(setpgrp): Don't define if USG and BSD_PGRPS are not defined.
[bpt/emacs.git] / etc / NEWS
CommitLineData
404fa7d6
DL
1GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 5 Jan 2000
2Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
a933dad1
DL
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
251584f3
DL
9* Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
10
1fa28578
GM
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
15images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option to list them.
16\f
17* Changes in Emacs 21.1
18
a1b8d58b
GM
19** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
20
6e417ca5
DL
21** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
22been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
23
5898e075
DL
24** New user options `display-time-mail-face' and
25`display-time-use-mail-icon' control the appearance of mode-line mail
26indicator used by the display-time package. On a suitable display the
27indicator can be an icon and is mouse-sensitive.
28
abfcc168
GM
29** Emacs' auto-save list files are now by default stored in a
30sub-directory `.emacs.d/auto-save-list/' of the user's home directory.
874d1079 31(On MS-DOS, this subdirectory's name is `_emacs.d/auto-save.list/'.)
abfcc168
GM
32You can customize `auto-save-list-prefix' to change this location.
33
cc181e95
GM
34** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
35on the display using several methods
36
37- By setting frame parameter `line-spacing' to PIXELS. PIXELS must be
38a positive integer, and specifies that PIXELS number of pixels should
39be put below text lines on the affected frame or frames.
40
41- By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
42equivalent ot specifying the frame parameter.
43
da4496b6 44- By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
cc181e95
GM
45
46- By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
47the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
48
0daee095 49** The new command `clone-buffer-indirectly' can be used to create
1c459486
GM
50an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. The
51command `clone-buffer-indirectly-other-window', bound to C-x 4 c,
52does the same but displays the indirect buffer in another window.
0daee095 53
176256a1 54** New user options `backup-directory-alist' and
3bbc50af
DL
55`make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
56typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
176256a1 57
dd0add8e
DL
58** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
59characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
60
699238d9
GM
61** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
62compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
63this behavior.
64
65The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs' byte
66compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
67Emacs dump core.
68
69** New X resources recognized
100b3cbb 70
7233c5bd
GM
71*** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
72whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
73is useful for debugging X problems.
74
75Example:
76
699238d9 77 emacs.synchronous: true
7233c5bd 78
100b3cbb
GM
79*** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
80visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
81the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
82and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
83visual class names are
84
85 TrueColor
86 PseudoColor
87 DirectColor
88 StaticColor
89 GrayScale
90 StaticGray
91
92Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
93`pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
94meaning.
95
96The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
97supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
98`visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
99visual.
100
101Example:
102
699238d9 103 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
100b3cbb
GM
104
105*** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
106specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
107default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
108resource values are `true' or `on'.
109
110Example:
111
699238d9 112 emacs.privateColormap: true
100b3cbb 113
0d0c76b8
EZ
114** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
115more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
116now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
117
42088c12 118** User-option `show-cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to
c60ea02e 119display the cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is
42088c12
GM
120shown, if non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown. This option can
121be customized.
c60ea02e 122
31047e0d
DL
123** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
124
b02786f9
GM
125** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
126all frames except the selected one.
127
3261c1d8
DL
128** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
129to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
130
ffe36136
GM
131** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
132the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X either in the echo
133area or with tooltips.
134
559cee90
DL
135** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
136read mail from the menu etc.
137
271b4185
GM
138** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
139a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
140
0daee095
GM
141** Changes in Texinfo mode.
142
143** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
144macros
145
146 Key binding Macro
147 -------------------------
148 C-c C-c C-s @strong
149 C-c C-c C-e @emph
150 C-c C-c u @url
151 C-c C-c q @quotation
152 C-c C-c m @email
153
559cee90
DL
154** Changes in Outline mode.
155
156There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
157`outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
158the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
159
404fa7d6
DL
160** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
161groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
162
8964fec7
SM
163** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either M-x clone-buffer
164or C-u m <entry> RET. M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and
165several other special buffers.
166
39783d73
WP
167** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
168under XFree86. To enable this, simply put (mwheel-install) in your
169.emacs file.
170
171The variables `mwheel-follow-mouse' and `mwheel-scroll-amount'
172determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
173
d35fce81
GM
174** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
175abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
176`directory-abbrev-alist'.
177
df5a1902
GM
178** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
179is running in batch mode. For example,
180
181 (message "%s" (read t))
182
183will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
184to standard output.
185
a933dad1
DL
186** Faces and frame parameters.
187
188There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
189Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
190`scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
191`scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
192sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
193for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
194parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
195
196Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
197`default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
79214ddf 198`foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
a933dad1
DL
199`default' face and vice versa.
200
f77a4a8a
GM
201** New face `menu'.
202
203The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
204Setting the font of LessTif/Motif menus is currently not supported;
205attempts to set the font are ignored in this case.
206
a933dad1
DL
207** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
208
209The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
210colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
211correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
212the screen gamma of a frame's display.
213
214PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
215in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
216color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
217
218The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
219`ScreenGamma'.
220
221** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
222
223The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
224Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
225oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
226of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
227the text.
228
229** Emacs has a new face implementation.
230
231The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
232font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
233height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
234These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
235specify a font.
236
237Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
238These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
239under Lisp changes, below.
240
241** New default font is Courier 12pt.
242
243** When using a windowing terminal, Emacs window now has a cursor of
244its own. When the window is selected, the cursor is solid; otherwise,
245it is hollow.
246
247** Bitmap areas to the left and right of windows are used to display
248truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
249foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
250customizing face `fringe'.
251
252** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default. You
253can change its appearance by modifying the face `modeline'.
254
255** LessTif support.
256
257Emacs now runs with LessTif (see <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will
258need a version 0.88.1 or later.
259
260** Toolkit scroll bars.
261
262Emacs now uses toolkit scrollbars if available. When configured for
263LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scrollbar. Otherwise, when
264configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
265bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
266bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
267Emacs.
268
269When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
270Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
271Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
272Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
273define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
274`s/freebsd.h' as an example.
275
276Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
277a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
278directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
279different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
280system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
281add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
282
283The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
284`float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
285This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
286image configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
287Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
288
289** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
290
291When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
292widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
293Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
294
295** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
296
297When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
298whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
299defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
300highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
301displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
302whitespace.
303
304** Busy-cursor.
305
306Emacs can optionally display a busy-cursor under X. You can turn the
307display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
308
309** Blinking cursor
310
311M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
312terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
313and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
314the group `cursor'.
315
316** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
317
318This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
319generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
320See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
321details.
322
323Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
324have to do anything to activate it.
325
326** Tabs and variable-width text.
327
328Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
329defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
330independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
331Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
332
333** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
334
335*** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
336
337 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
338
79dd1637
RS
339The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
340LessTif/Motif one.
a933dad1 341
79dd1637
RS
342*** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
343LessTif and Motif.
a933dad1
DL
344
345** Hscrolling in C code.
346
cc181e95
GM
347Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
348`automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
349customized.
a933dad1
DL
350
351** Tool bar support.
352
353Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
354how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level changes.
355
356** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
357
358Different parts of the mode line under X have been made
359mouse-sensitive. Moving the mouse to a mouse-sensitive part in the mode
360line changes the appearance of the mouse pointer to an arrow, and help
361about available mouse actions is displayed either in the echo area, or
362in the tooltip window if you have enabled one.
363
364Currently, the following actions have been defined:
365
366- Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line switches between two
367buffers.
368
369- Mouse-2 on the buffer-name switches to the next buffer, and
370M-mouse-2 switches to the previous buffer in the buffer list.
371
372- Mouse-3 on the buffer-name displays a buffer menu.
373
559cee90 374- Mouse-2 on the read-only status in the mode line (`%' or `*')
a933dad1
DL
375toggles the read-only status.
376
377- Mouse-3 on the mode name display a minor-mode menu.
378
379** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
380
381When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
e33b0397 382from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
a933dad1
DL
383non-nil.
384
385** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
386
387Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
388Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
389the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
390italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
391Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
392attributes like overlines, strike-throught, box are ignored.
393
394** Sound support
395
396Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
397(Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
398Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
399(*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
400to enable sound support.
401
402** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
403the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
404forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
405value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
406users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
407even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
408
409The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
410
411** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
412
413As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
414drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
415`x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
416
417** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
418bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi).
419
420This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
421`indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
422variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
423
424** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
425
426When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
427value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggessively' is a
428number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
429fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
430
431When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
432value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggessively' is a
433number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
434fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
435
436** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
437notably at the end of lines.
438
439All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
440spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
441
eee54b0e
DL
442There is a new command M-x replace-rectangle.
443
a933dad1
DL
444** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
445query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
446after each match to get the replacement text.
447
f0124b4a 448** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `E' that lets you
4ff40dd0
GM
449edit the replacement string.
450
451** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB', let's
452you complete mail aliases in the text, analogous to
453lisp-complete-symbol.
454
a933dad1
DL
455** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
456
457If a message is longer than one line, or mini-buffer contents are
458longer than one line, Emacs now resizes the mini-window unless it is
459on a frame of its own. You can control the maximum mini-window size
460by setting the following variable:
461
462- User option: max-mini-window-height
463
464Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
465fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
466specifies a number of lines. If nil, don't resize.
467
468Default is 0.25.
469
0d43b60d
GM
470** Changes to hideshow.el
471
472Hideshow is now at version 5.x. It uses a new algorithms for block
473selection and traversal and includes more isearch support.
474
475*** Generalized block selection and traversal
476
477A block is now recognized by three things: its start and end regexps
478(both strings), and a match-data selector (an integer) specifying
479which sub-expression in the start regexp serves as the place where a
480`forward-sexp'-like function can operate. Hideshow always adjusts
481point to this sub-expression before calling `hs-forward-sexp-func'
482(which for most modes evaluates to `forward-sexp').
483
484If the match-data selector is not specified, it defaults to zero,
485i.e., the entire start regexp is valid, w/ no prefix. This is
486backwards compatible with previous versions of hideshow. Please see
487the docstring for variable `hs-special-modes-alist' for details.
488
489*** Isearch support for updating mode line
490
491During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active, hidden
492blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' records the
493line at the beginning of the opened block (preceding the hidden
494portion of the buffer), and the mode line is refreshed. When a block
495is re-hidden, the variable is set to nil.
496
497To show `hs-headline' in the mode line, you may wish to include
498something like this in your .emacs.
499
500 (add-hook 'hs-minor-mode-hook
501 (lambda ()
502 (add-to-list 'mode-line-format 'hs-headline)))
503
559cee90
DL
504** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
505
506If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes an
507entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
508log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
509
510New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the current
511buffer, fixing old-style date formats if necessary.
eb2aac9d
GM
512
513Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log entries
514if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
515
516The search for a file's version number is performed based on regular
517expressions from `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be
518cutomized. Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of
519a file.
520
3476b54a
GM
521** Changes in Font Lock
522
523*** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
524font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major
525mode.
526
b3b98592
GM
527** Comint (subshell) changes
528
529Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
530and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
531
532The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
533buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
534buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
535
536The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
537M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
538the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
539
e26cec67
GM
540** Changes to Rmail mode
541
c0510d27
GM
542*** The new user-option rmail-rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
543set to fine tune the identification of of the correspondent when
544receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
545recipient is taken as correspondent of a mail. If nil, the default,
546`user-login-name' and `user-mail-address' are used to exclude yourself
547as correspondent.
548
549Usually you don't have to set this variable, except if you collect
550mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
551regexp matching your mail adresses.
552
3b55acc9
GM
553*** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
554to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
555Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
556with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
557for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
558
6a1950ec
GM
559*** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
560like `j'.
561
5bb6f079
RS
562*** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
563specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
2d5e9b54 564digest message.
e26cec67 565
400a1ed0
GM
566** Changes to TeX mode
567
568The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
569`latex-mode'.
570
a933dad1
DL
571** Changes to RefTeX mode
572
573*** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
574 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
575 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
576 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
577 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
578 can be edited from that buffer.
579
580*** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
581 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
582 `A' to use all marked entries).
583
584*** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
585 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
586
587*** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
588 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
589 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
590 been cited.
591
38de9631
GM
592** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
593The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
594semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
595in column 1 are always made leaves.
596
a933dad1
DL
597** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
598has the following new features:
599
600*** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
601may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
602to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
603time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
604
605*** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
606feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
607file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
608compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
609pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
610defaults to 1.
611
612** Tooltips.
613
614Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
615mouse position. To use them, use the Lisp package `tooltip' which you
616can access via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
617
618Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
619variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
620the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
621tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
622
623** Customize changes
624
625*** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
34f94cf9
DL
626`State' menu to add comments. Note that customization comments will
627cause the customizations to fail in earlier versions of Emacs.
a933dad1
DL
628
629*** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
630Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
631default).
632
0ae51efb
GM
633*** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
634between custom options. Example:
635
636 (defcustom default-input-method nil
637 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
638 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
639 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
640 :group 'mule
641 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
642 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
643
644This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
645current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
646first in a custom-set-variables statement.
647
a933dad1
DL
648** New features in evaluation commands
649
650The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
651modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
652print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the
653customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
654eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
655
a933dad1
DL
656** Dired changes
657
658*** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
659command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
660is, delete only empty directories.
661
662*** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
663command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
664copy directories recursively.
665
f6737cde
GM
666*** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
667in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
668the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
669
a933dad1
DL
670** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
671use the -f option when sending mail.
672
b1c609b1
GM
673** CC mode changes.
674
675Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
676current user setups (although it's believed that these
677incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
678However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
679back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
680compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
681release.
682
683*** New initialization procedure for the style system.
684When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
685variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
686take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
687is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
688settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
689possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
690Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
691
692By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
693special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
694the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
695of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
696above.
697
698Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
699when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
700function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
701call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
702then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
703values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
704only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
705function documentation for more info.
706
707The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
708especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
709with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
710intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
711such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
712is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
713configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
714global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
715
716(Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
717
718**** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
719This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
720
721This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
722variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
723completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
724the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
725empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
726style system.
727
728**** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
729In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
730c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
731as far as possible.
732
733*** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
734CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
735surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
736chapter about this in the manual.
737
738**** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
739The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
740recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
741primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
742adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
743
744**** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
745This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
746c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
747
748**** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
749This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
750
751It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
752Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
753A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
754inside CC Mode.
755
756Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
757causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
758the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
759available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
760cc-mode/).
761
762**** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
763The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
764specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
765literals.
766
767**** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
768It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
769prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
770you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
771this function.
772
773*** Fixes to IDL mode.
774It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
775to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
776struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
777Thanks to Eric Eide.
778
779*** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
780It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
781opening braces hangs and when they don't.
782
783**** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
784
785*** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
786See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
787better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
788and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
789
790*** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
791previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
792the column specified by comment-column.
793
794*** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
795In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
796is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
797prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
798contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
799don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
800
801*** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
802instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
803arguments.
804
805*** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
806
807*** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
808c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
809c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
810variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
811Provan).
812
813*** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
814
c407c570
GM
815** Makefile mode changes
816
817*** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
818
819*** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
820Fontlock mode is active.
821
87be76f6
GM
822** Isearch changes
823
c407c570
GM
824** In Isearch mode, M-C-s and M-C-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
825respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
826that started the search.
827
87be76f6 828*** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
a933dad1
DL
829selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
830
87be76f6
GM
831*** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
832
d35fce81 833Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
87be76f6
GM
834`isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
835search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
836before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
837highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
838`secondary-selection'.
839
840The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
841will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
842Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
843using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
844usual snappy response.
845
846If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
847matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
848set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
849isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
850
35384f06
GM
851** Changes in sort.el
852
853The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
12c25bdc 854as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
35384f06
GM
855new user-option sort-numberic-base can be used to specify a default
856numeric base.
87be76f6 857
d7b511c4
GM
858** Changes to Ange-ftp
859
860*** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
d67f47e4
DL
861names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
862sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
863
d7b511c4
GM
864*** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
865ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
866
4b9347b3
GM
867** Shell script mode changes.
868
869Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
870derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizeable, and
871sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
872
79214ddf
FP
873** Etags changes.
874
875*** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
876
aca0be23 877*** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
8dc78b52
FP
878possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
879{lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
880This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
881a regular expression. The manual contains details.
aca0be23 882
79214ddf
FP
883*** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
884declarations when given the --declarations option.
885
886*** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
aca0be23 887"operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
79214ddf
FP
888
889*** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
890types.
891
892*** In Fortran, procedure is no more tagged.
893
894*** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
895
896*** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
897are now tagged.
898
899*** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
900variables are tagged.
901
902*** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
903
8dc78b52
FP
904*** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
905for PSWrap.
79214ddf 906
f6737cde
GM
907** Changes in etags.el
908
3f6e4b8b
GM
909*** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
910tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
911is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
912
f6737cde
GM
913*** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
914the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
915
916If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
917FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
918TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
919obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
920
921TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
922
923FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
924List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
925
926A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
927
928 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
929 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
930 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
931
932*** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
933of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
934
935*** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
936names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
937
fbc164de
PE
938** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
939and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
940LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
941
59c1bf85
DL
942** New language environments `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
943These correspond respectively to the ISO character sets 8859-14
944(Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign). There is
945currently no specific input method support for them.
946
e33b0397
DL
947** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sqeuence-nos' to
948remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
949appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
950
951** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
952
6f8ea2ae
DL
953** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
954
c0510d27
GM
955** The Dabbrev package has a new user-option `dabbrev-ignore-regexps'
956containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
957expression from that list, are not checked.
958
a933dad1
DL
959** New modes and packages
960
578979ee
GM
961*** The Ebrowse package implements a C++ class browser and tags
962facilities tailored for use with C++. It is documented in a
963separate Texinfo file.
964
dc1178bf
SM
965*** The PCL-CVS package available by either running M-x cvs-examine
966or by visiting a CVS administrative directory (with a prefix argument)
967provides an alternative interface to VC-dired for CVS.
968It comes with log-view-mode to view RCS and SCCS logs and log-edit-mode
969used to enter checkin log messages.
970
6abca616
EZ
971*** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
972without invoking external programs.
973
974The command `M-x woman' formats manual pages entirely in Emacs Lisp
975and then displays them, like `M-x manual-entry' does. Unlike
976`manual-entry', `woman' does not invoke any external programs, so it
977is useful on systems such as MS-DOS/MS-Windows where the `man' and
490f2e7b 978Groff or `troff' commands are not readily available.
6abca616
EZ
979
980The command `M-x woman-find-file' asks for the file name of a man
981page, then formats and displays it like `M-x woman' does.
982
5e5dff44
GM
983*** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
984authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
985
986The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
987the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
988the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
989Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
990even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
991single step.
992
993On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
994matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
995probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
996contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
997
f7136ee8
GM
998*** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
999unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
1000actually modifying content of a buffer.
1001
bbd9b566
GM
1002*** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
1003PostScript.
1004
1005Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
1006
1007The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
1008
1009 ; comment (until end of line)
1010 A non-terminal
1011 "C" terminal
1012 ?C? special
1013 $A default non-terminal
1014 $"C" default terminal
1015 $?C? default special
1016 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
1017 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
1018 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
1019 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
1020 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
1021 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
1022 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
1023 C+ one or more occurrences of C
1024 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
1025 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
1026 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
1027 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
1028 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
1029 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
1030 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
1031
1032Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
1033
99453a38
GM
1034*** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
1035align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
1036determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
1037example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
1038equal signs of assignments.
1039
559cee90
DL
1040*** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
1041paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
1042
6448a6b3
GM
1043*** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
1044list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
1045buffer menu with this package. You can use M-x bs-customize to
1046customize the package.
1047
249652b1
GM
1048*** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
1049replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
1050is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
1051and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
1052not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
1053which answers different needs.
1054
3476b54a
GM
1055*** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
1056suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
1057expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
1058course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
1059reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
1060to be enabled.
1061
8964fec7
SM
1062*** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
1063containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
1064
a933dad1
DL
1065*** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
1066
1067*** hl-line.el provides a minor mode to highlight the current line.
1068
1069*** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
1070
1071*** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
1072Pascal) language.
1073
1074*** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
1075the text at point.
1076
1077*** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
1078
8d54eb69
DL
1079*** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
1080
a933dad1
DL
1081*** whitespace.el ???
1082
ebcfda83
GM
1083*** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
1084files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
1085(very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
1086interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
1087often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
1088uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
1089codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
1090
1091*** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
1092
1093Here is an example of columns:
1094
1095horse apple bus
1096dog pineapple car EXTRA
1097porcupine strawberry airplane
1098
1099Doing the following settings:
1100
1101 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
1102 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
1103 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
1104 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
1105
1106
1107Selecting the lines above and typing:
1108
1109 M-x delimit-columns-region
1110
1111It results:
1112
1113[ horse , apple , bus , ]
1114[ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
1115[ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
1116
1117delim-col has the following options:
1118
1119 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
1120 before all columns.
1121
1122 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
1123 between each column.
1124
1125 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
1126 after all columns.
1127
1128 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
1129 each column.
1130
1131delim-col has the following commands:
1132
1133 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
1134 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
1135
f507826c
GM
1136*** The package recentf.el maintains a menu for visiting files that
1137were operated on recently. When enabled, a new "Open Recent" submenu
1138is displayed in the "Files" menu.
1139
1140The recent files list is automatically saved across Emacs sessions.
1141
1142To enable/disable recentf use M-x recentf-mode.
1143
1144To enable recentf at Emacs startup use
1145M-x customize-variable RET recentf-mode RET.
1146
1147To change the number of recent files displayed and others options use
1148M-x customize-group RET recentf RET.
1149
8062f458
DL
1150*** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
1151text.
1152
36e24b82 1153*** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
91735437
DL
1154of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
1155specific to Message mode.
1156
36e24b82
DL
1157*** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
1158viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
1159with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
1160
aaa659ef
DL
1161*** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
1162interface to access directory servers using different directory
1163protocols. It has a separate manual.
1164
eee54b0e
DL
1165*** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
1166for Autoconf, selected automatically.
1167
612839b6
GM
1168*** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
1169
1170*** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
1171minibuffer with completion.
aaa659ef 1172
399da7e3
DL
1173*** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
1174with the diary features.
1175
6e417ca5
DL
1176*** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
1177numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
1178
a933dad1
DL
1179** Withdrawn packages
1180
1181*** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
1182functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
25a81338 1183
3261c1d8
DL
1184*** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
1185
1186*** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
ce75fd23
GM
1187
1188\f
1189* Lisp changes made after edition 2.6 of the Emacs Lisp Manual,
1190(Display-related features are described in a page of their own below.)
1191
a933dad1
DL
1192\f
1193* Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
1194
1195Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
1196--- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
1197When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
1198so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
1199
399da7e3 1200+++
f0124b4a
DL
1201** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
1202that offset in the file before writing.
1203
3bbc50af
DL
1204** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments, as
1205promised long ago.
1206
7464346d
GM
1207** The function `add-minor-mode' simplifies the definition of minor
1208modes.
1209
c94f4677 1210- Function: add-minor-mode TOGGLE NAME &optional KEYMAP AFTER TOGGLE-FUN
7464346d 1211
c94f4677
GM
1212Register a new minor mode.
1213
1214TOGGLE is a symbol which is the name of a buffer-local variable that
1215is toggled on or off to say whether the minor mode is active or not.
1216
1217NAME specifies what will appear in the mode line when the minor mode
1218is active. NAME should be either a string starting with a space, or a
1219symbol whose value is such a string.
1220
1221Optional KEYMAP is the keymap for the minor mode that will be added
1222to `minor-mode-map-alist'.
1223
1224Optional AFTER specifies that TOGGLE should be added after AFTER
1225in `minor-mode-alist'.
1226
1227Optional TOGGLE-FUN is there for compatiblity with other Emacssen.
1228It is currently not used.
7464346d 1229
612839b6
GM
1230** The function `shell-command' now sets the default directory of the
1231`*Shell Command Output*' buffer to the default directory of the buffer
1232from which the command was issued.
1233
1234** The functions `query-replace', `query-replace-regexp',
1235`query-replace-regexp-eval' `map-query-replace-regexp',
1236`replace-string', `replace-regexp', and `perform-replace' take two
1237additional optional arguments START and END that specify the region to
1238operate on.
1239
271b4185
GM
1240** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
1241to `window-buffer-height'.
1242
1243- Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
1244
1245Return the number of screen lines in the region between BEG and END.
1246The number of screen lines may be different from the number of actual
1247lines, due to line breaking, display table, etc.
1248
1249Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
1250respectively.
1251
1252If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optinal third argument
1253COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
1254
1255The optional fourth argument WINDOW specifies the window used for
1256obtaining parameters such as width, horizontal scrolling, and so
1257on. The default is to use the selected window's parameters.
1258
1259Like `vertical-motion', `count-screen-lines' always uses the current
1260buffer, regardless of which buffer is displayed in WINDOW. This makes
1261possible to use `count-screen-lines' in any buffer, whether or not it
1262is currently displayed in some window.
1263
3c30cb6e
DL
1264** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
1265argument function's results.
1266
62f20204
GM
1267** The functions base64-decode-region and base64-decode-string now
1268signal an error instead of returning nil if decoding fails.
1269
c0510d27
GM
1270** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
1271header is the list of headers passed to it.
1272
1273** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
1274ignores differences in case and text representation.
1275
1276** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
19d1bc27
GM
1277cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
1278as follows:
1279
1280 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
1281 nil don't display a cursor
1282 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
1283 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
1284 others display a box cursor.
1285
9a0dd3dc
GM
1286** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
1287an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
1288defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
1289set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
1290
d7b511c4 1291** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
dc1178bf 1292specifications in string form as accepted by `modify-syntax-entry' to
d7b511c4
GM
1293the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
1294text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
1295
1296Example:
1297
1298 (string-to-syntax "()")
1299 => (4 . 41)
1300
1fa28578
GM
1301** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
1302other than 10.
1303
1304*** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
1305INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
1306
1307 #b1111
1308 => 15
1309 #b-1111
1310 => -15
1311
1312*** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
1313
1314 #o666
1315 => 438
1316
1317*** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
1318
1319 #xbeef
1320 => 48815
1321
1322*** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
1323
1324 #2R-111
1325 => -7
1326 #25rah
1327 => 267
1328
3d4ff2dd 1329** The function `documentation-property' now evaluates the value of
e9b4e5ff
GM
1330the given property to obtain a a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
1331and isn't a string.
1332
3d4ff2dd
GM
1333** If called for a symbol, the function `documentation' now looks for
1334a `function-documentation' property of that symbol. If it has a non-nil
1335value, the documentation is taken from that value. If the value is
1336not a string, it is evaluated to obtain a string.
1337
16ce590d
DL
1338+++
1339** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
1340
73825616 1341** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
16ce590d
DL
1342for a regexp in a string.
1343
1344** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
1345`mouse-position-function'.
1346
723e779c
GM
1347** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
1348that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
1349
d1e103b2
GM
1350** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
1351Keywords are now always considered constants.
1352
31047e0d
DL
1353+++
1354** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
1355returns it.
1356
7a85e4df
GM
1357** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
1358returned by function `recent-keys'.
1359
02b14400
RS
1360+++
1361** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
1362can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
1363Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding M-C-a
1364etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
1365mode.
404fa7d6 1366
02b14400 1367+++
8964fec7
SM
1368** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
1369and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
1370
02b14400
RS
1371+++
1372** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
1373has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
1374function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
1375returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
1376been performed."
1377
1378When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
1379and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
1380hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
1381then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
ef961722 1382
02b14400 1383+++
81da8b32
GM
1384** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
1385In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
1386and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
1387
02b14400 1388+++
9e207b90
GM
1389** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
1390with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
1391specified table.
1392
1393 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
1394
1395Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
03d9c64c
GM
1396TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
1397saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
1398what BODY returns.
9e207b90 1399
02b14400 1400+++
d7f89643 1401** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
95cd4c40 1402Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
8964fec7 1403
02b14400 1404+++
dde9e75a
GM
1405** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
1406removed since it wasn't used by anything.
1407
02b14400 1408+++
9da30515
GM
1409** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
1410instead of being optional.
1411
02b14400 1412+++
d20679eb
GM
1413** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
1414modify read-only text.
1415
02b14400 1416+++
fbc164de
PE
1417** New functions and variables for locales.
1418
1419The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
1420decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
b718982a
PE
1421time functions like strftime. The new variables
1422`system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
1423locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
fbc164de
PE
1424
1425The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
1426environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
1427the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
b718982a
PE
1428environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
1429not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
1430`locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
1431`locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
fbc164de 1432
02b14400 1433+++
863476d1
SM
1434** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
1435To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
1436modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
1437start sequences.
1438
02b14400 1439+++
ef6d912c
GM
1440** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
1441because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
1442
02b14400 1443+++
a933dad1
DL
1444** New function `propertize'
1445
1446The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
1447strings with text properties.
1448
1449- Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
1450
1451Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
1452by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
1453PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
1454specified value of that property. Example:
1455
1456 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
1457
1458+++
1459** push and pop macros.
1460
02b14400
RS
1461Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
1462are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
a933dad1
DL
1463as the place that holds the list to be changed.
1464
1465(push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
1466(pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
1467 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
1468
02b14400
RS
1469** New dolist and dotimes macros.
1470
6c7fd5aa
RS
1471Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
1472are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
02b14400
RS
1473
1474(dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
1475 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
1476 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
1477 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
1478
1479(dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
1480 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
1481 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
1482 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
1483
a933dad1
DL
1484+++
1485** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such
1486as [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on.
1487
1488[:digit:] matches 0 through 9
1489[:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
1490[:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
1491[:blank:] matches space and tab only
1492[:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
1493 space, and DEL.
1494[:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
1495 and DEL.
1496[:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
1497 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1498 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
1499[:alpha:] matches letters.
1500 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1501 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
1502[:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
1503[:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
1504[:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
1505[:punct:] matches punctuation.
1506 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1507 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
1508[:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
1509[:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
1510[:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
1511
1512+++
1513** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
1514
1515The following functions are defined for hash tables:
1516
1517- Function: make-hash-table ARGS
1518
1519The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
1520are optional. The following arguments are defined:
1521
1522:test TEST
1523
1524TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
1525Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
1526it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
1527
1528:size SIZE
1529
1530SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
1531many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
1532
1533:rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
1534
1535REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
1536full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
1537size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
15381.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
1539old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
1540
1541:rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
1542
1543THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
1544hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
1545(size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
1546
1547:weakness WEAK
1548
1549WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value', or t.
1550Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage collection if
1551their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere outside of the
1552hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
1553
1554- Function: makehash &optional TEST
1555
1556Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
1557
1558- Function: hash-table-p TABLE
1559
1560Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
1561
1562- Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
1563
1564Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
1565values are shared.
1566
1567- Function: hash-table-count TABLE
1568
1569Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
1570
1571- Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
1572
1573Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
1574
1575- Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
1576
1577Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
1578
1579- Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
1580
1581Returns the size of TABLE.
1582
1583- Function: hash-table-rehash-test TABLE
1584
1585Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
1586
1587- Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
1588
1589Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
1590
1591- Function: clrhash TABLE
1592
1593Clear TABLE.
1594
1595- Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
1596
1597Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
1598not found.
1599
79214ddf 1600- Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
a933dad1
DL
1601
1602Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
1603another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
1604
1605- Function: remhash KEY TABLE
1606
1607Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
1608
1609- Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
1610
1611Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
1612arguments KEY and VALUE.
1613
1614- Function: sxhash OBJ
1615
1616Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
1617
1618- Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
1619
1620Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
1621a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
79214ddf 1622comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
a933dad1
DL
1623and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
1624of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
1625
1626TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
1627
1628HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
1629code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
1630integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
1631
1632Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
1633be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
1634
1635 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
1636 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
1637
1638 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
1639 (sxhash (upcase a)))
1640
79214ddf 1641 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
a933dad1
DL
1642 'case-fold-string-hash))
1643
1644 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
1645
1646+++
1647** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
1648
1649It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
1650circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
1651a cons cell which is its own cdr.
1652
1653+++
1654** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
1655
1656If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
1657#N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
1658
a933dad1
DL
1659+++
1660** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
1661t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
1662specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
1663is too short to reach that column.
1664
1665+++
1666** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
1667now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
1668after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
1669two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
1670
1671If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
1672perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
1673and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
1674
1675+++
1676** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
1677to specify which buffer to return the size of.
1678
1679+++
1680** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
1681calendar-move-hook after moving point.
1682
1683+++
1684** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
1685directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
1686small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
1687small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
1688temporary-file-directory instead.
1689
1690+++
1691** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
1692the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
1693`before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
1694hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
1695
1696+++
1697** assoc-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
1698elements of an alist which have a particular value as the car.
1699
1700+++
1701** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
1702
1703make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
1704creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
1705ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
1706
1707+++
1708** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
1709
1710The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
1711on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
1712is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
1713never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
1714ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
1715overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
1716
1717If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
1718that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
1719to get an error if the file exists at that time.
1720The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
1721
1722+++
1723** Function `format' now handles text properties.
1724
1725Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
1726If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
1727ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
1728result string.
1729
1730Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
1731string where arguments appear in the result string.
1732
1733Example:
1734
1735 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
1736 (s2 "world"))
1737 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
1738 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
b246b1f6 1739 (format s1 s2))
a933dad1
DL
1740
1741results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
1742
1743+++
1744** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
1745
1746Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
1747The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
1748argument in it.
1749
1750 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
1751 (arg "world"))
1752 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
1753 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
1754 (message msg arg))
1755
1756+++
1757** Sound support
1758
1759Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
1760(Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
1761
1762Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
1763(*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
1764to enable sound support.
1765
1766Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
1767list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
1768when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
1769functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
1770sound to play, before playing the sound.
1771
1772The following sound properties are supported:
1773
1774- `:file FILE'
1775
1776FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
1777searched relative to `data-directory'.
1778
6fb40beb
GM
1779- `:data DATA'
1780
1781DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
1782may be present, but not both.
1783
a933dad1
DL
1784- `:volume VOLUME'
1785
1786VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
17870..1. This property is optional.
1788
1789Other properties are ignored.
1790
1791** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
356673d4
DL
1792
1793** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
1794a keyword symbol.
fc91dc2d
GM
1795
1796** Changes to garbage collection
1797
1798*** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
1799of live and free strings.
1800
1801*** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
1802strings that have been consed so far.
1803
a933dad1
DL
1804\f
1805* New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
1806
1807Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
1808--- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
1809When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
1810so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
1811
f6d3257b
GM
1812** The function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors can be used
1813to make Emacs avoid displaying text with bold black foreground on TTYs.
1814
1815Some terminals, notably PC consoles, emulate bold text by displaying
1816text in brighter colors. On such a console, a bold black foreground
1817is displayed in a gray color. If this turns out to be hard to read on
1818your monitor---the problem occurred with the mode line on
1819laptops---you can instruct Emacs to ignore the text's boldness, and to
1820just display it black instead.
1821
1822This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
1823a line like
1824
1825 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
1826
1827in your `.emacs'.
1828
a933dad1
DL
1829** New face implementation.
1830
1831Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
1832font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
1833
1834+++
1835*** New faces.
1836
1837Each face can specify the following display attributes:
1838
1839 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
79214ddf 1840
a933dad1
DL
1841 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
1842 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
79214ddf 1843
a933dad1 1844 3. Font height in 1/10pt
79214ddf 1845
a933dad1 1846 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
79214ddf 1847
a933dad1 1848 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
79214ddf 1849
a933dad1 1850 6. Foreground color.
79214ddf 1851
a933dad1
DL
1852 7. Background color.
1853
1854 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
1855
1856 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
1857
1858 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
1859
1860 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
1861
1862 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
1863 color.
1864
1865 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
1866 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
1867
1868Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
1869same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
1870frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
1871faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
1872with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each each of the face
1873attributes mentioned above.
1874
1875There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
1876definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
1877created frames.
79214ddf 1878
a933dad1
DL
1879A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
1880have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
1881`fully-specified'.
1882
1883+++
1884*** Face merging.
1885
1886The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
1887combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
1888aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
1889properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
1890that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
1891results in a fully-specified face.
1892
1893+++
1894*** Face realization.
1895
1896After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
1897merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
1898realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
1899available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
1900face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
1901cache of the frame on which it was realized.
1902
1903Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
1904character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
1905for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
1906charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
1907
1908Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
1909specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
1910being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
1911the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
1912statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
1913
1914In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
1915`char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
19160x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
1917the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
1918initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
1919Emacs.
1920
1921Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
1922`enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
1923registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
1924with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
1925
1926++++
1927**** Clearing face caches.
1928
1929The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
1930on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
1931unused fonts.
1932
1933+++
1934*** Font selection.
79214ddf 1935
a933dad1
DL
1936Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
1937given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
1938for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
1939
1940If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
1941pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
1942family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
1943property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
1944an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
1945
1946Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
1947against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
1948match for the given face attributes in this font list.
1949
1950Font selection can be influenced by the user.
1951
1952The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
1953attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
1954face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
1955names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
1956that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
1957width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
1958to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
1959
1960Setting `face-alternative-font-family-alist' allows the user to
1961specify alternative font families to try if a family specified by a
1962face doesn't exist.
1963
1964+++
1965**** Scalable fonts
1966
1967Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
1968since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
1969servers.
1970
1971To enable scalable font use, set the variable
b246b1f6 1972`scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
a933dad1
DL
1973scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
1974Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
1975scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
1976that list. Example:
1977
1978 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
1979
1980allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
1981
1982+++
1983*** Functions and variables related to font selection.
1984
1985- Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
1986
1987Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
1988is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
1989string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
1990
1991If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
1992the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
1993FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
1994POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
1995SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
1996These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
1997if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
1998REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
1999the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
2000of the face font sort order.
2001
79214ddf 2002- Function: x-font-family-list
a933dad1
DL
2003
2004Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
2005omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
2006(FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
2007non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
2008
2009- Variable: font-list-limit
2010
2011Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
2012won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
2013matching font. The default is currently 100.
2014
2015+++
2016*** Setting face attributes.
2017
2018For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
2019with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
2020implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
2021`face-attribute'.
2022
2023Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
2024symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
2025
2026The following attributes are recognized:
2027
2028`:family'
2029
2030VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
2031or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
2032and `?' are allowed.
2033
2034`:width'
2035
2036VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
2037It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
2038`condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
2039`extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
2040
2041`:height'
2042
2043VALUE must be an integer specifying the height of the font to use in
20441/10 pt.
2045
2046`:weight'
2047
2048VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
2049symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
2050`semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
2051
2052`:slant'
2053
2054VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
2055symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
2056`reverse-oblique'.
2057
2058`:foreground', `:background'
2059
2060VALUE must be a color name, a string.
2061
2062`:underline'
2063
2064VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
2065VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
2066a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
2067don't underline.
2068
2069`:overline'
2070
2071VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
2072VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
2073string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
2074overline.
2075
2076`:strike-through'
2077
2078VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
2079striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
2080face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
2081is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
2082
2083`:box'
2084
2085VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
2086around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
2087VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
2088of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
2089and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
2090VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
2091:color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
2092the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
2093specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
2094defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
2095the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
2096color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
2097should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
2098like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
2099that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
2100the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
2101box.
2102
2103`:inverse-video'
2104
2105VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
2106inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
2107
2108`:stipple'
2109
2110If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
2111The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
2112searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
2113HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
2114is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
2115explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
2116
2117For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
2118and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
2119
2120`:font'
2121
2122Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
2123XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
2124is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
2125versions of Emacs.
2126
2127For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
2128be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
2129must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
2130
2131Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
2132`defface'.
2133
2134*** Face attributes and X resources
2135
2136The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
2137from X resources:
2138
2139 Face attribute X resource class
2140-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2141 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
2142 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
2143 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
2144 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
2145 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
2146 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
2147 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
2148 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
2149 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
2150 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
2151 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
2152 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
2153 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
79214ddf 2154 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
a933dad1
DL
2155 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
2156 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
2157 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
2158 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
2159 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
2160
2161+++
2162*** Text property `face'.
2163
2164The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
2165specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
2166specification can be
2167
21681. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
2169
21702. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
2171 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
2172 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
2173 for face attribute names.
2174
21753. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
2176 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
2177 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
2178
2179+++
2180** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
2181
acf3ecb7
EZ
2182The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
2183on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
2184the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
a933dad1 2185default. You can get defined colors with a call to
acf3ecb7 2186`defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
a933dad1
DL
2187used to clear the mapping table.
2188
acf3ecb7
EZ
2189** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
2190
2191The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
2192and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
2193type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
2194color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
2195display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
2196old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
2197`x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
2198compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
2199should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
2200modify their color-related behavior.
2201
2202The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
2203any frame type.
2204
8a5719f0
EZ
2205** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
2206
2207The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
2208`display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
2209`display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
2210`display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
2211`display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
2212`display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
2213display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
2214the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
2215platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
2216
a933dad1
DL
2217+++
2218** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
a933dad1 2219
463cac2d 2220This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
a933dad1
DL
2221
2222The function minubuffer-prompt-end returns the current position of the
2223end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
2224Otherwise, it returns zero.
2225
463cac2d
GM
2226** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
2227
2228There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
2229buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
2230text-property.
2231
9a9dfda8 2232Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
463cac2d 2233forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
9a9dfda8 2234to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
463cac2d 2235not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
fc7ac24f
GM
2236commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
2237boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
2238`inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
2239functions.
463cac2d
GM
2240
2241Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
9a9dfda8 2242a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
463cac2d 2243editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
a933dad1 2244
9a9dfda8
GM
2245The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
2246
2247- Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE
2248
2249Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
2250A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2251If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
2252constrained position if that is is different.
2253
2254If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
2255positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
2256ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
2257constrained to the field that has the same `field' text-property
2258as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2259is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
2260fields.
2261
2262If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
2263NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
2264unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
2265C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
2266only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
2267
2268- Function: erase-field &optional POS
2269
2270Erases the field surrounding POS.
2271A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2272If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
2273
2274- Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2275
2276Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
2277A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2278If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
2279If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is already at beginning of an
2280field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
2281
2282- Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2283
2284Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
2285A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2286If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
2287If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is already at end of a field,
2288then the end of the *following* field is returned.
2289
2290- Function: field-string &optional POS
2291
2292Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
2293A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2294If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
2295
2296- Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
2297
2298Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
2299A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2300If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
2301
a933dad1
DL
2302+++
2303** Image support.
2304
2305Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
2306strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
2307(AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
2308replaces the display of the characters having that property.
2309
2310If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
2311`(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
2312AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
2313window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
2314area.
2315
2316IMAGE is an image specification.
2317
2318*** Image specifications
2319
2320Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
2321is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
2322specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
35a5514b
GM
2323symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
2324described below are ignored.
a933dad1
DL
2325
2326The following is a list of properties all image types share.
2327
2328`:ascent ASCENT'
2329
576da55d
GM
2330ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, or the symbol `center'.
2331If it is a number, it specifies the percentage of the image's height
2332to use for its ascent.
2333
2334If not specified, ASCENT defaults to the value 50 which means that the
2335image will be centered with the base line of the row it appears in.
2336
2337If ASCENT is `center' the image is vertically centered with text drawn
2338in the same face as the image. The point the image is aligned with is
2339the middle of the height of the face's font. That point is usually
2340different from the font's base line.
a933dad1
DL
2341
2342`:margin MARGIN'
2343
79214ddf 2344MARGIN must be a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put as
a933dad1
DL
2345margin around the image. Default is 0.
2346
2347`:relief RELIEF'
2348
2349RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
2350around an image.
2351
2352`:algorithm ALGO'
2353
2354Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it. ALGO must
2355be a symbol specifying the algorithm. Currently only `laplace' is
2356supported which applies a Laplace edge detection algorithm to an image
2357which is intended to display images "disabled."
2358
2359`:heuristic-mask BG'
2360
2361If BG is not nil, build a clipping mask for the image, so that the
2362background of a frame is visible behind the image. If BG is t,
2363determine the background color of the image by looking at the 4
2364corners of the image, assuming the most frequently occuring color from
2365the corners is the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must
2366be a list `(RED GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the
2367background of the image.
2368
2369`:file FILE'
2370
2371Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
2372search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
2373building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
2374may be present in the image specification.
2375
518df5c4
GM
2376`:data DATA'
2377
2378Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
2379supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
2380present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
2381support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
2382
a933dad1
DL
2383*** Supported image types
2384
b246b1f6 2385**** XBM, image type `xbm'.
a933dad1
DL
2386
2387XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
2388properties supported are
2389
2390`:foreground FG'
2391
2392FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default
2393is the frame's foreground.
2394
2395`:background FG'
2396
2397BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default is
2398the frame's background color.
2399
2400XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
2401case, the image specification must contain the following properties
2402instead of a `:file' property.
2403
2404`:width WIDTH'
2405
2406WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
2407
2408`:height HEIGHT'
2409
2410HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
2411
2412`:data DATA'
2413
2414DATA must be either
2415
2416 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
2417 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
2418
2419 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
2420
2421 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
2422 bitmap.
2423
c76e04a8
GM
2424 4. a string that's an in-memory XBM file. Neither width nor
2425 height may be specified in this case because these are defined
2426 in the file.
2427
a933dad1
DL
2428**** XPM, image type `xpm'
2429
2430XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
2431`xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
2432found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
2433`--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
2434
2435Additional image properties supported are:
2436
2437`:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
2438
2439SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
2440name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
2441name.
2442
2443XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
2444add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
2445
a933dad1
DL
2446The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
2447to display compressed images.
2448
2449**** PBM, image type `pbm'
2450
2451PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
2452mono images are supported. There are no additional image properties
2453defined.
2454
2455**** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
2456
2457Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
3bd37feb
GM
2458package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. Additional image properties
2459are:
2460
a933dad1
DL
2461**** TIFF, image type `tiff'
2462
2463Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
2464package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
2465properties defined.
2466
2467**** GIF, image type `gif'
2468
2469Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
2470`libungif-4.1.0', or later.
2471
2472Additional image properties supported are:
2473
2474`:index INDEX'
2475
2476INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
2477multi-image GIF file. An error is signalled if INDEX is too large.
2478
2479This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
2480For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
2481at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
2482every 0.1 seconds.
2483
2484(defun show-anim (file max)
2485 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
2486 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
2487
2488(defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
2489 (when (= idx max)
2490 (setq idx 0))
518df5c4 2491 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
a933dad1
DL
2492 (save-excursion
2493 (set-buffer buffer)
2494 (goto-char (point-min))
2495 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
2496 (insert-image img "x"))
2497 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
2498
2499**** PNG, image type `png'
2500
2501Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
2502package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
2503properties defined.
2504
2505**** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
2506
2507Additional image properties supported are:
2508
2509`:pt-width WIDTH'
2510
2511WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
b246b1f6 2512integer. This is a required property.
a933dad1
DL
2513
2514`:pt-height HEIGHT'
2515
2516HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
b246b1f6 2517must be a integer. This is an required property.
a933dad1
DL
2518
2519`:bounding-box BOX'
2520
2521BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
2522the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
2523files. This is an required property.
2524
2525Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
2526lisp/gs.el.
2527
2528*** Lisp interface.
2529
79214ddf
FP
2530The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
2531which are supported in the current configuration.
a933dad1
DL
2532
2533Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
2534they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
2535The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
084cec2f
GM
2536manually. Images in the cache are compared with `equal', i.e. all
2537images with `equal' specifications share the same image.
a933dad1
DL
2538
2539*** Simplified image API, image.el
2540
2541The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
2542creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
2543can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
2544define an image based on available image types. The functions
2545`put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
2546buffer.
2547
2548+++
2549** Display margins.
2550
2551Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
2552and images.
2553
2554To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
2555`left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
2556`set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
2557obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
2558`right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
2559the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
2560of the display margins.
2561
2562You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
2563containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
2564one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
2565string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
2566in this file).
2567
2568+++
2569** Help display
2570
2571Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
2572moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
2573`help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
2574that have a `help-echo' property.
2575
2576The value of the `help-echo' property must be a string. For tool-bar
2577items, their key definition is used to determine the help to display.
2578If their definition contains a property `:help FORM', FORM is
2579evaluated to determine the help string. Otherwise, the caption of the
2580tool-bar item is used.
2581
2582The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
2583help differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window causes the
2584help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
2585
2586+++
2587** Vertical fractional scrolling.
2588
2589The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
2590This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
2591
2592The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
2593scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
2594The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
2595scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
2596used.
2597
79214ddf
FP
2598 (global-set-key [A-down]
2599 #'(lambda ()
a933dad1 2600 (interactive)
79214ddf 2601 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
a933dad1 2602 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
79214ddf 2603 (global-set-key [A-up]
a933dad1
DL
2604 #'(lambda ()
2605 (interactive)
79214ddf 2606 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
a933dad1
DL
2607 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
2608
2609+++
2610** New hook `fontification-functions'.
2611
2612Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
2613when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
2614variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
2615is called with one argument, POS.
2616
2617At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
2618characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
2619as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
2620property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
2621`fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
2622
2623+++
2624** Tool bar support.
2625
2626Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
2627parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
2628controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
2629suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
2630`auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
2631automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
2632
2633*** Tool bar item definitions
2634
2635Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
2636`tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
2637where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
79214ddf 2638
a933dad1
DL
2639CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
2640evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
2641the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
2642property (see below).
79214ddf 2643
a933dad1
DL
2644BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
2645binding are currently ignored.
2646
2647The following properties are recognized:
2648
2649`:enable FORM'.
79214ddf 2650
a933dad1
DL
2651FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
2652or disabled.
79214ddf 2653
a933dad1 2654`:visible FORM'
79214ddf 2655
a933dad1 2656FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
79214ddf 2657
a933dad1
DL
2658`:filter FUNCTION'
2659
2660FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
2661FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
2662used instead of BINDING to display this item.
79214ddf 2663
a933dad1
DL
2664`:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
2665
2666TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
2667and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
79214ddf 2668
a933dad1
DL
2669`:image IMAGES'
2670
2671IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
2672image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
2673meaning of each of the four elements:
2674
2675 Index Use when item is
2676 ----------------------------------------
2677 0 enabled and selected
2678 1 enabled and deselected
2679 2 disabled and selected
2680 3 disabled and deselected
79214ddf 2681
4ba7246d
GM
2682If IMAGE is a single image specification, a Laplace edge-detection
2683algorithm is used on that image to draw the image in disabled state.
2684
a933dad1 2685`:help HELP-STRING'.
79214ddf 2686
a933dad1
DL
2687Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
2688is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
2689
2690*** Tool-bar-related variables.
2691
2692If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
2693resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
2694than 1/4 of the frame's size.
2695
79214ddf 2696If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
a933dad1
DL
2697raised when the mouse moves over them.
2698
2699You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
2700`tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
2701pixels. Default is 1.
2702
2703You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
2704`tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
2705
2706*** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
2707
2708You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
79214ddf 2709a tool bar item. If
a933dad1
DL
2710
2711 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
2712 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
2713 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
2714
2715is the original tool bar item definition, then
2716
2717 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
2718
2719makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
2720item.
2721
2722** Mode line changes.
2723
2724+++
2725*** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
2726
2727The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
2728that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
2729a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
2730
27311. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
2732a `local-map' text property.
2733
27342. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
2735that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
2736
27373. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
2738is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
2739`local-map' property.
2740
2741The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
2742properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
2743example.
2744
54522c9f
GM
2745*** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
2746evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
2747
a933dad1
DL
2748+++
2749*** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
2750variable mode-line-format to nil.
2751
2752+++
2753*** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
2754
2755This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
2756`header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
2757completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
2758`default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
2759line.
2760
2761The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
2762`header-line'.
2763
2764The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
2765position in the header-line.
2766
2767+++
2768** Text property `display'
2769
2770The `display' text property is used to insert images into text, and
2771also control other aspects of how text displays. The value of the
2772`display' property should be a display specification, as described
2773below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
2774
2775*** Variable width and height spaces
2776
2777To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
2778specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
2779`(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
2780area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
2781marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
2782displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
2783simpler form STRETCH as property value.
2784
2785The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
2786PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
2787properties described below.
2788
2789The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
2790characters having the `display' property.
2791
2792- :width WIDTH
2793
2794Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
2795character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
2796
2797- :relative-width FACTOR
2798
2799Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
2800first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
2801same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
2802width of that character by FACTOR.
2803
2804- :align-to HPOS
2805
2806Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
2807value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
2808
2809Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
2810
2811- :height HEIGHT
2812
2813Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
2814normal line height.
2815
2816- :relative-height FACTOR
2817
2818The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
2819of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
2820
2821- :ascent ASCENT
2822
2823Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
2824used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
2825baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
2826equal to 100.
2827
2828You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
2829
2830*** Images
2831
2832A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
2833. IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
2834in the display, the characters having this display specification in
2835their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
2836the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
2837`(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
2838area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
2839the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
2840as display specification.
2841
2842*** Other display properties
2843
2844- :space-width FACTOR
2845
2846Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
2847should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
2848integer or float.
2849
2850- :height HEIGHT
2851
2852Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
2853
2854If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
2855means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
2856the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
2857``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
2858a font is available counts as a step.
2859
2860If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
2861as tall as the frame's default font.
2862
2863If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
2864height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
2865
2866Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
2867`height' bound to the current specified font height.
2868
2869- :raise FACTOR
2870
2871FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
2872font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
2873raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
2874amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
2875`:height' subproperty.
2876
2877*** Conditional display properties
2878
2879All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
2880has the form `(:when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC
2881applies only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated.
2882During evaluattion, point is temporarily set to the end position of
2883the text having the `display' property.
2884
2885The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
2886`(:when t SPEC)'.
2887
2888+++
2889** New menu separator types.
2890
2891Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
2892item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
2893treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
2894to specify other menu separator types.
2895
2896- `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
2897
2898No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
2899separator occurs.
2900
2901- `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
2902
2903A single line in the menu's foreground color.
2904
2905- `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
2906
2907A double line in the menu's foreground color.
2908
2909- `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
2910
2911A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
2912
2913- `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
2914
2915A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
2916
2917- `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
2918
2919A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the the form
2920displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
2921
2922- `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
2923
2924A single line with 3D raised appearance.
2925
2926- `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
2927
2928A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
2929
2930- `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
2931
2932A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
2933
2934- `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
2935
2936Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
2937
2938- `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
2939
2940Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
2941
2942- `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
2943
2944Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
2945
2946- `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
2947
2948Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
2949
2950Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
2951the corresponding single-line separators.
2952
2953+++
2954** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
2955
2956The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
2957`scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
2958Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
2959that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
2960default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
2961default background is the background color of the frame, and the
2962default foreground is black.
2963
2964The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
2965(class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
2966`ScrollBarBackground').
2967
2968Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
2969settings for scroll bar colors.
2970
2971+++
2972** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
2973display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
2974
2975---
2976** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
2977starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
2978on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
2979line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
2980the original window start.
2981
2982---
2983** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
2984`hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
2985now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
2986
2987+++
2988** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
2989
2990A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
2991`window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
2992windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
2993other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
2994
2995The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
2996fixed-width and fixed-height.
2997
2998 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
2999
3000A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
3001fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
3002window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
3003change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
3004temporarily to nil, for example
3005
3006 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
3007 (enlarge-window 10))
3008
79214ddf 3009Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
a933dad1 3010or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
e411ce4b
EZ
3011
3012** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
3013terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
3014to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
3015overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
3016horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
3017support a vertical-bar cursor).
e33b0397
DL
3018^L
3019* Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
3020
3021** Not new, but not mentioned before:
3022M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
a933dad1
DL
3023\f
3024* Changes in Emacs 20.4
3025
3026** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
3027
3028You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
3029Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
3030`.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
3031
3032If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
3033is the one that is used.
3034
3035** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
3036the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
3037Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
3038separate from the command's regular output.
3039Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
3040says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
3041In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
3042the buffer name.
3043
3044When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
3045output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
3046it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
3047cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
3048
3049** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
3050the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
3051is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
3052created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
3053
3054** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
3055example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
3056match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
3057quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
3058
3059** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
3060now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
3061if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
3062they never ignore case.
3063
3064** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
3065under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
3066applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
3067of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
3068just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
3069convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
3070part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
3071
3072If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
3073the same format that was used in the file before.
3074
3075You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
3076`inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
3077
3078** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
3079renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
3080This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
3081
3082** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
3083The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
3084buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
3085your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
3086is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
3087end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
3088Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
3089
3090The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
3091eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
3092control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
3093format. You can now customize these variables.
3094
3095** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
3096filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
3097filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
3098enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
3099
3100** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
3101in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
3102windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
3103
3104** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
3105dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
3106doesn't have any effect.
3107
3108** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
3109not one per buffer.
3110
3111** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
3112use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
3113 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
3114
3115** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
3116To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
3117`auto-show-mode' command.
3118
3119** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
3120avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
3121versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
3122choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
3123occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
3124
3125** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
3126cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
3127
3128** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
3129character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
3130feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
3131
3132** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
3133the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
3134interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
3135and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
3136
3137** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
3138
3139The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
3140that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
3141one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
3142codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
3143set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
3144
3145Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
3146from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
3147
3148IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
3149equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
3150a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
3151`?' on other systems.
3152
3153IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
3154feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
3155Unix.
3156
3157Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
3158current codepage when it starts.
3159
3160** Mail changes
3161
feab4fba
GM
3162*** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
3163`mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
3164appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
3165non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
3166MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
3167headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
3168latin-1:
3169
3170 MIME-version: 1.0
3171 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
3172 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
3173
a933dad1
DL
3174*** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
3175default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
3176default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
3177sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
3178buffer-file-coding-system.
3179
3180You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
3181sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
3182mail.
3183
3184*** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
3185if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
3186Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
3187list of possible coding systems.
3188
3189** CC Mode changes
3190
3191*** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
3192modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
3193longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
3194docstring for details.
3195
3196*** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
3197symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
3198found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
3199prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
3200lineup functions use this feature currently.
3201
3202*** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
3203"finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
3204
3205*** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
3206"catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
3207
3208*** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
3209from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
3210symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
3211c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
3212anonymous classes.
3213
3214*** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
3215syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
3216
3217*** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
3218inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
3219support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
3220function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
3221
3222*** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
3223(i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
3224brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
3225c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
3226(brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
3227
3228*** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
3229
3230*** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
3231
3232*** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
3233for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
3234
3235*** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
3236
3237*** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
3238associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
3239This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
3240circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
3241class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
3242
3243** Gnus changes.
3244
3245*** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
3246added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
3247Gnus manual for the full story.
3248
3249*** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
3250before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
3251group, which is created automatically.
3252
3253*** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
3254values.
3255
3256*** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
3257
3258*** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
3259outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
3260
3261*** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
3262`C-u C-c C-c'.
3263
3264*** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
3265
3266*** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
3267re-highlighting of the article buffer.
3268
3269*** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
3270
3271*** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
3272Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
3273
3274*** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
3275`a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
3276
3277*** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
3278control over simplification.
3279
3280*** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
3281
3282*** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
3283limit.
3284
3285*** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
3286
3287*** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
3288
79214ddf 3289*** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
a933dad1
DL
3290If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
3291rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
3292
3293*** Cancelling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
3294`a' forces normal posting method.
3295
3296*** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
3297-- `W d'.
3298
3299*** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
3300to a non-nil value.
3301
3302*** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
3303where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
3304
3305*** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
3306has been added.
3307
3308*** A history of where mails have been split is available.
3309
3310*** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
3311
3312*** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
3313`gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
3314
3315*** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
3316`message-cite-original-without-signature'.
3317
3318*** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
3319
3320*** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
3321been added.
3322
3323*** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
3324`gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
3325
3326*** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
3327updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
3328
3329*** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
3330
3331*** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
3332
3333*** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
3334
3335** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
3336
3337*** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
3338options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
3339nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
3340
3341*** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
3342TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
3343of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
3344TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
3345can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
3346
3347*** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
3348All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
3349but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
3350the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
3351
3352*** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
3353the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
3354buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
3355mismatch.
3356
3357** Changes to RefTeX mode
3358
3359*** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
3360file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
3361
3362*** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
3363lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
3364characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
3365removed from the label.
3366
3367*** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
3368a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
3369
3370*** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
3371customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
3372
3373*** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
3374`reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
79214ddf 3375expressions.
a933dad1
DL
3376
3377*** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
3378
3379** New/deleted modes and packages
3380
3381*** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
3382SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
3383
3384*** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
3385editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
3386SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
3387
3388*** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
3389changes with a special face.
3390
3391*** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
3392this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
3393Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
3394\f
3395* MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
3396
3397** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
3398This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
3399conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
3400and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
3401check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
3402
3403The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
3404Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
3405distribution when the config.bat script is run.
3406
3407** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
3408MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
3409controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
3410directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
3411Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
3412on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
3413string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
3414program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
3415printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
3416
3417** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
3418output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
3419available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
3420input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
3421temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
3422program.
3423
3424An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
3425and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
3426programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
3427automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
3428as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
3429ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
3430
3431** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
3432a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
3433MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
3434was not documented clearly before.
3435
3436** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
3437This includes Tetris and Snake.
3438\f
3439* Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
3440
3441** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
3442return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
3443They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
3444meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
3445
3446** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
3447WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
3448and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
3449
3450** Changes in the file-attributes function.
3451
3452*** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
3453It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
3454
3455*** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
3456the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
3457integers.
3458
3459** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
3460files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
3461arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
3462file names and attributes are returned.
3463
3464** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
3465sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
3466accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its atttributes.
3467It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
3468returns the result.
3469
3470** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
3471to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
3472
3473** New functions for base64 conversion:
3474
3475The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
3476into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
3477performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
3478optionally.
3479
3480Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
3481job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
3482
3483**
3484The new function process-running-child-p
3485will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
3486terminal to its own child process.
3487
3488** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
3489when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
3490to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
3491itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
3492
3493** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
3494be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
3495
3496** easymenu.el Now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
3497:included is an alias for :visible.
3498
3499easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
3500easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
3501to move or copy menu entries.
3502
3503** Multibyte editing changes
3504
3505*** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
3506an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
3507make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
3508work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
3509char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
3510 (setq char (sref str idx)
3511 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
3512The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
3513
3514If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
3515(say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
3516 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
3517
3518*** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
3519region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
3520deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
3521
3522 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibitted
3523
3524This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
3525across the boundary.
3526
3527*** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
3528`unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
3529 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
3530 contains 8-bit characters.
3531 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
3532 contains invalid characters.
3533
3534*** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
3535text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
3536preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
3537text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
3538way.
3539
3540*** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
3541If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
3542end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
3543prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
3544
3545*** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
3546compose Thai characters in a string.
3547
3548** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
3549argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
3550for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
3551menus should always use the third argument.
3552
3553** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
3554read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
3555arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
3556input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
3557
3558** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
3559of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
3560programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
3561inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
3562
3563** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
3564the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
3565returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
3566echo area contents.
3567
3568 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
3569
3570** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
3571NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
3572requested feature cannot be loaded.
3573
3574** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
3575foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
79214ddf 3576means to clear out that attribute.
a933dad1
DL
3577
3578** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
3579gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
3580
3581** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
3582read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
3583unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
3584end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
3585
3586** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
3587the gap of the current buffer.
3588
3589** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
3590to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
3591current buffer.
3592
3593** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
3594facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
3595These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
3596it back in after any modifications have been made.
3597\f
3598* Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
3599
3600** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
3601the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
3602/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
3603directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
3604subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
3605
3606Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
3607names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
3608Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
3609which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
3610these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
3611
3612Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
3613starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
3614time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
3615
3616This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
3617Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
3618to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
3619subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
3620`.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
3621results.
3622
3623** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
3624GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
3625that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
3626fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
3627\f
3628* Changes in Emacs 20.3
3629
3630** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
3631including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
3632it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
3633perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
3634
3635** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
3636specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
3637region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
3638further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
3639command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
3640within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
3641are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
3642region.
3643
3644In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
3645selective undo.
3646
3647** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
3648unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
3649buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
3650effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
3651Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
3652
3653The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
3654though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
3655-*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
3656load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
3657
3658** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
3659no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
3660enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
3661something that most users not do.
3662
3663** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
3664operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
3665The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
3666applications.
3667
3668C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
3669pasting operations.
3670
3671** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
3672setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
3673like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
3674printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
3675`ps-printer-name'.
3676
3677** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
3678minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
3679any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
3680except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
3681incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
3682hits a new word.
3683
3684Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
3685Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
3686to be confused by TeX commands.
3687
3688You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
3689correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
3690clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
3691of various alternative replacements and actions.
3692
3693Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
3694the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
3695corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
3696alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
3697flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
3698
3699Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
3700flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
3701
3702** Changes in input method usage.
3703
3704Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
3705the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
3706respectively.
3707
3708You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
3709
3710If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
3711of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
3712
3713The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
3714that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
3715
3716 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
3717
3718 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
3719
3720 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
3721 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
3722
3723 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
79214ddf 3724 given in the following case:
a933dad1
DL
3725 o When you are using a complex input method.
3726 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
3727
3728If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
3729input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
3730and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
3731setting it to t is helpful.
3732
3733The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
3734
3735In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
3736keys:
3737 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
3738 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
3739 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
3740These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
3741environment.
3742
3743** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
3744names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
3745minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
3746get
3747
3748 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
3749
3750which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
3751
3752Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
3753Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
3754
3755** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
3756at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
3757its owner and group.
3758
3759** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
3760Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
3761
3762** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
3763contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
3764
3765** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
3766which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
3767in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
3768by the left edge of the rectangle.
3769
3770** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
3771increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
3772C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
3773for writing keyboard macros.
3774
3775** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
3776files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
3777frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
3778the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
3779additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
3780info.
3781
3782** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
3783
3784** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
3785query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
3786contents only.
3787
3788** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
3789confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
3790the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
3791says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
3792
3793** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
3794non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
3795literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
3796
3797** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
3798now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
3799Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
3800inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
3801
3802** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
3803failure if the command produces no output.
3804
3805** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
3806manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
3807the mouse.
3808
3809** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
3810mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
3811function and variable names.
3812
3813** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
3814reading specific files. This has higher priority than
3815file-coding-system-alist.
3816
3817** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
3818t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
3819converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
3820the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
3821according to the current fontset.
3822
3823** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
3824
3825The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
3826that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
3827nonascii-insert-offset.
3828
3829For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
3830enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
3831nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
3832characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
3833
3834** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
3835an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
3836
3837** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
3838letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
3839
3840** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
3841are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
3842command keys.
3843
3844** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
3845user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
3846
3847Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
3848user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
3849all variables that have documentation.
3850
3851** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
3852shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
3853that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
3854minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
3855it should show; the default is 20.
3856
3857Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
3858the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
3859of your input.
3860
3861** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
3862all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
3863recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
3864argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
3865the customizable options which were changed since that version.
3866Newly added options are included as well.
3867
3868If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
3869then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
3870for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
3871
3872This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
3873Customize menu.
3874
3875** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
3876the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
3877
3878** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
3879buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
3880invoked.
3881
3882** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
3883that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
3884The default is 1.
3885
3886** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
3887syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
3888new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
3889(C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
3890sensibly.
3891
3892** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
3893
3894** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
3895value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
3896two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
3897
3898** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
3899reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
3900for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
3901every night.
3902
7464346d
GM
3903** Desktop changes
3904
3905*** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
a933dad1
DL
3906the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
3907
7464346d
GM
3908*** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
3909and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
3910
a933dad1
DL
3911** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
3912read and post multi-lingual articles.
3913
3914** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
3915doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
3916be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
3917outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
3918the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
79214ddf 3919made invisible again.
a933dad1
DL
3920
3921** Mail reading and sending changes
3922
3923*** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
3924the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
3925changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
3926toggle.
3927
3928*** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
3929now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
3930summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
3931the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
3932rmail-default-body-file.
3933
3934*** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
3935longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
3936handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
3937
3938*** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
3939it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
3940is evaluated to insert the signature.
3941
3942*** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
3943outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
3944handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
3945putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
3946transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
3947especially interested in trying feedmail.
3948
3949feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
3950feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
3951provided by feedmail are:
3952
3953**** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
3954stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
3955there is also a queue for draft messages
3956
3957**** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
3958be prompted for confirmation
3959
3960**** does smart filling of address headers
3961
3962**** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
3963the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
3964can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
3965
3966**** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
3967the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
3968/usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
3969function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
3970
3971** Dired changes
3972
3973*** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
3974files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
3975
3976*** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
3977run Dired on the directory name at point.
3978
3979*** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
3980files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
3981for a specified regexp.
3982
3983** VC Changes
3984
3985*** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
3986conveniently.
3987
3988*** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
3989faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
3990Dired.
3991
3992VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
3993directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
3994listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
3995currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
3996
3997You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
3998then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
3999vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
4000control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
4001on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
4002
4003All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
4004is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
4005`v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
4006the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
4007`vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
4008
4009The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
4010toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
79214ddf 4011VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
a933dad1
DL
4012`* l', to mark all files currently locked.
4013
4014Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
4015ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
4016command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
4017
4018*** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
4019file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
4020session to resolve them.
4021
4022Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
4023resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
4024contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
4025uses as well).
4026
4027*** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
4028command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
4029you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
4030either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
4031branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
4032If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
4033using ediff.
4034
4035** Changes in Font Lock
4036
4037*** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
4038are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
4039use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
4040unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
4041compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
4042
4043** Frame name display changes
4044
4045*** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
4046frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
4047raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
4048when many frames are invisible or iconified.
4049
4050*** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
4051frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
4052menu.
4053
4054** Comint (subshell) changes
4055
4056*** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
4057subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
4058with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
4059
4060*** There are new commands in Comint mode.
4061
4062C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
4063that is, the line after the last line you got.
4064You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
4065
4066C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
4067send the current line together with the following line, when you send
4068the following line.
4069
4070C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
4071which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
4072previously sent input.
4073
4074C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
4075it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
4076as the search string.
4077
4078*** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
4079automatically in compilation-mode windows.
4080
4081** C mode changes
4082
4083*** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
4084and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
4085assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
79214ddf 4086definition.
a933dad1
DL
4087
4088*** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
4089(i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
4090Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
4091style is still the default however.
4092
4093*** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
4094
4095*** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
4096are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
4097them. They do not have key bindings by default.
4098
4099*** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
4100and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
4101
4102*** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
4103namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
4104
4105*** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
4106makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
4107
4108*** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
4109c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
4110
4111*** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
4112should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
4113package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
4114variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
4115
4116** Changes to hippie-expand.
4117
79214ddf 4118*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
a933dad1
DL
4119non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
4120which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
4121
4122*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
4123non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
4124expanding dynamically.
4125
4126*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
4127non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
4128
4129*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
4130non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
4131this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
4132expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
4133
4134*** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
4135
4136** Changes in BibTeX mode.
4137
4138*** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
4139bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
4140automatic key generation. This replaces variable
4141bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
4142against the first word in the title.
4143
4144*** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
4145capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
4146bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
79214ddf 4147lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
a933dad1 4148lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
79214ddf 4149bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
a933dad1
DL
4150
4151*** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
4152generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
4153replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
4154bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
4155
4156** Changes in vcursor.el.
4157
4158*** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
4159and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
4160variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
4161entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
4162`vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
4163in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
4164
4165*** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
4166Editing group once the package is loaded.
4167
4168*** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
4169generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
4170vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behaviour.
4171
4172*** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
4173vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
4174
4175** Ispell changes.
4176
79214ddf
FP
4177*** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
4178buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
a933dad1
DL
4179are identified by syntax tables in effect.
4180
4181*** Generic region skipping implemented.
4182A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
4183and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
4184defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
79214ddf 4185include:
a933dad1
DL
4186
4187 o URLs are automatically skipped
4188 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
4189
4190*** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
4191
4192** Changes to RefTeX mode
4193
4194RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
4195large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
4196re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
4197section `Optimizations' in the manual.
4198
4199*** New recursive parser.
4200
4201The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
4202entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
4203recursive parser scans the individual files.
4204
4205*** Parsing only part of a document.
79214ddf 4206
a933dad1
DL
4207Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
4208partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
4209the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
4210
4211 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
4212
4213*** Storing parsing information in a file.
4214
4215This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
4216
4217 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
4218
4219*** Using multiple selection buffers
4220
4221If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
4222for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
4223
4224 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
4225
4226*** References to external documents.
4227
4228The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
4229documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
4230documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
4231macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
4232RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
4233the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
4234The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
4235
4236*** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
4237
4238The builtin command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
4239and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
4240
4241Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
4242the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
4243
4244*** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
4245
4246The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
4247buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
4248
4249*** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
4250
4251The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
4252contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
4253`reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
4254have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
4255enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
4256at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
4257more.
4258
4259*** Support for the varioref package
4260
4261The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
4262
4263*** New hooks
4264
4265Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
4266and citations are created. These hooks are
4267`reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
4268`reftex-format-cite-function'.
4269
4270*** Citations outside LaTeX
4271
4272The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
4273a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
4274
4275*** Short context is no longer fontified.
4276
4277The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
4278fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
4279fontified, use
4280
4281 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
4282
4283** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
4284With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
4285the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
4286directories that contain the same file name.
4287
4288Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
4289Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
4290file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
4291Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
4292have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
4293names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
4294directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
4295directory.
4296
4297** New modes and packages
4298
4299*** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
4300It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
4301it, but some do not.
4302
4303*** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
4304code.
4305
4306*** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
4307current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
4308around in a buffer.
4309
4310Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
4311
4312*** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
4313uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
4314be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
4315established system of notation similar to Chess.
4316
4317*** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
4318documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
4319guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
4320
4321*** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
4322available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
4323system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
4324simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
4325functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
4326the like.
4327
4328*** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
4329identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
4330
4331*** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
4332within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
4333used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
4334the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
4335
4336*** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
4337
4338 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
4339 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
4340 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
4341 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
4342 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
4343 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
4344 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
4345 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
4346 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
4347 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
4348 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
4349
4350 Platform-specific modes:
4351
4352 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
4353 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
4354 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
4355 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
4356 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
4357 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
4358 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
4359 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
4360 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
4361\f
4362* Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
4363
4364** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
4365use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
4366That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
4367Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
4368
4369Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
4370you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
4371consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
4372
4373** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
4374and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
4375specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
4376searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
4377
4378** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
4379multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
4380character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
4381environment.
4382
4383** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
4384take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
4385string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
4386current input method for reading this one event.
4387
4388** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
4389now control whether to output certain characters as
4390backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
4391non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
4392characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
4393in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
4394\f
4395* Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
4396
4397** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
4398of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
4399
4400** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
4401in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
4402always increases point by 1.
4403
4404The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
4405considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
4406
4407See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
4408
4409** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
4410Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
4411default value changed. For example,
4412
4413 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
4414 :type 'integer
4415 :group 'foo
4416 :version "20.3")
4417
79214ddf 4418 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
a933dad1
DL
4419 :version "20.3")
4420
4421If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
4422default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
4423is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
4424`:version' in the top level group.
4425
4426This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
4427
4428** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
4429starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
4430
4431However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
4432symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
4433support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
4434to themselves.
4435
4436If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
4437this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
4438values whatever.
4439
4440** There is a new debugger command, R.
4441It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
4442in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
4443
4444** Frame-local variables.
4445
4446You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
4447the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
4448local bindings for that variable.
4449
4450These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
4451frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
4452modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
4453parameter name.
4454
4455Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
4456Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
4457active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
4458that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
4459
4460It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
4461clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
4462very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
4463through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
4464
4465** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
4466"symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
4467evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
4468makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
4469See the documentation in sregex.el.
4470
4471** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
4472is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
4473parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
4474The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
4475
4476** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
4477If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
4478
4479** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
4480known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
4481define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
4482
4483** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
4484when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
4485it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
4486history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
4487
4488The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
4489return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
4490empty input.
4491
4492** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
4493for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
4494`iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
4495Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
4496`read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
4497
4498** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
4499echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
4500a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
4501default password to use if the user enters nothing.
4502
4503** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
4504specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
4505function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
4506place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
4507non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
4508
4509** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
4510If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
4511up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
4512end of the window, even if this requires computation.
4513
4514** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
4515which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
4516If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
4517
4518** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
4519holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
4520was directed to display this buffer.
4521
4522** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
4523with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
4524describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
4525other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
4526set-window-configuration.
4527
4528** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
4529window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
4530positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
4531windows and the choice of buffers to display.
4532
4533** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
4534override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
4535look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
4536
4537If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
4538non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
4539map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
4540
4541minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
4542and it is meant to be set by major modes.
4543
4544** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
4545except that it discards all text properties from the result.
4546
4547** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
4548USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
4549floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
4550
4551** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
4552to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
4553in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
4554it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
4555
4556** Menu changes
4557
4558*** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
4559keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
4560better supported.
4561
4562The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
4563a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
4564you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
4565can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
4566then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
4567
4568*** A new format for menu items is supported.
4569
4570In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
4571 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
4572defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
4573starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
4574
4575The format is:
4576 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
4577 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
4578where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
4579string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
4580The supported properties include
4581
4582:enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
4583 item is enabled.
4584:visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
4585 item should appear in the menu.
79214ddf 4586:filter FILTER-FN
a933dad1
DL
4587 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
4588 which will be REAL-BINDING.
4589 It should return a binding to use instead.
4590:keys DESCRIPTION
4591 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
4592 binding for for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
4593 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
4594:key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
4595 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
4596 keyboard binding.
4597:key-sequence nil
4598 This means that the command normally has no
4599 keyboard equivalent.
4600:help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
4601:button (TYPE . SELECTED)
4602 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
4603 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
4604 value says whether this button is currently selected.
4605
4606Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
4607Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
4608
4609(menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
4610
4611** New event types
4612
4613*** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
4614mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
4615corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
4616which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
4617
4618 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
4619
4620where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
4621same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
4622indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
4623negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
4624the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
4625forward, away from the user.
4626
4627As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
4628
4629*** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
4630files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
4631and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
4632filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
4633loaded into Emacs. The format is:
4634
4635 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
4636
4637where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
4638same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
4639that were dragged and dropped.
4640
4641As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
4642
4643** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
4644
4645*** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
4646any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
4647to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
4648
4649*** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
4650can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
4651that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
4652
4653*** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
4654in Emacs 19 and before.
4655
4656The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
4657The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
4658
4659*** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
4660buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
4661unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
4662representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
4663
4664This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
4665as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
4666viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
4667one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
4668will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
4669
4670This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
4671representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
4672(including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
4673consistent with the new representation.
4674
4675*** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
4676representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
4677about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
4678however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
4679
4680The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
4681nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
4682using the table nonascii-translation-table.
4683
4684*** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
4685representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
4686representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
4687
4688The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
4689loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
4690is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
4691
4692*** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
4693which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
4694
4695*** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
4696which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
4697
4698*** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
4699portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
4700so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
4701You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
4702
4703*** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
4704it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
4705
4706*** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
4707convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
4708buffer or string being searched.
4709
4710One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
4711[...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
4712searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
4713searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
4714obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
4715you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
4716expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
4717
4718*** Structure of coding system changed.
4719
4720All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
4721by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
4722which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
4723as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
4724vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
4725your own alias name of a coding system by the function
4726define-coding-system-alias.
4727
4728The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
4729the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
4730access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
4731pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
4732character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
4733safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
4734'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
4735`iso-8859-1'.
4736
4737Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
4738The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
4739coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
4740(coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
4741
4742Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
4743also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
4744are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
4745the other character sets and read it back correctly.
4746
4747*** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
4748proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
4749This function requires a user interaction.
4750
4751*** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
4752find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
4753select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
4754systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
4755a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
4756select-safe-coding-system.
4757
4758*** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
4759decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
4760last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
4761was done.
4762
4763*** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
4764used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
4765coding systems used by some specific language environment.
4766
4767*** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
4768return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
4769characters are found, they now return a list of single element
4770`undecided' or its subsidiaries.
4771
4772*** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
4773coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
4774coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
4775converted.
4776
4777*** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
4778coding system for communicating with other X clients.
4779
4780*** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
4781character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
4782character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
4783each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
4784either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
4785range of characters.
4786
4787*** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
4788Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
4789
4790*** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
4791in the current buffer at position POS.
4792
4793*** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
4794input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
4795function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
4796character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
4797event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
4798binding input-method-function to nil.
4799
4800The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
4801method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
4802input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
4803the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
4804not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
4805
4806The input method function is not called when reading the second and
4807subsequent events of a key sequence.
4808
4809*** You can customize any language environment by using
4810set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
4811
4812The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
4813customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
4814instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
4815environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
4816exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
4817\f
4818* Changes in Emacs 20.1
4819
4820** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
4821options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
4822at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
4823tree structure.
4824
4825M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
4826user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
4827
4828With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
4829session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
4830in your .emacs file.)
4831
4832** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
4833You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
4834
4835** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
4836This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
4837
4838** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
4839immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
4840kills the region.
4841
4842The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
4843delete the character before point, as usual.
4844
4845** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
4846on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
4847by setting search-highlight to nil.)
4848
4849** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
4850insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
4851the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
4852onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
4853history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
4854past.)
4855
4856** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
4857This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
4858in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
4859TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
4860makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
4861
4862As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
4863and is an alias for it.
4864
4865If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
4866use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
4867
4868** Scrolling changes
4869
4870*** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
4871position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
4872
4873In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
4874on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
4875where it started.
4876
4877*** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
4878move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
4879screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
4880does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
4881
4882*** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
4883top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
4884comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
4885recenters the window.
4886
4887** International character set support (MULE)
4888
4889Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
4890including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
4891Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
4892Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
4893features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
4894MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
4895
4896Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
4897coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
4898character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
4899variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
4900into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
4901
4902Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
4903generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
4904supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
4905language, to make it possible to type them.
4906
4907The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
4908character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
4909
4910The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
4911to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
4912
4913You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
4914
4915 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
4916
4917Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
4918characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
4919argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
4920already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
4921characters for their work until they want to change.
4922
4923*** Input methods
4924
4925An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
4926specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
4927has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
4928the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
4929support several input methods.
4930
4931The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
4932another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
4933work.
4934
4935A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
4936characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
4937composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
4938consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
4939sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
4940letter.
4941
4942The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
4943by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
4944First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
4945marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
4946mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
4947
4948None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
4949they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
4950phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
4951converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
4952
4953Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
4954word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
4955typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
4956the first guess is wrong.
4957
4958*** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
4959turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
4960
4961If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
4962byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
4963they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
4964the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
4965
4966However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
4967use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
4968includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
4969translate automatically to and from either one.
4970
4971*** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
4972
4973Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
4974file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
4975sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
4976what you want.
4977
4978If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
4979example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
4980system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
4981multibyte characters in that buffer.
4982
4983If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
4984character conversion as well.
4985
4986*** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
4987
4988A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
4989Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
4990requires using many fonts.
4991
4992Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
4993collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
4994
4995A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
4996the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
4997have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
4998you would use a font.
4999
5000If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
5001specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
5002display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
5003
5004The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
5005(that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
5006characters). If another font in the fontset has a different height,
5007or the wrong width, then characters assigned to that font are clipped,
5008and displayed within a box if highlight-wrong-size-font is non-nil.
5009
5010*** Defining fontsets.
5011
5012Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
5013chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
5014with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
5015
5016Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
5017of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
5018`fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
5019standard fontset are created automatically.
5020
5021If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
5022argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
5023FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
5024with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
5025name is `fontset-startup'.
5026
5027Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
5028The resource value should have this form:
5029 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
5030FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
5031 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
5032 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
5033 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
5034The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
5035of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
5036CHARSET-NAME should be the name name of a character set, and
5037FONT-NAME should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
5038
5039Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
5040last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
5041You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
5042
5043For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
5044font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
5045following resource,
5046 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
5047the font for ASCII is generated as below:
5048 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
5049Here is the substitution rule:
5050 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
5051 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
5052 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
5053 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
5054 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
5055
5056The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
5057fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
5058that function explicitly to create a fontset.
5059
5060With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
5061like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
5062name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
5063fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
5064fontsets.
5065
5066*** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
5067defaults for a particular choice of language.
5068
5069Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
5070method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
5071visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
5072already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
5073language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
5074system for new files that you create.
5075
5076It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
5077set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
5078whole Emacs session.
5079
5080For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
5081chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
5082with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
5083
5084*** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
5085specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
5086specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
5087the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
5088coding systems that Emacs supports.
5089
5090*** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
5091lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
5092This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
5093After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
5094is used for *the immediately following command*.
5095
5096So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
5097write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
5098
5099If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
5100then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
5101
5102For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
5103visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
5104
5105*** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
5106construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
5107to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
5108specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
5109of the file.
5110
5111*** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
5112the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
5113code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
5114translated into that character code.
5115
5116This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
5117various countries to support the languages of those countries.
5118
5119By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
5120
5121*** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
5122the coding system for keyboard input.
5123
5124Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
5125with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
5126some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
5127
5128By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
5129
5130Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
5131input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
5132translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
5133to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
5134designed to work with terminals.
5135
5136*** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
5137specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
5138This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
5139has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
5140translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
5141in the corresponding buffer.
5142
5143By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
5144
5145*** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
5146to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
5147It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
5148
5149*** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
5150an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
5151command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
5152want to use.
5153
5154C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
5155method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
5156
5157*** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
5158layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
5159remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
5160which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
5161
5162*** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
5163the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
5164related information.
5165
5166*** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
5167HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
5168scripts.
5169
5170*** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
5171information about the support for a particular language.
5172You specify the language as an argument.
5173
5174*** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
5175the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
5176first dash.
5177
5178A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
5179(except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
5180whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
51811 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
5182
5183 A alternativnyj (Russian)
5184 B big5 (Chinese)
5185 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
5186 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
5187 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
5188 E euc-japan (Japanese)
5189 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
5190 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
5191 K euc-korea (Korean)
5192 R koi8 (Russian)
5193 Q tibetan
5194 S shift_jis (Japanese)
5195 T lao
5196 T tis620 (Thai)
5197 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
5198 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
5199 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
5200 v viqr (Vietnamese)
5201 z hz (Chinese)
5202
5203When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
5204two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
5205coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
5206keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
5207
5208*** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
5209conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
5210
5211When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
5212into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
5213rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
5214Rmail files themselves.
5215
5216*** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
5217conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
5218
5219Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
5220for sending mail:
5221
5222- If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
5223- Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
5224- Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
5225 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
5226- Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
5227
5228*** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
5229to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
5230Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
5231translations.
5232
5233** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
5234of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
5235insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
5236without any conversion.
5237
5238** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
5239You can now specify any number of octal digits.
5240RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
5241any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
5242
5243** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
5244functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
5245
5246Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
5247Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
5248
5249Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
5250mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
5251
5252** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
5253complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
5254in the buffer before point.
5255
5256With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
5257symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
5258you are using.
5259
5260With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
5261just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
5262
5263** File locking works with NFS now.
5264
5265The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
5266in the same directory as FILENAME.
5267
5268This means that collision detection between two different machines now
5269works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
5270can become a bottleneck.
5271
5272The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
5273does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
5274create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
5275file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
5276rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
5277so useful that the change is worth while.
5278
5279When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
5280are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
5281collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
5282tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
5283
5284** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
5285it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
5286show-paren-mode.
5287
5288** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
5289selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
5290delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
5291
5292** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
5293within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
5294complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
5295
5296** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
5297it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
5298set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
5299
5300** Changes in View mode.
5301
5302*** Several new commands are available in View mode.
5303Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
5304
5305*** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
5306view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
5307
5308*** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
5309previous state.
5310
5311*** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
5312scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
5313
5314*** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
5315non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
5316not just the selected window.
5317
5318*** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
5319read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
5320turns View mode on or off.
5321
5322*** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
5323how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
5324delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
5325
5326** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
5327now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
5328
5329** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
5330has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
5331presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
5332which version to compare with.
5333
5334** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
79214ddf 5335blocks if a match is inside the block.
a933dad1
DL
5336
5337The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
5338is outside the block. By customizing the variable
5339isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
5340shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
5341
5342By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
5343of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
5344blocks, all of them or none.
5345
5346** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
5347current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
5348confirmation first.
5349
5350** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
5351now changes the major mode according to that file name.
5352However, the mode will not be changed if
5353(1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
5354(2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
5355 not suitable for ordinary files, or
5356(3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
5357
5358This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
5359
5360However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
5361these commands do not change the major mode.
5362
5363** M-x occur changes.
5364
5365*** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
5366it performs a case-sensitive search.
5367
5368*** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
5369if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
5370using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
5371
5372** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
5373in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
5374window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
5375that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
5376buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
5377
5378** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
5379after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
5380appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
5381come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
5382
5383** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
5384selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
5385buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
5386
5387** Outline mode changes.
5388
5389*** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
5390
5391*** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
5392
5393** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
5394you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
5395Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
5396was already active.
5397
5398The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
5399unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
5400get confused by it.
5401
5402If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
5403set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
5404
5405** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
5406
5407*** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
5408conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
5409character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
5410including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
5411
5412The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
5413mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
5414copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
5415
5416*** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
5417are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
5418values.
5419
5420`dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
5421case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
5422`dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
5423case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
5424
5425** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
5426certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
5427can be. The default value is 30.
5428
5429** Changes in Mail mode.
5430
5431*** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
5432Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
5433composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
5434`mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
5435`sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
5436behavior.
5437
5438C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
5439compose-mail-other-frame.
5440
5441*** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
5442the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
5443replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
5444buffer that shows the original message.
5445
5446*** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
5447with separator lines around the contents.
5448
5449*** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
5450in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
5451definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
5452need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
5453
5454*** New features in the mail-complete command.
5455
5456**** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
5457for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
5458controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
5459Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
5460
5461**** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
5462to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
5463/etc/passwd.
5464
5465**** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
5466to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
5467/etc/passwd.
5468
5469** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
5470special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
5471directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
5472reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
5473
5474Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
5475when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
5476be taken to be magic.
5477
5478** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
5479files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
5480available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
5481
5482M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
5483(-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
5484
5485** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
5486suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
5487
5488In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
5489
5490new key dired.el binding old key
5491------- ---------------- -------
5492 * c dired-change-marks c
5493 * m dired-mark m
5494 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
5495 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
5496 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
5497 * u dired-unmark u
5498 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
5499 * ? dired-unmark-all-files M-C-?
5500 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
5501 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
5502 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
5503 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
5504
5505** Rmail changes.
5506
5507*** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
5508saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
5509chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
5510each time you run it.
5511
5512*** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
5513whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
5514
5515*** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
5516messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
5517means to move in the opposite direction.
5518
5519*** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
5520you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
5521
5522*** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
5523just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
5524It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
5525can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
5526for output.
5527
5528** Gnus changes.
5529
5530*** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
5531
79214ddf
FP
5532*** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
5533Gnus.
a933dad1 5534
79214ddf 5535*** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
a933dad1
DL
5536`and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
5537
5538*** Article washing status can be displayed in the
5539article mode line.
5540
5541*** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
5542
5543*** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
5544
5545(setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
5546
5547*** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
5548are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
5549`gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
5550
5551*** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
5552
5553*** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
5554
5555*** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
5556See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
5557
5558*** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
5559Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
5560used to pick articles.
5561
5562*** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
5563another have been added.
5564
5565 `M-x gnus-change-server'
5566
5567*** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
5568generating lines in buffers.
5569
5570*** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
5571`M-C-_'.
5572
5573*** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
5574
5575*** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
5576
5577 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
5578
5579*** Scores can be decayed.
79214ddf 5580
a933dad1
DL
5581 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
5582
5583*** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
5584Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
5585
5586*** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
5587the native server.
5588
5589 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
5590
5591*** A new command for reading collections of documents
5592(nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `M-C-d'.
5593
5594*** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
5595
5596*** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
5597even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
5598
5599*** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
5600(DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
5601
5602 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
5603 a group.
5604
5605*** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
5606sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
5607
5608 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
5609
5610*** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
5611
5612 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
5613
5614*** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
79214ddf 5615
a933dad1
DL
5616 Use the `Y c' command.
5617
5618*** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
5619
5620*** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
5621
5622 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
5623
5624*** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
5625from incoming mail before saving the mail.
79214ddf 5626
a933dad1
DL
5627 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
5628
5629*** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
5630
5631*** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
5632the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
5633
5634 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
5635
5636Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
5637and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
5638from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
5639hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
5640this issue.)
5641
5642Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
5643automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
5644particular news group. This can be done by:
5645
5646 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
5647
5648Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
5649of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
5650"XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
5651system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
5652for reading and posting).
5653
5654CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
5655 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
5656Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
5657newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
5658there.
5659
5660Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
5661default. Here are some of these default settings:
5662
5663 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
5664 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
5665 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
5666 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
5667 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
5668
5669When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
5670the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
5671
5672** CC mode changes.
5673
5674*** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
5675code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
5676values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
5677this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
5678Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
5679loaded.
5680
5681If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
79214ddf 5682Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
a933dad1 5683style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
79214ddf
FP
5684share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
5685c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
a933dad1
DL
5686must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
5687
5688*** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
5689of the current buffer.
5690
5691*** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
5692it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
5693of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
5694
5695*** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
5696style that the Python developers like.
5697
5698*** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
5699This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
5700just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
5701
5702** VC Changes [new]
5703
5704** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
5705name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
5706directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
5707
5708This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
5709master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
5710developers.
5711
5712You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
5713RET in a buffer visiting that file.
5714
5715*** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
5716other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
5717writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
5718calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
5719
5720*** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
5721version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
5722
5723** Calendar changes.
5724
5725A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or subclasses
5726of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow you do this
5727for the year of the selected date, or the following/previous years.
5728
5729** ps-print changes
5730
79214ddf 5731There are some new user variables for customizing the page layout.
a933dad1
DL
5732
5733*** Paper size, paper orientation, columns
5734
5735The variable `ps-paper-type' determines the size of paper ps-print
5736formats for; it should contain one of the symbols:
5737`a4' `a3' `letter' `legal' `letter-small' `tabloid'
5738`ledger' `statement' `executive' `a4small' `b4' `b5'
5739It defaults to `letter'.
5740If you need other sizes, see the variable `ps-page-dimensions-database'.
5741
5742The variable `ps-landscape-mode' determines the orientation
79214ddf 5743of the printing on the page. nil, the default, means "portrait" mode,
a933dad1
DL
5744non-nil means "landscape" mode.
5745
5746The variable `ps-number-of-columns' must be a positive integer.
5747It determines the number of columns both in landscape and portrait mode.
79214ddf 5748It defaults to 1.
a933dad1
DL
5749
5750*** Horizontal layout
5751
5752The horizontal layout is determined by the variables
5753`ps-left-margin', `ps-inter-column', and `ps-right-margin'.
5754All are measured in points.
5755
5756*** Vertical layout
5757
5758The vertical layout is determined by the variables
5759`ps-bottom-margin', `ps-top-margin', and `ps-header-offset'.
5760All are measured in points.
5761
5762*** Headers
5763
5764If the variable `ps-print-header' is nil, no header is printed. Then
5765`ps-header-offset' is not relevant and `ps-top-margin' represents the
5766margin above the text.
5767
79214ddf 5768If the variable `ps-print-header-frame' is non-nil, a gaudy
a933dad1
DL
5769framing box is printed around the header.
5770
5771The contents of the header are determined by `ps-header-lines',
5772`ps-show-n-of-n', `ps-left-header' and `ps-right-header'.
5773
79214ddf
FP
5774The height of the header is determined by `ps-header-line-pad',
5775`ps-header-font-family', `ps-header-title-font-size' and
a933dad1
DL
5776`ps-header-font-size'.
5777
5778*** Font managing
5779
5780The variable `ps-font-family' determines which font family is to be
5781used for ordinary text. Its value must be a key symbol in the alist
5782`ps-font-info-database'. You can add other font families by adding
5783elements to this alist.
5784
79214ddf 5785The variable `ps-font-size' determines the size of the font
a933dad1
DL
5786for ordinary text. It defaults to 8.5 points.
5787
5788** hideshow changes.
5789
5790*** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
79214ddf 5791C++, ; for lisp).
a933dad1
DL
5792
5793*** Support for java-mode added.
5794
5795*** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
5796in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
5797
5798*** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the the comments at
5799the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
5800way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
5801
5802*** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
5803robust and a lot faster.
5804
79214ddf 5805*** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
a933dad1
DL
5806
5807*** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
5808to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
5809documentation for more details.
5810
5811** Changes in Enriched mode.
5812
5813*** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
5814filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
5815of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
5816use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
5817the next time unless the fill-column is different.
5818
5819*** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
5820distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
5821as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
5822as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
5823
5824** Font Lock mode
5825
5826*** Custom support
5827
5828The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
5829font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
5830faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
5831group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
5832your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
5833consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
5834
5835You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
5836
5837*** Maximum decoration
5838
5839Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
5840default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
5841of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
5842supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
5843to get the old behavior.
5844
5845*** New support
5846
5847Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
5848
5849Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
5850support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
5851
5852*** Configurable support
5853
5854Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
5855additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
5856c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
5857java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
5858list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
5859of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
5860convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
5861
5862Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
5863way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
5864it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
5865
5866*** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
5867
5868You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
5869highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
5870for any mode.
5871
5872For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
5873
5874 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
5875
5876in your ~/.emacs.
5877
5878*** New faces
5879
5880Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
5881font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
5882distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
5883to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
5884
5885*** Changes to fast-lock support mode
5886
5887The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
5888cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
5889same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
5890
5891*** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
5892
5893The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
5894according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
5895the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
5896non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
5897refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
5898the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
5899Lock mode behaviour and the behaviour of Font Lock mode.
5900
5901This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
5902For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
5903this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
5904refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
5905containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
5906the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
5907
5908As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
5909
5910Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
5911Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
5912Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
5913new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
5914
5915If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
5916settings.
5917
5918** Ada mode changes.
5919
5920*** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
5921If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
5922procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
5923you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
5924stubs.
5925
5926*** There are two new commands:
5927 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
5928 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
5929
5930The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
5931`ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
79214ddf 5932`ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
a933dad1
DL
5933
5934*** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
5935is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
5936Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
5937
5938*** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
5939formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
5940places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
5941space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
5942
5943** Scheme mode changes.
5944
5945*** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
5946mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
5947for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
5948with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
5949have any effect.
5950
5951If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
5952still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
5953scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
5954variables as buffer-local variables.
5955
5956*** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
5957Use M-x dsssl-mode.
5958
133c9e59
GM
5959** Changes to the emacsclient program
5960
875c1439
GM
5961*** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
5962USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
5963associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
5964can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
5965
133c9e59 5966*** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
a933dad1
DL
5967it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
5968buffer in Emacs.
5969
133c9e59
GM
5970*** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
5971use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
5972ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
5973option takes precedence.
5974
a933dad1
DL
5975** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
5976constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
5977(in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
5978
5979** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
5980which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
5981the current defun.
5982
5983** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
5984following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
5985
5986** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
5987and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
5988necessary).
5989
5990** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
5991if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
5992these register values no longer become completely useless.
5993If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
5994asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
5995it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
5996
5997** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
5998example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
5999be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
6000you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
6001
6002You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
6003variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
6004file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
6005revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
6006only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
6007
6008** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
6009since it applies only to the current frame.
6010
6011** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
6012file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
6013and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
6014
6015This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
6016multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
6017variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
6018tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
6019instead of just the file you are editing.
6020
6021** RefTeX mode
6022
6023RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
6024and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
6025different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
6026multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
6027turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
6028
79214ddf 6029C-c ( reftex-label
a933dad1
DL
6030 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
6031 knows which kind of label is needed.
6032
6033C-c ) reftex-reference
6034 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
6035 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
6036
6037C-c [ reftex-citation
6038 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
6039 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
6040
6041C-c & reftex-view-crossref
6042 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
6043
6044C-c = reftex-toc
6045 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
6046 can quickly jump to every section.
79214ddf 6047
a933dad1
DL
6048Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
6049commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
6050Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
6051reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
6052C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
6053
6054** Changes in BibTeX mode.
6055
6056*** Info documentation is now available.
6057
6058*** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
6059both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
6060
6061*** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
6062bibtex-user-optional-fields.
6063
6064*** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
6065(use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
6066
6067*** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
6068entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
6069appropriate functions.
6070
6071*** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
6072entries. They are bound by default to M-C-l and M-C-h.
6073
6074*** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
6075been cleaned.
6076
6077*** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
6078bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
6079
6080*** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
6081shall be delimited.
6082
6083*** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
6084bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
6085bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
6086
6087*** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
6088field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
6089prefixed with `ALT'.
6090
6091*** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
6092bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
6093formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
6094documentation).
6095
6096*** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
6097documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
6098for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
6099
6100*** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
6101comma should be inserted at end of last field.
6102
6103*** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
6104alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
6105signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
6106
6107*** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
6108
6109*** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
6110
6111*** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
6112from alien sources.
6113
6114*** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
6115to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
6116crossref entries.
6117
6118*** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
6119region.
6120
6121*** Added support for imenu.
6122
6123*** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
6124of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
6125`compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
6126`next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
6127
6128*** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
6129from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
6130
6131** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
6132
30a009a5 6133** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
047f434a 6134
a933dad1
DL
6135** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
6136functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
6137Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
6138as an argument.
6139
6140When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
6141and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
6142
6143** browse-url changes
6144
6145*** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
6146Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
6147(browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
6148non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
6149customization variables.
6150
6151*** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
6152
6153*** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
6154lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
6155(e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
6156
6157** Changes in Ediff
6158
6159*** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
6160pops up the Info file for this command.
6161
6162*** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
6163the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
6164merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
6165directories).
6166
6167*** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
6168and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
6169files in the same directory.
6170
6171*** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
6172The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
6173related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
6174
6175** Changes in Viper
6176
6177*** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
79214ddf 6178*** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
a933dad1
DL
6179 instead of vip-.
6180*** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
79214ddf 6181*** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
a933dad1
DL
6182Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
6183*** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
6184*** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
6185*** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
6186color when Viper is in insert state.
6187*** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
6188Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
6189viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
6190
6191** Etags changes.
6192
6193*** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
6194default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
6195Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
6196variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
6197not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
6198
6199*** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
6200
6201*** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
6202constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
6203
6204*** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
6205recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
6206In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
6207
6208*** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
6209C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
6210recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
6211methods and protocols.
6212
6213*** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
6214.cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
6215column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
6216paragraph name.
6217
6218*** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
6219an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
6220at least M times and as many as N times.
6221
6222** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
6223in files has changed slightly.
6224
6225With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
6226time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
6227This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
6228with old time-stamp-format values.
6229
6230In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
6231(`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
6232This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
6233reasons.
6234
6235In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
6236natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
6237fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
6238(`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
6239time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
6240specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
6241
6242Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
6243case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
6244truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
6245
6246The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
6247being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
6248future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
6249recommended now will continue to work then.
6250
6251See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
6252details.
6253
6254** There are some additional major modes:
6255
6256dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
6257m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
6258meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
6259
6260** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
6261copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
6262into Emacs.
6263
6264** New Lisp packages include:
6265
6266*** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
6267
6268*** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
6269be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
6270
6271*** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
6272
6273*** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
6274in shell buffers.
6275
6276*** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
6277See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
6278and `elint-defun'.
6279
6280*** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
6281meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
6282ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
6283strings or comments.
6284
6285These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
6286abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
6287you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
6288insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
6289at these points.
6290
6291*** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
6292can visit them by short forms of their names.
6293
6294*** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
6295Emacs Lisp function at point.
6296
6297*** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
6298
6299*** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
6300switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
6301
6302*** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
6303
6304*** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
6305
6306*** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
6307
6308*** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
6309from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
6310
6311*** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
6312You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
6313inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
6314original place after inserting the copy.
6315
6316*** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
6317on the buffer.
6318
6319You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
6320velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
6321(with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
6322
6323Enable mouse-drag with:
6324 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
6325-or-
6326 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
6327
6328*** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
6329mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
6330
6331*** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
6332It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
6333
6334*** ogonek
6335
6336The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
6337Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
6338platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
6339TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
6340ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
6341prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
6342instance) and vice versa.
6343
6344To use this package load it using
6345 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
6346Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
79214ddf 6347 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
a933dad1
DL
6348 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
6349The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
6350ways of customization in `.emacs'.
6351
6352*** Interface to ph.
6353
6354Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
6355
6356The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
6357services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
6358these servers.
6359
6360*** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
6361
6362*** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
6363You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
6364while the real cursor does not move.
6365
6366*** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
6367for visiting your favorite web sites.
6368
6369*** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
6370so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
6371
6372** movemail change
6373
6374Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
6375mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
6376supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
6377user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
6378
6379This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
6380\f
6381* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
6382
6383** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
6384
6385Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
6386end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
6387Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
6388file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
6389file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
6390
6391To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
6392C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
6393coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
6394specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
6395LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
6396save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
6397\f
6398* Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
6399
6400** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
6401Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
6402vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
6403Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
6404
6405** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
6406to start with w32- instead of win32-.
6407
6408In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
6409don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
6410"win".
6411
6412** Basic Lisp changes
6413
6414*** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
6415evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
6416
6417*** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
6418be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
6419or by the user.
6420
6421The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
6422
6423*** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
6424
6425(when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
6426(unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
6427
6428*** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
6429usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
6430its argument.
6431
6432*** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
6433
6434*** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
6435
6436*** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
6437
6438*** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
6439error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
6440include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
6441`format' function.
6442
6443*** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
6444or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
6445whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
6446
6447*** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
6448either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
6449adding one of these suffixes.
6450
6451*** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
6452which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
79214ddf 6453If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
a933dad1
DL
6454
6455We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
6456because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
6457
6458*** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
6459
6460*** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
6461You must load the `cl' library to define it.
6462
6463*** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
6464conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
6465
6466 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
6467
6468BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
6469BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
6470
6471*** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
6472choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
6473restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
6474works using `save-current-buffer'.
6475
6476*** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
6477write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
6478of the last form.
6479
6480*** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
6481which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
6482last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
6483as the last form.
6484
6485*** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
6486characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
6487matches.
6488
6489For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
6490
6491*** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
6492with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
6493Then it returns that string.
6494
6495For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
6496
6497(with-output-to-string
6498 (princ "The buffer is ")
6499 (princ (buffer-name)))
6500
6501returns "The buffer is foo".
6502
6503** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
6504is non-nil.
6505
6506These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
6507buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
6508characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
6509
6510*** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
6511a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
6512
6513Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
6514character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
6515Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
6516position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
6517characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
6518 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
6519
6520ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
6521Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
6522non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
6523characters".
6524
6525The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
6526through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
6527"leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
6528range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
6529leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
6530
6531*** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
6532(forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
6533multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
6534character, which may be more than one buffer position.
6535
6536This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
6537always one buffer position, need to be changed.
6538
6539However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
79214ddf 6540
a933dad1
DL
6541*** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
6542because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
6543have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
6544the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
6545guaranteed.
6546
6547*** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
6548between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
6549character).
6550
6551When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
6552
6553 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
6554 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
6555 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
6556 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
6557 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
6558
6559*** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
6560
6561*** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
6562`length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
6563more than the number of characters.
6564
6565You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
6566it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
6567\xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
6568is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
6569follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
6570newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
6571
6572*** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
6573and returns a string containing those characters.
6574
6575*** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
6576(sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
6577counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
6578character, sref signals an error.
6579
6580*** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
6581in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
6582string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
6583
6584*** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
6585in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
6586region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
6587
6588*** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
6589the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
6590to a vector of the characters in it.
6591
6592*** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
6593of a string. You call it as follows:
6594
6595 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
6596
6597This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
6598STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
6599This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
6600Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
6601it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
6602
6603*** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
6604if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
6605
6606*** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
6607if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
6608
6609*** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
6610to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
6611not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
6612which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
6613
6614(truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
6615
6616This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
6617
6618The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
6619If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
6620are not included in the resulting value.
6621
6622The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
6623at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
6624WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
6625is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
6626
6627If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
6628place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
6629character extends across that column), then the padding character
6630PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
6631string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
6632column START-COLUMN.
6633
6634*** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
6635the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
6636necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
6637difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
6638changed text, before the change.
6639
6640*** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
6641sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
6642one character set for each script, not for each language.
6643
6644**** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
6645
6646**** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
6647
6648**** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
6649set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
6650
6651**** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
6652name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
6653which identify the character within that character set.
6654
6655**** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
6656byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
6657opposite of split-char.
6658
6659**** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
6660of all the characters between BEG and END.
6661
6662**** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
6663of all the characters in a string.
6664
6665*** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
6666and specifying coding systems.
6667
6668**** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
6669system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
6670of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
6671(Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
6672and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
6673as what to do about code conversion.)
6674
6675**** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
6676name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
6677
6678**** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
6679for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
6680except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
6681
6682Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
6683which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
6684to match against a file name.
6685
6686VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
6687a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
6688decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
6689to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
6690systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
6691specifies the coding system for encoding.
6692
6693If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
6694or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
6695
6696**** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
6697the coding system to use for network sockets.
6698
6699Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
6700which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
6701either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
6702service names.
6703
6704VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
6705a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
6706decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
6707to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
6708systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
6709specifies the coding system for encoding.
6710
6711If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
6712or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
6713
6714**** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
6715for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
6716except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
6717start the subprocess.
6718
6719**** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
6720systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
6721when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
6722(OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
6723to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
6724
6725**** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
6726coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
6727subprocess.
6728
6729It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
6730but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
6731start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
6732connection permanently or until overridden.
6733
6734The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
6735file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
6736network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
6737coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
6738It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
6739system for one operation at a time.
6740
6741**** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
6742files, subprocesses or network connections.
6743
6744**** The function process-coding-system tells you what
6745coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
6746The value is a cons cell,
6747 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
6748where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
6749the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
6750input to the subprocess.
6751
6752**** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
6753change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
6754
6755** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
6756customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
6757you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
6758
6759You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
6760variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
6761information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
6762legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
6763customization.
6764
6765Thus, instead of writing
6766
6767 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
6768 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
6769
6770you would now write this:
6771
6772 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
6773 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
6774 :type 'boolean
6775 :group foo)
6776
6777The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
6778two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
6779describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
6780for a description of them.
6781
6782The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
6783should belong to. You define a new group like this:
6784
6785 (defgroup ispell nil
6786 "Spell checking using Ispell."
6787 :group 'processes)
6788
6789The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
6790group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
6791but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
6792to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
6793second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
6794
6795Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
6796package should have just one group; a more complex package should
6797have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
6798package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
6799first-level subgroups.
6800
6801** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
6802
6803This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
6804separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
6805
6806** easy-mmode
6807
6808The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
6809developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
6810only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
6811predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
6812`easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
6813`easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
6814
6815** Text property changes
6816
6817*** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
6818text property.
6819
6820*** The new functions next-char-property-change and
6821previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
6822place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
6823functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
6824starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
6825
6826If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
6827LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
6828of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
6829position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
6830
6831*** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
6832value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
6833is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
6834
6835** Changes in invisibility features
6836
6837*** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
6838hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
6839is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
6840should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
6841would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
6842make the overlay visible.
6843
6844During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
6845invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
6846needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
6847which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
6848the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
6849t when it should hide it.
6850
6851*** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
6852
6853Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
79214ddf
FP
6854invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
6855and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
a933dad1 6856Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
79214ddf 6857manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
a933dad1
DL
6858Here is an example of how to do this:
6859
6860 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
79214ddf 6861 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
a933dad1 6862 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
79214ddf 6863 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
a933dad1
DL
6864
6865 ...
6866 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
6867
6868 ...
6869 ;; When done with the overlays:
6870 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
6871 ;; Or respectively:
6872 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
6873
6874** Changes in syntax parsing.
6875
6876*** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
6877`parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
6878obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
6879`parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
6880
6881If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
6882is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
6883used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
6884
6885When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
6886character in the buffer is calculated thus:
6887
6888 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
6889 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
6890
6891 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
6892 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
6893 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
6894
6895 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
6896 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
6897 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
6898 determine the syntax type of the character.
6899
6900 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
6901 of the current buffer.
6902
6903*** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
6904value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
6905for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
6906
6907*** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
6908and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
6909only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
6910character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
6911another character with the same code (unless quoted).
6912
6913These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
6914text property.
6915
6916*** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
6917arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
6918of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
6919
6920*** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
6921(and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
6922element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
6923nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
6924string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
6925
6926*** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
6927syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
6928`font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
6929
6930** Changes in face features
6931
6932*** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
6933if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
6934
6935*** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
6936of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
6937
6938*** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
6939set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
6940
6941*** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
6942set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
6943
6944*** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
6945by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
6946and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
6947the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
6948overlay property).
6949
6950This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
6951arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
6952
6953** Changes in file-handling functions
6954
6955*** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
6956directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
6957they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
6958is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
6959
6960This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
6961begins with ~.
6962
6963*** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
6964it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
6965
6966*** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
6967the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
6968
6969*** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
6970as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
6971
6972*** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
6973character code conversion as well as other things.
6974
6975Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
6976(formerly it did not).
6977
6978*** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
6979environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
6980
6981*** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
6982instead of constant strings.
6983
6984*** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
6985to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
6986any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
6987
6988substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
6989in the same way as before.
6990
6991*** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
6992The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
6993which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
6994
6995*** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
6996error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
6997else, and returns nil.
6998
6999*** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
7000directory cannot be listed.
7001
7002** Changes in minibuffer input
7003
7004*** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
7005read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
7006additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
7007argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
7008ways:
7009
7010 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
7011 It is available through the history command M-n.
7012
7013*** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
7014read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
7015argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
7016minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
7017enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
7018
7019In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
7020argument in this way.
7021
7022*** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
7023from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
7024minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
7025
7026** Echo area features
7027
7028*** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
7029echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
7030minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
7031after the echo area is cleared.
7032
7033*** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
7034in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
7035
7036** Keyboard input features
7037
7038*** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
7039set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
7040
7041*** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
7042received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
7043by keyboard macros.
7044
7045** Frame-related changes
7046
7047*** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
7048creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
7049hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
7050
7051*** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
7052the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
7053has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
7054
7055*** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
7056selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
7057value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
7058in the selected frame.
7059
7060*** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
7061is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
7062which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
7063
7064** X Windows features
7065
7066*** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
7067x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
7068x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
7069
7070*** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
7071The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
7072
7073*** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
7074MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
7075A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
7076
7077If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
7078it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
7079
7080** Subprocess features
7081
7082*** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
7083functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
7084automatically.
7085
7086*** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
7087and returns the output from the command as a string.
7088
7089*** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
7090and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
7091
7092** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
7093does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
7094
7095** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
7096at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
7097goes after the other menu items.
7098
7099** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
79214ddf 7100of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
a933dad1
DL
7101around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
7102are in use.
7103
7104The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
7105series of several changes--if that seems safe.
7106
7107Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
7108after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
7109form.
7110
7111** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
7112is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
7113but its hook is still run.
7114
7115** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
7116for errors that are handled by condition-case.
7117
7118If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
7119regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
7120useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
7121
7122This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
7123are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
7124filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
7125warned.
7126
7127** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
7128way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
7129
7130** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
7131integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
7132functions like display-time.
7133
7134** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
7135name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
7136
7137** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
7138can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
7139is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
7140
7141** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
7142if there is an error in compilation.
7143
7144** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
7145switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
7146argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
7147they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
7148
7149** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
7150Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
7151the *scratch* buffer.
7152
7153** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
7154The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
7155where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
7156e.g., in Font Lock mode.
7157
7158** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
7159and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
7160It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
7161
7162** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
7163using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
7164variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
7165and compose-mail-other-frame.
7166
7167** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
7168can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
7169full name of the specified user will be returned.
7170
7171** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
7172of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
7173where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
7174in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
7175option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
7176files at all.
7177
7178** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
7179and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
7180width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
7181the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
7182
7183For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
7184minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
7185with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
7186is how %S normally pads to two positions.
7187
7188** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
7189
7190** imenu.el changes.
7191
7192You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
79214ddf 7193item from menu created by imenu.
a933dad1
DL
7194
7195An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
7196#include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
7197select one of those items.
7198\f
7199* Emacs 19.34 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
7200\f
7201* Changes in Emacs 19.33.
7202
7203** Bibtex mode no longer turns on Auto Fill automatically. (No major
7204mode should do that--it is the user's choice.)
7205
7206** The variable normal-auto-fill-function specifies the function to
7207use for auto-fill-function, if and when Auto Fill is turned on.
7208Major modes can set this locally to alter how Auto Fill works.
7209\f
7210* Editing Changes in Emacs 19.32
7211
7212** C-x f with no argument now signals an error.
7213To set the fill column at the current column, use C-u C-x f.
7214
7215** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
7216conversion. If you type the abbreviation with mixed case, and it
7217matches the beginning of the expansion including case, then the
7218expansion is copied verbatim. Using SPC M-/ to copy an additional
7219word always copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is
7220all caps.
7221
7222** On a non-windowing terminal, which can display only one Emacs frame
7223at a time, creating a new frame with C-x 5 2 also selects that frame.
7224
7225When using a display that can show multiple frames at once, C-x 5 2
7226does make the frame visible, but does not select it. This is the same
7227as in previous Emacs versions.
7228
7229** You can use C-x 5 2 to create multiple frames on MSDOS, just as on a
7230non-X terminal on Unix. Of course, only one frame is visible at any
7231time, since your terminal doesn't have the ability to display multiple
7232frames.
7233
7234** On Windows, set win32-pass-alt-to-system to a non-nil value
7235if you would like tapping the Alt key to invoke the Windows menu.
7236This feature is not enabled by default; since the Alt key is also the
7237Meta key, it is too easy and painful to activate this feature by
7238accident.
7239
7240** The command apply-macro-to-region-lines repeats the last defined
7241keyboard macro once for each complete line within the current region.
7242It does this line by line, by moving point to the beginning of that
7243line and then executing the macro.
7244
7245This command is not new, but was never documented before.
7246
7247** You can now use Mouse-1 to place the region around a string constant
7248(something surrounded by doublequote characters or other delimiter
7249characters of like syntax) by double-clicking on one of the delimiting
7250characters.
7251
7252** Font Lock mode
7253
7254*** Font Lock support modes
7255
7256Font Lock can be configured to use Fast Lock mode and Lazy Lock mode (see
7257below) in a flexible way. Rather than adding the appropriate function to the
7258hook font-lock-mode-hook, you can use the new variable font-lock-support-mode
7259to control which modes have Fast Lock mode or Lazy Lock mode turned on when
7260Font Lock mode is enabled.
7261
7262For example, to use Fast Lock mode when Font Lock mode is turned on, put:
7263
7264 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'fast-lock-mode)
7265
7266in your ~/.emacs.
7267
7268*** lazy-lock
7269
7270The lazy-lock package speeds up Font Lock mode by making fontification occur
7271only when necessary, such as when a previously unfontified part of the buffer
7272becomes visible in a window. When you create a buffer with Font Lock mode and
7273Lazy Lock mode turned on, the buffer is not fontified. When certain events
7274occur (such as scrolling), Lazy Lock makes sure that the visible parts of the
7275buffer are fontified. Lazy Lock also defers on-the-fly fontification until
7276Emacs has been idle for a given amount of time.
7277
7278To use this package, put in your ~/.emacs:
7279
7280 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'lazy-lock-mode)
7281
7282To control the package behaviour, see the documentation for `lazy-lock-mode'.
7283
7284** Changes in BibTeX mode.
7285
7286*** For all entries allow spaces and tabs between opening brace or
7287paren and key.
7288
7289*** Non-escaped double-quoted characters (as in `Sch"of') are now
7290supported.
7291
7292** Gnus changes.
7293
7294Gnus, the Emacs news reader, has undergone further rewriting. Many new
7295commands and variables have been added. There should be no
7296significant incompatibilities between this Gnus version and the
7297previously released version, except in the message composition area.
7298
7299Below is a list of the more user-visible changes. Coding changes
7300between Gnus 5.1 and 5.2 are more extensive.
7301
79214ddf 7302*** A new message composition mode is used. All old customization
a933dad1
DL
7303variables for mail-mode, rnews-reply-mode and gnus-msg are now
7304obsolete.
7305
7306*** Gnus is now able to generate "sparse" threads -- threads where
7307missing articles are represented by empty nodes.
7308
7309 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
7310
7311*** Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server.
7312
7313 To disable this: (setq gnus-message-archive-group nil)
7314
7315*** Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
79214ddf 7316referred.
a933dad1
DL
7317
7318*** Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions:
7319
7320 (setq gnus-use-grouplens t)
7321
7322*** A trn-line tree buffer can be displayed.
7323
7324 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
7325
7326*** An nn-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
79214ddf 7327buffers.
a933dad1
DL
7328
7329 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
7330
7331*** In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode:
7332
7333 `M-x gnus-binary-mode'
7334
7335*** Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy.
7336
7337 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
7338
7339*** Gnus can re-send and bounce mail.
7340
7341 Use the `S D r' and `S D b'.
7342
7343*** Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
7344is possible.
7345
7346 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
7347
7348*** Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
7349groups of groups.
7350
7351*** Caching is possible in virtual groups.
7352
7353*** nndoc now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews news
79214ddf 7354batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything else.
a933dad1
DL
7355
7356*** Gnus has a new backend (nnsoup) to create/read SOUP packets.
7357
7358*** The Gnus cache is much faster.
7359
7360*** Groups can be sorted according to many criteria.
7361
7362 For instance: (setq gnus-group-sort-function 'gnus-group-sort-by-rank)
7363
7364*** New group parameters have been introduced to set list-address and
7365expiration times.
7366
7367*** All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used.
7368
7369*** There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on
7370process marked articles on the `M P' submap.
7371
7372*** The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
7373articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
7374bound to keys on the `/' submap.
7375
7376*** Articles can be made persistent -- as an alternative to saving
7377articles with the `*' command.
7378
7379*** All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
7380
7381*** Article headers can be buttonized.
7382
7383 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head)
7384
7385*** All mail backends support fetching articles by Message-ID.
7386
79214ddf 7387*** Duplicate mail can now be treated properly. See the
a933dad1
DL
7388`nnmail-treat-duplicates' variable.
7389
7390*** All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
79214ddf 7391buffer.
a933dad1
DL
7392
7393*** Frames can be part of `gnus-buffer-configuration'.
7394
7395*** Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process.
7396
7397*** Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to filter spam.
7398
7399 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
7400
79214ddf 7401*** Groups can be made permanently visible.
a933dad1
DL
7402
7403 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
7404
79214ddf 7405*** Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
a933dad1
DL
7406
7407*** Gnus respects the Mail-Copies-To header.
7408
79214ddf 7409*** Threads can be gathered by looking at the References header.
a933dad1 7410
79214ddf 7411 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
a933dad1
DL
7412 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
7413
7414*** Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
79214ddf 7415refetching.
a933dad1
DL
7416
7417 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
7418
7419*** A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
7420buffer to allow easier treatment.
7421
7422*** Gnus can suggest where to save articles. See `gnus-split-methods'.
7423
7424*** Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving.
7425
7426 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
7427
7428*** gnus-uu can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
79214ddf 7429articles.
a933dad1
DL
7430
7431 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
7432
79214ddf 7433*** Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text.
a933dad1
DL
7434
7435*** Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
7436cited text to hide is now customizable.
7437
7438 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
7439
7440*** Boring headers can be hidden.
7441
7442 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-hide-boring-headers)
7443
7444*** Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
7445
7446*** Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
7447
7448The Gnus manual has been expanded. It explains all these new features
7449in greater detail.
7450\f
7451* Lisp Changes in Emacs 19.32
7452
7453** The function set-visited-file-name now accepts an optional
7454second argument NO-QUERY. If it is non-nil, then the user is not
7455asked for confirmation in the case where the specified file already
7456exists.
7457
7458** The variable print-length applies to printing vectors and bitvectors,
7459as well as lists.
7460
7461** The new function keymap-parent returns the parent keymap
7462of a given keymap.
7463
7464** The new function set-keymap-parent specifies a new parent for a
7465given keymap. The arguments are KEYMAP and PARENT. PARENT must be a
7466keymap or nil.
7467
7468** Sometimes menu keymaps use a command name, a symbol, which is really
7469an automatically generated alias for some other command, the "real"
7470name. In such a case, you should give that alias symbol a non-nil
7471menu-alias property. That property tells the menu system to look for
7472equivalent keys for the real name instead of equivalent keys for the
7473alias.
7474\f
7475* Editing Changes in Emacs 19.31
7476
7477** Freedom of the press restricted in the United States.
7478
7479Emacs has been censored in accord with the Communications Decency Act.
7480This includes removing some features of the doctor program. That law
7481was described by its supporters as a ban on pornography, but it bans
7482far more than that. The Emacs distribution has never contained any
7483pornography, but parts of it were nonetheless prohibited.
7484
7485For information on US government censorship of the Internet, and what
7486you can do to bring back freedom of the press, see the web site
7487`http://www.vtw.org/'.
7488
7489** A note about C mode indentation customization.
7490
7491The old (Emacs 19.29) ways of specifying a C indentation style
7492do not normally work in the new implementation of C mode.
7493It has its own methods of customizing indentation, which are
7494much more powerful than the old C mode. See the Editing Programs
7495chapter of the manual for details.
7496
7497However, you can load the library cc-compat to make the old
7498customization variables take effect.
7499
7500** Marking with the mouse.
7501
7502When you mark a region with the mouse, the region now remains
7503highlighted until the next input event, regardless of whether you are
7504using M-x transient-mark-mode.
7505
7506** Improved Windows NT/95 support.
7507
7508*** Emacs now supports scroll bars on Windows NT and Windows 95.
7509
7510*** Emacs now supports subprocesses on Windows 95. (Subprocesses used
7511to work on NT only and not on 95.)
7512
7513*** There are difficulties with subprocesses, though, due to problems
7514in Windows, beyond the control of Emacs. They work fine as long as
7515you run Windows applications. The problems arise when you run a DOS
7516application in a subprocesses. Since current shells run as DOS
7517applications, these problems are significant.
7518
7519If you run a DOS application in a subprocess, then the application is
7520likely to busy-wait, which means that your machine will be 100% busy.
7521However, if you don't mind the temporary heavy load, the subprocess
7522will work OK as long as you tell it to terminate before you start any
7523other DOS application as a subprocess.
7524
7525Emacs is unable to terminate or interrupt a DOS subprocess.
7526You have to do this by providing input directly to the subprocess.
7527
7528If you run two DOS applications at the same time in two separate
7529subprocesses, even if one of them is asynchronous, you will probably
7530have to reboot your machine--until then, it will remain 100% busy.
7531Windows simply does not cope when one Windows process tries to run two
7532separate DOS subprocesses. Typing CTL-ALT-DEL and then choosing
7533Shutdown seems to work although it may take a few minutes.
7534
7535** M-x resize-minibuffer-mode.
7536
7537This command, not previously mentioned in NEWS, toggles a mode in
7538which the minibuffer window expands to show as many lines as the
7539minibuffer contains.
7540
7541** `title' frame parameter and resource.
7542
7543The `title' X resource now specifies just the frame title, nothing else.
7544It does not affect the name used for looking up other X resources.
7545It works by setting the new `title' frame parameter, which likewise
7546affects just the displayed title of the frame.
7547
7548The `name' parameter continues to do what it used to do:
7549it specifies the frame name for looking up X resources,
7550and also serves as the default for the displayed title
7551when the `title' parameter is unspecified or nil.
7552
7553** Emacs now uses the X toolkit by default, if you have a new
7554enough version of X installed (X11R5 or newer).
7555
7556** When you compile Emacs with the Motif widget set, Motif handles the
7557F10 key by activating the menu bar. To avoid confusion, the usual
7558Emacs binding of F10 is replaced with a no-op when using Motif.
7559
7560If you want to be able to use F10 in Emacs, you can rebind the Motif
7561menubar to some other key which you don't use. To do so, add
7562something like this to your X resources file. This example rebinds
7563the Motif menu bar activation key to S-F12:
7564
7565 Emacs*defaultVirtualBindings: osfMenuBar : Shift<Key>F12
7566
7567** In overwrite mode, DEL now inserts spaces in most cases
7568to replace the characters it "deletes".
7569
7570** The Rmail summary now shows the number of lines in each message.
7571
7572** Rmail has a new command M-x unforward-rmail-message, which extracts
7573a forwarded message from the message that forwarded it. To use it,
7574select a message which contains a forwarded message and then type the command.
7575It inserts the forwarded message as a separate Rmail message
7576immediately after the selected one.
7577
7578This command also undoes the textual modifications that are standardly
7579made, as part of forwarding, by Rmail and other mail reader programs.
7580
7581** Turning off saving of .saves-... files in your home directory.
7582
7583Each Emacs session writes a file named .saves-... in your home
7584directory to record which files M-x recover-session should recover.
7585If you exit Emacs normally with C-x C-c, it deletes that file. If
7586Emacs or the operating system crashes, the file remains for M-x
7587recover-session.
7588
7589You can turn off the writing of these files by setting
7590auto-save-list-file-name to nil. If you do this, M-x recover-session
7591will not work.
7592
7593Some previous Emacs versions failed to delete these files even on
7594normal exit. This is fixed now. If you are thinking of turning off
7595this feature because of past experiences with versions that had this
7596bug, it would make sense to check whether you still want to do so
7597now that the bug is fixed.
7598
7599** Changes to Version Control (VC)
7600
7601There is a new variable, vc-follow-symlinks. It indicates what to do
7602when you visit a link to a file that is under version control.
7603Editing the file through the link bypasses the version control system,
7604which is dangerous and probably not what you want.
7605
7606If this variable is t, VC follows the link and visits the real file,
7607telling you about it in the echo area. If it is `ask' (the default),
7608VC asks for confirmation whether it should follow the link. If nil,
7609the link is visited and a warning displayed.
7610
7611** iso-acc.el now lets you specify a choice of language.
7612Languages include "latin-1" (the default) and "latin-2" (which
7613is designed for entering ISO Latin-2 characters).
7614
7615There are also choices for specific human languages such as French and
7616Portuguese. These are subsets of Latin-1, which differ in that they
7617enable only the accent characters needed for particular language.
7618The other accent characters, not needed for the chosen language,
7619remain normal.
7620
7621** Posting articles and sending mail now has M-TAB completion on various
7622header fields (Newsgroups, To, CC, ...).
7623
7624Completion in the Newsgroups header depends on the list of groups
7625known to your news reader. Completion in the Followup-To header
7626offers those groups which are in the Newsgroups header, since
7627Followup-To usually just holds one of those.
7628
7629Completion in fields that hold mail addresses works based on the list
7630of local users plus your aliases. Additionally, if your site provides
7631a mail directory or a specific host to use for any unrecognized user
7632name, you can arrange to query that host for completion also. (See the
7633documentation of variables `mail-directory-process' and
7634`mail-directory-stream'.)
7635
7636** A greatly extended sgml-mode offers new features such as (to be configured)
7637skeletons with completing read for tags and attributes, typing named
7638characters including optionally all 8bit characters, making tags invisible
7639with optional alternate display text, skipping and deleting tag(pair)s.
7640
7641Note: since Emacs' syntax feature cannot limit the special meaning of ', " and
7642- to inside <>, for some texts the result, especially of font locking, may be
7643wrong (see `sgml-specials' if you get wrong results).
7644
7645The derived html-mode configures this with tags and attributes more or
7646less HTML3ish. It also offers optional quick keys like C-c 1 for
7647headline or C-c u for unordered list (see `html-quick-keys'). Edit /
7648Text Properties / Face or M-g combinations create tags as applicable.
7649Outline minor mode is supported and level 1 font-locking tries to
7650fontify tag contents (which only works when they fit on one line, due
7651to a limitation in font-lock).
7652
7653External viewing via browse-url can occur automatically upon saving.
7654
7655** M-x imenu-add-to-menubar now adds to the menu bar for the current
7656buffer only. If you want to put an Imenu item in the menu bar for all
7657buffers that use a particular major mode, use the mode hook, as in
7658this example:
7659
7660 (add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook
7661 '(lambda () (imenu-add-to-menubar "Index")))
7662
7663** Changes in BibTeX mode.
7664
7665*** Field names may now contain digits, hyphens, and underscores.
7666
7667*** Font Lock mode is now supported.
7668
7669*** bibtex-make-optional-field is no longer interactive.
7670
7671*** If bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is non-nil, inserting new
7672entries is now done with a faster algorithm. However, inserting
7673will fail in this case if the buffer contains invalid entries or
7674isn't in sorted order, so you should finish each entry with C-c C-c
7675(bibtex-close-entry) after you have inserted or modified it.
7676The default value of bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is nil.
7677
7678*** Function `show-all' is no longer bound to a key, since C-u C-c C-q
7679does the same job.
7680
7681*** Entries with quotes inside quote-delimited fields (as `author =
7682"Stefan Sch{\"o}f"') are now supported.
7683
7684*** Case in field names doesn't matter anymore when searching for help
7685text.
7686
7687** Font Lock mode
7688
7689*** Global Font Lock mode
7690
7691Font Lock mode can be turned on globally, in buffers that support it, by the
7692new command global-font-lock-mode. You can use the new variable
7693font-lock-global-modes to control which modes have Font Lock mode automagically
7694turned on. By default, this variable is set so that Font Lock mode is turned
7695on globally where the buffer mode supports it.
7696
7697For example, to automagically turn on Font Lock mode where supported, put:
7698
7699 (global-font-lock-mode t)
7700
7701in your ~/.emacs.
7702
7703*** Local Refontification
7704
7705In Font Lock mode, editing a line automatically refontifies that line only.
7706However, if your change alters the syntactic context for following lines,
7707those lines remain incorrectly fontified. To refontify them, use the new
7708command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block).
7709
7710In certain major modes, M-g M-g refontifies the entire current function.
7711(The variable font-lock-mark-block-function controls how to find the
7712current function.) In other major modes, M-g M-g refontifies 16 lines
7713above and below point.
7714
7715With a prefix argument N, M-g M-g refontifies N lines above and below point.
7716
7717** Follow mode
7718
7719Follow mode is a new minor mode combining windows showing the same
7720buffer into one tall "virtual window". The windows are typically two
7721side-by-side windows. Follow mode makes them scroll together as if
7722they were a unit. To use it, go to a frame with just one window,
7723split it into two side-by-side windows using C-x 3, and then type M-x
7724follow-mode.
7725
7726M-x follow-mode turns off Follow mode if it is already enabled.
7727
7728To display two side-by-side windows and activate Follow mode, use the
7729command M-x follow-delete-other-windows-and-split.
7730
7731** hide-show changes.
7732
7733The hooks hs-hide-hooks and hs-show-hooks have been renamed
7734to hs-hide-hook and hs-show-hook, to follow the convention for
7735normal hooks.
7736
7737** Simula mode now has a menu containing the most important commands.
7738The new command simula-indent-exp is bound to C-M-q.
7739
7740** etags can now handle programs written in Erlang. Files are
7741recognised by the extensions .erl and .hrl. The tagged lines are
7742those that begin a function, record, or macro.
7743
7744** MSDOS Changes
7745
7746*** It is now possible to compile Emacs with the version 2 of DJGPP.
7747Compilation with DJGPP version 1 also still works.
7748
7749*** The documentation of DOS-specific aspects of Emacs was rewritten
7750and expanded; see the ``MS-DOS'' node in the on-line docs.
7751
7752*** Emacs now uses ~ for backup file names, not .bak.
7753
7754*** You can simulate mouse-3 on two-button mice by simultaneously
7755pressing both mouse buttons.
7756
7757*** A number of packages and commands which previously failed or had
7758restricted functionality on MS-DOS, now work. The most important ones
79214ddf 7759are:
a933dad1
DL
7760
7761**** Printing (both with `M-x lpr-buffer' and with `ps-print' package)
7762now works.
7763
7764**** `Ediff' works (in a single-frame mode).
7765
7766**** `M-x display-time' can be used on MS-DOS (due to the new
7767implementation of Emacs timers, see below).
7768
7769**** `Dired' supports Unix-style shell wildcards.
7770
7771**** The `c-macro-expand' command now works as on other platforms.
7772
7773**** `M-x recover-session' works.
7774
7775**** `M-x list-colors-display' displays all the available colors.
7776
7777**** The `TPU-EDT' package works.
7778\f
7779* Lisp changes in Emacs 19.31.
7780
7781** The function using-unix-filesystems on Windows NT and Windows 95
7782tells Emacs to read and write files assuming that they reside on a
7783remote Unix filesystem. No CR/LF translation is done on any files in
7784this case. Invoking using-unix-filesystems with t activates this
7785behavior, and invoking it with any other value deactivates it.
7786
7787** Change in system-type and system-configuration values.
7788
7789The value of system-type on a Linux-based GNU system is now `lignux',
7790not `linux'. This means that some programs which use `system-type'
7791need to be changed. The value of `system-configuration' will also
7792be different.
7793
7794It is generally recommended to use `system-configuration' rather
7795than `system-type'.
7796
7797See the file LINUX-GNU in this directory for more about this.
7798
7799** The functions shell-command and dired-call-process
7800now run file name handlers for default-directory, if it has them.
7801
7802** Undoing the deletion of text now restores the positions of markers
7803that pointed into or next to the deleted text.
7804
7805** Timers created with run-at-time now work internally to Emacs, and
7806no longer use a separate process. Therefore, they now work more
7807reliably and can be used for shorter time delays.
7808
7809The new function run-with-timer is a convenient way to set up a timer
7810to run a specified amount of time after the present. A call looks
7811like this:
7812
7813 (run-with-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
7814
7815SECS says how many seconds should elapse before the timer happens.
7816It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the timer
7817becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments ARGS.
7818
7819REPEAT gives the interval for repeating the timer (measured in
7820seconds). It may be an integer or a floating point number. nil or 0
7821means don't repeat at all--call FUNCTION just once.
7822
7823*** with-timeout provides an easy way to do something but give
7824up if too much time passes.
7825
7826 (with-timeout (SECONDS TIMEOUT-FORMS...) BODY...)
7827
7828This executes BODY, but gives up after SECONDS seconds.
7829If it gives up, it runs the TIMEOUT-FORMS and returns the value
7830of the last one of them. Normally it returns the value of the last
7831form in BODY.
7832
7833*** You can now arrange to call a function whenever Emacs is idle for
7834a certain length of time. To do this, call run-with-idle-timer. A
7835call looks like this:
7836
7837 (run-with-idle-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
7838
7839SECS says how many seconds of idleness should elapse before the timer
7840runs. It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the
7841timer becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments
7842ARGS.
7843
7844Emacs becomes idle whenever it finishes executing a keyboard or mouse
7845command. It remains idle until it receives another keyboard or mouse
7846command.
7847
7848REPEAT, if non-nil, means this timer should be activated again each
7849time Emacs becomes idle and remains idle for SECS seconds The timer
7850does not repeat if Emacs *remains* idle; it runs at most once after
7851each time Emacs becomes idle.
7852
7853If REPEAT is nil, the timer runs just once, the first time Emacs is
7854idle for SECS seconds.
7855
7856*** post-command-idle-hook is now obsolete; you shouldn't use it at
7857all, because it interferes with the idle timer mechanism. If your
7858programs use post-command-idle-hook, convert them to use idle timers
7859instead.
7860
7861*** y-or-n-p-with-timeout lets you ask a question but give up if
7862there is no answer within a certain time.
7863
7864 (y-or-n-p-with-timeout PROMPT SECONDS DEFAULT-VALUE)
7865
7866asks the question PROMPT (just like y-or-n-p). If the user answers
7867within SECONDS seconds, it returns the answer that the user gave.
7868Otherwise it gives up after SECONDS seconds, and returns DEFAULT-VALUE.
7869
7870** Minor change to `encode-time': you can now pass more than seven
7871arguments. If you do that, the first six arguments have the usual
7872meaning, the last argument is interpreted as the time zone, and the
7873arguments in between are ignored.
7874
7875This means that it works to use the list returned by `decode-time' as
7876the list of arguments for `encode-time'.
7877
7878** The default value of load-path now includes the directory
7879/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp In addition to
7880/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp. You can use this new directory for
7881site-specific Lisp packages that belong with a particular Emacs
7882version.
7883
7884It is not unusual for a Lisp package that works well in one Emacs
7885version to cause trouble in another. Sometimes packages need updating
7886for incompatible changes; sometimes they look at internal data that
7887has changed; sometimes the package has been installed in Emacs itself
7888and the installed version should be used. Whatever the reason for the
7889problem, this new feature makes it easier to solve.
7890
7891** When your program contains a fixed file name (like .completions or
7892.abbrev.defs), the file name usually needs to be different on operating
7893systems with limited file name syntax.
7894
7895Now you can avoid ad-hoc conditionals by using the function
7896convert-standard-filename to convert the file name to a proper form
7897for each operating system. Here is an example of use, from the file
7898completions.el:
7899
7900(defvar save-completions-file-name
7901 (convert-standard-filename "~/.completions")
7902 "*The filename to save completions to.")
7903
7904This sets the variable save-completions-file-name to a value that
7905depends on the operating system, because the definition of
7906convert-standard-filename depends on the operating system. On
7907Unix-like systems, it returns the specified file name unchanged. On
7908MS-DOS, it adapts the name to fit the limitations of that system.
7909
7910** The interactive spec N now returns the numeric prefix argument
7911rather than the raw prefix argument. (It still reads a number using the
7912minibuffer if there is no prefix argument at all.)
7913
7914** When a process is deleted, this no longer disconnects the process
7915marker from its buffer position.
7916
7917** The variable garbage-collection-messages now controls whether
7918Emacs displays a message at the beginning and end of garbage collection.
7919The default is nil, meaning there are no messages.
7920
7921** The variable debug-ignored-errors specifies certain kinds of errors
7922that should not enter the debugger. Its value is a list of error
7923condition symbols and/or regular expressions. If the error has any
7924of the condition symbols listed, or if any of the regular expressions
7925matches the error message, then that error does not enter the debugger,
7926regardless of the value of debug-on-error.
7927
7928This variable is initialized to match certain common but uninteresting
7929errors that happen often during editing.
7930
7931** The new function error-message-string converts an error datum
7932into its error message. The error datum is what condition-case
7933puts into the variable, to describe the error that happened.
7934
7935** Anything that changes which buffer appears in a given window
7936now runs the window-scroll-functions for that window.
7937
7938** The new function get-buffer-window-list returns a list of windows displaying
7939a buffer. The function is called with the buffer (a buffer object or a buffer
7940name) and two optional arguments specifying the minibuffer windows and frames
7941to search. Therefore this function takes optional args like next-window etc.,
7942and not get-buffer-window.
7943
7944** buffer-substring now runs the hook buffer-access-fontify-functions,
7945calling each function with two arguments--the range of the buffer
7946being accessed. buffer-substring-no-properties does not call them.
7947
7948If you use this feature, you should set the variable
7949buffer-access-fontified-property to a non-nil symbol, which is a
7950property name. Then, if all the characters in the buffer range have a
7951non-nil value for that property, the buffer-access-fontify-functions
7952are not called. When called, these functions should put a non-nil
7953property on the text that they fontify, so that they won't get called
7954over and over for the same text.
7955
7956** Changes in lisp-mnt.el
7957
7958*** The lisp-mnt package can now recognize file headers that are written
7959in the formats used by the `what' command and the RCS `ident' command:
7960
7961;; @(#) HEADER: text
7962;; $HEADER: text $
7963
7964in addition to the normal
7965
7966;; HEADER: text
7967
7968*** The commands lm-verify and lm-synopsis are now interactive. lm-verify
7969checks that the library file has proper sections and headers, and
7970lm-synopsis extracts first line "synopsis'"information.
7971\f
7972* For older news, see the file ONEWS.
7973
7974----------------------------------------------------------------------
7975Copyright information:
7976
404fa7d6 7977Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
a933dad1
DL
7978
7979 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
7980 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
7981 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
7982 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
7983
7984 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
7985 of this document, or of portions of it,
7986 under the above conditions, provided also that they
7987 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
7988\f
7989Local variables:
7990mode: outline
7991paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
7992end: