1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
3 Copyright (C) 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 23.
11 See files NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18, and NEWS.1-17
12 for changes in older Emacs versions.
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.
18 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
19 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
20 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
21 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
24 * About external Lisp packages
27 * Installation Changes in Emacs 23.1
29 ** The default X toolkit is now Gtk+, rather than Lucid.
30 The configure option `--with-gtk' has been removed. Gtk is now the
31 default toolkit, but you can use --with-x-toolkit=gtk if necessary.
34 Fonts are handled by new code capable of dealing with multiple font
35 backends. This uses the freetype and fontconfig libraries.
37 *** Emacs now accepts font names supplied in the fontconfig format
38 (e.g. "monospace-12:bold") and GTK format (e.g. "Monospace Bold 12").
40 *** Added support for local fonts (fonts installed on the machine
41 where Emacs is running).
43 *** Added support for the Xft library for antialiasing.
45 *** Added support for the otf library for complex text layout by
48 *** Added support for the m17n library for text shaping.
50 ** Changes to image support
52 *** configure now checks for libgif before libungif when searching for
55 *** Emacs now supports the SVG image format through librsvg2.
57 ** The Mac Carbon port is no longer supported.
58 Instead, use... [FIXME what?]
60 ** The new configuration option "--with-dbus" enables D-Bus language
63 ** Support for many obsolete platforms has been removed.
64 See the list at the end of etc/MACHINES for details.
66 *** Support for systems without alloca has been removed.
68 *** Support for Sun windows has been removed.
70 *** The `emacstool' utility has been removed.
73 ** The configure options `--with-gcc', `--without-gcc' have been removed.
74 Configure will use gcc by default. Set the CC environment variable if
75 you need control over which C compiler is used.
77 ** The refcards are now shipped as PDF files.
80 ** Emacs 23 comes with a new set of default icons.
81 Various resolutions are available as etc/images/icons/hicolor/*/apps/emacs.png.
82 The Emacs 22 icon is available as `emacs22.png' in the same location.
84 * Changes in Emacs 23.1
86 ** `where-is-preferred-modifier' can specify your favorite modifier.
88 ** Improved X Window System support
90 *** Emacs now supports using both X displays and ttys in one session.
91 With an Emacs server active (M-x server-start), `emacsclient -t'
92 creates a tty frame connected to the running emacs server. You can
93 use any number of different ttys. `emacsclient -c' creates a new X11
94 frame on the current $DISPLAY (or a tty frame if $DISPLAY is not set).
96 You can test for the presence of this feature in your Lisp code by
97 testing for the `multi-tty' feature.
99 **** Emacsclient can now open new terminal frames.
100 Now, the default behavior is to open a new Emacs frame by default.
101 Use the -c option to get the old behavior of opening files in the
102 currently selected Emacs frame.
104 *** The new command close-display-connection closes a connection to a
107 *** Emacs now supports the XEmbed specification.
108 You can embed Emacs in another application on X11. The new command line
109 option --parent-id is used to pass the parent window id to Emacs. See
110 http://standards.freedesktop.org/xembed-spec/xembed-spec-latest.html
111 for details about XEmbed.
113 *** Emacs can now set the frame opacity.
114 The opacity of a frame can be controlled by setting the `alpha' frame
115 parameter. This only takes effect on a compositing window manager for
116 the X Window System, such as Compiz, Beryl and Compiz Fusion, or on
117 Windows 2000 and later versions of Windows.
119 The alpha parameter should be an integer between 0 (transparent) and
120 100 (opaque), or a float number between 0.0 and 1.0. It can also be a
121 cons cell (ACTIVE . INACTIVE), where ACTIVE is the opacity of an
122 active frame and INACTIVE is the opactity of non-active frames.
124 The variable `frame-alpha-lower-limit' defines a lower bound for the
125 opacity; the default is 20.
127 ** Internationalization changes
129 *** The Emacs character set is now a superset of Unicode.
130 (It has about four times the code space, which should be plenty).
132 The internal encoding used for buffers and strings is now
133 Unicode-based and called `utf-8-emacs'. This encoding is backwards
134 compatible with Unicode's UTF-8 encoding. The internal encoding
135 previously used by Emacs, `emacs-mule', is still available.
137 During byte-compilation, Emacs 23 uses `utf-8-emacs' to write files.
138 As a result, byte-compiled files containing non-ASCII characters can't
139 be read by earlier versions of Emacs. Files compiled by Emacs 20, 21,
140 or 22 are loaded correctly as emacs-mule (whether or not they contain
141 multibyte characters). This takes somewhat more time, so it may be
142 worth recompiling existing .elc files which don't need to be shared
145 *** There are new coding systems/aliases; see M-x list-coding-systems.
147 *** There is a new charset implementation with many new charsets.
148 See M-x list-character-sets. New charsets can be defined conveniently
149 as tables of unicodes.
151 **** The dimension of a charset is now 1, 2, 3, or 4, and the size of
152 each dimension is no longer limited to 94 or 96.
154 **** A dynamic charset priority list is used to infer the charset of
155 characters for display.
157 *** There are new language environments for Chinese-GBK,
158 Chinese-GB18030, Khmer, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Oriya, Telugu,
159 Sinhala, and TaiViet.
161 *** The minor modes unify-8859-on-encoding-mode and
162 unify-8859-on-decoding-mode are obsolete.
164 ** Emacs now supports serial port access on GNU/Linux, Unix, and
165 Windows. The new command `serial-term' starts an interactive terminal
166 on a serial port. The serial port can be configured at runtime with
167 the mode-line mouse menu.
171 *** In the Options menu, the "Set Default Font" item applies the
172 selected font to the `default' face on all frames, not just the
173 current frame. Furthermore, if Emacs is compiled with both GTK and
174 Fontconfig support, the "Set Default Font" item uses the GTK font
175 selection dialog instead of an Emacs pop-up menu.
177 *** The font setting chosen by "Set Default Font" is saved if the
178 "Save Options" item is used.
180 *** The Tools menu contains a new Encryption/Decryption submenu.
181 This contains commands provided by EasyPG, the newly-included
182 interface to GnuPG (see New Modes and Packages).
184 *** In the Options menu, the "Truncate Long Lines in the Buffer" entry
185 has been replaced with a submenu offering three different ways to
186 handle long lines: truncation, continuation at the window edge, and
187 the new word wrapping option (see Editing Changes, below).
191 *** The mode-line displays a `@', instead of `-', if the
192 default-directory for the current buffer is on a remote machine.
194 *** The mode-line displays a mode menu when mouse-1 is clicked on a
195 minor mode, in the same way as it already did for major modes.
197 *** The `mode-line-emphasis' face is used to highlight certain
198 mode-line information (e.g. waiting for a VC command to finish).
200 ** Directory-local variables can now be defined.
201 By default, Emacs looks in .dir-settings.el for directory-local
202 variables. For more information, see `set-directory-project' and
203 `define-project-bindings'.
206 * Startup Changes in Emacs 23.1
209 ** The option `inhibit-startup-screen' (with aliases to old names
210 `inhibit-splash-screen' and `inhibit-startup-message') doesn't inhibit
211 display of the initial message in the *scratch* buffer. If you don't
212 want to display the initial message in the *scratch* buffer at startup,
213 you can set the option `initial-scratch-message' to nil.
215 ** New user option `initial-buffer-choice' specifies what to display
216 after starting Emacs: startup screen, *scratch* buffer, visiting a
219 ** New alias `argv' for `command-line-args-left'
220 This is a convenience alias, so that one can write `(pop argv)'
221 inside of --eval command line arguments in order to access
224 ** The abbrev file is no longer read at startup in batch mode.
226 * Incompatible Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
229 ** In Dired-x, all command guesses for ! are now added to the default
230 list accessible by M-n instead of pushing all guesses temporarily into
234 ** The following input methods were removed in Emacs 22.2, but this was
235 not advertised: danish-alt-postfix, esperanto-alt-postfix,
236 finnish-alt-postfix, german-alt-postfix, icelandic-alt-postfix,
237 norwegian-alt-postfix, scandinavian-alt-postfix, spanish-alt-postfix,
238 and swedish-alt-postfix. Use the versions without "alt-", which are
242 * Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
244 ** The C-n and C-p line-motion commands now move by screen lines,
245 taking continued lines and variable-width characters into account.
246 Setting `line-move-visual' to nil reverts this to the previous
247 behavior (motion by logical lines based on buffer contents alone).
249 ** C-x C-c now invokes `save-buffers-kill-terminal', and C-z now
250 invokes `suspend-frame'. This change is for compatibility with the
251 new multi-tty support (see `Improved X Window System support' above).
255 *** Transient Mark mode is now on by default.
257 *** mark-even-if-inactive now defaults to t
259 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, C-SPC C-SPC pushes a mark without
262 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-q now fills the region if the
263 region is active. Otherwise, it fills the current paragraph.
265 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-$ now checks spelling of the
266 region if the region is active. Otherwise, it checks spelling of the
268 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, TAB now indents the region if the
270 *** `use-empty-active-region' controls whether an empty active region
271 in Transient Mark mode should make commands operate on that empty
274 ** Temporarily active regions
276 *** The new variable shift-select-mode, non-nil by default, controls
277 shift-selection. When Shift Select mode is on, shift-translated
278 motion keys (e.g. S-left and S-down) activate and extend a temporary
279 region, similar to mouse-selection.
281 *** Temporarily active regions, created using shift-selection or
282 mouse-selection, are not necessarily deactivated in the next command.
283 They are only deactivated after point motion commands that are not
284 shift-translated, or after commands that would ordinarily deactivate
285 the mark in Transient Mark mode (e.g., any command that modifies the
288 ** Minibuffer changes
290 *** Operations like C-x b and C-x C-f, which use switch-to-buffer, do
291 not fail any more when used in a minibuffer or a dedicated window.
292 Instead, they fallback on using pop-to-buffer, which will use some
295 *** When M-n in the minibuffer reaches the end of the list of defaults,
296 it adds the completion list to the end, so next M-n continues putting
297 completion items to the minibuffer. The same principle applies to
298 incremental search commands as well: C-s or C-M-s starts searching
299 the default values and after the end of defaults they continue
300 searching minibuffer completion items.
302 *** Minibuffer input of shell commands now comes with completion.
304 *** In the `C-x d' (Dired) prompt, typing M-n gives the visited file
305 name of the current buffer.
307 *** In the M-! (shell-command) prompt, M-n provides some default commands.
308 These are guessed using the file extension of the current file, based
309 on the file-handlers specified in the operating system's `mailcap'
310 file. The ! command in Dired (dired-do-shell-command) works
311 similarly, using the file displayed on the current line.
313 *** A list of regexp default values is available via M-n for `occur',
314 `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many'. This list includes the active
315 region in transient-mark-mode, the word under the cursor, the last isearch
316 regexp, the last isearch string and the last replacement regexp.
318 *** isearch started in the minibuffer searches in the minibuffer history.
319 Reverse isearch commands (C-r, C-M-r) search in previous minibuffer
320 history elements, and forward isearch commands (C-s, C-M-s) search in
321 next history elements. When the reverse search reaches the first history
322 element, it wraps to the last history element, and the forward search
323 wraps to the first history element. When the search is terminated, the
324 history element containing the search string becomes the current.
328 *** S-down-mouse-1 now pops up a menu for changing the font and text
329 size of the default face in the current buffer. The face is changed
330 via face remapping (see below).
334 ** Primary selection changes
336 *** If `select-active-regions' is t, setting the mark automatically
337 makes the new region into the primary selection (for interaction with
338 other window applications). If you enable this, you might want to
339 bind `mouse-yank-primary' to Mouse-2.
341 *** You can disable kill ring commands from accessing the primary
342 selection by setting `x-select-enable-primary' to nil.
344 ** Completion changes
346 *** `completion-styles' can be customized to choose your favorite
349 *** The default completion styles include a form of partial-completion.
351 *** The new command `minibuffer-force-complete' chooses one of the
352 possible completions, rather than stopping at the common prefix.
354 *** `completion-auto-help' can be set to `lazy' to list the
355 completions only if you repeat the completion. This was already
356 supported in `partial-completion-mode'.
358 ** Continuation lines can be wrapped at word boundaries
359 (word-wrapping) instead of the right window edge. The new per-buffer
360 variable `word-wrap', if non-nil turns on word-wrapping. Word
361 wrapping does not take place if continuation lines are not shown,
362 e.g. if truncate-lines is non-nil.
364 ** Window management changes
366 *** truncate-partial-width-windows now accepts integer values, which
367 specify a minimum window width for partial-width windows, below which
368 lines are truncated. The default has been changed to 30.
370 *** The new command balance-windows-area balances windows both
371 vertically and horizontally.
373 ** Miscellaneous changes:
375 *** New keymap `search-map' bound to `M-s' provides global bindings
376 for search related commands: `M-s o' for `occur', `M-s h r' for
377 `highlight-regexp' and other hi-lock commands on the `M-s h' prefix.
379 *** C-l is bound to the new command recenter-top-bottom, rather than recenter.
380 This moves the current line to window center, top and bottom on
381 successive invokations.
383 *** scroll-preserve-screen-position also preserves the column position.
385 *** If `yank-pop-change-selection' is t, rotating the kill ring also
386 updates the selection or clipboard to the current yank, just as M-w
387 would do so with the text it copies to the kill ring.
390 *** C-M-% now shows replacement as it would look in the buffer, with
391 `\N' and `\&' substituted according to the match. Old behavior can be
392 restored by customizing `query-replace-show-replacement'.
394 *** The command shell prompts for the default directory, when it is
395 called with a prefix and the default directory is a remote file name.
396 This is because some file name handlers (like ange-ftp) are not able to
397 run processes remotely.
399 *** The new command kill-matching-buffers kills buffers whose name
402 *** The new commands `pp-macroexpand-expression' and
403 `pp-macroexpand-last-sexp' pretty-print macro expansions.
406 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
408 ** FIXME add details of new packages imported from lisp/gnus.
409 [Maybe some information from doc/misc/gnus-coding.texi can be reused]
411 ** Auto Composition Mode is a minor mode that composes characters
412 automatically when they are displayed. It is globally on by default.
413 It uses `auto-composition-function' (default `auto-compose-chars').
415 ** Bubbles, a new game, is similar to SameGame.
417 ** bug-reference.el provides clickable links to bug reports.
419 ** copyright.el provides utilities for updating copyright notices in files.
421 ** dbus.el provides D-Bus language bindings.
422 D-Bus is an inter-process communication mechanism for applications
423 residing on the same host. See the manual for details.
425 ** Doc View Mode allows viewing of PDF, PostScript and DVI documents.
426 One can also search for a regular expression in the document. For
427 details, see the commentary in doc-view.el.
429 ** EasyPG provides an interface to the GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG).
430 It includes a GnuPG keyring browser, cryptographic operations on
431 regions and files, and automatic encryption of *.gpg files. For
432 details, see the EasyPG Assistant User's Manual.
434 ** json.el is a library for parsing and generating JSON
435 (JavaScript Object Notation), a lightweight data-interchange format.
437 ** linum.el is a new minor mode to display line numbers for the
440 ** minibuffer-indicate-depth-mode shows the minibuffer depth in the prompt.
443 This is a new mode for editing XML documents. It allows a schema to
444 be associated with the XML document being edited, using Relax NG as
445 the schema language. The schema is used to provide two key features:
447 *** Continuous validation. nXML validates as you type, highlighting
448 any invalid parts of your document.
450 *** Completion. nXML can assist you in entering an element name,
451 attribute name or data value by using information about what is
452 allowed by the schema in that context.
454 ** proced.el provides a Dired-like interface for operating on processes.
455 Proced makes an Emacs buffer containing a listing of the current
456 processes (using ps(1)). You can use the normal Emacs commands to
457 move around in this buffer, and special Proced commands to operate on
458 the processes listed.
460 ** Remember Mode is a mode for jotting down things to remember.
461 Notes can be saved to a Diary file. For details, see the Remember
464 ** RST mode is a major mode for editing ReSTructured-Text files.
466 ** A new `whitespace' package has been installed, and the pre-existing one
467 renamed to `old-whitespace'.
468 [FIXME someone explain why this is good, if it is...]
470 ** zeroconf.el offers service discovery and service publishing
471 interfaces according to the zeroconf specification. It communicates
472 with Avahi, a zeroconf implementation, via D-Bus messages on systems
473 which have installed this software.
476 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
478 ** Abbrev has been rewritten in Elisp and extended with more flexibility.
479 *** New functions: abbrev-get, abbrev-put, abbrev-table-get, abbrev-table-put,
480 abbrev-table-p, abbrev-insert, abbrev-table-menu.
481 *** Special hook `abbrev-expand-functions' obsoletes `pre-abbrev-expand-hook'.
482 *** `make-abbrev-table', `define-abbrev', `define-abbrev-table' all take
483 extra arguments for arbitrary properties.
484 *** New variable `abbrev-minor-mode-table-alist'.
485 *** `local-abbrev-table' can hold a list of abbrev-tables.
486 *** Abbrevs have now the following special properties:
487 `:count', `:system', `:enable-function', `:case-fixed'.
488 *** Abbrev-tables have now the following special properties:
489 `:parents', `:case-fixed', `:enable-function', `:regexp',
490 `abbrev-table-modiff'.
493 *** `apropos-library' describes the elements defined in a given library.
494 *** Set `apropos-compact-layout' is you want a more compact (but wider) layout.
496 ** Archive Mode has basic support to browse Rar archives.
500 *** New command `bibtex-initialize' (re)initializes BibTeX buffers.
502 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' options `whitespace', `braces', and
503 `string', disabled by default.
505 *** New variable `bibtex-cite-matcher-alist' contains rules to
506 identify cited keys in BibTeX entries, used by `bibtex-find-crossref'.
508 *** Command `bibtex-url' allows multiple URLs per entry.
510 ** Calendar and diary
513 *** There is a new date style, `iso', essentially year/month/day.
514 The variable `european-calendar-style' is obsolete - use `calendar-date-style'.
515 Similarly, the commands `american-calendar' and `european-calendar'
516 should be replaced by `calendar-set-date-style'.
519 *** The calendar namespace has been rationalized.
520 All functions and variables now begin with a `calendar-', `diary-', or
521 `holiday-' prefix. The various calendar systems have secondary
522 prefixes, eg `calendar-french-'. The old names you are likely to use
523 directly still exist, for the time being, as aliases, but please start
526 *** The whitespace in the calendar layout can be customized.
528 calendar-left-margin, calendar-intermonth-spacing, calendar-column-width,
529 calendar-day-header-width, and calendar-day-digit-width.
531 *** Text (e.g. ISO weeks) can be displayed between the calendar months.
532 See the variables calendar-intermonth-header and calendar-intermonth-text.
534 *** The function `holiday-chinese' computes holidays on the Chinese calendar.
535 It has been used to add items to the list `holiday-oriental-holidays'.
537 *** `diary-remind' accepts a negative number -DAYS as a shorthand for
538 the list (1 2 ... DAYS).
542 *** The new command C-c C-f (change-log-find-file) finds the file
543 associated with the current log entry.
545 *** The new command C-c C-c (change-log-goto-source) goes to the
546 source code associated with a log entry.
548 ** Compile and grep modes
550 *** The mode-line entry for the *compilation* and *grep* buffer is color coded.
551 It has different colors for to show that: (a) the command is still
552 running, (b) successful completion, (c) error.
554 *** compilation-auto-jump-to-first-error tells `compile' to jump to
555 the first error encountered during compilations.
557 *** The `cc' alias for C++ files in `grep-file-aliases' has been
558 improved. `hh' can be used to match C++ header files and `cchh' both
559 C++ sources and headers.
563 *** defcustom accepts new keyword arguments, `:safe' and `:risky', which
564 set a variable's `safe-local-variable' and `risky-local-variable' property.
568 *** diff-refine-hunk highlights word-level details of changes in a diff hunk.
569 It's used automatically as you move through hunks, see
570 diff-auto-refine. It is bound to `C-c C-b'.
572 *** diff-add-change-log-entries-other-window iterates through the diff
573 buffer and tries to create ChangeLog entries for each change.
574 It is bound to `C-x 4 A'.
577 *** The variable `fortran-line-length' can change the fixed-form line-length.
579 *** In Fortran mode, M-; is now bound to the standard comment-dwim,
580 rather than fortran-indent-comment.
583 *** (The increasingly misnamed) F90 mode supports Fortran 2003 syntax.
587 *** The Gnus package has been updated
588 There are many news features, bug fixes and improvements; see the file
589 GNUS-NEWS or the node "No Gnus" in the Gnus manual for details.
591 *** In Emacs 23, Gnus uses Emacs' new internal coding system `utf-8-emacs' for
592 saving articles drafts and ~/.newsrc.eld. These file may not be read
593 correctly in Emacs 22 and below. If you want to Gnus across different Emacs
594 versions, you may set `mm-auto-save-coding-system' to `emacs-mule'.
597 *** New macro `with-help-window' should set up help windows better
598 than `with-output-to-temp-buffer' with `print-help-return-message'.
599 *** New option `help-window-select' permits to customize whether help
600 window shall be automatically selected when invoking help.
601 *** New variable `help-window-point-marker' permits to specify new
602 position of point in help window (for example in `view-lossage').
606 *** New command `isearch-highlight-regexp' bound to `M-s h r'
607 in isearch mode runs `highlight-regexp' (`hi-lock-face-buffer')
608 with the current search string as its regexp argument.
610 *** New command `isearch-occur' bound to `M-s o' in isearch mode
611 runs `occur' with the current search string.
613 *** isearch can now search through multiple ChangeLog files.
614 When running isearch in a ChangeLog file, if the search fails,
615 then another C-s tries searching the previous ChangeLog,
616 if there is one (e.g. go from ChangeLog to ChangeLog.12).
618 This is enabled if isearch-buffers-multi is non-nil.
620 *** The part of an isearch that failed to match is highlighted in `isearch-fail'
623 *** `C-h C-h' in isearch mode displays isearch-specific Help screen,
624 `C-h b' displays all isearch key bindings, `C-h k' displays the full
625 documentation of the given isearch key sequence, `C-h m' displays
626 documentation of isearch mode. All the rest Help commands exit isearch mode
627 and execute their global definitions.
629 *** When started in the minibuffer, Isearch searches in the minibuffer
630 history. See `Minibuffer changes', above.
633 *** The file etc/emacs.py now supports both Python 2 and 3, meaning
634 that either version can be used as inferior Python by python.el.
636 *** Python mode now has `pdbtrack' functionality. When using pdb to
637 debug a Python program, pdbtrack notices the pdb prompt and displays
638 the source file and line that the program is stopped at, much the same
639 way as gud-mode does for debugging C programs with gdb.
643 *** If the gpm mouse server is running and t-mouse-mode is enabled,
644 Emacs uses a Unix socket in a GNU/Linux console to talk to server,
645 rather than faking events using the client program mev. This C level
646 approach provides mouse highlighting and help echoing in the
652 *** New connection methods.
653 The new methods "plinkx", "plink2", "psftp", "sftp" and "fish" have
654 been introduced. There are also new so-called gateway methods
655 "tunnel" and "socks".
657 *** Multihop syntax has been removed.
658 The pseudo-method "multi" has been removed. Instead of, multi hops
659 can be specified by the new variable `tramp-default-proxies-alist'.
661 *** More default settings.
662 Default values can be set via the variables `tramp-default-user',
663 `tramp-default-user-alist' and `tramp-default-host'.
665 *** Connection information is cached.
666 In order to reduce connection setup, information about used
667 connections are kept persistent in a file. The name of this file is
668 defined in the variable `tramp-persistency-file-name'.
670 *** Control of remote processes.
671 Running processes on a remote host can be controlled by settings in
672 `tramp-remote-path' and `tramp-remote-process-environment'.
674 *** Success of remote copy is checked.
675 When the variable `file-precious-flag' is set, the success of a remote
676 file copy is checked via the file's checksum.
678 *** Passwords can be read from an authentification file.
679 Tramp uses the package `auth-source' to read passwords from a file, if
682 ** VC and related modes
684 *** VC now supports applying VC operations to a set of files at a time.
685 This enables VC to work much more effectively with changeset-oriented
686 version-control systems such as Subversion, GNU Arch, Mercurial, Git
687 and Bzr. VC will now pass a multiple-file commit to these systems as
690 *** vc-dir is a new command that displays file names and their VC
691 status. It allows to apply various VC operations to a file, a
692 directory or a set of files/directories.
694 *** Clicking on the VC mode-line entry now pops the VC menu.
696 *** The VC mode-line entry now has a tooltip that explains the VC file status.
698 *** In VC Annotate mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
699 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
702 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type v to toggle the annotation visibility.
704 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type f to show the file revision on
707 *** In VC Annotate mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you
708 can see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current
709 file) by typing the D key or using the "Show changeset diff of
710 revision at line" menu entry.
712 *** Asynchronous VC commands display [Waiting...] in the mode-line
713 of the corresponding buffer as long as the asynchronous process is
716 *** Log entries can be modified using the key "e" in log-view.
717 For now only CVS, RCS, SCCS and SVN support this functionality.
718 This is done by the `modify-change-comment' backend function.
720 *** In log-view-mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
721 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
722 by typing the D key or using the "Changeset Diff" menu entry.
724 *** In Log Edit mode, C-c C-d now shows the diff for the files involved.
726 *** vc-git supports the "git grep" command.
728 *** VC Support for Meta-CVS has been removed for lack of maintainer able
729 to update it to the new VC.
733 *** comint-mode uses `start-file-process' now (see Lisp Changes).
734 If `default-directory' is a remote file name, subprocesses are started
735 on the corresponding remote system.
737 *** In Dired, C-x C-q now runs the command wdired-change-to-wdired-mode,
738 and C-x C-q in wdired-mode exits it with asking a question about
741 *** Eldoc highlights the function argument under point
742 with the face `eldoc-highlight-function-argument'.
744 *** In Etags, the --members option is now the default.
745 Use --no-members if you want the old default behavior of not tagging
746 struct members in C, members variables in C++ and variables in PHP.
748 *** The `gdb' command only works with the graphical interface now.
749 Use `gud-gdb' if you want the (old) text command mode.
751 *** goto-address.el provides two new minor modes, goto-address-mode and
752 goto-address-prog-mode, which buttonize URLS and email addresses.
754 *** The new command `eshell/info' runs info in an eshell buffer.
756 *** The new variable `ffap-rfc-directories' specifies a list of local
757 directories in which `ffap-rfc' will first search for RFCs.
759 *** hide-ifdef-mode allows shadowing ifdef-blocks instead of hiding them.
760 See option `hide-ifdef-shadow' and function `hide-ifdef-toggle-shadowing'.
762 *** `icomplete-prospects-height' now supercedes `icomplete-prospects-length'.
764 *** Info displays breadcrumbs in the header of the page.
765 See Info-breadcrumbs-depth to control it.
767 *** net-utils has an `iwconfig' command, similar to the existing `ifconfig'.
768 It is used to configure wireless interfaces.
770 *** The pcmpl-unix package supports hostname completion for ssh and scp.
772 *** sgml-electric-tag-pair-mode lets you simultaneously edit matched tag pairs.
774 *** smerge-refine highlights word-level details of changes in conflict.
775 It's used automatically as you move through conflicts, see smerge-auto-refine.
777 *** talk.el has been extended for multiple tty support.
779 *** A new command `display-time-world' has been added to the Time
780 package. It creates a buffer with an updating time display using
783 *** The appearance of superscript and subscript in TeX is more customizable.
784 See the documentation of the variables: tex-fontify-script,
785 tex-font-script-display, tex-suscript-height-ratio, and
786 tex-suscript-height-minimum.
788 *** view-remove-frame-by-deleting is now by default t
789 since users found iconification of view-mode frames distracting.
791 *** WoMan tries to add locale-specific manual page directories to the
792 search path. This can be disabled by setting `woman-locale' to nil.
795 * Changes in Emacs 23.1 on non-free operating systems
797 ** Case is now considered significant in completion on MS-Windows.
798 The default value of `completion-ignore-case' is now nil on
799 MS-Windows, the same as it is for other operating systems. The
800 variable doesn't apply to reading a file name -- in that case Emacs
801 heeds `read-file-name-completion-ignore-case' instead.
804 ** IPv6 is supported on MS-Windows.
805 Emacs now supports IPv6 on Windows XP and later, and earlier versions
806 of Windows with third party IPv6 stacks installed. In Emacs 22, IPv6 was
807 supported on other platforms, but not on Windows due to using the winsock
808 1.1 header file, even though Emacs was linking to the winsock 2 library.
811 ** Busy cursor (hourglass) now displays on MS-Windows.
812 When Emacs is busy, an hourglass mouse cursor is displayed on Windows.
813 In Emacs 22 only X supported the busy cursor.
816 ** Battery status is available on MS-Windows
817 Emacs can now display the battery status in the mode-line when enabled with
818 display-battery-mode or from the Options menu. More verbose battery
819 information is also available with the command `battery'. In Emacs 22
820 battery status was supported only on GNU/Linux and Mac.
822 ** More keys available on MS-Windows.
823 Keys normally associated with IMEs, and some exotic keys not normally found
824 on standard keyboards have been given names so they can be bound to functions
825 inside Emacs. If there are keys on your keyboard that have not been exposed
826 to Emacs in the past, try C-h k to see if they are available now.
828 Emacs can now bind functions to the extra buttons for media player and
829 browser control present on some keyboards. These buttons are disabled
830 by default, since enabling them prevents their system-wide use when
831 Emacs has focus. To enable them, set the variable
832 w32-pass-multimedia-buttons to nil. See the doc string of that variable
833 for the list of extra keys that are available.
836 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
838 ** Variables cannot be both buffer-local and frame-local any more.
840 ** `functionp' returns nil for special forms.
841 I.e., it only returns t for objects that can be passed to `funcall'.
843 ** The behavior of map-char-table has changed. It may call the
844 specified function with a cons (FROM . TO) as a key if characters in
845 that range have the same value.
849 *** The function `dired-call-process' has been removed.
851 *** The multibyteness of process filters is now determined by the
852 coding-system used for decoding. The functions
853 `process-filter-multibyte-p' and `set-process-filter-multibyte' are
856 ** The variable `byte-compile-warnings' can now be a list starting with `not',
857 meaning to disable the specified warnings. The meaning of this list
858 may therefore be the reverse of what you expect (of course, this is
859 only an issue if you make use of the new `not' syntax). Rather than
860 checking/manipulating elements directly, use the new functions
861 `byte-compile-warning-enabled-p', `byte-compile-disable-warning', and
862 `byte-compile-enable-warning.'
864 ** `mode-name' is no longer guaranteed to be a string.
865 Use `(format-mode-line mode-name)' to ensure a string value.
867 ** Internationalization changes
869 *** The value of the function `charset-id' is now always 0.
871 *** The functions `register-char-codings' and `coding-system-spec'
874 *** The cpXXX coding systems are now supported automatically.
875 The functions cp-...-codepage, which you had to use in Emacs 22 to
876 enable support for these coding systems, have been deleted.
878 *** The following features have been removed. They were used for
879 displaying various scripts with specific fonts, and are no longer
880 needed now that OpenType font support is available:
882 **** `devanagari' and `devan-util', and all associated devanagari-* and
883 dev-* functions and variables (formerly used for Devanagari script).
885 **** `kannada' and `knd-util', and all associated kannada-* and knd-*
886 functions and variables (formerly used for Kannada script).
888 **** `malayalam' and `mlm-util', and all associated malayalam-* and
889 mlm-* functions and variables (formerly used for Malayalam script).
891 **** `tamil' and `tml-util, and all associated tamil-* and tml-*
892 functions and variables (formerly used for Tamil script).
895 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
898 ** New variable `user-emacs-directory'.
899 Use this instead of "~/.emacs.d".
901 ** If a local hook function has a non-nil `permanent-local-hook'
902 property, `kill-all-local-variables' does not remove it from the local
903 value of the hook variable; it remains even if you change major modes.
905 ** `frame-inherited-parameters' lets new frames inherit parameters from
908 ** New keymap `input-decode-map' overrides like key-translation-map, but
909 applies before function-key-map. Also it is terminal-local contrary to
910 key-translation-map. Terminal-specific key-sequences are generally added to
911 this map rather than to function-key-map now.
913 ** `ignore-errors' is now a standard macro (does not require the CL package).
915 ** `interprogram-paste-function' can now return one string or a list
916 of strings. In the latter case, Emacs puts the second and following
917 strings on the kill ring.
920 ** In `condition-case', a handler can specify "let the debugger run first".
921 You do this by writing `debug' in the list of conditions to be handled,
928 ** clone-indirect-buffer now runs the clone-indirect-buffer-hook.
930 ** `beginning-of-defun-function' now takes one argument, the count
931 given to `beginning-of-defun'.
934 ** `file-remote-p' has new optional parameters IDENTIFICATION and CONNECTED.
935 IDENTIFICATION specifies which part of the remote identifier has to be
936 returned. With CONNECTED passed non-nil, it is checked whether a
937 remote connection has been established already.
939 ** The new macro `declare-function' suppresses compiler warnings about
942 ** Changes to interactive function handling
944 *** The new interactive spec code ^ says to first call
945 handle-shift-selection if shift-select-mode is non-nil, before reading
946 the command arguments. This is used for shift-selection (see above).
948 *** Built-in functions can now have an interactive specification that
949 is not a prompt string. If the `intspec' parameter of a `DEFUN'
950 starts with a `(', the string is evaluated as a Lisp form.
952 *** The interactive-form of a function can be added post-facto via the
953 `interactive-form' symbol property. Mostly useful to add complex
954 interactive forms to subroutines.
958 *** Commands should use `use-region-p' to test whether there is
959 an active region that they should operate on.
961 *** `region-active-p' returns non-nil when Transient Mark mode is
962 enabled and there is an active region. This is NOT the best function
963 to use to test whether a command should operate on the region instead
964 of the usual behavior -- for that, use `use-region-p'.
966 *** If a command sets `transient-mark-mode' to (only . OLDVAL), that
967 means to activate transient-mark-mode temporarily, until the next
968 unshifted point motion command or mark deactivation. Afterwards,
969 reset transient-mark-mode to the value OLDVAL. The values `only' and
970 `identity', introduced in Emacs 22, are now deprecated.
972 ** Emacs session information
974 *** The new variables `before-init-time' and `after-init-time' record the
975 value of `current-time' before and after Emacs loads the init files.
977 *** The new function `emacs-uptime' returns the uptime of an Emacs instance.
979 *** The new function `emacs-init-time' returns the duration of the
980 Emacs initialization.
982 ** Changes affecting display-buffer
984 *** New value nil for split-height-threshold inhibits vertical splitting
985 unless there's no other window.
987 *** New option split-width-threshold controls horizontal splitting.
989 *** A window can be split horizontally even when it's not full-width.
991 *** New option split-window-preferred-function can be set to a function
992 to override the default splitting mechanism of display-buffer.
994 ** Minibuffer and completion changes
996 *** A list of default values can be specified for the DEFAULT argument of
997 functions `read-from-minibuffer', `read-string', `read-command',
998 `read-variable', `read-buffer', `completing-read'. Elements of this list
999 are available for inserting into the minibuffer by typing `M-n'.
1000 For empty input these functions return the first element of this list.
1002 *** New function `read-regexp' uses the regexp history and some useful
1003 regexp defaults (string at point, last isearch/replacement regexp/string)
1004 via M-n when reading a regexp in the minibuffer.
1006 *** minibuffer-local-must-match-filename-map is now named
1007 minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map.
1009 *** `all-completions' may now return the base size in the last cdr.
1010 Since this means the returned list is not properly nil-terminated, this
1011 is an incompatible change and is thus enabled by the new variable
1012 completion-all-completions-with-base-size.
1014 *** The `require-match' argument to `completing-read' accepts a new value
1017 ** Search and replacement changes
1019 *** The regexp form \(?<num>:<regexp>\) specifies the group number explicitly.
1021 *** New function `match-substitute-replacement' returns the result of
1022 `replace-match' without actually using it in the buffer.
1024 *** The new variable `replace-search-function' determines the function
1025 to use for searching in query-replace and replace-string.
1027 *** The new variable `replace-re-search-function' determines the
1028 function to use for searching in `query-replace-regexp',
1029 `replace-regexp', `query-replace-regexp-eval', and
1030 `map-query-replace-regexp'.
1032 *** The variable `inhibit-changing-match-data', if non-nil, prevents
1033 the search and match primitives from changing the match data.
1035 ** File handling changes
1037 *** set-file-modes is now interactive and can take the mode value in
1038 symbolic notation thanks to auxiliary functions.
1040 *** If you set find-file-confirm-nonexistent-file to t, then C-x C-f
1041 requires confirmation before opening a non-existent file.
1045 *** The new function `start-file-process' is similar to `start-process',
1046 but obeys file handlers. The file handler is chosen based on
1047 `default-directory'. The functions `start-file-process-shell-command'
1048 and `process-file-shell-command' are also new; they call internally
1049 `start-file-process' and `process-file', respectively.
1051 *** The new function `process-lines' executes an external program and
1052 returns its output as a list of lines.
1054 ** Character code, representation, and charset changes.
1056 The character code space is now 0x0..0x3FFFFF with no gap.
1057 Characters of code 0x0..0x10FFFF are Unicode characters of the same code points.
1058 Characters of code 0x3FFF80..0x3FFFFF are raw 8-bit bytes.
1060 Generic characters no longer exist.
1062 In buffers and strings, characters are represented by UTF-8 byte
1063 sequences in a multibyte buffer/string.
1065 The concept of a charset has changed. A single character may belong
1066 to multiple charsets (e.g. a-grave, U+00E0, belongs to charsets
1067 unicode, iso-8859-1, iso-8859-3, etc).
1069 *** The functions `encode-char' and `decode-char' now accept any character sets.
1071 *** The function `define-charset' now accepts a completely different
1072 form of arguments (old-style arguments still work).
1074 *** The value of the function `char-charset' depends on the current
1075 priorities of charsets.
1077 *** The function get-char-code-property now accepts many Unicode base
1078 character properties. They are `name', `general-category',
1079 `canonical-combining-class', `bidi-class', `decomposition',
1080 `decimal-digit-value', `digit-value', `numeric-value', `mirrored',
1081 `old-name', `iso-10646-comment', `uppercase', `lowercase', and
1084 *** The functions `modify-syntax-entry' and `modify-category-entry' now
1085 accept a cons of characters as the first argument, and modify all
1086 entries in that range of characters.
1089 *** `translation-table-for-input' is now obsolete.
1093 **** `characterp' returns t if and only if the argument is a character.
1094 This replaces `char-valid-p', which is now obsolete.
1096 **** `max-char' returns the maximum character code (currently #x3FFFFF).
1098 **** `define-charset-alias' defines an alias of a charset.
1100 **** `set-charset-priority' sets priorities of charsets.
1102 **** `charset-priority-list' returns a prioritized list of charsets.
1104 **** `unibyte-string' makes a unibyte string from bytes.
1106 **** `define-char-code-property' defines a character code property.
1108 **** `char-code-property-description' returns the description string of
1109 a character code property.
1113 **** `find-word-boundary-function-table' is a char-table of functions to
1114 search for a word boundary.
1116 **** `char-script-table' is a char-table of script names.
1118 **** `char-width-table' is a char-table of character widths.
1120 **** `print-charset-text-property' controls how to handle `charset' text
1121 property on printing a string.
1123 **** `printable-chars' is a char-table of printable characters.
1125 ** Code conversion changes
1127 *** The new function `define-coding-system' should be used to define a
1128 coding system instead of `make-coding-system' (which is now obsolete).
1130 *** The functions `encode-coding-region' and `decode-coding-region'
1131 have an optional 4th argument to specify where the result of
1132 conversion should go.
1134 *** The functions `encode-coding-string' and `decode-coding-string'
1135 have an optional 4th argument specifying a buffer to store the result
1138 *** The functions `set-coding-priority' and `make-coding-system' are obsolete.
1142 **** `with-coding-priority' executes Lisp code using the specified
1143 coding system priority order.
1145 **** `check-coding-systems-region' checks if the text in the region is
1146 encodable by the specified coding systems.
1148 **** `coding-system-aliases' returns a list of aliases of a coding system.
1150 **** `coding-system-charset-list' returns a list of charsets supported
1153 **** `coding-system-priority-list' returns a list of coding systems
1154 ordered by their priorities.
1156 **** `set-coding-system-priority' sets priorities of coding systems.
1158 ** There is a new input method, Robin, different from Quail.
1159 It has three functionalities:
1160 i) a simple input method (converts an ASCII sequence into a string).
1161 ii) converts an existing buffer substring into another string
1162 iii) reverse conversion (each character produced by a
1163 robin rule can hold the original ASCII sequence as a char-code-property)
1165 *** The new function `robin-define-package' defines a Robin package.
1167 *** The new function `robin-modify-package' modifies an existing Robin package.
1169 *** The new function `robin-use-package' starts using a Robin package
1172 *** The new function `string-to-unibyte' is like `string-as-unibyte'
1173 but signals an error if STRING contains a non-ASCII, non-eight-bit
1176 ** Changes related to the new font backend
1178 Which font backends to use can be specified by the X resource "FontBackend".
1179 For instance, to use both X core fonts and Xft fonts:
1181 Emacs.FontBackend: x,xft
1183 If this resource is not set, Emacs tries to use all font backends
1184 available on your graphic device.
1186 *** New frame parameter `font-backend' specifies a list of
1187 font-backends supported by the frame's graphic device. On X, they are
1188 currently `x' and `xft'.
1190 *** The function `set-fontset-font' now accepts a script name as the
1191 second argument, and has an optional 5th argument to control how to
1196 **** `fontp' checks if the argument is a font-spec or font-entity.
1198 **** `font-spec' creates a new font-spec object.
1200 **** `font-get' returns a font property value.
1202 **** `font-put' sets a font property value.
1204 **** `font-face-attributes' returns a plist of face attributes set by a font.
1206 **** `list-fonts' returns a list of font-entities matching a font spec.
1208 **** `font-font' returns the font-entity best matching the given font spec.
1210 **** `list-families' returns a list of family names of available fonts.
1212 **** `font-xlfd-name' returns an XLFD name of a given font spec, font
1213 entity, or font object.
1215 **** `clear-font-cache' clears all font caches.
1217 ** Changes related to multiple-terminal (multi-tty) support
1219 *** $TERM is now set to `dumb' for subprocesses. If you want to know the
1220 $TERM inherited by Emacs you will have to look inside initial-environment.
1222 *** $DISPLAY is now dynamically inherited from the frame's `display'.
1224 *** The `window-system' variable is now frame-local. The new
1225 `initial-window-system' variable contains the `window-system' value
1226 for the first frame. `window-system' is also now a function that
1227 takes a frame argument.
1229 *** The `keyboard-translate-table' variable and the terminal and
1230 keyboard coding systems are now terminal-local.
1232 *** You can specify a terminal device (`tty' parameter) and a terminal
1233 type (`tty-type' parameter) to `make-terminal-frame'.
1235 *** The function `make-frame-on-display' now works during a tty
1236 session, and `make-frame-on-tty' works during a graphical session.
1238 *** A new data type for terminals with functions: `get-device-terminal',
1239 `terminal-parameters', `terminal-parameter', `set-terminal-parameter'.
1241 *** Function key sequences are now mapped using `local-function-key-map',
1242 a new variable. This inherits from the global variable function-key-map,
1243 which is not used directly any more.
1247 **** `suspend-tty-functions' and `resume-tty-functions' are called
1248 after a tty frame has been suspended or resumed, respectively. The
1249 functions are called with the terminal id of the frame being
1250 suspended/resumed as a parameter.
1252 **** The special hook `delete-terminal-functions' is called before
1253 deleting a terminal.
1259 **** `make-frame-on-tty' creates a new frame on another tty device.
1267 *** `initial-environment' holds the environment inherited from Emacs's parent.
1269 ** Redisplay changes
1271 *** For underlined characters, the distance between the underline and
1272 the baseline is controlled by a new variable, `underline-minimum-offset'.
1274 *** You can now pass the value of the `invisible' property to
1275 invisible-p to check whether it would cause the text to be invisible.
1276 Convenient when checking invisibility of text with no buffer position
1277 (e.g. in before/after-strings).
1279 *** Non-breaking space is now displayed as whitespace.
1281 *** `clear-image-cache' can be told to flush only images of a specific file.
1283 *** `vertical-motion' can now be given a goal column.
1284 It now accepts a cons cell (COLS . LINES) in its first argument, which
1285 says to stop, where possible, at a pixel x-position equal to COLS
1286 times the default column width.
1288 ** Miscellaneous new functions
1290 *** `format-seconds' converts a number of seconds into a readable
1291 string of days, hours, etc.
1293 *** `apply-partially' performs a "curried" application of a function.
1295 *** `read-shell-command' does what its name says, with completion. It
1296 uses the minibuffer-local-shell-command-map for that.
1298 *** `buffer-swap-text' swaps text between two buffers. This can be
1299 useful for modes such as tar-mode, archive-mode, RMAIL.
1301 *** `read-color' reads a color name using the minibuffer.
1303 *** `face-all-attributes' returns an alist describing all the basic
1304 attributes of a given face.
1306 *** `window-full-width-p' returns t if a window is as wide as its
1309 *** `split-string-and-unquote' does (what?)
1311 *** `combine-and-quote-strings' does (what?)
1313 *** `image-refresh' refreshes all images associated with a given image
1316 *** The two new functions `looking-at-p' and `string-match-p' can do
1317 the same matching as `looking-at' and `string-match' without changing
1320 *** The two new functions `make-serial-process' and
1321 `serial-process-configure' provide a Lisp interface to the new serial
1322 port support (see Emacs changes, above).
1324 ** Miscellaneous new variables
1326 *** `this-command-keys-shift-translated' is non-nil if the key
1327 sequence invoking the current command was found by shift-translation.
1329 *** `window-point-insertion-type' determines the insertion-type of the
1330 marker used for window-point.
1332 *** bookmark provides `bookmark-make-record-function' so special major
1333 modes like Info can teach bookmark.el how to save and restore the
1336 *** `next-error-recenter' specifies how next-error should recenter the
1337 visited source file. Its value can be a number (for example, 0 for
1338 top line, -1 for bottom line), or nil for no recentering.
1340 *** `fill-forward-paragraph-function' specifies which function the
1341 filling code should use to find paragraph boundaries.
1343 *** `custom-note-var-changed' tells Custom to treat the change in a
1344 certain variable as having been made within Custom.
1347 * New Packages for Lisp Programming in Emacs 23.1
1349 ** The new package avl-tree.el deals with the AVL tree data structure.
1351 ** The new package check-declare.el verifies the accuracy of
1352 declare-function macros (see Lisp Changes, above).
1354 ** find-cmd.el can build `find' commands using lisp syntax.
1356 ** The package isearch-multi.el has been added. It implements a new mode
1357 `isearch-buffers-minor-mode' that allows isearch to search through
1358 multiple buffers. In this mode a new variable
1359 `isearch-buffers-next-buffer-function' defines the function to call
1360 to get the next buffer to search in the series of multiple buffers.
1362 ** The new major mode `special-mode' is intended as a parent for
1363 major modes such as those that set the "'mode-class 'special" property.
1366 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1367 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
1369 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1370 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1371 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1372 (at your option) any later version.
1374 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1375 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1376 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1377 GNU General Public License for more details.
1379 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1380 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
1385 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"
1388 arch-tag: e759449d-88b3-4de4-9900-3a6c3dfa23e2