Merge from emacs-23; up to 2010-06-03T22:16:02Z!dann@ics.uci.edu
[bpt/emacs.git] / etc / NEWS
1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2011 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
18 Temporary note:
19 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
20 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
21 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
22 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
23
24 \f
25 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
26
27 ** Configure links against libselinux if it is found.
28 You can disable this by using --without-selinux.
29
30 ---
31 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
32 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
33
34 ---
35 ** There are new configure options:
36 --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
37 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
38 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
39
40 ---
41 ** Emacs can be compiled against Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
42 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
43 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
44 --without-gconf.
45
46 ** There is a new configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
47 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
48 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
49
50 ---
51 ** New translation of the Emacs Tutorial in Hebrew is available
52 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
53 automatically select it.
54
55 \f
56 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
57
58 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
59 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
60 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
61
62 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
63 from load-path. -Q now implies this.
64
65 \f
66 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
67
68 ** emacsclient changes
69
70 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID can be used to open a
71 client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed. This works like the
72 --parent-id argument to Emacs.
73
74 +++
75 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
76
77 *** If emacsclient shuts down as a result of Emacs signalling an
78 error, its exit status is 1.
79
80 ** Completion can cycle, depending on completion-cycle-threshold.
81
82 ** auto-mode-case-fold is now enabled by default.
83
84 +++
85 ** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
86
87 See the node "Bidirectional Editing" in the Emacs Manual for some
88 initial documentation.
89
90 To turn this on in any given buffer, set the buffer-local variable
91 `bidi-display-reordering' to a non-nil value. The default is nil.
92
93 The buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction', if non-nil,
94 forces each paragraph in the buffer to have its base direction
95 according to the value of this variable. Possible values are
96 `right-to-left' and `left-to-right'. If the value is nil (the
97 default), Emacs determines the base direction of each paragraph from
98 its text, as specified by the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm.
99
100 The function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction' returns the actual
101 value of paragraph base direction at point.
102
103 Reordering of bidirectional text for display in Emacs is a "Full
104 bidirectionality" class implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional
105 Algorithm.
106
107 Note that some advanced display features, such as overlay strings and
108 `display' text properties, do not yet work correctly when
109 bidirectional text is reordered for display.
110
111 ** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
112 Use `set-scroll-bar-mode' to change this.
113
114 ** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
115 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose style. On a Gnome desktop, the default
116 is taken from the desktop settings.
117
118 ** GTK tool bars can be placed on the left/right or top/bottom of the frame.
119 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the values
120 top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has entries
121 for this.
122
123 ** ImageMagick support.
124 It is now possible to use the ImageMagick library to load many new
125 image formats in Emacs. By default, Emacs links with the ImageMagick
126 libraries if they are present at build time. To disable this, use
127 the configure option `--without-imagemagick'.
128
129 The new function `imagemagick-types' returns a list of image file
130 extensions that your installation of ImageMagick supports. The
131 function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick support for
132 these image types, minus those listed in `imagemagick-types-inhibit'.
133
134 See the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual for more information.
135
136 ** The colors for selected text (the region face) are taken from the GTK
137 theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
138
139 ** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK. You can turn that
140 off by customizing x-gtk-use-system-tooltips.
141
142 ** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is built
143 with Xft. To change font, use the X resource font, for example:
144 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
145
146 +++
147 ** Enhanced support for characters that have no glyphs in available fonts
148 If a character has no glyphs in any of the available fonts, Emacs by
149 default will display it either as a hexadecimal code in a box or as a
150 thin 1-pixel space. In addition to these two methods, Emacs can
151 display these characters as empty box, as an acronym, or not display
152 them at all. To change how these characters are displayed, customize
153 the variable `glyphless-char-display-control'.
154
155 On character terminals these methods are used for characters that
156 cannot be encoded by the `terminal-coding-system'.
157
158 ** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
159
160 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
161 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
162
163 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up, and
164 optionally when copying files. To this end, copy-file has an extra
165 optional argument, and backup-buffer and friends include the SELinux
166 context in their return values.
167
168 *** The new functions file-selinux-context and set-file-selinux-context
169 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
170
171 *** Tramp offers handlers for file-selinux-context and set-file-selinux-context
172 for remote machines which support SELinux.
173
174 +++
175 ** The function format-time-string now supports the %N directive, for
176 higher-resolution time stamps.
177
178 ** The function kill-emacs is now run upon receipt of the signals SIGTERM
179 and SIGHUP, and upon SIGINT in batch mode.
180
181 ** kill-emacs-hook is now also run in batch mode.
182 If you have code that adds something to kill-emacs-hook, you should
183 consider if it is still appropriate to add it in the noninteractive case.
184
185 ** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
186 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) does not signal errors at top/bottom
187 of buffer at first key-press (instead moves to top/bottom of buffer)
188 when a new variable `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
189
190 ** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
191 scroll a line instead of full screen.
192
193 ** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
194 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
195
196 ** Trash changes
197
198 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
199 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
200
201 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
202 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
203
204 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
205 for `list-colors-display'.
206
207 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
208 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
209 from a package repository at elpa.gnu.org.
210
211 *** `M-x list-packages' shows a list of packages, which can be
212 selected for installation.
213
214 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
215
216 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded and activated
217 automatically when Emacs starts up. To disable this, set
218 `package-enable-at-startup' to nil. To change which packages are
219 loaded, customize `package-load-list'.
220
221 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
222 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
223 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
224
225 ** Custom Themes
226
227 *** `M-x customize-themes' lists Custom themes which can be enabled.
228
229 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
230 Emacs no longer looks for custom themes in `load-path'. The default
231 is to search in `custom-theme-directory', followed by a built-in theme
232 directory named "themes/" in `data-directory'.
233
234 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
235 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
236 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
237 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
238
239 ** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
240 the remote file-name cache is used for read access.
241
242 ** The standalone programs lib-src/digest-doc and sorted-doc have been
243 replaced with Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
244
245 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
246
247 \f
248 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
249
250 ** Search changes
251
252 +++
253 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to isearch-yank-kill, instead of
254 isearch-yank-line.
255
256 +++
257 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to isearch-yank-line.
258
259 +++
260 ** There is a new command `count-words-region', which does what you expect.
261
262 ** completion-at-point now handles tags and semantic completion.
263
264 ** The default value of `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' is now t.
265
266 ** The command `just-one-space' (C-SPC), if given a negative argument,
267 also deletes newlines around point.
268
269 ** Deletion changes
270
271 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
272 If non-nil, C-d, [delete], and DEL delete the region if it is active
273 and no prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', these commands
274 kill instead.
275
276 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to C-d and [delete].
277 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
278 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
279
280 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
281 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
282 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; you
283 should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
284
285 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
286
287 ** Selection changes.
288
289 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections was changed
290 to conform with modern X applications. In short, most commands for
291 killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while mouse commands
292 use the primary selection.
293
294 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
295 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
296
297 *** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
298 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
299 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
300 the kill-ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
301 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
302
303 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
304 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
305 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
306 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
307 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
308
309 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
310 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
311 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
312
313 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
314 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
315 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
316 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
317
318 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
319 exactly equivalent to, respectively M-w, C-w, and C-y.
320
321 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
322 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
323 between applications.
324
325 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
326
327 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
328 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
329 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
330 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
331
332 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
333
334 ** New command `rectangle-number-lines', bound to `C-x r N', numbers
335 the lines in the current rectangle. With an prefix argument, this
336 prompts for a number to count from and for a format string.
337
338 \f
339 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
340
341 ** The compile.el mode can be used without font-lock-mode.
342 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
343
344 ** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
345
346 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
347 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity, support for
348 more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
349
350 ** shell-mode can track your cwd by reading it from your prompt.
351 Just set shell-dir-cookie-re to an appropriate regexp.
352
353 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
354
355 ** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
356
357 ** FIXME: xdg-open for browse-url and reportbug, 2010/08.
358
359 ** Archive Mode has basic support to browse 7z archives.
360
361 ** browse-url has gotten a new variable that is used for mailto: URLs,
362 `browse-url-mailto-function', which defaults to `browse-url-mail'.
363
364 ** Directory local variables can apply to file-less buffers, in certain modes
365 (eg dired, vc-dir, log-edit). For example, adding
366 "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to your .dir-locals.el file,
367 will turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should
368 call `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
369
370 +++
371 ** You can prevent directory local variables from applying to subdirectories.
372 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
373 settings to indicate said section should not be applied to subdirectories.
374
375 ** ERC changes
376
377 *** New vars `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay'.
378 If the value of `erc-autojoin-timing' is 'ident, ERC autojoins after a
379 successful NickServ identification, or after `erc-autojoin-delay'
380 seconds. The default value, 'ident, means to autojoin immediately
381 after connecting.
382
383 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
384 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
385 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
386 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
387
388 ** Eshell changes
389
390 *** The default value of eshell-directory-name is a directory named
391 "eshell" in `user-emacs-directory'. If the old "~/.eshell/" directory
392 exists, that is used instead.
393
394 ** In ido-mode, C-v is no longer bound to ido-toggle-vc.
395 The reason is that this interferes with cua-mode.
396
397 ** partial-completion-mode is now obsolete.
398 You can get a comparable behavior with:
399 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
400 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
401
402 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
403
404 ** server can listen on a specific port using the server-port option.
405
406 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
407
408 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
409
410 ---
411 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt package
412 by adding appt-make-list to diary-hook has been removed. Use appt-activate.
413
414 ---
415 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
416 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
417 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
418
419 ---
420 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
421 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
422
423 ** Customize
424
425 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
426 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
427 To turn off the search field, set custom-search-field to nil.
428
429 *** Custom options now start out hidden if at their default values.
430 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
431
432 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
433
434 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
435 choose a color via list-colors-display.
436
437 ** Dired-x
438
439 *** dired-jump and dired-jump-other-window called with a prefix argument
440 read a file name from the minibuffer instead of using buffer-file-name.
441
442 +++
443 *** The `dired local variables' feature provided by Dired-x is obsolete.
444 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
445
446 ** SQL Mode enhancements.
447
448 *** `sql-dialect' is a synonym for `sql-product'.
449
450 *** Added ability to login with a port on MySQL and Postgres.
451 The custom variable `sql-port' can be specified for connection to
452 MySQL or Postgres servers. By default, the port is not listed in
453 either login parameter, but will be added to the command line if set
454 to a non-zero value.
455
456 *** Dynamic selection of product in an SQL interactive session.
457 If you use `sql-product-interactive' to start an SQL interactive
458 session it uses the current value of `sql-product'. Preceding the
459 invocation with C-u will force it to ask for the product before
460 creating the session.
461
462 *** Renaming a SQL interactive buffer when it is created.
463 Prefixing the SQL interactive commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres',
464 `sql-mysql', etc.) with C-u will force a new interactive session to be
465 started and will prompt for the new name. This will reduce the need
466 for `sql-rename-buffer' is most common use cases.
467
468 *** Command continuation prompts in SQL interactive mode are suppressed.
469 Multiple line commands in SQL interactive mode, generate command
470 continuation prompts which needlessly confuse the output. These
471 prompts are now filtered out from the output. This change impacts
472 multiple line SQL statements entered with C-j between each line,
473 statements yanked into the buffer and statements sent with
474 `sql-send-*' functions.
475
476 *** Custom variables control prompting for login parameters.
477 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params'
478 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
479 connection is established.
480
481 The lists consist of the following five tokens: `user', `password',
482 `database', `server', and `port'. The order in which they appear is
483 the order in which they are prompted. The tokens symbols can be
484 replaced by a sublist starting with the token and followed by a plist
485 which control the prompting for values. The tokens `user',
486 `database', and `server' each can take a property of :default which
487 specifies the value to be used if no value is entered. The
488 `database', `server', and `port' tokens handle the :completion
489 property which restricts the entry to either one of the values in the
490 list or to one of the values returned by the function provided as the
491 property value. The `database' and `server' tokens also accept the
492 :file property whose value is a regexp to identify useful file names.
493
494 (user :default DEF)
495 (database :default DEF
496 :file FILEPAT
497 :completion COMPLETE)
498 (server :default DEF
499 :file FILEPAT
500 :completion COMPLETE)
501
502 The FILEPAT when :file is specified is a regexp that will match valid
503 file names (without the directory portion). Generally these strings
504 will be of the form ".+\.SUF" where SUF is the desired file suffix.
505
506 When :completion is specified, the COMPLETE corresponds to the
507 PREDICATE argument to the `completing-read' function (a list of
508 possible values or a function returning such a list).
509
510 *** Added `sql-connection-alist' to record login parameter values.
511 An alist for recording different username, database and server
512 values. If there are multiple databases that you connect to the
513 parameters needed can be stored in this alist.
514
515 For example, the following might be set in the user's init.el:
516
517 (setq sql-connection-alist
518 '((dev (sql-product 'sqlite)
519 (sql-database "/home/mmaug/dev.db"))
520 (prd (sql-product 'oracle)
521 (sql-user "mmaug")
522 (sql-database "iprd2a"))))
523
524 This defines two connections named "dev" and "prd".
525
526 *** Added `sql-connect' to use predefined connections.
527 Sets the login parameters based on the values in the
528 `sql-connection-alist' and start a SQL interactive session. Any
529 values specified in the connection will not be prompted for.
530
531 In the example above, if the user were to invoke M-x sql-connect, they
532 would be prompted for the connection. The user can respond with
533 either "dev" or "prd". The "dev" connection would connect to the
534 SQLite database without prompting; the "prd" connection would prompt
535 for the users password and then connect to the Oracle database.
536
537 **** Added SQL->Start... submenu when connections are defined.
538 When connections have been defined, there is a submenu available that
539 allows the user to select one to start a SQLi session. The "Start
540 SQLi Session" item moves to the "Start..." submenu when cnnections
541 have been defined.
542
543 **** Added "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
544 When a SQLi session is not started by a connection then
545 `sql-save-connection' will gather the login params specified for the
546 session and save them as a new connection.
547
548 *** List database objects and details.
549 Once a SQL interactive session has been started, you can get a list of
550 the objects in the database and see details of those objects. The
551 objects shown and the details available are product specific.
552
553 **** List all objects.
554 Using `M-x sql-list-all', `C-c C-l a' or selecting "SQL->List all
555 objects" will list all the objects in the database. At a minimum it
556 lists the tables and views in the database. Preceding the command by
557 universal argument may provide additional details or extend the
558 listing to include other schemas objects. The list will appear in a
559 separate window in view-mode.
560
561 **** List Table details.
562 Using `M-x sql-list-table', `C-c C-l t' or selecting "SQL->List Table
563 details" will ask for the name of a database table or view and display
564 the list of columns in the relation. Preceding the command with the
565 universal argument may provide additional details about each column.
566 The list will appear in a separate window in view-mode.
567
568 *** Added option `sql-send-terminator'.
569 When set makes sure that each command sent with `sql-send-*' commands
570 are properly terminated and submitted to the SQL processor.
571
572 *** Added option `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
573 When set commands sent to Oracle's SQL*Plus are scanned for strings
574 starting with an ampersand and the user is asked for replacement text.
575 In general, the SQL*Plus option SCAN should always be set OFF under
576 SQL interactive mode and this option used in its place.
577
578 *** SQL interactive mode will replace tabs with spaces.
579 This prevents the command interpreter for MySQL and Postgres from
580 listing object name completions when being sent text via
581 `sql-send-*' functions.
582
583 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
584
585 ** sregex.el is now obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
586
587 ** s-region.el and pc-select are now declared obsolete,
588 superseded by shift-select-mode enabled by default in 23.1.
589 ** pc-mode.el is also declared obsolete.
590 ** gdb-mi
591
592 *** GDB User Interface migrated to GDB Machine Interface and now
593 supports multithread non-stop debugging and debugging of several
594 threads simultaneously.
595
596 ** D-Bus
597
598 *** It is possible now, to access alternative buses than the default
599 system or session bus.
600
601 *** dbus-register-{service,method,property}
602 The -method and -property functions do not automatically register
603 names anymore.
604
605 The new function dbus-register-service registers a service known name
606 on a D-Bus without simultaneously registering a property or a method.
607
608 ** Tramp
609
610 *** There exists a new inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
611
612 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
613 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
614
615 ** VC and related modes
616
617 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
618 The vc-pull command runs a "pull" operation, if it is supported.
619 This updates the current branch from upstream. A prefix argument
620 means to prompt the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
621
622 **** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
623
624 **** Currently supported by Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
625
626 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
627 The vc-merge command now runs a "merge" operation, if it is supported.
628 This merges another branch into the current one. This command prompts
629 the user for specifics, e.g. a merge source.
630
631 **** Currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
632
633 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
634 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
635 In the Log View buffers made by `C-x v L' (vc-print-root-log), you can
636 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
637
638 **** Currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
639
640 **** Packages using Log View mode can enable this functionality by
641 binding `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function' to a suitable function.
642
643 ** Miscellaneous
644
645 ---
646 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
647
648 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
649
650 \f
651 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
652
653 ** New global minor modes electric-pair-mode, electric-indent-mode,
654 and electric-layout-mode.
655
656 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
657
658 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
659 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
660 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
661 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
662 secrets.
663
664 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
665 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
666
667 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
668 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
669
670 ** xmodmap-generic-mode for xmodmap files.
671
672 \f
673 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
674
675 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
676 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
677 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
678 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
679
680 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
681 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
682 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail.
683 This is currently used by Rmail to delete a mail window.
684
685 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
686 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
687 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
688 of the header line.
689
690 ** Remove obsolete name `e' (use `float-e' instead).
691
692 ** A backquote not followed by a space is now always treated as new-style.
693
694 ** Test for special mode-class was moved from view-file to view-buffer.
695 FIXME: This only says what was changed, but not what are the
696 programmer-visible consequences.
697
698 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function now turns the mode
699 ON unconditionally.
700
701 ** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
702 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and
703 `initial-frame-alist'. With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame'
704 checks the value of the variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to
705 determine whether to create a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively.
706 If the alist entries are added, they override the value of
707 `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
708
709 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
710 similar to the ones created by shift-selection. In previous Emacs
711 versions, these regions were delineated by `mouse-drag-overlay', which
712 has now been removed.
713
714 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
715
716 ** The following functions and aliases, obsolete since at least Emacs 21.1,
717 have been removed:
718 comint-kill-output, decompose-composite-char, outline-visible,
719 internal-find-face, internal-get-face, frame-update-faces,
720 frame-update-face-colors, x-frob-font-weight, x-frob-font-slant,
721 x-make-font-bold, x-make-font-demibold, x-make-font-unbold
722 x-make-font-italic, x-make-font-oblique, x-make-font-unitalic
723 x-make-font-bold-italic, mldrag-drag-mode-line, mldrag-drag-vertical-line,
724 iswitchb-default-keybindings, char-bytes, isearch-return-char,
725 make-local-hook
726
727 ** The following variables and aliases, obsolete since at least Emacs 21.1,
728 have been removed:
729 checkdoc-minor-keymap, vc-header-alist, directory-sep-char,
730 font-lock-defaults-alist
731
732 ** The following files, obsolete since at least Emacs 21.1, have been removed:
733 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
734
735 ** FIXME finder-inf.el changes.
736
737 \f
738 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.1
739
740 ** byte-compile-disable-print-circle is obsolete.
741 ** Removed the stack-trace-on-error variable.
742 Also the debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will jump
743 to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked instead of
744 jumping all the way to the top-level.
745
746 ** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of characters,
747 discarding any inputs not inside the set.
748
749 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
750 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
751 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
752 obsolete alias.
753
754 ** New variable syntax-propertize-function to set syntax-table properties.
755 Replaces font-lock-syntactic-keywords which are now obsolete.
756 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
757 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
758 Together with this new variable come a new hook
759 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
760 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
761 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
762 syntactic rules.
763
764 ** New hook post-self-insert-hook run at the end of self-insert-command.
765
766 +++
767 ** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
768 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
769 ** prog-mode is a new major-mode meant to be the parent of programming mode.
770 ** define-minor-mode accepts a new keyword :variable.
771
772 ** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
773 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
774 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
775 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
776
777 ** buffer-substring-filters is obsoleted by filter-buffer-substring-functions.
778
779 ** New completion style `substring'.
780
781 ** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
782 The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name or RGB
783 triplet, instead of signalling an error if the user provides a invalid
784 input.
785
786 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
787 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
788 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
789
790 ** Image API
791
792 *** When the image type is one of listed in `image-animated-types'
793 and the number of sub-images in the image is more than one, then the
794 new function `create-animated-image' creates an animated image where
795 sub-images are displayed successively with the duration defined by
796 `image-animate-max-time' and the delay between sub-images defined
797 by the Graphic Control Extension of the image.
798
799 *** `image-extension-data' is renamed to `image-metadata'.
800
801 ** XML and HTML parsing
802
803 *** If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support (which is the default),
804 two new Emacs Lisp-level functions are defined:
805 `libxml-parse-html-region' (which will parse "real world" HTML)
806 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
807 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
808
809 FIXME: These should be front-ended by xml.el.
810
811 ** FIXME GnuTLS
812
813 ** Isearch
814
815 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
816
817 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
818 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
819 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
820 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
821 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
822 displayed with a "spinning bar".
823
824 \f
825 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on non-free operating systems
826
827 ** New configure.bat option --enable-checking builds emacs with extra
828 runtime checks.
829
830 ** New configure.bat option --distfiles to specify files to be
831 included in binary distribution
832
833 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows
834
835 \f
836 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
837 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
838
839 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
840 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
841 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
842 (at your option) any later version.
843
844 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
845 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
846 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
847 GNU General Public License for more details.
848
849 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
850 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
851
852 \f
853 Local variables:
854 mode: outline
855 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
856 end: