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1GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 23 Jan 1999
2Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3See the end for copying conditions.
4
5Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
6For older news, see the file ONEWS.
7
8\f
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9* Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
10
11** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
12the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
13\f
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14* Changes in Emacs 21.1
15
16** Faces and frame parameters.
17
18There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
19Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
20`scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
21`scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
22sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
23for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
24parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
25
26Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
27`default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
79214ddf 28`foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
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29`default' face and vice versa.
30
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31** New face `menu'.
32
33The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
34Setting the font of LessTif/Motif menus is currently not supported;
35attempts to set the font are ignored in this case.
36
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37** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
38
39The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
40colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
41correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
42the screen gamma of a frame's display.
43
44PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
45in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
46color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
47
48The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
49`ScreenGamma'.
50
51** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
52
53The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
54Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
55oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
56of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
57the text.
58
59** Emacs has a new face implementation.
60
61The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
62font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
63height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
64These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
65specify a font.
66
67Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
68These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
69under Lisp changes, below.
70
71** New default font is Courier 12pt.
72
73** When using a windowing terminal, Emacs window now has a cursor of
74its own. When the window is selected, the cursor is solid; otherwise,
75it is hollow.
76
77** Bitmap areas to the left and right of windows are used to display
78truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
79foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
80customizing face `fringe'.
81
82** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default. You
83can change its appearance by modifying the face `modeline'.
84
85** LessTif support.
86
87Emacs now runs with LessTif (see <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will
88need a version 0.88.1 or later.
89
90** Toolkit scroll bars.
91
92Emacs now uses toolkit scrollbars if available. When configured for
93LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scrollbar. Otherwise, when
94configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
95bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
96bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
97Emacs.
98
99When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
100Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
101Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
102Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
103define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
104`s/freebsd.h' as an example.
105
106Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
107a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
108directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
109different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
110system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
111add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
112
113The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
114`float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
115This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
116image configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
117Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
118
119** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
120
121When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
122widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
123Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
124
125** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
126
127When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
128whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
129defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
130highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
131displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
132whitespace.
133
134** Busy-cursor.
135
136Emacs can optionally display a busy-cursor under X. You can turn the
137display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
138
139** Blinking cursor
140
141M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
142terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
143and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
144the group `cursor'.
145
146** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
147
148This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
149generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
150See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
151details.
152
153Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
154have to do anything to activate it.
155
156** Tabs and variable-width text.
157
158Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
159defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
160independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
161Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
162
163** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
164
165*** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
166
167 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
168
169The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the Motif
170one.
171
172*** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, like in
173Motif.
174
175** Hscrolling in C code.
176
177Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically.
178
179** Tool bar support.
180
181Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
182how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level changes.
183
184** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
185
186Different parts of the mode line under X have been made
187mouse-sensitive. Moving the mouse to a mouse-sensitive part in the mode
188line changes the appearance of the mouse pointer to an arrow, and help
189about available mouse actions is displayed either in the echo area, or
190in the tooltip window if you have enabled one.
191
192Currently, the following actions have been defined:
193
194- Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line switches between two
195buffers.
196
197- Mouse-2 on the buffer-name switches to the next buffer, and
198M-mouse-2 switches to the previous buffer in the buffer list.
199
200- Mouse-3 on the buffer-name displays a buffer menu.
201
202- Mouse-1 on the read-only status in the mode line (`%' or `*')
203toggles the read-only status.
204
205- Mouse-3 on the mode name display a minor-mode menu.
206
207** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
208
209When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
210from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialogs' is
211non-nil.
212
213** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
214
215Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
216Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
217the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
218italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
219Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
220attributes like overlines, strike-throught, box are ignored.
221
222** Sound support
223
224Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
225(Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
226Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
227(*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
228to enable sound support.
229
230** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
231the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
232forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
233value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
234users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
235even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
236
237The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
238
239** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
240
241As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
242drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
243`x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
244
245** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
246bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi).
247
248This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
249`indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
250variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
251
252** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
253
254When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
255value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggessively' is a
256number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
257fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
258
259When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
260value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggessively' is a
261number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
262fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
263
264** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
265notably at the end of lines.
266
267All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
268spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
269
270** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
271query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
272after each match to get the replacement text.
273
274** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
275
276If a message is longer than one line, or mini-buffer contents are
277longer than one line, Emacs now resizes the mini-window unless it is
278on a frame of its own. You can control the maximum mini-window size
279by setting the following variable:
280
281- User option: max-mini-window-height
282
283Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
284fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
285specifies a number of lines. If nil, don't resize.
286
287Default is 0.25.
288
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289** Changes to TeX mode
290
291The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
292`latex-mode'.
293
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294** Changes to RefTeX mode
295
296*** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
297 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
298 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
299 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
300 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
301 can be edited from that buffer.
302
303*** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
304 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
305 `A' to use all marked entries).
306
307*** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
308 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
309
310*** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
311 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
312 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
313 been cited.
314
315** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
316has the following new features:
317
318*** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
319may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
320to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
321time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
322
323*** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
324feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
325file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
326compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
327pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
328defaults to 1.
329
330** Tooltips.
331
332Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
333mouse position. To use them, use the Lisp package `tooltip' which you
334can access via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
335
336Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
337variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
338the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
339tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
340
341** Customize changes
342
343*** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
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344`State' menu to add comments. Note that customization comments will
345cause the customizations to fail in earlier versions of Emacs.
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346
347*** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
348Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
349default).
350
351** New features in evaluation commands
352
353The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
354modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
355print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the
356customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
357eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
358
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359** Dired changes
360
361*** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
362command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
363is, delete only empty directories.
364
365*** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
366command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
367copy directories recursively.
368
369** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
370use the -f option when sending mail.
371
372** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
373selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
374
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375** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
376names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
377sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
378
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379** Shell script mode changes.
380
381Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
382derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizeable, and
383sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
384
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385** Etags changes.
386
387*** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
388
389*** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
390declarations when given the --declarations option.
391
392*** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
393"operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
394
395*** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
396types.
397
398*** In Fortran, procedure is no more tagged.
399
400*** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
401
402*** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
403are now tagged.
404
405*** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
406variables are tagged.
407
408*** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
409
410*** .ss files are Scheme files.
411
412*** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex.
413
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414** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
415and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
416LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
417
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418** New language environments `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
419These correspond respectively to the ISO character sets 8859-14
420(Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign). There is
421currently no specific input method support for them.
422
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423** New modes and packages
424
425*** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
426
427*** hl-line.el provides a minor mode to highlight the current line.
428
429*** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
430
431*** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
432Pascal) language.
433
434*** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
435the text at point.
436
437*** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
438
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439*** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
440
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441*** whitespace.el ???
442
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443*** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
444files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
445(very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
446interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
447often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
448uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
449codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
450
451*** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
452
453Here is an example of columns:
454
455horse apple bus
456dog pineapple car EXTRA
457porcupine strawberry airplane
458
459Doing the following settings:
460
461 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
462 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
463 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
464 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
465
466
467Selecting the lines above and typing:
468
469 M-x delimit-columns-region
470
471It results:
472
473[ horse , apple , bus , ]
474[ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
475[ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
476
477delim-col has the following options:
478
479 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
480 before all columns.
481
482 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
483 between each column.
484
485 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
486 after all columns.
487
488 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
489 each column.
490
491delim-col has the following commands:
492
493 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
494 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
495
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496*** The package recentf.el maintains a menu for visiting files that
497were operated on recently. When enabled, a new "Open Recent" submenu
498is displayed in the "Files" menu.
499
500The recent files list is automatically saved across Emacs sessions.
501
502To enable/disable recentf use M-x recentf-mode.
503
504To enable recentf at Emacs startup use
505M-x customize-variable RET recentf-mode RET.
506
507To change the number of recent files displayed and others options use
508M-x customize-group RET recentf RET.
509
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510*** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
511text.
512
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513** Withdrawn packages
514
515*** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
516functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
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517
518*** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el.
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519
520** Not new, but not mentioned before:
521M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
522
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523\f
524* Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
525
526Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
527--- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
528When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
529so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
530
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531** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
532modify read-only text.
533
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534** New functions and variables for locales.
535
536The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
537decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
538time functions like strftime. The new variables `messages-locale' and
539`time-locale' give the system locales to be used during the next
540invocations of these two types of functions; the new variables
541`previous-messages-locale' and `previous-time-locale' give the locales
542most recently used.
543
544The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
545environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
546the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
547environment variables. It is normally invoked during startup. It
548uses the new variables `locale-language-names',
549`locale-charset-language-names', and `locale-preferred-coding-systems'
550to make its decisions.
551
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552** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
553To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
554modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
555start sequences.
556
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557** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
558because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
559
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560** New function `propertize'
561
562The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
563strings with text properties.
564
565- Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
566
567Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
568by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
569PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
570specified value of that property. Example:
571
572 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
573
574+++
575** push and pop macros.
576
577A simple version of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
578is now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
579as the place that holds the list to be changed.
580
581(push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
582(pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
583 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
584
585+++
586** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such
587as [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on.
588
589[:digit:] matches 0 through 9
590[:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
591[:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
592[:blank:] matches space and tab only
593[:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
594 space, and DEL.
595[:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
596 and DEL.
597[:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
598 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
599 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
600[:alpha:] matches letters.
601 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
602 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
603[:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
604[:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
605[:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
606[:punct:] matches punctuation.
607 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
608 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
609[:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
610[:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
611[:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
612
613+++
614** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
615
616The following functions are defined for hash tables:
617
618- Function: make-hash-table ARGS
619
620The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
621are optional. The following arguments are defined:
622
623:test TEST
624
625TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
626Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
627it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
628
629:size SIZE
630
631SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
632many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
633
634:rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
635
636REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
637full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
638size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
6391.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
640old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
641
642:rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
643
644THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
645hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
646(size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
647
648:weakness WEAK
649
650WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value', or t.
651Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage collection if
652their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere outside of the
653hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
654
655- Function: makehash &optional TEST
656
657Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
658
659- Function: hash-table-p TABLE
660
661Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
662
663- Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
664
665Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
666values are shared.
667
668- Function: hash-table-count TABLE
669
670Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
671
672- Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
673
674Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
675
676- Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
677
678Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
679
680- Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
681
682Returns the size of TABLE.
683
684- Function: hash-table-rehash-test TABLE
685
686Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
687
688- Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
689
690Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
691
692- Function: clrhash TABLE
693
694Clear TABLE.
695
696- Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
697
698Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
699not found.
700
79214ddf 701- Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
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702
703Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
704another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
705
706- Function: remhash KEY TABLE
707
708Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
709
710- Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
711
712Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
713arguments KEY and VALUE.
714
715- Function: sxhash OBJ
716
717Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
718
719- Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
720
721Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
722a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
79214ddf 723comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
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724and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
725of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
726
727TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
728
729HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
730code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
731integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
732
733Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
734be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
735
736 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
737 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
738
739 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
740 (sxhash (upcase a)))
741
79214ddf 742 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
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743 'case-fold-string-hash))
744
745 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
746
747+++
748** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
749
750It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
751circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
752a cons cell which is its own cdr.
753
754+++
755** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
756
757If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
758#N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
759
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760+++
761** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
762t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
763specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
764is too short to reach that column.
765
766+++
767** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
768now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
769after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
770two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
771
772If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
773perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
774and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
775
776+++
777** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
778to specify which buffer to return the size of.
779
780+++
781** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
782calendar-move-hook after moving point.
783
784+++
785** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
786directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
787small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
788small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
789temporary-file-directory instead.
790
791+++
792** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
793the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
794`before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
795hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
796
797+++
798** assoc-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
799elements of an alist which have a particular value as the car.
800
801+++
802** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
803
804make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
805creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
806ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
807
808+++
809** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
810
811The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
812on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
813is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
814never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
815ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
816overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
817
818If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
819that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
820to get an error if the file exists at that time.
821The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
822
823+++
824** Function `format' now handles text properties.
825
826Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
827If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
828ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
829result string.
830
831Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
832string where arguments appear in the result string.
833
834Example:
835
836 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
837 (s2 "world"))
838 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
839 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
b246b1f6 840 (format s1 s2))
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841
842results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
843
844+++
845** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
846
847Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
848The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
849argument in it.
850
851 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
852 (arg "world"))
853 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
854 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
855 (message msg arg))
856
857+++
858** Sound support
859
860Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
861(Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
862
863Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
864(*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
865to enable sound support.
866
867Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
868list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
869when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
870functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
871sound to play, before playing the sound.
872
873The following sound properties are supported:
874
875- `:file FILE'
876
877FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
878searched relative to `data-directory'.
879
880- `:volume VOLUME'
881
882VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
8830..1. This property is optional.
884
885Other properties are ignored.
886
887** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
888\f
889* New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
890
891Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
892--- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
893When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
894so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
895
896** New face implementation.
897
898Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
899font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
900
901+++
902*** New faces.
903
904Each face can specify the following display attributes:
905
906 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
79214ddf 907
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908 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
909 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
79214ddf 910
a933dad1 911 3. Font height in 1/10pt
79214ddf 912
a933dad1 913 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
79214ddf 914
a933dad1 915 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
79214ddf 916
a933dad1 917 6. Foreground color.
79214ddf 918
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919 7. Background color.
920
921 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
922
923 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
924
925 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
926
927 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
928
929 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
930 color.
931
932 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
933 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
934
935Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
936same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
937frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
938faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
939with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each each of the face
940attributes mentioned above.
941
942There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
943definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
944created frames.
79214ddf 945
a933dad1
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946A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
947have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
948`fully-specified'.
949
950+++
951*** Face merging.
952
953The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
954combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
955aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
956properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
957that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
958results in a fully-specified face.
959
960+++
961*** Face realization.
962
963After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
964merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
965realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
966available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
967face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
968cache of the frame on which it was realized.
969
970Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
971character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
972for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
973charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
974
975Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
976specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
977being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
978the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
979statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
980
981In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
982`char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
9830x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
984the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
985initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
986Emacs.
987
988Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
989`enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
990registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
991with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
992
993++++
994**** Clearing face caches.
995
996The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
997on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
998unused fonts.
999
1000+++
1001*** Font selection.
79214ddf 1002
a933dad1
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1003Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
1004given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
1005for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
1006
1007If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
1008pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
1009family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
1010property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
1011an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
1012
1013Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
1014against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
1015match for the given face attributes in this font list.
1016
1017Font selection can be influenced by the user.
1018
1019The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
1020attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
1021face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
1022names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
1023that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
1024width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
1025to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
1026
1027Setting `face-alternative-font-family-alist' allows the user to
1028specify alternative font families to try if a family specified by a
1029face doesn't exist.
1030
1031+++
1032**** Scalable fonts
1033
1034Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
1035since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
1036servers.
1037
1038To enable scalable font use, set the variable
b246b1f6 1039`scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
a933dad1
DL
1040scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
1041Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
1042scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
1043that list. Example:
1044
1045 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
1046
1047allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
1048
1049+++
1050*** Functions and variables related to font selection.
1051
1052- Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
1053
1054Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
1055is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
1056string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
1057
1058If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
1059the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
1060FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
1061POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
1062SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
1063These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
1064if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
1065REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
1066the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
1067of the face font sort order.
1068
79214ddf 1069- Function: x-font-family-list
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1070
1071Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
1072omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
1073(FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
1074non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
1075
1076- Variable: font-list-limit
1077
1078Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
1079won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
1080matching font. The default is currently 100.
1081
1082+++
1083*** Setting face attributes.
1084
1085For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
1086with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
1087implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
1088`face-attribute'.
1089
1090Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
1091symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
1092
1093The following attributes are recognized:
1094
1095`:family'
1096
1097VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
1098or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
1099and `?' are allowed.
1100
1101`:width'
1102
1103VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
1104It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
1105`condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
1106`extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
1107
1108`:height'
1109
1110VALUE must be an integer specifying the height of the font to use in
11111/10 pt.
1112
1113`:weight'
1114
1115VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
1116symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
1117`semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
1118
1119`:slant'
1120
1121VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
1122symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
1123`reverse-oblique'.
1124
1125`:foreground', `:background'
1126
1127VALUE must be a color name, a string.
1128
1129`:underline'
1130
1131VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
1132VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
1133a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
1134don't underline.
1135
1136`:overline'
1137
1138VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
1139VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
1140string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
1141overline.
1142
1143`:strike-through'
1144
1145VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
1146striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
1147face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
1148is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
1149
1150`:box'
1151
1152VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
1153around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
1154VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
1155of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
1156and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
1157VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
1158:color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
1159the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
1160specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
1161defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
1162the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
1163color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
1164should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
1165like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
1166that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
1167the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
1168box.
1169
1170`:inverse-video'
1171
1172VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
1173inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
1174
1175`:stipple'
1176
1177If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
1178The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
1179searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
1180HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
1181is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
1182explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
1183
1184For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
1185and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
1186
1187`:font'
1188
1189Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
1190XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
1191is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
1192versions of Emacs.
1193
1194For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
1195be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
1196must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
1197
1198Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
1199`defface'.
1200
1201*** Face attributes and X resources
1202
1203The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
1204from X resources:
1205
1206 Face attribute X resource class
1207-----------------------------------------------------------------------
1208 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
1209 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
1210 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
1211 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
1212 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
1213 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
1214 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
1215 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
1216 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
1217 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
1218 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
1219 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
1220 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
79214ddf 1221 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
a933dad1
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1222 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
1223 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
1224 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
1225 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
1226 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
1227
1228+++
1229*** Text property `face'.
1230
1231The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
1232specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
1233specification can be
1234
12351. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
1236
12372. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
1238 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
1239 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
1240 for face attribute names.
1241
12423. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
1243 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
1244 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
1245
1246+++
1247** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
1248
1249The function `face-register-tty-color' can be used to define colors
1250for use on TTY frames. It maps a color name to a color number on the
1251terminal. Emacs defines a couple of default color mappings by
1252default. You can get defined colors with a call to
1253`tty-defined-colors'. The function `face-clear-tty-colors' can be
1254used to clear the mapping table.
1255
1256+++
1257** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
a933dad1 1258
463cac2d 1259This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
a933dad1
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1260
1261The function minubuffer-prompt-end returns the current position of the
1262end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
1263Otherwise, it returns zero.
1264
463cac2d
GM
1265** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
1266
1267There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
1268buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
1269text-property.
1270
1271Certain functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
1272forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
1273to the boundary between fields (beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
1274not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
1275commands continue into the next field if repeated).
1276
1277The new function constrain-to-field may be used to achieve similar
1278behavior; other new field functions include field-beginning, field-end,
1279erase-field, and field-string.
1280
1281Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
1282a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that many
1283editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
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1284
1285+++
1286** Image support.
1287
1288Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
1289strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
1290(AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
1291replaces the display of the characters having that property.
1292
1293If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
1294`(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
1295AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
1296window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
1297area.
1298
1299IMAGE is an image specification.
1300
1301*** Image specifications
1302
1303Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
1304is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
1305specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
1306symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'.
1307
1308The following is a list of properties all image types share.
1309
1310`:ascent ASCENT'
1311
1312ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, and specifies the percentage
1313of the image's height to use for its ascent. Default is 50.
1314
1315`:margin MARGIN'
1316
79214ddf 1317MARGIN must be a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put as
a933dad1
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1318margin around the image. Default is 0.
1319
1320`:relief RELIEF'
1321
1322RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
1323around an image.
1324
1325`:algorithm ALGO'
1326
1327Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it. ALGO must
1328be a symbol specifying the algorithm. Currently only `laplace' is
1329supported which applies a Laplace edge detection algorithm to an image
1330which is intended to display images "disabled."
1331
1332`:heuristic-mask BG'
1333
1334If BG is not nil, build a clipping mask for the image, so that the
1335background of a frame is visible behind the image. If BG is t,
1336determine the background color of the image by looking at the 4
1337corners of the image, assuming the most frequently occuring color from
1338the corners is the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must
1339be a list `(RED GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the
1340background of the image.
1341
1342`:file FILE'
1343
1344Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
1345search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
1346building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
1347may be present in the image specification.
1348
1349
1350*** Supported image types
1351
b246b1f6 1352**** XBM, image type `xbm'.
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1353
1354XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
1355properties supported are
1356
1357`:foreground FG'
1358
1359FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default
1360is the frame's foreground.
1361
1362`:background FG'
1363
1364BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default is
1365the frame's background color.
1366
1367XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
1368case, the image specification must contain the following properties
1369instead of a `:file' property.
1370
1371`:width WIDTH'
1372
1373WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
1374
1375`:height HEIGHT'
1376
1377HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
1378
1379`:data DATA'
1380
1381DATA must be either
1382
1383 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
1384 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
1385
1386 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
1387
1388 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
1389 bitmap.
1390
1391**** XPM, image type `xpm'
1392
1393XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
1394`xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
1395found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
1396`--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
1397
1398Additional image properties supported are:
1399
1400`:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
1401
1402SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
1403name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
1404name.
1405
1406XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
1407add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
1408
1409`:data DATA'
1410
79214ddf 1411DATA must be a string containing an XPM image. The contents of the
a933dad1
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1412string are of the same format as that of XPM files.
1413
1414The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
1415to display compressed images.
1416
1417**** PBM, image type `pbm'
1418
1419PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
1420mono images are supported. There are no additional image properties
1421defined.
1422
1423**** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
1424
1425Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
1426package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
1427properties defined.
1428
1429**** TIFF, image type `tiff'
1430
1431Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
1432package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
1433properties defined.
1434
1435**** GIF, image type `gif'
1436
1437Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
1438`libungif-4.1.0', or later.
1439
1440Additional image properties supported are:
1441
1442`:index INDEX'
1443
1444INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
1445multi-image GIF file. An error is signalled if INDEX is too large.
1446
1447This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
1448For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
1449at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
1450every 0.1 seconds.
1451
1452(defun show-anim (file max)
1453 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
1454 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
1455
1456(defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
1457 (when (= idx max)
1458 (setq idx 0))
1459 (let ((img (create-image file nil :index idx)))
1460 (save-excursion
1461 (set-buffer buffer)
1462 (goto-char (point-min))
1463 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
1464 (insert-image img "x"))
1465 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
1466
1467**** PNG, image type `png'
1468
1469Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
1470package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
1471properties defined.
1472
1473**** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
1474
1475Additional image properties supported are:
1476
1477`:pt-width WIDTH'
1478
1479WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
b246b1f6 1480integer. This is a required property.
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1481
1482`:pt-height HEIGHT'
1483
1484HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
b246b1f6 1485must be a integer. This is an required property.
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1486
1487`:bounding-box BOX'
1488
1489BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
1490the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
1491files. This is an required property.
1492
1493Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
1494lisp/gs.el.
1495
1496*** Lisp interface.
1497
79214ddf
FP
1498The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
1499which are supported in the current configuration.
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1500
1501Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
1502they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
1503The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
1504manually.
1505
1506*** Simplified image API, image.el
1507
1508The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
1509creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
1510can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
1511define an image based on available image types. The functions
1512`put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
1513buffer.
1514
1515+++
1516** Display margins.
1517
1518Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
1519and images.
1520
1521To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
1522`left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
1523`set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
1524obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
1525`right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
1526the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
1527of the display margins.
1528
1529You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
1530containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
1531one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
1532string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
1533in this file).
1534
1535+++
1536** Help display
1537
1538Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
1539moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
1540`help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
1541that have a `help-echo' property.
1542
1543The value of the `help-echo' property must be a string. For tool-bar
1544items, their key definition is used to determine the help to display.
1545If their definition contains a property `:help FORM', FORM is
1546evaluated to determine the help string. Otherwise, the caption of the
1547tool-bar item is used.
1548
1549The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
1550help differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window causes the
1551help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
1552
1553+++
1554** Vertical fractional scrolling.
1555
1556The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
1557This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
1558
1559The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
1560scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
1561The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
1562scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
1563used.
1564
79214ddf
FP
1565 (global-set-key [A-down]
1566 #'(lambda ()
a933dad1 1567 (interactive)
79214ddf 1568 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
a933dad1 1569 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
79214ddf 1570 (global-set-key [A-up]
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1571 #'(lambda ()
1572 (interactive)
79214ddf 1573 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
a933dad1
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1574 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
1575
1576+++
1577** New hook `fontification-functions'.
1578
1579Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
1580when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
1581variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
1582is called with one argument, POS.
1583
1584At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
1585characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
1586as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
1587property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
1588`fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
1589
1590+++
1591** Tool bar support.
1592
1593Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
1594parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
1595controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
1596suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
1597`auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
1598automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
1599
1600*** Tool bar item definitions
1601
1602Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
1603`tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
1604where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
79214ddf 1605
a933dad1
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1606CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
1607evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
1608the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
1609property (see below).
79214ddf 1610
a933dad1
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1611BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
1612binding are currently ignored.
1613
1614The following properties are recognized:
1615
1616`:enable FORM'.
79214ddf 1617
a933dad1
DL
1618FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
1619or disabled.
79214ddf 1620
a933dad1 1621`:visible FORM'
79214ddf 1622
a933dad1 1623FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
79214ddf 1624
a933dad1
DL
1625`:filter FUNCTION'
1626
1627FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
1628FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
1629used instead of BINDING to display this item.
79214ddf 1630
a933dad1
DL
1631`:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
1632
1633TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
1634and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
79214ddf 1635
a933dad1
DL
1636`:image IMAGES'
1637
1638IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
1639image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
1640meaning of each of the four elements:
1641
1642 Index Use when item is
1643 ----------------------------------------
1644 0 enabled and selected
1645 1 enabled and deselected
1646 2 disabled and selected
1647 3 disabled and deselected
79214ddf 1648
a933dad1 1649`:help HELP-STRING'.
79214ddf 1650
a933dad1
DL
1651Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
1652is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
1653
1654*** Tool-bar-related variables.
1655
1656If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
1657resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
1658than 1/4 of the frame's size.
1659
79214ddf 1660If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
a933dad1
DL
1661raised when the mouse moves over them.
1662
1663You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
1664`tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
1665pixels. Default is 1.
1666
1667You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
1668`tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
1669
1670*** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
1671
1672You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
79214ddf 1673a tool bar item. If
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DL
1674
1675 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
1676 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
1677 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
1678
1679is the original tool bar item definition, then
1680
1681 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
1682
1683makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
1684item.
1685
1686** Mode line changes.
1687
1688+++
1689*** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
1690
1691The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
1692that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
1693a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
1694
16951. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
1696a `local-map' text property.
1697
16982. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
1699that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
1700
17013. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
1702is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
1703`local-map' property.
1704
1705The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
1706properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
1707example.
1708
1709+++
1710*** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
1711variable mode-line-format to nil.
1712
1713+++
1714*** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
1715
1716This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
1717`header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
1718completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
1719`default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
1720line.
1721
1722The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
1723`header-line'.
1724
1725The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
1726position in the header-line.
1727
1728+++
1729** Text property `display'
1730
1731The `display' text property is used to insert images into text, and
1732also control other aspects of how text displays. The value of the
1733`display' property should be a display specification, as described
1734below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
1735
1736*** Variable width and height spaces
1737
1738To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
1739specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
1740`(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
1741area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
1742marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
1743displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
1744simpler form STRETCH as property value.
1745
1746The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
1747PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
1748properties described below.
1749
1750The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
1751characters having the `display' property.
1752
1753- :width WIDTH
1754
1755Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
1756character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
1757
1758- :relative-width FACTOR
1759
1760Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
1761first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
1762same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
1763width of that character by FACTOR.
1764
1765- :align-to HPOS
1766
1767Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
1768value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
1769
1770Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
1771
1772- :height HEIGHT
1773
1774Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
1775normal line height.
1776
1777- :relative-height FACTOR
1778
1779The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
1780of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
1781
1782- :ascent ASCENT
1783
1784Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
1785used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
1786baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
1787equal to 100.
1788
1789You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
1790
1791*** Images
1792
1793A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
1794. IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
1795in the display, the characters having this display specification in
1796their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
1797the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
1798`(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
1799area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
1800the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
1801as display specification.
1802
1803*** Other display properties
1804
1805- :space-width FACTOR
1806
1807Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
1808should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
1809integer or float.
1810
1811- :height HEIGHT
1812
1813Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
1814
1815If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
1816means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
1817the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
1818``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
1819a font is available counts as a step.
1820
1821If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
1822as tall as the frame's default font.
1823
1824If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
1825height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
1826
1827Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
1828`height' bound to the current specified font height.
1829
1830- :raise FACTOR
1831
1832FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
1833font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
1834raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
1835amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
1836`:height' subproperty.
1837
1838*** Conditional display properties
1839
1840All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
1841has the form `(:when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC
1842applies only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated.
1843During evaluattion, point is temporarily set to the end position of
1844the text having the `display' property.
1845
1846The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
1847`(:when t SPEC)'.
1848
1849+++
1850** New menu separator types.
1851
1852Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
1853item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
1854treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
1855to specify other menu separator types.
1856
1857- `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
1858
1859No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
1860separator occurs.
1861
1862- `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
1863
1864A single line in the menu's foreground color.
1865
1866- `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
1867
1868A double line in the menu's foreground color.
1869
1870- `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
1871
1872A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
1873
1874- `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
1875
1876A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
1877
1878- `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
1879
1880A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the the form
1881displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
1882
1883- `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
1884
1885A single line with 3D raised appearance.
1886
1887- `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
1888
1889A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
1890
1891- `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
1892
1893A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
1894
1895- `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
1896
1897Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
1898
1899- `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
1900
1901Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
1902
1903- `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
1904
1905Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
1906
1907- `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
1908
1909Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
1910
1911Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
1912the corresponding single-line separators.
1913
1914+++
1915** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
1916
1917The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
1918`scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
1919Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
1920that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
1921default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
1922default background is the background color of the frame, and the
1923default foreground is black.
1924
1925The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
1926(class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
1927`ScrollBarBackground').
1928
1929Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
1930settings for scroll bar colors.
1931
1932+++
1933** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
1934display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
1935
1936---
1937** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
1938starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
1939on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
1940line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
1941the original window start.
1942
1943---
1944** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
1945`hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
1946now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
1947
1948+++
1949** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
1950
1951A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
1952`window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
1953windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
1954other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
1955
1956The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
1957fixed-width and fixed-height.
1958
1959 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
1960
1961A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
1962fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
1963window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
1964change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
1965temporarily to nil, for example
1966
1967 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
1968 (enlarge-window 10))
1969
79214ddf 1970Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
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1971or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
1972\f
1973* Changes in Emacs 20.4
1974
1975** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
1976
1977You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
1978Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
1979`.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
1980
1981If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
1982is the one that is used.
1983
1984** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
1985the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
1986Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
1987separate from the command's regular output.
1988Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
1989says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
1990In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
1991the buffer name.
1992
1993When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
1994output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
1995it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
1996cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
1997
1998** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
1999the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
2000is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
2001created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
2002
2003** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
2004example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
2005match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
2006quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
2007
2008** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
2009now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
2010if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
2011they never ignore case.
2012
2013** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
2014under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
2015applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
2016of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
2017just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
2018convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
2019part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
2020
2021If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
2022the same format that was used in the file before.
2023
2024You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
2025`inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
2026
2027** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
2028renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
2029This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
2030
2031** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
2032The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
2033buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
2034your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
2035is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
2036end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
2037Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
2038
2039The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
2040eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
2041control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
2042format. You can now customize these variables.
2043
2044** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
2045filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
2046filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
2047enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
2048
2049** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
2050in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
2051windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
2052
2053** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
2054dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
2055doesn't have any effect.
2056
2057** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
2058not one per buffer.
2059
2060** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
2061use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
2062 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
2063
2064** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
2065To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
2066`auto-show-mode' command.
2067
2068** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
2069avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
2070versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
2071choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
2072occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
2073
2074** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
2075cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
2076
2077** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
2078character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
2079feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
2080
2081** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
2082the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
2083interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
2084and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
2085
2086** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
2087
2088The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
2089that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
2090one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
2091codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
2092set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
2093
2094Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
2095from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
2096
2097IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
2098equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
2099a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
2100`?' on other systems.
2101
2102IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
2103feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
2104Unix.
2105
2106Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
2107current codepage when it starts.
2108
2109** Mail changes
2110
2111*** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
2112default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
2113default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
2114sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
2115buffer-file-coding-system.
2116
2117You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
2118sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
2119mail.
2120
2121*** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
2122if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
2123Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
2124list of possible coding systems.
2125
2126** CC Mode changes
2127
2128*** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
2129modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
2130longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
2131docstring for details.
2132
2133*** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
2134symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
2135found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
2136prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
2137lineup functions use this feature currently.
2138
2139*** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
2140"finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
2141
2142*** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
2143"catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
2144
2145*** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
2146from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
2147symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
2148c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
2149anonymous classes.
2150
2151*** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
2152syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
2153
2154*** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
2155inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
2156support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
2157function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
2158
2159*** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
2160(i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
2161brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
2162c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
2163(brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
2164
2165*** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
2166
2167*** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
2168
2169*** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
2170for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
2171
2172*** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
2173
2174*** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
2175associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
2176This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
2177circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
2178class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
2179
2180** Gnus changes.
2181
2182*** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
2183added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
2184Gnus manual for the full story.
2185
2186*** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
2187before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
2188group, which is created automatically.
2189
2190*** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
2191values.
2192
2193*** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
2194
2195*** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
2196outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
2197
2198*** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
2199`C-u C-c C-c'.
2200
2201*** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
2202
2203*** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
2204re-highlighting of the article buffer.
2205
2206*** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
2207
2208*** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
2209Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
2210
2211*** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
2212`a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
2213
2214*** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
2215control over simplification.
2216
2217*** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
2218
2219*** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
2220limit.
2221
2222*** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
2223
2224*** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
2225
79214ddf 2226*** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
a933dad1
DL
2227If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
2228rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
2229
2230*** Cancelling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
2231`a' forces normal posting method.
2232
2233*** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
2234-- `W d'.
2235
2236*** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
2237to a non-nil value.
2238
2239*** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
2240where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
2241
2242*** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
2243has been added.
2244
2245*** A history of where mails have been split is available.
2246
2247*** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
2248
2249*** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
2250`gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
2251
2252*** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
2253`message-cite-original-without-signature'.
2254
2255*** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
2256
2257*** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
2258been added.
2259
2260*** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
2261`gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
2262
2263*** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
2264updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
2265
2266*** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
2267
2268*** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
2269
2270*** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
2271
2272** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
2273
2274*** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
2275options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
2276nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
2277
2278*** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
2279TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
2280of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
2281TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
2282can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
2283
2284*** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
2285All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
2286but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
2287the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
2288
2289*** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
2290the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
2291buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
2292mismatch.
2293
2294** Changes to RefTeX mode
2295
2296*** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
2297file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
2298
2299*** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
2300lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
2301characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
2302removed from the label.
2303
2304*** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
2305a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
2306
2307*** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
2308customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
2309
2310*** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
2311`reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
79214ddf 2312expressions.
a933dad1
DL
2313
2314*** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
2315
2316** New/deleted modes and packages
2317
2318*** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
2319SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
2320
2321*** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
2322editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
2323SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
2324
2325*** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
2326changes with a special face.
2327
2328*** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
2329this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
2330Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
2331\f
2332* MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
2333
2334** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
2335This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
2336conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
2337and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
2338check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
2339
2340The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
2341Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
2342distribution when the config.bat script is run.
2343
2344** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
2345MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
2346controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
2347directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
2348Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
2349on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
2350string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
2351program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
2352printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
2353
2354** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
2355output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
2356available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
2357input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
2358temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
2359program.
2360
2361An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
2362and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
2363programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
2364automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
2365as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
2366ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
2367
2368** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
2369a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
2370MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
2371was not documented clearly before.
2372
2373** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
2374This includes Tetris and Snake.
2375\f
2376* Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
2377
2378** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
2379return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
2380They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
2381meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
2382
2383** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
2384WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
2385and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
2386
2387** Changes in the file-attributes function.
2388
2389*** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
2390It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
2391
2392*** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
2393the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
2394integers.
2395
2396** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
2397files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
2398arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
2399file names and attributes are returned.
2400
2401** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
2402sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
2403accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its atttributes.
2404It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
2405returns the result.
2406
2407** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
2408to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
2409
2410** New functions for base64 conversion:
2411
2412The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
2413into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
2414performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
2415optionally.
2416
2417Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
2418job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
2419
2420**
2421The new function process-running-child-p
2422will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
2423terminal to its own child process.
2424
2425** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
2426when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
2427to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
2428itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
2429
2430** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
2431be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
2432
2433** easymenu.el Now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
2434:included is an alias for :visible.
2435
2436easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
2437easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
2438to move or copy menu entries.
2439
2440** Multibyte editing changes
2441
2442*** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
2443an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
2444make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
2445work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
2446char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
2447 (setq char (sref str idx)
2448 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
2449The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
2450
2451If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
2452(say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
2453 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
2454
2455*** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
2456region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
2457deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
2458
2459 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibitted
2460
2461This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
2462across the boundary.
2463
2464*** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
2465`unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
2466 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
2467 contains 8-bit characters.
2468 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
2469 contains invalid characters.
2470
2471*** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
2472text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
2473preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
2474text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
2475way.
2476
2477*** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
2478If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
2479end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
2480prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
2481
2482*** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
2483compose Thai characters in a string.
2484
2485** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
2486argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
2487for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
2488menus should always use the third argument.
2489
2490** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
2491read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
2492arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
2493input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
2494
2495** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
2496of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
2497programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
2498inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
2499
2500** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
2501the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
2502returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
2503echo area contents.
2504
2505 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
2506
2507** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
2508NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
2509requested feature cannot be loaded.
2510
2511** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
2512foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
79214ddf 2513means to clear out that attribute.
a933dad1
DL
2514
2515** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
2516gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
2517
2518** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
2519read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
2520unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
2521end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
2522
2523** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
2524the gap of the current buffer.
2525
2526** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
2527to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
2528current buffer.
2529
2530** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
2531facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
2532These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
2533it back in after any modifications have been made.
2534\f
2535* Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
2536
2537** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
2538the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
2539/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
2540directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
2541subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
2542
2543Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
2544names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
2545Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
2546which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
2547these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
2548
2549Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
2550starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
2551time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
2552
2553This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
2554Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
2555to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
2556subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
2557`.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
2558results.
2559
2560** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
2561GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
2562that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
2563fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
2564\f
2565* Changes in Emacs 20.3
2566
2567** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
2568including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
2569it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
2570perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
2571
2572** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
2573specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
2574region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
2575further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
2576command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
2577within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
2578are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
2579region.
2580
2581In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
2582selective undo.
2583
2584** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
2585unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
2586buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
2587effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
2588Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
2589
2590The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
2591though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
2592-*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
2593load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
2594
2595** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
2596no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
2597enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
2598something that most users not do.
2599
2600** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
2601operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
2602The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
2603applications.
2604
2605C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
2606pasting operations.
2607
2608** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
2609setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
2610like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
2611printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
2612`ps-printer-name'.
2613
2614** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
2615minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
2616any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
2617except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
2618incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
2619hits a new word.
2620
2621Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
2622Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
2623to be confused by TeX commands.
2624
2625You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
2626correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
2627clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
2628of various alternative replacements and actions.
2629
2630Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
2631the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
2632corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
2633alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
2634flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
2635
2636Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
2637flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
2638
2639** Changes in input method usage.
2640
2641Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
2642the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
2643respectively.
2644
2645You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
2646
2647If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
2648of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
2649
2650The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
2651that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
2652
2653 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
2654
2655 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
2656
2657 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
2658 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
2659
2660 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
79214ddf 2661 given in the following case:
a933dad1
DL
2662 o When you are using a complex input method.
2663 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
2664
2665If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
2666input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
2667and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
2668setting it to t is helpful.
2669
2670The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
2671
2672In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
2673keys:
2674 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
2675 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
2676 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
2677These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
2678environment.
2679
2680** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
2681names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
2682minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
2683get
2684
2685 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
2686
2687which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
2688
2689Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
2690Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
2691
2692** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
2693at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
2694its owner and group.
2695
2696** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
2697Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
2698
2699** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
2700contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
2701
2702** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
2703which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
2704in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
2705by the left edge of the rectangle.
2706
2707** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
2708increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
2709C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
2710for writing keyboard macros.
2711
2712** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
2713files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
2714frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
2715the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
2716additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
2717info.
2718
2719** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
2720
2721** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
2722query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
2723contents only.
2724
2725** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
2726confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
2727the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
2728says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
2729
2730** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
2731non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
2732literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
2733
2734** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
2735now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
2736Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
2737inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
2738
2739** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
2740failure if the command produces no output.
2741
2742** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
2743manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
2744the mouse.
2745
2746** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
2747mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
2748function and variable names.
2749
2750** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
2751reading specific files. This has higher priority than
2752file-coding-system-alist.
2753
2754** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
2755t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
2756converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
2757the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
2758according to the current fontset.
2759
2760** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
2761
2762The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
2763that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
2764nonascii-insert-offset.
2765
2766For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
2767enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
2768nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
2769characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
2770
2771** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
2772an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
2773
2774** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
2775letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
2776
2777** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
2778are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
2779command keys.
2780
2781** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
2782user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
2783
2784Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
2785user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
2786all variables that have documentation.
2787
2788** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
2789shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
2790that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
2791minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
2792it should show; the default is 20.
2793
2794Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
2795the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
2796of your input.
2797
2798** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
2799all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
2800recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
2801argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
2802the customizable options which were changed since that version.
2803Newly added options are included as well.
2804
2805If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
2806then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
2807for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
2808
2809This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
2810Customize menu.
2811
2812** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
2813the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
2814
2815** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
2816buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
2817invoked.
2818
2819** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
2820that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
2821The default is 1.
2822
2823** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
2824syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
2825new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
2826(C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
2827sensibly.
2828
2829** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
2830
2831** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
2832value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
2833two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
2834
2835** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
2836reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
2837for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
2838every night.
2839
2840** All you need to do, to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
2841the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
2842
2843** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
2844read and post multi-lingual articles.
2845
2846** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
2847doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
2848be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
2849outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
2850the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
79214ddf 2851made invisible again.
a933dad1
DL
2852
2853** Mail reading and sending changes
2854
2855*** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
2856the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
2857changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
2858toggle.
2859
2860*** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
2861now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
2862summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
2863the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
2864rmail-default-body-file.
2865
2866*** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
2867longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
2868handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
2869
2870*** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
2871it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
2872is evaluated to insert the signature.
2873
2874*** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
2875outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
2876handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
2877putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
2878transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
2879especially interested in trying feedmail.
2880
2881feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
2882feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
2883provided by feedmail are:
2884
2885**** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
2886stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
2887there is also a queue for draft messages
2888
2889**** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
2890be prompted for confirmation
2891
2892**** does smart filling of address headers
2893
2894**** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
2895the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
2896can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
2897
2898**** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
2899the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
2900/usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
2901function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
2902
2903** Dired changes
2904
2905*** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
2906files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
2907
2908*** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
2909run Dired on the directory name at point.
2910
2911*** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
2912files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
2913for a specified regexp.
2914
2915** VC Changes
2916
2917*** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
2918conveniently.
2919
2920*** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
2921faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
2922Dired.
2923
2924VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
2925directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
2926listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
2927currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
2928
2929You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
2930then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
2931vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
2932control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
2933on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
2934
2935All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
2936is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
2937`v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
2938the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
2939`vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
2940
2941The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
2942toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
79214ddf 2943VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
a933dad1
DL
2944`* l', to mark all files currently locked.
2945
2946Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
2947ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
2948command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
2949
2950*** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
2951file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
2952session to resolve them.
2953
2954Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
2955resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
2956contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
2957uses as well).
2958
2959*** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
2960command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
2961you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
2962either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
2963branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
2964If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
2965using ediff.
2966
2967** Changes in Font Lock
2968
2969*** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
2970are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
2971use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
2972unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
2973compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
2974
2975** Frame name display changes
2976
2977*** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
2978frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
2979raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
2980when many frames are invisible or iconified.
2981
2982*** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
2983frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
2984menu.
2985
2986** Comint (subshell) changes
2987
2988*** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
2989subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
2990with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
2991
2992*** There are new commands in Comint mode.
2993
2994C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
2995that is, the line after the last line you got.
2996You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
2997
2998C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
2999send the current line together with the following line, when you send
3000the following line.
3001
3002C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
3003which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
3004previously sent input.
3005
3006C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
3007it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
3008as the search string.
3009
3010*** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
3011automatically in compilation-mode windows.
3012
3013** C mode changes
3014
3015*** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
3016and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
3017assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
79214ddf 3018definition.
a933dad1
DL
3019
3020*** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
3021(i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
3022Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
3023style is still the default however.
3024
3025*** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
3026
3027*** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
3028are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
3029them. They do not have key bindings by default.
3030
3031*** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
3032and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
3033
3034*** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
3035namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
3036
3037*** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
3038makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
3039
3040*** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
3041c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
3042
3043*** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
3044should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
3045package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
3046variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
3047
3048** Changes to hippie-expand.
3049
79214ddf 3050*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
a933dad1
DL
3051non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
3052which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
3053
3054*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
3055non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
3056expanding dynamically.
3057
3058*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
3059non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
3060
3061*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
3062non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
3063this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
3064expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
3065
3066*** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
3067
3068** Changes in BibTeX mode.
3069
3070*** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
3071bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
3072automatic key generation. This replaces variable
3073bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
3074against the first word in the title.
3075
3076*** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
3077capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
3078bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
79214ddf 3079lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
a933dad1 3080lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
79214ddf 3081bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
a933dad1
DL
3082
3083*** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
3084generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
3085replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
3086bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
3087
3088** Changes in vcursor.el.
3089
3090*** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
3091and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
3092variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
3093entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
3094`vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
3095in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
3096
3097*** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
3098Editing group once the package is loaded.
3099
3100*** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
3101generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
3102vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behaviour.
3103
3104*** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
3105vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
3106
3107** Ispell changes.
3108
79214ddf
FP
3109*** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
3110buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
a933dad1
DL
3111are identified by syntax tables in effect.
3112
3113*** Generic region skipping implemented.
3114A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
3115and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
3116defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
79214ddf 3117include:
a933dad1
DL
3118
3119 o URLs are automatically skipped
3120 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
3121
3122*** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
3123
3124** Changes to RefTeX mode
3125
3126RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
3127large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
3128re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
3129section `Optimizations' in the manual.
3130
3131*** New recursive parser.
3132
3133The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
3134entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
3135recursive parser scans the individual files.
3136
3137*** Parsing only part of a document.
79214ddf 3138
a933dad1
DL
3139Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
3140partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
3141the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
3142
3143 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
3144
3145*** Storing parsing information in a file.
3146
3147This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
3148
3149 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
3150
3151*** Using multiple selection buffers
3152
3153If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
3154for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
3155
3156 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
3157
3158*** References to external documents.
3159
3160The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
3161documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
3162documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
3163macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
3164RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
3165the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
3166The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
3167
3168*** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
3169
3170The builtin command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
3171and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
3172
3173Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
3174the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
3175
3176*** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
3177
3178The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
3179buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
3180
3181*** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
3182
3183The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
3184contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
3185`reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
3186have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
3187enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
3188at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
3189more.
3190
3191*** Support for the varioref package
3192
3193The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
3194
3195*** New hooks
3196
3197Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
3198and citations are created. These hooks are
3199`reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
3200`reftex-format-cite-function'.
3201
3202*** Citations outside LaTeX
3203
3204The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
3205a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
3206
3207*** Short context is no longer fontified.
3208
3209The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
3210fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
3211fontified, use
3212
3213 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
3214
3215** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
3216With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
3217the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
3218directories that contain the same file name.
3219
3220Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
3221Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
3222file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
3223Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
3224have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
3225names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
3226directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
3227directory.
3228
3229** New modes and packages
3230
3231*** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
3232It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
3233it, but some do not.
3234
3235*** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
3236code.
3237
3238*** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
3239current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
3240around in a buffer.
3241
3242Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
3243
3244*** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
3245uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
3246be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
3247established system of notation similar to Chess.
3248
3249*** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
3250documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
3251guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
3252
3253*** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
3254available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
3255system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
3256simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
3257functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
3258the like.
3259
3260*** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
3261identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
3262
3263*** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
3264within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
3265used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
3266the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
3267
3268*** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
3269
3270 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
3271 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
3272 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
3273 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
3274 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
3275 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
3276 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
3277 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
3278 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
3279 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
3280 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
3281
3282 Platform-specific modes:
3283
3284 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
3285 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
3286 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
3287 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
3288 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
3289 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
3290 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
3291 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
3292 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
3293\f
3294* Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
3295
3296** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
3297use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
3298That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
3299Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
3300
3301Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
3302you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
3303consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
3304
3305** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
3306and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
3307specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
3308searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
3309
3310** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
3311multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
3312character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
3313environment.
3314
3315** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
3316take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
3317string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
3318current input method for reading this one event.
3319
3320** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
3321now control whether to output certain characters as
3322backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
3323non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
3324characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
3325in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
3326\f
3327* Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
3328
3329** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
3330of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
3331
3332** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
3333in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
3334always increases point by 1.
3335
3336The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
3337considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
3338
3339See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
3340
3341** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
3342Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
3343default value changed. For example,
3344
3345 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
3346 :type 'integer
3347 :group 'foo
3348 :version "20.3")
3349
79214ddf 3350 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
a933dad1
DL
3351 :version "20.3")
3352
3353If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
3354default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
3355is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
3356`:version' in the top level group.
3357
3358This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
3359
3360** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
3361starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
3362
3363However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
3364symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
3365support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
3366to themselves.
3367
3368If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
3369this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
3370values whatever.
3371
3372** There is a new debugger command, R.
3373It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
3374in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
3375
3376** Frame-local variables.
3377
3378You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
3379the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
3380local bindings for that variable.
3381
3382These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
3383frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
3384modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
3385parameter name.
3386
3387Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
3388Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
3389active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
3390that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
3391
3392It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
3393clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
3394very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
3395through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
3396
3397** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
3398"symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
3399evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
3400makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
3401See the documentation in sregex.el.
3402
3403** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
3404is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
3405parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
3406The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
3407
3408** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
3409If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
3410
3411** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
3412known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
3413define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
3414
3415** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
3416when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
3417it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
3418history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
3419
3420The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
3421return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
3422empty input.
3423
3424** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
3425for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
3426`iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
3427Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
3428`read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
3429
3430** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
3431echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
3432a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
3433default password to use if the user enters nothing.
3434
3435** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
3436specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
3437function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
3438place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
3439non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
3440
3441** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
3442If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
3443up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
3444end of the window, even if this requires computation.
3445
3446** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
3447which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
3448If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
3449
3450** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
3451holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
3452was directed to display this buffer.
3453
3454** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
3455with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
3456describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
3457other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
3458set-window-configuration.
3459
3460** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
3461window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
3462positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
3463windows and the choice of buffers to display.
3464
3465** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
3466override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
3467look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
3468
3469If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
3470non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
3471map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
3472
3473minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
3474and it is meant to be set by major modes.
3475
3476** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
3477except that it discards all text properties from the result.
3478
3479** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
3480USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
3481floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
3482
3483** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
3484to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
3485in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
3486it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
3487
3488** Menu changes
3489
3490*** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
3491keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
3492better supported.
3493
3494The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
3495a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
3496you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
3497can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
3498then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
3499
3500*** A new format for menu items is supported.
3501
3502In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
3503 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
3504defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
3505starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
3506
3507The format is:
3508 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
3509 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
3510where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
3511string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
3512The supported properties include
3513
3514:enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
3515 item is enabled.
3516:visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
3517 item should appear in the menu.
79214ddf 3518:filter FILTER-FN
a933dad1
DL
3519 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
3520 which will be REAL-BINDING.
3521 It should return a binding to use instead.
3522:keys DESCRIPTION
3523 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
3524 binding for for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
3525 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
3526:key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
3527 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
3528 keyboard binding.
3529:key-sequence nil
3530 This means that the command normally has no
3531 keyboard equivalent.
3532:help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
3533:button (TYPE . SELECTED)
3534 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
3535 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
3536 value says whether this button is currently selected.
3537
3538Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
3539Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
3540
3541(menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
3542
3543** New event types
3544
3545*** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
3546mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
3547corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
3548which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
3549
3550 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
3551
3552where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
3553same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
3554indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
3555negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
3556the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
3557forward, away from the user.
3558
3559As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
3560
3561*** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
3562files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
3563and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
3564filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
3565loaded into Emacs. The format is:
3566
3567 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
3568
3569where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
3570same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
3571that were dragged and dropped.
3572
3573As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
3574
3575** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
3576
3577*** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
3578any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
3579to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
3580
3581*** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
3582can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
3583that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
3584
3585*** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
3586in Emacs 19 and before.
3587
3588The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
3589The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
3590
3591*** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
3592buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
3593unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
3594representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
3595
3596This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
3597as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
3598viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
3599one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
3600will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
3601
3602This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
3603representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
3604(including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
3605consistent with the new representation.
3606
3607*** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
3608representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
3609about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
3610however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
3611
3612The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
3613nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
3614using the table nonascii-translation-table.
3615
3616*** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
3617representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
3618representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
3619
3620The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
3621loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
3622is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
3623
3624*** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
3625which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
3626
3627*** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
3628which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
3629
3630*** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
3631portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
3632so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
3633You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
3634
3635*** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
3636it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
3637
3638*** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
3639convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
3640buffer or string being searched.
3641
3642One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
3643[...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
3644searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
3645searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
3646obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
3647you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
3648expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
3649
3650*** Structure of coding system changed.
3651
3652All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
3653by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
3654which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
3655as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
3656vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
3657your own alias name of a coding system by the function
3658define-coding-system-alias.
3659
3660The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
3661the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
3662access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
3663pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
3664character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
3665safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
3666'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
3667`iso-8859-1'.
3668
3669Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
3670The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
3671coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
3672(coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
3673
3674Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
3675also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
3676are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
3677the other character sets and read it back correctly.
3678
3679*** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
3680proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
3681This function requires a user interaction.
3682
3683*** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
3684find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
3685select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
3686systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
3687a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
3688select-safe-coding-system.
3689
3690*** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
3691decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
3692last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
3693was done.
3694
3695*** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
3696used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
3697coding systems used by some specific language environment.
3698
3699*** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
3700return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
3701characters are found, they now return a list of single element
3702`undecided' or its subsidiaries.
3703
3704*** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
3705coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
3706coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
3707converted.
3708
3709*** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
3710coding system for communicating with other X clients.
3711
3712*** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
3713character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
3714character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
3715each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
3716either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
3717range of characters.
3718
3719*** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
3720Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
3721
3722*** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
3723in the current buffer at position POS.
3724
3725*** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
3726input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
3727function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
3728character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
3729event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
3730binding input-method-function to nil.
3731
3732The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
3733method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
3734input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
3735the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
3736not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
3737
3738The input method function is not called when reading the second and
3739subsequent events of a key sequence.
3740
3741*** You can customize any language environment by using
3742set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
3743
3744The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
3745customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
3746instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
3747environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
3748exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
3749\f
3750* Changes in Emacs 20.1
3751
3752** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
3753options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
3754at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
3755tree structure.
3756
3757M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
3758user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
3759
3760With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
3761session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
3762in your .emacs file.)
3763
3764** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
3765You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
3766
3767** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
3768This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
3769
3770** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
3771immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
3772kills the region.
3773
3774The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
3775delete the character before point, as usual.
3776
3777** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
3778on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
3779by setting search-highlight to nil.)
3780
3781** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
3782insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
3783the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
3784onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
3785history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
3786past.)
3787
3788** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
3789This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
3790in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
3791TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
3792makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
3793
3794As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
3795and is an alias for it.
3796
3797If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
3798use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
3799
3800** Scrolling changes
3801
3802*** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
3803position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
3804
3805In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
3806on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
3807where it started.
3808
3809*** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
3810move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
3811screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
3812does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
3813
3814*** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
3815top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
3816comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
3817recenters the window.
3818
3819** International character set support (MULE)
3820
3821Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
3822including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
3823Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
3824Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
3825features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
3826MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
3827
3828Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
3829coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
3830character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
3831variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
3832into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
3833
3834Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
3835generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
3836supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
3837language, to make it possible to type them.
3838
3839The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
3840character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
3841
3842The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
3843to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
3844
3845You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
3846
3847 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
3848
3849Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
3850characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
3851argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
3852already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
3853characters for their work until they want to change.
3854
3855*** Input methods
3856
3857An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
3858specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
3859has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
3860the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
3861support several input methods.
3862
3863The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
3864another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
3865work.
3866
3867A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
3868characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
3869composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
3870consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
3871sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
3872letter.
3873
3874The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
3875by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
3876First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
3877marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
3878mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
3879
3880None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
3881they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
3882phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
3883converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
3884
3885Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
3886word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
3887typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
3888the first guess is wrong.
3889
3890*** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
3891turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
3892
3893If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
3894byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
3895they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
3896the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
3897
3898However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
3899use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
3900includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
3901translate automatically to and from either one.
3902
3903*** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
3904
3905Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
3906file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
3907sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
3908what you want.
3909
3910If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
3911example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
3912system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
3913multibyte characters in that buffer.
3914
3915If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
3916character conversion as well.
3917
3918*** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
3919
3920A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
3921Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
3922requires using many fonts.
3923
3924Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
3925collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
3926
3927A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
3928the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
3929have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
3930you would use a font.
3931
3932If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
3933specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
3934display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
3935
3936The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
3937(that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
3938characters). If another font in the fontset has a different height,
3939or the wrong width, then characters assigned to that font are clipped,
3940and displayed within a box if highlight-wrong-size-font is non-nil.
3941
3942*** Defining fontsets.
3943
3944Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
3945chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
3946with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
3947
3948Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
3949of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
3950`fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
3951standard fontset are created automatically.
3952
3953If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
3954argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
3955FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
3956with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
3957name is `fontset-startup'.
3958
3959Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
3960The resource value should have this form:
3961 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
3962FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
3963 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
3964 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
3965 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
3966The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
3967of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
3968CHARSET-NAME should be the name name of a character set, and
3969FONT-NAME should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
3970
3971Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
3972last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
3973You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
3974
3975For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
3976font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
3977following resource,
3978 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
3979the font for ASCII is generated as below:
3980 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
3981Here is the substitution rule:
3982 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
3983 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
3984 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
3985 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
3986 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
3987
3988The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
3989fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
3990that function explicitly to create a fontset.
3991
3992With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
3993like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
3994name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
3995fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
3996fontsets.
3997
3998*** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
3999defaults for a particular choice of language.
4000
4001Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
4002method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
4003visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
4004already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
4005language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
4006system for new files that you create.
4007
4008It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
4009set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
4010whole Emacs session.
4011
4012For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
4013chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
4014with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
4015
4016*** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
4017specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
4018specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
4019the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
4020coding systems that Emacs supports.
4021
4022*** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
4023lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
4024This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
4025After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
4026is used for *the immediately following command*.
4027
4028So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
4029write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
4030
4031If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
4032then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
4033
4034For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
4035visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
4036
4037*** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
4038construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
4039to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
4040specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
4041of the file.
4042
4043*** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
4044the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
4045code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
4046translated into that character code.
4047
4048This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
4049various countries to support the languages of those countries.
4050
4051By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
4052
4053*** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
4054the coding system for keyboard input.
4055
4056Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
4057with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
4058some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
4059
4060By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
4061
4062Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
4063input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
4064translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
4065to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
4066designed to work with terminals.
4067
4068*** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
4069specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
4070This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
4071has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
4072translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
4073in the corresponding buffer.
4074
4075By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
4076
4077*** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
4078to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
4079It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
4080
4081*** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
4082an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
4083command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
4084want to use.
4085
4086C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
4087method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
4088
4089*** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
4090layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
4091remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
4092which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
4093
4094*** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
4095the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
4096related information.
4097
4098*** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
4099HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
4100scripts.
4101
4102*** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
4103information about the support for a particular language.
4104You specify the language as an argument.
4105
4106*** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
4107the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
4108first dash.
4109
4110A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
4111(except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
4112whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
41131 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
4114
4115 A alternativnyj (Russian)
4116 B big5 (Chinese)
4117 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
4118 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
4119 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
4120 E euc-japan (Japanese)
4121 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
4122 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
4123 K euc-korea (Korean)
4124 R koi8 (Russian)
4125 Q tibetan
4126 S shift_jis (Japanese)
4127 T lao
4128 T tis620 (Thai)
4129 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
4130 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
4131 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
4132 v viqr (Vietnamese)
4133 z hz (Chinese)
4134
4135When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
4136two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
4137coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
4138keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
4139
4140*** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
4141conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
4142
4143When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
4144into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
4145rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
4146Rmail files themselves.
4147
4148*** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
4149conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
4150
4151Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
4152for sending mail:
4153
4154- If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
4155- Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
4156- Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
4157 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
4158- Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
4159
4160*** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
4161to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
4162Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
4163translations.
4164
4165** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
4166of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
4167insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
4168without any conversion.
4169
4170** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
4171You can now specify any number of octal digits.
4172RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
4173any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
4174
4175** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
4176functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
4177
4178Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
4179Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
4180
4181Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
4182mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
4183
4184** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
4185complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
4186in the buffer before point.
4187
4188With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
4189symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
4190you are using.
4191
4192With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
4193just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
4194
4195** File locking works with NFS now.
4196
4197The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
4198in the same directory as FILENAME.
4199
4200This means that collision detection between two different machines now
4201works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
4202can become a bottleneck.
4203
4204The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
4205does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
4206create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
4207file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
4208rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
4209so useful that the change is worth while.
4210
4211When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
4212are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
4213collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
4214tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
4215
4216** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
4217it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
4218show-paren-mode.
4219
4220** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
4221selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
4222delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
4223
4224** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
4225within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
4226complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
4227
4228** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
4229it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
4230set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
4231
4232** Changes in View mode.
4233
4234*** Several new commands are available in View mode.
4235Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
4236
4237*** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
4238view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
4239
4240*** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
4241previous state.
4242
4243*** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
4244scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
4245
4246*** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
4247non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
4248not just the selected window.
4249
4250*** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
4251read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
4252turns View mode on or off.
4253
4254*** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
4255how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
4256delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
4257
4258** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
4259now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
4260
4261** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
4262has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
4263presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
4264which version to compare with.
4265
4266** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
79214ddf 4267blocks if a match is inside the block.
a933dad1
DL
4268
4269The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
4270is outside the block. By customizing the variable
4271isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
4272shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
4273
4274By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
4275of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
4276blocks, all of them or none.
4277
4278** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
4279current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
4280confirmation first.
4281
4282** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
4283now changes the major mode according to that file name.
4284However, the mode will not be changed if
4285(1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
4286(2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
4287 not suitable for ordinary files, or
4288(3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
4289
4290This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
4291
4292However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
4293these commands do not change the major mode.
4294
4295** M-x occur changes.
4296
4297*** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
4298it performs a case-sensitive search.
4299
4300*** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
4301if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
4302using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
4303
4304** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
4305in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
4306window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
4307that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
4308buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
4309
4310** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
4311after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
4312appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
4313come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
4314
4315** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
4316selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
4317buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
4318
4319** Outline mode changes.
4320
4321*** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
4322
4323*** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
4324
4325** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
4326you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
4327Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
4328was already active.
4329
4330The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
4331unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
4332get confused by it.
4333
4334If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
4335set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
4336
4337** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
4338
4339*** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
4340conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
4341character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
4342including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
4343
4344The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
4345mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
4346copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
4347
4348*** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
4349are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
4350values.
4351
4352`dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
4353case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
4354`dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
4355case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
4356
4357** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
4358certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
4359can be. The default value is 30.
4360
4361** Changes in Mail mode.
4362
4363*** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
4364Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
4365composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
4366`mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
4367`sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
4368behavior.
4369
4370C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
4371compose-mail-other-frame.
4372
4373*** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
4374the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
4375replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
4376buffer that shows the original message.
4377
4378*** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
4379with separator lines around the contents.
4380
4381*** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
4382in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
4383definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
4384need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
4385
4386*** New features in the mail-complete command.
4387
4388**** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
4389for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
4390controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
4391Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
4392
4393**** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
4394to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
4395/etc/passwd.
4396
4397**** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
4398to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
4399/etc/passwd.
4400
4401** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
4402special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
4403directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
4404reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
4405
4406Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
4407when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
4408be taken to be magic.
4409
4410** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
4411files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
4412available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
4413
4414M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
4415(-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
4416
4417** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
4418suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
4419
4420In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
4421
4422new key dired.el binding old key
4423------- ---------------- -------
4424 * c dired-change-marks c
4425 * m dired-mark m
4426 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
4427 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
4428 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
4429 * u dired-unmark u
4430 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
4431 * ? dired-unmark-all-files M-C-?
4432 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
4433 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
4434 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
4435 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
4436
4437** Rmail changes.
4438
4439*** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
4440saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
4441chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
4442each time you run it.
4443
4444*** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
4445whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
4446
4447*** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
4448messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
4449means to move in the opposite direction.
4450
4451*** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
4452you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
4453
4454*** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
4455just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
4456It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
4457can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
4458for output.
4459
4460** Gnus changes.
4461
4462*** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
4463
79214ddf
FP
4464*** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
4465Gnus.
a933dad1 4466
79214ddf 4467*** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
a933dad1
DL
4468`and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
4469
4470*** Article washing status can be displayed in the
4471article mode line.
4472
4473*** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
4474
4475*** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
4476
4477(setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
4478
4479*** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
4480are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
4481`gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
4482
4483*** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
4484
4485*** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
4486
4487*** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
4488See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
4489
4490*** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
4491Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
4492used to pick articles.
4493
4494*** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
4495another have been added.
4496
4497 `M-x gnus-change-server'
4498
4499*** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
4500generating lines in buffers.
4501
4502*** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
4503`M-C-_'.
4504
4505*** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
4506
4507*** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
4508
4509 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
4510
4511*** Scores can be decayed.
79214ddf 4512
a933dad1
DL
4513 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
4514
4515*** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
4516Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
4517
4518*** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
4519the native server.
4520
4521 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
4522
4523*** A new command for reading collections of documents
4524(nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `M-C-d'.
4525
4526*** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
4527
4528*** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
4529even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
4530
4531*** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
4532(DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
4533
4534 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
4535 a group.
4536
4537*** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
4538sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
4539
4540 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
4541
4542*** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
4543
4544 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
4545
4546*** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
79214ddf 4547
a933dad1
DL
4548 Use the `Y c' command.
4549
4550*** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
4551
4552*** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
4553
4554 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
4555
4556*** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
4557from incoming mail before saving the mail.
79214ddf 4558
a933dad1
DL
4559 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
4560
4561*** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
4562
4563*** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
4564the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
4565
4566 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
4567
4568Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
4569and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
4570from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
4571hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
4572this issue.)
4573
4574Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
4575automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
4576particular news group. This can be done by:
4577
4578 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
4579
4580Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
4581of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
4582"XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
4583system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
4584for reading and posting).
4585
4586CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
4587 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
4588Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
4589newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
4590there.
4591
4592Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
4593default. Here are some of these default settings:
4594
4595 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
4596 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
4597 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
4598 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
4599 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
4600
4601When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
4602the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
4603
4604** CC mode changes.
4605
4606*** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
4607code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
4608values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
4609this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
4610Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
4611loaded.
4612
4613If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
79214ddf 4614Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
a933dad1 4615style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
79214ddf
FP
4616share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
4617c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
a933dad1
DL
4618must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
4619
4620*** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
4621of the current buffer.
4622
4623*** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
4624it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
4625of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
4626
4627*** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
4628style that the Python developers like.
4629
4630*** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
4631This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
4632just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
4633
4634** VC Changes [new]
4635
4636** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
4637name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
4638directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
4639
4640This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
4641master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
4642developers.
4643
4644You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
4645RET in a buffer visiting that file.
4646
4647*** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
4648other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
4649writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
4650calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
4651
4652*** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
4653version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
4654
4655** Calendar changes.
4656
4657A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or subclasses
4658of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow you do this
4659for the year of the selected date, or the following/previous years.
4660
4661** ps-print changes
4662
79214ddf 4663There are some new user variables for customizing the page layout.
a933dad1
DL
4664
4665*** Paper size, paper orientation, columns
4666
4667The variable `ps-paper-type' determines the size of paper ps-print
4668formats for; it should contain one of the symbols:
4669`a4' `a3' `letter' `legal' `letter-small' `tabloid'
4670`ledger' `statement' `executive' `a4small' `b4' `b5'
4671It defaults to `letter'.
4672If you need other sizes, see the variable `ps-page-dimensions-database'.
4673
4674The variable `ps-landscape-mode' determines the orientation
79214ddf 4675of the printing on the page. nil, the default, means "portrait" mode,
a933dad1
DL
4676non-nil means "landscape" mode.
4677
4678The variable `ps-number-of-columns' must be a positive integer.
4679It determines the number of columns both in landscape and portrait mode.
79214ddf 4680It defaults to 1.
a933dad1
DL
4681
4682*** Horizontal layout
4683
4684The horizontal layout is determined by the variables
4685`ps-left-margin', `ps-inter-column', and `ps-right-margin'.
4686All are measured in points.
4687
4688*** Vertical layout
4689
4690The vertical layout is determined by the variables
4691`ps-bottom-margin', `ps-top-margin', and `ps-header-offset'.
4692All are measured in points.
4693
4694*** Headers
4695
4696If the variable `ps-print-header' is nil, no header is printed. Then
4697`ps-header-offset' is not relevant and `ps-top-margin' represents the
4698margin above the text.
4699
79214ddf 4700If the variable `ps-print-header-frame' is non-nil, a gaudy
a933dad1
DL
4701framing box is printed around the header.
4702
4703The contents of the header are determined by `ps-header-lines',
4704`ps-show-n-of-n', `ps-left-header' and `ps-right-header'.
4705
79214ddf
FP
4706The height of the header is determined by `ps-header-line-pad',
4707`ps-header-font-family', `ps-header-title-font-size' and
a933dad1
DL
4708`ps-header-font-size'.
4709
4710*** Font managing
4711
4712The variable `ps-font-family' determines which font family is to be
4713used for ordinary text. Its value must be a key symbol in the alist
4714`ps-font-info-database'. You can add other font families by adding
4715elements to this alist.
4716
79214ddf 4717The variable `ps-font-size' determines the size of the font
a933dad1
DL
4718for ordinary text. It defaults to 8.5 points.
4719
4720** hideshow changes.
4721
4722*** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
79214ddf 4723C++, ; for lisp).
a933dad1
DL
4724
4725*** Support for java-mode added.
4726
4727*** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
4728in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
4729
4730*** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the the comments at
4731the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
4732way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
4733
4734*** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
4735robust and a lot faster.
4736
79214ddf 4737*** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
a933dad1
DL
4738
4739*** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
4740to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
4741documentation for more details.
4742
4743** Changes in Enriched mode.
4744
4745*** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
4746filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
4747of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
4748use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
4749the next time unless the fill-column is different.
4750
4751*** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
4752distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
4753as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
4754as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
4755
4756** Font Lock mode
4757
4758*** Custom support
4759
4760The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
4761font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
4762faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
4763group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
4764your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
4765consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
4766
4767You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
4768
4769*** Maximum decoration
4770
4771Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
4772default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
4773of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
4774supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
4775to get the old behavior.
4776
4777*** New support
4778
4779Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
4780
4781Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
4782support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
4783
4784*** Configurable support
4785
4786Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
4787additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
4788c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
4789java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
4790list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
4791of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
4792convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
4793
4794Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
4795way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
4796it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
4797
4798*** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
4799
4800You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
4801highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
4802for any mode.
4803
4804For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
4805
4806 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
4807
4808in your ~/.emacs.
4809
4810*** New faces
4811
4812Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
4813font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
4814distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
4815to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
4816
4817*** Changes to fast-lock support mode
4818
4819The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
4820cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
4821same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
4822
4823*** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
4824
4825The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
4826according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
4827the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
4828non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
4829refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
4830the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
4831Lock mode behaviour and the behaviour of Font Lock mode.
4832
4833This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
4834For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
4835this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
4836refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
4837containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
4838the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
4839
4840As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
4841
4842Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
4843Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
4844Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
4845new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
4846
4847If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
4848settings.
4849
4850** Ada mode changes.
4851
4852*** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
4853If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
4854procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
4855you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
4856stubs.
4857
4858*** There are two new commands:
4859 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
4860 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
4861
4862The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
4863`ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
79214ddf 4864`ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
a933dad1
DL
4865
4866*** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
4867is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
4868Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
4869
4870*** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
4871formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
4872places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
4873space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
4874
4875** Scheme mode changes.
4876
4877*** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
4878mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
4879for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
4880with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
4881have any effect.
4882
4883If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
4884still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
4885scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
4886variables as buffer-local variables.
4887
4888*** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
4889Use M-x dsssl-mode.
4890
4891** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
4892it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
4893buffer in Emacs.
4894
4895** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
4896constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
4897(in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
4898
4899** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
4900which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
4901the current defun.
4902
4903** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
4904following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
4905
4906** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
4907and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
4908necessary).
4909
4910** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
4911if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
4912these register values no longer become completely useless.
4913If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
4914asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
4915it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
4916
4917** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
4918example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
4919be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
4920you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
4921
4922You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
4923variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
4924file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
4925revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
4926only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
4927
4928** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
4929since it applies only to the current frame.
4930
4931** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
4932file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
4933and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
4934
4935This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
4936multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
4937variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
4938tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
4939instead of just the file you are editing.
4940
4941** RefTeX mode
4942
4943RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
4944and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
4945different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
4946multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
4947turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
4948
79214ddf 4949C-c ( reftex-label
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4950 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
4951 knows which kind of label is needed.
4952
4953C-c ) reftex-reference
4954 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
4955 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
4956
4957C-c [ reftex-citation
4958 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
4959 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
4960
4961C-c & reftex-view-crossref
4962 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
4963
4964C-c = reftex-toc
4965 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
4966 can quickly jump to every section.
79214ddf 4967
a933dad1
DL
4968Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
4969commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
4970Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
4971reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
4972C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
4973
4974** Changes in BibTeX mode.
4975
4976*** Info documentation is now available.
4977
4978*** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
4979both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
4980
4981*** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
4982bibtex-user-optional-fields.
4983
4984*** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
4985(use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
4986
4987*** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
4988entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
4989appropriate functions.
4990
4991*** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
4992entries. They are bound by default to M-C-l and M-C-h.
4993
4994*** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
4995been cleaned.
4996
4997*** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
4998bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
4999
5000*** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
5001shall be delimited.
5002
5003*** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
5004bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
5005bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
5006
5007*** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
5008field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
5009prefixed with `ALT'.
5010
5011*** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
5012bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
5013formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
5014documentation).
5015
5016*** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
5017documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
5018for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
5019
5020*** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
5021comma should be inserted at end of last field.
5022
5023*** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
5024alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
5025signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
5026
5027*** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
5028
5029*** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
5030
5031*** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
5032from alien sources.
5033
5034*** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
5035to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
5036crossref entries.
5037
5038*** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
5039region.
5040
5041*** Added support for imenu.
5042
5043*** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
5044of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
5045`compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
5046`next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
5047
5048*** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
5049from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
5050
5051** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
5052
5053** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
5054functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
5055Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
5056as an argument.
5057
5058When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
5059and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
5060
5061** browse-url changes
5062
5063*** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
5064Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
5065(browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
5066non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
5067customization variables.
5068
5069*** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
5070
5071*** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
5072lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
5073(e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
5074
5075** Changes in Ediff
5076
5077*** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
5078pops up the Info file for this command.
5079
5080*** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
5081the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
5082merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
5083directories).
5084
5085*** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
5086and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
5087files in the same directory.
5088
5089*** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
5090The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
5091related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
5092
5093** Changes in Viper
5094
5095*** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
79214ddf 5096*** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
a933dad1
DL
5097 instead of vip-.
5098*** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
79214ddf 5099*** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
a933dad1
DL
5100Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
5101*** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
5102*** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
5103*** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
5104color when Viper is in insert state.
5105*** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
5106Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
5107viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
5108
5109** Etags changes.
5110
5111*** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
5112default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
5113Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
5114variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
5115not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
5116
5117*** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
5118
5119*** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
5120constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
5121
5122*** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
5123recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
5124In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
5125
5126*** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
5127C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
5128recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
5129methods and protocols.
5130
5131*** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
5132.cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
5133column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
5134paragraph name.
5135
5136*** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
5137an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
5138at least M times and as many as N times.
5139
5140** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
5141in files has changed slightly.
5142
5143With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
5144time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
5145This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
5146with old time-stamp-format values.
5147
5148In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
5149(`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
5150This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
5151reasons.
5152
5153In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
5154natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
5155fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
5156(`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
5157time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
5158specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
5159
5160Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
5161case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
5162truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
5163
5164The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
5165being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
5166future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
5167recommended now will continue to work then.
5168
5169See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
5170details.
5171
5172** There are some additional major modes:
5173
5174dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
5175m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
5176meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
5177
5178** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
5179copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
5180into Emacs.
5181
5182** New Lisp packages include:
5183
5184*** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
5185
5186*** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
5187be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
5188
5189*** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
5190
5191*** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
5192in shell buffers.
5193
5194*** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
5195See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
5196and `elint-defun'.
5197
5198*** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
5199meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
5200ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
5201strings or comments.
5202
5203These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
5204abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
5205you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
5206insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
5207at these points.
5208
5209*** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
5210can visit them by short forms of their names.
5211
5212*** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
5213Emacs Lisp function at point.
5214
5215*** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
5216
5217*** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
5218switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
5219
5220*** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
5221
5222*** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
5223
5224*** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
5225
5226*** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
5227from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
5228
5229*** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
5230You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
5231inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
5232original place after inserting the copy.
5233
5234*** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
5235on the buffer.
5236
5237You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
5238velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
5239(with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
5240
5241Enable mouse-drag with:
5242 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
5243-or-
5244 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
5245
5246*** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
5247mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
5248
5249*** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
5250It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
5251
5252*** ogonek
5253
5254The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
5255Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
5256platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
5257TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
5258ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
5259prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
5260instance) and vice versa.
5261
5262To use this package load it using
5263 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
5264Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
79214ddf 5265 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
a933dad1
DL
5266 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
5267The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
5268ways of customization in `.emacs'.
5269
5270*** Interface to ph.
5271
5272Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
5273
5274The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
5275services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
5276these servers.
5277
5278*** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
5279
5280*** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
5281You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
5282while the real cursor does not move.
5283
5284*** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
5285for visiting your favorite web sites.
5286
5287*** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
5288so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
5289
5290** movemail change
5291
5292Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
5293mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
5294supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
5295user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
5296
5297This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
5298\f
5299* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
5300
5301** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
5302
5303Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
5304end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
5305Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
5306file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
5307file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
5308
5309To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
5310C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
5311coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
5312specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
5313LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
5314save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
5315\f
5316* Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
5317
5318** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
5319Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
5320vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
5321Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
5322
5323** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
5324to start with w32- instead of win32-.
5325
5326In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
5327don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
5328"win".
5329
5330** Basic Lisp changes
5331
5332*** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
5333evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
5334
5335*** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
5336be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
5337or by the user.
5338
5339The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
5340
5341*** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
5342
5343(when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
5344(unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
5345
5346*** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
5347usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
5348its argument.
5349
5350*** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
5351
5352*** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
5353
5354*** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
5355
5356*** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
5357error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
5358include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
5359`format' function.
5360
5361*** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
5362or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
5363whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
5364
5365*** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
5366either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
5367adding one of these suffixes.
5368
5369*** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
5370which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
79214ddf 5371If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
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DL
5372
5373We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
5374because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
5375
5376*** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
5377
5378*** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
5379You must load the `cl' library to define it.
5380
5381*** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
5382conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
5383
5384 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
5385
5386BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
5387BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
5388
5389*** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
5390choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
5391restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
5392works using `save-current-buffer'.
5393
5394*** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
5395write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
5396of the last form.
5397
5398*** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
5399which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
5400last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
5401as the last form.
5402
5403*** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
5404characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
5405matches.
5406
5407For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
5408
5409*** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
5410with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
5411Then it returns that string.
5412
5413For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
5414
5415(with-output-to-string
5416 (princ "The buffer is ")
5417 (princ (buffer-name)))
5418
5419returns "The buffer is foo".
5420
5421** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
5422is non-nil.
5423
5424These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
5425buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
5426characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
5427
5428*** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
5429a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
5430
5431Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
5432character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
5433Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
5434position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
5435characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
5436 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
5437
5438ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
5439Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
5440non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
5441characters".
5442
5443The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
5444through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
5445"leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
5446range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
5447leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
5448
5449*** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
5450(forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
5451multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
5452character, which may be more than one buffer position.
5453
5454This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
5455always one buffer position, need to be changed.
5456
5457However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
79214ddf 5458
a933dad1
DL
5459*** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
5460because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
5461have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
5462the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
5463guaranteed.
5464
5465*** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
5466between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
5467character).
5468
5469When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
5470
5471 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
5472 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
5473 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
5474 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
5475 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
5476
5477*** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
5478
5479*** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
5480`length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
5481more than the number of characters.
5482
5483You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
5484it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
5485\xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
5486is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
5487follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
5488newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
5489
5490*** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
5491and returns a string containing those characters.
5492
5493*** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
5494(sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
5495counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
5496character, sref signals an error.
5497
5498*** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
5499in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
5500string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
5501
5502*** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
5503in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
5504region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
5505
5506*** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
5507the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
5508to a vector of the characters in it.
5509
5510*** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
5511of a string. You call it as follows:
5512
5513 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
5514
5515This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
5516STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
5517This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
5518Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
5519it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
5520
5521*** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
5522if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
5523
5524*** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
5525if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
5526
5527*** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
5528to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
5529not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
5530which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
5531
5532(truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
5533
5534This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
5535
5536The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
5537If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
5538are not included in the resulting value.
5539
5540The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
5541at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
5542WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
5543is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
5544
5545If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
5546place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
5547character extends across that column), then the padding character
5548PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
5549string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
5550column START-COLUMN.
5551
5552*** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
5553the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
5554necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
5555difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
5556changed text, before the change.
5557
5558*** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
5559sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
5560one character set for each script, not for each language.
5561
5562**** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
5563
5564**** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
5565
5566**** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
5567set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
5568
5569**** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
5570name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
5571which identify the character within that character set.
5572
5573**** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
5574byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
5575opposite of split-char.
5576
5577**** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
5578of all the characters between BEG and END.
5579
5580**** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
5581of all the characters in a string.
5582
5583*** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
5584and specifying coding systems.
5585
5586**** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
5587system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
5588of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
5589(Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
5590and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
5591as what to do about code conversion.)
5592
5593**** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
5594name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
5595
5596**** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
5597for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
5598except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
5599
5600Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
5601which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
5602to match against a file name.
5603
5604VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
5605a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
5606decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
5607to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
5608systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
5609specifies the coding system for encoding.
5610
5611If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
5612or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
5613
5614**** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
5615the coding system to use for network sockets.
5616
5617Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
5618which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
5619either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
5620service names.
5621
5622VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
5623a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
5624decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
5625to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
5626systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
5627specifies the coding system for encoding.
5628
5629If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
5630or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
5631
5632**** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
5633for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
5634except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
5635start the subprocess.
5636
5637**** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
5638systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
5639when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
5640(OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
5641to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
5642
5643**** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
5644coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
5645subprocess.
5646
5647It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
5648but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
5649start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
5650connection permanently or until overridden.
5651
5652The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
5653file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
5654network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
5655coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
5656It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
5657system for one operation at a time.
5658
5659**** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
5660files, subprocesses or network connections.
5661
5662**** The function process-coding-system tells you what
5663coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
5664The value is a cons cell,
5665 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
5666where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
5667the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
5668input to the subprocess.
5669
5670**** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
5671change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
5672
5673** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
5674customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
5675you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
5676
5677You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
5678variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
5679information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
5680legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
5681customization.
5682
5683Thus, instead of writing
5684
5685 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
5686 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
5687
5688you would now write this:
5689
5690 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
5691 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
5692 :type 'boolean
5693 :group foo)
5694
5695The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
5696two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
5697describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
5698for a description of them.
5699
5700The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
5701should belong to. You define a new group like this:
5702
5703 (defgroup ispell nil
5704 "Spell checking using Ispell."
5705 :group 'processes)
5706
5707The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
5708group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
5709but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
5710to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
5711second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
5712
5713Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
5714package should have just one group; a more complex package should
5715have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
5716package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
5717first-level subgroups.
5718
5719** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
5720
5721This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
5722separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
5723
5724** easy-mmode
5725
5726The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
5727developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
5728only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
5729predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
5730`easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
5731`easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
5732
5733** Text property changes
5734
5735*** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
5736text property.
5737
5738*** The new functions next-char-property-change and
5739previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
5740place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
5741functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
5742starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
5743
5744If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
5745LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
5746of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
5747position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
5748
5749*** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
5750value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
5751is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
5752
5753** Changes in invisibility features
5754
5755*** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
5756hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
5757is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
5758should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
5759would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
5760make the overlay visible.
5761
5762During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
5763invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
5764needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
5765which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
5766the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
5767t when it should hide it.
5768
5769*** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
5770
5771Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
79214ddf
FP
5772invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
5773and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
a933dad1 5774Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
79214ddf 5775manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
a933dad1
DL
5776Here is an example of how to do this:
5777
5778 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
79214ddf 5779 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
a933dad1 5780 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
79214ddf 5781 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
a933dad1
DL
5782
5783 ...
5784 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
5785
5786 ...
5787 ;; When done with the overlays:
5788 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
5789 ;; Or respectively:
5790 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
5791
5792** Changes in syntax parsing.
5793
5794*** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
5795`parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
5796obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
5797`parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
5798
5799If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
5800is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
5801used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
5802
5803When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
5804character in the buffer is calculated thus:
5805
5806 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
5807 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
5808
5809 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
5810 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
5811 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
5812
5813 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
5814 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
5815 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
5816 determine the syntax type of the character.
5817
5818 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
5819 of the current buffer.
5820
5821*** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
5822value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
5823for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
5824
5825*** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
5826and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
5827only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
5828character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
5829another character with the same code (unless quoted).
5830
5831These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
5832text property.
5833
5834*** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
5835arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
5836of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
5837
5838*** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
5839(and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
5840element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
5841nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
5842string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
5843
5844*** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
5845syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
5846`font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
5847
5848** Changes in face features
5849
5850*** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
5851if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
5852
5853*** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
5854of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
5855
5856*** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
5857set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
5858
5859*** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
5860set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
5861
5862*** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
5863by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
5864and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
5865the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
5866overlay property).
5867
5868This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
5869arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
5870
5871** Changes in file-handling functions
5872
5873*** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
5874directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
5875they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
5876is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
5877
5878This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
5879begins with ~.
5880
5881*** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
5882it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
5883
5884*** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
5885the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
5886
5887*** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
5888as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
5889
5890*** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
5891character code conversion as well as other things.
5892
5893Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
5894(formerly it did not).
5895
5896*** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
5897environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
5898
5899*** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
5900instead of constant strings.
5901
5902*** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
5903to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
5904any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
5905
5906substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
5907in the same way as before.
5908
5909*** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
5910The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
5911which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
5912
5913*** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
5914error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
5915else, and returns nil.
5916
5917*** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
5918directory cannot be listed.
5919
5920** Changes in minibuffer input
5921
5922*** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
5923read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
5924additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
5925argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
5926ways:
5927
5928 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
5929 It is available through the history command M-n.
5930
5931*** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
5932read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
5933argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
5934minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
5935enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
5936
5937In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
5938argument in this way.
5939
5940*** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
5941from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
5942minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
5943
5944** Echo area features
5945
5946*** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
5947echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
5948minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
5949after the echo area is cleared.
5950
5951*** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
5952in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
5953
5954** Keyboard input features
5955
5956*** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
5957set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
5958
5959*** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
5960received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
5961by keyboard macros.
5962
5963** Frame-related changes
5964
5965*** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
5966creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
5967hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
5968
5969*** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
5970the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
5971has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
5972
5973*** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
5974selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
5975value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
5976in the selected frame.
5977
5978*** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
5979is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
5980which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
5981
5982** X Windows features
5983
5984*** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
5985x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
5986x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
5987
5988*** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
5989The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
5990
5991*** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
5992MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
5993A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
5994
5995If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
5996it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
5997
5998** Subprocess features
5999
6000*** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
6001functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
6002automatically.
6003
6004*** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
6005and returns the output from the command as a string.
6006
6007*** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
6008and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
6009
6010** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
6011does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
6012
6013** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
6014at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
6015goes after the other menu items.
6016
6017** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
79214ddf 6018of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
a933dad1
DL
6019around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
6020are in use.
6021
6022The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
6023series of several changes--if that seems safe.
6024
6025Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
6026after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
6027form.
6028
6029** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
6030is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
6031but its hook is still run.
6032
6033** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
6034for errors that are handled by condition-case.
6035
6036If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
6037regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
6038useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
6039
6040This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
6041are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
6042filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
6043warned.
6044
6045** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
6046way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
6047
6048** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
6049integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
6050functions like display-time.
6051
6052** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
6053name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
6054
6055** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
6056can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
6057is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
6058
6059** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
6060if there is an error in compilation.
6061
6062** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
6063switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
6064argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
6065they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
6066
6067** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
6068Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
6069the *scratch* buffer.
6070
6071** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
6072The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
6073where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
6074e.g., in Font Lock mode.
6075
6076** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
6077and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
6078It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
6079
6080** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
6081using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
6082variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
6083and compose-mail-other-frame.
6084
6085** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
6086can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
6087full name of the specified user will be returned.
6088
6089** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
6090of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
6091where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
6092in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
6093option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
6094files at all.
6095
6096** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
6097and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
6098width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
6099the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
6100
6101For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
6102minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
6103with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
6104is how %S normally pads to two positions.
6105
6106** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
6107
6108** imenu.el changes.
6109
6110You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
79214ddf 6111item from menu created by imenu.
a933dad1
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6112
6113An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
6114#include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
6115select one of those items.
6116\f
6117* Emacs 19.34 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
6118\f
6119* Changes in Emacs 19.33.
6120
6121** Bibtex mode no longer turns on Auto Fill automatically. (No major
6122mode should do that--it is the user's choice.)
6123
6124** The variable normal-auto-fill-function specifies the function to
6125use for auto-fill-function, if and when Auto Fill is turned on.
6126Major modes can set this locally to alter how Auto Fill works.
6127\f
6128* Editing Changes in Emacs 19.32
6129
6130** C-x f with no argument now signals an error.
6131To set the fill column at the current column, use C-u C-x f.
6132
6133** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
6134conversion. If you type the abbreviation with mixed case, and it
6135matches the beginning of the expansion including case, then the
6136expansion is copied verbatim. Using SPC M-/ to copy an additional
6137word always copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is
6138all caps.
6139
6140** On a non-windowing terminal, which can display only one Emacs frame
6141at a time, creating a new frame with C-x 5 2 also selects that frame.
6142
6143When using a display that can show multiple frames at once, C-x 5 2
6144does make the frame visible, but does not select it. This is the same
6145as in previous Emacs versions.
6146
6147** You can use C-x 5 2 to create multiple frames on MSDOS, just as on a
6148non-X terminal on Unix. Of course, only one frame is visible at any
6149time, since your terminal doesn't have the ability to display multiple
6150frames.
6151
6152** On Windows, set win32-pass-alt-to-system to a non-nil value
6153if you would like tapping the Alt key to invoke the Windows menu.
6154This feature is not enabled by default; since the Alt key is also the
6155Meta key, it is too easy and painful to activate this feature by
6156accident.
6157
6158** The command apply-macro-to-region-lines repeats the last defined
6159keyboard macro once for each complete line within the current region.
6160It does this line by line, by moving point to the beginning of that
6161line and then executing the macro.
6162
6163This command is not new, but was never documented before.
6164
6165** You can now use Mouse-1 to place the region around a string constant
6166(something surrounded by doublequote characters or other delimiter
6167characters of like syntax) by double-clicking on one of the delimiting
6168characters.
6169
6170** Font Lock mode
6171
6172*** Font Lock support modes
6173
6174Font Lock can be configured to use Fast Lock mode and Lazy Lock mode (see
6175below) in a flexible way. Rather than adding the appropriate function to the
6176hook font-lock-mode-hook, you can use the new variable font-lock-support-mode
6177to control which modes have Fast Lock mode or Lazy Lock mode turned on when
6178Font Lock mode is enabled.
6179
6180For example, to use Fast Lock mode when Font Lock mode is turned on, put:
6181
6182 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'fast-lock-mode)
6183
6184in your ~/.emacs.
6185
6186*** lazy-lock
6187
6188The lazy-lock package speeds up Font Lock mode by making fontification occur
6189only when necessary, such as when a previously unfontified part of the buffer
6190becomes visible in a window. When you create a buffer with Font Lock mode and
6191Lazy Lock mode turned on, the buffer is not fontified. When certain events
6192occur (such as scrolling), Lazy Lock makes sure that the visible parts of the
6193buffer are fontified. Lazy Lock also defers on-the-fly fontification until
6194Emacs has been idle for a given amount of time.
6195
6196To use this package, put in your ~/.emacs:
6197
6198 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'lazy-lock-mode)
6199
6200To control the package behaviour, see the documentation for `lazy-lock-mode'.
6201
6202** Changes in BibTeX mode.
6203
6204*** For all entries allow spaces and tabs between opening brace or
6205paren and key.
6206
6207*** Non-escaped double-quoted characters (as in `Sch"of') are now
6208supported.
6209
6210** Gnus changes.
6211
6212Gnus, the Emacs news reader, has undergone further rewriting. Many new
6213commands and variables have been added. There should be no
6214significant incompatibilities between this Gnus version and the
6215previously released version, except in the message composition area.
6216
6217Below is a list of the more user-visible changes. Coding changes
6218between Gnus 5.1 and 5.2 are more extensive.
6219
79214ddf 6220*** A new message composition mode is used. All old customization
a933dad1
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6221variables for mail-mode, rnews-reply-mode and gnus-msg are now
6222obsolete.
6223
6224*** Gnus is now able to generate "sparse" threads -- threads where
6225missing articles are represented by empty nodes.
6226
6227 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
6228
6229*** Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server.
6230
6231 To disable this: (setq gnus-message-archive-group nil)
6232
6233*** Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
79214ddf 6234referred.
a933dad1
DL
6235
6236*** Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions:
6237
6238 (setq gnus-use-grouplens t)
6239
6240*** A trn-line tree buffer can be displayed.
6241
6242 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
6243
6244*** An nn-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
79214ddf 6245buffers.
a933dad1
DL
6246
6247 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
6248
6249*** In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode:
6250
6251 `M-x gnus-binary-mode'
6252
6253*** Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy.
6254
6255 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
6256
6257*** Gnus can re-send and bounce mail.
6258
6259 Use the `S D r' and `S D b'.
6260
6261*** Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
6262is possible.
6263
6264 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
6265
6266*** Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
6267groups of groups.
6268
6269*** Caching is possible in virtual groups.
6270
6271*** nndoc now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews news
79214ddf 6272batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything else.
a933dad1
DL
6273
6274*** Gnus has a new backend (nnsoup) to create/read SOUP packets.
6275
6276*** The Gnus cache is much faster.
6277
6278*** Groups can be sorted according to many criteria.
6279
6280 For instance: (setq gnus-group-sort-function 'gnus-group-sort-by-rank)
6281
6282*** New group parameters have been introduced to set list-address and
6283expiration times.
6284
6285*** All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used.
6286
6287*** There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on
6288process marked articles on the `M P' submap.
6289
6290*** The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
6291articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
6292bound to keys on the `/' submap.
6293
6294*** Articles can be made persistent -- as an alternative to saving
6295articles with the `*' command.
6296
6297*** All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
6298
6299*** Article headers can be buttonized.
6300
6301 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head)
6302
6303*** All mail backends support fetching articles by Message-ID.
6304
79214ddf 6305*** Duplicate mail can now be treated properly. See the
a933dad1
DL
6306`nnmail-treat-duplicates' variable.
6307
6308*** All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
79214ddf 6309buffer.
a933dad1
DL
6310
6311*** Frames can be part of `gnus-buffer-configuration'.
6312
6313*** Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process.
6314
6315*** Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to filter spam.
6316
6317 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
6318
79214ddf 6319*** Groups can be made permanently visible.
a933dad1
DL
6320
6321 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
6322
79214ddf 6323*** Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
a933dad1
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6324
6325*** Gnus respects the Mail-Copies-To header.
6326
79214ddf 6327*** Threads can be gathered by looking at the References header.
a933dad1 6328
79214ddf 6329 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
a933dad1
DL
6330 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
6331
6332*** Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
79214ddf 6333refetching.
a933dad1
DL
6334
6335 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
6336
6337*** A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
6338buffer to allow easier treatment.
6339
6340*** Gnus can suggest where to save articles. See `gnus-split-methods'.
6341
6342*** Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving.
6343
6344 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
6345
6346*** gnus-uu can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
79214ddf 6347articles.
a933dad1
DL
6348
6349 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
6350
79214ddf 6351*** Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text.
a933dad1
DL
6352
6353*** Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
6354cited text to hide is now customizable.
6355
6356 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
6357
6358*** Boring headers can be hidden.
6359
6360 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-hide-boring-headers)
6361
6362*** Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
6363
6364*** Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
6365
6366The Gnus manual has been expanded. It explains all these new features
6367in greater detail.
6368\f
6369* Lisp Changes in Emacs 19.32
6370
6371** The function set-visited-file-name now accepts an optional
6372second argument NO-QUERY. If it is non-nil, then the user is not
6373asked for confirmation in the case where the specified file already
6374exists.
6375
6376** The variable print-length applies to printing vectors and bitvectors,
6377as well as lists.
6378
6379** The new function keymap-parent returns the parent keymap
6380of a given keymap.
6381
6382** The new function set-keymap-parent specifies a new parent for a
6383given keymap. The arguments are KEYMAP and PARENT. PARENT must be a
6384keymap or nil.
6385
6386** Sometimes menu keymaps use a command name, a symbol, which is really
6387an automatically generated alias for some other command, the "real"
6388name. In such a case, you should give that alias symbol a non-nil
6389menu-alias property. That property tells the menu system to look for
6390equivalent keys for the real name instead of equivalent keys for the
6391alias.
6392\f
6393* Editing Changes in Emacs 19.31
6394
6395** Freedom of the press restricted in the United States.
6396
6397Emacs has been censored in accord with the Communications Decency Act.
6398This includes removing some features of the doctor program. That law
6399was described by its supporters as a ban on pornography, but it bans
6400far more than that. The Emacs distribution has never contained any
6401pornography, but parts of it were nonetheless prohibited.
6402
6403For information on US government censorship of the Internet, and what
6404you can do to bring back freedom of the press, see the web site
6405`http://www.vtw.org/'.
6406
6407** A note about C mode indentation customization.
6408
6409The old (Emacs 19.29) ways of specifying a C indentation style
6410do not normally work in the new implementation of C mode.
6411It has its own methods of customizing indentation, which are
6412much more powerful than the old C mode. See the Editing Programs
6413chapter of the manual for details.
6414
6415However, you can load the library cc-compat to make the old
6416customization variables take effect.
6417
6418** Marking with the mouse.
6419
6420When you mark a region with the mouse, the region now remains
6421highlighted until the next input event, regardless of whether you are
6422using M-x transient-mark-mode.
6423
6424** Improved Windows NT/95 support.
6425
6426*** Emacs now supports scroll bars on Windows NT and Windows 95.
6427
6428*** Emacs now supports subprocesses on Windows 95. (Subprocesses used
6429to work on NT only and not on 95.)
6430
6431*** There are difficulties with subprocesses, though, due to problems
6432in Windows, beyond the control of Emacs. They work fine as long as
6433you run Windows applications. The problems arise when you run a DOS
6434application in a subprocesses. Since current shells run as DOS
6435applications, these problems are significant.
6436
6437If you run a DOS application in a subprocess, then the application is
6438likely to busy-wait, which means that your machine will be 100% busy.
6439However, if you don't mind the temporary heavy load, the subprocess
6440will work OK as long as you tell it to terminate before you start any
6441other DOS application as a subprocess.
6442
6443Emacs is unable to terminate or interrupt a DOS subprocess.
6444You have to do this by providing input directly to the subprocess.
6445
6446If you run two DOS applications at the same time in two separate
6447subprocesses, even if one of them is asynchronous, you will probably
6448have to reboot your machine--until then, it will remain 100% busy.
6449Windows simply does not cope when one Windows process tries to run two
6450separate DOS subprocesses. Typing CTL-ALT-DEL and then choosing
6451Shutdown seems to work although it may take a few minutes.
6452
6453** M-x resize-minibuffer-mode.
6454
6455This command, not previously mentioned in NEWS, toggles a mode in
6456which the minibuffer window expands to show as many lines as the
6457minibuffer contains.
6458
6459** `title' frame parameter and resource.
6460
6461The `title' X resource now specifies just the frame title, nothing else.
6462It does not affect the name used for looking up other X resources.
6463It works by setting the new `title' frame parameter, which likewise
6464affects just the displayed title of the frame.
6465
6466The `name' parameter continues to do what it used to do:
6467it specifies the frame name for looking up X resources,
6468and also serves as the default for the displayed title
6469when the `title' parameter is unspecified or nil.
6470
6471** Emacs now uses the X toolkit by default, if you have a new
6472enough version of X installed (X11R5 or newer).
6473
6474** When you compile Emacs with the Motif widget set, Motif handles the
6475F10 key by activating the menu bar. To avoid confusion, the usual
6476Emacs binding of F10 is replaced with a no-op when using Motif.
6477
6478If you want to be able to use F10 in Emacs, you can rebind the Motif
6479menubar to some other key which you don't use. To do so, add
6480something like this to your X resources file. This example rebinds
6481the Motif menu bar activation key to S-F12:
6482
6483 Emacs*defaultVirtualBindings: osfMenuBar : Shift<Key>F12
6484
6485** In overwrite mode, DEL now inserts spaces in most cases
6486to replace the characters it "deletes".
6487
6488** The Rmail summary now shows the number of lines in each message.
6489
6490** Rmail has a new command M-x unforward-rmail-message, which extracts
6491a forwarded message from the message that forwarded it. To use it,
6492select a message which contains a forwarded message and then type the command.
6493It inserts the forwarded message as a separate Rmail message
6494immediately after the selected one.
6495
6496This command also undoes the textual modifications that are standardly
6497made, as part of forwarding, by Rmail and other mail reader programs.
6498
6499** Turning off saving of .saves-... files in your home directory.
6500
6501Each Emacs session writes a file named .saves-... in your home
6502directory to record which files M-x recover-session should recover.
6503If you exit Emacs normally with C-x C-c, it deletes that file. If
6504Emacs or the operating system crashes, the file remains for M-x
6505recover-session.
6506
6507You can turn off the writing of these files by setting
6508auto-save-list-file-name to nil. If you do this, M-x recover-session
6509will not work.
6510
6511Some previous Emacs versions failed to delete these files even on
6512normal exit. This is fixed now. If you are thinking of turning off
6513this feature because of past experiences with versions that had this
6514bug, it would make sense to check whether you still want to do so
6515now that the bug is fixed.
6516
6517** Changes to Version Control (VC)
6518
6519There is a new variable, vc-follow-symlinks. It indicates what to do
6520when you visit a link to a file that is under version control.
6521Editing the file through the link bypasses the version control system,
6522which is dangerous and probably not what you want.
6523
6524If this variable is t, VC follows the link and visits the real file,
6525telling you about it in the echo area. If it is `ask' (the default),
6526VC asks for confirmation whether it should follow the link. If nil,
6527the link is visited and a warning displayed.
6528
6529** iso-acc.el now lets you specify a choice of language.
6530Languages include "latin-1" (the default) and "latin-2" (which
6531is designed for entering ISO Latin-2 characters).
6532
6533There are also choices for specific human languages such as French and
6534Portuguese. These are subsets of Latin-1, which differ in that they
6535enable only the accent characters needed for particular language.
6536The other accent characters, not needed for the chosen language,
6537remain normal.
6538
6539** Posting articles and sending mail now has M-TAB completion on various
6540header fields (Newsgroups, To, CC, ...).
6541
6542Completion in the Newsgroups header depends on the list of groups
6543known to your news reader. Completion in the Followup-To header
6544offers those groups which are in the Newsgroups header, since
6545Followup-To usually just holds one of those.
6546
6547Completion in fields that hold mail addresses works based on the list
6548of local users plus your aliases. Additionally, if your site provides
6549a mail directory or a specific host to use for any unrecognized user
6550name, you can arrange to query that host for completion also. (See the
6551documentation of variables `mail-directory-process' and
6552`mail-directory-stream'.)
6553
6554** A greatly extended sgml-mode offers new features such as (to be configured)
6555skeletons with completing read for tags and attributes, typing named
6556characters including optionally all 8bit characters, making tags invisible
6557with optional alternate display text, skipping and deleting tag(pair)s.
6558
6559Note: since Emacs' syntax feature cannot limit the special meaning of ', " and
6560- to inside <>, for some texts the result, especially of font locking, may be
6561wrong (see `sgml-specials' if you get wrong results).
6562
6563The derived html-mode configures this with tags and attributes more or
6564less HTML3ish. It also offers optional quick keys like C-c 1 for
6565headline or C-c u for unordered list (see `html-quick-keys'). Edit /
6566Text Properties / Face or M-g combinations create tags as applicable.
6567Outline minor mode is supported and level 1 font-locking tries to
6568fontify tag contents (which only works when they fit on one line, due
6569to a limitation in font-lock).
6570
6571External viewing via browse-url can occur automatically upon saving.
6572
6573** M-x imenu-add-to-menubar now adds to the menu bar for the current
6574buffer only. If you want to put an Imenu item in the menu bar for all
6575buffers that use a particular major mode, use the mode hook, as in
6576this example:
6577
6578 (add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook
6579 '(lambda () (imenu-add-to-menubar "Index")))
6580
6581** Changes in BibTeX mode.
6582
6583*** Field names may now contain digits, hyphens, and underscores.
6584
6585*** Font Lock mode is now supported.
6586
6587*** bibtex-make-optional-field is no longer interactive.
6588
6589*** If bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is non-nil, inserting new
6590entries is now done with a faster algorithm. However, inserting
6591will fail in this case if the buffer contains invalid entries or
6592isn't in sorted order, so you should finish each entry with C-c C-c
6593(bibtex-close-entry) after you have inserted or modified it.
6594The default value of bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is nil.
6595
6596*** Function `show-all' is no longer bound to a key, since C-u C-c C-q
6597does the same job.
6598
6599*** Entries with quotes inside quote-delimited fields (as `author =
6600"Stefan Sch{\"o}f"') are now supported.
6601
6602*** Case in field names doesn't matter anymore when searching for help
6603text.
6604
6605** Font Lock mode
6606
6607*** Global Font Lock mode
6608
6609Font Lock mode can be turned on globally, in buffers that support it, by the
6610new command global-font-lock-mode. You can use the new variable
6611font-lock-global-modes to control which modes have Font Lock mode automagically
6612turned on. By default, this variable is set so that Font Lock mode is turned
6613on globally where the buffer mode supports it.
6614
6615For example, to automagically turn on Font Lock mode where supported, put:
6616
6617 (global-font-lock-mode t)
6618
6619in your ~/.emacs.
6620
6621*** Local Refontification
6622
6623In Font Lock mode, editing a line automatically refontifies that line only.
6624However, if your change alters the syntactic context for following lines,
6625those lines remain incorrectly fontified. To refontify them, use the new
6626command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block).
6627
6628In certain major modes, M-g M-g refontifies the entire current function.
6629(The variable font-lock-mark-block-function controls how to find the
6630current function.) In other major modes, M-g M-g refontifies 16 lines
6631above and below point.
6632
6633With a prefix argument N, M-g M-g refontifies N lines above and below point.
6634
6635** Follow mode
6636
6637Follow mode is a new minor mode combining windows showing the same
6638buffer into one tall "virtual window". The windows are typically two
6639side-by-side windows. Follow mode makes them scroll together as if
6640they were a unit. To use it, go to a frame with just one window,
6641split it into two side-by-side windows using C-x 3, and then type M-x
6642follow-mode.
6643
6644M-x follow-mode turns off Follow mode if it is already enabled.
6645
6646To display two side-by-side windows and activate Follow mode, use the
6647command M-x follow-delete-other-windows-and-split.
6648
6649** hide-show changes.
6650
6651The hooks hs-hide-hooks and hs-show-hooks have been renamed
6652to hs-hide-hook and hs-show-hook, to follow the convention for
6653normal hooks.
6654
6655** Simula mode now has a menu containing the most important commands.
6656The new command simula-indent-exp is bound to C-M-q.
6657
6658** etags can now handle programs written in Erlang. Files are
6659recognised by the extensions .erl and .hrl. The tagged lines are
6660those that begin a function, record, or macro.
6661
6662** MSDOS Changes
6663
6664*** It is now possible to compile Emacs with the version 2 of DJGPP.
6665Compilation with DJGPP version 1 also still works.
6666
6667*** The documentation of DOS-specific aspects of Emacs was rewritten
6668and expanded; see the ``MS-DOS'' node in the on-line docs.
6669
6670*** Emacs now uses ~ for backup file names, not .bak.
6671
6672*** You can simulate mouse-3 on two-button mice by simultaneously
6673pressing both mouse buttons.
6674
6675*** A number of packages and commands which previously failed or had
6676restricted functionality on MS-DOS, now work. The most important ones
79214ddf 6677are:
a933dad1
DL
6678
6679**** Printing (both with `M-x lpr-buffer' and with `ps-print' package)
6680now works.
6681
6682**** `Ediff' works (in a single-frame mode).
6683
6684**** `M-x display-time' can be used on MS-DOS (due to the new
6685implementation of Emacs timers, see below).
6686
6687**** `Dired' supports Unix-style shell wildcards.
6688
6689**** The `c-macro-expand' command now works as on other platforms.
6690
6691**** `M-x recover-session' works.
6692
6693**** `M-x list-colors-display' displays all the available colors.
6694
6695**** The `TPU-EDT' package works.
6696\f
6697* Lisp changes in Emacs 19.31.
6698
6699** The function using-unix-filesystems on Windows NT and Windows 95
6700tells Emacs to read and write files assuming that they reside on a
6701remote Unix filesystem. No CR/LF translation is done on any files in
6702this case. Invoking using-unix-filesystems with t activates this
6703behavior, and invoking it with any other value deactivates it.
6704
6705** Change in system-type and system-configuration values.
6706
6707The value of system-type on a Linux-based GNU system is now `lignux',
6708not `linux'. This means that some programs which use `system-type'
6709need to be changed. The value of `system-configuration' will also
6710be different.
6711
6712It is generally recommended to use `system-configuration' rather
6713than `system-type'.
6714
6715See the file LINUX-GNU in this directory for more about this.
6716
6717** The functions shell-command and dired-call-process
6718now run file name handlers for default-directory, if it has them.
6719
6720** Undoing the deletion of text now restores the positions of markers
6721that pointed into or next to the deleted text.
6722
6723** Timers created with run-at-time now work internally to Emacs, and
6724no longer use a separate process. Therefore, they now work more
6725reliably and can be used for shorter time delays.
6726
6727The new function run-with-timer is a convenient way to set up a timer
6728to run a specified amount of time after the present. A call looks
6729like this:
6730
6731 (run-with-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
6732
6733SECS says how many seconds should elapse before the timer happens.
6734It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the timer
6735becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments ARGS.
6736
6737REPEAT gives the interval for repeating the timer (measured in
6738seconds). It may be an integer or a floating point number. nil or 0
6739means don't repeat at all--call FUNCTION just once.
6740
6741*** with-timeout provides an easy way to do something but give
6742up if too much time passes.
6743
6744 (with-timeout (SECONDS TIMEOUT-FORMS...) BODY...)
6745
6746This executes BODY, but gives up after SECONDS seconds.
6747If it gives up, it runs the TIMEOUT-FORMS and returns the value
6748of the last one of them. Normally it returns the value of the last
6749form in BODY.
6750
6751*** You can now arrange to call a function whenever Emacs is idle for
6752a certain length of time. To do this, call run-with-idle-timer. A
6753call looks like this:
6754
6755 (run-with-idle-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
6756
6757SECS says how many seconds of idleness should elapse before the timer
6758runs. It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the
6759timer becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments
6760ARGS.
6761
6762Emacs becomes idle whenever it finishes executing a keyboard or mouse
6763command. It remains idle until it receives another keyboard or mouse
6764command.
6765
6766REPEAT, if non-nil, means this timer should be activated again each
6767time Emacs becomes idle and remains idle for SECS seconds The timer
6768does not repeat if Emacs *remains* idle; it runs at most once after
6769each time Emacs becomes idle.
6770
6771If REPEAT is nil, the timer runs just once, the first time Emacs is
6772idle for SECS seconds.
6773
6774*** post-command-idle-hook is now obsolete; you shouldn't use it at
6775all, because it interferes with the idle timer mechanism. If your
6776programs use post-command-idle-hook, convert them to use idle timers
6777instead.
6778
6779*** y-or-n-p-with-timeout lets you ask a question but give up if
6780there is no answer within a certain time.
6781
6782 (y-or-n-p-with-timeout PROMPT SECONDS DEFAULT-VALUE)
6783
6784asks the question PROMPT (just like y-or-n-p). If the user answers
6785within SECONDS seconds, it returns the answer that the user gave.
6786Otherwise it gives up after SECONDS seconds, and returns DEFAULT-VALUE.
6787
6788** Minor change to `encode-time': you can now pass more than seven
6789arguments. If you do that, the first six arguments have the usual
6790meaning, the last argument is interpreted as the time zone, and the
6791arguments in between are ignored.
6792
6793This means that it works to use the list returned by `decode-time' as
6794the list of arguments for `encode-time'.
6795
6796** The default value of load-path now includes the directory
6797/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp In addition to
6798/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp. You can use this new directory for
6799site-specific Lisp packages that belong with a particular Emacs
6800version.
6801
6802It is not unusual for a Lisp package that works well in one Emacs
6803version to cause trouble in another. Sometimes packages need updating
6804for incompatible changes; sometimes they look at internal data that
6805has changed; sometimes the package has been installed in Emacs itself
6806and the installed version should be used. Whatever the reason for the
6807problem, this new feature makes it easier to solve.
6808
6809** When your program contains a fixed file name (like .completions or
6810.abbrev.defs), the file name usually needs to be different on operating
6811systems with limited file name syntax.
6812
6813Now you can avoid ad-hoc conditionals by using the function
6814convert-standard-filename to convert the file name to a proper form
6815for each operating system. Here is an example of use, from the file
6816completions.el:
6817
6818(defvar save-completions-file-name
6819 (convert-standard-filename "~/.completions")
6820 "*The filename to save completions to.")
6821
6822This sets the variable save-completions-file-name to a value that
6823depends on the operating system, because the definition of
6824convert-standard-filename depends on the operating system. On
6825Unix-like systems, it returns the specified file name unchanged. On
6826MS-DOS, it adapts the name to fit the limitations of that system.
6827
6828** The interactive spec N now returns the numeric prefix argument
6829rather than the raw prefix argument. (It still reads a number using the
6830minibuffer if there is no prefix argument at all.)
6831
6832** When a process is deleted, this no longer disconnects the process
6833marker from its buffer position.
6834
6835** The variable garbage-collection-messages now controls whether
6836Emacs displays a message at the beginning and end of garbage collection.
6837The default is nil, meaning there are no messages.
6838
6839** The variable debug-ignored-errors specifies certain kinds of errors
6840that should not enter the debugger. Its value is a list of error
6841condition symbols and/or regular expressions. If the error has any
6842of the condition symbols listed, or if any of the regular expressions
6843matches the error message, then that error does not enter the debugger,
6844regardless of the value of debug-on-error.
6845
6846This variable is initialized to match certain common but uninteresting
6847errors that happen often during editing.
6848
6849** The new function error-message-string converts an error datum
6850into its error message. The error datum is what condition-case
6851puts into the variable, to describe the error that happened.
6852
6853** Anything that changes which buffer appears in a given window
6854now runs the window-scroll-functions for that window.
6855
6856** The new function get-buffer-window-list returns a list of windows displaying
6857a buffer. The function is called with the buffer (a buffer object or a buffer
6858name) and two optional arguments specifying the minibuffer windows and frames
6859to search. Therefore this function takes optional args like next-window etc.,
6860and not get-buffer-window.
6861
6862** buffer-substring now runs the hook buffer-access-fontify-functions,
6863calling each function with two arguments--the range of the buffer
6864being accessed. buffer-substring-no-properties does not call them.
6865
6866If you use this feature, you should set the variable
6867buffer-access-fontified-property to a non-nil symbol, which is a
6868property name. Then, if all the characters in the buffer range have a
6869non-nil value for that property, the buffer-access-fontify-functions
6870are not called. When called, these functions should put a non-nil
6871property on the text that they fontify, so that they won't get called
6872over and over for the same text.
6873
6874** Changes in lisp-mnt.el
6875
6876*** The lisp-mnt package can now recognize file headers that are written
6877in the formats used by the `what' command and the RCS `ident' command:
6878
6879;; @(#) HEADER: text
6880;; $HEADER: text $
6881
6882in addition to the normal
6883
6884;; HEADER: text
6885
6886*** The commands lm-verify and lm-synopsis are now interactive. lm-verify
6887checks that the library file has proper sections and headers, and
6888lm-synopsis extracts first line "synopsis'"information.
6889\f
6890* For older news, see the file ONEWS.
6891
6892----------------------------------------------------------------------
6893Copyright information:
6894
6895Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
6896
6897 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
6898 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
6899 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
6900 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
6901
6902 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
6903 of this document, or of portions of it,
6904 under the above conditions, provided also that they
6905 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
6906\f
6907Local variables:
6908mode: outline
6909paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
6910end: