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1GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 5 Jan 2000
2Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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3See the end for copying conditions.
4
5Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
6For older news, see the file ONEWS.
7
8\f
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9* Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
10
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
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16** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
17all frames except the selected one.
18
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19** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
20to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
21
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22** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
23the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X either in the echo
24area or with tooltips.
25
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26** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
27read mail from the menu etc.
28
29** Changes in Outline mode.
30
31There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
32`outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
33the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
34
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35** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
36groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
37
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38** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either M-x clone-buffer
39or C-u m <entry> RET. M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and
40several other special buffers.
41
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42** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
43under XFree86. To enable this, simply put (mwheel-install) in your
44.emacs file.
45
46The variables `mwheel-follow-mouse' and `mwheel-scroll-amount'
47determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
48
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49** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
50abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
51`directory-abbrev-alist'.
52
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53** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
54is running in batch mode. For example,
55
56 (message "%s" (read t))
57
58will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
59to standard output.
60
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61** Faces and frame parameters.
62
63There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
64Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
65`scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
66`scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
67sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
68for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
69parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
70
71Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
72`default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
79214ddf 73`foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
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74`default' face and vice versa.
75
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76** New face `menu'.
77
78The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
79Setting the font of LessTif/Motif menus is currently not supported;
80attempts to set the font are ignored in this case.
81
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82** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
83
84The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
85colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
86correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
87the screen gamma of a frame's display.
88
89PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
90in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
91color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
92
93The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
94`ScreenGamma'.
95
96** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
97
98The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
99Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
100oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
101of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
102the text.
103
104** Emacs has a new face implementation.
105
106The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
107font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
108height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
109These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
110specify a font.
111
112Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
113These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
114under Lisp changes, below.
115
116** New default font is Courier 12pt.
117
118** When using a windowing terminal, Emacs window now has a cursor of
119its own. When the window is selected, the cursor is solid; otherwise,
120it is hollow.
121
122** Bitmap areas to the left and right of windows are used to display
123truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
124foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
125customizing face `fringe'.
126
127** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default. You
128can change its appearance by modifying the face `modeline'.
129
130** LessTif support.
131
132Emacs now runs with LessTif (see <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will
133need a version 0.88.1 or later.
134
135** Toolkit scroll bars.
136
137Emacs now uses toolkit scrollbars if available. When configured for
138LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scrollbar. Otherwise, when
139configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
140bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
141bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
142Emacs.
143
144When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
145Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
146Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
147Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
148define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
149`s/freebsd.h' as an example.
150
151Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
152a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
153directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
154different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
155system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
156add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
157
158The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
159`float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
160This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
161image configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
162Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
163
164** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
165
166When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
167widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
168Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
169
170** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
171
172When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
173whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
174defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
175highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
176displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
177whitespace.
178
179** Busy-cursor.
180
181Emacs can optionally display a busy-cursor under X. You can turn the
182display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
183
184** Blinking cursor
185
186M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
187terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
188and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
189the group `cursor'.
190
191** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
192
193This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
194generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
195See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
196details.
197
198Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
199have to do anything to activate it.
200
201** Tabs and variable-width text.
202
203Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
204defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
205independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
206Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
207
208** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
209
210*** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
211
212 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
213
214The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the Motif
215one.
216
217*** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, like in
218Motif.
219
220** Hscrolling in C code.
221
222Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically.
223
224** Tool bar support.
225
226Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
227how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level changes.
228
229** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
230
231Different parts of the mode line under X have been made
232mouse-sensitive. Moving the mouse to a mouse-sensitive part in the mode
233line changes the appearance of the mouse pointer to an arrow, and help
234about available mouse actions is displayed either in the echo area, or
235in the tooltip window if you have enabled one.
236
237Currently, the following actions have been defined:
238
239- Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line switches between two
240buffers.
241
242- Mouse-2 on the buffer-name switches to the next buffer, and
243M-mouse-2 switches to the previous buffer in the buffer list.
244
245- Mouse-3 on the buffer-name displays a buffer menu.
246
559cee90 247- Mouse-2 on the read-only status in the mode line (`%' or `*')
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248toggles the read-only status.
249
250- Mouse-3 on the mode name display a minor-mode menu.
251
252** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
253
254When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
e33b0397 255from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
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256non-nil.
257
258** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
259
260Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
261Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
262the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
263italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
264Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
265attributes like overlines, strike-throught, box are ignored.
266
267** Sound support
268
269Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
270(Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
271Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
272(*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
273to enable sound support.
274
275** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
276the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
277forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
278value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
279users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
280even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
281
282The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
283
284** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
285
286As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
287drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
288`x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
289
290** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
291bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi).
292
293This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
294`indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
295variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
296
297** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
298
299When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
300value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggessively' is a
301number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
302fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
303
304When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
305value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggessively' is a
306number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
307fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
308
309** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
310notably at the end of lines.
311
312All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
313spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
314
315** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
316query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
317after each match to get the replacement text.
318
319** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
320
321If a message is longer than one line, or mini-buffer contents are
322longer than one line, Emacs now resizes the mini-window unless it is
323on a frame of its own. You can control the maximum mini-window size
324by setting the following variable:
325
326- User option: max-mini-window-height
327
328Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
329fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
330specifies a number of lines. If nil, don't resize.
331
332Default is 0.25.
333
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334** Changes to hideshow.el
335
336Hideshow is now at version 5.x. It uses a new algorithms for block
337selection and traversal and includes more isearch support.
338
339*** Generalized block selection and traversal
340
341A block is now recognized by three things: its start and end regexps
342(both strings), and a match-data selector (an integer) specifying
343which sub-expression in the start regexp serves as the place where a
344`forward-sexp'-like function can operate. Hideshow always adjusts
345point to this sub-expression before calling `hs-forward-sexp-func'
346(which for most modes evaluates to `forward-sexp').
347
348If the match-data selector is not specified, it defaults to zero,
349i.e., the entire start regexp is valid, w/ no prefix. This is
350backwards compatible with previous versions of hideshow. Please see
351the docstring for variable `hs-special-modes-alist' for details.
352
353*** Isearch support for updating mode line
354
355During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active, hidden
356blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' records the
357line at the beginning of the opened block (preceding the hidden
358portion of the buffer), and the mode line is refreshed. When a block
359is re-hidden, the variable is set to nil.
360
361To show `hs-headline' in the mode line, you may wish to include
362something like this in your .emacs.
363
364 (add-hook 'hs-minor-mode-hook
365 (lambda ()
366 (add-to-list 'mode-line-format 'hs-headline)))
367
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368** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
369
370If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes an
371entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
372log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
373
374New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the current
375buffer, fixing old-style date formats if necessary.
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376
377Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log entries
378if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
379
380The search for a file's version number is performed based on regular
381expressions from `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be
382cutomized. Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of
383a file.
384
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385** Changes in Font Lock
386
387*** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
388font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major
389mode.
390
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391** Comint (subshell) changes
392
393Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
394and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
395
396The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
397buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
398buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
399
400The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
401M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
402the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
403
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404** Changes to Rmail mode
405
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406*** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
407like `j'.
408
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409*** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
410specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
2d5e9b54 411digest message.
e26cec67 412
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413** Changes to TeX mode
414
415The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
416`latex-mode'.
417
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418** Changes to RefTeX mode
419
420*** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
421 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
422 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
423 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
424 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
425 can be edited from that buffer.
426
427*** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
428 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
429 `A' to use all marked entries).
430
431*** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
432 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
433
434*** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
435 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
436 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
437 been cited.
438
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439** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
440The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
441semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
442in column 1 are always made leaves.
443
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444** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
445has the following new features:
446
447*** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
448may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
449to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
450time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
451
452*** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
453feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
454file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
455compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
456pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
457defaults to 1.
458
459** Tooltips.
460
461Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
462mouse position. To use them, use the Lisp package `tooltip' which you
463can access via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
464
465Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
466variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
467the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
468tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
469
470** Customize changes
471
472*** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
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473`State' menu to add comments. Note that customization comments will
474cause the customizations to fail in earlier versions of Emacs.
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475
476*** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
477Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
478default).
479
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480*** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
481between custom options. Example:
482
483 (defcustom default-input-method nil
484 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
485 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
486 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
487 :group 'mule
488 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
489 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
490
491This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
492current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
493first in a custom-set-variables statement.
494
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495** New features in evaluation commands
496
497The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
498modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
499print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the
500customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
501eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
502
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503** Dired changes
504
505*** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
506command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
507is, delete only empty directories.
508
509*** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
510command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
511copy directories recursively.
512
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513*** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
514in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
515the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
516
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517** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
518use the -f option when sending mail.
519
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520** CC mode changes.
521
522Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
523current user setups (although it's believed that these
524incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
525However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
526back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
527compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
528release.
529
530*** New initialization procedure for the style system.
531When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
532variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
533take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
534is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
535settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
536possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
537Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
538
539By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
540special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
541the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
542of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
543above.
544
545Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
546when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
547function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
548call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
549then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
550values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
551only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
552function documentation for more info.
553
554The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
555especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
556with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
557intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
558such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
559is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
560configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
561global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
562
563(Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
564
565**** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
566This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
567
568This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
569variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
570completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
571the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
572empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
573style system.
574
575**** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
576In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
577c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
578as far as possible.
579
580*** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
581CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
582surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
583chapter about this in the manual.
584
585**** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
586The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
587recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
588primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
589adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
590
591**** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
592This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
593c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
594
595**** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
596This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
597
598It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
599Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
600A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
601inside CC Mode.
602
603Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
604causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
605the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
606available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
607cc-mode/).
608
609**** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
610The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
611specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
612literals.
613
614**** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
615It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
616prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
617you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
618this function.
619
620*** Fixes to IDL mode.
621It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
622to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
623struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
624Thanks to Eric Eide.
625
626*** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
627It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
628opening braces hangs and when they don't.
629
630**** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
631
632*** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
633See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
634better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
635and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
636
637*** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
638previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
639the column specified by comment-column.
640
641*** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
642In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
643is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
644prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
645contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
646don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
647
648*** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
649instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
650arguments.
651
652*** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
653
654*** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
655c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
656c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
657variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
658Provan).
659
660*** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
661
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662** Isearch changes
663
664*** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
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665selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
666
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GM
667*** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
668
d35fce81 669Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
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670`isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
671search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
672before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
673highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
674`secondary-selection'.
675
676The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
677will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
678Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
679using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
680usual snappy response.
681
682If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
683matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
684set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
685isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
686
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687** Changes in sort.el
688
689The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
12c25bdc 690as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
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GM
691new user-option sort-numberic-base can be used to specify a default
692numeric base.
87be76f6 693
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694** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
695names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
696sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
697
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698** Shell script mode changes.
699
700Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
701derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizeable, and
702sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
703
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FP
704** Etags changes.
705
706*** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
707
aca0be23 708*** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
8dc78b52
FP
709possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
710{lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
711This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
712a regular expression. The manual contains details.
aca0be23 713
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FP
714*** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
715declarations when given the --declarations option.
716
717*** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
aca0be23 718"operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
79214ddf
FP
719
720*** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
721types.
722
723*** In Fortran, procedure is no more tagged.
724
725*** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
726
727*** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
728are now tagged.
729
730*** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
731variables are tagged.
732
733*** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
734
8dc78b52
FP
735*** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
736for PSWrap.
79214ddf 737
f6737cde
GM
738** Changes in etags.el
739
740*** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
741the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
742
743If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
744FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
745TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
746obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
747
748TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
749
750FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
751List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
752
753A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
754
755 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
756 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
757 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
758
759*** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
760of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
761
762*** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
763names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
764
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765** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
766and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
767LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
768
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769** New language environments `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
770These correspond respectively to the ISO character sets 8859-14
771(Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign). There is
772currently no specific input method support for them.
773
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774** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sqeuence-nos' to
775remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
776appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
777
778** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
779
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780** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
781
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782** New modes and packages
783
f7136ee8
GM
784*** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
785unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
786actually modifying content of a buffer.
787
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GM
788*** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
789PostScript.
790
791Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
792
793The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
794
795 ; comment (until end of line)
796 A non-terminal
797 "C" terminal
798 ?C? special
799 $A default non-terminal
800 $"C" default terminal
801 $?C? default special
802 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
803 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
804 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
805 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
806 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
807 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
808 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
809 C+ one or more occurrences of C
810 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
811 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
812 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
813 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
814 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
815 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
816 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
817
818Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
819
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GM
820*** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
821align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
822determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
823example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
824equal signs of assignments.
825
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826*** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
827paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
828
6448a6b3
GM
829*** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
830list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
831buffer menu with this package. You can use M-x bs-customize to
832customize the package.
833
3476b54a
GM
834*** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
835suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
836expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
837course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
838reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
839to be enabled.
840
8964fec7
SM
841*** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
842containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
843
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844*** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
845
846*** hl-line.el provides a minor mode to highlight the current line.
847
848*** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
849
850*** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
851Pascal) language.
852
853*** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
854the text at point.
855
856*** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
857
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858*** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
859
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860*** whitespace.el ???
861
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GM
862*** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
863files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
864(very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
865interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
866often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
867uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
868codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
869
870*** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
871
872Here is an example of columns:
873
874horse apple bus
875dog pineapple car EXTRA
876porcupine strawberry airplane
877
878Doing the following settings:
879
880 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
881 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
882 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
883 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
884
885
886Selecting the lines above and typing:
887
888 M-x delimit-columns-region
889
890It results:
891
892[ horse , apple , bus , ]
893[ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
894[ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
895
896delim-col has the following options:
897
898 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
899 before all columns.
900
901 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
902 between each column.
903
904 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
905 after all columns.
906
907 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
908 each column.
909
910delim-col has the following commands:
911
912 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
913 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
914
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GM
915*** The package recentf.el maintains a menu for visiting files that
916were operated on recently. When enabled, a new "Open Recent" submenu
917is displayed in the "Files" menu.
918
919The recent files list is automatically saved across Emacs sessions.
920
921To enable/disable recentf use M-x recentf-mode.
922
923To enable recentf at Emacs startup use
924M-x customize-variable RET recentf-mode RET.
925
926To change the number of recent files displayed and others options use
927M-x customize-group RET recentf RET.
928
8062f458
DL
929*** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
930text.
931
36e24b82 932*** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
91735437
DL
933of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
934specific to Message mode.
935
36e24b82
DL
936*** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
937viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
938with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
939
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940** Withdrawn packages
941
942*** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
943functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
25a81338 944
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DL
945*** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
946
947*** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
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948\f
949* Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
950
951Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
952--- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
953When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
954so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
955
7a85e4df
GM
956** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
957returned by function `recent-keys'.
958
02b14400
RS
959+++
960** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
961can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
962Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding M-C-a
963etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
964mode.
404fa7d6 965
02b14400 966+++
8964fec7
SM
967** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
968and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
969
02b14400
RS
970+++
971** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
972has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
973function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
974returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
975been performed."
976
977When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
978and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
979hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
980then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
ef961722 981
02b14400 982+++
81da8b32
GM
983** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
984In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
985and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
986
02b14400 987+++
9e207b90
GM
988** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
989with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
990specified table.
991
992 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
993
994Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
03d9c64c
GM
995TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
996saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
997what BODY returns.
9e207b90 998
02b14400 999+++
d7f89643
SM
1000** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
1001Perl's non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
8964fec7 1002
02b14400 1003+++
dde9e75a
GM
1004** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
1005removed since it wasn't used by anything.
1006
02b14400 1007+++
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GM
1008** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
1009instead of being optional.
1010
02b14400 1011+++
d20679eb
GM
1012** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
1013modify read-only text.
1014
02b14400 1015+++
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PE
1016** New functions and variables for locales.
1017
1018The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
1019decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
b718982a
PE
1020time functions like strftime. The new variables
1021`system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
1022locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
fbc164de
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1023
1024The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
1025environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
1026the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
b718982a
PE
1027environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
1028not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
1029`locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
1030`locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
fbc164de 1031
02b14400 1032+++
863476d1
SM
1033** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
1034To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
1035modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
1036start sequences.
1037
02b14400 1038+++
ef6d912c
GM
1039** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
1040because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
1041
02b14400 1042+++
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1043** New function `propertize'
1044
1045The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
1046strings with text properties.
1047
1048- Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
1049
1050Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
1051by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
1052PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
1053specified value of that property. Example:
1054
1055 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
1056
1057+++
1058** push and pop macros.
1059
02b14400
RS
1060Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
1061are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
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DL
1062as the place that holds the list to be changed.
1063
1064(push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
1065(pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
1066 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
1067
02b14400
RS
1068** New dolist and dotimes macros.
1069
6c7fd5aa
RS
1070Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
1071are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
02b14400
RS
1072
1073(dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
1074 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
1075 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
1076 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
1077
1078(dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
1079 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
1080 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
1081 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
1082
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1083+++
1084** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such
1085as [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on.
1086
1087[:digit:] matches 0 through 9
1088[:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
1089[:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
1090[:blank:] matches space and tab only
1091[:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
1092 space, and DEL.
1093[:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
1094 and DEL.
1095[:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
1096 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1097 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
1098[:alpha:] matches letters.
1099 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1100 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
1101[:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
1102[:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
1103[:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
1104[:punct:] matches punctuation.
1105 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1106 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
1107[:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
1108[:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
1109[:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
1110
1111+++
1112** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
1113
1114The following functions are defined for hash tables:
1115
1116- Function: make-hash-table ARGS
1117
1118The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
1119are optional. The following arguments are defined:
1120
1121:test TEST
1122
1123TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
1124Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
1125it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
1126
1127:size SIZE
1128
1129SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
1130many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
1131
1132:rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
1133
1134REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
1135full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
1136size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
11371.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
1138old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
1139
1140:rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
1141
1142THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
1143hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
1144(size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
1145
1146:weakness WEAK
1147
1148WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value', or t.
1149Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage collection if
1150their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere outside of the
1151hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
1152
1153- Function: makehash &optional TEST
1154
1155Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
1156
1157- Function: hash-table-p TABLE
1158
1159Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
1160
1161- Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
1162
1163Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
1164values are shared.
1165
1166- Function: hash-table-count TABLE
1167
1168Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
1169
1170- Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
1171
1172Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
1173
1174- Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
1175
1176Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
1177
1178- Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
1179
1180Returns the size of TABLE.
1181
1182- Function: hash-table-rehash-test TABLE
1183
1184Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
1185
1186- Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
1187
1188Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
1189
1190- Function: clrhash TABLE
1191
1192Clear TABLE.
1193
1194- Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
1195
1196Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
1197not found.
1198
79214ddf 1199- Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
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1200
1201Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
1202another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
1203
1204- Function: remhash KEY TABLE
1205
1206Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
1207
1208- Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
1209
1210Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
1211arguments KEY and VALUE.
1212
1213- Function: sxhash OBJ
1214
1215Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
1216
1217- Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
1218
1219Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
1220a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
79214ddf 1221comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
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1222and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
1223of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
1224
1225TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
1226
1227HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
1228code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
1229integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
1230
1231Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
1232be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
1233
1234 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
1235 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
1236
1237 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
1238 (sxhash (upcase a)))
1239
79214ddf 1240 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
a933dad1
DL
1241 'case-fold-string-hash))
1242
1243 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
1244
1245+++
1246** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
1247
1248It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
1249circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
1250a cons cell which is its own cdr.
1251
1252+++
1253** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
1254
1255If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
1256#N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
1257
a933dad1
DL
1258+++
1259** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
1260t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
1261specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
1262is too short to reach that column.
1263
1264+++
1265** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
1266now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
1267after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
1268two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
1269
1270If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
1271perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
1272and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
1273
1274+++
1275** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
1276to specify which buffer to return the size of.
1277
1278+++
1279** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
1280calendar-move-hook after moving point.
1281
1282+++
1283** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
1284directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
1285small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
1286small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
1287temporary-file-directory instead.
1288
1289+++
1290** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
1291the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
1292`before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
1293hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
1294
1295+++
1296** assoc-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
1297elements of an alist which have a particular value as the car.
1298
1299+++
1300** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
1301
1302make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
1303creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
1304ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
1305
1306+++
1307** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
1308
1309The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
1310on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
1311is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
1312never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
1313ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
1314overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
1315
1316If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
1317that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
1318to get an error if the file exists at that time.
1319The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
1320
1321+++
1322** Function `format' now handles text properties.
1323
1324Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
1325If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
1326ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
1327result string.
1328
1329Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
1330string where arguments appear in the result string.
1331
1332Example:
1333
1334 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
1335 (s2 "world"))
1336 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
1337 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
b246b1f6 1338 (format s1 s2))
a933dad1
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1339
1340results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
1341
1342+++
1343** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
1344
1345Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
1346The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
1347argument in it.
1348
1349 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
1350 (arg "world"))
1351 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
1352 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
1353 (message msg arg))
1354
1355+++
1356** Sound support
1357
1358Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
1359(Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
1360
1361Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
1362(*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
1363to enable sound support.
1364
1365Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
1366list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
1367when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
1368functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
1369sound to play, before playing the sound.
1370
1371The following sound properties are supported:
1372
1373- `:file FILE'
1374
1375FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
1376searched relative to `data-directory'.
1377
6fb40beb
GM
1378- `:data DATA'
1379
1380DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
1381may be present, but not both.
1382
a933dad1
DL
1383- `:volume VOLUME'
1384
1385VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
13860..1. This property is optional.
1387
1388Other properties are ignored.
1389
1390** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
356673d4
DL
1391
1392** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
1393a keyword symbol.
fc91dc2d
GM
1394
1395** Changes to garbage collection
1396
1397*** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
1398of live and free strings.
1399
1400*** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
1401strings that have been consed so far.
1402
a933dad1
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1403\f
1404* New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
1405
1406Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
1407--- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
1408When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
1409so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
1410
1411** New face implementation.
1412
1413Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
1414font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
1415
1416+++
1417*** New faces.
1418
1419Each face can specify the following display attributes:
1420
1421 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
79214ddf 1422
a933dad1
DL
1423 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
1424 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
79214ddf 1425
a933dad1 1426 3. Font height in 1/10pt
79214ddf 1427
a933dad1 1428 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
79214ddf 1429
a933dad1 1430 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
79214ddf 1431
a933dad1 1432 6. Foreground color.
79214ddf 1433
a933dad1
DL
1434 7. Background color.
1435
1436 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
1437
1438 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
1439
1440 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
1441
1442 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
1443
1444 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
1445 color.
1446
1447 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
1448 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
1449
1450Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
1451same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
1452frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
1453faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
1454with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each each of the face
1455attributes mentioned above.
1456
1457There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
1458definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
1459created frames.
79214ddf 1460
a933dad1
DL
1461A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
1462have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
1463`fully-specified'.
1464
1465+++
1466*** Face merging.
1467
1468The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
1469combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
1470aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
1471properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
1472that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
1473results in a fully-specified face.
1474
1475+++
1476*** Face realization.
1477
1478After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
1479merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
1480realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
1481available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
1482face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
1483cache of the frame on which it was realized.
1484
1485Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
1486character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
1487for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
1488charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
1489
1490Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
1491specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
1492being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
1493the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
1494statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
1495
1496In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
1497`char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
14980x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
1499the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
1500initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
1501Emacs.
1502
1503Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
1504`enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
1505registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
1506with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
1507
1508++++
1509**** Clearing face caches.
1510
1511The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
1512on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
1513unused fonts.
1514
1515+++
1516*** Font selection.
79214ddf 1517
a933dad1
DL
1518Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
1519given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
1520for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
1521
1522If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
1523pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
1524family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
1525property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
1526an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
1527
1528Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
1529against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
1530match for the given face attributes in this font list.
1531
1532Font selection can be influenced by the user.
1533
1534The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
1535attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
1536face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
1537names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
1538that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
1539width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
1540to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
1541
1542Setting `face-alternative-font-family-alist' allows the user to
1543specify alternative font families to try if a family specified by a
1544face doesn't exist.
1545
1546+++
1547**** Scalable fonts
1548
1549Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
1550since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
1551servers.
1552
1553To enable scalable font use, set the variable
b246b1f6 1554`scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
a933dad1
DL
1555scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
1556Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
1557scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
1558that list. Example:
1559
1560 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
1561
1562allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
1563
1564+++
1565*** Functions and variables related to font selection.
1566
1567- Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
1568
1569Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
1570is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
1571string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
1572
1573If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
1574the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
1575FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
1576POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
1577SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
1578These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
1579if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
1580REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
1581the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
1582of the face font sort order.
1583
79214ddf 1584- Function: x-font-family-list
a933dad1
DL
1585
1586Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
1587omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
1588(FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
1589non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
1590
1591- Variable: font-list-limit
1592
1593Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
1594won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
1595matching font. The default is currently 100.
1596
1597+++
1598*** Setting face attributes.
1599
1600For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
1601with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
1602implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
1603`face-attribute'.
1604
1605Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
1606symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
1607
1608The following attributes are recognized:
1609
1610`:family'
1611
1612VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
1613or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
1614and `?' are allowed.
1615
1616`:width'
1617
1618VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
1619It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
1620`condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
1621`extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
1622
1623`:height'
1624
1625VALUE must be an integer specifying the height of the font to use in
16261/10 pt.
1627
1628`:weight'
1629
1630VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
1631symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
1632`semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
1633
1634`:slant'
1635
1636VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
1637symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
1638`reverse-oblique'.
1639
1640`:foreground', `:background'
1641
1642VALUE must be a color name, a string.
1643
1644`:underline'
1645
1646VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
1647VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
1648a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
1649don't underline.
1650
1651`:overline'
1652
1653VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
1654VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
1655string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
1656overline.
1657
1658`:strike-through'
1659
1660VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
1661striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
1662face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
1663is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
1664
1665`:box'
1666
1667VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
1668around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
1669VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
1670of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
1671and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
1672VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
1673:color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
1674the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
1675specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
1676defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
1677the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
1678color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
1679should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
1680like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
1681that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
1682the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
1683box.
1684
1685`:inverse-video'
1686
1687VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
1688inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
1689
1690`:stipple'
1691
1692If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
1693The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
1694searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
1695HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
1696is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
1697explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
1698
1699For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
1700and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
1701
1702`:font'
1703
1704Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
1705XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
1706is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
1707versions of Emacs.
1708
1709For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
1710be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
1711must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
1712
1713Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
1714`defface'.
1715
1716*** Face attributes and X resources
1717
1718The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
1719from X resources:
1720
1721 Face attribute X resource class
1722-----------------------------------------------------------------------
1723 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
1724 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
1725 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
1726 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
1727 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
1728 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
1729 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
1730 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
1731 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
1732 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
1733 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
1734 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
1735 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
79214ddf 1736 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
a933dad1
DL
1737 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
1738 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
1739 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
1740 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
1741 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
1742
1743+++
1744*** Text property `face'.
1745
1746The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
1747specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
1748specification can be
1749
17501. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
1751
17522. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
1753 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
1754 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
1755 for face attribute names.
1756
17573. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
1758 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
1759 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
1760
1761+++
1762** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
1763
acf3ecb7
EZ
1764The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
1765on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
1766the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
a933dad1 1767default. You can get defined colors with a call to
acf3ecb7 1768`defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
a933dad1
DL
1769used to clear the mapping table.
1770
acf3ecb7
EZ
1771** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
1772
1773The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
1774and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
1775type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
1776color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
1777display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
1778old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
1779`x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
1780compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
1781should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
1782modify their color-related behavior.
1783
1784The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
1785any frame type.
1786
8a5719f0
EZ
1787** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
1788
1789The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
1790`display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
1791`display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
1792`display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
1793`display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
1794`display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
1795display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
1796the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
1797platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
1798
a933dad1
DL
1799+++
1800** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
a933dad1 1801
463cac2d 1802This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
a933dad1
DL
1803
1804The function minubuffer-prompt-end returns the current position of the
1805end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
1806Otherwise, it returns zero.
1807
463cac2d
GM
1808** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
1809
1810There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
1811buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
1812text-property.
1813
9a9dfda8 1814Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
463cac2d 1815forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
9a9dfda8 1816to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
463cac2d 1817not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
fc7ac24f
GM
1818commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
1819boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
1820`inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
1821functions.
463cac2d
GM
1822
1823Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
9a9dfda8 1824a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
463cac2d 1825editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
a933dad1 1826
9a9dfda8
GM
1827The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
1828
1829- Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE
1830
1831Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
1832A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
1833If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
1834constrained position if that is is different.
1835
1836If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
1837positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
1838ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
1839constrained to the field that has the same `field' text-property
1840as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
1841is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
1842fields.
1843
1844If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
1845NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
1846unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
1847C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
1848only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
1849
1850- Function: erase-field &optional POS
1851
1852Erases the field surrounding POS.
1853A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
1854If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
1855
1856- Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
1857
1858Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
1859A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
1860If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
1861If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is already at beginning of an
1862field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
1863
1864- Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
1865
1866Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
1867A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
1868If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
1869If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is already at end of a field,
1870then the end of the *following* field is returned.
1871
1872- Function: field-string &optional POS
1873
1874Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
1875A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
1876If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
1877
1878- Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
1879
1880Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
1881A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
1882If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
1883
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1884+++
1885** Image support.
1886
1887Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
1888strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
1889(AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
1890replaces the display of the characters having that property.
1891
1892If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
1893`(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
1894AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
1895window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
1896area.
1897
1898IMAGE is an image specification.
1899
1900*** Image specifications
1901
1902Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
1903is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
1904specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
35a5514b
GM
1905symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
1906described below are ignored.
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1907
1908The following is a list of properties all image types share.
1909
1910`:ascent ASCENT'
1911
1912ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, and specifies the percentage
1913of the image's height to use for its ascent. Default is 50.
1914
1915`:margin MARGIN'
1916
79214ddf 1917MARGIN must be a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put as
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DL
1918margin around the image. Default is 0.
1919
1920`:relief RELIEF'
1921
1922RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
1923around an image.
1924
1925`:algorithm ALGO'
1926
1927Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it. ALGO must
1928be a symbol specifying the algorithm. Currently only `laplace' is
1929supported which applies a Laplace edge detection algorithm to an image
1930which is intended to display images "disabled."
1931
1932`:heuristic-mask BG'
1933
1934If BG is not nil, build a clipping mask for the image, so that the
1935background of a frame is visible behind the image. If BG is t,
1936determine the background color of the image by looking at the 4
1937corners of the image, assuming the most frequently occuring color from
1938the corners is the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must
1939be a list `(RED GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the
1940background of the image.
1941
1942`:file FILE'
1943
1944Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
1945search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
1946building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
1947may be present in the image specification.
1948
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GM
1949`:data DATA'
1950
1951Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
1952supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
1953present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
1954support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
1955
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1956*** Supported image types
1957
b246b1f6 1958**** XBM, image type `xbm'.
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1959
1960XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
1961properties supported are
1962
1963`:foreground FG'
1964
1965FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default
1966is the frame's foreground.
1967
1968`:background FG'
1969
1970BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default is
1971the frame's background color.
1972
1973XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
1974case, the image specification must contain the following properties
1975instead of a `:file' property.
1976
1977`:width WIDTH'
1978
1979WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
1980
1981`:height HEIGHT'
1982
1983HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
1984
1985`:data DATA'
1986
1987DATA must be either
1988
1989 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
1990 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
1991
1992 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
1993
1994 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
1995 bitmap.
1996
1997**** XPM, image type `xpm'
1998
1999XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
2000`xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
2001found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
2002`--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
2003
2004Additional image properties supported are:
2005
2006`:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
2007
2008SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
2009name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
2010name.
2011
2012XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
2013add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
2014
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2015The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
2016to display compressed images.
2017
2018**** PBM, image type `pbm'
2019
2020PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
2021mono images are supported. There are no additional image properties
2022defined.
2023
2024**** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
2025
2026Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
3bd37feb
GM
2027package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. Additional image properties
2028are:
2029
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2030**** TIFF, image type `tiff'
2031
2032Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
2033package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
2034properties defined.
2035
2036**** GIF, image type `gif'
2037
2038Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
2039`libungif-4.1.0', or later.
2040
2041Additional image properties supported are:
2042
2043`:index INDEX'
2044
2045INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
2046multi-image GIF file. An error is signalled if INDEX is too large.
2047
2048This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
2049For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
2050at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
2051every 0.1 seconds.
2052
2053(defun show-anim (file max)
2054 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
2055 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
2056
2057(defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
2058 (when (= idx max)
2059 (setq idx 0))
518df5c4 2060 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
a933dad1
DL
2061 (save-excursion
2062 (set-buffer buffer)
2063 (goto-char (point-min))
2064 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
2065 (insert-image img "x"))
2066 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
2067
2068**** PNG, image type `png'
2069
2070Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
2071package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
2072properties defined.
2073
2074**** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
2075
2076Additional image properties supported are:
2077
2078`:pt-width WIDTH'
2079
2080WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
b246b1f6 2081integer. This is a required property.
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DL
2082
2083`:pt-height HEIGHT'
2084
2085HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
b246b1f6 2086must be a integer. This is an required property.
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2087
2088`:bounding-box BOX'
2089
2090BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
2091the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
2092files. This is an required property.
2093
2094Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
2095lisp/gs.el.
2096
2097*** Lisp interface.
2098
79214ddf
FP
2099The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
2100which are supported in the current configuration.
a933dad1
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2101
2102Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
2103they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
2104The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
2105manually.
2106
2107*** Simplified image API, image.el
2108
2109The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
2110creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
2111can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
2112define an image based on available image types. The functions
2113`put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
2114buffer.
2115
2116+++
2117** Display margins.
2118
2119Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
2120and images.
2121
2122To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
2123`left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
2124`set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
2125obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
2126`right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
2127the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
2128of the display margins.
2129
2130You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
2131containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
2132one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
2133string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
2134in this file).
2135
2136+++
2137** Help display
2138
2139Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
2140moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
2141`help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
2142that have a `help-echo' property.
2143
2144The value of the `help-echo' property must be a string. For tool-bar
2145items, their key definition is used to determine the help to display.
2146If their definition contains a property `:help FORM', FORM is
2147evaluated to determine the help string. Otherwise, the caption of the
2148tool-bar item is used.
2149
2150The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
2151help differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window causes the
2152help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
2153
2154+++
2155** Vertical fractional scrolling.
2156
2157The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
2158This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
2159
2160The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
2161scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
2162The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
2163scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
2164used.
2165
79214ddf
FP
2166 (global-set-key [A-down]
2167 #'(lambda ()
a933dad1 2168 (interactive)
79214ddf 2169 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
a933dad1 2170 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
79214ddf 2171 (global-set-key [A-up]
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DL
2172 #'(lambda ()
2173 (interactive)
79214ddf 2174 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
a933dad1
DL
2175 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
2176
2177+++
2178** New hook `fontification-functions'.
2179
2180Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
2181when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
2182variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
2183is called with one argument, POS.
2184
2185At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
2186characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
2187as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
2188property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
2189`fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
2190
2191+++
2192** Tool bar support.
2193
2194Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
2195parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
2196controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
2197suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
2198`auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
2199automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
2200
2201*** Tool bar item definitions
2202
2203Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
2204`tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
2205where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
79214ddf 2206
a933dad1
DL
2207CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
2208evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
2209the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
2210property (see below).
79214ddf 2211
a933dad1
DL
2212BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
2213binding are currently ignored.
2214
2215The following properties are recognized:
2216
2217`:enable FORM'.
79214ddf 2218
a933dad1
DL
2219FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
2220or disabled.
79214ddf 2221
a933dad1 2222`:visible FORM'
79214ddf 2223
a933dad1 2224FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
79214ddf 2225
a933dad1
DL
2226`:filter FUNCTION'
2227
2228FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
2229FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
2230used instead of BINDING to display this item.
79214ddf 2231
a933dad1
DL
2232`:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
2233
2234TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
2235and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
79214ddf 2236
a933dad1
DL
2237`:image IMAGES'
2238
2239IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
2240image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
2241meaning of each of the four elements:
2242
2243 Index Use when item is
2244 ----------------------------------------
2245 0 enabled and selected
2246 1 enabled and deselected
2247 2 disabled and selected
2248 3 disabled and deselected
79214ddf 2249
a933dad1 2250`:help HELP-STRING'.
79214ddf 2251
a933dad1
DL
2252Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
2253is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
2254
2255*** Tool-bar-related variables.
2256
2257If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
2258resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
2259than 1/4 of the frame's size.
2260
79214ddf 2261If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
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DL
2262raised when the mouse moves over them.
2263
2264You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
2265`tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
2266pixels. Default is 1.
2267
2268You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
2269`tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
2270
2271*** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
2272
2273You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
79214ddf 2274a tool bar item. If
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DL
2275
2276 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
2277 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
2278 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
2279
2280is the original tool bar item definition, then
2281
2282 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
2283
2284makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
2285item.
2286
2287** Mode line changes.
2288
2289+++
2290*** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
2291
2292The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
2293that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
2294a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
2295
22961. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
2297a `local-map' text property.
2298
22992. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
2300that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
2301
23023. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
2303is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
2304`local-map' property.
2305
2306The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
2307properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
2308example.
2309
54522c9f
GM
2310*** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
2311evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
2312
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DL
2313+++
2314*** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
2315variable mode-line-format to nil.
2316
2317+++
2318*** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
2319
2320This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
2321`header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
2322completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
2323`default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
2324line.
2325
2326The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
2327`header-line'.
2328
2329The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
2330position in the header-line.
2331
2332+++
2333** Text property `display'
2334
2335The `display' text property is used to insert images into text, and
2336also control other aspects of how text displays. The value of the
2337`display' property should be a display specification, as described
2338below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
2339
2340*** Variable width and height spaces
2341
2342To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
2343specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
2344`(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
2345area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
2346marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
2347displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
2348simpler form STRETCH as property value.
2349
2350The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
2351PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
2352properties described below.
2353
2354The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
2355characters having the `display' property.
2356
2357- :width WIDTH
2358
2359Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
2360character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
2361
2362- :relative-width FACTOR
2363
2364Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
2365first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
2366same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
2367width of that character by FACTOR.
2368
2369- :align-to HPOS
2370
2371Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
2372value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
2373
2374Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
2375
2376- :height HEIGHT
2377
2378Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
2379normal line height.
2380
2381- :relative-height FACTOR
2382
2383The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
2384of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
2385
2386- :ascent ASCENT
2387
2388Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
2389used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
2390baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
2391equal to 100.
2392
2393You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
2394
2395*** Images
2396
2397A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
2398. IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
2399in the display, the characters having this display specification in
2400their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
2401the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
2402`(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
2403area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
2404the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
2405as display specification.
2406
2407*** Other display properties
2408
2409- :space-width FACTOR
2410
2411Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
2412should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
2413integer or float.
2414
2415- :height HEIGHT
2416
2417Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
2418
2419If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
2420means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
2421the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
2422``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
2423a font is available counts as a step.
2424
2425If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
2426as tall as the frame's default font.
2427
2428If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
2429height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
2430
2431Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
2432`height' bound to the current specified font height.
2433
2434- :raise FACTOR
2435
2436FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
2437font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
2438raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
2439amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
2440`:height' subproperty.
2441
2442*** Conditional display properties
2443
2444All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
2445has the form `(:when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC
2446applies only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated.
2447During evaluattion, point is temporarily set to the end position of
2448the text having the `display' property.
2449
2450The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
2451`(:when t SPEC)'.
2452
2453+++
2454** New menu separator types.
2455
2456Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
2457item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
2458treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
2459to specify other menu separator types.
2460
2461- `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
2462
2463No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
2464separator occurs.
2465
2466- `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
2467
2468A single line in the menu's foreground color.
2469
2470- `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
2471
2472A double line in the menu's foreground color.
2473
2474- `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
2475
2476A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
2477
2478- `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
2479
2480A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
2481
2482- `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
2483
2484A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the the form
2485displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
2486
2487- `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
2488
2489A single line with 3D raised appearance.
2490
2491- `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
2492
2493A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
2494
2495- `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
2496
2497A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
2498
2499- `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
2500
2501Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
2502
2503- `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
2504
2505Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
2506
2507- `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
2508
2509Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
2510
2511- `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
2512
2513Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
2514
2515Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
2516the corresponding single-line separators.
2517
2518+++
2519** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
2520
2521The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
2522`scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
2523Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
2524that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
2525default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
2526default background is the background color of the frame, and the
2527default foreground is black.
2528
2529The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
2530(class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
2531`ScrollBarBackground').
2532
2533Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
2534settings for scroll bar colors.
2535
2536+++
2537** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
2538display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
2539
2540---
2541** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
2542starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
2543on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
2544line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
2545the original window start.
2546
2547---
2548** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
2549`hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
2550now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
2551
2552+++
2553** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
2554
2555A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
2556`window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
2557windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
2558other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
2559
2560The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
2561fixed-width and fixed-height.
2562
2563 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
2564
2565A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
2566fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
2567window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
2568change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
2569temporarily to nil, for example
2570
2571 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
2572 (enlarge-window 10))
2573
79214ddf 2574Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
a933dad1 2575or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
e33b0397
DL
2576^L
2577* Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
2578
2579** Not new, but not mentioned before:
2580M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
a933dad1
DL
2581\f
2582* Changes in Emacs 20.4
2583
2584** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
2585
2586You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
2587Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
2588`.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
2589
2590If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
2591is the one that is used.
2592
2593** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
2594the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
2595Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
2596separate from the command's regular output.
2597Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
2598says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
2599In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
2600the buffer name.
2601
2602When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
2603output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
2604it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
2605cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
2606
2607** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
2608the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
2609is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
2610created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
2611
2612** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
2613example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
2614match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
2615quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
2616
2617** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
2618now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
2619if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
2620they never ignore case.
2621
2622** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
2623under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
2624applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
2625of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
2626just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
2627convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
2628part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
2629
2630If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
2631the same format that was used in the file before.
2632
2633You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
2634`inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
2635
2636** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
2637renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
2638This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
2639
2640** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
2641The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
2642buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
2643your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
2644is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
2645end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
2646Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
2647
2648The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
2649eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
2650control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
2651format. You can now customize these variables.
2652
2653** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
2654filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
2655filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
2656enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
2657
2658** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
2659in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
2660windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
2661
2662** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
2663dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
2664doesn't have any effect.
2665
2666** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
2667not one per buffer.
2668
2669** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
2670use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
2671 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
2672
2673** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
2674To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
2675`auto-show-mode' command.
2676
2677** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
2678avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
2679versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
2680choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
2681occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
2682
2683** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
2684cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
2685
2686** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
2687character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
2688feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
2689
2690** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
2691the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
2692interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
2693and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
2694
2695** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
2696
2697The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
2698that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
2699one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
2700codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
2701set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
2702
2703Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
2704from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
2705
2706IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
2707equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
2708a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
2709`?' on other systems.
2710
2711IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
2712feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
2713Unix.
2714
2715Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
2716current codepage when it starts.
2717
2718** Mail changes
2719
2720*** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
2721default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
2722default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
2723sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
2724buffer-file-coding-system.
2725
2726You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
2727sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
2728mail.
2729
2730*** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
2731if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
2732Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
2733list of possible coding systems.
2734
2735** CC Mode changes
2736
2737*** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
2738modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
2739longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
2740docstring for details.
2741
2742*** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
2743symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
2744found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
2745prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
2746lineup functions use this feature currently.
2747
2748*** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
2749"finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
2750
2751*** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
2752"catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
2753
2754*** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
2755from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
2756symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
2757c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
2758anonymous classes.
2759
2760*** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
2761syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
2762
2763*** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
2764inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
2765support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
2766function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
2767
2768*** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
2769(i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
2770brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
2771c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
2772(brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
2773
2774*** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
2775
2776*** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
2777
2778*** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
2779for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
2780
2781*** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
2782
2783*** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
2784associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
2785This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
2786circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
2787class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
2788
2789** Gnus changes.
2790
2791*** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
2792added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
2793Gnus manual for the full story.
2794
2795*** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
2796before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
2797group, which is created automatically.
2798
2799*** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
2800values.
2801
2802*** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
2803
2804*** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
2805outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
2806
2807*** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
2808`C-u C-c C-c'.
2809
2810*** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
2811
2812*** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
2813re-highlighting of the article buffer.
2814
2815*** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
2816
2817*** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
2818Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
2819
2820*** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
2821`a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
2822
2823*** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
2824control over simplification.
2825
2826*** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
2827
2828*** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
2829limit.
2830
2831*** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
2832
2833*** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
2834
79214ddf 2835*** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
a933dad1
DL
2836If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
2837rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
2838
2839*** Cancelling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
2840`a' forces normal posting method.
2841
2842*** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
2843-- `W d'.
2844
2845*** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
2846to a non-nil value.
2847
2848*** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
2849where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
2850
2851*** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
2852has been added.
2853
2854*** A history of where mails have been split is available.
2855
2856*** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
2857
2858*** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
2859`gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
2860
2861*** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
2862`message-cite-original-without-signature'.
2863
2864*** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
2865
2866*** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
2867been added.
2868
2869*** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
2870`gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
2871
2872*** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
2873updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
2874
2875*** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
2876
2877*** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
2878
2879*** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
2880
2881** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
2882
2883*** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
2884options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
2885nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
2886
2887*** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
2888TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
2889of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
2890TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
2891can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
2892
2893*** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
2894All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
2895but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
2896the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
2897
2898*** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
2899the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
2900buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
2901mismatch.
2902
2903** Changes to RefTeX mode
2904
2905*** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
2906file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
2907
2908*** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
2909lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
2910characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
2911removed from the label.
2912
2913*** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
2914a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
2915
2916*** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
2917customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
2918
2919*** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
2920`reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
79214ddf 2921expressions.
a933dad1
DL
2922
2923*** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
2924
2925** New/deleted modes and packages
2926
2927*** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
2928SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
2929
2930*** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
2931editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
2932SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
2933
2934*** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
2935changes with a special face.
2936
2937*** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
2938this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
2939Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
2940\f
2941* MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
2942
2943** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
2944This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
2945conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
2946and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
2947check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
2948
2949The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
2950Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
2951distribution when the config.bat script is run.
2952
2953** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
2954MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
2955controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
2956directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
2957Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
2958on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
2959string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
2960program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
2961printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
2962
2963** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
2964output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
2965available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
2966input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
2967temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
2968program.
2969
2970An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
2971and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
2972programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
2973automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
2974as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
2975ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
2976
2977** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
2978a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
2979MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
2980was not documented clearly before.
2981
2982** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
2983This includes Tetris and Snake.
2984\f
2985* Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
2986
2987** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
2988return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
2989They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
2990meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
2991
2992** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
2993WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
2994and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
2995
2996** Changes in the file-attributes function.
2997
2998*** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
2999It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
3000
3001*** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
3002the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
3003integers.
3004
3005** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
3006files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
3007arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
3008file names and attributes are returned.
3009
3010** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
3011sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
3012accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its atttributes.
3013It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
3014returns the result.
3015
3016** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
3017to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
3018
3019** New functions for base64 conversion:
3020
3021The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
3022into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
3023performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
3024optionally.
3025
3026Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
3027job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
3028
3029**
3030The new function process-running-child-p
3031will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
3032terminal to its own child process.
3033
3034** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
3035when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
3036to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
3037itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
3038
3039** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
3040be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
3041
3042** easymenu.el Now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
3043:included is an alias for :visible.
3044
3045easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
3046easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
3047to move or copy menu entries.
3048
3049** Multibyte editing changes
3050
3051*** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
3052an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
3053make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
3054work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
3055char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
3056 (setq char (sref str idx)
3057 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
3058The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
3059
3060If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
3061(say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
3062 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
3063
3064*** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
3065region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
3066deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
3067
3068 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibitted
3069
3070This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
3071across the boundary.
3072
3073*** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
3074`unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
3075 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
3076 contains 8-bit characters.
3077 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
3078 contains invalid characters.
3079
3080*** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
3081text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
3082preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
3083text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
3084way.
3085
3086*** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
3087If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
3088end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
3089prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
3090
3091*** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
3092compose Thai characters in a string.
3093
3094** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
3095argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
3096for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
3097menus should always use the third argument.
3098
3099** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
3100read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
3101arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
3102input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
3103
3104** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
3105of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
3106programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
3107inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
3108
3109** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
3110the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
3111returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
3112echo area contents.
3113
3114 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
3115
3116** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
3117NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
3118requested feature cannot be loaded.
3119
3120** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
3121foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
79214ddf 3122means to clear out that attribute.
a933dad1
DL
3123
3124** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
3125gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
3126
3127** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
3128read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
3129unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
3130end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
3131
3132** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
3133the gap of the current buffer.
3134
3135** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
3136to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
3137current buffer.
3138
3139** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
3140facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
3141These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
3142it back in after any modifications have been made.
3143\f
3144* Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
3145
3146** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
3147the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
3148/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
3149directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
3150subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
3151
3152Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
3153names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
3154Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
3155which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
3156these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
3157
3158Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
3159starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
3160time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
3161
3162This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
3163Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
3164to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
3165subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
3166`.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
3167results.
3168
3169** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
3170GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
3171that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
3172fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
3173\f
3174* Changes in Emacs 20.3
3175
3176** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
3177including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
3178it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
3179perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
3180
3181** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
3182specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
3183region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
3184further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
3185command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
3186within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
3187are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
3188region.
3189
3190In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
3191selective undo.
3192
3193** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
3194unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
3195buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
3196effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
3197Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
3198
3199The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
3200though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
3201-*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
3202load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
3203
3204** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
3205no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
3206enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
3207something that most users not do.
3208
3209** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
3210operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
3211The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
3212applications.
3213
3214C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
3215pasting operations.
3216
3217** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
3218setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
3219like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
3220printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
3221`ps-printer-name'.
3222
3223** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
3224minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
3225any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
3226except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
3227incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
3228hits a new word.
3229
3230Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
3231Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
3232to be confused by TeX commands.
3233
3234You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
3235correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
3236clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
3237of various alternative replacements and actions.
3238
3239Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
3240the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
3241corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
3242alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
3243flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
3244
3245Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
3246flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
3247
3248** Changes in input method usage.
3249
3250Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
3251the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
3252respectively.
3253
3254You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
3255
3256If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
3257of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
3258
3259The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
3260that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
3261
3262 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
3263
3264 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
3265
3266 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
3267 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
3268
3269 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
79214ddf 3270 given in the following case:
a933dad1
DL
3271 o When you are using a complex input method.
3272 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
3273
3274If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
3275input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
3276and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
3277setting it to t is helpful.
3278
3279The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
3280
3281In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
3282keys:
3283 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
3284 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
3285 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
3286These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
3287environment.
3288
3289** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
3290names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
3291minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
3292get
3293
3294 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
3295
3296which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
3297
3298Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
3299Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
3300
3301** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
3302at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
3303its owner and group.
3304
3305** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
3306Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
3307
3308** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
3309contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
3310
3311** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
3312which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
3313in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
3314by the left edge of the rectangle.
3315
3316** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
3317increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
3318C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
3319for writing keyboard macros.
3320
3321** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
3322files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
3323frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
3324the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
3325additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
3326info.
3327
3328** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
3329
3330** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
3331query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
3332contents only.
3333
3334** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
3335confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
3336the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
3337says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
3338
3339** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
3340non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
3341literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
3342
3343** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
3344now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
3345Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
3346inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
3347
3348** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
3349failure if the command produces no output.
3350
3351** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
3352manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
3353the mouse.
3354
3355** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
3356mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
3357function and variable names.
3358
3359** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
3360reading specific files. This has higher priority than
3361file-coding-system-alist.
3362
3363** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
3364t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
3365converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
3366the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
3367according to the current fontset.
3368
3369** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
3370
3371The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
3372that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
3373nonascii-insert-offset.
3374
3375For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
3376enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
3377nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
3378characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
3379
3380** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
3381an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
3382
3383** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
3384letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
3385
3386** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
3387are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
3388command keys.
3389
3390** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
3391user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
3392
3393Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
3394user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
3395all variables that have documentation.
3396
3397** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
3398shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
3399that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
3400minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
3401it should show; the default is 20.
3402
3403Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
3404the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
3405of your input.
3406
3407** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
3408all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
3409recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
3410argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
3411the customizable options which were changed since that version.
3412Newly added options are included as well.
3413
3414If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
3415then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
3416for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
3417
3418This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
3419Customize menu.
3420
3421** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
3422the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
3423
3424** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
3425buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
3426invoked.
3427
3428** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
3429that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
3430The default is 1.
3431
3432** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
3433syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
3434new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
3435(C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
3436sensibly.
3437
3438** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
3439
3440** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
3441value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
3442two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
3443
3444** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
3445reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
3446for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
3447every night.
3448
3449** All you need to do, to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
3450the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
3451
3452** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
3453read and post multi-lingual articles.
3454
3455** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
3456doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
3457be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
3458outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
3459the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
79214ddf 3460made invisible again.
a933dad1
DL
3461
3462** Mail reading and sending changes
3463
3464*** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
3465the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
3466changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
3467toggle.
3468
3469*** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
3470now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
3471summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
3472the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
3473rmail-default-body-file.
3474
3475*** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
3476longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
3477handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
3478
3479*** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
3480it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
3481is evaluated to insert the signature.
3482
3483*** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
3484outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
3485handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
3486putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
3487transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
3488especially interested in trying feedmail.
3489
3490feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
3491feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
3492provided by feedmail are:
3493
3494**** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
3495stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
3496there is also a queue for draft messages
3497
3498**** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
3499be prompted for confirmation
3500
3501**** does smart filling of address headers
3502
3503**** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
3504the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
3505can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
3506
3507**** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
3508the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
3509/usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
3510function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
3511
3512** Dired changes
3513
3514*** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
3515files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
3516
3517*** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
3518run Dired on the directory name at point.
3519
3520*** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
3521files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
3522for a specified regexp.
3523
3524** VC Changes
3525
3526*** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
3527conveniently.
3528
3529*** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
3530faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
3531Dired.
3532
3533VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
3534directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
3535listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
3536currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
3537
3538You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
3539then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
3540vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
3541control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
3542on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
3543
3544All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
3545is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
3546`v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
3547the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
3548`vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
3549
3550The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
3551toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
79214ddf 3552VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
a933dad1
DL
3553`* l', to mark all files currently locked.
3554
3555Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
3556ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
3557command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
3558
3559*** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
3560file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
3561session to resolve them.
3562
3563Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
3564resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
3565contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
3566uses as well).
3567
3568*** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
3569command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
3570you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
3571either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
3572branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
3573If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
3574using ediff.
3575
3576** Changes in Font Lock
3577
3578*** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
3579are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
3580use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
3581unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
3582compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
3583
3584** Frame name display changes
3585
3586*** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
3587frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
3588raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
3589when many frames are invisible or iconified.
3590
3591*** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
3592frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
3593menu.
3594
3595** Comint (subshell) changes
3596
3597*** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
3598subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
3599with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
3600
3601*** There are new commands in Comint mode.
3602
3603C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
3604that is, the line after the last line you got.
3605You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
3606
3607C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
3608send the current line together with the following line, when you send
3609the following line.
3610
3611C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
3612which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
3613previously sent input.
3614
3615C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
3616it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
3617as the search string.
3618
3619*** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
3620automatically in compilation-mode windows.
3621
3622** C mode changes
3623
3624*** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
3625and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
3626assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
79214ddf 3627definition.
a933dad1
DL
3628
3629*** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
3630(i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
3631Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
3632style is still the default however.
3633
3634*** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
3635
3636*** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
3637are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
3638them. They do not have key bindings by default.
3639
3640*** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
3641and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
3642
3643*** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
3644namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
3645
3646*** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
3647makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
3648
3649*** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
3650c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
3651
3652*** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
3653should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
3654package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
3655variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
3656
3657** Changes to hippie-expand.
3658
79214ddf 3659*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
a933dad1
DL
3660non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
3661which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
3662
3663*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
3664non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
3665expanding dynamically.
3666
3667*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
3668non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
3669
3670*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
3671non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
3672this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
3673expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
3674
3675*** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
3676
3677** Changes in BibTeX mode.
3678
3679*** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
3680bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
3681automatic key generation. This replaces variable
3682bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
3683against the first word in the title.
3684
3685*** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
3686capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
3687bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
79214ddf 3688lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
a933dad1 3689lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
79214ddf 3690bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
a933dad1
DL
3691
3692*** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
3693generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
3694replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
3695bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
3696
3697** Changes in vcursor.el.
3698
3699*** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
3700and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
3701variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
3702entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
3703`vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
3704in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
3705
3706*** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
3707Editing group once the package is loaded.
3708
3709*** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
3710generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
3711vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behaviour.
3712
3713*** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
3714vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
3715
3716** Ispell changes.
3717
79214ddf
FP
3718*** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
3719buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
a933dad1
DL
3720are identified by syntax tables in effect.
3721
3722*** Generic region skipping implemented.
3723A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
3724and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
3725defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
79214ddf 3726include:
a933dad1
DL
3727
3728 o URLs are automatically skipped
3729 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
3730
3731*** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
3732
3733** Changes to RefTeX mode
3734
3735RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
3736large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
3737re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
3738section `Optimizations' in the manual.
3739
3740*** New recursive parser.
3741
3742The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
3743entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
3744recursive parser scans the individual files.
3745
3746*** Parsing only part of a document.
79214ddf 3747
a933dad1
DL
3748Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
3749partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
3750the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
3751
3752 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
3753
3754*** Storing parsing information in a file.
3755
3756This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
3757
3758 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
3759
3760*** Using multiple selection buffers
3761
3762If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
3763for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
3764
3765 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
3766
3767*** References to external documents.
3768
3769The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
3770documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
3771documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
3772macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
3773RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
3774the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
3775The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
3776
3777*** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
3778
3779The builtin command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
3780and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
3781
3782Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
3783the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
3784
3785*** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
3786
3787The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
3788buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
3789
3790*** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
3791
3792The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
3793contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
3794`reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
3795have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
3796enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
3797at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
3798more.
3799
3800*** Support for the varioref package
3801
3802The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
3803
3804*** New hooks
3805
3806Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
3807and citations are created. These hooks are
3808`reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
3809`reftex-format-cite-function'.
3810
3811*** Citations outside LaTeX
3812
3813The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
3814a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
3815
3816*** Short context is no longer fontified.
3817
3818The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
3819fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
3820fontified, use
3821
3822 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
3823
3824** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
3825With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
3826the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
3827directories that contain the same file name.
3828
3829Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
3830Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
3831file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
3832Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
3833have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
3834names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
3835directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
3836directory.
3837
3838** New modes and packages
3839
3840*** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
3841It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
3842it, but some do not.
3843
3844*** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
3845code.
3846
3847*** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
3848current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
3849around in a buffer.
3850
3851Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
3852
3853*** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
3854uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
3855be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
3856established system of notation similar to Chess.
3857
3858*** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
3859documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
3860guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
3861
3862*** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
3863available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
3864system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
3865simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
3866functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
3867the like.
3868
3869*** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
3870identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
3871
3872*** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
3873within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
3874used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
3875the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
3876
3877*** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
3878
3879 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
3880 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
3881 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
3882 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
3883 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
3884 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
3885 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
3886 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
3887 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
3888 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
3889 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
3890
3891 Platform-specific modes:
3892
3893 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
3894 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
3895 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
3896 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
3897 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
3898 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
3899 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
3900 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
3901 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
3902\f
3903* Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
3904
3905** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
3906use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
3907That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
3908Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
3909
3910Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
3911you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
3912consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
3913
3914** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
3915and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
3916specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
3917searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
3918
3919** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
3920multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
3921character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
3922environment.
3923
3924** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
3925take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
3926string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
3927current input method for reading this one event.
3928
3929** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
3930now control whether to output certain characters as
3931backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
3932non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
3933characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
3934in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
3935\f
3936* Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
3937
3938** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
3939of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
3940
3941** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
3942in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
3943always increases point by 1.
3944
3945The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
3946considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
3947
3948See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
3949
3950** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
3951Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
3952default value changed. For example,
3953
3954 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
3955 :type 'integer
3956 :group 'foo
3957 :version "20.3")
3958
79214ddf 3959 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
a933dad1
DL
3960 :version "20.3")
3961
3962If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
3963default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
3964is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
3965`:version' in the top level group.
3966
3967This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
3968
3969** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
3970starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
3971
3972However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
3973symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
3974support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
3975to themselves.
3976
3977If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
3978this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
3979values whatever.
3980
3981** There is a new debugger command, R.
3982It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
3983in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
3984
3985** Frame-local variables.
3986
3987You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
3988the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
3989local bindings for that variable.
3990
3991These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
3992frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
3993modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
3994parameter name.
3995
3996Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
3997Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
3998active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
3999that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
4000
4001It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
4002clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
4003very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
4004through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
4005
4006** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
4007"symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
4008evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
4009makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
4010See the documentation in sregex.el.
4011
4012** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
4013is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
4014parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
4015The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
4016
4017** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
4018If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
4019
4020** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
4021known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
4022define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
4023
4024** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
4025when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
4026it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
4027history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
4028
4029The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
4030return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
4031empty input.
4032
4033** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
4034for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
4035`iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
4036Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
4037`read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
4038
4039** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
4040echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
4041a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
4042default password to use if the user enters nothing.
4043
4044** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
4045specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
4046function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
4047place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
4048non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
4049
4050** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
4051If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
4052up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
4053end of the window, even if this requires computation.
4054
4055** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
4056which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
4057If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
4058
4059** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
4060holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
4061was directed to display this buffer.
4062
4063** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
4064with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
4065describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
4066other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
4067set-window-configuration.
4068
4069** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
4070window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
4071positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
4072windows and the choice of buffers to display.
4073
4074** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
4075override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
4076look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
4077
4078If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
4079non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
4080map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
4081
4082minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
4083and it is meant to be set by major modes.
4084
4085** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
4086except that it discards all text properties from the result.
4087
4088** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
4089USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
4090floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
4091
4092** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
4093to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
4094in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
4095it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
4096
4097** Menu changes
4098
4099*** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
4100keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
4101better supported.
4102
4103The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
4104a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
4105you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
4106can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
4107then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
4108
4109*** A new format for menu items is supported.
4110
4111In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
4112 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
4113defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
4114starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
4115
4116The format is:
4117 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
4118 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
4119where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
4120string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
4121The supported properties include
4122
4123:enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
4124 item is enabled.
4125:visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
4126 item should appear in the menu.
79214ddf 4127:filter FILTER-FN
a933dad1
DL
4128 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
4129 which will be REAL-BINDING.
4130 It should return a binding to use instead.
4131:keys DESCRIPTION
4132 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
4133 binding for for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
4134 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
4135:key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
4136 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
4137 keyboard binding.
4138:key-sequence nil
4139 This means that the command normally has no
4140 keyboard equivalent.
4141:help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
4142:button (TYPE . SELECTED)
4143 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
4144 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
4145 value says whether this button is currently selected.
4146
4147Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
4148Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
4149
4150(menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
4151
4152** New event types
4153
4154*** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
4155mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
4156corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
4157which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
4158
4159 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
4160
4161where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
4162same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
4163indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
4164negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
4165the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
4166forward, away from the user.
4167
4168As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
4169
4170*** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
4171files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
4172and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
4173filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
4174loaded into Emacs. The format is:
4175
4176 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
4177
4178where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
4179same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
4180that were dragged and dropped.
4181
4182As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
4183
4184** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
4185
4186*** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
4187any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
4188to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
4189
4190*** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
4191can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
4192that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
4193
4194*** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
4195in Emacs 19 and before.
4196
4197The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
4198The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
4199
4200*** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
4201buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
4202unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
4203representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
4204
4205This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
4206as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
4207viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
4208one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
4209will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
4210
4211This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
4212representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
4213(including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
4214consistent with the new representation.
4215
4216*** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
4217representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
4218about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
4219however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
4220
4221The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
4222nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
4223using the table nonascii-translation-table.
4224
4225*** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
4226representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
4227representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
4228
4229The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
4230loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
4231is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
4232
4233*** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
4234which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
4235
4236*** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
4237which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
4238
4239*** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
4240portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
4241so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
4242You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
4243
4244*** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
4245it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
4246
4247*** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
4248convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
4249buffer or string being searched.
4250
4251One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
4252[...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
4253searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
4254searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
4255obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
4256you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
4257expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
4258
4259*** Structure of coding system changed.
4260
4261All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
4262by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
4263which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
4264as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
4265vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
4266your own alias name of a coding system by the function
4267define-coding-system-alias.
4268
4269The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
4270the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
4271access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
4272pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
4273character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
4274safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
4275'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
4276`iso-8859-1'.
4277
4278Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
4279The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
4280coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
4281(coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
4282
4283Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
4284also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
4285are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
4286the other character sets and read it back correctly.
4287
4288*** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
4289proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
4290This function requires a user interaction.
4291
4292*** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
4293find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
4294select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
4295systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
4296a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
4297select-safe-coding-system.
4298
4299*** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
4300decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
4301last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
4302was done.
4303
4304*** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
4305used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
4306coding systems used by some specific language environment.
4307
4308*** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
4309return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
4310characters are found, they now return a list of single element
4311`undecided' or its subsidiaries.
4312
4313*** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
4314coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
4315coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
4316converted.
4317
4318*** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
4319coding system for communicating with other X clients.
4320
4321*** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
4322character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
4323character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
4324each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
4325either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
4326range of characters.
4327
4328*** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
4329Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
4330
4331*** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
4332in the current buffer at position POS.
4333
4334*** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
4335input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
4336function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
4337character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
4338event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
4339binding input-method-function to nil.
4340
4341The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
4342method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
4343input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
4344the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
4345not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
4346
4347The input method function is not called when reading the second and
4348subsequent events of a key sequence.
4349
4350*** You can customize any language environment by using
4351set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
4352
4353The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
4354customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
4355instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
4356environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
4357exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
4358\f
4359* Changes in Emacs 20.1
4360
4361** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
4362options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
4363at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
4364tree structure.
4365
4366M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
4367user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
4368
4369With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
4370session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
4371in your .emacs file.)
4372
4373** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
4374You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
4375
4376** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
4377This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
4378
4379** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
4380immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
4381kills the region.
4382
4383The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
4384delete the character before point, as usual.
4385
4386** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
4387on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
4388by setting search-highlight to nil.)
4389
4390** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
4391insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
4392the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
4393onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
4394history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
4395past.)
4396
4397** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
4398This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
4399in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
4400TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
4401makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
4402
4403As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
4404and is an alias for it.
4405
4406If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
4407use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
4408
4409** Scrolling changes
4410
4411*** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
4412position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
4413
4414In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
4415on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
4416where it started.
4417
4418*** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
4419move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
4420screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
4421does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
4422
4423*** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
4424top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
4425comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
4426recenters the window.
4427
4428** International character set support (MULE)
4429
4430Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
4431including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
4432Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
4433Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
4434features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
4435MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
4436
4437Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
4438coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
4439character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
4440variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
4441into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
4442
4443Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
4444generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
4445supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
4446language, to make it possible to type them.
4447
4448The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
4449character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
4450
4451The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
4452to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
4453
4454You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
4455
4456 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
4457
4458Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
4459characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
4460argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
4461already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
4462characters for their work until they want to change.
4463
4464*** Input methods
4465
4466An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
4467specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
4468has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
4469the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
4470support several input methods.
4471
4472The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
4473another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
4474work.
4475
4476A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
4477characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
4478composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
4479consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
4480sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
4481letter.
4482
4483The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
4484by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
4485First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
4486marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
4487mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
4488
4489None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
4490they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
4491phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
4492converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
4493
4494Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
4495word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
4496typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
4497the first guess is wrong.
4498
4499*** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
4500turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
4501
4502If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
4503byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
4504they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
4505the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
4506
4507However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
4508use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
4509includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
4510translate automatically to and from either one.
4511
4512*** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
4513
4514Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
4515file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
4516sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
4517what you want.
4518
4519If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
4520example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
4521system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
4522multibyte characters in that buffer.
4523
4524If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
4525character conversion as well.
4526
4527*** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
4528
4529A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
4530Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
4531requires using many fonts.
4532
4533Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
4534collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
4535
4536A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
4537the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
4538have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
4539you would use a font.
4540
4541If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
4542specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
4543display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
4544
4545The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
4546(that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
4547characters). If another font in the fontset has a different height,
4548or the wrong width, then characters assigned to that font are clipped,
4549and displayed within a box if highlight-wrong-size-font is non-nil.
4550
4551*** Defining fontsets.
4552
4553Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
4554chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
4555with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
4556
4557Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
4558of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
4559`fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
4560standard fontset are created automatically.
4561
4562If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
4563argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
4564FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
4565with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
4566name is `fontset-startup'.
4567
4568Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
4569The resource value should have this form:
4570 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
4571FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
4572 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
4573 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
4574 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
4575The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
4576of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
4577CHARSET-NAME should be the name name of a character set, and
4578FONT-NAME should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
4579
4580Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
4581last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
4582You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
4583
4584For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
4585font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
4586following resource,
4587 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
4588the font for ASCII is generated as below:
4589 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
4590Here is the substitution rule:
4591 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
4592 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
4593 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
4594 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
4595 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
4596
4597The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
4598fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
4599that function explicitly to create a fontset.
4600
4601With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
4602like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
4603name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
4604fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
4605fontsets.
4606
4607*** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
4608defaults for a particular choice of language.
4609
4610Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
4611method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
4612visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
4613already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
4614language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
4615system for new files that you create.
4616
4617It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
4618set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
4619whole Emacs session.
4620
4621For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
4622chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
4623with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
4624
4625*** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
4626specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
4627specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
4628the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
4629coding systems that Emacs supports.
4630
4631*** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
4632lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
4633This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
4634After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
4635is used for *the immediately following command*.
4636
4637So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
4638write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
4639
4640If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
4641then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
4642
4643For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
4644visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
4645
4646*** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
4647construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
4648to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
4649specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
4650of the file.
4651
4652*** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
4653the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
4654code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
4655translated into that character code.
4656
4657This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
4658various countries to support the languages of those countries.
4659
4660By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
4661
4662*** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
4663the coding system for keyboard input.
4664
4665Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
4666with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
4667some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
4668
4669By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
4670
4671Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
4672input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
4673translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
4674to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
4675designed to work with terminals.
4676
4677*** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
4678specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
4679This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
4680has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
4681translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
4682in the corresponding buffer.
4683
4684By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
4685
4686*** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
4687to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
4688It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
4689
4690*** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
4691an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
4692command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
4693want to use.
4694
4695C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
4696method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
4697
4698*** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
4699layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
4700remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
4701which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
4702
4703*** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
4704the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
4705related information.
4706
4707*** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
4708HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
4709scripts.
4710
4711*** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
4712information about the support for a particular language.
4713You specify the language as an argument.
4714
4715*** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
4716the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
4717first dash.
4718
4719A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
4720(except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
4721whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
47221 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
4723
4724 A alternativnyj (Russian)
4725 B big5 (Chinese)
4726 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
4727 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
4728 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
4729 E euc-japan (Japanese)
4730 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
4731 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
4732 K euc-korea (Korean)
4733 R koi8 (Russian)
4734 Q tibetan
4735 S shift_jis (Japanese)
4736 T lao
4737 T tis620 (Thai)
4738 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
4739 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
4740 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
4741 v viqr (Vietnamese)
4742 z hz (Chinese)
4743
4744When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
4745two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
4746coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
4747keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
4748
4749*** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
4750conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
4751
4752When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
4753into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
4754rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
4755Rmail files themselves.
4756
4757*** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
4758conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
4759
4760Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
4761for sending mail:
4762
4763- If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
4764- Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
4765- Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
4766 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
4767- Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
4768
4769*** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
4770to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
4771Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
4772translations.
4773
4774** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
4775of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
4776insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
4777without any conversion.
4778
4779** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
4780You can now specify any number of octal digits.
4781RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
4782any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
4783
4784** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
4785functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
4786
4787Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
4788Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
4789
4790Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
4791mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
4792
4793** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
4794complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
4795in the buffer before point.
4796
4797With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
4798symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
4799you are using.
4800
4801With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
4802just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
4803
4804** File locking works with NFS now.
4805
4806The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
4807in the same directory as FILENAME.
4808
4809This means that collision detection between two different machines now
4810works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
4811can become a bottleneck.
4812
4813The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
4814does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
4815create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
4816file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
4817rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
4818so useful that the change is worth while.
4819
4820When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
4821are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
4822collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
4823tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
4824
4825** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
4826it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
4827show-paren-mode.
4828
4829** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
4830selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
4831delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
4832
4833** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
4834within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
4835complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
4836
4837** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
4838it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
4839set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
4840
4841** Changes in View mode.
4842
4843*** Several new commands are available in View mode.
4844Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
4845
4846*** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
4847view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
4848
4849*** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
4850previous state.
4851
4852*** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
4853scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
4854
4855*** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
4856non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
4857not just the selected window.
4858
4859*** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
4860read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
4861turns View mode on or off.
4862
4863*** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
4864how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
4865delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
4866
4867** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
4868now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
4869
4870** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
4871has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
4872presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
4873which version to compare with.
4874
4875** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
79214ddf 4876blocks if a match is inside the block.
a933dad1
DL
4877
4878The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
4879is outside the block. By customizing the variable
4880isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
4881shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
4882
4883By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
4884of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
4885blocks, all of them or none.
4886
4887** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
4888current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
4889confirmation first.
4890
4891** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
4892now changes the major mode according to that file name.
4893However, the mode will not be changed if
4894(1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
4895(2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
4896 not suitable for ordinary files, or
4897(3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
4898
4899This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
4900
4901However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
4902these commands do not change the major mode.
4903
4904** M-x occur changes.
4905
4906*** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
4907it performs a case-sensitive search.
4908
4909*** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
4910if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
4911using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
4912
4913** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
4914in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
4915window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
4916that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
4917buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
4918
4919** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
4920after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
4921appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
4922come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
4923
4924** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
4925selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
4926buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
4927
4928** Outline mode changes.
4929
4930*** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
4931
4932*** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
4933
4934** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
4935you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
4936Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
4937was already active.
4938
4939The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
4940unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
4941get confused by it.
4942
4943If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
4944set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
4945
4946** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
4947
4948*** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
4949conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
4950character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
4951including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
4952
4953The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
4954mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
4955copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
4956
4957*** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
4958are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
4959values.
4960
4961`dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
4962case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
4963`dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
4964case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
4965
4966** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
4967certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
4968can be. The default value is 30.
4969
4970** Changes in Mail mode.
4971
4972*** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
4973Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
4974composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
4975`mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
4976`sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
4977behavior.
4978
4979C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
4980compose-mail-other-frame.
4981
4982*** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
4983the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
4984replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
4985buffer that shows the original message.
4986
4987*** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
4988with separator lines around the contents.
4989
4990*** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
4991in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
4992definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
4993need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
4994
4995*** New features in the mail-complete command.
4996
4997**** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
4998for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
4999controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
5000Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
5001
5002**** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
5003to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
5004/etc/passwd.
5005
5006**** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
5007to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
5008/etc/passwd.
5009
5010** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
5011special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
5012directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
5013reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
5014
5015Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
5016when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
5017be taken to be magic.
5018
5019** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
5020files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
5021available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
5022
5023M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
5024(-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
5025
5026** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
5027suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
5028
5029In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
5030
5031new key dired.el binding old key
5032------- ---------------- -------
5033 * c dired-change-marks c
5034 * m dired-mark m
5035 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
5036 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
5037 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
5038 * u dired-unmark u
5039 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
5040 * ? dired-unmark-all-files M-C-?
5041 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
5042 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
5043 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
5044 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
5045
5046** Rmail changes.
5047
5048*** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
5049saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
5050chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
5051each time you run it.
5052
5053*** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
5054whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
5055
5056*** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
5057messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
5058means to move in the opposite direction.
5059
5060*** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
5061you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
5062
5063*** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
5064just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
5065It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
5066can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
5067for output.
5068
5069** Gnus changes.
5070
5071*** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
5072
79214ddf
FP
5073*** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
5074Gnus.
a933dad1 5075
79214ddf 5076*** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
a933dad1
DL
5077`and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
5078
5079*** Article washing status can be displayed in the
5080article mode line.
5081
5082*** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
5083
5084*** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
5085
5086(setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
5087
5088*** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
5089are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
5090`gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
5091
5092*** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
5093
5094*** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
5095
5096*** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
5097See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
5098
5099*** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
5100Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
5101used to pick articles.
5102
5103*** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
5104another have been added.
5105
5106 `M-x gnus-change-server'
5107
5108*** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
5109generating lines in buffers.
5110
5111*** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
5112`M-C-_'.
5113
5114*** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
5115
5116*** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
5117
5118 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
5119
5120*** Scores can be decayed.
79214ddf 5121
a933dad1
DL
5122 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
5123
5124*** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
5125Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
5126
5127*** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
5128the native server.
5129
5130 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
5131
5132*** A new command for reading collections of documents
5133(nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `M-C-d'.
5134
5135*** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
5136
5137*** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
5138even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
5139
5140*** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
5141(DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
5142
5143 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
5144 a group.
5145
5146*** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
5147sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
5148
5149 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
5150
5151*** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
5152
5153 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
5154
5155*** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
79214ddf 5156
a933dad1
DL
5157 Use the `Y c' command.
5158
5159*** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
5160
5161*** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
5162
5163 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
5164
5165*** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
5166from incoming mail before saving the mail.
79214ddf 5167
a933dad1
DL
5168 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
5169
5170*** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
5171
5172*** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
5173the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
5174
5175 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
5176
5177Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
5178and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
5179from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
5180hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
5181this issue.)
5182
5183Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
5184automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
5185particular news group. This can be done by:
5186
5187 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
5188
5189Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
5190of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
5191"XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
5192system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
5193for reading and posting).
5194
5195CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
5196 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
5197Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
5198newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
5199there.
5200
5201Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
5202default. Here are some of these default settings:
5203
5204 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
5205 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
5206 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
5207 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
5208 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
5209
5210When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
5211the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
5212
5213** CC mode changes.
5214
5215*** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
5216code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
5217values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
5218this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
5219Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
5220loaded.
5221
5222If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
79214ddf 5223Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
a933dad1 5224style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
79214ddf
FP
5225share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
5226c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
a933dad1
DL
5227must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
5228
5229*** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
5230of the current buffer.
5231
5232*** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
5233it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
5234of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
5235
5236*** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
5237style that the Python developers like.
5238
5239*** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
5240This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
5241just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
5242
5243** VC Changes [new]
5244
5245** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
5246name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
5247directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
5248
5249This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
5250master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
5251developers.
5252
5253You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
5254RET in a buffer visiting that file.
5255
5256*** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
5257other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
5258writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
5259calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
5260
5261*** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
5262version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
5263
5264** Calendar changes.
5265
5266A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or subclasses
5267of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow you do this
5268for the year of the selected date, or the following/previous years.
5269
5270** ps-print changes
5271
79214ddf 5272There are some new user variables for customizing the page layout.
a933dad1
DL
5273
5274*** Paper size, paper orientation, columns
5275
5276The variable `ps-paper-type' determines the size of paper ps-print
5277formats for; it should contain one of the symbols:
5278`a4' `a3' `letter' `legal' `letter-small' `tabloid'
5279`ledger' `statement' `executive' `a4small' `b4' `b5'
5280It defaults to `letter'.
5281If you need other sizes, see the variable `ps-page-dimensions-database'.
5282
5283The variable `ps-landscape-mode' determines the orientation
79214ddf 5284of the printing on the page. nil, the default, means "portrait" mode,
a933dad1
DL
5285non-nil means "landscape" mode.
5286
5287The variable `ps-number-of-columns' must be a positive integer.
5288It determines the number of columns both in landscape and portrait mode.
79214ddf 5289It defaults to 1.
a933dad1
DL
5290
5291*** Horizontal layout
5292
5293The horizontal layout is determined by the variables
5294`ps-left-margin', `ps-inter-column', and `ps-right-margin'.
5295All are measured in points.
5296
5297*** Vertical layout
5298
5299The vertical layout is determined by the variables
5300`ps-bottom-margin', `ps-top-margin', and `ps-header-offset'.
5301All are measured in points.
5302
5303*** Headers
5304
5305If the variable `ps-print-header' is nil, no header is printed. Then
5306`ps-header-offset' is not relevant and `ps-top-margin' represents the
5307margin above the text.
5308
79214ddf 5309If the variable `ps-print-header-frame' is non-nil, a gaudy
a933dad1
DL
5310framing box is printed around the header.
5311
5312The contents of the header are determined by `ps-header-lines',
5313`ps-show-n-of-n', `ps-left-header' and `ps-right-header'.
5314
79214ddf
FP
5315The height of the header is determined by `ps-header-line-pad',
5316`ps-header-font-family', `ps-header-title-font-size' and
a933dad1
DL
5317`ps-header-font-size'.
5318
5319*** Font managing
5320
5321The variable `ps-font-family' determines which font family is to be
5322used for ordinary text. Its value must be a key symbol in the alist
5323`ps-font-info-database'. You can add other font families by adding
5324elements to this alist.
5325
79214ddf 5326The variable `ps-font-size' determines the size of the font
a933dad1
DL
5327for ordinary text. It defaults to 8.5 points.
5328
5329** hideshow changes.
5330
5331*** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
79214ddf 5332C++, ; for lisp).
a933dad1
DL
5333
5334*** Support for java-mode added.
5335
5336*** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
5337in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
5338
5339*** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the the comments at
5340the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
5341way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
5342
5343*** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
5344robust and a lot faster.
5345
79214ddf 5346*** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
a933dad1
DL
5347
5348*** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
5349to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
5350documentation for more details.
5351
5352** Changes in Enriched mode.
5353
5354*** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
5355filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
5356of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
5357use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
5358the next time unless the fill-column is different.
5359
5360*** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
5361distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
5362as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
5363as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
5364
5365** Font Lock mode
5366
5367*** Custom support
5368
5369The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
5370font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
5371faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
5372group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
5373your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
5374consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
5375
5376You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
5377
5378*** Maximum decoration
5379
5380Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
5381default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
5382of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
5383supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
5384to get the old behavior.
5385
5386*** New support
5387
5388Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
5389
5390Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
5391support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
5392
5393*** Configurable support
5394
5395Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
5396additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
5397c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
5398java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
5399list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
5400of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
5401convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
5402
5403Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
5404way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
5405it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
5406
5407*** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
5408
5409You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
5410highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
5411for any mode.
5412
5413For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
5414
5415 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
5416
5417in your ~/.emacs.
5418
5419*** New faces
5420
5421Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
5422font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
5423distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
5424to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
5425
5426*** Changes to fast-lock support mode
5427
5428The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
5429cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
5430same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
5431
5432*** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
5433
5434The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
5435according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
5436the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
5437non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
5438refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
5439the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
5440Lock mode behaviour and the behaviour of Font Lock mode.
5441
5442This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
5443For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
5444this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
5445refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
5446containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
5447the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
5448
5449As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
5450
5451Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
5452Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
5453Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
5454new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
5455
5456If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
5457settings.
5458
5459** Ada mode changes.
5460
5461*** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
5462If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
5463procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
5464you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
5465stubs.
5466
5467*** There are two new commands:
5468 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
5469 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
5470
5471The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
5472`ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
79214ddf 5473`ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
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5474
5475*** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
5476is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
5477Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
5478
5479*** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
5480formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
5481places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
5482space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
5483
5484** Scheme mode changes.
5485
5486*** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
5487mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
5488for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
5489with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
5490have any effect.
5491
5492If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
5493still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
5494scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
5495variables as buffer-local variables.
5496
5497*** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
5498Use M-x dsssl-mode.
5499
133c9e59
GM
5500** Changes to the emacsclient program
5501
875c1439
GM
5502*** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
5503USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
5504associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
5505can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
5506
133c9e59 5507*** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
a933dad1
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5508it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
5509buffer in Emacs.
5510
133c9e59
GM
5511*** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
5512use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
5513ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
5514option takes precedence.
5515
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5516** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
5517constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
5518(in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
5519
5520** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
5521which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
5522the current defun.
5523
5524** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
5525following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
5526
5527** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
5528and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
5529necessary).
5530
5531** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
5532if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
5533these register values no longer become completely useless.
5534If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
5535asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
5536it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
5537
5538** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
5539example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
5540be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
5541you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
5542
5543You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
5544variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
5545file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
5546revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
5547only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
5548
5549** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
5550since it applies only to the current frame.
5551
5552** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
5553file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
5554and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
5555
5556This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
5557multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
5558variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
5559tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
5560instead of just the file you are editing.
5561
5562** RefTeX mode
5563
5564RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
5565and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
5566different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
5567multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
5568turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
5569
79214ddf 5570C-c ( reftex-label
a933dad1
DL
5571 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
5572 knows which kind of label is needed.
5573
5574C-c ) reftex-reference
5575 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
5576 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
5577
5578C-c [ reftex-citation
5579 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
5580 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
5581
5582C-c & reftex-view-crossref
5583 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
5584
5585C-c = reftex-toc
5586 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
5587 can quickly jump to every section.
79214ddf 5588
a933dad1
DL
5589Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
5590commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
5591Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
5592reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
5593C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
5594
5595** Changes in BibTeX mode.
5596
5597*** Info documentation is now available.
5598
5599*** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
5600both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
5601
5602*** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
5603bibtex-user-optional-fields.
5604
5605*** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
5606(use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
5607
5608*** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
5609entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
5610appropriate functions.
5611
5612*** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
5613entries. They are bound by default to M-C-l and M-C-h.
5614
5615*** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
5616been cleaned.
5617
5618*** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
5619bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
5620
5621*** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
5622shall be delimited.
5623
5624*** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
5625bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
5626bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
5627
5628*** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
5629field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
5630prefixed with `ALT'.
5631
5632*** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
5633bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
5634formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
5635documentation).
5636
5637*** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
5638documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
5639for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
5640
5641*** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
5642comma should be inserted at end of last field.
5643
5644*** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
5645alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
5646signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
5647
5648*** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
5649
5650*** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
5651
5652*** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
5653from alien sources.
5654
5655*** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
5656to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
5657crossref entries.
5658
5659*** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
5660region.
5661
5662*** Added support for imenu.
5663
5664*** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
5665of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
5666`compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
5667`next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
5668
5669*** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
5670from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
5671
5672** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
5673
30a009a5 5674** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
047f434a 5675
a933dad1
DL
5676** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
5677functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
5678Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
5679as an argument.
5680
5681When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
5682and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
5683
5684** browse-url changes
5685
5686*** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
5687Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
5688(browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
5689non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
5690customization variables.
5691
5692*** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
5693
5694*** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
5695lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
5696(e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
5697
5698** Changes in Ediff
5699
5700*** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
5701pops up the Info file for this command.
5702
5703*** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
5704the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
5705merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
5706directories).
5707
5708*** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
5709and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
5710files in the same directory.
5711
5712*** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
5713The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
5714related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
5715
5716** Changes in Viper
5717
5718*** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
79214ddf 5719*** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
a933dad1
DL
5720 instead of vip-.
5721*** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
79214ddf 5722*** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
a933dad1
DL
5723Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
5724*** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
5725*** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
5726*** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
5727color when Viper is in insert state.
5728*** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
5729Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
5730viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
5731
5732** Etags changes.
5733
5734*** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
5735default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
5736Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
5737variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
5738not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
5739
5740*** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
5741
5742*** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
5743constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
5744
5745*** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
5746recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
5747In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
5748
5749*** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
5750C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
5751recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
5752methods and protocols.
5753
5754*** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
5755.cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
5756column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
5757paragraph name.
5758
5759*** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
5760an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
5761at least M times and as many as N times.
5762
5763** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
5764in files has changed slightly.
5765
5766With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
5767time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
5768This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
5769with old time-stamp-format values.
5770
5771In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
5772(`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
5773This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
5774reasons.
5775
5776In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
5777natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
5778fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
5779(`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
5780time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
5781specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
5782
5783Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
5784case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
5785truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
5786
5787The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
5788being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
5789future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
5790recommended now will continue to work then.
5791
5792See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
5793details.
5794
5795** There are some additional major modes:
5796
5797dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
5798m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
5799meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
5800
5801** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
5802copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
5803into Emacs.
5804
5805** New Lisp packages include:
5806
5807*** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
5808
5809*** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
5810be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
5811
5812*** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
5813
5814*** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
5815in shell buffers.
5816
5817*** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
5818See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
5819and `elint-defun'.
5820
5821*** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
5822meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
5823ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
5824strings or comments.
5825
5826These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
5827abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
5828you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
5829insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
5830at these points.
5831
5832*** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
5833can visit them by short forms of their names.
5834
5835*** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
5836Emacs Lisp function at point.
5837
5838*** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
5839
5840*** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
5841switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
5842
5843*** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
5844
5845*** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
5846
5847*** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
5848
5849*** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
5850from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
5851
5852*** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
5853You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
5854inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
5855original place after inserting the copy.
5856
5857*** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
5858on the buffer.
5859
5860You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
5861velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
5862(with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
5863
5864Enable mouse-drag with:
5865 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
5866-or-
5867 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
5868
5869*** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
5870mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
5871
5872*** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
5873It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
5874
5875*** ogonek
5876
5877The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
5878Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
5879platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
5880TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
5881ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
5882prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
5883instance) and vice versa.
5884
5885To use this package load it using
5886 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
5887Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
79214ddf 5888 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
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5889 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
5890The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
5891ways of customization in `.emacs'.
5892
5893*** Interface to ph.
5894
5895Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
5896
5897The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
5898services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
5899these servers.
5900
5901*** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
5902
5903*** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
5904You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
5905while the real cursor does not move.
5906
5907*** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
5908for visiting your favorite web sites.
5909
5910*** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
5911so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
5912
5913** movemail change
5914
5915Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
5916mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
5917supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
5918user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
5919
5920This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
5921\f
5922* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
5923
5924** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
5925
5926Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
5927end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
5928Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
5929file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
5930file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
5931
5932To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
5933C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
5934coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
5935specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
5936LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
5937save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
5938\f
5939* Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
5940
5941** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
5942Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
5943vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
5944Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
5945
5946** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
5947to start with w32- instead of win32-.
5948
5949In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
5950don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
5951"win".
5952
5953** Basic Lisp changes
5954
5955*** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
5956evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
5957
5958*** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
5959be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
5960or by the user.
5961
5962The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
5963
5964*** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
5965
5966(when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
5967(unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
5968
5969*** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
5970usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
5971its argument.
5972
5973*** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
5974
5975*** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
5976
5977*** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
5978
5979*** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
5980error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
5981include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
5982`format' function.
5983
5984*** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
5985or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
5986whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
5987
5988*** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
5989either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
5990adding one of these suffixes.
5991
5992*** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
5993which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
79214ddf 5994If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
a933dad1
DL
5995
5996We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
5997because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
5998
5999*** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
6000
6001*** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
6002You must load the `cl' library to define it.
6003
6004*** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
6005conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
6006
6007 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
6008
6009BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
6010BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
6011
6012*** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
6013choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
6014restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
6015works using `save-current-buffer'.
6016
6017*** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
6018write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
6019of the last form.
6020
6021*** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
6022which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
6023last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
6024as the last form.
6025
6026*** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
6027characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
6028matches.
6029
6030For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
6031
6032*** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
6033with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
6034Then it returns that string.
6035
6036For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
6037
6038(with-output-to-string
6039 (princ "The buffer is ")
6040 (princ (buffer-name)))
6041
6042returns "The buffer is foo".
6043
6044** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
6045is non-nil.
6046
6047These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
6048buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
6049characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
6050
6051*** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
6052a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
6053
6054Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
6055character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
6056Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
6057position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
6058characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
6059 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
6060
6061ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
6062Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
6063non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
6064characters".
6065
6066The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
6067through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
6068"leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
6069range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
6070leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
6071
6072*** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
6073(forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
6074multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
6075character, which may be more than one buffer position.
6076
6077This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
6078always one buffer position, need to be changed.
6079
6080However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
79214ddf 6081
a933dad1
DL
6082*** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
6083because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
6084have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
6085the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
6086guaranteed.
6087
6088*** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
6089between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
6090character).
6091
6092When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
6093
6094 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
6095 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
6096 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
6097 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
6098 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
6099
6100*** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
6101
6102*** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
6103`length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
6104more than the number of characters.
6105
6106You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
6107it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
6108\xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
6109is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
6110follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
6111newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
6112
6113*** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
6114and returns a string containing those characters.
6115
6116*** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
6117(sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
6118counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
6119character, sref signals an error.
6120
6121*** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
6122in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
6123string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
6124
6125*** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
6126in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
6127region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
6128
6129*** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
6130the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
6131to a vector of the characters in it.
6132
6133*** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
6134of a string. You call it as follows:
6135
6136 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
6137
6138This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
6139STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
6140This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
6141Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
6142it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
6143
6144*** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
6145if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
6146
6147*** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
6148if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
6149
6150*** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
6151to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
6152not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
6153which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
6154
6155(truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
6156
6157This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
6158
6159The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
6160If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
6161are not included in the resulting value.
6162
6163The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
6164at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
6165WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
6166is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
6167
6168If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
6169place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
6170character extends across that column), then the padding character
6171PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
6172string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
6173column START-COLUMN.
6174
6175*** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
6176the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
6177necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
6178difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
6179changed text, before the change.
6180
6181*** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
6182sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
6183one character set for each script, not for each language.
6184
6185**** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
6186
6187**** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
6188
6189**** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
6190set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
6191
6192**** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
6193name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
6194which identify the character within that character set.
6195
6196**** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
6197byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
6198opposite of split-char.
6199
6200**** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
6201of all the characters between BEG and END.
6202
6203**** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
6204of all the characters in a string.
6205
6206*** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
6207and specifying coding systems.
6208
6209**** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
6210system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
6211of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
6212(Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
6213and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
6214as what to do about code conversion.)
6215
6216**** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
6217name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
6218
6219**** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
6220for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
6221except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
6222
6223Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
6224which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
6225to match against a file name.
6226
6227VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
6228a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
6229decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
6230to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
6231systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
6232specifies the coding system for encoding.
6233
6234If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
6235or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
6236
6237**** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
6238the coding system to use for network sockets.
6239
6240Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
6241which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
6242either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
6243service names.
6244
6245VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
6246a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
6247decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
6248to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
6249systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
6250specifies the coding system for encoding.
6251
6252If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
6253or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
6254
6255**** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
6256for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
6257except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
6258start the subprocess.
6259
6260**** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
6261systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
6262when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
6263(OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
6264to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
6265
6266**** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
6267coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
6268subprocess.
6269
6270It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
6271but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
6272start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
6273connection permanently or until overridden.
6274
6275The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
6276file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
6277network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
6278coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
6279It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
6280system for one operation at a time.
6281
6282**** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
6283files, subprocesses or network connections.
6284
6285**** The function process-coding-system tells you what
6286coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
6287The value is a cons cell,
6288 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
6289where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
6290the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
6291input to the subprocess.
6292
6293**** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
6294change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
6295
6296** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
6297customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
6298you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
6299
6300You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
6301variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
6302information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
6303legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
6304customization.
6305
6306Thus, instead of writing
6307
6308 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
6309 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
6310
6311you would now write this:
6312
6313 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
6314 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
6315 :type 'boolean
6316 :group foo)
6317
6318The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
6319two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
6320describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
6321for a description of them.
6322
6323The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
6324should belong to. You define a new group like this:
6325
6326 (defgroup ispell nil
6327 "Spell checking using Ispell."
6328 :group 'processes)
6329
6330The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
6331group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
6332but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
6333to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
6334second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
6335
6336Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
6337package should have just one group; a more complex package should
6338have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
6339package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
6340first-level subgroups.
6341
6342** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
6343
6344This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
6345separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
6346
6347** easy-mmode
6348
6349The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
6350developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
6351only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
6352predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
6353`easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
6354`easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
6355
6356** Text property changes
6357
6358*** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
6359text property.
6360
6361*** The new functions next-char-property-change and
6362previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
6363place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
6364functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
6365starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
6366
6367If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
6368LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
6369of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
6370position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
6371
6372*** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
6373value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
6374is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
6375
6376** Changes in invisibility features
6377
6378*** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
6379hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
6380is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
6381should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
6382would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
6383make the overlay visible.
6384
6385During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
6386invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
6387needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
6388which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
6389the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
6390t when it should hide it.
6391
6392*** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
6393
6394Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
79214ddf
FP
6395invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
6396and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
a933dad1 6397Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
79214ddf 6398manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
a933dad1
DL
6399Here is an example of how to do this:
6400
6401 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
79214ddf 6402 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
a933dad1 6403 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
79214ddf 6404 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
a933dad1
DL
6405
6406 ...
6407 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
6408
6409 ...
6410 ;; When done with the overlays:
6411 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
6412 ;; Or respectively:
6413 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
6414
6415** Changes in syntax parsing.
6416
6417*** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
6418`parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
6419obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
6420`parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
6421
6422If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
6423is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
6424used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
6425
6426When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
6427character in the buffer is calculated thus:
6428
6429 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
6430 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
6431
6432 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
6433 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
6434 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
6435
6436 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
6437 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
6438 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
6439 determine the syntax type of the character.
6440
6441 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
6442 of the current buffer.
6443
6444*** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
6445value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
6446for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
6447
6448*** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
6449and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
6450only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
6451character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
6452another character with the same code (unless quoted).
6453
6454These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
6455text property.
6456
6457*** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
6458arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
6459of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
6460
6461*** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
6462(and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
6463element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
6464nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
6465string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
6466
6467*** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
6468syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
6469`font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
6470
6471** Changes in face features
6472
6473*** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
6474if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
6475
6476*** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
6477of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
6478
6479*** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
6480set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
6481
6482*** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
6483set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
6484
6485*** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
6486by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
6487and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
6488the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
6489overlay property).
6490
6491This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
6492arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
6493
6494** Changes in file-handling functions
6495
6496*** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
6497directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
6498they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
6499is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
6500
6501This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
6502begins with ~.
6503
6504*** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
6505it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
6506
6507*** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
6508the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
6509
6510*** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
6511as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
6512
6513*** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
6514character code conversion as well as other things.
6515
6516Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
6517(formerly it did not).
6518
6519*** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
6520environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
6521
6522*** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
6523instead of constant strings.
6524
6525*** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
6526to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
6527any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
6528
6529substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
6530in the same way as before.
6531
6532*** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
6533The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
6534which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
6535
6536*** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
6537error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
6538else, and returns nil.
6539
6540*** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
6541directory cannot be listed.
6542
6543** Changes in minibuffer input
6544
6545*** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
6546read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
6547additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
6548argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
6549ways:
6550
6551 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
6552 It is available through the history command M-n.
6553
6554*** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
6555read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
6556argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
6557minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
6558enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
6559
6560In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
6561argument in this way.
6562
6563*** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
6564from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
6565minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
6566
6567** Echo area features
6568
6569*** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
6570echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
6571minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
6572after the echo area is cleared.
6573
6574*** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
6575in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
6576
6577** Keyboard input features
6578
6579*** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
6580set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
6581
6582*** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
6583received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
6584by keyboard macros.
6585
6586** Frame-related changes
6587
6588*** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
6589creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
6590hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
6591
6592*** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
6593the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
6594has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
6595
6596*** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
6597selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
6598value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
6599in the selected frame.
6600
6601*** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
6602is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
6603which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
6604
6605** X Windows features
6606
6607*** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
6608x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
6609x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
6610
6611*** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
6612The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
6613
6614*** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
6615MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
6616A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
6617
6618If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
6619it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
6620
6621** Subprocess features
6622
6623*** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
6624functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
6625automatically.
6626
6627*** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
6628and returns the output from the command as a string.
6629
6630*** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
6631and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
6632
6633** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
6634does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
6635
6636** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
6637at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
6638goes after the other menu items.
6639
6640** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
79214ddf 6641of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
a933dad1
DL
6642around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
6643are in use.
6644
6645The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
6646series of several changes--if that seems safe.
6647
6648Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
6649after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
6650form.
6651
6652** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
6653is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
6654but its hook is still run.
6655
6656** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
6657for errors that are handled by condition-case.
6658
6659If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
6660regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
6661useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
6662
6663This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
6664are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
6665filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
6666warned.
6667
6668** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
6669way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
6670
6671** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
6672integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
6673functions like display-time.
6674
6675** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
6676name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
6677
6678** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
6679can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
6680is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
6681
6682** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
6683if there is an error in compilation.
6684
6685** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
6686switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
6687argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
6688they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
6689
6690** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
6691Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
6692the *scratch* buffer.
6693
6694** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
6695The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
6696where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
6697e.g., in Font Lock mode.
6698
6699** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
6700and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
6701It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
6702
6703** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
6704using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
6705variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
6706and compose-mail-other-frame.
6707
6708** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
6709can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
6710full name of the specified user will be returned.
6711
6712** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
6713of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
6714where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
6715in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
6716option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
6717files at all.
6718
6719** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
6720and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
6721width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
6722the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
6723
6724For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
6725minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
6726with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
6727is how %S normally pads to two positions.
6728
6729** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
6730
6731** imenu.el changes.
6732
6733You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
79214ddf 6734item from menu created by imenu.
a933dad1
DL
6735
6736An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
6737#include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
6738select one of those items.
6739\f
6740* Emacs 19.34 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
6741\f
6742* Changes in Emacs 19.33.
6743
6744** Bibtex mode no longer turns on Auto Fill automatically. (No major
6745mode should do that--it is the user's choice.)
6746
6747** The variable normal-auto-fill-function specifies the function to
6748use for auto-fill-function, if and when Auto Fill is turned on.
6749Major modes can set this locally to alter how Auto Fill works.
6750\f
6751* Editing Changes in Emacs 19.32
6752
6753** C-x f with no argument now signals an error.
6754To set the fill column at the current column, use C-u C-x f.
6755
6756** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
6757conversion. If you type the abbreviation with mixed case, and it
6758matches the beginning of the expansion including case, then the
6759expansion is copied verbatim. Using SPC M-/ to copy an additional
6760word always copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is
6761all caps.
6762
6763** On a non-windowing terminal, which can display only one Emacs frame
6764at a time, creating a new frame with C-x 5 2 also selects that frame.
6765
6766When using a display that can show multiple frames at once, C-x 5 2
6767does make the frame visible, but does not select it. This is the same
6768as in previous Emacs versions.
6769
6770** You can use C-x 5 2 to create multiple frames on MSDOS, just as on a
6771non-X terminal on Unix. Of course, only one frame is visible at any
6772time, since your terminal doesn't have the ability to display multiple
6773frames.
6774
6775** On Windows, set win32-pass-alt-to-system to a non-nil value
6776if you would like tapping the Alt key to invoke the Windows menu.
6777This feature is not enabled by default; since the Alt key is also the
6778Meta key, it is too easy and painful to activate this feature by
6779accident.
6780
6781** The command apply-macro-to-region-lines repeats the last defined
6782keyboard macro once for each complete line within the current region.
6783It does this line by line, by moving point to the beginning of that
6784line and then executing the macro.
6785
6786This command is not new, but was never documented before.
6787
6788** You can now use Mouse-1 to place the region around a string constant
6789(something surrounded by doublequote characters or other delimiter
6790characters of like syntax) by double-clicking on one of the delimiting
6791characters.
6792
6793** Font Lock mode
6794
6795*** Font Lock support modes
6796
6797Font Lock can be configured to use Fast Lock mode and Lazy Lock mode (see
6798below) in a flexible way. Rather than adding the appropriate function to the
6799hook font-lock-mode-hook, you can use the new variable font-lock-support-mode
6800to control which modes have Fast Lock mode or Lazy Lock mode turned on when
6801Font Lock mode is enabled.
6802
6803For example, to use Fast Lock mode when Font Lock mode is turned on, put:
6804
6805 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'fast-lock-mode)
6806
6807in your ~/.emacs.
6808
6809*** lazy-lock
6810
6811The lazy-lock package speeds up Font Lock mode by making fontification occur
6812only when necessary, such as when a previously unfontified part of the buffer
6813becomes visible in a window. When you create a buffer with Font Lock mode and
6814Lazy Lock mode turned on, the buffer is not fontified. When certain events
6815occur (such as scrolling), Lazy Lock makes sure that the visible parts of the
6816buffer are fontified. Lazy Lock also defers on-the-fly fontification until
6817Emacs has been idle for a given amount of time.
6818
6819To use this package, put in your ~/.emacs:
6820
6821 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'lazy-lock-mode)
6822
6823To control the package behaviour, see the documentation for `lazy-lock-mode'.
6824
6825** Changes in BibTeX mode.
6826
6827*** For all entries allow spaces and tabs between opening brace or
6828paren and key.
6829
6830*** Non-escaped double-quoted characters (as in `Sch"of') are now
6831supported.
6832
6833** Gnus changes.
6834
6835Gnus, the Emacs news reader, has undergone further rewriting. Many new
6836commands and variables have been added. There should be no
6837significant incompatibilities between this Gnus version and the
6838previously released version, except in the message composition area.
6839
6840Below is a list of the more user-visible changes. Coding changes
6841between Gnus 5.1 and 5.2 are more extensive.
6842
79214ddf 6843*** A new message composition mode is used. All old customization
a933dad1
DL
6844variables for mail-mode, rnews-reply-mode and gnus-msg are now
6845obsolete.
6846
6847*** Gnus is now able to generate "sparse" threads -- threads where
6848missing articles are represented by empty nodes.
6849
6850 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
6851
6852*** Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server.
6853
6854 To disable this: (setq gnus-message-archive-group nil)
6855
6856*** Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
79214ddf 6857referred.
a933dad1
DL
6858
6859*** Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions:
6860
6861 (setq gnus-use-grouplens t)
6862
6863*** A trn-line tree buffer can be displayed.
6864
6865 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
6866
6867*** An nn-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
79214ddf 6868buffers.
a933dad1
DL
6869
6870 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
6871
6872*** In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode:
6873
6874 `M-x gnus-binary-mode'
6875
6876*** Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy.
6877
6878 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
6879
6880*** Gnus can re-send and bounce mail.
6881
6882 Use the `S D r' and `S D b'.
6883
6884*** Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
6885is possible.
6886
6887 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
6888
6889*** Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
6890groups of groups.
6891
6892*** Caching is possible in virtual groups.
6893
6894*** nndoc now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews news
79214ddf 6895batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything else.
a933dad1
DL
6896
6897*** Gnus has a new backend (nnsoup) to create/read SOUP packets.
6898
6899*** The Gnus cache is much faster.
6900
6901*** Groups can be sorted according to many criteria.
6902
6903 For instance: (setq gnus-group-sort-function 'gnus-group-sort-by-rank)
6904
6905*** New group parameters have been introduced to set list-address and
6906expiration times.
6907
6908*** All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used.
6909
6910*** There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on
6911process marked articles on the `M P' submap.
6912
6913*** The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
6914articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
6915bound to keys on the `/' submap.
6916
6917*** Articles can be made persistent -- as an alternative to saving
6918articles with the `*' command.
6919
6920*** All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
6921
6922*** Article headers can be buttonized.
6923
6924 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head)
6925
6926*** All mail backends support fetching articles by Message-ID.
6927
79214ddf 6928*** Duplicate mail can now be treated properly. See the
a933dad1
DL
6929`nnmail-treat-duplicates' variable.
6930
6931*** All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
79214ddf 6932buffer.
a933dad1
DL
6933
6934*** Frames can be part of `gnus-buffer-configuration'.
6935
6936*** Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process.
6937
6938*** Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to filter spam.
6939
6940 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
6941
79214ddf 6942*** Groups can be made permanently visible.
a933dad1
DL
6943
6944 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
6945
79214ddf 6946*** Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
a933dad1
DL
6947
6948*** Gnus respects the Mail-Copies-To header.
6949
79214ddf 6950*** Threads can be gathered by looking at the References header.
a933dad1 6951
79214ddf 6952 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
a933dad1
DL
6953 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
6954
6955*** Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
79214ddf 6956refetching.
a933dad1
DL
6957
6958 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
6959
6960*** A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
6961buffer to allow easier treatment.
6962
6963*** Gnus can suggest where to save articles. See `gnus-split-methods'.
6964
6965*** Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving.
6966
6967 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
6968
6969*** gnus-uu can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
79214ddf 6970articles.
a933dad1
DL
6971
6972 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
6973
79214ddf 6974*** Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text.
a933dad1
DL
6975
6976*** Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
6977cited text to hide is now customizable.
6978
6979 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
6980
6981*** Boring headers can be hidden.
6982
6983 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-hide-boring-headers)
6984
6985*** Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
6986
6987*** Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
6988
6989The Gnus manual has been expanded. It explains all these new features
6990in greater detail.
6991\f
6992* Lisp Changes in Emacs 19.32
6993
6994** The function set-visited-file-name now accepts an optional
6995second argument NO-QUERY. If it is non-nil, then the user is not
6996asked for confirmation in the case where the specified file already
6997exists.
6998
6999** The variable print-length applies to printing vectors and bitvectors,
7000as well as lists.
7001
7002** The new function keymap-parent returns the parent keymap
7003of a given keymap.
7004
7005** The new function set-keymap-parent specifies a new parent for a
7006given keymap. The arguments are KEYMAP and PARENT. PARENT must be a
7007keymap or nil.
7008
7009** Sometimes menu keymaps use a command name, a symbol, which is really
7010an automatically generated alias for some other command, the "real"
7011name. In such a case, you should give that alias symbol a non-nil
7012menu-alias property. That property tells the menu system to look for
7013equivalent keys for the real name instead of equivalent keys for the
7014alias.
7015\f
7016* Editing Changes in Emacs 19.31
7017
7018** Freedom of the press restricted in the United States.
7019
7020Emacs has been censored in accord with the Communications Decency Act.
7021This includes removing some features of the doctor program. That law
7022was described by its supporters as a ban on pornography, but it bans
7023far more than that. The Emacs distribution has never contained any
7024pornography, but parts of it were nonetheless prohibited.
7025
7026For information on US government censorship of the Internet, and what
7027you can do to bring back freedom of the press, see the web site
7028`http://www.vtw.org/'.
7029
7030** A note about C mode indentation customization.
7031
7032The old (Emacs 19.29) ways of specifying a C indentation style
7033do not normally work in the new implementation of C mode.
7034It has its own methods of customizing indentation, which are
7035much more powerful than the old C mode. See the Editing Programs
7036chapter of the manual for details.
7037
7038However, you can load the library cc-compat to make the old
7039customization variables take effect.
7040
7041** Marking with the mouse.
7042
7043When you mark a region with the mouse, the region now remains
7044highlighted until the next input event, regardless of whether you are
7045using M-x transient-mark-mode.
7046
7047** Improved Windows NT/95 support.
7048
7049*** Emacs now supports scroll bars on Windows NT and Windows 95.
7050
7051*** Emacs now supports subprocesses on Windows 95. (Subprocesses used
7052to work on NT only and not on 95.)
7053
7054*** There are difficulties with subprocesses, though, due to problems
7055in Windows, beyond the control of Emacs. They work fine as long as
7056you run Windows applications. The problems arise when you run a DOS
7057application in a subprocesses. Since current shells run as DOS
7058applications, these problems are significant.
7059
7060If you run a DOS application in a subprocess, then the application is
7061likely to busy-wait, which means that your machine will be 100% busy.
7062However, if you don't mind the temporary heavy load, the subprocess
7063will work OK as long as you tell it to terminate before you start any
7064other DOS application as a subprocess.
7065
7066Emacs is unable to terminate or interrupt a DOS subprocess.
7067You have to do this by providing input directly to the subprocess.
7068
7069If you run two DOS applications at the same time in two separate
7070subprocesses, even if one of them is asynchronous, you will probably
7071have to reboot your machine--until then, it will remain 100% busy.
7072Windows simply does not cope when one Windows process tries to run two
7073separate DOS subprocesses. Typing CTL-ALT-DEL and then choosing
7074Shutdown seems to work although it may take a few minutes.
7075
7076** M-x resize-minibuffer-mode.
7077
7078This command, not previously mentioned in NEWS, toggles a mode in
7079which the minibuffer window expands to show as many lines as the
7080minibuffer contains.
7081
7082** `title' frame parameter and resource.
7083
7084The `title' X resource now specifies just the frame title, nothing else.
7085It does not affect the name used for looking up other X resources.
7086It works by setting the new `title' frame parameter, which likewise
7087affects just the displayed title of the frame.
7088
7089The `name' parameter continues to do what it used to do:
7090it specifies the frame name for looking up X resources,
7091and also serves as the default for the displayed title
7092when the `title' parameter is unspecified or nil.
7093
7094** Emacs now uses the X toolkit by default, if you have a new
7095enough version of X installed (X11R5 or newer).
7096
7097** When you compile Emacs with the Motif widget set, Motif handles the
7098F10 key by activating the menu bar. To avoid confusion, the usual
7099Emacs binding of F10 is replaced with a no-op when using Motif.
7100
7101If you want to be able to use F10 in Emacs, you can rebind the Motif
7102menubar to some other key which you don't use. To do so, add
7103something like this to your X resources file. This example rebinds
7104the Motif menu bar activation key to S-F12:
7105
7106 Emacs*defaultVirtualBindings: osfMenuBar : Shift<Key>F12
7107
7108** In overwrite mode, DEL now inserts spaces in most cases
7109to replace the characters it "deletes".
7110
7111** The Rmail summary now shows the number of lines in each message.
7112
7113** Rmail has a new command M-x unforward-rmail-message, which extracts
7114a forwarded message from the message that forwarded it. To use it,
7115select a message which contains a forwarded message and then type the command.
7116It inserts the forwarded message as a separate Rmail message
7117immediately after the selected one.
7118
7119This command also undoes the textual modifications that are standardly
7120made, as part of forwarding, by Rmail and other mail reader programs.
7121
7122** Turning off saving of .saves-... files in your home directory.
7123
7124Each Emacs session writes a file named .saves-... in your home
7125directory to record which files M-x recover-session should recover.
7126If you exit Emacs normally with C-x C-c, it deletes that file. If
7127Emacs or the operating system crashes, the file remains for M-x
7128recover-session.
7129
7130You can turn off the writing of these files by setting
7131auto-save-list-file-name to nil. If you do this, M-x recover-session
7132will not work.
7133
7134Some previous Emacs versions failed to delete these files even on
7135normal exit. This is fixed now. If you are thinking of turning off
7136this feature because of past experiences with versions that had this
7137bug, it would make sense to check whether you still want to do so
7138now that the bug is fixed.
7139
7140** Changes to Version Control (VC)
7141
7142There is a new variable, vc-follow-symlinks. It indicates what to do
7143when you visit a link to a file that is under version control.
7144Editing the file through the link bypasses the version control system,
7145which is dangerous and probably not what you want.
7146
7147If this variable is t, VC follows the link and visits the real file,
7148telling you about it in the echo area. If it is `ask' (the default),
7149VC asks for confirmation whether it should follow the link. If nil,
7150the link is visited and a warning displayed.
7151
7152** iso-acc.el now lets you specify a choice of language.
7153Languages include "latin-1" (the default) and "latin-2" (which
7154is designed for entering ISO Latin-2 characters).
7155
7156There are also choices for specific human languages such as French and
7157Portuguese. These are subsets of Latin-1, which differ in that they
7158enable only the accent characters needed for particular language.
7159The other accent characters, not needed for the chosen language,
7160remain normal.
7161
7162** Posting articles and sending mail now has M-TAB completion on various
7163header fields (Newsgroups, To, CC, ...).
7164
7165Completion in the Newsgroups header depends on the list of groups
7166known to your news reader. Completion in the Followup-To header
7167offers those groups which are in the Newsgroups header, since
7168Followup-To usually just holds one of those.
7169
7170Completion in fields that hold mail addresses works based on the list
7171of local users plus your aliases. Additionally, if your site provides
7172a mail directory or a specific host to use for any unrecognized user
7173name, you can arrange to query that host for completion also. (See the
7174documentation of variables `mail-directory-process' and
7175`mail-directory-stream'.)
7176
7177** A greatly extended sgml-mode offers new features such as (to be configured)
7178skeletons with completing read for tags and attributes, typing named
7179characters including optionally all 8bit characters, making tags invisible
7180with optional alternate display text, skipping and deleting tag(pair)s.
7181
7182Note: since Emacs' syntax feature cannot limit the special meaning of ', " and
7183- to inside <>, for some texts the result, especially of font locking, may be
7184wrong (see `sgml-specials' if you get wrong results).
7185
7186The derived html-mode configures this with tags and attributes more or
7187less HTML3ish. It also offers optional quick keys like C-c 1 for
7188headline or C-c u for unordered list (see `html-quick-keys'). Edit /
7189Text Properties / Face or M-g combinations create tags as applicable.
7190Outline minor mode is supported and level 1 font-locking tries to
7191fontify tag contents (which only works when they fit on one line, due
7192to a limitation in font-lock).
7193
7194External viewing via browse-url can occur automatically upon saving.
7195
7196** M-x imenu-add-to-menubar now adds to the menu bar for the current
7197buffer only. If you want to put an Imenu item in the menu bar for all
7198buffers that use a particular major mode, use the mode hook, as in
7199this example:
7200
7201 (add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook
7202 '(lambda () (imenu-add-to-menubar "Index")))
7203
7204** Changes in BibTeX mode.
7205
7206*** Field names may now contain digits, hyphens, and underscores.
7207
7208*** Font Lock mode is now supported.
7209
7210*** bibtex-make-optional-field is no longer interactive.
7211
7212*** If bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is non-nil, inserting new
7213entries is now done with a faster algorithm. However, inserting
7214will fail in this case if the buffer contains invalid entries or
7215isn't in sorted order, so you should finish each entry with C-c C-c
7216(bibtex-close-entry) after you have inserted or modified it.
7217The default value of bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is nil.
7218
7219*** Function `show-all' is no longer bound to a key, since C-u C-c C-q
7220does the same job.
7221
7222*** Entries with quotes inside quote-delimited fields (as `author =
7223"Stefan Sch{\"o}f"') are now supported.
7224
7225*** Case in field names doesn't matter anymore when searching for help
7226text.
7227
7228** Font Lock mode
7229
7230*** Global Font Lock mode
7231
7232Font Lock mode can be turned on globally, in buffers that support it, by the
7233new command global-font-lock-mode. You can use the new variable
7234font-lock-global-modes to control which modes have Font Lock mode automagically
7235turned on. By default, this variable is set so that Font Lock mode is turned
7236on globally where the buffer mode supports it.
7237
7238For example, to automagically turn on Font Lock mode where supported, put:
7239
7240 (global-font-lock-mode t)
7241
7242in your ~/.emacs.
7243
7244*** Local Refontification
7245
7246In Font Lock mode, editing a line automatically refontifies that line only.
7247However, if your change alters the syntactic context for following lines,
7248those lines remain incorrectly fontified. To refontify them, use the new
7249command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block).
7250
7251In certain major modes, M-g M-g refontifies the entire current function.
7252(The variable font-lock-mark-block-function controls how to find the
7253current function.) In other major modes, M-g M-g refontifies 16 lines
7254above and below point.
7255
7256With a prefix argument N, M-g M-g refontifies N lines above and below point.
7257
7258** Follow mode
7259
7260Follow mode is a new minor mode combining windows showing the same
7261buffer into one tall "virtual window". The windows are typically two
7262side-by-side windows. Follow mode makes them scroll together as if
7263they were a unit. To use it, go to a frame with just one window,
7264split it into two side-by-side windows using C-x 3, and then type M-x
7265follow-mode.
7266
7267M-x follow-mode turns off Follow mode if it is already enabled.
7268
7269To display two side-by-side windows and activate Follow mode, use the
7270command M-x follow-delete-other-windows-and-split.
7271
7272** hide-show changes.
7273
7274The hooks hs-hide-hooks and hs-show-hooks have been renamed
7275to hs-hide-hook and hs-show-hook, to follow the convention for
7276normal hooks.
7277
7278** Simula mode now has a menu containing the most important commands.
7279The new command simula-indent-exp is bound to C-M-q.
7280
7281** etags can now handle programs written in Erlang. Files are
7282recognised by the extensions .erl and .hrl. The tagged lines are
7283those that begin a function, record, or macro.
7284
7285** MSDOS Changes
7286
7287*** It is now possible to compile Emacs with the version 2 of DJGPP.
7288Compilation with DJGPP version 1 also still works.
7289
7290*** The documentation of DOS-specific aspects of Emacs was rewritten
7291and expanded; see the ``MS-DOS'' node in the on-line docs.
7292
7293*** Emacs now uses ~ for backup file names, not .bak.
7294
7295*** You can simulate mouse-3 on two-button mice by simultaneously
7296pressing both mouse buttons.
7297
7298*** A number of packages and commands which previously failed or had
7299restricted functionality on MS-DOS, now work. The most important ones
79214ddf 7300are:
a933dad1
DL
7301
7302**** Printing (both with `M-x lpr-buffer' and with `ps-print' package)
7303now works.
7304
7305**** `Ediff' works (in a single-frame mode).
7306
7307**** `M-x display-time' can be used on MS-DOS (due to the new
7308implementation of Emacs timers, see below).
7309
7310**** `Dired' supports Unix-style shell wildcards.
7311
7312**** The `c-macro-expand' command now works as on other platforms.
7313
7314**** `M-x recover-session' works.
7315
7316**** `M-x list-colors-display' displays all the available colors.
7317
7318**** The `TPU-EDT' package works.
7319\f
7320* Lisp changes in Emacs 19.31.
7321
7322** The function using-unix-filesystems on Windows NT and Windows 95
7323tells Emacs to read and write files assuming that they reside on a
7324remote Unix filesystem. No CR/LF translation is done on any files in
7325this case. Invoking using-unix-filesystems with t activates this
7326behavior, and invoking it with any other value deactivates it.
7327
7328** Change in system-type and system-configuration values.
7329
7330The value of system-type on a Linux-based GNU system is now `lignux',
7331not `linux'. This means that some programs which use `system-type'
7332need to be changed. The value of `system-configuration' will also
7333be different.
7334
7335It is generally recommended to use `system-configuration' rather
7336than `system-type'.
7337
7338See the file LINUX-GNU in this directory for more about this.
7339
7340** The functions shell-command and dired-call-process
7341now run file name handlers for default-directory, if it has them.
7342
7343** Undoing the deletion of text now restores the positions of markers
7344that pointed into or next to the deleted text.
7345
7346** Timers created with run-at-time now work internally to Emacs, and
7347no longer use a separate process. Therefore, they now work more
7348reliably and can be used for shorter time delays.
7349
7350The new function run-with-timer is a convenient way to set up a timer
7351to run a specified amount of time after the present. A call looks
7352like this:
7353
7354 (run-with-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
7355
7356SECS says how many seconds should elapse before the timer happens.
7357It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the timer
7358becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments ARGS.
7359
7360REPEAT gives the interval for repeating the timer (measured in
7361seconds). It may be an integer or a floating point number. nil or 0
7362means don't repeat at all--call FUNCTION just once.
7363
7364*** with-timeout provides an easy way to do something but give
7365up if too much time passes.
7366
7367 (with-timeout (SECONDS TIMEOUT-FORMS...) BODY...)
7368
7369This executes BODY, but gives up after SECONDS seconds.
7370If it gives up, it runs the TIMEOUT-FORMS and returns the value
7371of the last one of them. Normally it returns the value of the last
7372form in BODY.
7373
7374*** You can now arrange to call a function whenever Emacs is idle for
7375a certain length of time. To do this, call run-with-idle-timer. A
7376call looks like this:
7377
7378 (run-with-idle-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
7379
7380SECS says how many seconds of idleness should elapse before the timer
7381runs. It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the
7382timer becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments
7383ARGS.
7384
7385Emacs becomes idle whenever it finishes executing a keyboard or mouse
7386command. It remains idle until it receives another keyboard or mouse
7387command.
7388
7389REPEAT, if non-nil, means this timer should be activated again each
7390time Emacs becomes idle and remains idle for SECS seconds The timer
7391does not repeat if Emacs *remains* idle; it runs at most once after
7392each time Emacs becomes idle.
7393
7394If REPEAT is nil, the timer runs just once, the first time Emacs is
7395idle for SECS seconds.
7396
7397*** post-command-idle-hook is now obsolete; you shouldn't use it at
7398all, because it interferes with the idle timer mechanism. If your
7399programs use post-command-idle-hook, convert them to use idle timers
7400instead.
7401
7402*** y-or-n-p-with-timeout lets you ask a question but give up if
7403there is no answer within a certain time.
7404
7405 (y-or-n-p-with-timeout PROMPT SECONDS DEFAULT-VALUE)
7406
7407asks the question PROMPT (just like y-or-n-p). If the user answers
7408within SECONDS seconds, it returns the answer that the user gave.
7409Otherwise it gives up after SECONDS seconds, and returns DEFAULT-VALUE.
7410
7411** Minor change to `encode-time': you can now pass more than seven
7412arguments. If you do that, the first six arguments have the usual
7413meaning, the last argument is interpreted as the time zone, and the
7414arguments in between are ignored.
7415
7416This means that it works to use the list returned by `decode-time' as
7417the list of arguments for `encode-time'.
7418
7419** The default value of load-path now includes the directory
7420/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp In addition to
7421/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp. You can use this new directory for
7422site-specific Lisp packages that belong with a particular Emacs
7423version.
7424
7425It is not unusual for a Lisp package that works well in one Emacs
7426version to cause trouble in another. Sometimes packages need updating
7427for incompatible changes; sometimes they look at internal data that
7428has changed; sometimes the package has been installed in Emacs itself
7429and the installed version should be used. Whatever the reason for the
7430problem, this new feature makes it easier to solve.
7431
7432** When your program contains a fixed file name (like .completions or
7433.abbrev.defs), the file name usually needs to be different on operating
7434systems with limited file name syntax.
7435
7436Now you can avoid ad-hoc conditionals by using the function
7437convert-standard-filename to convert the file name to a proper form
7438for each operating system. Here is an example of use, from the file
7439completions.el:
7440
7441(defvar save-completions-file-name
7442 (convert-standard-filename "~/.completions")
7443 "*The filename to save completions to.")
7444
7445This sets the variable save-completions-file-name to a value that
7446depends on the operating system, because the definition of
7447convert-standard-filename depends on the operating system. On
7448Unix-like systems, it returns the specified file name unchanged. On
7449MS-DOS, it adapts the name to fit the limitations of that system.
7450
7451** The interactive spec N now returns the numeric prefix argument
7452rather than the raw prefix argument. (It still reads a number using the
7453minibuffer if there is no prefix argument at all.)
7454
7455** When a process is deleted, this no longer disconnects the process
7456marker from its buffer position.
7457
7458** The variable garbage-collection-messages now controls whether
7459Emacs displays a message at the beginning and end of garbage collection.
7460The default is nil, meaning there are no messages.
7461
7462** The variable debug-ignored-errors specifies certain kinds of errors
7463that should not enter the debugger. Its value is a list of error
7464condition symbols and/or regular expressions. If the error has any
7465of the condition symbols listed, or if any of the regular expressions
7466matches the error message, then that error does not enter the debugger,
7467regardless of the value of debug-on-error.
7468
7469This variable is initialized to match certain common but uninteresting
7470errors that happen often during editing.
7471
7472** The new function error-message-string converts an error datum
7473into its error message. The error datum is what condition-case
7474puts into the variable, to describe the error that happened.
7475
7476** Anything that changes which buffer appears in a given window
7477now runs the window-scroll-functions for that window.
7478
7479** The new function get-buffer-window-list returns a list of windows displaying
7480a buffer. The function is called with the buffer (a buffer object or a buffer
7481name) and two optional arguments specifying the minibuffer windows and frames
7482to search. Therefore this function takes optional args like next-window etc.,
7483and not get-buffer-window.
7484
7485** buffer-substring now runs the hook buffer-access-fontify-functions,
7486calling each function with two arguments--the range of the buffer
7487being accessed. buffer-substring-no-properties does not call them.
7488
7489If you use this feature, you should set the variable
7490buffer-access-fontified-property to a non-nil symbol, which is a
7491property name. Then, if all the characters in the buffer range have a
7492non-nil value for that property, the buffer-access-fontify-functions
7493are not called. When called, these functions should put a non-nil
7494property on the text that they fontify, so that they won't get called
7495over and over for the same text.
7496
7497** Changes in lisp-mnt.el
7498
7499*** The lisp-mnt package can now recognize file headers that are written
7500in the formats used by the `what' command and the RCS `ident' command:
7501
7502;; @(#) HEADER: text
7503;; $HEADER: text $
7504
7505in addition to the normal
7506
7507;; HEADER: text
7508
7509*** The commands lm-verify and lm-synopsis are now interactive. lm-verify
7510checks that the library file has proper sections and headers, and
7511lm-synopsis extracts first line "synopsis'"information.
7512\f
7513* For older news, see the file ONEWS.
7514
7515----------------------------------------------------------------------
7516Copyright information:
7517
404fa7d6 7518Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
a933dad1
DL
7519
7520 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
7521 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
7522 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
7523 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
7524
7525 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
7526 of this document, or of portions of it,
7527 under the above conditions, provided also that they
7528 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
7529\f
7530Local variables:
7531mode: outline
7532paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
7533end: