(Qfunction_documentation): New variable.
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1GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 5 Jan 2000
2Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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3See the end for copying conditions.
4
5Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
6For older news, see the file ONEWS.
7
8\f
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9* Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
10
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11** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
12the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
13
14** There are new configure options associated with the support for
15images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option to list them.
16\f
17* Changes in Emacs 21.1
18
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19** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
20compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
21this behavior.
22
23The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs' byte
24compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
25Emacs dump core.
26
27** New X resources recognized
100b3cbb 28
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29*** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
30whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
31is useful for debugging X problems.
32
33Example:
34
699238d9 35 emacs.synchronous: true
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37*** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
38visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
39the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
40and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
41visual class names are
42
43 TrueColor
44 PseudoColor
45 DirectColor
46 StaticColor
47 GrayScale
48 StaticGray
49
50Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
51`pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
52meaning.
53
54The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
55supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
56`visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
57visual.
58
59Example:
60
699238d9 61 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
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62
63*** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
64specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
65default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
66resource values are `true' or `on'.
67
68Example:
69
699238d9 70 emacs.privateColormap: true
100b3cbb 71
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72** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
73more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
74now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
75
42088c12 76** User-option `show-cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to
c60ea02e 77display the cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is
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78shown, if non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown. This option can
79be customized.
c60ea02e 80
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81** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
82
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83** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
84all frames except the selected one.
85
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86** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
87to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
88
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89** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
90the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X either in the echo
91area or with tooltips.
92
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93** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
94read mail from the menu etc.
95
96** Changes in Outline mode.
97
98There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
99`outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
100the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
101
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102** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
103groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
104
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105** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either M-x clone-buffer
106or C-u m <entry> RET. M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and
107several other special buffers.
108
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109** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
110under XFree86. To enable this, simply put (mwheel-install) in your
111.emacs file.
112
113The variables `mwheel-follow-mouse' and `mwheel-scroll-amount'
114determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
115
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116** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
117abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
118`directory-abbrev-alist'.
119
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120** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
121is running in batch mode. For example,
122
123 (message "%s" (read t))
124
125will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
126to standard output.
127
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128** Faces and frame parameters.
129
130There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
131Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
132`scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
133`scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
134sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
135for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
136parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
137
138Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
139`default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
79214ddf 140`foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
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141`default' face and vice versa.
142
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143** New face `menu'.
144
145The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
146Setting the font of LessTif/Motif menus is currently not supported;
147attempts to set the font are ignored in this case.
148
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149** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
150
151The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
152colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
153correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
154the screen gamma of a frame's display.
155
156PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
157in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
158color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
159
160The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
161`ScreenGamma'.
162
163** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
164
165The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
166Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
167oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
168of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
169the text.
170
171** Emacs has a new face implementation.
172
173The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
174font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
175height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
176These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
177specify a font.
178
179Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
180These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
181under Lisp changes, below.
182
183** New default font is Courier 12pt.
184
185** When using a windowing terminal, Emacs window now has a cursor of
186its own. When the window is selected, the cursor is solid; otherwise,
187it is hollow.
188
189** Bitmap areas to the left and right of windows are used to display
190truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
191foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
192customizing face `fringe'.
193
194** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default. You
195can change its appearance by modifying the face `modeline'.
196
197** LessTif support.
198
199Emacs now runs with LessTif (see <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will
200need a version 0.88.1 or later.
201
202** Toolkit scroll bars.
203
204Emacs now uses toolkit scrollbars if available. When configured for
205LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scrollbar. Otherwise, when
206configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
207bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
208bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
209Emacs.
210
211When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
212Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
213Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
214Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
215define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
216`s/freebsd.h' as an example.
217
218Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
219a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
220directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
221different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
222system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
223add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
224
225The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
226`float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
227This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
228image configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
229Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
230
231** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
232
233When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
234widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
235Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
236
237** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
238
239When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
240whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
241defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
242highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
243displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
244whitespace.
245
246** Busy-cursor.
247
248Emacs can optionally display a busy-cursor under X. You can turn the
249display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
250
251** Blinking cursor
252
253M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
254terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
255and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
256the group `cursor'.
257
258** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
259
260This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
261generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
262See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
263details.
264
265Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
266have to do anything to activate it.
267
268** Tabs and variable-width text.
269
270Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
271defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
272independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
273Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
274
275** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
276
277*** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
278
279 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
280
281The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the Motif
282one.
283
284*** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, like in
285Motif.
286
287** Hscrolling in C code.
288
289Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically.
290
291** Tool bar support.
292
293Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
294how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level changes.
295
296** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
297
298Different parts of the mode line under X have been made
299mouse-sensitive. Moving the mouse to a mouse-sensitive part in the mode
300line changes the appearance of the mouse pointer to an arrow, and help
301about available mouse actions is displayed either in the echo area, or
302in the tooltip window if you have enabled one.
303
304Currently, the following actions have been defined:
305
306- Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line switches between two
307buffers.
308
309- Mouse-2 on the buffer-name switches to the next buffer, and
310M-mouse-2 switches to the previous buffer in the buffer list.
311
312- Mouse-3 on the buffer-name displays a buffer menu.
313
559cee90 314- Mouse-2 on the read-only status in the mode line (`%' or `*')
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315toggles the read-only status.
316
317- Mouse-3 on the mode name display a minor-mode menu.
318
319** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
320
321When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
e33b0397 322from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
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323non-nil.
324
325** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
326
327Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
328Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
329the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
330italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
331Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
332attributes like overlines, strike-throught, box are ignored.
333
334** Sound support
335
336Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
337(Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
338Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
339(*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
340to enable sound support.
341
342** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
343the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
344forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
345value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
346users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
347even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
348
349The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
350
351** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
352
353As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
354drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
355`x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
356
357** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
358bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi).
359
360This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
361`indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
362variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
363
364** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
365
366When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
367value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggessively' is a
368number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
369fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
370
371When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
372value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggessively' is a
373number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
374fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
375
376** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
377notably at the end of lines.
378
379All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
380spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
381
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382There is a new command M-x replace-rectangle.
383
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384** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
385query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
386after each match to get the replacement text.
387
388** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
389
390If a message is longer than one line, or mini-buffer contents are
391longer than one line, Emacs now resizes the mini-window unless it is
392on a frame of its own. You can control the maximum mini-window size
393by setting the following variable:
394
395- User option: max-mini-window-height
396
397Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
398fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
399specifies a number of lines. If nil, don't resize.
400
401Default is 0.25.
402
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403** Changes to hideshow.el
404
405Hideshow is now at version 5.x. It uses a new algorithms for block
406selection and traversal and includes more isearch support.
407
408*** Generalized block selection and traversal
409
410A block is now recognized by three things: its start and end regexps
411(both strings), and a match-data selector (an integer) specifying
412which sub-expression in the start regexp serves as the place where a
413`forward-sexp'-like function can operate. Hideshow always adjusts
414point to this sub-expression before calling `hs-forward-sexp-func'
415(which for most modes evaluates to `forward-sexp').
416
417If the match-data selector is not specified, it defaults to zero,
418i.e., the entire start regexp is valid, w/ no prefix. This is
419backwards compatible with previous versions of hideshow. Please see
420the docstring for variable `hs-special-modes-alist' for details.
421
422*** Isearch support for updating mode line
423
424During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active, hidden
425blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' records the
426line at the beginning of the opened block (preceding the hidden
427portion of the buffer), and the mode line is refreshed. When a block
428is re-hidden, the variable is set to nil.
429
430To show `hs-headline' in the mode line, you may wish to include
431something like this in your .emacs.
432
433 (add-hook 'hs-minor-mode-hook
434 (lambda ()
435 (add-to-list 'mode-line-format 'hs-headline)))
436
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437** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
438
439If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes an
440entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
441log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
442
443New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the current
444buffer, fixing old-style date formats if necessary.
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445
446Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log entries
447if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
448
449The search for a file's version number is performed based on regular
450expressions from `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be
451cutomized. Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of
452a file.
453
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454** Changes in Font Lock
455
456*** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
457font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major
458mode.
459
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460** Comint (subshell) changes
461
462Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
463and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
464
465The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
466buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
467buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
468
469The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
470M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
471the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
472
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473** Changes to Rmail mode
474
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475*** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
476to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
477Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
478with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
479for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
480
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481*** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
482like `j'.
483
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484*** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
485specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
2d5e9b54 486digest message.
e26cec67 487
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488** Changes to TeX mode
489
490The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
491`latex-mode'.
492
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493** Changes to RefTeX mode
494
495*** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
496 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
497 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
498 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
499 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
500 can be edited from that buffer.
501
502*** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
503 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
504 `A' to use all marked entries).
505
506*** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
507 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
508
509*** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
510 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
511 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
512 been cited.
513
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514** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
515The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
516semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
517in column 1 are always made leaves.
518
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519** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
520has the following new features:
521
522*** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
523may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
524to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
525time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
526
527*** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
528feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
529file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
530compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
531pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
532defaults to 1.
533
534** Tooltips.
535
536Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
537mouse position. To use them, use the Lisp package `tooltip' which you
538can access via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
539
540Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
541variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
542the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
543tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
544
545** Customize changes
546
547*** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
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548`State' menu to add comments. Note that customization comments will
549cause the customizations to fail in earlier versions of Emacs.
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550
551*** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
552Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
553default).
554
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555*** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
556between custom options. Example:
557
558 (defcustom default-input-method nil
559 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
560 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
561 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
562 :group 'mule
563 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
564 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
565
566This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
567current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
568first in a custom-set-variables statement.
569
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570** New features in evaluation commands
571
572The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
573modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
574print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the
575customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
576eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
577
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578** Dired changes
579
580*** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
581command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
582is, delete only empty directories.
583
584*** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
585command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
586copy directories recursively.
587
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588*** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
589in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
590the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
591
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592** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
593use the -f option when sending mail.
594
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595** CC mode changes.
596
597Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
598current user setups (although it's believed that these
599incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
600However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
601back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
602compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
603release.
604
605*** New initialization procedure for the style system.
606When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
607variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
608take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
609is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
610settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
611possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
612Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
613
614By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
615special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
616the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
617of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
618above.
619
620Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
621when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
622function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
623call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
624then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
625values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
626only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
627function documentation for more info.
628
629The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
630especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
631with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
632intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
633such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
634is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
635configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
636global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
637
638(Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
639
640**** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
641This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
642
643This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
644variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
645completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
646the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
647empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
648style system.
649
650**** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
651In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
652c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
653as far as possible.
654
655*** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
656CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
657surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
658chapter about this in the manual.
659
660**** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
661The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
662recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
663primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
664adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
665
666**** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
667This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
668c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
669
670**** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
671This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
672
673It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
674Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
675A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
676inside CC Mode.
677
678Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
679causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
680the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
681available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
682cc-mode/).
683
684**** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
685The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
686specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
687literals.
688
689**** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
690It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
691prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
692you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
693this function.
694
695*** Fixes to IDL mode.
696It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
697to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
698struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
699Thanks to Eric Eide.
700
701*** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
702It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
703opening braces hangs and when they don't.
704
705**** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
706
707*** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
708See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
709better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
710and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
711
712*** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
713previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
714the column specified by comment-column.
715
716*** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
717In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
718is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
719prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
720contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
721don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
722
723*** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
724instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
725arguments.
726
727*** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
728
729*** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
730c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
731c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
732variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
733Provan).
734
735*** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
736
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GM
737** Isearch changes
738
739*** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
a933dad1
DL
740selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
741
87be76f6
GM
742*** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
743
d35fce81 744Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
87be76f6
GM
745`isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
746search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
747before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
748highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
749`secondary-selection'.
750
751The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
752will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
753Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
754using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
755usual snappy response.
756
757If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
758matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
759set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
760isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
761
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762** Changes in sort.el
763
764The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
12c25bdc 765as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
35384f06
GM
766new user-option sort-numberic-base can be used to specify a default
767numeric base.
87be76f6 768
d7b511c4
GM
769** Changes to Ange-ftp
770
771*** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
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DL
772names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
773sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
774
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GM
775*** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
776ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
777
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GM
778** Shell script mode changes.
779
780Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
781derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizeable, and
782sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
783
79214ddf
FP
784** Etags changes.
785
786*** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
787
aca0be23 788*** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
8dc78b52
FP
789possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
790{lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
791This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
792a regular expression. The manual contains details.
aca0be23 793
79214ddf
FP
794*** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
795declarations when given the --declarations option.
796
797*** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
aca0be23 798"operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
79214ddf
FP
799
800*** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
801types.
802
803*** In Fortran, procedure is no more tagged.
804
805*** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
806
807*** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
808are now tagged.
809
810*** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
811variables are tagged.
812
813*** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
814
8dc78b52
FP
815*** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
816for PSWrap.
79214ddf 817
f6737cde
GM
818** Changes in etags.el
819
3f6e4b8b
GM
820*** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
821tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
822is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
823
f6737cde
GM
824*** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
825the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
826
827If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
828FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
829TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
830obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
831
832TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
833
834FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
835List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
836
837A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
838
839 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
840 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
841 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
842
843*** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
844of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
845
846*** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
847names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
848
fbc164de
PE
849** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
850and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
851LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
852
59c1bf85
DL
853** New language environments `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
854These correspond respectively to the ISO character sets 8859-14
855(Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign). There is
856currently no specific input method support for them.
857
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DL
858** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sqeuence-nos' to
859remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
860appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
861
862** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
863
6f8ea2ae
DL
864** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
865
a933dad1
DL
866** New modes and packages
867
5e5dff44
GM
868*** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
869authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
870
871The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
872the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
873the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
874Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
875even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
876single step.
877
878On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
879matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
880probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
881contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
882
f7136ee8
GM
883*** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
884unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
885actually modifying content of a buffer.
886
bbd9b566
GM
887*** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
888PostScript.
889
890Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
891
892The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
893
894 ; comment (until end of line)
895 A non-terminal
896 "C" terminal
897 ?C? special
898 $A default non-terminal
899 $"C" default terminal
900 $?C? default special
901 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
902 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
903 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
904 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
905 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
906 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
907 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
908 C+ one or more occurrences of C
909 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
910 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
911 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
912 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
913 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
914 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
915 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
916
917Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
918
99453a38
GM
919*** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
920align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
921determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
922example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
923equal signs of assignments.
924
559cee90
DL
925*** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
926paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
927
6448a6b3
GM
928*** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
929list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
930buffer menu with this package. You can use M-x bs-customize to
931customize the package.
932
249652b1
GM
933*** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
934replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
935is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
936and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
937not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
938which answers different needs.
939
3476b54a
GM
940*** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
941suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
942expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
943course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
944reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
945to be enabled.
946
8964fec7
SM
947*** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
948containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
949
a933dad1
DL
950*** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
951
952*** hl-line.el provides a minor mode to highlight the current line.
953
954*** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
955
956*** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
957Pascal) language.
958
959*** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
960the text at point.
961
962*** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
963
8d54eb69
DL
964*** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
965
a933dad1
DL
966*** whitespace.el ???
967
ebcfda83
GM
968*** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
969files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
970(very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
971interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
972often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
973uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
974codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
975
976*** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
977
978Here is an example of columns:
979
980horse apple bus
981dog pineapple car EXTRA
982porcupine strawberry airplane
983
984Doing the following settings:
985
986 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
987 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
988 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
989 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
990
991
992Selecting the lines above and typing:
993
994 M-x delimit-columns-region
995
996It results:
997
998[ horse , apple , bus , ]
999[ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
1000[ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
1001
1002delim-col has the following options:
1003
1004 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
1005 before all columns.
1006
1007 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
1008 between each column.
1009
1010 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
1011 after all columns.
1012
1013 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
1014 each column.
1015
1016delim-col has the following commands:
1017
1018 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
1019 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
1020
f507826c
GM
1021*** The package recentf.el maintains a menu for visiting files that
1022were operated on recently. When enabled, a new "Open Recent" submenu
1023is displayed in the "Files" menu.
1024
1025The recent files list is automatically saved across Emacs sessions.
1026
1027To enable/disable recentf use M-x recentf-mode.
1028
1029To enable recentf at Emacs startup use
1030M-x customize-variable RET recentf-mode RET.
1031
1032To change the number of recent files displayed and others options use
1033M-x customize-group RET recentf RET.
1034
8062f458
DL
1035*** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
1036text.
1037
36e24b82 1038*** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
91735437
DL
1039of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
1040specific to Message mode.
1041
36e24b82
DL
1042*** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
1043viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
1044with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
1045
aaa659ef
DL
1046*** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
1047interface to access directory servers using different directory
1048protocols. It has a separate manual.
1049
eee54b0e
DL
1050*** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
1051for Autoconf, selected automatically.
1052
aaa659ef
DL
1053*** windmove.el
1054
a933dad1
DL
1055** Withdrawn packages
1056
1057*** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
1058functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
25a81338 1059
3261c1d8
DL
1060*** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
1061
1062*** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
a933dad1
DL
1063\f
1064* Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
1065
1066Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
1067--- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
1068When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
1069so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
1070
19d1bc27
GM
1071*** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
1072cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
1073as follows:
1074
1075 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
1076 nil don't display a cursor
1077 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
1078 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
1079 others display a box cursor.
1080
9a0dd3dc
GM
1081** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
1082an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
1083defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
1084set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
1085
d7b511c4
GM
1086** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
1087specificationa in string form as accepted my `modify-syntax-entry' to
1088the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
1089text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
1090
1091Example:
1092
1093 (string-to-syntax "()")
1094 => (4 . 41)
1095
1fa28578
GM
1096** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
1097other than 10.
1098
1099*** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
1100INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
1101
1102 #b1111
1103 => 15
1104 #b-1111
1105 => -15
1106
1107*** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
1108
1109 #o666
1110 => 438
1111
1112*** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
1113
1114 #xbeef
1115 => 48815
1116
1117*** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
1118
1119 #2R-111
1120 => -7
1121 #25rah
1122 => 267
1123
e9b4e5ff
GM
1124** The function documentation-property now evaluates the value of
1125the given property to obtain a a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
1126and isn't a string.
1127
16ce590d
DL
1128+++
1129** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
1130
73825616 1131** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
16ce590d
DL
1132for a regexp in a string.
1133
1134** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
1135`mouse-position-function'.
1136
723e779c
GM
1137** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
1138that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
1139
d1e103b2
GM
1140** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
1141Keywords are now always considered constants.
1142
31047e0d
DL
1143+++
1144** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
1145returns it.
1146
7a85e4df
GM
1147** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
1148returned by function `recent-keys'.
1149
02b14400
RS
1150+++
1151** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
1152can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
1153Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding M-C-a
1154etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
1155mode.
404fa7d6 1156
02b14400 1157+++
8964fec7
SM
1158** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
1159and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
1160
02b14400
RS
1161+++
1162** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
1163has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
1164function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
1165returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
1166been performed."
1167
1168When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
1169and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
1170hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
1171then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
ef961722 1172
02b14400 1173+++
81da8b32
GM
1174** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
1175In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
1176and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
1177
02b14400 1178+++
9e207b90
GM
1179** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
1180with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
1181specified table.
1182
1183 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
1184
1185Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
03d9c64c
GM
1186TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
1187saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
1188what BODY returns.
9e207b90 1189
02b14400 1190+++
d7f89643 1191** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
95cd4c40 1192Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
8964fec7 1193
02b14400 1194+++
dde9e75a
GM
1195** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
1196removed since it wasn't used by anything.
1197
02b14400 1198+++
9da30515
GM
1199** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
1200instead of being optional.
1201
02b14400 1202+++
d20679eb
GM
1203** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
1204modify read-only text.
1205
02b14400 1206+++
fbc164de
PE
1207** New functions and variables for locales.
1208
1209The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
1210decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
b718982a
PE
1211time functions like strftime. The new variables
1212`system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
1213locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
fbc164de
PE
1214
1215The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
1216environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
1217the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
b718982a
PE
1218environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
1219not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
1220`locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
1221`locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
fbc164de 1222
02b14400 1223+++
863476d1
SM
1224** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
1225To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
1226modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
1227start sequences.
1228
02b14400 1229+++
ef6d912c
GM
1230** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
1231because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
1232
02b14400 1233+++
a933dad1
DL
1234** New function `propertize'
1235
1236The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
1237strings with text properties.
1238
1239- Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
1240
1241Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
1242by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
1243PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
1244specified value of that property. Example:
1245
1246 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
1247
1248+++
1249** push and pop macros.
1250
02b14400
RS
1251Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
1252are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
a933dad1
DL
1253as the place that holds the list to be changed.
1254
1255(push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
1256(pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
1257 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
1258
02b14400
RS
1259** New dolist and dotimes macros.
1260
6c7fd5aa
RS
1261Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
1262are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
02b14400
RS
1263
1264(dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
1265 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
1266 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
1267 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
1268
1269(dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
1270 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
1271 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
1272 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
1273
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1274+++
1275** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such
1276as [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on.
1277
1278[:digit:] matches 0 through 9
1279[:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
1280[:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
1281[:blank:] matches space and tab only
1282[:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
1283 space, and DEL.
1284[:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
1285 and DEL.
1286[:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
1287 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1288 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
1289[:alpha:] matches letters.
1290 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1291 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
1292[:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
1293[:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
1294[:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
1295[:punct:] matches punctuation.
1296 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1297 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
1298[:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
1299[:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
1300[:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
1301
1302+++
1303** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
1304
1305The following functions are defined for hash tables:
1306
1307- Function: make-hash-table ARGS
1308
1309The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
1310are optional. The following arguments are defined:
1311
1312:test TEST
1313
1314TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
1315Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
1316it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
1317
1318:size SIZE
1319
1320SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
1321many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
1322
1323:rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
1324
1325REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
1326full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
1327size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
13281.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
1329old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
1330
1331:rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
1332
1333THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
1334hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
1335(size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
1336
1337:weakness WEAK
1338
1339WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value', or t.
1340Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage collection if
1341their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere outside of the
1342hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
1343
1344- Function: makehash &optional TEST
1345
1346Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
1347
1348- Function: hash-table-p TABLE
1349
1350Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
1351
1352- Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
1353
1354Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
1355values are shared.
1356
1357- Function: hash-table-count TABLE
1358
1359Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
1360
1361- Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
1362
1363Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
1364
1365- Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
1366
1367Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
1368
1369- Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
1370
1371Returns the size of TABLE.
1372
1373- Function: hash-table-rehash-test TABLE
1374
1375Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
1376
1377- Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
1378
1379Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
1380
1381- Function: clrhash TABLE
1382
1383Clear TABLE.
1384
1385- Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
1386
1387Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
1388not found.
1389
79214ddf 1390- Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
a933dad1
DL
1391
1392Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
1393another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
1394
1395- Function: remhash KEY TABLE
1396
1397Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
1398
1399- Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
1400
1401Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
1402arguments KEY and VALUE.
1403
1404- Function: sxhash OBJ
1405
1406Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
1407
1408- Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
1409
1410Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
1411a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
79214ddf 1412comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
a933dad1
DL
1413and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
1414of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
1415
1416TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
1417
1418HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
1419code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
1420integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
1421
1422Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
1423be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
1424
1425 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
1426 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
1427
1428 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
1429 (sxhash (upcase a)))
1430
79214ddf 1431 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
a933dad1
DL
1432 'case-fold-string-hash))
1433
1434 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
1435
1436+++
1437** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
1438
1439It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
1440circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
1441a cons cell which is its own cdr.
1442
1443+++
1444** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
1445
1446If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
1447#N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
1448
a933dad1
DL
1449+++
1450** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
1451t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
1452specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
1453is too short to reach that column.
1454
1455+++
1456** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
1457now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
1458after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
1459two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
1460
1461If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
1462perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
1463and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
1464
1465+++
1466** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
1467to specify which buffer to return the size of.
1468
1469+++
1470** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
1471calendar-move-hook after moving point.
1472
1473+++
1474** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
1475directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
1476small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
1477small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
1478temporary-file-directory instead.
1479
1480+++
1481** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
1482the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
1483`before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
1484hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
1485
1486+++
1487** assoc-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
1488elements of an alist which have a particular value as the car.
1489
1490+++
1491** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
1492
1493make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
1494creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
1495ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
1496
1497+++
1498** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
1499
1500The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
1501on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
1502is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
1503never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
1504ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
1505overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
1506
1507If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
1508that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
1509to get an error if the file exists at that time.
1510The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
1511
1512+++
1513** Function `format' now handles text properties.
1514
1515Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
1516If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
1517ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
1518result string.
1519
1520Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
1521string where arguments appear in the result string.
1522
1523Example:
1524
1525 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
1526 (s2 "world"))
1527 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
1528 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
b246b1f6 1529 (format s1 s2))
a933dad1
DL
1530
1531results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
1532
1533+++
1534** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
1535
1536Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
1537The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
1538argument in it.
1539
1540 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
1541 (arg "world"))
1542 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
1543 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
1544 (message msg arg))
1545
1546+++
1547** Sound support
1548
1549Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
1550(Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
1551
1552Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
1553(*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
1554to enable sound support.
1555
1556Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
1557list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
1558when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
1559functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
1560sound to play, before playing the sound.
1561
1562The following sound properties are supported:
1563
1564- `:file FILE'
1565
1566FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
1567searched relative to `data-directory'.
1568
6fb40beb
GM
1569- `:data DATA'
1570
1571DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
1572may be present, but not both.
1573
a933dad1
DL
1574- `:volume VOLUME'
1575
1576VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
15770..1. This property is optional.
1578
1579Other properties are ignored.
1580
1581** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
356673d4
DL
1582
1583** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
1584a keyword symbol.
fc91dc2d
GM
1585
1586** Changes to garbage collection
1587
1588*** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
1589of live and free strings.
1590
1591*** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
1592strings that have been consed so far.
1593
a933dad1
DL
1594\f
1595* New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
1596
1597Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
1598--- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
1599When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
1600so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
1601
1602** New face implementation.
1603
1604Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
1605font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
1606
1607+++
1608*** New faces.
1609
1610Each face can specify the following display attributes:
1611
1612 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
79214ddf 1613
a933dad1
DL
1614 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
1615 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
79214ddf 1616
a933dad1 1617 3. Font height in 1/10pt
79214ddf 1618
a933dad1 1619 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
79214ddf 1620
a933dad1 1621 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
79214ddf 1622
a933dad1 1623 6. Foreground color.
79214ddf 1624
a933dad1
DL
1625 7. Background color.
1626
1627 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
1628
1629 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
1630
1631 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
1632
1633 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
1634
1635 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
1636 color.
1637
1638 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
1639 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
1640
1641Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
1642same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
1643frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
1644faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
1645with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each each of the face
1646attributes mentioned above.
1647
1648There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
1649definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
1650created frames.
79214ddf 1651
a933dad1
DL
1652A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
1653have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
1654`fully-specified'.
1655
1656+++
1657*** Face merging.
1658
1659The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
1660combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
1661aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
1662properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
1663that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
1664results in a fully-specified face.
1665
1666+++
1667*** Face realization.
1668
1669After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
1670merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
1671realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
1672available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
1673face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
1674cache of the frame on which it was realized.
1675
1676Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
1677character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
1678for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
1679charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
1680
1681Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
1682specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
1683being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
1684the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
1685statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
1686
1687In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
1688`char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
16890x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
1690the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
1691initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
1692Emacs.
1693
1694Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
1695`enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
1696registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
1697with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
1698
1699++++
1700**** Clearing face caches.
1701
1702The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
1703on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
1704unused fonts.
1705
1706+++
1707*** Font selection.
79214ddf 1708
a933dad1
DL
1709Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
1710given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
1711for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
1712
1713If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
1714pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
1715family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
1716property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
1717an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
1718
1719Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
1720against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
1721match for the given face attributes in this font list.
1722
1723Font selection can be influenced by the user.
1724
1725The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
1726attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
1727face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
1728names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
1729that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
1730width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
1731to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
1732
1733Setting `face-alternative-font-family-alist' allows the user to
1734specify alternative font families to try if a family specified by a
1735face doesn't exist.
1736
1737+++
1738**** Scalable fonts
1739
1740Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
1741since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
1742servers.
1743
1744To enable scalable font use, set the variable
b246b1f6 1745`scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
a933dad1
DL
1746scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
1747Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
1748scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
1749that list. Example:
1750
1751 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
1752
1753allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
1754
1755+++
1756*** Functions and variables related to font selection.
1757
1758- Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
1759
1760Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
1761is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
1762string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
1763
1764If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
1765the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
1766FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
1767POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
1768SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
1769These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
1770if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
1771REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
1772the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
1773of the face font sort order.
1774
79214ddf 1775- Function: x-font-family-list
a933dad1
DL
1776
1777Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
1778omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
1779(FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
1780non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
1781
1782- Variable: font-list-limit
1783
1784Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
1785won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
1786matching font. The default is currently 100.
1787
1788+++
1789*** Setting face attributes.
1790
1791For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
1792with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
1793implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
1794`face-attribute'.
1795
1796Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
1797symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
1798
1799The following attributes are recognized:
1800
1801`:family'
1802
1803VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
1804or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
1805and `?' are allowed.
1806
1807`:width'
1808
1809VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
1810It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
1811`condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
1812`extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
1813
1814`:height'
1815
1816VALUE must be an integer specifying the height of the font to use in
18171/10 pt.
1818
1819`:weight'
1820
1821VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
1822symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
1823`semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
1824
1825`:slant'
1826
1827VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
1828symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
1829`reverse-oblique'.
1830
1831`:foreground', `:background'
1832
1833VALUE must be a color name, a string.
1834
1835`:underline'
1836
1837VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
1838VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
1839a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
1840don't underline.
1841
1842`:overline'
1843
1844VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
1845VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
1846string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
1847overline.
1848
1849`:strike-through'
1850
1851VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
1852striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
1853face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
1854is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
1855
1856`:box'
1857
1858VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
1859around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
1860VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
1861of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
1862and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
1863VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
1864:color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
1865the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
1866specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
1867defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
1868the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
1869color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
1870should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
1871like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
1872that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
1873the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
1874box.
1875
1876`:inverse-video'
1877
1878VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
1879inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
1880
1881`:stipple'
1882
1883If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
1884The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
1885searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
1886HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
1887is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
1888explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
1889
1890For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
1891and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
1892
1893`:font'
1894
1895Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
1896XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
1897is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
1898versions of Emacs.
1899
1900For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
1901be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
1902must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
1903
1904Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
1905`defface'.
1906
1907*** Face attributes and X resources
1908
1909The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
1910from X resources:
1911
1912 Face attribute X resource class
1913-----------------------------------------------------------------------
1914 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
1915 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
1916 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
1917 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
1918 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
1919 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
1920 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
1921 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
1922 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
1923 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
1924 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
1925 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
1926 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
79214ddf 1927 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
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1928 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
1929 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
1930 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
1931 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
1932 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
1933
1934+++
1935*** Text property `face'.
1936
1937The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
1938specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
1939specification can be
1940
19411. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
1942
19432. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
1944 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
1945 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
1946 for face attribute names.
1947
19483. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
1949 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
1950 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
1951
1952+++
1953** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
1954
acf3ecb7
EZ
1955The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
1956on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
1957the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
a933dad1 1958default. You can get defined colors with a call to
acf3ecb7 1959`defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
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1960used to clear the mapping table.
1961
acf3ecb7
EZ
1962** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
1963
1964The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
1965and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
1966type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
1967color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
1968display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
1969old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
1970`x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
1971compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
1972should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
1973modify their color-related behavior.
1974
1975The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
1976any frame type.
1977
8a5719f0
EZ
1978** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
1979
1980The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
1981`display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
1982`display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
1983`display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
1984`display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
1985`display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
1986display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
1987the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
1988platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
1989
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1990+++
1991** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
a933dad1 1992
463cac2d 1993This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
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1994
1995The function minubuffer-prompt-end returns the current position of the
1996end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
1997Otherwise, it returns zero.
1998
463cac2d
GM
1999** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
2000
2001There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
2002buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
2003text-property.
2004
9a9dfda8 2005Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
463cac2d 2006forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
9a9dfda8 2007to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
463cac2d 2008not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
fc7ac24f
GM
2009commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
2010boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
2011`inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
2012functions.
463cac2d
GM
2013
2014Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
9a9dfda8 2015a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
463cac2d 2016editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
a933dad1 2017
9a9dfda8
GM
2018The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
2019
2020- Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE
2021
2022Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
2023A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2024If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
2025constrained position if that is is different.
2026
2027If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
2028positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
2029ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
2030constrained to the field that has the same `field' text-property
2031as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2032is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
2033fields.
2034
2035If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
2036NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
2037unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
2038C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
2039only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
2040
2041- Function: erase-field &optional POS
2042
2043Erases the field surrounding POS.
2044A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2045If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
2046
2047- Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2048
2049Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
2050A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2051If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
2052If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is already at beginning of an
2053field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
2054
2055- Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2056
2057Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
2058A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2059If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
2060If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is already at end of a field,
2061then the end of the *following* field is returned.
2062
2063- Function: field-string &optional POS
2064
2065Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
2066A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2067If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
2068
2069- Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
2070
2071Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
2072A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2073If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
2074
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DL
2075+++
2076** Image support.
2077
2078Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
2079strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
2080(AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
2081replaces the display of the characters having that property.
2082
2083If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
2084`(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
2085AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
2086window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
2087area.
2088
2089IMAGE is an image specification.
2090
2091*** Image specifications
2092
2093Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
2094is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
2095specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
35a5514b
GM
2096symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
2097described below are ignored.
a933dad1
DL
2098
2099The following is a list of properties all image types share.
2100
2101`:ascent ASCENT'
2102
2103ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, and specifies the percentage
2104of the image's height to use for its ascent. Default is 50.
2105
2106`:margin MARGIN'
2107
79214ddf 2108MARGIN must be a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put as
a933dad1
DL
2109margin around the image. Default is 0.
2110
2111`:relief RELIEF'
2112
2113RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
2114around an image.
2115
2116`:algorithm ALGO'
2117
2118Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it. ALGO must
2119be a symbol specifying the algorithm. Currently only `laplace' is
2120supported which applies a Laplace edge detection algorithm to an image
2121which is intended to display images "disabled."
2122
2123`:heuristic-mask BG'
2124
2125If BG is not nil, build a clipping mask for the image, so that the
2126background of a frame is visible behind the image. If BG is t,
2127determine the background color of the image by looking at the 4
2128corners of the image, assuming the most frequently occuring color from
2129the corners is the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must
2130be a list `(RED GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the
2131background of the image.
2132
2133`:file FILE'
2134
2135Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
2136search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
2137building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
2138may be present in the image specification.
2139
518df5c4
GM
2140`:data DATA'
2141
2142Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
2143supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
2144present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
2145support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
2146
a933dad1
DL
2147*** Supported image types
2148
b246b1f6 2149**** XBM, image type `xbm'.
a933dad1
DL
2150
2151XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
2152properties supported are
2153
2154`:foreground FG'
2155
2156FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default
2157is the frame's foreground.
2158
2159`:background FG'
2160
2161BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default is
2162the frame's background color.
2163
2164XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
2165case, the image specification must contain the following properties
2166instead of a `:file' property.
2167
2168`:width WIDTH'
2169
2170WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
2171
2172`:height HEIGHT'
2173
2174HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
2175
2176`:data DATA'
2177
2178DATA must be either
2179
2180 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
2181 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
2182
2183 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
2184
2185 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
2186 bitmap.
2187
2188**** XPM, image type `xpm'
2189
2190XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
2191`xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
2192found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
2193`--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
2194
2195Additional image properties supported are:
2196
2197`:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
2198
2199SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
2200name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
2201name.
2202
2203XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
2204add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
2205
a933dad1
DL
2206The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
2207to display compressed images.
2208
2209**** PBM, image type `pbm'
2210
2211PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
2212mono images are supported. There are no additional image properties
2213defined.
2214
2215**** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
2216
2217Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
3bd37feb
GM
2218package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. Additional image properties
2219are:
2220
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DL
2221**** TIFF, image type `tiff'
2222
2223Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
2224package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
2225properties defined.
2226
2227**** GIF, image type `gif'
2228
2229Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
2230`libungif-4.1.0', or later.
2231
2232Additional image properties supported are:
2233
2234`:index INDEX'
2235
2236INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
2237multi-image GIF file. An error is signalled if INDEX is too large.
2238
2239This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
2240For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
2241at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
2242every 0.1 seconds.
2243
2244(defun show-anim (file max)
2245 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
2246 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
2247
2248(defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
2249 (when (= idx max)
2250 (setq idx 0))
518df5c4 2251 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
a933dad1
DL
2252 (save-excursion
2253 (set-buffer buffer)
2254 (goto-char (point-min))
2255 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
2256 (insert-image img "x"))
2257 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
2258
2259**** PNG, image type `png'
2260
2261Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
2262package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
2263properties defined.
2264
2265**** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
2266
2267Additional image properties supported are:
2268
2269`:pt-width WIDTH'
2270
2271WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
b246b1f6 2272integer. This is a required property.
a933dad1
DL
2273
2274`:pt-height HEIGHT'
2275
2276HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
b246b1f6 2277must be a integer. This is an required property.
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DL
2278
2279`:bounding-box BOX'
2280
2281BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
2282the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
2283files. This is an required property.
2284
2285Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
2286lisp/gs.el.
2287
2288*** Lisp interface.
2289
79214ddf
FP
2290The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
2291which are supported in the current configuration.
a933dad1
DL
2292
2293Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
2294they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
2295The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
2296manually.
2297
2298*** Simplified image API, image.el
2299
2300The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
2301creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
2302can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
2303define an image based on available image types. The functions
2304`put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
2305buffer.
2306
2307+++
2308** Display margins.
2309
2310Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
2311and images.
2312
2313To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
2314`left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
2315`set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
2316obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
2317`right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
2318the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
2319of the display margins.
2320
2321You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
2322containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
2323one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
2324string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
2325in this file).
2326
2327+++
2328** Help display
2329
2330Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
2331moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
2332`help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
2333that have a `help-echo' property.
2334
2335The value of the `help-echo' property must be a string. For tool-bar
2336items, their key definition is used to determine the help to display.
2337If their definition contains a property `:help FORM', FORM is
2338evaluated to determine the help string. Otherwise, the caption of the
2339tool-bar item is used.
2340
2341The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
2342help differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window causes the
2343help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
2344
2345+++
2346** Vertical fractional scrolling.
2347
2348The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
2349This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
2350
2351The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
2352scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
2353The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
2354scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
2355used.
2356
79214ddf
FP
2357 (global-set-key [A-down]
2358 #'(lambda ()
a933dad1 2359 (interactive)
79214ddf 2360 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
a933dad1 2361 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
79214ddf 2362 (global-set-key [A-up]
a933dad1
DL
2363 #'(lambda ()
2364 (interactive)
79214ddf 2365 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
a933dad1
DL
2366 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
2367
2368+++
2369** New hook `fontification-functions'.
2370
2371Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
2372when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
2373variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
2374is called with one argument, POS.
2375
2376At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
2377characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
2378as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
2379property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
2380`fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
2381
2382+++
2383** Tool bar support.
2384
2385Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
2386parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
2387controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
2388suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
2389`auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
2390automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
2391
2392*** Tool bar item definitions
2393
2394Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
2395`tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
2396where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
79214ddf 2397
a933dad1
DL
2398CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
2399evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
2400the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
2401property (see below).
79214ddf 2402
a933dad1
DL
2403BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
2404binding are currently ignored.
2405
2406The following properties are recognized:
2407
2408`:enable FORM'.
79214ddf 2409
a933dad1
DL
2410FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
2411or disabled.
79214ddf 2412
a933dad1 2413`:visible FORM'
79214ddf 2414
a933dad1 2415FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
79214ddf 2416
a933dad1
DL
2417`:filter FUNCTION'
2418
2419FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
2420FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
2421used instead of BINDING to display this item.
79214ddf 2422
a933dad1
DL
2423`:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
2424
2425TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
2426and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
79214ddf 2427
a933dad1
DL
2428`:image IMAGES'
2429
2430IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
2431image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
2432meaning of each of the four elements:
2433
2434 Index Use when item is
2435 ----------------------------------------
2436 0 enabled and selected
2437 1 enabled and deselected
2438 2 disabled and selected
2439 3 disabled and deselected
79214ddf 2440
a933dad1 2441`:help HELP-STRING'.
79214ddf 2442
a933dad1
DL
2443Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
2444is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
2445
2446*** Tool-bar-related variables.
2447
2448If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
2449resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
2450than 1/4 of the frame's size.
2451
79214ddf 2452If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
a933dad1
DL
2453raised when the mouse moves over them.
2454
2455You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
2456`tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
2457pixels. Default is 1.
2458
2459You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
2460`tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
2461
2462*** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
2463
2464You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
79214ddf 2465a tool bar item. If
a933dad1
DL
2466
2467 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
2468 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
2469 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
2470
2471is the original tool bar item definition, then
2472
2473 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
2474
2475makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
2476item.
2477
2478** Mode line changes.
2479
2480+++
2481*** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
2482
2483The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
2484that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
2485a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
2486
24871. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
2488a `local-map' text property.
2489
24902. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
2491that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
2492
24933. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
2494is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
2495`local-map' property.
2496
2497The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
2498properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
2499example.
2500
54522c9f
GM
2501*** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
2502evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
2503
a933dad1
DL
2504+++
2505*** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
2506variable mode-line-format to nil.
2507
2508+++
2509*** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
2510
2511This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
2512`header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
2513completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
2514`default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
2515line.
2516
2517The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
2518`header-line'.
2519
2520The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
2521position in the header-line.
2522
2523+++
2524** Text property `display'
2525
2526The `display' text property is used to insert images into text, and
2527also control other aspects of how text displays. The value of the
2528`display' property should be a display specification, as described
2529below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
2530
2531*** Variable width and height spaces
2532
2533To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
2534specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
2535`(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
2536area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
2537marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
2538displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
2539simpler form STRETCH as property value.
2540
2541The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
2542PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
2543properties described below.
2544
2545The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
2546characters having the `display' property.
2547
2548- :width WIDTH
2549
2550Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
2551character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
2552
2553- :relative-width FACTOR
2554
2555Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
2556first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
2557same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
2558width of that character by FACTOR.
2559
2560- :align-to HPOS
2561
2562Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
2563value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
2564
2565Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
2566
2567- :height HEIGHT
2568
2569Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
2570normal line height.
2571
2572- :relative-height FACTOR
2573
2574The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
2575of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
2576
2577- :ascent ASCENT
2578
2579Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
2580used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
2581baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
2582equal to 100.
2583
2584You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
2585
2586*** Images
2587
2588A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
2589. IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
2590in the display, the characters having this display specification in
2591their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
2592the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
2593`(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
2594area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
2595the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
2596as display specification.
2597
2598*** Other display properties
2599
2600- :space-width FACTOR
2601
2602Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
2603should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
2604integer or float.
2605
2606- :height HEIGHT
2607
2608Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
2609
2610If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
2611means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
2612the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
2613``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
2614a font is available counts as a step.
2615
2616If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
2617as tall as the frame's default font.
2618
2619If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
2620height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
2621
2622Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
2623`height' bound to the current specified font height.
2624
2625- :raise FACTOR
2626
2627FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
2628font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
2629raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
2630amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
2631`:height' subproperty.
2632
2633*** Conditional display properties
2634
2635All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
2636has the form `(:when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC
2637applies only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated.
2638During evaluattion, point is temporarily set to the end position of
2639the text having the `display' property.
2640
2641The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
2642`(:when t SPEC)'.
2643
2644+++
2645** New menu separator types.
2646
2647Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
2648item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
2649treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
2650to specify other menu separator types.
2651
2652- `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
2653
2654No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
2655separator occurs.
2656
2657- `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
2658
2659A single line in the menu's foreground color.
2660
2661- `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
2662
2663A double line in the menu's foreground color.
2664
2665- `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
2666
2667A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
2668
2669- `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
2670
2671A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
2672
2673- `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
2674
2675A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the the form
2676displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
2677
2678- `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
2679
2680A single line with 3D raised appearance.
2681
2682- `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
2683
2684A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
2685
2686- `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
2687
2688A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
2689
2690- `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
2691
2692Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
2693
2694- `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
2695
2696Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
2697
2698- `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
2699
2700Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
2701
2702- `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
2703
2704Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
2705
2706Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
2707the corresponding single-line separators.
2708
2709+++
2710** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
2711
2712The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
2713`scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
2714Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
2715that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
2716default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
2717default background is the background color of the frame, and the
2718default foreground is black.
2719
2720The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
2721(class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
2722`ScrollBarBackground').
2723
2724Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
2725settings for scroll bar colors.
2726
2727+++
2728** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
2729display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
2730
2731---
2732** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
2733starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
2734on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
2735line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
2736the original window start.
2737
2738---
2739** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
2740`hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
2741now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
2742
2743+++
2744** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
2745
2746A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
2747`window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
2748windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
2749other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
2750
2751The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
2752fixed-width and fixed-height.
2753
2754 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
2755
2756A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
2757fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
2758window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
2759change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
2760temporarily to nil, for example
2761
2762 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
2763 (enlarge-window 10))
2764
79214ddf 2765Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
a933dad1 2766or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
e411ce4b
EZ
2767
2768** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
2769terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
2770to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
2771overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
2772horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
2773support a vertical-bar cursor).
e33b0397
DL
2774^L
2775* Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
2776
2777** Not new, but not mentioned before:
2778M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
a933dad1
DL
2779\f
2780* Changes in Emacs 20.4
2781
2782** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
2783
2784You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
2785Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
2786`.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
2787
2788If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
2789is the one that is used.
2790
2791** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
2792the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
2793Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
2794separate from the command's regular output.
2795Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
2796says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
2797In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
2798the buffer name.
2799
2800When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
2801output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
2802it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
2803cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
2804
2805** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
2806the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
2807is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
2808created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
2809
2810** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
2811example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
2812match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
2813quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
2814
2815** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
2816now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
2817if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
2818they never ignore case.
2819
2820** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
2821under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
2822applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
2823of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
2824just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
2825convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
2826part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
2827
2828If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
2829the same format that was used in the file before.
2830
2831You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
2832`inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
2833
2834** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
2835renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
2836This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
2837
2838** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
2839The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
2840buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
2841your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
2842is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
2843end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
2844Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
2845
2846The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
2847eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
2848control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
2849format. You can now customize these variables.
2850
2851** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
2852filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
2853filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
2854enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
2855
2856** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
2857in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
2858windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
2859
2860** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
2861dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
2862doesn't have any effect.
2863
2864** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
2865not one per buffer.
2866
2867** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
2868use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
2869 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
2870
2871** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
2872To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
2873`auto-show-mode' command.
2874
2875** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
2876avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
2877versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
2878choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
2879occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
2880
2881** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
2882cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
2883
2884** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
2885character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
2886feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
2887
2888** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
2889the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
2890interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
2891and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
2892
2893** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
2894
2895The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
2896that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
2897one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
2898codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
2899set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
2900
2901Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
2902from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
2903
2904IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
2905equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
2906a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
2907`?' on other systems.
2908
2909IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
2910feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
2911Unix.
2912
2913Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
2914current codepage when it starts.
2915
2916** Mail changes
2917
feab4fba
GM
2918*** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
2919`mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
2920appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
2921non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
2922MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
2923headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
2924latin-1:
2925
2926 MIME-version: 1.0
2927 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
2928 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
2929
a933dad1
DL
2930*** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
2931default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
2932default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
2933sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
2934buffer-file-coding-system.
2935
2936You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
2937sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
2938mail.
2939
2940*** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
2941if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
2942Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
2943list of possible coding systems.
2944
2945** CC Mode changes
2946
2947*** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
2948modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
2949longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
2950docstring for details.
2951
2952*** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
2953symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
2954found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
2955prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
2956lineup functions use this feature currently.
2957
2958*** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
2959"finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
2960
2961*** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
2962"catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
2963
2964*** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
2965from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
2966symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
2967c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
2968anonymous classes.
2969
2970*** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
2971syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
2972
2973*** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
2974inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
2975support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
2976function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
2977
2978*** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
2979(i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
2980brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
2981c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
2982(brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
2983
2984*** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
2985
2986*** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
2987
2988*** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
2989for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
2990
2991*** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
2992
2993*** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
2994associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
2995This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
2996circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
2997class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
2998
2999** Gnus changes.
3000
3001*** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
3002added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
3003Gnus manual for the full story.
3004
3005*** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
3006before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
3007group, which is created automatically.
3008
3009*** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
3010values.
3011
3012*** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
3013
3014*** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
3015outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
3016
3017*** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
3018`C-u C-c C-c'.
3019
3020*** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
3021
3022*** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
3023re-highlighting of the article buffer.
3024
3025*** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
3026
3027*** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
3028Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
3029
3030*** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
3031`a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
3032
3033*** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
3034control over simplification.
3035
3036*** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
3037
3038*** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
3039limit.
3040
3041*** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
3042
3043*** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
3044
79214ddf 3045*** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
a933dad1
DL
3046If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
3047rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
3048
3049*** Cancelling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
3050`a' forces normal posting method.
3051
3052*** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
3053-- `W d'.
3054
3055*** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
3056to a non-nil value.
3057
3058*** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
3059where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
3060
3061*** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
3062has been added.
3063
3064*** A history of where mails have been split is available.
3065
3066*** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
3067
3068*** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
3069`gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
3070
3071*** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
3072`message-cite-original-without-signature'.
3073
3074*** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
3075
3076*** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
3077been added.
3078
3079*** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
3080`gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
3081
3082*** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
3083updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
3084
3085*** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
3086
3087*** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
3088
3089*** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
3090
3091** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
3092
3093*** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
3094options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
3095nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
3096
3097*** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
3098TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
3099of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
3100TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
3101can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
3102
3103*** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
3104All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
3105but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
3106the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
3107
3108*** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
3109the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
3110buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
3111mismatch.
3112
3113** Changes to RefTeX mode
3114
3115*** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
3116file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
3117
3118*** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
3119lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
3120characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
3121removed from the label.
3122
3123*** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
3124a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
3125
3126*** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
3127customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
3128
3129*** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
3130`reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
79214ddf 3131expressions.
a933dad1
DL
3132
3133*** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
3134
3135** New/deleted modes and packages
3136
3137*** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
3138SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
3139
3140*** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
3141editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
3142SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
3143
3144*** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
3145changes with a special face.
3146
3147*** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
3148this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
3149Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
3150\f
3151* MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
3152
3153** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
3154This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
3155conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
3156and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
3157check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
3158
3159The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
3160Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
3161distribution when the config.bat script is run.
3162
3163** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
3164MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
3165controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
3166directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
3167Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
3168on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
3169string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
3170program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
3171printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
3172
3173** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
3174output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
3175available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
3176input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
3177temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
3178program.
3179
3180An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
3181and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
3182programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
3183automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
3184as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
3185ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
3186
3187** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
3188a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
3189MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
3190was not documented clearly before.
3191
3192** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
3193This includes Tetris and Snake.
3194\f
3195* Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
3196
3197** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
3198return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
3199They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
3200meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
3201
3202** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
3203WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
3204and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
3205
3206** Changes in the file-attributes function.
3207
3208*** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
3209It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
3210
3211*** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
3212the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
3213integers.
3214
3215** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
3216files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
3217arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
3218file names and attributes are returned.
3219
3220** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
3221sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
3222accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its atttributes.
3223It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
3224returns the result.
3225
3226** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
3227to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
3228
3229** New functions for base64 conversion:
3230
3231The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
3232into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
3233performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
3234optionally.
3235
3236Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
3237job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
3238
3239**
3240The new function process-running-child-p
3241will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
3242terminal to its own child process.
3243
3244** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
3245when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
3246to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
3247itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
3248
3249** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
3250be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
3251
3252** easymenu.el Now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
3253:included is an alias for :visible.
3254
3255easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
3256easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
3257to move or copy menu entries.
3258
3259** Multibyte editing changes
3260
3261*** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
3262an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
3263make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
3264work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
3265char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
3266 (setq char (sref str idx)
3267 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
3268The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
3269
3270If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
3271(say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
3272 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
3273
3274*** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
3275region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
3276deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
3277
3278 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibitted
3279
3280This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
3281across the boundary.
3282
3283*** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
3284`unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
3285 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
3286 contains 8-bit characters.
3287 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
3288 contains invalid characters.
3289
3290*** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
3291text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
3292preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
3293text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
3294way.
3295
3296*** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
3297If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
3298end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
3299prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
3300
3301*** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
3302compose Thai characters in a string.
3303
3304** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
3305argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
3306for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
3307menus should always use the third argument.
3308
3309** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
3310read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
3311arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
3312input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
3313
3314** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
3315of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
3316programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
3317inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
3318
3319** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
3320the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
3321returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
3322echo area contents.
3323
3324 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
3325
3326** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
3327NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
3328requested feature cannot be loaded.
3329
3330** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
3331foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
79214ddf 3332means to clear out that attribute.
a933dad1
DL
3333
3334** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
3335gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
3336
3337** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
3338read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
3339unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
3340end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
3341
3342** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
3343the gap of the current buffer.
3344
3345** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
3346to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
3347current buffer.
3348
3349** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
3350facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
3351These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
3352it back in after any modifications have been made.
3353\f
3354* Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
3355
3356** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
3357the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
3358/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
3359directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
3360subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
3361
3362Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
3363names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
3364Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
3365which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
3366these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
3367
3368Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
3369starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
3370time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
3371
3372This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
3373Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
3374to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
3375subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
3376`.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
3377results.
3378
3379** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
3380GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
3381that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
3382fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
3383\f
3384* Changes in Emacs 20.3
3385
3386** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
3387including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
3388it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
3389perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
3390
3391** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
3392specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
3393region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
3394further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
3395command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
3396within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
3397are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
3398region.
3399
3400In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
3401selective undo.
3402
3403** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
3404unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
3405buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
3406effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
3407Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
3408
3409The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
3410though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
3411-*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
3412load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
3413
3414** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
3415no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
3416enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
3417something that most users not do.
3418
3419** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
3420operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
3421The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
3422applications.
3423
3424C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
3425pasting operations.
3426
3427** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
3428setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
3429like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
3430printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
3431`ps-printer-name'.
3432
3433** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
3434minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
3435any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
3436except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
3437incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
3438hits a new word.
3439
3440Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
3441Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
3442to be confused by TeX commands.
3443
3444You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
3445correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
3446clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
3447of various alternative replacements and actions.
3448
3449Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
3450the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
3451corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
3452alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
3453flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
3454
3455Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
3456flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
3457
3458** Changes in input method usage.
3459
3460Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
3461the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
3462respectively.
3463
3464You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
3465
3466If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
3467of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
3468
3469The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
3470that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
3471
3472 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
3473
3474 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
3475
3476 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
3477 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
3478
3479 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
79214ddf 3480 given in the following case:
a933dad1
DL
3481 o When you are using a complex input method.
3482 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
3483
3484If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
3485input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
3486and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
3487setting it to t is helpful.
3488
3489The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
3490
3491In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
3492keys:
3493 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
3494 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
3495 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
3496These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
3497environment.
3498
3499** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
3500names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
3501minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
3502get
3503
3504 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
3505
3506which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
3507
3508Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
3509Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
3510
3511** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
3512at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
3513its owner and group.
3514
3515** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
3516Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
3517
3518** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
3519contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
3520
3521** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
3522which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
3523in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
3524by the left edge of the rectangle.
3525
3526** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
3527increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
3528C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
3529for writing keyboard macros.
3530
3531** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
3532files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
3533frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
3534the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
3535additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
3536info.
3537
3538** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
3539
3540** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
3541query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
3542contents only.
3543
3544** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
3545confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
3546the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
3547says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
3548
3549** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
3550non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
3551literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
3552
3553** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
3554now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
3555Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
3556inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
3557
3558** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
3559failure if the command produces no output.
3560
3561** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
3562manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
3563the mouse.
3564
3565** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
3566mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
3567function and variable names.
3568
3569** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
3570reading specific files. This has higher priority than
3571file-coding-system-alist.
3572
3573** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
3574t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
3575converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
3576the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
3577according to the current fontset.
3578
3579** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
3580
3581The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
3582that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
3583nonascii-insert-offset.
3584
3585For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
3586enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
3587nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
3588characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
3589
3590** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
3591an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
3592
3593** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
3594letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
3595
3596** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
3597are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
3598command keys.
3599
3600** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
3601user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
3602
3603Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
3604user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
3605all variables that have documentation.
3606
3607** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
3608shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
3609that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
3610minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
3611it should show; the default is 20.
3612
3613Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
3614the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
3615of your input.
3616
3617** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
3618all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
3619recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
3620argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
3621the customizable options which were changed since that version.
3622Newly added options are included as well.
3623
3624If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
3625then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
3626for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
3627
3628This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
3629Customize menu.
3630
3631** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
3632the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
3633
3634** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
3635buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
3636invoked.
3637
3638** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
3639that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
3640The default is 1.
3641
3642** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
3643syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
3644new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
3645(C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
3646sensibly.
3647
3648** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
3649
3650** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
3651value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
3652two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
3653
3654** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
3655reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
3656for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
3657every night.
3658
3659** All you need to do, to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
3660the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
3661
3662** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
3663read and post multi-lingual articles.
3664
3665** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
3666doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
3667be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
3668outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
3669the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
79214ddf 3670made invisible again.
a933dad1
DL
3671
3672** Mail reading and sending changes
3673
3674*** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
3675the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
3676changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
3677toggle.
3678
3679*** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
3680now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
3681summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
3682the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
3683rmail-default-body-file.
3684
3685*** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
3686longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
3687handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
3688
3689*** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
3690it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
3691is evaluated to insert the signature.
3692
3693*** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
3694outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
3695handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
3696putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
3697transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
3698especially interested in trying feedmail.
3699
3700feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
3701feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
3702provided by feedmail are:
3703
3704**** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
3705stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
3706there is also a queue for draft messages
3707
3708**** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
3709be prompted for confirmation
3710
3711**** does smart filling of address headers
3712
3713**** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
3714the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
3715can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
3716
3717**** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
3718the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
3719/usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
3720function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
3721
3722** Dired changes
3723
3724*** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
3725files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
3726
3727*** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
3728run Dired on the directory name at point.
3729
3730*** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
3731files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
3732for a specified regexp.
3733
3734** VC Changes
3735
3736*** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
3737conveniently.
3738
3739*** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
3740faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
3741Dired.
3742
3743VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
3744directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
3745listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
3746currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
3747
3748You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
3749then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
3750vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
3751control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
3752on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
3753
3754All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
3755is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
3756`v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
3757the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
3758`vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
3759
3760The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
3761toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
79214ddf 3762VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
a933dad1
DL
3763`* l', to mark all files currently locked.
3764
3765Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
3766ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
3767command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
3768
3769*** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
3770file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
3771session to resolve them.
3772
3773Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
3774resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
3775contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
3776uses as well).
3777
3778*** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
3779command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
3780you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
3781either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
3782branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
3783If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
3784using ediff.
3785
3786** Changes in Font Lock
3787
3788*** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
3789are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
3790use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
3791unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
3792compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
3793
3794** Frame name display changes
3795
3796*** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
3797frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
3798raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
3799when many frames are invisible or iconified.
3800
3801*** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
3802frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
3803menu.
3804
3805** Comint (subshell) changes
3806
3807*** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
3808subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
3809with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
3810
3811*** There are new commands in Comint mode.
3812
3813C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
3814that is, the line after the last line you got.
3815You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
3816
3817C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
3818send the current line together with the following line, when you send
3819the following line.
3820
3821C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
3822which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
3823previously sent input.
3824
3825C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
3826it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
3827as the search string.
3828
3829*** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
3830automatically in compilation-mode windows.
3831
3832** C mode changes
3833
3834*** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
3835and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
3836assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
79214ddf 3837definition.
a933dad1
DL
3838
3839*** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
3840(i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
3841Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
3842style is still the default however.
3843
3844*** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
3845
3846*** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
3847are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
3848them. They do not have key bindings by default.
3849
3850*** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
3851and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
3852
3853*** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
3854namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
3855
3856*** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
3857makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
3858
3859*** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
3860c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
3861
3862*** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
3863should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
3864package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
3865variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
3866
3867** Changes to hippie-expand.
3868
79214ddf 3869*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
a933dad1
DL
3870non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
3871which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
3872
3873*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
3874non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
3875expanding dynamically.
3876
3877*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
3878non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
3879
3880*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
3881non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
3882this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
3883expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
3884
3885*** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
3886
3887** Changes in BibTeX mode.
3888
3889*** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
3890bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
3891automatic key generation. This replaces variable
3892bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
3893against the first word in the title.
3894
3895*** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
3896capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
3897bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
79214ddf 3898lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
a933dad1 3899lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
79214ddf 3900bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
a933dad1
DL
3901
3902*** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
3903generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
3904replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
3905bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
3906
3907** Changes in vcursor.el.
3908
3909*** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
3910and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
3911variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
3912entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
3913`vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
3914in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
3915
3916*** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
3917Editing group once the package is loaded.
3918
3919*** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
3920generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
3921vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behaviour.
3922
3923*** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
3924vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
3925
3926** Ispell changes.
3927
79214ddf
FP
3928*** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
3929buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
a933dad1
DL
3930are identified by syntax tables in effect.
3931
3932*** Generic region skipping implemented.
3933A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
3934and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
3935defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
79214ddf 3936include:
a933dad1
DL
3937
3938 o URLs are automatically skipped
3939 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
3940
3941*** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
3942
3943** Changes to RefTeX mode
3944
3945RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
3946large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
3947re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
3948section `Optimizations' in the manual.
3949
3950*** New recursive parser.
3951
3952The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
3953entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
3954recursive parser scans the individual files.
3955
3956*** Parsing only part of a document.
79214ddf 3957
a933dad1
DL
3958Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
3959partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
3960the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
3961
3962 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
3963
3964*** Storing parsing information in a file.
3965
3966This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
3967
3968 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
3969
3970*** Using multiple selection buffers
3971
3972If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
3973for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
3974
3975 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
3976
3977*** References to external documents.
3978
3979The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
3980documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
3981documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
3982macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
3983RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
3984the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
3985The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
3986
3987*** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
3988
3989The builtin command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
3990and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
3991
3992Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
3993the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
3994
3995*** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
3996
3997The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
3998buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
3999
4000*** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
4001
4002The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
4003contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
4004`reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
4005have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
4006enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
4007at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
4008more.
4009
4010*** Support for the varioref package
4011
4012The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
4013
4014*** New hooks
4015
4016Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
4017and citations are created. These hooks are
4018`reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
4019`reftex-format-cite-function'.
4020
4021*** Citations outside LaTeX
4022
4023The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
4024a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
4025
4026*** Short context is no longer fontified.
4027
4028The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
4029fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
4030fontified, use
4031
4032 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
4033
4034** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
4035With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
4036the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
4037directories that contain the same file name.
4038
4039Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
4040Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
4041file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
4042Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
4043have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
4044names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
4045directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
4046directory.
4047
4048** New modes and packages
4049
4050*** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
4051It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
4052it, but some do not.
4053
4054*** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
4055code.
4056
4057*** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
4058current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
4059around in a buffer.
4060
4061Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
4062
4063*** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
4064uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
4065be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
4066established system of notation similar to Chess.
4067
4068*** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
4069documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
4070guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
4071
4072*** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
4073available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
4074system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
4075simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
4076functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
4077the like.
4078
4079*** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
4080identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
4081
4082*** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
4083within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
4084used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
4085the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
4086
4087*** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
4088
4089 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
4090 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
4091 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
4092 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
4093 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
4094 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
4095 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
4096 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
4097 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
4098 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
4099 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
4100
4101 Platform-specific modes:
4102
4103 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
4104 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
4105 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
4106 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
4107 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
4108 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
4109 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
4110 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
4111 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
4112\f
4113* Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
4114
4115** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
4116use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
4117That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
4118Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
4119
4120Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
4121you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
4122consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
4123
4124** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
4125and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
4126specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
4127searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
4128
4129** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
4130multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
4131character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
4132environment.
4133
4134** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
4135take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
4136string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
4137current input method for reading this one event.
4138
4139** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
4140now control whether to output certain characters as
4141backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
4142non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
4143characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
4144in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
4145\f
4146* Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
4147
4148** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
4149of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
4150
4151** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
4152in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
4153always increases point by 1.
4154
4155The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
4156considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
4157
4158See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
4159
4160** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
4161Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
4162default value changed. For example,
4163
4164 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
4165 :type 'integer
4166 :group 'foo
4167 :version "20.3")
4168
79214ddf 4169 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
a933dad1
DL
4170 :version "20.3")
4171
4172If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
4173default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
4174is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
4175`:version' in the top level group.
4176
4177This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
4178
4179** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
4180starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
4181
4182However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
4183symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
4184support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
4185to themselves.
4186
4187If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
4188this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
4189values whatever.
4190
4191** There is a new debugger command, R.
4192It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
4193in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
4194
4195** Frame-local variables.
4196
4197You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
4198the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
4199local bindings for that variable.
4200
4201These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
4202frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
4203modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
4204parameter name.
4205
4206Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
4207Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
4208active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
4209that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
4210
4211It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
4212clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
4213very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
4214through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
4215
4216** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
4217"symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
4218evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
4219makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
4220See the documentation in sregex.el.
4221
4222** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
4223is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
4224parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
4225The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
4226
4227** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
4228If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
4229
4230** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
4231known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
4232define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
4233
4234** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
4235when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
4236it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
4237history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
4238
4239The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
4240return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
4241empty input.
4242
4243** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
4244for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
4245`iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
4246Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
4247`read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
4248
4249** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
4250echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
4251a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
4252default password to use if the user enters nothing.
4253
4254** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
4255specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
4256function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
4257place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
4258non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
4259
4260** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
4261If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
4262up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
4263end of the window, even if this requires computation.
4264
4265** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
4266which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
4267If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
4268
4269** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
4270holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
4271was directed to display this buffer.
4272
4273** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
4274with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
4275describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
4276other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
4277set-window-configuration.
4278
4279** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
4280window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
4281positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
4282windows and the choice of buffers to display.
4283
4284** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
4285override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
4286look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
4287
4288If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
4289non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
4290map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
4291
4292minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
4293and it is meant to be set by major modes.
4294
4295** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
4296except that it discards all text properties from the result.
4297
4298** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
4299USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
4300floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
4301
4302** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
4303to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
4304in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
4305it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
4306
4307** Menu changes
4308
4309*** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
4310keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
4311better supported.
4312
4313The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
4314a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
4315you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
4316can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
4317then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
4318
4319*** A new format for menu items is supported.
4320
4321In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
4322 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
4323defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
4324starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
4325
4326The format is:
4327 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
4328 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
4329where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
4330string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
4331The supported properties include
4332
4333:enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
4334 item is enabled.
4335:visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
4336 item should appear in the menu.
79214ddf 4337:filter FILTER-FN
a933dad1
DL
4338 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
4339 which will be REAL-BINDING.
4340 It should return a binding to use instead.
4341:keys DESCRIPTION
4342 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
4343 binding for for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
4344 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
4345:key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
4346 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
4347 keyboard binding.
4348:key-sequence nil
4349 This means that the command normally has no
4350 keyboard equivalent.
4351:help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
4352:button (TYPE . SELECTED)
4353 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
4354 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
4355 value says whether this button is currently selected.
4356
4357Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
4358Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
4359
4360(menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
4361
4362** New event types
4363
4364*** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
4365mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
4366corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
4367which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
4368
4369 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
4370
4371where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
4372same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
4373indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
4374negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
4375the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
4376forward, away from the user.
4377
4378As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
4379
4380*** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
4381files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
4382and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
4383filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
4384loaded into Emacs. The format is:
4385
4386 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
4387
4388where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
4389same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
4390that were dragged and dropped.
4391
4392As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
4393
4394** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
4395
4396*** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
4397any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
4398to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
4399
4400*** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
4401can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
4402that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
4403
4404*** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
4405in Emacs 19 and before.
4406
4407The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
4408The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
4409
4410*** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
4411buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
4412unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
4413representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
4414
4415This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
4416as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
4417viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
4418one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
4419will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
4420
4421This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
4422representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
4423(including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
4424consistent with the new representation.
4425
4426*** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
4427representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
4428about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
4429however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
4430
4431The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
4432nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
4433using the table nonascii-translation-table.
4434
4435*** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
4436representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
4437representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
4438
4439The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
4440loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
4441is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
4442
4443*** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
4444which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
4445
4446*** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
4447which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
4448
4449*** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
4450portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
4451so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
4452You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
4453
4454*** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
4455it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
4456
4457*** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
4458convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
4459buffer or string being searched.
4460
4461One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
4462[...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
4463searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
4464searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
4465obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
4466you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
4467expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
4468
4469*** Structure of coding system changed.
4470
4471All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
4472by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
4473which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
4474as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
4475vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
4476your own alias name of a coding system by the function
4477define-coding-system-alias.
4478
4479The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
4480the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
4481access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
4482pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
4483character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
4484safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
4485'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
4486`iso-8859-1'.
4487
4488Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
4489The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
4490coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
4491(coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
4492
4493Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
4494also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
4495are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
4496the other character sets and read it back correctly.
4497
4498*** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
4499proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
4500This function requires a user interaction.
4501
4502*** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
4503find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
4504select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
4505systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
4506a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
4507select-safe-coding-system.
4508
4509*** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
4510decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
4511last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
4512was done.
4513
4514*** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
4515used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
4516coding systems used by some specific language environment.
4517
4518*** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
4519return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
4520characters are found, they now return a list of single element
4521`undecided' or its subsidiaries.
4522
4523*** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
4524coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
4525coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
4526converted.
4527
4528*** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
4529coding system for communicating with other X clients.
4530
4531*** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
4532character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
4533character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
4534each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
4535either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
4536range of characters.
4537
4538*** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
4539Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
4540
4541*** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
4542in the current buffer at position POS.
4543
4544*** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
4545input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
4546function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
4547character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
4548event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
4549binding input-method-function to nil.
4550
4551The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
4552method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
4553input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
4554the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
4555not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
4556
4557The input method function is not called when reading the second and
4558subsequent events of a key sequence.
4559
4560*** You can customize any language environment by using
4561set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
4562
4563The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
4564customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
4565instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
4566environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
4567exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
4568\f
4569* Changes in Emacs 20.1
4570
4571** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
4572options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
4573at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
4574tree structure.
4575
4576M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
4577user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
4578
4579With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
4580session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
4581in your .emacs file.)
4582
4583** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
4584You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
4585
4586** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
4587This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
4588
4589** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
4590immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
4591kills the region.
4592
4593The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
4594delete the character before point, as usual.
4595
4596** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
4597on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
4598by setting search-highlight to nil.)
4599
4600** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
4601insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
4602the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
4603onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
4604history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
4605past.)
4606
4607** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
4608This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
4609in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
4610TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
4611makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
4612
4613As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
4614and is an alias for it.
4615
4616If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
4617use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
4618
4619** Scrolling changes
4620
4621*** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
4622position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
4623
4624In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
4625on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
4626where it started.
4627
4628*** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
4629move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
4630screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
4631does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
4632
4633*** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
4634top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
4635comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
4636recenters the window.
4637
4638** International character set support (MULE)
4639
4640Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
4641including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
4642Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
4643Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
4644features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
4645MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
4646
4647Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
4648coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
4649character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
4650variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
4651into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
4652
4653Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
4654generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
4655supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
4656language, to make it possible to type them.
4657
4658The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
4659character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
4660
4661The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
4662to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
4663
4664You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
4665
4666 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
4667
4668Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
4669characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
4670argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
4671already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
4672characters for their work until they want to change.
4673
4674*** Input methods
4675
4676An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
4677specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
4678has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
4679the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
4680support several input methods.
4681
4682The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
4683another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
4684work.
4685
4686A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
4687characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
4688composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
4689consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
4690sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
4691letter.
4692
4693The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
4694by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
4695First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
4696marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
4697mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
4698
4699None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
4700they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
4701phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
4702converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
4703
4704Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
4705word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
4706typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
4707the first guess is wrong.
4708
4709*** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
4710turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
4711
4712If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
4713byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
4714they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
4715the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
4716
4717However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
4718use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
4719includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
4720translate automatically to and from either one.
4721
4722*** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
4723
4724Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
4725file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
4726sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
4727what you want.
4728
4729If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
4730example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
4731system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
4732multibyte characters in that buffer.
4733
4734If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
4735character conversion as well.
4736
4737*** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
4738
4739A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
4740Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
4741requires using many fonts.
4742
4743Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
4744collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
4745
4746A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
4747the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
4748have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
4749you would use a font.
4750
4751If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
4752specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
4753display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
4754
4755The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
4756(that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
4757characters). If another font in the fontset has a different height,
4758or the wrong width, then characters assigned to that font are clipped,
4759and displayed within a box if highlight-wrong-size-font is non-nil.
4760
4761*** Defining fontsets.
4762
4763Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
4764chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
4765with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
4766
4767Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
4768of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
4769`fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
4770standard fontset are created automatically.
4771
4772If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
4773argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
4774FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
4775with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
4776name is `fontset-startup'.
4777
4778Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
4779The resource value should have this form:
4780 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
4781FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
4782 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
4783 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
4784 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
4785The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
4786of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
4787CHARSET-NAME should be the name name of a character set, and
4788FONT-NAME should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
4789
4790Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
4791last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
4792You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
4793
4794For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
4795font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
4796following resource,
4797 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
4798the font for ASCII is generated as below:
4799 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
4800Here is the substitution rule:
4801 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
4802 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
4803 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
4804 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
4805 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
4806
4807The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
4808fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
4809that function explicitly to create a fontset.
4810
4811With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
4812like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
4813name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
4814fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
4815fontsets.
4816
4817*** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
4818defaults for a particular choice of language.
4819
4820Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
4821method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
4822visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
4823already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
4824language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
4825system for new files that you create.
4826
4827It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
4828set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
4829whole Emacs session.
4830
4831For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
4832chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
4833with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
4834
4835*** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
4836specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
4837specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
4838the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
4839coding systems that Emacs supports.
4840
4841*** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
4842lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
4843This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
4844After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
4845is used for *the immediately following command*.
4846
4847So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
4848write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
4849
4850If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
4851then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
4852
4853For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
4854visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
4855
4856*** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
4857construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
4858to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
4859specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
4860of the file.
4861
4862*** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
4863the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
4864code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
4865translated into that character code.
4866
4867This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
4868various countries to support the languages of those countries.
4869
4870By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
4871
4872*** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
4873the coding system for keyboard input.
4874
4875Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
4876with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
4877some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
4878
4879By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
4880
4881Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
4882input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
4883translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
4884to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
4885designed to work with terminals.
4886
4887*** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
4888specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
4889This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
4890has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
4891translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
4892in the corresponding buffer.
4893
4894By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
4895
4896*** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
4897to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
4898It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
4899
4900*** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
4901an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
4902command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
4903want to use.
4904
4905C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
4906method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
4907
4908*** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
4909layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
4910remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
4911which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
4912
4913*** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
4914the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
4915related information.
4916
4917*** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
4918HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
4919scripts.
4920
4921*** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
4922information about the support for a particular language.
4923You specify the language as an argument.
4924
4925*** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
4926the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
4927first dash.
4928
4929A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
4930(except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
4931whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
49321 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
4933
4934 A alternativnyj (Russian)
4935 B big5 (Chinese)
4936 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
4937 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
4938 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
4939 E euc-japan (Japanese)
4940 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
4941 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
4942 K euc-korea (Korean)
4943 R koi8 (Russian)
4944 Q tibetan
4945 S shift_jis (Japanese)
4946 T lao
4947 T tis620 (Thai)
4948 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
4949 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
4950 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
4951 v viqr (Vietnamese)
4952 z hz (Chinese)
4953
4954When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
4955two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
4956coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
4957keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
4958
4959*** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
4960conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
4961
4962When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
4963into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
4964rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
4965Rmail files themselves.
4966
4967*** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
4968conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
4969
4970Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
4971for sending mail:
4972
4973- If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
4974- Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
4975- Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
4976 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
4977- Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
4978
4979*** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
4980to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
4981Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
4982translations.
4983
4984** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
4985of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
4986insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
4987without any conversion.
4988
4989** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
4990You can now specify any number of octal digits.
4991RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
4992any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
4993
4994** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
4995functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
4996
4997Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
4998Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
4999
5000Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
5001mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
5002
5003** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
5004complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
5005in the buffer before point.
5006
5007With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
5008symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
5009you are using.
5010
5011With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
5012just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
5013
5014** File locking works with NFS now.
5015
5016The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
5017in the same directory as FILENAME.
5018
5019This means that collision detection between two different machines now
5020works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
5021can become a bottleneck.
5022
5023The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
5024does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
5025create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
5026file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
5027rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
5028so useful that the change is worth while.
5029
5030When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
5031are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
5032collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
5033tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
5034
5035** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
5036it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
5037show-paren-mode.
5038
5039** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
5040selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
5041delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
5042
5043** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
5044within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
5045complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
5046
5047** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
5048it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
5049set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
5050
5051** Changes in View mode.
5052
5053*** Several new commands are available in View mode.
5054Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
5055
5056*** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
5057view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
5058
5059*** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
5060previous state.
5061
5062*** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
5063scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
5064
5065*** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
5066non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
5067not just the selected window.
5068
5069*** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
5070read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
5071turns View mode on or off.
5072
5073*** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
5074how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
5075delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
5076
5077** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
5078now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
5079
5080** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
5081has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
5082presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
5083which version to compare with.
5084
5085** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
79214ddf 5086blocks if a match is inside the block.
a933dad1
DL
5087
5088The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
5089is outside the block. By customizing the variable
5090isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
5091shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
5092
5093By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
5094of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
5095blocks, all of them or none.
5096
5097** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
5098current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
5099confirmation first.
5100
5101** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
5102now changes the major mode according to that file name.
5103However, the mode will not be changed if
5104(1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
5105(2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
5106 not suitable for ordinary files, or
5107(3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
5108
5109This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
5110
5111However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
5112these commands do not change the major mode.
5113
5114** M-x occur changes.
5115
5116*** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
5117it performs a case-sensitive search.
5118
5119*** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
5120if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
5121using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
5122
5123** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
5124in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
5125window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
5126that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
5127buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
5128
5129** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
5130after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
5131appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
5132come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
5133
5134** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
5135selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
5136buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
5137
5138** Outline mode changes.
5139
5140*** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
5141
5142*** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
5143
5144** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
5145you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
5146Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
5147was already active.
5148
5149The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
5150unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
5151get confused by it.
5152
5153If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
5154set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
5155
5156** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
5157
5158*** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
5159conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
5160character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
5161including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
5162
5163The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
5164mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
5165copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
5166
5167*** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
5168are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
5169values.
5170
5171`dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
5172case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
5173`dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
5174case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
5175
5176** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
5177certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
5178can be. The default value is 30.
5179
5180** Changes in Mail mode.
5181
5182*** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
5183Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
5184composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
5185`mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
5186`sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
5187behavior.
5188
5189C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
5190compose-mail-other-frame.
5191
5192*** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
5193the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
5194replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
5195buffer that shows the original message.
5196
5197*** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
5198with separator lines around the contents.
5199
5200*** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
5201in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
5202definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
5203need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
5204
5205*** New features in the mail-complete command.
5206
5207**** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
5208for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
5209controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
5210Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
5211
5212**** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
5213to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
5214/etc/passwd.
5215
5216**** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
5217to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
5218/etc/passwd.
5219
5220** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
5221special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
5222directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
5223reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
5224
5225Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
5226when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
5227be taken to be magic.
5228
5229** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
5230files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
5231available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
5232
5233M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
5234(-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
5235
5236** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
5237suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
5238
5239In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
5240
5241new key dired.el binding old key
5242------- ---------------- -------
5243 * c dired-change-marks c
5244 * m dired-mark m
5245 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
5246 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
5247 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
5248 * u dired-unmark u
5249 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
5250 * ? dired-unmark-all-files M-C-?
5251 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
5252 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
5253 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
5254 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
5255
5256** Rmail changes.
5257
5258*** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
5259saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
5260chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
5261each time you run it.
5262
5263*** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
5264whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
5265
5266*** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
5267messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
5268means to move in the opposite direction.
5269
5270*** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
5271you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
5272
5273*** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
5274just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
5275It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
5276can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
5277for output.
5278
5279** Gnus changes.
5280
5281*** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
5282
79214ddf
FP
5283*** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
5284Gnus.
a933dad1 5285
79214ddf 5286*** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
a933dad1
DL
5287`and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
5288
5289*** Article washing status can be displayed in the
5290article mode line.
5291
5292*** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
5293
5294*** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
5295
5296(setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
5297
5298*** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
5299are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
5300`gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
5301
5302*** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
5303
5304*** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
5305
5306*** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
5307See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
5308
5309*** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
5310Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
5311used to pick articles.
5312
5313*** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
5314another have been added.
5315
5316 `M-x gnus-change-server'
5317
5318*** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
5319generating lines in buffers.
5320
5321*** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
5322`M-C-_'.
5323
5324*** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
5325
5326*** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
5327
5328 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
5329
5330*** Scores can be decayed.
79214ddf 5331
a933dad1
DL
5332 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
5333
5334*** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
5335Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
5336
5337*** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
5338the native server.
5339
5340 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
5341
5342*** A new command for reading collections of documents
5343(nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `M-C-d'.
5344
5345*** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
5346
5347*** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
5348even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
5349
5350*** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
5351(DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
5352
5353 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
5354 a group.
5355
5356*** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
5357sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
5358
5359 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
5360
5361*** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
5362
5363 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
5364
5365*** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
79214ddf 5366
a933dad1
DL
5367 Use the `Y c' command.
5368
5369*** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
5370
5371*** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
5372
5373 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
5374
5375*** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
5376from incoming mail before saving the mail.
79214ddf 5377
a933dad1
DL
5378 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
5379
5380*** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
5381
5382*** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
5383the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
5384
5385 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
5386
5387Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
5388and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
5389from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
5390hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
5391this issue.)
5392
5393Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
5394automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
5395particular news group. This can be done by:
5396
5397 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
5398
5399Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
5400of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
5401"XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
5402system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
5403for reading and posting).
5404
5405CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
5406 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
5407Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
5408newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
5409there.
5410
5411Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
5412default. Here are some of these default settings:
5413
5414 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
5415 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
5416 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
5417 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
5418 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
5419
5420When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
5421the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
5422
5423** CC mode changes.
5424
5425*** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
5426code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
5427values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
5428this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
5429Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
5430loaded.
5431
5432If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
79214ddf 5433Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
a933dad1 5434style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
79214ddf
FP
5435share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
5436c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
a933dad1
DL
5437must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
5438
5439*** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
5440of the current buffer.
5441
5442*** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
5443it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
5444of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
5445
5446*** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
5447style that the Python developers like.
5448
5449*** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
5450This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
5451just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
5452
5453** VC Changes [new]
5454
5455** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
5456name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
5457directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
5458
5459This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
5460master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
5461developers.
5462
5463You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
5464RET in a buffer visiting that file.
5465
5466*** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
5467other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
5468writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
5469calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
5470
5471*** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
5472version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
5473
5474** Calendar changes.
5475
5476A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or subclasses
5477of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow you do this
5478for the year of the selected date, or the following/previous years.
5479
5480** ps-print changes
5481
79214ddf 5482There are some new user variables for customizing the page layout.
a933dad1
DL
5483
5484*** Paper size, paper orientation, columns
5485
5486The variable `ps-paper-type' determines the size of paper ps-print
5487formats for; it should contain one of the symbols:
5488`a4' `a3' `letter' `legal' `letter-small' `tabloid'
5489`ledger' `statement' `executive' `a4small' `b4' `b5'
5490It defaults to `letter'.
5491If you need other sizes, see the variable `ps-page-dimensions-database'.
5492
5493The variable `ps-landscape-mode' determines the orientation
79214ddf 5494of the printing on the page. nil, the default, means "portrait" mode,
a933dad1
DL
5495non-nil means "landscape" mode.
5496
5497The variable `ps-number-of-columns' must be a positive integer.
5498It determines the number of columns both in landscape and portrait mode.
79214ddf 5499It defaults to 1.
a933dad1
DL
5500
5501*** Horizontal layout
5502
5503The horizontal layout is determined by the variables
5504`ps-left-margin', `ps-inter-column', and `ps-right-margin'.
5505All are measured in points.
5506
5507*** Vertical layout
5508
5509The vertical layout is determined by the variables
5510`ps-bottom-margin', `ps-top-margin', and `ps-header-offset'.
5511All are measured in points.
5512
5513*** Headers
5514
5515If the variable `ps-print-header' is nil, no header is printed. Then
5516`ps-header-offset' is not relevant and `ps-top-margin' represents the
5517margin above the text.
5518
79214ddf 5519If the variable `ps-print-header-frame' is non-nil, a gaudy
a933dad1
DL
5520framing box is printed around the header.
5521
5522The contents of the header are determined by `ps-header-lines',
5523`ps-show-n-of-n', `ps-left-header' and `ps-right-header'.
5524
79214ddf
FP
5525The height of the header is determined by `ps-header-line-pad',
5526`ps-header-font-family', `ps-header-title-font-size' and
a933dad1
DL
5527`ps-header-font-size'.
5528
5529*** Font managing
5530
5531The variable `ps-font-family' determines which font family is to be
5532used for ordinary text. Its value must be a key symbol in the alist
5533`ps-font-info-database'. You can add other font families by adding
5534elements to this alist.
5535
79214ddf 5536The variable `ps-font-size' determines the size of the font
a933dad1
DL
5537for ordinary text. It defaults to 8.5 points.
5538
5539** hideshow changes.
5540
5541*** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
79214ddf 5542C++, ; for lisp).
a933dad1
DL
5543
5544*** Support for java-mode added.
5545
5546*** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
5547in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
5548
5549*** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the the comments at
5550the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
5551way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
5552
5553*** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
5554robust and a lot faster.
5555
79214ddf 5556*** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
a933dad1
DL
5557
5558*** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
5559to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
5560documentation for more details.
5561
5562** Changes in Enriched mode.
5563
5564*** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
5565filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
5566of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
5567use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
5568the next time unless the fill-column is different.
5569
5570*** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
5571distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
5572as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
5573as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
5574
5575** Font Lock mode
5576
5577*** Custom support
5578
5579The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
5580font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
5581faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
5582group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
5583your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
5584consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
5585
5586You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
5587
5588*** Maximum decoration
5589
5590Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
5591default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
5592of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
5593supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
5594to get the old behavior.
5595
5596*** New support
5597
5598Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
5599
5600Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
5601support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
5602
5603*** Configurable support
5604
5605Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
5606additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
5607c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
5608java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
5609list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
5610of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
5611convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
5612
5613Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
5614way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
5615it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
5616
5617*** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
5618
5619You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
5620highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
5621for any mode.
5622
5623For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
5624
5625 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
5626
5627in your ~/.emacs.
5628
5629*** New faces
5630
5631Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
5632font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
5633distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
5634to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
5635
5636*** Changes to fast-lock support mode
5637
5638The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
5639cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
5640same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
5641
5642*** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
5643
5644The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
5645according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
5646the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
5647non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
5648refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
5649the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
5650Lock mode behaviour and the behaviour of Font Lock mode.
5651
5652This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
5653For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
5654this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
5655refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
5656containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
5657the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
5658
5659As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
5660
5661Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
5662Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
5663Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
5664new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
5665
5666If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
5667settings.
5668
5669** Ada mode changes.
5670
5671*** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
5672If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
5673procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
5674you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
5675stubs.
5676
5677*** There are two new commands:
5678 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
5679 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
5680
5681The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
5682`ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
79214ddf 5683`ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
a933dad1
DL
5684
5685*** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
5686is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
5687Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
5688
5689*** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
5690formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
5691places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
5692space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
5693
5694** Scheme mode changes.
5695
5696*** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
5697mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
5698for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
5699with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
5700have any effect.
5701
5702If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
5703still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
5704scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
5705variables as buffer-local variables.
5706
5707*** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
5708Use M-x dsssl-mode.
5709
133c9e59
GM
5710** Changes to the emacsclient program
5711
875c1439
GM
5712*** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
5713USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
5714associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
5715can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
5716
133c9e59 5717*** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
a933dad1
DL
5718it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
5719buffer in Emacs.
5720
133c9e59
GM
5721*** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
5722use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
5723ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
5724option takes precedence.
5725
a933dad1
DL
5726** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
5727constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
5728(in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
5729
5730** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
5731which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
5732the current defun.
5733
5734** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
5735following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
5736
5737** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
5738and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
5739necessary).
5740
5741** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
5742if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
5743these register values no longer become completely useless.
5744If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
5745asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
5746it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
5747
5748** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
5749example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
5750be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
5751you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
5752
5753You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
5754variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
5755file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
5756revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
5757only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
5758
5759** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
5760since it applies only to the current frame.
5761
5762** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
5763file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
5764and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
5765
5766This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
5767multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
5768variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
5769tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
5770instead of just the file you are editing.
5771
5772** RefTeX mode
5773
5774RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
5775and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
5776different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
5777multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
5778turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
5779
79214ddf 5780C-c ( reftex-label
a933dad1
DL
5781 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
5782 knows which kind of label is needed.
5783
5784C-c ) reftex-reference
5785 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
5786 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
5787
5788C-c [ reftex-citation
5789 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
5790 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
5791
5792C-c & reftex-view-crossref
5793 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
5794
5795C-c = reftex-toc
5796 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
5797 can quickly jump to every section.
79214ddf 5798
a933dad1
DL
5799Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
5800commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
5801Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
5802reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
5803C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
5804
5805** Changes in BibTeX mode.
5806
5807*** Info documentation is now available.
5808
5809*** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
5810both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
5811
5812*** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
5813bibtex-user-optional-fields.
5814
5815*** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
5816(use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
5817
5818*** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
5819entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
5820appropriate functions.
5821
5822*** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
5823entries. They are bound by default to M-C-l and M-C-h.
5824
5825*** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
5826been cleaned.
5827
5828*** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
5829bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
5830
5831*** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
5832shall be delimited.
5833
5834*** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
5835bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
5836bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
5837
5838*** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
5839field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
5840prefixed with `ALT'.
5841
5842*** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
5843bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
5844formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
5845documentation).
5846
5847*** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
5848documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
5849for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
5850
5851*** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
5852comma should be inserted at end of last field.
5853
5854*** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
5855alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
5856signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
5857
5858*** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
5859
5860*** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
5861
5862*** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
5863from alien sources.
5864
5865*** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
5866to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
5867crossref entries.
5868
5869*** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
5870region.
5871
5872*** Added support for imenu.
5873
5874*** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
5875of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
5876`compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
5877`next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
5878
5879*** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
5880from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
5881
5882** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
5883
30a009a5 5884** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
047f434a 5885
a933dad1
DL
5886** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
5887functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
5888Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
5889as an argument.
5890
5891When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
5892and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
5893
5894** browse-url changes
5895
5896*** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
5897Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
5898(browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
5899non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
5900customization variables.
5901
5902*** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
5903
5904*** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
5905lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
5906(e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
5907
5908** Changes in Ediff
5909
5910*** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
5911pops up the Info file for this command.
5912
5913*** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
5914the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
5915merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
5916directories).
5917
5918*** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
5919and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
5920files in the same directory.
5921
5922*** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
5923The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
5924related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
5925
5926** Changes in Viper
5927
5928*** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
79214ddf 5929*** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
a933dad1
DL
5930 instead of vip-.
5931*** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
79214ddf 5932*** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
a933dad1
DL
5933Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
5934*** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
5935*** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
5936*** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
5937color when Viper is in insert state.
5938*** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
5939Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
5940viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
5941
5942** Etags changes.
5943
5944*** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
5945default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
5946Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
5947variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
5948not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
5949
5950*** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
5951
5952*** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
5953constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
5954
5955*** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
5956recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
5957In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
5958
5959*** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
5960C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
5961recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
5962methods and protocols.
5963
5964*** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
5965.cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
5966column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
5967paragraph name.
5968
5969*** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
5970an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
5971at least M times and as many as N times.
5972
5973** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
5974in files has changed slightly.
5975
5976With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
5977time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
5978This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
5979with old time-stamp-format values.
5980
5981In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
5982(`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
5983This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
5984reasons.
5985
5986In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
5987natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
5988fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
5989(`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
5990time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
5991specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
5992
5993Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
5994case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
5995truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
5996
5997The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
5998being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
5999future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
6000recommended now will continue to work then.
6001
6002See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
6003details.
6004
6005** There are some additional major modes:
6006
6007dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
6008m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
6009meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
6010
6011** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
6012copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
6013into Emacs.
6014
6015** New Lisp packages include:
6016
6017*** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
6018
6019*** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
6020be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
6021
6022*** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
6023
6024*** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
6025in shell buffers.
6026
6027*** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
6028See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
6029and `elint-defun'.
6030
6031*** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
6032meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
6033ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
6034strings or comments.
6035
6036These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
6037abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
6038you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
6039insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
6040at these points.
6041
6042*** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
6043can visit them by short forms of their names.
6044
6045*** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
6046Emacs Lisp function at point.
6047
6048*** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
6049
6050*** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
6051switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
6052
6053*** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
6054
6055*** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
6056
6057*** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
6058
6059*** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
6060from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
6061
6062*** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
6063You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
6064inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
6065original place after inserting the copy.
6066
6067*** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
6068on the buffer.
6069
6070You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
6071velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
6072(with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
6073
6074Enable mouse-drag with:
6075 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
6076-or-
6077 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
6078
6079*** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
6080mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
6081
6082*** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
6083It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
6084
6085*** ogonek
6086
6087The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
6088Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
6089platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
6090TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
6091ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
6092prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
6093instance) and vice versa.
6094
6095To use this package load it using
6096 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
6097Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
79214ddf 6098 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
a933dad1
DL
6099 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
6100The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
6101ways of customization in `.emacs'.
6102
6103*** Interface to ph.
6104
6105Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
6106
6107The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
6108services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
6109these servers.
6110
6111*** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
6112
6113*** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
6114You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
6115while the real cursor does not move.
6116
6117*** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
6118for visiting your favorite web sites.
6119
6120*** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
6121so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
6122
6123** movemail change
6124
6125Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
6126mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
6127supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
6128user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
6129
6130This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
6131\f
6132* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
6133
6134** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
6135
6136Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
6137end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
6138Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
6139file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
6140file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
6141
6142To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
6143C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
6144coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
6145specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
6146LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
6147save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
6148\f
6149* Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
6150
6151** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
6152Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
6153vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
6154Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
6155
6156** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
6157to start with w32- instead of win32-.
6158
6159In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
6160don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
6161"win".
6162
6163** Basic Lisp changes
6164
6165*** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
6166evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
6167
6168*** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
6169be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
6170or by the user.
6171
6172The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
6173
6174*** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
6175
6176(when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
6177(unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
6178
6179*** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
6180usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
6181its argument.
6182
6183*** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
6184
6185*** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
6186
6187*** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
6188
6189*** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
6190error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
6191include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
6192`format' function.
6193
6194*** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
6195or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
6196whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
6197
6198*** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
6199either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
6200adding one of these suffixes.
6201
6202*** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
6203which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
79214ddf 6204If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
a933dad1
DL
6205
6206We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
6207because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
6208
6209*** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
6210
6211*** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
6212You must load the `cl' library to define it.
6213
6214*** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
6215conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
6216
6217 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
6218
6219BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
6220BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
6221
6222*** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
6223choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
6224restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
6225works using `save-current-buffer'.
6226
6227*** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
6228write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
6229of the last form.
6230
6231*** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
6232which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
6233last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
6234as the last form.
6235
6236*** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
6237characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
6238matches.
6239
6240For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
6241
6242*** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
6243with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
6244Then it returns that string.
6245
6246For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
6247
6248(with-output-to-string
6249 (princ "The buffer is ")
6250 (princ (buffer-name)))
6251
6252returns "The buffer is foo".
6253
6254** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
6255is non-nil.
6256
6257These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
6258buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
6259characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
6260
6261*** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
6262a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
6263
6264Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
6265character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
6266Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
6267position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
6268characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
6269 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
6270
6271ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
6272Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
6273non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
6274characters".
6275
6276The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
6277through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
6278"leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
6279range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
6280leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
6281
6282*** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
6283(forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
6284multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
6285character, which may be more than one buffer position.
6286
6287This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
6288always one buffer position, need to be changed.
6289
6290However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
79214ddf 6291
a933dad1
DL
6292*** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
6293because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
6294have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
6295the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
6296guaranteed.
6297
6298*** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
6299between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
6300character).
6301
6302When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
6303
6304 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
6305 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
6306 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
6307 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
6308 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
6309
6310*** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
6311
6312*** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
6313`length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
6314more than the number of characters.
6315
6316You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
6317it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
6318\xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
6319is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
6320follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
6321newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
6322
6323*** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
6324and returns a string containing those characters.
6325
6326*** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
6327(sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
6328counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
6329character, sref signals an error.
6330
6331*** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
6332in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
6333string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
6334
6335*** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
6336in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
6337region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
6338
6339*** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
6340the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
6341to a vector of the characters in it.
6342
6343*** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
6344of a string. You call it as follows:
6345
6346 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
6347
6348This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
6349STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
6350This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
6351Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
6352it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
6353
6354*** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
6355if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
6356
6357*** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
6358if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
6359
6360*** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
6361to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
6362not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
6363which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
6364
6365(truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
6366
6367This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
6368
6369The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
6370If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
6371are not included in the resulting value.
6372
6373The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
6374at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
6375WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
6376is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
6377
6378If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
6379place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
6380character extends across that column), then the padding character
6381PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
6382string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
6383column START-COLUMN.
6384
6385*** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
6386the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
6387necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
6388difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
6389changed text, before the change.
6390
6391*** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
6392sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
6393one character set for each script, not for each language.
6394
6395**** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
6396
6397**** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
6398
6399**** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
6400set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
6401
6402**** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
6403name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
6404which identify the character within that character set.
6405
6406**** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
6407byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
6408opposite of split-char.
6409
6410**** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
6411of all the characters between BEG and END.
6412
6413**** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
6414of all the characters in a string.
6415
6416*** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
6417and specifying coding systems.
6418
6419**** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
6420system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
6421of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
6422(Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
6423and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
6424as what to do about code conversion.)
6425
6426**** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
6427name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
6428
6429**** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
6430for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
6431except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
6432
6433Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
6434which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
6435to match against a file name.
6436
6437VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
6438a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
6439decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
6440to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
6441systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
6442specifies the coding system for encoding.
6443
6444If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
6445or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
6446
6447**** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
6448the coding system to use for network sockets.
6449
6450Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
6451which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
6452either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
6453service names.
6454
6455VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
6456a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
6457decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
6458to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
6459systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
6460specifies the coding system for encoding.
6461
6462If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
6463or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
6464
6465**** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
6466for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
6467except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
6468start the subprocess.
6469
6470**** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
6471systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
6472when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
6473(OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
6474to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
6475
6476**** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
6477coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
6478subprocess.
6479
6480It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
6481but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
6482start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
6483connection permanently or until overridden.
6484
6485The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
6486file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
6487network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
6488coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
6489It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
6490system for one operation at a time.
6491
6492**** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
6493files, subprocesses or network connections.
6494
6495**** The function process-coding-system tells you what
6496coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
6497The value is a cons cell,
6498 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
6499where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
6500the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
6501input to the subprocess.
6502
6503**** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
6504change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
6505
6506** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
6507customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
6508you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
6509
6510You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
6511variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
6512information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
6513legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
6514customization.
6515
6516Thus, instead of writing
6517
6518 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
6519 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
6520
6521you would now write this:
6522
6523 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
6524 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
6525 :type 'boolean
6526 :group foo)
6527
6528The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
6529two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
6530describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
6531for a description of them.
6532
6533The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
6534should belong to. You define a new group like this:
6535
6536 (defgroup ispell nil
6537 "Spell checking using Ispell."
6538 :group 'processes)
6539
6540The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
6541group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
6542but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
6543to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
6544second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
6545
6546Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
6547package should have just one group; a more complex package should
6548have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
6549package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
6550first-level subgroups.
6551
6552** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
6553
6554This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
6555separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
6556
6557** easy-mmode
6558
6559The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
6560developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
6561only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
6562predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
6563`easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
6564`easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
6565
6566** Text property changes
6567
6568*** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
6569text property.
6570
6571*** The new functions next-char-property-change and
6572previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
6573place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
6574functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
6575starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
6576
6577If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
6578LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
6579of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
6580position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
6581
6582*** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
6583value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
6584is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
6585
6586** Changes in invisibility features
6587
6588*** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
6589hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
6590is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
6591should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
6592would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
6593make the overlay visible.
6594
6595During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
6596invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
6597needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
6598which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
6599the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
6600t when it should hide it.
6601
6602*** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
6603
6604Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
79214ddf
FP
6605invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
6606and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
a933dad1 6607Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
79214ddf 6608manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
a933dad1
DL
6609Here is an example of how to do this:
6610
6611 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
79214ddf 6612 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
a933dad1 6613 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
79214ddf 6614 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
a933dad1
DL
6615
6616 ...
6617 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
6618
6619 ...
6620 ;; When done with the overlays:
6621 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
6622 ;; Or respectively:
6623 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
6624
6625** Changes in syntax parsing.
6626
6627*** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
6628`parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
6629obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
6630`parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
6631
6632If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
6633is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
6634used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
6635
6636When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
6637character in the buffer is calculated thus:
6638
6639 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
6640 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
6641
6642 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
6643 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
6644 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
6645
6646 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
6647 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
6648 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
6649 determine the syntax type of the character.
6650
6651 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
6652 of the current buffer.
6653
6654*** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
6655value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
6656for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
6657
6658*** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
6659and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
6660only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
6661character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
6662another character with the same code (unless quoted).
6663
6664These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
6665text property.
6666
6667*** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
6668arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
6669of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
6670
6671*** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
6672(and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
6673element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
6674nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
6675string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
6676
6677*** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
6678syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
6679`font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
6680
6681** Changes in face features
6682
6683*** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
6684if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
6685
6686*** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
6687of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
6688
6689*** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
6690set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
6691
6692*** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
6693set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
6694
6695*** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
6696by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
6697and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
6698the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
6699overlay property).
6700
6701This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
6702arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
6703
6704** Changes in file-handling functions
6705
6706*** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
6707directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
6708they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
6709is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
6710
6711This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
6712begins with ~.
6713
6714*** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
6715it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
6716
6717*** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
6718the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
6719
6720*** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
6721as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
6722
6723*** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
6724character code conversion as well as other things.
6725
6726Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
6727(formerly it did not).
6728
6729*** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
6730environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
6731
6732*** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
6733instead of constant strings.
6734
6735*** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
6736to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
6737any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
6738
6739substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
6740in the same way as before.
6741
6742*** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
6743The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
6744which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
6745
6746*** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
6747error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
6748else, and returns nil.
6749
6750*** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
6751directory cannot be listed.
6752
6753** Changes in minibuffer input
6754
6755*** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
6756read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
6757additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
6758argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
6759ways:
6760
6761 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
6762 It is available through the history command M-n.
6763
6764*** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
6765read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
6766argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
6767minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
6768enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
6769
6770In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
6771argument in this way.
6772
6773*** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
6774from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
6775minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
6776
6777** Echo area features
6778
6779*** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
6780echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
6781minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
6782after the echo area is cleared.
6783
6784*** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
6785in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
6786
6787** Keyboard input features
6788
6789*** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
6790set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
6791
6792*** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
6793received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
6794by keyboard macros.
6795
6796** Frame-related changes
6797
6798*** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
6799creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
6800hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
6801
6802*** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
6803the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
6804has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
6805
6806*** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
6807selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
6808value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
6809in the selected frame.
6810
6811*** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
6812is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
6813which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
6814
6815** X Windows features
6816
6817*** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
6818x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
6819x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
6820
6821*** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
6822The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
6823
6824*** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
6825MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
6826A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
6827
6828If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
6829it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
6830
6831** Subprocess features
6832
6833*** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
6834functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
6835automatically.
6836
6837*** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
6838and returns the output from the command as a string.
6839
6840*** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
6841and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
6842
6843** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
6844does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
6845
6846** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
6847at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
6848goes after the other menu items.
6849
6850** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
79214ddf 6851of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
a933dad1
DL
6852around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
6853are in use.
6854
6855The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
6856series of several changes--if that seems safe.
6857
6858Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
6859after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
6860form.
6861
6862** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
6863is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
6864but its hook is still run.
6865
6866** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
6867for errors that are handled by condition-case.
6868
6869If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
6870regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
6871useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
6872
6873This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
6874are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
6875filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
6876warned.
6877
6878** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
6879way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
6880
6881** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
6882integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
6883functions like display-time.
6884
6885** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
6886name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
6887
6888** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
6889can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
6890is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
6891
6892** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
6893if there is an error in compilation.
6894
6895** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
6896switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
6897argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
6898they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
6899
6900** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
6901Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
6902the *scratch* buffer.
6903
6904** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
6905The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
6906where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
6907e.g., in Font Lock mode.
6908
6909** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
6910and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
6911It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
6912
6913** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
6914using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
6915variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
6916and compose-mail-other-frame.
6917
6918** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
6919can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
6920full name of the specified user will be returned.
6921
6922** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
6923of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
6924where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
6925in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
6926option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
6927files at all.
6928
6929** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
6930and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
6931width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
6932the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
6933
6934For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
6935minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
6936with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
6937is how %S normally pads to two positions.
6938
6939** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
6940
6941** imenu.el changes.
6942
6943You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
79214ddf 6944item from menu created by imenu.
a933dad1
DL
6945
6946An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
6947#include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
6948select one of those items.
6949\f
6950* Emacs 19.34 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
6951\f
6952* Changes in Emacs 19.33.
6953
6954** Bibtex mode no longer turns on Auto Fill automatically. (No major
6955mode should do that--it is the user's choice.)
6956
6957** The variable normal-auto-fill-function specifies the function to
6958use for auto-fill-function, if and when Auto Fill is turned on.
6959Major modes can set this locally to alter how Auto Fill works.
6960\f
6961* Editing Changes in Emacs 19.32
6962
6963** C-x f with no argument now signals an error.
6964To set the fill column at the current column, use C-u C-x f.
6965
6966** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
6967conversion. If you type the abbreviation with mixed case, and it
6968matches the beginning of the expansion including case, then the
6969expansion is copied verbatim. Using SPC M-/ to copy an additional
6970word always copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is
6971all caps.
6972
6973** On a non-windowing terminal, which can display only one Emacs frame
6974at a time, creating a new frame with C-x 5 2 also selects that frame.
6975
6976When using a display that can show multiple frames at once, C-x 5 2
6977does make the frame visible, but does not select it. This is the same
6978as in previous Emacs versions.
6979
6980** You can use C-x 5 2 to create multiple frames on MSDOS, just as on a
6981non-X terminal on Unix. Of course, only one frame is visible at any
6982time, since your terminal doesn't have the ability to display multiple
6983frames.
6984
6985** On Windows, set win32-pass-alt-to-system to a non-nil value
6986if you would like tapping the Alt key to invoke the Windows menu.
6987This feature is not enabled by default; since the Alt key is also the
6988Meta key, it is too easy and painful to activate this feature by
6989accident.
6990
6991** The command apply-macro-to-region-lines repeats the last defined
6992keyboard macro once for each complete line within the current region.
6993It does this line by line, by moving point to the beginning of that
6994line and then executing the macro.
6995
6996This command is not new, but was never documented before.
6997
6998** You can now use Mouse-1 to place the region around a string constant
6999(something surrounded by doublequote characters or other delimiter
7000characters of like syntax) by double-clicking on one of the delimiting
7001characters.
7002
7003** Font Lock mode
7004
7005*** Font Lock support modes
7006
7007Font Lock can be configured to use Fast Lock mode and Lazy Lock mode (see
7008below) in a flexible way. Rather than adding the appropriate function to the
7009hook font-lock-mode-hook, you can use the new variable font-lock-support-mode
7010to control which modes have Fast Lock mode or Lazy Lock mode turned on when
7011Font Lock mode is enabled.
7012
7013For example, to use Fast Lock mode when Font Lock mode is turned on, put:
7014
7015 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'fast-lock-mode)
7016
7017in your ~/.emacs.
7018
7019*** lazy-lock
7020
7021The lazy-lock package speeds up Font Lock mode by making fontification occur
7022only when necessary, such as when a previously unfontified part of the buffer
7023becomes visible in a window. When you create a buffer with Font Lock mode and
7024Lazy Lock mode turned on, the buffer is not fontified. When certain events
7025occur (such as scrolling), Lazy Lock makes sure that the visible parts of the
7026buffer are fontified. Lazy Lock also defers on-the-fly fontification until
7027Emacs has been idle for a given amount of time.
7028
7029To use this package, put in your ~/.emacs:
7030
7031 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'lazy-lock-mode)
7032
7033To control the package behaviour, see the documentation for `lazy-lock-mode'.
7034
7035** Changes in BibTeX mode.
7036
7037*** For all entries allow spaces and tabs between opening brace or
7038paren and key.
7039
7040*** Non-escaped double-quoted characters (as in `Sch"of') are now
7041supported.
7042
7043** Gnus changes.
7044
7045Gnus, the Emacs news reader, has undergone further rewriting. Many new
7046commands and variables have been added. There should be no
7047significant incompatibilities between this Gnus version and the
7048previously released version, except in the message composition area.
7049
7050Below is a list of the more user-visible changes. Coding changes
7051between Gnus 5.1 and 5.2 are more extensive.
7052
79214ddf 7053*** A new message composition mode is used. All old customization
a933dad1
DL
7054variables for mail-mode, rnews-reply-mode and gnus-msg are now
7055obsolete.
7056
7057*** Gnus is now able to generate "sparse" threads -- threads where
7058missing articles are represented by empty nodes.
7059
7060 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
7061
7062*** Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server.
7063
7064 To disable this: (setq gnus-message-archive-group nil)
7065
7066*** Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
79214ddf 7067referred.
a933dad1
DL
7068
7069*** Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions:
7070
7071 (setq gnus-use-grouplens t)
7072
7073*** A trn-line tree buffer can be displayed.
7074
7075 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
7076
7077*** An nn-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
79214ddf 7078buffers.
a933dad1
DL
7079
7080 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
7081
7082*** In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode:
7083
7084 `M-x gnus-binary-mode'
7085
7086*** Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy.
7087
7088 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
7089
7090*** Gnus can re-send and bounce mail.
7091
7092 Use the `S D r' and `S D b'.
7093
7094*** Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
7095is possible.
7096
7097 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
7098
7099*** Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
7100groups of groups.
7101
7102*** Caching is possible in virtual groups.
7103
7104*** nndoc now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews news
79214ddf 7105batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything else.
a933dad1
DL
7106
7107*** Gnus has a new backend (nnsoup) to create/read SOUP packets.
7108
7109*** The Gnus cache is much faster.
7110
7111*** Groups can be sorted according to many criteria.
7112
7113 For instance: (setq gnus-group-sort-function 'gnus-group-sort-by-rank)
7114
7115*** New group parameters have been introduced to set list-address and
7116expiration times.
7117
7118*** All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used.
7119
7120*** There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on
7121process marked articles on the `M P' submap.
7122
7123*** The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
7124articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
7125bound to keys on the `/' submap.
7126
7127*** Articles can be made persistent -- as an alternative to saving
7128articles with the `*' command.
7129
7130*** All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
7131
7132*** Article headers can be buttonized.
7133
7134 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head)
7135
7136*** All mail backends support fetching articles by Message-ID.
7137
79214ddf 7138*** Duplicate mail can now be treated properly. See the
a933dad1
DL
7139`nnmail-treat-duplicates' variable.
7140
7141*** All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
79214ddf 7142buffer.
a933dad1
DL
7143
7144*** Frames can be part of `gnus-buffer-configuration'.
7145
7146*** Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process.
7147
7148*** Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to filter spam.
7149
7150 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
7151
79214ddf 7152*** Groups can be made permanently visible.
a933dad1
DL
7153
7154 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
7155
79214ddf 7156*** Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
a933dad1
DL
7157
7158*** Gnus respects the Mail-Copies-To header.
7159
79214ddf 7160*** Threads can be gathered by looking at the References header.
a933dad1 7161
79214ddf 7162 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
a933dad1
DL
7163 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
7164
7165*** Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
79214ddf 7166refetching.
a933dad1
DL
7167
7168 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
7169
7170*** A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
7171buffer to allow easier treatment.
7172
7173*** Gnus can suggest where to save articles. See `gnus-split-methods'.
7174
7175*** Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving.
7176
7177 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
7178
7179*** gnus-uu can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
79214ddf 7180articles.
a933dad1
DL
7181
7182 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
7183
79214ddf 7184*** Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text.
a933dad1
DL
7185
7186*** Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
7187cited text to hide is now customizable.
7188
7189 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
7190
7191*** Boring headers can be hidden.
7192
7193 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-hide-boring-headers)
7194
7195*** Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
7196
7197*** Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
7198
7199The Gnus manual has been expanded. It explains all these new features
7200in greater detail.
7201\f
7202* Lisp Changes in Emacs 19.32
7203
7204** The function set-visited-file-name now accepts an optional
7205second argument NO-QUERY. If it is non-nil, then the user is not
7206asked for confirmation in the case where the specified file already
7207exists.
7208
7209** The variable print-length applies to printing vectors and bitvectors,
7210as well as lists.
7211
7212** The new function keymap-parent returns the parent keymap
7213of a given keymap.
7214
7215** The new function set-keymap-parent specifies a new parent for a
7216given keymap. The arguments are KEYMAP and PARENT. PARENT must be a
7217keymap or nil.
7218
7219** Sometimes menu keymaps use a command name, a symbol, which is really
7220an automatically generated alias for some other command, the "real"
7221name. In such a case, you should give that alias symbol a non-nil
7222menu-alias property. That property tells the menu system to look for
7223equivalent keys for the real name instead of equivalent keys for the
7224alias.
7225\f
7226* Editing Changes in Emacs 19.31
7227
7228** Freedom of the press restricted in the United States.
7229
7230Emacs has been censored in accord with the Communications Decency Act.
7231This includes removing some features of the doctor program. That law
7232was described by its supporters as a ban on pornography, but it bans
7233far more than that. The Emacs distribution has never contained any
7234pornography, but parts of it were nonetheless prohibited.
7235
7236For information on US government censorship of the Internet, and what
7237you can do to bring back freedom of the press, see the web site
7238`http://www.vtw.org/'.
7239
7240** A note about C mode indentation customization.
7241
7242The old (Emacs 19.29) ways of specifying a C indentation style
7243do not normally work in the new implementation of C mode.
7244It has its own methods of customizing indentation, which are
7245much more powerful than the old C mode. See the Editing Programs
7246chapter of the manual for details.
7247
7248However, you can load the library cc-compat to make the old
7249customization variables take effect.
7250
7251** Marking with the mouse.
7252
7253When you mark a region with the mouse, the region now remains
7254highlighted until the next input event, regardless of whether you are
7255using M-x transient-mark-mode.
7256
7257** Improved Windows NT/95 support.
7258
7259*** Emacs now supports scroll bars on Windows NT and Windows 95.
7260
7261*** Emacs now supports subprocesses on Windows 95. (Subprocesses used
7262to work on NT only and not on 95.)
7263
7264*** There are difficulties with subprocesses, though, due to problems
7265in Windows, beyond the control of Emacs. They work fine as long as
7266you run Windows applications. The problems arise when you run a DOS
7267application in a subprocesses. Since current shells run as DOS
7268applications, these problems are significant.
7269
7270If you run a DOS application in a subprocess, then the application is
7271likely to busy-wait, which means that your machine will be 100% busy.
7272However, if you don't mind the temporary heavy load, the subprocess
7273will work OK as long as you tell it to terminate before you start any
7274other DOS application as a subprocess.
7275
7276Emacs is unable to terminate or interrupt a DOS subprocess.
7277You have to do this by providing input directly to the subprocess.
7278
7279If you run two DOS applications at the same time in two separate
7280subprocesses, even if one of them is asynchronous, you will probably
7281have to reboot your machine--until then, it will remain 100% busy.
7282Windows simply does not cope when one Windows process tries to run two
7283separate DOS subprocesses. Typing CTL-ALT-DEL and then choosing
7284Shutdown seems to work although it may take a few minutes.
7285
7286** M-x resize-minibuffer-mode.
7287
7288This command, not previously mentioned in NEWS, toggles a mode in
7289which the minibuffer window expands to show as many lines as the
7290minibuffer contains.
7291
7292** `title' frame parameter and resource.
7293
7294The `title' X resource now specifies just the frame title, nothing else.
7295It does not affect the name used for looking up other X resources.
7296It works by setting the new `title' frame parameter, which likewise
7297affects just the displayed title of the frame.
7298
7299The `name' parameter continues to do what it used to do:
7300it specifies the frame name for looking up X resources,
7301and also serves as the default for the displayed title
7302when the `title' parameter is unspecified or nil.
7303
7304** Emacs now uses the X toolkit by default, if you have a new
7305enough version of X installed (X11R5 or newer).
7306
7307** When you compile Emacs with the Motif widget set, Motif handles the
7308F10 key by activating the menu bar. To avoid confusion, the usual
7309Emacs binding of F10 is replaced with a no-op when using Motif.
7310
7311If you want to be able to use F10 in Emacs, you can rebind the Motif
7312menubar to some other key which you don't use. To do so, add
7313something like this to your X resources file. This example rebinds
7314the Motif menu bar activation key to S-F12:
7315
7316 Emacs*defaultVirtualBindings: osfMenuBar : Shift<Key>F12
7317
7318** In overwrite mode, DEL now inserts spaces in most cases
7319to replace the characters it "deletes".
7320
7321** The Rmail summary now shows the number of lines in each message.
7322
7323** Rmail has a new command M-x unforward-rmail-message, which extracts
7324a forwarded message from the message that forwarded it. To use it,
7325select a message which contains a forwarded message and then type the command.
7326It inserts the forwarded message as a separate Rmail message
7327immediately after the selected one.
7328
7329This command also undoes the textual modifications that are standardly
7330made, as part of forwarding, by Rmail and other mail reader programs.
7331
7332** Turning off saving of .saves-... files in your home directory.
7333
7334Each Emacs session writes a file named .saves-... in your home
7335directory to record which files M-x recover-session should recover.
7336If you exit Emacs normally with C-x C-c, it deletes that file. If
7337Emacs or the operating system crashes, the file remains for M-x
7338recover-session.
7339
7340You can turn off the writing of these files by setting
7341auto-save-list-file-name to nil. If you do this, M-x recover-session
7342will not work.
7343
7344Some previous Emacs versions failed to delete these files even on
7345normal exit. This is fixed now. If you are thinking of turning off
7346this feature because of past experiences with versions that had this
7347bug, it would make sense to check whether you still want to do so
7348now that the bug is fixed.
7349
7350** Changes to Version Control (VC)
7351
7352There is a new variable, vc-follow-symlinks. It indicates what to do
7353when you visit a link to a file that is under version control.
7354Editing the file through the link bypasses the version control system,
7355which is dangerous and probably not what you want.
7356
7357If this variable is t, VC follows the link and visits the real file,
7358telling you about it in the echo area. If it is `ask' (the default),
7359VC asks for confirmation whether it should follow the link. If nil,
7360the link is visited and a warning displayed.
7361
7362** iso-acc.el now lets you specify a choice of language.
7363Languages include "latin-1" (the default) and "latin-2" (which
7364is designed for entering ISO Latin-2 characters).
7365
7366There are also choices for specific human languages such as French and
7367Portuguese. These are subsets of Latin-1, which differ in that they
7368enable only the accent characters needed for particular language.
7369The other accent characters, not needed for the chosen language,
7370remain normal.
7371
7372** Posting articles and sending mail now has M-TAB completion on various
7373header fields (Newsgroups, To, CC, ...).
7374
7375Completion in the Newsgroups header depends on the list of groups
7376known to your news reader. Completion in the Followup-To header
7377offers those groups which are in the Newsgroups header, since
7378Followup-To usually just holds one of those.
7379
7380Completion in fields that hold mail addresses works based on the list
7381of local users plus your aliases. Additionally, if your site provides
7382a mail directory or a specific host to use for any unrecognized user
7383name, you can arrange to query that host for completion also. (See the
7384documentation of variables `mail-directory-process' and
7385`mail-directory-stream'.)
7386
7387** A greatly extended sgml-mode offers new features such as (to be configured)
7388skeletons with completing read for tags and attributes, typing named
7389characters including optionally all 8bit characters, making tags invisible
7390with optional alternate display text, skipping and deleting tag(pair)s.
7391
7392Note: since Emacs' syntax feature cannot limit the special meaning of ', " and
7393- to inside <>, for some texts the result, especially of font locking, may be
7394wrong (see `sgml-specials' if you get wrong results).
7395
7396The derived html-mode configures this with tags and attributes more or
7397less HTML3ish. It also offers optional quick keys like C-c 1 for
7398headline or C-c u for unordered list (see `html-quick-keys'). Edit /
7399Text Properties / Face or M-g combinations create tags as applicable.
7400Outline minor mode is supported and level 1 font-locking tries to
7401fontify tag contents (which only works when they fit on one line, due
7402to a limitation in font-lock).
7403
7404External viewing via browse-url can occur automatically upon saving.
7405
7406** M-x imenu-add-to-menubar now adds to the menu bar for the current
7407buffer only. If you want to put an Imenu item in the menu bar for all
7408buffers that use a particular major mode, use the mode hook, as in
7409this example:
7410
7411 (add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook
7412 '(lambda () (imenu-add-to-menubar "Index")))
7413
7414** Changes in BibTeX mode.
7415
7416*** Field names may now contain digits, hyphens, and underscores.
7417
7418*** Font Lock mode is now supported.
7419
7420*** bibtex-make-optional-field is no longer interactive.
7421
7422*** If bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is non-nil, inserting new
7423entries is now done with a faster algorithm. However, inserting
7424will fail in this case if the buffer contains invalid entries or
7425isn't in sorted order, so you should finish each entry with C-c C-c
7426(bibtex-close-entry) after you have inserted or modified it.
7427The default value of bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is nil.
7428
7429*** Function `show-all' is no longer bound to a key, since C-u C-c C-q
7430does the same job.
7431
7432*** Entries with quotes inside quote-delimited fields (as `author =
7433"Stefan Sch{\"o}f"') are now supported.
7434
7435*** Case in field names doesn't matter anymore when searching for help
7436text.
7437
7438** Font Lock mode
7439
7440*** Global Font Lock mode
7441
7442Font Lock mode can be turned on globally, in buffers that support it, by the
7443new command global-font-lock-mode. You can use the new variable
7444font-lock-global-modes to control which modes have Font Lock mode automagically
7445turned on. By default, this variable is set so that Font Lock mode is turned
7446on globally where the buffer mode supports it.
7447
7448For example, to automagically turn on Font Lock mode where supported, put:
7449
7450 (global-font-lock-mode t)
7451
7452in your ~/.emacs.
7453
7454*** Local Refontification
7455
7456In Font Lock mode, editing a line automatically refontifies that line only.
7457However, if your change alters the syntactic context for following lines,
7458those lines remain incorrectly fontified. To refontify them, use the new
7459command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block).
7460
7461In certain major modes, M-g M-g refontifies the entire current function.
7462(The variable font-lock-mark-block-function controls how to find the
7463current function.) In other major modes, M-g M-g refontifies 16 lines
7464above and below point.
7465
7466With a prefix argument N, M-g M-g refontifies N lines above and below point.
7467
7468** Follow mode
7469
7470Follow mode is a new minor mode combining windows showing the same
7471buffer into one tall "virtual window". The windows are typically two
7472side-by-side windows. Follow mode makes them scroll together as if
7473they were a unit. To use it, go to a frame with just one window,
7474split it into two side-by-side windows using C-x 3, and then type M-x
7475follow-mode.
7476
7477M-x follow-mode turns off Follow mode if it is already enabled.
7478
7479To display two side-by-side windows and activate Follow mode, use the
7480command M-x follow-delete-other-windows-and-split.
7481
7482** hide-show changes.
7483
7484The hooks hs-hide-hooks and hs-show-hooks have been renamed
7485to hs-hide-hook and hs-show-hook, to follow the convention for
7486normal hooks.
7487
7488** Simula mode now has a menu containing the most important commands.
7489The new command simula-indent-exp is bound to C-M-q.
7490
7491** etags can now handle programs written in Erlang. Files are
7492recognised by the extensions .erl and .hrl. The tagged lines are
7493those that begin a function, record, or macro.
7494
7495** MSDOS Changes
7496
7497*** It is now possible to compile Emacs with the version 2 of DJGPP.
7498Compilation with DJGPP version 1 also still works.
7499
7500*** The documentation of DOS-specific aspects of Emacs was rewritten
7501and expanded; see the ``MS-DOS'' node in the on-line docs.
7502
7503*** Emacs now uses ~ for backup file names, not .bak.
7504
7505*** You can simulate mouse-3 on two-button mice by simultaneously
7506pressing both mouse buttons.
7507
7508*** A number of packages and commands which previously failed or had
7509restricted functionality on MS-DOS, now work. The most important ones
79214ddf 7510are:
a933dad1
DL
7511
7512**** Printing (both with `M-x lpr-buffer' and with `ps-print' package)
7513now works.
7514
7515**** `Ediff' works (in a single-frame mode).
7516
7517**** `M-x display-time' can be used on MS-DOS (due to the new
7518implementation of Emacs timers, see below).
7519
7520**** `Dired' supports Unix-style shell wildcards.
7521
7522**** The `c-macro-expand' command now works as on other platforms.
7523
7524**** `M-x recover-session' works.
7525
7526**** `M-x list-colors-display' displays all the available colors.
7527
7528**** The `TPU-EDT' package works.
7529\f
7530* Lisp changes in Emacs 19.31.
7531
7532** The function using-unix-filesystems on Windows NT and Windows 95
7533tells Emacs to read and write files assuming that they reside on a
7534remote Unix filesystem. No CR/LF translation is done on any files in
7535this case. Invoking using-unix-filesystems with t activates this
7536behavior, and invoking it with any other value deactivates it.
7537
7538** Change in system-type and system-configuration values.
7539
7540The value of system-type on a Linux-based GNU system is now `lignux',
7541not `linux'. This means that some programs which use `system-type'
7542need to be changed. The value of `system-configuration' will also
7543be different.
7544
7545It is generally recommended to use `system-configuration' rather
7546than `system-type'.
7547
7548See the file LINUX-GNU in this directory for more about this.
7549
7550** The functions shell-command and dired-call-process
7551now run file name handlers for default-directory, if it has them.
7552
7553** Undoing the deletion of text now restores the positions of markers
7554that pointed into or next to the deleted text.
7555
7556** Timers created with run-at-time now work internally to Emacs, and
7557no longer use a separate process. Therefore, they now work more
7558reliably and can be used for shorter time delays.
7559
7560The new function run-with-timer is a convenient way to set up a timer
7561to run a specified amount of time after the present. A call looks
7562like this:
7563
7564 (run-with-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
7565
7566SECS says how many seconds should elapse before the timer happens.
7567It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the timer
7568becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments ARGS.
7569
7570REPEAT gives the interval for repeating the timer (measured in
7571seconds). It may be an integer or a floating point number. nil or 0
7572means don't repeat at all--call FUNCTION just once.
7573
7574*** with-timeout provides an easy way to do something but give
7575up if too much time passes.
7576
7577 (with-timeout (SECONDS TIMEOUT-FORMS...) BODY...)
7578
7579This executes BODY, but gives up after SECONDS seconds.
7580If it gives up, it runs the TIMEOUT-FORMS and returns the value
7581of the last one of them. Normally it returns the value of the last
7582form in BODY.
7583
7584*** You can now arrange to call a function whenever Emacs is idle for
7585a certain length of time. To do this, call run-with-idle-timer. A
7586call looks like this:
7587
7588 (run-with-idle-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
7589
7590SECS says how many seconds of idleness should elapse before the timer
7591runs. It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the
7592timer becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments
7593ARGS.
7594
7595Emacs becomes idle whenever it finishes executing a keyboard or mouse
7596command. It remains idle until it receives another keyboard or mouse
7597command.
7598
7599REPEAT, if non-nil, means this timer should be activated again each
7600time Emacs becomes idle and remains idle for SECS seconds The timer
7601does not repeat if Emacs *remains* idle; it runs at most once after
7602each time Emacs becomes idle.
7603
7604If REPEAT is nil, the timer runs just once, the first time Emacs is
7605idle for SECS seconds.
7606
7607*** post-command-idle-hook is now obsolete; you shouldn't use it at
7608all, because it interferes with the idle timer mechanism. If your
7609programs use post-command-idle-hook, convert them to use idle timers
7610instead.
7611
7612*** y-or-n-p-with-timeout lets you ask a question but give up if
7613there is no answer within a certain time.
7614
7615 (y-or-n-p-with-timeout PROMPT SECONDS DEFAULT-VALUE)
7616
7617asks the question PROMPT (just like y-or-n-p). If the user answers
7618within SECONDS seconds, it returns the answer that the user gave.
7619Otherwise it gives up after SECONDS seconds, and returns DEFAULT-VALUE.
7620
7621** Minor change to `encode-time': you can now pass more than seven
7622arguments. If you do that, the first six arguments have the usual
7623meaning, the last argument is interpreted as the time zone, and the
7624arguments in between are ignored.
7625
7626This means that it works to use the list returned by `decode-time' as
7627the list of arguments for `encode-time'.
7628
7629** The default value of load-path now includes the directory
7630/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp In addition to
7631/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp. You can use this new directory for
7632site-specific Lisp packages that belong with a particular Emacs
7633version.
7634
7635It is not unusual for a Lisp package that works well in one Emacs
7636version to cause trouble in another. Sometimes packages need updating
7637for incompatible changes; sometimes they look at internal data that
7638has changed; sometimes the package has been installed in Emacs itself
7639and the installed version should be used. Whatever the reason for the
7640problem, this new feature makes it easier to solve.
7641
7642** When your program contains a fixed file name (like .completions or
7643.abbrev.defs), the file name usually needs to be different on operating
7644systems with limited file name syntax.
7645
7646Now you can avoid ad-hoc conditionals by using the function
7647convert-standard-filename to convert the file name to a proper form
7648for each operating system. Here is an example of use, from the file
7649completions.el:
7650
7651(defvar save-completions-file-name
7652 (convert-standard-filename "~/.completions")
7653 "*The filename to save completions to.")
7654
7655This sets the variable save-completions-file-name to a value that
7656depends on the operating system, because the definition of
7657convert-standard-filename depends on the operating system. On
7658Unix-like systems, it returns the specified file name unchanged. On
7659MS-DOS, it adapts the name to fit the limitations of that system.
7660
7661** The interactive spec N now returns the numeric prefix argument
7662rather than the raw prefix argument. (It still reads a number using the
7663minibuffer if there is no prefix argument at all.)
7664
7665** When a process is deleted, this no longer disconnects the process
7666marker from its buffer position.
7667
7668** The variable garbage-collection-messages now controls whether
7669Emacs displays a message at the beginning and end of garbage collection.
7670The default is nil, meaning there are no messages.
7671
7672** The variable debug-ignored-errors specifies certain kinds of errors
7673that should not enter the debugger. Its value is a list of error
7674condition symbols and/or regular expressions. If the error has any
7675of the condition symbols listed, or if any of the regular expressions
7676matches the error message, then that error does not enter the debugger,
7677regardless of the value of debug-on-error.
7678
7679This variable is initialized to match certain common but uninteresting
7680errors that happen often during editing.
7681
7682** The new function error-message-string converts an error datum
7683into its error message. The error datum is what condition-case
7684puts into the variable, to describe the error that happened.
7685
7686** Anything that changes which buffer appears in a given window
7687now runs the window-scroll-functions for that window.
7688
7689** The new function get-buffer-window-list returns a list of windows displaying
7690a buffer. The function is called with the buffer (a buffer object or a buffer
7691name) and two optional arguments specifying the minibuffer windows and frames
7692to search. Therefore this function takes optional args like next-window etc.,
7693and not get-buffer-window.
7694
7695** buffer-substring now runs the hook buffer-access-fontify-functions,
7696calling each function with two arguments--the range of the buffer
7697being accessed. buffer-substring-no-properties does not call them.
7698
7699If you use this feature, you should set the variable
7700buffer-access-fontified-property to a non-nil symbol, which is a
7701property name. Then, if all the characters in the buffer range have a
7702non-nil value for that property, the buffer-access-fontify-functions
7703are not called. When called, these functions should put a non-nil
7704property on the text that they fontify, so that they won't get called
7705over and over for the same text.
7706
7707** Changes in lisp-mnt.el
7708
7709*** The lisp-mnt package can now recognize file headers that are written
7710in the formats used by the `what' command and the RCS `ident' command:
7711
7712;; @(#) HEADER: text
7713;; $HEADER: text $
7714
7715in addition to the normal
7716
7717;; HEADER: text
7718
7719*** The commands lm-verify and lm-synopsis are now interactive. lm-verify
7720checks that the library file has proper sections and headers, and
7721lm-synopsis extracts first line "synopsis'"information.
7722\f
7723* For older news, see the file ONEWS.
7724
7725----------------------------------------------------------------------
7726Copyright information:
7727
404fa7d6 7728Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
a933dad1
DL
7729
7730 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
7731 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
7732 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
7733 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
7734
7735 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
7736 of this document, or of portions of it,
7737 under the above conditions, provided also that they
7738 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
7739\f
7740Local variables:
7741mode: outline
7742paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
7743end: