Add missing NEWS entry for feature appearing during feature freeze
[bpt/emacs.git] / etc / NEWS
1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
5
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
8
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 24.
10
11 See files NEWS.23, NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18,
12 and NEWS.1-17 for changes in older Emacs versions.
13
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
16
17
18 Temporary note:
19 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
20 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
21 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
22 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
23
24 \f
25 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
26
27 ---
28 ** Emacs can be compiled with Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
29 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
30 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
31 --without-gconf.
32
33 ---
34 ** Emacs can be compiled with GnuTLS support.
35 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
36 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
37 `--without-gnutls'. See below for GnuTLS features.
38
39 ---
40 ** Emacs can be compiled with SELinux support.
41 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
42 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
43 `--without-selinux'. See below for SELinux features.
44
45 ---
46 ** Emacs can be compiled with ImageMagick support.
47 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
48 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
49 `--without-imagemagick'. See below for ImageMagick features.
50 This feature is not available for the Nextstep or MS ports.
51
52 ---
53 ** Emacs can be compiled with libxml2 support.
54 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
55 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
56 `--without-xml2'. See below for libxml2 features.
57
58 ---
59 ** There is a new configure option --with-wide-int.
60 With it, Emacs integers typically have 62 bits, even on 32-bit machines.
61 On 32-bit hosts, this raises the limit on buffer sizes from about 512 MiB
62 to about 2 GiB.
63
64 ---
65 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
66 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
67
68 ---
69 ** There are new configure options:
70 --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
71 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
72 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
73
74 ---
75 ** There is a new configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
76 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
77 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
78
79 ---
80 ** The standalone programs digest-doc and sorted-doc are removed.
81 Emacs now uses Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
82
83 ---
84 ** The standalone program `fakemail' is removed.
85 If you need it, feedmail.el provides a superset of the functionality.
86
87 \f
88 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
89
90 ---
91 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
92 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
93 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
94
95 +++
96 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
97 from load-path. -Q now implies this. This option does not affect the
98 EMACSLOADPATH environment variable (and hence has no effect for
99 Nextstep builds.)
100
101 \f
102 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
103
104 +++
105 ** auto-mode-case-fold is now enabled by default.
106
107 ** Completion
108
109 *** shell-mode uses pcomplete rules, with the standard completion UI.
110 +++
111 *** Many packages have been changed to use `completion-at-point'
112 rather than their own completion code.
113 +++
114 *** `completion-at-point' now handles tags and semantic completion.
115 ---
116 *** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
117 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
118 +++
119 *** Completion can cycle, depending on completion-cycle-threshold.
120 +++
121 *** New completion style `substring'.
122 +++
123 *** Completion style can be set per-category `completion-category-overrides'.
124 +++
125 *** Completion of buffers now uses substring completion by default.
126
127 ** Mail changes
128
129 +++
130 *** The default of `send-mail-function' is now `sendmail-query-once',
131 which asks the user (once) whether to use the smtpmail package to send
132 email, or to use the old defaults that rely on external mail
133 facilities (`sendmail-send-it' on GNU/Linux and other Unix-like
134 systems, and `mailclient-send-it' on Windows).
135
136 ---
137 *** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
138 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
139 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail.
140 For example, this is used by Rmail to optionally delete a mail window.
141
142 *** smtpmail
143
144 +++
145 **** smtpmail now uses encrypted connections (via STARTTLS) by default
146 if the mail server supports them. This uses either built-in GnuTLS
147 support, or the starttls.el library. Customize `smtpmail-stream-type'
148 to change this.
149
150 +++
151 **** The variable `smtpmail-auth-credentials' has been removed.
152 By default, the information is now stored in the file ~/.authinfo.
153 This was the default value of smtpmail-auth-credentials.
154 If you had customized smtpmail-auth-credentials to a list of user
155 names and passwords, those settings will not be used. Your first
156 connection to the smtp server will prompt for the user name and password,
157 and then offer to save them to the ~/.authinfo file. Or you can
158 manually copy the credentials to your ~/.authinfo files. For example,
159 if you had
160
161 (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials
162 '(("mail.example.org" 25 "jim" "s!cret")))
163
164 then the equivalent line in ~/.authinfo would be
165
166 machine mail.example.org port 25 login jim password s!cret
167
168 See the auth-source manual for more information, e.g. on encrypting
169 the credentials file.
170
171 +++
172 **** The variable `smtpmail-starttls-credentials' has been removed.
173
174 If you had that set, then you need to put
175
176 machine smtp.whatever.foo port 25 key "~/.my_smtp_tls.key" cert "~/.my_smtp_tls.cert"
177
178 in your ~/.authinfo file instead.
179
180 *** Mail mode changes (this is the old Mail mode, not Message mode)
181 +++
182 **** New command `mail-add-attachment' for adding MIME attachments
183 ---
184 **** The command `mail-attach-file' was renamed to `mail-insert-file'.
185 The old name is now an obsolete alias to the new name.
186
187 +++
188 *** You can type C-c m from M-x report-emacs-bug if you prefer, and if
189 your system supports it, to transfer your report to your desktop's
190 preferred mail client. This uses either the "xdg-email" utility, or
191 OS X's "open" command.
192
193 ** Emacs server and client changes
194 +++
195 *** New option `server-port' specifies the port on which the Emacs
196 server should listen.
197 +++
198 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
199 +++
200 *** New emacsclient argument --frame-parameters can be used to set the
201 frame parameters of a newly-created graphical frame.
202 +++
203 *** If emacsclient shuts down as a result of Emacs signaling an
204 error, its exit status is 1.
205 +++
206 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID.
207 This opens a client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed, similar
208 to the --parent-id argument to Emacs.
209
210 ** Internationalization changes
211
212 +++
213 *** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
214
215 Text that includes characters from right-to-left (RTL) scripts, such
216 as Arabic, Farsi, or Hebrew, is displayed in the correct visual order
217 as expected by users of those scripts. This display reordering is a
218 "Full bidirectionality" class implementation of the Unicode
219 Bidirectional Algorithm. Buffers with no RTL text should look exactly
220 the same as before.
221
222 For more information, see the node "Bidirectional Editing" in the
223 Emacs Manual.
224
225 +++
226 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-display-reordering'.
227 To disable display reordering in any given buffer, change this to nil.
228
229 +++
230 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction'.
231 If nil (the default), Emacs determines the base direction of each
232 paragraph from its text, as specified by the Unicode Bidirectional
233 Algorithm.
234
235 Setting this to `right-to-left' or `left-to-right' forces a particular
236 base direction on each paragraph in the buffer.
237
238 Paragraphs whose base direction is right-to-left are displayed
239 starting at the right margin of the window.
240
241 +++
242 *** Enhanced support for characters with no glyphs in available fonts.
243 If a character has no glyphs in any of the available fonts, Emacs
244 normally displays it either as a hexadecimal code in a box or as a
245 thin 1-pixel space. In addition to these two methods, Emacs can
246 display these characters as empty box, as an acronym, or not display
247 them at all. To change how these characters are displayed, customize
248 the variable `glyphless-char-display-control'.
249
250 On character terminals, these methods are used for characters that
251 cannot be encoded by the `terminal-coding-system'.
252
253 ---
254 *** New input methods for Farsi: farsi and farsi-translit.
255
256 +++
257 *** `nobreak-char-display' now also highlights Unicode hyphen chars
258 (U+2010 and U+2011).
259
260 ---
261 *** New translation of the Emacs Tutorial in Hebrew is available.
262 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
263 automatically select it.
264
265 ** Improved GTK integration
266 +++
267 *** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
268 Use `set-scroll-bar-mode' to change this.
269 +++
270 *** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
271 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose style. On a Gnome desktop, the default
272 is taken from the desktop settings.
273 ---
274 *** GTK tool bars can be placed on the left/right or top/bottom of the frame.
275 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the values
276 top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has entries
277 for this.
278 +++
279 *** The colors for selected text (the `region' face) are taken from
280 the GTK theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
281 +++
282 *** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK. You can turn that
283 off by customizing x-gtk-use-system-tooltips.
284
285 +++
286 ** New basic faces `error', `warning', `success' are available to
287 highlight strings that indicate failure, caution or successful operation.
288
289 ---
290 ** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is built
291 with Xft. To change font, use the X resource font, for example:
292 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
293
294 +++
295 ** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
296 Also, the first dash (which does not indicate anything) is just
297 displayed as a space.
298
299 +++
300 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
301 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
302
303 +++
304 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up, and
305 optionally when copying files. To this end, copy-file has an extra
306 optional argument, and backup-buffer and friends include the SELinux
307 context in their return values.
308
309 +++
310 *** The new functions file-selinux-context and set-file-selinux-context
311 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
312
313 ** Changes for exiting Emacs
314 +++
315 *** The function kill-emacs is now run upon receipt of the signals
316 SIGTERM and SIGHUP, and upon SIGINT in batch mode.
317 +++
318 *** kill-emacs-hook is now also run in batch mode.
319 If you have code that adds something to kill-emacs-hook, you should
320 consider if it is still appropriate to add it in the noninteractive case.
321
322 ** Scrolling changes
323 +++
324 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
325 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
326 of buffer at first key-press (instead move to top/bottom of buffer)
327 when `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
328 +++
329 *** New variable `scroll-error-top-bottom' (see above).
330 +++
331 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
332 scroll a line instead of full screen.
333 +++
334 *** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
335 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
336 +++
337 *** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
338 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
339 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
340 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
341 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
342 ---
343 *** ``Aggressive'' scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
344 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
345 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
346 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
347 margin.
348
349 ** Trash changes
350 +++
351 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
352 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
353 +++
354 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
355 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
356
357 +++
358 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
359 for `list-colors-display'.
360
361 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
362 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
363 from a package repository at http://elpa.gnu.org.
364 +++
365 *** `M-x list-packages' shows a list of packages, which can be
366 selected for installation.
367 +++
368 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
369 +++
370 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded and activated
371 automatically when Emacs starts up. To disable this, set
372 `package-enable-at-startup' to nil. To change which packages are
373 loaded, customize `package-load-list'.
374
375 ** Custom Themes
376 +++
377 *** `M-x customize-themes' lists Custom themes which can be enabled.
378 +++
379 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
380 Emacs no longer looks for custom themes in `load-path'. The default
381 is to search in `custom-theme-directory', followed by a built-in theme
382 directory named "themes/" in `data-directory'.
383 +++
384 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
385 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
386 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
387 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
388
389 ** File- and directory-local variable changes
390 +++
391 *** You can stop directory local vars from applying to subdirectories.
392 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
393 settings to indicate that the section should not apply to
394 subdirectories.
395 +++
396 *** Directory local variables can apply to some file-less buffers.
397 Affected modes include dired, vc-dir, and log-edit. For example,
398 adding "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to .dir-locals.el will
399 turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should call
400 `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
401 +++
402 *** Using "mode: MINOR-MODE" to enable a minor mode is deprecated.
403 Instead, use "eval: (minor-mode 1)".
404
405 +++
406 *** The variable `inhibit-first-line-modes-regexps' has been renamed
407 to `inhibit-local-variables-regexps'. As the name suggests, it now
408 applies to ALL file local variables, not just -*- mode ones.
409 The associated `inhibit-first-line-modes-suffixes' has been renamed
410 in the corresponding way.
411
412 +++
413 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
414
415 +++
416 ** New primitive `secure-hash' that supports many secure hash algorithms:
417 md5, sha1, sha2, sha224, sha256, sha384, and sha512. The lisp library
418 sha1.el has been removed. The `sha1' feature is provided by default.
419
420 ** Menu-bar changes
421 ---
422 *** `menu-bar-select-buffer-function' lets you choose another operation
423 instead of `switch-to-buffer' when selecting an item in the Buffers menu.
424
425 ** Window changes
426
427 +++
428 *** Resizing an Emacs frame now preserves proportional window sizes,
429 modulo restrictions like window minimum sizes and fixed-size windows.
430
431 *** The behavior of `display-buffer' is now customizable in detail.
432 +++
433 **** New option `display-buffer-base-action' specifies a list of
434 user-determined display "actions" (functions and optional arguments
435 for choosing the displaying window).
436
437 This takes precedence over the default display action, which is
438 specified by `display-buffer-fallback-action'.
439
440 +++
441 **** New option `display-buffer-alist' maps buffer name regexps to
442 display actions, taking precedence over `display-buffer-base-action'.
443
444 +++
445 *** New option `window-combination-limit'.
446 The new option `window-combination-limit' allows to return the space
447 obtained for resizing or creating a window more reliably to the window
448 from which such space was obtained.
449
450 +++
451 *** New option `window-combination-resize'.
452 The new option `window-combination-resize' allows to split a window that
453 otherwise cannot be split because it's too small by stealing space from
454 other windows in the same combination. Subsequent resizing or deletion
455 of the window will resize all windows in the same combination as well.
456
457 +++
458 *** New commands `maximize-window' and `minimize-window'.
459 These maximize and minimize the size of a window within its frame.
460
461 +++
462 *** New commands `switch-to-prev-buffer' and `switch-to-next-buffer'.
463 These functions allow to navigate through the live buffers that have
464 been shown in a specific window.
465
466 +++
467 ** The inactive minibuffer has its own major mode `minibuffer-inactive-mode'.
468 This is handy for minibuffer-only frames, and is also used for the feature
469 where mouse-1 pops up *Messages*"', which can now easily be changed.
470
471 \f
472 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
473
474 ** Search changes
475 +++
476 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to isearch-yank-kill, instead of
477 isearch-yank-line.
478 +++
479 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to isearch-yank-pop, instead of
480 isearch-yank-kill.
481 +++
482 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to isearch-yank-line.
483
484 +++
485 ** New commands `count-words-region' and `count-words'.
486
487 *** `count-lines-region' is now an alias for `count-words-region',
488 bound to M-=, which shows the number of lines, words, and characters.
489
490 +++
491 ** The default value of `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' is now t.
492
493 +++
494 ** The command `just-one-space' (M-SPC), if given a negative argument,
495 also deletes newlines around point.
496
497 ** Deletion changes
498 +++
499 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
500 If non-nil, [delete] and DEL delete the region if it is active and no
501 prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', these commands kill
502 instead.
503 +++
504 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to [delete].
505 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
506 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
507 ---
508 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
509 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
510 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; you
511 should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
512 ---
513 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
514
515 ** Selection changes.
516
517 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections was changed
518 to conform with modern X applications. In short, most commands for
519 killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while mouse commands
520 use the primary selection.
521
522 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
523 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
524
525 +++
526 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
527 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
528 the kill ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
529 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
530
531 +++
532 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
533 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
534 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
535 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
536 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
537
538 ---
539 **** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
540
541 +++
542 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
543 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
544 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
545
546 +++
547 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
548 +++
549 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
550 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
551 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
552
553 ---
554 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
555 exactly equivalent to, respectively M-w, C-w, and C-y.
556
557 ---
558 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
559 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
560 between applications.
561
562 ---
563 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
564 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
565 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
566 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
567 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
568 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
569
570 +++
571 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
572
573 *** X clipboard managers are now supported.
574 To inhibit this, change `x-select-enable-clipboard-manager' to nil.
575
576 +++
577 ** New command `rectangle-number-lines', bound to `C-x r N', numbers
578 the lines in the current rectangle. With a prefix argument, this
579 prompts for a number to count from and for a format string.
580
581 +++
582 ** The default value of redisplay-dont-pause is now t
583 This makes Emacs feel more responsive to editing commands that arrive
584 at high rate, e.g. if you lean on some key, because stopping redisplay
585 in the middle (when this variable is nil) forces more expensive
586 updates later on, and Emacs appears to be unable to keep up.
587
588 +++
589 ** The behavior of <TAB> for active regions in Text mode has changed.
590 In Text and related modes, typing <TAB> (`indent-for-tab-command')
591 when the region is active causes Emacs to indent all the lines in the
592 region, aligning them with the line previous to the first line in the
593 region (or with the left margin if there is no previous line).
594
595 \f
596 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
597
598 +++
599 ** Archive Mode has basic support for browsing and updating 7z archives.
600
601 ** BibTeX mode
602 ---
603 *** BibTeX mode now supports biblatex.
604 Use the variable bibtex-dialect to select different BibTeX dialects.
605 bibtex-entry-field-alist is now an obsolete alias forbibtex-BibTeX-entry-alist.
606 ---
607 *** New command `bibtex-search-entries' bound to C-c C-a.
608 ---
609 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `sort-fields', disabled by default.
610 ---
611 *** New variable `bibtex-search-entry-globally'.
612
613 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
614
615 +++
616 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing `comments'.
617 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
618
619 +++
620 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
621 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
622
623 ---
624 *** The function specified by `appt-disp-window-function' may be passed
625 lists of arguments if multiple appointments are due at similar times.
626 If you are using a custom function for this, you should update it.
627
628 +++
629 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
630
631 ---
632 *** Elements of `calendar-day-abbrev-array' and `calendar-month-abbrev-array'
633 may no longer be nil, but must all be strings.
634
635 ---
636 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt package
637 by adding appt-make-list to diary-hook has been removed. Use appt-activate.
638
639 ---
640 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
641 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
642 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
643
644 ---
645 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
646 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
647
648 ** Browse-url
649
650 +++
651 *** New option `browse-url-mailto-function' specifies how to handle "mailto:"s.
652
653 ---
654 *** The default browser used by the package is now the "xdg-open" program,
655 on platforms that support it. This calls your desktop's preferred browser.
656
657 +++
658 ** New CC Mode feature to "guess" the style in an existing buffer.
659 The main entry is M-x c-guess.
660
661 ** comint and modes derived from it use the generic completion code.
662
663 ** Compilation mode
664 ---
665 *** Compilation mode can be used without font-lock-mode.
666 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
667
668 ---
669 *** New variable `compilation-filter-start', bound while
670 compilation-filter-hook runs. It records the start position of the
671 text inserted by compilation-filter.
672
673 ---
674 *** `compilation-error-screen-columns' and `compilation-first-column'
675 are obeyed in the editing buffer. So programming language modes can
676 set them, whereas previously only the value in the *compilation* buffer
677 was used.
678
679 ** Customize
680
681 +++
682 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
683 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
684 To turn off the search field, set custom-search-field to nil.
685
686 +++
687 *** Custom options now start out hidden if at their default values.
688 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
689
690 ---
691 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
692
693 +++
694 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
695 choose a color via list-colors-display.
696
697 ** D-Bus
698
699 *** It is now possible to access buses other than the default system
700 or session bus.
701
702 *** The dbus-register-method and dbus-register-property functions
703 optionally do not register names.
704
705 *** The new function dbus-register-service registers a known service name
706 on a D-Bus without simultaneously registering a property or a method.
707
708 ** Dired-x
709 ---
710 *** dired-jump and dired-jump-other-window called with a prefix argument
711 read a file name from the minibuffer instead of using buffer-file-name.
712
713 +++
714 *** The `dired local variables' feature provided by Dired-x is obsolete.
715 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
716
717 ** ERC changes
718
719 ---
720 *** New options `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay',
721 controlling attempts to autojoin a channel.
722
723 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
724 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
725 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
726 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
727
728 ** Eshell changes
729
730 ---
731 *** The default value of `eshell-directory-name' has changed
732 to be an "eshell" directory in `user-emacs-directory'.
733 The old "~/.eshell/" directory is still used if it exists, though.
734
735 ** gdb-mi
736 +++
737 *** The GDB User Interface has been migrated to GDB Machine Interface.
738 It now supports multithread non-stop debugging and simultaneous
739 debugging of several threads.
740
741 ** Image mode
742
743 +++
744 *** RET (`image-toggle-animation') toggles animation, if applicable.
745 Animation plays once, unless the option `image-animate-loop' is non-nil.
746
747 ** Info
748
749 +++
750 *** New command `info-display-manual' displays a named Info manual.
751 If that manual is already visited in some Info buffer, it displays
752 that buffer. (This is handy if you have many manuals in many *info*
753 buffers, and don't remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual
754 you want to consult.) Otherwise, it loads and displays the manual.
755
756 +++
757 *** `e' is now bound to `end-of-buffer' rather than to `Info-edit'.
758 This is for compatibility with the stand-alone Info reader program,
759 and also because `Info-edit' is a rarely used command that is disabled
760 by default.
761
762 +++
763 ** MH-E has been upgraded to MH-E version 8.3.1.
764 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
765
766 ---
767 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
768
769 ---
770 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
771
772 ---
773 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
774 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity, support for
775 more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
776
777 ** Rmail
778
779 +++
780 *** The command `rmail-epa-decrypt' decrypts OpenPGP data
781 in the Rmail incoming message.
782
783 ---
784 *** The variable `rmail-message-filter' no longer has any effect.
785 This change was made in Emacs 23.1 but was not advertised at the time.
786 Try using `rmail-show-message-hook' instead.
787
788 ** Shell mode
789 +++
790 *** Shell mode uses pcomplete rules, with the standard completion UI.
791 +++
792 *** The `shell' command prompts for the shell path name if the default
793 directory is a remote file name and neither the environment variable
794 $ESHELL nor the variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
795
796 ---
797 ** SQL mode
798
799 ---
800 *** New options `sql-port', `sql-connection-alist', `sql-send-terminator',
801 and `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
802
803 ---
804 *** New custom variables control prompting for login parameters.
805 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params',
806 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
807 connection is established.
808
809 ---
810 *** The command `sql-product-interactive' now takes a prefix argument,
811 which causes it to prompt for an SQL product.
812
813 ---
814 *** Product-specific SQL interactive commands now take prefix arguments.
815 These commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres', `sql-mysql', etc.),
816 given a prefix argument, prompt for a name for the SQL interactive
817 buffer. This reduces the need for calling `sql-rename-buffer'.
818
819 ---
820 *** SQL interactive modes suppress command continuation prompts, and
821 replace tabs with spaces. The first change impacts multiple line SQL
822 statements entered with C-j between each line, statements yanked into
823 the buffer and statements sent with `sql-send-*' functions. The
824 second prevents the MySQL and Postgres interpreters from listing
825 object name completions when sent text via `sql-send-*' functions.
826
827 ---
828 *** New command `sql-connect' starts a predefined SQLi session,
829 using the login parameters from `sql-connection-alist'.
830
831 ---
832 *** New "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
833 This gathers the login params specified for the SQLi session, if it
834 was not started by a connection, and saves them as a new connection.
835
836 ---
837 *** New commands for listing database objects and details:
838 sql-list-all and sql-list-table.
839
840 ---
841 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
842
843 ** TeX modes
844
845 +++
846 *** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
847
848 ** Tramp
849 ---
850 *** There exists a new inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
851 ---
852 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
853 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
854 +++
855 *** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
856 remote file attributes are cached for better performance.
857 ---
858 *** The option `ange-ftp-binary-file-name-regexp' has changed its
859 default value to "".
860 ---
861 *** Handlers for file-selinux-context and set-file-selinux-context for
862 remote machines that support SELinux.
863
864 +++
865 ** New function, `url-queue-retrieve', which behaves like url-retrieve,
866 but with limits (`url-queue-parallel-processes', `url-queue-timeout') on
867 the degree of parallelism.
868
869 ** VC and related modes
870
871 +++
872 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
873 `C-x v +' (`vc-pull') runs a "pull" operation, if it is supported
874 (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to update the current branch
875 and working tree. A prefix argument means to prompt the user for
876 specifics, e.g. a pull location.
877
878 ---
879 *** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
880
881 +++
882 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
883 The vc-merge command now runs a "merge" operation, if it is supported
884 (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to merge changes from
885 another branch into the current one. It prompts for specifics, e.g. a
886 merge source.
887
888 +++
889 *** New option `vc-revert-show-diff' controls whether `vc-revert'
890 shows a diff while querying the user. It defaults to t.
891
892 +++
893 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
894 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
895 This is currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial (to support
896 another backend, define a `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function').
897 In the Log View buffers made by `C-x v L' (vc-print-root-log), you can
898 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
899
900 +++
901 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
902 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
903
904 +++
905 *** The option `vc-initial-comment' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but
906 this was not advertised at the time.
907
908 +++
909 *** `vc-toggle-read-only' is an obsolete alias for `toggle-read-only'.
910 Since Emacs 23, it has done the same thing as `toggle-read-only', but
911 this was not advertised at the time.
912
913 ** Obsolete modes
914
915 ---
916 *** abbrevlist.el
917
918 ---
919 *** erc-hecomplete.el (use erc-pcomplete.el instead)
920
921 *** partial-completion-mode (complete.el) is obsolete.
922 You can get a comparable behavior with:
923 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
924 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
925
926 ---
927 *** pc-mode.el is obsolete (CUA mode is much more comprehensive).
928
929 [FIXME gnus.texi, message.texi need updating]
930 *** pgg is obsolete (use EasyPG instead)
931
932 ---
933 *** sregex.el is obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
934
935 ---
936 *** s-region.el and pc-select.el are obsolete.
937 They are superseded by shift-select-mode, enabled by default since 23.1.
938
939 +++
940 *** vc-mcvs.el is obsolete (for lack of a maintainer)
941
942 ** Miscellaneous
943
944 +++
945 *** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
946 Its functions and variables have been similarly renamed.
947
948 ---
949 *** In `ido-file-completion-map', C-v is no longer bound to ido-toggle-vc.
950 (This interfered with cua-mode.)
951
952 +++
953 *** f90.el has some support for Fortran 2008 syntax.
954
955 ---
956 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
957
958 +++
959 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
960
961 \f
962 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
963
964 +++
965 ** Occur Edit mode applies edits made in *Occur* buffers to the
966 original buffers. It is bound to "e" in Occur mode.
967
968 ** When `occur' is called with the prefix argument `C-u'
969 the matching strings are collected into the `*Occur*' buffer
970 without line numbers. If there are parenthesized subexpressions
971 in the specified regexp, `occur' reads replacement text that
972 may contain \\& and \\N whose convention follows `replace-match'.
973
974 +++
975 ** New global minor mode electric-pair-mode.
976 When enabled, typing an open parenthesis automatically inserts the
977 matching closing one.
978
979 +++
980 ** New global minor mode electric-indent-mode.
981 When enabled, typing certain characters triggers reindentation.
982 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-indent-chars or
983 electric-indent-functions.
984
985 +++
986 ** New global minor mode electric-layout-mode.
987 When enabled, typing certain characters automatically inserts newlines.
988 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-layout-rules.
989
990 +++
991 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
992 from which other modes can be derived.
993
994 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
995
996 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
997 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
998 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
999 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
1000 secrets.
1001
1002 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
1003 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
1004
1005 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
1006 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
1007
1008 ---
1009 ** New generic mode, xmodmap-generic-mode, for xmodmap files.
1010
1011 ---
1012 ** New emacs-lock.el package.
1013 (The previous version has been moved to obsolete/old-emacs-lock.el.)
1014 Now, there is a proper minor mode `emacs-lock-mode'.
1015 Protection against exiting Emacs and killing the buffer can be set
1016 separately. The mechanism for automatically turning off protection
1017 for buffers with dead inferior processes has been generalized.
1018
1019 \f
1020 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
1021
1022 ---
1023 ** `char-direction-table' and the associated function `char-direction'
1024 were deleted. They were buggy and inferior to the new support of
1025 bidirectional editing introduced in Emacs 24. If you need the
1026 bidirectional properties of a character, use `get-char-code-property'
1027 with the last argument `bidi-class'.
1028
1029 +++
1030 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
1031 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
1032 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
1033 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
1034
1035 +++
1036 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
1037 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
1038 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
1039 of the header line.
1040
1041 ---
1042 ** Support for "old-style" backquotes, which have been obsolete for
1043 more than 10 years, has been further reduced. Now a backquote not
1044 followed by a space is always treated as a "new-style" backquote.
1045 Please consider completely removing all "old-style" backquotes from
1046 your code as a matter of some urgency. If your code uses backquotes
1047 as documented in the Elisp manual, and compiles without warning, then
1048 you have nothing to do in this regard. Code not following the
1049 appropriate conventions may fail to compile. The most common cause of
1050 trouble seems to be an old-style backquote followed by a newline.
1051
1052 ---
1053 ** view-buffer now treats special mode-class in the same way that
1054 view-file has since Emacs 22 (ie, it won't enable View mode if the
1055 major-mode is special).
1056
1057 +++
1058 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode defined by define-minor-mode
1059 now turns the mode ON unconditionally. This is so that you can write, e.g.
1060 (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'foo-minor-mode)
1061 to enable foo-minor-mode in Text mode buffers, thus removing the need
1062 for `turn-on-foo-minor-mode' style functions.
1063
1064 +++
1065 ** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
1066 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
1067 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
1068 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
1069 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
1070 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
1071
1072 +++
1073 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
1074 similar to the ones created by shift-selection. In previous Emacs
1075 versions, these regions were delineated by `mouse-drag-overlay', which
1076 has now been removed.
1077
1078 +++
1079 ** The fourth argument of filter-buffer-substring, which says to remove
1080 text properties from the final result, has been removed.
1081 Eg simply pass the result through substring-no-properties if you need this.
1082
1083 ---
1084 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
1085
1086 +++
1087 ** The menu bar bindings's caches are not used any more.
1088 Use (where-is-internal <def> nil t) instead.
1089
1090 +++
1091 ** The following obsolete (mostly since at least 21.1) functions and aliases
1092 have been removed (the appropriate new function is given in parentheses):
1093 comint-kill-output (comint-delete-output),
1094 decompose-composite-char (char-to-string),
1095 outline-visible (outline-invisible-p),
1096 internal-find-face (facep), internal-get-face (facep and check-face),
1097 frame-update-faces (not needed),
1098 frame-update-face-colors (frame-set-background-mode),
1099 x-frob-font-weight and x-frob-font-slant (appropriate make-face-* function),
1100 x-make-font-bold and x-make-font-demibold (make-face-bold),
1101 x-make-font-italic and x-make-font-oblique (make-face-italic),
1102 x-make-font-bold-italic (make-face-bold-italic),
1103 x-make-font-unbold (make-face-unbold),
1104 x-make-font-unitalic (make-face-unitalic),
1105 mldrag-drag-mode-line (mouse-drag-mode-line),
1106 mldrag-drag-vertical-line (mouse-drag-vertical-line),
1107 iswitchb-default-keybindings (iswitchb-mode), char-bytes (== 1),
1108 isearch-return-char (isearch-printing-char), make-local-hook (not needed)
1109
1110 +++
1111 ** The following obsolete (mostly since at least 21.1) variables and varaliases
1112 have been removed (the appropriate new variable is given in parentheses):
1113 checkdoc-minor-keymap (checkdoc-minor-mode-map),
1114 vc-header-alist (vc-BACKEND-header), directory-sep-char (== ?/)
1115 font-lock-defaults-alist (font-lock-defaults), and e (float-e).
1116
1117 ---
1118 ** The following obsolete files were removed:
1119 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
1120
1121 ---
1122 ** The format of the finder-inf.el file has changed, since the finder
1123 mechanism is now based on the package concept. The variable
1124 finder-package-info is replaced by package--builtins and finder-keywords-hash.
1125
1126 \f
1127 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.1
1128
1129 +++
1130 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
1131 The `lexical-binding' variable lets code use lexical scoping for local
1132 variables. It is typically set via a file-local variable in the first
1133 line of the file, in which case it applies to all the code in that file.
1134 +++
1135 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
1136 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
1137 +++
1138 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
1139 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
1140
1141 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
1142 +++
1143 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
1144 declared as dynamically bound.
1145
1146 +++
1147 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
1148 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
1149 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
1150
1151 ** Changes for bidirectional display and editing
1152
1153 +++
1154 *** New function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction'.
1155 This returns the actual value of base direction of the paragraph at
1156 point.
1157
1158 +++
1159 *** New function `bidi-string-mark-left-to-right'.
1160 Given a string containing characters from right-to-left (RTL) scripts,
1161 this function returns another string which can be safely inserted into
1162 a buffer, such that any following text will be always displayed to the
1163 right of that string. (This works by appending the Unicode
1164 "LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK" character when the argument string might need that.)
1165
1166 This is useful when the buffer has overall left-to-right (LTR)
1167 paragraph direction and you need to insert a string whose contents and
1168 directionality are not known in advance, without disrupting the layout
1169 of the line.
1170
1171 ** Window changes
1172 +++
1173 *** Window tree functions are accessible in Elisp.
1174 Functions are provided to return the parent, siblings or child windows
1175 of any window including internal windows (windows not associated with a
1176 buffer) in the window tree.
1177 +++
1178 **** New function `window-valid-p' gives non-nil for live and internal
1179 windows.
1180 +++
1181 **** Window manipulation can deal with internal windows.
1182 Many window handling functions like `split-window', `delete-window', or
1183 `delete-other-windows' as well as the window resizing functions can now
1184 act on any window including internal ones.
1185 +++
1186 *** window-total-height/-width vs window-body-height/-width.
1187 The function `window-height' has been renamed to `window-total-height'
1188 and `window-width' has been renamed to `window-body-width'. The old
1189 names are provided as aliases. Two new functions `window-total-width'
1190 and `window-body-height' are provided.
1191 +++
1192 *** Window parameters specific to window handling functions.
1193 For each window you can specify a parameter to override the default
1194 behavior of a number of functions like `split-window', `delete-window'
1195 and `delete-other-windows'. The variable `ignore-window-parameters'
1196 allows to ignore processing such parameters.
1197 +++
1198 *** New semantics of third argument of `split-window'.
1199 The third argument of `split-window' has been renamed to SIDE and can be
1200 set to any of the values 'below, 'right, 'above, or 'left to make the
1201 new window appear on the corresponding side of the window that shall be
1202 split. Any other value of SIDE will cause `split-window' to split the
1203 window into two side-by-side windows as before.
1204 +++
1205 *** Window resizing functions.
1206 A new standard function for resizing windows called `window-resize' has
1207 been introduced. This and all other functions for resizing windows no
1208 longer delete any windows when they become too small.
1209 +++
1210 *** Deleting the selected window now selects the most recently selected
1211 live window on that frame instead.
1212 +++
1213 *** `adjust-window-trailing-edge' adjustments.
1214 `adjust-window-trailing-edge' can now deal with fixed-size windows and
1215 is able to resize other windows if a window adjacent to the trailing
1216 edge cannot be shrunk any more. This makes its behavior more similar to
1217 that of Emacs 21 without compromising, however, its inability to delete
1218 windows which was introduced in Emacs 22.
1219 +++
1220 *** Window-local buffer lists.
1221 Windows now have local buffer lists. This means that removing a buffer
1222 from display in a window will preferably show the buffer previously
1223 shown in that window with its previous window-start and window-point
1224 positions. This also means that the same buffer may be automatically
1225 shown twice even if it already appears in another window.
1226 +++
1227 *** `switch-to-buffer' has a new optional argument FORCE-SAME-WINDOW,
1228 which if non-nil requires the buffer to be displayed in the currently
1229 selected window, signaling an error otherwise. If nil, another window
1230 can be used, e.g. if the selected one is strongly dedicated.
1231 +++
1232 *** `split-window-vertically' and `split-window-horizontally' renamed
1233 to `split-window-below' and `split-window-right' respectively.
1234 The old names are kept as aliases.
1235 +++
1236 *** Display actions
1237
1238 **** The second arg to `display-buffer' and `pop-to-buffer' is now
1239 named ACTION, and takes a display action of the same form as
1240 `display-buffer-base-action' (see Changes, above). A non-nil,
1241 non-list value is treated specially, as the old meaning.
1242
1243 **** New variable `display-buffer-overriding-action'.
1244
1245 **** The procedure of `display-buffer' etc. to choose a window is
1246 determined by combining `display-buffer-overriding-action',
1247 `display-buffer-alist', the ACTION arg, `display-buffer-base-action',
1248 and `display-buffer-fallback-action'. The second and fourth of these
1249 are user-customizable variables.
1250
1251 See the docstring of `display-buffer' for details.
1252
1253 +++
1254 *** New behavior of `quit-window'.
1255 The behavior of `quit-window' has been changed in order to restore the
1256 state before the last buffer display operation in that window.
1257
1258 +++
1259 *** The new option `frame-auto-hide-function' lets you choose between
1260 iconifying or deleting a frame when burying a buffer shown in a dedicated
1261 frame or quitting a window showing a buffer in a frame of its own.
1262
1263 +++
1264 *** New functions `window-state-get' and `window-state-put'.
1265 These functions allow to save and restore the state of an arbitrary
1266 frame or window as an Elisp object.
1267
1268 ** Completion
1269
1270 *** New variable completion-extra-properties used to specify extra properties
1271 of the current completion:
1272 - :annotate-function, same as the old completion-annotate-function.
1273 - :exit-function, function to call after completion took place.
1274
1275 *** Functions on completion-at-point-functions can return any of the properties
1276 valid for completion-extra-properties.
1277
1278 *** completion-annotate-function is obsolete.
1279
1280 *** New `metadata' method for completion tables. The metadata thus returned
1281 can specify various details of the data returned by `all-completions':
1282 - `category' is the kind of objects returned (e.g., `buffer', `file', ...),
1283 used to select a style in completion-category-overrides.
1284 - `annotation-function' to add annotations in *Completions*.
1285 - `display-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries in *Completions*.
1286 - `cycle-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries when cycling.
1287
1288 *** minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map is not used any more.
1289 Instead, the bindings in minibuffer-local-filename-completion-map are
1290 combined with minibuffer-local-must-match-map.
1291
1292 *** New variable `completing-read-function' allows overriding the
1293 behavior of `completing-read'.
1294
1295 +++
1296 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
1297 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
1298
1299 +++
1300 ** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
1301 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
1302 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
1303 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
1304 must also be supplied.
1305
1306 +++
1307 ** pre/post-command-hook are not reset to nil upon error.
1308 Instead, the offending function is removed.
1309
1310 ** New hook types
1311
1312 +++
1313 *** New function `run-hook-wrapped' for running an abnormal hook by
1314 passing the hook functions as arguments to a "wrapping" function.
1315 Like `run-hook-with-args-until-success', it stops at the first
1316 non-nil return value.
1317
1318 +++
1319 *** New macro `with-wrapper-hook' for running an abnormal hook as a
1320 set of "wrapping" filters, similar to around advice.
1321 (A version of this macro was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not
1322 advertised at the time.)
1323
1324 ** Debugger changes
1325 +++
1326 *** New macro `condition-case-unless-debug' (this was actually added in
1327 Emacs 23.1 as condition-case-no-debug, but not advertised)
1328 +++
1329 *** The macro `with-demoted-errors' was added in Emacs 23.1, but not advertised.
1330 ---
1331 *** Variable `stack-trace-on-error' removed.
1332 +++
1333 *** The debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will
1334 jump to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked
1335 instead of jumping all the way to the top-level.
1336 +++
1337 *** Set `debug-on-event' to enter the debugger on events like SIGUSR1.
1338 This can be useful when `inhibit-quit' is set.
1339
1340 +++
1341 ** The new function `server-eval-at' allows evaluation of Lisp forms on
1342 named Emacs server instances, using TCP sockets.
1343
1344 +++
1345 ** `call-process' and `call-process-region' allow a `(:file "file")' spec
1346 to redirect STDOUT to a file.
1347
1348 +++
1349 ** The function format-time-string now supports the %N directive, for
1350 higher-resolution time stamps.
1351
1352 ** New input reading functions
1353 +++
1354 *** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of
1355 characters, discarding any inputs not inside the set.
1356 +++
1357 *** The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name
1358 or RGB triplet, instead of signaling an error if the user provides
1359 invalid input.
1360 ---
1361 **** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
1362
1363 +++
1364 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
1365 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
1366 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
1367 obsolete alias.
1368
1369 ** Syntax parsing changes
1370 +++
1371 *** New variable `syntax-propertize-function'.
1372 This replaces `font-lock-syntactic-keywords' which is now obsolete.
1373 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
1374 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
1375 Together with this new variable come a new hook
1376 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
1377 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
1378 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
1379 syntactic rules.
1380 +++
1381 *** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
1382
1383 +++
1384 ** New hook post-self-insert-hook run at the end of self-insert-command.
1385
1386 ---
1387 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
1388
1389 ** Major and minor mode changes
1390 +++
1391 *** `set-auto-mode' now respects mode: local variables at the end of files,
1392 as well as those in the -*- line.
1393 +++
1394 *** `prog-mode' is a new major mode from which programming modes
1395 should be derived.
1396 +++
1397 **** `prog-mode-hook' can be used to enable features for programming
1398 modes, e.g. (add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'flyspell-prog-mode) to enable
1399 on-the-fly spell checking for comments and strings.
1400 +++
1401 *** New hook `change-major-mode-after-body-hook', run by
1402 `run-mode-hooks' just before any other mode hooks.
1403 +++
1404 *** Enabled globalized minor modes can be disabled in specific major modes.
1405 If the global mode is global-FOO-mode, then run (FOO-mode -1) in the
1406 major mode's hook, where FOO-mode toggles the mode on a per-buffer basis.
1407 +++
1408 *** `define-minor-mode' accepts new keywords :variable, :after-hook.
1409
1410 +++
1411 ** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
1412 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
1413 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
1414 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
1415
1416 +++
1417 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
1418 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
1419 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
1420
1421 ** Image API
1422
1423 +++
1424 *** Animated images support (currently animated gifs only).
1425
1426 +++
1427 **** `image-animated-p' returns non-nil if an image can be animated.
1428
1429 +++
1430 **** `image-animate' animates a supplied image spec.
1431
1432 +++
1433 **** `image-animate-timer' returns the timer object for an image that
1434 is being animated.
1435
1436 ---
1437 *** `image-extension-data' has been renamed to `image-metadata'.
1438 The old name is an obsolete alias to the new one.
1439
1440 +++
1441 *** Image mode can view any image type that ImageMagick supports.
1442 This requires Emacs to be built with ImageMagick support.
1443 If your Emacs has ImageMagick support, then the function
1444 `imagemagick-types' is defined, and returns a list of image file
1445 extensions that your installation of ImageMagick supports. The
1446 function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick support for
1447 these image types, minus those listed in `imagemagick-types-inhibit'.
1448 Visiting one of these file types will then use Image mode.
1449
1450 ---
1451 *** New commands to resize and rotate images in Image mode.
1452 These require Emacs to be built with ImageMagick support.
1453 image-transform-fit-to-height, image-transform-fit-to-width,
1454 image-transform-set-rotation, image-transform-set-scale.
1455
1456 ** XML and HTML parsing
1457 If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support, there are two new functions:
1458 `libxml-parse-html-region' (which parses "real world" HTML) and
1459 `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an Emacs
1460 Lisp parse tree.
1461
1462 FIXME: These should be front-ended by xml.el.
1463
1464 ** GnuTLS
1465
1466 *** New library `gnutls.el'.
1467 This requires Emacs to have been built with GnuTLS support.
1468 If your Emacs has GnuTLS support, the function gnutls-available-p is
1469 defined and returns non-nil. The main functions are `open-gnutls-stream'
1470 and `gnutls-negotiate'. It's easiest to use these functions through
1471 `open-network-stream' because it can upgrade connections through
1472 STARTTLS opportunistically or use plain SSL, depending on your needs.
1473 For debugging, set `gnutls-log-level' greater than 0.
1474
1475 ** Isearch
1476
1477 ---
1478 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
1479
1480 +++
1481 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
1482 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
1483 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
1484 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
1485 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
1486 displayed with a "spinning bar".
1487
1488 +++
1489 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
1490 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
1491
1492 ---
1493 ** New variables `delayed-warnings-list' and `delayed-warnings-hook'.
1494 If delayed-warnings-list is non-nil, the command loop calls
1495 delayed-warnings-hook after post-command-hook. At present, this is
1496 only used by Emacs on some platforms to display warnings during
1497 startup, which might otherwise not be noticed. This uses the functions
1498 display-delayed-warnings and collapse-delayed-warnings.
1499
1500 ---
1501 ** rx.el has a new `group-n' construct for explicitly numbered groups.
1502
1503 +++
1504 ** New function `make-composed-keymap' that constructs a new keymap
1505 from multiple input maps. You can use this to make a keymap that
1506 inherits from multiple maps, eg:
1507 (set-keymap-parent newmap (make-composed-keymap othermap parent))
1508
1509 +++
1510 ** New reader macro ## that stands for the empty symbol.
1511 This means that the empty symbol can now be read back. Also, #: by itself
1512 (when not immediately followed by a possible symbol character) stands for
1513 an empty uninterned symbol.
1514
1515 +++
1516 ** New math functions `isnan', `copysign', `frexp', `ldexp'.
1517
1518 ** Obsolete functions and variables
1519
1520 ---
1521 *** `tooltip-use-echo-area' is obsolete.
1522 Rather than setting this to t, disable Tooltip mode instead.
1523
1524 +++
1525 *** buffer-substring-filters is obsolete.
1526 Use `filter-buffer-substring-functions' instead.
1527
1528 ---
1529 *** `byte-compile-disable-print-circle' is obsolete.
1530
1531 ---
1532 *** `deferred-action-list' and `deferred-action-function' are obsolete.
1533 Use `post-command-hook' instead.
1534
1535 +++
1536 *** `font-lock-maximum-size' is obsolete.
1537
1538 \f
1539 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on non-free operating systems
1540
1541 ---
1542 ** On MS Windows, Emacs warns when using the obsolete init file _emacs,
1543 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
1544
1545 ** New configure.bat options
1546
1547 +++
1548 *** --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra runtime checks.
1549
1550 +++
1551 *** --distfiles specifies files to be included in binary distribution.
1552
1553 +++
1554 *** --without-gnutls disables automatic GnuTLS detection.
1555
1556 +++
1557 *** --lib for general library linkage, works with the USER_LIBS build variable.
1558
1559 +++
1560 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
1561
1562 ---
1563 ** The Lisp function `w32-default-color-map' is now obsolete.
1564 (It is only used internally in the Emacs C code.)
1565
1566 +++
1567 ** Customize ns-auto-hide-menu-bar to have the menu-bar hidden, but
1568 reappear on mouse-over. (Requires OS X 10.6 or later.)
1569
1570 \f
1571 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1572 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
1573
1574 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1575 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1576 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1577 (at your option) any later version.
1578
1579 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1580 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1581 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1582 GNU General Public License for more details.
1583
1584 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1585 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
1586
1587 \f
1588 Local variables:
1589 mode: outline
1590 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
1591 end: