Use *font for Xft font names for Lucid menus and dialogs.
[bpt/emacs.git] / etc / NEWS
1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
5
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
8
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 24.
10
11 See files NEWS.23, NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18,
12 and NEWS.1-17 for changes in older Emacs versions.
13
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
16
17
18 Temporary note:
19 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
20 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
21 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
22 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
23
24 \f
25 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
26
27 ** Configure links against libselinux if it is found.
28 You can disable this by using --without-selinux.
29
30 ---
31 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
32 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
33
34 ---
35 ** There are new configure options:
36 --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
37 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
38 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
39
40 ---
41 ** Emacs can be compiled against Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
42 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
43 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
44 --without-gconf.
45
46 ** There is a new configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
47 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
48 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
49
50 ---
51 ** New translation of the Emacs Tutorial in Hebrew is available
52 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
53 automatically select it.
54
55 \f
56 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
57
58 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
59 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
60 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
61
62 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
63 from load-path. -Q now implies this.
64
65 \f
66 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
67
68 ** emacsclient changes
69
70 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID can be used to open a
71 client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed. This works like the
72 --parent-id argument to Emacs.
73
74 *** If emacsclient shuts down as a result of Emacs signalling an
75 error, its exit status is 1.
76
77 ** Completion can cycle, depending on completion-cycle-threshold.
78
79 ** auto-mode-case-fold is now enabled by default.
80
81 +++
82 ** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
83
84 See the node "Bidirectional Editing" in the Emacs Manual for some
85 initial documentation.
86
87 To turn this on in any given buffer, set the buffer-local variable
88 `bidi-display-reordering' to a non-nil value. The default is nil.
89
90 The buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction', if non-nil,
91 forces each paragraph in the buffer to have its base direction
92 according to the value of this variable. Possible values are
93 `right-to-left' and `left-to-right'. If the value is nil (the
94 default), Emacs determines the base direction of each paragraph from
95 its text, as specified by the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm.
96
97 The function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction' returns the actual
98 value of paragraph base direction at point.
99
100 Reordering of bidirectional text for display in Emacs is a "Full
101 bidirectionality" class implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional
102 Algorithm.
103
104 Note that some advanced display features, such as overlay strings and
105 `display' text properties, do not yet work correctly when
106 bidirectional text is reordered for display.
107
108 ** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
109 Use `set-scroll-bar-mode' to change this.
110
111 ** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
112 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose style. On a Gnome desktop, the default
113 is taken from the desktop settings.
114
115 ** GTK tool bars can be placed on the left/right or top/bottom of the frame.
116 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the values
117 top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has entries
118 for this.
119
120 ** ImageMagick support.
121 It is now possible to use the ImageMagick library to load many new
122 image formats in Emacs. By default, Emacs links with the ImageMagick
123 libraries if they are present at build time. To disable this, use
124 the configure option `--without-imagemagick'.
125
126 The new function `imagemagick-types' returns a list of image file
127 extensions that your installation of ImageMagick supports. The
128 function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick support for
129 these image types, minus those listed in `imagemagick-types-inhibit'.
130
131 See the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual for more information.
132
133 ** The colors for selected text (the region face) are taken from the GTK
134 theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
135
136 ** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK. You can turn that
137 off by customizing x-gtk-use-system-tooltips.
138
139 ** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is built
140 with Xft. To change font, use the X resource font, for example:
141 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
142
143 +++
144 ** Enhanced support for characters that have no glyphs in available fonts
145 If a character has no glyphs in any of the available fonts, Emacs by
146 default will display it either as a hexadecimal code in a box or as a
147 thin 1-pixel space. In addition to these two methods, Emacs can
148 display these characters as empty box, as an acronym, or not display
149 them at all. To change how these characters are displayed, customize
150 the variable `glyphless-char-display-control'.
151
152 On character terminals these methods are used for characters that
153 cannot be encoded by the `terminal-coding-system'.
154
155 ** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
156
157 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
158 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
159
160 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up, and
161 optionally when copying files. To this end, copy-file has an extra
162 optional argument, and backup-buffer and friends include the SELinux
163 context in their return values.
164
165 *** The new functions file-selinux-context and set-file-selinux-context
166 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
167
168 *** Tramp offers handlers for file-selinux-context and set-file-selinux-context
169 for remote machines which support SELinux.
170
171 +++
172 ** The function format-time-string now supports the %N directive, for
173 higher-resolution time stamps.
174
175 ** The function kill-emacs is now run upon receipt of the signals SIGTERM
176 and SIGHUP, and upon SIGINT in batch mode.
177
178 ** kill-emacs-hook is now also run in batch mode.
179
180 ** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
181 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) does not signal errors at top/bottom
182 of buffer at first key-press (instead moves to top/bottom of buffer)
183 when a new variable `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
184
185 ** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
186 scroll a line instead of full screen.
187
188 ** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
189 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
190
191 ** Trash changes
192
193 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
194 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
195
196 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
197 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
198
199 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
200 for `list-colors-display'.
201
202 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
203 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
204 from a package repository at elpa.gnu.org.
205
206 *** `M-x list-packages' shows a list of packages, which can be
207 selected for installation.
208
209 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
210
211 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded and activated
212 automatically when Emacs starts up. To disable this, set
213 `package-enable-at-startup' to nil. To change which packages are
214 loaded, customize `package-load-list'.
215
216 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
217 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
218 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
219
220 ** Custom Themes
221
222 *** `M-x customize-themes' lists Custom themes which can be enabled.
223
224 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
225 Emacs no longer looks for custom themes in `load-path'. The default
226 is to search in `custom-theme-directory', followed by a built-in theme
227 directory named "themes/" in `data-directory'.
228
229 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
230 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
231 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
232 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
233
234 ** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
235 the remote file-name cache is used for read access.
236
237 ** The standalone programs lib-src/digest-doc and sorted-doc have been
238 replaced with Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
239
240 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
241
242 \f
243 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
244
245 +++
246 ** There is a new command `count-words-region', which does what you expect.
247
248 ** completion-at-point now handles tags and semantic completion.
249
250 ** The default value of `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' is now t.
251
252 ** The command `just-one-space' (C-SPC), if given a negative argument,
253 also deletes newlines around point.
254
255 ** Deletion changes
256
257 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
258 If non-nil, C-d, [delete], and DEL delete the region if it is active
259 and no prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', these commands
260 kill instead.
261
262 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to C-d and [delete].
263 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
264 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
265
266 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
267 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
268 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; you
269 should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
270
271 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
272
273 ** Selection changes.
274
275 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections was changed
276 to conform with modern X applications. In short, most commands for
277 killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while mouse commands
278 use the primary selection.
279
280 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
281 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
282
283 *** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
284 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
285 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
286 the kill-ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
287 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
288
289 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
290 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
291 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
292 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
293 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
294
295 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
296 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
297 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
298
299 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
300 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
301 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
302 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
303
304 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
305 exactly equivalent to, respectively M-w, C-w, and C-y.
306
307 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
308 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
309 between applications.
310
311 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
312
313 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
314 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
315 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
316 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
317
318 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
319
320 ** New command `rectangle-number-lines', bound to `C-x r N', numbers
321 the lines in the current rectangle. With an prefix argument, this
322 prompts for a number to count from and for a format string.
323
324 \f
325 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
326
327 ** The compile.el mode can be used without font-lock-mode.
328 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
329
330 ** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
331
332 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
333 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricty, support for
334 more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
335
336 ** shell-mode can track your cwd by reading it from your prompt.
337 Just set shell-dir-cookie-re to an appropriate regexp.
338
339 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
340
341 ** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
342
343 ** FIXME: xdg-open for browse-url and reportbug, 2010/08.
344
345 ** Archive Mode has basic support to browse 7z archives.
346
347 ** browse-url has gotten a new variable that is used for mailto: URLs,
348 `browse-url-mailto-function', which defaults to `browse-url-mail'.
349
350 ** ERC changes
351
352 *** New vars `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay'.
353 If the value of `erc-autojoin-timing' is 'ident, ERC autojoins after a
354 successful NickServ identification, or after `erc-autojoin-delay'
355 seconds. The default value, 'ident, means to autojoin immediately
356 after connecting.
357
358 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
359 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
360 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
361 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
362
363 ** Eshell changes
364
365 *** The default value of eshell-directory-name is a directory named
366 "eshell" in `user-emacs-directory'. If the old "~/.eshell/" directory
367 exists, that is used instead.
368
369 ** In ido-mode, C-v is no longer bound to ido-toggle-vc.
370 The reason is that this interferes with cua-mode.
371
372 ** partial-completion-mode is now obsolete.
373 You can get a comparable behavior with:
374 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
375 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
376
377 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
378
379 ** server can listen on a specific port using the server-port option.
380
381 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
382
383 ---
384 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt package
385 by adding appt-make-list to diary-hook has been removed. Use appt-activate.
386
387 ---
388 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
389 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
390 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
391
392 ---
393 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
394 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
395
396 ** Customize
397
398 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
399 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
400 To turn off the search field, set custom-search-field to nil.
401
402 *** Custom options now start out hidden if at their default values.
403 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
404
405 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
406
407 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
408 choose a color via list-colors-display.
409
410 ** Dired-x
411
412 *** dired-jump and dired-jump-other-window called with a prefix argument
413 read a file name from the minibuffer instead of using buffer-file-name.
414
415 ** Directory local variables can apply to file-less buffers.
416 For example, adding "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to your
417 .dir-locals.el file, will turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers.
418
419 ** SQL Mode enhancements.
420
421 *** Several variables have been marked as safe local variables. The
422 variables `sql-product', `sql-user', `sql-server', `sql-database' and
423 `sql-port' can now be safely used as local variables.
424
425 *** `sql-dialect' is a synonym for `sql-product'.
426
427 *** Added ability to login with a port on MySQL and Postgres.
428 The custom variable `sql-port' can be specified for connection to
429 MySQL or Postgres servers. By default, the port is not listed in
430 either login parameter, but will be added to the command line if set
431 to a non-zero value.
432
433 *** Dynamic selection of product in an SQL interactive session.
434 If you use `sql-product-interactive' to start an SQL interactive
435 session it uses the current value of `sql-product'. Preceding the
436 invocation with C-u will force it to ask for the product before
437 creating the session.
438
439 *** Renaming a SQL interactive buffer when it is created.
440 Prefixing the SQL interactive commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres',
441 `sql-mysql', etc.) with C-u will force a new interactive session to be
442 started and will prompt for the new name. This will reduce the need
443 for `sql-rename-buffer' is most common use cases.
444
445 *** Command continuation prompts in SQL interactive mode are suppressed.
446 Multiple line commands in SQL interactive mode, generate command
447 continuation prompts which needlessly confuse the output. These
448 prompts are now filtered out from the output. This change impacts
449 multiple line SQL statements entered with C-j between each line,
450 statements yanked into the buffer and statements sent with
451 `sql-send-*' functions.
452
453 *** Custom variables control prompting for login parameters.
454 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params'
455 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
456 connection is established.
457
458 The lists consist of the following five tokens: `user', `password',
459 `database', `server', and `port'. The order in which they appear is
460 the order in which they are prompted. The tokens symbols can be
461 replaced by a sublist starting with the token and followed by a plist
462 which control the prompting for values. The tokens `user',
463 `database', and `server' each can take a property of :default which
464 specifies the value to be used if no value is entered. The
465 `database', `server', and `port' tokens handle the :completion
466 property which restricts the entry to either one of the values in the
467 list or to one of the values returned by the function provided as the
468 property value. The `database' and `server' tokens also accept the
469 :file property whose value is a regexp to identify useful file names.
470
471 (user :default DEF)
472 (database :default DEF
473 :file FILEPAT
474 :completion COMPLETE)
475 (server :default DEF
476 :file FILEPAT
477 :completion COMPLETE)
478
479 The FILEPAT when :file is specified is a regexp that will match valid
480 file names (without the directory portion). Generally these strings
481 will be of the form ".+\.SUF" where SUF is the desired file suffix.
482
483 When :completion is specified, the COMPLETE corresponds to the
484 PREDICATE argument to the `completing-read' function (a list of
485 possible values or a function returning such a list).
486
487 *** Added `sql-connection-alist' to record login parameter values.
488 An alist for recording different username, database and server
489 values. If there are multiple databases that you connect to the
490 parameters needed can be stored in this alist.
491
492 For example, the following might be set in the user's init.el:
493
494 (setq sql-connection-alist
495 '((dev (sql-product 'sqlite)
496 (sql-database "/home/mmaug/dev.db"))
497 (prd (sql-product 'oracle)
498 (sql-user "mmaug")
499 (sql-database "iprd2a"))))
500
501 This defines two connections named "dev" and "prd".
502
503 *** Added `sql-connect' to use predefined connections.
504 Sets the login parameters based on the values in the
505 `sql-connection-alist' and start a SQL interactive session. Any
506 values specified in the connection will not be prompted for.
507
508 In the example above, if the user were to invoke M-x sql-connect, they
509 would be prompted for the connection. The user can respond with
510 either "dev" or "prd". The "dev" connection would connect to the
511 SQLite database without prompting; the "prd" connection would prompt
512 for the users password and then connect to the Oracle database.
513
514 **** Added SQL->Start... submenu when connections are defined.
515 When connections have been defined, there is a submenu available that
516 allows the user to select one to start a SQLi session. The "Start
517 SQLi Session" item moves to the "Start..." submenu when cnnections
518 have been defined.
519
520 **** Added "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
521 When a SQLi session is not started by a connection then
522 `sql-save-connection' will gather the login params specified for the
523 session and save them as a new connection.
524
525 *** List database objects and details.
526 Once a SQL interactive session has been started, you can get a list of
527 the objects in the database and see details of those objects. The
528 objects shown and the details available are product specific.
529
530 **** List all objects.
531 Using `M-x sql-list-all', `C-c C-l a' or selecting "SQL->List all
532 objects" will list all the objects in the database. At a minimum it
533 lists the tables and views in the database. Preceeding the command by
534 universal argument may provide additional details or extend the
535 listing to include other schemas objects. The list will appear in a
536 separate window in view-mode.
537
538 **** List Table details.
539 Using `M-x sql-list-table', `C-c C-l t' or selecting "SQL->List Table
540 details" will ask for the name of a database table or view and display
541 the list of columns in the relation. Preceeding the comand with the
542 universal argument may provide additional details about each column.
543 The list will appear in a separate window in view-mode.
544
545 *** Added option `sql-send-terminator'.
546 When set makes sure that each command sent with `sql-send-*' commands
547 are properly terminated and submitted to the SQL processor.
548
549 *** Added option `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
550 When set commands sent to Oracle's SQL*Plus are scanned for strings
551 starting with an ampersand and the user is asked for replacement text.
552 In general, the SQL*Plus option SCAN should always be set OFF under
553 SQL interactive mode and this option used in its place.
554
555 *** SQL interactive mode will replace tabs with spaces.
556 This prevents the comand interpretter for MySQL and Postgres from
557 listing object name completions when being sent text via
558 `sql-send-*' functions.
559
560 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
561
562 ** sregex.el is now obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
563
564 ** s-region.el and pc-select are now declared obsolete,
565 superceded by shift-select-mode enabled by default in 23.1.
566 ** pc-mode.el is also declared obsolete.
567 ** gdb-mi
568
569 *** GDB User Interface migrated to GDB Machine Interface and now
570 supports multithread non-stop debugging and debugging of several
571 threads simultaneously.
572
573 ** D-Bus
574
575 *** It is possible now, to access alternative buses than the default
576 system or session bus.
577
578 *** dbus-register-{service,method,property}
579 The -method and -property functions do not automatically register
580 names anymore.
581
582 The new function dbus-register-service registers a service known name
583 on a D-Bus without simultaneously registering a property or a method.
584
585 ** Tramp
586
587 *** There exists a new inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
588
589 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
590 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
591
592 ** VC and related modes
593
594 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
595 The vc-pull command runs a "pull" operation, if it is supported.
596 This updates the current branch from upstream. A prefix argument
597 means to prompt the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
598
599 **** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
600
601 **** Currently supported by Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
602
603 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
604 The vc-merge command now runs a "merge" operation, if it is supported.
605 This merges another branch into the current one. This command prompts
606 the user for specifics, e.g. a merge source.
607
608 **** Currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
609
610 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
611 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
612 In the Log View buffers made by `C-x v L' (vc-print-root-log), you can
613 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
614
615 **** Currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
616
617 **** Packages using Log View mode can enable this functionality by
618 binding `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function' to a suitable function.
619
620 ** Miscellaneous
621
622 ---
623 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
624
625 \f
626 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
627
628 ** New global minor modes electric-pair-mode, electric-indent-mode,
629 and electric-layout-mode.
630
631 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
632
633 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
634 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
635 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
636 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
637 secrets.
638
639 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
640 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
641
642 \f
643 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
644
645 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
646 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
647 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
648 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
649
650 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
651 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
652 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail.
653 This is currently used by Rmail to delete a mail window.
654
655 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
656 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
657 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
658 of the header line.
659
660 ** Remove obsolete name `e' (use `float-e' instead).
661
662 ** A backquote not followed by a space is now always treated as new-style.
663
664 ** Test for special mode-class was moved from view-file to view-buffer.
665 FIXME: This only says what was changed, but not what are the
666 programmer-visible consequences.
667
668 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function now turns the mode
669 ON unconditionally.
670
671 ** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
672 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and
673 `initial-frame-alist'. With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame'
674 checks the value of the variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to
675 determine whether to create a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively.
676 If the alist entries are added, they override the value of
677 `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
678
679 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
680 similar to the ones created by shift-selection. In previous Emacs
681 versions, these regions were delineated by `mouse-drag-overlay', which
682 has now been removed.
683
684 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
685
686 ** The following functions and aliases, obsolete since at least Emacs 21.1,
687 have been removed:
688 comint-kill-output, decompose-composite-char, outline-visible,
689 internal-find-face, internal-get-face, frame-update-faces,
690 frame-update-face-colors, x-frob-font-weight, x-frob-font-slant,
691 x-make-font-bold, x-make-font-demibold, x-make-font-unbold
692 x-make-font-italic, x-make-font-oblique, x-make-font-unitalic
693 x-make-font-bold-italic, mldrag-drag-mode-line, mldrag-drag-vertical-line,
694 iswitchb-default-keybindings, char-bytes, isearch-return-char,
695 make-local-hook
696
697 ** The following variables and aliases, obsolete since at least Emacs 21.1,
698 have been removed:
699 checkdoc-minor-keymap, vc-header-alist, directory-sep-char,
700 font-lock-defaults-alist
701
702 ** The following files, obsolete since at least Emacs 21.1, have been removed:
703 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
704
705 ** FIXME finder-inf.el changes.
706
707 \f
708 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.1
709
710 ** Removed the stack-trace-on-error variable.
711 Also the debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will jump
712 to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked instead of
713 jumping all the way to the top-level.
714
715 ** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of characters,
716 discarding any inputs not inside the set.
717
718 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
719 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
720 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
721 obsolete alias.
722
723 ** New variable syntax-propertize-function to set syntax-table properties.
724 Replaces font-lock-syntactic-keywords which are now obsolete.
725 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
726 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
727 Together with this new variable come a new hook
728 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
729 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
730 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
731 syntactic rules.
732
733 ** New hook post-self-insert-hook run at the end of self-insert-command.
734
735 +++
736 ** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
737 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
738 ** prog-mode is a new major-mode meant to be the parent of programming mode.
739 ** define-minor-mode accepts a new keyword :variable.
740
741 ** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
742 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
743 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
744 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
745
746 ** buffer-substring-filters is obsoleted by filter-buffer-substring-functions.
747
748 ** New completion style `substring'.
749
750 ** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
751 The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name or RGB
752 triplet, instead of signalling an error if the user provides a invalid
753 input.
754
755 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
756 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
757 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
758
759 ** Image API
760
761 *** When the image type is one of listed in `image-animated-types'
762 and the number of sub-images in the image is more than one, then the
763 new function `create-animated-image' creates an animated image where
764 sub-images are displayed successively with the duration defined by
765 `image-animate-max-time' and the delay between sub-images defined
766 by the Graphic Control Extension of the image.
767
768 *** `image-extension-data' is renamed to `image-metadata'.
769
770 ** XML and HTML parsing
771
772 *** If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support (which is the default),
773 two new Emacs Lisp-level functions are defined:
774 `libxml-parse-html-region' (which will parse "real world" HTML)
775 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
776 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
777
778 FIXME: These should be front-ended by xml.el.
779
780 ** FIXME GnuTLS
781
782 ** Isearch
783
784 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
785
786 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
787 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
788 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
789 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
790 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
791 displayed with a "spinning bar".
792
793 \f
794 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on non-free operating systems
795
796 ** New configure.bat option --enable-checking builds emacs with extra
797 runtime checks.
798
799 ** New configure.bat option --distfiles to specify files to be
800 included in binary distribution
801
802 ** New make target `dist' to create binary disttribution for Windows
803 platform
804
805 \f
806 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
807 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
808
809 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
810 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
811 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
812 (at your option) any later version.
813
814 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
815 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
816 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
817 GNU General Public License for more details.
818
819 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
820 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
821
822 \f
823 Local variables:
824 mode: outline
825 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
826 end: