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d874e913 1GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2000-08-14
424d8b44 2Copyright (C) 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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3See the end for copying conditions.
4
5Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
3787e12e 6For older news, see the file ONEWS
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7
8\f
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9* Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
10
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11** Support for GNU/Linux on IA64 machines has been added.
12
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13** Support for LynxOS has been added.
14
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15** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
16the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
17
18** There are new configure options associated with the support for
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19images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option in `configure'
20to list them.
6344985d 21
d5483ab1 22** There is a new configure option `--without-xim' that instructs
d874e913 23Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if these are available.
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24
25** There is a new configure option `--disable-largefile' to omit
26Unix-98-style support for large files if that is available.
27
28** You can build a 64-bit Emacs for SPARC/Solaris systems which
29support 64-bit executables. See etc/MACHINES for instructions.
f4988be7 30
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31\f
32* Changes in Emacs 21.1
33
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34* When an error is signaled during the loading of the user's init
35file, Emacs now pops up the *Messages* buffer.
36
d7b38c05 37** Polish and German translations of Emacs' reference card have been
6917e6bb 38added. They are named `pl-refcard.tex' and `de-refcard.tex'.
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39Postscript files are included.
40
41** A reference card for Dired has been added. Its name is
42`dired-ref.tex'.
43
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44** The new variable `auto-mode-interpreter-regexp' contains a regular
45expression matching interpreters, for file mode determination.
46
47This regular expression is matched against the first line of a file to
48determine the file's mode in `set-auto-mode' when Emacs can't deduce a
49mode from the file's name. If it matches, the file is assumed to be
50interpreted by the interpreter matched by the second group of the
51regular expression. The mode is then determined as the mode
52associated with that interpreter in `interpreter-mode-alist'.
53
424d8b44 54+++
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55** C-down-mouse-3 is bound differently. Now if the menu bar is not
56displayed it pops up a menu containing the items which would be on the
57menu bar. If the menu bar is displayed, it pops up the major mode
58menu or the Edit menu if there is no major mode menu.
59
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60** Variable `load-path' is no longer customizable because it contains
61a version-dependent component.
62
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63** The <delete> function key is now bound to `delete-char' by default.
64Note that this takes effect only on window systems. On TTYs, Emacs
65will receive ASCII 127 when the DEL key is pressed. This
66character is still bound as before.
67
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68** Item Save Options on the Options menu allows saving options set
69using that menu.
70
40e857ea 71** New function executable-make-buffer-file-executable-if-script-p is
424d8b44 72suitable as an after-save-hook as an alternative to `executable-chmod'.
40e857ea 73
beb2eb00 74+++
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75** The most preferred coding-system is now used to save a buffer if
76buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and it is safe for the buffer
77contents. (The most preferred is set by set-language-environment or
78by M-x prefer-coding-system.) Thus if you visit an ASCII file and
79insert a non-ASCII character from your current language environment,
80the file will be saved silently with the appropriate coding.
81Previously you would be prompted for a safe coding system.
82
db7a3ede 83+++
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84** New variable `inhibit-iso-escape-detection' determines if Emacs'
85coding system detection algorithm should pay attention to ISO2022's
86escape sequences. If this variable is non-nil, the algorithm ignores
87such escape sequences. The default value is nil, and it is
88recommended not to change it except for the special case that you
07b14857 89always want to read any escape code verbatim. If you just want to
3d6cd763 90read a specific file without decoding escape codes, use C-x RET c
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91(`universal-coding-system-argument'). For instance, C-x RET c latin-1
92RET C-x C-f filename RET.
26ae8525 93
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94** Variable `default-korean-keyboard' is initialized properly from the
95environment variable `HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE'.
96
424d8b44 97+++
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98** C-u C-x = provides detailed information about the character at
99point in a pop-up window.
100
6d35b49f 101+++
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102** New command M-x list-charset-chars reads a character set name and
103displays all characters in that character set.
104
105** M-x set-terminal-coding-system (C-x RET t) now allows CCL-based
106coding systems such as cpXXX and cyrillic-koi8.
107
a4067978 108+++
5cb6a58e 109** M-; now calls comment-dwim which tries to do something clever based
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110on the context. M-x kill-comment is now an alias to comment-kill,
111defined on newcomment.el.
5cb6a58e 112
424d8b44 113+++
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114** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
115
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116** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
117been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
118
424d8b44 119+++
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120** New user options `display-time-mail-face' and
121`display-time-use-mail-icon' control the appearance of mode-line mail
122indicator used by the display-time package. On a suitable display the
123indicator can be an icon and is mouse-sensitive.
124
424d8b44 125+++
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126** Emacs' auto-save list files are now by default stored in a
127sub-directory `.emacs.d/auto-save-list/' of the user's home directory.
874d1079 128(On MS-DOS, this subdirectory's name is `_emacs.d/auto-save.list/'.)
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129You can customize `auto-save-list-prefix' to change this location.
130
424d8b44 131+++
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132** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
133on the display using several methods
134
424d8b44 135+++
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136- By setting frame parameter `line-spacing' to PIXELS. PIXELS must be
137a positive integer, and specifies that PIXELS number of pixels should
138be put below text lines on the affected frame or frames.
139
424d8b44 140+++
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141- By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
142equivalent ot specifying the frame parameter.
143
da4496b6 144- By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
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145
146- By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
147the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
148
424d8b44 149+++
3b4fa1b2 150** The new command `clone-indirect-buffer' can be used to create
1c459486 151an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. The
3b4fa1b2 152command `clone-indirect-buffer-other-window', bound to C-x 4 c,
1c459486 153does the same but displays the indirect buffer in another window.
0daee095 154
424d8b44 155+++
176256a1 156** New user options `backup-directory-alist' and
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157`make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
158typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
176256a1 159
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160** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
161characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
162
bf3ba9ac 163+++
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164** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
165compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
166this behavior.
167
168The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs' byte
169compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
170Emacs dump core.
171
424d8b44 172+++
699238d9 173** New X resources recognized
100b3cbb 174
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175*** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
176whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
177is useful for debugging X problems.
178
179Example:
180
699238d9 181 emacs.synchronous: true
7233c5bd 182
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183*** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
184visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
185the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
186and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
187visual class names are
188
189 TrueColor
190 PseudoColor
191 DirectColor
192 StaticColor
193 GrayScale
194 StaticGray
195
196Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
197`pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
198meaning.
199
200The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
201supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
202`visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
203visual.
204
205Example:
206
699238d9 207 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
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208
209*** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
210specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
211default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
212resource values are `true' or `on'.
213
214Example:
215
699238d9 216 emacs.privateColormap: true
100b3cbb 217
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218** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
219more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
220now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
221
42088c12 222** User-option `show-cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to
c60ea02e 223display the cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is
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224shown, if non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown. This option can
225be customized.
c60ea02e 226
424d8b44 227+++
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228** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
229
424d8b44 230+++
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231** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
232all frames except the selected one.
233
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234** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
235to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
236
ffe36136 237** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
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238the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X, on MS-Windows, and
239MS-DOS, either in the echo area or with tooltips. Many standard menus
240displayed by Emacs now have help strings.
241
0292b49f 242+++
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243** Highlighting of mouse-sensitive regions is now supported in the
244MS-DOS version of Emacs.
ffe36136 245
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246** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
247read mail from the menu etc.
248
480b5773 249+++
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250** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
251a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
252
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253** Changes in Texinfo mode.
254
255** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
256macros
257
258 Key binding Macro
259 -------------------------
260 C-c C-c C-s @strong
261 C-c C-c C-e @emph
262 C-c C-c u @url
263 C-c C-c q @quotation
264 C-c C-c m @email
265
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266** Changes in Outline mode.
267
268There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
269`outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
270the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
271
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272** Changes to Emacs Server
273
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274+++
275*** The new option `server-kill-new-buffers' specifies what to do
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276with buffers when done with them. If non-nil, the default, buffers
277are killed, unless they were already present before visiting them with
278Emacs Server. If nil, `server-temp-file-regexp' specifies which
279buffers to kill, as before.
280
281Please note that only buffers are killed that still have a client,
c0a8c108 282i.e. buffers visited with `emacsclient --no-wait' are never killed in
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283this way.
284
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285** Changes to Show Paren mode.
286
287*** Overlays used by Show Paren mode now use a priority property.
288The new user option show-paren-priority specifies the priority to
289use. Default is 1000.
290
f6989277 291+++
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292** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
293groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
294
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295+++
296** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either
297M-x clone-buffer, C-u m <entry> RET or C-u g <entry> RET.
298M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and several other special
299buffers.
8964fec7 300
424d8b44 301+++
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302** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
303under XFree86. To enable this, simply put (mwheel-install) in your
304.emacs file.
305
306The variables `mwheel-follow-mouse' and `mwheel-scroll-amount'
307determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
308
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309** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
310abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
311`directory-abbrev-alist'.
312
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313** Faces and frame parameters.
314
315There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
316Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
317`scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
318`scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
319sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
320for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
321parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
322
323Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
324`default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
79214ddf 325`foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
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326`default' face and vice versa.
327
d80061fa 328+++
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329** New face `menu'.
330
331The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
332Setting the font of LessTif/Motif menus is currently not supported;
333attempts to set the font are ignored in this case.
334
424d8b44 335+++
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336** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
337
338The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
339colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
340correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
341the screen gamma of a frame's display.
342
343PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
344in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
345color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
346
347The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
348`ScreenGamma'.
349
350** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
351
352The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
353Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
354oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
355of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
356the text.
357
358** Emacs has a new face implementation.
359
360The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
361font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
362height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
363These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
364specify a font.
365
366Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
367These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
368under Lisp changes, below.
369
370** New default font is Courier 12pt.
371
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372+++
373** When using a windowing terminal, each Emacs window now has a cursor
374of its own. When the window is selected, the cursor is solid;
375otherwise, it is hollow.
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376
377** Bitmap areas to the left and right of windows are used to display
378truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
379foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
380customizing face `fringe'.
381
382** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default. You
383can change its appearance by modifying the face `modeline'.
384
385** LessTif support.
386
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387Emacs now runs with the LessTif toolkit (see <http://www.lesstif.org>).
388You will need a version 0.88.1 or later.
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389
390** Toolkit scroll bars.
391
392Emacs now uses toolkit scrollbars if available. When configured for
393LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scrollbar. Otherwise, when
394configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
395bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
396bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
397Emacs.
398
399When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
400Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
401Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
402Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
403define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
404`s/freebsd.h' as an example.
405
406Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
407a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
408directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
409different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
410system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
411add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
412
413The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
414`float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
415This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
416image configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
417Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
418
419** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
420
421When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
422widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
423Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
424
424d8b44 425+++
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426** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
427
428When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
429whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
430defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
431highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
432displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
433whitespace.
434
6e612d4d 435+++
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436** Busy-cursor.
437
438Emacs can optionally display a busy-cursor under X. You can turn the
439display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
440
424d8b44 441+++
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442** Blinking cursor
443
444M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
445terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
446and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
447the group `cursor'.
448
449** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
450
451This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
452generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
453See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
454details.
455
456Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
457have to do anything to activate it.
458
459** Tabs and variable-width text.
460
461Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
462defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
463independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
464Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
465
466** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
467
424d8b44 468+++
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469*** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
470
471 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
472
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473The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
474LessTif/Motif one.
a933dad1 475
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476*** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
477LessTif and Motif.
a933dad1 478
34d90e29 479+++
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480** Hscrolling in C code.
481
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482Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
483`automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
484customized.
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485
486** Tool bar support.
487
488Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
489how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level changes.
490
424d8b44 491+++
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492** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
493
494Different parts of the mode line under X have been made
495mouse-sensitive. Moving the mouse to a mouse-sensitive part in the mode
496line changes the appearance of the mouse pointer to an arrow, and help
497about available mouse actions is displayed either in the echo area, or
498in the tooltip window if you have enabled one.
499
500Currently, the following actions have been defined:
501
502- Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line switches between two
503buffers.
504
505- Mouse-2 on the buffer-name switches to the next buffer, and
506M-mouse-2 switches to the previous buffer in the buffer list.
507
508- Mouse-3 on the buffer-name displays a buffer menu.
509
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510- Mouse-2 on the read-only or modified status in the mode line (`%' or
511`*') toggles the status.
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512
513- Mouse-3 on the mode name display a minor-mode menu.
514
515** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
516
517When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
e33b0397 518from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
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519non-nil.
520
521** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
522
523Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
524Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
525the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
526italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
527Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
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528attributes such as `overline', `strike-through', and `box' are ignored
529on terminals.
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530
531** Sound support
532
2f516940 533Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD (Voxware
0b50c67f 534driver and native BSD driver, a.k.a. Luigi's driver). Currently
2f516940 535supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio (*.au).
a933dad1 536
424d8b44 537+++
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538** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
539the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
540forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
541value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
542users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
543even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
544
545The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
546
0e18b431 547+++
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548** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
549
550As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
551drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
552`x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
553
fdd8bb68 554+++
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555** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
556bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi).
557
558This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
559`indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
560variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
561
562** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
563
564When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
565value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggessively' is a
566number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
567fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
568
569When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
570value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggessively' is a
571number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
572fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
573
574** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
575notably at the end of lines.
576
577All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
578spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
579
424d8b44 580+++
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581There is a new command M-x replace-rectangle.
582
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583** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
584query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
585after each match to get the replacement text.
586
00782214 587+++
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588** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `e' (or `E') that lets
589you edit the replacement string.
4ff40dd0 590
424d8b44 591** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB', lets
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592you complete mail aliases in the text, analogous to
593lisp-complete-symbol.
594
7af69644 595+++
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596** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
597
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598If a message is longer than one line, or minibuffer contents are
599longer than one line, Emacs now resizes the minibuffer window unless
600it is on a frame of its own. You can control the maximum minibuffer
601window size by setting the following variable:
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602
603- User option: max-mini-window-height
604
605Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
606fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
607specifies a number of lines. If nil, don't resize.
608
609Default is 0.25.
610
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611** The command `Info-search' now uses a search history.
612
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613** Changes to hideshow.el
614
615Hideshow is now at version 5.x. It uses a new algorithms for block
616selection and traversal and includes more isearch support.
617
618*** Generalized block selection and traversal
619
620A block is now recognized by three things: its start and end regexps
621(both strings), and a match-data selector (an integer) specifying
622which sub-expression in the start regexp serves as the place where a
623`forward-sexp'-like function can operate. Hideshow always adjusts
624point to this sub-expression before calling `hs-forward-sexp-func'
625(which for most modes evaluates to `forward-sexp').
626
627If the match-data selector is not specified, it defaults to zero,
628i.e., the entire start regexp is valid, w/ no prefix. This is
629backwards compatible with previous versions of hideshow. Please see
630the docstring for variable `hs-special-modes-alist' for details.
631
632*** Isearch support for updating mode line
633
634During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active, hidden
635blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' records the
636line at the beginning of the opened block (preceding the hidden
637portion of the buffer), and the mode line is refreshed. When a block
638is re-hidden, the variable is set to nil.
639
640To show `hs-headline' in the mode line, you may wish to include
641something like this in your .emacs.
642
643 (add-hook 'hs-minor-mode-hook
644 (lambda ()
645 (add-to-list 'mode-line-format 'hs-headline)))
646
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647** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
648
424d8b44 649+++
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650If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes an
651entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
652log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
653
424d8b44 654+++
559cee90 655New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the current
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656buffer.
657
658+++
659New command M-x change-log-redate fixes any old-style date entries in
660a log file.
eb2aac9d 661
502004be 662+++
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663Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log entries
664if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
665
502004be 666+++
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667Unless the file is under version control the search for a file's
668version number is performed based on regular expressions from
669`change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be cutomized.
670Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of a file.
eb2aac9d 671
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672** Changes in Font Lock
673
674*** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
675font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major
676mode.
677
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678** Comint (subshell) changes
679
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680By default, comint no longer uses the variable `comint-prompt-regexp' to
681distiguish prompts from user-input. Instead, it notices which parts of
682the text were output by the process, and which entered by the user, and
683attaches `field' properties to allow emacs commands to use this information.
684Common movement commands, notably beginning-of-line, respect field
685boundaries in a fairly natural manner.
686To disable this feature, and use the old behavior, set the variable
687`comint-use-prompt-regexp-instead-of-fields' to a non-nil value.
688
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689Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
690and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
691
692The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
693buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
694buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
695
696The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
697M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
698the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
699
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700Packages based on comint.el like shell-mode, and scheme-interaction-mode
701now highlight user input and program prompts, and support choosing
702previous input with mouse-2. To control these feature, see the
703user-options `comint-highlight-input' and `comint-highlight-prompt'.
31fc5d15 704
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705** Changes to Rmail mode
706
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707*** The new user-option rmail-rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
708set to fine tune the identification of of the correspondent when
709receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
710recipient is taken as correspondent of a mail. If nil, the default,
711`user-login-name' and `user-mail-address' are used to exclude yourself
712as correspondent.
713
714Usually you don't have to set this variable, except if you collect
715mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
993d8b7d 716regexp matching your mail addresses.
c0510d27 717
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718*** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
719to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
720Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
721with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
722for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
723
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724*** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
725like `j'.
726
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RS
727*** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
728specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
2d5e9b54 729digest message.
e26cec67 730
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731*** The new user option `rmail-automatic-folder-directives' specifies
732in which folder to put messages automatically.
733
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734** Changes to TeX mode
735
736The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
737`latex-mode'.
738
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739** Changes to RefTeX mode
740
741*** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
742 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
743 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
744 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
745 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
746 can be edited from that buffer.
747
748*** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
749 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
750 `A' to use all marked entries).
751
752*** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
753 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
754
755*** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
756 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
757 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
758 been cited.
759
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760** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
761The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
762semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
763in column 1 are always made leaves.
764
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765** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
766has the following new features:
767
768*** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
769may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
770to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
771time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
772
773*** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
774feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
775file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
776compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
777pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
778defaults to 1.
779
5d94f558 780** Partial Completion mode now completes environment variables in
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781file names.
782
424d8b44 783+++
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784** Tooltips.
785
786Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
787mouse position. To use them, use the Lisp package `tooltip' which you
788can access via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
789
790Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
791variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
792the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
793tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
794
424d8b44 795+++
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796** Customize changes
797
798*** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
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DL
799`State' menu to add comments. Note that customization comments will
800cause the customizations to fail in earlier versions of Emacs.
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801
802*** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
803Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
804default).
805
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806*** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
807between custom options. Example:
808
809 (defcustom default-input-method nil
810 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
811 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
812 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
813 :group 'mule
814 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
815 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
816
817This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
818current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
819first in a custom-set-variables statement.
820
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821** New features in evaluation commands
822
5e03eb84 823*** The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
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824modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
825print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the
826customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
827eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
828
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GM
829*** The function `eval-defun' (M-C-x) now loads Edebug and instruments
830code when called with a prefix argument.
831
ead53494
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832** Ispell changes
833
37d8a691 834+++
bbe15990
EZ
835*** The command `ispell' now spell-checks a region if
836transient-mark-mode is on, and the mark is active. Otherwise it
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GM
837spell-checks the current buffer.
838
37d8a691 839+++
385ff9e3
GM
840*** Support for synchronous subprocesses - DOS/Windoze - has been
841added.
842
843*** An "alignment error" bug was fixed when a manual spelling
844correction is made and re-checked.
845
74ec6045 846*** An Italian and a Portuguese dictionary definition has been added.
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GM
847
848*** Region skipping performance has been vastly improved in some
849cases.
850
851*** Spell checking HTML buffers has been improved and isn't so strict
852on syntax errors.
853
854*** The buffer-local words are now always placed on a new line at the
855end of the buffer.
856
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857** Dired changes
858
859*** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
860command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
861is, delete only empty directories.
862
863*** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
864command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
865copy directories recursively.
866
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GM
867*** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
868in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
869the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
870
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871*** The new command `dired-find-alternate-file' (usually bound to `a')
872replaces the Dired buffer with the buffer for an alternate file or
873directory.
874
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MB
875*** The new command `dired-show-file-type' (usually bound to `w') shows
876a message in the echo area describing what type of file the point is on.
877This command invokes the external program `file' do its work, and so
878will only work on systems with that program, and will be only as
879accurate or inaccurate as it is.
880
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881*** Dired now properly handles undo changes of adding/removing `-R'
882from ls switches.
883
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884** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
885use the -f option when sending mail.
886
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887** CC mode changes.
888
889Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
890current user setups (although it's believed that these
891incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
892However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
893back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
894compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
895release.
896
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897*** c-style-variables-are-local-p now defaults to t.
898This is an incompatible change that has been made to make the behavior
899of the style system wrt global variable settings less confusing for
900non-advanced users. If you know what this variable does you might
901want to set it to nil in your .emacs, otherwise you probably don't
902have to bother.
903
904Defaulting c-style-variables-are-local-p to t avoids the confusing
905situation that occurs when a user sets some style variables globally
487522fe 906and edits both a Java and a non-Java file in the same Emacs session.
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907If the style variables aren't buffer local in this case, loading of
908the second file will cause the default style (either "gnu" or "java"
909by default) to override the global settings made by the user.
910
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911*** New initialization procedure for the style system.
912When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
913variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
914take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
915is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
916settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
917possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
918Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
919
920By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
921special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
922the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
923of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
924above.
925
926Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
927when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
928function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
929call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
930then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
931values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
932only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
933function documentation for more info.
934
935The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
936especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
937with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
938intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
939such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
940is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
941configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
942global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
943
944(Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
945
946**** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
947This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
948
949This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
950variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
951completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
952the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
953empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
954style system.
955
956**** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
957In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
958c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
959as far as possible.
960
961*** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
962CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
963surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
964chapter about this in the manual.
965
966**** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
967The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
968recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
969primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
970adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
971
972**** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
973This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
974c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
975
976**** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
977This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
978
979It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
980Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
981A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
982inside CC Mode.
983
984Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
985causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
986the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
987available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
988cc-mode/).
989
990**** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
991The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
992specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
993literals.
994
995**** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
996It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
997prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
998you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
999this function.
1000
1001*** Fixes to IDL mode.
1002It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
1003to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
1004struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
1005Thanks to Eric Eide.
1006
1007*** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
1008It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
1009opening braces hangs and when they don't.
1010
1011**** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
1012
1013*** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
1014See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
1015better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
1016and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
1017
1018*** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
1019previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
1020the column specified by comment-column.
1021
1022*** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
1023In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
1024is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
1025prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
1026contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
1027don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
1028
1029*** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
1030instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
1031arguments.
1032
1033*** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
1034
1035*** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
1036c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
1037c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
1038variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
1039Provan).
1040
1041*** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
1042
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1043** Makefile mode changes
1044
1045*** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
1046
5d94f558 1047*** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
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1048Fontlock mode is active.
1049
87be76f6
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1050** Isearch changes
1051
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GM
1052*** Isearch now puts a call to `isearch-resume' in the command history,
1053so that searches can be resumed.
1054
1055*** In Isearch mode, M-C-s and M-C-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
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GM
1056respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
1057that started the search.
1058
87be76f6 1059*** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
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DL
1060selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
1061
c8a8458a 1062+++
87be76f6
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1063*** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
1064
d35fce81 1065Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
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1066`isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
1067search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
1068before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
1069highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
5d94f558 1070`secondary-selection'.
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GM
1071
1072The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
1073will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
1074Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
1075using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
1076usual snappy response.
1077
1078If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
1079matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
1080set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
1081isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
1082
21bc6203 1083+++
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1084** Changes in sort.el
1085
1086The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
12c25bdc 1087as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
21bc6203 1088new user-option sort-numeric-base can be used to specify a default
35384f06 1089numeric base.
87be76f6 1090
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1091** Changes to Ange-ftp
1092
424d8b44 1093+++
d7b511c4 1094*** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
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DL
1095names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
1096sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
1097
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1098*** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
1099ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
1100
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SS
1101*** Ange-ftp handles the output of the w32-style clients which
1102output ^M at the end of lines.
1103
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1104** Shell script mode changes.
1105
1106Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
1107derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizeable, and
1108sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
1109
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FP
1110** Etags changes.
1111
1112*** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
1113
aca0be23 1114*** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
8dc78b52
FP
1115possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
1116{lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
1117This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
1118a regular expression. The manual contains details.
aca0be23 1119
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FP
1120*** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
1121declarations when given the --declarations option.
1122
1123*** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
aca0be23 1124"operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
79214ddf
FP
1125
1126*** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
1127types.
1128
de370c4c 1129*** In Fortran, `procedure' is not tagged.
79214ddf
FP
1130
1131*** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
1132
1133*** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
1134are now tagged.
1135
1136*** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
1137variables are tagged.
1138
1139*** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
1140
8dc78b52
FP
1141*** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
1142for PSWrap.
79214ddf 1143
c8d94f86 1144+++
f6737cde
GM
1145** Changes in etags.el
1146
3f6e4b8b
GM
1147*** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
1148tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
1149is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
1150
f6737cde
GM
1151*** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
1152the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
1153
1154If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
1155FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
1156TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
1157obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
1158
1159TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
1160
1161FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
1162List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
1163
1164A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
1165
1166 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
1167 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
1168 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
1169
1170*** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
1171of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
1172
1173*** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
1174names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
1175
424d8b44 1176+++
fbc164de
PE
1177** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
1178and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
1179LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
1180
c3eb1f10 1181+++
0b8a3a6d
DL
1182** New language environments `Polish', `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
1183Latin-8 and Latin-9 correspond respectively to the ISO character sets
11848859-14 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign).
1185There is currently no specific input method support for them.
59c1bf85 1186
424d8b44 1187+++
163ea954 1188** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sequence-nos' to
e33b0397
DL
1189remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
1190appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
1191
1192** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
1193
424d8b44 1194+++
6f8ea2ae
DL
1195** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
1196
6ab8d72d 1197+++
c0510d27
GM
1198** The Dabbrev package has a new user-option `dabbrev-ignore-regexps'
1199containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
1200expression from that list, are not checked.
1201
5d94f558
SS
1202** Emacs can now figure out modification times of remote files.
1203When you do C-x C-f /user@host:/path/file RET and edit the file,
1204and someone else modifies the file, you will be prompted to revert
1205the buffer, just like for the local files.
1206
dc28878c
GM
1207** The buffer menu (C-x C-b) no longer lists the *Buffer List* buffer.
1208
a933dad1
DL
1209** New modes and packages
1210
ff332647 1211+++
90cbf47e
GM
1212*** The new package timeclock.el is a mode is for keeping track of time
1213intervals. You can use it for whatever purpose you like, but the
1214typical scenario is to keep track of how much time you spend working
1215on certain projects.
1216
1217*** The new package hi-lock.el, text matching interactively entered
d96d6bb0 1218regexp's can be highlighted. For example,
abb2db1c 1219
d96d6bb0 1220 M-x highlight-regexp RET clearly RET RET
abb2db1c
GM
1221
1222will highlight all occurrences of `clearly' using a yellow background
1223face. New occurrences of `clearly' will be highlighted as they are
1224typed. `M-x unhighlight-regexp RET' will remove the highlighting.
1225Any existing face can be used for highlighting and a set of
1226appropriate faces is provided. The regexps can be written into the
1227current buffer in a form that will be recognized the next time the
1228corresponding file is read.
1229
424d8b44 1230+++
d96d6bb0 1231*** The new package zone.el plays games with Emacs' display when
abb2db1c
GM
1232Emacs is idle.
1233
31fc5d15
GM
1234*** The new package xml.el provides a simple but generic XML
1235parser. It doesn't parse the DTDs however.
1236
5cb6a58e
SM
1237*** The comment operations are now provided by the newcomment.el
1238package which allows different styles of comment-region and should
1239be more robust while offering the same functionality.
1240
424d8b44 1241+++
578979ee
GM
1242*** The Ebrowse package implements a C++ class browser and tags
1243facilities tailored for use with C++. It is documented in a
1244separate Texinfo file.
1245
424d8b44
DL
1246+++
1247*** The PCL-CVS package available by either running M-x cvs-examine or
1248by visiting a CVS administrative directory (with a prefix argument)
1249provides an alternative interface to VC-dired for CVS. It comes with
1250`log-view-mode' to view RCS and SCCS logs and `log-edit-mode' used to
1251enter checkin log messages.
dc1178bf 1252
424d8b44 1253+++
6abca616
EZ
1254*** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
1255without invoking external programs.
1256
1257The command `M-x woman' formats manual pages entirely in Emacs Lisp
1258and then displays them, like `M-x manual-entry' does. Unlike
1259`manual-entry', `woman' does not invoke any external programs, so it
1260is useful on systems such as MS-DOS/MS-Windows where the `man' and
490f2e7b 1261Groff or `troff' commands are not readily available.
6abca616
EZ
1262
1263The command `M-x woman-find-file' asks for the file name of a man
1264page, then formats and displays it like `M-x woman' does.
1265
5e5dff44
GM
1266*** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
1267authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
1268
1269The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
1270the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
1271the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
1272Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
1273even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
1274single step.
1275
1276On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
1277matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
1278probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
1279contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
1280
424d8b44 1281+++
f7136ee8
GM
1282*** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
1283unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
1284actually modifying content of a buffer.
1285
bbd9b566
GM
1286*** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
1287PostScript.
1288
1289Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
1290
1291The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
1292
1293 ; comment (until end of line)
1294 A non-terminal
1295 "C" terminal
1296 ?C? special
1297 $A default non-terminal
1298 $"C" default terminal
1299 $?C? default special
1300 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
1301 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
1302 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
1303 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
1304 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
1305 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
1306 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
1307 C+ one or more occurrences of C
1308 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
1309 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
1310 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
1311 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
1312 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
1313 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
1314 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
1315
1316Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
1317
99453a38
GM
1318*** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
1319align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
1320determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
1321example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
1322equal signs of assignments.
1323
424d8b44 1324+++
559cee90
DL
1325*** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
1326paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
1327
424d8b44 1328+++
6448a6b3
GM
1329*** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
1330list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
1331buffer menu with this package. You can use M-x bs-customize to
1332customize the package.
1333
6344985d
GM
1334*** find-lisp.el is a package emulating the Unix find command in Lisp.
1335
249652b1
GM
1336*** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
1337replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
1338is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
1339and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
1340not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
1341which answers different needs.
1342
424d8b44 1343+++
3476b54a
GM
1344*** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
1345suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
1346expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
1347course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
1348reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
1349to be enabled.
1350
424d8b44 1351+++
8964fec7
SM
1352*** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
1353containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
1354
424d8b44 1355+++
a933dad1
DL
1356*** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
1357
424d8b44 1358+++
a933dad1
DL
1359*** hl-line.el provides a minor mode to highlight the current line.
1360
1361*** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
1362
1363*** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
1364Pascal) language.
1365
1366*** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
1367the text at point.
1368
1369*** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
1370
424d8b44 1371+++
8d54eb69
DL
1372*** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
1373
a933dad1
DL
1374*** whitespace.el ???
1375
ebcfda83
GM
1376*** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
1377files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
1378(very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
1379interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
1380often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
1381uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
1382codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
1383
1384*** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
1385
1386Here is an example of columns:
1387
1388horse apple bus
1389dog pineapple car EXTRA
1390porcupine strawberry airplane
1391
1392Doing the following settings:
1393
1394 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
1395 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
1396 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
1397 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
1398
1399
1400Selecting the lines above and typing:
1401
1402 M-x delimit-columns-region
1403
1404It results:
1405
1406[ horse , apple , bus , ]
1407[ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
1408[ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
1409
1410delim-col has the following options:
1411
1412 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
1413 before all columns.
1414
1415 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
1416 between each column.
1417
1418 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
1419 after all columns.
1420
1421 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
1422 each column.
1423
1424delim-col has the following commands:
1425
1426 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
1427 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
1428
424d8b44 1429+++
f507826c 1430*** The package recentf.el maintains a menu for visiting files that
31fc5d15
GM
1431were operated on recently.
1432
1433M-x recentf-mode RET toggles recentf mode.
f507826c 1434
31fc5d15
GM
1435M-x customize-variable RET recentf-mode RET can be used to enable
1436recentf at Emacs startup.
f507826c 1437
31fc5d15
GM
1438M-x customize-variable RET recentf-menu-filter RET to specify a menu
1439filter function to change the menu appearance. For example, the recent
1440file list can be displayed:
f507826c 1441
31fc5d15
GM
1442- organized by major modes, directories or user defined rules.
1443- sorted by file pathes, file names, ascending or descending.
1444- showing pathes relative to the current default-directory
f507826c 1445
31fc5d15
GM
1446The `recentf-filter-changer' menu filter function allows to
1447dynamically change the menu appearance.
f507826c 1448
8062f458
DL
1449*** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
1450text.
1451
424d8b44 1452+++
36e24b82 1453*** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
91735437
DL
1454of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
1455specific to Message mode.
1456
424d8b44 1457+++
36e24b82
DL
1458*** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
1459viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
1460with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
1461
424d8b44 1462+++
aaa659ef
DL
1463*** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
1464interface to access directory servers using different directory
1465protocols. It has a separate manual.
1466
eee54b0e
DL
1467*** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
1468for Autoconf, selected automatically.
1469
424d8b44 1470+++
612839b6
GM
1471*** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
1472
5d94f558 1473*** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
612839b6 1474minibuffer with completion.
aaa659ef 1475
399da7e3
DL
1476*** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
1477with the diary features.
1478
6e417ca5
DL
1479*** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
1480numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
1481
4a27bdfb
GM
1482*** The function `turn-off-auto-fill' unconditionally turns off Auto
1483Fill mode.
1484
a933dad1
DL
1485** Withdrawn packages
1486
1487*** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
1488functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
25a81338 1489
3261c1d8
DL
1490*** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
1491
1492*** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
ce75fd23
GM
1493
1494\f
1495* Lisp changes made after edition 2.6 of the Emacs Lisp Manual,
1496(Display-related features are described in a page of their own below.)
1497
424d8b44
DL
1498+++
1499** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
1500is running in batch mode. For example,
1501
1502 (message "%s" (read t))
1503
1504will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
1505to standard output.
1506
1507+++
1508** The argument of `down-list', `backward-up-list', `up-list',
1509`kill-sexp', `backward-kill-sexp' and `mark-sexp' is now optional.
1510
ead53494
GM
1511** If `display-buffer-reuse-frames' is set, function `display-buffer'
1512will raise frames displaying a buffer, instead of creating a new
1513frame or window.
1514
27848c01
GM
1515** Two new functions for removing elements from lists/sequences
1516were added
1517
1518- Function: remove ELT SEQ
1519
1520Return a copy of SEQ with all occurences of ELT removed. SEQ must be
1521a list, vector, or string. The comparison is done with `equal'.
1522
1523- Function: remq ELT LIST
1524
1525Return a copy of LIST with all occurences of ELT removed. The
1526comparison is done with `eq'.
1527
1528** The function `delete' now also works with vectors and strings.
3ab82477 1529
b548072f
GM
1530** The meaning of the `:weakness WEAK' argument of make-hash-table
1531has been changed.
1532
424d8b44 1533+++
07b14857
KH
1534** Function `aset' stores any multibyte character in any string
1535without signaling "Attempt to change char length of a string". It may
1536convert a unibyte string to multibyte if necessary.
1537
9662da0b
GM
1538** The value of the `help-echo' text property is called as a function
1539or evaluated, if it is not a string already, to obtain a help string.
d5aa31d8 1540
7fce7efb
DL
1541** Function `make-obsolete' now has an optional arg to say when the
1542function was declared obsolete.
1543
5d94f558 1544** Function `plist-member' is renamed from `widget-plist-member' (which is
7fce7efb
DL
1545retained as an alias).
1546
f98d3086
SM
1547** Easy-menu's :filter now works as in XEmacs.
1548It takes the unconverted (i.e. XEmacs) form of the menu and the result
1549is automatically converted to Emacs' form.
1550
87efd256
GM
1551** The new function `window-list' has been defined
1552
1553- Function: window-list &optional WINDOW MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES
1554
1555Return a list of windows in canonical order. The parameters WINDOW,
1556MINIBUF and ALL-FRAMES are defined like for `next-window'.
1557
67c9a1d2
GM
1558** There's a new function `some-window' defined as follows
1559
1560- Function: some-window PREDICATE &optional MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES DEFAULT
1561
1562Return a window satisfying PREDICATE.
1563
1564This function cycles through all visible windows using `walk-windows',
1565calling PREDICATE on each one. PREDICATE is called with a window as
1566argument. The first window for which PREDICATE returns a non-nil
1567value is returned. If no window satisfies PREDICATE, DEFAULT is
1568returned.
1569
1570Optional second arg MINIBUF t means count the minibuffer window even
1571if not active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means count the minibuffer iff
1572it is active. MINIBUF neither t nor nil means not to count the
1573minibuffer even if it is active.
1574
1575Several frames may share a single minibuffer; if the minibuffer
1576counts, all windows on all frames that share that minibuffer count
1577too. Therefore, if you are using a separate minibuffer frame
1578and the minibuffer is active and MINIBUF says it counts,
1579`walk-windows' includes the windows in the frame from which you
1580entered the minibuffer, as well as the minibuffer window.
1581
1582ALL-FRAMES is the optional third argument.
1583ALL-FRAMES nil or omitted means cycle within the frames as specified above.
1584ALL-FRAMES = `visible' means include windows on all visible frames.
1585ALL-FRAMES = 0 means include windows on all visible and iconified frames.
1586ALL-FRAMES = t means include windows on all frames including invisible frames.
1587If ALL-FRAMES is a frame, it means include windows on that frame.
1588Anything else means restrict to the selected frame.
1589
ead53494
GM
1590** The function `single-key-description' now encloses function key and
1591event names in angle brackets. When called with a second optional
1592argument non-nil, angle brackets won't be printed.
dce6b995 1593
25fa6deb
GM
1594** If the variable `message-truncate-lines' is bound to t around a
1595call to `message', the echo area will not be resized to display that
088831a6
GM
1596message; it will be truncated instead, as it was done in 20.x.
1597Default value is nil.
25fa6deb 1598
5d94f558 1599** The user option `line-number-display-limit' can now be set to nil,
1681ead6
GM
1600meaning no limit.
1601
5d94f558 1602** `select-safe-coding-system' now also checks the most preferred
c08398de
DL
1603coding-system if buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and
1604DEFAULT-CODING-SYSTEM is not specified,
1605
80c05bd3 1606** The function `subr-arity' provides information on the argument list
de370c4c
DL
1607of a primitive.
1608
80c05bd3
DL
1609** The text property `keymap' specifies a key map which overrides the
1610buffer's local map and the map specified by the `local-map' property.
1611This is probably what most current uses of `local-map' want, rather
1612than replacing the local map.
1613
4bc7a543
DL
1614** The obsolete variables before-change-function and
1615after-change-function are no longer acted upon and have been removed.
45f485a6
GM
1616
1617** The function `apropos-mode' runs the hook `apropos-mode-hook'.
1618
f0298744
DL
1619** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments, as
1620promised long ago.
1621
5d94f558 1622** The new function `float-time' returns the current time as a float.
a933dad1
DL
1623\f
1624* Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
1625
1626Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
1627--- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
1628When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
1629so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
1630
85c75536
MB
1631*** The special form `save-restriction' now works correctly even if the
1632buffer is widened inside the save-restriction and changes made outside
1633the original restriction. Previously, doing this would cause the saved
1634restriction to be restored incorrectly.
1635
0b8a3a6d
DL
1636*** The functions `find-charset-region' and `find-charset-string' include
1637`eight-bit-control' and/or `eight-bit-graphic' in the returned list
1638when it finds 8-bit characters. Previously, it included `ascii' in a
1639multibyte buffer and `unknown' in a unibyte buffer.
1640
1641*** The functions `set-buffer-modified', `string-as-multibyte' and
1642`string-as-unibyte' change the byte sequence of a buffer if it
1643contains a character from the `eight-bit-control' character set.
1644
1645*** The handling of multibyte sequences in a multibyte buffer is
1646changed. Previously, a byte sequence matching the pattern
1647[\200-\237][\240-\377]+ was interpreted as a single character
1648regardless of the length of the trailing bytes [\240-\377]+. Thus, if
1649the sequence was longer than what the leading byte indicated, the
1650extra trailing bytes were ignored by Lisp functions. Now such extra
1651bytes are independent 8-bit characters belonging to the charset
1652eight-bit-graphic.
1653
1654** Fontsets are now implemented using char-tables.
1655
1656A fontset can now be specified for for each independent character, for
1657a group of characters or for a character set rather than just for a
1658character set as previously.
1659
1660*** The arguments of the function `set-fontset-font' are changed.
1661They are NAME, CHARACTER, FONTNAME, and optional FRAME. The function
1662modifies fontset NAME to use FONTNAME for CHARACTER.
1663
1664CHARACTER may be a cons (FROM . TO), where FROM and TO are non-generic
1665characters. In that case FONTNAME is used for all characters in the
1666range FROM and TO (inclusive). CHARACTER may be a charset. In that
1667case FONTNAME is used for all character in the charset.
1668
1669FONTNAME may be a cons (FAMILY . REGISTRY), where FAMILY is the family
1670name of a font and REGSITRY is a registry name of a font.
1671
1672*** Variable x-charset-registry has been deleted. The default charset
1673registries of character sets are set in the default fontset
1674"fontset-default".
1675
1676*** The function `create-fontset-from-fontset-spec' ignores the second
1677argument STYLE-VARIANT. It never creates style-variant fontsets.
1678
1679** The method of composing characters is changed. Now character
1680composition is done by a special text property `composition' in
1681buffers and strings.
1682
1683*** Charset composition is deleted. Emacs never creates a `composite
1684character' which is an independent character with a unique character
1685code. Thus the following functions handling `composite characters'
1686have been deleted: composite-char-component,
1687composite-char-component-count, composite-char-composition-rule,
1688composite-char-composition-rule and decompose-composite-char delete.
1689The variables leading-code-composition and min-composite-char have
1690also been deleted.
1691
1692*** Three more glyph reference points are added. They can be used to
1693specify a composition rule. See the documentation of the variable
1694`reference-point-alist' for more detail.
1695
1696*** The function `compose-region' takes new arguments COMPONENTS and
1697MODIFICATION-FUNC. With COMPONENTS, you can specify not only a
1698composition rule but also characters to be composed. Such characters
1699may differ between buffer and string text.
1700
1701*** The function `compose-string' takes new arguments START, END,
1702COMPONENTS, and MODIFICATION-FUNC.
1703
1704*** The function `compose-string' puts text property `composition'
1705directly on the argument STRING instead of returning a new string.
1706Likewise, the function `decompose-string' just removes text property
1707`composition' from STRING.
1708
1709*** The new function `find-composition' returns information about
1710a composition at a specified position in a buffer or a string.
1711
1712*** The function `decompose-composite-char' is now labeled as
1713obsolete.
1714
1715** The new character set `mule-unicode-0100-24ff' is introduced for
1716Unicode characters of the range U+0100..U+24FF. Currently, this
1717character set is not used.
1718
1719** The new character sets `japanese-jisx0213-1' and
1720`japanese-jisx0213-2' are introduced for the new Japanese standard JIS
1721X 0213 Plane 1 and Plane 2.
1722
1723+++
1724** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
1725are introduced for 8-bit characters in the ranges 0x80..0x9F and
f98d3086 17260xA0..0xFF respectively.
0b8a3a6d 1727
399da7e3 1728+++
f0124b4a
DL
1729** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
1730that offset in the file before writing.
1731
f98d3086
SM
1732** The function `add-minor-mode' has been added for convenience and
1733compatibility with XEmacs (and is used internally by define-minor-mode).
7464346d 1734
612839b6
GM
1735** The function `shell-command' now sets the default directory of the
1736`*Shell Command Output*' buffer to the default directory of the buffer
1737from which the command was issued.
1738
1739** The functions `query-replace', `query-replace-regexp',
1740`query-replace-regexp-eval' `map-query-replace-regexp',
1741`replace-string', `replace-regexp', and `perform-replace' take two
1742additional optional arguments START and END that specify the region to
1743operate on.
1744
271b4185
GM
1745** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
1746to `window-buffer-height'.
1747
1748- Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
1749
1750Return the number of screen lines in the region between BEG and END.
1751The number of screen lines may be different from the number of actual
1752lines, due to line breaking, display table, etc.
1753
1754Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
1755respectively.
1756
1757If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optinal third argument
1758COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
1759
1760The optional fourth argument WINDOW specifies the window used for
1761obtaining parameters such as width, horizontal scrolling, and so
1762on. The default is to use the selected window's parameters.
1763
1764Like `vertical-motion', `count-screen-lines' always uses the current
1765buffer, regardless of which buffer is displayed in WINDOW. This makes
1766possible to use `count-screen-lines' in any buffer, whether or not it
1767is currently displayed in some window.
1768
3c30cb6e
DL
1769** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
1770argument function's results.
1771
62f20204
GM
1772** The functions base64-decode-region and base64-decode-string now
1773signal an error instead of returning nil if decoding fails.
1774
c0510d27
GM
1775** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
1776header is the list of headers passed to it.
1777
1778** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
1779ignores differences in case and text representation.
1780
1781** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
19d1bc27
GM
1782cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
1783as follows:
1784
1785 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
1786 nil don't display a cursor
1787 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
1788 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
1789 others display a box cursor.
1790
9a0dd3dc
GM
1791** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
1792an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
1793defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
1794set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
1795
d7b511c4 1796** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
dc1178bf 1797specifications in string form as accepted by `modify-syntax-entry' to
d7b511c4
GM
1798the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
1799text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
1800
1801Example:
1802
1803 (string-to-syntax "()")
1804 => (4 . 41)
1805
1fa28578
GM
1806** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
1807other than 10.
1808
1809*** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
1810INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
1811
5d94f558 1812 #b1111
1fa28578 1813 => 15
5d94f558 1814 #b-1111
1fa28578
GM
1815 => -15
1816
1817*** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
1818
5d94f558 1819 #o666
1fa28578
GM
1820 => 438
1821
1822*** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
1823
5d94f558 1824 #xbeef
1fa28578
GM
1825 => 48815
1826
1827*** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
1828
5d94f558 1829 #2R-111
1fa28578 1830 => -7
5d94f558 1831 #25rah
1fa28578
GM
1832 => 267
1833
3d4ff2dd 1834** The function `documentation-property' now evaluates the value of
f98d3086 1835the given property to obtain a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
e9b4e5ff
GM
1836and isn't a string.
1837
3d4ff2dd
GM
1838** If called for a symbol, the function `documentation' now looks for
1839a `function-documentation' property of that symbol. If it has a non-nil
1840value, the documentation is taken from that value. If the value is
1841not a string, it is evaluated to obtain a string.
1842
16ce590d
DL
1843+++
1844** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
1845
73825616 1846** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
16ce590d
DL
1847for a regexp in a string.
1848
1849** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
1850`mouse-position-function'.
1851
723e779c
GM
1852** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
1853that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
1854
d1e103b2
GM
1855** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
1856Keywords are now always considered constants.
1857
31047e0d
DL
1858+++
1859** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
1860returns it.
1861
7a85e4df
GM
1862** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
1863returned by function `recent-keys'.
1864
02b14400
RS
1865+++
1866** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
1867can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
1868Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding M-C-a
1869etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
1870mode.
404fa7d6 1871
02b14400 1872+++
8964fec7
SM
1873** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
1874and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
1875
02b14400
RS
1876+++
1877** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
1878has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
1879function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
1880returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
1881been performed."
1882
1883When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
1884and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
1885hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
1886then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
ef961722 1887
02b14400 1888+++
81da8b32
GM
1889** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
1890In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
1891and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
1892
02b14400 1893+++
9e207b90
GM
1894** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
1895with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
1896specified table.
1897
1898 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
1899
1900Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
03d9c64c
GM
1901TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
1902saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
1903what BODY returns.
9e207b90 1904
02b14400 1905+++
d7f89643 1906** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
95cd4c40 1907Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
8964fec7 1908
02b14400 1909+++
dde9e75a
GM
1910** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
1911removed since it wasn't used by anything.
1912
02b14400 1913+++
9da30515
GM
1914** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
1915instead of being optional.
1916
02b14400 1917+++
d20679eb
GM
1918** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
1919modify read-only text.
1920
02b14400 1921+++
fbc164de
PE
1922** New functions and variables for locales.
1923
1924The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
1925decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
b718982a
PE
1926time functions like strftime. The new variables
1927`system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
1928locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
fbc164de
PE
1929
1930The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
1931environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
1932the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
b718982a
PE
1933environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
1934not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
1935`locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
1936`locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
fbc164de 1937
02b14400 1938+++
863476d1
SM
1939** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
1940To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
1941modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
1942start sequences.
1943
02b14400 1944+++
ef6d912c
GM
1945** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
1946because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
1947
02b14400 1948+++
a933dad1
DL
1949** New function `propertize'
1950
1951The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
1952strings with text properties.
1953
1954- Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
1955
1956Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
1957by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
1958PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
1959specified value of that property. Example:
1960
1961 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
1962
1963+++
1964** push and pop macros.
1965
02b14400
RS
1966Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
1967are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
a933dad1
DL
1968as the place that holds the list to be changed.
1969
1970(push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
1971(pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
1972 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
1973
02b14400
RS
1974** New dolist and dotimes macros.
1975
6c7fd5aa
RS
1976Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
1977are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
02b14400
RS
1978
1979(dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
1980 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
1981 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
1982 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
1983
1984(dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
1985 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
1986 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
1987 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
1988
a933dad1
DL
1989+++
1990** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such
1991as [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on.
1992
1993[:digit:] matches 0 through 9
1994[:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
1995[:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
1996[:blank:] matches space and tab only
1997[:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
1998 space, and DEL.
1999[:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
2000 and DEL.
2001[:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
2002 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
2003 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
2004[:alpha:] matches letters.
2005 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
2006 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
2007[:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
2008[:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
2009[:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
2010[:punct:] matches punctuation.
2011 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
2012 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
2013[:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
2014[:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
2015[:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
2016
2017+++
2018** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
2019
2020The following functions are defined for hash tables:
2021
2022- Function: make-hash-table ARGS
2023
2024The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
2025are optional. The following arguments are defined:
2026
2027:test TEST
2028
2029TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
2030Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
2031it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
2032
2033:size SIZE
2034
2035SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
2036many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
2037
2038:rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
2039
2040REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
2041full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
2042size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
20431.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
2044old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
2045
2046:rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
2047
2048THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
2049hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
2050(size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
2051
2052:weakness WEAK
2053
b548072f
GM
2054WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value',
2055`key-or-value', `key-and-value', or t, meaning the same as
2056`key-and-value'. Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage
2057collection if their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere
2058outside of the hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
a933dad1
DL
2059
2060- Function: makehash &optional TEST
2061
2062Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
2063
2064- Function: hash-table-p TABLE
2065
2066Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
2067
2068- Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
2069
2070Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
2071values are shared.
2072
2073- Function: hash-table-count TABLE
2074
2075Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
2076
2077- Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
2078
2079Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
2080
2081- Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
2082
2083Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
2084
2085- Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
2086
2087Returns the size of TABLE.
2088
d96d6bb0 2089- Function: hash-table-test TABLE
a933dad1
DL
2090
2091Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
2092
2093- Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
2094
2095Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
2096
2097- Function: clrhash TABLE
2098
2099Clear TABLE.
2100
2101- Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
2102
2103Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
2104not found.
2105
79214ddf 2106- Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
a933dad1
DL
2107
2108Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
2109another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
2110
2111- Function: remhash KEY TABLE
2112
2113Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
2114
2115- Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
2116
2117Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
2118arguments KEY and VALUE.
2119
2120- Function: sxhash OBJ
2121
2122Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
2123
2124- Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
2125
2126Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
2127a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
79214ddf 2128comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
a933dad1
DL
2129and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
2130of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
2131
2132TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
2133
2134HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
2135code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
2136integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
2137
2138Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
2139be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
2140
2141 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
2142 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
2143
2144 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
2145 (sxhash (upcase a)))
2146
79214ddf 2147 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
a933dad1
DL
2148 'case-fold-string-hash))
2149
2150 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
2151
2152+++
2153** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
2154
2155It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
2156circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
2157a cons cell which is its own cdr.
2158
2159+++
2160** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
2161
2162If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
2163#N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
2164
a933dad1
DL
2165+++
2166** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
2167t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
2168specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
2169is too short to reach that column.
2170
2171+++
2172** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
2173now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
2174after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
2175two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
2176
2177If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
2178perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
2179and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
2180
2181+++
2182** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
2183to specify which buffer to return the size of.
2184
2185+++
2186** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
2187calendar-move-hook after moving point.
2188
2189+++
2190** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
2191directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
2192small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
2193small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
2194temporary-file-directory instead.
2195
2196+++
2197** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
2198the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
2199`before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
2200hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
2201
2202+++
2203** assoc-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
2204elements of an alist which have a particular value as the car.
2205
2206+++
2207** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
2208
2209make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
2210creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
2211ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
2212
2213+++
2214** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
2215
2216The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
2217on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
2218is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
2219never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
2220ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
2221overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
2222
2223If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
2224that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
2225to get an error if the file exists at that time.
2226The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
2227
2228+++
2229** Function `format' now handles text properties.
2230
2231Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
2232If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
2233ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
2234result string.
2235
2236Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
2237string where arguments appear in the result string.
2238
2239Example:
2240
2241 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
2242 (s2 "world"))
2243 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
2244 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
b246b1f6 2245 (format s1 s2))
a933dad1
DL
2246
2247results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
2248
2249+++
2250** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
2251
2252Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
2253The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
2254argument in it.
2255
2256 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
2257 (arg "world"))
2258 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
2259 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
2260 (message msg arg))
2261
2262+++
2263** Sound support
2264
2265Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
2266(Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
2267
2268Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
2269(*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
2270to enable sound support.
2271
2272Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
2273list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
2274when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
2275functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
2276sound to play, before playing the sound.
2277
2278The following sound properties are supported:
2279
2280- `:file FILE'
2281
2282FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
2283searched relative to `data-directory'.
2284
6fb40beb
GM
2285- `:data DATA'
2286
2287DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
2288may be present, but not both.
2289
a933dad1
DL
2290- `:volume VOLUME'
2291
2292VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
22930..1. This property is optional.
2294
2295Other properties are ignored.
2296
2297** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
356673d4
DL
2298
2299** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
2300a keyword symbol.
fc91dc2d
GM
2301
2302** Changes to garbage collection
2303
2304*** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
2305of live and free strings.
2306
2307*** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
2308strings that have been consed so far.
2309
a933dad1 2310\f
04545643
GM
2311* Lisp-level Display features added after release 2.6 of the Emacs
2312Lisp Manual
2313
9a8d84ca
DL
2314+++
2315** Help strings in menu items are now used to provide `help-echo' text.
2c69ced2
GM
2316
2317** The function `image-size' can be used to determine the size of an
2318image.
2319
2320- Function: image-size SPEC &optional PIXELS FRAME
2321
2322Return the size of an image as a pair (WIDTH . HEIGHT).
2323
2324SPEC is an image specification. PIXELS non-nil means return sizes
2325measured in pixels, otherwise return sizes measured in canonical
2326character units (fractions of the width/height of the frame's default
2327font). FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed.
2328FRAME nil or omitted means use the selected frame.
2329
0b8a3a6d
DL
2330** The function `find-image' can be used to find a usable image
2331satisfying one of a list of specifications.
2332
2333+++
2334** The STRING argument of `put-image' and `insert-image' is now
2335optional.
2336
04545643
GM
2337** Image specifications may contain the property `:ascent center'.
2338
2339When this property is specified, the image is vertically centered
2340around a centerline which would be the vertical center of text drawn
2341at the position of the image, in the manner specified by the text
2342properties and overlays that apply to the image.
2343
2344\f
a933dad1
DL
2345* New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
2346
2347Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
2348--- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
2349When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
2350so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
2351
f6d3257b
GM
2352** The function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors can be used
2353to make Emacs avoid displaying text with bold black foreground on TTYs.
2354
2355Some terminals, notably PC consoles, emulate bold text by displaying
2356text in brighter colors. On such a console, a bold black foreground
2357is displayed in a gray color. If this turns out to be hard to read on
2358your monitor---the problem occurred with the mode line on
2359laptops---you can instruct Emacs to ignore the text's boldness, and to
2360just display it black instead.
2361
2362This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
2363a line like
2364
2365 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
2366
2367in your `.emacs'.
2368
a933dad1
DL
2369** New face implementation.
2370
2371Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
2372font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
2373
2374+++
2375*** New faces.
2376
2377Each face can specify the following display attributes:
2378
2379 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
79214ddf 2380
a933dad1
DL
2381 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
2382 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
79214ddf 2383
a933dad1 2384 3. Font height in 1/10pt
79214ddf 2385
a933dad1 2386 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
79214ddf 2387
a933dad1 2388 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
79214ddf 2389
a933dad1 2390 6. Foreground color.
79214ddf 2391
a933dad1
DL
2392 7. Background color.
2393
2394 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
2395
2396 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
2397
2398 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
2399
2400 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
2401
2402 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
2403 color.
2404
2405 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
2406 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
2407
2408Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
2409same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
2410frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
2411faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
2412with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each each of the face
2413attributes mentioned above.
2414
2415There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
2416definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
2417created frames.
79214ddf 2418
a933dad1
DL
2419A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
2420have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
2421`fully-specified'.
2422
2423+++
2424*** Face merging.
2425
2426The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
2427combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
2428aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
2429properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
2430that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
2431results in a fully-specified face.
2432
2433+++
2434*** Face realization.
2435
2436After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
2437merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
2438realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
2439available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
2440face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
2441cache of the frame on which it was realized.
2442
2443Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
2444character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
2445for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
2446charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
2447
2448Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
2449specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
2450being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
2451the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
2452statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
2453
2454In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
2455`char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
24560x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
2457the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
2458initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
2459Emacs.
2460
2461Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
2462`enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
2463registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
2464with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
2465
2466++++
2467**** Clearing face caches.
2468
2469The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
2470on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
2471unused fonts.
2472
2473+++
2474*** Font selection.
79214ddf 2475
a933dad1
DL
2476Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
2477given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
2478for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
2479
2480If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
2481pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
2482family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
2483property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
2484an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
2485
2486Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
2487against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
2488match for the given face attributes in this font list.
2489
2490Font selection can be influenced by the user.
2491
2492The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
2493attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
2494face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
2495names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
2496that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
2497width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
2498to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
2499
2500Setting `face-alternative-font-family-alist' allows the user to
2501specify alternative font families to try if a family specified by a
2502face doesn't exist.
2503
2504+++
2505**** Scalable fonts
2506
2507Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
2508since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
2509servers.
2510
2511To enable scalable font use, set the variable
b246b1f6 2512`scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
a933dad1
DL
2513scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
2514Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
2515scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
2516that list. Example:
2517
2518 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
2519
2520allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
2521
2522+++
2523*** Functions and variables related to font selection.
2524
2525- Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
2526
2527Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
2528is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
2529string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
2530
2531If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
2532the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
2533FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
2534POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
2535SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
2536These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
2537if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
2538REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
2539the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
2540of the face font sort order.
2541
79214ddf 2542- Function: x-font-family-list
a933dad1
DL
2543
2544Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
2545omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
2546(FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
2547non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
2548
2549- Variable: font-list-limit
2550
2551Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
2552won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
2553matching font. The default is currently 100.
2554
2555+++
2556*** Setting face attributes.
2557
2558For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
2559with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
2560implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
2561`face-attribute'.
2562
2563Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
2564symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
2565
2566The following attributes are recognized:
2567
2568`:family'
2569
2570VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
2571or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
2572and `?' are allowed.
2573
2574`:width'
2575
2576VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
2577It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
2578`condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
2579`extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
2580
2581`:height'
2582
2583VALUE must be an integer specifying the height of the font to use in
25841/10 pt.
2585
2586`:weight'
2587
2588VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
2589symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
2590`semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
2591
2592`:slant'
2593
2594VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
2595symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
2596`reverse-oblique'.
2597
2598`:foreground', `:background'
2599
2600VALUE must be a color name, a string.
2601
2602`:underline'
2603
2604VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
2605VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
2606a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
2607don't underline.
2608
2609`:overline'
2610
2611VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
2612VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
2613string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
2614overline.
2615
2616`:strike-through'
2617
2618VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
2619striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
2620face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
2621is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
2622
2623`:box'
2624
2625VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
2626around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
2627VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
2628of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
2629and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
2630VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
2631:color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
2632the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
2633specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
2634defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
2635the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
2636color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
2637should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
2638like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
2639that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
2640the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
2641box.
2642
2643`:inverse-video'
2644
2645VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
2646inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
2647
2648`:stipple'
2649
2650If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
2651The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
2652searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
2653HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
2654is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
2655explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
2656
2657For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
2658and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
2659
2660`:font'
2661
2662Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
2663XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
2664is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
2665versions of Emacs.
2666
2667For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
2668be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
2669must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
2670
2671Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
2672`defface'.
2673
2674*** Face attributes and X resources
2675
2676The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
2677from X resources:
2678
2679 Face attribute X resource class
2680-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2681 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
2682 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
2683 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
2684 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
2685 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
2686 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
2687 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
2688 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
2689 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
2690 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
2691 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
2692 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
2693 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
79214ddf 2694 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
a933dad1
DL
2695 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
2696 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
2697 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
2698 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
2699 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
2700
2701+++
2702*** Text property `face'.
2703
2704The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
2705specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
2706specification can be
2707
27081. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
2709
27102. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
2711 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
2712 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
2713 for face attribute names.
2714
27153. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
2716 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
2717 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
2718
2719+++
2720** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
2721
acf3ecb7
EZ
2722The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
2723on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
2724the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
a933dad1 2725default. You can get defined colors with a call to
acf3ecb7 2726`defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
a933dad1
DL
2727used to clear the mapping table.
2728
acf3ecb7
EZ
2729** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
2730
2731The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
2732and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
2733type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
2734color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
2735display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
2736old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
2737`x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
2738compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
2739should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
2740modify their color-related behavior.
2741
2742The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
2743any frame type.
2744
8a5719f0
EZ
2745** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
2746
2747The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
2748`display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
2749`display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
2750`display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
2751`display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
2752`display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
2753display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
2754the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
2755platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
2756
a933dad1
DL
2757+++
2758** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
a933dad1 2759
463cac2d 2760This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
a933dad1
DL
2761
2762The function minubuffer-prompt-end returns the current position of the
2763end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
2764Otherwise, it returns zero.
2765
463cac2d
GM
2766** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
2767
2768There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
2769buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
59927f88 2770property (which can be a text property or an overlay).
463cac2d 2771
9a9dfda8 2772Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
463cac2d 2773forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
9a9dfda8 2774to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
463cac2d 2775not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
fc7ac24f
GM
2776commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
2777boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
2778`inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
2779functions.
463cac2d
GM
2780
2781Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
9a9dfda8 2782a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
463cac2d 2783editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
a933dad1 2784
9a9dfda8
GM
2785The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
2786
59927f88 2787- Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY
9a9dfda8
GM
2788
2789Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
59927f88 2790
9a9dfda8
GM
2791A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2792If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
2793constrained position if that is is different.
2794
2795If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
2796positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
2797ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
59927f88 2798constrained to the field that has the same `field' char-property
9a9dfda8
GM
2799as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2800is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
59927f88
MB
2801fields. Additionally, if two fields are separated by another field with
2802the special value `boundary', then any point within this special field is
2803also considered to be `on the boundary'.
9a9dfda8
GM
2804
2805If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
2806NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
2807unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
2808C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
2809only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
2810
59927f88
MB
2811If the optional argument INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY is non-nil, and OLD-POS has
2812a non-nil property of that name, then any field boundaries are ignored.
2813
2814Field boundaries are not noticed if `inhibit-field-text-motion' is non-nil.
2815
2816- Function: delete-field &optional POS
9a9dfda8 2817
59927f88 2818Delete the field surrounding POS.
9a9dfda8 2819A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
59927f88 2820If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
9a9dfda8
GM
2821
2822- Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2823
2824Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
2825A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
59927f88
MB
2826If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
2827If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the beginning of its
9a9dfda8
GM
2828field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
2829
2830- Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2831
2832Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
2833A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
59927f88
MB
2834If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
2835If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the end of its field,
9a9dfda8
GM
2836then the end of the *following* field is returned.
2837
2838- Function: field-string &optional POS
2839
2840Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
2841A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
59927f88 2842If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
9a9dfda8
GM
2843
2844- Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
2845
2846Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
2847A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
59927f88 2848If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
9a9dfda8 2849
a933dad1
DL
2850+++
2851** Image support.
2852
2853Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
2854strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
2855(AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
2856replaces the display of the characters having that property.
2857
2858If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
2859`(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
2860AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
2861window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
2862area.
2863
2864IMAGE is an image specification.
2865
2866*** Image specifications
2867
2868Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
2869is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
2870specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
35a5514b
GM
2871symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
2872described below are ignored.
a933dad1
DL
2873
2874The following is a list of properties all image types share.
2875
2876`:ascent ASCENT'
2877
576da55d
GM
2878ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, or the symbol `center'.
2879If it is a number, it specifies the percentage of the image's height
5d94f558 2880to use for its ascent.
576da55d
GM
2881
2882If not specified, ASCENT defaults to the value 50 which means that the
2883image will be centered with the base line of the row it appears in.
2884
5d94f558 2885If ASCENT is `center' the image is vertically centered around a
04545643
GM
2886centerline which is the vertical center of text drawn at the position
2887of the image, in the manner specified by the text properties and
2888overlays that apply to the image.
a933dad1
DL
2889
2890`:margin MARGIN'
2891
79214ddf 2892MARGIN must be a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put as
a933dad1
DL
2893margin around the image. Default is 0.
2894
2895`:relief RELIEF'
2896
2897RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
2898around an image.
2899
2900`:algorithm ALGO'
2901
2902Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it. ALGO must
2903be a symbol specifying the algorithm. Currently only `laplace' is
2904supported which applies a Laplace edge detection algorithm to an image
2905which is intended to display images "disabled."
2906
2907`:heuristic-mask BG'
2908
2909If BG is not nil, build a clipping mask for the image, so that the
2910background of a frame is visible behind the image. If BG is t,
2911determine the background color of the image by looking at the 4
2912corners of the image, assuming the most frequently occuring color from
2913the corners is the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must
2914be a list `(RED GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the
2915background of the image.
2916
2917`:file FILE'
2918
2919Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
2920search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
2921building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
2922may be present in the image specification.
2923
518df5c4
GM
2924`:data DATA'
2925
2926Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
2927supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
2928present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
2929support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
2930
a933dad1
DL
2931*** Supported image types
2932
b246b1f6 2933**** XBM, image type `xbm'.
a933dad1
DL
2934
2935XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
2936properties supported are
2937
2938`:foreground FG'
2939
2940FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default
2941is the frame's foreground.
2942
2943`:background FG'
2944
2945BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default is
2946the frame's background color.
2947
2948XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
2949case, the image specification must contain the following properties
2950instead of a `:file' property.
2951
2952`:width WIDTH'
2953
2954WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
2955
2956`:height HEIGHT'
2957
2958HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
2959
2960`:data DATA'
2961
2962DATA must be either
2963
2964 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
2965 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
2966
2967 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
2968
2969 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
2970 bitmap.
2971
c76e04a8
GM
2972 4. a string that's an in-memory XBM file. Neither width nor
2973 height may be specified in this case because these are defined
2974 in the file.
2975
a933dad1
DL
2976**** XPM, image type `xpm'
2977
2978XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
2979`xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
2980found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
2981`--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
2982
2983Additional image properties supported are:
2984
2985`:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
2986
2987SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
2988name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
2989name.
2990
2991XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
2992add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
2993
a933dad1
DL
2994The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
2995to display compressed images.
2996
2997**** PBM, image type `pbm'
2998
2999PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
3000mono images are supported. There are no additional image properties
3001defined.
3002
3003**** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
3004
3005Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
3bd37feb
GM
3006package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. Additional image properties
3007are:
3008
a933dad1
DL
3009**** TIFF, image type `tiff'
3010
3011Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
3012package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
3013properties defined.
3014
3015**** GIF, image type `gif'
3016
3017Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
3018`libungif-4.1.0', or later.
3019
3020Additional image properties supported are:
3021
3022`:index INDEX'
3023
3024INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
3025multi-image GIF file. An error is signalled if INDEX is too large.
3026
3027This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
3028For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
3029at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
3030every 0.1 seconds.
3031
3032(defun show-anim (file max)
3033 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
3034 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
3035
3036(defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
3037 (when (= idx max)
3038 (setq idx 0))
518df5c4 3039 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
a933dad1
DL
3040 (save-excursion
3041 (set-buffer buffer)
3042 (goto-char (point-min))
3043 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
3044 (insert-image img "x"))
3045 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
3046
3047**** PNG, image type `png'
3048
3049Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
3050package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
3051properties defined.
3052
3053**** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
3054
3055Additional image properties supported are:
3056
3057`:pt-width WIDTH'
3058
3059WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
b246b1f6 3060integer. This is a required property.
a933dad1
DL
3061
3062`:pt-height HEIGHT'
3063
3064HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
b246b1f6 3065must be a integer. This is an required property.
a933dad1
DL
3066
3067`:bounding-box BOX'
3068
3069BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
3070the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
3071files. This is an required property.
3072
3073Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
3074lisp/gs.el.
3075
3076*** Lisp interface.
3077
79214ddf
FP
3078The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
3079which are supported in the current configuration.
a933dad1
DL
3080
3081Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
3082they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
3083The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
084cec2f
GM
3084manually. Images in the cache are compared with `equal', i.e. all
3085images with `equal' specifications share the same image.
a933dad1
DL
3086
3087*** Simplified image API, image.el
3088
3089The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
3090creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
3091can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
3092define an image based on available image types. The functions
3093`put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
3094buffer.
3095
3096+++
3097** Display margins.
3098
3099Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
3100and images.
3101
3102To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
3103`left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
3104`set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
3105obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
3106`right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
3107the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
3108of the display margins.
3109
3110You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
3111containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
3112one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
3113string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
3114in this file).
3115
3116+++
3117** Help display
3118
3119Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
3120moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
3121`help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
3122that have a `help-echo' property.
3123
9662da0b 3124If the value of the `help-echo' property is a function, that function
85a8aca9 3125is called with three arguments WINDOW, OBJECT and POSITION. WINDOW is
c20aeb83
GM
3126the window in which the help was found.
3127
3128If OBJECT is a buffer, POS is the position in the buffer where the
3129`help-echo' text property was found.
3130
3131If OBJECT is an overlay, that overlay has a `help-echo' property, and
3132POS is the position in the overlay's buffer under the mouse.
3133
3134If OBJECT is a string (an overlay string or a string displayed with
5ed8d5af 3135the `display' property), POS is the position in that string under the
c20aeb83 3136mouse.
d5aa31d8 3137
9662da0b
GM
3138If the value of the `help-echo' property is neither a function nor a
3139string, it is evaluated to obtain a help string.
3140
3141For tool-bar and menu-bar items, their key definition is used to
3142determine the help to display. If their definition contains a
3143property `:help FORM', FORM is evaluated to determine the help string.
3144For tool-bar items without a help form, the caption of the item is
3145used as help string.
a933dad1
DL
3146
3147The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
f0298744
DL
3148the help string differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window
3149causes the help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
a933dad1
DL
3150
3151+++
3152** Vertical fractional scrolling.
3153
3154The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
3155This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
3156
3157The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
3158scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
3159The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
3160scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
3161used.
3162
79214ddf
FP
3163 (global-set-key [A-down]
3164 #'(lambda ()
a933dad1 3165 (interactive)
79214ddf 3166 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
a933dad1 3167 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
79214ddf 3168 (global-set-key [A-up]
a933dad1
DL
3169 #'(lambda ()
3170 (interactive)
79214ddf 3171 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
a933dad1
DL
3172 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
3173
3174+++
3175** New hook `fontification-functions'.
3176
3177Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
3178when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
3179variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
3180is called with one argument, POS.
3181
3182At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
3183characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
3184as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
3185property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
3186`fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
3187
3188+++
3189** Tool bar support.
3190
3191Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
3192parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
3193controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
3194suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
3195`auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
3196automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
3197
3198*** Tool bar item definitions
3199
3200Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
3201`tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
3202where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
79214ddf 3203
a933dad1
DL
3204CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
3205evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
3206the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
3207property (see below).
79214ddf 3208
a933dad1
DL
3209BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
3210binding are currently ignored.
3211
3212The following properties are recognized:
3213
3214`:enable FORM'.
79214ddf 3215
a933dad1
DL
3216FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
3217or disabled.
79214ddf 3218
a933dad1 3219`:visible FORM'
79214ddf 3220
a933dad1 3221FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
79214ddf 3222
a933dad1
DL
3223`:filter FUNCTION'
3224
3225FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
3226FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
3227used instead of BINDING to display this item.
79214ddf 3228
a933dad1
DL
3229`:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
3230
3231TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
3232and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
79214ddf 3233
a933dad1
DL
3234`:image IMAGES'
3235
3236IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
3237image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
3238meaning of each of the four elements:
3239
3240 Index Use when item is
3241 ----------------------------------------
3242 0 enabled and selected
3243 1 enabled and deselected
3244 2 disabled and selected
3245 3 disabled and deselected
79214ddf 3246
4ba7246d
GM
3247If IMAGE is a single image specification, a Laplace edge-detection
3248algorithm is used on that image to draw the image in disabled state.
3249
a933dad1 3250`:help HELP-STRING'.
79214ddf 3251
a933dad1
DL
3252Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
3253is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
3254
3255*** Tool-bar-related variables.
3256
3257If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
3258resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
3259than 1/4 of the frame's size.
3260
79214ddf 3261If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
a933dad1
DL
3262raised when the mouse moves over them.
3263
3264You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
3265`tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
3266pixels. Default is 1.
3267
3268You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
3269`tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
3270
3271*** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
3272
3273You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
79214ddf 3274a tool bar item. If
a933dad1
DL
3275
3276 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
3277 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
3278 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
3279
3280is the original tool bar item definition, then
3281
3282 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
3283
3284makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
3285item.
3286
3287** Mode line changes.
3288
3289+++
3290*** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
3291
3292The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
3293that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
3294a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
3295
32961. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
3297a `local-map' text property.
3298
32992. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
3300that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
3301
33023. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
3303is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
3304`local-map' property.
3305
3306The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
3307properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
3308example.
3309
54522c9f
GM
3310*** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
3311evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
3312
a933dad1
DL
3313+++
3314*** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
3315variable mode-line-format to nil.
3316
3317+++
3318*** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
3319
3320This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
3321`header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
3322completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
3323`default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
3324line.
3325
3326The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
3327`header-line'.
3328
3329The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
3330position in the header-line.
3331
3332+++
3333** Text property `display'
3334
3335The `display' text property is used to insert images into text, and
3336also control other aspects of how text displays. The value of the
3337`display' property should be a display specification, as described
3338below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
3339
3340*** Variable width and height spaces
3341
3342To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
3343specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
3344`(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
3345area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
3346marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
3347displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
3348simpler form STRETCH as property value.
3349
3350The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
3351PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
3352properties described below.
3353
3354The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
3355characters having the `display' property.
3356
3357- :width WIDTH
3358
3359Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
3360character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
3361
3362- :relative-width FACTOR
3363
3364Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
3365first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
3366same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
3367width of that character by FACTOR.
3368
3369- :align-to HPOS
3370
3371Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
3372value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
3373
3374Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
3375
3376- :height HEIGHT
3377
3378Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
3379normal line height.
3380
3381- :relative-height FACTOR
3382
3383The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
3384of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
3385
3386- :ascent ASCENT
3387
3388Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
3389used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
3390baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
3391equal to 100.
3392
3393You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
3394
3395*** Images
3396
3397A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
3398. IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
3399in the display, the characters having this display specification in
3400their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
3401the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
3402`(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
3403area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
3404the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
3405as display specification.
3406
3407*** Other display properties
3408
3409- :space-width FACTOR
3410
3411Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
3412should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
3413integer or float.
3414
3415- :height HEIGHT
3416
3417Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
3418
3419If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
3420means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
3421the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
3422``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
3423a font is available counts as a step.
3424
3425If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
3426as tall as the frame's default font.
3427
3428If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
3429height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
3430
3431Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
3432`height' bound to the current specified font height.
3433
3434- :raise FACTOR
3435
3436FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
3437font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
3438raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
3439amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
3440`:height' subproperty.
3441
3442*** Conditional display properties
3443
3444All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
3445has the form `(:when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC
3446applies only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated.
3447During evaluattion, point is temporarily set to the end position of
3448the text having the `display' property.
3449
3450The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
3451`(:when t SPEC)'.
3452
3453+++
3454** New menu separator types.
3455
3456Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
3457item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
3458treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
3459to specify other menu separator types.
3460
3461- `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
3462
3463No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
3464separator occurs.
3465
3466- `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
3467
3468A single line in the menu's foreground color.
3469
3470- `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
3471
3472A double line in the menu's foreground color.
3473
3474- `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
3475
3476A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
3477
3478- `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
3479
3480A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
3481
3482- `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
3483
3484A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the the form
3485displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
3486
3487- `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
3488
3489A single line with 3D raised appearance.
3490
3491- `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
3492
3493A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
3494
3495- `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
3496
3497A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
3498
3499- `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
3500
3501Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
3502
3503- `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
3504
3505Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
3506
3507- `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
3508
3509Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
3510
3511- `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
3512
3513Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
3514
3515Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
3516the corresponding single-line separators.
3517
3518+++
3519** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
3520
3521The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
3522`scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
3523Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
3524that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
3525default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
3526default background is the background color of the frame, and the
3527default foreground is black.
3528
3529The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
3530(class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
3531`ScrollBarBackground').
3532
3533Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
3534settings for scroll bar colors.
3535
3536+++
3537** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
3538display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
3539
3540---
3541** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
3542starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
3543on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
3544line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
3545the original window start.
3546
3547---
3548** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
3549`hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
3550now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
3551
3552+++
3553** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
3554
3555A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
3556`window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
3557windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
3558other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
3559
3560The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
3561fixed-width and fixed-height.
3562
3563 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
3564
3565A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
3566fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
3567window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
3568change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
3569temporarily to nil, for example
3570
3571 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
3572 (enlarge-window 10))
3573
79214ddf 3574Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
a933dad1 3575or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
e411ce4b
EZ
3576
3577** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
3578terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
3579to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
3580overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
3581horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
3582support a vertical-bar cursor).
76299050 3583
3787e12e
GM
3584
3585^L
3586* Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes
3587
3588** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard
3589input.
3590
3591** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos.
3592
3593** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages.
3594
3595** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not
3596only for character input, but also in incremental search. The
3597exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets
3598(e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence
3599(e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search.
3600
3601** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has
3602been added.
3603
3604^L
3605* Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change
3606
3607** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added.
3608
3609^L
3610* Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
3611
3612** Not new, but not mentioned before:
3613M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
3614\f
3615* Changes in Emacs 20.4
3616
3617** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
3618
3619You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
3620Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
3621`.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
3622
3623If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
3624is the one that is used.
3625
3626** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
3627the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
3628Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
3629separate from the command's regular output.
3630Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
3631says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
3632In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
3633the buffer name.
3634
3635When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
3636output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
3637it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
3638cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
3639
3640** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
3641the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
3642is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
3643created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
3644
3645** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
3646example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
3647match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
3648quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
3649
3650** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
3651now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
3652if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
3653they never ignore case.
3654
3655** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
3656under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
3657applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
3658of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
3659just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
3660convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
3661part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
3662
3663If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
3664the same format that was used in the file before.
3665
3666You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
3667`inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
3668
3669** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
3670renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
3671This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
3672
3673** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
3674The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
3675buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
3676your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
3677is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
3678end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
3679Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
3680
3681The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
3682eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
3683control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
3684format. You can now customize these variables.
3685
3686** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
3687filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
3688filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
3689enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
3690
3691** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
3692in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
3693windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
3694
3695** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
3696dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
3697doesn't have any effect.
3698
3699** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
3700not one per buffer.
3701
3702** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
3703use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
3704 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
3705
3706** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
3707To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
3708`auto-show-mode' command.
3709
3710** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
3711avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
3712versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
3713choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
3714occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
3715
3716** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
3717cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
3718
3719** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
3720character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
3721feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
3722
3723** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
3724the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
3725interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
3726and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
3727
3728** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
3729
3730The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
3731that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
3732one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
3733codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
3734set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
3735
3736Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
3737from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
3738
3739IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
3740equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
3741a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
3742`?' on other systems.
3743
3744IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
3745feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
3746Unix.
3747
3748Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
3749current codepage when it starts.
3750
3751** Mail changes
3752
3753*** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
3754`mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
3755appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
3756non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
3757MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
3758headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
3759latin-1:
3760
3761 MIME-version: 1.0
3762 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
3763 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
3764
3765*** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
3766default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
3767default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
3768sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
3769buffer-file-coding-system.
3770
3771You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
3772sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
3773mail.
3774
3775*** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
3776if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
3777Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
3778list of possible coding systems.
3779
3780** CC Mode changes
3781
3782*** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
3783modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
3784longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
3785docstring for details.
3786
3787*** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
3788symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
3789found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
3790prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
3791lineup functions use this feature currently.
3792
3793*** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
3794"finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
3795
3796*** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
3797"catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
3798
3799*** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
3800from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
3801symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
3802c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
3803anonymous classes.
3804
3805*** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
3806syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
3807
3808*** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
3809inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
3810support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
3811function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
3812
3813*** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
3814(i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
3815brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
3816c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
3817(brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
3818
3819*** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
3820
3821*** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
3822
3823*** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
3824for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
3825
3826*** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
3827
3828*** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
3829associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
3830This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
3831circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
3832class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
3833
3834** Gnus changes.
3835
3836*** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
3837added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
3838Gnus manual for the full story.
3839
3840*** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
3841before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
3842group, which is created automatically.
3843
3844*** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
3845values.
3846
3847*** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
3848
3849*** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
3850outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
3851
3852*** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
3853`C-u C-c C-c'.
3854
3855*** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
3856
3857*** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
3858re-highlighting of the article buffer.
3859
3860*** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
3861
3862*** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
3863Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
3864
3865*** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
3866`a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
3867
3868*** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
3869control over simplification.
3870
3871*** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
3872
3873*** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
3874limit.
3875
3876*** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
3877
3878*** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
3879
3880*** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
3881If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
3882rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
3883
3884*** Cancelling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
3885`a' forces normal posting method.
3886
3887*** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
3888-- `W d'.
3889
3890*** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
3891to a non-nil value.
3892
3893*** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
3894where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
3895
3896*** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
3897has been added.
3898
3899*** A history of where mails have been split is available.
3900
3901*** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
3902
3903*** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
3904`gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
3905
3906*** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
3907`message-cite-original-without-signature'.
3908
3909*** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
3910
3911*** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
3912been added.
3913
3914*** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
3915`gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
3916
3917*** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
3918updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
3919
3920*** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
3921
3922*** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
3923
3924*** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
3925
3926** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
3927
3928*** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
3929options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
3930nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
3931
3932*** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
3933TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
3934of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
3935TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
3936can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
3937
3938*** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
3939All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
3940but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
3941the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
3942
3943*** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
3944the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
3945buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
3946mismatch.
3947
3948** Changes to RefTeX mode
3949
3950*** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
3951file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
3952
3953*** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
3954lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
3955characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
3956removed from the label.
3957
3958*** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
3959a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
3960
3961*** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
3962customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
3963
3964*** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
3965`reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
3966expressions.
3967
3968*** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
3969
3970** New/deleted modes and packages
3971
3972*** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
3973SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
3974
3975*** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
3976editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
3977SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
3978
3979*** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
3980changes with a special face.
3981
3982*** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
3983this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
3984Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
3985\f
3986* MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
3987
3988** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
3989This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
3990conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
3991and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
3992check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
3993
3994The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
3995Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
3996distribution when the config.bat script is run.
3997
3998** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
3999MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
4000controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
4001directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
4002Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
4003on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
4004string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
4005program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
4006printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
4007
4008** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
4009output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
4010available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
4011input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
4012temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
4013program.
4014
4015An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
4016and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
4017programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
4018automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
4019as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
4020ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
4021
4022** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
4023a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
4024MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
4025was not documented clearly before.
4026
4027** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
4028This includes Tetris and Snake.
4029\f
4030* Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
4031
4032** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
4033return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
4034They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
4035meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
4036
4037** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
4038WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
4039and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
4040
4041** Changes in the file-attributes function.
4042
4043*** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
4044It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
4045
4046*** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
4047the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
4048integers.
4049
4050** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
4051files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
4052arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
4053file names and attributes are returned.
4054
4055** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
4056sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
4057accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its atttributes.
4058It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
4059returns the result.
4060
4061** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
4062to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
4063
4064** New functions for base64 conversion:
4065
4066The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
4067into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
4068performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
4069optionally.
4070
4071Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
4072job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
4073
4074**
4075The new function process-running-child-p
4076will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
4077terminal to its own child process.
4078
4079** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
4080when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
4081to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
4082itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
4083
4084** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
4085be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
4086
4087** easymenu.el Now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
4088:included is an alias for :visible.
4089
4090easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
4091easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
4092to move or copy menu entries.
4093
4094** Multibyte editing changes
4095
4096*** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
4097an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
4098make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
4099work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
4100char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
4101 (setq char (sref str idx)
4102 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
4103The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
4104
4105If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
4106(say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
4107 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
4108
4109*** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
4110region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
4111deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
4112
4113 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibitted
4114
4115This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
4116across the boundary.
4117
4118*** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
4119`unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
4120 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
4121 contains 8-bit characters.
4122 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
4123 contains invalid characters.
4124
4125*** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
4126text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
4127preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
4128text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
4129way.
4130
4131*** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
4132If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
4133end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
4134prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
4135
4136*** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
4137compose Thai characters in a string.
4138
4139** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
4140argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
4141for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
4142menus should always use the third argument.
4143
4144** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
4145read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
4146arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
4147input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
4148
4149** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
4150of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
4151programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
4152inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
4153
4154** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
4155the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
4156returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
4157echo area contents.
4158
4159 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
4160
4161** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
4162NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
4163requested feature cannot be loaded.
4164
4165** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
4166foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
4167means to clear out that attribute.
4168
4169** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
4170gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
4171
4172** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
4173read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
4174unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
4175end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
4176
4177** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
4178the gap of the current buffer.
4179
4180** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
4181to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
4182current buffer.
4183
4184** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
4185facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
4186These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
4187it back in after any modifications have been made.
4188\f
4189* Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
4190
4191** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
4192the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
4193/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
4194directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
4195subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
4196
4197Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
4198names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
4199Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
4200which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
4201these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
4202
4203Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
4204starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
4205time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
4206
4207This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
4208Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
4209to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
4210subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
4211`.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
4212results.
4213
4214** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
4215GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
4216that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
4217fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
4218\f
4219* Changes in Emacs 20.3
4220
4221** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
4222including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
4223it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
4224perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
4225
4226** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
4227specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
4228region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
4229further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
4230command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
4231within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
4232are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
4233region.
4234
4235In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
4236selective undo.
4237
4238** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
4239unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
4240buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
4241effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
4242Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
4243
4244The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
4245though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
4246-*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
4247load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
4248
4249** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
4250no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
4251enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
4252something that most users not do.
4253
4254** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
4255operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
4256The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
4257applications.
4258
4259C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
4260pasting operations.
4261
4262** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
4263setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
4264like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
4265printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
4266`ps-printer-name'.
4267
4268** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
4269minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
4270any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
4271except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
4272incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
4273hits a new word.
4274
4275Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
4276Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
4277to be confused by TeX commands.
4278
4279You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
4280correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
4281clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
4282of various alternative replacements and actions.
4283
4284Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
4285the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
4286corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
4287alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
4288flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
4289
4290Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
4291flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
4292
4293** Changes in input method usage.
4294
4295Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
4296the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
4297respectively.
4298
4299You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
4300
4301If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
4302of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
4303
4304The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
4305that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
4306
4307 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
4308
4309 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
4310
4311 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
4312 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
4313
4314 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
4315 given in the following case:
4316 o When you are using a complex input method.
4317 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
4318
4319If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
4320input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
4321and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
4322setting it to t is helpful.
4323
4324The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
4325
4326In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
4327keys:
4328 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
4329 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
4330 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
4331These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
4332environment.
4333
4334** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
4335names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
4336minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
4337get
4338
4339 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
4340
4341which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
4342
4343Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
4344Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
4345
4346** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
4347at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
4348its owner and group.
4349
4350** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
4351Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
4352
4353** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
4354contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
4355
4356** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
4357which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
4358in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
4359by the left edge of the rectangle.
4360
4361** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
4362increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
4363C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
4364for writing keyboard macros.
4365
4366** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
4367files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
4368frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
4369the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
4370additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
4371info.
4372
4373** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
4374
4375** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
4376query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
4377contents only.
4378
4379** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
4380confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
4381the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
4382says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
4383
4384** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
4385non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
4386literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
4387
4388** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
4389now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
4390Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
4391inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
4392
4393** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
4394failure if the command produces no output.
4395
4396** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
4397manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
4398the mouse.
4399
4400** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
4401mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
4402function and variable names.
4403
4404** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
4405reading specific files. This has higher priority than
4406file-coding-system-alist.
4407
4408** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
4409t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
4410converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
4411the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
4412according to the current fontset.
4413
4414** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
4415
4416The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
4417that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
4418nonascii-insert-offset.
4419
4420For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
4421enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
4422nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
4423characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
4424
4425** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
4426an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
4427
4428** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
4429letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
4430
4431** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
4432are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
4433command keys.
4434
4435** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
4436user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
4437
4438Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
4439user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
4440all variables that have documentation.
4441
4442** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
4443shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
4444that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
4445minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
4446it should show; the default is 20.
4447
4448Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
4449the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
4450of your input.
4451
4452** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
4453all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
4454recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
4455argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
4456the customizable options which were changed since that version.
4457Newly added options are included as well.
4458
4459If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
4460then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
4461for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
4462
4463This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
4464Customize menu.
4465
4466** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
4467the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
4468
4469** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
4470buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
4471invoked.
4472
4473** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
4474that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
4475The default is 1.
4476
4477** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
4478syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
4479new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
4480(C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
4481sensibly.
4482
4483** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
4484
4485** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
4486value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
4487two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
4488
4489** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
4490reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
4491for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
4492every night.
4493
4494** Desktop changes
4495
4496*** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
4497the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
4498
4499*** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
4500and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
4501
4502** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
4503read and post multi-lingual articles.
4504
4505** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
4506doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
4507be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
4508outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
4509the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
4510made invisible again.
4511
4512** Mail reading and sending changes
4513
4514*** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
4515the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
4516changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
4517toggle.
4518
4519*** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
4520now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
4521summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
4522the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
4523rmail-default-body-file.
4524
4525*** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
4526longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
4527handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
4528
4529*** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
4530it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
4531is evaluated to insert the signature.
4532
4533*** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
4534outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
4535handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
4536putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
4537transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
4538especially interested in trying feedmail.
4539
4540feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
4541feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
4542provided by feedmail are:
4543
4544**** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
4545stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
4546there is also a queue for draft messages
4547
4548**** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
4549be prompted for confirmation
4550
4551**** does smart filling of address headers
4552
4553**** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
4554the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
4555can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
4556
4557**** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
4558the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
4559/usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
4560function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
4561
4562** Dired changes
4563
4564*** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
4565files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
4566
4567*** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
4568run Dired on the directory name at point.
4569
4570*** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
4571files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
4572for a specified regexp.
4573
4574** VC Changes
4575
4576*** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
4577conveniently.
4578
4579*** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
4580faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
4581Dired.
4582
4583VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
4584directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
4585listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
4586currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
4587
4588You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
4589then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
4590vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
4591control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
4592on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
4593
4594All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
4595is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
4596`v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
4597the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
4598`vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
4599
4600The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
4601toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
4602VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
4603`* l', to mark all files currently locked.
4604
4605Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
4606ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
4607command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
4608
4609*** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
4610file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
4611session to resolve them.
4612
4613Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
4614resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
4615contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
4616uses as well).
4617
4618*** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
4619command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
4620you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
4621either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
4622branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
4623If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
4624using ediff.
4625
4626** Changes in Font Lock
4627
4628*** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
4629are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
4630use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
4631unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
4632compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
4633
4634** Frame name display changes
4635
4636*** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
4637frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
4638raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
4639when many frames are invisible or iconified.
4640
4641*** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
4642frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
4643menu.
4644
4645** Comint (subshell) changes
4646
4647*** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
4648subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
4649with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
4650
4651*** There are new commands in Comint mode.
4652
4653C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
4654that is, the line after the last line you got.
4655You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
4656
4657C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
4658send the current line together with the following line, when you send
4659the following line.
4660
4661C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
4662which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
4663previously sent input.
4664
4665C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
4666it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
4667as the search string.
4668
4669*** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
4670automatically in compilation-mode windows.
4671
4672** C mode changes
4673
4674*** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
4675and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
4676assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
4677definition.
4678
4679*** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
4680(i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
4681Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
4682style is still the default however.
4683
4684*** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
4685
4686*** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
4687are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
4688them. They do not have key bindings by default.
4689
4690*** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
4691and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
4692
4693*** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
4694namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
4695
4696*** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
4697makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
4698
4699*** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
4700c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
4701
4702*** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
4703should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
4704package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
4705variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
4706
4707** Changes to hippie-expand.
4708
4709*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
4710non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
4711which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
4712
4713*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
4714non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
4715expanding dynamically.
4716
4717*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
4718non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
4719
4720*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
4721non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
4722this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
4723expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
4724
4725*** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
4726
4727** Changes in BibTeX mode.
4728
4729*** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
4730bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
4731automatic key generation. This replaces variable
4732bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
4733against the first word in the title.
4734
4735*** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
4736capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
4737bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
4738lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
4739lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
4740bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
4741
4742*** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
4743generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
4744replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
4745bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
4746
4747** Changes in vcursor.el.
4748
4749*** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
4750and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
4751variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
4752entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
4753`vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
4754in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
4755
4756*** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
4757Editing group once the package is loaded.
4758
4759*** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
4760generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
4761vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behaviour.
4762
4763*** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
4764vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
4765
4766** Ispell changes.
4767
4768*** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
4769buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
4770are identified by syntax tables in effect.
4771
4772*** Generic region skipping implemented.
4773A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
4774and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
4775defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
4776include:
4777
4778 o URLs are automatically skipped
4779 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
4780
4781*** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
4782
4783** Changes to RefTeX mode
4784
4785RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
4786large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
4787re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
4788section `Optimizations' in the manual.
4789
4790*** New recursive parser.
4791
4792The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
4793entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
4794recursive parser scans the individual files.
4795
4796*** Parsing only part of a document.
4797
4798Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
4799partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
4800the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
4801
4802 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
4803
4804*** Storing parsing information in a file.
4805
4806This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
4807
4808 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
4809
4810*** Using multiple selection buffers
4811
4812If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
4813for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
4814
4815 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
4816
4817*** References to external documents.
4818
4819The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
4820documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
4821documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
4822macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
4823RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
4824the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
4825The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
4826
4827*** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
4828
4829The builtin command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
4830and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
4831
4832Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
4833the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
4834
4835*** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
4836
4837The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
4838buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
4839
4840*** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
4841
4842The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
4843contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
4844`reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
4845have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
4846enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
4847at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
4848more.
4849
4850*** Support for the varioref package
4851
4852The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
4853
4854*** New hooks
4855
4856Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
4857and citations are created. These hooks are
4858`reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
4859`reftex-format-cite-function'.
4860
4861*** Citations outside LaTeX
4862
4863The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
4864a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
4865
4866*** Short context is no longer fontified.
4867
4868The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
4869fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
4870fontified, use
4871
4872 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
4873
4874** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
4875With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
4876the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
4877directories that contain the same file name.
4878
4879Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
4880Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
4881file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
4882Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
4883have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
4884names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
4885directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
4886directory.
4887
4888** New modes and packages
4889
4890*** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
4891It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
4892it, but some do not.
4893
4894*** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
4895code.
4896
4897*** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
4898current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
4899around in a buffer.
4900
4901Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
4902
4903*** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
4904uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
4905be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
4906established system of notation similar to Chess.
4907
4908*** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
4909documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
4910guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
4911
4912*** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
4913available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
4914system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
4915simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
4916functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
4917the like.
4918
4919*** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
4920identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
4921
4922*** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
4923within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
4924used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
4925the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
4926
4927*** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
4928
4929 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
4930 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
4931 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
4932 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
4933 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
4934 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
4935 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
4936 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
4937 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
4938 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
4939 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
4940
4941 Platform-specific modes:
4942
4943 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
4944 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
4945 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
4946 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
4947 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
4948 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
4949 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
4950 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
4951 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
4952\f
4953* Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
4954
4955** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
4956use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
4957That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
4958Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
4959
4960Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
4961you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
4962consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
4963
4964** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
4965and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
4966specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
4967searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
4968
4969** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
4970multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
4971character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
4972environment.
4973
4974** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
4975take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
4976string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
4977current input method for reading this one event.
4978
4979** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
4980now control whether to output certain characters as
4981backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
4982non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
4983characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
4984in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
4985\f
4986* Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
4987
4988** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
4989of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
4990
4991** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
4992in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
4993always increases point by 1.
4994
4995The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
4996considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
4997
4998See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
4999
5000** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
5001Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
5002default value changed. For example,
5003
5004 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
5005 :type 'integer
5006 :group 'foo
5007 :version "20.3")
5008
5009 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
5010 :version "20.3")
5011
5012If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
5013default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
5014is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
5015`:version' in the top level group.
5016
5017This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
5018
5019** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
5020starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
5021
5022However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
5023symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
5024support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
5025to themselves.
5026
5027If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
5028this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
5029values whatever.
5030
5031** There is a new debugger command, R.
5032It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
5033in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
5034
5035** Frame-local variables.
5036
5037You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
5038the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
5039local bindings for that variable.
5040
5041These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
5042frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
5043modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
5044parameter name.
5045
5046Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
5047Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
5048active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
5049that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
5050
5051It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
5052clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
5053very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
5054through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
5055
5056** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
5057"symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
5058evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
5059makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
5060See the documentation in sregex.el.
5061
5062** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
5063is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
5064parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
5065The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
5066
5067** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
5068If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
5069
5070** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
5071known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
5072define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
5073
5074** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
5075when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
5076it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
5077history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
5078
5079The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
5080return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
5081empty input.
5082
5083** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
5084for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
5085`iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
5086Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
5087`read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
5088
5089** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
5090echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
5091a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
5092default password to use if the user enters nothing.
5093
5094** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
5095specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
5096function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
5097place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
5098non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
5099
5100** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
5101If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
5102up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
5103end of the window, even if this requires computation.
5104
5105** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
5106which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
5107If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
5108
5109** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
5110holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
5111was directed to display this buffer.
5112
5113** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
5114with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
5115describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
5116other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
5117set-window-configuration.
5118
5119** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
5120window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
5121positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
5122windows and the choice of buffers to display.
5123
5124** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
5125override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
5126look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
5127
5128If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
5129non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
5130map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
5131
5132minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
5133and it is meant to be set by major modes.
5134
5135** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
5136except that it discards all text properties from the result.
5137
5138** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
5139USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
5140floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
5141
5142** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
5143to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
5144in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
5145it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
5146
5147** Menu changes
5148
5149*** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
5150keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
5151better supported.
5152
5153The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
5154a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
5155you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
5156can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
5157then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
5158
5159*** A new format for menu items is supported.
5160
5161In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
5162 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
5163defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
5164starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
5165
5166The format is:
5167 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
5168 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
5169where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
5170string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
5171The supported properties include
5172
5173:enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
5174 item is enabled.
5175:visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
5176 item should appear in the menu.
5177:filter FILTER-FN
5178 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
5179 which will be REAL-BINDING.
5180 It should return a binding to use instead.
5181:keys DESCRIPTION
5182 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
5183 binding for for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
5184 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
5185:key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
5186 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
5187 keyboard binding.
5188:key-sequence nil
5189 This means that the command normally has no
5190 keyboard equivalent.
5191:help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
5192:button (TYPE . SELECTED)
5193 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
5194 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
5195 value says whether this button is currently selected.
5196
5197Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
5198Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
5199
5200(menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
5201
5202** New event types
5203
5204*** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
5205mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
5206corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
5207which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
5208
5209 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
5210
5211where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
5212same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
5213indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
5214negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
5215the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
5216forward, away from the user.
5217
5218As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
5219
5220*** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
5221files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
5222and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
5223filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
5224loaded into Emacs. The format is:
5225
5226 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
5227
5228where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
5229same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
5230that were dragged and dropped.
5231
5232As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
5233
5234** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
5235
5236*** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
5237any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
5238to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
5239
5240*** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
5241can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
5242that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
5243
5244*** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
5245in Emacs 19 and before.
5246
5247The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
5248The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
5249
5250*** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
5251buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
5252unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
5253representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
5254
5255This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
5256as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
5257viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
5258one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
5259will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
5260
5261This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
5262representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
5263(including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
5264consistent with the new representation.
5265
5266*** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
5267representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
5268about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
5269however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
5270
5271The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
5272nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
5273using the table nonascii-translation-table.
5274
5275*** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
5276representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
5277representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
5278
5279The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
5280loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
5281is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
5282
5283*** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
5284which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
5285
5286*** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
5287which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
5288
5289*** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
5290portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
5291so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
5292You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
5293
5294*** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
5295it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
5296
5297*** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
5298convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
5299buffer or string being searched.
5300
5301One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
5302[...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
5303searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
5304searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
5305obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
5306you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
5307expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
5308
5309*** Structure of coding system changed.
5310
5311All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
5312by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
5313which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
5314as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
5315vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
5316your own alias name of a coding system by the function
5317define-coding-system-alias.
5318
5319The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
5320the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
5321access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
5322pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
5323character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
5324safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
5325'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
5326`iso-8859-1'.
5327
5328Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
5329The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
5330coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
5331(coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
5332
5333Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
5334also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
5335are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
5336the other character sets and read it back correctly.
5337
5338*** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
5339proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
5340This function requires a user interaction.
5341
5342*** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
5343find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
5344select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
5345systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
5346a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
5347select-safe-coding-system.
5348
5349*** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
5350decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
5351last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
5352was done.
5353
5354*** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
5355used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
5356coding systems used by some specific language environment.
5357
5358*** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
5359return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
5360characters are found, they now return a list of single element
5361`undecided' or its subsidiaries.
5362
5363*** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
5364coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
5365coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
5366converted.
5367
5368*** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
5369coding system for communicating with other X clients.
5370
5371*** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
5372character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
5373character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
5374each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
5375either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
5376range of characters.
5377
5378*** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
5379Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
5380
5381*** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
5382in the current buffer at position POS.
5383
5384*** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
5385input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
5386function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
5387character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
5388event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
5389binding input-method-function to nil.
5390
5391The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
5392method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
5393input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
5394the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
5395not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
5396
5397The input method function is not called when reading the second and
5398subsequent events of a key sequence.
5399
5400*** You can customize any language environment by using
5401set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
5402
5403The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
5404customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
5405instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
5406environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
5407exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
5408\f
5409* Changes in Emacs 20.1
5410
5411** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
5412options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
5413at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
5414tree structure.
5415
5416M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
5417user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
5418
5419With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
5420session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
5421in your .emacs file.)
5422
5423** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
5424You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
5425
5426** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
5427This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
5428
5429** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
5430immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
5431kills the region.
5432
5433The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
5434delete the character before point, as usual.
5435
5436** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
5437on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
5438by setting search-highlight to nil.)
5439
5440** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
5441insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
5442the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
5443onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
5444history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
5445past.)
5446
5447** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
5448This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
5449in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
5450TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
5451makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
5452
5453As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
5454and is an alias for it.
5455
5456If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
5457use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
5458
5459** Scrolling changes
5460
5461*** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
5462position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
5463
5464In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
5465on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
5466where it started.
5467
5468*** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
5469move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
5470screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
5471does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
5472
5473*** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
5474top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
5475comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
5476recenters the window.
5477
5478** International character set support (MULE)
5479
5480Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
5481including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
5482Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
5483Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
5484features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
5485MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
5486
5487Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
5488coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
5489character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
5490variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
5491into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
5492
5493Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
5494generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
5495supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
5496language, to make it possible to type them.
5497
5498The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
5499character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
5500
5501The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
5502to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
5503
5504You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
5505
5506 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
5507
5508Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
5509characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
5510argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
5511already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
5512characters for their work until they want to change.
5513
5514*** Input methods
5515
5516An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
5517specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
5518has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
5519the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
5520support several input methods.
5521
5522The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
5523another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
5524work.
5525
5526A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
5527characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
5528composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
5529consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
5530sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
5531letter.
5532
5533The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
5534by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
5535First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
5536marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
5537mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
5538
5539None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
5540they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
5541phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
5542converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
5543
5544Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
5545word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
5546typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
5547the first guess is wrong.
5548
5549*** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
5550turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
5551
5552If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
5553byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
5554they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
5555the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
5556
5557However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
5558use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
5559includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
5560translate automatically to and from either one.
5561
5562*** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
5563
5564Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
5565file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
5566sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
5567what you want.
5568
5569If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
5570example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
5571system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
5572multibyte characters in that buffer.
5573
5574If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
5575character conversion as well.
5576
5577*** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
5578
5579A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
5580Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
5581requires using many fonts.
5582
5583Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
5584collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
5585
5586A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
5587the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
5588have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
5589you would use a font.
5590
5591If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
5592specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
5593display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
5594
5595The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
5596(that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
5597characters). If another font in the fontset has a different height,
5598or the wrong width, then characters assigned to that font are clipped,
5599and displayed within a box if highlight-wrong-size-font is non-nil.
5600
5601*** Defining fontsets.
5602
5603Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
5604chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
5605with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
5606
5607Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
5608of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
5609`fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
5610standard fontset are created automatically.
5611
5612If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
5613argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
5614FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
5615with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
5616name is `fontset-startup'.
5617
5618Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
5619The resource value should have this form:
5620 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
5621FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
5622 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
5623 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
5624 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
5625The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
5626of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
5627CHARSET-NAME should be the name name of a character set, and
5628FONT-NAME should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
5629
5630Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
5631last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
5632You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
5633
5634For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
5635font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
5636following resource,
5637 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
5638the font for ASCII is generated as below:
5639 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
5640Here is the substitution rule:
5641 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
5642 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
5643 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
5644 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
5645 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
5646
5647The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
5648fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
5649that function explicitly to create a fontset.
5650
5651With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
5652like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
5653name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
5654fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
5655fontsets.
5656
5657*** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
5658defaults for a particular choice of language.
5659
5660Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
5661method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
5662visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
5663already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
5664language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
5665system for new files that you create.
5666
5667It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
5668set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
5669whole Emacs session.
5670
5671For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
5672chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
5673with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
5674
5675*** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
5676specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
5677specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
5678the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
5679coding systems that Emacs supports.
5680
5681*** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
5682lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
5683This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
5684After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
5685is used for *the immediately following command*.
5686
5687So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
5688write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
5689
5690If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
5691then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
5692
5693For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
5694visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
5695
5696*** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
5697construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
5698to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
5699specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
5700of the file.
5701
5702*** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
5703the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
5704code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
5705translated into that character code.
5706
5707This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
5708various countries to support the languages of those countries.
5709
5710By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
5711
5712*** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
5713the coding system for keyboard input.
5714
5715Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
5716with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
5717some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
5718
5719By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
5720
5721Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
5722input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
5723translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
5724to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
5725designed to work with terminals.
5726
5727*** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
5728specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
5729This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
5730has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
5731translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
5732in the corresponding buffer.
5733
5734By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
5735
5736*** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
5737to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
5738It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
5739
5740*** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
5741an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
5742command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
5743want to use.
5744
5745C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
5746method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
5747
5748*** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
5749layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
5750remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
5751which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
5752
5753*** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
5754the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
5755related information.
5756
5757*** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
5758HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
5759scripts.
5760
5761*** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
5762information about the support for a particular language.
5763You specify the language as an argument.
5764
5765*** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
5766the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
5767first dash.
5768
5769A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
5770(except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
5771whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
57721 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
5773
5774 A alternativnyj (Russian)
5775 B big5 (Chinese)
5776 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
5777 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
5778 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
5779 E euc-japan (Japanese)
5780 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
5781 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
5782 K euc-korea (Korean)
5783 R koi8 (Russian)
5784 Q tibetan
5785 S shift_jis (Japanese)
5786 T lao
5787 T tis620 (Thai)
5788 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
5789 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
5790 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
5791 v viqr (Vietnamese)
5792 z hz (Chinese)
5793
5794When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
5795two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
5796coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
5797keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
5798
5799*** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
5800conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
5801
5802When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
5803into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
5804rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
5805Rmail files themselves.
5806
5807*** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
5808conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
5809
5810Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
5811for sending mail:
5812
5813- If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
5814- Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
5815- Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
5816 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
5817- Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
5818
5819*** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
5820to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
5821Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
5822translations.
5823
5824** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
5825of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
5826insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
5827without any conversion.
5828
5829** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
5830You can now specify any number of octal digits.
5831RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
5832any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
5833
5834** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
5835functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
5836
5837Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
5838Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
5839
5840Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
5841mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
5842
5843** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
5844complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
5845in the buffer before point.
5846
5847With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
5848symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
5849you are using.
5850
5851With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
5852just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
5853
5854** File locking works with NFS now.
5855
5856The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
5857in the same directory as FILENAME.
5858
5859This means that collision detection between two different machines now
5860works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
5861can become a bottleneck.
5862
5863The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
5864does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
5865create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
5866file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
5867rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
5868so useful that the change is worth while.
5869
5870When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
5871are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
5872collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
5873tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
5874
5875** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
5876it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
5877show-paren-mode.
5878
5879** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
5880selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
5881delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
5882
5883** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
5884within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
5885complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
5886
5887** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
5888it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
5889set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
5890
5891** Changes in View mode.
5892
5893*** Several new commands are available in View mode.
5894Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
5895
5896*** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
5897view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
5898
5899*** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
5900previous state.
5901
5902*** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
5903scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
5904
5905*** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
5906non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
5907not just the selected window.
5908
5909*** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
5910read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
5911turns View mode on or off.
5912
5913*** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
5914how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
5915delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
5916
5917** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
5918now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
5919
5920** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
5921has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
5922presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
5923which version to compare with.
5924
5925** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
5926blocks if a match is inside the block.
5927
5928The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
5929is outside the block. By customizing the variable
5930isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
5931shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
5932
5933By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
5934of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
5935blocks, all of them or none.
5936
5937** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
5938current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
5939confirmation first.
5940
5941** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
5942now changes the major mode according to that file name.
5943However, the mode will not be changed if
5944(1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
5945(2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
5946 not suitable for ordinary files, or
5947(3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
5948
5949This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
5950
5951However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
5952these commands do not change the major mode.
5953
5954** M-x occur changes.
5955
5956*** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
5957it performs a case-sensitive search.
5958
5959*** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
5960if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
5961using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
5962
5963** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
5964in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
5965window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
5966that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
5967buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
5968
5969** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
5970after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
5971appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
5972come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
5973
5974** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
5975selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
5976buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
5977
5978** Outline mode changes.
5979
5980*** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
5981
5982*** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
5983
5984** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
5985you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
5986Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
5987was already active.
5988
5989The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
5990unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
5991get confused by it.
5992
5993If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
5994set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
5995
5996** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
5997
5998*** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
5999conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
6000character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
6001including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
6002
6003The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
6004mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
6005copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
6006
6007*** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
6008are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
6009values.
6010
6011`dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
6012case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
6013`dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
6014case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
6015
6016** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
6017certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
6018can be. The default value is 30.
6019
6020** Changes in Mail mode.
6021
6022*** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
6023Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
6024composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
6025`mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
6026`sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
6027behavior.
6028
6029C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
6030compose-mail-other-frame.
6031
6032*** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
6033the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
6034replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
6035buffer that shows the original message.
6036
6037*** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
6038with separator lines around the contents.
6039
6040*** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
6041in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
6042definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
6043need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
6044
6045*** New features in the mail-complete command.
6046
6047**** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
6048for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
6049controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
6050Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
6051
6052**** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
6053to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
6054/etc/passwd.
6055
6056**** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
6057to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
6058/etc/passwd.
6059
6060** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
6061special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
6062directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
6063reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
6064
6065Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
6066when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
6067be taken to be magic.
6068
6069** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
6070files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
6071available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
6072
6073M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
6074(-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
6075
6076** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
6077suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
6078
6079In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
6080
6081new key dired.el binding old key
6082------- ---------------- -------
6083 * c dired-change-marks c
6084 * m dired-mark m
6085 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
6086 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
6087 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
6088 * u dired-unmark u
6089 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
6090 * ? dired-unmark-all-files M-C-?
6091 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
6092 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
6093 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
6094 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
6095
6096** Rmail changes.
6097
6098*** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
6099saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
6100chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
6101each time you run it.
6102
6103*** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
6104whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
6105
6106*** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
6107messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
6108means to move in the opposite direction.
6109
6110*** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
6111you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
6112
6113*** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
6114just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
6115It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
6116can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
6117for output.
6118
6119** Gnus changes.
6120
6121*** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
6122
6123*** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
6124Gnus.
6125
6126*** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
6127`and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
6128
6129*** Article washing status can be displayed in the
6130article mode line.
6131
6132*** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
6133
6134*** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
6135
6136(setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
6137
6138*** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
6139are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
6140`gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
6141
6142*** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
6143
6144*** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
6145
6146*** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
6147See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
6148
6149*** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
6150Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
6151used to pick articles.
6152
6153*** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
6154another have been added.
6155
6156 `M-x gnus-change-server'
6157
6158*** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
6159generating lines in buffers.
6160
6161*** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
6162`M-C-_'.
6163
6164*** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
6165
6166*** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
6167
6168 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
6169
6170*** Scores can be decayed.
6171
6172 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
6173
6174*** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
6175Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
6176
6177*** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
6178the native server.
6179
6180 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
6181
6182*** A new command for reading collections of documents
6183(nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `M-C-d'.
6184
6185*** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
6186
6187*** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
6188even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
6189
6190*** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
6191(DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
6192
6193 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
6194 a group.
6195
6196*** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
6197sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
6198
6199 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
6200
6201*** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
6202
6203 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
6204
6205*** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
6206
6207 Use the `Y c' command.
6208
6209*** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
6210
6211*** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
6212
6213 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
6214
6215*** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
6216from incoming mail before saving the mail.
6217
6218 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
6219
6220*** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
6221
6222*** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
6223the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
6224
6225 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
6226
6227Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
6228and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
6229from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
6230hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
6231this issue.)
6232
6233Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
6234automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
6235particular news group. This can be done by:
6236
6237 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
6238
6239Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
6240of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
6241"XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
6242system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
6243for reading and posting).
6244
6245CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
6246 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
6247Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
6248newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
6249there.
6250
6251Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
6252default. Here are some of these default settings:
6253
6254 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
6255 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
6256 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
6257 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
6258 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
6259
6260When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
6261the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
6262
6263** CC mode changes.
6264
6265*** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
6266code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
6267values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
6268this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
6269Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
6270loaded.
6271
6272If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
6273Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
6274style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
6275share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
6276c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
6277must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
6278
6279*** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
6280of the current buffer.
6281
6282*** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
6283it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
6284of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
6285
6286*** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
6287style that the Python developers like.
6288
6289*** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
6290This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
6291just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
6292
6293** VC Changes [new]
6294
6295** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
6296name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
6297directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
6298
6299This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
6300master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
6301developers.
6302
6303You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
6304RET in a buffer visiting that file.
6305
6306*** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
6307other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
6308writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
6309calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
6310
6311*** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
6312version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
6313
6314** Calendar changes.
6315
6316A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or subclasses
6317of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow you do this
6318for the year of the selected date, or the following/previous years.
6319
6320** ps-print changes
6321
6322There are some new user variables for customizing the page layout.
6323
6324*** Paper size, paper orientation, columns
6325
6326The variable `ps-paper-type' determines the size of paper ps-print
6327formats for; it should contain one of the symbols:
6328`a4' `a3' `letter' `legal' `letter-small' `tabloid'
6329`ledger' `statement' `executive' `a4small' `b4' `b5'
6330It defaults to `letter'.
6331If you need other sizes, see the variable `ps-page-dimensions-database'.
6332
6333The variable `ps-landscape-mode' determines the orientation
6334of the printing on the page. nil, the default, means "portrait" mode,
6335non-nil means "landscape" mode.
6336
6337The variable `ps-number-of-columns' must be a positive integer.
6338It determines the number of columns both in landscape and portrait mode.
6339It defaults to 1.
6340
6341*** Horizontal layout
6342
6343The horizontal layout is determined by the variables
6344`ps-left-margin', `ps-inter-column', and `ps-right-margin'.
6345All are measured in points.
6346
6347*** Vertical layout
6348
6349The vertical layout is determined by the variables
6350`ps-bottom-margin', `ps-top-margin', and `ps-header-offset'.
6351All are measured in points.
6352
6353*** Headers
6354
6355If the variable `ps-print-header' is nil, no header is printed. Then
6356`ps-header-offset' is not relevant and `ps-top-margin' represents the
6357margin above the text.
6358
6359If the variable `ps-print-header-frame' is non-nil, a gaudy
6360framing box is printed around the header.
6361
6362The contents of the header are determined by `ps-header-lines',
6363`ps-show-n-of-n', `ps-left-header' and `ps-right-header'.
6364
6365The height of the header is determined by `ps-header-line-pad',
6366`ps-header-font-family', `ps-header-title-font-size' and
6367`ps-header-font-size'.
6368
6369*** Font managing
6370
6371The variable `ps-font-family' determines which font family is to be
6372used for ordinary text. Its value must be a key symbol in the alist
6373`ps-font-info-database'. You can add other font families by adding
6374elements to this alist.
6375
6376The variable `ps-font-size' determines the size of the font
6377for ordinary text. It defaults to 8.5 points.
6378
6379** hideshow changes.
6380
6381*** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
6382C++, ; for lisp).
6383
6384*** Support for java-mode added.
6385
6386*** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
6387in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
6388
6389*** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the the comments at
6390the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
6391way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
6392
6393*** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
6394robust and a lot faster.
6395
6396*** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
6397
6398*** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
6399to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
6400documentation for more details.
6401
6402** Changes in Enriched mode.
6403
6404*** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
6405filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
6406of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
6407use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
6408the next time unless the fill-column is different.
6409
6410*** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
6411distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
6412as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
6413as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
6414
6415** Font Lock mode
6416
6417*** Custom support
6418
6419The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
6420font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
6421faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
6422group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
6423your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
6424consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
6425
6426You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
6427
6428*** Maximum decoration
6429
6430Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
6431default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
6432of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
6433supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
6434to get the old behavior.
6435
6436*** New support
6437
6438Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
6439
6440Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
6441support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
6442
6443*** Configurable support
6444
6445Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
6446additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
6447c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
6448java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
6449list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
6450of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
6451convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
6452
6453Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
6454way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
6455it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
6456
6457*** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
6458
6459You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
6460highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
6461for any mode.
6462
6463For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
6464
6465 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
6466
6467in your ~/.emacs.
6468
6469*** New faces
6470
6471Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
6472font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
6473distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
6474to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
6475
6476*** Changes to fast-lock support mode
6477
6478The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
6479cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
6480same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
6481
6482*** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
6483
6484The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
6485according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
6486the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
6487non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
6488refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
6489the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
6490Lock mode behaviour and the behaviour of Font Lock mode.
6491
6492This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
6493For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
6494this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
6495refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
6496containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
6497the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
6498
6499As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
6500
6501Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
6502Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
6503Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
6504new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
6505
6506If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
6507settings.
6508
6509** Ada mode changes.
6510
6511*** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
6512If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
6513procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
6514you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
6515stubs.
6516
6517*** There are two new commands:
6518 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
6519 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
6520
6521The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
6522`ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
6523`ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
6524
6525*** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
6526is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
6527Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
6528
6529*** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
6530formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
6531places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
6532space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
6533
6534** Scheme mode changes.
6535
6536*** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
6537mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
6538for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
6539with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
6540have any effect.
6541
6542If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
6543still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
6544scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
6545variables as buffer-local variables.
6546
6547*** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
6548Use M-x dsssl-mode.
6549
6550** Changes to the emacsclient program
6551
6552*** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
6553USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
6554associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
6555can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
6556
6557*** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
6558it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
6559buffer in Emacs.
6560
6561*** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
6562use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
6563ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
6564option takes precedence.
6565
6566** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
6567constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
6568(in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
6569
6570** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
6571which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
6572the current defun.
6573
6574** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
6575following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
6576
6577** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
6578and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
6579necessary).
6580
6581** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
6582if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
6583these register values no longer become completely useless.
6584If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
6585asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
6586it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
6587
6588** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
6589example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
6590be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
6591you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
6592
6593You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
6594variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
6595file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
6596revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
6597only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
6598
6599** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
6600since it applies only to the current frame.
6601
6602** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
6603file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
6604and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
6605
6606This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
6607multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
6608variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
6609tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
6610instead of just the file you are editing.
6611
6612** RefTeX mode
6613
6614RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
6615and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
6616different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
6617multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
6618turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
6619
6620C-c ( reftex-label
6621 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
6622 knows which kind of label is needed.
6623
6624C-c ) reftex-reference
6625 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
6626 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
6627
6628C-c [ reftex-citation
6629 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
6630 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
6631
6632C-c & reftex-view-crossref
6633 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
6634
6635C-c = reftex-toc
6636 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
6637 can quickly jump to every section.
6638
6639Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
6640commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
6641Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
6642reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
6643C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
6644
6645** Changes in BibTeX mode.
6646
6647*** Info documentation is now available.
6648
6649*** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
6650both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
6651
6652*** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
6653bibtex-user-optional-fields.
6654
6655*** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
6656(use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
6657
6658*** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
6659entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
6660appropriate functions.
6661
6662*** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
6663entries. They are bound by default to M-C-l and M-C-h.
6664
6665*** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
6666been cleaned.
6667
6668*** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
6669bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
6670
6671*** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
6672shall be delimited.
6673
6674*** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
6675bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
6676bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
6677
6678*** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
6679field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
6680prefixed with `ALT'.
6681
6682*** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
6683bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
6684formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
6685documentation).
6686
6687*** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
6688documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
6689for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
6690
6691*** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
6692comma should be inserted at end of last field.
6693
6694*** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
6695alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
6696signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
6697
6698*** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
6699
6700*** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
6701
6702*** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
6703from alien sources.
6704
6705*** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
6706to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
6707crossref entries.
6708
6709*** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
6710region.
6711
6712*** Added support for imenu.
6713
6714*** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
6715of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
6716`compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
6717`next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
6718
6719*** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
6720from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
6721
6722** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
6723
6724** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
6725
6726** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
6727functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
6728Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
6729as an argument.
6730
6731When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
6732and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
6733
6734** browse-url changes
6735
6736*** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
6737Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
6738(browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
6739non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
6740customization variables.
6741
6742*** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
6743
6744*** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
6745lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
6746(e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
6747
6748** Changes in Ediff
6749
6750*** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
6751pops up the Info file for this command.
6752
6753*** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
6754the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
6755merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
6756directories).
6757
6758*** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
6759and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
6760files in the same directory.
6761
6762*** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
6763The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
6764related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
6765
6766** Changes in Viper
6767
6768*** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
6769*** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
6770 instead of vip-.
6771*** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
6772*** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
6773Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
6774*** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
6775*** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
6776*** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
6777color when Viper is in insert state.
6778*** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
6779Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
6780viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
6781
6782** Etags changes.
6783
6784*** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
6785default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
6786Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
6787variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
6788not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
6789
6790*** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
6791
6792*** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
6793constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
6794
6795*** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
6796recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
6797In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
6798
6799*** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
6800C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
6801recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
6802methods and protocols.
6803
6804*** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
6805.cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
6806column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
6807paragraph name.
6808
6809*** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
6810an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
6811at least M times and as many as N times.
6812
6813** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
6814in files has changed slightly.
6815
6816With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
6817time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
6818This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
6819with old time-stamp-format values.
6820
6821In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
6822(`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
6823This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
6824reasons.
6825
6826In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
6827natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
6828fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
6829(`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
6830time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
6831specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
6832
6833Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
6834case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
6835truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
6836
6837The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
6838being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
6839future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
6840recommended now will continue to work then.
6841
6842See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
6843details.
6844
6845** There are some additional major modes:
6846
6847dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
6848m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
6849meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
6850
6851** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
6852copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
6853into Emacs.
6854
6855** New Lisp packages include:
6856
6857*** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
6858
6859*** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
6860be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
6861
6862*** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
6863
6864*** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
6865in shell buffers.
6866
6867*** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
6868See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
6869and `elint-defun'.
6870
6871*** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
6872meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
6873ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
6874strings or comments.
6875
6876These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
6877abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
6878you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
6879insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
6880at these points.
6881
6882*** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
6883can visit them by short forms of their names.
6884
6885*** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
6886Emacs Lisp function at point.
6887
6888*** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
6889
6890*** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
6891switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
6892
6893*** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
6894
6895*** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
6896
6897*** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
6898
6899*** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
6900from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
6901
6902*** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
6903You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
6904inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
6905original place after inserting the copy.
6906
6907*** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
6908on the buffer.
6909
6910You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
6911velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
6912(with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
6913
6914Enable mouse-drag with:
6915 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
6916-or-
6917 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
6918
6919*** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
6920mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
6921
6922*** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
6923It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
6924
6925*** ogonek
6926
6927The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
6928Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
6929platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
6930TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
6931ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
6932prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
6933instance) and vice versa.
6934
6935To use this package load it using
6936 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
6937Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
6938 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
6939 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
6940The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
6941ways of customization in `.emacs'.
6942
6943*** Interface to ph.
6944
6945Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
6946
6947The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
6948services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
6949these servers.
6950
6951*** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
6952
6953*** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
6954You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
6955while the real cursor does not move.
6956
6957*** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
6958for visiting your favorite web sites.
6959
6960*** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
6961so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
6962
6963** movemail change
6964
6965Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
6966mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
6967supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
6968user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
6969
6970This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
6971\f
6972* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
6973
6974** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
6975
6976Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
6977end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
6978Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
6979file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
6980file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
6981
6982To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
6983C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
6984coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
6985specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
6986LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
6987save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
6988\f
6989* Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
6990
6991** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
6992Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
6993vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
6994Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
6995
6996** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
6997to start with w32- instead of win32-.
6998
6999In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
7000don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
7001"win".
7002
7003** Basic Lisp changes
7004
7005*** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
7006evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
7007
7008*** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
7009be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
7010or by the user.
7011
7012The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
7013
7014*** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
7015
7016(when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
7017(unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
7018
7019*** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
7020usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
7021its argument.
7022
7023*** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
7024
7025*** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
7026
7027*** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
7028
7029*** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
7030error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
7031include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
7032`format' function.
7033
7034*** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
7035or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
7036whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
7037
7038*** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
7039either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
7040adding one of these suffixes.
7041
7042*** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
7043which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
7044If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
7045
7046We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
7047because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
7048
7049*** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
7050
7051*** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
7052You must load the `cl' library to define it.
7053
7054*** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
7055conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
7056
7057 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
7058
7059BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
7060BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
7061
7062*** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
7063choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
7064restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
7065works using `save-current-buffer'.
7066
7067*** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
7068write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
7069of the last form.
7070
7071*** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
7072which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
7073last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
7074as the last form.
7075
7076*** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
7077characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
7078matches.
7079
7080For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
7081
7082*** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
7083with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
7084Then it returns that string.
7085
7086For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
7087
7088(with-output-to-string
7089 (princ "The buffer is ")
7090 (princ (buffer-name)))
7091
7092returns "The buffer is foo".
7093
7094** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
7095is non-nil.
7096
7097These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
7098buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
7099characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
7100
7101*** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
7102a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
7103
7104Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
7105character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
7106Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
7107position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
7108characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
7109 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
7110
7111ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
7112Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
7113non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
7114characters".
7115
7116The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
7117through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
7118"leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
7119range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
7120leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
7121
7122*** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
7123(forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
7124multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
7125character, which may be more than one buffer position.
7126
7127This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
7128always one buffer position, need to be changed.
7129
7130However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
7131
7132*** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
7133because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
7134have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
7135the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
7136guaranteed.
7137
7138*** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
7139between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
7140character).
7141
7142When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
7143
7144 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
7145 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
7146 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
7147 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
7148 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
7149
7150*** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
7151
7152*** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
7153`length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
7154more than the number of characters.
7155
7156You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
7157it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
7158\xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
7159is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
7160follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
7161newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
7162
7163*** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
7164and returns a string containing those characters.
7165
7166*** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
7167(sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
7168counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
7169character, sref signals an error.
7170
7171*** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
7172in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
7173string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
7174
7175*** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
7176in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
7177region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
7178
7179*** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
7180the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
7181to a vector of the characters in it.
7182
7183*** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
7184of a string. You call it as follows:
7185
7186 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
7187
7188This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
7189STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
7190This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
7191Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
7192it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
7193
7194*** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
7195if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
7196
7197*** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
7198if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
7199
7200*** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
7201to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
7202not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
7203which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
7204
7205(truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
7206
7207This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
7208
7209The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
7210If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
7211are not included in the resulting value.
7212
7213The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
7214at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
7215WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
7216is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
7217
7218If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
7219place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
7220character extends across that column), then the padding character
7221PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
7222string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
7223column START-COLUMN.
7224
7225*** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
7226the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
7227necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
7228difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
7229changed text, before the change.
7230
7231*** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
7232sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
7233one character set for each script, not for each language.
7234
7235**** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
7236
7237**** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
7238
7239**** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
7240set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
7241
7242**** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
7243name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
7244which identify the character within that character set.
7245
7246**** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
7247byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
7248opposite of split-char.
7249
7250**** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
7251of all the characters between BEG and END.
7252
7253**** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
7254of all the characters in a string.
7255
7256*** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
7257and specifying coding systems.
7258
7259**** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
7260system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
7261of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
7262(Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
7263and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
7264as what to do about code conversion.)
7265
7266**** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
7267name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
7268
7269**** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
7270for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
7271except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
7272
7273Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
7274which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
7275to match against a file name.
7276
7277VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
7278a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
7279decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
7280to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
7281systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
7282specifies the coding system for encoding.
7283
7284If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
7285or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
7286
7287**** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
7288the coding system to use for network sockets.
7289
7290Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
7291which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
7292either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
7293service names.
7294
7295VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
7296a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
7297decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
7298to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
7299systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
7300specifies the coding system for encoding.
7301
7302If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
7303or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
7304
7305**** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
7306for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
7307except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
7308start the subprocess.
7309
7310**** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
7311systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
7312when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
7313(OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
7314to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
7315
7316**** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
7317coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
7318subprocess.
7319
7320It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
7321but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
7322start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
7323connection permanently or until overridden.
7324
7325The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
7326file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
7327network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
7328coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
7329It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
7330system for one operation at a time.
7331
7332**** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
7333files, subprocesses or network connections.
7334
7335**** The function process-coding-system tells you what
7336coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
7337The value is a cons cell,
7338 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
7339where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
7340the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
7341input to the subprocess.
7342
7343**** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
7344change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
7345
7346** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
7347customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
7348you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
7349
7350You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
7351variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
7352information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
7353legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
7354customization.
7355
7356Thus, instead of writing
7357
7358 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
7359 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
7360
7361you would now write this:
7362
7363 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
7364 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
7365 :type 'boolean
7366 :group foo)
7367
7368The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
7369two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
7370describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
7371for a description of them.
7372
7373The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
7374should belong to. You define a new group like this:
7375
7376 (defgroup ispell nil
7377 "Spell checking using Ispell."
7378 :group 'processes)
7379
7380The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
7381group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
7382but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
7383to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
7384second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
7385
7386Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
7387package should have just one group; a more complex package should
7388have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
7389package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
7390first-level subgroups.
7391
7392** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
7393
7394This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
7395separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
7396
7397** easy-mmode
7398
7399The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
7400developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
7401only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
7402predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
7403`easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
7404`easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
7405
7406** Text property changes
7407
7408*** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
7409text property.
7410
7411*** The new functions next-char-property-change and
7412previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
7413place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
7414functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
7415starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
7416
7417If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
7418LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
7419of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
7420position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
7421
7422*** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
7423value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
7424is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
7425
7426** Changes in invisibility features
7427
7428*** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
7429hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
7430is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
7431should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
7432would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
7433make the overlay visible.
7434
7435During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
7436invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
7437needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
7438which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
7439the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
7440t when it should hide it.
7441
7442*** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
7443
7444Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
7445invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
7446and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
7447Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
7448manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
7449Here is an example of how to do this:
7450
7451 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
7452 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
7453 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
7454 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
7455
7456 ...
7457 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
7458
7459 ...
7460 ;; When done with the overlays:
7461 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
7462 ;; Or respectively:
7463 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
7464
7465** Changes in syntax parsing.
7466
7467*** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
7468`parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
7469obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
7470`parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
7471
7472If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
7473is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
7474used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
7475
7476When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
7477character in the buffer is calculated thus:
7478
7479 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
7480 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
7481
7482 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
7483 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
7484 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
7485
7486 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
7487 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
7488 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
7489 determine the syntax type of the character.
7490
7491 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
7492 of the current buffer.
7493
7494*** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
7495value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
7496for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
7497
7498*** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
7499and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
7500only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
7501character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
7502another character with the same code (unless quoted).
7503
7504These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
7505text property.
7506
7507*** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
7508arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
7509of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
7510
7511*** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
7512(and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
7513element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
7514nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
7515string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
7516
7517*** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
7518syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
7519`font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
7520
7521** Changes in face features
7522
7523*** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
7524if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
7525
7526*** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
7527of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
7528
7529*** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
7530set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
7531
7532*** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
7533set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
7534
7535*** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
7536by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
7537and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
7538the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
7539overlay property).
7540
7541This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
7542arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
7543
7544** Changes in file-handling functions
7545
7546*** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
7547directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
7548they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
7549is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
7550
7551This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
7552begins with ~.
7553
7554*** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
7555it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
7556
7557*** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
7558the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
7559
7560*** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
7561as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
7562
7563*** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
7564character code conversion as well as other things.
7565
7566Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
7567(formerly it did not).
7568
7569*** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
7570environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
7571
7572*** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
7573instead of constant strings.
7574
7575*** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
7576to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
7577any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
7578
7579substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
7580in the same way as before.
7581
7582*** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
7583The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
7584which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
7585
7586*** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
7587error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
7588else, and returns nil.
7589
7590*** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
7591directory cannot be listed.
7592
7593** Changes in minibuffer input
7594
7595*** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
7596read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
7597additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
7598argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
7599ways:
7600
7601 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
7602 It is available through the history command M-n.
7603
7604*** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
7605read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
7606argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
7607minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
7608enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
7609
7610In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
7611argument in this way.
7612
7613*** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
7614from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
7615minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
7616
7617** Echo area features
7618
7619*** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
7620echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
7621minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
7622after the echo area is cleared.
7623
7624*** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
7625in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
7626
7627** Keyboard input features
7628
7629*** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
7630set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
7631
7632*** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
7633received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
7634by keyboard macros.
7635
7636** Frame-related changes
7637
7638*** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
7639creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
7640hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
7641
7642*** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
7643the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
7644has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
7645
7646*** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
7647selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
7648value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
7649in the selected frame.
7650
7651*** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
7652is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
7653which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
7654
7655** X Windows features
7656
7657*** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
7658x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
7659x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
7660
7661*** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
7662The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
7663
7664*** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
7665MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
7666A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
7667
7668If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
7669it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
7670
7671** Subprocess features
7672
7673*** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
7674functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
7675automatically.
7676
7677*** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
7678and returns the output from the command as a string.
7679
7680*** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
7681and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
7682
7683** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
7684does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
7685
7686** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
7687at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
7688goes after the other menu items.
7689
7690** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
7691of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
7692around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
7693are in use.
7694
7695The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
7696series of several changes--if that seems safe.
7697
7698Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
7699after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
7700form.
7701
7702** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
7703is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
7704but its hook is still run.
7705
7706** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
7707for errors that are handled by condition-case.
7708
7709If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
7710regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
7711useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
7712
7713This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
7714are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
7715filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
7716warned.
7717
7718** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
7719way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
7720
7721** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
7722integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
7723functions like display-time.
7724
7725** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
7726name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
7727
7728** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
7729can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
7730is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
7731
7732** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
7733if there is an error in compilation.
7734
7735** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
7736switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
7737argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
7738they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
7739
7740** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
7741Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
7742the *scratch* buffer.
7743
7744** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
7745The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
7746where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
7747e.g., in Font Lock mode.
7748
7749** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
7750and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
7751It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
7752
7753** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
7754using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
7755variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
7756and compose-mail-other-frame.
7757
7758** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
7759can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
7760full name of the specified user will be returned.
7761
7762** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
7763of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
7764where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
7765in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
7766option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
7767files at all.
7768
7769** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
7770and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
7771width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
7772the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
7773
7774For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
7775minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
7776with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
7777is how %S normally pads to two positions.
7778
7779** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
7780
7781** imenu.el changes.
7782
7783You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
7784item from menu created by imenu.
7785
7786An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
7787#include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
7788select one of those items.
7789\f
7790* Emacs 19.34 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
7791\f
7792* Changes in Emacs 19.33.
7793
7794** Bibtex mode no longer turns on Auto Fill automatically. (No major
7795mode should do that--it is the user's choice.)
7796
7797** The variable normal-auto-fill-function specifies the function to
7798use for auto-fill-function, if and when Auto Fill is turned on.
7799Major modes can set this locally to alter how Auto Fill works.
7800\f
7801* Editing Changes in Emacs 19.32
7802
7803** C-x f with no argument now signals an error.
7804To set the fill column at the current column, use C-u C-x f.
7805
7806** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
7807conversion. If you type the abbreviation with mixed case, and it
7808matches the beginning of the expansion including case, then the
7809expansion is copied verbatim. Using SPC M-/ to copy an additional
7810word always copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is
7811all caps.
7812
7813** On a non-windowing terminal, which can display only one Emacs frame
7814at a time, creating a new frame with C-x 5 2 also selects that frame.
7815
7816When using a display that can show multiple frames at once, C-x 5 2
7817does make the frame visible, but does not select it. This is the same
7818as in previous Emacs versions.
7819
7820** You can use C-x 5 2 to create multiple frames on MSDOS, just as on a
7821non-X terminal on Unix. Of course, only one frame is visible at any
7822time, since your terminal doesn't have the ability to display multiple
7823frames.
7824
7825** On Windows, set win32-pass-alt-to-system to a non-nil value
7826if you would like tapping the Alt key to invoke the Windows menu.
7827This feature is not enabled by default; since the Alt key is also the
7828Meta key, it is too easy and painful to activate this feature by
7829accident.
7830
7831** The command apply-macro-to-region-lines repeats the last defined
7832keyboard macro once for each complete line within the current region.
7833It does this line by line, by moving point to the beginning of that
7834line and then executing the macro.
7835
7836This command is not new, but was never documented before.
7837
7838** You can now use Mouse-1 to place the region around a string constant
7839(something surrounded by doublequote characters or other delimiter
7840characters of like syntax) by double-clicking on one of the delimiting
7841characters.
7842
7843** Font Lock mode
7844
7845*** Font Lock support modes
7846
7847Font Lock can be configured to use Fast Lock mode and Lazy Lock mode (see
7848below) in a flexible way. Rather than adding the appropriate function to the
7849hook font-lock-mode-hook, you can use the new variable font-lock-support-mode
7850to control which modes have Fast Lock mode or Lazy Lock mode turned on when
7851Font Lock mode is enabled.
7852
7853For example, to use Fast Lock mode when Font Lock mode is turned on, put:
7854
7855 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'fast-lock-mode)
7856
7857in your ~/.emacs.
7858
7859*** lazy-lock
7860
7861The lazy-lock package speeds up Font Lock mode by making fontification occur
7862only when necessary, such as when a previously unfontified part of the buffer
7863becomes visible in a window. When you create a buffer with Font Lock mode and
7864Lazy Lock mode turned on, the buffer is not fontified. When certain events
7865occur (such as scrolling), Lazy Lock makes sure that the visible parts of the
7866buffer are fontified. Lazy Lock also defers on-the-fly fontification until
7867Emacs has been idle for a given amount of time.
7868
7869To use this package, put in your ~/.emacs:
7870
7871 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'lazy-lock-mode)
7872
7873To control the package behaviour, see the documentation for `lazy-lock-mode'.
7874
7875** Changes in BibTeX mode.
7876
7877*** For all entries allow spaces and tabs between opening brace or
7878paren and key.
7879
7880*** Non-escaped double-quoted characters (as in `Sch"of') are now
7881supported.
7882
7883** Gnus changes.
7884
7885Gnus, the Emacs news reader, has undergone further rewriting. Many new
7886commands and variables have been added. There should be no
7887significant incompatibilities between this Gnus version and the
7888previously released version, except in the message composition area.
7889
7890Below is a list of the more user-visible changes. Coding changes
7891between Gnus 5.1 and 5.2 are more extensive.
7892
7893*** A new message composition mode is used. All old customization
7894variables for mail-mode, rnews-reply-mode and gnus-msg are now
7895obsolete.
7896
7897*** Gnus is now able to generate "sparse" threads -- threads where
7898missing articles are represented by empty nodes.
7899
7900 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
7901
7902*** Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server.
7903
7904 To disable this: (setq gnus-message-archive-group nil)
7905
7906*** Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
7907referred.
7908
7909*** Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions:
7910
7911 (setq gnus-use-grouplens t)
7912
7913*** A trn-line tree buffer can be displayed.
7914
7915 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
7916
7917*** An nn-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
7918buffers.
7919
7920 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
7921
7922*** In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode:
7923
7924 `M-x gnus-binary-mode'
7925
7926*** Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy.
7927
7928 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
7929
7930*** Gnus can re-send and bounce mail.
7931
7932 Use the `S D r' and `S D b'.
7933
7934*** Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
7935is possible.
7936
7937 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
7938
7939*** Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
7940groups of groups.
7941
7942*** Caching is possible in virtual groups.
7943
7944*** nndoc now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews news
7945batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything else.
7946
7947*** Gnus has a new backend (nnsoup) to create/read SOUP packets.
7948
7949*** The Gnus cache is much faster.
7950
7951*** Groups can be sorted according to many criteria.
7952
7953 For instance: (setq gnus-group-sort-function 'gnus-group-sort-by-rank)
7954
7955*** New group parameters have been introduced to set list-address and
7956expiration times.
7957
7958*** All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used.
7959
7960*** There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on
7961process marked articles on the `M P' submap.
7962
7963*** The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
7964articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
7965bound to keys on the `/' submap.
7966
7967*** Articles can be made persistent -- as an alternative to saving
7968articles with the `*' command.
7969
7970*** All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
7971
7972*** Article headers can be buttonized.
7973
7974 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head)
7975
7976*** All mail backends support fetching articles by Message-ID.
7977
7978*** Duplicate mail can now be treated properly. See the
7979`nnmail-treat-duplicates' variable.
7980
7981*** All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
7982buffer.
7983
7984*** Frames can be part of `gnus-buffer-configuration'.
7985
7986*** Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process.
7987
7988*** Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to filter spam.
7989
7990 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
7991
7992*** Groups can be made permanently visible.
7993
7994 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
7995
7996*** Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
7997
7998*** Gnus respects the Mail-Copies-To header.
7999
8000*** Threads can be gathered by looking at the References header.
8001
8002 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
8003 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
8004
8005*** Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
8006refetching.
8007
8008 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
8009
8010*** A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
8011buffer to allow easier treatment.
8012
8013*** Gnus can suggest where to save articles. See `gnus-split-methods'.
8014
8015*** Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving.
8016
8017 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
8018
8019*** gnus-uu can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
8020articles.
8021
8022 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
8023
8024*** Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text.
8025
8026*** Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
8027cited text to hide is now customizable.
8028
8029 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
8030
8031*** Boring headers can be hidden.
8032
8033 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-hide-boring-headers)
8034
8035*** Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
8036
8037*** Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
8038
8039The Gnus manual has been expanded. It explains all these new features
8040in greater detail.
8041\f
8042* Lisp Changes in Emacs 19.32
8043
8044** The function set-visited-file-name now accepts an optional
8045second argument NO-QUERY. If it is non-nil, then the user is not
8046asked for confirmation in the case where the specified file already
8047exists.
8048
8049** The variable print-length applies to printing vectors and bitvectors,
8050as well as lists.
8051
8052** The new function keymap-parent returns the parent keymap
8053of a given keymap.
8054
8055** The new function set-keymap-parent specifies a new parent for a
8056given keymap. The arguments are KEYMAP and PARENT. PARENT must be a
8057keymap or nil.
8058
8059** Sometimes menu keymaps use a command name, a symbol, which is really
8060an automatically generated alias for some other command, the "real"
8061name. In such a case, you should give that alias symbol a non-nil
8062menu-alias property. That property tells the menu system to look for
8063equivalent keys for the real name instead of equivalent keys for the
8064alias.
8065\f
8066* Editing Changes in Emacs 19.31
8067
8068** Freedom of the press restricted in the United States.
8069
8070Emacs has been censored in accord with the Communications Decency Act.
8071This includes removing some features of the doctor program. That law
8072was described by its supporters as a ban on pornography, but it bans
8073far more than that. The Emacs distribution has never contained any
8074pornography, but parts of it were nonetheless prohibited.
8075
8076For information on US government censorship of the Internet, and what
8077you can do to bring back freedom of the press, see the web site
8078`http://www.vtw.org/'.
8079
8080** A note about C mode indentation customization.
8081
8082The old (Emacs 19.29) ways of specifying a C indentation style
8083do not normally work in the new implementation of C mode.
8084It has its own methods of customizing indentation, which are
8085much more powerful than the old C mode. See the Editing Programs
8086chapter of the manual for details.
8087
8088However, you can load the library cc-compat to make the old
8089customization variables take effect.
8090
8091** Marking with the mouse.
8092
8093When you mark a region with the mouse, the region now remains
8094highlighted until the next input event, regardless of whether you are
8095using M-x transient-mark-mode.
8096
8097** Improved Windows NT/95 support.
8098
8099*** Emacs now supports scroll bars on Windows NT and Windows 95.
8100
8101*** Emacs now supports subprocesses on Windows 95. (Subprocesses used
8102to work on NT only and not on 95.)
8103
8104*** There are difficulties with subprocesses, though, due to problems
8105in Windows, beyond the control of Emacs. They work fine as long as
8106you run Windows applications. The problems arise when you run a DOS
8107application in a subprocesses. Since current shells run as DOS
8108applications, these problems are significant.
8109
8110If you run a DOS application in a subprocess, then the application is
8111likely to busy-wait, which means that your machine will be 100% busy.
8112However, if you don't mind the temporary heavy load, the subprocess
8113will work OK as long as you tell it to terminate before you start any
8114other DOS application as a subprocess.
8115
8116Emacs is unable to terminate or interrupt a DOS subprocess.
8117You have to do this by providing input directly to the subprocess.
8118
8119If you run two DOS applications at the same time in two separate
8120subprocesses, even if one of them is asynchronous, you will probably
8121have to reboot your machine--until then, it will remain 100% busy.
8122Windows simply does not cope when one Windows process tries to run two
8123separate DOS subprocesses. Typing CTL-ALT-DEL and then choosing
8124Shutdown seems to work although it may take a few minutes.
8125
8126** M-x resize-minibuffer-mode.
8127
8128This command, not previously mentioned in NEWS, toggles a mode in
8129which the minibuffer window expands to show as many lines as the
8130minibuffer contains.
8131
8132** `title' frame parameter and resource.
8133
8134The `title' X resource now specifies just the frame title, nothing else.
8135It does not affect the name used for looking up other X resources.
8136It works by setting the new `title' frame parameter, which likewise
8137affects just the displayed title of the frame.
8138
8139The `name' parameter continues to do what it used to do:
8140it specifies the frame name for looking up X resources,
8141and also serves as the default for the displayed title
8142when the `title' parameter is unspecified or nil.
8143
8144** Emacs now uses the X toolkit by default, if you have a new
8145enough version of X installed (X11R5 or newer).
8146
8147** When you compile Emacs with the Motif widget set, Motif handles the
8148F10 key by activating the menu bar. To avoid confusion, the usual
8149Emacs binding of F10 is replaced with a no-op when using Motif.
8150
8151If you want to be able to use F10 in Emacs, you can rebind the Motif
8152menubar to some other key which you don't use. To do so, add
8153something like this to your X resources file. This example rebinds
8154the Motif menu bar activation key to S-F12:
8155
8156 Emacs*defaultVirtualBindings: osfMenuBar : Shift<Key>F12
8157
8158** In overwrite mode, DEL now inserts spaces in most cases
8159to replace the characters it "deletes".
8160
8161** The Rmail summary now shows the number of lines in each message.
8162
8163** Rmail has a new command M-x unforward-rmail-message, which extracts
8164a forwarded message from the message that forwarded it. To use it,
8165select a message which contains a forwarded message and then type the command.
8166It inserts the forwarded message as a separate Rmail message
8167immediately after the selected one.
8168
8169This command also undoes the textual modifications that are standardly
8170made, as part of forwarding, by Rmail and other mail reader programs.
8171
8172** Turning off saving of .saves-... files in your home directory.
8173
8174Each Emacs session writes a file named .saves-... in your home
8175directory to record which files M-x recover-session should recover.
8176If you exit Emacs normally with C-x C-c, it deletes that file. If
8177Emacs or the operating system crashes, the file remains for M-x
8178recover-session.
8179
8180You can turn off the writing of these files by setting
8181auto-save-list-file-name to nil. If you do this, M-x recover-session
8182will not work.
8183
8184Some previous Emacs versions failed to delete these files even on
8185normal exit. This is fixed now. If you are thinking of turning off
8186this feature because of past experiences with versions that had this
8187bug, it would make sense to check whether you still want to do so
8188now that the bug is fixed.
8189
8190** Changes to Version Control (VC)
8191
8192There is a new variable, vc-follow-symlinks. It indicates what to do
8193when you visit a link to a file that is under version control.
8194Editing the file through the link bypasses the version control system,
8195which is dangerous and probably not what you want.
8196
8197If this variable is t, VC follows the link and visits the real file,
8198telling you about it in the echo area. If it is `ask' (the default),
8199VC asks for confirmation whether it should follow the link. If nil,
8200the link is visited and a warning displayed.
8201
8202** iso-acc.el now lets you specify a choice of language.
8203Languages include "latin-1" (the default) and "latin-2" (which
8204is designed for entering ISO Latin-2 characters).
8205
8206There are also choices for specific human languages such as French and
8207Portuguese. These are subsets of Latin-1, which differ in that they
8208enable only the accent characters needed for particular language.
8209The other accent characters, not needed for the chosen language,
8210remain normal.
8211
8212** Posting articles and sending mail now has M-TAB completion on various
8213header fields (Newsgroups, To, CC, ...).
8214
8215Completion in the Newsgroups header depends on the list of groups
8216known to your news reader. Completion in the Followup-To header
8217offers those groups which are in the Newsgroups header, since
8218Followup-To usually just holds one of those.
8219
8220Completion in fields that hold mail addresses works based on the list
8221of local users plus your aliases. Additionally, if your site provides
8222a mail directory or a specific host to use for any unrecognized user
8223name, you can arrange to query that host for completion also. (See the
8224documentation of variables `mail-directory-process' and
8225`mail-directory-stream'.)
8226
8227** A greatly extended sgml-mode offers new features such as (to be configured)
8228skeletons with completing read for tags and attributes, typing named
8229characters including optionally all 8bit characters, making tags invisible
8230with optional alternate display text, skipping and deleting tag(pair)s.
8231
8232Note: since Emacs' syntax feature cannot limit the special meaning of ', " and
8233- to inside <>, for some texts the result, especially of font locking, may be
8234wrong (see `sgml-specials' if you get wrong results).
8235
8236The derived html-mode configures this with tags and attributes more or
8237less HTML3ish. It also offers optional quick keys like C-c 1 for
8238headline or C-c u for unordered list (see `html-quick-keys'). Edit /
8239Text Properties / Face or M-g combinations create tags as applicable.
8240Outline minor mode is supported and level 1 font-locking tries to
8241fontify tag contents (which only works when they fit on one line, due
8242to a limitation in font-lock).
8243
8244External viewing via browse-url can occur automatically upon saving.
8245
8246** M-x imenu-add-to-menubar now adds to the menu bar for the current
8247buffer only. If you want to put an Imenu item in the menu bar for all
8248buffers that use a particular major mode, use the mode hook, as in
8249this example:
8250
8251 (add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook
8252 '(lambda () (imenu-add-to-menubar "Index")))
8253
8254** Changes in BibTeX mode.
8255
8256*** Field names may now contain digits, hyphens, and underscores.
8257
8258*** Font Lock mode is now supported.
8259
8260*** bibtex-make-optional-field is no longer interactive.
8261
8262*** If bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is non-nil, inserting new
8263entries is now done with a faster algorithm. However, inserting
8264will fail in this case if the buffer contains invalid entries or
8265isn't in sorted order, so you should finish each entry with C-c C-c
8266(bibtex-close-entry) after you have inserted or modified it.
8267The default value of bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is nil.
8268
8269*** Function `show-all' is no longer bound to a key, since C-u C-c C-q
8270does the same job.
8271
8272*** Entries with quotes inside quote-delimited fields (as `author =
8273"Stefan Sch{\"o}f"') are now supported.
8274
8275*** Case in field names doesn't matter anymore when searching for help
8276text.
8277
8278** Font Lock mode
8279
8280*** Global Font Lock mode
8281
8282Font Lock mode can be turned on globally, in buffers that support it, by the
8283new command global-font-lock-mode. You can use the new variable
8284font-lock-global-modes to control which modes have Font Lock mode automagically
8285turned on. By default, this variable is set so that Font Lock mode is turned
8286on globally where the buffer mode supports it.
8287
8288For example, to automagically turn on Font Lock mode where supported, put:
8289
8290 (global-font-lock-mode t)
8291
8292in your ~/.emacs.
8293
8294*** Local Refontification
8295
8296In Font Lock mode, editing a line automatically refontifies that line only.
8297However, if your change alters the syntactic context for following lines,
8298those lines remain incorrectly fontified. To refontify them, use the new
8299command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block).
8300
8301In certain major modes, M-g M-g refontifies the entire current function.
8302(The variable font-lock-mark-block-function controls how to find the
8303current function.) In other major modes, M-g M-g refontifies 16 lines
8304above and below point.
8305
8306With a prefix argument N, M-g M-g refontifies N lines above and below point.
8307
8308** Follow mode
8309
8310Follow mode is a new minor mode combining windows showing the same
8311buffer into one tall "virtual window". The windows are typically two
8312side-by-side windows. Follow mode makes them scroll together as if
8313they were a unit. To use it, go to a frame with just one window,
8314split it into two side-by-side windows using C-x 3, and then type M-x
8315follow-mode.
8316
8317M-x follow-mode turns off Follow mode if it is already enabled.
8318
8319To display two side-by-side windows and activate Follow mode, use the
8320command M-x follow-delete-other-windows-and-split.
8321
8322** hide-show changes.
8323
8324The hooks hs-hide-hooks and hs-show-hooks have been renamed
8325to hs-hide-hook and hs-show-hook, to follow the convention for
8326normal hooks.
8327
8328** Simula mode now has a menu containing the most important commands.
8329The new command simula-indent-exp is bound to C-M-q.
8330
8331** etags can now handle programs written in Erlang. Files are
8332recognised by the extensions .erl and .hrl. The tagged lines are
8333those that begin a function, record, or macro.
8334
8335** MSDOS Changes
8336
8337*** It is now possible to compile Emacs with the version 2 of DJGPP.
8338Compilation with DJGPP version 1 also still works.
8339
8340*** The documentation of DOS-specific aspects of Emacs was rewritten
8341and expanded; see the ``MS-DOS'' node in the on-line docs.
8342
8343*** Emacs now uses ~ for backup file names, not .bak.
8344
8345*** You can simulate mouse-3 on two-button mice by simultaneously
8346pressing both mouse buttons.
8347
8348*** A number of packages and commands which previously failed or had
8349restricted functionality on MS-DOS, now work. The most important ones
8350are:
8351
8352**** Printing (both with `M-x lpr-buffer' and with `ps-print' package)
8353now works.
8354
8355**** `Ediff' works (in a single-frame mode).
8356
8357**** `M-x display-time' can be used on MS-DOS (due to the new
8358implementation of Emacs timers, see below).
8359
8360**** `Dired' supports Unix-style shell wildcards.
8361
8362**** The `c-macro-expand' command now works as on other platforms.
8363
8364**** `M-x recover-session' works.
8365
8366**** `M-x list-colors-display' displays all the available colors.
8367
8368**** The `TPU-EDT' package works.
8369\f
8370* Lisp changes in Emacs 19.31.
8371
8372** The function using-unix-filesystems on Windows NT and Windows 95
8373tells Emacs to read and write files assuming that they reside on a
8374remote Unix filesystem. No CR/LF translation is done on any files in
8375this case. Invoking using-unix-filesystems with t activates this
8376behavior, and invoking it with any other value deactivates it.
8377
8378** Change in system-type and system-configuration values.
8379
8380The value of system-type on a Linux-based GNU system is now `lignux',
8381not `linux'. This means that some programs which use `system-type'
8382need to be changed. The value of `system-configuration' will also
8383be different.
8384
8385It is generally recommended to use `system-configuration' rather
8386than `system-type'.
8387
8388See the file LINUX-GNU in this directory for more about this.
8389
8390** The functions shell-command and dired-call-process
8391now run file name handlers for default-directory, if it has them.
8392
8393** Undoing the deletion of text now restores the positions of markers
8394that pointed into or next to the deleted text.
8395
8396** Timers created with run-at-time now work internally to Emacs, and
8397no longer use a separate process. Therefore, they now work more
8398reliably and can be used for shorter time delays.
8399
8400The new function run-with-timer is a convenient way to set up a timer
8401to run a specified amount of time after the present. A call looks
8402like this:
8403
8404 (run-with-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
8405
8406SECS says how many seconds should elapse before the timer happens.
8407It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the timer
8408becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments ARGS.
8409
8410REPEAT gives the interval for repeating the timer (measured in
8411seconds). It may be an integer or a floating point number. nil or 0
8412means don't repeat at all--call FUNCTION just once.
8413
8414*** with-timeout provides an easy way to do something but give
8415up if too much time passes.
8416
8417 (with-timeout (SECONDS TIMEOUT-FORMS...) BODY...)
8418
8419This executes BODY, but gives up after SECONDS seconds.
8420If it gives up, it runs the TIMEOUT-FORMS and returns the value
8421of the last one of them. Normally it returns the value of the last
8422form in BODY.
8423
8424*** You can now arrange to call a function whenever Emacs is idle for
8425a certain length of time. To do this, call run-with-idle-timer. A
8426call looks like this:
8427
8428 (run-with-idle-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
8429
8430SECS says how many seconds of idleness should elapse before the timer
8431runs. It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the
8432timer becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments
8433ARGS.
8434
8435Emacs becomes idle whenever it finishes executing a keyboard or mouse
8436command. It remains idle until it receives another keyboard or mouse
8437command.
8438
8439REPEAT, if non-nil, means this timer should be activated again each
8440time Emacs becomes idle and remains idle for SECS seconds The timer
8441does not repeat if Emacs *remains* idle; it runs at most once after
8442each time Emacs becomes idle.
8443
8444If REPEAT is nil, the timer runs just once, the first time Emacs is
8445idle for SECS seconds.
8446
8447*** post-command-idle-hook is now obsolete; you shouldn't use it at
8448all, because it interferes with the idle timer mechanism. If your
8449programs use post-command-idle-hook, convert them to use idle timers
8450instead.
8451
8452*** y-or-n-p-with-timeout lets you ask a question but give up if
8453there is no answer within a certain time.
8454
8455 (y-or-n-p-with-timeout PROMPT SECONDS DEFAULT-VALUE)
8456
8457asks the question PROMPT (just like y-or-n-p). If the user answers
8458within SECONDS seconds, it returns the answer that the user gave.
8459Otherwise it gives up after SECONDS seconds, and returns DEFAULT-VALUE.
8460
8461** Minor change to `encode-time': you can now pass more than seven
8462arguments. If you do that, the first six arguments have the usual
8463meaning, the last argument is interpreted as the time zone, and the
8464arguments in between are ignored.
8465
8466This means that it works to use the list returned by `decode-time' as
8467the list of arguments for `encode-time'.
8468
8469** The default value of load-path now includes the directory
8470/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp In addition to
8471/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp. You can use this new directory for
8472site-specific Lisp packages that belong with a particular Emacs
8473version.
8474
8475It is not unusual for a Lisp package that works well in one Emacs
8476version to cause trouble in another. Sometimes packages need updating
8477for incompatible changes; sometimes they look at internal data that
8478has changed; sometimes the package has been installed in Emacs itself
8479and the installed version should be used. Whatever the reason for the
8480problem, this new feature makes it easier to solve.
8481
8482** When your program contains a fixed file name (like .completions or
8483.abbrev.defs), the file name usually needs to be different on operating
8484systems with limited file name syntax.
8485
8486Now you can avoid ad-hoc conditionals by using the function
8487convert-standard-filename to convert the file name to a proper form
8488for each operating system. Here is an example of use, from the file
8489completions.el:
8490
8491(defvar save-completions-file-name
8492 (convert-standard-filename "~/.completions")
8493 "*The filename to save completions to.")
8494
8495This sets the variable save-completions-file-name to a value that
8496depends on the operating system, because the definition of
8497convert-standard-filename depends on the operating system. On
8498Unix-like systems, it returns the specified file name unchanged. On
8499MS-DOS, it adapts the name to fit the limitations of that system.
8500
8501** The interactive spec N now returns the numeric prefix argument
8502rather than the raw prefix argument. (It still reads a number using the
8503minibuffer if there is no prefix argument at all.)
8504
8505** When a process is deleted, this no longer disconnects the process
8506marker from its buffer position.
8507
8508** The variable garbage-collection-messages now controls whether
8509Emacs displays a message at the beginning and end of garbage collection.
8510The default is nil, meaning there are no messages.
8511
8512** The variable debug-ignored-errors specifies certain kinds of errors
8513that should not enter the debugger. Its value is a list of error
8514condition symbols and/or regular expressions. If the error has any
8515of the condition symbols listed, or if any of the regular expressions
8516matches the error message, then that error does not enter the debugger,
8517regardless of the value of debug-on-error.
8518
8519This variable is initialized to match certain common but uninteresting
8520errors that happen often during editing.
8521
8522** The new function error-message-string converts an error datum
8523into its error message. The error datum is what condition-case
8524puts into the variable, to describe the error that happened.
8525
8526** Anything that changes which buffer appears in a given window
8527now runs the window-scroll-functions for that window.
8528
8529** The new function get-buffer-window-list returns a list of windows displaying
8530a buffer. The function is called with the buffer (a buffer object or a buffer
8531name) and two optional arguments specifying the minibuffer windows and frames
8532to search. Therefore this function takes optional args like next-window etc.,
8533and not get-buffer-window.
8534
8535** buffer-substring now runs the hook buffer-access-fontify-functions,
8536calling each function with two arguments--the range of the buffer
8537being accessed. buffer-substring-no-properties does not call them.
8538
8539If you use this feature, you should set the variable
8540buffer-access-fontified-property to a non-nil symbol, which is a
8541property name. Then, if all the characters in the buffer range have a
8542non-nil value for that property, the buffer-access-fontify-functions
8543are not called. When called, these functions should put a non-nil
8544property on the text that they fontify, so that they won't get called
8545over and over for the same text.
8546
8547** Changes in lisp-mnt.el
8548
8549*** The lisp-mnt package can now recognize file headers that are written
8550in the formats used by the `what' command and the RCS `ident' command:
8551
8552;; @(#) HEADER: text
8553;; $HEADER: text $
8554
8555in addition to the normal
8556
8557;; HEADER: text
8558
8559*** The commands lm-verify and lm-synopsis are now interactive. lm-verify
8560checks that the library file has proper sections and headers, and
8561lm-synopsis extracts first line "synopsis'"information.
8562
8563
a933dad1 8564\f
3787e12e 8565* For older news, see the file ONEWS
a933dad1
DL
8566
8567----------------------------------------------------------------------
8568Copyright information:
8569
424d8b44 8570Copyright (C) 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
a933dad1
DL
8571
8572 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
8573 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
8574 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
8575 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
8576
8577 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
8578 of this document, or of portions of it,
8579 under the above conditions, provided also that they
8580 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
8581\f
8582Local variables:
8583mode: outline
8584paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
8585end: