\f
* Changes in Emacs 21.1
++++
** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
the text.
++++
** Emacs has a new face implementation.
The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
under Lisp changes, below.
++++
** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
same color customizations that work both on a windowed display and on
a TTY or when Emacs is invoked with the -nw option.
+---
** New default font is Courier 12pt under X.
+---
** Sound support
Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD (Voxware
Default is `grow-only'.
++++
** LessTif support.
Emacs now runs with the LessTif toolkit (see
<http://www.lesstif.org>). You will need version 0.92.26, or later.
++++
** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
non-nil.
++++
** Toolkit scroll bars.
Emacs now uses toolkit scroll bars if available. When configured for
cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is shown, if
non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown.
++++
** Fringes to the left and right of windows are used to display
truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
customizing face `fringe'.
++++
** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default.
You can change its appearance by modifying the face `mode-line'.
In particular, setting the `:box' attribute to nil turns off the 3D
Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
have to do anything to activate it.
++++
** The default binding of the Delete key has changed.
The new user-option `normal-erase-is-backspace' can be set to
changed to nil, i.e. C-n will no longer add newlines at the end of a
buffer by default.
+---
** The <home> and <end> keys now move to the beginning or end of the
current line, respectively. C-<home> and C-<end> move to the
beginning and end of the buffer.
+---
** Emacs now checks for recursive loads of Lisp files. If the
recursion depth exceeds `recursive-load-depth-limit', an error is
signaled.
++++
** When an error is signaled during the loading of the user's init
file, Emacs now pops up the *Messages* buffer.
compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
Emacs dump core.
+---
** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
+---
** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
+---
** Item Save Options on the Options menu allows saving options set
using that menu.
** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
all frames except the selected one.
++++
** The new user-option `confirm-kill-emacs' can be customized to
let Emacs ask for confirmation before exiting.
++++
** The header line in an Info buffer is now displayed as an emacs
header-line (which is like a mode-line, but at the top of the window),
so that it remains visible even when the buffer has been scrolled.
This behavior may be disabled by customizing the option
`Info-use-header-line'.
+---
** Polish, Czech, German, and French translations of Emacs' reference card
have been added. They are named `pl-refcard.tex', `cs-refcard.tex',
`de-refcard.tex' and `fr-refcard.tex'. Postscript files are included.
+---
** An `Emacs Survival Guide', etc/survival.tex, is available.
+---
** A reference card for Dired has been added. Its name is
`dired-ref.tex'. A French translation is available in
`fr-drdref.tex'.
menu bar. If the menu bar is displayed, it pops up the major mode
menu or the Edit menu if there is no major mode menu.
+---
** Variable `load-path' is no longer customizable through Customize.
You can no longer use `M-x customize-variable' to customize `load-path'
** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
++++
** The new command M-x delete-trailing-whitespace RET will delete the
trailing whitespace within the current restriction. You can also add
this function to `write-file-hooks' or `local-write-file-hooks'.
+---
** When visiting a file with M-x find-file-literally, no newlines will
be added to the end of the buffer even if `require-final-newline' is
non-nil.
++++
** The new user-option `find-file-suppress-same-file-warnings' can be
set to suppress warnings ``X and Y are the same file'' when visiting a
file that is already visited under a different name.
+---
** The new user-option `electric-help-shrink-window' can be set to
nil to prevent adjusting the help window size to the buffer size.
** New command M-x describe-character-set reads a character set name
and displays information about that.
+---
** The new variable `auto-mode-interpreter-regexp' contains a regular
expression matching interpreters, for file mode determination.
regular expression. The mode is then determined as the mode
associated with that interpreter in `interpreter-mode-alist'.
+---
** New function executable-make-buffer-file-executable-if-script-p is
suitable as an after-save-hook as an alternative to `executable-chmod'.
the file will be saved silently with the appropriate coding.
Previously you would be prompted for a safe coding system.
+---
** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
(`universal-coding-system-argument'). For instance, C-x RET c latin-1
RET C-x C-f filename RET.
+---
** Variable `default-korean-keyboard' is initialized properly from the
environment variable `HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE'.
** New command M-x list-charset-chars reads a character set name and
displays all characters in that character set.
+---
** M-x set-terminal-coding-system (C-x RET t) now allows CCL-based
coding systems such as cpXXX and cyrillic-koi8.
These new environments mainly select appropriate translations
of the tutorial.
+---
** In Ethiopic language environment, special key bindings for
function keys are changed as follows. This is to conform to "Emacs
Lisp Coding Convention".
S-f9 ethio-replace-space unchanged
C-f9 ethio-toggle-space f2
+---
** The rule of input method "slovak" is slightly changed. Now the
rules for translating "q" and "Q" to "`" (backquote) are deleted, thus
typing them inserts "q" and "Q" respectively. Rules for translating
`make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
+---
** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
emacs.privateColormap: true
++++
** Faces and frame parameters.
There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
`ScreenGamma'.
+---
** Tabs and variable-width text.
Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and several other special
buffers.
+---
** The command `Info-search' now uses a search history.
+---
** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
`directory-abbrev-alist'.
The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
+---
** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
notably at the end of lines.
+++
** The function `replace-rectangle' is an alias for `string-rectangle'.
++++
** The new command M-x string-insert-rectangle is like `string-rectangle',
but inserts text instead of replacing it.
+---
** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
after each match to get the replacement text.
** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `e' (or `E') that lets
you edit the replacement string.
-** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB', lets
-you complete mail aliases in the text, analogous to
-lisp-complete-symbol.
+---
+** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB'
+(if you load the library `mailabbrev'), lets you complete mail aliases
+in the text, analogous to lisp-complete-symbol.
+++
** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
+---
** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
+---
** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X, on MS-Windows, and
MS-DOS, either in the echo area or with tooltips. Many standard menus
displayed by Emacs now have help strings.
+--
** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
read mail from the menu etc.
** New features in evaluation commands
++++
*** The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the new
The default value of eval-expression-debug-on-error is t, so any error
during evaluation produces a backtrace.
+---
*** The function `eval-defun' (M-C-x) now loads Edebug and instruments
code when called with a prefix argument.
++++
** CC mode changes.
Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
** Dired changes
++++
*** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
is, delete only empty directories.
++++
*** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
copy directories recursively.
++++
*** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
++++
*** The new command `dired-find-alternate-file' (usually bound to `a')
replaces the Dired buffer with the buffer for an alternate file or
directory.
+---
*** The new command `dired-show-file-type' (usually bound to `w') shows
a message in the echo area describing what type of file the point is on.
This command invokes the external program `file' do its work, and so
will only work on systems with that program, and will be only as
accurate or inaccurate as it is.
+---
*** Dired now properly handles undo changes of adding/removing `-R'
from ls switches.
+---
*** Dired commands that prompt for a destination file now allow the use
of the `M-n' command in the minibuffer to insert the source filename,
which the user can then edit. This only works if there is a single
are built-in facilities equivalent to those of gnus-mule.el, which is
now just a compatibility layer.
+*** gnus-mule.el is now just a compatibility layer over the built-in
+Gnus facilities.
+
*** gnus-auto-select-first can now be a function to be
called to position point.
*** There is image support of various kinds and some sound support.
+---
** Changes in Texinfo mode.
*** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
*** The " key now inserts either " or `` or '' depending on context.
+---
** Changes in Outline mode.
There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
i.e. buffers visited with `emacsclient --no-wait' are never killed in
this way.
++++
** Both emacsclient and Emacs itself now accept command line options
of the form +LINE:COLUMN in addition to +LINE.
+---
** Changes to Show Paren mode.
*** Overlays used by Show Paren mode now use a priority property.
** Changes to hideshow.el
+---
*** Generalized block selection and traversal
A block is now recognized by its start and end regexps (both strings),
serves as the place where a `forward-sexp'-like function can operate.
See the documentation of variable `hs-special-modes-alist'.
+---
*** During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active,
hidden blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' can
be used in the mode line format to show the line at the beginning of
the open block.
+---
*** User option `hs-hide-all-non-comment-function' specifies a
function to be called at each top-level block beginning, instead of
the normal block-hiding function.
+---
*** The command `hs-show-region' has been removed.
++++
*** The key bindings have changed to fit the Emacs conventions,
roughly imitating those of Outline minor mode. Notably, the prefix
for all bindings is now `C-c @'. For details, see the documentation
for `hs-minor-mode'.
+---
*** The variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' has been removed, and
hideshow.el now always behaves as if this variable were set to t.
*** Change Log mode now defines its own faces for font-lock highlighting.
+---
** Changes to cmuscheme
*** The user-option `scheme-program-name' has been renamed
** Changes in Font Lock
++++
*** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major mode.
+---
*** Multi-line patterns are now supported. Modes using this, should
set font-lock-multiline to t in their font-lock-defaults.
+---
*** `font-lock-syntactic-face-function' allows major-modes to choose
the face used for each string/comment.
+---
*** A new standard face `font-lock-doc-face'.
Meant for Lisp docstrings, Javadoc comments and other "documentation in code".
** Changes to Shell mode
++++
*** The `shell' command now accepts an optional argument to specify the buffer
to use, which defaults to "*shell*". When used interactively, a
non-default buffer may be specified by giving the `shell' command a
These changes generally affect all modes derived from comint mode, which
include shell-mode, gdb-mode, scheme-interaction-mode, etc.
+---
*** Comint now by default interprets some carriage-control characters.
Comint now removes CRs from CR LF sequences, and treats single CRs and
BSs in the output in a way similar to a terminal (by deleting to the
respectively). This is achieved by adding `comint-carriage-motion' to
the `comint-output-filter-functions' hook by default.
++++
*** By default, comint no longer uses the variable `comint-prompt-regexp'
to distinguish prompts from user-input. Instead, it notices which
parts of the text were output by the process, and which entered by the
feature, and use the old behavior, customize the user option
`comint-use-prompt-regexp-instead-of-fields'.
++++
*** Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
+---
*** The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
++++
*** Packages based on comint now highlight user input and program prompts,
and support choosing previous input with mouse-2. To control these features,
see the user-options `comint-highlight-input' and `comint-highlight-prompt'.
++++
*** The new command `comint-write-output' (usually bound to `C-c C-s')
saves the output from the most recent command to a file. With a prefix
argument, it appends to the file.
++++
*** The command `comint-kill-output' has been renamed `comint-delete-output'
(usually bound to `C-c C-o'); the old name is aliased to it for
compatibility.
+---
*** The new function `comint-add-to-input-history' adds commands to the input
ring (history).
+---
*** The new variable `comint-input-history-ignore' is a regexp for
identifying history lines that should be ignored, like tcsh time-stamp
strings, starting with a `#'. The default value of this variable is "^#".
** Changes to Rmail mode
+---
*** The new user-option rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
set to fine tune the identification of the correspondent when
receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
regexp matching your mail addresses.
+---
*** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
+---
*** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
like `j'.
+---
*** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
digest message.
+---
*** The new user option `rmail-automatic-folder-directives' specifies
in which folder to put messages automatically.
++++
*** The new function `rmail-redecode-body' allows to fix a message
with non-ASCII characters if Emacs happens to decode it incorrectly
due to missing or malformed "charset=" header.
+---
** The new user-option `mail-envelope-from' can be used to specify
an envelope-from address different from user-mail-address.
+---
+** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
+use the -f option when sending mail.
+
+---
** Changes to TeX mode
*** The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
*** Support for synchronous subprocesses - DOS/Windoze - has been
added.
+---
*** An "alignment error" bug was fixed when a manual spelling
correction is made and re-checked.
+---
*** An Italian, Portuguese, and Slovak dictionary definition has been added.
+---
*** Region skipping performance has been vastly improved in some
cases.
+---
*** Spell checking HTML buffers has been improved and isn't so strict
on syntax errors.
+---
*** The buffer-local words are now always placed on a new line at the
end of the buffer.
+---
*** Spell checking now works in the MS-DOS version of Emacs.
-** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
-use the -f option when sending mail.
-
** Makefile mode changes
+---
*** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
+---
*** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
Fontlock mode is active.
** Isearch changes
+---
*** Isearch now puts a call to `isearch-resume' in the command history,
so that searches can be resumed.
+---
*** In Isearch mode, M-C-s and M-C-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
that started the search.
+---
*** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
*** The new package tildify.el allows to add hard spaces or other text
fragments in accordance with the current major mode.
+---
*** The new package xml.el provides a simple but generic XML
parser. It doesn't parse the DTDs however.
++++
*** The comment operations are now provided by the newcomment.el
package which allows different styles of comment-region and should
be more robust while offering the same functionality.
unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
actually modifying content of a buffer.
+---
*** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
PostScript.
Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
+---
*** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
buffer menu with this package. See the Custom group `bs'.
+---
*** find-lisp.el is a package emulating the Unix find command in Lisp.
+---
*** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
+++
*** hl-line.el provides a minor mode to highlight the current line.
+---
*** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
Please note: if `ansi-color-for-comint-mode' and
displays the output of "ls --color=yes" using the correct foreground
and background colors.
+---
*** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
Pascal) language.
*** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
the text at point.
+---
*** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
+++
*** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
+---
*** whitespace.el is a package for warning about and cleaning bogus
whitespace in a file.
+---
*** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
(very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
+---
*** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
Here is an example of columns:
The `recentf-filter-changer' menu filter function allows to
dynamically change the menu appearance.
+---
*** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
text.
viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
+---
*** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
interface to access directory servers using different directory
protocols. It has a separate manual.
+---
*** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
for Autoconf, selected automatically.
+++
*** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
+---
*** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
minibuffer with completion.
+---
*** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
with the diary features.
+---
*** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
+---
*** The function `turn-off-auto-fill' unconditionally turns off Auto
Fill mode.
-*** gnus-mule.el is now just a compatibility layer over the built-in
-Gnus facilities.
-
+---
*** pcomplete.el is a library that provides programmable completion
facilities for Emacs, similar to what zsh and tcsh offer. The main
difference is that completion functions are written in Lisp, meaning
they can be profiled, debugged, etc.
+---
*** antlr-mode is a new major mode for editing ANTLR grammar files.
It is automatically turned on for files whose names have the extension
`.g'.
names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
+---
*** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
+---
*** Ange-ftp handles the output of the w32-style clients which
output ^M at the end of lines.
If you have `(require 'msb)' in your .emacs, please replace it with
`(msb-mode 1)'.
+---
** Flyspell mode has various new options. See the `flyspell' Custom
group.
+---
** The user option `backward-delete-char-untabify-method' controls the
behavior of `backward-delete-char-untabify'. The following values
are recognized:
[This change was made in Emacs 20.3 but not mentioned then.]
+---
** In Cperl mode `cperl-invalid-face' should now be a normal face
symbol, not double-quoted.
+---
** Some packages are declared obsolete, to be removed in a future
version. They are: auto-show, c-mode, hilit19, hscroll, ooutline,
profile, rnews, rnewspost, and sc. Their implementations have been
moved to lisp/obsolete.
++++
** auto-compression mode is no longer enabled just by loading jka-compr.el.
To control it, set `auto-compression-mode' via Custom or use the
`auto-compression-mode' command.
+---
** `browse-url-gnome-moz' is a new option for
`browse-url-browser-function', invoking Mozilla in GNOME, and
`browse-url-kde' can be chosen for invoking the KDE browser.
+---
** The user-option `browse-url-new-window-p' has been renamed to
`browse-url-new-window-flag'.
** `gnus-user-agent' is a new possibility for `mail-user-agent'. It
is like `message-user-agent', but with all the Gnus paraphernalia.
+---
** The Strokes package has been updated. If your Emacs has XPM
support, you can use it for pictographic editing. In Strokes mode,
use C-mouse-2 to compose a complex stoke and insert it into the
** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
+---
** Hexl mode allows to insert non-ASCII characters.
The non-ASCII characters are encoded using the same encoding as the
file you are visiting in Hexl mode.
+---
** Shell script mode changes.
Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizable, and
sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
+---
** Etags changes.
*** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
expression from that list, are not checked.
+---
** Emacs can now figure out modification times of remote files.
When you do C-x C-f /user@host:/path/file RET and edit the file,
and someone else modifies the file, you will be prompted to revert
the buffer, just like for the local files.
+---
** The buffer menu (C-x C-b) no longer lists the *Buffer List* buffer.
+++
** The new global minor mode `auto-image-file-mode' allows image files
to be visited as images.
+---
** Withdrawn packages
*** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
HCoop / bpt / emacs.git / commitdiff