-overriding-action',
1466 `display-buffer-alist', the ACTION arg, `display-buffer-base-action',
1467 and `display-buffer-fallback-action'. The second and fourth of these
1468 are user-customizable variables.
1470 See the docstring of `display-buffer' for details.
1472 *** New functions `window-state-get' and `window-state-put'.
1473 These functions allow to save and restore the state of an arbitrary
1474 frame or window as an Elisp object.
1478 *** New variable `completion-extra-properties' used to specify extra
1479 properties of the current completion:
1480 - :annotate-function, same as the old completion-annotate-function.
1481 - :exit-function, function to call after completion took place.
1483 *** Functions on `completion-at-point-functions' can return any of the
1484 properties valid for `completion-extra-properties'.
1486 *** `completion-annotate-function' is obsolete.
1488 *** New `metadata' method for completion tables. The metadata thus returned
1489 can specify various details of the data returned by `all-completions':
1490 - `category' is the kind of objects returned (e.g., `buffer', `file', ...),
1491 used to select a style in completion-category-overrides.
1492 - `annotation-function' to add annotations in *Completions*.
1493 - `display-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries in *Completions*.
1494 - `cycle-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries when cycling.
1496 *** `minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map' is not used any more.
1497 Instead, the bindings in `minibuffer-local-filename-completion-map'
1498 are combined with `minibuffer-local-must-match-map'.
1500 *** New variable `completing-read-function' allows overriding the
1501 behavior of `completing-read'.
1503 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
1504 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
1506 ** `pre-command-hook'/`post-command-hook' are not reset to nil on error.
1507 Instead, the offending function is removed.
1511 *** New function `run-hook-wrapped' for running an abnormal hook by
1512 passing the hook functions as arguments to a "wrapping" function.
1513 Like `run-hook-with-args-until-success', it stops at the first
1514 non-nil return value.
1516 *** New macro `with-wrapper-hook' for running an abnormal hook as a
1517 set of "wrapping" filters, similar to around advice.
1518 (A version of this macro was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not
1519 advertised at the time.)
1523 *** New macro `condition-case-unless-debug' (this was actually added in
1524 Emacs 23.1 as condition-case-no-debug, but not advertised)
1526 *** The macro `with-demoted-errors' was added in Emacs 23.1, but not advertised.
1528 *** Variable `stack-trace-on-error' removed.
1530 *** The debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will
1531 jump to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked
1532 instead of jumping all the way to the top-level.
1534 *** Set `debug-on-event' to enter the debugger on events like SIGUSR1.
1535 This can be useful when `inhibit-quit' is set.
1537 ** The new function `server-eval-at' allows evaluation of Lisp forms on
1538 named Emacs server instances.
1540 ** `call-process' and `call-process-region' allow a `(:file "file")' spec
1541 to redirect STDOUT to a file.
1543 ** The function `format-time-string' now supports the %N directive,
1544 for higher-resolution time stamps.
1546 ** New input reading functions
1548 *** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of
1549 characters, discarding any inputs not inside the set.
1551 *** The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name
1552 or RGB triplet, instead of signaling an error if the user provides
1555 **** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
1557 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
1558 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
1559 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
1562 ** Syntax parsing changes
1564 *** New variable `syntax-propertize-function'.
1565 This replaces `font-lock-syntactic-keywords' which is now obsolete.
1566 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
1567 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
1568 Together with this new variable come a new hook
1569 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
1570 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
1571 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
1574 *** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
1576 ** New hook `post-self-insert-hook', run after `self-insert-command'.
1578 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
1580 ** Major and minor mode changes
1582 *** `set-auto-mode' now respects mode: local variables at the end of files,
1583 as well as those in the -*- line.
1585 *** `prog-mode' is a new major mode from which programming modes
1588 **** `prog-mode-hook' can be used to enable features for programming
1589 modes, e.g. (add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'flyspell-prog-mode) to enable
1590 on-the-fly spell checking for comments and strings.
1592 *** New hook `change-major-mode-after-body-hook', run by
1593 `run-mode-hooks' just before any other mode hooks.
1595 *** Enabled globalized minor modes can be disabled in specific major modes.
1596 If the global mode is global-FOO-mode, then run (FOO-mode -1) in the
1597 major mode's hook, where FOO-mode toggles the mode on a per-buffer basis.
1599 *** `define-minor-mode' accepts new keywords :variable, :after-hook.
1601 ** File-handling changes
1603 *** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
1604 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
1605 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
1606 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
1608 *** New file predicates: `file-equal-p', `file-in-directory-p'.
1610 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
1611 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
1612 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
1616 *** Animated images support (currently animated gifs only).
1618 **** `image-animated-p' returns non-nil if an image can be animated.
1620 **** `image-animate' animates a supplied image spec.
1622 **** `image-animate-timer' returns the timer object for an image that
1625 *** `image-extension-data' has been renamed to `image-metadata'.
1626 The old name is an obsolete alias to the new one.
1628 *** Image mode can view any image type that ImageMagick supports.
1629 This requires Emacs to be built with ImageMagick support.
1631 **** New function `imagemagick-types', defined if ImageMagick support
1632 is enabled, returns a list of image file extensions that your
1633 ImageMagick installation supports.
1635 **** New function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick
1636 image types in Image mode and in `create-image' and other helper
1639 **** New option `imagemagick-types-inhibit' excludes certain
1640 ImageMagick image types from `imagemagick-register-types'.
1642 **** With ImageMagick support, there are extra Image mode commands to
1643 resize and rotate images: `image-transform-fit-to-height',
1644 `image-transform-fit-to-width', `image-transform-set-rotation', and
1645 `image-transform-set-scale'.
1647 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
1648 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
1649 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail. For
1650 example, this is used by Rmail to optionally delete a mail window.
1652 ** XML and HTML parsing
1653 If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support, there are two new
1654 functions: `libxml-parse-html-region' (which parses "real world" HTML)
1655 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
1656 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
1658 ** Networking and encryption changes
1660 *** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
1661 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
1662 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
1663 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
1664 must also be supplied.
1666 *** New library gnutls.el.
1667 The new function `gnutls-available-p' returns non-nil if Emacs is
1668 built with GnuTLS support. The main entry points are
1669 `open-gnutls-stream' and `gnutls-negotiate'. It's easiest to use
1670 these functions through `open-network-stream', because that can
1671 upgrade connections through STARTTLS opportunistically or use plain
1672 SSL, depending on your needs. For debugging, set `gnutls-log-level'
1675 *** New primitive `secure-hash' that supports many secure hash algorithms:
1676 md5, sha1, sha2, sha224, sha256, sha384, and sha512. The lisp library
1677 sha1.el has been removed. The `sha1' feature is provided by default.
1681 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
1683 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
1684 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
1685 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
1686 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
1687 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
1688 displayed with a "spinning bar".
1690 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
1691 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
1693 ** New variables `delayed-warnings-list' and `delayed-warnings-hook'.
1694 If delayed-warnings-list is non-nil, the command loop calls
1695 `delayed-warnings-hook' after `post-command-hook'. At present, this
1696 is only used by Emacs on some platforms to display warnings during
1697 startup, which might otherwise not be noticed. This uses the
1698 functions `display-delayed-warnings' and `collapse-delayed-warnings'.
1700 ** rx.el has a new `group-n' construct for explicitly numbered groups.
1702 ** New function `make-composed-keymap' that constructs a new keymap
1703 from multiple input maps. You can use this to make a keymap that
1704 inherits from multiple maps, eg:
1705 (set-keymap-parent newmap (make-composed-keymap othermap parent))
1707 ** New function `string-prefix-p'.
1708 (This was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not advertised at the time.)
1710 ** New reader macro ## that stands for the empty symbol.
1711 This means that the empty symbol can now be read back. Also, #: by itself
1712 (when not immediately followed by a possible symbol character) stands for
1713 an empty uninterned symbol.
1715 ** New math functions `isnan', `copysign', `frexp', `ldexp'.
1717 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
1719 *** `tooltip-use-echo-area' is obsolete.
1720 Rather than setting this to t, disable Tooltip mode instead.
1722 *** buffer-substring-filters is obsolete.
1723 Use `filter-buffer-substring-functions' instead.
1725 *** `byte-compile-disable-print-circle' is obsolete.
1727 *** `deferred-action-list' and `deferred-action-function' are obsolete.
1728 Use `post-command-hook' instead.
1730 *** `font-lock-maximum-size' is obsolete.
1733 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on non-free operating systems
1735 ** On MS Windows, Emacs warns when using the obsolete init file _emacs,
1736 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
1738 ** New configure.bat options
1740 *** --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra runtime checks.
1742 *** --distfiles specifies files to be included in binary distribution.
1744 *** --without-gnutls disables automatic GnuTLS detection.
1746 *** --lib for general library linkage, works with the USER_LIBS build variable.
1748 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
1750 ** The Lisp function `w32-default-color-map' is now obsolete.
1751 (It is only used internally in the Emacs C code.)
1753 ** Customize ns-auto-hide-menu-bar to have the menu-bar hidden, but
1754 reappear on mouse-over. (Requires OS X 10.6 or later.)
1756 ** On Mac OS X, dragging a file into Emacs visits the file, like on
1757 other platforms, rather than inserting its contents into the buffer.
1760 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1761 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
1763 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1764 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1765 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1766 (at your option) any later version.
1768 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1769 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1770 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1771 GNU General Public License for more details.
1773 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1774 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
1779 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"