1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 24.
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.
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.
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.
25 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
27 ** Configure links against libselinux if it is found.
28 You can disable this by using --without-selinux.
31 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
32 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
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.
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
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.
50 ** There is a new configure option --with-wide-int.
51 With it, Emacs integers typically have 62 bits, even on 32-bit machines.
54 ** New translation of the Emacs Tutorial in Hebrew is available.
55 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
56 automatically select it.
58 ** Emacs can be compiled with ImageMagick support.
59 Emacs links to ImageMagick if version 6.2.8 or newer of the library is
60 present at build time. To inhibit ImageMagick, use the configure
61 option `--without-imagemagick' .
64 ** The standalone programs digest-doc and sorted-doc are removed.
65 Emacs now uses Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
68 ** The standalone program `fakemail' is removed.
69 If you need it, feedmail.el provides a superset of the functionality.
72 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
75 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
76 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
77 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
80 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
81 from load-path. -Q now implies this.
84 ** On Windows, Emacs now warns when the obsolete _emacs init file is used,
85 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
88 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
90 ** auto-mode-case-fold is now enabled by default.
94 *** shell-mode uses pcomplete rules, with the standard completion UI.
96 *** Many packages have been changed to use completion-at-point rather than
97 their own completion code.
99 *** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
100 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
102 *** Completion can cycle, depending on completion-cycle-threshold.
104 *** New completion style `substring'.
106 *** Completion style can be set per-category `completion-category-overrides'.
108 *** Completion of buffers now uses substring completion by default.
110 *** `completing-read' can be customized using the new variable
111 `completing-read-function'.
113 *** minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map is not used any more.
114 Instead, the bindings in minibuffer-local-filename-completion-map are combined
115 with minibuffer-local-must-match-map.
119 The default of `send-mail-function' is now `sendmail-query-once',
120 which asks the user (once) whether to use the smtpmail package to send
121 email, or to use the old defaults that rely on external mail
122 facilities (`sendmail-send-it' on GNU/Linux and other Unix-like
123 systems, and `mailclient-send-it' on Windows).
127 **** smtpmail now uses encrypted connections (via STARTTLS) if the
128 mail server supports them. It also uses the auth-source framework for
131 **** The variable `smtpmail-auth-credentials' has been removed.
132 That variable used to have the default value "~/.authinfo", in which
133 case you won't see any difference. But if you changed it to be a list
134 of user names and passwords, that setting is now ignored; you will be
135 prompted for the user name and the password, which will then be saved
138 You can also manually copy the credentials to your ~/.authinfo file.
139 For example, if you had
141 (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials
142 '(("mail.example.org" 25 "jim" "s!cret")))
144 then the equivalent line in ~/.authinfo would be
146 machine mail.example.org port 25 login jim password s!cret
148 **** The variable `smtpmail-starttls-credentials' has been removed.
150 If you had that set, then then you need to put
152 machine smtp.whatever.foo port 25 key "~/.my_smtp_tls.key" cert "~/.my_smtp_tls.cert"
154 in your ~/.authinfo file instead.
156 ** Emacs server and client changes
158 *** New option `server-port' specifies the port on which the Emacs
159 server should listen.
161 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
163 *** New emacsclient argument --frame-parameters can be used to set the
164 frame parameters of a newly-created graphical frame.
166 *** If emacsclient shuts down as a result of Emacs signalling an
167 error, its exit status is 1.
169 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID.
170 This opens a client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed, similar
171 to the --parent-id argument to Emacs.
173 ** Internationalization changes
176 *** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
178 Text that includes characters from right-to-left (RTL) scripts, such
179 as Arabic, Farsi, or Hebrew, is displayed in the correct visual order
180 as expected by users of those scripts. This display reordering is a
181 "Full bidirectionality" class implementation of the Unicode
182 Bidirectional Algorithm. Buffers RTL text should look exactly the
185 For more information, see the node "Bidirectional Editing" in the
189 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-display-reordering'.
190 To disable display reordering in any given buffer, change this to nil.
193 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction'.
194 If nil (the default), Emacs determines the base direction of each
195 paragraph from its text, as specified by the Unicode Bidirectional
198 Setting this to `right-to-left' or `left-to-right' forces a particular
199 base direction on each paragraph in the buffer.
201 Paragraphs whose base direction is right-to-left are displayed
202 starting at the right margin of the window.
205 *** Enhanced support for characters with no glyphs in available fonts.
206 If a character has no glyphs in any of the available fonts, Emacs
207 normally displays it either as a hexadecimal code in a box or as a
208 thin 1-pixel space. In addition to these two methods, Emacs can
209 display these characters as empty box, as an acronym, or not display
210 them at all. To change how these characters are displayed, customize
211 the variable `glyphless-char-display-control'.
213 On character terminals, these methods are used for characters that
214 cannot be encoded by the `terminal-coding-system'.
217 *** New input methods for Farsi: farsi and farsi-translit.
219 ** Improved GTK integration
221 *** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
222 Use `set-scroll-bar-mode' to change this.
224 *** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
225 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose style. On a Gnome desktop, the default
226 is taken from the desktop settings.
228 *** GTK tool bars can be placed on the left/right or top/bottom of the frame.
229 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the values
230 top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has entries
233 *** The colors for selected text (the region face) are taken from the GTK
234 theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
236 *** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK. You can turn that
237 off by customizing x-gtk-use-system-tooltips.
239 ** New basic faces `error', `warning', `success' are available to
240 highlight strings that indicate failure, caution or successful operation.
242 ** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is built
243 with Xft. To change font, use the X resource font, for example:
244 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
246 ** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
247 Also, the first dash (which does not indicate anything) is just
248 displayed as a space.
250 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
251 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
253 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up, and
254 optionally when copying files. To this end, copy-file has an extra
255 optional argument, and backup-buffer and friends include the SELinux
256 context in their return values.
258 *** The new functions file-selinux-context and set-file-selinux-context
259 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
261 *** Tramp offers handlers for file-selinux-context and set-file-selinux-context
262 for remote machines which support SELinux.
265 ** The function format-time-string now supports the %N directive, for
266 higher-resolution time stamps.
268 ** Changes for exiting Emacs
270 *** The function kill-emacs is now run upon receipt of the signals
271 SIGTERM and SIGHUP, and upon SIGINT in batch mode.
273 *** kill-emacs-hook is now also run in batch mode.
274 If you have code that adds something to kill-emacs-hook, you should
275 consider if it is still appropriate to add it in the noninteractive case.
279 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
280 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
281 of buffer at first key-press (instead move to top/bottom of buffer)
282 when a new variable `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
284 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
285 scroll a line instead of full screen.
287 *** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
288 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
291 *** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
292 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
293 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
294 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
295 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
298 *** ``Aggressive'' scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
299 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
300 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
301 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
306 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
307 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
309 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
310 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
312 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
313 for `list-colors-display'.
315 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
316 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
317 from a package repository at elpa.gnu.org.
320 *** `M-x list-packages' shows a list of packages, which can be
321 selected for installation.
324 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
327 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded and activated
328 automatically when Emacs starts up. To disable this, set
329 `package-enable-at-startup' to nil. To change which packages are
330 loaded, customize `package-load-list'.
334 *** `M-x customize-themes' lists Custom themes which can be enabled.
336 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
337 Emacs no longer looks for custom themes in `load-path'. The default
338 is to search in `custom-theme-directory', followed by a built-in theme
339 directory named "themes/" in `data-directory'.
341 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
342 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
343 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
344 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
346 ** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
347 the remote file-name cache is used for read access.
349 ** File- and directory-local variable changes
351 *** You can stop directory local vars from applying to subdirectories.
352 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
353 settings to indicate that the section should not apply to
356 *** Directory local variables can apply to some file-less buffers.
357 Affected modes include dired, vc-dir, and log-edit. For example,
358 adding "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to .dir-locals.el will
359 turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should call
360 `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
363 *** Using "mode: MINOR-MODE" to enable a minor mode is deprecated.
364 Instead, use "eval: (minor-mode 1)".
367 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
369 ** New primitive `secure-hash' that supports many secure hash algorithms
370 including md5, sha-1 and sha-2 (sha-224, sha-256, sha-384 and sha-512).
371 The elisp implementation sha1.el is removed. Feature sha1 is provided
376 *** `menu-bar-select-buffer-function' lets you choose another operation
377 instead of `switch-to-buffer' when selecting an item in the Buffers menu.
379 ** The inactive minibuffer has its own major mode `minibuffer-inactive-mode'.
380 This is handy for minibuffer-only frames, and is also used for the "mouse-1
381 pops up *Messages*" feature, which can now easily be changed.
384 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
388 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to isearch-yank-kill, instead of
391 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to isearch-yank-pop, instead of
394 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to isearch-yank-line.
397 ** New command `count-words-region'. This does what you expect.
399 ** completion-at-point now handles tags and semantic completion.
401 ** The default value of `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' is now t.
403 ** The command `just-one-space' (C-SPC), if given a negative argument,
404 also deletes newlines around point.
408 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
409 If non-nil, [delete] and DEL delete the region if it is active and no
410 prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', these commands kill
413 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to [delete].
414 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
415 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
417 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
418 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
419 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; you
420 should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
422 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
424 ** Selection changes.
426 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections was changed
427 to conform with modern X applications. In short, most commands for
428 killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while mouse commands
429 use the primary selection.
431 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
432 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
435 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
436 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
437 the kill ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
438 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
441 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
442 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
443 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
444 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
445 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
448 **** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
451 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
452 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
453 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
456 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
458 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
459 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
460 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
463 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
464 exactly equivalent to, respectively M-w, C-w, and C-y.
467 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
468 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
469 between applications.
472 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
473 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
474 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
475 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
476 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
477 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
480 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
482 *** Support for X clipboard managers has been added.
484 **** To inhibit use of the clipboard manager, set
485 `x-select-enable-clipboard-manager' to nil.
487 ** New command `rectangle-number-lines', bound to `C-x r N', numbers
488 the lines in the current rectangle. With an prefix argument, this
489 prompts for a number to count from and for a format string.
491 ** The command shell prompts for the shell path name, when the default
492 directory is a remote file name and neither environment variable
493 $ESHELL nor variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
496 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
498 ** Archive Mode has basic support for browsing and updating 7z archives.
500 ** browse-url has a new variable `browse-url-mailto-function'
501 specifies how mailto: URLs are handled. The default is `browse-url-mail'.
505 *** BibTeX mode now supports biblatex.
506 Use the variable bibtex-dialect to select support for different BibTeX
507 dialects. bibtex-entry-field-alist is now an obsolete alias for
508 bibtex-BibTeX-entry-alist.
510 *** New command `bibtex-search-entries' bound to C-c C-a.
512 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `sort-fields', disabled by default.
514 *** New variable `bibtex-search-entry-globally'.
516 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
519 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing `comments'.
520 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
523 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
524 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
527 *** The function specified by `appt-disp-window-function' may be passed
528 lists of arguments if multiple appointments are due at similar times.
529 If you are using a custom function for this, you should update it.
532 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
535 *** Elements of `calendar-day-abbrev-array' and `calendar-month-abbrev-array'
536 may no longer be nil, but must all be strings.
539 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt package
540 by adding appt-make-list to diary-hook has been removed. Use appt-activate.
543 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
544 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
545 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
548 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
549 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
551 ** CC Mode (C, C++, etc.)
553 *** New feature to "guess" the style in an existing buffer.
555 ** comint and modes derived from it use the generic completion code.
559 *** Compilation mode can be used without font-lock-mode.
560 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
562 *** `compilation-filter-start' is let-bound to the start of the text
563 inserted by the compilation filter function, when calling
564 compilation-filter-hook.
568 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
569 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
570 To turn off the search field, set custom-search-field to nil.
572 *** Custom options now start out hidden if at their default values.
573 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
575 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
577 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
578 choose a color via list-colors-display.
582 *** It is possible now, to access alternative buses than the default
583 system or session bus.
585 *** dbus-register-{service,method,property}
586 The -method and -property functions do not automatically register
589 The new function dbus-register-service registers a service known name
590 on a D-Bus without simultaneously registering a property or a method.
594 *** dired-jump and dired-jump-other-window called with a prefix argument
595 read a file name from the minibuffer instead of using buffer-file-name.
598 *** The `dired local variables' feature provided by Dired-x is obsolete.
599 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
603 *** New vars `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay'.
604 If the value of `erc-autojoin-timing' is 'ident, ERC autojoins after a
605 successful NickServ identification, or after `erc-autojoin-delay'
606 seconds. The default value, 'ident, means to autojoin immediately
609 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
610 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
611 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
612 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
616 *** The default value of eshell-directory-name is a directory named
617 "eshell" in `user-emacs-directory'. If the old "~/.eshell/" directory
618 exists, that is used instead.
622 *** GDB User Interface migrated to GDB Machine Interface and now
623 supports multithread non-stop debugging and debugging of several
624 threads simultaneously.
626 ** In ido-mode, C-v is no longer bound to ido-toggle-vc.
627 The reason is that this interferes with cua-mode.
631 *** RET (`image-toggle-animation') toggles animation, if the displayed
632 image can be animated.
634 *** Option `image-animate-loop', if non-nil, loops the animation.
635 If nil, `image-toggle-animation' plays the animation once.
639 *** New command `info-display-manual' displays an Info manual
640 specified by its name. If that manual is already visited in some Info
641 buffer within the current session, the command will display that
642 buffer. Otherwise, it will load the manual and display it. This is
643 handy if you have many manuals in many Info buffers, and don't
644 remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual you want to
647 ** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
649 ** MH-E has been upgraded to MH-E version 8.2.93.
650 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
652 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
654 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
656 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
657 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity, support for
658 more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
662 *** The command `rmail-epa-decrypt' decrypts OpenPGP data
663 in the Rmail incoming message.
665 ** shell-mode can track your cwd by reading it from your prompt.
666 Just set shell-dir-cookie-re to an appropriate regexp.
669 ** SQL Mode enhancements.
671 *** `sql-dialect' is an alias for `sql-product'.
673 *** New variable `sql-port' specifies the port number for connecting
674 to a MySQL or Postgres server.
676 *** The command `sql-product-interactive' now takes a prefix argument,
677 which causes it to prompt for an SQL product instead of the current
678 value of `sql-product'.
680 *** Product-specific SQL interactive commands now take prefix args.
681 These commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres', `sql-mysql', etc.),
682 given a prefix argument, prompt for a name for the SQL interactive
683 buffer. This reduces the need for calling `sql-rename-buffer'.
685 *** SQL interactive modes suppress command continuation prompts, and
686 replace tabs with spaces. The first change impacts multiple line SQL
687 statements entered with C-j between each line, statements yanked into
688 the buffer and statements sent with `sql-send-*' functions. The
689 second change prevents the MySQL and Postgres interpreters from
690 listing object name completions when sent text via `sql-send-*'
693 *** New custom variables control prompting for login parameters.
694 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params',
695 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
696 connection is established.
698 *** New variable `sql-connection-alist' for login parameter values.
699 This can be used to store different username, database and server
700 values. Connections defined in this variable appear in the submenu
701 SQL->Start... for making new SQLi sessions.
703 *** New command `sql-connect' starts a predefined SQLi session,
704 using the login parameters from `sql-connection-alist'.
706 *** New "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
707 This gathers the login params specified for the SQLi session, if it
708 was not started by a connection, and saves them as a new connection.
710 *** Commands for listing database objects and details.
711 In an SQLi session, you can get a list of objects in the database.
712 The contents of these lists are product specific.
714 **** `C-c C-l a' or the "SQL->List all objects" menu item
715 lists all the objects in the database. With a prefix argument, it
716 displays additional details or extend the listing to include other
719 **** `C-c C-l t' or the "SQL->List Table details" menu item
720 prompts for the name of a database table or view and displays the list
721 of columns in the relation. With a prefix argument, it displays
722 additional details about each column.
724 *** New options `sql-send-terminator' and `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
726 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
730 *** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
734 *** There exists a new inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
736 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
737 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
739 *** The option `ange-ftp-binary-file-name-regexp' has changed its
742 ** `url-queue-retrieve' downloads web pages asynchronously, but allow
743 controlling the degree of parallelism.
745 ** VC and related modes
747 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
748 The vc-pull command runs a "pull" operation, if it is supported.
749 This updates the current branch from upstream. A prefix argument
750 means to prompt the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
752 **** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
754 **** Currently supported by Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
756 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
757 The vc-merge command now runs a "merge" operation, if it is supported.
758 This merges another branch into the current one. This command prompts
759 the user for specifics, e.g. a merge source.
761 **** Currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
763 *** New option `vc-revert-show-diff' controls whether `vc-revert'
764 shows a diff while querying the user. It defaults to t.
766 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
767 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
768 In the Log View buffers made by `C-x v L' (vc-print-root-log), you can
769 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
771 **** Currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
773 **** Packages using Log View mode can enable this functionality by
774 binding `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function' to a suitable function.
776 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
777 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
779 ** FIXME: xdg-open for browse-url and reportbug, 2010/08.
783 *** partial-completion-mode is obsolete.
784 You can get a comparable behavior with:
785 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
786 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
788 *** pc-mode.el is obsolete.
790 *** sregex.el is obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
792 *** s-region.el and pc-select are obsolete.
793 They are superseded by shift-select-mode enabled by default in 23.1.
798 *** f90.el has some support for Fortran 2008 syntax.
801 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
803 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
806 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
808 ** Occur Edit mode applies edits made in *Occur* buffers to the
809 original buffers. It is bound to C-x C-q in Occur mode.
811 ** New global minor modes electric-pair-mode, electric-indent-mode,
812 and electric-layout-mode.
814 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
815 from which other modes can be derived.
817 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
819 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
820 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
821 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
822 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
825 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
826 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
828 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
829 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
831 ** xmodmap-generic-mode for xmodmap files.
833 ** New emacs-lock.el package.
834 (The pre-existing one has been renamed to old-emacs-lock.el and moved
835 to obsolete/.) Now, Emacs Lock is a proper minor mode
836 `emacs-lock-mode'. Protection against exiting Emacs and killing the
837 buffer can be set separately. The mechanism for auto turning off
838 protection for buffers with inferior processes has been generalized.
841 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
844 ** `char-direction-table' and the associated function `char-direction'
845 were deleted. They were buggy and inferior to the new support of
846 bidirectional editing introduced in Emacs 24. If you need the
847 bidirectional properties of a character, use `get-char-code-property'
848 with the last argument `bidi-class'.
851 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
852 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
853 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
854 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
856 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
857 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
858 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail.
859 This is currently used by Rmail to delete a mail window.
861 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
862 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
863 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
866 ** Removed obsolete name `e' (use `float-e' instead).
868 ** A backquote not followed by a space is now always treated as new-style.
870 ** Test for special mode-class was moved from view-file to view-buffer.
871 FIXME: This only says what was changed, but not what are the
872 programmer-visible consequences.
874 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function now turns the mode
878 ** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
879 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
880 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
881 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
882 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
883 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
885 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
886 similar to the ones created by shift-selection. In previous Emacs
887 versions, these regions were delineated by `mouse-drag-overlay', which
888 has now been removed.
890 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
892 ** The following obsolete functions and aliases were removed:
893 comint-kill-output, decompose-composite-char, outline-visible,
894 internal-find-face, internal-get-face, frame-update-faces,
895 frame-update-face-colors, x-frob-font-weight, x-frob-font-slant,
896 x-make-font-bold, x-make-font-demibold, x-make-font-unbold
897 x-make-font-italic, x-make-font-oblique, x-make-font-unitalic
898 x-make-font-bold-italic, mldrag-drag-mode-line, mldrag-drag-vertical-line,
899 iswitchb-default-keybindings, char-bytes, isearch-return-char,
902 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases were removed:
903 checkdoc-minor-keymap, vc-header-alist, directory-sep-char, and
904 font-lock-defaults-alist.
906 ** The following obsolete files were removed:
907 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
909 ** FIXME finder-inf.el changes.
912 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.1
914 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
915 The `lexical-binding' variable lets code use lexical scoping for local
916 variables. It is typically set via file-local variables, in which case it
917 applies to all the code in that file.
919 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
920 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
922 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
923 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
925 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
927 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
928 declared as dynamically bound.
930 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
931 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
932 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
934 ** Changes for bidirectional display and editing
937 *** New function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction'.
938 This returns the actual value of base direction of the paragraph at
942 *** New function `bidi-string-mark-left-to-right'.
943 Given a string containing characters from right-to-left (RTL) scripts,
944 this function returns another string which can be safely inserted into
945 a buffer, such that any following text will be always displayed to the
946 right of that string. (This works by appending the Unicode
947 "LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK" character when the argument string might need that.)
949 This is useful when the buffer has overall left-to-right (LTR)
950 paragraph direction and you need to insert a string whose contents and
951 directionality are not known in advance, without disrupting the layout
956 *** `switch-to-buffer' has a new optional argument FORCE-SAME-WINDOW,
957 which if non-nil requires the buffer to be displayed in the currently
958 selected window, signaling an error otherwise. If nil, another window
959 can be used, e.g. if the selected one is strongly dedicated.
961 *** FIXME: buffer-display-alist changes
965 *** New variable completion-extra-properties used to specify extra properties
966 of the current completion:
967 - :annotate-function, same as the old completion-annotate-function.
968 - :exit-function, function to call after completion took place.
970 *** Functions on completion-at-point-functions can return any of the properties
971 valid for completion-extra-properties.
973 *** completion-annotate-function is obsolete.
975 *** New `metadata' method for completion tables. The metadata thus returned
976 can specify various details of the data returned by `all-completions':
977 - `category' is the kind of objects returned (e.g., `buffer', `file', ...),
978 used to select a style in completion-category-overrides.
979 - `annotation-function' to add annotations in *Completions*.
980 - `display-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries in *Completions*.
981 - `cycle-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries when cycling.
983 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
984 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
986 ** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
987 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
988 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
989 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
990 must also be supplied.
993 ** pre/post-command-hook are not reset to nil upon error.
994 Instead, the offending function is removed.
996 ** New low-level function run-hook-wrapped.
998 ** `server-eval-at' is provided to allow evaluating forms on different
999 Emacs server instances.
1001 ** `call-process' allows a `(:file "file")' spec to redirect STDOUT to
1005 ** Variable `stack-trace-on-error' removed.
1006 Also the debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will jump
1007 to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked instead of
1008 jumping all the way to the top-level.
1010 ** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of characters,
1011 discarding any inputs not inside the set.
1013 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
1014 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
1015 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
1018 ** New variable `syntax-propertize-function'.
1019 This replaces `font-lock-syntactic-keywords' which is now obsolete.
1020 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
1021 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
1022 Together with this new variable come a new hook
1023 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
1024 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
1025 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
1028 ** New hook post-self-insert-hook run at the end of self-insert-command.
1031 ** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
1033 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
1035 ** prog-mode is a new major-mode meant to be the parent of programming mode.
1036 The prog-mode-hook it defines can be used to enable features for
1037 programming modes. For example:
1038 (add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'flyspell-prog-mode)
1039 enables on the fly spell checking for comments and strings for
1042 ** define-minor-mode accepts a new keyword :variable.
1045 ** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
1046 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
1047 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
1048 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
1050 ** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
1051 The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name or RGB
1052 triplet, instead of signalling an error if the user provides a invalid
1055 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
1056 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
1057 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
1061 *** Animated images support (currently animated gifs only).
1063 **** `image-animated-p' returns non-nil if an image can be animated.
1065 **** `image-animate' animates a supplied image spec.
1067 **** `image-animate-timer' returns the timer object for an image that
1070 *** `image-extension-data' is renamed to `image-metadata'.
1072 *** If Emacs is compiled with ImageMagick support (see Startup
1073 Changes), the function `imagemagick-types' returns a list of image
1074 file extensions that your installation of ImageMagick supports. The
1075 function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick support for
1076 these image types, minus those listed in `imagemagick-types-inhibit'.
1078 See the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual for more information.
1080 ** XML and HTML parsing
1082 *** If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support (which is the default),
1083 two new Emacs Lisp-level functions are defined:
1084 `libxml-parse-html-region' (which will parse "real world" HTML)
1085 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
1086 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
1088 FIXME: These should be front-ended by xml.el.
1092 *** Emacs can be compiled with libgnutls support
1093 This is the default. You will then be able to use the functionality
1094 in gnutls.el, namely the `open-gnutls-stream' and `gnutls-negotiate'
1095 functions. It's easiest to use these functions through
1096 `open-network-stream' because it can upgrade connections through
1097 STARTTLS opportunistically or use plain SSL, depending on your needs.
1099 Only versions 2.8.x and higher or GnuTLS have been tested.
1101 *** gnutls-log-level
1102 Set `gnutls-log-level' higher than 0 to get debug output. 1 is for
1103 important messages, 2 is for debug data, and higher numbers are as per
1104 the GnuTLS logging conventions. The output is in *Messages*.
1108 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
1111 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
1112 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
1113 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
1114 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
1115 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
1116 displayed with a "spinning bar".
1118 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
1119 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
1121 ** New variables `delayed-warnings-list' and `delayed-warnings-hook' allow
1122 deferring warnings until the main command loop is executed.
1125 ** `set-auto-mode' now respects mode: local variables at the end of files,
1126 as well as those in the -*- line.
1129 ** rx.el has a new `group-n' construct for explicitly numbered groups.
1131 ** keymaps can inherit from multiple parents.
1134 ** New reader macro ## which stands for the empty symbol.
1135 This means that the empty symbol can now be read back. Also, #: by itself
1136 (when not immediately followed by a possible symbol character) stands for
1137 an empty uninterned symbol.
1139 ** Obsolete functions and variables
1141 *** buffer-substring-filters is obsolete.
1142 Use `filter-buffer-substring-functions' instead.
1144 *** `byte-compile-disable-print-circle' is obsolete.
1146 *** `deferred-action-list' and `deferred-action-function' are obsolete.
1149 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on non-free operating systems
1151 ** New configure.bat option --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra
1154 ** New configure.bat option --distfiles to specify files to be
1155 included in binary distribution.
1157 ** New configure.bat option --without-gnutls to disable automatic
1160 ** New configure.bat option --lib for general library linkage, works
1161 with the USER_LIBS build variable.
1163 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
1165 ** On Nextstep/OSX, the menu bar can be hidden by customizing
1166 ns-auto-hide-menu-bar.
1169 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1170 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
1172 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1173 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1174 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1175 (at your option) any later version.
1177 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1178 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1179 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1180 GNU General Public License for more details.
1182 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1183 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
1188 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"