(Fminibuffer_complete): Set point to ZV if finding
[bpt/emacs.git] / etc / NEWS
CommitLineData
404fa7d6
DL
1GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 5 Jan 2000
2Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
a933dad1
DL
3See the end for copying conditions.
4
5Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
6For older news, see the file ONEWS.
7
8\f
251584f3
DL
9* Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
10
100b3cbb
GM
11** There are two new resources for colormap handling under X.
12
7233c5bd
GM
13*** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
14whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
15is useful for debugging X problems.
16
17Example:
18
19 emacs.synchronous: true
20
100b3cbb
GM
21*** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
22visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
23the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
24and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
25visual class names are
26
27 TrueColor
28 PseudoColor
29 DirectColor
30 StaticColor
31 GrayScale
32 StaticGray
33
34Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
35`pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
36meaning.
37
38The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
39supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
40`visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
41visual.
42
43Example:
44
45 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
46
47*** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
48specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
49default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
50resource values are `true' or `on'.
51
52Example:
53
54 emacs.privateColormap: true
55
251584f3
DL
56** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
57the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
aaa659ef
DL
58
59** There are new configure options associated with the support for
60images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option to list them.
251584f3 61\f
a933dad1
DL
62* Changes in Emacs 21.1
63
0d0c76b8
EZ
64** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
65more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
66now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
67
42088c12 68** User-option `show-cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to
c60ea02e 69display the cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is
42088c12
GM
70shown, if non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown. This option can
71be customized.
c60ea02e 72
31047e0d
DL
73** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
74
b02786f9
GM
75** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
76all frames except the selected one.
77
3261c1d8
DL
78** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
79to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
80
ffe36136
GM
81** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
82the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X either in the echo
83area or with tooltips.
84
559cee90
DL
85** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
86read mail from the menu etc.
87
88** Changes in Outline mode.
89
90There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
91`outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
92the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
93
404fa7d6
DL
94** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
95groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
96
8964fec7
SM
97** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either M-x clone-buffer
98or C-u m <entry> RET. M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and
99several other special buffers.
100
39783d73
WP
101** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
102under XFree86. To enable this, simply put (mwheel-install) in your
103.emacs file.
104
105The variables `mwheel-follow-mouse' and `mwheel-scroll-amount'
106determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
107
d35fce81
GM
108** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
109abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
110`directory-abbrev-alist'.
111
df5a1902
GM
112** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
113is running in batch mode. For example,
114
115 (message "%s" (read t))
116
117will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
118to standard output.
119
a933dad1
DL
120** Faces and frame parameters.
121
122There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
123Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
124`scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
125`scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
126sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
127for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
128parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
129
130Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
131`default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
79214ddf 132`foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
a933dad1
DL
133`default' face and vice versa.
134
f77a4a8a
GM
135** New face `menu'.
136
137The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
138Setting the font of LessTif/Motif menus is currently not supported;
139attempts to set the font are ignored in this case.
140
a933dad1
DL
141** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
142
143The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
144colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
145correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
146the screen gamma of a frame's display.
147
148PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
149in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
150color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
151
152The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
153`ScreenGamma'.
154
155** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
156
157The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
158Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
159oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
160of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
161the text.
162
163** Emacs has a new face implementation.
164
165The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
166font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
167height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
168These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
169specify a font.
170
171Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
172These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
173under Lisp changes, below.
174
175** New default font is Courier 12pt.
176
177** When using a windowing terminal, Emacs window now has a cursor of
178its own. When the window is selected, the cursor is solid; otherwise,
179it is hollow.
180
181** Bitmap areas to the left and right of windows are used to display
182truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
183foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
184customizing face `fringe'.
185
186** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default. You
187can change its appearance by modifying the face `modeline'.
188
189** LessTif support.
190
191Emacs now runs with LessTif (see <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will
192need a version 0.88.1 or later.
193
194** Toolkit scroll bars.
195
196Emacs now uses toolkit scrollbars if available. When configured for
197LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scrollbar. Otherwise, when
198configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
199bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
200bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
201Emacs.
202
203When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
204Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
205Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
206Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
207define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
208`s/freebsd.h' as an example.
209
210Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
211a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
212directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
213different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
214system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
215add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
216
217The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
218`float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
219This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
220image configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
221Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
222
223** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
224
225When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
226widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
227Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
228
229** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
230
231When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
232whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
233defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
234highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
235displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
236whitespace.
237
238** Busy-cursor.
239
240Emacs can optionally display a busy-cursor under X. You can turn the
241display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
242
243** Blinking cursor
244
245M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
246terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
247and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
248the group `cursor'.
249
250** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
251
252This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
253generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
254See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
255details.
256
257Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
258have to do anything to activate it.
259
260** Tabs and variable-width text.
261
262Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
263defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
264independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
265Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
266
267** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
268
269*** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
270
271 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
272
273The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the Motif
274one.
275
276*** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, like in
277Motif.
278
279** Hscrolling in C code.
280
281Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically.
282
283** Tool bar support.
284
285Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
286how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level changes.
287
288** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
289
290Different parts of the mode line under X have been made
291mouse-sensitive. Moving the mouse to a mouse-sensitive part in the mode
292line changes the appearance of the mouse pointer to an arrow, and help
293about available mouse actions is displayed either in the echo area, or
294in the tooltip window if you have enabled one.
295
296Currently, the following actions have been defined:
297
298- Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line switches between two
299buffers.
300
301- Mouse-2 on the buffer-name switches to the next buffer, and
302M-mouse-2 switches to the previous buffer in the buffer list.
303
304- Mouse-3 on the buffer-name displays a buffer menu.
305
559cee90 306- Mouse-2 on the read-only status in the mode line (`%' or `*')
a933dad1
DL
307toggles the read-only status.
308
309- Mouse-3 on the mode name display a minor-mode menu.
310
311** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
312
313When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
e33b0397 314from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
a933dad1
DL
315non-nil.
316
317** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
318
319Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
320Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
321the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
322italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
323Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
324attributes like overlines, strike-throught, box are ignored.
325
326** Sound support
327
328Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
329(Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
330Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
331(*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
332to enable sound support.
333
334** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
335the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
336forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
337value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
338users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
339even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
340
341The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
342
343** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
344
345As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
346drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
347`x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
348
349** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
350bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi).
351
352This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
353`indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
354variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
355
356** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
357
358When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
359value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggessively' is a
360number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
361fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
362
363When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
364value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggessively' is a
365number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
366fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
367
368** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
369notably at the end of lines.
370
371All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
372spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
373
eee54b0e
DL
374There is a new command M-x replace-rectangle.
375
a933dad1
DL
376** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
377query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
378after each match to get the replacement text.
379
380** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
381
382If a message is longer than one line, or mini-buffer contents are
383longer than one line, Emacs now resizes the mini-window unless it is
384on a frame of its own. You can control the maximum mini-window size
385by setting the following variable:
386
387- User option: max-mini-window-height
388
389Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
390fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
391specifies a number of lines. If nil, don't resize.
392
393Default is 0.25.
394
0d43b60d
GM
395** Changes to hideshow.el
396
397Hideshow is now at version 5.x. It uses a new algorithms for block
398selection and traversal and includes more isearch support.
399
400*** Generalized block selection and traversal
401
402A block is now recognized by three things: its start and end regexps
403(both strings), and a match-data selector (an integer) specifying
404which sub-expression in the start regexp serves as the place where a
405`forward-sexp'-like function can operate. Hideshow always adjusts
406point to this sub-expression before calling `hs-forward-sexp-func'
407(which for most modes evaluates to `forward-sexp').
408
409If the match-data selector is not specified, it defaults to zero,
410i.e., the entire start regexp is valid, w/ no prefix. This is
411backwards compatible with previous versions of hideshow. Please see
412the docstring for variable `hs-special-modes-alist' for details.
413
414*** Isearch support for updating mode line
415
416During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active, hidden
417blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' records the
418line at the beginning of the opened block (preceding the hidden
419portion of the buffer), and the mode line is refreshed. When a block
420is re-hidden, the variable is set to nil.
421
422To show `hs-headline' in the mode line, you may wish to include
423something like this in your .emacs.
424
425 (add-hook 'hs-minor-mode-hook
426 (lambda ()
427 (add-to-list 'mode-line-format 'hs-headline)))
428
559cee90
DL
429** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
430
431If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes an
432entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
433log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
434
435New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the current
436buffer, fixing old-style date formats if necessary.
eb2aac9d
GM
437
438Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log entries
439if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
440
441The search for a file's version number is performed based on regular
442expressions from `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be
443cutomized. Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of
444a file.
445
3476b54a
GM
446** Changes in Font Lock
447
448*** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
449font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major
450mode.
451
b3b98592
GM
452** Comint (subshell) changes
453
454Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
455and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
456
457The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
458buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
459buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
460
461The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
462M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
463the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
464
e26cec67
GM
465** Changes to Rmail mode
466
6a1950ec
GM
467*** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
468like `j'.
469
5bb6f079
RS
470*** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
471specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
2d5e9b54 472digest message.
e26cec67 473
400a1ed0
GM
474** Changes to TeX mode
475
476The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
477`latex-mode'.
478
a933dad1
DL
479** Changes to RefTeX mode
480
481*** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
482 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
483 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
484 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
485 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
486 can be edited from that buffer.
487
488*** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
489 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
490 `A' to use all marked entries).
491
492*** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
493 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
494
495*** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
496 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
497 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
498 been cited.
499
38de9631
GM
500** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
501The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
502semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
503in column 1 are always made leaves.
504
a933dad1
DL
505** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
506has the following new features:
507
508*** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
509may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
510to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
511time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
512
513*** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
514feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
515file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
516compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
517pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
518defaults to 1.
519
520** Tooltips.
521
522Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
523mouse position. To use them, use the Lisp package `tooltip' which you
524can access via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
525
526Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
527variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
528the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
529tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
530
531** Customize changes
532
533*** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
34f94cf9
DL
534`State' menu to add comments. Note that customization comments will
535cause the customizations to fail in earlier versions of Emacs.
a933dad1
DL
536
537*** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
538Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
539default).
540
0ae51efb
GM
541*** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
542between custom options. Example:
543
544 (defcustom default-input-method nil
545 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
546 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
547 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
548 :group 'mule
549 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
550 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
551
552This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
553current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
554first in a custom-set-variables statement.
555
a933dad1
DL
556** New features in evaluation commands
557
558The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
559modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
560print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the
561customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
562eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
563
a933dad1
DL
564** Dired changes
565
566*** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
567command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
568is, delete only empty directories.
569
570*** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
571command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
572copy directories recursively.
573
f6737cde
GM
574*** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
575in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
576the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
577
a933dad1
DL
578** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
579use the -f option when sending mail.
580
b1c609b1
GM
581** CC mode changes.
582
583Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
584current user setups (although it's believed that these
585incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
586However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
587back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
588compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
589release.
590
591*** New initialization procedure for the style system.
592When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
593variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
594take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
595is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
596settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
597possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
598Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
599
600By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
601special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
602the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
603of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
604above.
605
606Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
607when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
608function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
609call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
610then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
611values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
612only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
613function documentation for more info.
614
615The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
616especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
617with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
618intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
619such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
620is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
621configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
622global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
623
624(Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
625
626**** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
627This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
628
629This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
630variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
631completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
632the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
633empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
634style system.
635
636**** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
637In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
638c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
639as far as possible.
640
641*** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
642CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
643surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
644chapter about this in the manual.
645
646**** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
647The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
648recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
649primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
650adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
651
652**** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
653This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
654c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
655
656**** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
657This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
658
659It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
660Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
661A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
662inside CC Mode.
663
664Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
665causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
666the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
667available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
668cc-mode/).
669
670**** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
671The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
672specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
673literals.
674
675**** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
676It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
677prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
678you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
679this function.
680
681*** Fixes to IDL mode.
682It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
683to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
684struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
685Thanks to Eric Eide.
686
687*** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
688It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
689opening braces hangs and when they don't.
690
691**** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
692
693*** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
694See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
695better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
696and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
697
698*** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
699previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
700the column specified by comment-column.
701
702*** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
703In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
704is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
705prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
706contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
707don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
708
709*** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
710instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
711arguments.
712
713*** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
714
715*** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
716c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
717c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
718variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
719Provan).
720
721*** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
722
87be76f6
GM
723** Isearch changes
724
725*** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
a933dad1
DL
726selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
727
87be76f6
GM
728*** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
729
d35fce81 730Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
87be76f6
GM
731`isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
732search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
733before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
734highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
735`secondary-selection'.
736
737The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
738will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
739Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
740using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
741usual snappy response.
742
743If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
744matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
745set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
746isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
747
35384f06
GM
748** Changes in sort.el
749
750The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
12c25bdc 751as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
35384f06
GM
752new user-option sort-numberic-base can be used to specify a default
753numeric base.
87be76f6 754
d67f47e4
DL
755** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
756names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
757sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
758
4b9347b3
GM
759** Shell script mode changes.
760
761Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
762derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizeable, and
763sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
764
79214ddf
FP
765** Etags changes.
766
767*** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
768
aca0be23 769*** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
8dc78b52
FP
770possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
771{lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
772This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
773a regular expression. The manual contains details.
aca0be23 774
79214ddf
FP
775*** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
776declarations when given the --declarations option.
777
778*** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
aca0be23 779"operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
79214ddf
FP
780
781*** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
782types.
783
784*** In Fortran, procedure is no more tagged.
785
786*** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
787
788*** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
789are now tagged.
790
791*** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
792variables are tagged.
793
794*** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
795
8dc78b52
FP
796*** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
797for PSWrap.
79214ddf 798
f6737cde
GM
799** Changes in etags.el
800
801*** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
802the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
803
804If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
805FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
806TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
807obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
808
809TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
810
811FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
812List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
813
814A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
815
816 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
817 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
818 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
819
820*** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
821of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
822
823*** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
824names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
825
fbc164de
PE
826** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
827and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
828LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
829
59c1bf85
DL
830** New language environments `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
831These correspond respectively to the ISO character sets 8859-14
832(Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign). There is
833currently no specific input method support for them.
834
e33b0397
DL
835** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sqeuence-nos' to
836remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
837appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
838
839** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
840
6f8ea2ae
DL
841** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
842
a933dad1
DL
843** New modes and packages
844
5e5dff44
GM
845*** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
846authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
847
848The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
849the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
850the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
851Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
852even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
853single step.
854
855On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
856matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
857probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
858contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
859
f7136ee8
GM
860*** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
861unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
862actually modifying content of a buffer.
863
bbd9b566
GM
864*** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
865PostScript.
866
867Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
868
869The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
870
871 ; comment (until end of line)
872 A non-terminal
873 "C" terminal
874 ?C? special
875 $A default non-terminal
876 $"C" default terminal
877 $?C? default special
878 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
879 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
880 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
881 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
882 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
883 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
884 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
885 C+ one or more occurrences of C
886 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
887 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
888 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
889 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
890 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
891 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
892 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
893
894Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
895
99453a38
GM
896*** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
897align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
898determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
899example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
900equal signs of assignments.
901
559cee90
DL
902*** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
903paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
904
6448a6b3
GM
905*** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
906list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
907buffer menu with this package. You can use M-x bs-customize to
908customize the package.
909
249652b1
GM
910*** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
911replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
912is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
913and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
914not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
915which answers different needs.
916
3476b54a
GM
917*** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
918suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
919expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
920course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
921reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
922to be enabled.
923
8964fec7
SM
924*** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
925containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
926
a933dad1
DL
927*** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
928
929*** hl-line.el provides a minor mode to highlight the current line.
930
931*** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
932
933*** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
934Pascal) language.
935
936*** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
937the text at point.
938
939*** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
940
8d54eb69
DL
941*** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
942
a933dad1
DL
943*** whitespace.el ???
944
ebcfda83
GM
945*** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
946files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
947(very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
948interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
949often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
950uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
951codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
952
953*** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
954
955Here is an example of columns:
956
957horse apple bus
958dog pineapple car EXTRA
959porcupine strawberry airplane
960
961Doing the following settings:
962
963 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
964 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
965 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
966 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
967
968
969Selecting the lines above and typing:
970
971 M-x delimit-columns-region
972
973It results:
974
975[ horse , apple , bus , ]
976[ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
977[ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
978
979delim-col has the following options:
980
981 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
982 before all columns.
983
984 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
985 between each column.
986
987 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
988 after all columns.
989
990 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
991 each column.
992
993delim-col has the following commands:
994
995 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
996 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
997
f507826c
GM
998*** The package recentf.el maintains a menu for visiting files that
999were operated on recently. When enabled, a new "Open Recent" submenu
1000is displayed in the "Files" menu.
1001
1002The recent files list is automatically saved across Emacs sessions.
1003
1004To enable/disable recentf use M-x recentf-mode.
1005
1006To enable recentf at Emacs startup use
1007M-x customize-variable RET recentf-mode RET.
1008
1009To change the number of recent files displayed and others options use
1010M-x customize-group RET recentf RET.
1011
8062f458
DL
1012*** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
1013text.
1014
36e24b82 1015*** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
91735437
DL
1016of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
1017specific to Message mode.
1018
36e24b82
DL
1019*** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
1020viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
1021with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
1022
aaa659ef
DL
1023*** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
1024interface to access directory servers using different directory
1025protocols. It has a separate manual.
1026
eee54b0e
DL
1027*** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
1028for Autoconf, selected automatically.
1029
aaa659ef
DL
1030*** windmove.el
1031
a933dad1
DL
1032** Withdrawn packages
1033
1034*** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
1035functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
25a81338 1036
3261c1d8
DL
1037*** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
1038
1039*** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
a933dad1
DL
1040\f
1041* Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
1042
1043Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
1044--- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
1045When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
1046so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
1047
e9b4e5ff
GM
1048** The function documentation-property now evaluates the value of
1049the given property to obtain a a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
1050and isn't a string.
1051
16ce590d
DL
1052+++
1053** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
1054
73825616 1055** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
16ce590d
DL
1056for a regexp in a string.
1057
1058** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
1059`mouse-position-function'.
1060
723e779c
GM
1061** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
1062that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
1063
d1e103b2
GM
1064** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
1065Keywords are now always considered constants.
1066
31047e0d
DL
1067+++
1068** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
1069returns it.
1070
7a85e4df
GM
1071** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
1072returned by function `recent-keys'.
1073
02b14400
RS
1074+++
1075** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
1076can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
1077Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding M-C-a
1078etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
1079mode.
404fa7d6 1080
02b14400 1081+++
8964fec7
SM
1082** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
1083and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
1084
02b14400
RS
1085+++
1086** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
1087has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
1088function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
1089returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
1090been performed."
1091
1092When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
1093and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
1094hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
1095then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
ef961722 1096
02b14400 1097+++
81da8b32
GM
1098** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
1099In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
1100and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
1101
02b14400 1102+++
9e207b90
GM
1103** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
1104with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
1105specified table.
1106
1107 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
1108
1109Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
03d9c64c
GM
1110TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
1111saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
1112what BODY returns.
9e207b90 1113
02b14400 1114+++
d7f89643 1115** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
95cd4c40 1116Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
8964fec7 1117
02b14400 1118+++
dde9e75a
GM
1119** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
1120removed since it wasn't used by anything.
1121
02b14400 1122+++
9da30515
GM
1123** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
1124instead of being optional.
1125
02b14400 1126+++
d20679eb
GM
1127** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
1128modify read-only text.
1129
02b14400 1130+++
fbc164de
PE
1131** New functions and variables for locales.
1132
1133The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
1134decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
b718982a
PE
1135time functions like strftime. The new variables
1136`system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
1137locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
fbc164de
PE
1138
1139The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
1140environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
1141the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
b718982a
PE
1142environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
1143not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
1144`locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
1145`locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
fbc164de 1146
02b14400 1147+++
863476d1
SM
1148** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
1149To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
1150modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
1151start sequences.
1152
02b14400 1153+++
ef6d912c
GM
1154** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
1155because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
1156
02b14400 1157+++
a933dad1
DL
1158** New function `propertize'
1159
1160The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
1161strings with text properties.
1162
1163- Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
1164
1165Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
1166by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
1167PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
1168specified value of that property. Example:
1169
1170 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
1171
1172+++
1173** push and pop macros.
1174
02b14400
RS
1175Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
1176are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
a933dad1
DL
1177as the place that holds the list to be changed.
1178
1179(push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
1180(pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
1181 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
1182
02b14400
RS
1183** New dolist and dotimes macros.
1184
6c7fd5aa
RS
1185Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
1186are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
02b14400
RS
1187
1188(dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
1189 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
1190 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
1191 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
1192
1193(dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
1194 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
1195 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
1196 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
1197
a933dad1
DL
1198+++
1199** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such
1200as [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on.
1201
1202[:digit:] matches 0 through 9
1203[:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
1204[:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
1205[:blank:] matches space and tab only
1206[:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
1207 space, and DEL.
1208[:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
1209 and DEL.
1210[:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
1211 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1212 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
1213[:alpha:] matches letters.
1214 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1215 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
1216[:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
1217[:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
1218[:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
1219[:punct:] matches punctuation.
1220 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1221 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
1222[:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
1223[:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
1224[:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
1225
1226+++
1227** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
1228
1229The following functions are defined for hash tables:
1230
1231- Function: make-hash-table ARGS
1232
1233The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
1234are optional. The following arguments are defined:
1235
1236:test TEST
1237
1238TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
1239Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
1240it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
1241
1242:size SIZE
1243
1244SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
1245many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
1246
1247:rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
1248
1249REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
1250full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
1251size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
12521.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
1253old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
1254
1255:rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
1256
1257THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
1258hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
1259(size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
1260
1261:weakness WEAK
1262
1263WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value', or t.
1264Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage collection if
1265their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere outside of the
1266hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
1267
1268- Function: makehash &optional TEST
1269
1270Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
1271
1272- Function: hash-table-p TABLE
1273
1274Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
1275
1276- Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
1277
1278Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
1279values are shared.
1280
1281- Function: hash-table-count TABLE
1282
1283Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
1284
1285- Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
1286
1287Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
1288
1289- Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
1290
1291Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
1292
1293- Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
1294
1295Returns the size of TABLE.
1296
1297- Function: hash-table-rehash-test TABLE
1298
1299Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
1300
1301- Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
1302
1303Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
1304
1305- Function: clrhash TABLE
1306
1307Clear TABLE.
1308
1309- Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
1310
1311Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
1312not found.
1313
79214ddf 1314- Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
a933dad1
DL
1315
1316Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
1317another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
1318
1319- Function: remhash KEY TABLE
1320
1321Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
1322
1323- Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
1324
1325Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
1326arguments KEY and VALUE.
1327
1328- Function: sxhash OBJ
1329
1330Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
1331
1332- Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
1333
1334Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
1335a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
79214ddf 1336comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
a933dad1
DL
1337and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
1338of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
1339
1340TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
1341
1342HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
1343code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
1344integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
1345
1346Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
1347be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
1348
1349 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
1350 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
1351
1352 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
1353 (sxhash (upcase a)))
1354
79214ddf 1355 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
a933dad1
DL
1356 'case-fold-string-hash))
1357
1358 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
1359
1360+++
1361** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
1362
1363It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
1364circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
1365a cons cell which is its own cdr.
1366
1367+++
1368** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
1369
1370If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
1371#N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
1372
a933dad1
DL
1373+++
1374** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
1375t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
1376specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
1377is too short to reach that column.
1378
1379+++
1380** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
1381now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
1382after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
1383two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
1384
1385If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
1386perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
1387and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
1388
1389+++
1390** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
1391to specify which buffer to return the size of.
1392
1393+++
1394** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
1395calendar-move-hook after moving point.
1396
1397+++
1398** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
1399directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
1400small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
1401small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
1402temporary-file-directory instead.
1403
1404+++
1405** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
1406the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
1407`before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
1408hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
1409
1410+++
1411** assoc-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
1412elements of an alist which have a particular value as the car.
1413
1414+++
1415** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
1416
1417make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
1418creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
1419ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
1420
1421+++
1422** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
1423
1424The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
1425on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
1426is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
1427never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
1428ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
1429overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
1430
1431If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
1432that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
1433to get an error if the file exists at that time.
1434The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
1435
1436+++
1437** Function `format' now handles text properties.
1438
1439Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
1440If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
1441ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
1442result string.
1443
1444Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
1445string where arguments appear in the result string.
1446
1447Example:
1448
1449 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
1450 (s2 "world"))
1451 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
1452 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
b246b1f6 1453 (format s1 s2))
a933dad1
DL
1454
1455results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
1456
1457+++
1458** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
1459
1460Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
1461The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
1462argument in it.
1463
1464 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
1465 (arg "world"))
1466 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
1467 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
1468 (message msg arg))
1469
1470+++
1471** Sound support
1472
1473Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
1474(Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
1475
1476Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
1477(*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
1478to enable sound support.
1479
1480Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
1481list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
1482when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
1483functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
1484sound to play, before playing the sound.
1485
1486The following sound properties are supported:
1487
1488- `:file FILE'
1489
1490FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
1491searched relative to `data-directory'.
1492
6fb40beb
GM
1493- `:data DATA'
1494
1495DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
1496may be present, but not both.
1497
a933dad1
DL
1498- `:volume VOLUME'
1499
1500VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
15010..1. This property is optional.
1502
1503Other properties are ignored.
1504
1505** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
356673d4
DL
1506
1507** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
1508a keyword symbol.
fc91dc2d
GM
1509
1510** Changes to garbage collection
1511
1512*** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
1513of live and free strings.
1514
1515*** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
1516strings that have been consed so far.
1517
a933dad1
DL
1518\f
1519* New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
1520
1521Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
1522--- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
1523When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
1524so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
1525
1526** New face implementation.
1527
1528Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
1529font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
1530
1531+++
1532*** New faces.
1533
1534Each face can specify the following display attributes:
1535
1536 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
79214ddf 1537
a933dad1
DL
1538 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
1539 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
79214ddf 1540
a933dad1 1541 3. Font height in 1/10pt
79214ddf 1542
a933dad1 1543 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
79214ddf 1544
a933dad1 1545 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
79214ddf 1546
a933dad1 1547 6. Foreground color.
79214ddf 1548
a933dad1
DL
1549 7. Background color.
1550
1551 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
1552
1553 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
1554
1555 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
1556
1557 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
1558
1559 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
1560 color.
1561
1562 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
1563 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
1564
1565Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
1566same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
1567frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
1568faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
1569with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each each of the face
1570attributes mentioned above.
1571
1572There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
1573definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
1574created frames.
79214ddf 1575
a933dad1
DL
1576A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
1577have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
1578`fully-specified'.
1579
1580+++
1581*** Face merging.
1582
1583The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
1584combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
1585aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
1586properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
1587that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
1588results in a fully-specified face.
1589
1590+++
1591*** Face realization.
1592
1593After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
1594merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
1595realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
1596available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
1597face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
1598cache of the frame on which it was realized.
1599
1600Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
1601character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
1602for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
1603charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
1604
1605Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
1606specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
1607being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
1608the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
1609statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
1610
1611In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
1612`char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
16130x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
1614the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
1615initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
1616Emacs.
1617
1618Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
1619`enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
1620registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
1621with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
1622
1623++++
1624**** Clearing face caches.
1625
1626The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
1627on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
1628unused fonts.
1629
1630+++
1631*** Font selection.
79214ddf 1632
a933dad1
DL
1633Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
1634given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
1635for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
1636
1637If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
1638pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
1639family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
1640property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
1641an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
1642
1643Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
1644against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
1645match for the given face attributes in this font list.
1646
1647Font selection can be influenced by the user.
1648
1649The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
1650attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
1651face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
1652names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
1653that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
1654width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
1655to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
1656
1657Setting `face-alternative-font-family-alist' allows the user to
1658specify alternative font families to try if a family specified by a
1659face doesn't exist.
1660
1661+++
1662**** Scalable fonts
1663
1664Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
1665since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
1666servers.
1667
1668To enable scalable font use, set the variable
b246b1f6 1669`scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
a933dad1
DL
1670scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
1671Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
1672scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
1673that list. Example:
1674
1675 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
1676
1677allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
1678
1679+++
1680*** Functions and variables related to font selection.
1681
1682- Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
1683
1684Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
1685is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
1686string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
1687
1688If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
1689the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
1690FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
1691POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
1692SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
1693These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
1694if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
1695REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
1696the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
1697of the face font sort order.
1698
79214ddf 1699- Function: x-font-family-list
a933dad1
DL
1700
1701Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
1702omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
1703(FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
1704non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
1705
1706- Variable: font-list-limit
1707
1708Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
1709won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
1710matching font. The default is currently 100.
1711
1712+++
1713*** Setting face attributes.
1714
1715For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
1716with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
1717implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
1718`face-attribute'.
1719
1720Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
1721symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
1722
1723The following attributes are recognized:
1724
1725`:family'
1726
1727VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
1728or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
1729and `?' are allowed.
1730
1731`:width'
1732
1733VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
1734It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
1735`condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
1736`extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
1737
1738`:height'
1739
1740VALUE must be an integer specifying the height of the font to use in
17411/10 pt.
1742
1743`:weight'
1744
1745VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
1746symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
1747`semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
1748
1749`:slant'
1750
1751VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
1752symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
1753`reverse-oblique'.
1754
1755`:foreground', `:background'
1756
1757VALUE must be a color name, a string.
1758
1759`:underline'
1760
1761VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
1762VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
1763a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
1764don't underline.
1765
1766`:overline'
1767
1768VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
1769VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
1770string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
1771overline.
1772
1773`:strike-through'
1774
1775VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
1776striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
1777face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
1778is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
1779
1780`:box'
1781
1782VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
1783around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
1784VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
1785of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
1786and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
1787VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
1788:color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
1789the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
1790specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
1791defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
1792the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
1793color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
1794should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
1795like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
1796that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
1797the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
1798box.
1799
1800`:inverse-video'
1801
1802VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
1803inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
1804
1805`:stipple'
1806
1807If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
1808The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
1809searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
1810HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
1811is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
1812explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
1813
1814For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
1815and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
1816
1817`:font'
1818
1819Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
1820XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
1821is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
1822versions of Emacs.
1823
1824For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
1825be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
1826must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
1827
1828Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
1829`defface'.
1830
1831*** Face attributes and X resources
1832
1833The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
1834from X resources:
1835
1836 Face attribute X resource class
1837-----------------------------------------------------------------------
1838 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
1839 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
1840 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
1841 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
1842 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
1843 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
1844 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
1845 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
1846 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
1847 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
1848 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
1849 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
1850 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
79214ddf 1851 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
a933dad1
DL
1852 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
1853 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
1854 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
1855 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
1856 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
1857
1858+++
1859*** Text property `face'.
1860
1861The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
1862specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
1863specification can be
1864
18651. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
1866
18672. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
1868 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
1869 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
1870 for face attribute names.
1871
18723. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
1873 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
1874 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
1875
1876+++
1877** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
1878
acf3ecb7
EZ
1879The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
1880on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
1881the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
a933dad1 1882default. You can get defined colors with a call to
acf3ecb7 1883`defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
a933dad1
DL
1884used to clear the mapping table.
1885
acf3ecb7
EZ
1886** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
1887
1888The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
1889and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
1890type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
1891color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
1892display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
1893old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
1894`x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
1895compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
1896should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
1897modify their color-related behavior.
1898
1899The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
1900any frame type.
1901
8a5719f0
EZ
1902** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
1903
1904The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
1905`display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
1906`display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
1907`display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
1908`display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
1909`display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
1910display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
1911the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
1912platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
1913
a933dad1
DL
1914+++
1915** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
a933dad1 1916
463cac2d 1917This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
a933dad1
DL
1918
1919The function minubuffer-prompt-end returns the current position of the
1920end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
1921Otherwise, it returns zero.
1922
463cac2d
GM
1923** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
1924
1925There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
1926buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
1927text-property.
1928
9a9dfda8 1929Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
463cac2d 1930forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
9a9dfda8 1931to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
463cac2d 1932not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
fc7ac24f
GM
1933commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
1934boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
1935`inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
1936functions.
463cac2d
GM
1937
1938Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
9a9dfda8 1939a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
463cac2d 1940editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
a933dad1 1941
9a9dfda8
GM
1942The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
1943
1944- Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE
1945
1946Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
1947A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
1948If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
1949constrained position if that is is different.
1950
1951If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
1952positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
1953ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
1954constrained to the field that has the same `field' text-property
1955as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
1956is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
1957fields.
1958
1959If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
1960NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
1961unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
1962C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
1963only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
1964
1965- Function: erase-field &optional POS
1966
1967Erases the field surrounding POS.
1968A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
1969If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
1970
1971- Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
1972
1973Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
1974A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
1975If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
1976If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is already at beginning of an
1977field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
1978
1979- Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
1980
1981Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
1982A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
1983If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
1984If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is already at end of a field,
1985then the end of the *following* field is returned.
1986
1987- Function: field-string &optional POS
1988
1989Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
1990A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
1991If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
1992
1993- Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
1994
1995Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
1996A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
1997If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
1998
a933dad1
DL
1999+++
2000** Image support.
2001
2002Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
2003strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
2004(AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
2005replaces the display of the characters having that property.
2006
2007If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
2008`(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
2009AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
2010window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
2011area.
2012
2013IMAGE is an image specification.
2014
2015*** Image specifications
2016
2017Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
2018is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
2019specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
35a5514b
GM
2020symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
2021described below are ignored.
a933dad1
DL
2022
2023The following is a list of properties all image types share.
2024
2025`:ascent ASCENT'
2026
2027ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, and specifies the percentage
2028of the image's height to use for its ascent. Default is 50.
2029
2030`:margin MARGIN'
2031
79214ddf 2032MARGIN must be a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put as
a933dad1
DL
2033margin around the image. Default is 0.
2034
2035`:relief RELIEF'
2036
2037RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
2038around an image.
2039
2040`:algorithm ALGO'
2041
2042Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it. ALGO must
2043be a symbol specifying the algorithm. Currently only `laplace' is
2044supported which applies a Laplace edge detection algorithm to an image
2045which is intended to display images "disabled."
2046
2047`:heuristic-mask BG'
2048
2049If BG is not nil, build a clipping mask for the image, so that the
2050background of a frame is visible behind the image. If BG is t,
2051determine the background color of the image by looking at the 4
2052corners of the image, assuming the most frequently occuring color from
2053the corners is the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must
2054be a list `(RED GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the
2055background of the image.
2056
2057`:file FILE'
2058
2059Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
2060search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
2061building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
2062may be present in the image specification.
2063
518df5c4
GM
2064`:data DATA'
2065
2066Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
2067supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
2068present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
2069support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
2070
a933dad1
DL
2071*** Supported image types
2072
b246b1f6 2073**** XBM, image type `xbm'.
a933dad1
DL
2074
2075XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
2076properties supported are
2077
2078`:foreground FG'
2079
2080FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default
2081is the frame's foreground.
2082
2083`:background FG'
2084
2085BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default is
2086the frame's background color.
2087
2088XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
2089case, the image specification must contain the following properties
2090instead of a `:file' property.
2091
2092`:width WIDTH'
2093
2094WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
2095
2096`:height HEIGHT'
2097
2098HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
2099
2100`:data DATA'
2101
2102DATA must be either
2103
2104 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
2105 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
2106
2107 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
2108
2109 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
2110 bitmap.
2111
2112**** XPM, image type `xpm'
2113
2114XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
2115`xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
2116found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
2117`--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
2118
2119Additional image properties supported are:
2120
2121`:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
2122
2123SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
2124name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
2125name.
2126
2127XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
2128add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
2129
a933dad1
DL
2130The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
2131to display compressed images.
2132
2133**** PBM, image type `pbm'
2134
2135PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
2136mono images are supported. There are no additional image properties
2137defined.
2138
2139**** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
2140
2141Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
3bd37feb
GM
2142package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. Additional image properties
2143are:
2144
a933dad1
DL
2145**** TIFF, image type `tiff'
2146
2147Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
2148package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
2149properties defined.
2150
2151**** GIF, image type `gif'
2152
2153Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
2154`libungif-4.1.0', or later.
2155
2156Additional image properties supported are:
2157
2158`:index INDEX'
2159
2160INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
2161multi-image GIF file. An error is signalled if INDEX is too large.
2162
2163This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
2164For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
2165at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
2166every 0.1 seconds.
2167
2168(defun show-anim (file max)
2169 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
2170 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
2171
2172(defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
2173 (when (= idx max)
2174 (setq idx 0))
518df5c4 2175 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
a933dad1
DL
2176 (save-excursion
2177 (set-buffer buffer)
2178 (goto-char (point-min))
2179 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
2180 (insert-image img "x"))
2181 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
2182
2183**** PNG, image type `png'
2184
2185Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
2186package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
2187properties defined.
2188
2189**** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
2190
2191Additional image properties supported are:
2192
2193`:pt-width WIDTH'
2194
2195WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
b246b1f6 2196integer. This is a required property.
a933dad1
DL
2197
2198`:pt-height HEIGHT'
2199
2200HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
b246b1f6 2201must be a integer. This is an required property.
a933dad1
DL
2202
2203`:bounding-box BOX'
2204
2205BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
2206the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
2207files. This is an required property.
2208
2209Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
2210lisp/gs.el.
2211
2212*** Lisp interface.
2213
79214ddf
FP
2214The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
2215which are supported in the current configuration.
a933dad1
DL
2216
2217Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
2218they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
2219The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
2220manually.
2221
2222*** Simplified image API, image.el
2223
2224The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
2225creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
2226can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
2227define an image based on available image types. The functions
2228`put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
2229buffer.
2230
2231+++
2232** Display margins.
2233
2234Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
2235and images.
2236
2237To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
2238`left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
2239`set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
2240obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
2241`right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
2242the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
2243of the display margins.
2244
2245You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
2246containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
2247one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
2248string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
2249in this file).
2250
2251+++
2252** Help display
2253
2254Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
2255moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
2256`help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
2257that have a `help-echo' property.
2258
2259The value of the `help-echo' property must be a string. For tool-bar
2260items, their key definition is used to determine the help to display.
2261If their definition contains a property `:help FORM', FORM is
2262evaluated to determine the help string. Otherwise, the caption of the
2263tool-bar item is used.
2264
2265The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
2266help differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window causes the
2267help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
2268
2269+++
2270** Vertical fractional scrolling.
2271
2272The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
2273This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
2274
2275The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
2276scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
2277The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
2278scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
2279used.
2280
79214ddf
FP
2281 (global-set-key [A-down]
2282 #'(lambda ()
a933dad1 2283 (interactive)
79214ddf 2284 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
a933dad1 2285 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
79214ddf 2286 (global-set-key [A-up]
a933dad1
DL
2287 #'(lambda ()
2288 (interactive)
79214ddf 2289 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
a933dad1
DL
2290 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
2291
2292+++
2293** New hook `fontification-functions'.
2294
2295Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
2296when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
2297variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
2298is called with one argument, POS.
2299
2300At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
2301characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
2302as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
2303property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
2304`fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
2305
2306+++
2307** Tool bar support.
2308
2309Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
2310parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
2311controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
2312suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
2313`auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
2314automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
2315
2316*** Tool bar item definitions
2317
2318Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
2319`tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
2320where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
79214ddf 2321
a933dad1
DL
2322CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
2323evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
2324the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
2325property (see below).
79214ddf 2326
a933dad1
DL
2327BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
2328binding are currently ignored.
2329
2330The following properties are recognized:
2331
2332`:enable FORM'.
79214ddf 2333
a933dad1
DL
2334FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
2335or disabled.
79214ddf 2336
a933dad1 2337`:visible FORM'
79214ddf 2338
a933dad1 2339FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
79214ddf 2340
a933dad1
DL
2341`:filter FUNCTION'
2342
2343FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
2344FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
2345used instead of BINDING to display this item.
79214ddf 2346
a933dad1
DL
2347`:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
2348
2349TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
2350and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
79214ddf 2351
a933dad1
DL
2352`:image IMAGES'
2353
2354IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
2355image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
2356meaning of each of the four elements:
2357
2358 Index Use when item is
2359 ----------------------------------------
2360 0 enabled and selected
2361 1 enabled and deselected
2362 2 disabled and selected
2363 3 disabled and deselected
79214ddf 2364
a933dad1 2365`:help HELP-STRING'.
79214ddf 2366
a933dad1
DL
2367Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
2368is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
2369
2370*** Tool-bar-related variables.
2371
2372If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
2373resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
2374than 1/4 of the frame's size.
2375
79214ddf 2376If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
a933dad1
DL
2377raised when the mouse moves over them.
2378
2379You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
2380`tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
2381pixels. Default is 1.
2382
2383You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
2384`tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
2385
2386*** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
2387
2388You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
79214ddf 2389a tool bar item. If
a933dad1
DL
2390
2391 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
2392 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
2393 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
2394
2395is the original tool bar item definition, then
2396
2397 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
2398
2399makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
2400item.
2401
2402** Mode line changes.
2403
2404+++
2405*** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
2406
2407The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
2408that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
2409a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
2410
24111. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
2412a `local-map' text property.
2413
24142. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
2415that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
2416
24173. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
2418is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
2419`local-map' property.
2420
2421The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
2422properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
2423example.
2424
54522c9f
GM
2425*** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
2426evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
2427
a933dad1
DL
2428+++
2429*** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
2430variable mode-line-format to nil.
2431
2432+++
2433*** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
2434
2435This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
2436`header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
2437completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
2438`default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
2439line.
2440
2441The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
2442`header-line'.
2443
2444The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
2445position in the header-line.
2446
2447+++
2448** Text property `display'
2449
2450The `display' text property is used to insert images into text, and
2451also control other aspects of how text displays. The value of the
2452`display' property should be a display specification, as described
2453below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
2454
2455*** Variable width and height spaces
2456
2457To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
2458specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
2459`(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
2460area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
2461marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
2462displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
2463simpler form STRETCH as property value.
2464
2465The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
2466PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
2467properties described below.
2468
2469The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
2470characters having the `display' property.
2471
2472- :width WIDTH
2473
2474Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
2475character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
2476
2477- :relative-width FACTOR
2478
2479Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
2480first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
2481same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
2482width of that character by FACTOR.
2483
2484- :align-to HPOS
2485
2486Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
2487value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
2488
2489Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
2490
2491- :height HEIGHT
2492
2493Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
2494normal line height.
2495
2496- :relative-height FACTOR
2497
2498The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
2499of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
2500
2501- :ascent ASCENT
2502
2503Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
2504used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
2505baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
2506equal to 100.
2507
2508You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
2509
2510*** Images
2511
2512A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
2513. IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
2514in the display, the characters having this display specification in
2515their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
2516the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
2517`(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
2518area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
2519the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
2520as display specification.
2521
2522*** Other display properties
2523
2524- :space-width FACTOR
2525
2526Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
2527should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
2528integer or float.
2529
2530- :height HEIGHT
2531
2532Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
2533
2534If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
2535means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
2536the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
2537``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
2538a font is available counts as a step.
2539
2540If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
2541as tall as the frame's default font.
2542
2543If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
2544height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
2545
2546Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
2547`height' bound to the current specified font height.
2548
2549- :raise FACTOR
2550
2551FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
2552font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
2553raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
2554amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
2555`:height' subproperty.
2556
2557*** Conditional display properties
2558
2559All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
2560has the form `(:when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC
2561applies only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated.
2562During evaluattion, point is temporarily set to the end position of
2563the text having the `display' property.
2564
2565The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
2566`(:when t SPEC)'.
2567
2568+++
2569** New menu separator types.
2570
2571Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
2572item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
2573treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
2574to specify other menu separator types.
2575
2576- `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
2577
2578No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
2579separator occurs.
2580
2581- `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
2582
2583A single line in the menu's foreground color.
2584
2585- `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
2586
2587A double line in the menu's foreground color.
2588
2589- `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
2590
2591A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
2592
2593- `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
2594
2595A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
2596
2597- `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
2598
2599A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the the form
2600displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
2601
2602- `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
2603
2604A single line with 3D raised appearance.
2605
2606- `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
2607
2608A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
2609
2610- `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
2611
2612A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
2613
2614- `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
2615
2616Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
2617
2618- `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
2619
2620Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
2621
2622- `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
2623
2624Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
2625
2626- `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
2627
2628Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
2629
2630Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
2631the corresponding single-line separators.
2632
2633+++
2634** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
2635
2636The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
2637`scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
2638Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
2639that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
2640default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
2641default background is the background color of the frame, and the
2642default foreground is black.
2643
2644The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
2645(class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
2646`ScrollBarBackground').
2647
2648Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
2649settings for scroll bar colors.
2650
2651+++
2652** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
2653display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
2654
2655---
2656** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
2657starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
2658on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
2659line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
2660the original window start.
2661
2662---
2663** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
2664`hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
2665now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
2666
2667+++
2668** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
2669
2670A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
2671`window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
2672windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
2673other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
2674
2675The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
2676fixed-width and fixed-height.
2677
2678 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
2679
2680A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
2681fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
2682window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
2683change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
2684temporarily to nil, for example
2685
2686 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
2687 (enlarge-window 10))
2688
79214ddf 2689Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
a933dad1 2690or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
e411ce4b
EZ
2691
2692** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
2693terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
2694to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
2695overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
2696horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
2697support a vertical-bar cursor).
e33b0397
DL
2698^L
2699* Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
2700
2701** Not new, but not mentioned before:
2702M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
a933dad1
DL
2703\f
2704* Changes in Emacs 20.4
2705
2706** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
2707
2708You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
2709Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
2710`.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
2711
2712If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
2713is the one that is used.
2714
2715** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
2716the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
2717Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
2718separate from the command's regular output.
2719Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
2720says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
2721In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
2722the buffer name.
2723
2724When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
2725output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
2726it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
2727cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
2728
2729** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
2730the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
2731is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
2732created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
2733
2734** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
2735example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
2736match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
2737quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
2738
2739** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
2740now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
2741if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
2742they never ignore case.
2743
2744** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
2745under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
2746applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
2747of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
2748just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
2749convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
2750part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
2751
2752If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
2753the same format that was used in the file before.
2754
2755You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
2756`inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
2757
2758** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
2759renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
2760This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
2761
2762** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
2763The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
2764buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
2765your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
2766is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
2767end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
2768Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
2769
2770The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
2771eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
2772control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
2773format. You can now customize these variables.
2774
2775** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
2776filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
2777filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
2778enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
2779
2780** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
2781in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
2782windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
2783
2784** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
2785dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
2786doesn't have any effect.
2787
2788** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
2789not one per buffer.
2790
2791** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
2792use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
2793 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
2794
2795** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
2796To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
2797`auto-show-mode' command.
2798
2799** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
2800avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
2801versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
2802choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
2803occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
2804
2805** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
2806cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
2807
2808** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
2809character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
2810feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
2811
2812** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
2813the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
2814interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
2815and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
2816
2817** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
2818
2819The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
2820that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
2821one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
2822codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
2823set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
2824
2825Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
2826from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
2827
2828IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
2829equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
2830a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
2831`?' on other systems.
2832
2833IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
2834feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
2835Unix.
2836
2837Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
2838current codepage when it starts.
2839
2840** Mail changes
2841
feab4fba
GM
2842*** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
2843`mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
2844appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
2845non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
2846MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
2847headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
2848latin-1:
2849
2850 MIME-version: 1.0
2851 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
2852 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
2853
a933dad1
DL
2854*** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
2855default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
2856default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
2857sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
2858buffer-file-coding-system.
2859
2860You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
2861sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
2862mail.
2863
2864*** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
2865if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
2866Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
2867list of possible coding systems.
2868
2869** CC Mode changes
2870
2871*** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
2872modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
2873longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
2874docstring for details.
2875
2876*** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
2877symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
2878found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
2879prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
2880lineup functions use this feature currently.
2881
2882*** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
2883"finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
2884
2885*** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
2886"catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
2887
2888*** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
2889from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
2890symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
2891c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
2892anonymous classes.
2893
2894*** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
2895syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
2896
2897*** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
2898inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
2899support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
2900function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
2901
2902*** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
2903(i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
2904brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
2905c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
2906(brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
2907
2908*** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
2909
2910*** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
2911
2912*** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
2913for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
2914
2915*** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
2916
2917*** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
2918associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
2919This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
2920circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
2921class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
2922
2923** Gnus changes.
2924
2925*** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
2926added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
2927Gnus manual for the full story.
2928
2929*** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
2930before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
2931group, which is created automatically.
2932
2933*** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
2934values.
2935
2936*** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
2937
2938*** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
2939outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
2940
2941*** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
2942`C-u C-c C-c'.
2943
2944*** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
2945
2946*** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
2947re-highlighting of the article buffer.
2948
2949*** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
2950
2951*** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
2952Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
2953
2954*** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
2955`a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
2956
2957*** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
2958control over simplification.
2959
2960*** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
2961
2962*** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
2963limit.
2964
2965*** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
2966
2967*** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
2968
79214ddf 2969*** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
a933dad1
DL
2970If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
2971rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
2972
2973*** Cancelling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
2974`a' forces normal posting method.
2975
2976*** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
2977-- `W d'.
2978
2979*** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
2980to a non-nil value.
2981
2982*** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
2983where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
2984
2985*** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
2986has been added.
2987
2988*** A history of where mails have been split is available.
2989
2990*** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
2991
2992*** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
2993`gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
2994
2995*** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
2996`message-cite-original-without-signature'.
2997
2998*** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
2999
3000*** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
3001been added.
3002
3003*** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
3004`gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
3005
3006*** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
3007updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
3008
3009*** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
3010
3011*** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
3012
3013*** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
3014
3015** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
3016
3017*** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
3018options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
3019nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
3020
3021*** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
3022TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
3023of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
3024TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
3025can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
3026
3027*** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
3028All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
3029but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
3030the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
3031
3032*** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
3033the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
3034buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
3035mismatch.
3036
3037** Changes to RefTeX mode
3038
3039*** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
3040file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
3041
3042*** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
3043lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
3044characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
3045removed from the label.
3046
3047*** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
3048a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
3049
3050*** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
3051customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
3052
3053*** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
3054`reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
79214ddf 3055expressions.
a933dad1
DL
3056
3057*** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
3058
3059** New/deleted modes and packages
3060
3061*** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
3062SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
3063
3064*** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
3065editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
3066SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
3067
3068*** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
3069changes with a special face.
3070
3071*** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
3072this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
3073Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
3074\f
3075* MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
3076
3077** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
3078This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
3079conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
3080and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
3081check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
3082
3083The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
3084Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
3085distribution when the config.bat script is run.
3086
3087** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
3088MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
3089controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
3090directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
3091Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
3092on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
3093string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
3094program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
3095printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
3096
3097** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
3098output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
3099available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
3100input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
3101temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
3102program.
3103
3104An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
3105and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
3106programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
3107automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
3108as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
3109ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
3110
3111** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
3112a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
3113MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
3114was not documented clearly before.
3115
3116** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
3117This includes Tetris and Snake.
3118\f
3119* Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
3120
3121** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
3122return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
3123They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
3124meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
3125
3126** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
3127WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
3128and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
3129
3130** Changes in the file-attributes function.
3131
3132*** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
3133It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
3134
3135*** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
3136the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
3137integers.
3138
3139** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
3140files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
3141arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
3142file names and attributes are returned.
3143
3144** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
3145sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
3146accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its atttributes.
3147It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
3148returns the result.
3149
3150** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
3151to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
3152
3153** New functions for base64 conversion:
3154
3155The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
3156into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
3157performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
3158optionally.
3159
3160Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
3161job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
3162
3163**
3164The new function process-running-child-p
3165will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
3166terminal to its own child process.
3167
3168** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
3169when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
3170to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
3171itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
3172
3173** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
3174be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
3175
3176** easymenu.el Now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
3177:included is an alias for :visible.
3178
3179easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
3180easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
3181to move or copy menu entries.
3182
3183** Multibyte editing changes
3184
3185*** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
3186an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
3187make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
3188work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
3189char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
3190 (setq char (sref str idx)
3191 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
3192The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
3193
3194If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
3195(say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
3196 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
3197
3198*** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
3199region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
3200deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
3201
3202 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibitted
3203
3204This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
3205across the boundary.
3206
3207*** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
3208`unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
3209 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
3210 contains 8-bit characters.
3211 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
3212 contains invalid characters.
3213
3214*** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
3215text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
3216preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
3217text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
3218way.
3219
3220*** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
3221If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
3222end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
3223prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
3224
3225*** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
3226compose Thai characters in a string.
3227
3228** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
3229argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
3230for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
3231menus should always use the third argument.
3232
3233** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
3234read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
3235arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
3236input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
3237
3238** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
3239of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
3240programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
3241inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
3242
3243** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
3244the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
3245returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
3246echo area contents.
3247
3248 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
3249
3250** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
3251NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
3252requested feature cannot be loaded.
3253
3254** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
3255foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
79214ddf 3256means to clear out that attribute.
a933dad1
DL
3257
3258** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
3259gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
3260
3261** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
3262read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
3263unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
3264end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
3265
3266** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
3267the gap of the current buffer.
3268
3269** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
3270to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
3271current buffer.
3272
3273** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
3274facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
3275These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
3276it back in after any modifications have been made.
3277\f
3278* Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
3279
3280** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
3281the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
3282/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
3283directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
3284subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
3285
3286Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
3287names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
3288Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
3289which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
3290these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
3291
3292Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
3293starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
3294time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
3295
3296This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
3297Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
3298to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
3299subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
3300`.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
3301results.
3302
3303** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
3304GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
3305that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
3306fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
3307\f
3308* Changes in Emacs 20.3
3309
3310** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
3311including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
3312it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
3313perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
3314
3315** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
3316specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
3317region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
3318further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
3319command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
3320within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
3321are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
3322region.
3323
3324In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
3325selective undo.
3326
3327** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
3328unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
3329buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
3330effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
3331Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
3332
3333The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
3334though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
3335-*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
3336load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
3337
3338** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
3339no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
3340enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
3341something that most users not do.
3342
3343** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
3344operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
3345The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
3346applications.
3347
3348C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
3349pasting operations.
3350
3351** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
3352setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
3353like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
3354printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
3355`ps-printer-name'.
3356
3357** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
3358minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
3359any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
3360except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
3361incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
3362hits a new word.
3363
3364Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
3365Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
3366to be confused by TeX commands.
3367
3368You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
3369correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
3370clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
3371of various alternative replacements and actions.
3372
3373Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
3374the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
3375corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
3376alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
3377flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
3378
3379Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
3380flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
3381
3382** Changes in input method usage.
3383
3384Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
3385the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
3386respectively.
3387
3388You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
3389
3390If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
3391of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
3392
3393The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
3394that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
3395
3396 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
3397
3398 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
3399
3400 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
3401 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
3402
3403 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
79214ddf 3404 given in the following case:
a933dad1
DL
3405 o When you are using a complex input method.
3406 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
3407
3408If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
3409input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
3410and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
3411setting it to t is helpful.
3412
3413The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
3414
3415In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
3416keys:
3417 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
3418 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
3419 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
3420These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
3421environment.
3422
3423** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
3424names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
3425minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
3426get
3427
3428 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
3429
3430which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
3431
3432Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
3433Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
3434
3435** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
3436at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
3437its owner and group.
3438
3439** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
3440Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
3441
3442** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
3443contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
3444
3445** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
3446which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
3447in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
3448by the left edge of the rectangle.
3449
3450** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
3451increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
3452C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
3453for writing keyboard macros.
3454
3455** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
3456files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
3457frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
3458the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
3459additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
3460info.
3461
3462** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
3463
3464** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
3465query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
3466contents only.
3467
3468** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
3469confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
3470the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
3471says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
3472
3473** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
3474non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
3475literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
3476
3477** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
3478now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
3479Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
3480inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
3481
3482** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
3483failure if the command produces no output.
3484
3485** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
3486manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
3487the mouse.
3488
3489** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
3490mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
3491function and variable names.
3492
3493** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
3494reading specific files. This has higher priority than
3495file-coding-system-alist.
3496
3497** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
3498t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
3499converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
3500the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
3501according to the current fontset.
3502
3503** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
3504
3505The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
3506that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
3507nonascii-insert-offset.
3508
3509For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
3510enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
3511nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
3512characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
3513
3514** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
3515an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
3516
3517** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
3518letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
3519
3520** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
3521are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
3522command keys.
3523
3524** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
3525user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
3526
3527Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
3528user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
3529all variables that have documentation.
3530
3531** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
3532shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
3533that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
3534minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
3535it should show; the default is 20.
3536
3537Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
3538the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
3539of your input.
3540
3541** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
3542all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
3543recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
3544argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
3545the customizable options which were changed since that version.
3546Newly added options are included as well.
3547
3548If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
3549then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
3550for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
3551
3552This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
3553Customize menu.
3554
3555** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
3556the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
3557
3558** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
3559buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
3560invoked.
3561
3562** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
3563that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
3564The default is 1.
3565
3566** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
3567syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
3568new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
3569(C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
3570sensibly.
3571
3572** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
3573
3574** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
3575value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
3576two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
3577
3578** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
3579reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
3580for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
3581every night.
3582
3583** All you need to do, to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
3584the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
3585
3586** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
3587read and post multi-lingual articles.
3588
3589** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
3590doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
3591be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
3592outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
3593the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
79214ddf 3594made invisible again.
a933dad1
DL
3595
3596** Mail reading and sending changes
3597
3598*** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
3599the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
3600changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
3601toggle.
3602
3603*** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
3604now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
3605summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
3606the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
3607rmail-default-body-file.
3608
3609*** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
3610longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
3611handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
3612
3613*** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
3614it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
3615is evaluated to insert the signature.
3616
3617*** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
3618outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
3619handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
3620putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
3621transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
3622especially interested in trying feedmail.
3623
3624feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
3625feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
3626provided by feedmail are:
3627
3628**** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
3629stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
3630there is also a queue for draft messages
3631
3632**** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
3633be prompted for confirmation
3634
3635**** does smart filling of address headers
3636
3637**** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
3638the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
3639can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
3640
3641**** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
3642the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
3643/usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
3644function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
3645
3646** Dired changes
3647
3648*** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
3649files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
3650
3651*** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
3652run Dired on the directory name at point.
3653
3654*** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
3655files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
3656for a specified regexp.
3657
3658** VC Changes
3659
3660*** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
3661conveniently.
3662
3663*** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
3664faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
3665Dired.
3666
3667VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
3668directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
3669listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
3670currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
3671
3672You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
3673then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
3674vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
3675control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
3676on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
3677
3678All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
3679is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
3680`v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
3681the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
3682`vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
3683
3684The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
3685toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
79214ddf 3686VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
a933dad1
DL
3687`* l', to mark all files currently locked.
3688
3689Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
3690ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
3691command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
3692
3693*** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
3694file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
3695session to resolve them.
3696
3697Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
3698resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
3699contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
3700uses as well).
3701
3702*** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
3703command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
3704you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
3705either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
3706branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
3707If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
3708using ediff.
3709
3710** Changes in Font Lock
3711
3712*** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
3713are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
3714use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
3715unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
3716compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
3717
3718** Frame name display changes
3719
3720*** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
3721frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
3722raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
3723when many frames are invisible or iconified.
3724
3725*** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
3726frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
3727menu.
3728
3729** Comint (subshell) changes
3730
3731*** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
3732subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
3733with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
3734
3735*** There are new commands in Comint mode.
3736
3737C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
3738that is, the line after the last line you got.
3739You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
3740
3741C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
3742send the current line together with the following line, when you send
3743the following line.
3744
3745C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
3746which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
3747previously sent input.
3748
3749C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
3750it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
3751as the search string.
3752
3753*** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
3754automatically in compilation-mode windows.
3755
3756** C mode changes
3757
3758*** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
3759and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
3760assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
79214ddf 3761definition.
a933dad1
DL
3762
3763*** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
3764(i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
3765Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
3766style is still the default however.
3767
3768*** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
3769
3770*** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
3771are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
3772them. They do not have key bindings by default.
3773
3774*** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
3775and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
3776
3777*** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
3778namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
3779
3780*** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
3781makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
3782
3783*** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
3784c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
3785
3786*** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
3787should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
3788package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
3789variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
3790
3791** Changes to hippie-expand.
3792
79214ddf 3793*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
a933dad1
DL
3794non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
3795which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
3796
3797*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
3798non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
3799expanding dynamically.
3800
3801*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
3802non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
3803
3804*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
3805non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
3806this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
3807expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
3808
3809*** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
3810
3811** Changes in BibTeX mode.
3812
3813*** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
3814bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
3815automatic key generation. This replaces variable
3816bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
3817against the first word in the title.
3818
3819*** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
3820capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
3821bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
79214ddf 3822lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
a933dad1 3823lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
79214ddf 3824bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
a933dad1
DL
3825
3826*** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
3827generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
3828replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
3829bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
3830
3831** Changes in vcursor.el.
3832
3833*** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
3834and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
3835variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
3836entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
3837`vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
3838in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
3839
3840*** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
3841Editing group once the package is loaded.
3842
3843*** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
3844generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
3845vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behaviour.
3846
3847*** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
3848vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
3849
3850** Ispell changes.
3851
79214ddf
FP
3852*** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
3853buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
a933dad1
DL
3854are identified by syntax tables in effect.
3855
3856*** Generic region skipping implemented.
3857A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
3858and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
3859defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
79214ddf 3860include:
a933dad1
DL
3861
3862 o URLs are automatically skipped
3863 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
3864
3865*** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
3866
3867** Changes to RefTeX mode
3868
3869RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
3870large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
3871re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
3872section `Optimizations' in the manual.
3873
3874*** New recursive parser.
3875
3876The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
3877entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
3878recursive parser scans the individual files.
3879
3880*** Parsing only part of a document.
79214ddf 3881
a933dad1
DL
3882Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
3883partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
3884the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
3885
3886 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
3887
3888*** Storing parsing information in a file.
3889
3890This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
3891
3892 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
3893
3894*** Using multiple selection buffers
3895
3896If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
3897for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
3898
3899 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
3900
3901*** References to external documents.
3902
3903The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
3904documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
3905documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
3906macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
3907RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
3908the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
3909The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
3910
3911*** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
3912
3913The builtin command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
3914and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
3915
3916Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
3917the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
3918
3919*** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
3920
3921The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
3922buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
3923
3924*** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
3925
3926The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
3927contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
3928`reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
3929have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
3930enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
3931at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
3932more.
3933
3934*** Support for the varioref package
3935
3936The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
3937
3938*** New hooks
3939
3940Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
3941and citations are created. These hooks are
3942`reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
3943`reftex-format-cite-function'.
3944
3945*** Citations outside LaTeX
3946
3947The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
3948a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
3949
3950*** Short context is no longer fontified.
3951
3952The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
3953fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
3954fontified, use
3955
3956 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
3957
3958** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
3959With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
3960the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
3961directories that contain the same file name.
3962
3963Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
3964Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
3965file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
3966Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
3967have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
3968names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
3969directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
3970directory.
3971
3972** New modes and packages
3973
3974*** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
3975It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
3976it, but some do not.
3977
3978*** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
3979code.
3980
3981*** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
3982current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
3983around in a buffer.
3984
3985Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
3986
3987*** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
3988uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
3989be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
3990established system of notation similar to Chess.
3991
3992*** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
3993documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
3994guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
3995
3996*** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
3997available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
3998system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
3999simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
4000functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
4001the like.
4002
4003*** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
4004identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
4005
4006*** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
4007within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
4008used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
4009the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
4010
4011*** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
4012
4013 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
4014 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
4015 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
4016 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
4017 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
4018 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
4019 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
4020 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
4021 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
4022 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
4023 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
4024
4025 Platform-specific modes:
4026
4027 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
4028 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
4029 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
4030 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
4031 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
4032 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
4033 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
4034 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
4035 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
4036\f
4037* Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
4038
4039** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
4040use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
4041That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
4042Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
4043
4044Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
4045you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
4046consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
4047
4048** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
4049and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
4050specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
4051searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
4052
4053** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
4054multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
4055character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
4056environment.
4057
4058** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
4059take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
4060string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
4061current input method for reading this one event.
4062
4063** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
4064now control whether to output certain characters as
4065backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
4066non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
4067characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
4068in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
4069\f
4070* Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
4071
4072** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
4073of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
4074
4075** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
4076in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
4077always increases point by 1.
4078
4079The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
4080considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
4081
4082See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
4083
4084** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
4085Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
4086default value changed. For example,
4087
4088 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
4089 :type 'integer
4090 :group 'foo
4091 :version "20.3")
4092
79214ddf 4093 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
a933dad1
DL
4094 :version "20.3")
4095
4096If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
4097default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
4098is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
4099`:version' in the top level group.
4100
4101This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
4102
4103** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
4104starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
4105
4106However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
4107symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
4108support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
4109to themselves.
4110
4111If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
4112this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
4113values whatever.
4114
4115** There is a new debugger command, R.
4116It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
4117in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
4118
4119** Frame-local variables.
4120
4121You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
4122the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
4123local bindings for that variable.
4124
4125These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
4126frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
4127modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
4128parameter name.
4129
4130Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
4131Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
4132active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
4133that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
4134
4135It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
4136clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
4137very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
4138through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
4139
4140** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
4141"symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
4142evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
4143makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
4144See the documentation in sregex.el.
4145
4146** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
4147is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
4148parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
4149The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
4150
4151** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
4152If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
4153
4154** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
4155known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
4156define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
4157
4158** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
4159when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
4160it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
4161history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
4162
4163The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
4164return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
4165empty input.
4166
4167** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
4168for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
4169`iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
4170Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
4171`read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
4172
4173** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
4174echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
4175a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
4176default password to use if the user enters nothing.
4177
4178** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
4179specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
4180function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
4181place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
4182non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
4183
4184** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
4185If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
4186up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
4187end of the window, even if this requires computation.
4188
4189** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
4190which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
4191If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
4192
4193** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
4194holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
4195was directed to display this buffer.
4196
4197** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
4198with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
4199describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
4200other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
4201set-window-configuration.
4202
4203** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
4204window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
4205positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
4206windows and the choice of buffers to display.
4207
4208** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
4209override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
4210look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
4211
4212If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
4213non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
4214map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
4215
4216minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
4217and it is meant to be set by major modes.
4218
4219** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
4220except that it discards all text properties from the result.
4221
4222** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
4223USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
4224floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
4225
4226** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
4227to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
4228in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
4229it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
4230
4231** Menu changes
4232
4233*** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
4234keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
4235better supported.
4236
4237The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
4238a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
4239you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
4240can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
4241then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
4242
4243*** A new format for menu items is supported.
4244
4245In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
4246 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
4247defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
4248starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
4249
4250The format is:
4251 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
4252 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
4253where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
4254string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
4255The supported properties include
4256
4257:enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
4258 item is enabled.
4259:visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
4260 item should appear in the menu.
79214ddf 4261:filter FILTER-FN
a933dad1
DL
4262 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
4263 which will be REAL-BINDING.
4264 It should return a binding to use instead.
4265:keys DESCRIPTION
4266 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
4267 binding for for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
4268 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
4269:key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
4270 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
4271 keyboard binding.
4272:key-sequence nil
4273 This means that the command normally has no
4274 keyboard equivalent.
4275:help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
4276:button (TYPE . SELECTED)
4277 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
4278 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
4279 value says whether this button is currently selected.
4280
4281Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
4282Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
4283
4284(menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
4285
4286** New event types
4287
4288*** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
4289mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
4290corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
4291which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
4292
4293 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
4294
4295where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
4296same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
4297indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
4298negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
4299the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
4300forward, away from the user.
4301
4302As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
4303
4304*** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
4305files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
4306and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
4307filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
4308loaded into Emacs. The format is:
4309
4310 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
4311
4312where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
4313same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
4314that were dragged and dropped.
4315
4316As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
4317
4318** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
4319
4320*** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
4321any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
4322to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
4323
4324*** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
4325can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
4326that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
4327
4328*** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
4329in Emacs 19 and before.
4330
4331The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
4332The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
4333
4334*** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
4335buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
4336unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
4337representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
4338
4339This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
4340as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
4341viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
4342one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
4343will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
4344
4345This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
4346representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
4347(including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
4348consistent with the new representation.
4349
4350*** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
4351representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
4352about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
4353however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
4354
4355The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
4356nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
4357using the table nonascii-translation-table.
4358
4359*** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
4360representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
4361representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
4362
4363The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
4364loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
4365is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
4366
4367*** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
4368which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
4369
4370*** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
4371which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
4372
4373*** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
4374portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
4375so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
4376You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
4377
4378*** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
4379it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
4380
4381*** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
4382convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
4383buffer or string being searched.
4384
4385One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
4386[...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
4387searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
4388searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
4389obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
4390you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
4391expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
4392
4393*** Structure of coding system changed.
4394
4395All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
4396by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
4397which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
4398as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
4399vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
4400your own alias name of a coding system by the function
4401define-coding-system-alias.
4402
4403The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
4404the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
4405access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
4406pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
4407character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
4408safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
4409'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
4410`iso-8859-1'.
4411
4412Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
4413The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
4414coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
4415(coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
4416
4417Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
4418also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
4419are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
4420the other character sets and read it back correctly.
4421
4422*** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
4423proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
4424This function requires a user interaction.
4425
4426*** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
4427find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
4428select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
4429systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
4430a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
4431select-safe-coding-system.
4432
4433*** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
4434decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
4435last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
4436was done.
4437
4438*** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
4439used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
4440coding systems used by some specific language environment.
4441
4442*** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
4443return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
4444characters are found, they now return a list of single element
4445`undecided' or its subsidiaries.
4446
4447*** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
4448coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
4449coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
4450converted.
4451
4452*** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
4453coding system for communicating with other X clients.
4454
4455*** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
4456character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
4457character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
4458each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
4459either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
4460range of characters.
4461
4462*** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
4463Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
4464
4465*** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
4466in the current buffer at position POS.
4467
4468*** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
4469input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
4470function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
4471character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
4472event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
4473binding input-method-function to nil.
4474
4475The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
4476method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
4477input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
4478the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
4479not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
4480
4481The input method function is not called when reading the second and
4482subsequent events of a key sequence.
4483
4484*** You can customize any language environment by using
4485set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
4486
4487The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
4488customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
4489instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
4490environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
4491exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
4492\f
4493* Changes in Emacs 20.1
4494
4495** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
4496options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
4497at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
4498tree structure.
4499
4500M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
4501user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
4502
4503With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
4504session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
4505in your .emacs file.)
4506
4507** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
4508You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
4509
4510** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
4511This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
4512
4513** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
4514immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
4515kills the region.
4516
4517The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
4518delete the character before point, as usual.
4519
4520** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
4521on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
4522by setting search-highlight to nil.)
4523
4524** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
4525insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
4526the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
4527onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
4528history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
4529past.)
4530
4531** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
4532This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
4533in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
4534TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
4535makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
4536
4537As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
4538and is an alias for it.
4539
4540If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
4541use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
4542
4543** Scrolling changes
4544
4545*** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
4546position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
4547
4548In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
4549on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
4550where it started.
4551
4552*** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
4553move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
4554screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
4555does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
4556
4557*** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
4558top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
4559comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
4560recenters the window.
4561
4562** International character set support (MULE)
4563
4564Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
4565including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
4566Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
4567Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
4568features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
4569MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
4570
4571Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
4572coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
4573character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
4574variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
4575into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
4576
4577Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
4578generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
4579supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
4580language, to make it possible to type them.
4581
4582The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
4583character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
4584
4585The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
4586to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
4587
4588You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
4589
4590 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
4591
4592Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
4593characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
4594argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
4595already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
4596characters for their work until they want to change.
4597
4598*** Input methods
4599
4600An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
4601specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
4602has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
4603the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
4604support several input methods.
4605
4606The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
4607another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
4608work.
4609
4610A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
4611characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
4612composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
4613consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
4614sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
4615letter.
4616
4617The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
4618by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
4619First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
4620marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
4621mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
4622
4623None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
4624they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
4625phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
4626converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
4627
4628Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
4629word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
4630typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
4631the first guess is wrong.
4632
4633*** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
4634turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
4635
4636If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
4637byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
4638they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
4639the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
4640
4641However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
4642use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
4643includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
4644translate automatically to and from either one.
4645
4646*** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
4647
4648Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
4649file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
4650sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
4651what you want.
4652
4653If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
4654example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
4655system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
4656multibyte characters in that buffer.
4657
4658If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
4659character conversion as well.
4660
4661*** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
4662
4663A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
4664Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
4665requires using many fonts.
4666
4667Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
4668collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
4669
4670A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
4671the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
4672have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
4673you would use a font.
4674
4675If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
4676specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
4677display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
4678
4679The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
4680(that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
4681characters). If another font in the fontset has a different height,
4682or the wrong width, then characters assigned to that font are clipped,
4683and displayed within a box if highlight-wrong-size-font is non-nil.
4684
4685*** Defining fontsets.
4686
4687Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
4688chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
4689with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
4690
4691Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
4692of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
4693`fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
4694standard fontset are created automatically.
4695
4696If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
4697argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
4698FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
4699with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
4700name is `fontset-startup'.
4701
4702Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
4703The resource value should have this form:
4704 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
4705FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
4706 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
4707 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
4708 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
4709The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
4710of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
4711CHARSET-NAME should be the name name of a character set, and
4712FONT-NAME should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
4713
4714Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
4715last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
4716You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
4717
4718For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
4719font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
4720following resource,
4721 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
4722the font for ASCII is generated as below:
4723 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
4724Here is the substitution rule:
4725 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
4726 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
4727 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
4728 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
4729 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
4730
4731The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
4732fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
4733that function explicitly to create a fontset.
4734
4735With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
4736like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
4737name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
4738fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
4739fontsets.
4740
4741*** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
4742defaults for a particular choice of language.
4743
4744Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
4745method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
4746visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
4747already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
4748language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
4749system for new files that you create.
4750
4751It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
4752set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
4753whole Emacs session.
4754
4755For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
4756chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
4757with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
4758
4759*** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
4760specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
4761specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
4762the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
4763coding systems that Emacs supports.
4764
4765*** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
4766lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
4767This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
4768After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
4769is used for *the immediately following command*.
4770
4771So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
4772write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
4773
4774If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
4775then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
4776
4777For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
4778visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
4779
4780*** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
4781construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
4782to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
4783specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
4784of the file.
4785
4786*** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
4787the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
4788code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
4789translated into that character code.
4790
4791This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
4792various countries to support the languages of those countries.
4793
4794By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
4795
4796*** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
4797the coding system for keyboard input.
4798
4799Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
4800with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
4801some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
4802
4803By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
4804
4805Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
4806input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
4807translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
4808to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
4809designed to work with terminals.
4810
4811*** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
4812specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
4813This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
4814has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
4815translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
4816in the corresponding buffer.
4817
4818By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
4819
4820*** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
4821to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
4822It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
4823
4824*** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
4825an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
4826command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
4827want to use.
4828
4829C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
4830method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
4831
4832*** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
4833layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
4834remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
4835which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
4836
4837*** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
4838the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
4839related information.
4840
4841*** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
4842HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
4843scripts.
4844
4845*** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
4846information about the support for a particular language.
4847You specify the language as an argument.
4848
4849*** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
4850the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
4851first dash.
4852
4853A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
4854(except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
4855whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
48561 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
4857
4858 A alternativnyj (Russian)
4859 B big5 (Chinese)
4860 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
4861 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
4862 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
4863 E euc-japan (Japanese)
4864 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
4865 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
4866 K euc-korea (Korean)
4867 R koi8 (Russian)
4868 Q tibetan
4869 S shift_jis (Japanese)
4870 T lao
4871 T tis620 (Thai)
4872 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
4873 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
4874 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
4875 v viqr (Vietnamese)
4876 z hz (Chinese)
4877
4878When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
4879two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
4880coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
4881keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
4882
4883*** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
4884conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
4885
4886When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
4887into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
4888rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
4889Rmail files themselves.
4890
4891*** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
4892conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
4893
4894Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
4895for sending mail:
4896
4897- If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
4898- Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
4899- Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
4900 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
4901- Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
4902
4903*** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
4904to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
4905Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
4906translations.
4907
4908** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
4909of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
4910insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
4911without any conversion.
4912
4913** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
4914You can now specify any number of octal digits.
4915RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
4916any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
4917
4918** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
4919functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
4920
4921Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
4922Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
4923
4924Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
4925mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
4926
4927** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
4928complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
4929in the buffer before point.
4930
4931With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
4932symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
4933you are using.
4934
4935With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
4936just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
4937
4938** File locking works with NFS now.
4939
4940The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
4941in the same directory as FILENAME.
4942
4943This means that collision detection between two different machines now
4944works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
4945can become a bottleneck.
4946
4947The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
4948does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
4949create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
4950file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
4951rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
4952so useful that the change is worth while.
4953
4954When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
4955are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
4956collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
4957tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
4958
4959** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
4960it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
4961show-paren-mode.
4962
4963** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
4964selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
4965delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
4966
4967** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
4968within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
4969complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
4970
4971** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
4972it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
4973set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
4974
4975** Changes in View mode.
4976
4977*** Several new commands are available in View mode.
4978Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
4979
4980*** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
4981view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
4982
4983*** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
4984previous state.
4985
4986*** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
4987scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
4988
4989*** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
4990non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
4991not just the selected window.
4992
4993*** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
4994read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
4995turns View mode on or off.
4996
4997*** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
4998how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
4999delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
5000
5001** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
5002now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
5003
5004** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
5005has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
5006presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
5007which version to compare with.
5008
5009** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
79214ddf 5010blocks if a match is inside the block.
a933dad1
DL
5011
5012The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
5013is outside the block. By customizing the variable
5014isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
5015shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
5016
5017By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
5018of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
5019blocks, all of them or none.
5020
5021** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
5022current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
5023confirmation first.
5024
5025** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
5026now changes the major mode according to that file name.
5027However, the mode will not be changed if
5028(1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
5029(2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
5030 not suitable for ordinary files, or
5031(3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
5032
5033This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
5034
5035However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
5036these commands do not change the major mode.
5037
5038** M-x occur changes.
5039
5040*** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
5041it performs a case-sensitive search.
5042
5043*** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
5044if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
5045using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
5046
5047** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
5048in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
5049window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
5050that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
5051buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
5052
5053** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
5054after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
5055appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
5056come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
5057
5058** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
5059selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
5060buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
5061
5062** Outline mode changes.
5063
5064*** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
5065
5066*** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
5067
5068** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
5069you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
5070Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
5071was already active.
5072
5073The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
5074unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
5075get confused by it.
5076
5077If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
5078set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
5079
5080** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
5081
5082*** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
5083conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
5084character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
5085including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
5086
5087The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
5088mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
5089copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
5090
5091*** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
5092are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
5093values.
5094
5095`dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
5096case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
5097`dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
5098case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
5099
5100** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
5101certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
5102can be. The default value is 30.
5103
5104** Changes in Mail mode.
5105
5106*** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
5107Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
5108composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
5109`mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
5110`sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
5111behavior.
5112
5113C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
5114compose-mail-other-frame.
5115
5116*** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
5117the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
5118replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
5119buffer that shows the original message.
5120
5121*** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
5122with separator lines around the contents.
5123
5124*** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
5125in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
5126definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
5127need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
5128
5129*** New features in the mail-complete command.
5130
5131**** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
5132for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
5133controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
5134Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
5135
5136**** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
5137to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
5138/etc/passwd.
5139
5140**** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
5141to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
5142/etc/passwd.
5143
5144** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
5145special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
5146directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
5147reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
5148
5149Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
5150when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
5151be taken to be magic.
5152
5153** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
5154files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
5155available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
5156
5157M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
5158(-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
5159
5160** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
5161suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
5162
5163In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
5164
5165new key dired.el binding old key
5166------- ---------------- -------
5167 * c dired-change-marks c
5168 * m dired-mark m
5169 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
5170 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
5171 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
5172 * u dired-unmark u
5173 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
5174 * ? dired-unmark-all-files M-C-?
5175 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
5176 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
5177 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
5178 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
5179
5180** Rmail changes.
5181
5182*** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
5183saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
5184chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
5185each time you run it.
5186
5187*** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
5188whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
5189
5190*** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
5191messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
5192means to move in the opposite direction.
5193
5194*** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
5195you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
5196
5197*** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
5198just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
5199It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
5200can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
5201for output.
5202
5203** Gnus changes.
5204
5205*** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
5206
79214ddf
FP
5207*** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
5208Gnus.
a933dad1 5209
79214ddf 5210*** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
a933dad1
DL
5211`and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
5212
5213*** Article washing status can be displayed in the
5214article mode line.
5215
5216*** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
5217
5218*** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
5219
5220(setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
5221
5222*** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
5223are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
5224`gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
5225
5226*** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
5227
5228*** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
5229
5230*** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
5231See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
5232
5233*** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
5234Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
5235used to pick articles.
5236
5237*** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
5238another have been added.
5239
5240 `M-x gnus-change-server'
5241
5242*** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
5243generating lines in buffers.
5244
5245*** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
5246`M-C-_'.
5247
5248*** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
5249
5250*** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
5251
5252 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
5253
5254*** Scores can be decayed.
79214ddf 5255
a933dad1
DL
5256 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
5257
5258*** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
5259Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
5260
5261*** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
5262the native server.
5263
5264 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
5265
5266*** A new command for reading collections of documents
5267(nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `M-C-d'.
5268
5269*** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
5270
5271*** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
5272even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
5273
5274*** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
5275(DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
5276
5277 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
5278 a group.
5279
5280*** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
5281sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
5282
5283 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
5284
5285*** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
5286
5287 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
5288
5289*** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
79214ddf 5290
a933dad1
DL
5291 Use the `Y c' command.
5292
5293*** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
5294
5295*** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
5296
5297 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
5298
5299*** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
5300from incoming mail before saving the mail.
79214ddf 5301
a933dad1
DL
5302 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
5303
5304*** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
5305
5306*** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
5307the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
5308
5309 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
5310
5311Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
5312and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
5313from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
5314hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
5315this issue.)
5316
5317Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
5318automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
5319particular news group. This can be done by:
5320
5321 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
5322
5323Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
5324of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
5325"XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
5326system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
5327for reading and posting).
5328
5329CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
5330 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
5331Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
5332newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
5333there.
5334
5335Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
5336default. Here are some of these default settings:
5337
5338 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
5339 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
5340 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
5341 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
5342 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
5343
5344When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
5345the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
5346
5347** CC mode changes.
5348
5349*** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
5350code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
5351values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
5352this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
5353Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
5354loaded.
5355
5356If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
79214ddf 5357Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
a933dad1 5358style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
79214ddf
FP
5359share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
5360c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
a933dad1
DL
5361must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
5362
5363*** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
5364of the current buffer.
5365
5366*** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
5367it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
5368of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
5369
5370*** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
5371style that the Python developers like.
5372
5373*** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
5374This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
5375just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
5376
5377** VC Changes [new]
5378
5379** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
5380name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
5381directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
5382
5383This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
5384master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
5385developers.
5386
5387You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
5388RET in a buffer visiting that file.
5389
5390*** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
5391other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
5392writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
5393calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
5394
5395*** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
5396version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
5397
5398** Calendar changes.
5399
5400A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or subclasses
5401of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow you do this
5402for the year of the selected date, or the following/previous years.
5403
5404** ps-print changes
5405
79214ddf 5406There are some new user variables for customizing the page layout.
a933dad1
DL
5407
5408*** Paper size, paper orientation, columns
5409
5410The variable `ps-paper-type' determines the size of paper ps-print
5411formats for; it should contain one of the symbols:
5412`a4' `a3' `letter' `legal' `letter-small' `tabloid'
5413`ledger' `statement' `executive' `a4small' `b4' `b5'
5414It defaults to `letter'.
5415If you need other sizes, see the variable `ps-page-dimensions-database'.
5416
5417The variable `ps-landscape-mode' determines the orientation
79214ddf 5418of the printing on the page. nil, the default, means "portrait" mode,
a933dad1
DL
5419non-nil means "landscape" mode.
5420
5421The variable `ps-number-of-columns' must be a positive integer.
5422It determines the number of columns both in landscape and portrait mode.
79214ddf 5423It defaults to 1.
a933dad1
DL
5424
5425*** Horizontal layout
5426
5427The horizontal layout is determined by the variables
5428`ps-left-margin', `ps-inter-column', and `ps-right-margin'.
5429All are measured in points.
5430
5431*** Vertical layout
5432
5433The vertical layout is determined by the variables
5434`ps-bottom-margin', `ps-top-margin', and `ps-header-offset'.
5435All are measured in points.
5436
5437*** Headers
5438
5439If the variable `ps-print-header' is nil, no header is printed. Then
5440`ps-header-offset' is not relevant and `ps-top-margin' represents the
5441margin above the text.
5442
79214ddf 5443If the variable `ps-print-header-frame' is non-nil, a gaudy
a933dad1
DL
5444framing box is printed around the header.
5445
5446The contents of the header are determined by `ps-header-lines',
5447`ps-show-n-of-n', `ps-left-header' and `ps-right-header'.
5448
79214ddf
FP
5449The height of the header is determined by `ps-header-line-pad',
5450`ps-header-font-family', `ps-header-title-font-size' and
a933dad1
DL
5451`ps-header-font-size'.
5452
5453*** Font managing
5454
5455The variable `ps-font-family' determines which font family is to be
5456used for ordinary text. Its value must be a key symbol in the alist
5457`ps-font-info-database'. You can add other font families by adding
5458elements to this alist.
5459
79214ddf 5460The variable `ps-font-size' determines the size of the font
a933dad1
DL
5461for ordinary text. It defaults to 8.5 points.
5462
5463** hideshow changes.
5464
5465*** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
79214ddf 5466C++, ; for lisp).
a933dad1
DL
5467
5468*** Support for java-mode added.
5469
5470*** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
5471in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
5472
5473*** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the the comments at
5474the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
5475way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
5476
5477*** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
5478robust and a lot faster.
5479
79214ddf 5480*** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
a933dad1
DL
5481
5482*** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
5483to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
5484documentation for more details.
5485
5486** Changes in Enriched mode.
5487
5488*** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
5489filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
5490of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
5491use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
5492the next time unless the fill-column is different.
5493
5494*** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
5495distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
5496as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
5497as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
5498
5499** Font Lock mode
5500
5501*** Custom support
5502
5503The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
5504font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
5505faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
5506group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
5507your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
5508consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
5509
5510You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
5511
5512*** Maximum decoration
5513
5514Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
5515default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
5516of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
5517supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
5518to get the old behavior.
5519
5520*** New support
5521
5522Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
5523
5524Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
5525support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
5526
5527*** Configurable support
5528
5529Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
5530additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
5531c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
5532java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
5533list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
5534of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
5535convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
5536
5537Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
5538way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
5539it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
5540
5541*** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
5542
5543You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
5544highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
5545for any mode.
5546
5547For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
5548
5549 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
5550
5551in your ~/.emacs.
5552
5553*** New faces
5554
5555Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
5556font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
5557distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
5558to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
5559
5560*** Changes to fast-lock support mode
5561
5562The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
5563cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
5564same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
5565
5566*** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
5567
5568The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
5569according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
5570the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
5571non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
5572refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
5573the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
5574Lock mode behaviour and the behaviour of Font Lock mode.
5575
5576This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
5577For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
5578this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
5579refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
5580containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
5581the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
5582
5583As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
5584
5585Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
5586Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
5587Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
5588new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
5589
5590If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
5591settings.
5592
5593** Ada mode changes.
5594
5595*** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
5596If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
5597procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
5598you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
5599stubs.
5600
5601*** There are two new commands:
5602 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
5603 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
5604
5605The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
5606`ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
79214ddf 5607`ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
a933dad1
DL
5608
5609*** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
5610is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
5611Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
5612
5613*** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
5614formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
5615places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
5616space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
5617
5618** Scheme mode changes.
5619
5620*** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
5621mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
5622for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
5623with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
5624have any effect.
5625
5626If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
5627still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
5628scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
5629variables as buffer-local variables.
5630
5631*** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
5632Use M-x dsssl-mode.
5633
133c9e59
GM
5634** Changes to the emacsclient program
5635
875c1439
GM
5636*** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
5637USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
5638associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
5639can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
5640
133c9e59 5641*** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
a933dad1
DL
5642it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
5643buffer in Emacs.
5644
133c9e59
GM
5645*** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
5646use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
5647ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
5648option takes precedence.
5649
a933dad1
DL
5650** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
5651constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
5652(in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
5653
5654** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
5655which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
5656the current defun.
5657
5658** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
5659following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
5660
5661** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
5662and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
5663necessary).
5664
5665** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
5666if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
5667these register values no longer become completely useless.
5668If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
5669asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
5670it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
5671
5672** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
5673example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
5674be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
5675you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
5676
5677You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
5678variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
5679file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
5680revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
5681only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
5682
5683** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
5684since it applies only to the current frame.
5685
5686** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
5687file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
5688and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
5689
5690This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
5691multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
5692variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
5693tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
5694instead of just the file you are editing.
5695
5696** RefTeX mode
5697
5698RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
5699and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
5700different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
5701multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
5702turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
5703
79214ddf 5704C-c ( reftex-label
a933dad1
DL
5705 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
5706 knows which kind of label is needed.
5707
5708C-c ) reftex-reference
5709 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
5710 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
5711
5712C-c [ reftex-citation
5713 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
5714 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
5715
5716C-c & reftex-view-crossref
5717 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
5718
5719C-c = reftex-toc
5720 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
5721 can quickly jump to every section.
79214ddf 5722
a933dad1
DL
5723Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
5724commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
5725Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
5726reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
5727C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
5728
5729** Changes in BibTeX mode.
5730
5731*** Info documentation is now available.
5732
5733*** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
5734both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
5735
5736*** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
5737bibtex-user-optional-fields.
5738
5739*** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
5740(use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
5741
5742*** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
5743entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
5744appropriate functions.
5745
5746*** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
5747entries. They are bound by default to M-C-l and M-C-h.
5748
5749*** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
5750been cleaned.
5751
5752*** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
5753bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
5754
5755*** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
5756shall be delimited.
5757
5758*** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
5759bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
5760bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
5761
5762*** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
5763field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
5764prefixed with `ALT'.
5765
5766*** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
5767bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
5768formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
5769documentation).
5770
5771*** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
5772documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
5773for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
5774
5775*** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
5776comma should be inserted at end of last field.
5777
5778*** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
5779alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
5780signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
5781
5782*** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
5783
5784*** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
5785
5786*** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
5787from alien sources.
5788
5789*** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
5790to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
5791crossref entries.
5792
5793*** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
5794region.
5795
5796*** Added support for imenu.
5797
5798*** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
5799of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
5800`compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
5801`next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
5802
5803*** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
5804from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
5805
5806** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
5807
30a009a5 5808** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
047f434a 5809
a933dad1
DL
5810** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
5811functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
5812Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
5813as an argument.
5814
5815When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
5816and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
5817
5818** browse-url changes
5819
5820*** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
5821Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
5822(browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
5823non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
5824customization variables.
5825
5826*** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
5827
5828*** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
5829lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
5830(e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
5831
5832** Changes in Ediff
5833
5834*** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
5835pops up the Info file for this command.
5836
5837*** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
5838the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
5839merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
5840directories).
5841
5842*** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
5843and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
5844files in the same directory.
5845
5846*** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
5847The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
5848related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
5849
5850** Changes in Viper
5851
5852*** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
79214ddf 5853*** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
a933dad1
DL
5854 instead of vip-.
5855*** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
79214ddf 5856*** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
a933dad1
DL
5857Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
5858*** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
5859*** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
5860*** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
5861color when Viper is in insert state.
5862*** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
5863Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
5864viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
5865
5866** Etags changes.
5867
5868*** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
5869default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
5870Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
5871variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
5872not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
5873
5874*** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
5875
5876*** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
5877constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
5878
5879*** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
5880recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
5881In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
5882
5883*** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
5884C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
5885recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
5886methods and protocols.
5887
5888*** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
5889.cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
5890column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
5891paragraph name.
5892
5893*** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
5894an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
5895at least M times and as many as N times.
5896
5897** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
5898in files has changed slightly.
5899
5900With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
5901time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
5902This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
5903with old time-stamp-format values.
5904
5905In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
5906(`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
5907This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
5908reasons.
5909
5910In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
5911natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
5912fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
5913(`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
5914time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
5915specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
5916
5917Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
5918case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
5919truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
5920
5921The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
5922being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
5923future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
5924recommended now will continue to work then.
5925
5926See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
5927details.
5928
5929** There are some additional major modes:
5930
5931dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
5932m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
5933meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
5934
5935** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
5936copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
5937into Emacs.
5938
5939** New Lisp packages include:
5940
5941*** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
5942
5943*** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
5944be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
5945
5946*** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
5947
5948*** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
5949in shell buffers.
5950
5951*** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
5952See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
5953and `elint-defun'.
5954
5955*** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
5956meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
5957ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
5958strings or comments.
5959
5960These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
5961abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
5962you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
5963insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
5964at these points.
5965
5966*** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
5967can visit them by short forms of their names.
5968
5969*** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
5970Emacs Lisp function at point.
5971
5972*** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
5973
5974*** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
5975switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
5976
5977*** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
5978
5979*** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
5980
5981*** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
5982
5983*** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
5984from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
5985
5986*** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
5987You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
5988inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
5989original place after inserting the copy.
5990
5991*** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
5992on the buffer.
5993
5994You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
5995velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
5996(with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
5997
5998Enable mouse-drag with:
5999 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
6000-or-
6001 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
6002
6003*** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
6004mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
6005
6006*** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
6007It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
6008
6009*** ogonek
6010
6011The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
6012Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
6013platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
6014TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
6015ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
6016prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
6017instance) and vice versa.
6018
6019To use this package load it using
6020 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
6021Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
79214ddf 6022 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
a933dad1
DL
6023 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
6024The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
6025ways of customization in `.emacs'.
6026
6027*** Interface to ph.
6028
6029Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
6030
6031The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
6032services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
6033these servers.
6034
6035*** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
6036
6037*** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
6038You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
6039while the real cursor does not move.
6040
6041*** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
6042for visiting your favorite web sites.
6043
6044*** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
6045so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
6046
6047** movemail change
6048
6049Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
6050mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
6051supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
6052user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
6053
6054This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
6055\f
6056* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
6057
6058** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
6059
6060Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
6061end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
6062Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
6063file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
6064file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
6065
6066To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
6067C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
6068coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
6069specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
6070LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
6071save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
6072\f
6073* Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
6074
6075** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
6076Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
6077vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
6078Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
6079
6080** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
6081to start with w32- instead of win32-.
6082
6083In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
6084don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
6085"win".
6086
6087** Basic Lisp changes
6088
6089*** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
6090evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
6091
6092*** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
6093be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
6094or by the user.
6095
6096The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
6097
6098*** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
6099
6100(when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
6101(unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
6102
6103*** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
6104usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
6105its argument.
6106
6107*** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
6108
6109*** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
6110
6111*** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
6112
6113*** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
6114error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
6115include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
6116`format' function.
6117
6118*** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
6119or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
6120whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
6121
6122*** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
6123either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
6124adding one of these suffixes.
6125
6126*** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
6127which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
79214ddf 6128If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
a933dad1
DL
6129
6130We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
6131because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
6132
6133*** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
6134
6135*** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
6136You must load the `cl' library to define it.
6137
6138*** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
6139conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
6140
6141 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
6142
6143BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
6144BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
6145
6146*** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
6147choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
6148restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
6149works using `save-current-buffer'.
6150
6151*** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
6152write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
6153of the last form.
6154
6155*** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
6156which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
6157last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
6158as the last form.
6159
6160*** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
6161characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
6162matches.
6163
6164For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
6165
6166*** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
6167with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
6168Then it returns that string.
6169
6170For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
6171
6172(with-output-to-string
6173 (princ "The buffer is ")
6174 (princ (buffer-name)))
6175
6176returns "The buffer is foo".
6177
6178** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
6179is non-nil.
6180
6181These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
6182buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
6183characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
6184
6185*** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
6186a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
6187
6188Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
6189character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
6190Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
6191position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
6192characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
6193 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
6194
6195ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
6196Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
6197non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
6198characters".
6199
6200The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
6201through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
6202"leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
6203range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
6204leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
6205
6206*** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
6207(forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
6208multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
6209character, which may be more than one buffer position.
6210
6211This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
6212always one buffer position, need to be changed.
6213
6214However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
79214ddf 6215
a933dad1
DL
6216*** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
6217because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
6218have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
6219the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
6220guaranteed.
6221
6222*** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
6223between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
6224character).
6225
6226When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
6227
6228 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
6229 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
6230 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
6231 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
6232 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
6233
6234*** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
6235
6236*** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
6237`length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
6238more than the number of characters.
6239
6240You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
6241it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
6242\xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
6243is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
6244follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
6245newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
6246
6247*** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
6248and returns a string containing those characters.
6249
6250*** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
6251(sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
6252counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
6253character, sref signals an error.
6254
6255*** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
6256in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
6257string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
6258
6259*** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
6260in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
6261region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
6262
6263*** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
6264the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
6265to a vector of the characters in it.
6266
6267*** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
6268of a string. You call it as follows:
6269
6270 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
6271
6272This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
6273STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
6274This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
6275Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
6276it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
6277
6278*** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
6279if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
6280
6281*** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
6282if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
6283
6284*** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
6285to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
6286not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
6287which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
6288
6289(truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
6290
6291This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
6292
6293The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
6294If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
6295are not included in the resulting value.
6296
6297The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
6298at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
6299WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
6300is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
6301
6302If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
6303place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
6304character extends across that column), then the padding character
6305PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
6306string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
6307column START-COLUMN.
6308
6309*** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
6310the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
6311necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
6312difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
6313changed text, before the change.
6314
6315*** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
6316sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
6317one character set for each script, not for each language.
6318
6319**** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
6320
6321**** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
6322
6323**** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
6324set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
6325
6326**** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
6327name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
6328which identify the character within that character set.
6329
6330**** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
6331byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
6332opposite of split-char.
6333
6334**** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
6335of all the characters between BEG and END.
6336
6337**** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
6338of all the characters in a string.
6339
6340*** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
6341and specifying coding systems.
6342
6343**** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
6344system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
6345of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
6346(Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
6347and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
6348as what to do about code conversion.)
6349
6350**** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
6351name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
6352
6353**** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
6354for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
6355except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
6356
6357Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
6358which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
6359to match against a file name.
6360
6361VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
6362a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
6363decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
6364to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
6365systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
6366specifies the coding system for encoding.
6367
6368If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
6369or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
6370
6371**** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
6372the coding system to use for network sockets.
6373
6374Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
6375which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
6376either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
6377service names.
6378
6379VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
6380a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
6381decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
6382to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
6383systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
6384specifies the coding system for encoding.
6385
6386If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
6387or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
6388
6389**** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
6390for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
6391except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
6392start the subprocess.
6393
6394**** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
6395systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
6396when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
6397(OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
6398to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
6399
6400**** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
6401coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
6402subprocess.
6403
6404It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
6405but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
6406start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
6407connection permanently or until overridden.
6408
6409The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
6410file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
6411network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
6412coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
6413It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
6414system for one operation at a time.
6415
6416**** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
6417files, subprocesses or network connections.
6418
6419**** The function process-coding-system tells you what
6420coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
6421The value is a cons cell,
6422 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
6423where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
6424the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
6425input to the subprocess.
6426
6427**** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
6428change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
6429
6430** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
6431customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
6432you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
6433
6434You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
6435variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
6436information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
6437legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
6438customization.
6439
6440Thus, instead of writing
6441
6442 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
6443 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
6444
6445you would now write this:
6446
6447 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
6448 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
6449 :type 'boolean
6450 :group foo)
6451
6452The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
6453two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
6454describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
6455for a description of them.
6456
6457The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
6458should belong to. You define a new group like this:
6459
6460 (defgroup ispell nil
6461 "Spell checking using Ispell."
6462 :group 'processes)
6463
6464The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
6465group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
6466but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
6467to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
6468second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
6469
6470Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
6471package should have just one group; a more complex package should
6472have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
6473package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
6474first-level subgroups.
6475
6476** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
6477
6478This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
6479separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
6480
6481** easy-mmode
6482
6483The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
6484developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
6485only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
6486predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
6487`easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
6488`easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
6489
6490** Text property changes
6491
6492*** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
6493text property.
6494
6495*** The new functions next-char-property-change and
6496previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
6497place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
6498functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
6499starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
6500
6501If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
6502LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
6503of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
6504position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
6505
6506*** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
6507value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
6508is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
6509
6510** Changes in invisibility features
6511
6512*** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
6513hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
6514is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
6515should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
6516would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
6517make the overlay visible.
6518
6519During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
6520invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
6521needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
6522which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
6523the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
6524t when it should hide it.
6525
6526*** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
6527
6528Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
79214ddf
FP
6529invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
6530and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
a933dad1 6531Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
79214ddf 6532manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
a933dad1
DL
6533Here is an example of how to do this:
6534
6535 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
79214ddf 6536 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
a933dad1 6537 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
79214ddf 6538 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
a933dad1
DL
6539
6540 ...
6541 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
6542
6543 ...
6544 ;; When done with the overlays:
6545 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
6546 ;; Or respectively:
6547 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
6548
6549** Changes in syntax parsing.
6550
6551*** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
6552`parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
6553obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
6554`parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
6555
6556If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
6557is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
6558used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
6559
6560When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
6561character in the buffer is calculated thus:
6562
6563 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
6564 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
6565
6566 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
6567 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
6568 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
6569
6570 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
6571 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
6572 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
6573 determine the syntax type of the character.
6574
6575 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
6576 of the current buffer.
6577
6578*** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
6579value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
6580for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
6581
6582*** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
6583and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
6584only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
6585character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
6586another character with the same code (unless quoted).
6587
6588These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
6589text property.
6590
6591*** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
6592arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
6593of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
6594
6595*** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
6596(and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
6597element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
6598nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
6599string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
6600
6601*** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
6602syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
6603`font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
6604
6605** Changes in face features
6606
6607*** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
6608if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
6609
6610*** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
6611of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
6612
6613*** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
6614set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
6615
6616*** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
6617set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
6618
6619*** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
6620by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
6621and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
6622the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
6623overlay property).
6624
6625This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
6626arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
6627
6628** Changes in file-handling functions
6629
6630*** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
6631directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
6632they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
6633is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
6634
6635This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
6636begins with ~.
6637
6638*** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
6639it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
6640
6641*** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
6642the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
6643
6644*** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
6645as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
6646
6647*** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
6648character code conversion as well as other things.
6649
6650Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
6651(formerly it did not).
6652
6653*** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
6654environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
6655
6656*** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
6657instead of constant strings.
6658
6659*** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
6660to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
6661any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
6662
6663substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
6664in the same way as before.
6665
6666*** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
6667The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
6668which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
6669
6670*** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
6671error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
6672else, and returns nil.
6673
6674*** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
6675directory cannot be listed.
6676
6677** Changes in minibuffer input
6678
6679*** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
6680read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
6681additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
6682argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
6683ways:
6684
6685 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
6686 It is available through the history command M-n.
6687
6688*** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
6689read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
6690argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
6691minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
6692enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
6693
6694In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
6695argument in this way.
6696
6697*** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
6698from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
6699minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
6700
6701** Echo area features
6702
6703*** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
6704echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
6705minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
6706after the echo area is cleared.
6707
6708*** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
6709in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
6710
6711** Keyboard input features
6712
6713*** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
6714set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
6715
6716*** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
6717received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
6718by keyboard macros.
6719
6720** Frame-related changes
6721
6722*** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
6723creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
6724hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
6725
6726*** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
6727the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
6728has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
6729
6730*** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
6731selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
6732value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
6733in the selected frame.
6734
6735*** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
6736is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
6737which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
6738
6739** X Windows features
6740
6741*** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
6742x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
6743x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
6744
6745*** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
6746The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
6747
6748*** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
6749MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
6750A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
6751
6752If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
6753it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
6754
6755** Subprocess features
6756
6757*** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
6758functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
6759automatically.
6760
6761*** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
6762and returns the output from the command as a string.
6763
6764*** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
6765and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
6766
6767** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
6768does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
6769
6770** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
6771at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
6772goes after the other menu items.
6773
6774** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
79214ddf 6775of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
a933dad1
DL
6776around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
6777are in use.
6778
6779The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
6780series of several changes--if that seems safe.
6781
6782Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
6783after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
6784form.
6785
6786** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
6787is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
6788but its hook is still run.
6789
6790** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
6791for errors that are handled by condition-case.
6792
6793If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
6794regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
6795useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
6796
6797This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
6798are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
6799filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
6800warned.
6801
6802** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
6803way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
6804
6805** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
6806integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
6807functions like display-time.
6808
6809** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
6810name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
6811
6812** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
6813can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
6814is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
6815
6816** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
6817if there is an error in compilation.
6818
6819** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
6820switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
6821argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
6822they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
6823
6824** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
6825Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
6826the *scratch* buffer.
6827
6828** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
6829The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
6830where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
6831e.g., in Font Lock mode.
6832
6833** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
6834and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
6835It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
6836
6837** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
6838using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
6839variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
6840and compose-mail-other-frame.
6841
6842** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
6843can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
6844full name of the specified user will be returned.
6845
6846** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
6847of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
6848where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
6849in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
6850option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
6851files at all.
6852
6853** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
6854and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
6855width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
6856the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
6857
6858For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
6859minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
6860with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
6861is how %S normally pads to two positions.
6862
6863** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
6864
6865** imenu.el changes.
6866
6867You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
79214ddf 6868item from menu created by imenu.
a933dad1
DL
6869
6870An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
6871#include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
6872select one of those items.
6873\f
6874* Emacs 19.34 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
6875\f
6876* Changes in Emacs 19.33.
6877
6878** Bibtex mode no longer turns on Auto Fill automatically. (No major
6879mode should do that--it is the user's choice.)
6880
6881** The variable normal-auto-fill-function specifies the function to
6882use for auto-fill-function, if and when Auto Fill is turned on.
6883Major modes can set this locally to alter how Auto Fill works.
6884\f
6885* Editing Changes in Emacs 19.32
6886
6887** C-x f with no argument now signals an error.
6888To set the fill column at the current column, use C-u C-x f.
6889
6890** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
6891conversion. If you type the abbreviation with mixed case, and it
6892matches the beginning of the expansion including case, then the
6893expansion is copied verbatim. Using SPC M-/ to copy an additional
6894word always copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is
6895all caps.
6896
6897** On a non-windowing terminal, which can display only one Emacs frame
6898at a time, creating a new frame with C-x 5 2 also selects that frame.
6899
6900When using a display that can show multiple frames at once, C-x 5 2
6901does make the frame visible, but does not select it. This is the same
6902as in previous Emacs versions.
6903
6904** You can use C-x 5 2 to create multiple frames on MSDOS, just as on a
6905non-X terminal on Unix. Of course, only one frame is visible at any
6906time, since your terminal doesn't have the ability to display multiple
6907frames.
6908
6909** On Windows, set win32-pass-alt-to-system to a non-nil value
6910if you would like tapping the Alt key to invoke the Windows menu.
6911This feature is not enabled by default; since the Alt key is also the
6912Meta key, it is too easy and painful to activate this feature by
6913accident.
6914
6915** The command apply-macro-to-region-lines repeats the last defined
6916keyboard macro once for each complete line within the current region.
6917It does this line by line, by moving point to the beginning of that
6918line and then executing the macro.
6919
6920This command is not new, but was never documented before.
6921
6922** You can now use Mouse-1 to place the region around a string constant
6923(something surrounded by doublequote characters or other delimiter
6924characters of like syntax) by double-clicking on one of the delimiting
6925characters.
6926
6927** Font Lock mode
6928
6929*** Font Lock support modes
6930
6931Font Lock can be configured to use Fast Lock mode and Lazy Lock mode (see
6932below) in a flexible way. Rather than adding the appropriate function to the
6933hook font-lock-mode-hook, you can use the new variable font-lock-support-mode
6934to control which modes have Fast Lock mode or Lazy Lock mode turned on when
6935Font Lock mode is enabled.
6936
6937For example, to use Fast Lock mode when Font Lock mode is turned on, put:
6938
6939 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'fast-lock-mode)
6940
6941in your ~/.emacs.
6942
6943*** lazy-lock
6944
6945The lazy-lock package speeds up Font Lock mode by making fontification occur
6946only when necessary, such as when a previously unfontified part of the buffer
6947becomes visible in a window. When you create a buffer with Font Lock mode and
6948Lazy Lock mode turned on, the buffer is not fontified. When certain events
6949occur (such as scrolling), Lazy Lock makes sure that the visible parts of the
6950buffer are fontified. Lazy Lock also defers on-the-fly fontification until
6951Emacs has been idle for a given amount of time.
6952
6953To use this package, put in your ~/.emacs:
6954
6955 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'lazy-lock-mode)
6956
6957To control the package behaviour, see the documentation for `lazy-lock-mode'.
6958
6959** Changes in BibTeX mode.
6960
6961*** For all entries allow spaces and tabs between opening brace or
6962paren and key.
6963
6964*** Non-escaped double-quoted characters (as in `Sch"of') are now
6965supported.
6966
6967** Gnus changes.
6968
6969Gnus, the Emacs news reader, has undergone further rewriting. Many new
6970commands and variables have been added. There should be no
6971significant incompatibilities between this Gnus version and the
6972previously released version, except in the message composition area.
6973
6974Below is a list of the more user-visible changes. Coding changes
6975between Gnus 5.1 and 5.2 are more extensive.
6976
79214ddf 6977*** A new message composition mode is used. All old customization
a933dad1
DL
6978variables for mail-mode, rnews-reply-mode and gnus-msg are now
6979obsolete.
6980
6981*** Gnus is now able to generate "sparse" threads -- threads where
6982missing articles are represented by empty nodes.
6983
6984 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
6985
6986*** Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server.
6987
6988 To disable this: (setq gnus-message-archive-group nil)
6989
6990*** Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
79214ddf 6991referred.
a933dad1
DL
6992
6993*** Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions:
6994
6995 (setq gnus-use-grouplens t)
6996
6997*** A trn-line tree buffer can be displayed.
6998
6999 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
7000
7001*** An nn-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
79214ddf 7002buffers.
a933dad1
DL
7003
7004 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
7005
7006*** In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode:
7007
7008 `M-x gnus-binary-mode'
7009
7010*** Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy.
7011
7012 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
7013
7014*** Gnus can re-send and bounce mail.
7015
7016 Use the `S D r' and `S D b'.
7017
7018*** Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
7019is possible.
7020
7021 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
7022
7023*** Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
7024groups of groups.
7025
7026*** Caching is possible in virtual groups.
7027
7028*** nndoc now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews news
79214ddf 7029batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything else.
a933dad1
DL
7030
7031*** Gnus has a new backend (nnsoup) to create/read SOUP packets.
7032
7033*** The Gnus cache is much faster.
7034
7035*** Groups can be sorted according to many criteria.
7036
7037 For instance: (setq gnus-group-sort-function 'gnus-group-sort-by-rank)
7038
7039*** New group parameters have been introduced to set list-address and
7040expiration times.
7041
7042*** All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used.
7043
7044*** There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on
7045process marked articles on the `M P' submap.
7046
7047*** The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
7048articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
7049bound to keys on the `/' submap.
7050
7051*** Articles can be made persistent -- as an alternative to saving
7052articles with the `*' command.
7053
7054*** All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
7055
7056*** Article headers can be buttonized.
7057
7058 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head)
7059
7060*** All mail backends support fetching articles by Message-ID.
7061
79214ddf 7062*** Duplicate mail can now be treated properly. See the
a933dad1
DL
7063`nnmail-treat-duplicates' variable.
7064
7065*** All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
79214ddf 7066buffer.
a933dad1
DL
7067
7068*** Frames can be part of `gnus-buffer-configuration'.
7069
7070*** Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process.
7071
7072*** Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to filter spam.
7073
7074 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
7075
79214ddf 7076*** Groups can be made permanently visible.
a933dad1
DL
7077
7078 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
7079
79214ddf 7080*** Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
a933dad1
DL
7081
7082*** Gnus respects the Mail-Copies-To header.
7083
79214ddf 7084*** Threads can be gathered by looking at the References header.
a933dad1 7085
79214ddf 7086 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
a933dad1
DL
7087 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
7088
7089*** Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
79214ddf 7090refetching.
a933dad1
DL
7091
7092 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
7093
7094*** A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
7095buffer to allow easier treatment.
7096
7097*** Gnus can suggest where to save articles. See `gnus-split-methods'.
7098
7099*** Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving.
7100
7101 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
7102
7103*** gnus-uu can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
79214ddf 7104articles.
a933dad1
DL
7105
7106 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
7107
79214ddf 7108*** Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text.
a933dad1
DL
7109
7110*** Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
7111cited text to hide is now customizable.
7112
7113 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
7114
7115*** Boring headers can be hidden.
7116
7117 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-hide-boring-headers)
7118
7119*** Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
7120
7121*** Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
7122
7123The Gnus manual has been expanded. It explains all these new features
7124in greater detail.
7125\f
7126* Lisp Changes in Emacs 19.32
7127
7128** The function set-visited-file-name now accepts an optional
7129second argument NO-QUERY. If it is non-nil, then the user is not
7130asked for confirmation in the case where the specified file already
7131exists.
7132
7133** The variable print-length applies to printing vectors and bitvectors,
7134as well as lists.
7135
7136** The new function keymap-parent returns the parent keymap
7137of a given keymap.
7138
7139** The new function set-keymap-parent specifies a new parent for a
7140given keymap. The arguments are KEYMAP and PARENT. PARENT must be a
7141keymap or nil.
7142
7143** Sometimes menu keymaps use a command name, a symbol, which is really
7144an automatically generated alias for some other command, the "real"
7145name. In such a case, you should give that alias symbol a non-nil
7146menu-alias property. That property tells the menu system to look for
7147equivalent keys for the real name instead of equivalent keys for the
7148alias.
7149\f
7150* Editing Changes in Emacs 19.31
7151
7152** Freedom of the press restricted in the United States.
7153
7154Emacs has been censored in accord with the Communications Decency Act.
7155This includes removing some features of the doctor program. That law
7156was described by its supporters as a ban on pornography, but it bans
7157far more than that. The Emacs distribution has never contained any
7158pornography, but parts of it were nonetheless prohibited.
7159
7160For information on US government censorship of the Internet, and what
7161you can do to bring back freedom of the press, see the web site
7162`http://www.vtw.org/'.
7163
7164** A note about C mode indentation customization.
7165
7166The old (Emacs 19.29) ways of specifying a C indentation style
7167do not normally work in the new implementation of C mode.
7168It has its own methods of customizing indentation, which are
7169much more powerful than the old C mode. See the Editing Programs
7170chapter of the manual for details.
7171
7172However, you can load the library cc-compat to make the old
7173customization variables take effect.
7174
7175** Marking with the mouse.
7176
7177When you mark a region with the mouse, the region now remains
7178highlighted until the next input event, regardless of whether you are
7179using M-x transient-mark-mode.
7180
7181** Improved Windows NT/95 support.
7182
7183*** Emacs now supports scroll bars on Windows NT and Windows 95.
7184
7185*** Emacs now supports subprocesses on Windows 95. (Subprocesses used
7186to work on NT only and not on 95.)
7187
7188*** There are difficulties with subprocesses, though, due to problems
7189in Windows, beyond the control of Emacs. They work fine as long as
7190you run Windows applications. The problems arise when you run a DOS
7191application in a subprocesses. Since current shells run as DOS
7192applications, these problems are significant.
7193
7194If you run a DOS application in a subprocess, then the application is
7195likely to busy-wait, which means that your machine will be 100% busy.
7196However, if you don't mind the temporary heavy load, the subprocess
7197will work OK as long as you tell it to terminate before you start any
7198other DOS application as a subprocess.
7199
7200Emacs is unable to terminate or interrupt a DOS subprocess.
7201You have to do this by providing input directly to the subprocess.
7202
7203If you run two DOS applications at the same time in two separate
7204subprocesses, even if one of them is asynchronous, you will probably
7205have to reboot your machine--until then, it will remain 100% busy.
7206Windows simply does not cope when one Windows process tries to run two
7207separate DOS subprocesses. Typing CTL-ALT-DEL and then choosing
7208Shutdown seems to work although it may take a few minutes.
7209
7210** M-x resize-minibuffer-mode.
7211
7212This command, not previously mentioned in NEWS, toggles a mode in
7213which the minibuffer window expands to show as many lines as the
7214minibuffer contains.
7215
7216** `title' frame parameter and resource.
7217
7218The `title' X resource now specifies just the frame title, nothing else.
7219It does not affect the name used for looking up other X resources.
7220It works by setting the new `title' frame parameter, which likewise
7221affects just the displayed title of the frame.
7222
7223The `name' parameter continues to do what it used to do:
7224it specifies the frame name for looking up X resources,
7225and also serves as the default for the displayed title
7226when the `title' parameter is unspecified or nil.
7227
7228** Emacs now uses the X toolkit by default, if you have a new
7229enough version of X installed (X11R5 or newer).
7230
7231** When you compile Emacs with the Motif widget set, Motif handles the
7232F10 key by activating the menu bar. To avoid confusion, the usual
7233Emacs binding of F10 is replaced with a no-op when using Motif.
7234
7235If you want to be able to use F10 in Emacs, you can rebind the Motif
7236menubar to some other key which you don't use. To do so, add
7237something like this to your X resources file. This example rebinds
7238the Motif menu bar activation key to S-F12:
7239
7240 Emacs*defaultVirtualBindings: osfMenuBar : Shift<Key>F12
7241
7242** In overwrite mode, DEL now inserts spaces in most cases
7243to replace the characters it "deletes".
7244
7245** The Rmail summary now shows the number of lines in each message.
7246
7247** Rmail has a new command M-x unforward-rmail-message, which extracts
7248a forwarded message from the message that forwarded it. To use it,
7249select a message which contains a forwarded message and then type the command.
7250It inserts the forwarded message as a separate Rmail message
7251immediately after the selected one.
7252
7253This command also undoes the textual modifications that are standardly
7254made, as part of forwarding, by Rmail and other mail reader programs.
7255
7256** Turning off saving of .saves-... files in your home directory.
7257
7258Each Emacs session writes a file named .saves-... in your home
7259directory to record which files M-x recover-session should recover.
7260If you exit Emacs normally with C-x C-c, it deletes that file. If
7261Emacs or the operating system crashes, the file remains for M-x
7262recover-session.
7263
7264You can turn off the writing of these files by setting
7265auto-save-list-file-name to nil. If you do this, M-x recover-session
7266will not work.
7267
7268Some previous Emacs versions failed to delete these files even on
7269normal exit. This is fixed now. If you are thinking of turning off
7270this feature because of past experiences with versions that had this
7271bug, it would make sense to check whether you still want to do so
7272now that the bug is fixed.
7273
7274** Changes to Version Control (VC)
7275
7276There is a new variable, vc-follow-symlinks. It indicates what to do
7277when you visit a link to a file that is under version control.
7278Editing the file through the link bypasses the version control system,
7279which is dangerous and probably not what you want.
7280
7281If this variable is t, VC follows the link and visits the real file,
7282telling you about it in the echo area. If it is `ask' (the default),
7283VC asks for confirmation whether it should follow the link. If nil,
7284the link is visited and a warning displayed.
7285
7286** iso-acc.el now lets you specify a choice of language.
7287Languages include "latin-1" (the default) and "latin-2" (which
7288is designed for entering ISO Latin-2 characters).
7289
7290There are also choices for specific human languages such as French and
7291Portuguese. These are subsets of Latin-1, which differ in that they
7292enable only the accent characters needed for particular language.
7293The other accent characters, not needed for the chosen language,
7294remain normal.
7295
7296** Posting articles and sending mail now has M-TAB completion on various
7297header fields (Newsgroups, To, CC, ...).
7298
7299Completion in the Newsgroups header depends on the list of groups
7300known to your news reader. Completion in the Followup-To header
7301offers those groups which are in the Newsgroups header, since
7302Followup-To usually just holds one of those.
7303
7304Completion in fields that hold mail addresses works based on the list
7305of local users plus your aliases. Additionally, if your site provides
7306a mail directory or a specific host to use for any unrecognized user
7307name, you can arrange to query that host for completion also. (See the
7308documentation of variables `mail-directory-process' and
7309`mail-directory-stream'.)
7310
7311** A greatly extended sgml-mode offers new features such as (to be configured)
7312skeletons with completing read for tags and attributes, typing named
7313characters including optionally all 8bit characters, making tags invisible
7314with optional alternate display text, skipping and deleting tag(pair)s.
7315
7316Note: since Emacs' syntax feature cannot limit the special meaning of ', " and
7317- to inside <>, for some texts the result, especially of font locking, may be
7318wrong (see `sgml-specials' if you get wrong results).
7319
7320The derived html-mode configures this with tags and attributes more or
7321less HTML3ish. It also offers optional quick keys like C-c 1 for
7322headline or C-c u for unordered list (see `html-quick-keys'). Edit /
7323Text Properties / Face or M-g combinations create tags as applicable.
7324Outline minor mode is supported and level 1 font-locking tries to
7325fontify tag contents (which only works when they fit on one line, due
7326to a limitation in font-lock).
7327
7328External viewing via browse-url can occur automatically upon saving.
7329
7330** M-x imenu-add-to-menubar now adds to the menu bar for the current
7331buffer only. If you want to put an Imenu item in the menu bar for all
7332buffers that use a particular major mode, use the mode hook, as in
7333this example:
7334
7335 (add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook
7336 '(lambda () (imenu-add-to-menubar "Index")))
7337
7338** Changes in BibTeX mode.
7339
7340*** Field names may now contain digits, hyphens, and underscores.
7341
7342*** Font Lock mode is now supported.
7343
7344*** bibtex-make-optional-field is no longer interactive.
7345
7346*** If bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is non-nil, inserting new
7347entries is now done with a faster algorithm. However, inserting
7348will fail in this case if the buffer contains invalid entries or
7349isn't in sorted order, so you should finish each entry with C-c C-c
7350(bibtex-close-entry) after you have inserted or modified it.
7351The default value of bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is nil.
7352
7353*** Function `show-all' is no longer bound to a key, since C-u C-c C-q
7354does the same job.
7355
7356*** Entries with quotes inside quote-delimited fields (as `author =
7357"Stefan Sch{\"o}f"') are now supported.
7358
7359*** Case in field names doesn't matter anymore when searching for help
7360text.
7361
7362** Font Lock mode
7363
7364*** Global Font Lock mode
7365
7366Font Lock mode can be turned on globally, in buffers that support it, by the
7367new command global-font-lock-mode. You can use the new variable
7368font-lock-global-modes to control which modes have Font Lock mode automagically
7369turned on. By default, this variable is set so that Font Lock mode is turned
7370on globally where the buffer mode supports it.
7371
7372For example, to automagically turn on Font Lock mode where supported, put:
7373
7374 (global-font-lock-mode t)
7375
7376in your ~/.emacs.
7377
7378*** Local Refontification
7379
7380In Font Lock mode, editing a line automatically refontifies that line only.
7381However, if your change alters the syntactic context for following lines,
7382those lines remain incorrectly fontified. To refontify them, use the new
7383command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block).
7384
7385In certain major modes, M-g M-g refontifies the entire current function.
7386(The variable font-lock-mark-block-function controls how to find the
7387current function.) In other major modes, M-g M-g refontifies 16 lines
7388above and below point.
7389
7390With a prefix argument N, M-g M-g refontifies N lines above and below point.
7391
7392** Follow mode
7393
7394Follow mode is a new minor mode combining windows showing the same
7395buffer into one tall "virtual window". The windows are typically two
7396side-by-side windows. Follow mode makes them scroll together as if
7397they were a unit. To use it, go to a frame with just one window,
7398split it into two side-by-side windows using C-x 3, and then type M-x
7399follow-mode.
7400
7401M-x follow-mode turns off Follow mode if it is already enabled.
7402
7403To display two side-by-side windows and activate Follow mode, use the
7404command M-x follow-delete-other-windows-and-split.
7405
7406** hide-show changes.
7407
7408The hooks hs-hide-hooks and hs-show-hooks have been renamed
7409to hs-hide-hook and hs-show-hook, to follow the convention for
7410normal hooks.
7411
7412** Simula mode now has a menu containing the most important commands.
7413The new command simula-indent-exp is bound to C-M-q.
7414
7415** etags can now handle programs written in Erlang. Files are
7416recognised by the extensions .erl and .hrl. The tagged lines are
7417those that begin a function, record, or macro.
7418
7419** MSDOS Changes
7420
7421*** It is now possible to compile Emacs with the version 2 of DJGPP.
7422Compilation with DJGPP version 1 also still works.
7423
7424*** The documentation of DOS-specific aspects of Emacs was rewritten
7425and expanded; see the ``MS-DOS'' node in the on-line docs.
7426
7427*** Emacs now uses ~ for backup file names, not .bak.
7428
7429*** You can simulate mouse-3 on two-button mice by simultaneously
7430pressing both mouse buttons.
7431
7432*** A number of packages and commands which previously failed or had
7433restricted functionality on MS-DOS, now work. The most important ones
79214ddf 7434are:
a933dad1
DL
7435
7436**** Printing (both with `M-x lpr-buffer' and with `ps-print' package)
7437now works.
7438
7439**** `Ediff' works (in a single-frame mode).
7440
7441**** `M-x display-time' can be used on MS-DOS (due to the new
7442implementation of Emacs timers, see below).
7443
7444**** `Dired' supports Unix-style shell wildcards.
7445
7446**** The `c-macro-expand' command now works as on other platforms.
7447
7448**** `M-x recover-session' works.
7449
7450**** `M-x list-colors-display' displays all the available colors.
7451
7452**** The `TPU-EDT' package works.
7453\f
7454* Lisp changes in Emacs 19.31.
7455
7456** The function using-unix-filesystems on Windows NT and Windows 95
7457tells Emacs to read and write files assuming that they reside on a
7458remote Unix filesystem. No CR/LF translation is done on any files in
7459this case. Invoking using-unix-filesystems with t activates this
7460behavior, and invoking it with any other value deactivates it.
7461
7462** Change in system-type and system-configuration values.
7463
7464The value of system-type on a Linux-based GNU system is now `lignux',
7465not `linux'. This means that some programs which use `system-type'
7466need to be changed. The value of `system-configuration' will also
7467be different.
7468
7469It is generally recommended to use `system-configuration' rather
7470than `system-type'.
7471
7472See the file LINUX-GNU in this directory for more about this.
7473
7474** The functions shell-command and dired-call-process
7475now run file name handlers for default-directory, if it has them.
7476
7477** Undoing the deletion of text now restores the positions of markers
7478that pointed into or next to the deleted text.
7479
7480** Timers created with run-at-time now work internally to Emacs, and
7481no longer use a separate process. Therefore, they now work more
7482reliably and can be used for shorter time delays.
7483
7484The new function run-with-timer is a convenient way to set up a timer
7485to run a specified amount of time after the present. A call looks
7486like this:
7487
7488 (run-with-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
7489
7490SECS says how many seconds should elapse before the timer happens.
7491It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the timer
7492becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments ARGS.
7493
7494REPEAT gives the interval for repeating the timer (measured in
7495seconds). It may be an integer or a floating point number. nil or 0
7496means don't repeat at all--call FUNCTION just once.
7497
7498*** with-timeout provides an easy way to do something but give
7499up if too much time passes.
7500
7501 (with-timeout (SECONDS TIMEOUT-FORMS...) BODY...)
7502
7503This executes BODY, but gives up after SECONDS seconds.
7504If it gives up, it runs the TIMEOUT-FORMS and returns the value
7505of the last one of them. Normally it returns the value of the last
7506form in BODY.
7507
7508*** You can now arrange to call a function whenever Emacs is idle for
7509a certain length of time. To do this, call run-with-idle-timer. A
7510call looks like this:
7511
7512 (run-with-idle-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
7513
7514SECS says how many seconds of idleness should elapse before the timer
7515runs. It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the
7516timer becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments
7517ARGS.
7518
7519Emacs becomes idle whenever it finishes executing a keyboard or mouse
7520command. It remains idle until it receives another keyboard or mouse
7521command.
7522
7523REPEAT, if non-nil, means this timer should be activated again each
7524time Emacs becomes idle and remains idle for SECS seconds The timer
7525does not repeat if Emacs *remains* idle; it runs at most once after
7526each time Emacs becomes idle.
7527
7528If REPEAT is nil, the timer runs just once, the first time Emacs is
7529idle for SECS seconds.
7530
7531*** post-command-idle-hook is now obsolete; you shouldn't use it at
7532all, because it interferes with the idle timer mechanism. If your
7533programs use post-command-idle-hook, convert them to use idle timers
7534instead.
7535
7536*** y-or-n-p-with-timeout lets you ask a question but give up if
7537there is no answer within a certain time.
7538
7539 (y-or-n-p-with-timeout PROMPT SECONDS DEFAULT-VALUE)
7540
7541asks the question PROMPT (just like y-or-n-p). If the user answers
7542within SECONDS seconds, it returns the answer that the user gave.
7543Otherwise it gives up after SECONDS seconds, and returns DEFAULT-VALUE.
7544
7545** Minor change to `encode-time': you can now pass more than seven
7546arguments. If you do that, the first six arguments have the usual
7547meaning, the last argument is interpreted as the time zone, and the
7548arguments in between are ignored.
7549
7550This means that it works to use the list returned by `decode-time' as
7551the list of arguments for `encode-time'.
7552
7553** The default value of load-path now includes the directory
7554/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp In addition to
7555/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp. You can use this new directory for
7556site-specific Lisp packages that belong with a particular Emacs
7557version.
7558
7559It is not unusual for a Lisp package that works well in one Emacs
7560version to cause trouble in another. Sometimes packages need updating
7561for incompatible changes; sometimes they look at internal data that
7562has changed; sometimes the package has been installed in Emacs itself
7563and the installed version should be used. Whatever the reason for the
7564problem, this new feature makes it easier to solve.
7565
7566** When your program contains a fixed file name (like .completions or
7567.abbrev.defs), the file name usually needs to be different on operating
7568systems with limited file name syntax.
7569
7570Now you can avoid ad-hoc conditionals by using the function
7571convert-standard-filename to convert the file name to a proper form
7572for each operating system. Here is an example of use, from the file
7573completions.el:
7574
7575(defvar save-completions-file-name
7576 (convert-standard-filename "~/.completions")
7577 "*The filename to save completions to.")
7578
7579This sets the variable save-completions-file-name to a value that
7580depends on the operating system, because the definition of
7581convert-standard-filename depends on the operating system. On
7582Unix-like systems, it returns the specified file name unchanged. On
7583MS-DOS, it adapts the name to fit the limitations of that system.
7584
7585** The interactive spec N now returns the numeric prefix argument
7586rather than the raw prefix argument. (It still reads a number using the
7587minibuffer if there is no prefix argument at all.)
7588
7589** When a process is deleted, this no longer disconnects the process
7590marker from its buffer position.
7591
7592** The variable garbage-collection-messages now controls whether
7593Emacs displays a message at the beginning and end of garbage collection.
7594The default is nil, meaning there are no messages.
7595
7596** The variable debug-ignored-errors specifies certain kinds of errors
7597that should not enter the debugger. Its value is a list of error
7598condition symbols and/or regular expressions. If the error has any
7599of the condition symbols listed, or if any of the regular expressions
7600matches the error message, then that error does not enter the debugger,
7601regardless of the value of debug-on-error.
7602
7603This variable is initialized to match certain common but uninteresting
7604errors that happen often during editing.
7605
7606** The new function error-message-string converts an error datum
7607into its error message. The error datum is what condition-case
7608puts into the variable, to describe the error that happened.
7609
7610** Anything that changes which buffer appears in a given window
7611now runs the window-scroll-functions for that window.
7612
7613** The new function get-buffer-window-list returns a list of windows displaying
7614a buffer. The function is called with the buffer (a buffer object or a buffer
7615name) and two optional arguments specifying the minibuffer windows and frames
7616to search. Therefore this function takes optional args like next-window etc.,
7617and not get-buffer-window.
7618
7619** buffer-substring now runs the hook buffer-access-fontify-functions,
7620calling each function with two arguments--the range of the buffer
7621being accessed. buffer-substring-no-properties does not call them.
7622
7623If you use this feature, you should set the variable
7624buffer-access-fontified-property to a non-nil symbol, which is a
7625property name. Then, if all the characters in the buffer range have a
7626non-nil value for that property, the buffer-access-fontify-functions
7627are not called. When called, these functions should put a non-nil
7628property on the text that they fontify, so that they won't get called
7629over and over for the same text.
7630
7631** Changes in lisp-mnt.el
7632
7633*** The lisp-mnt package can now recognize file headers that are written
7634in the formats used by the `what' command and the RCS `ident' command:
7635
7636;; @(#) HEADER: text
7637;; $HEADER: text $
7638
7639in addition to the normal
7640
7641;; HEADER: text
7642
7643*** The commands lm-verify and lm-synopsis are now interactive. lm-verify
7644checks that the library file has proper sections and headers, and
7645lm-synopsis extracts first line "synopsis'"information.
7646\f
7647* For older news, see the file ONEWS.
7648
7649----------------------------------------------------------------------
7650Copyright information:
7651
404fa7d6 7652Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
a933dad1
DL
7653
7654 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
7655 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
7656 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
7657 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
7658
7659 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
7660 of this document, or of portions of it,
7661 under the above conditions, provided also that they
7662 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
7663\f
7664Local variables:
7665mode: outline
7666paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
7667end: