(FUNCTIONP): New macro.
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1GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 5 Jan 2000
2Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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3See the end for copying conditions.
4
5Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
6For older news, see the file ONEWS.
7
8\f
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9* Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
10
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11** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
12the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
13
14** There are new configure options associated with the support for
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15images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option in `configure'
16to list them.
6344985d 17
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18** There is a new configure option `--without-xim' that instructs
19Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if they these are available.
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20\f
21* Changes in Emacs 21.1
22
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23** The <delete> function key is now bound to `delete-char' by default.
24Note that this takes effect only on window systems. On TTYs, Emacs
25will receive ASCII 127 when the DEL key is pressed. This
26character is still bound as before.
27
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28** Item Save Options on the Options menu allows saving options set
29using that menu.
30
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31** New function executable-make-buffer-file-executable-if-script-p is
32suitable as an after-save-hook as an alternative to executable-chmod.
33
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34** The most preferred coding-system is now used to save a buffer if
35buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and it is safe for the buffer
36contents. (The most preferred is set by set-language-environment or
37by M-x prefer-coding-system.) Thus if you visit an ASCII file and
38insert a non-ASCII character from your current language environment,
39the file will be saved silently with the appropriate coding.
40Previously you would be prompted for a safe coding system.
41
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42** New variable `inhibit-iso-eacape-detection' determines if the
43coding system detector pays attention to ISO2022's escape sequences.
44If this variable is non-nil, the detector ignores such escape
dd7b81cf 45sequences. The default value is nil, and it is recommended not to
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46change it except for such a special case that you always want to read
47any escape code verbatimly. If you just want to read a specific file
48without decoding escape codes, use C-x RET c
49(`universal-coding-system-argument').
50
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51** Variable `default-korean-keyboard' is initialized properly from the
52environment variable `HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE'.
53
54** C-u C-x = provides detailed information about the character at
55point in a pop-up window.
56
57** New command M-x list-charset-chars reads a character set name and
58displays all characters in that character set.
59
60** M-x set-terminal-coding-system (C-x RET t) now allows CCL-based
61coding systems such as cpXXX and cyrillic-koi8.
62
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63** M-; now calls comment-dwim which tries to do something clever based
64on the context.
65
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66** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
67
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68** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
69been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
70
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71** New user options `display-time-mail-face' and
72`display-time-use-mail-icon' control the appearance of mode-line mail
73indicator used by the display-time package. On a suitable display the
74indicator can be an icon and is mouse-sensitive.
75
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76** Emacs' auto-save list files are now by default stored in a
77sub-directory `.emacs.d/auto-save-list/' of the user's home directory.
874d1079 78(On MS-DOS, this subdirectory's name is `_emacs.d/auto-save.list/'.)
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79You can customize `auto-save-list-prefix' to change this location.
80
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81** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
82on the display using several methods
83
84- By setting frame parameter `line-spacing' to PIXELS. PIXELS must be
85a positive integer, and specifies that PIXELS number of pixels should
86be put below text lines on the affected frame or frames.
87
88- By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
89equivalent ot specifying the frame parameter.
90
da4496b6 91- By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
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92
93- By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
94the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
95
3b4fa1b2 96** The new command `clone-indirect-buffer' can be used to create
1c459486 97an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. The
3b4fa1b2 98command `clone-indirect-buffer-other-window', bound to C-x 4 c,
1c459486 99does the same but displays the indirect buffer in another window.
0daee095 100
176256a1 101** New user options `backup-directory-alist' and
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102`make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
103typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
176256a1 104
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105** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
106characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
107
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108** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
109compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
110this behavior.
111
112The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs' byte
113compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
114Emacs dump core.
115
116** New X resources recognized
100b3cbb 117
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118*** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
119whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
120is useful for debugging X problems.
121
122Example:
123
699238d9 124 emacs.synchronous: true
7233c5bd 125
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126*** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
127visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
128the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
129and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
130visual class names are
131
132 TrueColor
133 PseudoColor
134 DirectColor
135 StaticColor
136 GrayScale
137 StaticGray
138
139Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
140`pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
141meaning.
142
143The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
144supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
145`visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
146visual.
147
148Example:
149
699238d9 150 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
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151
152*** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
153specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
154default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
155resource values are `true' or `on'.
156
157Example:
158
699238d9 159 emacs.privateColormap: true
100b3cbb 160
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161** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
162more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
163now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
164
42088c12 165** User-option `show-cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to
c60ea02e 166display the cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is
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167shown, if non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown. This option can
168be customized.
c60ea02e 169
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170** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
171
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172** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
173all frames except the selected one.
174
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175** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
176to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
177
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178** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
179the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X either in the echo
180area or with tooltips.
181
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182** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
183read mail from the menu etc.
184
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185** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
186a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
187
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188** Changes in Texinfo mode.
189
190** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
191macros
192
193 Key binding Macro
194 -------------------------
195 C-c C-c C-s @strong
196 C-c C-c C-e @emph
197 C-c C-c u @url
198 C-c C-c q @quotation
199 C-c C-c m @email
200
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201** Changes in Outline mode.
202
203There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
204`outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
205the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
206
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207** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
208groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
209
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210** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either M-x clone-buffer
211or C-u m <entry> RET. M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and
212several other special buffers.
213
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214** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
215under XFree86. To enable this, simply put (mwheel-install) in your
216.emacs file.
217
218The variables `mwheel-follow-mouse' and `mwheel-scroll-amount'
219determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
220
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221** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
222abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
223`directory-abbrev-alist'.
224
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225** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
226is running in batch mode. For example,
227
228 (message "%s" (read t))
229
230will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
231to standard output.
232
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233** Faces and frame parameters.
234
235There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
236Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
237`scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
238`scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
239sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
240for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
241parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
242
243Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
244`default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
79214ddf 245`foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
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246`default' face and vice versa.
247
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248** New face `menu'.
249
250The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
251Setting the font of LessTif/Motif menus is currently not supported;
252attempts to set the font are ignored in this case.
253
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254** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
255
256The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
257colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
258correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
259the screen gamma of a frame's display.
260
261PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
262in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
263color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
264
265The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
266`ScreenGamma'.
267
268** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
269
270The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
271Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
272oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
273of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
274the text.
275
276** Emacs has a new face implementation.
277
278The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
279font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
280height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
281These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
282specify a font.
283
284Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
285These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
286under Lisp changes, below.
287
288** New default font is Courier 12pt.
289
290** When using a windowing terminal, Emacs window now has a cursor of
291its own. When the window is selected, the cursor is solid; otherwise,
292it is hollow.
293
294** Bitmap areas to the left and right of windows are used to display
295truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
296foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
297customizing face `fringe'.
298
299** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default. You
300can change its appearance by modifying the face `modeline'.
301
302** LessTif support.
303
304Emacs now runs with LessTif (see <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will
305need a version 0.88.1 or later.
306
307** Toolkit scroll bars.
308
309Emacs now uses toolkit scrollbars if available. When configured for
310LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scrollbar. Otherwise, when
311configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
312bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
313bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
314Emacs.
315
316When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
317Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
318Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
319Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
320define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
321`s/freebsd.h' as an example.
322
323Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
324a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
325directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
326different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
327system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
328add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
329
330The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
331`float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
332This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
333image configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
334Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
335
336** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
337
338When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
339widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
340Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
341
342** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
343
344When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
345whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
346defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
347highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
348displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
349whitespace.
350
351** Busy-cursor.
352
353Emacs can optionally display a busy-cursor under X. You can turn the
354display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
355
356** Blinking cursor
357
358M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
359terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
360and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
361the group `cursor'.
362
363** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
364
365This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
366generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
367See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
368details.
369
370Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
371have to do anything to activate it.
372
373** Tabs and variable-width text.
374
375Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
376defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
377independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
378Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
379
380** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
381
382*** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
383
384 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
385
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386The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
387LessTif/Motif one.
a933dad1 388
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389*** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
390LessTif and Motif.
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391
392** Hscrolling in C code.
393
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394Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
395`automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
396customized.
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397
398** Tool bar support.
399
400Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
401how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level changes.
402
403** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
404
405Different parts of the mode line under X have been made
406mouse-sensitive. Moving the mouse to a mouse-sensitive part in the mode
407line changes the appearance of the mouse pointer to an arrow, and help
408about available mouse actions is displayed either in the echo area, or
409in the tooltip window if you have enabled one.
410
411Currently, the following actions have been defined:
412
413- Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line switches between two
414buffers.
415
416- Mouse-2 on the buffer-name switches to the next buffer, and
417M-mouse-2 switches to the previous buffer in the buffer list.
418
419- Mouse-3 on the buffer-name displays a buffer menu.
420
559cee90 421- Mouse-2 on the read-only status in the mode line (`%' or `*')
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422toggles the read-only status.
423
424- Mouse-3 on the mode name display a minor-mode menu.
425
426** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
427
428When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
e33b0397 429from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
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430non-nil.
431
432** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
433
434Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
435Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
436the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
437italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
438Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
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439attributes such as `overline', `strike-through', and `box' are ignored
440on terminals.
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441
442** Sound support
443
2f516940 444Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD (Voxware
0b50c67f 445driver and native BSD driver, a.k.a. Luigi's driver). Currently
2f516940 446supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio (*.au).
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447
448** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
449the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
450forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
451value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
452users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
453even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
454
455The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
456
457** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
458
459As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
460drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
461`x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
462
463** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
464bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi).
465
466This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
467`indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
468variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
469
470** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
471
472When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
473value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggessively' is a
474number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
475fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
476
477When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
478value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggessively' is a
479number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
480fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
481
482** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
483notably at the end of lines.
484
485All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
486spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
487
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488There is a new command M-x replace-rectangle.
489
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490** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
491query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
492after each match to get the replacement text.
493
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494** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `e' (or `E') that lets
495you edit the replacement string.
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496
497** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB', let's
498you complete mail aliases in the text, analogous to
499lisp-complete-symbol.
500
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501** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
502
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503If a message is longer than one line, or minibuffer contents are
504longer than one line, Emacs now resizes the minibuffer window unless
505it is on a frame of its own. You can control the maximum minibuffer
506window size by setting the following variable:
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507
508- User option: max-mini-window-height
509
510Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
511fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
512specifies a number of lines. If nil, don't resize.
513
514Default is 0.25.
515
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516** The command `Info-search' now uses a search history.
517
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518** Changes to hideshow.el
519
520Hideshow is now at version 5.x. It uses a new algorithms for block
521selection and traversal and includes more isearch support.
522
523*** Generalized block selection and traversal
524
525A block is now recognized by three things: its start and end regexps
526(both strings), and a match-data selector (an integer) specifying
527which sub-expression in the start regexp serves as the place where a
528`forward-sexp'-like function can operate. Hideshow always adjusts
529point to this sub-expression before calling `hs-forward-sexp-func'
530(which for most modes evaluates to `forward-sexp').
531
532If the match-data selector is not specified, it defaults to zero,
533i.e., the entire start regexp is valid, w/ no prefix. This is
534backwards compatible with previous versions of hideshow. Please see
535the docstring for variable `hs-special-modes-alist' for details.
536
537*** Isearch support for updating mode line
538
539During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active, hidden
540blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' records the
541line at the beginning of the opened block (preceding the hidden
542portion of the buffer), and the mode line is refreshed. When a block
543is re-hidden, the variable is set to nil.
544
545To show `hs-headline' in the mode line, you may wish to include
546something like this in your .emacs.
547
548 (add-hook 'hs-minor-mode-hook
549 (lambda ()
550 (add-to-list 'mode-line-format 'hs-headline)))
551
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552** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
553
554If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes an
555entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
556log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
557
558New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the current
559buffer, fixing old-style date formats if necessary.
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560
561Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log entries
562if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
563
564The search for a file's version number is performed based on regular
565expressions from `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be
566cutomized. Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of
567a file.
568
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569** Changes in Font Lock
570
571*** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
572font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major
573mode.
574
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575** Comint (subshell) changes
576
577Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
578and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
579
580The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
581buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
582buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
583
584The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
585M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
586the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
587
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588** Changes to Rmail mode
589
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590*** The new user-option rmail-rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
591set to fine tune the identification of of the correspondent when
592receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
593recipient is taken as correspondent of a mail. If nil, the default,
594`user-login-name' and `user-mail-address' are used to exclude yourself
595as correspondent.
596
597Usually you don't have to set this variable, except if you collect
598mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
993d8b7d 599regexp matching your mail addresses.
c0510d27 600
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601*** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
602to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
603Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
604with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
605for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
606
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607*** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
608like `j'.
609
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610*** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
611specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
2d5e9b54 612digest message.
e26cec67 613
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614*** The new user option `rmail-automatic-folder-directives' specifies
615in which folder to put messages automatically.
616
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617** Changes to TeX mode
618
619The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
620`latex-mode'.
621
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622** Changes to RefTeX mode
623
624*** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
625 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
626 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
627 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
628 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
629 can be edited from that buffer.
630
631*** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
632 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
633 `A' to use all marked entries).
634
635*** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
636 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
637
638*** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
639 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
640 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
641 been cited.
642
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643** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
644The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
645semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
646in column 1 are always made leaves.
647
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648** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
649has the following new features:
650
651*** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
652may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
653to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
654time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
655
656*** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
657feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
658file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
659compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
660pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
661defaults to 1.
662
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663** Partial Completion mode now completes environment variables in
664file names.
665
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666** Tooltips.
667
668Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
669mouse position. To use them, use the Lisp package `tooltip' which you
670can access via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
671
672Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
673variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
674the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
675tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
676
677** Customize changes
678
679*** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
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680`State' menu to add comments. Note that customization comments will
681cause the customizations to fail in earlier versions of Emacs.
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682
683*** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
684Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
685default).
686
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687*** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
688between custom options. Example:
689
690 (defcustom default-input-method nil
691 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
692 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
693 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
694 :group 'mule
695 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
696 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
697
698This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
699current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
700first in a custom-set-variables statement.
701
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702** New features in evaluation commands
703
5e03eb84 704*** The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
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705modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
706print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the
707customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
708eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
709
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710*** The function `eval-defun' (M-C-x) now loads Edebug and instruments
711code when called with a prefix argument.
712
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713** Dired changes
714
715*** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
716command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
717is, delete only empty directories.
718
719*** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
720command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
721copy directories recursively.
722
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723*** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
724in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
725the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
726
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727*** The new command `dired-find-alternate-file' (usually bound to `a')
728replaces the Dired buffer with the buffer for an alternate file or
729directory.
730
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731** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
732use the -f option when sending mail.
733
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734** CC mode changes.
735
736Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
737current user setups (although it's believed that these
738incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
739However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
740back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
741compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
742release.
743
744*** New initialization procedure for the style system.
745When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
746variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
747take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
748is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
749settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
750possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
751Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
752
753By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
754special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
755the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
756of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
757above.
758
759Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
760when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
761function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
762call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
763then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
764values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
765only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
766function documentation for more info.
767
768The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
769especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
770with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
771intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
772such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
773is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
774configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
775global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
776
777(Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
778
779**** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
780This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
781
782This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
783variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
784completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
785the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
786empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
787style system.
788
789**** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
790In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
791c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
792as far as possible.
793
794*** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
795CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
796surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
797chapter about this in the manual.
798
799**** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
800The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
801recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
802primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
803adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
804
805**** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
806This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
807c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
808
809**** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
810This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
811
812It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
813Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
814A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
815inside CC Mode.
816
817Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
818causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
819the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
820available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
821cc-mode/).
822
823**** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
824The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
825specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
826literals.
827
828**** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
829It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
830prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
831you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
832this function.
833
834*** Fixes to IDL mode.
835It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
836to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
837struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
838Thanks to Eric Eide.
839
840*** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
841It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
842opening braces hangs and when they don't.
843
844**** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
845
846*** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
847See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
848better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
849and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
850
851*** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
852previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
853the column specified by comment-column.
854
855*** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
856In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
857is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
858prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
859contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
860don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
861
862*** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
863instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
864arguments.
865
866*** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
867
868*** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
869c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
870c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
871variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
872Provan).
873
874*** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
875
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876** Makefile mode changes
877
878*** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
879
880*** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
881Fontlock mode is active.
882
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GM
883** Isearch changes
884
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GM
885** In Isearch mode, M-C-s and M-C-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
886respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
887that started the search.
888
87be76f6 889*** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
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890selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
891
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GM
892*** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
893
d35fce81 894Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
87be76f6
GM
895`isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
896search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
897before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
898highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
899`secondary-selection'.
900
901The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
902will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
903Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
904using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
905usual snappy response.
906
907If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
908matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
909set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
910isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
911
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912** Changes in sort.el
913
914The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
12c25bdc 915as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
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GM
916new user-option sort-numberic-base can be used to specify a default
917numeric base.
87be76f6 918
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919** Changes to Ange-ftp
920
921*** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
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922names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
923sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
924
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GM
925*** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
926ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
927
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928** Shell script mode changes.
929
930Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
931derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizeable, and
932sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
933
79214ddf
FP
934** Etags changes.
935
936*** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
937
aca0be23 938*** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
8dc78b52
FP
939possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
940{lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
941This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
942a regular expression. The manual contains details.
aca0be23 943
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FP
944*** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
945declarations when given the --declarations option.
946
947*** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
aca0be23 948"operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
79214ddf
FP
949
950*** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
951types.
952
de370c4c 953*** In Fortran, `procedure' is not tagged.
79214ddf
FP
954
955*** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
956
957*** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
958are now tagged.
959
960*** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
961variables are tagged.
962
963*** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
964
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FP
965*** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
966for PSWrap.
79214ddf 967
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968** Changes in etags.el
969
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970*** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
971tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
972is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
973
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974*** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
975the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
976
977If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
978FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
979TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
980obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
981
982TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
983
984FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
985List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
986
987A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
988
989 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
990 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
991 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
992
993*** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
994of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
995
996*** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
997names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
998
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999** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
1000and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
1001LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
1002
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1003** New language environments `Polish', `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
1004Latin-8 and Latin-9 correspond respectively to the ISO character sets
10058859-14 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign).
1006There is currently no specific input method support for them.
59c1bf85 1007
163ea954 1008** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sequence-nos' to
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1009remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
1010appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
1011
1012** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
1013
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1014** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
1015
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1016** The Dabbrev package has a new user-option `dabbrev-ignore-regexps'
1017containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
1018expression from that list, are not checked.
1019
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1020** New modes and packages
1021
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1022*** The comment operations are now provided by the newcomment.el
1023package which allows different styles of comment-region and should
1024be more robust while offering the same functionality.
1025
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1026*** The Ebrowse package implements a C++ class browser and tags
1027facilities tailored for use with C++. It is documented in a
1028separate Texinfo file.
1029
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1030*** The PCL-CVS package available by either running M-x cvs-examine
1031or by visiting a CVS administrative directory (with a prefix argument)
1032provides an alternative interface to VC-dired for CVS.
1033It comes with log-view-mode to view RCS and SCCS logs and log-edit-mode
1034used to enter checkin log messages.
1035
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EZ
1036*** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
1037without invoking external programs.
1038
1039The command `M-x woman' formats manual pages entirely in Emacs Lisp
1040and then displays them, like `M-x manual-entry' does. Unlike
1041`manual-entry', `woman' does not invoke any external programs, so it
1042is useful on systems such as MS-DOS/MS-Windows where the `man' and
490f2e7b 1043Groff or `troff' commands are not readily available.
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1044
1045The command `M-x woman-find-file' asks for the file name of a man
1046page, then formats and displays it like `M-x woman' does.
1047
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1048*** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
1049authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
1050
1051The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
1052the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
1053the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
1054Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
1055even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
1056single step.
1057
1058On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
1059matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
1060probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
1061contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
1062
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1063*** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
1064unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
1065actually modifying content of a buffer.
1066
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1067*** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
1068PostScript.
1069
1070Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
1071
1072The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
1073
1074 ; comment (until end of line)
1075 A non-terminal
1076 "C" terminal
1077 ?C? special
1078 $A default non-terminal
1079 $"C" default terminal
1080 $?C? default special
1081 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
1082 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
1083 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
1084 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
1085 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
1086 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
1087 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
1088 C+ one or more occurrences of C
1089 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
1090 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
1091 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
1092 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
1093 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
1094 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
1095 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
1096
1097Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
1098
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GM
1099*** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
1100align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
1101determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
1102example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
1103equal signs of assignments.
1104
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1105*** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
1106paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
1107
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1108*** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
1109list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
1110buffer menu with this package. You can use M-x bs-customize to
1111customize the package.
1112
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1113*** find-lisp.el is a package emulating the Unix find command in Lisp.
1114
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1115*** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
1116replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
1117is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
1118and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
1119not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
1120which answers different needs.
1121
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1122*** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
1123suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
1124expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
1125course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
1126reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
1127to be enabled.
1128
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SM
1129*** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
1130containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
1131
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1132*** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
1133
1134*** hl-line.el provides a minor mode to highlight the current line.
1135
1136*** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
1137
1138*** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
1139Pascal) language.
1140
1141*** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
1142the text at point.
1143
1144*** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
1145
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1146*** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
1147
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1148*** whitespace.el ???
1149
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GM
1150*** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
1151files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
1152(very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
1153interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
1154often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
1155uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
1156codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
1157
1158*** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
1159
1160Here is an example of columns:
1161
1162horse apple bus
1163dog pineapple car EXTRA
1164porcupine strawberry airplane
1165
1166Doing the following settings:
1167
1168 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
1169 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
1170 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
1171 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
1172
1173
1174Selecting the lines above and typing:
1175
1176 M-x delimit-columns-region
1177
1178It results:
1179
1180[ horse , apple , bus , ]
1181[ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
1182[ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
1183
1184delim-col has the following options:
1185
1186 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
1187 before all columns.
1188
1189 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
1190 between each column.
1191
1192 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
1193 after all columns.
1194
1195 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
1196 each column.
1197
1198delim-col has the following commands:
1199
1200 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
1201 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
1202
f507826c
GM
1203*** The package recentf.el maintains a menu for visiting files that
1204were operated on recently. When enabled, a new "Open Recent" submenu
1205is displayed in the "Files" menu.
1206
1207The recent files list is automatically saved across Emacs sessions.
1208
1209To enable/disable recentf use M-x recentf-mode.
1210
1211To enable recentf at Emacs startup use
1212M-x customize-variable RET recentf-mode RET.
1213
1214To change the number of recent files displayed and others options use
1215M-x customize-group RET recentf RET.
1216
8062f458
DL
1217*** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
1218text.
1219
36e24b82 1220*** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
91735437
DL
1221of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
1222specific to Message mode.
1223
36e24b82
DL
1224*** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
1225viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
1226with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
1227
aaa659ef
DL
1228*** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
1229interface to access directory servers using different directory
1230protocols. It has a separate manual.
1231
eee54b0e
DL
1232*** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
1233for Autoconf, selected automatically.
1234
612839b6
GM
1235*** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
1236
1237*** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
1238minibuffer with completion.
aaa659ef 1239
399da7e3
DL
1240*** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
1241with the diary features.
1242
6e417ca5
DL
1243*** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
1244numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
1245
4a27bdfb
GM
1246*** The function `turn-off-auto-fill' unconditionally turns off Auto
1247Fill mode.
1248
a933dad1
DL
1249** Withdrawn packages
1250
1251*** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
1252functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
25a81338 1253
3261c1d8
DL
1254*** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
1255
1256*** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
ce75fd23
GM
1257
1258\f
1259* Lisp changes made after edition 2.6 of the Emacs Lisp Manual,
1260(Display-related features are described in a page of their own below.)
1261
d5aa31d8
GM
1262** The value of the `help-echo' text property is evaluated, if it
1263is not a string already, to obtain a help string.
1264
7fce7efb
DL
1265** Function `make-obsolete' now has an optional arg to say when the
1266function was declared obsolete.
1267
1268** Function plist-member is renamed from widget-plist-member (which is
1269retained as an alias).
1270
f98d3086
SM
1271** Easy-menu's :filter now works as in XEmacs.
1272It takes the unconverted (i.e. XEmacs) form of the menu and the result
1273is automatically converted to Emacs' form.
1274
87efd256
GM
1275** The new function `window-list' has been defined
1276
1277- Function: window-list &optional WINDOW MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES
1278
1279Return a list of windows in canonical order. The parameters WINDOW,
1280MINIBUF and ALL-FRAMES are defined like for `next-window'.
1281
67c9a1d2
GM
1282** There's a new function `some-window' defined as follows
1283
1284- Function: some-window PREDICATE &optional MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES DEFAULT
1285
1286Return a window satisfying PREDICATE.
1287
1288This function cycles through all visible windows using `walk-windows',
1289calling PREDICATE on each one. PREDICATE is called with a window as
1290argument. The first window for which PREDICATE returns a non-nil
1291value is returned. If no window satisfies PREDICATE, DEFAULT is
1292returned.
1293
1294Optional second arg MINIBUF t means count the minibuffer window even
1295if not active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means count the minibuffer iff
1296it is active. MINIBUF neither t nor nil means not to count the
1297minibuffer even if it is active.
1298
1299Several frames may share a single minibuffer; if the minibuffer
1300counts, all windows on all frames that share that minibuffer count
1301too. Therefore, if you are using a separate minibuffer frame
1302and the minibuffer is active and MINIBUF says it counts,
1303`walk-windows' includes the windows in the frame from which you
1304entered the minibuffer, as well as the minibuffer window.
1305
1306ALL-FRAMES is the optional third argument.
1307ALL-FRAMES nil or omitted means cycle within the frames as specified above.
1308ALL-FRAMES = `visible' means include windows on all visible frames.
1309ALL-FRAMES = 0 means include windows on all visible and iconified frames.
1310ALL-FRAMES = t means include windows on all frames including invisible frames.
1311If ALL-FRAMES is a frame, it means include windows on that frame.
1312Anything else means restrict to the selected frame.
1313
dce6b995 1314** The function `single-key-description' now encloses function key
f98d3086 1315and event names in angle brackets.
dce6b995 1316
25fa6deb
GM
1317** If the variable `message-truncate-lines' is bound to t around a
1318call to `message', the echo area will not be resized to display that
1319message; it will be truncated instead.
1320
3b4fa1b2 1321** The user option line-number-display-limit can now be set to nil,
1681ead6
GM
1322meaning no limit.
1323
c08398de
DL
1324** select-safe-coding-system now also checks the most preferred
1325coding-system if buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and
1326DEFAULT-CODING-SYSTEM is not specified,
1327
80c05bd3 1328** The function `subr-arity' provides information on the argument list
de370c4c
DL
1329of a primitive.
1330
80c05bd3
DL
1331** The text property `keymap' specifies a key map which overrides the
1332buffer's local map and the map specified by the `local-map' property.
1333This is probably what most current uses of `local-map' want, rather
1334than replacing the local map.
1335
4bc7a543
DL
1336** The obsolete variables before-change-function and
1337after-change-function are no longer acted upon and have been removed.
45f485a6
GM
1338
1339** The function `apropos-mode' runs the hook `apropos-mode-hook'.
1340
a933dad1
DL
1341\f
1342* Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
1343
1344Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
1345--- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
1346When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
1347so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
1348
0b8a3a6d
DL
1349*** The functions `find-charset-region' and `find-charset-string' include
1350`eight-bit-control' and/or `eight-bit-graphic' in the returned list
1351when it finds 8-bit characters. Previously, it included `ascii' in a
1352multibyte buffer and `unknown' in a unibyte buffer.
1353
1354*** The functions `set-buffer-modified', `string-as-multibyte' and
1355`string-as-unibyte' change the byte sequence of a buffer if it
1356contains a character from the `eight-bit-control' character set.
1357
1358*** The handling of multibyte sequences in a multibyte buffer is
1359changed. Previously, a byte sequence matching the pattern
1360[\200-\237][\240-\377]+ was interpreted as a single character
1361regardless of the length of the trailing bytes [\240-\377]+. Thus, if
1362the sequence was longer than what the leading byte indicated, the
1363extra trailing bytes were ignored by Lisp functions. Now such extra
1364bytes are independent 8-bit characters belonging to the charset
1365eight-bit-graphic.
1366
1367** Fontsets are now implemented using char-tables.
1368
1369A fontset can now be specified for for each independent character, for
1370a group of characters or for a character set rather than just for a
1371character set as previously.
1372
1373*** The arguments of the function `set-fontset-font' are changed.
1374They are NAME, CHARACTER, FONTNAME, and optional FRAME. The function
1375modifies fontset NAME to use FONTNAME for CHARACTER.
1376
1377CHARACTER may be a cons (FROM . TO), where FROM and TO are non-generic
1378characters. In that case FONTNAME is used for all characters in the
1379range FROM and TO (inclusive). CHARACTER may be a charset. In that
1380case FONTNAME is used for all character in the charset.
1381
1382FONTNAME may be a cons (FAMILY . REGISTRY), where FAMILY is the family
1383name of a font and REGSITRY is a registry name of a font.
1384
1385*** Variable x-charset-registry has been deleted. The default charset
1386registries of character sets are set in the default fontset
1387"fontset-default".
1388
1389*** The function `create-fontset-from-fontset-spec' ignores the second
1390argument STYLE-VARIANT. It never creates style-variant fontsets.
1391
1392** The method of composing characters is changed. Now character
1393composition is done by a special text property `composition' in
1394buffers and strings.
1395
1396*** Charset composition is deleted. Emacs never creates a `composite
1397character' which is an independent character with a unique character
1398code. Thus the following functions handling `composite characters'
1399have been deleted: composite-char-component,
1400composite-char-component-count, composite-char-composition-rule,
1401composite-char-composition-rule and decompose-composite-char delete.
1402The variables leading-code-composition and min-composite-char have
1403also been deleted.
1404
1405*** Three more glyph reference points are added. They can be used to
1406specify a composition rule. See the documentation of the variable
1407`reference-point-alist' for more detail.
1408
1409*** The function `compose-region' takes new arguments COMPONENTS and
1410MODIFICATION-FUNC. With COMPONENTS, you can specify not only a
1411composition rule but also characters to be composed. Such characters
1412may differ between buffer and string text.
1413
1414*** The function `compose-string' takes new arguments START, END,
1415COMPONENTS, and MODIFICATION-FUNC.
1416
1417*** The function `compose-string' puts text property `composition'
1418directly on the argument STRING instead of returning a new string.
1419Likewise, the function `decompose-string' just removes text property
1420`composition' from STRING.
1421
1422*** The new function `find-composition' returns information about
1423a composition at a specified position in a buffer or a string.
1424
1425*** The function `decompose-composite-char' is now labeled as
1426obsolete.
1427
1428** The new character set `mule-unicode-0100-24ff' is introduced for
1429Unicode characters of the range U+0100..U+24FF. Currently, this
1430character set is not used.
1431
1432** The new character sets `japanese-jisx0213-1' and
1433`japanese-jisx0213-2' are introduced for the new Japanese standard JIS
1434X 0213 Plane 1 and Plane 2.
1435
1436+++
1437** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
1438are introduced for 8-bit characters in the ranges 0x80..0x9F and
f98d3086 14390xA0..0xFF respectively.
0b8a3a6d 1440
399da7e3 1441+++
f0124b4a
DL
1442** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
1443that offset in the file before writing.
1444
3bbc50af
DL
1445** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments, as
1446promised long ago.
1447
f98d3086
SM
1448** The function `add-minor-mode' has been added for convenience and
1449compatibility with XEmacs (and is used internally by define-minor-mode).
7464346d 1450
612839b6
GM
1451** The function `shell-command' now sets the default directory of the
1452`*Shell Command Output*' buffer to the default directory of the buffer
1453from which the command was issued.
1454
1455** The functions `query-replace', `query-replace-regexp',
1456`query-replace-regexp-eval' `map-query-replace-regexp',
1457`replace-string', `replace-regexp', and `perform-replace' take two
1458additional optional arguments START and END that specify the region to
1459operate on.
1460
271b4185
GM
1461** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
1462to `window-buffer-height'.
1463
1464- Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
1465
1466Return the number of screen lines in the region between BEG and END.
1467The number of screen lines may be different from the number of actual
1468lines, due to line breaking, display table, etc.
1469
1470Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
1471respectively.
1472
1473If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optinal third argument
1474COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
1475
1476The optional fourth argument WINDOW specifies the window used for
1477obtaining parameters such as width, horizontal scrolling, and so
1478on. The default is to use the selected window's parameters.
1479
1480Like `vertical-motion', `count-screen-lines' always uses the current
1481buffer, regardless of which buffer is displayed in WINDOW. This makes
1482possible to use `count-screen-lines' in any buffer, whether or not it
1483is currently displayed in some window.
1484
3c30cb6e
DL
1485** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
1486argument function's results.
1487
62f20204
GM
1488** The functions base64-decode-region and base64-decode-string now
1489signal an error instead of returning nil if decoding fails.
1490
c0510d27
GM
1491** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
1492header is the list of headers passed to it.
1493
1494** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
1495ignores differences in case and text representation.
1496
1497** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
19d1bc27
GM
1498cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
1499as follows:
1500
1501 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
1502 nil don't display a cursor
1503 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
1504 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
1505 others display a box cursor.
1506
9a0dd3dc
GM
1507** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
1508an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
1509defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
1510set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
1511
d7b511c4 1512** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
dc1178bf 1513specifications in string form as accepted by `modify-syntax-entry' to
d7b511c4
GM
1514the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
1515text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
1516
1517Example:
1518
1519 (string-to-syntax "()")
1520 => (4 . 41)
1521
1fa28578
GM
1522** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
1523other than 10.
1524
1525*** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
1526INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
1527
1528 #b1111
1529 => 15
1530 #b-1111
1531 => -15
1532
1533*** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
1534
1535 #o666
1536 => 438
1537
1538*** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
1539
1540 #xbeef
1541 => 48815
1542
1543*** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
1544
1545 #2R-111
1546 => -7
1547 #25rah
1548 => 267
1549
3d4ff2dd 1550** The function `documentation-property' now evaluates the value of
f98d3086 1551the given property to obtain a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
e9b4e5ff
GM
1552and isn't a string.
1553
3d4ff2dd
GM
1554** If called for a symbol, the function `documentation' now looks for
1555a `function-documentation' property of that symbol. If it has a non-nil
1556value, the documentation is taken from that value. If the value is
1557not a string, it is evaluated to obtain a string.
1558
16ce590d
DL
1559+++
1560** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
1561
73825616 1562** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
16ce590d
DL
1563for a regexp in a string.
1564
1565** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
1566`mouse-position-function'.
1567
723e779c
GM
1568** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
1569that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
1570
d1e103b2
GM
1571** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
1572Keywords are now always considered constants.
1573
31047e0d
DL
1574+++
1575** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
1576returns it.
1577
7a85e4df
GM
1578** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
1579returned by function `recent-keys'.
1580
02b14400
RS
1581+++
1582** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
1583can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
1584Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding M-C-a
1585etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
1586mode.
404fa7d6 1587
02b14400 1588+++
8964fec7
SM
1589** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
1590and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
1591
02b14400
RS
1592+++
1593** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
1594has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
1595function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
1596returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
1597been performed."
1598
1599When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
1600and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
1601hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
1602then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
ef961722 1603
02b14400 1604+++
81da8b32
GM
1605** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
1606In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
1607and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
1608
02b14400 1609+++
9e207b90
GM
1610** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
1611with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
1612specified table.
1613
1614 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
1615
1616Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
03d9c64c
GM
1617TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
1618saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
1619what BODY returns.
9e207b90 1620
02b14400 1621+++
d7f89643 1622** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
95cd4c40 1623Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
8964fec7 1624
02b14400 1625+++
dde9e75a
GM
1626** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
1627removed since it wasn't used by anything.
1628
02b14400 1629+++
9da30515
GM
1630** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
1631instead of being optional.
1632
02b14400 1633+++
d20679eb
GM
1634** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
1635modify read-only text.
1636
02b14400 1637+++
fbc164de
PE
1638** New functions and variables for locales.
1639
1640The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
1641decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
b718982a
PE
1642time functions like strftime. The new variables
1643`system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
1644locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
fbc164de
PE
1645
1646The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
1647environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
1648the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
b718982a
PE
1649environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
1650not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
1651`locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
1652`locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
fbc164de 1653
02b14400 1654+++
863476d1
SM
1655** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
1656To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
1657modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
1658start sequences.
1659
02b14400 1660+++
ef6d912c
GM
1661** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
1662because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
1663
02b14400 1664+++
a933dad1
DL
1665** New function `propertize'
1666
1667The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
1668strings with text properties.
1669
1670- Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
1671
1672Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
1673by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
1674PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
1675specified value of that property. Example:
1676
1677 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
1678
1679+++
1680** push and pop macros.
1681
02b14400
RS
1682Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
1683are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
a933dad1
DL
1684as the place that holds the list to be changed.
1685
1686(push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
1687(pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
1688 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
1689
02b14400
RS
1690** New dolist and dotimes macros.
1691
6c7fd5aa
RS
1692Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
1693are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
02b14400
RS
1694
1695(dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
1696 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
1697 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
1698 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
1699
1700(dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
1701 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
1702 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
1703 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
1704
a933dad1
DL
1705+++
1706** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such
1707as [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on.
1708
1709[:digit:] matches 0 through 9
1710[:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
1711[:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
1712[:blank:] matches space and tab only
1713[:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
1714 space, and DEL.
1715[:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
1716 and DEL.
1717[:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
1718 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1719 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
1720[:alpha:] matches letters.
1721 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1722 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
1723[:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
1724[:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
1725[:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
1726[:punct:] matches punctuation.
1727 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1728 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
1729[:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
1730[:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
1731[:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
1732
1733+++
1734** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
1735
1736The following functions are defined for hash tables:
1737
1738- Function: make-hash-table ARGS
1739
1740The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
1741are optional. The following arguments are defined:
1742
1743:test TEST
1744
1745TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
1746Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
1747it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
1748
1749:size SIZE
1750
1751SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
1752many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
1753
1754:rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
1755
1756REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
1757full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
1758size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
17591.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
1760old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
1761
1762:rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
1763
1764THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
1765hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
1766(size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
1767
1768:weakness WEAK
1769
1770WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value', or t.
1771Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage collection if
1772their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere outside of the
1773hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
1774
1775- Function: makehash &optional TEST
1776
1777Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
1778
1779- Function: hash-table-p TABLE
1780
1781Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
1782
1783- Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
1784
1785Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
1786values are shared.
1787
1788- Function: hash-table-count TABLE
1789
1790Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
1791
1792- Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
1793
1794Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
1795
1796- Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
1797
1798Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
1799
1800- Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
1801
1802Returns the size of TABLE.
1803
1804- Function: hash-table-rehash-test TABLE
1805
1806Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
1807
1808- Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
1809
1810Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
1811
1812- Function: clrhash TABLE
1813
1814Clear TABLE.
1815
1816- Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
1817
1818Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
1819not found.
1820
79214ddf 1821- Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
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1822
1823Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
1824another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
1825
1826- Function: remhash KEY TABLE
1827
1828Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
1829
1830- Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
1831
1832Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
1833arguments KEY and VALUE.
1834
1835- Function: sxhash OBJ
1836
1837Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
1838
1839- Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
1840
1841Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
1842a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
79214ddf 1843comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
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1844and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
1845of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
1846
1847TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
1848
1849HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
1850code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
1851integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
1852
1853Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
1854be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
1855
1856 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
1857 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
1858
1859 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
1860 (sxhash (upcase a)))
1861
79214ddf 1862 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
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1863 'case-fold-string-hash))
1864
1865 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
1866
1867+++
1868** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
1869
1870It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
1871circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
1872a cons cell which is its own cdr.
1873
1874+++
1875** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
1876
1877If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
1878#N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
1879
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1880+++
1881** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
1882t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
1883specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
1884is too short to reach that column.
1885
1886+++
1887** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
1888now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
1889after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
1890two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
1891
1892If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
1893perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
1894and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
1895
1896+++
1897** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
1898to specify which buffer to return the size of.
1899
1900+++
1901** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
1902calendar-move-hook after moving point.
1903
1904+++
1905** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
1906directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
1907small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
1908small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
1909temporary-file-directory instead.
1910
1911+++
1912** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
1913the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
1914`before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
1915hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
1916
1917+++
1918** assoc-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
1919elements of an alist which have a particular value as the car.
1920
1921+++
1922** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
1923
1924make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
1925creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
1926ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
1927
1928+++
1929** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
1930
1931The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
1932on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
1933is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
1934never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
1935ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
1936overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
1937
1938If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
1939that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
1940to get an error if the file exists at that time.
1941The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
1942
1943+++
1944** Function `format' now handles text properties.
1945
1946Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
1947If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
1948ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
1949result string.
1950
1951Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
1952string where arguments appear in the result string.
1953
1954Example:
1955
1956 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
1957 (s2 "world"))
1958 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
1959 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
b246b1f6 1960 (format s1 s2))
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1961
1962results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
1963
1964+++
1965** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
1966
1967Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
1968The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
1969argument in it.
1970
1971 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
1972 (arg "world"))
1973 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
1974 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
1975 (message msg arg))
1976
1977+++
1978** Sound support
1979
1980Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
1981(Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
1982
1983Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
1984(*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
1985to enable sound support.
1986
1987Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
1988list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
1989when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
1990functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
1991sound to play, before playing the sound.
1992
1993The following sound properties are supported:
1994
1995- `:file FILE'
1996
1997FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
1998searched relative to `data-directory'.
1999
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2000- `:data DATA'
2001
2002DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
2003may be present, but not both.
2004
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2005- `:volume VOLUME'
2006
2007VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
20080..1. This property is optional.
2009
2010Other properties are ignored.
2011
2012** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
356673d4
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2013
2014** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
2015a keyword symbol.
fc91dc2d
GM
2016
2017** Changes to garbage collection
2018
2019*** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
2020of live and free strings.
2021
2022*** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
2023strings that have been consed so far.
2024
a933dad1 2025\f
04545643
GM
2026* Lisp-level Display features added after release 2.6 of the Emacs
2027Lisp Manual
2028
2c69ced2
GM
2029
2030** The function `image-size' can be used to determine the size of an
2031image.
2032
2033- Function: image-size SPEC &optional PIXELS FRAME
2034
2035Return the size of an image as a pair (WIDTH . HEIGHT).
2036
2037SPEC is an image specification. PIXELS non-nil means return sizes
2038measured in pixels, otherwise return sizes measured in canonical
2039character units (fractions of the width/height of the frame's default
2040font). FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed.
2041FRAME nil or omitted means use the selected frame.
2042
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2043** The function `find-image' can be used to find a usable image
2044satisfying one of a list of specifications.
2045
2046+++
2047** The STRING argument of `put-image' and `insert-image' is now
2048optional.
2049
04545643
GM
2050** Image specifications may contain the property `:ascent center'.
2051
2052When this property is specified, the image is vertically centered
2053around a centerline which would be the vertical center of text drawn
2054at the position of the image, in the manner specified by the text
2055properties and overlays that apply to the image.
2056
2057\f
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2058* New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
2059
2060Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
2061--- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
2062When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
2063so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
2064
f6d3257b
GM
2065** The function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors can be used
2066to make Emacs avoid displaying text with bold black foreground on TTYs.
2067
2068Some terminals, notably PC consoles, emulate bold text by displaying
2069text in brighter colors. On such a console, a bold black foreground
2070is displayed in a gray color. If this turns out to be hard to read on
2071your monitor---the problem occurred with the mode line on
2072laptops---you can instruct Emacs to ignore the text's boldness, and to
2073just display it black instead.
2074
2075This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
2076a line like
2077
2078 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
2079
2080in your `.emacs'.
2081
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2082** New face implementation.
2083
2084Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
2085font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
2086
2087+++
2088*** New faces.
2089
2090Each face can specify the following display attributes:
2091
2092 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
79214ddf 2093
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2094 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
2095 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
79214ddf 2096
a933dad1 2097 3. Font height in 1/10pt
79214ddf 2098
a933dad1 2099 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
79214ddf 2100
a933dad1 2101 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
79214ddf 2102
a933dad1 2103 6. Foreground color.
79214ddf 2104
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2105 7. Background color.
2106
2107 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
2108
2109 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
2110
2111 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
2112
2113 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
2114
2115 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
2116 color.
2117
2118 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
2119 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
2120
2121Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
2122same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
2123frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
2124faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
2125with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each each of the face
2126attributes mentioned above.
2127
2128There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
2129definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
2130created frames.
79214ddf 2131
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2132A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
2133have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
2134`fully-specified'.
2135
2136+++
2137*** Face merging.
2138
2139The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
2140combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
2141aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
2142properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
2143that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
2144results in a fully-specified face.
2145
2146+++
2147*** Face realization.
2148
2149After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
2150merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
2151realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
2152available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
2153face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
2154cache of the frame on which it was realized.
2155
2156Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
2157character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
2158for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
2159charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
2160
2161Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
2162specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
2163being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
2164the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
2165statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
2166
2167In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
2168`char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
21690x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
2170the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
2171initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
2172Emacs.
2173
2174Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
2175`enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
2176registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
2177with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
2178
2179++++
2180**** Clearing face caches.
2181
2182The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
2183on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
2184unused fonts.
2185
2186+++
2187*** Font selection.
79214ddf 2188
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2189Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
2190given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
2191for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
2192
2193If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
2194pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
2195family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
2196property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
2197an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
2198
2199Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
2200against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
2201match for the given face attributes in this font list.
2202
2203Font selection can be influenced by the user.
2204
2205The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
2206attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
2207face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
2208names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
2209that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
2210width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
2211to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
2212
2213Setting `face-alternative-font-family-alist' allows the user to
2214specify alternative font families to try if a family specified by a
2215face doesn't exist.
2216
2217+++
2218**** Scalable fonts
2219
2220Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
2221since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
2222servers.
2223
2224To enable scalable font use, set the variable
b246b1f6 2225`scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
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2226scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
2227Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
2228scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
2229that list. Example:
2230
2231 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
2232
2233allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
2234
2235+++
2236*** Functions and variables related to font selection.
2237
2238- Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
2239
2240Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
2241is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
2242string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
2243
2244If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
2245the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
2246FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
2247POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
2248SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
2249These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
2250if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
2251REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
2252the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
2253of the face font sort order.
2254
79214ddf 2255- Function: x-font-family-list
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2256
2257Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
2258omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
2259(FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
2260non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
2261
2262- Variable: font-list-limit
2263
2264Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
2265won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
2266matching font. The default is currently 100.
2267
2268+++
2269*** Setting face attributes.
2270
2271For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
2272with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
2273implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
2274`face-attribute'.
2275
2276Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
2277symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
2278
2279The following attributes are recognized:
2280
2281`:family'
2282
2283VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
2284or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
2285and `?' are allowed.
2286
2287`:width'
2288
2289VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
2290It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
2291`condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
2292`extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
2293
2294`:height'
2295
2296VALUE must be an integer specifying the height of the font to use in
22971/10 pt.
2298
2299`:weight'
2300
2301VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
2302symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
2303`semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
2304
2305`:slant'
2306
2307VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
2308symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
2309`reverse-oblique'.
2310
2311`:foreground', `:background'
2312
2313VALUE must be a color name, a string.
2314
2315`:underline'
2316
2317VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
2318VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
2319a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
2320don't underline.
2321
2322`:overline'
2323
2324VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
2325VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
2326string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
2327overline.
2328
2329`:strike-through'
2330
2331VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
2332striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
2333face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
2334is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
2335
2336`:box'
2337
2338VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
2339around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
2340VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
2341of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
2342and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
2343VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
2344:color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
2345the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
2346specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
2347defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
2348the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
2349color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
2350should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
2351like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
2352that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
2353the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
2354box.
2355
2356`:inverse-video'
2357
2358VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
2359inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
2360
2361`:stipple'
2362
2363If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
2364The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
2365searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
2366HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
2367is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
2368explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
2369
2370For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
2371and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
2372
2373`:font'
2374
2375Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
2376XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
2377is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
2378versions of Emacs.
2379
2380For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
2381be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
2382must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
2383
2384Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
2385`defface'.
2386
2387*** Face attributes and X resources
2388
2389The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
2390from X resources:
2391
2392 Face attribute X resource class
2393-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2394 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
2395 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
2396 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
2397 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
2398 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
2399 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
2400 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
2401 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
2402 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
2403 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
2404 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
2405 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
2406 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
79214ddf 2407 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
a933dad1
DL
2408 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
2409 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
2410 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
2411 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
2412 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
2413
2414+++
2415*** Text property `face'.
2416
2417The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
2418specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
2419specification can be
2420
24211. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
2422
24232. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
2424 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
2425 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
2426 for face attribute names.
2427
24283. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
2429 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
2430 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
2431
2432+++
2433** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
2434
acf3ecb7
EZ
2435The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
2436on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
2437the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
a933dad1 2438default. You can get defined colors with a call to
acf3ecb7 2439`defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
a933dad1
DL
2440used to clear the mapping table.
2441
acf3ecb7
EZ
2442** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
2443
2444The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
2445and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
2446type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
2447color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
2448display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
2449old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
2450`x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
2451compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
2452should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
2453modify their color-related behavior.
2454
2455The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
2456any frame type.
2457
8a5719f0
EZ
2458** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
2459
2460The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
2461`display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
2462`display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
2463`display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
2464`display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
2465`display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
2466display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
2467the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
2468platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
2469
a933dad1
DL
2470+++
2471** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
a933dad1 2472
463cac2d 2473This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
a933dad1
DL
2474
2475The function minubuffer-prompt-end returns the current position of the
2476end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
2477Otherwise, it returns zero.
2478
463cac2d
GM
2479** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
2480
2481There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
2482buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
2483text-property.
2484
9a9dfda8 2485Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
463cac2d 2486forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
9a9dfda8 2487to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
463cac2d 2488not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
fc7ac24f
GM
2489commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
2490boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
2491`inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
2492functions.
463cac2d
GM
2493
2494Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
9a9dfda8 2495a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
463cac2d 2496editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
a933dad1 2497
9a9dfda8
GM
2498The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
2499
2500- Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE
2501
2502Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
2503A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2504If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
2505constrained position if that is is different.
2506
2507If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
2508positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
2509ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
2510constrained to the field that has the same `field' text-property
2511as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2512is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
2513fields.
2514
2515If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
2516NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
2517unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
2518C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
2519only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
2520
2521- Function: erase-field &optional POS
2522
2523Erases the field surrounding POS.
2524A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2525If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
2526
2527- Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2528
2529Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
2530A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2531If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
2532If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is already at beginning of an
2533field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
2534
2535- Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2536
2537Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
2538A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2539If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
2540If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is already at end of a field,
2541then the end of the *following* field is returned.
2542
2543- Function: field-string &optional POS
2544
2545Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
2546A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2547If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
2548
2549- Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
2550
2551Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
2552A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2553If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
2554
a933dad1
DL
2555+++
2556** Image support.
2557
2558Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
2559strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
2560(AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
2561replaces the display of the characters having that property.
2562
2563If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
2564`(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
2565AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
2566window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
2567area.
2568
2569IMAGE is an image specification.
2570
2571*** Image specifications
2572
2573Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
2574is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
2575specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
35a5514b
GM
2576symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
2577described below are ignored.
a933dad1
DL
2578
2579The following is a list of properties all image types share.
2580
2581`:ascent ASCENT'
2582
576da55d
GM
2583ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, or the symbol `center'.
2584If it is a number, it specifies the percentage of the image's height
2585to use for its ascent.
2586
2587If not specified, ASCENT defaults to the value 50 which means that the
2588image will be centered with the base line of the row it appears in.
2589
04545643
GM
2590If ASCENT is `center' the image is vertically centered around a
2591centerline which is the vertical center of text drawn at the position
2592of the image, in the manner specified by the text properties and
2593overlays that apply to the image.
a933dad1
DL
2594
2595`:margin MARGIN'
2596
79214ddf 2597MARGIN must be a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put as
a933dad1
DL
2598margin around the image. Default is 0.
2599
2600`:relief RELIEF'
2601
2602RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
2603around an image.
2604
2605`:algorithm ALGO'
2606
2607Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it. ALGO must
2608be a symbol specifying the algorithm. Currently only `laplace' is
2609supported which applies a Laplace edge detection algorithm to an image
2610which is intended to display images "disabled."
2611
2612`:heuristic-mask BG'
2613
2614If BG is not nil, build a clipping mask for the image, so that the
2615background of a frame is visible behind the image. If BG is t,
2616determine the background color of the image by looking at the 4
2617corners of the image, assuming the most frequently occuring color from
2618the corners is the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must
2619be a list `(RED GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the
2620background of the image.
2621
2622`:file FILE'
2623
2624Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
2625search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
2626building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
2627may be present in the image specification.
2628
518df5c4
GM
2629`:data DATA'
2630
2631Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
2632supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
2633present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
2634support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
2635
a933dad1
DL
2636*** Supported image types
2637
b246b1f6 2638**** XBM, image type `xbm'.
a933dad1
DL
2639
2640XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
2641properties supported are
2642
2643`:foreground FG'
2644
2645FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default
2646is the frame's foreground.
2647
2648`:background FG'
2649
2650BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default is
2651the frame's background color.
2652
2653XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
2654case, the image specification must contain the following properties
2655instead of a `:file' property.
2656
2657`:width WIDTH'
2658
2659WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
2660
2661`:height HEIGHT'
2662
2663HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
2664
2665`:data DATA'
2666
2667DATA must be either
2668
2669 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
2670 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
2671
2672 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
2673
2674 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
2675 bitmap.
2676
c76e04a8
GM
2677 4. a string that's an in-memory XBM file. Neither width nor
2678 height may be specified in this case because these are defined
2679 in the file.
2680
a933dad1
DL
2681**** XPM, image type `xpm'
2682
2683XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
2684`xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
2685found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
2686`--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
2687
2688Additional image properties supported are:
2689
2690`:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
2691
2692SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
2693name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
2694name.
2695
2696XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
2697add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
2698
a933dad1
DL
2699The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
2700to display compressed images.
2701
2702**** PBM, image type `pbm'
2703
2704PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
2705mono images are supported. There are no additional image properties
2706defined.
2707
2708**** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
2709
2710Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
3bd37feb
GM
2711package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. Additional image properties
2712are:
2713
a933dad1
DL
2714**** TIFF, image type `tiff'
2715
2716Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
2717package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
2718properties defined.
2719
2720**** GIF, image type `gif'
2721
2722Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
2723`libungif-4.1.0', or later.
2724
2725Additional image properties supported are:
2726
2727`:index INDEX'
2728
2729INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
2730multi-image GIF file. An error is signalled if INDEX is too large.
2731
2732This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
2733For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
2734at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
2735every 0.1 seconds.
2736
2737(defun show-anim (file max)
2738 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
2739 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
2740
2741(defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
2742 (when (= idx max)
2743 (setq idx 0))
518df5c4 2744 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
a933dad1
DL
2745 (save-excursion
2746 (set-buffer buffer)
2747 (goto-char (point-min))
2748 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
2749 (insert-image img "x"))
2750 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
2751
2752**** PNG, image type `png'
2753
2754Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
2755package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
2756properties defined.
2757
2758**** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
2759
2760Additional image properties supported are:
2761
2762`:pt-width WIDTH'
2763
2764WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
b246b1f6 2765integer. This is a required property.
a933dad1
DL
2766
2767`:pt-height HEIGHT'
2768
2769HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
b246b1f6 2770must be a integer. This is an required property.
a933dad1
DL
2771
2772`:bounding-box BOX'
2773
2774BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
2775the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
2776files. This is an required property.
2777
2778Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
2779lisp/gs.el.
2780
2781*** Lisp interface.
2782
79214ddf
FP
2783The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
2784which are supported in the current configuration.
a933dad1
DL
2785
2786Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
2787they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
2788The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
084cec2f
GM
2789manually. Images in the cache are compared with `equal', i.e. all
2790images with `equal' specifications share the same image.
a933dad1
DL
2791
2792*** Simplified image API, image.el
2793
2794The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
2795creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
2796can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
2797define an image based on available image types. The functions
2798`put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
2799buffer.
2800
2801+++
2802** Display margins.
2803
2804Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
2805and images.
2806
2807To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
2808`left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
2809`set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
2810obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
2811`right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
2812the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
2813of the display margins.
2814
2815You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
2816containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
2817one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
2818string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
2819in this file).
2820
2821+++
2822** Help display
2823
2824Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
2825moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
2826`help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
2827that have a `help-echo' property.
2828
d5aa31d8
GM
2829If the value of the `help-echo' property is not a string. it is
2830evaluated to obtain a help string.
2831
2832For tool-bar items, their key definition is used to determine the help
2833to display. If their definition contains a property `:help FORM',
2834FORM is evaluated to determine the help string. Otherwise, the
2835caption of the tool-bar item is used.
a933dad1
DL
2836
2837The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
2838help differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window causes the
2839help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
2840
2841+++
2842** Vertical fractional scrolling.
2843
2844The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
2845This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
2846
2847The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
2848scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
2849The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
2850scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
2851used.
2852
79214ddf
FP
2853 (global-set-key [A-down]
2854 #'(lambda ()
a933dad1 2855 (interactive)
79214ddf 2856 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
a933dad1 2857 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
79214ddf 2858 (global-set-key [A-up]
a933dad1
DL
2859 #'(lambda ()
2860 (interactive)
79214ddf 2861 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
a933dad1
DL
2862 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
2863
2864+++
2865** New hook `fontification-functions'.
2866
2867Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
2868when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
2869variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
2870is called with one argument, POS.
2871
2872At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
2873characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
2874as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
2875property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
2876`fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
2877
2878+++
2879** Tool bar support.
2880
2881Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
2882parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
2883controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
2884suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
2885`auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
2886automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
2887
2888*** Tool bar item definitions
2889
2890Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
2891`tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
2892where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
79214ddf 2893
a933dad1
DL
2894CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
2895evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
2896the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
2897property (see below).
79214ddf 2898
a933dad1
DL
2899BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
2900binding are currently ignored.
2901
2902The following properties are recognized:
2903
2904`:enable FORM'.
79214ddf 2905
a933dad1
DL
2906FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
2907or disabled.
79214ddf 2908
a933dad1 2909`:visible FORM'
79214ddf 2910
a933dad1 2911FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
79214ddf 2912
a933dad1
DL
2913`:filter FUNCTION'
2914
2915FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
2916FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
2917used instead of BINDING to display this item.
79214ddf 2918
a933dad1
DL
2919`:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
2920
2921TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
2922and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
79214ddf 2923
a933dad1
DL
2924`:image IMAGES'
2925
2926IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
2927image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
2928meaning of each of the four elements:
2929
2930 Index Use when item is
2931 ----------------------------------------
2932 0 enabled and selected
2933 1 enabled and deselected
2934 2 disabled and selected
2935 3 disabled and deselected
79214ddf 2936
4ba7246d
GM
2937If IMAGE is a single image specification, a Laplace edge-detection
2938algorithm is used on that image to draw the image in disabled state.
2939
a933dad1 2940`:help HELP-STRING'.
79214ddf 2941
a933dad1
DL
2942Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
2943is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
2944
2945*** Tool-bar-related variables.
2946
2947If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
2948resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
2949than 1/4 of the frame's size.
2950
79214ddf 2951If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
a933dad1
DL
2952raised when the mouse moves over them.
2953
2954You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
2955`tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
2956pixels. Default is 1.
2957
2958You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
2959`tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
2960
2961*** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
2962
2963You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
79214ddf 2964a tool bar item. If
a933dad1
DL
2965
2966 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
2967 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
2968 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
2969
2970is the original tool bar item definition, then
2971
2972 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
2973
2974makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
2975item.
2976
2977** Mode line changes.
2978
2979+++
2980*** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
2981
2982The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
2983that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
2984a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
2985
29861. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
2987a `local-map' text property.
2988
29892. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
2990that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
2991
29923. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
2993is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
2994`local-map' property.
2995
2996The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
2997properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
2998example.
2999
54522c9f
GM
3000*** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
3001evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
3002
a933dad1
DL
3003+++
3004*** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
3005variable mode-line-format to nil.
3006
3007+++
3008*** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
3009
3010This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
3011`header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
3012completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
3013`default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
3014line.
3015
3016The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
3017`header-line'.
3018
3019The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
3020position in the header-line.
3021
3022+++
3023** Text property `display'
3024
3025The `display' text property is used to insert images into text, and
3026also control other aspects of how text displays. The value of the
3027`display' property should be a display specification, as described
3028below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
3029
3030*** Variable width and height spaces
3031
3032To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
3033specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
3034`(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
3035area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
3036marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
3037displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
3038simpler form STRETCH as property value.
3039
3040The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
3041PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
3042properties described below.
3043
3044The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
3045characters having the `display' property.
3046
3047- :width WIDTH
3048
3049Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
3050character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
3051
3052- :relative-width FACTOR
3053
3054Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
3055first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
3056same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
3057width of that character by FACTOR.
3058
3059- :align-to HPOS
3060
3061Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
3062value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
3063
3064Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
3065
3066- :height HEIGHT
3067
3068Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
3069normal line height.
3070
3071- :relative-height FACTOR
3072
3073The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
3074of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
3075
3076- :ascent ASCENT
3077
3078Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
3079used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
3080baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
3081equal to 100.
3082
3083You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
3084
3085*** Images
3086
3087A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
3088. IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
3089in the display, the characters having this display specification in
3090their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
3091the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
3092`(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
3093area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
3094the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
3095as display specification.
3096
3097*** Other display properties
3098
3099- :space-width FACTOR
3100
3101Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
3102should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
3103integer or float.
3104
3105- :height HEIGHT
3106
3107Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
3108
3109If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
3110means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
3111the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
3112``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
3113a font is available counts as a step.
3114
3115If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
3116as tall as the frame's default font.
3117
3118If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
3119height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
3120
3121Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
3122`height' bound to the current specified font height.
3123
3124- :raise FACTOR
3125
3126FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
3127font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
3128raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
3129amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
3130`:height' subproperty.
3131
3132*** Conditional display properties
3133
3134All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
3135has the form `(:when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC
3136applies only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated.
3137During evaluattion, point is temporarily set to the end position of
3138the text having the `display' property.
3139
3140The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
3141`(:when t SPEC)'.
3142
3143+++
3144** New menu separator types.
3145
3146Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
3147item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
3148treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
3149to specify other menu separator types.
3150
3151- `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
3152
3153No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
3154separator occurs.
3155
3156- `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
3157
3158A single line in the menu's foreground color.
3159
3160- `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
3161
3162A double line in the menu's foreground color.
3163
3164- `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
3165
3166A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
3167
3168- `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
3169
3170A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
3171
3172- `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
3173
3174A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the the form
3175displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
3176
3177- `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
3178
3179A single line with 3D raised appearance.
3180
3181- `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
3182
3183A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
3184
3185- `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
3186
3187A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
3188
3189- `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
3190
3191Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
3192
3193- `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
3194
3195Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
3196
3197- `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
3198
3199Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
3200
3201- `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
3202
3203Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
3204
3205Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
3206the corresponding single-line separators.
3207
3208+++
3209** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
3210
3211The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
3212`scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
3213Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
3214that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
3215default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
3216default background is the background color of the frame, and the
3217default foreground is black.
3218
3219The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
3220(class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
3221`ScrollBarBackground').
3222
3223Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
3224settings for scroll bar colors.
3225
3226+++
3227** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
3228display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
3229
3230---
3231** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
3232starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
3233on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
3234line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
3235the original window start.
3236
3237---
3238** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
3239`hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
3240now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
3241
3242+++
3243** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
3244
3245A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
3246`window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
3247windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
3248other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
3249
3250The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
3251fixed-width and fixed-height.
3252
3253 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
3254
3255A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
3256fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
3257window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
3258change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
3259temporarily to nil, for example
3260
3261 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
3262 (enlarge-window 10))
3263
79214ddf 3264Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
a933dad1 3265or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
e411ce4b
EZ
3266
3267** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
3268terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
3269to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
3270overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
3271horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
3272support a vertical-bar cursor).
76299050
DL
3273^L
3274* Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes
3275
3276** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard
3277input.
3278
3279** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos.
3280
3281** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages.
3282
3283** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not
3284only for character input, but also in incremental search. The
3285exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets
3286(e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence
3287(e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search.
3288
3289** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has
3290been added.
3291
3292^L
3293* Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change
3294
3295** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added.
3296
e33b0397
DL
3297^L
3298* Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
3299
3300** Not new, but not mentioned before:
3301M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
a933dad1
DL
3302\f
3303* Changes in Emacs 20.4
3304
3305** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
3306
3307You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
3308Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
3309`.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
3310
3311If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
3312is the one that is used.
3313
3314** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
3315the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
3316Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
3317separate from the command's regular output.
3318Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
3319says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
3320In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
3321the buffer name.
3322
3323When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
3324output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
3325it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
3326cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
3327
3328** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
3329the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
3330is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
3331created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
3332
3333** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
3334example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
3335match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
3336quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
3337
3338** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
3339now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
3340if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
3341they never ignore case.
3342
3343** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
3344under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
3345applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
3346of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
3347just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
3348convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
3349part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
3350
3351If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
3352the same format that was used in the file before.
3353
3354You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
3355`inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
3356
3357** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
3358renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
3359This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
3360
3361** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
3362The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
3363buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
3364your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
3365is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
3366end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
3367Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
3368
3369The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
3370eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
3371control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
3372format. You can now customize these variables.
3373
3374** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
3375filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
3376filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
3377enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
3378
3379** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
3380in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
3381windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
3382
3383** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
3384dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
3385doesn't have any effect.
3386
3387** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
3388not one per buffer.
3389
3390** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
3391use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
3392 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
3393
3394** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
3395To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
3396`auto-show-mode' command.
3397
3398** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
3399avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
3400versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
3401choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
3402occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
3403
3404** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
3405cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
3406
3407** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
3408character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
3409feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
3410
3411** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
3412the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
3413interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
3414and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
3415
3416** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
3417
3418The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
3419that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
3420one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
3421codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
3422set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
3423
3424Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
3425from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
3426
3427IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
3428equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
3429a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
3430`?' on other systems.
3431
3432IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
3433feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
3434Unix.
3435
3436Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
3437current codepage when it starts.
3438
3439** Mail changes
3440
feab4fba
GM
3441*** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
3442`mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
3443appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
3444non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
3445MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
3446headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
3447latin-1:
3448
3449 MIME-version: 1.0
3450 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
3451 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
3452
a933dad1
DL
3453*** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
3454default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
3455default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
3456sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
3457buffer-file-coding-system.
3458
3459You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
3460sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
3461mail.
3462
3463*** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
3464if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
3465Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
3466list of possible coding systems.
3467
3468** CC Mode changes
3469
3470*** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
3471modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
3472longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
3473docstring for details.
3474
3475*** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
3476symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
3477found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
3478prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
3479lineup functions use this feature currently.
3480
3481*** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
3482"finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
3483
3484*** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
3485"catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
3486
3487*** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
3488from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
3489symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
3490c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
3491anonymous classes.
3492
3493*** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
3494syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
3495
3496*** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
3497inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
3498support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
3499function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
3500
3501*** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
3502(i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
3503brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
3504c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
3505(brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
3506
3507*** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
3508
3509*** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
3510
3511*** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
3512for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
3513
3514*** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
3515
3516*** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
3517associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
3518This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
3519circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
3520class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
3521
3522** Gnus changes.
3523
3524*** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
3525added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
3526Gnus manual for the full story.
3527
3528*** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
3529before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
3530group, which is created automatically.
3531
3532*** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
3533values.
3534
3535*** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
3536
3537*** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
3538outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
3539
3540*** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
3541`C-u C-c C-c'.
3542
3543*** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
3544
3545*** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
3546re-highlighting of the article buffer.
3547
3548*** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
3549
3550*** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
3551Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
3552
3553*** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
3554`a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
3555
3556*** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
3557control over simplification.
3558
3559*** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
3560
3561*** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
3562limit.
3563
3564*** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
3565
3566*** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
3567
79214ddf 3568*** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
a933dad1
DL
3569If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
3570rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
3571
3572*** Cancelling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
3573`a' forces normal posting method.
3574
3575*** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
3576-- `W d'.
3577
3578*** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
3579to a non-nil value.
3580
3581*** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
3582where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
3583
3584*** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
3585has been added.
3586
3587*** A history of where mails have been split is available.
3588
3589*** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
3590
3591*** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
3592`gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
3593
3594*** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
3595`message-cite-original-without-signature'.
3596
3597*** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
3598
3599*** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
3600been added.
3601
3602*** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
3603`gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
3604
3605*** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
3606updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
3607
3608*** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
3609
3610*** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
3611
3612*** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
3613
3614** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
3615
3616*** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
3617options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
3618nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
3619
3620*** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
3621TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
3622of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
3623TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
3624can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
3625
3626*** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
3627All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
3628but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
3629the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
3630
3631*** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
3632the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
3633buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
3634mismatch.
3635
3636** Changes to RefTeX mode
3637
3638*** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
3639file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
3640
3641*** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
3642lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
3643characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
3644removed from the label.
3645
3646*** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
3647a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
3648
3649*** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
3650customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
3651
3652*** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
3653`reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
79214ddf 3654expressions.
a933dad1
DL
3655
3656*** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
3657
3658** New/deleted modes and packages
3659
3660*** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
3661SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
3662
3663*** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
3664editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
3665SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
3666
3667*** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
3668changes with a special face.
3669
3670*** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
3671this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
3672Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
3673\f
3674* MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
3675
3676** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
3677This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
3678conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
3679and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
3680check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
3681
3682The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
3683Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
3684distribution when the config.bat script is run.
3685
3686** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
3687MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
3688controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
3689directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
3690Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
3691on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
3692string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
3693program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
3694printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
3695
3696** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
3697output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
3698available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
3699input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
3700temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
3701program.
3702
3703An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
3704and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
3705programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
3706automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
3707as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
3708ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
3709
3710** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
3711a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
3712MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
3713was not documented clearly before.
3714
3715** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
3716This includes Tetris and Snake.
3717\f
3718* Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
3719
3720** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
3721return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
3722They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
3723meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
3724
3725** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
3726WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
3727and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
3728
3729** Changes in the file-attributes function.
3730
3731*** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
3732It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
3733
3734*** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
3735the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
3736integers.
3737
3738** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
3739files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
3740arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
3741file names and attributes are returned.
3742
3743** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
3744sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
3745accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its atttributes.
3746It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
3747returns the result.
3748
3749** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
3750to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
3751
3752** New functions for base64 conversion:
3753
3754The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
3755into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
3756performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
3757optionally.
3758
3759Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
3760job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
3761
3762**
3763The new function process-running-child-p
3764will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
3765terminal to its own child process.
3766
3767** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
3768when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
3769to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
3770itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
3771
3772** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
3773be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
3774
3775** easymenu.el Now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
3776:included is an alias for :visible.
3777
3778easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
3779easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
3780to move or copy menu entries.
3781
3782** Multibyte editing changes
3783
3784*** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
3785an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
3786make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
3787work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
3788char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
3789 (setq char (sref str idx)
3790 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
3791The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
3792
3793If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
3794(say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
3795 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
3796
3797*** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
3798region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
3799deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
3800
3801 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibitted
3802
3803This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
3804across the boundary.
3805
3806*** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
3807`unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
3808 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
3809 contains 8-bit characters.
3810 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
3811 contains invalid characters.
3812
3813*** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
3814text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
3815preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
3816text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
3817way.
3818
3819*** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
3820If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
3821end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
3822prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
3823
3824*** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
3825compose Thai characters in a string.
3826
3827** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
3828argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
3829for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
3830menus should always use the third argument.
3831
3832** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
3833read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
3834arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
3835input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
3836
3837** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
3838of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
3839programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
3840inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
3841
3842** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
3843the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
3844returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
3845echo area contents.
3846
3847 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
3848
3849** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
3850NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
3851requested feature cannot be loaded.
3852
3853** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
3854foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
79214ddf 3855means to clear out that attribute.
a933dad1
DL
3856
3857** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
3858gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
3859
3860** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
3861read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
3862unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
3863end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
3864
3865** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
3866the gap of the current buffer.
3867
3868** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
3869to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
3870current buffer.
3871
3872** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
3873facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
3874These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
3875it back in after any modifications have been made.
3876\f
3877* Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
3878
3879** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
3880the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
3881/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
3882directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
3883subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
3884
3885Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
3886names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
3887Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
3888which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
3889these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
3890
3891Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
3892starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
3893time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
3894
3895This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
3896Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
3897to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
3898subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
3899`.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
3900results.
3901
3902** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
3903GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
3904that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
3905fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
3906\f
3907* Changes in Emacs 20.3
3908
3909** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
3910including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
3911it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
3912perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
3913
3914** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
3915specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
3916region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
3917further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
3918command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
3919within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
3920are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
3921region.
3922
3923In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
3924selective undo.
3925
3926** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
3927unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
3928buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
3929effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
3930Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
3931
3932The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
3933though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
3934-*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
3935load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
3936
3937** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
3938no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
3939enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
3940something that most users not do.
3941
3942** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
3943operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
3944The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
3945applications.
3946
3947C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
3948pasting operations.
3949
3950** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
3951setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
3952like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
3953printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
3954`ps-printer-name'.
3955
3956** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
3957minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
3958any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
3959except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
3960incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
3961hits a new word.
3962
3963Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
3964Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
3965to be confused by TeX commands.
3966
3967You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
3968correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
3969clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
3970of various alternative replacements and actions.
3971
3972Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
3973the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
3974corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
3975alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
3976flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
3977
3978Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
3979flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
3980
3981** Changes in input method usage.
3982
3983Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
3984the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
3985respectively.
3986
3987You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
3988
3989If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
3990of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
3991
3992The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
3993that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
3994
3995 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
3996
3997 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
3998
3999 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
4000 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
4001
4002 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
79214ddf 4003 given in the following case:
a933dad1
DL
4004 o When you are using a complex input method.
4005 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
4006
4007If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
4008input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
4009and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
4010setting it to t is helpful.
4011
4012The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
4013
4014In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
4015keys:
4016 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
4017 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
4018 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
4019These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
4020environment.
4021
4022** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
4023names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
4024minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
4025get
4026
4027 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
4028
4029which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
4030
4031Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
4032Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
4033
4034** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
4035at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
4036its owner and group.
4037
4038** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
4039Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
4040
4041** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
4042contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
4043
4044** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
4045which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
4046in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
4047by the left edge of the rectangle.
4048
4049** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
4050increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
4051C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
4052for writing keyboard macros.
4053
4054** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
4055files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
4056frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
4057the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
4058additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
4059info.
4060
4061** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
4062
4063** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
4064query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
4065contents only.
4066
4067** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
4068confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
4069the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
4070says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
4071
4072** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
4073non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
4074literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
4075
4076** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
4077now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
4078Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
4079inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
4080
4081** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
4082failure if the command produces no output.
4083
4084** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
4085manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
4086the mouse.
4087
4088** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
4089mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
4090function and variable names.
4091
4092** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
4093reading specific files. This has higher priority than
4094file-coding-system-alist.
4095
4096** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
4097t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
4098converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
4099the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
4100according to the current fontset.
4101
4102** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
4103
4104The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
4105that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
4106nonascii-insert-offset.
4107
4108For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
4109enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
4110nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
4111characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
4112
4113** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
4114an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
4115
4116** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
4117letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
4118
4119** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
4120are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
4121command keys.
4122
4123** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
4124user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
4125
4126Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
4127user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
4128all variables that have documentation.
4129
4130** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
4131shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
4132that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
4133minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
4134it should show; the default is 20.
4135
4136Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
4137the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
4138of your input.
4139
4140** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
4141all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
4142recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
4143argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
4144the customizable options which were changed since that version.
4145Newly added options are included as well.
4146
4147If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
4148then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
4149for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
4150
4151This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
4152Customize menu.
4153
4154** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
4155the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
4156
4157** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
4158buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
4159invoked.
4160
4161** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
4162that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
4163The default is 1.
4164
4165** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
4166syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
4167new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
4168(C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
4169sensibly.
4170
4171** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
4172
4173** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
4174value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
4175two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
4176
4177** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
4178reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
4179for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
4180every night.
4181
7464346d
GM
4182** Desktop changes
4183
4184*** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
a933dad1
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4185the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
4186
7464346d
GM
4187*** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
4188and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
4189
a933dad1
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4190** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
4191read and post multi-lingual articles.
4192
4193** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
4194doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
4195be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
4196outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
4197the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
79214ddf 4198made invisible again.
a933dad1
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4199
4200** Mail reading and sending changes
4201
4202*** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
4203the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
4204changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
4205toggle.
4206
4207*** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
4208now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
4209summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
4210the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
4211rmail-default-body-file.
4212
4213*** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
4214longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
4215handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
4216
4217*** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
4218it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
4219is evaluated to insert the signature.
4220
4221*** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
4222outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
4223handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
4224putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
4225transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
4226especially interested in trying feedmail.
4227
4228feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
4229feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
4230provided by feedmail are:
4231
4232**** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
4233stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
4234there is also a queue for draft messages
4235
4236**** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
4237be prompted for confirmation
4238
4239**** does smart filling of address headers
4240
4241**** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
4242the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
4243can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
4244
4245**** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
4246the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
4247/usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
4248function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
4249
4250** Dired changes
4251
4252*** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
4253files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
4254
4255*** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
4256run Dired on the directory name at point.
4257
4258*** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
4259files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
4260for a specified regexp.
4261
4262** VC Changes
4263
4264*** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
4265conveniently.
4266
4267*** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
4268faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
4269Dired.
4270
4271VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
4272directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
4273listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
4274currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
4275
4276You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
4277then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
4278vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
4279control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
4280on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
4281
4282All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
4283is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
4284`v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
4285the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
4286`vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
4287
4288The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
4289toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
79214ddf 4290VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
a933dad1
DL
4291`* l', to mark all files currently locked.
4292
4293Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
4294ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
4295command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
4296
4297*** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
4298file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
4299session to resolve them.
4300
4301Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
4302resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
4303contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
4304uses as well).
4305
4306*** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
4307command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
4308you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
4309either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
4310branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
4311If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
4312using ediff.
4313
4314** Changes in Font Lock
4315
4316*** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
4317are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
4318use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
4319unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
4320compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
4321
4322** Frame name display changes
4323
4324*** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
4325frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
4326raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
4327when many frames are invisible or iconified.
4328
4329*** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
4330frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
4331menu.
4332
4333** Comint (subshell) changes
4334
4335*** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
4336subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
4337with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
4338
4339*** There are new commands in Comint mode.
4340
4341C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
4342that is, the line after the last line you got.
4343You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
4344
4345C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
4346send the current line together with the following line, when you send
4347the following line.
4348
4349C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
4350which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
4351previously sent input.
4352
4353C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
4354it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
4355as the search string.
4356
4357*** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
4358automatically in compilation-mode windows.
4359
4360** C mode changes
4361
4362*** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
4363and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
4364assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
79214ddf 4365definition.
a933dad1
DL
4366
4367*** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
4368(i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
4369Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
4370style is still the default however.
4371
4372*** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
4373
4374*** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
4375are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
4376them. They do not have key bindings by default.
4377
4378*** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
4379and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
4380
4381*** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
4382namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
4383
4384*** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
4385makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
4386
4387*** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
4388c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
4389
4390*** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
4391should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
4392package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
4393variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
4394
4395** Changes to hippie-expand.
4396
79214ddf 4397*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
a933dad1
DL
4398non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
4399which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
4400
4401*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
4402non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
4403expanding dynamically.
4404
4405*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
4406non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
4407
4408*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
4409non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
4410this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
4411expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
4412
4413*** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
4414
4415** Changes in BibTeX mode.
4416
4417*** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
4418bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
4419automatic key generation. This replaces variable
4420bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
4421against the first word in the title.
4422
4423*** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
4424capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
4425bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
79214ddf 4426lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
a933dad1 4427lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
79214ddf 4428bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
a933dad1
DL
4429
4430*** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
4431generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
4432replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
4433bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
4434
4435** Changes in vcursor.el.
4436
4437*** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
4438and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
4439variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
4440entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
4441`vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
4442in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
4443
4444*** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
4445Editing group once the package is loaded.
4446
4447*** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
4448generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
4449vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behaviour.
4450
4451*** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
4452vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
4453
4454** Ispell changes.
4455
79214ddf
FP
4456*** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
4457buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
a933dad1
DL
4458are identified by syntax tables in effect.
4459
4460*** Generic region skipping implemented.
4461A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
4462and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
4463defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
79214ddf 4464include:
a933dad1
DL
4465
4466 o URLs are automatically skipped
4467 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
4468
4469*** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
4470
4471** Changes to RefTeX mode
4472
4473RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
4474large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
4475re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
4476section `Optimizations' in the manual.
4477
4478*** New recursive parser.
4479
4480The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
4481entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
4482recursive parser scans the individual files.
4483
4484*** Parsing only part of a document.
79214ddf 4485
a933dad1
DL
4486Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
4487partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
4488the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
4489
4490 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
4491
4492*** Storing parsing information in a file.
4493
4494This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
4495
4496 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
4497
4498*** Using multiple selection buffers
4499
4500If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
4501for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
4502
4503 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
4504
4505*** References to external documents.
4506
4507The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
4508documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
4509documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
4510macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
4511RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
4512the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
4513The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
4514
4515*** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
4516
4517The builtin command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
4518and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
4519
4520Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
4521the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
4522
4523*** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
4524
4525The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
4526buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
4527
4528*** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
4529
4530The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
4531contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
4532`reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
4533have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
4534enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
4535at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
4536more.
4537
4538*** Support for the varioref package
4539
4540The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
4541
4542*** New hooks
4543
4544Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
4545and citations are created. These hooks are
4546`reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
4547`reftex-format-cite-function'.
4548
4549*** Citations outside LaTeX
4550
4551The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
4552a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
4553
4554*** Short context is no longer fontified.
4555
4556The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
4557fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
4558fontified, use
4559
4560 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
4561
4562** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
4563With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
4564the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
4565directories that contain the same file name.
4566
4567Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
4568Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
4569file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
4570Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
4571have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
4572names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
4573directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
4574directory.
4575
4576** New modes and packages
4577
4578*** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
4579It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
4580it, but some do not.
4581
4582*** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
4583code.
4584
4585*** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
4586current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
4587around in a buffer.
4588
4589Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
4590
4591*** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
4592uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
4593be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
4594established system of notation similar to Chess.
4595
4596*** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
4597documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
4598guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
4599
4600*** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
4601available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
4602system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
4603simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
4604functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
4605the like.
4606
4607*** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
4608identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
4609
4610*** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
4611within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
4612used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
4613the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
4614
4615*** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
4616
4617 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
4618 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
4619 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
4620 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
4621 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
4622 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
4623 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
4624 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
4625 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
4626 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
4627 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
4628
4629 Platform-specific modes:
4630
4631 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
4632 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
4633 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
4634 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
4635 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
4636 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
4637 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
4638 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
4639 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
4640\f
4641* Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
4642
4643** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
4644use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
4645That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
4646Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
4647
4648Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
4649you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
4650consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
4651
4652** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
4653and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
4654specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
4655searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
4656
4657** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
4658multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
4659character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
4660environment.
4661
4662** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
4663take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
4664string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
4665current input method for reading this one event.
4666
4667** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
4668now control whether to output certain characters as
4669backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
4670non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
4671characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
4672in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
4673\f
4674* Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
4675
4676** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
4677of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
4678
4679** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
4680in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
4681always increases point by 1.
4682
4683The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
4684considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
4685
4686See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
4687
4688** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
4689Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
4690default value changed. For example,
4691
4692 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
4693 :type 'integer
4694 :group 'foo
4695 :version "20.3")
4696
79214ddf 4697 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
a933dad1
DL
4698 :version "20.3")
4699
4700If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
4701default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
4702is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
4703`:version' in the top level group.
4704
4705This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
4706
4707** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
4708starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
4709
4710However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
4711symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
4712support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
4713to themselves.
4714
4715If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
4716this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
4717values whatever.
4718
4719** There is a new debugger command, R.
4720It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
4721in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
4722
4723** Frame-local variables.
4724
4725You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
4726the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
4727local bindings for that variable.
4728
4729These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
4730frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
4731modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
4732parameter name.
4733
4734Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
4735Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
4736active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
4737that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
4738
4739It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
4740clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
4741very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
4742through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
4743
4744** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
4745"symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
4746evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
4747makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
4748See the documentation in sregex.el.
4749
4750** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
4751is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
4752parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
4753The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
4754
4755** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
4756If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
4757
4758** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
4759known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
4760define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
4761
4762** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
4763when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
4764it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
4765history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
4766
4767The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
4768return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
4769empty input.
4770
4771** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
4772for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
4773`iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
4774Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
4775`read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
4776
4777** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
4778echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
4779a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
4780default password to use if the user enters nothing.
4781
4782** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
4783specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
4784function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
4785place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
4786non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
4787
4788** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
4789If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
4790up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
4791end of the window, even if this requires computation.
4792
4793** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
4794which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
4795If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
4796
4797** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
4798holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
4799was directed to display this buffer.
4800
4801** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
4802with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
4803describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
4804other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
4805set-window-configuration.
4806
4807** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
4808window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
4809positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
4810windows and the choice of buffers to display.
4811
4812** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
4813override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
4814look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
4815
4816If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
4817non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
4818map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
4819
4820minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
4821and it is meant to be set by major modes.
4822
4823** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
4824except that it discards all text properties from the result.
4825
4826** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
4827USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
4828floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
4829
4830** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
4831to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
4832in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
4833it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
4834
4835** Menu changes
4836
4837*** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
4838keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
4839better supported.
4840
4841The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
4842a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
4843you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
4844can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
4845then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
4846
4847*** A new format for menu items is supported.
4848
4849In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
4850 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
4851defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
4852starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
4853
4854The format is:
4855 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
4856 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
4857where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
4858string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
4859The supported properties include
4860
4861:enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
4862 item is enabled.
4863:visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
4864 item should appear in the menu.
79214ddf 4865:filter FILTER-FN
a933dad1
DL
4866 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
4867 which will be REAL-BINDING.
4868 It should return a binding to use instead.
4869:keys DESCRIPTION
4870 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
4871 binding for for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
4872 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
4873:key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
4874 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
4875 keyboard binding.
4876:key-sequence nil
4877 This means that the command normally has no
4878 keyboard equivalent.
4879:help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
4880:button (TYPE . SELECTED)
4881 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
4882 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
4883 value says whether this button is currently selected.
4884
4885Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
4886Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
4887
4888(menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
4889
4890** New event types
4891
4892*** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
4893mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
4894corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
4895which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
4896
4897 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
4898
4899where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
4900same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
4901indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
4902negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
4903the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
4904forward, away from the user.
4905
4906As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
4907
4908*** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
4909files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
4910and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
4911filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
4912loaded into Emacs. The format is:
4913
4914 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
4915
4916where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
4917same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
4918that were dragged and dropped.
4919
4920As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
4921
4922** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
4923
4924*** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
4925any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
4926to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
4927
4928*** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
4929can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
4930that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
4931
4932*** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
4933in Emacs 19 and before.
4934
4935The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
4936The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
4937
4938*** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
4939buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
4940unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
4941representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
4942
4943This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
4944as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
4945viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
4946one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
4947will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
4948
4949This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
4950representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
4951(including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
4952consistent with the new representation.
4953
4954*** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
4955representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
4956about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
4957however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
4958
4959The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
4960nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
4961using the table nonascii-translation-table.
4962
4963*** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
4964representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
4965representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
4966
4967The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
4968loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
4969is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
4970
4971*** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
4972which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
4973
4974*** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
4975which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
4976
4977*** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
4978portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
4979so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
4980You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
4981
4982*** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
4983it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
4984
4985*** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
4986convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
4987buffer or string being searched.
4988
4989One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
4990[...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
4991searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
4992searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
4993obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
4994you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
4995expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
4996
4997*** Structure of coding system changed.
4998
4999All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
5000by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
5001which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
5002as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
5003vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
5004your own alias name of a coding system by the function
5005define-coding-system-alias.
5006
5007The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
5008the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
5009access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
5010pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
5011character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
5012safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
5013'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
5014`iso-8859-1'.
5015
5016Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
5017The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
5018coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
5019(coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
5020
5021Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
5022also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
5023are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
5024the other character sets and read it back correctly.
5025
5026*** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
5027proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
5028This function requires a user interaction.
5029
5030*** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
5031find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
5032select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
5033systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
5034a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
5035select-safe-coding-system.
5036
5037*** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
5038decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
5039last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
5040was done.
5041
5042*** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
5043used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
5044coding systems used by some specific language environment.
5045
5046*** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
5047return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
5048characters are found, they now return a list of single element
5049`undecided' or its subsidiaries.
5050
5051*** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
5052coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
5053coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
5054converted.
5055
5056*** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
5057coding system for communicating with other X clients.
5058
5059*** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
5060character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
5061character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
5062each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
5063either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
5064range of characters.
5065
5066*** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
5067Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
5068
5069*** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
5070in the current buffer at position POS.
5071
5072*** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
5073input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
5074function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
5075character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
5076event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
5077binding input-method-function to nil.
5078
5079The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
5080method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
5081input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
5082the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
5083not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
5084
5085The input method function is not called when reading the second and
5086subsequent events of a key sequence.
5087
5088*** You can customize any language environment by using
5089set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
5090
5091The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
5092customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
5093instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
5094environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
5095exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
5096\f
5097* Changes in Emacs 20.1
5098
5099** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
5100options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
5101at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
5102tree structure.
5103
5104M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
5105user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
5106
5107With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
5108session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
5109in your .emacs file.)
5110
5111** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
5112You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
5113
5114** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
5115This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
5116
5117** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
5118immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
5119kills the region.
5120
5121The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
5122delete the character before point, as usual.
5123
5124** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
5125on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
5126by setting search-highlight to nil.)
5127
5128** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
5129insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
5130the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
5131onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
5132history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
5133past.)
5134
5135** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
5136This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
5137in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
5138TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
5139makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
5140
5141As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
5142and is an alias for it.
5143
5144If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
5145use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
5146
5147** Scrolling changes
5148
5149*** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
5150position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
5151
5152In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
5153on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
5154where it started.
5155
5156*** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
5157move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
5158screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
5159does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
5160
5161*** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
5162top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
5163comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
5164recenters the window.
5165
5166** International character set support (MULE)
5167
5168Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
5169including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
5170Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
5171Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
5172features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
5173MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
5174
5175Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
5176coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
5177character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
5178variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
5179into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
5180
5181Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
5182generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
5183supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
5184language, to make it possible to type them.
5185
5186The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
5187character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
5188
5189The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
5190to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
5191
5192You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
5193
5194 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
5195
5196Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
5197characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
5198argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
5199already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
5200characters for their work until they want to change.
5201
5202*** Input methods
5203
5204An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
5205specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
5206has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
5207the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
5208support several input methods.
5209
5210The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
5211another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
5212work.
5213
5214A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
5215characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
5216composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
5217consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
5218sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
5219letter.
5220
5221The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
5222by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
5223First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
5224marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
5225mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
5226
5227None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
5228they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
5229phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
5230converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
5231
5232Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
5233word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
5234typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
5235the first guess is wrong.
5236
5237*** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
5238turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
5239
5240If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
5241byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
5242they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
5243the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
5244
5245However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
5246use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
5247includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
5248translate automatically to and from either one.
5249
5250*** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
5251
5252Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
5253file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
5254sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
5255what you want.
5256
5257If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
5258example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
5259system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
5260multibyte characters in that buffer.
5261
5262If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
5263character conversion as well.
5264
5265*** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
5266
5267A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
5268Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
5269requires using many fonts.
5270
5271Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
5272collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
5273
5274A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
5275the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
5276have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
5277you would use a font.
5278
5279If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
5280specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
5281display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
5282
5283The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
5284(that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
5285characters). If another font in the fontset has a different height,
5286or the wrong width, then characters assigned to that font are clipped,
5287and displayed within a box if highlight-wrong-size-font is non-nil.
5288
5289*** Defining fontsets.
5290
5291Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
5292chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
5293with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
5294
5295Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
5296of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
5297`fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
5298standard fontset are created automatically.
5299
5300If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
5301argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
5302FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
5303with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
5304name is `fontset-startup'.
5305
5306Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
5307The resource value should have this form:
5308 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
5309FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
5310 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
5311 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
5312 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
5313The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
5314of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
5315CHARSET-NAME should be the name name of a character set, and
5316FONT-NAME should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
5317
5318Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
5319last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
5320You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
5321
5322For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
5323font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
5324following resource,
5325 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
5326the font for ASCII is generated as below:
5327 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
5328Here is the substitution rule:
5329 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
5330 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
5331 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
5332 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
5333 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
5334
5335The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
5336fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
5337that function explicitly to create a fontset.
5338
5339With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
5340like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
5341name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
5342fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
5343fontsets.
5344
5345*** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
5346defaults for a particular choice of language.
5347
5348Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
5349method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
5350visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
5351already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
5352language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
5353system for new files that you create.
5354
5355It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
5356set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
5357whole Emacs session.
5358
5359For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
5360chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
5361with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
5362
5363*** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
5364specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
5365specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
5366the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
5367coding systems that Emacs supports.
5368
5369*** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
5370lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
5371This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
5372After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
5373is used for *the immediately following command*.
5374
5375So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
5376write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
5377
5378If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
5379then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
5380
5381For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
5382visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
5383
5384*** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
5385construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
5386to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
5387specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
5388of the file.
5389
5390*** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
5391the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
5392code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
5393translated into that character code.
5394
5395This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
5396various countries to support the languages of those countries.
5397
5398By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
5399
5400*** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
5401the coding system for keyboard input.
5402
5403Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
5404with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
5405some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
5406
5407By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
5408
5409Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
5410input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
5411translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
5412to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
5413designed to work with terminals.
5414
5415*** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
5416specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
5417This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
5418has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
5419translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
5420in the corresponding buffer.
5421
5422By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
5423
5424*** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
5425to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
5426It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
5427
5428*** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
5429an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
5430command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
5431want to use.
5432
5433C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
5434method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
5435
5436*** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
5437layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
5438remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
5439which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
5440
5441*** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
5442the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
5443related information.
5444
5445*** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
5446HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
5447scripts.
5448
5449*** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
5450information about the support for a particular language.
5451You specify the language as an argument.
5452
5453*** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
5454the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
5455first dash.
5456
5457A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
5458(except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
5459whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
54601 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
5461
5462 A alternativnyj (Russian)
5463 B big5 (Chinese)
5464 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
5465 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
5466 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
5467 E euc-japan (Japanese)
5468 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
5469 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
5470 K euc-korea (Korean)
5471 R koi8 (Russian)
5472 Q tibetan
5473 S shift_jis (Japanese)
5474 T lao
5475 T tis620 (Thai)
5476 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
5477 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
5478 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
5479 v viqr (Vietnamese)
5480 z hz (Chinese)
5481
5482When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
5483two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
5484coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
5485keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
5486
5487*** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
5488conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
5489
5490When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
5491into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
5492rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
5493Rmail files themselves.
5494
5495*** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
5496conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
5497
5498Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
5499for sending mail:
5500
5501- If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
5502- Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
5503- Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
5504 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
5505- Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
5506
5507*** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
5508to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
5509Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
5510translations.
5511
5512** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
5513of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
5514insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
5515without any conversion.
5516
5517** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
5518You can now specify any number of octal digits.
5519RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
5520any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
5521
5522** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
5523functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
5524
5525Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
5526Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
5527
5528Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
5529mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
5530
5531** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
5532complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
5533in the buffer before point.
5534
5535With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
5536symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
5537you are using.
5538
5539With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
5540just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
5541
5542** File locking works with NFS now.
5543
5544The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
5545in the same directory as FILENAME.
5546
5547This means that collision detection between two different machines now
5548works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
5549can become a bottleneck.
5550
5551The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
5552does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
5553create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
5554file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
5555rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
5556so useful that the change is worth while.
5557
5558When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
5559are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
5560collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
5561tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
5562
5563** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
5564it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
5565show-paren-mode.
5566
5567** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
5568selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
5569delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
5570
5571** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
5572within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
5573complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
5574
5575** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
5576it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
5577set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
5578
5579** Changes in View mode.
5580
5581*** Several new commands are available in View mode.
5582Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
5583
5584*** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
5585view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
5586
5587*** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
5588previous state.
5589
5590*** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
5591scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
5592
5593*** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
5594non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
5595not just the selected window.
5596
5597*** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
5598read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
5599turns View mode on or off.
5600
5601*** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
5602how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
5603delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
5604
5605** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
5606now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
5607
5608** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
5609has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
5610presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
5611which version to compare with.
5612
5613** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
79214ddf 5614blocks if a match is inside the block.
a933dad1
DL
5615
5616The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
5617is outside the block. By customizing the variable
5618isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
5619shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
5620
5621By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
5622of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
5623blocks, all of them or none.
5624
5625** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
5626current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
5627confirmation first.
5628
5629** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
5630now changes the major mode according to that file name.
5631However, the mode will not be changed if
5632(1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
5633(2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
5634 not suitable for ordinary files, or
5635(3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
5636
5637This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
5638
5639However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
5640these commands do not change the major mode.
5641
5642** M-x occur changes.
5643
5644*** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
5645it performs a case-sensitive search.
5646
5647*** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
5648if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
5649using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
5650
5651** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
5652in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
5653window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
5654that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
5655buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
5656
5657** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
5658after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
5659appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
5660come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
5661
5662** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
5663selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
5664buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
5665
5666** Outline mode changes.
5667
5668*** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
5669
5670*** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
5671
5672** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
5673you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
5674Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
5675was already active.
5676
5677The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
5678unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
5679get confused by it.
5680
5681If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
5682set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
5683
5684** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
5685
5686*** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
5687conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
5688character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
5689including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
5690
5691The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
5692mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
5693copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
5694
5695*** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
5696are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
5697values.
5698
5699`dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
5700case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
5701`dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
5702case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
5703
5704** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
5705certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
5706can be. The default value is 30.
5707
5708** Changes in Mail mode.
5709
5710*** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
5711Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
5712composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
5713`mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
5714`sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
5715behavior.
5716
5717C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
5718compose-mail-other-frame.
5719
5720*** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
5721the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
5722replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
5723buffer that shows the original message.
5724
5725*** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
5726with separator lines around the contents.
5727
5728*** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
5729in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
5730definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
5731need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
5732
5733*** New features in the mail-complete command.
5734
5735**** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
5736for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
5737controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
5738Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
5739
5740**** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
5741to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
5742/etc/passwd.
5743
5744**** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
5745to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
5746/etc/passwd.
5747
5748** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
5749special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
5750directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
5751reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
5752
5753Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
5754when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
5755be taken to be magic.
5756
5757** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
5758files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
5759available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
5760
5761M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
5762(-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
5763
5764** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
5765suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
5766
5767In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
5768
5769new key dired.el binding old key
5770------- ---------------- -------
5771 * c dired-change-marks c
5772 * m dired-mark m
5773 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
5774 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
5775 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
5776 * u dired-unmark u
5777 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
5778 * ? dired-unmark-all-files M-C-?
5779 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
5780 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
5781 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
5782 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
5783
5784** Rmail changes.
5785
5786*** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
5787saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
5788chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
5789each time you run it.
5790
5791*** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
5792whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
5793
5794*** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
5795messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
5796means to move in the opposite direction.
5797
5798*** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
5799you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
5800
5801*** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
5802just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
5803It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
5804can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
5805for output.
5806
5807** Gnus changes.
5808
5809*** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
5810
79214ddf
FP
5811*** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
5812Gnus.
a933dad1 5813
79214ddf 5814*** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
a933dad1
DL
5815`and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
5816
5817*** Article washing status can be displayed in the
5818article mode line.
5819
5820*** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
5821
5822*** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
5823
5824(setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
5825
5826*** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
5827are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
5828`gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
5829
5830*** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
5831
5832*** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
5833
5834*** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
5835See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
5836
5837*** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
5838Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
5839used to pick articles.
5840
5841*** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
5842another have been added.
5843
5844 `M-x gnus-change-server'
5845
5846*** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
5847generating lines in buffers.
5848
5849*** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
5850`M-C-_'.
5851
5852*** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
5853
5854*** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
5855
5856 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
5857
5858*** Scores can be decayed.
79214ddf 5859
a933dad1
DL
5860 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
5861
5862*** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
5863Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
5864
5865*** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
5866the native server.
5867
5868 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
5869
5870*** A new command for reading collections of documents
5871(nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `M-C-d'.
5872
5873*** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
5874
5875*** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
5876even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
5877
5878*** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
5879(DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
5880
5881 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
5882 a group.
5883
5884*** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
5885sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
5886
5887 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
5888
5889*** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
5890
5891 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
5892
5893*** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
79214ddf 5894
a933dad1
DL
5895 Use the `Y c' command.
5896
5897*** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
5898
5899*** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
5900
5901 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
5902
5903*** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
5904from incoming mail before saving the mail.
79214ddf 5905
a933dad1
DL
5906 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
5907
5908*** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
5909
5910*** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
5911the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
5912
5913 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
5914
5915Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
5916and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
5917from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
5918hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
5919this issue.)
5920
5921Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
5922automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
5923particular news group. This can be done by:
5924
5925 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
5926
5927Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
5928of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
5929"XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
5930system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
5931for reading and posting).
5932
5933CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
5934 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
5935Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
5936newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
5937there.
5938
5939Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
5940default. Here are some of these default settings:
5941
5942 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
5943 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
5944 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
5945 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
5946 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
5947
5948When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
5949the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
5950
5951** CC mode changes.
5952
5953*** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
5954code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
5955values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
5956this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
5957Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
5958loaded.
5959
5960If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
79214ddf 5961Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
a933dad1 5962style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
79214ddf
FP
5963share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
5964c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
a933dad1
DL
5965must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
5966
5967*** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
5968of the current buffer.
5969
5970*** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
5971it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
5972of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
5973
5974*** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
5975style that the Python developers like.
5976
5977*** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
5978This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
5979just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
5980
5981** VC Changes [new]
5982
5983** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
5984name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
5985directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
5986
5987This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
5988master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
5989developers.
5990
5991You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
5992RET in a buffer visiting that file.
5993
5994*** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
5995other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
5996writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
5997calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
5998
5999*** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
6000version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
6001
6002** Calendar changes.
6003
6004A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or subclasses
6005of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow you do this
6006for the year of the selected date, or the following/previous years.
6007
6008** ps-print changes
6009
79214ddf 6010There are some new user variables for customizing the page layout.
a933dad1
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6011
6012*** Paper size, paper orientation, columns
6013
6014The variable `ps-paper-type' determines the size of paper ps-print
6015formats for; it should contain one of the symbols:
6016`a4' `a3' `letter' `legal' `letter-small' `tabloid'
6017`ledger' `statement' `executive' `a4small' `b4' `b5'
6018It defaults to `letter'.
6019If you need other sizes, see the variable `ps-page-dimensions-database'.
6020
6021The variable `ps-landscape-mode' determines the orientation
79214ddf 6022of the printing on the page. nil, the default, means "portrait" mode,
a933dad1
DL
6023non-nil means "landscape" mode.
6024
6025The variable `ps-number-of-columns' must be a positive integer.
6026It determines the number of columns both in landscape and portrait mode.
79214ddf 6027It defaults to 1.
a933dad1
DL
6028
6029*** Horizontal layout
6030
6031The horizontal layout is determined by the variables
6032`ps-left-margin', `ps-inter-column', and `ps-right-margin'.
6033All are measured in points.
6034
6035*** Vertical layout
6036
6037The vertical layout is determined by the variables
6038`ps-bottom-margin', `ps-top-margin', and `ps-header-offset'.
6039All are measured in points.
6040
6041*** Headers
6042
6043If the variable `ps-print-header' is nil, no header is printed. Then
6044`ps-header-offset' is not relevant and `ps-top-margin' represents the
6045margin above the text.
6046
79214ddf 6047If the variable `ps-print-header-frame' is non-nil, a gaudy
a933dad1
DL
6048framing box is printed around the header.
6049
6050The contents of the header are determined by `ps-header-lines',
6051`ps-show-n-of-n', `ps-left-header' and `ps-right-header'.
6052
79214ddf
FP
6053The height of the header is determined by `ps-header-line-pad',
6054`ps-header-font-family', `ps-header-title-font-size' and
a933dad1
DL
6055`ps-header-font-size'.
6056
6057*** Font managing
6058
6059The variable `ps-font-family' determines which font family is to be
6060used for ordinary text. Its value must be a key symbol in the alist
6061`ps-font-info-database'. You can add other font families by adding
6062elements to this alist.
6063
79214ddf 6064The variable `ps-font-size' determines the size of the font
a933dad1
DL
6065for ordinary text. It defaults to 8.5 points.
6066
6067** hideshow changes.
6068
6069*** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
79214ddf 6070C++, ; for lisp).
a933dad1
DL
6071
6072*** Support for java-mode added.
6073
6074*** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
6075in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
6076
6077*** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the the comments at
6078the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
6079way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
6080
6081*** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
6082robust and a lot faster.
6083
79214ddf 6084*** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
a933dad1
DL
6085
6086*** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
6087to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
6088documentation for more details.
6089
6090** Changes in Enriched mode.
6091
6092*** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
6093filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
6094of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
6095use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
6096the next time unless the fill-column is different.
6097
6098*** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
6099distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
6100as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
6101as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
6102
6103** Font Lock mode
6104
6105*** Custom support
6106
6107The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
6108font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
6109faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
6110group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
6111your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
6112consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
6113
6114You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
6115
6116*** Maximum decoration
6117
6118Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
6119default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
6120of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
6121supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
6122to get the old behavior.
6123
6124*** New support
6125
6126Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
6127
6128Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
6129support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
6130
6131*** Configurable support
6132
6133Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
6134additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
6135c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
6136java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
6137list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
6138of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
6139convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
6140
6141Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
6142way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
6143it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
6144
6145*** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
6146
6147You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
6148highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
6149for any mode.
6150
6151For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
6152
6153 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
6154
6155in your ~/.emacs.
6156
6157*** New faces
6158
6159Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
6160font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
6161distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
6162to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
6163
6164*** Changes to fast-lock support mode
6165
6166The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
6167cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
6168same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
6169
6170*** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
6171
6172The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
6173according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
6174the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
6175non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
6176refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
6177the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
6178Lock mode behaviour and the behaviour of Font Lock mode.
6179
6180This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
6181For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
6182this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
6183refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
6184containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
6185the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
6186
6187As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
6188
6189Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
6190Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
6191Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
6192new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
6193
6194If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
6195settings.
6196
6197** Ada mode changes.
6198
6199*** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
6200If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
6201procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
6202you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
6203stubs.
6204
6205*** There are two new commands:
6206 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
6207 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
6208
6209The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
6210`ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
79214ddf 6211`ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
a933dad1
DL
6212
6213*** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
6214is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
6215Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
6216
6217*** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
6218formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
6219places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
6220space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
6221
6222** Scheme mode changes.
6223
6224*** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
6225mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
6226for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
6227with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
6228have any effect.
6229
6230If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
6231still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
6232scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
6233variables as buffer-local variables.
6234
6235*** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
6236Use M-x dsssl-mode.
6237
133c9e59
GM
6238** Changes to the emacsclient program
6239
875c1439
GM
6240*** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
6241USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
6242associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
6243can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
6244
133c9e59 6245*** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
a933dad1
DL
6246it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
6247buffer in Emacs.
6248
133c9e59
GM
6249*** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
6250use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
6251ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
6252option takes precedence.
6253
a933dad1
DL
6254** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
6255constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
6256(in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
6257
6258** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
6259which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
6260the current defun.
6261
6262** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
6263following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
6264
6265** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
6266and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
6267necessary).
6268
6269** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
6270if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
6271these register values no longer become completely useless.
6272If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
6273asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
6274it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
6275
6276** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
6277example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
6278be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
6279you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
6280
6281You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
6282variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
6283file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
6284revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
6285only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
6286
6287** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
6288since it applies only to the current frame.
6289
6290** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
6291file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
6292and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
6293
6294This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
6295multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
6296variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
6297tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
6298instead of just the file you are editing.
6299
6300** RefTeX mode
6301
6302RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
6303and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
6304different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
6305multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
6306turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
6307
79214ddf 6308C-c ( reftex-label
a933dad1
DL
6309 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
6310 knows which kind of label is needed.
6311
6312C-c ) reftex-reference
6313 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
6314 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
6315
6316C-c [ reftex-citation
6317 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
6318 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
6319
6320C-c & reftex-view-crossref
6321 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
6322
6323C-c = reftex-toc
6324 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
6325 can quickly jump to every section.
79214ddf 6326
a933dad1
DL
6327Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
6328commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
6329Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
6330reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
6331C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
6332
6333** Changes in BibTeX mode.
6334
6335*** Info documentation is now available.
6336
6337*** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
6338both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
6339
6340*** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
6341bibtex-user-optional-fields.
6342
6343*** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
6344(use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
6345
6346*** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
6347entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
6348appropriate functions.
6349
6350*** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
6351entries. They are bound by default to M-C-l and M-C-h.
6352
6353*** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
6354been cleaned.
6355
6356*** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
6357bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
6358
6359*** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
6360shall be delimited.
6361
6362*** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
6363bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
6364bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
6365
6366*** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
6367field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
6368prefixed with `ALT'.
6369
6370*** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
6371bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
6372formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
6373documentation).
6374
6375*** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
6376documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
6377for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
6378
6379*** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
6380comma should be inserted at end of last field.
6381
6382*** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
6383alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
6384signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
6385
6386*** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
6387
6388*** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
6389
6390*** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
6391from alien sources.
6392
6393*** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
6394to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
6395crossref entries.
6396
6397*** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
6398region.
6399
6400*** Added support for imenu.
6401
6402*** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
6403of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
6404`compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
6405`next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
6406
6407*** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
6408from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
6409
6410** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
6411
30a009a5 6412** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
047f434a 6413
a933dad1
DL
6414** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
6415functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
6416Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
6417as an argument.
6418
6419When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
6420and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
6421
6422** browse-url changes
6423
6424*** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
6425Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
6426(browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
6427non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
6428customization variables.
6429
6430*** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
6431
6432*** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
6433lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
6434(e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
6435
6436** Changes in Ediff
6437
6438*** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
6439pops up the Info file for this command.
6440
6441*** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
6442the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
6443merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
6444directories).
6445
6446*** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
6447and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
6448files in the same directory.
6449
6450*** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
6451The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
6452related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
6453
6454** Changes in Viper
6455
6456*** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
79214ddf 6457*** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
a933dad1
DL
6458 instead of vip-.
6459*** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
79214ddf 6460*** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
a933dad1
DL
6461Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
6462*** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
6463*** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
6464*** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
6465color when Viper is in insert state.
6466*** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
6467Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
6468viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
6469
6470** Etags changes.
6471
6472*** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
6473default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
6474Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
6475variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
6476not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
6477
6478*** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
6479
6480*** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
6481constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
6482
6483*** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
6484recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
6485In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
6486
6487*** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
6488C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
6489recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
6490methods and protocols.
6491
6492*** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
6493.cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
6494column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
6495paragraph name.
6496
6497*** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
6498an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
6499at least M times and as many as N times.
6500
6501** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
6502in files has changed slightly.
6503
6504With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
6505time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
6506This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
6507with old time-stamp-format values.
6508
6509In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
6510(`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
6511This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
6512reasons.
6513
6514In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
6515natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
6516fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
6517(`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
6518time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
6519specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
6520
6521Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
6522case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
6523truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
6524
6525The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
6526being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
6527future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
6528recommended now will continue to work then.
6529
6530See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
6531details.
6532
6533** There are some additional major modes:
6534
6535dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
6536m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
6537meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
6538
6539** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
6540copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
6541into Emacs.
6542
6543** New Lisp packages include:
6544
6545*** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
6546
6547*** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
6548be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
6549
6550*** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
6551
6552*** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
6553in shell buffers.
6554
6555*** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
6556See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
6557and `elint-defun'.
6558
6559*** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
6560meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
6561ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
6562strings or comments.
6563
6564These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
6565abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
6566you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
6567insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
6568at these points.
6569
6570*** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
6571can visit them by short forms of their names.
6572
6573*** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
6574Emacs Lisp function at point.
6575
6576*** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
6577
6578*** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
6579switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
6580
6581*** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
6582
6583*** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
6584
6585*** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
6586
6587*** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
6588from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
6589
6590*** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
6591You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
6592inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
6593original place after inserting the copy.
6594
6595*** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
6596on the buffer.
6597
6598You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
6599velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
6600(with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
6601
6602Enable mouse-drag with:
6603 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
6604-or-
6605 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
6606
6607*** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
6608mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
6609
6610*** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
6611It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
6612
6613*** ogonek
6614
6615The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
6616Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
6617platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
6618TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
6619ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
6620prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
6621instance) and vice versa.
6622
6623To use this package load it using
6624 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
6625Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
79214ddf 6626 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
a933dad1
DL
6627 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
6628The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
6629ways of customization in `.emacs'.
6630
6631*** Interface to ph.
6632
6633Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
6634
6635The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
6636services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
6637these servers.
6638
6639*** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
6640
6641*** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
6642You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
6643while the real cursor does not move.
6644
6645*** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
6646for visiting your favorite web sites.
6647
6648*** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
6649so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
6650
6651** movemail change
6652
6653Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
6654mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
6655supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
6656user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
6657
6658This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
6659\f
6660* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
6661
6662** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
6663
6664Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
6665end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
6666Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
6667file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
6668file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
6669
6670To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
6671C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
6672coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
6673specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
6674LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
6675save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
6676\f
6677* Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
6678
6679** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
6680Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
6681vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
6682Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
6683
6684** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
6685to start with w32- instead of win32-.
6686
6687In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
6688don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
6689"win".
6690
6691** Basic Lisp changes
6692
6693*** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
6694evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
6695
6696*** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
6697be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
6698or by the user.
6699
6700The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
6701
6702*** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
6703
6704(when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
6705(unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
6706
6707*** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
6708usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
6709its argument.
6710
6711*** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
6712
6713*** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
6714
6715*** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
6716
6717*** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
6718error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
6719include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
6720`format' function.
6721
6722*** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
6723or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
6724whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
6725
6726*** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
6727either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
6728adding one of these suffixes.
6729
6730*** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
6731which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
79214ddf 6732If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
a933dad1
DL
6733
6734We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
6735because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
6736
6737*** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
6738
6739*** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
6740You must load the `cl' library to define it.
6741
6742*** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
6743conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
6744
6745 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
6746
6747BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
6748BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
6749
6750*** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
6751choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
6752restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
6753works using `save-current-buffer'.
6754
6755*** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
6756write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
6757of the last form.
6758
6759*** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
6760which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
6761last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
6762as the last form.
6763
6764*** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
6765characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
6766matches.
6767
6768For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
6769
6770*** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
6771with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
6772Then it returns that string.
6773
6774For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
6775
6776(with-output-to-string
6777 (princ "The buffer is ")
6778 (princ (buffer-name)))
6779
6780returns "The buffer is foo".
6781
6782** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
6783is non-nil.
6784
6785These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
6786buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
6787characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
6788
6789*** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
6790a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
6791
6792Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
6793character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
6794Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
6795position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
6796characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
6797 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
6798
6799ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
6800Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
6801non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
6802characters".
6803
6804The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
6805through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
6806"leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
6807range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
6808leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
6809
6810*** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
6811(forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
6812multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
6813character, which may be more than one buffer position.
6814
6815This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
6816always one buffer position, need to be changed.
6817
6818However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
79214ddf 6819
a933dad1
DL
6820*** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
6821because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
6822have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
6823the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
6824guaranteed.
6825
6826*** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
6827between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
6828character).
6829
6830When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
6831
6832 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
6833 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
6834 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
6835 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
6836 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
6837
6838*** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
6839
6840*** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
6841`length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
6842more than the number of characters.
6843
6844You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
6845it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
6846\xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
6847is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
6848follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
6849newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
6850
6851*** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
6852and returns a string containing those characters.
6853
6854*** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
6855(sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
6856counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
6857character, sref signals an error.
6858
6859*** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
6860in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
6861string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
6862
6863*** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
6864in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
6865region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
6866
6867*** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
6868the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
6869to a vector of the characters in it.
6870
6871*** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
6872of a string. You call it as follows:
6873
6874 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
6875
6876This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
6877STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
6878This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
6879Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
6880it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
6881
6882*** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
6883if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
6884
6885*** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
6886if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
6887
6888*** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
6889to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
6890not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
6891which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
6892
6893(truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
6894
6895This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
6896
6897The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
6898If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
6899are not included in the resulting value.
6900
6901The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
6902at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
6903WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
6904is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
6905
6906If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
6907place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
6908character extends across that column), then the padding character
6909PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
6910string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
6911column START-COLUMN.
6912
6913*** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
6914the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
6915necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
6916difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
6917changed text, before the change.
6918
6919*** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
6920sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
6921one character set for each script, not for each language.
6922
6923**** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
6924
6925**** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
6926
6927**** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
6928set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
6929
6930**** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
6931name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
6932which identify the character within that character set.
6933
6934**** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
6935byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
6936opposite of split-char.
6937
6938**** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
6939of all the characters between BEG and END.
6940
6941**** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
6942of all the characters in a string.
6943
6944*** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
6945and specifying coding systems.
6946
6947**** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
6948system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
6949of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
6950(Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
6951and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
6952as what to do about code conversion.)
6953
6954**** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
6955name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
6956
6957**** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
6958for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
6959except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
6960
6961Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
6962which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
6963to match against a file name.
6964
6965VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
6966a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
6967decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
6968to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
6969systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
6970specifies the coding system for encoding.
6971
6972If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
6973or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
6974
6975**** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
6976the coding system to use for network sockets.
6977
6978Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
6979which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
6980either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
6981service names.
6982
6983VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
6984a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
6985decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
6986to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
6987systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
6988specifies the coding system for encoding.
6989
6990If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
6991or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
6992
6993**** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
6994for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
6995except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
6996start the subprocess.
6997
6998**** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
6999systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
7000when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
7001(OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
7002to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
7003
7004**** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
7005coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
7006subprocess.
7007
7008It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
7009but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
7010start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
7011connection permanently or until overridden.
7012
7013The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
7014file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
7015network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
7016coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
7017It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
7018system for one operation at a time.
7019
7020**** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
7021files, subprocesses or network connections.
7022
7023**** The function process-coding-system tells you what
7024coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
7025The value is a cons cell,
7026 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
7027where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
7028the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
7029input to the subprocess.
7030
7031**** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
7032change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
7033
7034** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
7035customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
7036you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
7037
7038You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
7039variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
7040information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
7041legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
7042customization.
7043
7044Thus, instead of writing
7045
7046 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
7047 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
7048
7049you would now write this:
7050
7051 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
7052 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
7053 :type 'boolean
7054 :group foo)
7055
7056The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
7057two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
7058describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
7059for a description of them.
7060
7061The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
7062should belong to. You define a new group like this:
7063
7064 (defgroup ispell nil
7065 "Spell checking using Ispell."
7066 :group 'processes)
7067
7068The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
7069group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
7070but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
7071to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
7072second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
7073
7074Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
7075package should have just one group; a more complex package should
7076have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
7077package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
7078first-level subgroups.
7079
7080** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
7081
7082This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
7083separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
7084
7085** easy-mmode
7086
7087The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
7088developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
7089only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
7090predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
7091`easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
7092`easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
7093
7094** Text property changes
7095
7096*** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
7097text property.
7098
7099*** The new functions next-char-property-change and
7100previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
7101place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
7102functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
7103starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
7104
7105If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
7106LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
7107of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
7108position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
7109
7110*** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
7111value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
7112is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
7113
7114** Changes in invisibility features
7115
7116*** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
7117hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
7118is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
7119should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
7120would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
7121make the overlay visible.
7122
7123During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
7124invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
7125needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
7126which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
7127the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
7128t when it should hide it.
7129
7130*** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
7131
7132Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
79214ddf
FP
7133invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
7134and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
a933dad1 7135Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
79214ddf 7136manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
a933dad1
DL
7137Here is an example of how to do this:
7138
7139 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
79214ddf 7140 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
a933dad1 7141 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
79214ddf 7142 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
a933dad1
DL
7143
7144 ...
7145 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
7146
7147 ...
7148 ;; When done with the overlays:
7149 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
7150 ;; Or respectively:
7151 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
7152
7153** Changes in syntax parsing.
7154
7155*** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
7156`parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
7157obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
7158`parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
7159
7160If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
7161is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
7162used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
7163
7164When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
7165character in the buffer is calculated thus:
7166
7167 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
7168 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
7169
7170 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
7171 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
7172 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
7173
7174 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
7175 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
7176 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
7177 determine the syntax type of the character.
7178
7179 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
7180 of the current buffer.
7181
7182*** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
7183value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
7184for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
7185
7186*** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
7187and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
7188only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
7189character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
7190another character with the same code (unless quoted).
7191
7192These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
7193text property.
7194
7195*** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
7196arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
7197of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
7198
7199*** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
7200(and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
7201element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
7202nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
7203string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
7204
7205*** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
7206syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
7207`font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
7208
7209** Changes in face features
7210
7211*** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
7212if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
7213
7214*** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
7215of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
7216
7217*** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
7218set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
7219
7220*** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
7221set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
7222
7223*** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
7224by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
7225and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
7226the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
7227overlay property).
7228
7229This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
7230arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
7231
7232** Changes in file-handling functions
7233
7234*** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
7235directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
7236they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
7237is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
7238
7239This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
7240begins with ~.
7241
7242*** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
7243it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
7244
7245*** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
7246the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
7247
7248*** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
7249as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
7250
7251*** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
7252character code conversion as well as other things.
7253
7254Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
7255(formerly it did not).
7256
7257*** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
7258environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
7259
7260*** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
7261instead of constant strings.
7262
7263*** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
7264to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
7265any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
7266
7267substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
7268in the same way as before.
7269
7270*** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
7271The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
7272which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
7273
7274*** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
7275error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
7276else, and returns nil.
7277
7278*** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
7279directory cannot be listed.
7280
7281** Changes in minibuffer input
7282
7283*** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
7284read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
7285additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
7286argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
7287ways:
7288
7289 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
7290 It is available through the history command M-n.
7291
7292*** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
7293read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
7294argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
7295minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
7296enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
7297
7298In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
7299argument in this way.
7300
7301*** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
7302from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
7303minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
7304
7305** Echo area features
7306
7307*** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
7308echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
7309minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
7310after the echo area is cleared.
7311
7312*** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
7313in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
7314
7315** Keyboard input features
7316
7317*** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
7318set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
7319
7320*** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
7321received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
7322by keyboard macros.
7323
7324** Frame-related changes
7325
7326*** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
7327creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
7328hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
7329
7330*** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
7331the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
7332has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
7333
7334*** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
7335selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
7336value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
7337in the selected frame.
7338
7339*** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
7340is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
7341which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
7342
7343** X Windows features
7344
7345*** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
7346x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
7347x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
7348
7349*** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
7350The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
7351
7352*** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
7353MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
7354A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
7355
7356If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
7357it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
7358
7359** Subprocess features
7360
7361*** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
7362functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
7363automatically.
7364
7365*** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
7366and returns the output from the command as a string.
7367
7368*** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
7369and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
7370
7371** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
7372does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
7373
7374** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
7375at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
7376goes after the other menu items.
7377
7378** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
79214ddf 7379of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
a933dad1
DL
7380around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
7381are in use.
7382
7383The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
7384series of several changes--if that seems safe.
7385
7386Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
7387after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
7388form.
7389
7390** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
7391is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
7392but its hook is still run.
7393
7394** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
7395for errors that are handled by condition-case.
7396
7397If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
7398regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
7399useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
7400
7401This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
7402are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
7403filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
7404warned.
7405
7406** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
7407way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
7408
7409** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
7410integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
7411functions like display-time.
7412
7413** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
7414name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
7415
7416** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
7417can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
7418is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
7419
7420** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
7421if there is an error in compilation.
7422
7423** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
7424switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
7425argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
7426they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
7427
7428** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
7429Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
7430the *scratch* buffer.
7431
7432** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
7433The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
7434where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
7435e.g., in Font Lock mode.
7436
7437** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
7438and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
7439It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
7440
7441** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
7442using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
7443variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
7444and compose-mail-other-frame.
7445
7446** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
7447can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
7448full name of the specified user will be returned.
7449
7450** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
7451of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
7452where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
7453in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
7454option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
7455files at all.
7456
7457** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
7458and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
7459width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
7460the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
7461
7462For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
7463minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
7464with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
7465is how %S normally pads to two positions.
7466
7467** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
7468
7469** imenu.el changes.
7470
7471You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
79214ddf 7472item from menu created by imenu.
a933dad1
DL
7473
7474An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
7475#include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
7476select one of those items.
7477\f
7478* Emacs 19.34 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
7479\f
7480* Changes in Emacs 19.33.
7481
7482** Bibtex mode no longer turns on Auto Fill automatically. (No major
7483mode should do that--it is the user's choice.)
7484
7485** The variable normal-auto-fill-function specifies the function to
7486use for auto-fill-function, if and when Auto Fill is turned on.
7487Major modes can set this locally to alter how Auto Fill works.
7488\f
7489* Editing Changes in Emacs 19.32
7490
7491** C-x f with no argument now signals an error.
7492To set the fill column at the current column, use C-u C-x f.
7493
7494** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
7495conversion. If you type the abbreviation with mixed case, and it
7496matches the beginning of the expansion including case, then the
7497expansion is copied verbatim. Using SPC M-/ to copy an additional
7498word always copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is
7499all caps.
7500
7501** On a non-windowing terminal, which can display only one Emacs frame
7502at a time, creating a new frame with C-x 5 2 also selects that frame.
7503
7504When using a display that can show multiple frames at once, C-x 5 2
7505does make the frame visible, but does not select it. This is the same
7506as in previous Emacs versions.
7507
7508** You can use C-x 5 2 to create multiple frames on MSDOS, just as on a
7509non-X terminal on Unix. Of course, only one frame is visible at any
7510time, since your terminal doesn't have the ability to display multiple
7511frames.
7512
7513** On Windows, set win32-pass-alt-to-system to a non-nil value
7514if you would like tapping the Alt key to invoke the Windows menu.
7515This feature is not enabled by default; since the Alt key is also the
7516Meta key, it is too easy and painful to activate this feature by
7517accident.
7518
7519** The command apply-macro-to-region-lines repeats the last defined
7520keyboard macro once for each complete line within the current region.
7521It does this line by line, by moving point to the beginning of that
7522line and then executing the macro.
7523
7524This command is not new, but was never documented before.
7525
7526** You can now use Mouse-1 to place the region around a string constant
7527(something surrounded by doublequote characters or other delimiter
7528characters of like syntax) by double-clicking on one of the delimiting
7529characters.
7530
7531** Font Lock mode
7532
7533*** Font Lock support modes
7534
7535Font Lock can be configured to use Fast Lock mode and Lazy Lock mode (see
7536below) in a flexible way. Rather than adding the appropriate function to the
7537hook font-lock-mode-hook, you can use the new variable font-lock-support-mode
7538to control which modes have Fast Lock mode or Lazy Lock mode turned on when
7539Font Lock mode is enabled.
7540
7541For example, to use Fast Lock mode when Font Lock mode is turned on, put:
7542
7543 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'fast-lock-mode)
7544
7545in your ~/.emacs.
7546
7547*** lazy-lock
7548
7549The lazy-lock package speeds up Font Lock mode by making fontification occur
7550only when necessary, such as when a previously unfontified part of the buffer
7551becomes visible in a window. When you create a buffer with Font Lock mode and
7552Lazy Lock mode turned on, the buffer is not fontified. When certain events
7553occur (such as scrolling), Lazy Lock makes sure that the visible parts of the
7554buffer are fontified. Lazy Lock also defers on-the-fly fontification until
7555Emacs has been idle for a given amount of time.
7556
7557To use this package, put in your ~/.emacs:
7558
7559 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'lazy-lock-mode)
7560
7561To control the package behaviour, see the documentation for `lazy-lock-mode'.
7562
7563** Changes in BibTeX mode.
7564
7565*** For all entries allow spaces and tabs between opening brace or
7566paren and key.
7567
7568*** Non-escaped double-quoted characters (as in `Sch"of') are now
7569supported.
7570
7571** Gnus changes.
7572
7573Gnus, the Emacs news reader, has undergone further rewriting. Many new
7574commands and variables have been added. There should be no
7575significant incompatibilities between this Gnus version and the
7576previously released version, except in the message composition area.
7577
7578Below is a list of the more user-visible changes. Coding changes
7579between Gnus 5.1 and 5.2 are more extensive.
7580
79214ddf 7581*** A new message composition mode is used. All old customization
a933dad1
DL
7582variables for mail-mode, rnews-reply-mode and gnus-msg are now
7583obsolete.
7584
7585*** Gnus is now able to generate "sparse" threads -- threads where
7586missing articles are represented by empty nodes.
7587
7588 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
7589
7590*** Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server.
7591
7592 To disable this: (setq gnus-message-archive-group nil)
7593
7594*** Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
79214ddf 7595referred.
a933dad1
DL
7596
7597*** Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions:
7598
7599 (setq gnus-use-grouplens t)
7600
7601*** A trn-line tree buffer can be displayed.
7602
7603 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
7604
7605*** An nn-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
79214ddf 7606buffers.
a933dad1
DL
7607
7608 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
7609
7610*** In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode:
7611
7612 `M-x gnus-binary-mode'
7613
7614*** Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy.
7615
7616 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
7617
7618*** Gnus can re-send and bounce mail.
7619
7620 Use the `S D r' and `S D b'.
7621
7622*** Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
7623is possible.
7624
7625 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
7626
7627*** Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
7628groups of groups.
7629
7630*** Caching is possible in virtual groups.
7631
7632*** nndoc now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews news
79214ddf 7633batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything else.
a933dad1
DL
7634
7635*** Gnus has a new backend (nnsoup) to create/read SOUP packets.
7636
7637*** The Gnus cache is much faster.
7638
7639*** Groups can be sorted according to many criteria.
7640
7641 For instance: (setq gnus-group-sort-function 'gnus-group-sort-by-rank)
7642
7643*** New group parameters have been introduced to set list-address and
7644expiration times.
7645
7646*** All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used.
7647
7648*** There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on
7649process marked articles on the `M P' submap.
7650
7651*** The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
7652articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
7653bound to keys on the `/' submap.
7654
7655*** Articles can be made persistent -- as an alternative to saving
7656articles with the `*' command.
7657
7658*** All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
7659
7660*** Article headers can be buttonized.
7661
7662 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head)
7663
7664*** All mail backends support fetching articles by Message-ID.
7665
79214ddf 7666*** Duplicate mail can now be treated properly. See the
a933dad1
DL
7667`nnmail-treat-duplicates' variable.
7668
7669*** All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
79214ddf 7670buffer.
a933dad1
DL
7671
7672*** Frames can be part of `gnus-buffer-configuration'.
7673
7674*** Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process.
7675
7676*** Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to filter spam.
7677
7678 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
7679
79214ddf 7680*** Groups can be made permanently visible.
a933dad1
DL
7681
7682 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
7683
79214ddf 7684*** Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
a933dad1
DL
7685
7686*** Gnus respects the Mail-Copies-To header.
7687
79214ddf 7688*** Threads can be gathered by looking at the References header.
a933dad1 7689
79214ddf 7690 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
a933dad1
DL
7691 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
7692
7693*** Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
79214ddf 7694refetching.
a933dad1
DL
7695
7696 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
7697
7698*** A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
7699buffer to allow easier treatment.
7700
7701*** Gnus can suggest where to save articles. See `gnus-split-methods'.
7702
7703*** Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving.
7704
7705 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
7706
7707*** gnus-uu can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
79214ddf 7708articles.
a933dad1
DL
7709
7710 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
7711
79214ddf 7712*** Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text.
a933dad1
DL
7713
7714*** Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
7715cited text to hide is now customizable.
7716
7717 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
7718
7719*** Boring headers can be hidden.
7720
7721 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-hide-boring-headers)
7722
7723*** Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
7724
7725*** Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
7726
7727The Gnus manual has been expanded. It explains all these new features
7728in greater detail.
7729\f
7730* Lisp Changes in Emacs 19.32
7731
7732** The function set-visited-file-name now accepts an optional
7733second argument NO-QUERY. If it is non-nil, then the user is not
7734asked for confirmation in the case where the specified file already
7735exists.
7736
7737** The variable print-length applies to printing vectors and bitvectors,
7738as well as lists.
7739
7740** The new function keymap-parent returns the parent keymap
7741of a given keymap.
7742
7743** The new function set-keymap-parent specifies a new parent for a
7744given keymap. The arguments are KEYMAP and PARENT. PARENT must be a
7745keymap or nil.
7746
7747** Sometimes menu keymaps use a command name, a symbol, which is really
7748an automatically generated alias for some other command, the "real"
7749name. In such a case, you should give that alias symbol a non-nil
7750menu-alias property. That property tells the menu system to look for
7751equivalent keys for the real name instead of equivalent keys for the
7752alias.
7753\f
7754* Editing Changes in Emacs 19.31
7755
7756** Freedom of the press restricted in the United States.
7757
7758Emacs has been censored in accord with the Communications Decency Act.
7759This includes removing some features of the doctor program. That law
7760was described by its supporters as a ban on pornography, but it bans
7761far more than that. The Emacs distribution has never contained any
7762pornography, but parts of it were nonetheless prohibited.
7763
7764For information on US government censorship of the Internet, and what
7765you can do to bring back freedom of the press, see the web site
7766`http://www.vtw.org/'.
7767
7768** A note about C mode indentation customization.
7769
7770The old (Emacs 19.29) ways of specifying a C indentation style
7771do not normally work in the new implementation of C mode.
7772It has its own methods of customizing indentation, which are
7773much more powerful than the old C mode. See the Editing Programs
7774chapter of the manual for details.
7775
7776However, you can load the library cc-compat to make the old
7777customization variables take effect.
7778
7779** Marking with the mouse.
7780
7781When you mark a region with the mouse, the region now remains
7782highlighted until the next input event, regardless of whether you are
7783using M-x transient-mark-mode.
7784
7785** Improved Windows NT/95 support.
7786
7787*** Emacs now supports scroll bars on Windows NT and Windows 95.
7788
7789*** Emacs now supports subprocesses on Windows 95. (Subprocesses used
7790to work on NT only and not on 95.)
7791
7792*** There are difficulties with subprocesses, though, due to problems
7793in Windows, beyond the control of Emacs. They work fine as long as
7794you run Windows applications. The problems arise when you run a DOS
7795application in a subprocesses. Since current shells run as DOS
7796applications, these problems are significant.
7797
7798If you run a DOS application in a subprocess, then the application is
7799likely to busy-wait, which means that your machine will be 100% busy.
7800However, if you don't mind the temporary heavy load, the subprocess
7801will work OK as long as you tell it to terminate before you start any
7802other DOS application as a subprocess.
7803
7804Emacs is unable to terminate or interrupt a DOS subprocess.
7805You have to do this by providing input directly to the subprocess.
7806
7807If you run two DOS applications at the same time in two separate
7808subprocesses, even if one of them is asynchronous, you will probably
7809have to reboot your machine--until then, it will remain 100% busy.
7810Windows simply does not cope when one Windows process tries to run two
7811separate DOS subprocesses. Typing CTL-ALT-DEL and then choosing
7812Shutdown seems to work although it may take a few minutes.
7813
7814** M-x resize-minibuffer-mode.
7815
7816This command, not previously mentioned in NEWS, toggles a mode in
7817which the minibuffer window expands to show as many lines as the
7818minibuffer contains.
7819
7820** `title' frame parameter and resource.
7821
7822The `title' X resource now specifies just the frame title, nothing else.
7823It does not affect the name used for looking up other X resources.
7824It works by setting the new `title' frame parameter, which likewise
7825affects just the displayed title of the frame.
7826
7827The `name' parameter continues to do what it used to do:
7828it specifies the frame name for looking up X resources,
7829and also serves as the default for the displayed title
7830when the `title' parameter is unspecified or nil.
7831
7832** Emacs now uses the X toolkit by default, if you have a new
7833enough version of X installed (X11R5 or newer).
7834
7835** When you compile Emacs with the Motif widget set, Motif handles the
7836F10 key by activating the menu bar. To avoid confusion, the usual
7837Emacs binding of F10 is replaced with a no-op when using Motif.
7838
7839If you want to be able to use F10 in Emacs, you can rebind the Motif
7840menubar to some other key which you don't use. To do so, add
7841something like this to your X resources file. This example rebinds
7842the Motif menu bar activation key to S-F12:
7843
7844 Emacs*defaultVirtualBindings: osfMenuBar : Shift<Key>F12
7845
7846** In overwrite mode, DEL now inserts spaces in most cases
7847to replace the characters it "deletes".
7848
7849** The Rmail summary now shows the number of lines in each message.
7850
7851** Rmail has a new command M-x unforward-rmail-message, which extracts
7852a forwarded message from the message that forwarded it. To use it,
7853select a message which contains a forwarded message and then type the command.
7854It inserts the forwarded message as a separate Rmail message
7855immediately after the selected one.
7856
7857This command also undoes the textual modifications that are standardly
7858made, as part of forwarding, by Rmail and other mail reader programs.
7859
7860** Turning off saving of .saves-... files in your home directory.
7861
7862Each Emacs session writes a file named .saves-... in your home
7863directory to record which files M-x recover-session should recover.
7864If you exit Emacs normally with C-x C-c, it deletes that file. If
7865Emacs or the operating system crashes, the file remains for M-x
7866recover-session.
7867
7868You can turn off the writing of these files by setting
7869auto-save-list-file-name to nil. If you do this, M-x recover-session
7870will not work.
7871
7872Some previous Emacs versions failed to delete these files even on
7873normal exit. This is fixed now. If you are thinking of turning off
7874this feature because of past experiences with versions that had this
7875bug, it would make sense to check whether you still want to do so
7876now that the bug is fixed.
7877
7878** Changes to Version Control (VC)
7879
7880There is a new variable, vc-follow-symlinks. It indicates what to do
7881when you visit a link to a file that is under version control.
7882Editing the file through the link bypasses the version control system,
7883which is dangerous and probably not what you want.
7884
7885If this variable is t, VC follows the link and visits the real file,
7886telling you about it in the echo area. If it is `ask' (the default),
7887VC asks for confirmation whether it should follow the link. If nil,
7888the link is visited and a warning displayed.
7889
7890** iso-acc.el now lets you specify a choice of language.
7891Languages include "latin-1" (the default) and "latin-2" (which
7892is designed for entering ISO Latin-2 characters).
7893
7894There are also choices for specific human languages such as French and
7895Portuguese. These are subsets of Latin-1, which differ in that they
7896enable only the accent characters needed for particular language.
7897The other accent characters, not needed for the chosen language,
7898remain normal.
7899
7900** Posting articles and sending mail now has M-TAB completion on various
7901header fields (Newsgroups, To, CC, ...).
7902
7903Completion in the Newsgroups header depends on the list of groups
7904known to your news reader. Completion in the Followup-To header
7905offers those groups which are in the Newsgroups header, since
7906Followup-To usually just holds one of those.
7907
7908Completion in fields that hold mail addresses works based on the list
7909of local users plus your aliases. Additionally, if your site provides
7910a mail directory or a specific host to use for any unrecognized user
7911name, you can arrange to query that host for completion also. (See the
7912documentation of variables `mail-directory-process' and
7913`mail-directory-stream'.)
7914
7915** A greatly extended sgml-mode offers new features such as (to be configured)
7916skeletons with completing read for tags and attributes, typing named
7917characters including optionally all 8bit characters, making tags invisible
7918with optional alternate display text, skipping and deleting tag(pair)s.
7919
7920Note: since Emacs' syntax feature cannot limit the special meaning of ', " and
7921- to inside <>, for some texts the result, especially of font locking, may be
7922wrong (see `sgml-specials' if you get wrong results).
7923
7924The derived html-mode configures this with tags and attributes more or
7925less HTML3ish. It also offers optional quick keys like C-c 1 for
7926headline or C-c u for unordered list (see `html-quick-keys'). Edit /
7927Text Properties / Face or M-g combinations create tags as applicable.
7928Outline minor mode is supported and level 1 font-locking tries to
7929fontify tag contents (which only works when they fit on one line, due
7930to a limitation in font-lock).
7931
7932External viewing via browse-url can occur automatically upon saving.
7933
7934** M-x imenu-add-to-menubar now adds to the menu bar for the current
7935buffer only. If you want to put an Imenu item in the menu bar for all
7936buffers that use a particular major mode, use the mode hook, as in
7937this example:
7938
7939 (add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook
7940 '(lambda () (imenu-add-to-menubar "Index")))
7941
7942** Changes in BibTeX mode.
7943
7944*** Field names may now contain digits, hyphens, and underscores.
7945
7946*** Font Lock mode is now supported.
7947
7948*** bibtex-make-optional-field is no longer interactive.
7949
7950*** If bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is non-nil, inserting new
7951entries is now done with a faster algorithm. However, inserting
7952will fail in this case if the buffer contains invalid entries or
7953isn't in sorted order, so you should finish each entry with C-c C-c
7954(bibtex-close-entry) after you have inserted or modified it.
7955The default value of bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is nil.
7956
7957*** Function `show-all' is no longer bound to a key, since C-u C-c C-q
7958does the same job.
7959
7960*** Entries with quotes inside quote-delimited fields (as `author =
7961"Stefan Sch{\"o}f"') are now supported.
7962
7963*** Case in field names doesn't matter anymore when searching for help
7964text.
7965
7966** Font Lock mode
7967
7968*** Global Font Lock mode
7969
7970Font Lock mode can be turned on globally, in buffers that support it, by the
7971new command global-font-lock-mode. You can use the new variable
7972font-lock-global-modes to control which modes have Font Lock mode automagically
7973turned on. By default, this variable is set so that Font Lock mode is turned
7974on globally where the buffer mode supports it.
7975
7976For example, to automagically turn on Font Lock mode where supported, put:
7977
7978 (global-font-lock-mode t)
7979
7980in your ~/.emacs.
7981
7982*** Local Refontification
7983
7984In Font Lock mode, editing a line automatically refontifies that line only.
7985However, if your change alters the syntactic context for following lines,
7986those lines remain incorrectly fontified. To refontify them, use the new
7987command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block).
7988
7989In certain major modes, M-g M-g refontifies the entire current function.
7990(The variable font-lock-mark-block-function controls how to find the
7991current function.) In other major modes, M-g M-g refontifies 16 lines
7992above and below point.
7993
7994With a prefix argument N, M-g M-g refontifies N lines above and below point.
7995
7996** Follow mode
7997
7998Follow mode is a new minor mode combining windows showing the same
7999buffer into one tall "virtual window". The windows are typically two
8000side-by-side windows. Follow mode makes them scroll together as if
8001they were a unit. To use it, go to a frame with just one window,
8002split it into two side-by-side windows using C-x 3, and then type M-x
8003follow-mode.
8004
8005M-x follow-mode turns off Follow mode if it is already enabled.
8006
8007To display two side-by-side windows and activate Follow mode, use the
8008command M-x follow-delete-other-windows-and-split.
8009
8010** hide-show changes.
8011
8012The hooks hs-hide-hooks and hs-show-hooks have been renamed
8013to hs-hide-hook and hs-show-hook, to follow the convention for
8014normal hooks.
8015
8016** Simula mode now has a menu containing the most important commands.
8017The new command simula-indent-exp is bound to C-M-q.
8018
8019** etags can now handle programs written in Erlang. Files are
8020recognised by the extensions .erl and .hrl. The tagged lines are
8021those that begin a function, record, or macro.
8022
8023** MSDOS Changes
8024
8025*** It is now possible to compile Emacs with the version 2 of DJGPP.
8026Compilation with DJGPP version 1 also still works.
8027
8028*** The documentation of DOS-specific aspects of Emacs was rewritten
8029and expanded; see the ``MS-DOS'' node in the on-line docs.
8030
8031*** Emacs now uses ~ for backup file names, not .bak.
8032
8033*** You can simulate mouse-3 on two-button mice by simultaneously
8034pressing both mouse buttons.
8035
8036*** A number of packages and commands which previously failed or had
8037restricted functionality on MS-DOS, now work. The most important ones
79214ddf 8038are:
a933dad1
DL
8039
8040**** Printing (both with `M-x lpr-buffer' and with `ps-print' package)
8041now works.
8042
8043**** `Ediff' works (in a single-frame mode).
8044
8045**** `M-x display-time' can be used on MS-DOS (due to the new
8046implementation of Emacs timers, see below).
8047
8048**** `Dired' supports Unix-style shell wildcards.
8049
8050**** The `c-macro-expand' command now works as on other platforms.
8051
8052**** `M-x recover-session' works.
8053
8054**** `M-x list-colors-display' displays all the available colors.
8055
8056**** The `TPU-EDT' package works.
8057\f
8058* Lisp changes in Emacs 19.31.
8059
8060** The function using-unix-filesystems on Windows NT and Windows 95
8061tells Emacs to read and write files assuming that they reside on a
8062remote Unix filesystem. No CR/LF translation is done on any files in
8063this case. Invoking using-unix-filesystems with t activates this
8064behavior, and invoking it with any other value deactivates it.
8065
8066** Change in system-type and system-configuration values.
8067
8068The value of system-type on a Linux-based GNU system is now `lignux',
8069not `linux'. This means that some programs which use `system-type'
8070need to be changed. The value of `system-configuration' will also
8071be different.
8072
8073It is generally recommended to use `system-configuration' rather
8074than `system-type'.
8075
8076See the file LINUX-GNU in this directory for more about this.
8077
8078** The functions shell-command and dired-call-process
8079now run file name handlers for default-directory, if it has them.
8080
8081** Undoing the deletion of text now restores the positions of markers
8082that pointed into or next to the deleted text.
8083
8084** Timers created with run-at-time now work internally to Emacs, and
8085no longer use a separate process. Therefore, they now work more
8086reliably and can be used for shorter time delays.
8087
8088The new function run-with-timer is a convenient way to set up a timer
8089to run a specified amount of time after the present. A call looks
8090like this:
8091
8092 (run-with-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
8093
8094SECS says how many seconds should elapse before the timer happens.
8095It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the timer
8096becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments ARGS.
8097
8098REPEAT gives the interval for repeating the timer (measured in
8099seconds). It may be an integer or a floating point number. nil or 0
8100means don't repeat at all--call FUNCTION just once.
8101
8102*** with-timeout provides an easy way to do something but give
8103up if too much time passes.
8104
8105 (with-timeout (SECONDS TIMEOUT-FORMS...) BODY...)
8106
8107This executes BODY, but gives up after SECONDS seconds.
8108If it gives up, it runs the TIMEOUT-FORMS and returns the value
8109of the last one of them. Normally it returns the value of the last
8110form in BODY.
8111
8112*** You can now arrange to call a function whenever Emacs is idle for
8113a certain length of time. To do this, call run-with-idle-timer. A
8114call looks like this:
8115
8116 (run-with-idle-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
8117
8118SECS says how many seconds of idleness should elapse before the timer
8119runs. It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the
8120timer becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments
8121ARGS.
8122
8123Emacs becomes idle whenever it finishes executing a keyboard or mouse
8124command. It remains idle until it receives another keyboard or mouse
8125command.
8126
8127REPEAT, if non-nil, means this timer should be activated again each
8128time Emacs becomes idle and remains idle for SECS seconds The timer
8129does not repeat if Emacs *remains* idle; it runs at most once after
8130each time Emacs becomes idle.
8131
8132If REPEAT is nil, the timer runs just once, the first time Emacs is
8133idle for SECS seconds.
8134
8135*** post-command-idle-hook is now obsolete; you shouldn't use it at
8136all, because it interferes with the idle timer mechanism. If your
8137programs use post-command-idle-hook, convert them to use idle timers
8138instead.
8139
8140*** y-or-n-p-with-timeout lets you ask a question but give up if
8141there is no answer within a certain time.
8142
8143 (y-or-n-p-with-timeout PROMPT SECONDS DEFAULT-VALUE)
8144
8145asks the question PROMPT (just like y-or-n-p). If the user answers
8146within SECONDS seconds, it returns the answer that the user gave.
8147Otherwise it gives up after SECONDS seconds, and returns DEFAULT-VALUE.
8148
8149** Minor change to `encode-time': you can now pass more than seven
8150arguments. If you do that, the first six arguments have the usual
8151meaning, the last argument is interpreted as the time zone, and the
8152arguments in between are ignored.
8153
8154This means that it works to use the list returned by `decode-time' as
8155the list of arguments for `encode-time'.
8156
8157** The default value of load-path now includes the directory
8158/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp In addition to
8159/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp. You can use this new directory for
8160site-specific Lisp packages that belong with a particular Emacs
8161version.
8162
8163It is not unusual for a Lisp package that works well in one Emacs
8164version to cause trouble in another. Sometimes packages need updating
8165for incompatible changes; sometimes they look at internal data that
8166has changed; sometimes the package has been installed in Emacs itself
8167and the installed version should be used. Whatever the reason for the
8168problem, this new feature makes it easier to solve.
8169
8170** When your program contains a fixed file name (like .completions or
8171.abbrev.defs), the file name usually needs to be different on operating
8172systems with limited file name syntax.
8173
8174Now you can avoid ad-hoc conditionals by using the function
8175convert-standard-filename to convert the file name to a proper form
8176for each operating system. Here is an example of use, from the file
8177completions.el:
8178
8179(defvar save-completions-file-name
8180 (convert-standard-filename "~/.completions")
8181 "*The filename to save completions to.")
8182
8183This sets the variable save-completions-file-name to a value that
8184depends on the operating system, because the definition of
8185convert-standard-filename depends on the operating system. On
8186Unix-like systems, it returns the specified file name unchanged. On
8187MS-DOS, it adapts the name to fit the limitations of that system.
8188
8189** The interactive spec N now returns the numeric prefix argument
8190rather than the raw prefix argument. (It still reads a number using the
8191minibuffer if there is no prefix argument at all.)
8192
8193** When a process is deleted, this no longer disconnects the process
8194marker from its buffer position.
8195
8196** The variable garbage-collection-messages now controls whether
8197Emacs displays a message at the beginning and end of garbage collection.
8198The default is nil, meaning there are no messages.
8199
8200** The variable debug-ignored-errors specifies certain kinds of errors
8201that should not enter the debugger. Its value is a list of error
8202condition symbols and/or regular expressions. If the error has any
8203of the condition symbols listed, or if any of the regular expressions
8204matches the error message, then that error does not enter the debugger,
8205regardless of the value of debug-on-error.
8206
8207This variable is initialized to match certain common but uninteresting
8208errors that happen often during editing.
8209
8210** The new function error-message-string converts an error datum
8211into its error message. The error datum is what condition-case
8212puts into the variable, to describe the error that happened.
8213
8214** Anything that changes which buffer appears in a given window
8215now runs the window-scroll-functions for that window.
8216
8217** The new function get-buffer-window-list returns a list of windows displaying
8218a buffer. The function is called with the buffer (a buffer object or a buffer
8219name) and two optional arguments specifying the minibuffer windows and frames
8220to search. Therefore this function takes optional args like next-window etc.,
8221and not get-buffer-window.
8222
8223** buffer-substring now runs the hook buffer-access-fontify-functions,
8224calling each function with two arguments--the range of the buffer
8225being accessed. buffer-substring-no-properties does not call them.
8226
8227If you use this feature, you should set the variable
8228buffer-access-fontified-property to a non-nil symbol, which is a
8229property name. Then, if all the characters in the buffer range have a
8230non-nil value for that property, the buffer-access-fontify-functions
8231are not called. When called, these functions should put a non-nil
8232property on the text that they fontify, so that they won't get called
8233over and over for the same text.
8234
8235** Changes in lisp-mnt.el
8236
8237*** The lisp-mnt package can now recognize file headers that are written
8238in the formats used by the `what' command and the RCS `ident' command:
8239
8240;; @(#) HEADER: text
8241;; $HEADER: text $
8242
8243in addition to the normal
8244
8245;; HEADER: text
8246
8247*** The commands lm-verify and lm-synopsis are now interactive. lm-verify
8248checks that the library file has proper sections and headers, and
8249lm-synopsis extracts first line "synopsis'"information.
8250\f
8251* For older news, see the file ONEWS.
8252
8253----------------------------------------------------------------------
8254Copyright information:
8255
404fa7d6 8256Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
a933dad1
DL
8257
8258 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
8259 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
8260 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
8261 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
8262
8263 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
8264 of this document, or of portions of it,
8265 under the above conditions, provided also that they
8266 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
8267\f
8268Local variables:
8269mode: outline
8270paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
8271end: