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