* lisp/emacs-lisp/helpers.el (string-empty-p): New function.
[bpt/emacs.git] / etc / NEWS
1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
5
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
8
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 24.
10
11 See files NEWS.23, NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18,
12 and NEWS.1-17 for changes in older Emacs versions.
13
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
16
17 Temporary note:
18 +++ indicates that all necessary updates to the manuals in doc/ are complete.
19 --- means no change in the manuals is needed.
20 When you add a new item, use the appropriate mark if you know it applies,
21 otherwise leave it unmarked.
22
23 \f
24 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.4
25
26 ** Emacs can be compiled with ACL support.
27 This happens by default if a suitable support library is found at
28 build time, like libacl on GNU/Linux. To prevent this, use the
29 configure option `--disable-acl'.
30
31 ** Emacs can be compiled with file notification support.
32 This happens by default if a suitable system library is found at
33 build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
34 `--with-file-notification-no'. See below for file-notify features.
35 FIXME? This feature is not available for the Nextstep port. (?)
36
37 ** The configure option `without-compress-info' has been generalized,
38 and renamed to `without-compress-install'. It now prevents compression
39 of _any_ files during installation.
40
41 ** The configure option --with-crt-dir has been removed.
42 It is no longer needed, as the crt*.o files are no longer linked
43 specially.
44
45 ** Directories passed to configure option `--enable-locallisppath' are
46 no longer created during installation.
47
48 ** Emacs can be compiled with zlib support. If this library is present
49 (which it normally is on most systems), the function
50 `zlib-decompress-region' becomes available, which can decompress gzip-
51 and zlib-format compressed data.
52
53 ---
54 ** Emacs for NS (OSX, GNUStep) can be built with ImageMagick support.
55 pkg-config is required to find ImageMagick libraries.
56
57 ** For OSX >= 10.5, the Core text based font backend from the Mac port is used.
58 For GNUStep and OSX 10.4 the old backend is used.
59 To use the old backend by default, do on the command line:
60 % defaults write org.gnu.Emacs FontBackend ns
61
62 \f
63 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.4
64
65 +++
66 ** When initializing `load-path', an empty element in the EMACSLOADPATH
67 environment variable (either leading, e.g., ":/foo"; trailing, e.g.,
68 "/foo:"; or embedded, e.g., "/foo::/bar") is replaced with the default
69 load-path (the one that would have been used if EMACSLOADPATH was unset).
70 This makes it easier to _extend_ the load-path via EMACSLOADPATH
71 (previously, EMACSLOADPATH had to specify the complete load-path,
72 including the defaults). (In older versions of Emacs, an empty element
73 was replaced by ".", so use an explicit "." now if that is what you want.)
74
75 +++
76 ** The -L option, which normally prepends its argument to load-path,
77 will instead append, if the argument begins with `:' (or `;' on MS Windows;
78 i.e., `path-separator').
79
80 \f
81 * Changes in Emacs 24.4
82
83 +++
84 ** Emacs now supports menus on text-mode terminals.
85 If the terminal supports a mouse, clicking on the menu bar, or on
86 sensitive portions of the mode line or header line, will drop down the
87 menu defined at that position. Likewise, clicking C-mouse-2 or
88 C-mouse-2 or C-mouse-3 on the text area will pop up the menus defined
89 for those locations.
90
91 If the text terminal does not support a mouse, you can activate the
92 first menu-bar menu by typing F10, which invokes `menu-bar-open'.
93
94 If you want the previous behavior, whereby F10 invoked `tmm-menubar',
95 customize the option `tty-menu-open-use-tmm' to a non-nil value.
96 (Typing M-` will always invoke `tmm-menubar', even if
97 `tty-menu-open-use-tmm' is nil.)
98
99 ** Key ? also describes prefix bindings like C-h.
100
101 +++
102 ** `cache-long-line-scans' has been renamed to `cache-long-scans'
103 because it affects caching of paragraph scanning results as well.
104
105 +++
106 ** `apropos-variable' is now `apropos-user-option'
107 `apropos-user-option' shows all user options while `apropos-variable'
108 shows all variables. When called with a universal prefix argument,
109 the two commands swap their behaviors. When `apropos-do-all' is
110 non-nil, they output the same results.
111
112 +++
113 ** `eval-defun' on an already defined defcustom calls the :set function,
114 if there is one.
115
116 ** If the new variable `enable-dir-local-variables' is nil,
117 directory local variables are ignored. May be useful for some modes
118 that want to ignore directory-locals while still respecting file-locals.
119
120 ** The option `set-mark-default-inactive' has been deleted.
121 This unfinished feature was introduced by accident in Emacs 23.1;
122 simply disabling Transient Mark mode does the same thing.
123
124 ** `initial-buffer-choice' can now specify a function to set up the
125 initial buffer.
126
127 ** The *Messages* buffer is created in a new major mode `messages-buffer-mode',
128 and read-only. Code that might create the *Messages* buffer should
129 call the function `messages-buffer' to do so and set the mode.
130
131 ** `remember-notes' creates a buffer whose content is saved on kill-emacs.
132 You may think of it as a *scratch* buffer whose content is preserved.
133 In fact, it was designed as a replacement for *scratch* buffer and can
134 be used that way by setting `initial-buffer-choice' to `remember-notes'
135 and `remember-notes-buffer-name' to "*scratch*". Without the second
136 change, *scratch* buffer will still be there for notes that do not
137 need to be preserved.
138
139 ** `write-region-inhibit-fsync' now defaults to t in batch mode.
140
141 ** ACL support has been added.
142 +++
143 *** Emacs preserves the ACL entries of files when backing up.
144 +++
145 *** New functions `file-acl' and `set-file-acl' get and set the ACL
146 entries of a file. On GNU/Linux, the POSIX ACL interface is used via
147 libacl. On MS-Windows, the NT Security APIs are used to emulate the
148 POSIX ACL interfaces.
149
150 ** New option `scroll-bar-adjust-thumb-portion'.
151 Available only on X, this option allows to control over-scrolling
152 using the scroll bar (i.e. dragging the thumb down even when the end
153 of the buffer is visible).
154
155 ** New function `add-face-text-property' has been added, which can be
156 used to conveniently prepend/append new face attributes to text.
157
158 ** In compiled Lisp files, the header no longer includes a timestamp.
159
160 ** Multi-monitor support has been added.
161
162 *** New functions `display-monitor-attributes-list' and
163 `frame-monitor-attributes' can be used to obtain information about
164 each physical monitor on multi-monitor setups.
165
166 *** The functions `display-pixel-width' and `display-pixel-height' now
167 behave consistently among the platforms: they return the pixel width
168 or height for all physical monitors associated with the given display
169 as just they were on X11. To get information for each physical
170 monitor, use the new functions above. Similar notes also apply to
171 `x-display-pixel-width', `x-display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
172 `display-mm-height', `x-display-mm-width', and `x-display-mm-height'.
173
174 ** New macro `alternatives-define' can be used to define generic commands.
175 Generic commands are interactive functions whose implementation can be
176 selected among several alternatives, as a matter of user preference.
177
178 ** New hooks `focus-in-hook', `focus-out-hook'.
179 These are normal hooks run when an Emacs frame gains or loses input focus.
180
181 ** The blink cursor stops blinking after 10 blinks (default) on X and NS.
182 You can change the default by customizing the variable blink-cursor-blinks.
183 Also timers for blinking are stopped when no blinking is done, so Emacs does
184 not consume CPU cycles.
185
186 ** New command `frameset-to-register' is now bound to `C-x r f', replacing
187 `frame-configuration-to-register'. It offers similar functionality, plus
188 some enhancements, like the ability to restore deleted frames. Command
189 `frame-configuration-to-register' is still available, but unbound.
190
191 ** The command `quail-help' is deleted. Use `C-h C-\'
192 (`describe-input-method') instead.
193
194 ** The default value of `comment-use-global-state' is changed to t,
195 and this variable has been marked obsolete.
196
197 ** `fill-single-char-nobreak-p' prevents fill from breaking a line after
198 a 1-letter word, which is an error according to Polish and
199 Czech typography rules. To globally enable this feature, evaluate:
200
201 (add-hook 'fill-nobreak-predicate 'fill-single-char-nobreak-p)
202
203 \f
204 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.4
205
206 ** Command `rectangle-mark-mode' bound to C-x SPC makes a rectangular region.
207 Most commands are still unaware of it, but kill/yank do work on the rectangle.
208
209 ** C-x TAB enters a transient interactive mode.
210 You can then use the left/right cursor keys to move the block of text.
211
212 ** `tab-stop-list' is now implicitly extended to infinity by repeating
213 the last step. Its default value is changed to nil which means a tab
214 stop every `tab-width' columns.
215
216 ** `split-window' is no longer a command, just a non-interactive function.
217 As a command it was a special case of `split-window-below', and as such
218 superfluous. After being reimplemented in Lisp, its interactive form
219 was mistakenly retained.
220
221 ** New commands `toggle-frame-fullscreen' and `toggle-frame-maximized',
222 bound to <f11> and M-<f10>, respectively.
223
224 ** In keymaps where SPC scrolls, S-SPC now scrolls in the reverse direction.
225 Eg View mode, etc.
226
227 +++
228 ** New option `visual-order-cursor-movement'.
229 If this is non-nil, cursor motion with arrow keys will follow the
230 visual order of characters on the screen: <left> always moves to the
231 left, <right> always moves to the right, disregarding the surrounding
232 bidirectional context.
233
234 ** All register commands can now show help with preview.
235
236 ** New command `kmacro-to-register' to store keyboard macros in registers.
237
238 ** Shell Script mode
239
240 *** `sh-mode' now has the mode own `add-log-current-defun-function'.
241 You can pick the name of the function and the variables with `C-x 4 a'.
242
243 \f
244 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.4
245
246 ** prolog-use-smie has been removed, along with the non-SMIE indentation code.
247
248 ** SMIE indentation can be customized via `smie-config'.
249 The customization can be guessed by Emacs by providing a sample indented
250 file and letting SMIE learn from it.
251
252 ** sh-script now uses its SMIE indentation algorithm by default.
253
254 ** The debugger's `e' command evaluates the code in the context at point.
255 This includes using the lexical environment at point, which means that
256 `e' now lets you access lexical variables as well.
257
258 ** `eshell' now supports visual subcommands and options
259 Eshell has been able to handle "visual" commands (interactive,
260 non-line oriented commands such as top that require display
261 capabilities not provided by eshell) by running them in an Emacs
262 terminal emulator. See `eshell-visual-commands'.
263
264 This feature has been extended to subcommands and options that make a
265 usually line-oriented command a visual command. Typical examples are
266 "git log" and "git <command> --help" which display their output in a
267 pager by default. See `eshell-visual-subcommands' and
268 `eshell-visual-options'.
269
270 ** If your Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support, you can use the new
271 built-in web browser `eww'.
272
273 ** `remember' can now store notes in separates files
274 You can use the new function `remember-store-in-files' within the
275 `remember-handler-functions' option.
276
277 See `remember-data-directory' and `remember-directory-file-name-format'
278 for new options related to this function.
279
280 ** More packages look for ~/.emacs.d/<foo> additionally to ~/.<foo>.
281 Affected files:
282 ~/.emacs.d/timelog replaces ~/.timelog
283 ~/.emacs.d/vip replaces ~/.vip
284 ~/.emacs.d/viper replaces ~/.viper
285 ~/.emacs.d/ido.last replaces ~/.ido.last
286 ~/.emacs.d/kkcrc replaces ~/.kkcrc
287 ~/.emacs.d/quickurls replaces ~/.quickurls
288 ~/.emacs.d/idlwave replaces ~/.idlwave
289 ~/.emacs.d/bdfcache.el replaces ~/.bdfcache.el
290 ~/.emacs.d/places replaces ~/.emacs-places
291 ~/.emacs.d/shadows replaces ~/.shadows
292 ~/.emacs.d/shadow_todo replaces ~/.shadow_todo
293 ~/.emacs.d/strokes replaces ~/.strokes
294 ~/.emacs.d/notes replaces ~/.notes
295 ~/.emacs.d/type-break replaces ~/.type-break
296 Also the following files used by the now obsolete otodo-mode.el:
297 ~/.emacs.d/todo-do replaces ~/.todo-do
298 ~/.emacs.d/todo-done replaces ~/.todo-done
299 ~/.emacs.d/todo-top replaces ~/.todo-top
300
301
302 ** Delphi mode is now called OPascal mode.
303 *** All delphi-* variables and functions have been renamed to opascal-*.
304 *** `delphi-newline-always-indents' is not supported any more.
305 Use `electric-indent-mode' instead.
306 *** `delphi-tab' is gone, replaced by `indent-for-tab-command'.
307
308 ** Eldoc Mode works properly in the minibuffer.
309
310 ** jit-lock-debug-mode lets you use the debuggers on code run via jit-lock.
311
312 ** completing-read-multiple's separator can now be a regexp.
313 The default separator is changed to allow surrounding spaces around the comma.
314
315 ** Battery
316
317 *** Battery information via the BSD `apm' utility is now supported.
318
319 ** Buffer Menu
320
321 *** `M-s a C-o' shows lines matching a regexp in marked buffers using Occur.
322
323 ** Calendar and Diary
324
325 *** New faces: `calendar-weekday-header', `calendar-weekend-header',
326 `calendar-month-header'.
327
328 *** New option `calendar-day-header-array'.
329
330 *** The variable `calendar-font-lock-keywords' is obsolete.
331
332 +++
333 *** New variable `diary-from-outlook-function', used by the command
334 `diary-from-outlook'.
335
336 ** VC and related modes
337
338 *** In VC directory mode, `D' displays diffs between VC-controlled
339 whole tree revisions.
340
341 *** In VC directory mode, `L' lists the change log for the current VC
342 controlled tree in a window.
343
344 *** In VC directory mode, `I' shows a log of changes that will be
345 received with a pull operation.
346
347 *** `C-x v G' (globally) and `G' (in VC directory mode) ignores a file
348 under current version control system. When called with a prefix
349 argument, you can remove a file from the ignored file list.
350
351 *** `cvs-append-to-ignore' has been renamed to `vc-cvs-append-to-ignore'
352 because it is moved to vc-cvs.el.
353
354 ** cl-lib
355
356 *** New macro cl-tagbody.
357
358 +++
359 *** letf is now just an alias for cl-letf.
360
361 ** Calc
362
363 *** Calc by default now uses the Gregorian calendar for all dates, and
364 uses January 1, 1 AD as its day number 1. Previously Calc used the
365 Julian calendar for dates before September 14, 1752, and it used
366 December 31, 1 BC as its day number 1; the new scheme is more
367 consistent with Calendar's calendrical system and day numbering.
368
369 *** The new variable `calc-gregorian-switch' lets you configure the
370 date when Calc switches from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar.
371 Nil, the default value, means to always use the Gregorian calendar.
372 The value (YEAR MONTH DAY) means to start using the Gregorian calendar
373 on the given date.
374
375 *** Support for ISO 8601 dates.
376
377 ** Desktop
378
379 *** `desktop-auto-save-timeout' defines the number of seconds between
380 auto-saves of the desktop.
381
382 *** `desktop-restore-frames', enabled by default, allows saving and
383 restoring the frame/window configuration (frameset). Additional options
384 `desktop-restore-in-current-display', `desktop-restore-reuses-frames'
385 and `desktop-restore-forces-onscreen' offer further customization.
386
387 ** Dired
388
389 *** New minor mode `dired-hide-details-mode' hides details.
390
391 ** ERC
392
393 *** New option `erc-accidental-paste-threshold-seconds'.
394 If set to a number, this can be used to avoid accidentally paste large
395 amounts of data into the ERC input.
396
397 ** EPA
398
399 *** New option `epa-mail-aliases'.
400
401 You can set this to a list of alias expansions for keys to use
402 in `epa-mail-encrypt'.
403
404 If one element of the variable's value is ("foo@bar.com" "foo@hello.org"),
405 that means: when one of the recipients of the message being encrypted
406 is `foo@bar.com', encrypt the message for `foo@hello.org' instead.
407
408 If one element of the variable's value is ("foo@bar.com"),
409 that means: when one of the recipients of the message being encrypted
410 is `foo@bar.com', ignore that name as regards encryption.
411 This is useful to avoid a query when you have no key for that name.
412
413 ---
414 ** New F90 mode option `f90-smart-end-names'.
415
416 ** Icomplete is a bit more like Ido.
417 *** key bindings to navigate through and select the completions.
418 *** The icomplete-separator is customizable, and its default has changed.
419 *** Removed icomplete-show-key-bindings.
420 *** Icomplete-mode by defaults applies to all forms of minibuffer completion.
421 (setq icomplete-with-completion-tables '(internal-complete-buffer))
422 will revert to the old behavior.
423
424
425 ** New features for Octave mode:
426 *** Font locking for texinfo comments and new keywords
427 *** Completion in Octave file buffers
428 *** Eldoc support
429 *** Jump to definition
430 *** Documentation lookup/search
431 *** Code cleanup and various bug fixes
432
433 ** Ido
434 *** Ido has a manual now.
435 *** `ido-use-virtual-buffers' takes a new value 'auto.
436 *** `ido-decorations' has been slightly extended to give a bit more control.
437
438 ** Image mode
439
440 *** New commands `n' (`image-next-file') and `p' (`image-previous-file')
441 visit the next image file and the previous image file in the same
442 directory, respectively.
443
444 *** New commands to show specific frames of multi-frame images.
445 `f' (`image-next-frame') and `b' (`image-previous-frame') visit the
446 next or previous frame. `F' (`image-goto-frame') shows a specific frame.
447
448 *** New commands to speed up, slow down, or reverse animation.
449
450 ---
451 *** The command `image-mode-fit-frame' deletes other windows.
452 When toggling, it restores the frame's previous window configuration.
453 It also has an optional frame argument, which can be used by Lisp
454 callers to fit the image to a frame other than the selected frame.
455
456 ** Info
457
458 *** New face `info-index-match' is used to highlight matches in index
459 entries displayed by `Info-index-next', `Info-virtual-index' and
460 `info-apropos'.
461
462 ** Hi-Lock
463
464 *** New option `hi-lock-auto-select-face'. When non-nil, hi-lock commands
465 will cycle through faces in `hi-lock-face-defaults' without prompting.
466
467 +++
468 *** New global command `M-s h .' (`highlight-symbol-at-point')
469 highlights the symbol found near point without prompting,
470 using the next face automatically.
471
472 ** Search and Replace
473
474 *** New global command `M-s .' (`isearch-forward-symbol-at-point')
475 starts a symbol (identifier) incremental search forward with the
476 symbol found near point added to the search string initially.
477
478 *** `C-x 8 RET' in Isearch mode reads a character by its Unicode name
479 and adds it to the search string.
480
481 *** `M-s i' in Isearch mode toggles the variable `isearch-invisible'
482 between nil and the value of the option `search-invisible' (or `open'
483 when it's nil).
484
485 *** `query-replace' skips invisible text when `search-invisible' is nil,
486 and opens overlays with hidden text when `search-invisible' is `open'.
487
488 +++
489 *** By default, prefix arguments do not now terminate Isearch mode.
490 Set `isearch-allow-prefix' to nil to restore old behavior.
491
492 *** More Isearch commands accept prefix arguments, namely
493 `isearch-printing-char', `isearch-quote-char', `isearch-yank-word',
494 `isearch-yank-line'.
495
496 *** Word search now matches whitespace at the beginning/end
497 of the search string if it contains leading/trailing whitespace.
498 In an incremental word search or when using a non-nil LAX argument
499 of `word-search-regexp', the lax matching can also match part of
500 the first word (in addition to the lax matching of the last word).
501 The same rules are now applied to the symbol search with the difference
502 that it matches symbols, and non-symbol characters between symbols.
503
504 ** MH-E has been updated to MH-E version 8.5.
505 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
506
507 ---
508 ** The unrmail command converts from BABYL to mboxrd rather than mboxo.
509 Customize `unrmail-mbox-format' to change this.
510
511 ---
512 ** Similarly, customize `rmail-mbox-format' to influence some minor aspects
513 of how Rmail displays non-MIME messages.
514
515 +++
516 ** New function `ses-rename-cell' to give SES cells arbitrary names.
517
518 ** trace-function was largely rewritten.
519 New features include:
520 - no prompting for the destination buffer, unless a prefix-arg was used.
521 - additionally to prompting for a destination buffer, when a prefix-arg is
522 used, the user can enter a "context", i.e. Lisp expression whose value at the
523 time the function is entered/exited will be printed along with the function
524 name and arguments. Useful to trace the value of (current-buffer) or
525 (point) when the function is invoked.
526
527 ** New command `delete-duplicate-lines' has new types of operation:
528 When its arg ADJACENT is non-nil (when called interactively with C-u C-u)
529 it works like the utility `uniq'. Otherwise by default it deletes
530 duplicate lines everywhere in the region without regard to adjacency.
531 When its arg KEEP-BLANKS is non-nil (when called interactively with
532 C-u C-u C-u), duplicate blank lines are preserved.
533
534 ** New `cycle-spacing' command allows cycling between having just one
535 space, no spaces, or reverting to the original spacing. Like
536 `just-one-space' command it can handle or ignore newlines and
537 leave different number of spaces.
538
539 ** Todo mode has been rewritten and enhanced.
540 New features include:
541 - support for multiple todo files and archive files of done items;
542 - renaming, reordering, moving, merging, and deleting categories;
543 - sortable tabular summaries of categories and the types of items they contain;
544 - cross-category lists of items filtered by specific criteria;
545 - more fine-grained interaction with the Emacs diary, by being able to decide
546 for each todo item whether it appears in the Fancy Diary display;
547 - highly flexible new item insertion and item editing;
548 - moving items between categories, storing done items in their category or in
549 archive files, undoing or unarchiving done items;
550 - reprioritizing items by inputting a numerical priority;
551 - extensive customizability of operation and display, including numerous faces.
552 The Todo mode user manual describes all commands and most user options.
553 To support some of these features, a new file format is used, which is
554 incompatible with the old format; however, you can convert old todo and done
555 item files to the new format on initializing the first new todo file, or at any
556 later time with the provided conversion command. The old version of
557 todo-mode.el has been made obsolete and renamed otodo-mode.el.
558
559 ** Tramp
560
561 *** The experimental url syntax for remote file names is withdrawn.
562
563 +++
564 *** New connection method "adb", which allows to access Android
565 devices by the Android Debug Bridge. The variable `tramp-adb-program'
566 can be used to adapt the path of the "adb" program, if needed.
567
568 *** The connection methods "plink1", "ssh1", "ssh2", "scp1", "scp2",
569 "scpc" and "rsyncc" are discontinued. The ssh option
570 "ControlMaster=auto" is set automatically in all ssh-based methods,
571 when possible.
572
573 +++
574 *** Handlers for `file-acl' and `set-file-acl' for remote machines
575 which support POSIX ACLs.
576
577 +++
578 *** Handlers for `file-notify-add-watch' and `file-notify-rm-watch'
579 for remote machines which support filesystem notifications.
580
581 ** VHDL mode
582
583 *** New options: `vhdl-actual-generic-name', `vhdl-beautify-options'.
584
585 *** New commands: `vhdl-fix-statement-region', `vhdl-fix-statement-buffer'.
586
587 ** Woman
588
589 *** The commands `woman-default-faces' and `woman-monochrome-faces'
590 are obsolete. Customize the `woman-*' faces instead.
591
592 ** Eshell
593
594 *** Added Eshell-Tramp module
595 External su and sudo commands are now the default; the internal,
596 Tramp-using variants can still be used by enabling the eshell-tramp
597 module.
598
599 ** Package
600
601 *** The format of `archive-contents' files, generated by package
602 repositories, has changed to allow a new (fifth) element in the data
603 vectors, containing an associative list with extra properties.
604
605 *** `describe-package' buffer uses the `:url' extra property to
606 display a `Homepage' header, if it's present.
607
608 ** New term.el option `term-suppress-hard-newline'.
609
610 ** Obsolete packages:
611
612 *** Iswitchb is made obsolete by icomplete-mode.
613
614 *** longlines.el is obsolete; use visual-line-mode instead.
615
616 +++
617 *** sup-mouse.el.
618
619 *** terminal.el is obsolete; use term.el instead.
620
621 *** The previous version of todo-mode.el is obsolete and renamed otodo-mode.el.
622
623 *** xesam.el.
624
625 +++
626 *** yow.el is obsolete; use fortune.el or cookie1.el instead.
627
628 ---
629 *** The Info-edit command is obsolete. Editing Info nodes by hand
630 has not been relevant for some time.
631
632 ** Shell
633
634 *** `explicit-bash-args' now always defaults to use --noediting.
635 During initialization, Emacs no longer expends a process to decide
636 whether it is safe to use Bash's --noediting option. These days
637 --noediting is ubiquitous; it was introduced in 1996 in Bash version 2.
638
639 +++
640 ** There is a new macro `skip-unless' for skipping ERT tests. See the manual.
641
642 ** Imenu
643
644 *** New option `imenu-generic-skip-comments-and-strings'.
645
646 ** Ruby mode
647
648 *** New option `ruby-encoding-magic-comment-style'.
649
650 *** New option `ruby-custom-encoding-magic-comment-template'.
651
652 *** New mode menu.
653
654 *** Improved syntax highlighting and indentation.
655
656 *** Add more Ruby file types to `auto-mode-alist'.
657
658 \f
659 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.4
660
661 ** New `superword-mode' in subword.el
662 `superword-mode' overrides the default word motion commands to treat
663 symbol_words as a single word, similar to what `subword-mode' does and
664 using the same internal functions.
665
666 ** New nadvice.el package offering lighter-weight advice facilities.
667 It is layered as:
668 - add-function/remove-function which can be used to add/remove code on any
669 function-carrying place, such as process-filters or `<foo>-function' hooks.
670 - advice-add/advice-remove to add/remove a piece of advice on a named function,
671 much like `defadvice' does.
672
673 ** New frameset.el package.
674 It provides a set of operations to save a frameset (the state of all
675 or a subset of the existing frames and windows, somewhat similar to a
676 frame configuration), both in-session and persistently, and restore it
677 at some point in the future.
678
679 +++
680 ** The package filenotify.el provides an interface for file system
681 notifications. It requires, that Emacs is compiled with one of the
682 low-level libraries gfilenotify.c, inotify.c or w32notify.c.
683
684 \f
685 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.4
686
687 ** `kill-region' lost its `yank-handler' optional argument.
688
689 ** `(input-pending-p)' no longer runs other timers which are ready to
690 run. The new optional CHECK-TIMERS param allows for the prior behavior.
691
692 ** `defvar' and `defcustom' in a let-binding affect the "external" default.
693
694 ** The syntax of ?» and ?« is now punctuation instead of matched parens.
695 Some languages match those as »...« and others as «...» so better stay neutral.
696
697 ** The default file coding for Emacs Lisp files is now utf-8.
698 (See file-coding-system-alist.) In most cases, this change is transparent, but
699 files that contain unusual characters without specifying an explicit coding
700 system may fail to load with obscure errors.
701 You should either convert them to utf-8 or add an explicit `coding:' cookie.
702
703 ** overriding-terminal-local-map does not replace the local keymaps any more.
704 It used to disable the minor mode, major mode, and text-property keymaps,
705 whereas now it simply has higher precedence.
706
707 ** Default process filters and sentinels are not nil any more.
708 Instead they default to a function which does what the nil value used to do.
709
710 ** `read-event' does not return decoded chars in ttys any more.
711 Just as was the case in Emacs-22 and before, decoding of tty input according to
712 keyboard-coding-system is not performed in read-event any more. But contrary
713 to that past, it is still done before input-decode-map/function-key-map/...
714
715 ** Removed inhibit-local-menu-bar-menus.
716
717 ** frame-local variables that affect redisplay do not work any more.
718 More specifically, the redisplay does not bother to check for a frame-local
719 value when looking up variables.
720
721 ** nil and "unbound" are indistinguishable in symbol-function.
722 `symbol-function' never signals `void-function' any more.
723 `fboundp' returns non-nil if the symbol was `fset' to nil.
724
725 ** `defadvice' does not honor the `freeze' flag and cannot advise
726 special-forms any more.
727
728 ** `dolist' in lexical-binding mode does not bind VAR in RESULT any more.
729 VAR was bound to nil which was not tremendously useful and just lead to
730 spurious warnings about an unused var.
731
732 ** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
733 The second argument is no longer an SELinux context, instead it is an
734 alist of extended attributes as returned by the new function
735 `file-extended-attributes'. The attributes can be applied to another
736 file using `set-file-extended-attributes'.
737
738 ** `visited-file-modtime' now returns -1 for nonexistent files.
739 Formerly it returned a list (-1 LOW USEC PSEC), but this was ambiguous
740 in the presence of files with negative time stamps.
741
742 ** The cars of the elements in `interpreter-mode-alist' are now treated
743 as regexps rather than literal strings. Technically this is an
744 incompatible change, but unless you are using interpreter-mode-alist
745 for something (not just adding elements to it), it ought not to affect you.
746
747 \f
748 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.4
749
750 ** New function get-pos-property.
751
752 ** New hook `pre-redisplay-function'.
753
754 +++
755 ** Functions that pop up menus and dialogs now work on all terminal types,
756 including TTYs.
757 This includes `x-popup-menu', `x-popup-dialog', `message-box',
758 `yes-or-no-p', etc.
759
760 The function `display-popup-menus-p' will now return non-nil for a
761 display or frame whenever a mouse is supported on that display or
762 frame.
763
764 ** New bool-vector set operation functions:
765 *** `bool-vector-exclusive-or'
766 *** `bool-vector-union'
767 *** `bool-vector-intersection'
768 *** `bool-vector-set-difference'
769 *** `bool-vector-not'
770 *** `bool-vector-subsetp'
771 *** `bool-vector-count-consecutive'
772 *** `bool-vector-count-population'
773
774 ** Comparison functions =, <, >, <=, >= now take many arguments.
775
776 ** The second argument of `eval' can now be a lexical-environment.
777
778 ** `with-demoted-errors' takes an additional argument `format'.
779 +++
780 ** New function `define-error'.
781
782 ** New hook `tty-setup-hook'.
783
784 +++
785 ** New macro with-eval-after-load. Like eval-after-load, but better behaved.
786
787 ** New library helpers.el for misc helper functions
788 *** `hash-table-keys'
789 *** `hash-table-values'
790 *** `string-blank-p`
791 *** `string-empty-p`
792 *** `string-join`
793 *** `string-reverse`
794 *** `string-trim-left'
795 *** `string-trim-right'
796 *** `string-trim'
797
798 ** Obsoleted functions:
799 *** `log10'
800 *** `dont-compile'
801 *** `lisp-complete-symbol'
802 *** `field-complete'
803 *** `minibuffer-completion-contents'
804 *** `isearch-nonincremental-exit-minibuffer'
805 *** `isearch-filter-visible'
806 *** `generic-make-keywords-list'
807
808 ** `with-wrapper-hook' is obsoleted by `add-function'.
809 The few hooks that used with-wrapper-hook are replaced as follows:
810 *** `abbrev-expand-function' obsoletes `abbrev-expand-functions'.
811 *** `completion-in-region-function' obsoletes `completion-in-region-functions'.
812 *** `filter-buffer-substring-function' obsoletes `filter-buffer-substring-functions'.
813
814 ** `byte-compile-interactive-only-functions' is now obsolete.
815 It has been replaced by the symbol property 'interactive-only.
816
817 ** `split-string' now takes an optional argument TRIM.
818 The value, if non-nil, is a regexp that specifies what to trim from
819 the start and end of each substring.
820
821 ** New function `string-suffix-p'.
822
823 ** `get-upcase-table' is obsoleted by the new `case-table-get-table'.
824
825 ** Support for filesystem notifications.
826 Emacs now supports notifications of filesystem changes, such as
827 creation, modification, and deletion of files. This requires the
828 `glib' API, or the 'inotify' API (on GNU/Linux systems only). On
829 MS-Windows systems, this is supported for Windows XP and newer
830 versions.
831
832 ** Changes in autorevert.el
833
834 ---
835 *** If Emacs is compiled with file notification support, notifications
836 are used instead of checking the time stamp of the files. You can
837 disable this by setting the user option `auto-revert-use-notify' to
838 nil. Alternatively, a regular expression of directories to be
839 excluded from file notifications can be specified by
840 `auto-revert-notify-exclude-dir-regexp'.
841
842 ---
843 *** The new user option `auto-revert-remote-files' enables reversion
844 of remote files when set to non-nil.
845
846 ** Face changes
847
848 *** The function `face-spec-set' is now analogous to `setq' for face specs.
849 Its third arg now accepts values specifying exactly which face spec to
850 set (defface, custom, or user spec), and it directly sets the relevant
851 property using the supplied face spec.
852
853 *** Face specs set via Custom themes now replace the `defface' spec
854 rather than inheriting from it (as do face specs set via Customize).
855
856 *** New face characteristic (supports :underline (:style wave))
857 specifies whether or not the terminal can display a wavy line.
858
859 *** New face spec attribute :distant-foreground
860 specifies foreground to use if background color is near the foreground
861 color that would otherwise have been used.
862
863 ** Image API
864
865 +++
866 *** `image-animated-p' is now `image-multi-frame-p'.
867 It returns non-nil for any image that contains multiple frames,
868 whether or not it specifies a frame delay.
869
870 +++
871 *** When animating images that do not specify a frame delay,
872 Emacs uses `image-default-frame-delay'.
873
874 +++
875 *** New functions `image-current-frame' and `image-show-frame' for getting
876 and setting the current frame of a multi-frame image.
877
878 *** You can change the speed of animated images.
879
880 ** Changes in encoding and decoding of text
881
882 ---
883 *** New coding-system `prefer-utf-8'.
884 This is like `undecided' but prefers UTF-8 on decoding if the text to
885 be decoded does not contain any invalid UTF-8 sequences. On encoding,
886 any non-ASCII characters are automatically encoded as UTF-8.
887
888 ---
889 *** New attributes of coding-systems whose type is `undecided'.
890 Two new attributes, `:inhibit-null-byte-detection' and
891 `:inhibit-iso-escape-detection', determine how to detect encoding of
892 text that includes null bytes and ISO-2022 escape sequences,
893 respectively. Each of these attributes can be either nil, zero, or
894 t. If it is t, decoding text ignores null bytes and, respectively,
895 ISO-2022 sequences. If it is nil, null bytes cause text to be decoded
896 with no-conversion and ISO-2022 sequences cause Emacs to assume the
897 text is encoded in one of the ISO-2022 encodings, such as
898 iso-2022-7bit. If the value is zero, Emacs consults the variables
899 inhibit-null-byte-detection and inhibit-iso-escape-detection, which
900 see.
901 The new attribute `:prefer-utf-8', if non-nil, causes Emacs to prefer
902 UTF-8 encoding and decoding, whenever possible.
903
904 These attributes are only meaningful for coding-systems of type
905 `undecided'. (The type of a coding-system is determined by its
906 `:coding-type' attribute and can be accessed by calling the
907 `coding-system-type' function.)
908
909 ** The function `set-visited-file-modtime' now accepts a 0 or -1 argument
910 with the same interpretation as the returned value of `visited-file-modtime'.
911
912 ** time-to-seconds is not obsolete any more.
913 ** New functions special-form-p and macrop.
914 ** Docstrings can be made dynamic by adding a `dynamic-docstring-function'
915 text-property on the first char.
916
917 ** The `defalias-fset-function' property lets you catch calls to defalias
918 and redirect them to your own function instead of `fset'.
919
920 ** The lock for 'DIR/FILE' is now 'DIR/.#FILE' and may be a regular file.
921 When you edit DIR/FILE, Emacs normally creates a symbolic link
922 DIR/.#FILE as a lock that warns other instances of Emacs that DIR/FILE
923 is being edited. Formerly, if there was already a non-symlink file
924 named DIR/.#FILE, Emacs fell back on the lock names DIR/.#FILE.0
925 through DIR/.#FILE.9. These fallbacks have been removed, so that
926 Emacs now no longer locks DIR/FILE in that case.
927
928 On file systems that do not support symbolic links, the lock is now a
929 regular file with contents being what would have been in the symlink.
930
931 ** The 9th element returned by `file-attributes' is now unspecified.
932 Formerly, it was t if the file's gid would change if file were deleted
933 and recreated. This value has been inaccurate for years on many
934 platforms, and nobody seems to have noticed or cared.
935
936 ** The function `file-ownership-preserved-p' now has an optional
937 argument GROUP which causes it check for file group too. This can be
938 used in place of the 9th element of `file-attributes'.
939
940 ** New functions `group-gid' and `group-real-gid'.
941
942 ** The 6th argument to `copy-file' has been renamed to
943 `preserve-extended-attributes' as it now handles both SELinux context
944 and ACL entries.
945
946 ** The `common-substring' argument of display-completion-list is obsolete.
947 Either use `completion-all-completions' which already returns highlighted
948 strings (including for partial or substring completion) or call
949 `completion-hilit-commonality' to add the highlight.
950
951 ** Changes to the Emacs Lisp Coding Conventions in Emacs 24.4
952
953 *** The package descriptor and name of global variables, constants,
954 and functions should be separated by two hyphens if the symbol is not
955 meant to be used by other packages.
956
957 \f
958 * Changes in Emacs 24.4 on Non-Free Operating Systems
959
960 ** The procedure for building Emacs on MS-Windows has changed.
961 It is now built by running the same configure script as on all other
962 platforms. This requires the MSYS environment and MinGW development
963 tools. See the updated instructions in nt/INSTALL for details.
964
965 Using the Posix configure script and Makefile's also means a change in
966 the directory structure of the Emacs installation on Windows. It is
967 now the same as on GNU and Unix systems. In particular, the auxiliary
968 programs, such as cmdproxy.exe and hexl.exe, are in
969 libexec/emacs/VERSION/i686-pc-mingw32 (where VERSION is the Emacs
970 version), version-independent site-lisp is in share/emacs/site-lisp,
971 version-specific Lisp files are in share/emacs/VERSION/lisp and in
972 share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, Info docs are in share/info, and data
973 files are in share/emacs/VERSION/etc. (Emacs knows about all these
974 directories and will find the files in there automatically; there's no
975 need to set any variables due to this change.)
976
977 +++
978 ** The "generate a backtrace on fatal error" feature now works on MS Windows.
979 The backtrace is written to the 'emacs_backtrace.txt' file in the
980 directory where Emacs was running.
981
982 +++
983 ** The variable `buffer-file-type' is no longer supported.
984 Setting it has no effect, and %t in the mode-line format is ignored.
985 Likewise, `file-name-buffer-file-type-alist' is now obsolete, and
986 modifying it has no effect.
987
988 ---
989 ** Lock files now work on MS-Windows.
990 This allows to avoid losing your edits if the same file is being
991 edited in another Emacs session or by another user. See the node
992 "Interlocking" in the Emacs User Manual for the details. To disable
993 file locking, customize `create-lockfiles' to nil.
994
995 ** Improved fullscreen support on Mac OS X.
996 Both native (>= OSX 10.7) and "old style" fullscreen are supported.
997 Customize `ns-use-native-fullscreen' to change style. For >= 10.7
998 native is the default.
999
1000 \f
1001 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.3
1002
1003 ** The default X toolkit is now Gtk+ version 3.
1004 If you don't pass `--with-x-toolkit' to configure, or if you use
1005 `--with-x-toolkit=gtk' or `--with-x-toolkit=yes', configure will try
1006 to build with Gtk+ version 3, and if that fails, try Gtk+ version 2.
1007 You can explicitly require a specific version by passing
1008 `--with-x-toolkit=gtk2' or `--with-x-toolkit=gtk3' to configure.
1009
1010 ** New configure option `--enable-link-time-optimization', to utilize
1011 an appropriate feature provided by GCC since version 4.5.0.
1012
1013 ** New configure option `--without-all' to disable most of the optional
1014 features (image support, etc.) that are normally enabled by default.
1015
1016 ** New configure option `--enable-gcc-warnings' (for developing/debugging
1017 Emacs). If building with GCC, this enables compile-time checks that
1018 warn/give errors about possibly-questionable C code. On a recent GNU
1019 system there should be no warnings; on older and on non-GNU systems
1020 the results may be useful to developers.
1021
1022 ** The configure option `--enable-use-lisp-union-type' has been
1023 renamed to `--enable-check-lisp-object-type', as the resulting
1024 Lisp_Object type no longer uses a union to implement the compile time
1025 check that this option enables.
1026
1027 ** The configure option `--disable-maintainer-mode' has been removed,
1028 as it was confusingly-named and rarely useful.
1029
1030 ** The configure options `--program-prefix', `--program-suffix', and
1031 `--program-transform-name' apply to more than just the installed
1032 binaries. Now they also affect the man pages, icons, and the
1033 etc/emacs.desktop file; but not the info pages, since this would break
1034 links between the various manuals.
1035
1036 ** You can use `NO_BIN_LINK=t make install' to prevent the installation
1037 overwriting "emacs" in the installation bin/ directory with a link
1038 to "emacs-VERSION".
1039
1040 ** Emacs uses libtinfo in preference to libncurses, if available.
1041
1042 ** On FreeBSD and NetBSD, configure no longer adds /usr/local/lib and
1043 /usr/pkg/lib to the linker search path. You must add them yourself if
1044 you want them.
1045
1046 ** The standalone scripts `rcs-checkin' and `vcdiff' have been removed
1047 (from the bin and libexec directories, respectively). The former is
1048 no longer relevant, the latter is replaced by lisp (in vc-sccs.el).
1049
1050 \f
1051 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.3
1052
1053 ** Emacs no longer searches for `leim-list.el' files beneath the standard
1054 lisp/ directory. There should not be any there anyway. If you have
1055 been adding them there, put them somewhere else; e.g., site-lisp.
1056
1057 ** The `--no-site-lisp' command line option now works for Nextstep builds.
1058
1059 \f
1060 * Changes in Emacs 24.3
1061
1062 ** Help
1063
1064 *** `C-h f' (`describe-function') can now perform autoloading.
1065 When this command is called for an autoloaded function whose docstring
1066 contains a key substitution construct, that function's library is
1067 automatically loaded, so that the documentation can be shown
1068 correctly. To disable this, set `help-enable-auto-load' to nil.
1069
1070 *** `C-h f' now reports previously-autoloaded functions as "autoloaded",
1071 even after their associated libraries have been loaded (and the
1072 autoloads have been redefined as functions).
1073
1074 ** ImageMagick
1075
1076 *** Images displayed via ImageMagick now support transparency and the
1077 :background image specification property.
1078
1079 *** When available, ImageMagick support is automatically enabled.
1080 It is no longer necessary to call `imagemagick-register-types'
1081 explicitly to install ImageMagick image types; that function is called
1082 automatically at startup, or when customizing an imagemagick- option.
1083
1084 *** Setting `imagemagick-types-inhibit' to t now disables the use of
1085 ImageMagick to view images. (You must call `imagemagick-register-types'
1086 afterwards if you do not use customize to change this.)
1087
1088 *** The new variable `imagemagick-enabled-types' also affects which
1089 ImageMagick types are treated as images. The function
1090 `imagemagick-filter-types' returns the list of types that will be
1091 treated as images.
1092
1093 *** ImageMagick images now support the :max-width and :max-height
1094 keywords.
1095
1096 *** Some data types aren't auto-detected by ImageMagick. Adding
1097 :format to `create-image' may help if the content type is in the
1098 new variable `image-format-suffixes'.
1099
1100 ** Minibuffer
1101
1102 *** In minibuffer filename prompts, `C-M-f' and `C-M-b' now move to the
1103 next and previous path separator, respectively.
1104
1105 *** `minibuffer-electric-default-mode' can shorten "(default ...)" to "[...]"
1106 in minibuffer prompts. Just set `minibuffer-eldef-shorten-default'
1107 non-nil before enabling the mode.
1108
1109 ** Mode line
1110
1111 *** New option `mode-line-default-help-echo' specifies the help text
1112 (shown in a tooltip or in the echo area) for any part of the mode line
1113 that does not have its own specialized help text.
1114
1115 *** You can now click mouse-3 in the coding system indicator to invoke
1116 `set-buffer-file-coding-system'.
1117
1118 ** Server and client
1119
1120 *** emacsclient now obeys string values for `initial-buffer-choice',
1121 if it is told to open a new frame without specifying any file to visit
1122 or expression to evaluate.
1123
1124 *** New option `server-auth-key' specifies a shared server key.
1125
1126 ** Emacs now generates backtraces on fatal errors.
1127 On encountering a fatal error, Emacs now outputs a textual description
1128 of the fatal signal, and a short backtrace on platforms like glibc
1129 that support backtraces.
1130
1131 ** `C-x C-q' is now bound to the new minor mode `read-only-mode'.
1132 This minor mode replaces `toggle-read-only', which is now obsolete.
1133
1134 ** Most `y-or-n' prompts now allow you to scroll the selected window.
1135 Typing `C-v' or `M-v' at a y-or-n prompt scrolls forward or backward
1136 respectively, without exiting from the prompt.
1137
1138 ** In the Package Menu, newly-available packages are listed as "new",
1139 and sorted above the other "available" packages by default.
1140
1141 ** If your Emacs was built from a bzr checkout, the new variable
1142 `emacs-bzr-version' contains information about the bzr revision used.
1143
1144 ** New option `create-lockfiles' specifies usage of lockfiles.
1145 It defaults to t. Changing it to nil inhibits the creation of lock
1146 files (use this with caution).
1147
1148 ** New option `enable-remote-dir-locals', if non-nil, allows directory-local
1149 variables on remote hosts.
1150
1151 ** The entry for PCL-CVS has been removed from the Tools menu.
1152 The PCL-CVS commands are still available via the keyboard.
1153
1154 ** Using "unibyte: t" in Lisp source files is obsolete.
1155 Use "coding: raw-text" instead.
1156
1157 ** In the buffer made by `M-x report-emacs-bug', the `C-c m' binding
1158 has been changed to `C-c M-i' (`report-emacs-bug-insert-to-mailer').
1159 The previous binding, introduced in Emacs 24.1, was a mistake, because
1160 `C-c LETTER' bindings are reserved for user customizations.
1161
1162 ** Internationalization
1163
1164 *** New language environment: Persian.
1165
1166 *** New input method `vietnamese-vni'.
1167
1168 ** Nextstep (GNUstep / Mac OS X) port
1169
1170 *** Support for fullscreen and the frame parameter fullscreen.
1171
1172 *** A file dialog is used for open/save operations initiated from the
1173 menu/toolbar.
1174
1175 \f
1176 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.3
1177
1178 ** Search and Replace
1179
1180 *** Non-regexp Isearch now performs "lax" space matching.
1181 Each sequence of spaces in the supplied search string may match any
1182 sequence of one or more whitespace characters, as specified by the
1183 variable `search-whitespace-regexp'. (This variable is also used by a
1184 similar existing feature for regexp Isearch.)
1185
1186 *** New Isearch command `M-s SPC' toggles lax space matching.
1187 This applies to both ordinary and regexp Isearch.
1188
1189 *** New option `replace-lax-whitespace'.
1190 If non-nil, `query-replace' uses flexible whitespace matching too.
1191 The default is nil.
1192
1193 *** Global `M-s _' starts a symbol (identifier) incremental search,
1194 and `M-s _' in Isearch toggles symbol search mode.
1195 `M-s c' in Isearch toggles search case-sensitivity.
1196
1197 ** Navigation commands
1198
1199 *** New binding `M-g c' for `goto-char'.
1200
1201 *** New binding `M-g TAB' for `move-to-column'.
1202
1203 *** `M-g TAB' (`move-to-column') prompts for a column number if called
1204 interactively with no prefix arg. Previously, it moved to column 1.
1205
1206 ** New option `yank-handled-properties' allows processing of text
1207 properties on yanked text, in ways that are more general than just
1208 removing them (as is done by `yank-excluded-properties').
1209
1210 ** New option `delete-trailing-lines' specifies whether
1211 M-x delete-trailing-whitespace should delete trailing lines at the end
1212 of the buffer. It defaults to t.
1213
1214 ** `C-u M-=' now counts lines/words/characters in the entire buffer.
1215
1216 ** `C-x 8 RET' is now bound to `insert-char', which is now a command.
1217 `ucs-insert' is now an obsolete alias for `insert-char'.
1218
1219 ** The `z' key no longer has a binding in most special modes.
1220 It used to be bound to `kill-this-buffer', but `z' is too easy to
1221 accidentally type.
1222
1223 ** New command `C-x r M-w' (`copy-rectangle-as-kill').
1224 It copies the region-rectangle as the last rectangle kill.
1225
1226 ** Registers
1227
1228 *** `C-x r +' is now overloaded to invoke `append-to-register'.
1229
1230 *** New option `register-separator' specifies the register containing
1231 the text to put between collected texts for use with
1232 M-x append-to-register and M-x prepend-to-register.
1233
1234 \f
1235 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.3
1236
1237 ** Common Lisp emulation (CL)
1238
1239 *** CL's main entry is now (require 'cl-lib).
1240 `cl-lib' is like the old `cl' except that it uses the namespace cleanly;
1241 i.e., all its definitions have the "cl-" prefix (and internal definitions
1242 use the "cl--" prefix).
1243
1244 If `cl' provided a feature under the name `foo', then `cl-lib'
1245 provides it under the name `cl-foo' instead; with the exceptions of the
1246 few `cl' definitions that had to use `foo*' to avoid conflicts with
1247 pre-existing Elisp entities. These have been renamed to `cl-foo'
1248 rather than `cl-foo*'.
1249
1250 The old `cl' is now deprecated and is mainly just a bunch of aliases that
1251 provide the old, non-prefixed names. Some exceptions are listed below:
1252
1253 *** `cl-flet' is not like `flet' (which is deprecated).
1254 Instead it obeys the behavior of Common-Lisp's `flet'.
1255 In particular, in cl-flet function definitions are lexically scoped,
1256 whereas in flet the scoping is dynamic.
1257
1258 *** `cl-labels' is slightly different from `labels'.
1259 The difference is that it relies on the `lexical-binding' machinery
1260 (as opposed to the `lexical-let' machinery used previously) to capture
1261 definitions in closures, so such closures will only work if `lexical-binding'
1262 is in use.
1263
1264 *** `cl-letf' is not exactly like `letf'.
1265 The only difference is in details that relate to some deprecated usage
1266 of `symbol-function' in place forms.
1267
1268 *** `progv' was rewritten to use the `let' machinery.
1269 A side effect is that variables without corresponding values are bound
1270 to nil rather than being made unbound.
1271
1272 *** The following methods of extending `setf' are obsolete
1273 (use features from gv.el instead):
1274 `define-modify-macro' (use `gv-letplace')
1275 `defsetf' (use `gv-define-simple-setter' or `gv-define-setter')
1276 `define-setf-expander' (use `gv-define-setter' or `gv-define-expander')
1277 `get-setf-method' no longer exists (see "Incompatible Lisp Changes")
1278
1279 ** Diff mode
1280
1281 *** Changes are now highlighted using the same color scheme as in
1282 modern VCSes. Deletions are displayed in red (new faces
1283 `diff-refine-removed' and `smerge-refined-removed', and new definition
1284 of `diff-removed'), insertions in green (new faces `diff-refine-added'
1285 and `smerge-refined-added', and new definition of `diff-added').
1286
1287 *** The variable `diff-use-changed-face' defines whether to use the
1288 face `diff-changed', or `diff-removed' and `diff-added' to highlight
1289 changes in context diffs.
1290
1291 *** The new command `diff-delete-trailing-whitespace' removes trailing
1292 whitespace introduced by a diff.
1293
1294 ** Ediff now uses the same color scheme as Diff mode.
1295
1296 ** Python mode
1297
1298 A new version of python.el, which provides several new features, including:
1299 per-buffer shells, better indentation, Python 3 support, and improved
1300 shell-interaction compatible with iPython (and virtually any other
1301 text based shell).
1302
1303 *** Some user options have been replaced/renamed, including (old -> new):
1304 **** python-indent -> python-indent-offset
1305 **** python-guess-indent -> python-indent-guess-indent-offset
1306 **** python-pdbtrack-do-tracking-p -> python-pdbtrack-activate
1307 **** python-use-skeletons -> python-skeleton-autoinsert
1308
1309 *** Some user options have been removed, including:
1310
1311 **** `python-indent-string-contents': Strings are never indented.
1312
1313 **** `python-honour-comment-indentation':
1314 Comments are always considered as indentation markers.
1315
1316 **** `python-continuation-offset': Indentation is automatically
1317 calculated in a pep8 compliant way depending on the context.
1318
1319 **** `python-shell-prompt-alist', `python-shell-continuation-prompt-alist':
1320 Have no direct mapping as the shell interaction is completely different.
1321
1322 **** `python-python-command', `python-jython-command':
1323 Replaced by `python-shell-interpreter'.
1324
1325 **** `inferior-python-filter-regexp', `python-remove-cwd-from-path',
1326 `python-pdbtrack-minor-mode-string', `python-source-modes':
1327 No longer relevant.
1328
1329 *** Some commands have been replaced (old -> new):
1330 **** python-insert-class -> python-skeleton-class
1331 **** python-insert-def -> python-skeleton-def
1332 **** python-insert-for -> python-skeleton-for
1333 **** python-insert-if -> python-skeleton-if
1334 **** python-insert-try/except -> python-skeleton-try
1335 **** python-insert-try/finally -> python-skeleton-try
1336 **** python-insert-while -> python-skeleton-while
1337 **** python-find-function -> python-nav-jump-to-defun
1338 **** python-next-statement -> python-nav-forward-sentence
1339 **** python-previous-statement -> python-nav-backward-sentence
1340 **** python-beginning-of-defun-function -> python-nav-beginning-of-defun
1341 **** python-end-of-defun-function -> python-nav-end-of-defun
1342 **** python-send-buffer -> python-shell-send-buffer
1343 **** python-send-defun -> python-shell-send-defun
1344 **** python-send-region -> python-shell-send-region
1345 **** python-send-region-and-go -> emulate with python-shell-send-region
1346 and python-shell-switch-to-shell
1347 **** python-send-string -> python-shell-send-string
1348 **** python-switch-to-python -> python-shell-switch-to-shell
1349 **** python-describe-symbol -> python-eldoc-at-point
1350
1351 ** D-Bus
1352
1353 *** New variables `dbus-compiled-version' and `dbus-runtime-version'.
1354
1355 *** The D-Bus object manager interface is implemented.
1356
1357 *** Variables of type :(u)int32 and :(u)int64 accept floating points,
1358 if their value does not fit into Emacs's integer range.
1359
1360 *** The function `dbus-call-method' is now non-blocking.
1361 It can be interrupted by `C-g'. `dbus-call-method-non-blocking' is obsolete.
1362
1363 *** Signals can also be sent as unicast messages.
1364
1365 *** The argument list of `dbus-register-signal' has been extended,
1366 according to the new match rule types of D-Bus.
1367
1368 *** `dbus-init-bus' supports private connections.
1369
1370 *** There is a new function `dbus-setenv'.
1371
1372 ** `desktop-path' no longer includes the "." directory.
1373 Desktop files are now located in ~/.emacs.d by default.
1374
1375 ** Dired
1376
1377 *** `dired-do-async-shell-command' executes each file sequentially
1378 if the command ends in `;' (when operating on multiple files).
1379 Otherwise, it executes the command on each file in parallel.
1380
1381 *** Typing `M-n' in the minibuffer of `dired-do-chmod', `dired-do-chgrp',
1382 `dired-do-chown', and `dired-do-touch' yanks the attributes of the
1383 file at point.
1384
1385 *** When the region is active, `m' (`dired-mark'), `u' (`dired-unmark'),
1386 `DEL' (`dired-unmark-backward'), and `d' (`dired-flag-file-deletion')
1387 mark/unmark/flag all files in the active region.
1388
1389 *** The minibuffer default for `=' (`dired-diff') has changed.
1390 It is now the backup file for the file at point, if one exists.
1391 In Transient Mark mode the default is the file at the active mark.
1392
1393 *** `M-=' is no longer bound to `dired-backup-diff' in Dired buffers.
1394 The global binding for `M-=', `count-words-region' is in effect.
1395
1396 ** ERC
1397
1398 *** New module "notifications", which can send a notification when you
1399 receive a private message or your nickname is mentioned.
1400
1401 *** ERC will look up server/channel names via auth-source and use any
1402 channel keys found.
1403
1404 *** New option `erc-lurker-hide-list', similar to `erc-hide-list', but
1405 only applies to messages sent by lurkers.
1406
1407 ** reStructuredText mode
1408
1409 *** Keybindings (see `C-c C-h'), TAB indentation, filling and auto-filling,
1410 fontification, comment handling, and customization have all been revised
1411 and improved.
1412
1413 *** Support for `imenu' and `which-function-mode'.
1414
1415 *** The reStructuredText syntax is more closely covered.
1416 Sphinx support has been improved.
1417
1418 *** `rst-insert-list' inserts new list or continues existing lists.
1419
1420 *** A negative prefix argument always works for `rst-adjust'.
1421
1422 *** The window configuration is reset after displaying a TOC.
1423
1424 *** The constant `rst-version' describes the rst.el package version.
1425
1426 ** Ruby mode
1427
1428 *** Support for percent literals and recognition of regular expressions
1429 in method calls without parentheses with more methods, including Cucumber
1430 steps definitions.
1431
1432 *** Improved syntax highlighting and indentation.
1433
1434 *** New command `ruby-toggle-block', bound to `C-c {'.
1435
1436 *** Some non-standard keybindings/commands have been removed:
1437
1438 **** `ruby-electric-brace'; use `electric-indent-mode' instead.
1439
1440 **** `ruby-mark-defun'; use `mark-defun'.
1441
1442 **** `ruby-beginning-of-defun' and `ruby-end-of-defun' are replaced by
1443 appropriate settings for the variables `beginning-of-defun-function'
1444 and `end-of-defun-function'.
1445
1446 **** Non-standard keybindings for `backward-kill-word', `comment-region',
1447 `reindent-then-newline-and-indent' and `newline' have been removed.
1448
1449 ** Shell Script mode
1450
1451 *** Pairing of parens/quotes uses `electric-pair-mode' instead of skeleton-pair.
1452
1453 *** `sh-electric-here-document-mode' now controls auto-insertion of here-docs.
1454
1455 *** `sh-use-smie' lets you choose a new indentation and navigation code.
1456
1457 ** VHDL mode
1458
1459 *** The free software compiler GHDL is supported (and now the default).
1460
1461 *** Support for the VHDL-AMS packages has been added/updated.
1462
1463 *** Updated to the 2002 revision of the VHDL standard.
1464
1465 *** Accepts \r and \f as whitespace.
1466
1467 ** Apropos
1468
1469 *** The faces used by Apropos are now directly customizable.
1470 These faces are named `apropos-symbol', `apropos-keybinding', and so on;
1471 see the `apropos' Custom group for details.
1472
1473 *** The old options whose values specified faces to use have been removed
1474 (i.e. `apropos-symbol-face', `apropos-keybinding-face', etc.).
1475
1476 ** Buffer Menu
1477
1478 *** This package has been rewritten to use Tabulated List mode.
1479
1480 *** Option `Buffer-menu-buffer+size-width' is now obsolete.
1481 Use `Buffer-menu-name-width' and `Buffer-menu-size-width' instead.
1482
1483 ** Calc
1484
1485 *** Algebraic simplification mode is now the default.
1486 To restrict to the limited simplifications given by the former
1487 default simplification mode, use `m I'.
1488
1489 ** Calendar
1490
1491 *** You can customize the header text that appears above each calendar month.
1492 See the variable `calendar-month-header'.
1493
1494 *** New LaTeX calendar style, produced by `cal-tex-cursor-week2-summary'.
1495
1496 *** The calendars produced by cal-html include holidays.
1497 Customize `cal-html-holidays' to change this.
1498
1499 ** CEDET
1500
1501 *** The major modes from the parser generators "Bovine" and "Wisent"
1502 are now properly integrated in Emacs. The file suffixes ".by" and ".wy"
1503 are in `auto-mode-alist', and the corresponding manuals are included.
1504
1505 *** EDE
1506
1507 **** Menu support for the "Configuration" feature. This allows users to
1508 choose the active configuration (such as debug or install) from the menu.
1509
1510 **** New command `ede-set' to interactively set project-local variables.
1511
1512 **** Support for compiling, debugging, and running in "generic" projects.
1513
1514 **** Autoconf editing support for M4 macros with complex arguments.
1515
1516 **** Compilation support for the "linux" project type.
1517
1518 **** "simple" projects have been removed; use "generic" projects instead.
1519
1520 *** Semantic
1521
1522 **** Support for parsing #include statements inside a namespace in C/C++.
1523
1524 **** Improved support for 'extern "C"' declarations in C/C++.
1525
1526 **** The ability to ignore more common special C/C++ preprocessor symbols,
1527 such as '__nonnull' and '__asm'. Add '__cplusplus' macro when parsing C++.
1528 If available, include cdefs.h as an additional source of preprocessor symbols.
1529
1530 **** Improved C/C++ function pointer parsing.
1531
1532 **** In Python, support for converting imports to include file names.
1533
1534 **** Ability to dynamically determine the Python load path.
1535
1536 **** Support for the Python 'WITH' and 'AT' keywords.
1537
1538 **** Improved tooltip completion.
1539
1540 *** SRecode
1541
1542 **** The SRecode manual is now included.
1543
1544 **** Tag generation supports constructor/destructor settings and system
1545 include differentiation.
1546
1547 **** Addition of 'Framework' support: Frameworks are specified when a
1548 particular kind of library (such as Android) is needed in a common language
1549 mode (like Java).
1550
1551 **** Support for nested templates and let variables override based on priority.
1552
1553 **** Support for merging tables from multiple related modes, such as
1554 default -> c++ -> arduino.
1555
1556 ** Compile has a new option `compilation-always-kill'.
1557
1558 ** Customize
1559
1560 *** `custom-reset-button-menu' now defaults to t.
1561
1562 *** Non-option variables are never matched in `customize-apropos' and
1563 `customize-apropos-options' (i.e., the prefix argument does nothing for
1564 these commands now).
1565
1566 ** Term
1567
1568 *** The variables `term-default-fg-color' and `term-default-bg-color'
1569 are now deprecated in favor of the customizable face `term'.
1570
1571 *** You can customize how to display ANSI terminal colors and styles
1572 by customizing the corresponding `term-color-<COLOR>',
1573 `term-color-underline' and `term-color-bold' faces.
1574
1575 ** Tramp
1576
1577 *** The syntax has been extended in order to allow ad-hoc proxy definitions.
1578
1579 *** Remote processes are now also supported on remote MS-Windows hosts.
1580
1581 ** URL
1582
1583 *** Structs made by `url-generic-parse-url' have nil `attributes' slot.
1584 Previously, this slot stored semicolon-separated attribute-value pairs
1585 appended to some imap URLs, but this is not compatible with RFC 3986.
1586 So now the `filename' slot stores the entire path and query components,
1587 and the `attributes' slot is always nil.
1588
1589 *** New function `url-encode-url' for encoding a URI string.
1590 The `url-retrieve' function now uses this to encode its URL argument,
1591 in case that is not properly encoded.
1592
1593 *** New command `url-cookie-list' displays all the current cookies, and
1594 allows deleting selected cookies.
1595
1596 ** notifications.el supports now version 1.2 of the Notifications API.
1597 The function `notifications-get-capabilities' returns the supported
1598 server properties.
1599
1600 ** Flymake uses fringe bitmaps to indicate errors and warnings.
1601 See `flymake-fringe-indicator-position', `flymake-error-bitmap' and
1602 `flymake-warning-bitmap'.
1603
1604 ** The FFAP option `ffap-url-unwrap-remote' can now be a list of strings,
1605 specifying URL types that should be converted to remote file names at
1606 the FFAP prompt. The default is now '("ftp").
1607
1608 ** New Ibuffer `derived-mode' filter, bound to `/ M'.
1609 The old binding for `/ M' (filter by used-mode) is now bound to `/ m'.
1610
1611 ** New option `mouse-avoidance-banish-position' specifies where the
1612 `banish' mouse avoidance setting moves the mouse.
1613
1614 ** In Perl mode, new option `perl-indent-parens-as-block' causes non-block
1615 closing brackets to be aligned with the line of the opening bracket.
1616
1617 ** In Proced mode, new command `proced-renice' renices marked processes.
1618
1619 ** New option `async-shell-command-buffer' specifies the buffer to use
1620 for a new asynchronous `shell-command' when the default output buffer
1621 `*Async Shell Command*' is already in use.
1622
1623 ** SQL mode has a new option `sql-db2-escape-newlines'.
1624 If non-nil, newlines sent to the command interpreter will be escaped
1625 by a backslash. The default does not escape the newlines and assumes
1626 that the sql statement will be terminated by a semicolon.
1627
1628 ** New command `tabulated-list-sort', bound to `S' in Tabulated List mode
1629 (and modes that derive from it), sorts the column at point, or the Nth
1630 column if a numeric prefix argument is given.
1631
1632 ** `which-func-modes' now defaults to t, so Which Function mode, when
1633 enabled, applies to all applicable major modes.
1634
1635 ** `winner-mode-hook' now runs when the mode is disabled, as well as when
1636 it is enabled.
1637
1638 ** Follow mode no longer works by using advice.
1639 The option `follow-intercept-processes' has been removed.
1640
1641 ** `javascript-generic-mode' is now an obsolete alias for `js-mode'.
1642
1643 ** Hooks renamed to avoid obsolete "-hooks" suffix:
1644 *** semantic-lex-reset-hooks -> semantic-lex-reset-functions
1645 *** semantic-change-hooks -> semantic-change-functions
1646 *** semantic-edits-new-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-new-change-functions
1647 *** semantic-edits-delete-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-delete-change-functions
1648 *** semantic-edits-reparse-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-reparse-change-functions
1649 *** semanticdb-save-database-hooks -> semanticdb-save-database-functions
1650 *** c-prepare-bug-report-hooks -> c-prepare-bug-report-hook
1651 *** rcirc-sentinel-hooks -> rcirc-sentinel-functions
1652 *** rcirc-receive-message-hooks -> rcirc-receive-message-functions
1653 *** rcirc-activity-hooks -> rcirc-activity-functions
1654 *** rcirc-print-hooks -> rcirc-print-functions
1655 *** dbus-event-error-hooks -> dbus-event-error-functions
1656 *** eieio-pre-method-execution-hooks -> eieio-pre-method-execution-functions
1657 *** checkdoc-style-hooks -> checkdoc-style-functions
1658 *** checkdoc-comment-style-hooks -> checkdoc-comment-style-functions
1659 *** archive-extract-hooks -> archive-extract-hook
1660 *** filesets-cache-fill-content-hooks -> filesets-cache-fill-content-hook
1661 *** hfy-post-html-hooks -> hfy-post-html-hook
1662 *** nndiary-request-create-group-hooks -> nndiary-request-create-group-functions
1663 *** nndiary-request-update-info-hooks -> nndiary-request-update-info-functions
1664 *** nndiary-request-accept-article-hooks -> nndiary-request-accept-article-functions
1665 *** gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-hooks -> gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-functions
1666
1667 ** Obsolete packages
1668
1669 *** assoc.el
1670 In most cases, assoc+member+push+delq work just as well.
1671 And in any case it's just a terrible package: ugly semantics, terrible
1672 inefficiency, and not namespace-clean.
1673 *** bruce.el
1674 *** cust-print.el
1675 *** ledit.el
1676 *** mailpost.el
1677 *** mouse-sel.el
1678 *** patcomp.el
1679
1680 \f
1681 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.3
1682
1683 ** Docstrings starting with `*' no longer indicate user options.
1684 Only variables defined using `defcustom' are considered user options.
1685 The function `user-variable-p' is now an obsolete alias for
1686 `custom-variable-p'.
1687
1688 ** The return values of `defalias', `defun' and `defmacro' have changed,
1689 and are now undefined. For backwards compatibility, `defun' and
1690 `defmacro' currently return the name of the newly defined
1691 function/macro, but this should not be relied upon.
1692
1693 ** `random' by default now returns a different random sequence in
1694 every Emacs run. Use `(random S)', where S is a string, to set the
1695 random seed to a value based on S, in order to get a repeatable
1696 sequence in later calls.
1697
1698 ** If the NEWTEXT arg to `replace-match' contains a substring "\?",
1699 that substring is inserted literally even if the LITERAL arg is
1700 non-nil, instead of causing an error to be signaled.
1701
1702 ** `select-window' now always makes the window's buffer current.
1703 It does so even if the window was selected before.
1704
1705 ** The function `x-select-font' can return a font spec, instead of a
1706 font name as a string. Whether it returns a font spec or a font name
1707 depends on the graphical library.
1708
1709 ** `face-spec-set' no longer sets frame-specific attributes when the
1710 third argument is a frame (that usage was obsolete since Emacs 22.2).
1711
1712 ** `set-buffer-multibyte' now signals an error in narrowed buffers.
1713
1714 ** The CL package's `get-setf-method' function no longer exists.
1715 Generalized variables are now part of core Emacs Lisp, and implemented
1716 differently to the way cl.el used to do it. It is not possible to
1717 define a compatible replacement for `get-setf-method'. See the file
1718 gv.el for internal details of the new implementation.
1719
1720 ** The arguments of `dbus-register-signal' are no longer just strings,
1721 but keywords or keyword-string pairs. The old argument list will
1722 still be supported for Emacs 24.x.
1723
1724 ** Miscellaneous name changes
1725 Some Lisp symbols have been renamed to correct their spelling,
1726 or to be more consistent with standard Emacs terminology.
1727
1728 *** Renamed functions
1729 **** hangul-input-method-inactivate -> hangul-input-method-deactivate
1730 **** inactivate-input-method -> deactivate-input-method
1731 **** quail-inactivate -> quail-deactivate
1732 **** robin-inactivate -> robin-deactivate
1733 **** viper-inactivate-input-method -> viper-deactivate-input-method
1734 **** viper-inactivate-input-method-action ->
1735 viper-deactivate-input-method-action
1736 **** ucs-input-inactivate -> ucs-input-deactivate
1737
1738 *** Renamed hooks
1739 The old hooks are still supported for backward compatibility, but they
1740 are deprecated and will be removed eventually.
1741 **** input-method-inactivate-hook -> input-method-deactivate-hook
1742 **** robin-inactivate-hook -> robin-deactivate-hook
1743 **** quail-inactivate-hook -> quail-deactivate-hook
1744
1745 *** Renamed variables
1746 **** follow-deactive-menu -> follow-inactive-menu
1747 **** inactivate-current-input-method-function ->
1748 deactivate-current-input-method-function
1749
1750 ** Some obsolete functions, variables, and faces have been removed:
1751 *** `last-input-char', `last-command-char', `unread-command-char'
1752 *** `facemenu-unlisted-faces'
1753 *** `rmail-decode-mime-charset'
1754 *** `iswitchb-read-buffer'
1755 *** `sc-version', `sc-submit-bug-report'
1756 *** `set-char-table-default'
1757 *** `string-to-sequence' (use `string-to-list' or `string-to-vector')
1758 *** `compile-internal'
1759 *** `modeline'
1760 *** `mode-line-inverse-video'
1761 *** `follow-mode-off-hook'
1762 *** `cvs-commit-buffer-require-final-newline'
1763 (use `log-edit-require-final-newline' instead)
1764 *** `cvs-changelog-full-paragraphs'
1765 (use `log-edit-changelog-full-paragraphs' instead)
1766 *** `cvs-diff-ignore-marks', `cvs-diff-buffer-name'
1767 *** `vc-ignore-vc-files' (use `vc-handled-backends' instead)
1768 *** `vc-master-templates' (use `vc-handled-backends' instead)
1769 *** `vc-checkout-carefully'
1770
1771 \f
1772 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.3
1773
1774 ** CL-style generalized variables are now in core Elisp.
1775 `setf' is autoloaded; `push' and `pop' accept generalized variables.
1776 You can define your own generalized variables using `gv-define-simple-setter',
1777 `gv-define-setter', etc.
1778
1779 ** Emacs tries to macroexpand interpreted (non-compiled) files during load.
1780 This can significantly speed up execution of non-byte-compiled code,
1781 but can also bump into previously unnoticed cyclic dependencies.
1782 These are generally harmless: they will simply cause the macro calls
1783 to be left for later expansion (as before), but will result in a
1784 warning ("Eager macro-expansion skipped due to cycle") describing the cycle.
1785 You may wish to restructure your code so this does not happen.
1786
1787 ** New sampling-based Elisp profiler.
1788 Try M-x profiler-start, do some work, and then call M-x profiler-report.
1789 When finished, use M-x profiler-stop. The sampling rate can be based on
1790 CPU time or memory allocations.
1791
1792 ** `defun' also accepts a (declare DECLS) form, like `defmacro'.
1793 The interpretation of the DECLS is determined by `defun-declarations-alist'.
1794
1795 ** New macros `setq-local' and `defvar-local'.
1796
1797 ** Face underlining can now use a wave.
1798
1799 ** `read-regexp' has a new argument HISTORY; the first argument PROMPT
1800 of `read-regexp' accepts a string ending with a colon and space, and its
1801 second argument DEFAULTS can be a list of strings accessible via `M-n'
1802 in the minibuffer ahead of other hard-coded useful regexp-related values.
1803 More commands use `read-regexp' now to read their regexp arguments.
1804
1805 ** Completion
1806
1807 *** New function `completion-table-with-quoting' to handle completion
1808 in the presence of quoting, such as file completion in shell buffers.
1809
1810 *** New function `completion-table-subvert' to use an existing completion
1811 table, but with a different prefix.
1812
1813 ** Debugger
1814
1815 *** New error type and new function `user-error'.
1816 These do not trigger the debugger.
1817
1818 *** New option `debugger-bury-or-kill', saying what to do with the
1819 debugger buffer when exiting debug.
1820
1821 *** Set `debug-on-message' to enter the debugger when a certain
1822 message is displayed in the echo area. This can be useful when trying
1823 to work out which code is doing something.
1824
1825 *** New var `inhibit-debugger', automatically set to prevent accidental
1826 recursive invocations.
1827
1828 ** Window handling
1829
1830 *** New command `fit-frame-to-buffer' adjusts the frame height to
1831 fit the contents.
1832
1833 *** The command `fit-window-to-buffer' can adjust the frame height
1834 if the new option `fit-frame-to-buffer' is non-nil.
1835
1836 *** New macro `with-temp-buffer-window', similar to
1837 `with-output-to-temp-buffer'.
1838
1839 *** `temp-buffer-resize-mode' no longer resizes windows that have been
1840 reused.
1841
1842 *** New option `switch-to-buffer-preserve-window-point' to restore a
1843 window's point when switching buffers.
1844
1845 *** New display action alist entry `no-display-ok' to indicate the
1846 caller of `display-buffer' is ready to handle the case of not
1847 displaying the buffer.
1848
1849 *** New display action alist entries `window-height' and `window-width'
1850 specify the size of new windows created by `display-buffer'.
1851
1852 *** New display action alist entry `pop-up-frame-parameters', if
1853 non-nil, specifies frame parameters to give any newly-created frame.
1854
1855 *** New display action alist entry `inhibit-switch-frame', if non-nil,
1856 tells display action functions to avoid changing which frame is
1857 selected.
1858
1859 *** New display action alist entry `previous-window', if non-nil,
1860 specifies window to reuse in `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
1861
1862 *** New display action functions `display-buffer-below-selected',
1863 and `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
1864
1865 *** The functions `get-lru-window', `get-mru-window' and `get-largest-window'
1866 now accept a third argument to avoid choosing the selected window.
1867
1868 *** Additional values recognized for option `window-combination-limit'.
1869
1870 *** The following variables are obsolete, as they can be replaced by
1871 appropriate entries in the `display-buffer-alist' function introduced
1872 in Emacs 24.1:
1873 **** `dired-shrink-to-fit'
1874 **** `display-buffer-reuse-frames'
1875 **** `display-buffer-function'
1876 **** `special-display-buffer-names'
1877 **** `special-display-frame-alist'
1878 **** `special-display-function'
1879 **** `special-display-regexps'
1880
1881 ** Time
1882
1883 *** `current-time-string' no longer requires that its argument's year
1884 must be in the range 1000..9999. It now works with any year supported
1885 by the underlying C implementation.
1886
1887 *** `current-time' now returns extended-format time stamps
1888 (HIGH LOW USEC PSEC), where the new PSEC slot specifies picoseconds.
1889 PSEC is typically a multiple of 1000 on current machines. Other
1890 functions that use this format, such as `file-attributes' and
1891 `format-time-string', have been changed accordingly. Old-format time
1892 stamps are still accepted.
1893
1894 *** The format of timers in `timer-list' and `timer-idle-list' is now
1895 [TRIGGERED-P HI-SECS LO-SECS USECS REPEAT-DELAY FUNCTION ARGS IDLE-DELAY PSECS].
1896 The PSECS slot is new, and uses picosecond resolution. It can be
1897 accessed via the new `timer--psecs' accessor.
1898
1899 *** Last-modified time stamps in undo lists now are of the form
1900 (t HI-SECS LO-SECS USECS PSECS) instead of (t HI-SECS . LO-SECS).
1901
1902 ** EIEIO
1903
1904 *** Improved security when handling persistent objects:
1905
1906 **** `eieio-persistent-read' now features optional arguments for specifying
1907 the class to load, as well as a flag stating whether subclasses are allowed;
1908 if provided, other classes will be rejected by the reader. For
1909 compatibility with existing code, if the class is omitted only a
1910 warning is issued.
1911
1912 **** New specialized reader for pulling in classes and signaling errors
1913 without evaluation of suspicious code.
1914
1915 **** All slots that contain objects must have a :type. Slots with lists
1916 of objects must use a new type predicate for a list of an object type.
1917
1918 *** Support for `find-function' and similar utilities, through the addition
1919 of filename support to generated symbols.
1920
1921 ** Floating point functions now always return special values like NaN,
1922 instead of signaling errors, if given invalid args; e.g., (log -1.0).
1923 Previously, they returned NaNs on some platforms but signaled errors
1924 on others. The affected functions are acos, asin, tan, exp, expt,
1925 log, log10, sqrt, and mod.
1926
1927 ** New fringe bitmap `exclamation-mark'.
1928
1929 ** Miscellaneous changes to special forms and macros
1930
1931 *** `defun' and `defmacro' are now macros rather than special forms.
1932
1933 *** `kbd' is now a function rather than a macro.
1934
1935 ** Miscellaneous new functions
1936
1937 *** `set-temporary-overlay-map' sets up a temporary keymap that
1938 takes precedence over most other maps for a short while (normally one key).
1939
1940 *** `autoloadp' tests if its argument is an autoloaded object.
1941
1942 *** `autoload-do-load' performs the autoloading operation.
1943
1944 *** `buffer-narrowed-p' tests if the buffer is narrowed.
1945
1946 *** `file-name-base' returns a file name sans directory and extension.
1947
1948 *** `function-get' fetches a function property, following aliases.
1949
1950 *** `posnp' tests if an object is a `posn'.
1951
1952 *** `system-users' returns the user names on the system.
1953
1954 *** `system-groups' returns the group names on the system.
1955
1956 *** `tty-top-frame' returns the topmost frame of a text terminal.
1957
1958 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
1959 *** `automount-dir-prefix' (use `directory-abbrev-alist')
1960 *** `buffer-has-markers-at'
1961 *** `macro-declaration-function' (use `macro-declarations-alist')
1962 *** `window-system-version' (provides no useful information)
1963 *** `dired-pop-to-buffer' (use `dired-mark-pop-up')
1964 *** `query-replace-interactive'
1965 *** `font-list-limit' (has had no effect since Emacs < 23)
1966
1967 \f
1968 * Changes in Emacs 24.3 on Non-Free Operating Systems
1969
1970 ** Cygwin builds can use the native MS Windows user interface.
1971 Pass `--with-w32' to configure. The default remains the X11 interface.
1972
1973 ** Two new functions are available in Cygwin builds:
1974 `cygwin-convert-file-name-from-windows' and
1975 `cygwin-convert-file-name-to-windows'. These functions allow Lisp
1976 code to access the Cygwin file-name mapping machinery to convert
1977 between Cygwin and Windows-native file and directory names.
1978
1979 ** When invoked with the -nw switch to run on the Windows text-mode terminal,
1980 Emacs now supports `mouse-highlight', help-echo (in the echo area), and
1981 `mouse-autoselect-window'.
1982
1983 ** On MS Windows Vista and later Emacs now supports symbolic links.
1984
1985 ** On MS Windows, you can pass `--without-libxml2' to configure.bat to omit
1986 support for libxml2, even if its presence is detected.
1987
1988 ** On Mac OS X, the Nextstep port requires OS X 10.4 or later.
1989
1990 ** On Mac OS X, configure no longer automatically adds the Fink "/sw"
1991 directories to the search path. You must add them yourself if you want them.
1992
1993 \f
1994 * Changes in Emacs 24.2
1995
1996 ** This is mainly a bug-fix release.
1997
1998 \f
1999 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
2000
2001 ** Emacs can be compiled with Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
2002 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
2003 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
2004 --without-gconf.
2005
2006 ** Emacs can be compiled with GnuTLS support.
2007 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
2008 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
2009 `--without-gnutls'. See below for GnuTLS features.
2010
2011 ** Emacs can be compiled with SELinux support.
2012 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
2013 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
2014 `--without-selinux'. See below for SELinux features.
2015
2016 ** Emacs can be compiled with ImageMagick support.
2017 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
2018 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
2019 `--without-imagemagick'. See below for ImageMagick features.
2020 This feature is not available for the Nextstep or MS ports.
2021
2022 ** Emacs can be compiled with libxml2 support.
2023 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
2024 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
2025 `--without-xml2'. See below for libxml2 features.
2026
2027 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
2028 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
2029
2030 ** New configure option --with-wide-int.
2031 With it, Emacs integers typically have 62 bits, even on 32-bit machines.
2032 On 32-bit hosts, this raises the limit on buffer sizes from about 512 MiB
2033 to about 2 GiB.
2034
2035 ** New configure options: --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
2036 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
2037 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
2038
2039 ** New configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
2040 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
2041 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
2042
2043 ** The standalone programs digest-doc and sorted-doc are removed.
2044 Emacs now uses Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
2045
2046 ** The standalone program `fakemail' is removed.
2047 If you need it, feedmail.el provides a superset of the functionality.
2048
2049 \f
2050 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
2051
2052 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
2053 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
2054 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
2055
2056 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
2057 from load-path. -Q now implies this. This option does not affect the
2058 EMACSLOADPATH environment variable (and hence has no effect for
2059 Nextstep builds).
2060
2061 \f
2062 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
2063
2064 ** Completion
2065
2066 *** Many packages now use the `completion-at-point' command,
2067 rather than implementing separate completion commands.
2068
2069 *** `completion-at-point' now handles tags and semantic completion.
2070
2071 *** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
2072 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
2073
2074 *** New option `completion-cycle-threshold' allows completion cycling.
2075
2076 *** New option `completion-category-overrides' for overriding the
2077 default completion style in certain circumstances.
2078
2079 *** New completion style `substring'.
2080
2081 *** Completion of buffer names uses `substring' completion by default.
2082
2083 *** The option `widget-complete-field' has been removed.
2084
2085 ** Mail changes
2086
2087 *** The first time you try sending mail, Emacs asks for a mail method.
2088 This is implemented by a new default for `send-mail-function', which
2089 is `sendmail-query-once'. This offers to use the smtpmail package, or
2090 to use the old defaults relying on external mail facilities
2091 (`sendmail-send-it' on GNU/Linux and other Unix-like systems, and
2092 `mailclient-send-it' on Windows).
2093
2094 *** Typing `C-c m' in the buffer made by `M-x report-emacs-bug'
2095 transfers the report to your desktop's preferred mail client, if there
2096 is one. This uses either the "xdg-email" utility, or Mac OS's "open"
2097 command.
2098
2099 *** See Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages for SMTPmail changes
2100 and Mail mode changes
2101
2102 ** Emacs server and client changes
2103
2104 *** New option `server-port' specifies the port for TCP Emacs servers.
2105
2106 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
2107
2108 *** New emacsclient argument --frame-parameters specifies the frame
2109 parameters of any newly-created graphical frame.
2110
2111 *** If emacsclient shuts down due to Emacs signaling an error,
2112 its exit status is 1.
2113
2114 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID.
2115 This opens a client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed, similar
2116 to the --parent-id argument to Emacs.
2117
2118 ** Internationalization changes
2119
2120 *** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
2121 Right-to-left (RTL) scripts, such as Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew, are
2122 displayed in the correct visual order as expected by users of those
2123 scripts. The display reordering is a "full bidirectionality" class
2124 implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm (UBA). Buffers
2125 with no RTL text should look exactly the same as before.
2126
2127 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-display-reordering'.
2128 To disable display reordering in a buffer, change this to nil.
2129
2130 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction'.
2131 If nil (the default), Emacs determines the base direction of each
2132 paragraph from its text, as specified by the UBA. Setting the value
2133 to `right-to-left' or `left-to-right' forces a base direction on each
2134 paragraph.
2135
2136 Paragraphs with right-to-left base direction are displayed starting at
2137 the right window edge.
2138
2139 *** Enhanced support for characters with no glyphs in available fonts,
2140 or, on text terminals, characters that cannot be encoded by the
2141 terminal coding system. The new option `glyphless-char-display-control'
2142 specifies how to display them: as a hexadecimal code in a box, a thin
2143 1-pixel space, an empty box, etc.
2144
2145 *** New input methods for Farsi and Bulgarian
2146 (farsi-isiri-9147, farsi-transliterate-banan, bulgarian-alt-phonetic).
2147
2148 *** `nobreak-char-display' now also highlights Unicode hyphen chars
2149 (U+2010 and U+2011).
2150
2151 *** New Hebrew translation of the Emacs Tutorial.
2152 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
2153 automatically select it.
2154
2155 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
2156 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
2157 from a package repository at http://elpa.gnu.org.
2158
2159 *** M-x list-packages shows a list of packages, which can be
2160 selected for installation.
2161
2162 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
2163
2164 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded automatically when
2165 Emacs starts up. To disable this, set `package-enable-at-startup' to
2166 nil. To specify the packages to load, customize `package-load-list'.
2167
2168 ** Custom theme changes
2169
2170 *** New command `M-x customize-themes', which provides a convenient
2171 interface for enabling and disabling Custom themes.
2172
2173 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
2174 Emacs no longer looks for Custom themes in `load-path'. The default
2175 value of `custom-theme-load-path' says to look for themes in
2176 `custom-theme-directory', followed by a subdirectory of
2177 `data-directory' named "themes/", which contains a small selection of
2178 built-in Custom themes.
2179
2180 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
2181 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
2182 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
2183 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
2184
2185 ** Improved GTK integration
2186
2187 *** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
2188 The function `set-scroll-bar-mode' can change this.
2189
2190 *** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
2191 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose the style. On a Gnome desktop,
2192 the default is taken from desktop settings.
2193
2194 *** GTK tool bars can be placed on any edge of the frame.
2195 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the
2196 values top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has
2197 entries for this.
2198
2199 *** The default colors for selected text (the `region' face) are taken
2200 from the GTK theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
2201
2202 *** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK.
2203 You can disable this by changing `x-gtk-use-system-tooltips' to nil.
2204
2205 ** Graphical interface changes
2206
2207 *** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
2208 Also, the first dash (which does not indicate anything) is just
2209 displayed as a space.
2210
2211 *** `menu-bar-select-buffer-function' lets you choose another operation
2212 instead of `switch-to-buffer' when selecting an item in the Buffers menu.
2213
2214 *** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is
2215 built with Xft. These fonts can be set via X resources, for example:
2216 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
2217
2218 ** Exiting changes
2219
2220 *** Emacs now calls `kill-emacs' if it receives SIGTERM or SIGHUP,
2221 or if it receives a SIGINT signal in batch mode.
2222
2223 *** `kill-emacs-hook' is now also run in batch mode.
2224 Third-party code which adds to `kill-emacs-hook' should check if they
2225 do the right thing in batch mode.
2226
2227 ** Scrolling changes
2228
2229 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
2230 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
2231 of buffer at first key-press (instead they move to top/bottom of buffer)
2232 when `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
2233
2234 *** New option `scroll-error-top-bottom' (see above).
2235
2236 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
2237 scroll a line instead of full screen.
2238
2239 *** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
2240 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
2241
2242 *** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
2243 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
2244 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
2245 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
2246 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
2247
2248 *** "Aggressive" scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
2249 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
2250 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
2251 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
2252 margin.
2253
2254 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
2255 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
2256
2257 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up.
2258 Also, the function `copy-file' has an extra optional argument for
2259 preserving SELinux context, and the return value of `backup-buffer'
2260 now includes the SELinux context.
2261
2262 *** New functions `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
2263 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
2264
2265 ** Trash changes
2266
2267 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
2268 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
2269
2270 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
2271 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
2272
2273 ** File- and directory-local variable changes
2274
2275 *** You can stop directory local vars from applying to subdirectories.
2276 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
2277 settings to indicate that the section should not apply to
2278 subdirectories.
2279
2280 *** Directory local variables can apply to some file-less buffers.
2281 Affected modes include dired, vc-dir, and log-edit. For example,
2282 adding "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to .dir-locals.el will
2283 turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should call
2284 `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
2285
2286 *** Using "mode: MINOR-MODE" to enable a minor mode is deprecated.
2287 Instead, use "eval: (minor-mode 1)".
2288
2289 *** The variable `inhibit-first-line-modes-regexps' has been renamed
2290 to `inhibit-local-variables-regexps'. As the name suggests, it now
2291 applies to ALL file local variables, not just -*- lines. The
2292 associated `inhibit-first-line-modes-suffixes' has been renamed in the
2293 corresponding way.
2294
2295 ** Window changes
2296
2297 *** The `quit-window' command now restores the last buffer displayed
2298 in the quitted window.
2299
2300 *** Resizing an Emacs frame now preserves proportional window sizes,
2301 modulo restrictions like window minimum sizes and fixed-size windows.
2302
2303 *** The behavior of `display-buffer' is now customizable in detail.
2304
2305 **** New option `display-buffer-base-action' specifies a list of
2306 user-determined display "actions" (functions and optional arguments
2307 for choosing the displaying window).
2308
2309 This takes precedence over the default display action, which is
2310 specified by `display-buffer-fallback-action'.
2311
2312 **** New option `display-buffer-alist' maps buffer name regexps to
2313 display actions, taking precedence over `display-buffer-base-action'.
2314
2315 *** New option `window-combination-limit'.
2316 The new option `window-combination-limit' allows to return the space
2317 obtained for resizing or creating a window more reliably to the window
2318 from which such space was obtained.
2319
2320 *** New option `window-combination-resize'.
2321 The new option `window-combination-resize' allows to split a window that
2322 otherwise cannot be split because it's too small by stealing space from
2323 other windows in the same combination. Subsequent resizing or deletion
2324 of the window will resize all windows in the same combination as well.
2325
2326 *** New option `frame-auto-hide-function' lets you choose between
2327 iconifying or deleting a frame when burying a buffer in a dedicated
2328 frame, or quitting a window showing a buffer in a frame of its own.
2329
2330 *** New commands `maximize-window' and `minimize-window'.
2331 These maximize and minimize the size of a window within its frame.
2332
2333 *** New commands `switch-to-prev-buffer' and `switch-to-next-buffer'.
2334 These functions allow to navigate through the live buffers that have
2335 been shown in a specific window.
2336
2337 ** Minibuffer changes
2338
2339 *** The inactive minibuffer has its own major mode `minibuffer-inactive-mode'.
2340 This is handy for minibuffer-only frames, and is also used for the feature
2341 where mouse-1 pops up *Messages*"', which can now easily be changed.
2342
2343 *** Minibuffers set `truncate-lines' to nil.
2344 If you want to change the value to something else, you could use
2345 for example `minibuffer-setup-hook'.
2346
2347 ** `auto-mode-case-fold' is now enabled by default.
2348
2349 ** `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' now defaults to t.
2350
2351 ** New basic faces `error', `warning', `success'.
2352 These are used to highlight text indicating failure, caution or
2353 successful operation.
2354
2355 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
2356 for `list-colors-display'.
2357
2358 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
2359
2360 \f
2361 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
2362
2363 ** Search changes
2364
2365 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-kill', instead of
2366 `isearch-yank-line'.
2367
2368 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-pop', instead of
2369 `isearch-yank-kill'.
2370
2371 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-line'.
2372
2373 ** New commands `count-words-region' and `count-words'.
2374
2375 *** M-= is bound to `count-words-region', not `count-lines-region'.
2376 The `count-words-region' command, when called interactively, reports
2377 the number of lines, words, and characters in the region. It is a
2378 superset of the old `count-lines-region', which is now an obsolete
2379 alias for it.
2380
2381 ** The command `just-one-space' (M-SPC), if given a negative argument,
2382 also deletes newlines around point.
2383
2384 ** Deletion changes
2385
2386 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
2387 If non-nil, [delete] and DEL delete the region if it is active and no
2388 prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', those commands kill
2389 instead.
2390
2391 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to [delete].
2392 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
2393 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
2394
2395 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
2396 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
2397 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; Lisp
2398 callers should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
2399
2400 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
2401
2402 ** Selection changes.
2403
2404 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections has been
2405 changed to conform with modern X applications. In short, most
2406 commands for killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while
2407 mouse commands use the primary selection.
2408
2409 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
2410 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
2411
2412 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
2413 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
2414 the kill ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
2415 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
2416
2417 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
2418 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
2419 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
2420 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
2421 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
2422
2423 **** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
2424
2425 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
2426 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
2427 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
2428
2429 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
2430
2431 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
2432 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
2433 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
2434
2435 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
2436 exactly equivalent to M-w, C-w, and C-y respectively.
2437
2438 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
2439 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
2440 between applications.
2441
2442 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
2443
2444 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
2445 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
2446 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
2447 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
2448 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
2449
2450 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
2451
2452 *** X clipboard managers are now supported.
2453 To inhibit this, change `x-select-enable-clipboard-manager' to nil.
2454
2455 ** New command `C-x r N' (`rectangle-number-lines') numbers the lines
2456 in the current rectangle. With a prefix argument, this prompts for a
2457 number to count from and for a format string.
2458
2459 ** `redisplay-dont-pause' now defaults to t.
2460 This makes Emacs feel more responsive to editing commands that arrive
2461 at high rate, e.g. if you lean on some key, because stopping redisplay
2462 in the middle (when this variable is nil) forces more expensive
2463 updates later on, and Emacs appears to be unable to keep up.
2464
2465 ** The behavior of <TAB> for active regions in Text mode has changed.
2466 In Text and related modes, typing <TAB> (`indent-for-tab-command')
2467 when the region is active causes Emacs to indent all the lines in the
2468 region, aligning them with the line previous to the first line in the
2469 region (or with the left margin if there is no previous line).
2470
2471 ** When `occur' is called with a prefix argument, matching strings are
2472 collected into the `*Occur*' buffer without line numbers. If there
2473 are parenthesized subexpressions in the specified regexp, `occur'
2474 reads replacement text that may contain \\& and \\N whose convention
2475 follows `replace-match'.
2476
2477 \f
2478 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
2479
2480 ** Archive Mode has basic support for browsing and updating 7z archives.
2481
2482 ** BibTeX mode
2483
2484 *** BibTeX mode now supports biblatex.
2485 Use the variable `bibtex-dialect' to select different BibTeX dialects.
2486 `bibtex-entry-field-alist' is now an obsolete alias for
2487 `bibtex-BibTeX-entry-alist'.
2488
2489 *** New command `bibtex-search-entries', bound to C-c C-a.
2490
2491 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `sort-fields', disabled by default.
2492
2493 *** New variable `bibtex-search-entry-globally'.
2494
2495 ** Browse-url
2496
2497 *** New option `browse-url-mailto-function' specifies how to handle "mailto:"s.
2498
2499 *** The default browser used by the package is now the "xdg-open" program,
2500 on platforms that support it. This calls your desktop's preferred browser.
2501
2502 ** Calc
2503
2504 *** Support for musical notes.
2505
2506 *** Support for logarithmic units.
2507
2508 *** No longer uses the tex prefix for TeX specific unit names when
2509 using TeX or LaTeX mode.
2510
2511 *** New option to highlight selections using faces.
2512
2513 *** `calc-histogram' has the option of using a vector to determine the bins.
2514
2515 *** New "O" option prefix.
2516
2517 *** Use the "O" prefix to "d r" (`calc-radix') to turn on twos-complement mode.
2518
2519 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
2520
2521 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing "comments".
2522 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
2523
2524 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
2525 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
2526
2527 *** The function specified by `appt-disp-window-function' may be passed
2528 lists of arguments if multiple appointments are due at similar times.
2529 If you are using a custom function for this, you should update it.
2530
2531 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
2532
2533 *** Elements of `calendar-day-abbrev-array' and `calendar-month-abbrev-array'
2534 may no longer be nil, but must all be strings.
2535
2536 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt
2537 package by adding `appt-make-list' to `diary-hook' has been removed.
2538 Use `appt-activate' instead.
2539
2540 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
2541 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
2542 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
2543
2544 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
2545 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
2546
2547 ** CC Mode
2548
2549 *** New feature to "guess" the style in an existing buffer.
2550 The main entry point is M-x c-guess.
2551
2552 *** Java Mode now supports Java 5.0 (Tiger) and 6 (Mustang).
2553
2554 *** `c-beginning-of-defun' and `c-end-of-defun' now respect nested scopes.
2555 Thus C-M-a will, by default, go to the beginning of the immediate function,
2556 not the top level.
2557
2558 *** "Macros with semicolons" can be registered for correct indentation.
2559 Where such a macro ends a line (no semicolon) the next statement is no longer
2560 parsed as a statement continuation.
2561
2562 ** Comint and modes derived from it use the standard completion code.
2563
2564 ** Compilation mode
2565
2566 *** Compilation mode can be used without Font Lock mode.
2567 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
2568
2569 *** New variable `compilation-filter-start', which is bound while
2570 `compilation-filter-hook' runs. It records the start position of the
2571 text inserted by `compilation-filter'.
2572
2573 *** `compilation-error-screen-columns' and `compilation-first-column'
2574 are obeyed in the editing buffer. So programming language modes can
2575 set them, whereas previously only the value in the *Compilation*
2576 buffer was used.
2577
2578 ** Customize
2579
2580 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
2581 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
2582 To turn off the search field, set `custom-search-field' to nil.
2583
2584 *** Options in customize group buffers start out hidden if not customized.
2585 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
2586
2587 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
2588
2589 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
2590 choose a color via `list-colors-display'.
2591
2592 ** D-Bus
2593
2594 *** It is now possible to access buses other than the default system
2595 or session bus.
2596
2597 *** The `dbus-register-method' and `dbus-register-property' functions
2598 optionally do not register names.
2599
2600 *** The new function `dbus-register-service' registers a known service
2601 name on a D-Bus without also registering a property or a method.
2602
2603 ** Dired-x
2604
2605 *** C-x C-j (`dired-jump') and C-x 4 C-j (`dired-jump-other-window'),
2606 if called with a prefix argument, read a file name from the minibuffer
2607 instead of using the current buffer.
2608
2609 *** The "dired local variables" feature of Dired-x is obsolete.
2610 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
2611
2612 ** ERC changes
2613
2614 *** New options `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay',
2615 controlling attempts to autojoin a channel.
2616
2617 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
2618 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
2619 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
2620 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
2621
2622 ** Eshell changes
2623
2624 *** The default value of `eshell-directory-name' has changed
2625 to be an "eshell" directory in `user-emacs-directory'.
2626 The old "~/.eshell/" directory is still used if it exists, though.
2627
2628 ** gdb-mi
2629
2630 *** The M-x gdb command now uses the GDB Machine Interface protocol.
2631 It now supports multithread non-stop debugging and simultaneous
2632 debugging of several threads.
2633
2634 ** Image mode
2635
2636 *** RET (`image-toggle-animation') toggles animation, if applicable.
2637 Animation plays once, unless the option `image-animate-loop' is non-nil.
2638
2639 ** Info
2640
2641 *** New command M-x info-display-manual displays a named Info manual.
2642 If that manual is already visited in some Info buffer, it displays
2643 that buffer. (This is handy if you have many manuals in many *info*
2644 buffers, and don't remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual
2645 you want to consult.) Otherwise, it loads and displays the manual.
2646
2647 *** `e' is now bound to `end-of-buffer' rather than to `Info-edit'.
2648 This is for compatibility with the stand-alone Info reader program,
2649 and also because `Info-edit' is a rarely used command that is disabled
2650 by default.
2651
2652 ** Mail mode changes (not Message mode)
2653
2654 *** New command M-x mail-add-attachment for adding MIME attachments
2655
2656 *** The command M-x mail-attach-file was renamed to M-x mail-insert-file.
2657 (Its name is misleading, since it has nothing to do with MIME
2658 attachments.) The old name is now an obsolete alias to the new name.
2659
2660 ** MH-E has been updated to MH-E version 8.3.1.
2661 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
2662
2663 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
2664
2665 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
2666
2667 ** nXML mode no longer binds C-RET to `nxml-complete'.
2668 Completion is now performed via `completion-at-point', bound to C-M-i
2669 or M-TAB. If `nxml-bind-meta-tab-to-complete-flag' is non-nil (the
2670 default), this performs tag completion.
2671
2672 ** Org mode has been updated to version 7.8.09.
2673 See ORG-NEWS for details.
2674
2675 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
2676 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity,
2677 support for more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
2678
2679 ** Rmail
2680
2681 *** The command `rmail-epa-decrypt' decrypts OpenPGP data
2682 in the Rmail incoming message.
2683
2684 *** The variable `rmail-message-filter' no longer has any effect.
2685 This change was made in Emacs 23.1 but was not advertised at the time.
2686 Try using `rmail-show-message-hook' instead.
2687
2688 ** Shell mode
2689
2690 *** M-x shell prompts for the shell path name if the default directory
2691 is a remote file name and neither the environment variable $ESHELL nor
2692 the variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
2693
2694 *** TAB is now bound to the standard `completion-at-point' command,
2695 which now implements the pcomplete rules for shell command completion.
2696
2697 ** SMTPmail
2698
2699 *** SMTPmail now uses encrypted connections (via STARTTLS) by default
2700 if the mail server supports them. This uses either built-in GnuTLS
2701 support, or the starttls.el library. Customize `smtpmail-stream-type'
2702 to change this.
2703
2704 *** The variable `smtpmail-auth-credentials' has been removed.
2705 By default, the information is now stored in the file ~/.authinfo.
2706 This was the default value of smtpmail-auth-credentials. If you had
2707 customized smtpmail-auth-credentials to a list of user names and
2708 passwords, those settings are not used. During your first connection
2709 to the smtp server, Emacs will prompt for the user name and password,
2710 and offer to save them to ~/.authinfo. Or you can manually copy the
2711 credentials to ~/.authinfo. For example, if you had
2712
2713 (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials
2714 '(("mail.example.org" 25 "jim" "s!cret")))
2715
2716 then the equivalent line in ~/.authinfo would be
2717
2718 machine mail.example.org port 25 login jim password s!cret
2719
2720 See the auth-source manual for more information, e.g. on encrypting
2721 the credentials file.
2722
2723 *** The variable `smtpmail-starttls-credentials' has been removed.
2724 If you had that set, you need to put
2725
2726 machine smtp.whatever.foo port 25 key "~/.my_smtp_tls.key" cert "~/.my_smtp_tls.cert"
2727
2728 in your ~/.authinfo file instead.
2729
2730 *** SMTPmail defaults to using the address in the From: header as the
2731 SMTP MAIL FROM envelope. To override this, set `mail-envelope-from'
2732 to the address you wish to use instead.
2733
2734 ** SQL mode
2735
2736 *** New options `sql-port', `sql-connection-alist', `sql-send-terminator',
2737 and `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
2738
2739 *** New options controlling prompting for login parameters.
2740 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params',
2741 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
2742 connection is established.
2743
2744 *** The command `sql-product-interactive' now takes a prefix argument,
2745 which causes it to prompt for an SQL product.
2746
2747 *** Product-specific SQL interactive commands now take prefix arguments.
2748 These commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres', `sql-mysql', etc.),
2749 given a prefix argument, prompt for a name for the SQL interactive
2750 buffer. This reduces the need for calling `sql-rename-buffer'.
2751
2752 *** SQL interactive modes suppress command continuation prompts, and
2753 replace tabs with spaces. The first change impacts multiple line SQL
2754 statements entered with C-j between each line, statements yanked into
2755 the buffer and statements sent with `sql-send-*' functions. The
2756 second prevents the MySQL and Postgres interpreters from listing
2757 object name completions when sent text via `sql-send-*' functions.
2758
2759 *** New command `sql-connect' starts a predefined SQLi session,
2760 using the login parameters from `sql-connection-alist'.
2761
2762 *** New "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
2763 This gathers the login params specified for the SQLi session, if it
2764 was not started by a connection, and saves them as a new connection.
2765
2766 *** New commands for listing database objects and details:
2767 sql-list-all and sql-list-table.
2768
2769 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
2770
2771 ** TeX modes
2772
2773 *** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
2774
2775 ** Tramp
2776
2777 *** New inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
2778
2779 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
2780 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
2781
2782 *** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
2783 remote file attributes are cached for better performance.
2784
2785 *** The option `ange-ftp-binary-file-name-regexp' has changed its
2786 default value to "".
2787
2788 *** Handlers for `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
2789 for remote machines which support SELinux.
2790
2791 ** New function `url-queue-retrieve', which behaves like url-retrieve,
2792 but with limits (`url-queue-parallel-processes', `url-queue-timeout') on
2793 the degree of parallelism.
2794
2795 ** VC and related modes
2796
2797 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
2798 The command C-x v + (`vc-pull') runs a "pull" operation, if it is
2799 supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to update the
2800 current branch and working tree. A prefix argument means to prompt
2801 the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
2802
2803 *** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
2804
2805 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
2806 The command C-x v m (`vc-merge') now runs a "merge" operation, if it
2807 is supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to merge
2808 changes from another branch into the current one. It prompts for
2809 specifics, e.g. a merge source.
2810
2811 *** New option `vc-revert-show-diff' controls whether `vc-revert'
2812 shows a diff while querying the user. It defaults to t.
2813
2814 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
2815 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
2816 This is currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial (to support
2817 another backend, define a `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function').
2818 In the Log View buffers made by C-x v L (`vc-print-root-log'), you can
2819 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
2820
2821 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
2822 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
2823
2824 *** The option `vc-initial-comment' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but
2825 this was not advertised at the time.
2826
2827 *** `vc-toggle-read-only' is an obsolete alias for `toggle-read-only'.
2828 Since Emacs 23, it has done the same thing as `toggle-read-only', but
2829 this was not advertised at the time.
2830
2831 ** Obsolete modes
2832
2833 *** abbrevlist.el
2834
2835 *** erc-hecomplete.el (use erc-pcomplete.el instead)
2836
2837 *** partial-completion-mode (complete.el) is obsolete.
2838 You can get a comparable behavior with:
2839 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
2840 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
2841
2842 *** pc-mode.el is obsolete (CUA mode is much more comprehensive).
2843
2844 *** pgg is obsolete (use EasyPG instead).
2845
2846 *** sregex.el is obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
2847
2848 *** s-region.el and pc-select.el are obsolete.
2849 They are superseded by shift-select-mode, enabled by default since 23.1.
2850
2851 *** vc-mcvs.el is obsolete (for lack of a maintainer).
2852
2853 ** Miscellaneous
2854
2855 *** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
2856 Its functions and variables have been similarly renamed.
2857
2858 *** In `ido-file-completion-map', C-v is no longer bound to `ido-toggle-vc'.
2859 (This interfered with cua-mode.)
2860
2861 *** f90.el has some support for Fortran 2008 syntax.
2862
2863 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
2864
2865 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
2866
2867 \f
2868 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
2869
2870 ** Occur Edit mode applies edits made in *Occur* buffers to the
2871 original buffers. It is bound to "e" in Occur mode.
2872
2873 ** New global minor mode electric-pair-mode.
2874 When enabled, typing an open parenthesis automatically inserts the
2875 matching closing one.
2876
2877 ** New global minor mode electric-indent-mode.
2878 When enabled, typing certain characters triggers reindentation.
2879 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-indent-chars or
2880 electric-indent-functions.
2881
2882 ** New global minor mode electric-layout-mode.
2883 When enabled, typing certain characters automatically inserts newlines.
2884 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-layout-rules.
2885
2886 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
2887 from which other modes can be derived.
2888
2889 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
2890
2891 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
2892 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
2893 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
2894 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
2895 secrets.
2896
2897 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
2898 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
2899
2900 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
2901 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
2902
2903 ** New generic mode, xmodmap-generic-mode, for xmodmap files.
2904
2905 ** New emacs-lock.el package.
2906 The previous version has been moved to obsolete/old-emacs-lock.el.
2907 Now, there is a proper minor mode `emacs-lock-mode'. Protection
2908 against exiting Emacs and killing the buffer can be set separately.
2909 The mechanism for automatically turning off protection for buffers
2910 with dead inferior processes has been generalized.
2911
2912 \f
2913 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
2914
2915 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function call now ENABLES
2916 the minor mode unconditionally. This is so that you can write e.g.
2917
2918 (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'foo-mode)
2919
2920 to enable foo-mode in Text mode buffers, removing the need for
2921 `turn-on-foo-mode' style functions. This affects all mode commands
2922 defined by `define-minor-mode'. If called interactively, the mode
2923 command still toggles the minor mode.
2924
2925 ** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
2926 It is now a list of three elements, where the second element is a list
2927 describing the original file's SELinux context. If Emacs or the
2928 system lacks SELinux support, the context list is (nil nil nil nil).
2929 See "Basic SELinux support" above, under "Changes in Emacs 24.1".
2930
2931 ** `char-direction-table' and the `char-direction' function were deleted.
2932 They were buggy and inferior to the new support of bidirectional
2933 editing introduced in Emacs 24. If you need the bidirectional
2934 properties of a character, use `get-char-code-property' with the last
2935 argument `bidi-class'.
2936
2937 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
2938 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
2939 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
2940 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
2941
2942 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
2943 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
2944 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
2945 of the header line.
2946
2947 ** Support for "old-style" backquotes, obsolete for 10+ years, has
2948 been further reduced. Now a backquote not followed by a space is
2949 always treated as a "new-style" backquote. Please remove all
2950 "old-style" backquotes from your code. If your code uses backquotes
2951 as documented in the Elisp manual, and compiles without warning, then
2952 you have nothing to do in this regard. Code not following the
2953 appropriate conventions may fail to compile.
2954
2955 The most common cause of trouble seems to be an old-style backquote
2956 followed by a newline. Another cause of trouble is vector notation
2957 for key sequence notation: instead of [(control ,)] and [(control ')],
2958 you should write [(control ?,)] and [(control ?')], which will work in
2959 older Emacsen too.
2960
2961 ** The macro `eval-at-startup' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but this
2962 was not advertised at the time. The function `custom-initialize-delay'
2963 replaced all known uses.
2964
2965 ** `view-buffer' now treats special mode-class in the same way that
2966 `view-file' has since Emacs 22 (i.e. it won't enable View mode if the
2967 major mode is special).
2968
2969 ** Menu and tool bar changes
2970
2971 *** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
2972 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
2973 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
2974 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
2975 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
2976 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
2977
2978 *** The menu bar bindings's caches are not used any more.
2979 Use (where-is-internal <def> nil t) instead.
2980
2981 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
2982 similar to those created by shift-selection (see Selection changes
2983 above). In previous Emacs versions, these regions were delineated by
2984 `mouse-drag-overlay'; that variable has been removed.
2985
2986 ** The fourth argument of `filter-buffer-substring' has been removed.
2987 If you want to remove text properties from the final result, simply
2988 pass the result through substring-no-properties.
2989
2990 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
2991
2992 ** The following obsolete functions and aliases have been removed
2993 (the appropriate new function is given in parentheses; "not needed"
2994 means you can just remove all calls to the function in question):
2995
2996 *** `comint-kill-output' (`comint-delete-output')
2997 *** `decompose-composite-char' (`char-to-string')
2998 *** `outline-visible' (`outline-invisible-p')
2999 *** `internal-find-face' (`facep')
3000 *** `internal-get-face' (`facep and check-face')
3001 *** `frame-update-faces' (not needed)
3002 *** `frame-update-face-colors' (`frame-set-background-mode')
3003 *** `x-frob-font-weight' and `x-frob-font-slant' (`make-face-*' functions)
3004 *** `x-make-font-bold and x-make-font-demibold (`make-face-bold')
3005 *** `x-make-font-italic' and `x-make-font-oblique' (`make-face-italic')
3006 *** `x-make-font-bold-italic' (`make-face-bold-italic')
3007 *** `x-make-font-unbold' (`make-face-unbold')
3008 *** `x-make-font-unitalic' (`make-face-unitalic')
3009 *** `mldrag-drag-mode-line' (`mouse-drag-mode-line')
3010 *** `mldrag-drag-vertical-line' (`mouse-drag-vertical-line')
3011 *** `iswitchb-default-keybindings' (`iswitchb-mode')
3012 *** `char-bytes' (== 1)
3013 *** `isearch-return-char' (`isearch-printing-char')
3014 *** `make-local-hook' (not needed)
3015 *** `set-screen-height' (`set-frame-height')
3016 *** `set-screen-width' (`set-frame-width')
3017
3018 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed
3019 (the appropriate new variable is given in parentheses):
3020
3021 *** `checkdoc-minor-keymap' (`checkdoc-minor-mode-map')
3022 *** `vc-header-alist' (`vc-BACKEND-header')
3023 *** `directory-sep-char' (== ?/)
3024 *** `font-lock-defaults-alist' (`font-lock-defaults')
3025 *** `e' (`float-e').
3026
3027 ** The following obsolete files were removed:
3028 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
3029
3030 ** The format of the finder-inf.el file has changed, since the Finder
3031 mechanism is now based on the package system. The variable
3032 `finder-package-info' is replaced by `package--builtins' and
3033 `finder-keywords-hash'.
3034
3035 ** When generating autoloads, `update-directory-autoloads' no longer
3036 assumes every inspected file is in your `load-path'. It instead
3037 generates relative names according to the current `load-path'.
3038
3039 \f
3040 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
3041
3042 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
3043 The `lexical-binding' variable enables lexical scoping for local
3044 variables. It is typically set via a file-local variable in the first
3045 line of the file, in which case it applies to all the code in that
3046 file.
3047
3048 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
3049 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
3050
3051 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
3052 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
3053
3054 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
3055
3056 *** `defvar' and `defconst' now mark the variable as special (dynamic).
3057 So do `defcustom' and other forms that call `defvar' as a subroutine.
3058
3059 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
3060 declared as dynamically bound.
3061
3062 *** The form ((lambda ...) ...) is deprecated.
3063
3064 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
3065 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
3066 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
3067
3068 ** Changes for bidirectional display and editing
3069
3070 *** New function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction'.
3071 This returns the base direction of the paragraph at point.
3072
3073 *** New function `bidi-string-mark-left-to-right'.
3074 Given a string containing characters from right-to-left scripts, this
3075 function returns another string which can be safely inserted into a
3076 buffer, such that any following text will be always displayed to the
3077 right of that string. (This works by appending an invisible Unicode
3078 "LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK" character if the argument string might need it.)
3079
3080 This is useful when the buffer has overall left-to-right paragraph
3081 direction and you need to insert a string whose contents are not known
3082 in advance, without disrupting the layout of the line.
3083
3084 ** Window changes
3085
3086 *** Window tree functions are accessible in Elisp.
3087 Functions are provided to return the parent, siblings or child windows
3088 of any window including internal windows (windows not associated with a
3089 buffer) in the window tree.
3090
3091 **** New function `window-valid-p' gives non-nil for live and internal
3092 windows.
3093
3094 **** Window manipulation can deal with internal windows.
3095 Many window handling functions like `split-window', `delete-window', or
3096 `delete-other-windows' as well as the window resizing functions can now
3097 act on any window including internal ones.
3098
3099 *** window-total-height/-width vs window-body-height/-width.
3100 The function `window-height' has been renamed to `window-total-height'
3101 and `window-width' has been renamed to `window-body-width'. The old
3102 names are provided as aliases. Two new functions `window-total-width'
3103 and `window-body-height' are provided.
3104
3105 *** Window parameters specific to window handling functions.
3106 For each window you can specify a parameter to override the default
3107 behavior of a number of functions like `split-window', `delete-window'
3108 and `delete-other-windows'. The variable `ignore-window-parameters'
3109 allows to ignore processing such parameters.
3110
3111 *** New semantics of third argument of `split-window'.
3112 The third argument of `split-window' has been renamed to SIDE and can be
3113 set to any of the values 'below, 'right, 'above, or 'left to make the
3114 new window appear on the corresponding side of the window that shall be
3115 split. Any other value of SIDE will cause `split-window' to split the
3116 window into two side-by-side windows as before.
3117
3118 *** Window resizing functions.
3119 A new standard function for resizing windows called `window-resize' has
3120 been introduced. This and all other functions for resizing windows no
3121 longer delete any windows when they become too small.
3122
3123 *** Deleting the selected window now selects the most recently selected
3124 live window on that frame instead.
3125
3126 *** `adjust-window-trailing-edge' adjustments.
3127 `adjust-window-trailing-edge' can now deal with fixed-size windows and
3128 is able to resize other windows if a window adjacent to the trailing
3129 edge cannot be shrunk any more. This makes its behavior more similar to
3130 that of Emacs 21 without compromising, however, its inability to delete
3131 windows which was introduced in Emacs 22.
3132
3133 *** Window-local buffer lists.
3134 Windows now have local buffer lists. This means that removing a buffer
3135 from display in a window will preferably show the buffer previously
3136 shown in that window with its previous window-start and window-point
3137 positions. This also means that the same buffer may be automatically
3138 shown twice even if it already appears in another window.
3139
3140 *** `switch-to-buffer' has a new optional argument FORCE-SAME-WINDOW,
3141 which if non-nil requires the buffer to be displayed in the currently
3142 selected window, signaling an error otherwise. If nil, another window
3143 can be used, e.g. if the selected one is strongly dedicated.
3144
3145 *** `split-window-vertically' and `split-window-horizontally' renamed
3146 to `split-window-below' and `split-window-right' respectively.
3147 The old names are kept as aliases.
3148
3149 *** Display actions
3150
3151 **** The second arg to `display-buffer' and `pop-to-buffer' is now
3152 named ACTION, and takes a display action of the same form as
3153 `display-buffer-base-action' (see Changes, above). A non-nil,
3154 non-list value is treated specially, as the old meaning.
3155
3156 **** New variable `display-buffer-overriding-action'.
3157
3158 **** The procedure of `display-buffer' etc. to choose a window is
3159 determined by combining `display-buffer-overriding-action',
3160 `display-buffer-alist', the ACTION arg, `display-buffer-base-action',
3161 and `display-buffer-fallback-action'. The second and fourth of these
3162 are user-customizable variables.
3163
3164 See the docstring of `display-buffer' for details.
3165
3166 *** New functions `window-state-get' and `window-state-put'.
3167 These functions allow to save and restore the state of an arbitrary
3168 frame or window as an Elisp object.
3169
3170 ** Completion
3171
3172 *** New variable `completion-extra-properties' used to specify extra
3173 properties of the current completion:
3174 - :annotate-function, same as the old completion-annotate-function.
3175 - :exit-function, function to call after completion took place.
3176
3177 *** Functions on `completion-at-point-functions' can return any of the
3178 properties valid for `completion-extra-properties'.
3179
3180 *** `completion-annotate-function' is obsolete.
3181
3182 *** New `metadata' method for completion tables. The metadata thus returned
3183 can specify various details of the data returned by `all-completions':
3184 - `category' is the kind of objects returned (e.g., `buffer', `file', ...),
3185 used to select a style in completion-category-overrides.
3186 - `annotation-function' to add annotations in *Completions*.
3187 - `display-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries in *Completions*.
3188 - `cycle-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries when cycling.
3189
3190 *** `minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map' is not used any more.
3191 Instead, the bindings in `minibuffer-local-filename-completion-map'
3192 are combined with `minibuffer-local-must-match-map'.
3193
3194 *** New variable `completing-read-function' allows overriding the
3195 behavior of `completing-read'.
3196
3197 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
3198 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
3199
3200 ** `pre-command-hook'/`post-command-hook' are not reset to nil on error.
3201 Instead, the offending function is removed.
3202
3203 ** New hook types
3204
3205 *** New function `run-hook-wrapped' for running an abnormal hook by
3206 passing the hook functions as arguments to a "wrapping" function.
3207 Like `run-hook-with-args-until-success', it stops at the first
3208 non-nil return value.
3209
3210 *** New macro `with-wrapper-hook' for running an abnormal hook as a
3211 set of "wrapping" filters, similar to around advice.
3212 (A version of this macro was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not
3213 advertised at the time.)
3214
3215 ** Debugger changes
3216
3217 *** New macro `condition-case-unless-debug' (this was actually added in
3218 Emacs 23.1 as condition-case-no-debug, but not advertised)
3219
3220 *** The macro `with-demoted-errors' was added in Emacs 23.1, but not advertised.
3221
3222 *** Variable `stack-trace-on-error' removed.
3223
3224 *** The debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will
3225 jump to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked
3226 instead of jumping all the way to the top-level.
3227
3228 *** Set `debug-on-event' to enter the debugger on events like SIGUSR1.
3229 This can be useful when `inhibit-quit' is set.
3230
3231 ** The new function `server-eval-at' allows evaluation of Lisp forms on
3232 named Emacs server instances.
3233
3234 ** `call-process' and `call-process-region' allow a `(:file "file")' spec
3235 to redirect STDOUT to a file.
3236
3237 ** The function `format-time-string' now supports the %N directive,
3238 for higher-resolution time stamps.
3239
3240 ** New input reading functions
3241
3242 *** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of
3243 characters, discarding any inputs not inside the set.
3244
3245 *** The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name
3246 or RGB triplet, instead of signaling an error if the user provides
3247 invalid input.
3248
3249 **** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
3250
3251 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
3252 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
3253 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
3254 obsolete alias.
3255
3256 ** Syntax parsing changes
3257
3258 *** New variable `syntax-propertize-function'.
3259 This replaces `font-lock-syntactic-keywords' which is now obsolete.
3260 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
3261 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
3262 Together with this new variable come a new hook
3263 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
3264 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
3265 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
3266 syntactic rules.
3267
3268 *** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
3269
3270 ** New hook `post-self-insert-hook', run after `self-insert-command'.
3271
3272 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
3273
3274 ** Major and minor mode changes
3275
3276 *** `set-auto-mode' now respects mode: local variables at the end of files,
3277 as well as those in the -*- line.
3278
3279 *** `prog-mode' is a new major mode from which programming modes
3280 should be derived.
3281
3282 **** `prog-mode-hook' can be used to enable features for programming
3283 modes, e.g. (add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'flyspell-prog-mode) to enable
3284 on-the-fly spell checking for comments and strings.
3285
3286 **** New minor modes `prettify-symbols-mode' and
3287 `global-prettify-symbols-mode' let the user enable symbol
3288 prettification (replacing a string like "lambda" with the Greek lambda
3289 character).
3290
3291 *** New hook `change-major-mode-after-body-hook', run by
3292 `run-mode-hooks' just before any other mode hooks.
3293
3294 *** Enabled globalized minor modes can be disabled in specific major modes.
3295 If the global mode is global-FOO-mode, then run (FOO-mode -1) in the
3296 major mode's hook, where FOO-mode toggles the mode on a per-buffer basis.
3297
3298 *** `define-minor-mode' accepts new keywords :variable, :after-hook.
3299
3300 ** File-handling changes
3301
3302 *** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
3303 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
3304 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
3305 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
3306
3307 *** New file predicates: `file-equal-p', `file-in-directory-p'.
3308
3309 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
3310 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
3311 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
3312
3313 ** Image API
3314
3315 *** Animated images support (currently animated gifs only).
3316
3317 **** `image-animated-p' returns non-nil if an image can be animated.
3318
3319 **** `image-animate' animates a supplied image spec.
3320
3321 **** `image-animate-timer' returns the timer object for an image that
3322 is being animated.
3323
3324 *** `image-extension-data' has been renamed to `image-metadata'.
3325 The old name is an obsolete alias to the new one.
3326
3327 *** Image mode can view any image type that ImageMagick supports.
3328 This requires Emacs to be built with ImageMagick support.
3329
3330 **** New function `imagemagick-types', defined if ImageMagick support
3331 is enabled, returns a list of image file extensions that your
3332 ImageMagick installation supports.
3333
3334 **** New function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick
3335 image types in Image mode and in `create-image' and other helper
3336 functions.
3337
3338 **** New option `imagemagick-types-inhibit' excludes certain
3339 ImageMagick image types from `imagemagick-register-types'.
3340
3341 **** With ImageMagick support, there are extra Image mode commands to
3342 resize and rotate images: `image-transform-fit-to-height',
3343 `image-transform-fit-to-width', `image-transform-set-rotation', and
3344 `image-transform-set-scale'.
3345
3346 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
3347 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
3348 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail. For
3349 example, this is used by Rmail to optionally delete a mail window.
3350
3351 ** XML and HTML parsing
3352 If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support, there are two new
3353 functions: `libxml-parse-html-region' (which parses "real world" HTML)
3354 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
3355 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
3356
3357 ** Networking and encryption changes
3358
3359 *** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
3360 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
3361 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
3362 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
3363 must also be supplied.
3364
3365 *** New library gnutls.el.
3366 The new function `gnutls-available-p' returns non-nil if Emacs is
3367 built with GnuTLS support. The main entry points are
3368 `open-gnutls-stream' and `gnutls-negotiate'. It's easiest to use
3369 these functions through `open-network-stream', because that can
3370 upgrade connections through STARTTLS opportunistically or use plain
3371 SSL, depending on your needs. For debugging, set `gnutls-log-level'
3372 greater than 0.
3373
3374 *** New primitive `secure-hash' that supports many secure hash algorithms:
3375 md5, sha1, sha2, sha224, sha256, sha384, and sha512. The lisp library
3376 sha1.el has been removed. The `sha1' feature is provided by default.
3377
3378 ** Isearch
3379
3380 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
3381
3382 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
3383 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
3384 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
3385 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
3386 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
3387 displayed with a "spinning bar".
3388
3389 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
3390 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
3391
3392 ** New variables `delayed-warnings-list' and `delayed-warnings-hook'.
3393 If delayed-warnings-list is non-nil, the command loop calls
3394 `delayed-warnings-hook' after `post-command-hook'. At present, this
3395 is only used by Emacs on some platforms to display warnings during
3396 startup, which might otherwise not be noticed. This uses the
3397 functions `display-delayed-warnings' and `collapse-delayed-warnings'.
3398
3399 ** rx.el has a new `group-n' construct for explicitly numbered groups.
3400
3401 ** New function `make-composed-keymap' that constructs a new keymap
3402 from multiple input maps. You can use this to make a keymap that
3403 inherits from multiple maps, eg:
3404 (set-keymap-parent newmap (make-composed-keymap othermap parent))
3405
3406 ** New function `string-prefix-p'.
3407 (This was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not advertised at the time.)
3408
3409 ** New reader macro ## that stands for the empty symbol.
3410 This means that the empty symbol can now be read back. Also, #: by itself
3411 (when not immediately followed by a possible symbol character) stands for
3412 an empty uninterned symbol.
3413
3414 ** New math functions `isnan', `copysign', `frexp', `ldexp'.
3415
3416 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
3417
3418 *** `tooltip-use-echo-area' is obsolete.
3419 Rather than setting this to t, disable Tooltip mode instead.
3420
3421 *** buffer-substring-filters is obsolete.
3422 Use `filter-buffer-substring-functions' instead.
3423
3424 *** `byte-compile-disable-print-circle' is obsolete.
3425
3426 *** `deferred-action-list' and `deferred-action-function' are obsolete.
3427 Use `post-command-hook' instead.
3428
3429 *** `font-lock-maximum-size' is obsolete.
3430
3431 \f
3432 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on Non-Free Operating Systems
3433
3434 ** On MS Windows, Emacs warns when using the obsolete init file _emacs,
3435 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
3436
3437 ** New configure.bat options
3438
3439 *** --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra runtime checks.
3440
3441 *** --distfiles specifies files to be included in binary distribution.
3442
3443 *** --without-gnutls disables automatic GnuTLS detection.
3444
3445 *** --lib for general library linkage, works with the USER_LIBS build variable.
3446
3447 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
3448
3449 ** The Lisp function `w32-default-color-map' is now obsolete.
3450 (It is only used internally in the Emacs C code.)
3451
3452 ** Customize ns-auto-hide-menu-bar to have the menu-bar hidden, but
3453 reappear on mouse-over. (Requires OS X 10.6 or later.)
3454
3455 ** On Mac OS X, dragging a file into Emacs visits the file, like on
3456 other platforms, rather than inserting its contents into the buffer.
3457
3458 \f
3459 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
3460 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
3461
3462 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
3463 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
3464 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
3465 (at your option) any later version.
3466
3467 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
3468 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
3469 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
3470 GNU General Public License for more details.
3471
3472 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
3473 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
3474
3475 \f
3476 Local variables:
3477 mode: outline
3478 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
3479 end: