1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2003-05-21
2 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005
3 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end for copying conditions.
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
7 For older news, see the file ONEWS
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9 `view-emacs-news' with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
12 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
13 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
14 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
15 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
18 * Installation Changes in Emacs 22.1
20 ** Emacs includes now support for loading image libraries on demand.
21 (Currently this feature is only used on MS Windows.) You can configure
22 the supported image types and their associated dynamic libraries by
23 setting the variable `image-library-alist'.
26 ** New translations of the Emacs Tutorial are available in the following
27 languages: Brasilian, Bulgarian, Chinese (both with simplified and
28 traditional characters), French, and Italian. Type `C-u C-h t' to
29 choose one of them in case your language setup doesn't automatically
33 ** You can build Emacs with Gtk+ widgets by specifying `--with-x-toolkit=gtk'
34 when you run configure. This requires Gtk+ 2.0 or newer. This port
35 provides a way to display multilingual text in menus (with some caveats).
38 ** Emacs can now be built without sound support.
41 ** The `emacsserver' program has been removed, replaced with elisp code.
44 ** Emacs now supports new configure options `--program-prefix',
45 `--program-suffix' and `--program-transform-name' that affect the names of
49 ** By default, Emacs now uses a setgid helper program to update game
50 scores. The directory ${localstatedir}/games/emacs is the normal
51 place for game scores to be stored. This may be controlled by the
52 configure option `--with-game-dir'. The specific user that Emacs uses
53 to own the game scores is controlled by `--with-game-user'. If access
54 to a game user is not available, then scores will be stored separately
55 in each user's home directory.
58 ** Leim is now part of the Emacs distribution.
59 You no longer need to download a separate tarball in order to build
63 ** The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual is now part of the distribution.
65 The ELisp reference manual in Info format is built as part of the
66 Emacs build procedure and installed together with the Emacs User
67 Manual. A menu item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy
68 accessible (Help->More Manuals->Emacs Lisp Reference).
71 ** The Introduction to Programming in Emacs Lisp manual is now part of
74 This manual is now part of the standard distribution and is installed,
75 together with the Emacs User Manual, into the Info directory. A menu
76 item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy accessible
77 (Help->More Manuals->Introduction to Emacs Lisp).
80 ** Support for Cygwin was added.
83 ** Support for FreeBSD/Alpha has been added.
86 ** Support for GNU/Linux systems on S390 machines was added.
89 ** Support for MacOS X was added.
90 See the files mac/README and mac/INSTALL for build instructions.
93 ** Support for GNU/Linux systems on X86-64 machines was added.
96 ** Mac OS 9 port now uses the Carbon API by default. You can also
97 create non-Carbon build by specifying `NonCarbon' as a target. See
98 the files mac/README and mac/INSTALL for build instructions.
101 ** A French translation of the `Emacs Survival Guide' is available.
104 ** Building with -DENABLE_CHECKING does not automatically build with union
105 types any more. Add -DUSE_LISP_UNION_TYPE if you want union types.
108 * Changes in Emacs 22.1
110 ** Improved Thai support. A new minor mode `thai-word-mode' (which is
111 automatically activated if you select Thai as a language
112 environment) changes key bindings of most word-oriented commands to
113 versions which recognize Thai words. Affected commands are
117 M-DEL (backward-kill-word)
118 M-t (transpose-words)
121 ** fast-lock.el and lazy-lock.el are obsolete. Use jit-lock.el instead.
123 ** iso-acc.el is now obsolete. Use one of the latin input methods instead.
126 ** Language environment and various default coding systems are setup
127 more correctly according to the current locale name. If the locale
128 name doesn't specify a charset, the default is what glibc defines.
129 This change may result in using the different coding systems as
130 default in some locale (e.g. vi_VN).
133 ** The commands copy-file, rename-file, make-symbolic-link and
134 add-name-to-file, when given a directory as the "new name" argument,
135 convert it to a file name by merging in the within-directory part of
136 the existing file's name. (This is the same convention that shell
137 commands cp, mv, and ln follow.) Thus, M-x copy-file RET ~/foo RET
138 /tmp RET copies ~/foo to /tmp/foo.
141 ** M-o now is the prefix key for setting text properties;
142 M-o M-o requests refontification.
145 ** M-g is now a prefix key.
147 M-g g and M-g M-g run goto-line.
148 M-g n and M-g M-n run next-error (like C-x `).
149 M-g p and M-g M-p run previous-error.
152 ** font-lock-lines-before specifies a number of lines before the
153 current line that should be refontified when you change the buffer.
154 The default value is 1.
157 ** C-u M-x goto-line now switches to the most recent previous buffer,
158 and goes to the specified line in that buffer.
160 When goto-line starts to execute, if there's a number in the buffer at
161 point then it acts as the default argument for the minibuffer.
164 ** Emacs now responds to mouse-clicks on the mode-line, header-line and
165 display margin, when run in an xterm.
168 ** M-SPC (just-one-space) when given a numeric argument N
169 converts whitespace around point to N spaces.
172 ** Control characters and escape glyphs are now shown in the new
176 ** Non-breaking space and hyphens are now prefixed with an escape
177 character, unless the new user variable `show-nonbreak-escape' is set
181 ** The type-break package now allows `type-break-file-name' to be nil
182 and if so, doesn't store any data across sessions. This is handy if
183 you don't want the .type-break file in your home directory or are
184 annoyed by the need for interaction when you kill Emacs.
187 ** display-battery has been replaced by display-battery-mode.
190 ** calculator.el now has radix grouping mode, which is available when
191 `calculator-output-radix' is non-nil. In this mode a separator
192 character is used every few digits, making it easier to see byte
193 boundries etc. For more info, see the documentation of the variable
194 `calculator-radix-grouping-mode'.
197 ** You can now follow links by clicking Mouse-1 on the link.
199 Traditionally, Emacs uses a Mouse-1 click to set point and a Mouse-2
200 click to follow a link, whereas most other applications use a Mouse-1
201 click for both purposes, depending on whether you click outside or
202 inside a link. Now the behavior of a Mouse-1 click has been changed
203 to match this context-sentitive dual behavior.
205 Depending on the current mode, a Mouse-2 click in Emacs may do much
206 more than just follow a link, so the new Mouse-1 behavior is only
207 activated for modes which explicitly mark a clickable text as a "link"
208 (see the new function `mouse-on-link-p' for details). The Lisp
209 packages that are included in release 22.1 have been adapted to do
210 this, but external packages may not yet support this. However, there
211 is no risk in using such packages, as the worst thing that could
212 happen is that you get the original Mouse-1 behavior when you click
213 on a link, which typically means that you set point where you click.
215 If you want to get the original Mouse-1 action also inside a link, you
216 just need to press the Mouse-1 button a little longer than a normal
217 click (i.e. press and hold the Mouse-1 button for half a second before
220 Dragging the Mouse-1 inside a link still performs the original
221 drag-mouse-1 action, typically copy the text.
223 You can customize the new Mouse-1 behavior via the new user options
224 `mouse-1-click-follows-link' and `mouse-1-click-in-non-selected-windows'.
227 ** require-final-newline now has two new possible values:
229 `visit' means add a newline (as an undoable change) if it's needed
230 when visiting the file.
232 `visit-save' means add a newline (as an undoable change) if it's
233 needed when visiting the file, and also add a newline if it's needed
234 when saving the file.
237 ** The new option mode-require-final-newline controls how certain
238 major modes enable require-final-newline. Any major mode that's
239 designed for a kind of file that should normally end in a newline
240 sets require-final-newline based on mode-require-final-newline.
241 So you can customize mode-require-final-newline to control what these
245 ** When the undo information of the current command gets really large
246 (beyond the value of `undo-outer-limit'), Emacs discards it and warns
250 ** line-move-ignore-invisible now defaults to t.
253 ** In Outline mode, hide-body no longer hides lines at the top
254 of the file that precede the first header line.
257 ** In Enriched mode, `set-left-margin' and `set-right-margin' are now
258 by default bound to `C-c [' and `C-c ]' instead of the former `C-c C-l'
262 ** In processing a local variables list, Emacs strips the prefix and
263 suffix are from every line before processing all the lines.
266 ** `apply-macro-to-region-lines' now operates on all lines that begin
267 in the region, rather than on all complete lines in the region.
270 ** global-whitespace-mode is a new alias for whitespace-global-mode.
273 ** There are now two new regular expression operators, \_< and \_>,
274 for matching the beginning and end of a symbol. A symbol is a
275 non-empty sequence of either word or symbol constituent characters, as
276 specified by the syntax table.
278 *** rx.el has new corresponding `symbol-end' and `symbol-start' elements.
281 ** Passing resources on the command line now works on MS Windows.
282 You can use --xrm to pass resource settings to Emacs, overriding any
283 existing values. For example:
285 emacs --xrm "Emacs.Background:red" --xrm "Emacs.Geometry:100x20"
287 will start up Emacs on an initial frame of 100x20 with red background,
288 irrespective of geometry or background setting on the Windows registry.
291 ** The terminal emulation code in term.el has been improved, it can
292 run most curses applications now.
294 ** New features in evaluation commands
297 *** The function `eval-defun' (C-M-x) called on defface reinitializes
298 the face to the value specified in the defface expression.
301 *** Typing C-x C-e twice prints the value of the integer result
302 in additional formats (octal, hexadecimal, character) specified
303 by the new function `eval-expression-print-format'. The same
304 function also defines the result format for `eval-expression' (M-:),
305 `eval-print-last-sexp' (C-j) and some edebug evaluation functions.
308 ** New input method chinese-sisheng for inputting Chinese Pinyin
312 ** New command quail-show-key shows what key (or key sequence) to type
313 in the current input method to input a character at point.
316 ** You can now switch buffers in a cyclic order with C-x C-left and
317 (prev-buffer) and C-x C-right (next-buffer). C-x left and C-x right
321 ** Commands winner-redo and winner-undo, from winner.el, are now bound to
322 C-c <left> and C-c <right>, respectively. This is an incompatible change.
325 ** Help commands `describe-function' and `describe-key' now show function
326 arguments in lowercase italics on displays that support it. To change the
327 default, customize face `help-argument-name' or redefine the function
328 `help-default-arg-highlight'.
331 ** The comint prompt can now be made read-only, using the new user
332 option `comint-prompt-read-only'. This is not enabled by default,
333 except in IELM buffers. The read-only status of IELM prompts can be
334 controlled with the new user option `ielm-prompt-read-only', which
335 overrides `comint-prompt-read-only'.
337 The new commands `comint-kill-whole-line' and `comint-kill-region'
338 support editing comint buffers with read-only prompts.
340 `comint-kill-whole-line' is like `kill-whole-line', but ignores both
341 read-only and field properties. Hence, it always kill entire
342 lines, including any prompts.
344 `comint-kill-region' is like `kill-region', except that it ignores
345 read-only properties, if it is safe to do so. This means that if any
346 part of a prompt is deleted, then the entire prompt must be deleted
347 and that all prompts must stay at the beginning of a line. If this is
348 not the case, then `comint-kill-region' behaves just like
349 `kill-region' if read-only are involved: it copies the text to the
350 kill-ring, but does not delete it.
353 ** You can now use next-error (C-x `) and previous-error to advance to
354 the next/previous matching line found by M-x occur.
357 ** Telnet now prompts you for a port number with C-u M-x telnet.
360 ** New command line option -Q or --quick.
362 This is like using -q --no-site-file, but in addition it also disables
363 the fancy startup screen.
366 ** New command line option -D or --basic-display.
368 Disables the menu-bar, the tool-bar, the scroll-bars, tool tips, and
372 ** New command line option -nbc or --no-blinking-cursor disables
373 the blinking cursor on graphical terminals.
376 ** C-h v and C-h f commands now include a hyperlink to the C source for
377 variables and functions defined in C (if the C source is available).
380 ** When used interactively, `format-write-file' now asks for confirmation
381 before overwriting an existing file, unless a prefix argument is
382 supplied. This behavior is analogous to `write-file'.
385 ** You can now use Auto Revert mode to `tail' a file.
386 If point is at the end of a file buffer before reverting, Auto Revert
387 mode keeps it at the end after reverting. Similarly if point is
388 displayed at the end of a file buffer in any window, it stays at
389 the end of the buffer in that window. This allows to tail a file:
390 just put point at the end of the buffer and it stays there. This
391 rule applies to file buffers. For non-file buffers, the behavior may
394 If you are sure that the file will only change by growing at the end,
395 then you can tail the file more efficiently by using the new minor
396 mode Auto Revert Tail mode. The function `auto-revert-tail-mode'
400 ** Auto Revert mode is now more careful to avoid excessive reverts and
401 other potential problems when deciding which non-file buffers to
402 revert. This matters especially if Global Auto Revert mode is enabled
403 and `global-auto-revert-non-file-buffers' is non-nil. Auto Revert
404 mode only reverts a non-file buffer if the buffer has a non-nil
405 `revert-buffer-function' and a non-nil `buffer-stale-function', which
406 decides whether the buffer should be reverted. Currently, this means
407 that auto reverting works for Dired buffers (although this may not
408 work properly on all operating systems) and for the Buffer Menu.
411 ** If the new user option `auto-revert-check-vc-info' is non-nil, Auto
412 Revert mode reliably updates version control info (such as the version
413 control number in the mode line), in all version controlled buffers in
414 which it is active. If the option is nil, the default, then this info
415 only gets updated whenever the buffer gets reverted.
418 ** New command `Buffer-menu-toggle-files-only' toggles display of file
419 buffers only in the Buffer Menu. It is bound to `T' in Buffer Menu
423 ** M-x compile has become more robust and reliable
425 Quite a few more kinds of messages are recognized. Messages that are
426 recognized as warnings or informational come in orange or green, instead of
427 red. Informational messages are by default skipped with `next-error'
428 (controlled by `compilation-skip-threshold').
430 Location data is collected on the fly as the *compilation* buffer changes.
431 This means you could modify messages to make them point to different files.
432 This also means you can not go to locations of messages you may have deleted.
434 The variable `compilation-error-regexp-alist' has now become customizable. If
435 you had added your own regexps to this, you'll probably need to include a
436 leading `^', otherwise they'll match anywhere on a line. There is now also a
437 `compilation-mode-font-lock-keywords' and it nicely handles all the checks
438 that configure outputs and -o options so you see at a glance where you are.
440 The new file etc/compilation.txt gives examples of each type of message.
442 ** Compilation mode enhancements:
445 *** New user option `compilation-environment'.
446 This option allows you to specify environment variables for inferior
447 compilation processes without affecting the environment that all
448 subprocesses inherit.
451 ** Grep has been decoupled from compilation mode setup.
454 *** There's a new separate package grep.el.
457 *** M-x grep has been adapted to new compile
459 Hits are fontified in green, and hits in binary files in orange. Grep buffers
460 can be saved and automatically revisited with the new Grep mode.
463 *** Grep commands now have their own submenu and customization group.
466 *** `grep-find' is now also available under the name `find-grep' where
467 people knowing `find-grep-dired' would probably expect it.
470 *** The new variables `grep-window-height', `grep-auto-highlight', and
471 `grep-scroll-output' can be used to override the corresponding
472 compilation mode settings for grep commands.
475 *** New option `grep-highlight-matches' highlightes matches in *grep*
476 buffer. It uses a special feature of some grep programs which accept
477 --color option to output markers around matches. When going to the next
478 match with `next-error' the exact match is highlighted in the source
479 buffer. Otherwise, if `grep-highlight-matches' is nil, the whole
480 source line is highlighted.
483 *** New key bindings in grep output window:
484 SPC and DEL scrolls window up and down. C-n and C-p moves to next and
485 previous match in the grep window. RET jumps to the source line of
486 the current match. `n' and `p' shows next and previous match in
487 other window, but does not switch buffer. `{' and `}' jumps to the
488 previous or next file in the grep output. TAB also jumps to the next
492 ** New options `next-error-highlight' and `next-error-highlight-no-select'
493 specify the method of highlighting of the corresponding source line
494 in new face `next-error'.
497 ** A new minor mode `next-error-follow-minor-mode' can be used in
498 compilation-mode, grep-mode, occur-mode, and diff-mode (i.e. all the
499 modes that can use `next-error'). In this mode, cursor motion in the
500 buffer causes automatic display in another window of the corresponding
501 matches, compilation errors, etc. This minor mode can be toggled with
505 ** M-x diff uses diff-mode instead of compilation-mode.
508 ** M-x compare-windows now can automatically skip non-matching text to
509 resync points in both windows.
512 ** New command `strokes-global-set-stroke-string'.
513 This is like `strokes-global-set-stroke', but it allows you to bind
514 the stroke directly to a string to insert. This is convenient for
515 using strokes as an input method.
520 *** Gnus now includes Sieve and PGG
521 Sieve is a library for managing Sieve scripts. PGG is a library to handle
525 *** There are many news features, bug fixes and improvements.
526 See the file GNUS-NEWS or the node "Oort Gnus" in the Gnus manual for details.
532 *** Desktop saving is now a minor mode, desktop-save-mode. Variable
533 desktop-enable is obsolete. Customize desktop-save-mode to enable desktop
537 *** Buffers are saved in the desktop file in the same order as that in the
541 *** The desktop package can be customized to restore only some buffers immediately,
542 remaining buffers are restored lazily (when Emacs is idle).
546 - desktop-revert reverts to the last loaded desktop.
547 - desktop-change-dir kills current desktop and loads a new.
548 - desktop-save-in-desktop-dir saves desktop in the directory from which
550 - desktop-lazy-complete runs the desktop load to completion.
551 - desktop-lazy-abort aborts lazy loading of the desktop.
554 *** New customizable variables:
555 - desktop-save. Determins whether the desktop should be saved when it is
557 - desktop-file-name-format. Format in which desktop file names should be saved.
558 - desktop-path. List of directories in which to lookup the desktop file.
559 - desktop-locals-to-save. List of local variables to save.
560 - desktop-globals-to-clear. List of global variables that `desktop-clear' will clear.
561 - desktop-clear-preserve-buffers-regexp. Regexp identifying buffers that `desktop-clear'
563 - desktop-restore-eager. Number of buffers to restore immediately. Remaining buffers are
564 restored lazily (when Emacs is idle).
565 - desktop-lazy-verbose. Verbose reporting of lazily created buffers.
566 - desktop-lazy-idle-delay. Idle delay before starting to create buffers.
569 *** New command line option --no-desktop
573 - desktop-after-read-hook run after a desktop is loaded.
574 - desktop-no-desktop-file-hook run when no desktop file is found.
577 ** The saveplace.el package now filters out unreadable files.
578 When you exit Emacs, the saved positions in visited files no longer
579 include files that aren't readable, e.g. files that don't exist.
580 Customize the new option `save-place-forget-unreadable-files' to nil
581 to get the old behavior. The new options `save-place-save-skipped'
582 and `save-place-skip-check-regexp' allow further fine-tuning of this
586 ** You can have several Emacs servers on the same machine.
588 % emacs --eval '(setq server-name "foo")' -f server-start &
589 % emacs --eval '(setq server-name "bar")' -f server-start &
590 % emacsclient -s foo file1
591 % emacsclient -s bar file2
594 ** On window systems, lines which are exactly as wide as the window
595 (not counting the final newline character) are no longer broken into
596 two lines on the display (with just the newline on the second line).
597 Instead, the newline now "overflows" into the right fringe, and the
598 cursor will be displayed in the fringe when positioned on that newline.
600 The new user option 'overflow-newline-into-fringe' may be set to nil to
601 revert to the old behavior of continuing such lines.
604 ** The buffer boundaries (i.e. first and last line in the buffer) may
605 now be marked with angle bitmaps in the fringes. In addition, up and
606 down arrow bitmaps may be shown at the top and bottom of the left or
607 right fringe if the window can be scrolled in either direction.
609 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
610 `indicate-buffer-boundaries' to a non-nil value. The default value of
611 this variable is found in `default-indicate-buffer-boundaries'.
613 If value is `left' or `right', both angle and arrow bitmaps are
614 displayed in the left or right fringe, resp.
616 Value may also be an alist which specifies the presense and position
617 of each bitmap individually.
619 For example, ((top . left) (t . right)) places the top angle bitmap
620 in left fringe, the bottom angle bitmap in right fringe, and both
621 arrow bitmaps in right fringe. To show just the angle bitmaps in the
622 left fringe, but no arrow bitmaps, use ((top . left) (bottom . left)).
625 ** New command `display-local-help' displays any local help at point
626 in the echo area. It is bound to `C-h .'. It normally displays the
627 same string that would be displayed on mouse-over using the
628 `help-echo' property, but, in certain cases, it can display a more
629 keyboard oriented alternative.
632 ** New user option `help-at-pt-display-when-idle' allows to
633 automatically show the help provided by `display-local-help' on
634 point-over, after suitable idle time. The amount of idle time is
635 determined by the user option `help-at-pt-timer-delay' and defaults
636 to one second. This feature is turned off by default.
639 ** New commands `scan-buf-next-region' and `scan-buf-previous-region'
640 move to the start of the next (previous, respectively) region with
641 non-nil help-echo property and display any help found there in the
642 echo area, using `display-local-help'.
645 ** Help mode now only makes hyperlinks for faces when the face name is
646 preceded or followed by the word `face'. It no longer makes
647 hyperlinks for variables without variable documentation, unless
648 preceded by one of the words `variable' or `option'. It now makes
649 hyperlinks to Info anchors (or nodes) if the anchor (or node) name is
650 enclosed in single quotes and preceded by `info anchor' or `Info
651 anchor' (in addition to earlier `info node' and `Info node').
654 ** The max size of buffers and integers has been doubled.
655 On 32bit machines, it is now 256M (i.e. 268435455).
658 ** The -f option, used from the command line to call a function,
659 now reads arguments for the function interactively if it is
660 an interactively callable function.
665 *** The variable `sql-product' controls the highlightng of different
666 SQL dialects. This variable can be set globally via Customize, on a
667 buffer-specific basis via local variable settings, or for the current
668 session using the new SQL->Product submenu. (This menu replaces the
669 SQL->Highlighting submenu.)
671 The following values are supported:
673 ansi ANSI Standard (default)
687 The current product name will be shown on the mode line following the
690 The technique of setting `sql-mode-font-lock-defaults' directly in
691 your .emacs will no longer establish the default highlighting -- Use
692 `sql-product' to accomplish this.
694 ANSI keywords are always highlighted.
696 *** The function `sql-add-product-keywords' can be used to add
697 font-lock rules to the product specific rules. For example, to have
698 all identifiers ending in "_t" under MS SQLServer treated as a type,
699 you would use the following line in your .emacs file:
701 (sql-add-product-keywords 'ms
702 '(("\\<\\w+_t\\>" . font-lock-type-face)))
704 *** Oracle support includes keyword highlighting for Oracle 9i. Most
705 SQL and PL/SQL keywords are implemented. SQL*Plus commands are
706 highlighted in `font-lock-doc-face'.
708 *** Microsoft SQLServer support has been significantly improved.
709 Keyword highlighting for SqlServer 2000 is implemented.
710 sql-interactive-mode defaults to use osql, rather than isql, because
711 osql flushes its error stream more frequently. Thus error messages
712 are displayed when they occur rather than when the session is
715 If the username and password are not provided to `sql-ms', osql is
716 called with the -E command line argument to use the operating system
717 credentials to authenticate the user.
719 *** Postgres support is enhanced.
720 Keyword highlighting of Postgres 7.3 is implemented. Prompting for
721 the username and the pgsql `-U' option is added.
723 *** MySQL support is enhanced.
724 Keyword higlighting of MySql 4.0 is implemented.
726 *** Imenu support has been enhanced to locate tables, views, indexes,
727 packages, procedures, functions, triggers, sequences, rules, and
730 *** Added SQL->Start SQLi Session menu entry which calls the
731 appropriate sql-interactive-mode wrapper for the current setting of
735 ** M-x view-file and commands that use it now avoid interfering
736 with special modes such as Tar mode.
738 ** Enhancements to apropos commands:
741 *** The apropos commands now accept a list of words to match.
742 When more than one word is specified, at least two of those words must
743 be present for an item to match. Regular expression matching is still
747 *** The new option `apropos-sort-by-scores' causes the matching items
748 to be sorted according to their score. The score for an item is a
749 number calculated to indicate how well the item matches the words or
750 regular expression that you entered to the apropos command. The best
751 match is listed first, and the calculated score is shown for each
755 ** The old bindings C-M-delete and C-M-backspace have been deleted,
756 since there are situations where one or the other will shut down
757 the operating system or your X server.
760 ** New minor mode, Visible mode, toggles invisibility in the current buffer.
761 When enabled, it makes all invisible text visible. When disabled, it
762 restores the previous value of `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
765 ** New command `kill-whole-line' kills an entire line at once.
766 By default, it is bound to C-S-<backspace>.
769 ** New commands to operate on pairs of open and close characters:
770 `insert-pair', `delete-pair', `raise-sexp'.
773 ** A prefix argument of C-M-q in Emacs Lisp mode pretty-printifies the
774 list starting after point.
779 *** New faces dired-header, dired-mark, dired-marked, dired-flagged,
780 dired-ignored, dired-directory, dired-symlink, dired-warning
781 introduced for Dired mode instead of font-lock faces.
783 *** New Dired command `dired-compare-directories' marks files
784 with different file attributes in two dired buffers.
787 *** New Dired command `dired-do-touch' (bound to T) changes timestamps
788 of marked files with the value entered in the minibuffer.
791 *** In Dired's ! command (dired-do-shell-command), `*' and `?' now
792 control substitution of the file names only when they are surrounded
793 by whitespace. This means you can now use them as shell wildcards
794 too. If you want to use just plain `*' as a wildcard, type `*""'; the
795 doublequotes make no difference in the shell, but they prevent
796 special treatment in `dired-do-shell-command'.
799 *** In Dired, the w command now copies the current line's file name
800 into the kill ring. With a zero prefix arg, copies absolute file names.
806 *** Omitting files is now a minor mode, dired-omit-mode. The mode toggling
807 command is bound to M-o. A new command dired-mark-omitted, bound to M-O,
808 marks omitted files. The variable dired-omit-files-p is obsoleted, use the
809 mode toggling function instead.
812 ** find-file-read-only visits multiple files in read-only mode,
813 when the file name contains wildcard characters.
816 ** find-alternate-file replaces the current file with multiple files,
817 when the file name contains wildcard characters.
822 *** New ffap commands and keybindings: C-x C-r (`ffap-read-only'),
823 C-x C-v (`ffap-alternate-file'), C-x C-d (`ffap-list-directory'),
824 C-x 4 r (`ffap-read-only-other-window'), C-x 4 d (`ffap-dired-other-window'),
825 C-x 5 r (`ffap-read-only-other-frame'), C-x 5 d (`ffap-dired-other-frame').
828 *** FFAP accepts wildcards in a file name by default. C-x C-f passes
829 it to `find-file' with non-nil WILDCARDS argument, which visits
830 multiple files, and C-x d passes it to `dired'.
835 *** A numeric prefix argument of `info' selects an Info buffer
836 with the number appended to the *info* buffer name (e.g. "*info*<2>").
839 *** isearch in Info uses Info-search and searches through multiple nodes.
840 Before leaving the initial Info node isearch fails once with the error
841 message [initial node], and with subsequent C-s/C-r continues through
842 other nodes. When isearch fails for the rest of the manual, it wraps
843 aroung the whole manual to the top/final node. The user option
844 `Info-isearch-search' controls whether to use Info-search for isearch,
845 or the default isearch search function that wraps around the current
848 *** New search commands: `Info-search-case-sensitively' (bound to S),
849 `Info-search-backward', and `Info-search-next' which repeats the last
850 search without prompting for a new search string.
852 *** New command `Info-history-forward' (bound to r and new toolbar icon)
853 moves forward in history to the node you returned from after using
854 `Info-history-back' (renamed from `Info-last').
856 *** New command `Info-history' (bound to L) displays a menu of visited nodes.
858 *** New command `Info-toc' (bound to T) creates a node with table of contents
859 from the tree structure of menus of the current Info file.
861 *** New command `info-apropos' searches the indices of the known
862 Info files on your system for a string, and builds a menu of the
865 *** New command `Info-copy-current-node-name' (bound to w) copies
866 the current Info node name into the kill ring. With a zero prefix
867 arg, puts the node name inside the `info' function call.
870 *** New face `info-xref-visited' distinguishes visited nodes from unvisited
871 and a new option `Info-fontify-visited-nodes' to control this.
873 *** http and ftp links in Info are now operational: they look like cross
874 references and following them calls `browse-url'.
877 *** Info now hides node names in menus and cross references by default.
878 If you prefer the old behavior, you can set the new user option
879 `Info-hide-note-references' to nil.
882 *** Images in Info pages are supported.
883 Info pages show embedded images, in Emacs frames with image support.
884 Info documentation that includes images, processed with makeinfo
885 version 4.7 or newer, compiles to Info pages with embedded images.
888 *** The default value for `Info-scroll-prefer-subnodes' is now nil.
891 *** Info-index offers completion.
894 ** Support for the SQLite interpreter has been added to sql.el by calling
898 *** The new command bibtex-url browses a URL for the BibTeX entry at
899 point (bound to C-c C-l and mouse-2, RET on clickable fields).
901 *** The new command bibtex-entry-update (bound to C-c C-u) updates
902 an existing BibTeX entry.
904 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `required-fields', enabled by default.
906 *** bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries can take values `plain',
907 `crossref', and `entry-class' which control the sorting scheme used
908 for BibTeX entries. `bibtex-sort-entry-class' controls the sorting
909 scheme `entry-class'. TAB completion for reference keys and
910 automatic detection of duplicates does not require anymore that
911 bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is non-nil.
913 *** If the new variable bibtex-parse-keys-fast is non-nil,
914 use fast but simplified algorithm for parsing BibTeX keys.
916 *** If the new variable bibtex-autoadd-commas is non-nil,
917 automatically add missing commas at end of BibTeX fields.
919 *** The new variable bibtex-autofill-types contains a list of entry
920 types for which fields are filled automatically (if possible).
922 *** The new command bibtex-complete completes word fragment before
923 point according to context (bound to M-tab).
925 *** The new commands bibtex-find-entry and bibtex-find-crossref
926 locate entries and crossref'd entries (bound to C-c C-s and C-c C-x).
927 Crossref fields are clickable (bound to mouse-2, RET).
929 *** In BibTeX mode the command fill-paragraph (bound to M-q) fills
930 individual fields of a BibTeX entry.
932 *** The new variables bibtex-files and bibtex-file-path define a set
933 of BibTeX files that are searched for entry keys.
935 *** The new command bibtex-validate-globally checks for duplicate keys
936 in multiple BibTeX files.
938 *** The new command bibtex-copy-summary-as-kill pushes summary
939 of BibTeX entry to kill ring (bound to C-c C-t).
942 ** When display margins are present in a window, the fringes are now
943 displayed between the margins and the buffer's text area, rather than
944 at the edges of the window.
947 ** A window may now have individual fringe and scroll-bar settings,
948 in addition to the individual display margin settings.
950 Such individual settings are now preserved when windows are split
951 horizontally or vertically, a saved window configuration is restored,
952 or when the frame is resized.
955 ** New functions frame-current-scroll-bars and window-current-scroll-bars.
957 These functions return the current locations of the vertical and
958 horizontal scroll bars in a frame or window.
961 ** Emacs now supports drag and drop for X. Dropping a file on a window
962 opens it, dropping text inserts the text. Dropping a file on a dired
963 buffer copies or moves the file to that directory.
966 ** Under X, mouse-wheel-mode is turned on by default.
969 ** The X resource useXIM can be used to turn off use of XIM, which may
970 speed up Emacs with slow networking to the X server.
972 If the configure option `--without-xim' was used to turn off use of
973 XIM by default, the X resource useXIM can be used to turn it on.
976 ** The X resource cursorBlink can be used to turn off cursor blinking.
979 ** `undo-only' does an undo which does not redo any previous undo.
982 ** `uniquify-strip-common-suffix' tells uniquify to prefer
983 `file|dir1' and `file|dir2' to `file|dir1/subdir' and `file|dir2/subdir'.
986 ** If the user visits a file larger than `large-file-warning-threshold',
987 Emacs prompts her for confirmation.
990 ** A UTF-7 coding system is available in the library `utf-7'.
993 ** GUD mode has its own tool bar for controlling execution of the inferior
994 and other common debugger commands.
999 The recent file list is now automatically cleanup when recentf mode is
1000 enabled. The new option `recentf-auto-cleanup' controls when to do
1003 The `recentf-keep' option replaces `recentf-keep-non-readable-files-p'
1004 and provides a more general mechanism to customize which file names to
1005 keep in the recent list.
1007 With the more advanced option: `recentf-filename-handler', you can
1008 specify a function that transforms filenames handled by recentf. For
1009 example, if set to `file-truename', the same file will not be in the
1010 recent list with different symbolic links.
1012 To follow naming convention, `recentf-menu-append-commands-flag'
1013 replaces the misnamed option `recentf-menu-append-commands-p'. The
1014 old name remains available as alias, but has been marked obsolete.
1017 ** The default for the paper size (variable ps-paper-type) is taken
1021 ** Init file changes
1023 You can now put the init files .emacs and .emacs_SHELL under
1024 ~/.emacs.d or directly under ~. Emacs will find them in either place.
1027 ** partial-completion-mode now does partial completion on directory names.
1030 ** skeleton.el now supports using - to mark the skeleton-point without
1031 interregion interaction. @ has reverted to only setting
1032 skeleton-positions and no longer sets skeleton-point. Skeletons
1033 which used @ to mark skeleton-point independent of _ should now use -
1034 instead. The updated skeleton-insert docstring explains these new
1035 features along with other details of skeleton construction.
1040 Upgraded to MH-E version 7.82. There have been major changes since
1041 version 5.0.2; see MH-E-NEWS for details.
1044 ** The `emacsclient' command understands the options `--eval' and
1045 `--display' which tell Emacs respectively to evaluate the given elisp
1046 expression and to use the given display when visiting files.
1049 ** User option `server-mode' can be used to start a server process.
1052 ** The mode line position information now comes before the major mode.
1053 When the file is maintained under version control, that information
1054 appears between the position information and the major mode.
1057 ** C-x s (save-some-buffers) now offers an option `d' to diff a buffer
1058 against its file, so you can see what changes you would be saving.
1061 ** You can now customize the use of window fringes. To control this
1062 for all frames, use M-x fringe-mode or the Show/Hide submenu of the
1063 top-level Options menu, or customize the `fringe-mode' variable. To
1064 control this for a specific frame, use the command M-x
1068 ** There is a new user option `mail-default-directory' that allows you
1069 to specify the value of `default-directory' for mail buffers. This
1070 directory is used for auto-save files of mail buffers. It defaults to
1074 ** When you are root, and you visit a file whose modes specify
1075 read-only, the Emacs buffer is now read-only too. Type C-x C-q if you
1076 want to make the buffer writable. (As root, you can in fact alter the
1080 ** The new command `revert-buffer-with-coding-system' (C-x RET r)
1081 revisits the current file using a coding system that you specify.
1084 ** The new command `recode-file-name' changes the encoding of the name
1088 ** `ps-print' can now print characters from the mule-unicode charsets.
1090 Printing text with characters from the mule-unicode-* sets works with
1091 ps-print, provided that you have installed the appropriate BDF fonts.
1092 See the file INSTALL for URLs where you can find these fonts.
1095 ** The new options `buffers-menu-show-directories' and
1096 `buffers-menu-show-status' let you control how buffers are displayed
1097 in the menu dropped down when you click "Buffers" from the menu bar.
1099 `buffers-menu-show-directories' controls whether the menu displays
1100 leading directories as part of the file name visited by the buffer.
1101 If its value is `unless-uniquify', the default, directories are
1102 shown unless uniquify-buffer-name-style' is non-nil. The value of nil
1103 and t turn the display of directories off and on, respectively.
1105 `buffers-menu-show-status' controls whether the Buffers menu includes
1106 the modified and read-only status of the buffers. By default it is
1107 t, and the status is shown.
1109 Setting these variables directly does not take effect until next time
1110 the Buffers menu is regenerated.
1113 ** The commands M-x customize-face and M-x customize-face-other-window
1114 now look at the character after point. If a face or faces are
1115 specified for that character, the commands by default customize those
1119 ** New language environments: French, Ukrainian, Tajik,
1120 Bulgarian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, UTF-8, Windows-1255, Welsh, Latin-6,
1121 Latin-7, Lithuanian, Latvian, Swedish, Slovenian, Croatian, Georgian,
1122 Italian, Russian, Malayalam, Tamil, Russian, Chinese-EUC-TW. (Set up
1123 automatically according to the locale.)
1126 ** Indian support has been updated.
1127 The in-is13194 coding system is now Unicode-based. CDAC fonts are
1128 assumed. There is a framework for supporting various
1129 Indian scripts, but currently only Devanagari, Malayalam and Tamil are
1133 ** New input methods: latin-alt-postfix, latin-postfix, latin-prefix,
1134 ukrainian-computer, belarusian, bulgarian-bds, russian-computer,
1135 vietnamese-telex, lithuanian-numeric, lithuanian-keyboard,
1136 latvian-keyboard, welsh, georgian, rfc1345, ucs, sgml,
1137 bulgarian-phonetic, dutch, slovenian, croatian, malayalam-inscript,
1141 ** A new coding system `euc-tw' has been added for traditional Chinese
1142 in CNS encoding; it accepts both Big 5 and CNS as input; on saving,
1143 Big 5 is then converted to CNS.
1146 ** Many new coding systems are available by loading the `code-pages'
1147 library. These include complete versions of most of those in
1148 codepage.el, based on Unicode mappings. `codepage-setup' is now
1149 obsolete and is used only in the MS-DOS port of Emacs. windows-1252
1150 and windows-1251 are preloaded since the former is so common and the
1151 latter is used by GNU locales.
1154 ** The utf-8/16 coding systems have been enhanced.
1155 By default, untranslatable utf-8 sequences are simply composed into
1156 single quasi-characters. User option `utf-translate-cjk-mode' (it is
1157 turned on by default) arranges to translate many utf-8 CJK character
1158 sequences into real Emacs characters in a similar way to the Mule-UCS
1159 system. As this loads a fairly big data on demand, people who are not
1160 interested in CJK characters may want to customize it to nil.
1161 You can augment/amend the CJK translation via hash tables
1162 `ucs-mule-cjk-to-unicode' and `ucs-unicode-to-mule-cjk'. The utf-8
1163 coding system now also encodes characters from most of Emacs's
1164 one-dimensional internal charsets, specifically the ISO-8859 ones.
1165 The utf-16 coding system is affected similarly.
1168 ** New variable `utf-translate-cjk-unicode-range' controls which
1169 Unicode characters to translate in `utf-translate-cjk-mode'.
1172 ** iso-10646-1 (`Unicode') fonts can be used to display any range of
1173 characters encodable by the utf-8 coding system. Just specify the
1174 fontset appropriately.
1177 ** New command `ucs-insert' inserts a character specified by its
1181 ** Limited support for character `unification' has been added.
1182 Emacs now knows how to translate between different representations of
1183 the same characters in various Emacs charsets according to standard
1184 Unicode mappings. This applies mainly to characters in the ISO 8859
1185 sets plus some other 8-bit sets, but can be extended. For instance,
1186 translation works amongst the Emacs ...-iso8859-... charsets and the
1187 mule-unicode-... ones.
1189 By default this translation happens automatically on encoding.
1190 Self-inserting characters are translated to make the input conformant
1191 with the encoding of the buffer in which it's being used, where
1194 You can force a more complete unification with the user option
1195 unify-8859-on-decoding-mode. That maps all the Latin-N character sets
1196 into Unicode characters (from the latin-iso8859-1 and
1197 mule-unicode-0100-24ff charsets) on decoding. Note that this mode
1198 will often effectively clobber data with an iso-2022 encoding.
1201 ** There is support for decoding Greek and Cyrillic characters into
1202 either Unicode (the mule-unicode charsets) or the iso-8859 charsets,
1203 when possible. The latter are more space-efficient. This is
1204 controlled by user option utf-fragment-on-decoding.
1207 ** The new command `set-file-name-coding-system' (C-x RET F) sets
1208 coding system for encoding and decoding file names. A new menu item
1209 (Options->Mule->Set Coding Systems->For File Name) invokes this
1213 ** The scrollbar under LessTif or Motif has a smoother drag-scrolling.
1214 On the other hand, the size of the thumb does not represent the actual
1215 amount of text shown any more (only a crude approximation of it).
1218 ** The pop up menus for Lucid now stay up if you do a fast click and can
1219 be navigated with the arrow keys (like Gtk+, Mac and W32).
1222 ** The Lucid menus can display multilingual text in your locale. You have
1223 to explicitly specify a fontSet resource for this to work, for example
1224 `-xrm "Emacs*fontSet: -*-helvetica-medium-r-*--*-120-*-*-*-*-*-*,*"'.
1227 ** Dialogs for Lucid/Athena and Lesstif/Motif now pops down when pressing
1228 ESC, like they do for Gtk+, Mac and W32.
1231 ** Dialogs and menus pop down when pressing C-g.
1234 ** The menu item "Open File..." has been split into two items, "New File..."
1235 and "Open File...". "Open File..." now opens only existing files. This is
1236 to support existing GUI file selection dialogs better.
1239 ** The file selection dialog for Gtk+, Mac, W32 and Motif/Lesstif can be
1240 disabled by customizing the variable `use-file-dialog'.
1243 ** For Gtk+ version 2.4, you can make Emacs use the old file dialog
1244 by setting the variable `x-use-old-gtk-file-dialog' to t. Default is to use
1248 ** Emacs can produce an underscore-like (horizontal bar) cursor.
1249 The underscore cursor is set by putting `(cursor-type . hbar)' in
1250 default-frame-alist. It supports variable heights, like the `bar'
1254 ** On X, MS Windows, and Mac OS, the blinking cursor's "off" state is
1255 now controlled by the variable `blink-cursor-alist'.
1257 ** Filesets are collections of files. You can define a fileset in
1258 various ways, such as based on a directory tree or based on
1259 program files that include other program files.
1261 Once you have defined a fileset, you can perform various operations on
1262 all the files in it, such as visiting them or searching and replacing
1266 ** PO translation files are decoded according to their MIME headers
1267 when Emacs visits them.
1270 ** The game `mpuz' is enhanced.
1272 `mpuz' now allows the 2nd factor not to have two identical digits. By
1273 default, all trivial operations involving whole lines are performed
1274 automatically. The game uses faces for better visual feedback.
1277 ** The new variable `x-select-request-type' controls how Emacs
1278 requests X selection. The default value is nil, which means that
1279 Emacs requests X selection with types COMPOUND_TEXT and UTF8_STRING,
1280 and use the more appropriately result.
1283 ** The parameters of automatic hscrolling can now be customized.
1284 The variable `hscroll-margin' determines how many columns away from
1285 the window edge point is allowed to get before automatic hscrolling
1286 will horizontally scroll the window. The default value is 5.
1288 The variable `hscroll-step' determines how many columns automatic
1289 hscrolling scrolls the window when point gets too close to the
1290 window edge. If its value is zero, the default, Emacs scrolls the
1291 window so as to center point. If its value is an integer, it says how
1292 many columns to scroll. If the value is a floating-point number, it
1293 gives the fraction of the window's width to scroll the window.
1295 The variable `automatic-hscrolling' was renamed to
1296 `auto-hscroll-mode'. The old name is still available as an alias.
1300 *** C-c C-c prompts for a command to run, and tries to offer a good default.
1303 *** The user option `tex-start-options-string' has been replaced
1304 by two new user options: `tex-start-options', which should hold
1305 command-line options to feed to TeX, and `tex-start-commands' which should hold
1306 TeX commands to use at startup.
1309 *** verbatim environments are now highlighted in courier by font-lock
1310 and super/sub-scripts are made into super/sub-scripts.
1313 *** New major mode doctex-mode for *.dtx files.
1316 ** New display feature: focus follows the mouse from one Emacs window
1317 to another, even within a frame. If you set the variable
1318 mouse-autoselect-window to non-nil value, moving the mouse to a
1319 different Emacs window will select that window (minibuffer window can
1320 be selected only when it is active). The default is nil, so that this
1321 feature is not enabled.
1324 ** On X, when the window manager requires that you click on a frame to
1325 select it (give it focus), the selected window and cursor position
1326 normally changes according to the mouse click position. If you set
1327 the variable x-mouse-click-focus-ignore-position to t, the selected
1328 window and cursor position do not change when you click on a frame
1332 ** The new command `describe-char' (C-u C-x =) pops up a buffer with
1333 description various information about a character, including its
1334 encodings and syntax, its text properties, how to input, overlays, and
1335 widgets at point. You can get more information about some of them, by
1336 clicking on mouse-sensitive areas or moving there and pressing RET.
1339 ** The new command `multi-occur' is just like `occur', except it can
1340 search multiple buffers. There is also a new command
1341 `multi-occur-by-filename-regexp' which allows you to specify the
1342 buffers to search by their filename. Internally, Occur mode has been
1343 rewritten, and now uses font-lock, among other changes.
1346 ** The default values of paragraph-start and indent-line-function have
1347 been changed to reflect those used in Text mode rather than those used
1348 in Indented-Text mode.
1351 ** New user option `query-replace-skip-read-only': when non-nil,
1352 `query-replace' and related functions simply ignore
1353 a match if part of it has a read-only property.
1356 ** When used interactively, the commands `query-replace-regexp' and
1357 `replace-regexp' allow \,expr to be used in a replacement string,
1358 where expr is an arbitrary Lisp expression evaluated at replacement
1359 time. In many cases, this will be more convenient than using
1360 `query-replace-regexp-eval'. `\#' in a replacement string now refers
1361 to the count of replacements already made by the replacement command.
1362 All regular expression replacement commands now allow `\?' in the
1363 replacement string to specify a position where the replacement string
1364 can be edited for each replacement.
1367 ** query-replace uses isearch lazy highlighting when the new user option
1368 `query-replace-lazy-highlight' is non-nil.
1371 ** The current match in query-replace is highlighted in new face
1372 `query-replace' which by default inherits from isearch face.
1375 ** Emacs normally highlights mouse sensitive text whenever the mouse
1376 is over the text. By setting the new variable `mouse-highlight', you
1377 can optionally enable mouse highlighting only after you move the
1378 mouse, so that highlighting disappears when you press a key. You can
1379 also disable mouse highlighting.
1382 ** You can now customize if selecting a region by dragging the mouse
1383 shall not copy the selected text to the kill-ring by setting the new
1384 variable mouse-drag-copy-region to nil.
1387 ** font-lock: in modes like C and Lisp where the fontification assumes that
1388 an open-paren in column 0 is always outside of any string or comment,
1389 font-lock now highlights any such open-paren-in-column-zero in bold-red
1390 if it is inside a string or a comment, to indicate that it can cause
1391 trouble with fontification and/or indentation.
1394 ** There's a new face `minibuffer-prompt'.
1395 Emacs adds this face to the list of text properties stored in the
1396 variable `minibuffer-prompt-properties', which is used to display the
1400 ** The new face `mode-line-inactive' is used to display the mode line
1401 of non-selected windows. The `mode-line' face is now used to display
1402 the mode line of the currently selected window.
1404 The new variable `mode-line-in-non-selected-windows' controls whether
1405 the `mode-line-inactive' face is used.
1408 ** A menu item "Show/Hide" was added to the top-level menu "Options".
1409 This menu allows you to turn various display features on and off (such
1410 as the fringes, the tool bar, the speedbar, and the menu bar itself).
1411 You can also move the vertical scroll bar to either side here or turn
1412 it off completely. There is also a menu-item to toggle displaying of
1413 current date and time, current line and column number in the
1417 ** Speedbar has moved from the "Tools" top level menu to "Show/Hide".
1420 ** Emacs can now indicate in the mode-line the presence of new e-mail
1421 in a directory or in a file. See the documentation of the user option
1422 `display-time-mail-directory'.
1425 ** LDAP support now defaults to ldapsearch from OpenLDAP version 2.
1428 ** You can now disable pc-selection-mode after enabling it.
1429 M-x pc-selection-mode behaves like a proper minor mode, and with no
1430 argument it toggles the mode.
1432 Turning off PC-Selection mode restores the global key bindings
1433 that were replaced by turning on the mode.
1436 ** Emacs now displays a splash screen by default even if command-line
1437 arguments were given. The new command-line option --no-splash
1438 disables the splash screen; see also the variable
1439 `inhibit-startup-message' (which is also aliased as
1440 `inhibit-splash-screen').
1442 ** Changes in support of colors on character terminals
1445 *** The new command-line option --color=MODE lets you specify a standard
1446 mode for a tty color support. It is meant to be used on character
1447 terminals whose capabilities are not set correctly in the terminal
1448 database, or with terminal emulators which support colors, but don't
1449 set the TERM environment variable to a name of a color-capable
1450 terminal. "emacs --color" uses the same color commands as GNU `ls'
1451 when invoked with "ls --color", so if your terminal can support colors
1452 in "ls --color", it will support "emacs --color" as well. See the
1453 user manual for the possible values of the MODE parameter.
1456 *** Emacs now supports several character terminals which provide more
1457 than 8 colors. For example, for `xterm', 16-color, 88-color, and
1458 256-color modes are supported. Emacs automatically notes at startup
1459 the extended number of colors, and defines the appropriate entries for
1460 all of these colors.
1463 *** Emacs now uses the full range of available colors for the default
1464 faces when running on a color terminal, including 16-, 88-, and
1465 256-color xterms. This means that when you run "emacs -nw" on an
1466 88-color or 256-color xterm, you will see essentially the same face
1470 *** There's a new support for colors on `rxvt' terminal emulator.
1473 ** Emacs can now be invoked in full-screen mode on a windowed display.
1475 When Emacs is invoked on a window system, the new command-line options
1476 `--fullwidth', `--fullheight', and `--fullscreen' produce a frame
1477 whose width, height, or both width and height take up the entire
1478 screen size. (For now, this does not work with some window managers.)
1481 ** Emacs now tries to set up buffer coding systems for HTML/XML files
1485 ** The new command `comint-insert-previous-argument' in comint-derived
1486 modes (shell-mode etc) inserts arguments from previous command lines,
1487 like bash's `ESC .' binding. It is bound by default to `C-c .', but
1488 otherwise behaves quite similarly to the bash version.
1491 ** Changes in C-h bindings:
1493 C-h e displays the *Messages* buffer.
1495 C-h followed by a control character is used for displaying files
1498 C-h C-f displays the FAQ.
1499 C-h C-e displays the PROBLEMS file.
1501 The info-search bindings on C-h C-f, C-h C-k and C-h C-i
1502 have been moved to C-h F, C-h K and C-h S.
1504 C-h c, C-h k, C-h w, and C-h f now handle remapped interactive commands.
1506 - C-h c and C-h k report the actual command (after possible remapping)
1507 run by the key sequence.
1509 - C-h w and C-h f on a command which has been remapped now report the
1510 command it is remapped to, and the keys which can be used to run
1513 For example, if C-k is bound to kill-line, and kill-line is remapped
1514 to new-kill-line, these commands now report:
1516 - C-h c and C-h k C-k reports:
1517 C-k runs the command new-kill-line
1519 - C-h w and C-h f kill-line reports:
1520 kill-line is remapped to new-kill-line which is on C-k, <deleteline>
1522 - C-h w and C-h f new-kill-line reports:
1523 new-kill-line is on C-k
1526 ** Vertical scrolling is now possible within incremental search.
1527 To enable this feature, customize the new user option
1528 `isearch-allow-scroll'. User written commands which satisfy stringent
1529 constraints can be marked as "scrolling commands". See the Emacs manual
1533 ** C-w in incremental search now grabs either a character or a word,
1534 making the decision in a heuristic way. This new job is done by the
1535 command `isearch-yank-word-or-char'. To restore the old behavior,
1536 bind C-w to `isearch-yank-word' in `isearch-mode-map'.
1539 ** C-y in incremental search now grabs the next line if point is already
1540 at the end of a line.
1543 ** C-M-w deletes and C-M-y grabs a character in isearch mode.
1544 Another method to grab a character is to enter the minibuffer by `M-e'
1545 and to type `C-f' at the end of the search string in the minibuffer.
1548 ** M-% typed in isearch mode invokes `query-replace' or
1549 `query-replace-regexp' (depending on search mode) with the current
1550 search string used as the string to replace.
1553 ** Isearch no longer adds `isearch-resume' commands to the command
1554 history by default. To enable this feature, customize the new
1555 user option `isearch-resume-in-command-history'.
1558 ** New user option `history-delete-duplicates'.
1559 If set to t when adding a new history element, all previous identical
1560 elements are deleted.
1563 ** Yanking text now discards certain text properties that can
1564 be inconvenient when you did not expect them. The variable
1565 `yank-excluded-properties' specifies which ones. Insertion
1566 of register contents and rectangles also discards these properties.
1569 ** Occur, Info, and comint-derived modes now support using
1570 M-x font-lock-mode to toggle fontification. The variable
1571 `Info-fontify' is no longer applicable; to disable fontification,
1572 remove `turn-on-font-lock' from `Info-mode-hook'.
1575 ** M-x grep now tries to avoid appending `/dev/null' to the command line
1576 by using GNU grep `-H' option instead. M-x grep automatically
1577 detects whether this is possible or not the first time it is invoked.
1578 When `-H' is used, the grep command line supplied by the user is passed
1579 unchanged to the system to execute, which allows more complicated
1580 command lines to be used than was possible before.
1583 ** The face-customization widget has been reworked to be less confusing.
1584 In particular, when you enable a face attribute using the corresponding
1585 check-box, there's no longer a redundant `*' option in value selection
1586 for that attribute; the values you can choose are only those which make
1587 sense for the attribute. When an attribute is de-selected by unchecking
1588 its check-box, then the (now ignored, but still present temporarily in
1589 case you re-select the attribute) value is hidden.
1592 ** When you set or reset a variable's value in a Customize buffer,
1593 the previous value becomes the "backup value" of the variable.
1594 You can go back to that backup value by selecting "Use Backup Value"
1595 under the "[State]" button.
1598 ** The new customization type `float' specifies numbers with floating
1599 point (no integers are allowed).
1602 ** In GUD mode, when talking to GDB, C-x C-a C-j "jumps" the program
1603 counter to the specified source line (the one where point is).
1606 ** GUD mode improvements for jdb:
1608 *** Search for source files using jdb classpath and class
1609 information. Fast startup since there is no need to scan all
1610 source files up front. There is also no need to create and maintain
1611 lists of source directories to scan. Look at `gud-jdb-use-classpath'
1612 and `gud-jdb-classpath' customization variables documentation.
1614 *** Supports the standard breakpoint (gud-break, gud-clear)
1615 set/clear operations from java source files under the classpath, stack
1616 traversal (gud-up, gud-down), and run until current stack finish
1619 *** Supports new jdb (Java 1.2 and later) in addition to oldjdb
1622 *** The previous method of searching for source files has been
1623 preserved in case someone still wants/needs to use it.
1624 Set gud-jdb-use-classpath to nil.
1626 Added Customization Variables
1628 *** gud-jdb-command-name. What command line to use to invoke jdb.
1630 *** gud-jdb-use-classpath. Allows selection of java source file searching
1631 method: set to t for new method, nil to scan gud-jdb-directories for
1632 java sources (previous method).
1634 *** gud-jdb-directories. List of directories to scan and search for java
1635 classes using the original gud-jdb method (if gud-jdb-use-classpath
1640 *** The STARTTLS elisp wrapper (starttls.el) can now use GNUTLS
1641 instead of the OpenSSL based "starttls" tool. For backwards
1642 compatibility, it prefers "starttls", but you can toggle
1643 `starttls-use-gnutls' to switch to GNUTLS (or simply remove the
1646 *** Do not allow debugger output history variable to grow without bounds.
1649 ** hide-ifdef-mode now uses overlays rather than selective-display
1650 to hide its text. This should be mostly transparent but slightly
1651 changes the behavior of motion commands like C-e and C-p.
1654 ** Unquoted `$' in file names do not signal an error any more when
1655 the corresponding environment variable does not exist.
1656 Instead, the `$ENVVAR' text is left as is, so that `$$' quoting
1657 is only rarely needed.
1661 *** jit-lock can now be delayed with `jit-lock-defer-time'.
1663 If this variable is non-nil, its value should be the amount of Emacs
1664 idle time in seconds to wait before starting fontification. For
1665 example, if you set `jit-lock-defer-time' to 0.25, fontification will
1666 only happen after 0.25s of idle time.
1668 *** contextual refontification is now separate from stealth fontification.
1670 jit-lock-defer-contextually is renamed jit-lock-contextually and
1671 jit-lock-context-time determines the delay after which contextual
1672 refontification takes place.
1675 ** Marking commands extend the region when invoked multiple times. If
1676 you hit M-C-SPC (mark-sexp), M-@ (mark-word), M-h (mark-paragraph), or
1677 C-M-h (mark-defun) repeatedly, the marked region extends each time, so
1678 you can mark the next two sexps with M-C-SPC M-C-SPC, for example.
1679 This feature also works for mark-end-of-sentence, if you bind that to
1680 a key. It also extends the region when the mark is active in Transient
1681 Mark mode, regardless of the last command. To start a new region with
1682 one of marking commands in Transient Mark mode, you can deactivate the
1683 active region with C-g, or set the new mark with C-SPC.
1686 ** Some commands do something special in Transient Mark mode when the
1687 mark is active--for instance, they limit their operation to the
1688 region. Even if you don't normally use Transient Mark mode, you might
1689 want to get this behavior from a particular command. There are two
1690 ways you can enable Transient Mark mode and activate the mark, for one
1693 One method is to type C-SPC C-SPC; this enables Transient Mark mode
1694 and sets the mark at point. The other method is to type C-u C-x C-x.
1695 This enables Transient Mark mode temporarily but does not alter the
1698 After these commands, Transient Mark mode remains enabled until you
1699 deactivate the mark. That typically happens when you type a command
1700 that alters the buffer, but you can also deactivate the mark by typing
1704 ** A prefix argument is no longer required to repeat a jump to a
1705 previous mark, i.e. C-u C-SPC C-SPC C-SPC ... cycles through the
1706 mark ring. Use C-u C-u C-SPC to set the mark immediately after a jump.
1709 ** Movement commands `beginning-of-buffer', `end-of-buffer',
1710 `beginning-of-defun', `end-of-defun' do not set the mark if the mark
1711 is already active in Transient Mark mode.
1714 ** In the *Occur* buffer, `o' switches to it in another window, and
1715 C-o displays the current line's occurrence in another window without
1719 ** When you specify a frame size with --geometry, the size applies to
1720 all frames you create. A position specified with --geometry only
1721 affects the initial frame.
1724 ** M-h (mark-paragraph) now accepts a prefix arg.
1725 With positive arg, M-h marks the current and the following paragraphs;
1726 if the arg is negative, it marks the current and the preceding
1730 ** The variables dired-free-space-program and dired-free-space-args
1731 have been renamed to directory-free-space-program and
1732 directory-free-space-args, and they now apply whenever Emacs puts a
1733 directory listing into a buffer.
1736 ** mouse-wheels can now scroll a specific fraction of the window
1737 (rather than a fixed number of lines) and the scrolling is `progressive'.
1740 ** Unexpected yanking of text due to accidental clicking on the mouse
1741 wheel button (typically mouse-2) during wheel scrolling is now avoided.
1742 This behavior can be customized via the mouse-wheel-click-event and
1743 mouse-wheel-inhibit-click-time variables.
1746 ** The keyboard-coding-system is now automatically set based on your
1747 current locale settings if you are not using a window system. This
1748 may mean that the META key doesn't work but generates non-ASCII
1749 characters instead, depending on how the terminal (or terminal
1750 emulator) works. Use `set-keyboard-coding-system' (or customize
1751 keyboard-coding-system) if you prefer META to work (the old default)
1752 or if the locale doesn't describe the character set actually generated
1753 by the keyboard. See Info node `Single-Byte Character Support'.
1756 ** Emacs now reads the standard abbrevs file ~/.abbrev_defs
1757 automatically at startup, if it exists. When Emacs offers to save
1758 modified buffers, it saves the abbrevs too if they have changed. It
1759 can do this either silently or asking for confirmation first,
1760 according to the value of `save-abbrevs'.
1763 ** Display of hollow cursors now obeys the buffer-local value (if any)
1764 of `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' in the buffer that the cursor
1768 ** The variable `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' can now be set to any
1769 of the recognized cursor types.
1772 ** The variable `auto-save-file-name-transforms' now has a third element that
1773 controls whether or not the function `make-auto-save-file-name' will
1774 attempt to construct a unique auto-save name (e.g. for remote files).
1777 ** There is a new calendar package, icalendar.el, that can be used to
1778 convert Emacs diary entries to/from the iCalendar format.
1781 ** Diary sexp entries can have custom marking in the calendar.
1782 Diary sexp functions which only apply to certain days (such as
1783 `diary-block' or `diary-cyclic') now take an optional parameter MARK,
1784 which is the name of a face or a single-character string indicating
1785 how to highlight the day in the calendar display. Specifying a
1786 single-character string as @var{mark} places the character next to the
1787 day in the calendar. Specifying a face highlights the day with that
1788 face. This lets you have different colors or markings for vacations,
1789 appointments, paydays or anything else using a sexp.
1792 ** The new function `calendar-goto-day-of-year' (g D) prompts for a
1793 year and day number, and moves to that date. Negative day numbers
1794 count backward from the end of the year.
1797 ** The new Calendar function `calendar-goto-iso-week' (g w)
1798 prompts for a year and a week number, and moves to the first
1799 day of that ISO week.
1802 ** The new variable `calendar-minimum-window-height' affects the
1803 window generated by the function `generate-calendar-window'.
1806 ** The functions `holiday-easter-etc' and `holiday-advent' now take
1807 optional arguments, in order to only report on the specified holiday
1808 rather than all. This makes customization of variables such as
1809 `christian-holidays' simpler.
1812 ** The function `simple-diary-display' now by default sets a header line.
1813 This can be controlled through the variables `diary-header-line-flag'
1814 and `diary-header-line-format'.
1817 ** The procedure for activating appointment reminders has changed: use
1818 the new function `appt-activate'. The new variable
1819 `appt-display-format' controls how reminders are displayed, replacing
1820 appt-issue-message, appt-visible, and appt-msg-window.
1823 ** The new functions `diary-from-outlook', `diary-from-outlook-gnus',
1824 and `diary-from-outlook-rmail' can be used to import diary entries
1825 from Outlook-format appointments in mail messages. The variable
1826 `diary-outlook-formats' can be customized to recognize additional
1833 *** The key C-x C-q no longer checks files in or out, it only changes
1834 the read-only state of the buffer (toggle-read-only). We made this
1835 change because we held a poll and found that many users were unhappy
1836 with the previous behavior. If you do prefer this behavior, you
1837 can bind `vc-toggle-read-only' to C-x C-q in your .emacs:
1839 (global-set-key "\C-x\C-q" 'vc-toggle-read-only)
1841 The function `vc-toggle-read-only' will continue to exist.
1844 *** There is a new user option `vc-cvs-global-switches' that allows
1845 you to specify switches that are passed to any CVS command invoked
1846 by VC. These switches are used as "global options" for CVS, which
1847 means they are inserted before the command name. For example, this
1848 allows you to specify a compression level using the "-z#" option for
1852 *** New backends for Subversion and Meta-CVS.
1857 *** When comparing directories.
1858 Typing D brings up a buffer that lists the differences between the contents of
1859 directories. Now it is possible to use this buffer to copy the missing files
1860 from one directory to another.
1863 *** When comparing files or buffers.
1864 Typing the = key now offers to perform the word-by-word comparison of the
1865 currently highlighted regions in an inferior Ediff session. If you answer 'n'
1866 then it reverts to the old behavior and asks the user to select regions for
1869 *** The new command `ediff-backup' compares a file with its most recent
1870 backup using `ediff'. If you specify the name of a backup file,
1871 `ediff-backup' compares it with the file of which it is a backup.
1876 *** New regular expressions features
1878 **** New syntax for regular expressions, multi-line regular expressions.
1879 The syntax --ignore-case-regexp=/regex/ is now undocumented and retained
1880 only for backward compatibility. The new equivalent syntax is
1881 --regex=/regex/i. More generally, it is --regex=/TAGREGEX/TAGNAME/MODS,
1882 where `/TAGNAME' is optional, as usual, and MODS is a string of 0 or
1883 more characters among `i' (ignore case), `m' (multi-line) and `s'
1884 (single-line). The `m' and `s' modifiers behave as in Perl regular
1885 expressions: `m' allows regexps to match more than one line, while `s'
1886 (which implies `m') means that `.' matches newlines. The ability to
1887 span newlines allows writing of much more powerful regular expressions
1888 and rapid prototyping for tagging new languages.
1890 **** Regular expressions can use char escape sequences as in Gcc.
1891 The escaped character sequence \a, \b, \d, \e, \f, \n, \r, \t, \v,
1892 respectively, stand for the ASCII characters BEL, BS, DEL, ESC, FF, NL,
1895 **** Regular expressions can be bound to a given language.
1896 The syntax --regex={LANGUAGE}REGEX means that REGEX is used to make tags
1897 only for files of language LANGUAGE, and ignored otherwise. This is
1898 particularly useful when storing regexps in a file.
1900 **** Regular expressions can be read from a file.
1901 The --regex=@regexfile option means read the regexps from a file, one
1902 per line. Lines beginning with space or tab are ignored.
1904 *** New language parsing features
1906 **** The `::' qualifier triggers C++ parsing in C file.
1907 Previously, only the `template' and `class' keywords had this effect.
1909 **** The gnucc __attribute__ keyword is now recognised and ignored.
1911 **** New language HTML.
1912 Title and h1, h2, h3 are tagged. Also, tags are generated when name= is
1913 used inside an anchor and whenever id= is used.
1915 **** In Makefiles, constants are tagged.
1916 If you want the old behavior instead, thus avoiding to increase the
1917 size of the tags file, use the --no-globals option.
1919 **** New language Lua.
1920 All functions are tagged.
1922 **** In Perl, packages are tags.
1923 Subroutine tags are named from their package. You can jump to sub tags
1924 as you did before, by the sub name, or additionally by looking for
1927 **** In Prolog, etags creates tags for rules in addition to predicates.
1929 **** New language PHP.
1930 Tags are functions, classes and defines.
1931 If the --members option is specified to etags, tags are variables also.
1933 **** New default keywords for TeX.
1934 The new keywords are def, newcommand, renewcommand, newenvironment and
1937 *** Honour #line directives.
1938 When Etags parses an input file that contains C preprocessor's #line
1939 directives, it creates tags using the file name and line number
1940 specified in those directives. This is useful when dealing with code
1941 created from Cweb source files. When Etags tags the generated file, it
1942 writes tags pointing to the source file.
1944 *** New option --parse-stdin=FILE.
1945 This option is mostly useful when calling etags from programs. It can
1946 be used (only once) in place of a file name on the command line. Etags
1947 reads from standard input and marks the produced tags as belonging to
1953 *** Font lock support.
1954 CC Mode now provides font lock support for all its languages. This
1955 supersedes the font lock patterns that have been in the core font lock
1956 package for C, C++, Java and Objective-C. Like indentation, font
1957 locking is done in a uniform way across all languages (except the new
1958 AWK mode - see below). That means that the new font locking will be
1959 different from the old patterns in various details for most languages.
1961 The main goal of the font locking in CC Mode is accuracy, to provide a
1962 dependable aid in recognizing the various constructs. Some, like
1963 strings and comments, are easy to recognize while others like
1964 declarations and types can be very tricky. CC Mode can go to great
1965 lengths to recognize declarations and casts correctly, especially when
1966 the types aren't recognized by standard patterns. This is a fairly
1967 demanding analysis which can be slow on older hardware, and it can
1968 therefore be disabled by choosing a lower decoration level with the
1969 variable font-lock-maximum-decoration.
1971 Note that the most demanding font lock level has been tuned with lazy
1972 fontification in mind, i.e. there should be a support mode that waits
1973 with the fontification until the text is actually shown
1974 (e.g. Just-in-time Lock mode, which is the default, or Lazy Lock
1975 mode). Fontifying a file with several thousand lines in one go can
1976 take the better part of a minute.
1978 **** The (c|c++|objc|java|idl|pike)-font-lock-extra-types variables
1979 are now used by CC Mode to recognize identifiers that are certain to
1980 be types. (They are also used in cases that aren't related to font
1981 locking.) At the maximum decoration level, types are often recognized
1982 properly anyway, so these variables should be fairly restrictive and
1983 not contain patterns for uncertain types.
1985 **** Support for documentation comments.
1986 There is a "plugin" system to fontify documentation comments like
1987 Javadoc and the markup within them. It's independent of the host
1988 language, so it's possible to e.g. turn on Javadoc font locking in C
1989 buffers. See the variable c-doc-comment-style for details.
1991 Currently two kinds of doc comment styles are recognized: Suns Javadoc
1992 and Autodoc which is used in Pike. This is by no means a complete
1993 list of the most common tools; if your doc comment extractor of choice
1994 is missing then please drop a note to bug-cc-mode@gnu.org.
1996 **** Better handling of C++ templates.
1997 As a side effect of the more accurate font locking, C++ templates are
1998 now handled much better. The angle brackets that delimit them are
1999 given parenthesis syntax so that they can be navigated like other
2002 This also improves indentation of templates, although there still is
2003 work to be done in that area. E.g. it's required that multiline
2004 template clauses are written in full and then refontified to be
2005 recognized, and the indentation of nested templates is a bit odd and
2006 not as configurable as it ought to be.
2008 **** Improved handling of Objective-C and CORBA IDL.
2009 Especially the support for Objective-C and IDL has gotten an overhaul.
2010 The special "@" declarations in Objective-C are handled correctly.
2011 All the keywords used in CORBA IDL, PSDL, and CIDL are recognized and
2012 handled correctly, also wrt indentation.
2014 *** Support for the AWK language.
2015 Support for the AWK language has been introduced. The implementation is
2016 based around GNU AWK version 3.1, but it should work pretty well with
2017 any AWK. As yet, not all features of CC Mode have been adapted for AWK.
2020 **** Indentation Engine
2021 The CC Mode indentation engine fully supports AWK mode.
2023 AWK mode handles code formatted in the conventional AWK fashion: `{'s
2024 which start actions, user-defined functions, or compound statements are
2025 placed on the same line as the associated construct; the matching `}'s
2026 are normally placed under the start of the respective pattern, function
2027 definition, or structured statement.
2029 The predefined indentation functions haven't yet been adapted for AWK
2030 mode, though some of them may work serendipitously. There shouldn't be
2031 any problems writing custom indentation functions for AWK mode.
2033 The command C-c C-q (c-indent-defun) hasn't yet been adapted for AWK,
2034 though in practice it works properly nearly all the time. Should it
2035 fail, explicitly set the region around the function (using C-u C-SPC:
2036 C-M-h probably won't work either) then do C-M-\ (indent-region).
2039 There is a single level of font locking in AWK mode, rather than the
2040 three distinct levels the other modes have. There are several
2041 idiosyncrasies in AWK mode's font-locking due to the peculiarities of
2042 the AWK language itself.
2044 **** Comment Commands
2045 M-; (indent-for-comment) works fine. None of the other CC Mode
2046 comment formatting commands have yet been adapted for AWK mode.
2048 **** Movement Commands
2049 Most of the movement commands work in AWK mode. The most important
2050 exceptions are M-a (c-beginning-of-statement) and M-e
2051 (c-end-of-statement) which haven't yet been adapted.
2053 The notion of "defun" has been augmented to include AWK pattern-action
2054 pairs. C-M-a (c-awk-beginning-of-defun) and C-M-e (c-awk-end-of-defun)
2055 recognise these pattern-action pairs, as well as user defined
2058 **** Auto-newline Insertion and Clean-ups
2059 Auto-newline insertion hasn't yet been adapted for AWK. Some of
2060 the clean-ups can actually convert good AWK code into syntactically
2061 invalid code. These features are best disabled in AWK buffers.
2063 *** New syntactic symbols in IDL mode.
2064 The top level constructs "module" and "composition" (from CIDL) are
2065 now handled like "namespace" in C++: They are given syntactic symbols
2066 module-open, module-close, inmodule, composition-open,
2067 composition-close, and incomposition.
2069 *** New functions to do hungry delete without enabling hungry delete mode.
2070 The functions c-hungry-backspace and c-hungry-delete-forward can be
2071 bound to keys to get this feature without toggling a mode.
2072 Contributed by Kevin Ryde.
2074 *** Better control over require-final-newline. The variable that
2075 controls how to handle a final newline when the buffer is saved,
2076 require-final-newline, is now customizable on a per-mode basis through
2077 c-require-final-newline. That is a list of modes, and only those
2078 modes set require-final-newline. By default that's C, C++ and
2081 The specified modes set require-final-newline based on
2082 mode-require-final-newline, as usual.
2084 *** Format change for syntactic context elements.
2085 The elements in the syntactic context returned by c-guess-basic-syntax
2086 and stored in c-syntactic-context has been changed somewhat to allow
2087 attaching more information. They are now lists instead of single cons
2088 cells. E.g. a line that previously had the syntactic analysis
2090 ((inclass . 11) (topmost-intro . 13))
2094 ((inclass 11) (topmost-intro 13))
2096 In some cases there are more than one position given for a syntactic
2099 This change might affect code that call c-guess-basic-syntax directly,
2100 and custom lineup functions if they use c-syntactic-context. However,
2101 the argument given to lineup functions is still a single cons cell
2102 with nil or an integer in the cdr.
2104 *** API changes for derived modes.
2105 There have been extensive changes "under the hood" which can affect
2106 derived mode writers. Some of these changes are likely to cause
2107 incompatibilities with existing derived modes, but on the other hand
2108 care has now been taken to make it possible to extend and modify CC
2109 Mode with less risk of such problems in the future.
2111 **** New language variable system.
2112 See the comment blurb near the top of cc-langs.el.
2114 **** New initialization functions.
2115 The initialization procedure has been split up into more functions to
2116 give better control: c-basic-common-init, c-font-lock-init, and
2117 c-init-language-vars.
2119 *** Changes in analysis of nested syntactic constructs.
2120 The syntactic analysis engine has better handling of cases where
2121 several syntactic constructs appear nested on the same line. They are
2122 now handled as if each construct started on a line of its own.
2124 This means that CC Mode now indents some cases differently, and
2125 although it's more consistent there might be cases where the old way
2126 gave results that's more to one's liking. So if you find a situation
2127 where you think that the indentation has become worse, please report
2128 it to bug-cc-mode@gnu.org.
2130 **** New syntactic symbol substatement-label.
2131 This symbol is used when a label is inserted between a statement and
2132 its substatement. E.g:
2138 *** Better handling of multiline macros.
2140 **** Syntactic indentation inside macros.
2141 The contents of multiline #define's are now analyzed and indented
2142 syntactically just like other code. This can be disabled by the new
2143 variable c-syntactic-indentation-in-macros. A new syntactic symbol
2144 cpp-define-intro has been added to control the initial indentation
2147 **** New lineup function c-lineup-cpp-define.
2148 Now used by default to line up macro continuation lines. The behavior
2149 of this function closely mimics the indentation one gets if the macro
2150 is indented while the line continuation backslashes are temporarily
2151 removed. If syntactic indentation in macros is turned off, it works
2152 much line c-lineup-dont-change, which was used earlier, but handles
2153 empty lines within the macro better.
2155 **** Automatically inserted newlines continues the macro if used within one.
2156 This applies to the newlines inserted by the auto-newline mode, and to
2157 c-context-line-break and c-context-open-line.
2159 **** Better alignment of line continuation backslashes.
2160 c-backslash-region tries to adapt to surrounding backslashes. New
2161 variable c-backslash-max-column which put a limit on how far out
2162 backslashes can be moved.
2164 **** Automatic alignment of line continuation backslashes.
2165 This is controlled by the new variable c-auto-align-backslashes. It
2166 affects c-context-line-break, c-context-open-line and newlines
2167 inserted in auto-newline mode.
2169 **** Line indentation works better inside macros.
2170 Regardless whether syntactic indentation and syntactic indentation
2171 inside macros are enabled or not, line indentation now ignores the
2172 line continuation backslashes. This is most noticeable when syntactic
2173 indentation is turned off and there are empty lines (save for the
2174 backslash) in the macro.
2176 *** indent-for-comment is more customizable.
2177 The behavior of M-; (indent-for-comment) is now configurable through
2178 the variable c-indent-comment-alist. The indentation behavior based
2179 on the preceding code on the line, e.g. to get two spaces after #else
2180 and #endif but indentation to comment-column in most other cases
2181 (something which was hardcoded earlier).
2183 *** New function c-context-open-line.
2184 It's the open-line equivalent of c-context-line-break.
2186 *** New lineup functions
2188 **** c-lineup-string-cont
2189 This lineup function lines up a continued string under the one it
2192 result = prefix + "A message "
2193 "string."; <- c-lineup-string-cont
2195 **** c-lineup-cascaded-calls
2196 Lines up series of calls separated by "->" or ".".
2198 **** c-lineup-knr-region-comment
2199 Gives (what most people think is) better indentation of comments in
2200 the "K&R region" between the function header and its body.
2202 **** c-lineup-gcc-asm-reg
2203 Provides better indentation inside asm blocks. Contributed by Kevin
2206 **** c-lineup-argcont
2207 Lines up continued function arguments after the preceding comma.
2208 Contributed by Kevin Ryde.
2210 *** Better caching of the syntactic context.
2211 CC Mode caches the positions of the opening parentheses (of any kind)
2212 of the lists surrounding the point. Those positions are used in many
2213 places as anchor points for various searches. The cache is now
2214 improved so that it can be reused to a large extent when the point is
2215 moved. The less it moves, the less needs to be recalculated.
2217 The effect is that CC Mode should be fast most of the time even when
2218 opening parens are hung (i.e. aren't in column zero). It's typically
2219 only the first time after the point is moved far down in a complex
2220 file that it'll take noticeable time to find out the syntactic
2223 *** Statements are recognized in a more robust way.
2224 Statements are recognized most of the time even when they occur in an
2225 "invalid" context, e.g. in a function argument. In practice that can
2226 happen when macros are involved.
2228 *** Improved the way c-indent-exp chooses the block to indent.
2229 It now indents the block for the closest sexp following the point
2230 whose closing paren ends on a different line. This means that the
2231 point doesn't have to be immediately before the block to indent.
2232 Also, only the block and the closing line is indented; the current
2233 line is left untouched.
2235 *** Added toggle for syntactic indentation.
2236 The function c-toggle-syntactic-indentation can be used to toggle
2237 syntactic indentation.
2240 ** The command line option --no-windows has been changed to
2241 --no-window-system. The old one still works, but is deprecated.
2244 ** The command `list-text-properties-at' has been deleted because
2245 C-u C-x = gives the same information and more.
2248 ** `buffer-menu' and `list-buffers' now list buffers whose names begin
2249 with a space, when those buffers are visiting files. Normally buffers
2250 whose names begin with space are omitted.
2253 ** You can now customize fill-nobreak-predicate to control where
2254 filling can break lines. The value is now normally a list of
2255 functions, but it can also be a single function, for compatibility.
2257 We provide two sample predicates, fill-single-word-nobreak-p and
2258 fill-french-nobreak-p, for use in the value of fill-nobreak-predicate.
2261 ** New user option `add-log-always-start-new-record'.
2262 When this option is enabled, M-x add-change-log-entry always
2263 starts a new record regardless of when the last record is.
2266 ** SGML mode has indentation and supports XML syntax.
2267 The new variable `sgml-xml-mode' tells SGML mode to use XML syntax.
2268 When this option is enabled, SGML tags are inserted in XML style,
2269 i.e., there is always a closing tag.
2270 By default, its setting is inferred on a buffer-by-buffer basis
2271 from the file name or buffer contents.
2274 ** `xml-mode' is now an alias for `sgml-mode', which has XML support.
2277 ** Lisp mode now uses font-lock-doc-face for the docstrings.
2280 ** Perl mode has a new variable `perl-indent-continued-arguments'.
2283 ** Fortran mode does more font-locking by default. Use level 3
2284 highlighting for the old default.
2287 ** Fortran mode has a new variable `fortran-directive-re'.
2288 Adapt this to match the format of any compiler directives you use.
2289 Lines that match are never indented, and are given distinctive font-locking.
2292 ** F90 mode and Fortran mode have new navigation commands
2293 `f90-end-of-block', `f90-beginning-of-block', `f90-next-block',
2294 `f90-previous-block', `fortran-end-of-block',
2295 `fortran-beginning-of-block'.
2298 ** F90 mode and Fortran mode have support for hs-minor-mode (hideshow).
2299 It cannot deal with every code format, but ought to handle a sizeable
2303 ** The new function `f90-backslash-not-special' can be used to change
2304 the syntax of backslashes in F90 buffers.
2307 ** Prolog mode has a new variable `prolog-font-lock-keywords'
2308 to support use of font-lock.
2311 ** `special-display-buffer-names' and `special-display-regexps' now
2312 understand two new boolean pseudo-frame-parameters `same-frame' and
2316 ** M-x setenv now expands environment variables of the form `$foo' and
2317 `${foo}' in the specified new value of the environment variable. To
2318 include a `$' in the value, use `$$'.
2321 ** File-name completion can now ignore directories.
2322 If an element of the list in `completion-ignored-extensions' ends in a
2323 slash `/', it indicates a subdirectory that should be ignored when
2324 completing file names. Elements of `completion-ignored-extensions'
2325 which do not end in a slash are never considered when a completion
2326 candidate is a directory.
2329 ** The completion commands TAB, SPC and ? in the minibuffer apply only
2330 to the text before point. If there is text in the buffer after point,
2331 it remains unchanged.
2334 ** Enhanced visual feedback in *Completions* buffer.
2336 Completions lists use faces to highlight what all completions
2337 have in common and where they begin to differ.
2339 The common prefix shared by all possible completions uses the face
2340 `completions-common-part', while the first character that isn't the
2341 same uses the face `completions-first-difference'. By default,
2342 `completions-common-part' inherits from `default', and
2343 `completions-first-difference' inherits from `bold'. The idea of
2344 `completions-common-part' is that you can use it to make the common
2345 parts less visible than normal, so that the rest of the differing
2346 parts is, by contrast, slightly highlighted.
2349 ** New user option `inhibit-startup-buffer-menu'.
2350 When loading many files, for instance with `emacs *', Emacs normally
2351 displays a buffer menu. This option turns the buffer menu off.
2354 ** Rmail now displays 5-digit message ids in its summary buffer.
2357 ** Support for `movemail' from GNU mailutils was added to Rmail.
2358 This version of `movemail' allows to read mail from a wide range of
2359 mailbox formats, including remote POP3 and IMAP4 mailboxes with or
2360 without TLS encryption. If GNU mailutils is installed on the system
2361 and its version of `movemail' can be found in exec-path, it will be
2362 used instead of the native one.
2365 ** On MS Windows, the "system caret" now follows the cursor.
2366 This enables Emacs to work better with programs that need to track
2367 the cursor, for example screen magnifiers and text to speech programs.
2370 ** Tooltips now work on MS Windows.
2371 See the Emacs 21.1 NEWS entry for tooltips for details.
2374 ** Images are now supported on MS Windows.
2375 PBM and XBM images are supported out of the box. Other image formats
2376 depend on external libraries. All of these libraries have been ported
2377 to Windows, and can be found in both source and binary form at
2378 http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/. Note that libpng also depends on
2379 zlib, and tiff depends on the version of jpeg that it was compiled
2380 against. For additional information, see nt/INSTALL.
2383 ** Sound is now supported on MS Windows.
2384 WAV format is supported on all versions of Windows, other formats such
2385 as AU, AIFF and MP3 may be supported in the more recent versions of
2386 Windows, or when other software provides hooks into the system level
2387 sound support for those formats.
2390 ** Different shaped mouse pointers are supported on MS Windows.
2391 The mouse pointer changes shape depending on what is under the pointer.
2394 ** Pointing devices with more than 3 buttons are now supported on MS Windows.
2395 The new variable `w32-pass-extra-mouse-buttons-to-system' controls
2396 whether Emacs should handle the extra buttons itself (the default), or
2397 pass them to Windows to be handled with system-wide functions.
2400 ** Emacs takes note of colors defined in Control Panel on MS-Windows.
2401 The Control Panel defines some default colors for applications in much
2402 the same way as wildcard X Resources do on X. Emacs now adds these
2403 colors to the colormap prefixed by System (eg SystemMenu for the
2404 default Menu background, SystemMenuText for the foreground), and uses
2405 some of them to initialize some of the default faces.
2406 `list-colors-display' shows the list of System color names, in case
2407 you wish to use them in other faces.
2410 ** On MS Windows NT/W2K/XP, Emacs uses Unicode for clipboard operations.
2411 Those systems use Unicode internally, so this allows Emacs to share
2412 multilingual text with other applications. On other versions of
2413 MS Windows, Emacs now uses the appropriate locale coding-system, so
2414 the clipboard should work correctly for your local language without
2418 ** Under X11, it is possible to swap Alt and Meta (and Super and Hyper).
2419 The new variables `x-alt-keysym', `x-hyper-keysym', `x-meta-keysym',
2420 and `x-super-keysym' can be used to choose which keysyms Emacs should
2421 use for the modifiers. For example, the following two lines swap
2423 (setq x-alt-keysym 'meta)
2424 (setq x-meta-keysym 'alt)
2427 ** vc-annotate-mode enhancements
2429 In vc-annotate mode, you can now use the following key bindings for
2430 enhanced functionality to browse the annotations of past revisions, or
2431 to view diffs or log entries directly from vc-annotate-mode:
2433 P: annotates the previous revision
2434 N: annotates the next revision
2435 J: annotates the revision at line
2436 A: annotates the revision previous to line
2437 D: shows the diff of the revision at line with its previous revision
2438 L: shows the log of the revision at line
2439 W: annotates the workfile (most up to date) version
2442 ** In pcl-cvs mode, there is a new `d y' command to view the diffs
2443 between the local version of the file and yesterday's head revision
2447 ** In pcl-cvs mode, there is a new `d r' command to view the changes
2448 anyone has committed to the repository since you last executed
2449 "checkout", "update" or "commit". That means using cvs diff options
2453 ** New variable `hs-set-up-overlay' allows customization of the overlay
2454 used to effect hiding for hideshow minor mode. Integration with isearch
2455 handles the overlay property `display' specially, preserving it during
2456 temporary overlay showing in the course of an isearch operation.
2459 ** New command `recode-region' decodes the region again by a specified
2462 ** On Mac OS, the value of the variable `keyboard-coding-system' is
2463 now dynamically changed according to the current keyboard script. The
2464 variable `mac-keyboard-text-encoding' and the constants
2465 `kTextEncodingMacRoman', `kTextEncodingISOLatin1', and
2466 `kTextEncodingISOLatin2' are obsolete.
2468 * New modes and packages in Emacs 22.1
2471 ** The new package longlines.el provides a minor mode for editing text
2472 files composed of long lines, based on the `use-hard-newlines'
2473 mechanism. The long lines are broken up by inserting soft newlines,
2474 which are automatically removed when saving the file to disk or
2475 copying into the kill ring, clipboard, etc. By default, Longlines
2476 mode inserts soft newlines automatically during editing, a behavior
2477 referred to as "soft word wrap" in other text editors. This is
2478 similar to Refill mode, but more reliable. To turn the word wrap
2479 feature off, set `longlines-auto-wrap' to nil.
2482 ** The new package conf-mode.el handles thousands of configuration files, with
2483 varying syntaxes for comments (;, #, //, /* */ or !), assignment (var = value,
2484 var : value, var value or keyword var value) and sections ([section] or
2485 section { }). Many files under /etc/, or with suffixes like .cf through
2486 .config, .properties (Java), .desktop (KDE/Gnome), .ini and many others are
2490 ** The new package dns-mode.el add syntax highlight of DNS master files.
2491 The key binding C-c C-s (`dns-mode-soa-increment-serial') can be used
2492 to increment the SOA serial.
2495 ** The new package flymake.el does on-the-fly syntax checking of program
2496 source files. See the Flymake's Info manual for more details.
2498 ** The library tree-widget.el provides a new widget to display a set
2499 of hierarchical data as an outline. For example, the tree-widget is
2500 well suited to display a hierarchy of directories and files.
2503 ** The wdired.el package allows you to use normal editing commands on Dired
2504 buffers to change filenames, permissions, etc...
2507 ** The thumbs.el package allows you to preview image files as thumbnails
2508 and can be invoked from a Dired buffer.
2511 ** The new python.el package is used to edit Python and Jython programs.
2513 ** The URL package (which had been part of W3) is now part of Emacs.
2516 ** The new global minor mode `size-indication-mode' (off by default)
2517 shows the size of accessible part of the buffer on the mode line.
2520 ** GDB-Script-mode is used for files like .gdbinit.
2523 ** Ido mode is now part of the Emacs distribution.
2525 The ido (interactively do) package is an extension of the iswitchb
2526 package to do interactive opening of files and directories in addition
2527 to interactive buffer switching. Ido is a superset of iswitchb (with
2528 a few exceptions), so don't enable both packages.
2531 ** CUA mode is now part of the Emacs distribution.
2533 The new cua package provides CUA-like keybindings using C-x for
2534 cut (kill), C-c for copy, C-v for paste (yank), and C-z for undo.
2535 With cua, the region can be set and extended using shifted movement
2536 keys (like pc-selection-mode) and typed text replaces the active
2537 region (like delete-selection-mode). Do not enable these modes with
2538 cua-mode. Customize the variable `cua-mode' to enable cua.
2540 In addition, cua provides unified rectangle support with visible
2541 rectangle highlighting: Use S-return to start a rectangle, extend it
2542 using the movement commands (or mouse-3), and cut or copy it using C-x
2543 or C-c (using C-w and M-w also works).
2545 Use M-o and M-c to `open' or `close' the rectangle, use M-b or M-f, to
2546 fill it with blanks or another character, use M-u or M-l to upcase or
2547 downcase the rectangle, use M-i to increment the numbers in the
2548 rectangle, use M-n to fill the rectangle with a numeric sequence (such
2549 as 10 20 30...), use M-r to replace a regexp in the rectangle, and use
2550 M-' or M-/ to restrict command on the rectangle to a subset of the
2551 rows. See the commentary in cua-base.el for more rectangle commands.
2553 Cua also provides unified support for registers: Use a numeric
2554 prefix argument between 0 and 9, i.e. M-0 .. M-9, for C-x, C-c, and
2555 C-v to cut or copy into register 0-9, or paste from register 0-9.
2557 The last text deleted (not killed) is automatically stored in
2558 register 0. This includes text deleted by typing text.
2560 Finally, cua provides a global mark which is set using S-C-space.
2561 When the global mark is active, any text which is cut or copied is
2562 automatically inserted at the global mark position. See the
2563 commentary in cua-base.el for more global mark related commands.
2565 The features of cua also works with the standard emacs bindings for
2566 kill, copy, yank, and undo. If you want to use cua mode, but don't
2567 want the C-x, C-c, C-v, and C-z bindings, you may customize the
2568 `cua-enable-cua-keys' variable.
2570 Note: This version of cua mode is not backwards compatible with older
2571 versions of cua.el and cua-mode.el. To ensure proper operation, you
2572 must remove older versions of cua.el or cua-mode.el as well as the
2573 loading and customization of those packages from the .emacs file.
2576 ** The new keypad setup package provides several common bindings for
2577 the numeric keypad which is available on most keyboards. The numeric
2578 keypad typically has the digits 0 to 9, a decimal point, keys marked
2579 +, -, /, and *, an Enter key, and a NumLock toggle key. The keypad
2580 package only controls the use of the digit and decimal keys.
2582 By customizing the variables `keypad-setup', `keypad-shifted-setup',
2583 `keypad-numlock-setup', and `keypad-numlock-shifted-setup', or by
2584 using the function `keypad-setup', you can rebind all digit keys and
2585 the decimal key of the keypad in one step for each of the four
2586 possible combinations of the Shift key state (not pressed/pressed) and
2587 the NumLock toggle state (off/on).
2589 The choices for the keypad keys in each of the above states are:
2590 `Plain numeric keypad' where the keys generates plain digits,
2591 `Numeric keypad with decimal key' where the character produced by the
2592 decimal key can be customized individually (for internationalization),
2593 `Numeric Prefix Arg' where the keypad keys produce numeric prefix args
2594 for emacs editing commands, `Cursor keys' and `Shifted Cursor keys'
2595 where the keys work like (shifted) arrow keys, home/end, etc., and
2596 `Unspecified/User-defined' where the keypad keys (kp-0, kp-1, etc.)
2597 are left unspecified and can be bound individually through the global
2601 ** The new kmacro package provides a simpler user interface to
2602 emacs' keyboard macro facilities.
2604 Basically, it uses two function keys (default F3 and F4) like this:
2605 F3 starts a macro, F4 ends the macro, and pressing F4 again executes
2606 the last macro. While defining the macro, F3 inserts a counter value
2607 which automatically increments every time the macro is executed.
2609 There is now a keyboard macro ring which stores the most recently
2612 The C-x C-k sequence is now a prefix for the kmacro keymap which
2613 defines bindings for moving through the keyboard macro ring,
2614 C-x C-k C-p and C-x C-k C-n, editing the last macro C-x C-k C-e,
2615 manipulating the macro counter and format via C-x C-k C-c,
2616 C-x C-k C-a, and C-x C-k C-f. See the commentary in kmacro.el
2619 The normal macro bindings C-x (, C-x ), and C-x e now interfaces to
2620 the keyboard macro ring.
2622 The C-x e command now automatically terminates the current macro
2623 before calling it, if used while defining a macro.
2625 In addition, when ending or calling a macro with C-x e, the macro can
2626 be repeated immediately by typing just the `e'. You can customize
2627 this behavior via the variable kmacro-call-repeat-key and
2628 kmacro-call-repeat-with-arg.
2630 Keyboard macros can now be debugged and edited interactively.
2631 C-x C-k SPC steps through the last keyboard macro one key sequence
2632 at a time, prompting for the actions to take.
2635 ** The old Octave mode bindings C-c f and C-c i have been changed
2636 to C-c C-f and C-c C-i. The C-c C-i subcommands now have duplicate
2637 bindings on control characters--thus, C-c C-i C-b is the same as
2638 C-c C-i b, and so on.
2640 ** The printing package is now part of the Emacs distribution.
2642 If you enable the printing package by including (require 'printing) in
2643 the .emacs file, the normal Print item on the File menu is replaced
2644 with a Print sub-menu which allows you to preview output through
2645 ghostview, use ghostscript to print (if you don't have a PostScript
2646 printer) or send directly to printer a PostScript code generated by
2647 `ps-print' package. Use M-x pr-help for more information.
2650 ** Calc is now part of the Emacs distribution.
2652 Calc is an advanced desk calculator and mathematical tool written in
2653 Emacs Lisp. Its documentation is in a separate manual; within Emacs,
2654 type "C-h i m calc RET" to read that manual. A reference card is
2655 available in `etc/calccard.tex' and `etc/calccard.ps'.
2658 ** Tramp is now part of the distribution.
2660 This package is similar to Ange-FTP: it allows you to edit remote
2661 files. But whereas Ange-FTP uses FTP to access the remote host,
2662 Tramp uses a shell connection. The shell connection is always used
2663 for filename completion and directory listings and suchlike, but for
2664 the actual file transfer, you can choose between the so-called
2665 `inline' methods (which transfer the files through the shell
2666 connection using base64 or uu encoding) and the `out-of-band' methods
2667 (which invoke an external copying program such as `rcp' or `scp' or
2668 `rsync' to do the copying).
2670 Shell connections can be acquired via `rsh', `ssh', `telnet' and also
2671 `su' and `sudo'. Ange-FTP is still supported via the `ftp' method.
2673 If you want to disable Tramp you should set
2675 (setq tramp-default-method "ftp")
2678 ** The new global minor mode `file-name-shadow-mode' modifies the way
2679 filenames being entered by the user in the minibuffer are displayed, so
2680 that it's clear when part of the entered filename will be ignored due to
2681 emacs' filename parsing rules. The ignored portion can be made dim,
2682 invisible, or otherwise less visually noticable. The display method may
2683 be displayed by customizing the variable `file-name-shadow-properties'.
2686 ** The ruler-mode.el library provides a minor mode for displaying an
2687 "active" ruler in the header line. You can use the mouse to visually
2688 change the `fill-column', `window-margins' and `tab-stop-list'
2692 ** The minor mode Reveal mode makes text visible on the fly as you
2693 move your cursor into hidden regions of the buffer.
2694 It should work with any package that uses overlays to hide parts
2695 of a buffer, such as outline-minor-mode, hs-minor-mode, hide-ifdef-mode, ...
2697 There is also Global Reveal mode which affects all buffers.
2700 ** The new package ibuffer provides a powerful, completely
2701 customizable replacement for buff-menu.el.
2704 ** The new package table.el implements editable, WYSIWYG, embedded
2705 `text tables' in Emacs buffers. It simulates the effect of putting
2706 these tables in a special major mode. The package emulates WYSIWYG
2707 table editing available in modern word processors. The package also
2708 can generate a table source in typesetting and markup languages such
2709 as latex and html from the visually laid out text table.
2712 ** SES mode (ses-mode) is a new major mode for creating and editing
2713 spreadsheet files. Besides the usual Emacs features (intuitive command
2714 letters, undo, cell formulas in Lisp, plaintext files, etc.) it also offers
2715 viral immunity and import/export of tab-separated values.
2718 ** Support for `magic cookie' standout modes has been removed.
2719 Emacs will still work on terminals that require magic cookies in order
2720 to use standout mode, however they will not be able to display
2721 mode-lines in inverse-video.
2724 ** cplus-md.el has been removed to avoid problems with Custom.
2727 ** New package benchmark.el contains simple support for convenient
2728 timing measurements of code (including the garbage collection component).
2731 ** The new Lisp library fringe.el controls the appearance of fringes.
2734 ** `cfengine-mode' is a major mode for editing GNU Cfengine
2735 configuration files.
2737 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 22.1
2740 ** The new interactive-specification `G' reads a file name
2741 much like `F', but if the input is a directory name (even defaulted),
2742 it returns just the directory name.
2745 ** `suppress-keymap' now works by remapping `self-insert-command' to
2746 the command `undefined'. (In earlier Emacs versions, it used
2747 `substitute-key-definition' to rebind self inserting characters to
2751 ** Mode line display ignores text properties as well as the
2752 :propertize and :eval forms in the value of a variable whose
2753 `risky-local-variable' property is nil.
2755 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 22.1
2757 ** New functions, macros, and commands
2760 *** The new function `filter-buffer-substring' extracts a buffer
2761 substring, passes it through a set of filter functions, and returns
2762 the filtered substring. It is used instead of `buffer-substring' or
2763 `delete-and-extract-region' when copying text into a user-accessible
2764 data structure, like the kill-ring, X clipboard, or a register. The
2765 list of filter function is specified by the new variable
2766 `buffer-substring-filters'. For example, Longlines mode uses
2767 `buffer-substring-filters' to remove soft newlines from the copied
2771 *** (while-no-input BODY...) runs BODY, but only so long as no input
2772 arrives. If the user types or clicks anything, BODY stops as if a
2773 quit had occurred. while-no-input returns the value of BODY, if BODY
2774 finishes. It returns nil if BODY was aborted.
2777 *** New function `looking-back' checks whether a regular expression matches
2778 the text before point. Specifying the LIMIT argument bounds how far
2779 back the match can start; this is a way to keep it from taking too long.
2782 *** New functions `make-progress-reporter', `progress-reporter-update',
2783 `progress-reporter-force-update', `progress-reporter-done', and
2784 `dotimes-with-progress-reporter' provide a simple and efficient way for
2785 a command to present progress messages for the user.
2788 *** The new primitive `get-internal-run-time' returns the processor
2789 run time used by Emacs since start-up.
2792 *** The new function `called-interactively-p' does what many people
2793 have mistakenly believed `interactive-p' did: it returns t if the
2794 calling function was called through `call-interactively'. This should
2795 only be used when you cannot add a new "interactive" argument to the
2799 *** The new function `assoc-string' replaces `assoc-ignore-case' and
2800 `assoc-ignore-representation', which are still available, but have
2801 been declared obsolete.
2804 *** New function quail-find-key returns a list of keys to type in the
2805 current input method to input a character.
2808 *** New functions posn-at-point and posn-at-x-y return
2809 click-event-style position information for a given visible buffer
2810 position or for a given window pixel coordinate.
2813 *** The new primitive `set-file-times' sets a file's access and
2814 modification times. Magic file name handlers can handle this
2818 *** The new function syntax-after returns the syntax code
2819 of the character after a specified buffer position, taking account
2820 of text properties as well as the character code.
2822 *** `syntax-class' extracts the class of a syntax code (as returned
2826 *** New function `line-number-at-pos' returns line number of current
2827 line in current buffer, or if optional buffer position is given, line
2828 number of corresponding line in current buffer.
2831 *** New function `macroexpand-all' expands all macros in a form.
2832 It is similar to the Common-Lisp function of the same name.
2833 One difference is that it guarantees to return the original argument
2834 if no expansion is done, which may be tested using `eq'.
2837 *** New macro with-local-quit temporarily sets inhibit-quit to nil for use
2838 around potentially blocking or long-running code in timers
2839 and post-command-hooks.
2842 *** The new function `rassq-delete-all' deletes all elements from an
2843 alist whose cdr is `eq' to a specified value.
2846 ** easy-mmode-define-global-mode has been renamed to
2847 define-global-minor-mode. The old name remains as an alias.
2850 ** An element of buffer-undo-list can now have the form (apply FUNNAME
2851 . ARGS), where FUNNAME is a symbol other than t or nil. That stands
2852 for a high-level change that should be undone by evaluating (apply
2855 These entries can also have the form (apply DELTA BEG END FUNNAME . ARGS)
2856 which indicates that the change which took place was limited to the
2857 range BEG...END and increased the buffer size by DELTA.
2860 ** The line-move, scroll-up, and scroll-down functions will now
2861 modify the window vscroll to scroll through display rows that are
2862 taller that the height of the window, for example in the presense of
2863 large images. To disable this feature, Lisp code may bind the new
2864 variable `auto-window-vscroll' to nil.
2867 ** If a buffer sets buffer-save-without-query to non-nil,
2868 save-some-buffers will always save that buffer without asking
2872 ** The function symbol-file tells you which file defined
2873 a certain function or variable.
2876 ** Lisp code can now test if a given buffer position is inside a
2877 clickable link with the new function `mouse-on-link-p'. This is the
2878 function used by the new `mouse-1-click-follows-link' functionality.
2881 ** `set-auto-mode' now gives the interpreter magic line (if present)
2882 precedence over the file name. Likewise an <?xml or <!DOCTYPE declaration
2883 will give the buffer XML or SGML mode, based on the new var
2887 ** To manipulate the File menu using easy-menu, you must specify the
2888 proper name "file". In previous Emacs versions, you had to specify
2889 "files", even though the menu item itself was changed to say "File"
2890 several versions ago.
2893 ** read-from-minibuffer now accepts an additional argument KEEP-ALL
2894 saying to put all inputs in the history list, even empty ones.
2897 ** The new variable search-spaces-regexp controls how to search
2898 for spaces in a regular expression. If it is non-nil, it should be a
2899 regular expression, and any series of spaces stands for that regular
2900 expression. If it is nil, spaces stand for themselves.
2902 Spaces inside of constructs such as [..] and *, +, ? are never
2903 replaced with search-spaces-regexp.
2906 ** list-buffers-noselect now takes an additional argument, BUFFER-LIST.
2907 If it is non-nil, it specifies which buffers to list.
2910 ** set-buffer-file-coding-system now takes an additional argument,
2911 NOMODIFY. If it is non-nil, it means don't mark the buffer modified.
2914 ** An interactive specification may now use the code letter 'U' to get
2915 the up-event that was discarded in case the last key sequence read for a
2916 previous 'k' or 'K' argument was a down-event; otherwise nil is used.
2919 ** Function `translate-region' accepts also a char-table as TABLE
2923 ** Major mode functions now run the new normal hook
2924 `after-change-major-mode-hook', at their very end, after the mode hooks.
2927 ** `auto-save-file-format' has been renamed to
2928 `buffer-auto-save-file-format' and made into a permanent local.
2931 ** Both the variable and the function `disabled-command-hook' have
2932 been renamed to `disabled-command-function'. The variable
2933 `disabled-command-hook' has been kept as an obsolete alias.
2936 ** Function `compute-motion' now calculates the usable window
2937 width if the WIDTH argument is nil. If the TOPOS argument is nil,
2938 the usable window height and width is used.
2941 ** `visited-file-modtime' and `calendar-time-from-absolute' now return
2942 a list of two integers, instead of a cons.
2945 ** If a command sets transient-mark-mode to `only', that
2946 enables Transient Mark mode for the following command only.
2947 During that following command, the value of transient-mark-mode
2948 is `identity'. If it is still `identity' at the end of the command,
2952 ** Cleaner way to enter key sequences.
2954 You can enter a constant key sequence in a more natural format, the
2955 same one used for saving keyboard macros, using the macro `kbd'. For
2958 (kbd "C-x C-f") => "\^x\^f"
2961 ** The sentinel is now called when a network process is deleted with
2962 delete-process. The status message passed to the sentinel for a
2963 deleted network process is "deleted". The message passed to the
2964 sentinel when the connection is closed by the remote peer has been
2965 changed to "connection broken by remote peer".
2968 ** If the buffer's undo list for the current command gets longer than
2969 undo-outer-limit, garbage collection empties it. This is to prevent
2970 it from using up the available memory and choking Emacs.
2973 ** skip-chars-forward and skip-chars-backward now handle
2974 character classes such as [:alpha:], along with individual characters
2978 ** Function pos-visible-in-window-p now returns the pixel coordinates
2979 and partial visiblity state of the corresponding row, if the PARTIALLY
2983 ** The function `eql' is now available without requiring the CL package.
2986 ** The display space :width and :align-to text properties are now
2987 supported on text terminals.
2990 ** Support for displaying image slices
2992 *** New display property (slice X Y WIDTH HEIGHT) may be used with
2993 an image property to display only a specific slice of the image.
2995 *** Function insert-image has new optional fourth arg to
2996 specify image slice (X Y WIDTH HEIGHT).
2998 *** New function insert-sliced-image inserts a given image as a
2999 specified number of evenly sized slices (rows x columns).
3002 ** New line-height and line-spacing properties for newline characters
3004 A newline may now have line-height and line-spacing text or overlay
3005 properties that control the height of the corresponding display row.
3007 If the line-height property value is t, the newline does not
3008 contribute to the height of the display row; instead the height of the
3009 newline glyph is reduced. Also, a line-spacing property on this
3010 newline is ignored. This can be used to tile small images or image
3011 slices without adding blank areas between the images.
3013 If the line-height property value is a positive integer, the value
3014 specifies the minimum line height in pixels. If necessary, the line
3015 height it increased by increasing the line's ascent.
3017 If the line-height property value is a float, the minimum line height
3018 is calculated by multiplying the default frame line height by the
3021 If the line-height property value is a cons (FACE . RATIO), the
3022 minimum line height is calculated as RATIO * height of named FACE.
3023 RATIO is int or float. If FACE is t, it specifies the current face.
3025 If the line-height property value is a cons (nil . RATIO), the line
3026 height is calculated as RATIO * actual height of the line's contents.
3028 If the line-height value is a cons (HEIGHT . TOTAL), HEIGHT specifies
3029 the line height as described above, while TOTAL is any of the forms
3030 described above and specifies the total height of the line, causing a
3031 varying number of pixels to be inserted after the line to make it line
3032 exactly that many pixels high.
3034 If the line-spacing property value is an positive integer, the value
3035 is used as additional pixels to insert after the display line; this
3036 overrides the default frame line-spacing and any buffer local value of
3037 the line-spacing variable.
3039 If the line-spacing property may be a float or cons, the line spacing
3040 is calculated as specified above for the line-height property.
3043 ** The buffer local line-spacing variable may now have a float value,
3044 which is used as a height relative to the default frame line height.
3047 ** Enhancements to stretch display properties
3049 The display property stretch specification form `(space PROPS)', where
3050 PROPS is a property list now allows pixel based width and height
3051 specifications, as well as enhanced horizontal text alignment.
3053 The value of these properties can now be a (primitive) expression
3054 which is evaluated during redisplay. The following expressions
3057 EXPR ::= NUM | (NUM) | UNIT | ELEM | POS | IMAGE | FORM
3058 NUM ::= INTEGER | FLOAT | SYMBOL
3059 UNIT ::= in | mm | cm | width | height
3060 ELEM ::= left-fringe | right-fringe | left-margin | right-margin
3062 POS ::= left | center | right
3063 FORM ::= (NUM . EXPR) | (OP EXPR ...)
3066 The form `NUM' specifies a fractional width or height of the default
3067 frame font size. The form `(NUM)' specifies an absolute number of
3068 pixels. If a symbol is specified, its buffer-local variable binding
3069 is used. The `in', `mm', and `cm' units specifies the number of
3070 pixels per inch, milli-meter, and centi-meter, resp. The `width' and
3071 `height' units correspond to the width and height of the current face
3072 font. An image specification corresponds to the width or height of
3075 The `left-fringe', `right-fringe', `left-margin', `right-margin',
3076 `scroll-bar', and `text' elements specify to the width of the
3077 corresponding area of the window.
3079 The `left', `center', and `right' positions can be used with :align-to
3080 to specify a position relative to the left edge, center, or right edge
3081 of the text area. One of the above window elements (except `text')
3082 can also be used with :align-to to specify that the position is
3083 relative to the left edge of the given area. Once the base offset for
3084 a relative position has been set (by the first occurrence of one of
3085 these symbols), further occurences of these symbols are interpreted as
3086 the width of the area.
3088 For example, to align to the center of the left-margin, use
3089 :align-to (+ left-margin (0.5 . left-margin))
3091 If no specific base offset is set for alignment, it is always relative
3092 to the left edge of the text area. For example, :align-to 0 in a
3093 header-line aligns with the first text column in the text area.
3095 The value of the form `(NUM . EXPR)' is the value of NUM multiplied by
3096 the value of the expression EXPR. For example, (2 . in) specifies a
3097 width of 2 inches, while (0.5 . IMAGE) specifies half the width (or
3098 height) of the specified image.
3100 The form `(+ EXPR ...)' adds up the value of the expressions.
3101 The form `(- EXPR ...)' negates or subtracts the value of the expressions.
3104 ** Normally, the cursor is displayed at the end of any overlay and
3105 text property string that may be present at the current window
3106 position. The cursor may now be placed on any character of such
3107 strings by giving that character a non-nil `cursor' text property.
3109 ** The first face specification element in a defface can specify
3110 `default' instead of frame classification. Then its attributes act as
3111 defaults that apply to all the subsequent cases (and may be overridden
3115 ** New face attribute `min-colors' can be used to tailor the face color
3116 to the number of colors supported by a display, and define the
3117 foreground and background colors accordingly so that they look best on
3118 a terminal that supports at least this many colors. This is now the
3119 preferred method for defining default faces in a way that makes a good
3120 use of the capabilities of the display.
3123 ** Customizable fringe bitmaps
3125 *** New function 'define-fringe-bitmap' can now be used to create new
3126 fringe bitmaps, as well as change the built-in fringe bitmaps.
3128 To change a built-in bitmap, do (require 'fringe) and use the symbol
3129 identifing the bitmap such as `left-truncation or `continued-line'.
3131 *** New function 'destroy-fringe-bitmap' may be used to destroy a
3132 previously created bitmap, or restore a built-in bitmap.
3134 *** New function 'set-fringe-bitmap-face' can now be used to set a
3135 specific face to be used for a specific fringe bitmap. The face is
3136 automatically merged with the `fringe' face, so normally, the face
3137 should only specify the foreground color of the bitmap.
3139 *** There are new display properties, left-fringe and right-fringe,
3140 that can be used to show a specific bitmap in the left or right fringe
3141 bitmap of the display line.
3143 Format is 'display '(left-fringe BITMAP [FACE]), where BITMAP is a
3144 symbol identifying a fringe bitmap, either built-in or defined with
3145 `define-fringe-bitmap', and FACE is an optional face name to be used
3146 for displaying the bitmap instead of the default `fringe' face.
3147 When specified, FACE is automatically merged with the `fringe' face.
3149 *** New function `fringe-bitmaps-at-pos' returns the current fringe
3150 bitmaps in the display line at a given buffer position.
3153 ** Multiple overlay arrows can now be defined and managed via the new
3154 variable `overlay-arrow-variable-list'. It contains a list of
3155 varibles which contain overlay arrow position markers, including
3156 the original `overlay-arrow-position' variable.
3158 Each variable on this list may have individual `overlay-arrow-string'
3159 and `overlay-arrow-bitmap' properties that specify an overlay arrow
3160 string (for non-window terminals) or fringe bitmap (for window
3161 systems) to display at the corresponding overlay arrow position.
3162 If either property is not set, the default `overlay-arrow-string' or
3163 'overlay-arrow-fringe-bitmap' will be used.
3166 ** The default value of `sentence-end' is now defined using the new
3167 variable `sentence-end-without-space' which contains such characters
3168 that end a sentence without following spaces.
3171 ** The function `sentence-end' should be used to obtain the value of
3172 the variable `sentence-end'. If the variable `sentence-end' is nil,
3173 then this function returns the regexp constructed from the variables
3174 `sentence-end-without-period', `sentence-end-double-space' and
3175 `sentence-end-without-space'.
3178 ** The flags, width, and precision options for %-specifications in function
3179 `format' are now documented. Some flags that were accepted but not
3180 implemented (such as "*") are no longer accepted.
3183 ** New function `delete-dups' destructively removes `equal' duplicates
3184 from a list. Of several `equal' occurrences of an element in the list,
3185 the first one is kept.
3188 ** `declare' is now a macro. This change was made mostly for
3189 documentation purposes and should have no real effect on Lisp code.
3192 ** The new hook `before-save-hook' is invoked by `basic-save-buffer'
3193 before saving buffers. This allows packages to perform various final
3194 tasks, for example; it can be used by the copyright package to make
3195 sure saved files have the current year in any copyright headers.
3198 ** The function `insert-for-yank' now supports strings where the
3199 `yank-handler' property does not span the first character of the
3200 string. The old behavior is available if you call
3201 `insert-for-yank-1' instead.
3204 ** New function `get-char-property-and-overlay' accepts the same
3205 arguments as `get-char-property' and returns a cons whose car is the
3206 return value of `get-char-property' called with those arguments and
3207 whose cdr is the overlay in which the property was found, or nil if
3208 it was found as a text property or not found at all.
3212 ** The mouse pointer shape in void text areas (i.e. after the end of a
3213 line or below the last line in the buffer) of the text window is now
3214 controlled by the new variable `void-text-area-pointer'. The default
3215 is to use the `arrow' (non-text) pointer. Other choices are `text'
3216 (or nil), `hand', `vdrag', `hdrag', `modeline', and `hourglass'.
3219 ** The mouse pointer shape over an image can now be controlled by the
3220 :pointer image property.
3223 ** The mouse pointer shape over ordinary text or images may now be
3224 controlled/overriden via the `pointer' text property.
3227 ** Images may now have an associated image map via the :map property.
3229 An image map is an alist where each element has the format (AREA ID PLIST).
3230 An AREA is specified as either a rectangle, a circle, or a polygon:
3231 A rectangle is a cons (rect . ((x0 . y0) . (x1 . y1))) specifying the
3232 pixel coordinates of the upper left and bottom right corners.
3233 A circle is a cons (circle . ((x0 . y0) . r)) specifying the center
3234 and the radius of the circle; r may be a float or integer.
3235 A polygon is a cons (poly . [x0 y0 x1 y1 ...]) where each pair in the
3236 vector describes one corner in the polygon.
3238 When the mouse pointer is above a hot-spot area of an image, the
3239 PLIST of that hot-spot is consulted; if it contains a `help-echo'
3240 property it defines a tool-tip for the hot-spot, and if it contains
3241 a `pointer' property, it defines the shape of the mouse cursor when
3242 it is over the hot-spot. See the variable 'void-area-text-pointer'
3243 for possible pointer shapes.
3245 When you click the mouse when the mouse pointer is over a hot-spot,
3246 an event is composed by combining the ID of the hot-spot with the
3247 mouse event, e.g. [area4 mouse-1] if the hot-spot's ID is `area4'.
3249 ** Mouse event enhancements:
3252 *** Mouse clicks on fringes now generates left-fringe or right-fringes
3253 events, rather than a text area click event.
3256 *** Mouse clicks in the left and right marginal areas now includes a
3257 sensible buffer position corresponding to the first character in the
3258 corresponding text row.
3261 *** Function `mouse-set-point' now works for events outside text area.
3264 *** Mouse events now includes buffer position for all event types.
3267 *** `posn-point' now returns buffer position for non-text area events.
3270 *** New function `posn-area' returns window area clicked on (nil means
3274 *** Mouse events include actual glyph column and row for all event types.
3277 *** New function `posn-actual-col-row' returns actual glyph coordinates.
3280 *** Mouse events may now include image object in addition to string object.
3283 *** Mouse events include relative x and y pixel coordinates relative to
3284 the top left corner of the object (image or character) clicked on.
3287 *** Mouse events include the pixel width and height of the object
3288 (image or character) clicked on.
3291 *** New functions 'posn-object', 'posn-object-x-y', and
3292 'posn-object-width-height' return the image or string object of a mouse
3293 click, the x and y pixel coordinates relative to the top left corner
3294 of that object, and the total width and height of that object.
3297 ** New function `force-window-update' can initiate a full redisplay of
3298 one or all windows. Normally, this is not needed as changes in window
3299 contents are detected automatically. However, certain implicit
3300 changes to mode lines, header lines, or display properties may require
3301 forcing an explicit window update.
3304 ** New function `redirect-debugging-output' can be used to redirect
3305 debugging output on the stderr file handle to a file.
3308 ** `split-string' now includes null substrings in the returned list if
3309 the optional argument SEPARATORS is non-nil and there are matches for
3310 SEPARATORS at the beginning or end of the string. If SEPARATORS is
3311 nil, or if the new optional third argument OMIT-NULLS is non-nil, all
3312 empty matches are omitted from the returned list.
3315 ** `makehash' is now obsolete. Use `make-hash-table' instead.
3318 ** If optional third argument APPEND to `add-to-list' is non-nil, a
3319 new element gets added at the end of the list instead of at the
3320 beginning. This change actually occurred in Emacs-21.1, but was not
3323 ** Major modes can define `eldoc-print-current-symbol-info-function'
3324 locally to provide Eldoc functionality by some method appropriate to
3328 ** New coding system property `mime-text-unsuitable' indicates that
3329 the coding system's `mime-charset' is not suitable for MIME text
3333 ** The argument to forward-word, backward-word, forward-to-indentation
3334 and backward-to-indentation is now optional, and defaults to 1.
3337 ** (char-displayable-p CHAR) returns non-nil if Emacs ought to be able
3338 to display CHAR. More precisely, if the selected frame's fontset has
3339 a font to display the character set that CHAR belongs to.
3341 Fontsets can specify a font on a per-character basis; when the fontset
3342 does that, this value may not be accurate.
3345 ** The new function `window-inside-edges' returns the edges of the
3346 actual text portion of the window, not including the scroll bar or
3347 divider line, the fringes, the display margins, the header line and
3351 ** The new functions `window-pixel-edges' and `window-inside-pixel-edges'
3352 return window edges in units of pixels, rather than columns and lines.
3355 ** The kill-buffer-hook is now permanent-local.
3358 ** `select-window' takes an optional second argument `norecord', like
3362 ** The new macro `with-selected-window' temporarily switches the
3363 selected window without impacting the order of buffer-list.
3366 ** The `keymap' property now also works at the ends of overlays and
3367 text-properties, according to their stickiness. This also means that it
3368 works with empty overlays. The same hold for the `local-map' property.
3371 ** (map-keymap FUNCTION KEYMAP) applies the function to each binding
3375 ** VC changes for backends:
3376 *** (vc-switches BACKEND OPERATION) is a new function for use by backends.
3377 *** The new `find-version' backend function replaces the `destfile'
3378 parameter of the `checkout' backend function.
3379 Old code still works thanks to a default `find-version' behavior that
3380 uses the old `destfile' parameter.
3383 ** The new macro dynamic-completion-table supports using functions
3384 as a dynamic completion table.
3386 (dynamic-completion-table FUN)
3388 FUN is called with one argument, the string for which completion is required,
3389 and it should return an alist containing all the intended possible
3390 completions. This alist may be a full list of possible completions so that FUN
3391 can ignore the value of its argument. If completion is performed in the
3392 minibuffer, FUN will be called in the buffer from which the minibuffer was
3393 entered. dynamic-completion-table then computes the completion.
3396 ** The new macro lazy-completion-table initializes a variable
3397 as a lazy completion table.
3399 (lazy-completion-table VAR FUN &rest ARGS)
3401 If the completion table VAR is used for the first time (e.g., by passing VAR
3402 as an argument to `try-completion'), the function FUN is called with arguments
3403 ARGS. FUN must return the completion table that will be stored in VAR. If
3404 completion is requested in the minibuffer, FUN will be called in the buffer
3405 from which the minibuffer was entered. The return value of
3406 `lazy-completion-table' must be used to initialize the value of VAR.
3409 ** `minor-mode-list' now holds a list of minor mode commands.
3412 ** The new function `modify-all-frames-parameters' modifies parameters
3413 for all (existing and future) frames.
3416 ** `sit-for' can now be called with args (SECONDS &optional NODISP).
3419 ** New standard font-lock face `font-lock-preprocessor-face'.
3422 ** The macro `with-syntax-table' does not copy the table any more.
3425 ** The variable `face-font-rescale-alist' specifies how much larger
3426 (or smaller) font we should use. For instance, if the value is
3427 '((SOME-FONTNAME-PATTERN . 1.3)) and a face requests a font of 10
3428 point, we actually use a font of 13 point if the font matches
3429 SOME-FONTNAME-PATTERN.
3432 ** The function `number-sequence' returns a list of equally-separated
3433 numbers. For instance, (number-sequence 4 9) returns (4 5 6 7 8 9).
3434 By default, the separation is 1, but you can specify a different separation
3435 as the third argument. (number-sequence 1.5 6 2) returns (1.5 3.5 5.5).
3438 ** `file-chase-links' now takes an optional second argument LIMIT which
3439 specifies the maximum number of links to chase through. If after that
3440 many iterations the file name obtained is still a symbolic link,
3441 `file-chase-links' returns it anyway.
3444 ** `set-fontset-font', `fontset-info', `fontset-font' now operate on
3445 the default fontset if the argument NAME is nil..
3448 ** The escape sequence \s is now interpreted as a SPACE character,
3449 unless it is followed by a `-' in a character constant (e.g. ?\s-A),
3450 in which case it is still interpreted as the super modifier.
3451 In strings, \s is always interpreted as a space.
3454 ** New function `set-process-filter-multibyte' sets the multibyteness
3455 of a string given to a process's filter.
3458 ** New function `process-filter-multibyte-p' returns t if
3459 a string given to a process's filter is multibyte.
3462 ** A filter function of a process is called with a multibyte string if
3463 the filter's multibyteness is t. That multibyteness is decided by the
3464 value of `default-enable-multibyte-characters' when the process is
3465 created and can be changed later by `set-process-filter-multibyte'.
3468 ** If a process's coding system is raw-text or no-conversion and its
3469 buffer is multibyte, the output of the process is at first converted
3470 to multibyte by `string-to-multibyte' then inserted in the buffer.
3471 Previously, it was converted to multibyte by `string-as-multibyte',
3472 which was not compatible with the behavior of file reading.
3475 ** New function `string-to-multibyte' converts a unibyte string to a
3476 multibyte string with the same individual character codes.
3479 ** New variables `gc-elapsed' and `gcs-done' provide extra information
3480 on garbage collection.
3483 ** New function `decode-coding-inserted-region' decodes a region as if
3484 it is read from a file without decoding.
3487 ** New function `locale-info' accesses locale information.
3490 ** `save-selected-window' now saves and restores the selected window
3491 of every frame. This way, it restores everything that can be changed
3492 by calling `select-window'.
3495 ** `easy-menu-define' now allows you to use nil for the symbol name
3496 if you don't need to give the menu a name. If you install the menu
3497 into other keymaps right away (MAPS is non-nil), it usually doesn't
3498 need to have a name.
3500 ** Byte compiler changes:
3503 *** `(featurep 'xemacs)' is treated by the compiler as nil. This
3504 helps to avoid noisy compiler warnings in code meant to run under both
3505 Emacs and XEmacs and may sometimes make the result significantly more
3506 efficient. Since byte code from recent versions of XEmacs won't
3507 generally run in Emacs and vice versa, this optimization doesn't lose
3511 *** You can avoid warnings for possibly-undefined symbols with a
3512 simple convention that the compiler understands. (This is mostly
3513 useful in code meant to be portable to different Emacs versions.)
3514 Write forms like the following, or code that macroexpands into such
3517 (if (fboundp 'foo) <then> <else>)
3518 (if (boundp 'foo) <then> <else)
3520 In the first case, using `foo' as a function inside the <then> form
3521 won't produce a warning if it's not defined as a function, and in the
3522 second case, using `foo' as a variable won't produce a warning if it's
3523 unbound. The test must be in exactly one of the above forms (after
3524 macro expansion), but such tests may be nested. Note that `when' and
3525 `unless' expand to `if', but `cond' doesn't.
3528 *** The new macro `with-no-warnings' suppresses all compiler warnings
3529 inside its body. In terms of execution, it is equivalent to `progn'.
3532 ** The new translation table `translation-table-for-input'
3533 is used for customizing self-insertion. The character to
3534 be inserted is translated through it.
3537 ** `load-history' can now have elements of the form (t . FUNNAME),
3538 which means FUNNAME was previously defined as an autoload (before the
3539 current file redefined it).
3542 ** `load-history' now records (defun . FUNNAME) when a function is
3543 defined. For a variable, it records just the variable name.
3546 ** New Lisp library testcover.el works with edebug to help you determine
3547 whether you've tested all your Lisp code. Function testcover-start
3548 instruments all functions in a given file. Then test your code. Function
3549 testcover-mark-all adds overlay "splotches" to the Lisp file's buffer to
3550 show where coverage is lacking. Command testcover-next-mark (bind it to
3551 a key!) will move point forward to the next spot that has a splotch.
3553 *** Normally, a red splotch indicates the form was never completely evaluated;
3554 a brown splotch means it always evaluated to the same value. The red
3555 splotches are skipped for forms that can't possibly complete their evaluation,
3556 such as `error'. The brown splotches are skipped for forms that are expected
3557 to always evaluate to the same value, such as (setq x 14).
3559 *** For difficult cases, you can add do-nothing macros to your code to help
3560 out the test coverage tool. The macro `noreturn' suppresses a red splotch.
3561 It is an error if the argument to `noreturn' does return. The macro 1value
3562 suppresses a brown splotch for its argument. This macro is a no-op except
3563 during test-coverage -- then it signals an error if the argument actually
3564 returns differing values.
3567 ** New function unsafep returns nil if the given Lisp form can't possibly
3568 do anything dangerous; otherwise it returns a reason why the form might be
3569 unsafe (calls dangerous function, alters global variable, etc).
3572 ** The new variable `print-continuous-numbering', when non-nil, says
3573 that successive calls to print functions should use the same
3574 numberings for circular structure references. This is only relevant
3575 when `print-circle' is non-nil.
3577 When you bind `print-continuous-numbering' to t, you should
3578 also bind `print-number-table' to nil.
3581 ** When using non-toolkit scroll bars with the default width,
3582 the scroll-bar-width frame parameter value is nil.
3585 ** The new function copy-abbrev-table returns a new abbrev table that
3586 is a copy of a given abbrev table.
3589 ** The option --script FILE runs Emacs in batch mode and loads FILE.
3590 It is useful for writing Emacs Lisp shell script files, because they
3591 can start with this line:
3593 #!/usr/bin/emacs --script
3596 ** The option --directory DIR now modifies `load-path' immediately.
3597 Directories are added to the front of `load-path' in the order they
3598 appear on the command line. For example, with this command line:
3600 emacs -batch -L .. -L /tmp --eval "(require 'foo)"
3602 Emacs looks for library `foo' in the parent directory, then in /tmp, then
3603 in the other directories in `load-path'. (-L is short for --directory.)
3606 ** A function's docstring can now hold the function's usage info on
3607 its last line. It should match the regexp "\n\n(fn.*)\\'".
3610 ** New CCL functions `lookup-character' and `lookup-integer' access
3611 hash tables defined by the Lisp function `define-translation-hash-table'.
3614 ** The new function `minibufferp' returns non-nil if its optional buffer
3615 argument is a minibuffer. If the argument is omitted it defaults to
3619 ** There is a new Warnings facility; see the functions `warn'
3620 and `display-warning'.
3623 ** The functions all-completions and try-completion now accept lists
3624 of strings as well as hash-tables additionally to alists, obarrays
3625 and functions. Furthermore, the function `test-completion' is now
3626 exported to Lisp. The keys in alists and hash tables may be either
3627 strings or symbols, which are automatically converted with to strings.
3630 ** When pure storage overflows while dumping, Emacs now prints how
3631 much pure storage it will approximately need.
3634 ** The new variable `auto-coding-functions' lets you specify functions
3635 to examine a file being visited and deduce the proper coding system
3636 for it. (If the coding system is detected incorrectly for a specific
3637 file, you can put a `coding:' tags to override it.)
3640 ** The new function `merge-coding-systems' fills in unspecified aspects
3641 of one coding system from another coding system.
3644 ** The variable `safe-local-eval-forms' specifies a list of forms that
3645 are ok to evaluate when they appear in an `eval' local variables
3646 specification. Normally Emacs asks for confirmation before evaluating
3647 such a form, but if the form appears in this list, no confirmation is
3651 ** If a function has a non-nil `safe-local-eval-function' property,
3652 that means it is ok to evaluate some calls to that function when it
3653 appears in an `eval' local variables specification. If the property
3654 is t, then any form calling that function with constant arguments is
3655 ok. If the property is a function or list of functions, they are called
3656 with the form as argument, and if any returns t, the form is ok to call.
3658 If the form is not "ok to call", that means Emacs asks for
3659 confirmation as before.
3662 ** Controlling the default left and right fringe widths.
3664 The default left and right fringe widths for all windows of a frame
3665 can now be controlled by setting the `left-fringe' and `right-fringe'
3666 frame parameters to an integer value specifying the width in pixels.
3667 Setting the width to 0 effectively removes the corresponding fringe.
3669 The actual default fringe widths for the frame may deviate from the
3670 specified widths, since the combined fringe widths must match an
3671 integral number of columns. The extra width is distributed evenly
3672 between the left and right fringe. For force a specific fringe width,
3673 specify the width as a negative integer (if both widths are negative,
3674 only the left fringe gets the specified width).
3676 Setting the width to nil (the default), restores the default fringe
3677 width which is the minimum number of pixels necessary to display any
3678 of the currently defined fringe bitmaps. The width of the built-in
3679 fringe bitmaps is 8 pixels.
3682 ** Per-window fringes settings
3684 Windows can now have their own individual fringe widths and position
3687 To control the fringe widths of a window, either set the buffer-local
3688 variables `left-fringe-width', `right-fringe-width', or call
3689 `set-window-fringes'.
3691 To control the fringe position in a window, that is, whether fringes
3692 are positioned between the display margins and the window's text area,
3693 or at the edges of the window, either set the buffer-local variable
3694 `fringes-outside-margins' or call `set-window-fringes'.
3696 The function `window-fringes' can be used to obtain the current
3697 settings. To make `left-fringe-width', `right-fringe-width', and
3698 `fringes-outside-margins' take effect, you must set them before
3699 displaying the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force
3700 an update of the display margins.
3703 ** Per-window vertical scroll-bar settings
3705 Windows can now have their own individual scroll-bar settings
3706 controlling the width and position of scroll-bars.
3708 To control the scroll-bar of a window, either set the buffer-local
3709 variables `scroll-bar-mode' and `scroll-bar-width', or call
3710 `set-window-scroll-bars'. The function `window-scroll-bars' can be
3711 used to obtain the current settings. To make `scroll-bar-mode' and
3712 `scroll-bar-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
3713 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
3714 of the display margins.
3717 ** The function `set-window-buffer' now has an optional third argument
3718 KEEP-MARGINS which will preserve the window's current margin, fringe,
3719 and scroll-bar settings if non-nil.
3722 ** Renamed hooks to better follow the naming convention:
3723 find-file-hooks to find-file-hook,
3724 find-file-not-found-hooks to find-file-not-found-functions,
3725 write-file-hooks to write-file-functions,
3726 write-contents-hooks to write-contents-functions,
3727 x-lost-selection-hooks to x-lost-selection-functions,
3728 x-sent-selection-hooks to x-sent-selection-functions.
3729 Marked local-write-file-hooks as obsolete (use the LOCAL arg of `add-hook').
3732 ** The new variable `delete-frame-functions' replaces `delete-frame-hook'.
3733 It was renamed to follow the naming conventions for abnormal hooks. The old
3734 name remains available as an alias, but has been marked obsolete.
3737 ** The `read-file-name' function now takes an additional argument which
3738 specifies a predicate which the file name read must satify. The
3739 new variable `read-file-name-predicate' contains the predicate argument
3740 while reading the file name from the minibuffer; the predicate in this
3741 variable is used by read-file-name-internal to filter the completion list.
3744 ** The new variable `read-file-name-function' can be used by lisp code
3745 to override the internal read-file-name function.
3748 ** The new variable `read-file-name-completion-ignore-case' specifies
3749 whether completion ignores case when reading a file name with the
3750 `read-file-name' function.
3753 ** The new function `read-directory-name' can be used instead of
3754 `read-file-name' to read a directory name; when used, completion
3755 will only show directories.
3758 ** The new function `file-remote-p' tests a file name and returns
3759 non-nil if it specifies a remote file (one that Emacs accesses using
3760 its own special methods and not directly through the file system).
3761 The value in that case is an identifier for the remote file system.
3764 ** When a Lisp file uses CL functions at run-time, compiling the file
3765 now issues warnings about these calls, unless the file performs
3766 (require 'cl) when loaded.
3769 ** The `defmacro' form may contain declarations specifying how to
3770 indent the macro in Lisp mode and how to debug it with Edebug. The
3771 syntax of defmacro has been extended to
3773 (defmacro NAME LAMBDA-LIST [DOC-STRING] [DECLARATION ...] ...)
3775 DECLARATION is a list `(declare DECLARATION-SPECIFIER ...)'. The
3776 declaration specifiers supported are:
3779 Set NAME's `lisp-indent-function' property to INDENT.
3782 Set NAME's `edebug-form-spec' property to DEBUG. (This is
3783 equivalent to writing a `def-edebug-spec' for the macro.
3786 ** Interactive commands can be remapped through keymaps.
3788 This is an alternative to using defadvice or substitute-key-definition
3789 to modify the behavior of a key binding using the normal keymap
3790 binding and lookup functionality.
3792 When a key sequence is bound to a command, and that command is
3793 remapped to another command, that command is run instead of the
3797 Suppose that minor mode my-mode has defined the commands
3798 my-kill-line and my-kill-word, and it wants C-k (and any other key
3799 bound to kill-line) to run the command my-kill-line instead of
3800 kill-line, and likewise it wants to run my-kill-word instead of
3803 Instead of rebinding C-k and the other keys in the minor mode map,
3804 command remapping allows you to directly map kill-line into
3805 my-kill-line and kill-word into my-kill-word through the minor mode
3806 map using define-key:
3808 (define-key my-mode-map [remap kill-line] 'my-kill-line)
3809 (define-key my-mode-map [remap kill-word] 'my-kill-word)
3811 Now, when my-mode is enabled, and the user enters C-k or M-d,
3812 the commands my-kill-line and my-kill-word are run.
3814 Notice that only one level of remapping is supported. In the above
3815 example, this means that if my-kill-line is remapped to other-kill,
3816 then C-k still runs my-kill-line.
3818 The following changes have been made to provide command remapping:
3820 - Command remappings are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
3821 `remap', i.e. `(define-key MAP [remap CMD] DEF)' remaps command CMD
3822 to definition DEF in keymap MAP. The definition is not limited to
3823 another command; it can be anything accepted for a normal binding.
3825 - The new function `command-remapping' returns the binding for a
3826 remapped command in the current keymaps, or nil if not remapped.
3828 - key-binding now remaps interactive commands unless the optional
3829 third argument NO-REMAP is non-nil.
3831 - where-is-internal now returns nil for a remapped command (e.g.
3832 kill-line if my-mode is enabled), and the actual key binding for
3833 the command it is remapped to (e.g. C-k for my-kill-line).
3834 It also has a new optional fifth argument, NO-REMAP, which inhibits
3835 remapping if non-nil (e.g. it returns C-k for kill-line and
3836 <kill-line> for my-kill-line).
3838 - The new variable `this-original-command' contains the original
3839 command before remapping. It is equal to `this-command' when the
3840 command was not remapped.
3843 ** New variable emulation-mode-map-alists.
3845 Lisp packages using many minor mode keymaps can now maintain their own
3846 keymap alist separate from minor-mode-map-alist by adding their keymap
3850 ** Atomic change groups.
3852 To perform some changes in the current buffer "atomically" so that
3853 they either all succeed or are all undone, use `atomic-change-group'
3854 around the code that makes changes. For instance:
3856 (atomic-change-group
3858 (delete-region x y))
3860 If an error (or other nonlocal exit) occurs inside the body of
3861 `atomic-change-group', it unmakes all the changes in that buffer that
3862 were during the execution of the body. The change group has no effect
3863 on any other buffers--any such changes remain.
3865 If you need something more sophisticated, you can directly call the
3866 lower-level functions that `atomic-change-group' uses. Here is how.
3868 To set up a change group for one buffer, call `prepare-change-group'.
3869 Specify the buffer as argument; it defaults to the current buffer.
3870 This function returns a "handle" for the change group. You must save
3871 the handle to activate the change group and then finish it.
3873 Before you change the buffer again, you must activate the change
3874 group. Pass the handle to `activate-change-group' afterward to
3877 After you make the changes, you must finish the change group. You can
3878 either accept the changes or cancel them all. Call
3879 `accept-change-group' to accept the changes in the group as final;
3880 call `cancel-change-group' to undo them all.
3882 You should use `unwind-protect' to make sure the group is always
3883 finished. The call to `activate-change-group' should be inside the
3884 `unwind-protect', in case the user types C-g just after it runs.
3885 (This is one reason why `prepare-change-group' and
3886 `activate-change-group' are separate functions.) Once you finish the
3887 group, don't use the handle again--don't try to finish the same group
3890 To make a multibuffer change group, call `prepare-change-group' once
3891 for each buffer you want to cover, then use `nconc' to combine the
3892 returned values, like this:
3894 (nconc (prepare-change-group buffer-1)
3895 (prepare-change-group buffer-2))
3897 You can then activate the multibuffer change group with a single call
3898 to `activate-change-group', and finish it with a single call to
3899 `accept-change-group' or `cancel-change-group'.
3901 Nested use of several change groups for the same buffer works as you
3902 would expect. Non-nested use of change groups for the same buffer
3903 will lead to undesirable results, so don't let it happen; the first
3904 change group you start for any given buffer should be the last one
3908 ** New variable char-property-alias-alist.
3910 This variable allows you to create alternative names for text
3911 properties. It works at the same level as `default-text-properties',
3912 although it applies to overlays as well. This variable was introduced
3913 to implement the `font-lock-face' property.
3916 ** New special text property `font-lock-face'.
3918 This property acts like the `face' property, but it is controlled by
3919 M-x font-lock-mode. It is not, strictly speaking, a builtin text
3920 property. Instead, it is implemented inside font-core.el, using the
3921 new variable `char-property-alias-alist'.
3924 ** New function remove-list-of-text-properties.
3926 The new function `remove-list-of-text-properties' is almost the same
3927 as `remove-text-properties'. The only difference is that it takes
3928 a list of property names as argument rather than a property list.
3931 ** New function insert-for-yank.
3933 This function normally works like `insert' but removes the text
3934 properties in the `yank-excluded-properties' list. However, if the
3935 inserted text has a `yank-handler' text property on the first
3936 character of the string, the insertion of the text may be modified in
3937 a number of ways. See the description of `yank-handler' below.
3940 ** New function insert-buffer-substring-as-yank.
3942 This function works like `insert-buffer-substring', but removes the
3943 text properties in the `yank-excluded-properties' list.
3946 ** New function insert-buffer-substring-no-properties.
3948 This function is like insert-buffer-substring, but removes all
3949 text properties from the inserted substring.
3952 ** New `yank-handler' text property may be used to control how
3953 previously killed text on the kill-ring is reinserted.
3955 The value of the yank-handler property must be a list with one to four
3956 elements with the following format:
3957 (FUNCTION PARAM NOEXCLUDE UNDO).
3959 The `insert-for-yank' function looks for a yank-handler property on
3960 the first character on its string argument (typically the first
3961 element on the kill-ring). If a yank-handler property is found,
3962 the normal behavior of `insert-for-yank' is modified in various ways:
3964 When FUNCTION is present and non-nil, it is called instead of `insert'
3965 to insert the string. FUNCTION takes one argument--the object to insert.
3966 If PARAM is present and non-nil, it replaces STRING as the object
3967 passed to FUNCTION (or `insert'); for example, if FUNCTION is
3968 `yank-rectangle', PARAM should be a list of strings to insert as a
3970 If NOEXCLUDE is present and non-nil, the normal removal of the
3971 yank-excluded-properties is not performed; instead FUNCTION is
3972 responsible for removing those properties. This may be necessary
3973 if FUNCTION adjusts point before or after inserting the object.
3974 If UNDO is present and non-nil, it is a function that will be called
3975 by `yank-pop' to undo the insertion of the current object. It is
3976 called with two arguments, the start and end of the current region.
3977 FUNCTION may set `yank-undo-function' to override the UNDO value.
3980 *** The functions kill-new, kill-append, and kill-region now have an
3981 optional argument to specify the yank-handler text property to put on
3985 *** The function yank-pop will now use a non-nil value of the variable
3986 `yank-undo-function' (instead of delete-region) to undo the previous
3987 yank or yank-pop command (or a call to insert-for-yank). The function
3988 insert-for-yank automatically sets that variable according to the UNDO
3989 element of the string argument's yank-handler text property if present.
3992 ** New function display-supports-face-attributes-p may be used to test
3993 whether a given set of face attributes is actually displayable.
3995 A new predicate `supports' has also been added to the `defface' face
3996 specification language, which can be used to do this test for faces
3997 defined with defface.
4000 ** The function face-differs-from-default-p now truly checks whether the
4001 given face displays differently from the default face or not (previously
4002 it did only a very cursory check).
4005 ** face-attribute, face-foreground, face-background, and face-stipple now
4006 accept a new optional argument, INHERIT, which controls how face
4007 inheritance is used when determining the value of a face attribute.
4010 ** New functions face-attribute-relative-p and merge-face-attribute
4011 help with handling relative face attributes.
4014 ** The priority of faces in an :inherit attribute face-list is reversed.
4015 If a face contains an :inherit attribute with a list of faces, earlier
4016 faces in the list override later faces in the list; in previous releases
4017 of Emacs, the order was the opposite. This change was made so that
4018 :inherit face-lists operate identically to face-lists in text `face'
4022 ** Enhancements to process support
4024 *** Function list-processes now has an optional argument; if non-nil,
4025 only the processes whose query-on-exit flag is set are listed.
4027 *** New set-process-query-on-exit-flag and process-query-on-exit-flag
4028 functions. The existing process-kill-without-query function is still
4029 supported, but new code should use the new functions.
4031 *** Function signal-process now accepts a process object or process
4032 name in addition to a process id to identify the signalled process.
4034 *** Processes now have an associated property list where programs can
4035 maintain process state and other per-process related information.
4037 The new functions process-get and process-put are used to access, add,
4038 and modify elements on this property list.
4040 The new low-level functions process-plist and set-process-plist are
4041 used to access and replace the entire property list of a process.
4043 *** Function accept-process-output now has an optional fourth arg
4044 `just-this-one'. If non-nil, only output from the specified process
4045 is handled, suspending output from other processes. If value is an
4046 integer, also inhibit running timers. This feature is generally not
4047 recommended, but may be necessary for specific applications, such as
4051 *** Adaptive read buffering of subprocess output.
4053 On some systems, when emacs reads the output from a subprocess, the
4054 output data is read in very small blocks, potentially resulting in
4055 very poor performance. This behavior can be remedied to some extent
4056 by setting the new variable process-adaptive-read-buffering to a
4057 non-nil value (the default), as it will automatically delay reading
4058 from such processes, to allowing them to produce more output before
4059 emacs tries to read it.
4062 ** Enhanced networking support.
4064 *** There is a new `make-network-process' function which supports
4065 opening of stream and datagram connections to a server, as well as
4066 create a stream or datagram server inside emacs.
4068 - A server is started using :server t arg.
4069 - Datagram connection is selected using :type 'datagram arg.
4070 - A server can open on a random port using :service t arg.
4071 - Local sockets are supported using :family 'local arg.
4072 - Non-blocking connect is supported using :nowait t arg.
4073 - The process' property list may be initialized using :plist PLIST arg;
4074 a copy of the server process' property list is automatically inherited
4075 by new client processes created to handle incoming connections.
4077 To test for the availability of a given feature, use featurep like this:
4078 (featurep 'make-network-process '(:type datagram))
4080 *** Original open-network-stream is now emulated using make-network-process.
4082 *** New function open-network-stream-nowait.
4084 This function initiates a non-blocking connect and returns immediately
4085 without waiting for the connection to be established. It takes the
4086 filter and sentinel functions as arguments; when the non-blocking
4087 connect completes, the sentinel is called with a status string
4088 matching "open" or "failed".
4090 *** New function open-network-stream-server.
4092 This function creates a network server process for a TCP service.
4093 When a client connects to the specified service, a new subprocess
4094 is created to handle the new connection, and the sentinel function
4095 is called for the new process.
4097 *** New functions process-datagram-address and set-process-datagram-address.
4099 These functions are used with datagram-based network processes to get
4100 and set the current address of the remote partner.
4102 *** New function format-network-address.
4104 This function reformats the lisp representation of a network address
4105 to a printable string. For example, an IP address A.B.C.D and port
4106 number P is represented as a five element vector [A B C D P], and the
4107 printable string returned for this vector is "A.B.C.D:P". See the doc
4108 string for other formatting options.
4110 *** By default, the function process-contact still returns (HOST SERVICE)
4111 for a network process. Using the new optional KEY arg, the complete list
4112 of network process properties or a specific property can be selected.
4114 Using :local and :remote as the KEY, the address of the local or
4115 remote end-point is returned. An Inet address is represented as a 5
4116 element vector, where the first 4 elements contain the IP address and
4117 the fifth is the port number.
4119 *** Network processes can now be stopped and restarted with
4120 `stop-process' and `continue-process'. For a server process, no
4121 connections are accepted in the stopped state. For a client process,
4122 no input is received in the stopped state.
4124 *** New function network-interface-list.
4126 This function returns a list of network interface names and their
4127 current network addresses.
4129 *** New function network-interface-info.
4131 This function returns the network address, hardware address, current
4132 status, and other information about a specific network interface.
4135 ** New function copy-tree.
4138 ** New function substring-no-properties.
4141 ** New function minibuffer-selected-window.
4144 ** New function `call-process-shell-command'.
4147 ** New function `process-file'.
4149 This is similar to `call-process', but obeys file handlers. The file
4150 handler is chosen based on default-directory.
4153 ** The dummy function keys made by easymenu
4154 are now always lower case. If you specify the
4155 menu item name "Ada", for instance, it uses `ada'
4156 as the "key" bound by that key binding.
4158 This is relevant only if Lisp code looks for
4159 the bindings that were made with easymenu.
4162 ** The function `commandp' takes an additional optional
4163 argument. If it is non-nil, then `commandp' checks
4164 for a function that could be called with `call-interactively',
4165 and does not return t for keyboard macros.
4168 ** master-mode.el implements a minor mode for scrolling a slave
4169 buffer without leaving your current buffer, the master buffer.
4171 It can be used by sql.el, for example: the SQL buffer is the master
4172 and its SQLi buffer is the slave. This allows you to scroll the SQLi
4173 buffer containing the output from the SQL buffer containing the
4176 This is how to use sql.el and master.el together: the variable
4177 sql-buffer contains the slave buffer. It is a local variable in the
4180 (add-hook 'sql-mode-hook
4181 (function (lambda ()
4183 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
4184 (add-hook 'sql-set-sqli-hook
4185 (function (lambda ()
4186 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
4189 ** File local variables.
4191 A file local variables list cannot specify a string with text
4192 properties--any specified text properties are discarded.
4195 ** New function window-body-height.
4197 This is like window-height but does not count the mode line
4201 ** New function format-mode-line.
4203 This returns the mode-line or header-line of the selected (or a
4204 specified) window as a string with or without text properties.
4207 ** New function `safe-get'.
4209 This function is like `get', but never signals an error for
4210 a malformed symbol property list.
4213 ** New function `safe-plist-get'.
4215 This function is like `plist-get', but never signals an error for
4216 a malformed property list.
4219 ** New functions `lax-plist-get' and `lax-plist-put'.
4221 These functions are like `plist-get' and `plist-put' except that they
4222 compare the property name using `equal' rather than `eq'.
4225 ** New function `tool-bar-local-item-from-menu'
4227 The `tool-bar-add-item-from-menu' must not be used (as previously
4228 recommended) for making entries in the tool bar for local keymaps.
4229 Instead, use the function `tool-bar-local-item-from-menu', which lets
4230 you specify the map to use as an argument.
4233 ** The function `atan' now accepts an optional second argument.
4235 When called with 2 arguments, as in `(atan Y X)', `atan' returns the
4236 angle in radians between the vector [X, Y] and the X axis. (This is
4237 equivalent to the standard C library function `atan2'.)
4240 ** You can now make a window as short as one line.
4242 A window that is just one line tall does not display either a mode
4243 line or a header line, even if the variables `mode-line-format' and
4244 `header-line-format' call for them. A window that is two lines tall
4245 cannot display both a mode line and a header line at once; if the
4246 variables call for both, only the mode line actually appears.
4249 ** The new frame parameter `tty-color-mode' specifies the mode to use
4250 for color support on character terminal frames. Its value can be a
4251 number of colors to support, or a symbol. See the Emacs Lisp
4252 Reference manual for more detailed documentation.
4255 ** The new mode-line construct `(:propertize ELT PROPS...)' can be
4256 used to add text properties to mode-line elements.
4259 ** The new `%i' and `%I' constructs for `mode-line-format' can be used
4260 to display the size of the accessible part of the buffer on the mode
4264 ** Indentation of simple and extended loop forms has been added to the
4265 cl-indent package. The new user options
4266 `lisp-loop-keyword-indentation', `lisp-loop-forms-indentation', and
4267 `lisp-simple-loop-indentation' can be used to customize the
4268 indentation of keywords and forms in loop forms.
4271 ** Indentation of backquoted forms has been made customizable in the
4272 cl-indent package. See the new user option `lisp-backquote-indentation'.
4275 ** Already true in Emacs 21.1, but not emphasized clearly enough:
4277 Multibyte buffers can now faithfully record all 256 character codes
4278 from 0 to 255. As a result, most of the past reasons to use unibyte
4279 buffers no longer exist. We only know of three reasons to use them
4282 1. If you prefer to use unibyte text all of the time.
4284 2. For reading files into temporary buffers, when you want to avoid
4285 the time it takes to convert the format.
4287 3. For binary files where format conversion would be pointless and
4291 ** If text has a `keymap' property, that keymap takes precedence
4292 over minor mode keymaps.
4295 ** A hex escape in a string forces the string to be multibyte.
4296 An octal escape makes it unibyte.
4299 ** At the end of a command, point moves out from within invisible
4300 text, in the same way it moves out from within text covered by an
4301 image or composition property.
4303 This makes it generally unnecessary to mark invisible text as intangible.
4304 This is particularly good because the intangible property often has
4305 unexpected side-effects since the property applies to everything
4306 (including `goto-char', ...) whereas this new code is only run after
4307 post-command-hook and thus does not care about intermediate states.
4310 ** field-beginning and field-end now accept an additional optional
4314 ** define-abbrev now accepts an optional argument SYSTEM-FLAG. If
4315 non-nil, this marks the abbrev as a "system" abbrev, which means that
4316 it won't be stored in the user's abbrevs file if he saves the abbrevs.
4317 Major modes that predefine some abbrevs should always specify this
4321 ** Support for Mocklisp has been removed.
4324 ** The function insert-string is now obsolete.
4327 ** The precedence of file-name-handlers has been changed.
4328 Instead of blindly choosing the first handler that matches,
4329 find-file-name-handler now gives precedence to a file-name handler
4330 that matches near the end of the file name. More specifically, the
4331 handler whose (match-beginning 0) is the largest is chosen.
4332 In case of ties, the old "first matched" rule applies.
4335 ** Dense keymaps now handle inheritance correctly.
4336 Previously a dense keymap would hide all of the simple-char key
4337 bindings of the parent keymap.
4340 ** jit-lock obeys a new text-property `jit-lock-defer-multiline'.
4341 If a piece of text with that property gets contextually refontified
4342 (see jit-lock-defer-contextually), then all of that text will
4343 be refontified. This is useful when the syntax of a textual element
4344 depends on text several lines further down (and when font-lock-multiline
4345 is not appropriate to solve that problem). For example in Perl:
4353 Adding/removing the last `e' changes the `bar' from being a piece of
4354 text to being a piece of code, so you'd put a jit-lock-defer-multiline
4355 property over the second half of the command to force (deferred)
4356 refontification of `bar' whenever the `e' is added/removed.
4359 ** describe-vector now takes a second argument `describer' which is
4360 called to print the entries' values. It defaults to `princ'.
4363 ** defcustom and other custom declarations now use a default group
4364 (the last prior group defined in the same file) when no :group was given.
4367 ** emacsserver now runs pre-command-hook and post-command-hook when
4368 it receives a request from emacsclient.
4371 ** The variable `recursive-load-depth-limit' has been deleted.
4372 Emacs now signals an error if the same file is loaded with more
4373 than 3 levels of nesting.
4376 ** If a major mode function has a non-nil `no-clone-indirect'
4377 property, `clone-indirect-buffer' signals an error if you use
4381 ** In `replace-match', the replacement text no longer inherits
4382 properties from surrounding text.
4385 ** The list returned by `(match-data t)' now has the buffer as a final
4386 element, if the last match was on a buffer. `set-match-data'
4387 accepts such a list for restoring the match state.
4390 ** New function `buffer-local-value'.
4392 This function returns the buffer-local binding of VARIABLE (a symbol)
4393 in buffer BUFFER. If VARIABLE does not have a buffer-local binding in
4394 buffer BUFFER, it returns the default value of VARIABLE instead.
4397 ** New function `text-clone-create'. Text clones are chunks of text
4398 that are kept identical by transparently propagating changes from one
4402 ** font-lock can manage arbitrary text-properties beside `face'.
4403 *** the FACENAME returned in font-lock-keywords can be a list
4404 of the form (face FACE PROP1 VAL1 PROP2 VAL2 ...) so you can set
4405 other properties than `face'.
4406 *** font-lock-extra-managed-props can be set to make sure those extra
4407 properties are automatically cleaned up by font-lock.
4410 ** The special treatment of faces whose names are of the form `fg:COLOR'
4411 or `bg:COLOR' has been removed. Lisp programs should use the
4412 `defface' facility for defining faces with specific colors, or use
4413 the feature of specifying the face attributes :foreground and :background
4414 directly in the `face' property instead of using a named face.
4417 ** The new function `run-mode-hooks' and the new macro `delay-mode-hooks'
4418 are used by define-derived-mode to make sure the mode hook for the
4419 parent mode is run at the end of the child mode.
4422 ** define-minor-mode now accepts arbitrary additional keyword arguments
4423 and simply passes them to defcustom, if applicable.
4426 ** define-derived-mode by default creates a new empty abbrev table.
4427 It does not copy abbrevs from the parent mode's abbrev table.
4430 ** `provide' and `featurep' now accept an optional second argument
4431 to test/provide subfeatures. Also `provide' now checks `after-load-alist'
4432 and runs any code associated with the provided feature.
4435 ** Functions `file-name-sans-extension' and `file-name-extension' now
4436 ignore the leading dots in file names, so that file names such as
4437 `.emacs' are treated as extensionless.
4440 ** Functions `user-uid' and `user-real-uid' now return floats if the
4441 user UID doesn't fit in a Lisp integer. Function `user-full-name'
4442 accepts a float as UID parameter.
4445 ** `define-key-after' now accepts keys longer than 1.
4448 ** The local variable `no-byte-compile' in elisp files is now obeyed.
4451 ** The Emacs Lisp byte-compiler now displays the actual line and
4452 character position of errors, where possible. Additionally, the form
4453 of its warning and error messages have been brought more in line with
4454 the output of other GNU tools.
4457 ** New functions `keymap-prompt' and `current-active-maps'.
4460 ** New function `describe-buffer-bindings'.
4463 ** New vars `exec-suffixes' and `load-suffixes' used when
4464 searching for an executable resp. an elisp file.
4467 ** Variable aliases have been implemented:
4469 *** defvaralias ALIAS-VAR BASE-VAR [DOCSTRING]
4471 This function defines the symbol ALIAS-VAR as a variable alias for
4472 symbol BASE-VAR. This means that retrieving the value of ALIAS-VAR
4473 returns the value of BASE-VAR, and changing the value of ALIAS-VAR
4474 changes the value of BASE-VAR.
4476 DOCSTRING, if present, is the documentation for ALIAS-VAR; else it has
4477 the same documentation as BASE-VAR.
4479 *** indirect-variable VARIABLE
4481 This function returns the variable at the end of the chain of aliases
4482 of VARIABLE. If VARIABLE is not a symbol, or if VARIABLE is not
4483 defined as an alias, the function returns VARIABLE.
4485 It might be noteworthy that variables aliases work for all kinds of
4486 variables, including buffer-local and frame-local variables.
4489 ** Functions from `post-gc-hook' are run at the end of garbage
4490 collection. The hook is run with GC inhibited, so use it with care.
4493 ** If the second argument to `copy-file' is the name of a directory,
4494 the file is copied to that directory instead of signaling an error.
4497 ** The variables most-positive-fixnum and most-negative-fixnum
4498 hold the largest and smallest possible integer values.
4501 ** On MS Windows, locale-coding-system is used to interact with the OS.
4502 The Windows specific variable w32-system-coding-system, which was
4503 formerly used for that purpose is now an alias for locale-coding-system.
4506 ** Functions y-or-n-p, read-char, read-key-sequence and the like, that
4507 display a prompt but don't use the minibuffer, now display the prompt
4508 using the text properties (esp. the face) of the prompt string.
4511 ** New function x-send-client-message sends a client message when
4515 ** Arguments for remove-overlays are now optional, so that you can remove
4516 all overlays in the buffer by just calling (remove-overlay).
4521 *** The new package gdb-ui.el provides an enhanced graphical interface to
4522 GDB. You can interact with GDB through the GUD buffer in the usual way, but
4523 there are also further buffers which control the execution and describe the
4524 state of your program. It separates the input/output of your program from
4525 that of GDB and watches expressions in the speedbar. It also uses features of
4526 Emacs 21 such as the display margin for breakpoints, and the toolbar.
4528 Use M-x gdba to start GDB-UI.
4530 *** The new package syntax.el provides an efficient way to find the
4531 current syntactic context (as returned by parse-partial-sexp).
4533 *** The new package bindat.el provides functions to unpack and pack
4534 binary data structures, such as network packets, to and from Lisp
4538 *** The TCL package tcl-mode.el was replaced by tcl.el.
4539 This was actually done in Emacs-21.1, and was not documented.
4542 *** The new package button.el implements simple and fast `clickable buttons'
4543 in emacs buffers. `buttons' are much lighter-weight than the `widgets'
4544 implemented by widget.el, and can be used by lisp code that doesn't
4545 require the full power of widgets. Emacs uses buttons for such things
4546 as help and apropos buffers.
4549 * Installation changes in Emacs 21.3
4551 ** Support for GNU/Linux on little-endian MIPS and on IBM S390 has
4555 * Changes in Emacs 21.3
4557 ** The obsolete C mode (c-mode.el) has been removed to avoid problems
4560 ** UTF-16 coding systems are available, encoding the same characters
4563 ** There is a new language environment for UTF-8 (set up automatically
4566 ** Translation tables are available between equivalent characters in
4567 different Emacs charsets -- for instance `e with acute' coming from the
4568 Latin-1 and Latin-2 charsets. User options `unify-8859-on-encoding-mode'
4569 and `unify-8859-on-decoding-mode' respectively turn on translation
4570 between ISO 8859 character sets (`unification') on encoding
4571 (e.g. writing a file) and decoding (e.g. reading a file). Note that
4572 `unify-8859-on-encoding-mode' is useful and safe, but
4573 `unify-8859-on-decoding-mode' can cause text to change when you read
4574 it and write it out again without edits, so it is not generally advisable.
4575 By default `unify-8859-on-encoding-mode' is turned on.
4577 ** In Emacs running on the X window system, the default value of
4578 `selection-coding-system' is now `compound-text-with-extensions'.
4580 If you want the old behavior, set selection-coding-system to
4581 compound-text, which may be significantly more efficient. Using
4582 compound-text-with-extensions seems to be necessary only for decoding
4583 text from applications under XFree86 4.2, whose behavior is actually
4584 contrary to the compound text specification.
4587 * Installation changes in Emacs 21.2
4589 ** Support for BSD/OS 5.0 has been added.
4591 ** Support for AIX 5.1 was added.
4594 * Changes in Emacs 21.2
4596 ** Emacs now supports compound-text extended segments in X selections.
4598 X applications can use `extended segments' to encode characters in
4599 compound text that belong to character sets which are not part of the
4600 list of approved standard encodings for X, e.g. Big5. To paste
4601 selections with such characters into Emacs, use the new coding system
4602 compound-text-with-extensions as the value of selection-coding-system.
4604 ** The default values of `tooltip-delay' and `tooltip-hide-delay'
4607 ** On terminals whose erase-char is ^H (Backspace), Emacs
4608 now uses normal-erase-is-backspace-mode.
4610 ** When the *scratch* buffer is recreated, its mode is set from
4611 initial-major-mode, which normally is lisp-interaction-mode,
4612 instead of using default-major-mode.
4614 ** The new option `Info-scroll-prefer-subnodes' causes Info to behave
4615 like the stand-alone Info reader (from the GNU Texinfo package) as far
4616 as motion between nodes and their subnodes is concerned. If it is t
4617 (the default), Emacs behaves as before when you type SPC in a menu: it
4618 visits the subnode pointed to by the first menu entry. If this option
4619 is nil, SPC scrolls to the end of the current node, and only then goes
4620 to the first menu item, like the stand-alone reader does.
4622 This change was already in Emacs 21.1, but wasn't advertised in the
4626 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 21.2
4628 ** The meanings of scroll-up-aggressively and scroll-down-aggressively
4629 have been interchanged, so that the former now controls scrolling up,
4630 and the latter now controls scrolling down.
4632 ** The variable `compilation-parse-errors-filename-function' can
4633 be used to transform filenames found in compilation output.
4636 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
4638 See the INSTALL file for information on installing extra libraries and
4639 fonts to take advantage of the new graphical features and extra
4640 charsets in this release.
4642 ** Support for GNU/Linux on IA64 machines has been added.
4644 ** Support for LynxOS has been added.
4646 ** There are new configure options associated with the support for
4647 images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option in `configure'
4650 ** You can build a 64-bit Emacs for SPARC/Solaris systems which
4651 support 64-bit executables and also on Irix 6.5. This increases the
4652 maximum buffer size. See etc/MACHINES for instructions. Changes to
4653 build on other 64-bit systems should be straightforward modulo any
4654 necessary changes to unexec.
4656 ** There is a new configure option `--disable-largefile' to omit
4657 Unix-98-style support for large files if that is available.
4659 ** There is a new configure option `--without-xim' that instructs
4660 Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if these are available.
4662 ** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
4663 the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
4665 ** This version can be built for the Macintosh, but does not implement
4666 all of the new display features described below. The port currently
4667 lacks unexec, asynchronous processes, and networking support. See the
4668 "Emacs and the Mac OS" appendix in the Emacs manual, for the
4669 description of aspects specific to the Mac.
4671 ** Note that the MS-Windows port does not yet implement various of the
4672 new display features described below.
4675 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
4677 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
4679 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
4680 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
4681 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
4682 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
4685 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
4687 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
4688 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
4689 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
4690 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
4693 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
4694 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
4695 under Lisp changes, below.
4697 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
4699 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
4700 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
4701 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
4702 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
4703 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
4704 attributes such as `overline', `strike-through', and `box' are ignored
4707 The command-line options `-fg COLOR', `-bg COLOR', and `-rv' are now
4708 supported on character terminals.
4710 Emacs automatically remaps all X-style color specifications to one of
4711 the colors supported by the terminal. This means you could have the
4712 same color customizations that work both on a windowed display and on
4713 a TTY or when Emacs is invoked with the -nw option.
4715 ** New default font is Courier 12pt under X.
4719 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD (Voxware
4720 driver and native BSD driver, a.k.a. Luigi's driver). Currently
4721 supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio (*.au).
4722 You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes' to enable
4725 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
4727 If a message is longer than one line, or minibuffer contents are
4728 longer than one line, Emacs can resize the minibuffer window unless it
4729 is on a frame of its own. You can control resizing and the maximum
4730 minibuffer window size by setting the following variables:
4732 - User option: max-mini-window-height
4734 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
4735 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
4736 specifies a number of lines.
4740 - User option: resize-mini-windows
4742 How to resize mini-windows. If nil, don't resize. If t, always
4743 resize to fit the size of the text. If `grow-only', let mini-windows
4744 grow only, until they become empty, at which point they are shrunk
4747 Default is `grow-only'.
4751 Emacs now runs with the LessTif toolkit (see
4752 <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will need version 0.92.26, or later.
4754 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
4756 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
4757 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
4760 ** File selection dialog on MS-Windows is supported.
4762 When a file is visited by clicking File->Open, the MS-Windows version
4763 now pops up a standard file selection dialog where you can select a
4764 file to visit. File->Save As also pops up that dialog.
4766 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
4768 Emacs now uses toolkit scroll bars if available. When configured for
4769 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scroll bar. Otherwise, when
4770 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
4771 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
4772 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
4775 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
4776 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
4777 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
4778 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
4779 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
4780 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
4782 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
4783 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
4784 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
4785 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
4786 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
4787 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
4789 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
4790 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
4791 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
4792 imake configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
4793 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
4795 ** Tool bar support.
4797 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
4798 of how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level
4799 changes. Tool-bar global minor mode controls whether or not it is
4800 displayed and is on by default. The appearance of the bar is improved
4801 if Emacs has been built with XPM image support. Otherwise monochrome
4804 To make the tool bar more useful, we need contributions of extra icons
4805 for specific modes (with copyright assignments).
4809 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
4810 mouse position. The Lisp package `tooltip' implements them. You can
4811 turn them off via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
4813 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
4814 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
4815 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
4816 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
4818 ** Automatic Hscrolling
4820 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
4821 `automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
4824 If a window is scrolled horizontally with set-window-hscroll, or
4825 scroll-left/scroll-right (C-x <, C-x >), this serves as a lower bound
4826 for automatic horizontal scrolling. Automatic scrolling will scroll
4827 the text more to the left if necessary, but won't scroll the text more
4828 to the right than the column set with set-window-hscroll etc.
4830 ** When using a windowing terminal, each Emacs window now has a cursor
4831 of its own. By default, when a window is selected, the cursor is
4832 solid; otherwise, it is hollow. The user-option
4833 `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to display the
4834 cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is shown, if
4835 non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown.
4837 ** Fringes to the left and right of windows are used to display
4838 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
4839 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
4840 customizing face `fringe'.
4842 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default.
4843 You can change its appearance by modifying the face `mode-line'.
4844 In particular, setting the `:box' attribute to nil turns off the 3D
4845 appearance of the mode line. (The 3D appearance makes the mode line
4846 occupy more space, and thus might cause the first or the last line of
4847 the window to be partially obscured.)
4849 The variable `mode-line-inverse-video', which was used in older
4850 versions of emacs to make the mode-line stand out, is now deprecated.
4851 However, setting it to nil will cause the `mode-line' face to be
4852 ignored, and mode-lines to be drawn using the default text face.
4854 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
4856 Different parts of the mode line have been made mouse-sensitive on all
4857 systems which support the mouse. Moving the mouse to a
4858 mouse-sensitive part in the mode line changes the appearance of the
4859 mouse pointer to an arrow, and help about available mouse actions is
4860 displayed either in the echo area, or in the tooltip window if you
4863 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
4865 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line goes to the next buffer.
4867 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name goes to the previous buffer.
4869 - Mouse-2 on the read-only or modified status in the mode line (`%' or
4870 `*') toggles the status.
4872 - Mouse-3 on the mode name displays a minor-mode menu.
4874 ** Hourglass pointer
4876 Emacs can optionally display an hourglass pointer under X. You can
4877 turn the display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
4881 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
4882 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
4883 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
4886 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
4888 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
4889 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
4890 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
4893 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
4894 have to do anything to activate it.
4896 ** The default binding of the Delete key has changed.
4898 The new user-option `normal-erase-is-backspace' can be set to
4899 determine the effect of the Delete and Backspace function keys.
4901 On window systems, the default value of this option is chosen
4902 according to the keyboard used. If the keyboard has both a Backspace
4903 key and a Delete key, and both are mapped to their usual meanings, the
4904 option's default value is set to t, so that Backspace can be used to
4905 delete backward, and Delete can be used to delete forward. On
4906 keyboards which either have only one key (usually labeled DEL), or two
4907 keys DEL and BS which produce the same effect, the option's value is
4908 set to nil, and these keys delete backward.
4910 If not running under a window system, setting this option accomplishes
4911 a similar effect by mapping C-h, which is usually generated by the
4912 Backspace key, to DEL, and by mapping DEL to C-d via
4913 `keyboard-translate'. The former functionality of C-h is available on
4914 the F1 key. You should probably not use this setting on a text-only
4915 terminal if you don't have both Backspace, Delete and F1 keys.
4917 Programmatically, you can call function normal-erase-is-backspace-mode
4918 to toggle the behavior of the Delete and Backspace keys.
4920 ** The default for user-option `next-line-add-newlines' has been
4921 changed to nil, i.e. C-n will no longer add newlines at the end of a
4924 ** The <home> and <end> keys now move to the beginning or end of the
4925 current line, respectively. C-<home> and C-<end> move to the
4926 beginning and end of the buffer.
4928 ** Emacs now checks for recursive loads of Lisp files. If the
4929 recursion depth exceeds `recursive-load-depth-limit', an error is
4932 ** When an error is signaled during the loading of the user's init
4933 file, Emacs now pops up the *Messages* buffer.
4935 ** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
4936 compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
4939 The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs's byte
4940 compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
4943 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
4945 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
4946 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
4947 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
4949 ** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
4950 more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
4951 now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
4953 ** Item Save Options on the Options menu allows saving options set
4956 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
4958 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
4959 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
4960 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
4961 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
4962 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
4965 ** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
4966 all frames except the selected one.
4968 ** The new user-option `confirm-kill-emacs' can be customized to
4969 let Emacs ask for confirmation before exiting.
4971 ** The header line in an Info buffer is now displayed as an emacs
4972 header-line (which is like a mode-line, but at the top of the window),
4973 so that it remains visible even when the buffer has been scrolled.
4974 This behavior may be disabled by customizing the option
4975 `Info-use-header-line'.
4977 ** Polish, Czech, German, and French translations of Emacs' reference card
4978 have been added. They are named `pl-refcard.tex', `cs-refcard.tex',
4979 `de-refcard.tex' and `fr-refcard.tex'. Postscript files are included.
4981 ** An `Emacs Survival Guide', etc/survival.tex, is available.
4983 ** A reference card for Dired has been added. Its name is
4984 `dired-ref.tex'. A French translation is available in
4987 ** C-down-mouse-3 is bound differently. Now if the menu bar is not
4988 displayed it pops up a menu containing the items which would be on the
4989 menu bar. If the menu bar is displayed, it pops up the major mode
4990 menu or the Edit menu if there is no major mode menu.
4992 ** Variable `load-path' is no longer customizable through Customize.
4994 You can no longer use `M-x customize-variable' to customize `load-path'
4995 because it now contains a version-dependent component. You can still
4996 use `add-to-list' and `setq' to customize this variable in your
4997 `~/.emacs' init file or to modify it from any Lisp program in general.
4999 ** C-u C-x = provides detailed information about the character at
5000 point in a pop-up window.
5002 ** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
5003 under XFree86. To enable this, use the `mouse-wheel-mode' command, or
5004 customize the variable `mouse-wheel-mode'.
5006 The variables `mouse-wheel-follow-mouse' and `mouse-wheel-scroll-amount'
5007 determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
5009 ** Emacs' auto-save list files are now by default stored in a
5010 sub-directory `.emacs.d/auto-save-list/' of the user's home directory.
5011 (On MS-DOS, this subdirectory's name is `_emacs.d/auto-save.list/'.)
5012 You can customize `auto-save-list-file-prefix' to change this location.
5014 ** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
5016 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
5017 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
5019 ** The new command M-x delete-trailing-whitespace RET will delete the
5020 trailing whitespace within the current restriction. You can also add
5021 this function to `write-file-hooks' or `local-write-file-hooks'.
5023 ** When visiting a file with M-x find-file-literally, no newlines will
5024 be added to the end of the buffer even if `require-final-newline' is
5027 ** The new user-option `find-file-suppress-same-file-warnings' can be
5028 set to suppress warnings ``X and Y are the same file'' when visiting a
5029 file that is already visited under a different name.
5031 ** The new user-option `electric-help-shrink-window' can be set to
5032 nil to prevent adjusting the help window size to the buffer size.
5034 ** New command M-x describe-character-set reads a character set name
5035 and displays information about that.
5037 ** The new variable `auto-mode-interpreter-regexp' contains a regular
5038 expression matching interpreters, for file mode determination.
5040 This regular expression is matched against the first line of a file to
5041 determine the file's mode in `set-auto-mode' when Emacs can't deduce a
5042 mode from the file's name. If it matches, the file is assumed to be
5043 interpreted by the interpreter matched by the second group of the
5044 regular expression. The mode is then determined as the mode
5045 associated with that interpreter in `interpreter-mode-alist'.
5047 ** New function executable-make-buffer-file-executable-if-script-p is
5048 suitable as an after-save-hook as an alternative to `executable-chmod'.
5050 ** The most preferred coding-system is now used to save a buffer if
5051 buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and it is safe for the buffer
5052 contents. (The most preferred is set by set-language-environment or
5053 by M-x prefer-coding-system.) Thus if you visit an ASCII file and
5054 insert a non-ASCII character from your current language environment,
5055 the file will be saved silently with the appropriate coding.
5056 Previously you would be prompted for a safe coding system.
5058 ** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
5059 been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
5061 ** The new Custom option `keyboard-coding-system' specifies a coding
5062 system for keyboard input.
5064 ** New variable `inhibit-iso-escape-detection' determines if Emacs'
5065 coding system detection algorithm should pay attention to ISO2022's
5066 escape sequences. If this variable is non-nil, the algorithm ignores
5067 such escape sequences. The default value is nil, and it is
5068 recommended not to change it except for the special case that you
5069 always want to read any escape code verbatim. If you just want to
5070 read a specific file without decoding escape codes, use C-x RET c
5071 (`universal-coding-system-argument'). For instance, C-x RET c latin-1
5072 RET C-x C-f filename RET.
5074 ** Variable `default-korean-keyboard' is initialized properly from the
5075 environment variable `HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE'.
5077 ** New command M-x list-charset-chars reads a character set name and
5078 displays all characters in that character set.
5080 ** M-x set-terminal-coding-system (C-x RET t) now allows CCL-based
5081 coding systems such as cpXXX and cyrillic-koi8.
5083 ** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
5084 and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
5085 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
5087 ** New language environments `Polish', `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
5088 Latin-8 and Latin-9 correspond respectively to the ISO character sets
5089 8859-14 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign).
5090 GNU Intlfonts doesn't support these yet but recent X releases have
5091 8859-15. See etc/INSTALL for information on obtaining extra fonts.
5092 There are new Leim input methods for Latin-8 and Latin-9 prefix (only)
5095 ** New language environments `Dutch' and `Spanish'.
5096 These new environments mainly select appropriate translations
5099 ** In Ethiopic language environment, special key bindings for
5100 function keys are changed as follows. This is to conform to "Emacs
5101 Lisp Coding Convention".
5103 new command old-binding
5104 --- ------- -----------
5105 f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-buffer f5
5106 S-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-region f5
5107 C-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-mail-or-marker f5
5109 f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-buffer unchanged
5110 S-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-region unchanged
5111 C-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-mail-or-marker unchanged
5113 S-f5 ethio-toggle-punctuation f3
5114 S-f6 ethio-modify-vowel f6
5115 S-f7 ethio-replace-space f7
5116 S-f8 ethio-input-special-character f8
5117 S-f9 ethio-replace-space unchanged
5118 C-f9 ethio-toggle-space f2
5120 ** There are new Leim input methods.
5121 New input methods "turkish-postfix", "turkish-alt-postfix",
5122 "greek-mizuochi", "TeX", and "greek-babel" are now part of the Leim
5125 ** The rule of input method "slovak" is slightly changed. Now the
5126 rules for translating "q" and "Q" to "`" (backquote) are deleted, thus
5127 typing them inserts "q" and "Q" respectively. Rules for translating
5128 "=q", "+q", "=Q", and "+Q" to "`" are also deleted. Now, to input
5129 "`", you must type "=q".
5131 ** When your terminal can't display characters from some of the ISO
5132 8859 character sets but can display Latin-1, you can display
5133 more-or-less mnemonic sequences of ASCII/Latin-1 characters instead of
5134 empty boxes (under a window system) or question marks (not under a
5135 window system). Customize the option `latin1-display' to turn this
5138 ** M-; now calls comment-dwim which tries to do something clever based
5139 on the context. M-x kill-comment is now an alias to comment-kill,
5140 defined in newcomment.el. You can choose different styles of region
5141 commenting with the variable `comment-style'.
5143 ** New user options `display-time-mail-face' and
5144 `display-time-use-mail-icon' control the appearance of mode-line mail
5145 indicator used by the display-time package. On a suitable display the
5146 indicator can be an icon and is mouse-sensitive.
5148 ** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
5149 on the display using several methods
5151 - By setting frame parameter `line-spacing' to PIXELS. PIXELS must be
5152 a positive integer, and specifies that PIXELS number of pixels should
5153 be put below text lines on the affected frame or frames.
5155 - By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
5156 equivalent to specifying the frame parameter.
5158 - By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
5160 - By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
5161 the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
5163 ** The new command `clone-indirect-buffer' can be used to create
5164 an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. The
5165 command `clone-indirect-buffer-other-window', bound to C-x 4 c,
5166 does the same but displays the indirect buffer in another window.
5168 ** New user options `backup-directory-alist' and
5169 `make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
5170 typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
5172 ** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
5173 characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
5175 ** New X resources recognized
5177 *** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
5178 whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
5179 is useful for debugging X problems.
5183 emacs.synchronous: true
5185 *** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
5186 visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
5187 the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
5188 and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
5189 visual class names are
5198 Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
5199 `pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
5202 The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
5203 supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
5204 `visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
5209 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
5211 *** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
5212 specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
5213 default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
5214 resource values are `true' or `on'.
5218 emacs.privateColormap: true
5220 ** Faces and frame parameters.
5222 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
5223 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
5224 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
5225 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
5226 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
5227 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
5228 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
5230 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
5231 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
5232 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
5233 `default' face and vice versa.
5237 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
5239 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
5241 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
5242 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
5243 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
5244 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
5246 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
5247 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
5248 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
5250 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
5253 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
5255 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
5256 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
5257 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
5258 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
5260 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
5262 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
5264 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
5266 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
5269 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
5272 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
5274 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
5275 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
5276 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
5278 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
5279 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi and Less).
5281 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
5282 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
5283 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
5285 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
5287 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
5288 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggressively' is a
5289 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
5290 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
5292 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
5293 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggressively' is a
5294 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
5295 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
5297 ** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either
5298 M-x clone-buffer, C-u m <entry> RET or C-u g <entry> RET.
5299 M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and several other special
5302 ** The command `Info-search' now uses a search history.
5304 ** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
5305 abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
5306 `directory-abbrev-alist'.
5308 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
5309 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
5310 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
5311 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
5312 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
5313 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
5315 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
5317 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
5318 notably at the end of lines.
5320 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
5321 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
5323 ** The function `replace-rectangle' is an alias for `string-rectangle'.
5325 ** The new command M-x string-insert-rectangle is like `string-rectangle',
5326 but inserts text instead of replacing it.
5328 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
5329 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
5330 after each match to get the replacement text.
5332 ** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `e' (or `E') that lets
5333 you edit the replacement string.
5335 ** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB'
5336 (if you load the library `mailabbrev'), lets you complete mail aliases
5337 in the text, analogous to lisp-complete-symbol.
5339 ** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
5341 ** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
5342 to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
5344 ** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
5345 the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X, on MS-Windows, and
5346 MS-DOS, either in the echo area or with tooltips. Many standard menus
5347 displayed by Emacs now have help strings.
5350 ** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
5351 read mail from the menu etc.
5353 ** The environment variable `EMACSLOCKDIR' is no longer used on MS-Windows.
5354 This environment variable was used when creating lock files. Emacs on
5355 MS-Windows does not use this variable anymore. This change was made
5356 before Emacs 21.1, but wasn't documented until now.
5358 ** Highlighting of mouse-sensitive regions is now supported in the
5359 MS-DOS version of Emacs.
5361 ** The new command `msdos-set-mouse-buttons' forces the MS-DOS version
5362 of Emacs to behave as if the mouse had a specified number of buttons.
5363 This comes handy with mice that don't report their number of buttons
5364 correctly. One example is the wheeled mice, which report 3 buttons,
5365 but clicks on the middle button are not passed to the MS-DOS version
5368 ** Customize changes
5370 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
5371 `State' menu to add comments, or give a prefix argument to
5372 M-x customize-set-variable or M-x customize-set-value. Note that
5373 customization comments will cause the customizations to fail in
5374 earlier versions of Emacs.
5376 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
5377 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
5380 *** If Emacs was invoked with the `-q' or `--no-init-file' options, it
5381 does not allow you to save customizations in your `~/.emacs' init
5382 file. This is because saving customizations from such a session would
5383 wipe out all the other customizationss you might have on your init
5386 ** If Emacs was invoked with the `-q' or `--no-init-file' options, it
5387 does not save disabled and enabled commands for future sessions, to
5388 avoid overwriting existing customizations of this kind that are
5389 already in your init file.
5391 ** New features in evaluation commands
5393 *** The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
5394 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
5395 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the new
5396 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
5397 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
5399 The default values for the first two of these variables are 12 and 4
5400 respectively, which means that `eval-expression' now prints at most
5401 the first 12 members of a list and at most 4 nesting levels deep (if
5402 the list is longer or deeper than that, an ellipsis `...' is
5405 <RET> or <mouse-2> on the printed text toggles between an abbreviated
5406 printed representation and an unabbreviated one.
5408 The default value of eval-expression-debug-on-error is t, so any error
5409 during evaluation produces a backtrace.
5411 *** The function `eval-defun' (C-M-x) now loads Edebug and instruments
5412 code when called with a prefix argument.
5416 Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
5417 current user setups (although it's believed that these
5418 incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
5419 However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
5420 back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
5421 compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
5424 *** The hardcoded switch to "java" style in Java mode is gone.
5425 CC Mode used to automatically set the style to "java" when Java mode
5426 is entered. This has now been removed since it caused too much
5429 However, to keep backward compatibility to a certain extent, the
5430 default value for c-default-style now specifies the "java" style for
5431 java-mode, but "gnu" for all other modes (as before). So you won't
5432 notice the change if you haven't touched that variable.
5434 *** New cleanups, space-before-funcall and compact-empty-funcall.
5435 Two new cleanups have been added to c-cleanup-list:
5437 space-before-funcall causes a space to be inserted before the opening
5438 parenthesis of a function call, which gives the style "foo (bar)".
5440 compact-empty-funcall causes any space before a function call opening
5441 parenthesis to be removed if there are no arguments to the function.
5442 It's typically useful together with space-before-funcall to get the
5443 style "foo (bar)" and "foo()".
5445 *** Some keywords now automatically trigger reindentation.
5446 Keywords like "else", "while", "catch" and "finally" have been made
5447 "electric" to make them reindent automatically when they continue an
5448 earlier statement. An example:
5450 for (i = 0; i < 17; i++)
5452 res += a[i]->offset;
5455 Here, the "else" should be indented like the preceding "if", since it
5456 continues that statement. CC Mode will automatically reindent it after
5457 the "else" has been typed in full, since it's not until then it's
5458 possible to decide whether it's a new statement or a continuation of
5461 CC Mode uses Abbrev mode to achieve this, which is therefore turned on
5464 *** M-a and M-e now moves by sentence in multiline strings.
5465 Previously these two keys only moved by sentence in comments, which
5466 meant that sentence movement didn't work in strings containing
5467 documentation or other natural language text.
5469 The reason it's only activated in multiline strings (i.e. strings that
5470 contain a newline, even when escaped by a '\') is to avoid stopping in
5471 the short strings that often reside inside statements. Multiline
5472 strings almost always contain text in a natural language, as opposed
5473 to other strings that typically contain format specifications,
5474 commands, etc. Also, it's not that bothersome that M-a and M-e misses
5475 sentences in single line strings, since they're short anyway.
5477 *** Support for autodoc comments in Pike mode.
5478 Autodoc comments for Pike are used to extract documentation from the
5479 source, like Javadoc in Java. Pike mode now recognize this markup in
5480 comment prefixes and paragraph starts.
5482 *** The comment prefix regexps on c-comment-prefix may be mode specific.
5483 When c-comment-prefix is an association list, it specifies the comment
5484 line prefix on a per-mode basis, like c-default-style does. This
5485 change came about to support the special autodoc comment prefix in
5488 *** Better handling of syntactic errors.
5489 The recovery after unbalanced parens earlier in the buffer has been
5490 improved; CC Mode now reports them by dinging and giving a message
5491 stating the offending line, but still recovers and indent the
5492 following lines in a sane way (most of the time). An "else" with no
5493 matching "if" is handled similarly. If an error is discovered while
5494 indenting a region, the whole region is still indented and the error
5495 is reported afterwards.
5497 *** Lineup functions may now return absolute columns.
5498 A lineup function can give an absolute column to indent the line to by
5499 returning a vector with the desired column as the first element.
5501 *** More robust and warning-free byte compilation.
5502 Although this is strictly not a user visible change (well, depending
5503 on the view of a user), it's still worth mentioning that CC Mode now
5504 can be compiled in the standard ways without causing trouble. Some
5505 code have also been moved between the subpackages to enhance the
5506 modularity somewhat. Thanks to Martin Buchholz for doing the
5509 *** c-style-variables-are-local-p now defaults to t.
5510 This is an incompatible change that has been made to make the behavior
5511 of the style system wrt global variable settings less confusing for
5512 non-advanced users. If you know what this variable does you might
5513 want to set it to nil in your .emacs, otherwise you probably don't
5516 Defaulting c-style-variables-are-local-p to t avoids the confusing
5517 situation that occurs when a user sets some style variables globally
5518 and edits both a Java and a non-Java file in the same Emacs session.
5519 If the style variables aren't buffer local in this case, loading of
5520 the second file will cause the default style (either "gnu" or "java"
5521 by default) to override the global settings made by the user.
5523 *** New initialization procedure for the style system.
5524 When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
5525 variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
5526 take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
5527 is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
5528 settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
5529 possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
5530 Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
5532 By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
5533 special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
5534 the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
5535 of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
5538 Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
5539 when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
5540 function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
5541 call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
5542 then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
5543 values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
5544 only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
5545 function documentation for more info.
5547 The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
5548 especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
5549 with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
5550 intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
5551 such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
5552 is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
5553 configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
5554 global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
5556 (Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
5558 **** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
5559 This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
5561 This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
5562 variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
5563 completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
5564 the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
5565 empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
5568 **** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
5569 In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
5570 c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
5573 *** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
5574 CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
5575 surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
5576 chapter about this in the manual.
5578 **** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
5579 The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
5580 recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
5581 primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
5582 adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
5584 **** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
5585 This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
5586 c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
5588 **** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
5589 This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
5591 It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
5592 Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
5593 A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
5596 Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
5597 causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
5598 the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
5599 available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
5602 **** The variables `c-hanging-comment-starter-p' and
5603 `c-hanging-comment-ender-p', which controlled how comment starters and
5604 enders were filled, are not used anymore. The new version of the
5605 function `c-fill-paragraph' keeps the comment starters and enders as
5606 they were before the filling.
5608 **** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
5609 The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
5610 specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
5613 **** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
5614 It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
5615 prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
5616 you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
5619 *** Fixes to IDL mode.
5620 It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
5621 to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
5622 struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
5623 Thanks to Eric Eide.
5625 *** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
5626 It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
5627 opening braces hangs and when they don't.
5629 **** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
5631 *** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
5632 See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
5633 better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
5634 and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
5636 *** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
5637 previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
5638 the column specified by comment-column.
5640 *** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
5641 In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
5642 is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
5643 prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
5644 contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
5645 don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
5647 *** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
5648 instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
5651 *** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
5653 *** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
5654 c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
5655 c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
5656 variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
5659 *** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
5663 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
5664 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
5665 is, delete only empty directories.
5667 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
5668 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
5669 copy directories recursively.
5671 *** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
5672 in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
5673 the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
5675 *** The new command `dired-find-alternate-file' (usually bound to `a')
5676 replaces the Dired buffer with the buffer for an alternate file or
5679 *** The new command `dired-show-file-type' (usually bound to `y') shows
5680 a message in the echo area describing what type of file the point is on.
5681 This command invokes the external program `file' do its work, and so
5682 will only work on systems with that program, and will be only as
5683 accurate or inaccurate as it is.
5685 *** Dired now properly handles undo changes of adding/removing `-R'
5688 *** Dired commands that prompt for a destination file now allow the use
5689 of the `M-n' command in the minibuffer to insert the source filename,
5690 which the user can then edit. This only works if there is a single
5691 source file, not when operating on multiple marked files.
5695 The Gnus NEWS entries are short, but they reflect sweeping changes in
5696 four areas: Article display treatment, MIME treatment,
5697 internationalization and mail-fetching.
5699 *** The mail-fetching functions have changed. See the manual for the
5700 many details. In particular, all procmail fetching variables are gone.
5702 If you used procmail like in
5704 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
5705 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
5706 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/mail/incoming/")
5707 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "\\.in")
5709 this now has changed to
5712 '((directory :path "~/mail/incoming/"
5715 More information is available in the info doc at Select Methods ->
5716 Getting Mail -> Mail Sources
5718 *** Gnus is now a MIME-capable reader. This affects many parts of
5719 Gnus, and adds a slew of new commands. See the manual for details.
5720 Separate MIME packages like RMIME, mime-compose etc., will probably no
5721 longer work; remove them and use the native facilities.
5723 The FLIM/SEMI package still works with Emacs 21, but if you want to
5724 use the native facilities, you must remove any mailcap.el[c] that was
5725 installed by FLIM/SEMI version 1.13 or earlier.
5727 *** Gnus has also been multilingualized. This also affects too many
5728 parts of Gnus to summarize here, and adds many new variables. There
5729 are built-in facilities equivalent to those of gnus-mule.el, which is
5730 now just a compatibility layer.
5732 *** gnus-mule.el is now just a compatibility layer over the built-in
5735 *** gnus-auto-select-first can now be a function to be
5736 called to position point.
5738 *** The user can now decide which extra headers should be included in
5739 summary buffers and NOV files.
5741 *** `gnus-article-display-hook' has been removed. Instead, a number
5742 of variables starting with `gnus-treat-' have been added.
5744 *** The Gnus posting styles have been redone again and now work in a
5745 subtly different manner.
5747 *** New web-based backends have been added: nnslashdot, nnwarchive
5748 and nnultimate. nnweb has been revamped, again, to keep up with
5749 ever-changing layouts.
5751 *** Gnus can now read IMAP mail via nnimap.
5753 *** There is image support of various kinds and some sound support.
5755 ** Changes in Texinfo mode.
5757 *** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
5761 -------------------------
5765 C-c C-c q @quotation
5767 C-c C-o @<block> ... @end <block>
5770 *** The " key now inserts either " or `` or '' depending on context.
5772 ** Changes in Outline mode.
5774 There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
5775 `outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
5776 the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
5778 ** Changes to Emacs Server
5780 *** The new option `server-kill-new-buffers' specifies what to do
5781 with buffers when done with them. If non-nil, the default, buffers
5782 are killed, unless they were already present before visiting them with
5783 Emacs Server. If nil, `server-temp-file-regexp' specifies which
5784 buffers to kill, as before.
5786 Please note that only buffers are killed that still have a client,
5787 i.e. buffers visited with `emacsclient --no-wait' are never killed in
5790 ** Both emacsclient and Emacs itself now accept command line options
5791 of the form +LINE:COLUMN in addition to +LINE.
5793 ** Changes to Show Paren mode.
5795 *** Overlays used by Show Paren mode now use a priority property.
5796 The new user option show-paren-priority specifies the priority to
5797 use. Default is 1000.
5799 ** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
5800 groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
5802 ** Changes to hideshow.el
5804 *** Generalized block selection and traversal
5806 A block is now recognized by its start and end regexps (both strings),
5807 and an integer specifying which sub-expression in the start regexp
5808 serves as the place where a `forward-sexp'-like function can operate.
5809 See the documentation of variable `hs-special-modes-alist'.
5811 *** During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active,
5812 hidden blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' can
5813 be used in the mode line format to show the line at the beginning of
5816 *** User option `hs-hide-all-non-comment-function' specifies a
5817 function to be called at each top-level block beginning, instead of
5818 the normal block-hiding function.
5820 *** The command `hs-show-region' has been removed.
5822 *** The key bindings have changed to fit the Emacs conventions,
5823 roughly imitating those of Outline minor mode. Notably, the prefix
5824 for all bindings is now `C-c @'. For details, see the documentation
5825 for `hs-minor-mode'.
5827 *** The variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' has been removed, and
5828 hideshow.el now always behaves as if this variable were set to t.
5830 ** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
5832 *** If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes
5833 an entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
5834 log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
5836 **** New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the
5839 *** New command M-x change-log-redate fixes any old-style date entries
5842 *** Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log
5843 entries if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
5844 Unless the file is under version control the search for a file's
5845 version number is performed based on regular expressions from
5846 `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be customized.
5847 Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of a file.
5849 *** Change Log mode now defines its own faces for font-lock highlighting.
5851 ** Changes to cmuscheme
5853 *** The user-option `scheme-program-name' has been renamed
5854 `cmuscheme-program-name' due to conflicts with xscheme.el.
5856 ** Changes in Font Lock
5858 *** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
5859 font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major mode.
5861 *** Multi-line patterns are now supported. Modes using this, should
5862 set font-lock-multiline to t in their font-lock-defaults.
5864 *** `font-lock-syntactic-face-function' allows major-modes to choose
5865 the face used for each string/comment.
5867 *** A new standard face `font-lock-doc-face'.
5868 Meant for Lisp docstrings, Javadoc comments and other "documentation in code".
5870 ** Changes to Shell mode
5872 *** The `shell' command now accepts an optional argument to specify the buffer
5873 to use, which defaults to "*shell*". When used interactively, a
5874 non-default buffer may be specified by giving the `shell' command a
5875 prefix argument (causing it to prompt for the buffer name).
5877 ** Comint (subshell) changes
5879 These changes generally affect all modes derived from comint mode, which
5880 include shell-mode, gdb-mode, scheme-interaction-mode, etc.
5882 *** Comint now by default interprets some carriage-control characters.
5883 Comint now removes CRs from CR LF sequences, and treats single CRs and
5884 BSs in the output in a way similar to a terminal (by deleting to the
5885 beginning of the line, or deleting the previous character,
5886 respectively). This is achieved by adding `comint-carriage-motion' to
5887 the `comint-output-filter-functions' hook by default.
5889 *** By default, comint no longer uses the variable `comint-prompt-regexp'
5890 to distinguish prompts from user-input. Instead, it notices which
5891 parts of the text were output by the process, and which entered by the
5892 user, and attaches `field' properties to allow emacs commands to use
5893 this information. Common movement commands, notably beginning-of-line,
5894 respect field boundaries in a fairly natural manner. To disable this
5895 feature, and use the old behavior, customize the user option
5896 `comint-use-prompt-regexp-instead-of-fields'.
5898 *** Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
5899 and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
5901 *** The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
5902 buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
5903 buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
5905 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
5906 M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
5907 the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
5909 *** Packages based on comint now highlight user input and program prompts,
5910 and support choosing previous input with mouse-2. To control these features,
5911 see the user-options `comint-highlight-input' and `comint-highlight-prompt'.
5913 *** The new command `comint-write-output' (usually bound to `C-c C-s')
5914 saves the output from the most recent command to a file. With a prefix
5915 argument, it appends to the file.
5917 *** The command `comint-kill-output' has been renamed `comint-delete-output'
5918 (usually bound to `C-c C-o'); the old name is aliased to it for
5921 *** The new function `comint-add-to-input-history' adds commands to the input
5924 *** The new variable `comint-input-history-ignore' is a regexp for
5925 identifying history lines that should be ignored, like tcsh time-stamp
5926 strings, starting with a `#'. The default value of this variable is "^#".
5928 ** Changes to Rmail mode
5930 *** The new user-option rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
5931 set to fine tune the identification of the correspondent when
5932 receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
5933 recipient is taken as correspondent of a mail. If nil, the default,
5934 `user-login-name' and `user-mail-address' are used to exclude yourself
5937 Usually you don't have to set this variable, except if you collect
5938 mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
5939 regexp matching your mail addresses.
5941 *** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
5942 to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
5943 Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
5944 with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
5945 for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
5947 *** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
5950 *** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
5951 specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
5954 *** The new user option `rmail-automatic-folder-directives' specifies
5955 in which folder to put messages automatically.
5957 *** The new function `rmail-redecode-body' allows to fix a message
5958 with non-ASCII characters if Emacs happens to decode it incorrectly
5959 due to missing or malformed "charset=" header.
5961 ** The new user-option `mail-envelope-from' can be used to specify
5962 an envelope-from address different from user-mail-address.
5964 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
5965 use the -f option when sending mail.
5967 ** The Rmail command `o' (`rmail-output-to-rmail-file') now writes the
5968 current message in the internal `emacs-mule' encoding, rather than in
5969 the encoding taken from the variable `buffer-file-coding-system'.
5970 This allows to save messages whose characters cannot be safely encoded
5971 by the buffer's coding system, and makes sure the message will be
5972 displayed correctly when you later visit the target Rmail file.
5974 If you want your Rmail files be encoded in a specific coding system
5975 other than `emacs-mule', you can customize the variable
5976 `rmail-file-coding-system' to set its value to that coding system.
5978 ** Changes to TeX mode
5980 *** The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
5983 *** latex-mode now has a simple indentation algorithm.
5985 *** M-f and M-p jump around \begin...\end pairs.
5987 *** Added support for outline-minor-mode.
5989 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
5991 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
5992 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
5993 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
5994 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
5995 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
5996 can be edited from that buffer.
5998 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
5999 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
6000 `A' to use all marked entries).
6002 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
6003 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
6005 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
6006 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
6007 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
6010 ** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
6011 The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
6012 semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
6013 in column 1 are always made leaves.
6015 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
6016 has the following new features:
6018 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
6019 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
6020 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
6021 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
6023 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
6024 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
6025 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
6026 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
6027 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
6030 ** Partial Completion mode now completes environment variables in
6035 *** The command `ispell' now spell-checks a region if
6036 transient-mark-mode is on, and the mark is active. Otherwise it
6037 spell-checks the current buffer.
6039 *** Support for synchronous subprocesses - DOS/Windoze - has been
6042 *** An "alignment error" bug was fixed when a manual spelling
6043 correction is made and re-checked.
6045 *** Italian, Portuguese, and Slovak dictionary definitions have been added.
6047 *** Region skipping performance has been vastly improved in some
6050 *** Spell checking HTML buffers has been improved and isn't so strict
6053 *** The buffer-local words are now always placed on a new line at the
6056 *** Spell checking now works in the MS-DOS version of Emacs.
6058 ** Makefile mode changes
6060 *** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
6062 *** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
6063 Fontlock mode is active.
6067 *** Isearch now puts a call to `isearch-resume' in the command history,
6068 so that searches can be resumed.
6070 *** In Isearch mode, C-M-s and C-M-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
6071 respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
6072 that started the search.
6074 *** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
6075 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
6077 *** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
6079 Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
6080 `isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
6081 search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
6082 before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
6083 highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
6084 `secondary-selection'.
6086 The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
6087 will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
6088 Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
6089 using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
6090 usual snappy response.
6092 If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
6093 matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
6094 set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
6095 isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
6099 VC has been overhauled internally. It is now modular, making it
6100 easier to plug-in arbitrary version control backends. (See Lisp
6101 Changes for details on the new structure.) As a result, the mechanism
6102 to enable and disable support for particular version systems has
6103 changed: everything is now controlled by the new variable
6104 `vc-handled-backends'. Its value is a list of symbols that identify
6105 version systems; the default is '(RCS CVS SCCS). When finding a file,
6106 each of the backends in that list is tried in order to see whether the
6107 file is registered in that backend.
6109 When registering a new file, VC first tries each of the listed
6110 backends to see if any of them considers itself "responsible" for the
6111 directory of the file (e.g. because a corresponding subdirectory for
6112 master files exists). If none of the backends is responsible, then
6113 the first backend in the list that could register the file is chosen.
6114 As a consequence, the variable `vc-default-back-end' is now obsolete.
6116 The old variable `vc-master-templates' is also obsolete, although VC
6117 still supports it for backward compatibility. To define templates for
6118 RCS or SCCS, you should rather use the new variables
6119 vc-{rcs,sccs}-master-templates. (There is no such feature under CVS
6120 where it doesn't make sense.)
6122 The variables `vc-ignore-vc-files' and `vc-handle-cvs' are also
6123 obsolete now, you must set `vc-handled-backends' to nil or exclude
6124 `CVS' from the list, respectively, to achieve their effect now.
6128 The variable `vc-checkout-carefully' is obsolete: the corresponding
6129 checks are always done now.
6131 VC Dired buffers are now kept up-to-date during all version control
6134 `vc-diff' output is now displayed in `diff-mode'.
6135 `vc-print-log' uses `log-view-mode'.
6136 `vc-log-mode' (used for *VC-Log*) has been replaced by `log-edit-mode'.
6138 The command C-x v m (vc-merge) now accepts an empty argument as the
6139 first revision number. This means that any recent changes on the
6140 current branch should be picked up from the repository and merged into
6141 the working file (``merge news'').
6143 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
6144 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) now ask for a directory name from which to work
6147 *** Multiple Backends
6149 VC now lets you register files in more than one backend. This is
6150 useful, for example, if you are working with a slow remote CVS
6151 repository. You can then use RCS for local editing, and occasionally
6152 commit your changes back to CVS, or pick up changes from CVS into your
6155 To make this work, the ``more local'' backend (RCS in our example)
6156 should come first in `vc-handled-backends', and the ``more remote''
6157 backend (CVS) should come later. (The default value of
6158 `vc-handled-backends' already has it that way.)
6160 You can then commit changes to another backend (say, RCS), by typing
6161 C-u C-x v v RCS RET (i.e. vc-next-action now accepts a backend name as
6162 a revision number). VC registers the file in the more local backend
6163 if that hasn't already happened, and commits to a branch based on the
6164 current revision number from the more remote backend.
6166 If a file is registered in multiple backends, you can switch to
6167 another one using C-x v b (vc-switch-backend). This does not change
6168 any files, it only changes VC's perspective on the file. Use this to
6169 pick up changes from CVS while working under RCS locally.
6171 After you are done with your local RCS editing, you can commit your
6172 changes back to CVS using C-u C-x v v CVS RET. In this case, the
6173 local RCS archive is removed after the commit, and the log entry
6174 buffer is initialized to contain the entire RCS change log of the file.
6178 There is a new user option, `vc-cvs-stay-local'. If it is `t' (the
6179 default), then VC avoids network queries for files registered in
6180 remote repositories. The state of such files is then only determined
6181 by heuristics and past information. `vc-cvs-stay-local' can also be a
6182 regexp to match against repository hostnames; only files from hosts
6183 that match it are treated locally. If the variable is nil, then VC
6184 queries the repository just as often as it does for local files.
6186 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, then VC also makes local backups of
6187 repository versions. This means that ordinary diffs (C-x v =) and
6188 revert operations (C-x v u) can be done completely locally, without
6189 any repository interactions at all. The name of a local version
6190 backup of FILE is FILE.~REV.~, where REV is the repository version
6191 number. This format is similar to that used by C-x v ~
6192 (vc-version-other-window), except for the trailing dot. As a matter
6193 of fact, the two features can each use the files created by the other,
6194 the only difference being that files with a trailing `.' are deleted
6195 automatically after commit. (This feature doesn't work on MS-DOS,
6196 since DOS disallows more than a single dot in the trunk of a file
6199 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, and there have been changes in the
6200 repository, VC notifies you about it when you actually try to commit.
6201 If you want to check for updates from the repository without trying to
6202 commit, you can either use C-x v m RET to perform an update on the
6203 current file, or you can use C-x v r RET to get an update for an
6204 entire directory tree.
6206 The new user option `vc-cvs-use-edit' indicates whether VC should call
6207 "cvs edit" to make files writeable; it defaults to `t'. (This option
6208 is only meaningful if the CVSREAD variable is set, or if files are
6209 "watched" by other developers.)
6211 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
6212 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) are now also implemented for CVS. If you give
6213 an empty snapshot name to the latter, that performs a `cvs update',
6214 starting at the given directory.
6216 *** Lisp Changes in VC
6218 VC has been restructured internally to make it modular. You can now
6219 add support for arbitrary version control backends by writing a
6220 library that provides a certain set of backend-specific functions, and
6221 then telling VC to use that library. For example, to add support for
6222 a version system named SYS, you write a library named vc-sys.el, which
6223 provides a number of functions vc-sys-... (see commentary at the top
6224 of vc.el for a detailed list of them). To make VC use that library,
6225 you need to put it somewhere into Emacs' load path and add the symbol
6226 `SYS' to the list `vc-handled-backends'.
6228 ** The customizable EDT emulation package now supports the EDT
6229 SUBS command and EDT scroll margins. It also works with more
6230 terminal/keyboard configurations and it now works under XEmacs.
6231 See etc/edt-user.doc for more information.
6233 ** New modes and packages
6235 *** The new global minor mode `minibuffer-electric-default-mode'
6236 automatically hides the `(default ...)' part of minibuffer prompts when
6237 the default is not applicable.
6239 *** Artist is an Emacs lisp package that allows you to draw lines,
6240 rectangles and ellipses by using your mouse and/or keyboard. The
6241 shapes are made up with the ascii characters |, -, / and \.
6245 - Intersecting: When a `|' intersects with a `-', a `+' is
6246 drawn, like this: | \ /
6250 - Rubber-banding: When drawing lines you can interactively see the
6251 result while holding the mouse button down and moving the mouse. If
6252 your machine is not fast enough (a 386 is a bit too slow, but a
6253 pentium is well enough), you can turn this feature off. You will
6254 then see 1's and 2's which mark the 1st and 2nd endpoint of the line
6257 - Arrows: After having drawn a (straight) line or a (straight)
6258 poly-line, you can set arrows on the line-ends by typing < or >.
6260 - Flood-filling: You can fill any area with a certain character by
6263 - Cut copy and paste: You can cut, copy and paste rectangular
6264 regions. Artist also interfaces with the rect package (this can be
6265 turned off if it causes you any trouble) so anything you cut in
6266 artist can be yanked with C-x r y and vice versa.
6268 - Drawing with keys: Everything you can do with the mouse, you can
6269 also do without the mouse.
6271 - Aspect-ratio: You can set the variable artist-aspect-ratio to
6272 reflect the height-width ratio for the font you are using. Squares
6273 and circles are then drawn square/round. Note, that once your
6274 ascii-file is shown with font with a different height-width ratio,
6275 the squares won't be square and the circles won't be round.
6277 - Drawing operations: The following drawing operations are implemented:
6279 lines straight-lines
6281 poly-lines straight poly-lines
6283 text (see-thru) text (overwrite)
6284 spray-can setting size for spraying
6285 vaporize line vaporize lines
6286 erase characters erase rectangles
6288 Straight lines are lines that go horizontally, vertically or
6289 diagonally. Plain lines go in any direction. The operations in
6290 the right column are accessed by holding down the shift key while
6293 It is possible to vaporize (erase) entire lines and connected lines
6294 (rectangles for example) as long as the lines being vaporized are
6295 straight and connected at their endpoints. Vaporizing is inspired
6296 by the drawrect package by Jari Aalto <jari.aalto@poboxes.com>.
6298 - Picture mode compatibility: Artist is picture mode compatible (this
6301 *** The new package Eshell is an operating system command shell
6302 implemented entirely in Emacs Lisp. Use `M-x eshell' to invoke it.
6303 It functions similarly to bash and zsh, and allows running of Lisp
6304 functions and external commands using the same syntax. It supports
6305 history lists, aliases, extended globbing, smart scrolling, etc. It
6306 will work on any platform Emacs has been ported to. And since most of
6307 the basic commands -- ls, rm, mv, cp, ln, du, cat, etc. -- have been
6308 rewritten in Lisp, it offers an operating-system independent shell,
6309 all within the scope of your Emacs process.
6311 *** The new package timeclock.el is a mode is for keeping track of time
6312 intervals. You can use it for whatever purpose you like, but the
6313 typical scenario is to keep track of how much time you spend working
6314 on certain projects.
6316 *** The new package hi-lock.el provides commands to highlight matches
6317 of interactively entered regexps. For example,
6319 M-x highlight-regexp RET clearly RET RET
6321 will highlight all occurrences of `clearly' using a yellow background
6322 face. New occurrences of `clearly' will be highlighted as they are
6323 typed. `M-x unhighlight-regexp RET' will remove the highlighting.
6324 Any existing face can be used for highlighting and a set of
6325 appropriate faces is provided. The regexps can be written into the
6326 current buffer in a form that will be recognized the next time the
6327 corresponding file is read. There are commands to highlight matches
6328 to phrases and to highlight entire lines containing a match.
6330 *** The new package zone.el plays games with Emacs' display when
6333 *** The new package tildify.el allows to add hard spaces or other text
6334 fragments in accordance with the current major mode.
6336 *** The new package xml.el provides a simple but generic XML
6337 parser. It doesn't parse the DTDs however.
6339 *** The comment operations are now provided by the newcomment.el
6340 package which allows different styles of comment-region and should
6341 be more robust while offering the same functionality.
6342 `comment-region' now doesn't always comment a-line-at-a-time, but only
6343 comments the region, breaking the line at point if necessary.
6345 *** The Ebrowse package implements a C++ class browser and tags
6346 facilities tailored for use with C++. It is documented in a
6347 separate Texinfo file.
6349 *** The PCL-CVS package available by either running M-x cvs-examine or
6350 by visiting a CVS administrative directory (with a prefix argument)
6351 provides an alternative interface to VC-dired for CVS. It comes with
6352 `log-view-mode' to view RCS and SCCS logs and `log-edit-mode' used to
6353 enter check-in log messages.
6355 *** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
6356 without invoking external programs.
6358 The command `M-x woman' formats manual pages entirely in Emacs Lisp
6359 and then displays them, like `M-x manual-entry' does. Unlike
6360 `manual-entry', `woman' does not invoke any external programs, so it
6361 is useful on systems such as MS-DOS/MS-Windows where the `man' and
6362 Groff or `troff' commands are not readily available.
6364 The command `M-x woman-find-file' asks for the file name of a man
6365 page, then formats and displays it like `M-x woman' does.
6367 *** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
6368 authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
6370 The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
6371 the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
6372 the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
6373 Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
6374 even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
6377 On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
6378 matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
6379 probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
6380 contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
6382 *** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
6383 unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
6384 actually modifying content of a buffer.
6386 *** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
6389 Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
6391 The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
6393 ; comment (until end of line)
6397 $A default non-terminal
6398 $"C" default terminal
6399 $?C? default special
6400 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
6401 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
6402 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
6403 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
6404 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
6405 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
6406 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
6407 C+ one or more occurrences of C
6408 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
6409 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
6410 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
6411 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
6412 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
6413 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
6414 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
6416 Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
6418 *** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
6419 align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
6420 determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
6421 example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
6422 equal signs of assignments.
6424 *** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
6425 paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
6427 *** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
6428 list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
6429 buffer menu with this package. See the Custom group `bs'.
6431 *** find-lisp.el is a package emulating the Unix find command in Lisp.
6433 *** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
6434 replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
6435 is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
6436 and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
6437 not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
6438 which answers different needs.
6440 *** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
6441 suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
6442 expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
6443 course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
6444 reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
6447 *** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
6448 containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
6450 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
6452 *** hl-line.el provides `hl-line-mode', a minor mode to highlight the
6453 current line in the current buffer. It also provides
6454 `global-hl-line-mode' to provide the same behavior in all buffers.
6456 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
6458 Please note: if `ansi-color-for-comint-mode' and
6459 `global-font-lock-mode' are non-nil, loading ansi-color.el will
6460 disable font-lock and add `ansi-color-apply' to
6461 `comint-preoutput-filter-functions' for all shell-mode buffers. This
6462 displays the output of "ls --color=yes" using the correct foreground
6463 and background colors.
6465 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
6468 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
6471 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
6473 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
6475 *** whitespace.el is a package for warning about and cleaning bogus
6476 whitespace in a file.
6478 *** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
6479 files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
6480 (very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
6481 interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
6482 often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
6483 uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
6484 codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
6486 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
6488 Here is an example of columns:
6491 dog pineapple car EXTRA
6492 porcupine strawberry airplane
6494 Doing the following settings:
6496 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
6497 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
6498 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
6499 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
6502 Selecting the lines above and typing:
6504 M-x delimit-columns-region
6508 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
6509 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
6510 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
6512 delim-col has the following options:
6514 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
6517 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
6518 between each column.
6520 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
6523 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
6526 delim-col has the following commands:
6528 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
6529 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
6531 *** Recentf mode maintains a menu for visiting files that were
6532 operated on recently. User option recentf-menu-filter specifies a
6533 menu filter function to change the menu appearance. For example, the
6534 recent file list can be displayed:
6536 - organized by major modes, directories or user defined rules.
6537 - sorted by file paths, file names, ascending or descending.
6538 - showing paths relative to the current default-directory
6540 The `recentf-filter-changer' menu filter function allows to
6541 dynamically change the menu appearance.
6543 *** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
6546 *** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
6547 of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
6548 specific to Message mode.
6550 *** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
6551 viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
6552 with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
6554 *** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
6555 interface to access directory servers using different directory
6556 protocols. It has a separate manual.
6558 *** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
6559 for Autoconf, selected automatically.
6561 *** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
6563 *** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
6564 minibuffer with completion.
6566 *** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
6567 with the diary features.
6569 *** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
6570 numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
6572 *** The function `turn-off-auto-fill' unconditionally turns off Auto
6575 *** pcomplete.el is a library that provides programmable completion
6576 facilities for Emacs, similar to what zsh and tcsh offer. The main
6577 difference is that completion functions are written in Lisp, meaning
6578 they can be profiled, debugged, etc.
6580 *** antlr-mode is a new major mode for editing ANTLR grammar files.
6581 It is automatically turned on for files whose names have the extension
6584 ** Changes in sort.el
6586 The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
6587 as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
6588 new user-option sort-numeric-base can be used to specify a default
6591 ** Changes to Ange-ftp
6593 *** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
6594 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
6595 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
6597 *** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
6598 ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
6600 *** Ange-ftp handles the output of the w32-style clients which
6601 output ^M at the end of lines.
6603 ** The recommended way of using Iswitchb is via the new global minor
6604 mode `iswitchb-mode'.
6606 ** Just loading the msb package doesn't switch on Msb mode anymore.
6607 If you have `(require 'msb)' in your .emacs, please replace it with
6610 ** Flyspell mode has various new options. See the `flyspell' Custom
6613 ** The user option `backward-delete-char-untabify-method' controls the
6614 behavior of `backward-delete-char-untabify'. The following values
6617 `untabify' -- turn a tab to many spaces, then delete one space;
6618 `hungry' -- delete all whitespace, both tabs and spaces;
6619 `all' -- delete all whitespace, including tabs, spaces and newlines;
6620 nil -- just delete one character.
6622 Default value is `untabify'.
6624 [This change was made in Emacs 20.3 but not mentioned then.]
6626 ** In Cperl mode `cperl-invalid-face' should now be a normal face
6627 symbol, not double-quoted.
6629 ** Some packages are declared obsolete, to be removed in a future
6630 version. They are: auto-show, c-mode, hilit19, hscroll, ooutline,
6631 profile, rnews, rnewspost, and sc. Their implementations have been
6632 moved to lisp/obsolete.
6634 ** auto-compression mode is no longer enabled just by loading jka-compr.el.
6635 To control it, set `auto-compression-mode' via Custom or use the
6636 `auto-compression-mode' command.
6638 ** `browse-url-gnome-moz' is a new option for
6639 `browse-url-browser-function', invoking Mozilla in GNOME, and
6640 `browse-url-kde' can be chosen for invoking the KDE browser.
6642 ** The user-option `browse-url-new-window-p' has been renamed to
6643 `browse-url-new-window-flag'.
6645 ** The functions `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many' now
6646 operate on the active region in Transient Mark mode.
6648 ** `gnus-user-agent' is a new possibility for `mail-user-agent'. It
6649 is like `message-user-agent', but with all the Gnus paraphernalia.
6651 ** The Strokes package has been updated. If your Emacs has XPM
6652 support, you can use it for pictographic editing. In Strokes mode,
6653 use C-mouse-2 to compose a complex stoke and insert it into the
6654 buffer. You can encode or decode a strokes buffer with new commands
6655 M-x strokes-encode-buffer and M-x strokes-decode-buffer. There is a
6656 new command M-x strokes-list-strokes.
6658 ** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
6659 a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
6661 ** Hexl mode allows to insert non-ASCII characters.
6663 The non-ASCII characters are encoded using the same encoding as the
6664 file you are visiting in Hexl mode.
6666 ** Shell script mode changes.
6668 Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
6669 derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizable, and
6670 sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
6674 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
6676 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
6677 possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
6678 {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
6679 This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
6680 a regular expression. The manual contains details.
6682 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
6683 declarations when given the --declarations option.
6685 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
6686 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
6688 *** You shouldn't generally need any more the -C or -c++ option: etags
6689 automatically switches to C++ parsing when it meets the `class' or
6690 `template' keywords.
6692 *** Etags now is able to delve at arbitrary deeps into nested structures in
6693 C-like languages. Previously, it was limited to one or two brace levels.
6695 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
6698 *** In Fortran, `procedure' is not tagged.
6700 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
6702 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
6705 *** In makefiles, tags the targets.
6707 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
6708 variables are tagged.
6710 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
6712 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
6715 ** Changes in etags.el
6717 *** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
6718 tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
6719 is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
6721 *** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
6722 the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
6724 If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
6725 FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
6726 TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
6727 obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
6729 TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
6731 FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
6732 List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
6734 A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
6736 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
6737 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
6738 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
6740 *** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
6741 of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
6743 *** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
6744 names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
6746 *** You can now search for tags that are part of the filename itself.
6747 If you have tagged the files topfile.c subdir/subfile.c
6748 /tmp/tempfile.c, you can now search for tags "topfile.c", "subfile.c",
6749 "dir/sub", "tempfile", "tempfile.c". If the tag matches the file name,
6750 point will go to the beginning of the file.
6752 *** Compressed files are now transparently supported if
6753 auto-compression-mode is active. You can tag (with Etags) and search
6754 (with find-tag) both compressed and uncompressed files.
6756 *** Tags commands like M-x tags-search no longer change point
6757 in buffers where no match is found. In buffers where a match is
6758 found, the original value of point is pushed on the marker ring.
6760 ** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sequence-nos' to
6761 remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
6762 appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
6764 ** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
6766 ** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
6768 ** The Dabbrev package has a new user-option `dabbrev-ignored-regexps'
6769 containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
6770 expression from that list, are not checked.
6772 ** Emacs can now figure out modification times of remote files.
6773 When you do C-x C-f /user@host:/path/file RET and edit the file,
6774 and someone else modifies the file, you will be prompted to revert
6775 the buffer, just like for the local files.
6777 ** The buffer menu (C-x C-b) no longer lists the *Buffer List* buffer.
6779 ** When invoked with a prefix argument, the command `list-abbrevs' now
6780 displays local abbrevs, only.
6782 ** Refill minor mode provides preliminary support for keeping
6783 paragraphs filled as you modify them.
6785 ** The variable `double-click-fuzz' specifies how much the mouse
6786 may be moved between clicks that are recognized as a pair. Its value
6787 is measured in pixels.
6789 ** The new global minor mode `auto-image-file-mode' allows image files
6790 to be visited as images.
6792 ** Two new user-options `grep-command' and `grep-find-command'
6793 were added to compile.el.
6795 ** Withdrawn packages
6797 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
6798 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
6800 *** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
6802 *** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
6805 * Incompatible Lisp changes
6807 There are a few Lisp changes which are not backwards-compatible and
6808 may require changes to existing code. Here is a list for reference.
6809 See the sections below for details.
6811 ** Since `format' preserves text properties, the idiom
6812 `(format "%s" foo)' no longer works to copy and remove properties.
6813 Use `copy-sequence' to copy the string, then use `set-text-properties'
6814 to remove the properties of the copy.
6816 ** Since the `keymap' text property now has significance, some code
6817 which uses both `local-map' and `keymap' properties (for portability)
6818 may, for instance, give rise to duplicate menus when the keymaps from
6819 these properties are active.
6821 ** The change in the treatment of non-ASCII characters in search
6822 ranges may affect some code.
6824 ** A non-nil value for the LOCAL arg of add-hook makes the hook
6825 buffer-local even if `make-local-hook' hasn't been called, which might
6826 make a difference to some code.
6828 ** The new treatment of the minibuffer prompt might affect code which
6829 operates on the minibuffer.
6831 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
6832 cause `no-conversion' and `emacs-mule-unix' coding systems to produce
6833 different results when reading files with non-ASCII characters
6834 (previously, both coding systems would produce the same results).
6835 Specifically, `no-conversion' interprets each 8-bit byte as a separate
6836 character. This makes `no-conversion' inappropriate for reading
6837 multibyte text, e.g. buffers written to disk in their internal MULE
6838 encoding (auto-saving does that, for example). If a Lisp program
6839 reads such files with `no-conversion', each byte of the multibyte
6840 sequence, including the MULE leading codes such as \201, is treated as
6841 a separate character, which prevents them from being interpreted in
6842 the buffer as multibyte characters.
6844 Therefore, Lisp programs that read files which contain the internal
6845 MULE encoding should use `emacs-mule-unix'. `no-conversion' is only
6846 appropriate for reading truly binary files.
6848 ** Code that relies on the obsolete `before-change-function' and
6849 `after-change-function' to detect buffer changes will now fail. Use
6850 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions' instead.
6852 ** Code that uses `concat' with integer args now gets an error, as
6853 long promised. So does any code that uses derivatives of `concat',
6854 such as `mapconcat'.
6856 ** The function base64-decode-string now always returns a unibyte
6859 ** Not a Lisp incompatibility as such but, with the introduction of
6860 extra private charsets, there is now only one slot free for a new
6861 dimension-2 private charset. User code which tries to add more than
6862 one extra will fail unless you rebuild Emacs with some standard
6863 charset(s) removed; that is probably inadvisable because it changes
6864 the emacs-mule encoding. Also, files stored in the emacs-mule
6865 encoding using Emacs 20 with additional private charsets defined will
6866 probably not be read correctly by Emacs 21.
6868 ** The variable `directory-sep-char' is slated for removal.
6869 Not really a change (yet), but a projected one that you should be
6870 aware of: The variable `directory-sep-char' is deprecated, and should
6871 not be used. It was always ignored on GNU/Linux and Unix systems and
6872 on MS-DOS, but the MS-Windows port tried to support it by adapting the
6873 behavior of certain primitives to the value of this variable. It
6874 turned out that such support cannot be reliable, so it was decided to
6875 remove this variable in the near future. Lisp programs are well
6876 advised not to set it to anything but '/', because any different value
6877 will not have any effect when support for this variable is removed.
6880 * Lisp changes made after edition 2.6 of the Emacs Lisp Manual,
6881 (Display-related features are described in a page of their own below.)
6883 ** Function assq-delete-all replaces function assoc-delete-all.
6885 ** The new function animate-string, from lisp/play/animate.el
6886 allows the animated display of strings.
6888 ** The new function `interactive-form' can be used to obtain the
6889 interactive form of a function.
6891 ** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
6892 between custom options. Example:
6894 (defcustom default-input-method nil
6895 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
6896 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
6897 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
6899 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
6900 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
6902 This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
6903 current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
6904 first in a custom-set-variables statement.
6906 ** The new hook `kbd-macro-termination-hook' is run at the end of
6907 function execute-kbd-macro. Functions on this hook are called with no
6908 args. The hook is run independent of how the macro was terminated
6909 (signal or normal termination).
6911 ** Functions `butlast' and `nbutlast' for removing trailing elements
6912 from a list are now available without requiring the CL package.
6914 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
6915 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
6917 ** The user-option `face-font-registry-alternatives' specifies
6918 alternative font registry names to try when looking for a font.
6920 ** Function `md5' calculates the MD5 "message digest"/"checksum".
6922 ** Function `delete-frame' runs `delete-frame-hook' before actually
6923 deleting the frame. The hook is called with one arg, the frame
6926 ** `add-hook' now makes the hook local if called with a non-nil LOCAL arg.
6928 ** The treatment of non-ASCII characters in search ranges has changed.
6929 If a range in a regular expression or the arg of
6930 skip-chars-forward/backward starts with a unibyte character C and ends
6931 with a multibyte character C2, the range is divided into two: one is
6932 C..?\377, the other is C1..C2, where C1 is the first character of C2's
6935 ** The new function `display-message-or-buffer' displays a message in
6936 the echo area or pops up a buffer, depending on the length of the
6939 ** The new macro `with-auto-compression-mode' allows evaluating an
6940 expression with auto-compression-mode enabled.
6942 ** In image specifications, `:heuristic-mask' has been replaced
6943 with the more general `:mask' property.
6945 ** Image specifications accept more `:conversion's.
6947 ** A `?' can be used in a symbol name without escaping it with a
6950 ** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
6951 is running in batch mode. For example,
6953 (message "%s" (read t))
6955 will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
6958 ** The argument of `down-list', `backward-up-list', `up-list',
6959 `kill-sexp', `backward-kill-sexp' and `mark-sexp' is now optional.
6961 ** If `display-buffer-reuse-frames' is set, function `display-buffer'
6962 will raise frames displaying a buffer, instead of creating a new
6965 ** Two new functions for removing elements from lists/sequences
6968 - Function: remove ELT SEQ
6970 Return a copy of SEQ with all occurrences of ELT removed. SEQ must be
6971 a list, vector, or string. The comparison is done with `equal'.
6973 - Function: remq ELT LIST
6975 Return a copy of LIST with all occurrences of ELT removed. The
6976 comparison is done with `eq'.
6978 ** The function `delete' now also works with vectors and strings.
6980 ** The meaning of the `:weakness WEAK' argument of make-hash-table
6981 has been changed: WEAK can now have new values `key-or-value' and
6982 `key-and-value', in addition to `nil', `key', `value', and `t'.
6984 ** Function `aset' stores any multibyte character in any string
6985 without signaling "Attempt to change char length of a string". It may
6986 convert a unibyte string to multibyte if necessary.
6988 ** The value of the `help-echo' text property is called as a function
6989 or evaluated, if it is not a string already, to obtain a help string.
6991 ** Function `make-obsolete' now has an optional arg to say when the
6992 function was declared obsolete.
6994 ** Function `plist-member' is renamed from `widget-plist-member' (which is
6995 retained as an alias).
6997 ** Easy-menu's :filter now takes the unconverted form of the menu and
6998 the result is automatically converted to Emacs' form.
7000 ** The new function `window-list' has been defined
7002 - Function: window-list &optional FRAME WINDOW MINIBUF
7004 Return a list of windows on FRAME, starting with WINDOW. FRAME nil or
7005 omitted means use the selected frame. WINDOW nil or omitted means use
7006 the selected window. MINIBUF t means include the minibuffer window,
7007 even if it isn't active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means include the
7008 minibuffer window only if it's active. MINIBUF neither nil nor t
7009 means never include the minibuffer window.
7011 ** There's a new function `get-window-with-predicate' defined as follows
7013 - Function: get-window-with-predicate PREDICATE &optional MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES DEFAULT
7015 Return a window satisfying PREDICATE.
7017 This function cycles through all visible windows using `walk-windows',
7018 calling PREDICATE on each one. PREDICATE is called with a window as
7019 argument. The first window for which PREDICATE returns a non-nil
7020 value is returned. If no window satisfies PREDICATE, DEFAULT is
7023 Optional second arg MINIBUF t means count the minibuffer window even
7024 if not active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means count the minibuffer iff
7025 it is active. MINIBUF neither t nor nil means not to count the
7026 minibuffer even if it is active.
7028 Several frames may share a single minibuffer; if the minibuffer
7029 counts, all windows on all frames that share that minibuffer count
7030 too. Therefore, if you are using a separate minibuffer frame
7031 and the minibuffer is active and MINIBUF says it counts,
7032 `walk-windows' includes the windows in the frame from which you
7033 entered the minibuffer, as well as the minibuffer window.
7035 ALL-FRAMES is the optional third argument.
7036 ALL-FRAMES nil or omitted means cycle within the frames as specified above.
7037 ALL-FRAMES = `visible' means include windows on all visible frames.
7038 ALL-FRAMES = 0 means include windows on all visible and iconified frames.
7039 ALL-FRAMES = t means include windows on all frames including invisible frames.
7040 If ALL-FRAMES is a frame, it means include windows on that frame.
7041 Anything else means restrict to the selected frame.
7043 ** The function `single-key-description' now encloses function key and
7044 event names in angle brackets. When called with a second optional
7045 argument non-nil, angle brackets won't be printed.
7047 ** If the variable `message-truncate-lines' is bound to t around a
7048 call to `message', the echo area will not be resized to display that
7049 message; it will be truncated instead, as it was done in 20.x.
7050 Default value is nil.
7052 ** The user option `line-number-display-limit' can now be set to nil,
7055 ** The new user option `line-number-display-limit-width' controls
7056 the maximum width of lines in a buffer for which Emacs displays line
7057 numbers in the mode line. The default is 200.
7059 ** `select-safe-coding-system' now also checks the most preferred
7060 coding-system if buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and
7061 DEFAULT-CODING-SYSTEM is not specified,
7063 ** The function `subr-arity' provides information about the argument
7064 list of a primitive.
7066 ** `where-is-internal' now also accepts a list of keymaps.
7068 ** The text property `keymap' specifies a key map which overrides the
7069 buffer's local map and the map specified by the `local-map' property.
7070 This is probably what most current uses of `local-map' want, rather
7071 than replacing the local map.
7073 ** The obsolete variables `before-change-function' and
7074 `after-change-function' are no longer acted upon and have been
7075 removed. Use `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions'
7078 ** The function `apropos-mode' runs the hook `apropos-mode-hook'.
7080 ** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments,
7081 as promised long ago.
7083 ** The new function `float-time' returns the current time as a float.
7085 ** The new variable auto-coding-regexp-alist specifies coding systems
7086 for reading specific files, analogous to auto-coding-alist, but
7087 patterns are checked against file contents instead of file names.
7090 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
7092 ** The new package rx.el provides an alternative sexp notation for
7093 regular expressions.
7095 - Function: rx-to-string SEXP
7097 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
7101 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
7103 The following are valid subforms of regular expressions in sexp
7107 matches string STRING literally.
7110 matches character CHAR literally.
7113 matches any character except a newline.
7116 matches any character
7119 matches any character in SET. SET may be a character or string.
7120 Ranges of characters can be specified as `A-Z' in strings.
7126 matches any character not in SET
7129 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of a line
7130 in the text being matched
7133 is similar to `line-start' but matches only at the end of a line
7136 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
7137 string being matched against.
7140 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
7141 string being matched against.
7144 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
7145 buffer being matched against.
7148 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
7149 buffer being matched against.
7152 matches the empty string, but only at point.
7155 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
7159 matches the empty string, but only at the end of a word.
7162 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
7165 `(not word-boundary)'
7166 matches the empty string, but not at the beginning or end of a
7170 matches 0 through 9.
7173 matches ASCII control characters.
7176 matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
7179 matches space and tab only.
7182 matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
7186 matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
7190 matches letters and digits. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
7191 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
7194 matches letters. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
7195 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
7198 matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
7201 matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
7204 matches anything lower-case.
7207 matches anything upper-case.
7210 matches punctuation. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
7211 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
7214 matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
7217 matches anything that has word syntax.
7220 matches a character with syntax SYNTAX. SYNTAX must be one
7221 of the following symbols.
7223 `whitespace' (\\s- in string notation)
7224 `punctuation' (\\s.)
7227 `open-parenthesis' (\\s()
7228 `close-parenthesis' (\\s))
7229 `expression-prefix' (\\s')
7230 `string-quote' (\\s\")
7231 `paired-delimiter' (\\s$)
7233 `character-quote' (\\s/)
7234 `comment-start' (\\s<)
7235 `comment-end' (\\s>)
7237 `(not (syntax SYNTAX))'
7238 matches a character that has not syntax SYNTAX.
7240 `(category CATEGORY)'
7241 matches a character with category CATEGORY. CATEGORY must be
7242 either a character to use for C, or one of the following symbols.
7244 `consonant' (\\c0 in string notation)
7246 `upper-diacritical-mark' (\\c2)
7247 `lower-diacritical-mark' (\\c3)
7251 `vowel-modifying-diacritical-mark' (\\c7)
7253 `semivowel-lower' (\\c9)
7254 `not-at-end-of-line' (\\c<)
7255 `not-at-beginning-of-line' (\\c>)
7256 `alpha-numeric-two-byte' (\\cA)
7257 `chinse-two-byte' (\\cC)
7258 `greek-two-byte' (\\cG)
7259 `japanese-hiragana-two-byte' (\\cH)
7260 `indian-two-byte' (\\cI)
7261 `japanese-katakana-two-byte' (\\cK)
7262 `korean-hangul-two-byte' (\\cN)
7263 `cyrillic-two-byte' (\\cY)
7272 `japanese-katakana' (\\ck)
7276 `japanese-roman' (\\cr)
7283 `(not (category CATEGORY))'
7284 matches a character that has not category CATEGORY.
7286 `(and SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
7287 matches what SEXP1 matches, followed by what SEXP2 matches, etc.
7289 `(submatch SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
7290 like `and', but makes the match accessible with `match-end',
7291 `match-beginning', and `match-string'.
7293 `(group SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
7294 another name for `submatch'.
7296 `(or SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
7297 matches anything that matches SEXP1 or SEXP2, etc. If all
7298 args are strings, use `regexp-opt' to optimize the resulting
7301 `(minimal-match SEXP)'
7302 produce a non-greedy regexp for SEXP. Normally, regexps matching
7303 zero or more occurrences of something are \"greedy\" in that they
7304 match as much as they can, as long as the overall regexp can
7305 still match. A non-greedy regexp matches as little as possible.
7307 `(maximal-match SEXP)'
7308 produce a greedy regexp for SEXP. This is the default.
7310 `(zero-or-more SEXP)'
7311 matches zero or more occurrences of what SEXP matches.
7314 like `zero-or-more'.
7317 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
7320 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
7322 `(one-or-more SEXP)'
7323 matches one or more occurrences of A.
7329 like `one-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
7332 like `one-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
7334 `(zero-or-one SEXP)'
7335 matches zero or one occurrences of A.
7341 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a greedy regexp.
7344 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
7347 matches N occurrences of what SEXP matches.
7350 matches N to M occurrences of what SEXP matches.
7353 evaluate FORM and insert result. If result is a string,
7357 include REGEXP in string notation in the result.
7359 *** The features `md5' and `overlay' are now provided by default.
7361 *** The special form `save-restriction' now works correctly even if the
7362 buffer is widened inside the save-restriction and changes made outside
7363 the original restriction. Previously, doing this would cause the saved
7364 restriction to be restored incorrectly.
7366 *** The functions `find-charset-region' and `find-charset-string' include
7367 `eight-bit-control' and/or `eight-bit-graphic' in the returned list
7368 when they find 8-bit characters. Previously, they included `ascii' in a
7369 multibyte buffer and `unknown' in a unibyte buffer.
7371 *** The functions `set-buffer-multibyte', `string-as-multibyte' and
7372 `string-as-unibyte' change the byte sequence of a buffer or a string
7373 if it contains a character from the `eight-bit-control' character set.
7375 *** The handling of multibyte sequences in a multibyte buffer is
7376 changed. Previously, a byte sequence matching the pattern
7377 [\200-\237][\240-\377]+ was interpreted as a single character
7378 regardless of the length of the trailing bytes [\240-\377]+. Thus, if
7379 the sequence was longer than what the leading byte indicated, the
7380 extra trailing bytes were ignored by Lisp functions. Now such extra
7381 bytes are independent 8-bit characters belonging to the charset
7384 ** Fontsets are now implemented using char-tables.
7386 A fontset can now be specified for each independent character, for
7387 a group of characters or for a character set rather than just for a
7388 character set as previously.
7390 *** The arguments of the function `set-fontset-font' are changed.
7391 They are NAME, CHARACTER, FONTNAME, and optional FRAME. The function
7392 modifies fontset NAME to use FONTNAME for CHARACTER.
7394 CHARACTER may be a cons (FROM . TO), where FROM and TO are non-generic
7395 characters. In that case FONTNAME is used for all characters in the
7396 range FROM and TO (inclusive). CHARACTER may be a charset. In that
7397 case FONTNAME is used for all character in the charset.
7399 FONTNAME may be a cons (FAMILY . REGISTRY), where FAMILY is the family
7400 name of a font and REGISTRY is a registry name of a font.
7402 *** Variable x-charset-registry has been deleted. The default charset
7403 registries of character sets are set in the default fontset
7406 *** The function `create-fontset-from-fontset-spec' ignores the second
7407 argument STYLE-VARIANT. It never creates style-variant fontsets.
7409 ** The method of composing characters is changed. Now character
7410 composition is done by a special text property `composition' in
7411 buffers and strings.
7413 *** Charset composition is deleted. Emacs never creates a `composite
7414 character' which is an independent character with a unique character
7415 code. Thus the following functions handling `composite characters'
7416 have been deleted: composite-char-component,
7417 composite-char-component-count, composite-char-composition-rule,
7418 composite-char-composition-rule and decompose-composite-char delete.
7419 The variables leading-code-composition and min-composite-char have
7422 *** Three more glyph reference points are added. They can be used to
7423 specify a composition rule. See the documentation of the variable
7424 `reference-point-alist' for more detail.
7426 *** The function `compose-region' takes new arguments COMPONENTS and
7427 MODIFICATION-FUNC. With COMPONENTS, you can specify not only a
7428 composition rule but also characters to be composed. Such characters
7429 may differ between buffer and string text.
7431 *** The function `compose-string' takes new arguments START, END,
7432 COMPONENTS, and MODIFICATION-FUNC.
7434 *** The function `compose-string' puts text property `composition'
7435 directly on the argument STRING instead of returning a new string.
7436 Likewise, the function `decompose-string' just removes text property
7437 `composition' from STRING.
7439 *** The new function `find-composition' returns information about
7440 a composition at a specified position in a buffer or a string.
7442 *** The function `decompose-composite-char' is now labeled as
7445 ** The new coding system `mac-roman' is primarily intended for use on
7446 the Macintosh but may be used generally for Macintosh-encoded text.
7448 ** The new character sets `mule-unicode-0100-24ff',
7449 `mule-unicode-2500-33ff', and `mule-unicode-e000-ffff' have been
7450 introduced for Unicode characters in the range U+0100..U+24FF,
7451 U+2500..U+33FF, U+E000..U+FFFF respectively.
7453 Note that the character sets are not yet unified in Emacs, so
7454 characters which belong to charsets such as Latin-2, Greek, Hebrew,
7455 etc. and the same characters in the `mule-unicode-*' charsets are
7456 different characters, as far as Emacs is concerned. For example, text
7457 which includes Unicode characters from the Latin-2 locale cannot be
7458 encoded by Emacs with ISO 8859-2 coding system.
7460 ** The new coding system `mule-utf-8' has been added.
7461 It provides limited support for decoding/encoding UTF-8 text. For
7462 details, please see the documentation string of this coding system.
7464 ** The new character sets `japanese-jisx0213-1' and
7465 `japanese-jisx0213-2' have been introduced for the new Japanese
7466 standard JIS X 0213 Plane 1 and Plane 2.
7468 ** The new character sets `latin-iso8859-14' and `latin-iso8859-15'
7469 have been introduced.
7471 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
7472 have been introduced for 8-bit characters in the ranges 0x80..0x9F and
7473 0xA0..0xFF respectively. Note that the multibyte representation of
7474 eight-bit-control is never exposed; this leads to an exception in the
7475 emacs-mule coding system, which encodes everything else to the
7476 buffer/string internal representation. Note that to search for
7477 eight-bit-graphic characters in a multibyte buffer, the search string
7478 must be multibyte, otherwise such characters will be converted to
7479 their multibyte equivalent.
7481 ** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
7482 that offset in the file before writing.
7484 ** The function `add-minor-mode' has been added for convenience and
7485 compatibility with XEmacs (and is used internally by define-minor-mode).
7487 ** The function `shell-command' now sets the default directory of the
7488 `*Shell Command Output*' buffer to the default directory of the buffer
7489 from which the command was issued.
7491 ** The functions `query-replace', `query-replace-regexp',
7492 `query-replace-regexp-eval' `map-query-replace-regexp',
7493 `replace-string', `replace-regexp', and `perform-replace' take two
7494 additional optional arguments START and END that specify the region to
7497 ** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
7498 to `window-buffer-height'.
7500 - Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
7502 Return the number of screen lines in the region between BEG and END.
7503 The number of screen lines may be different from the number of actual
7504 lines, due to line breaking, display table, etc.
7506 Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
7509 If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optional third argument
7510 COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
7512 The optional fourth argument WINDOW specifies the window used for
7513 obtaining parameters such as width, horizontal scrolling, and so
7514 on. The default is to use the selected window's parameters.
7516 Like `vertical-motion', `count-screen-lines' always uses the current
7517 buffer, regardless of which buffer is displayed in WINDOW. This makes
7518 possible to use `count-screen-lines' in any buffer, whether or not it
7519 is currently displayed in some window.
7521 ** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
7522 argument function's results.
7524 ** The functions base64-decode-region and base64-decode-string now
7525 signal an error instead of returning nil if decoding fails. Also,
7526 `base64-decode-string' now always returns a unibyte string (in Emacs
7527 20, it returned a multibyte string when the result was a valid multibyte
7530 ** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
7531 header in the list of headers passed to it.
7533 ** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
7534 ignores differences in case and text representation.
7536 ** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
7537 cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
7540 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
7541 nil don't display a cursor
7542 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
7543 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
7544 others display a box cursor.
7546 ** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
7547 an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
7548 defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
7549 set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
7551 ** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
7552 specifications in string form as accepted by `modify-syntax-entry' to
7553 the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
7554 text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
7558 (string-to-syntax "()")
7561 ** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
7564 *** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
7565 INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
7572 *** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
7577 *** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
7582 *** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
7589 ** The function `documentation-property' now evaluates the value of
7590 the given property to obtain a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
7593 ** If called for a symbol, the function `documentation' now looks for
7594 a `function-documentation' property of that symbol. If it has a non-nil
7595 value, the documentation is taken from that value. If the value is
7596 not a string, it is evaluated to obtain a string.
7598 ** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
7600 ** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
7601 for a regexp in a string.
7603 ** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
7604 `mouse-position-function'.
7606 ** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
7607 that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
7609 ** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
7610 Keywords are now always considered constants.
7612 ** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
7615 ** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
7616 returned by function `recent-keys'.
7618 ** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
7619 can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
7620 Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding C-M-a
7621 etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
7624 ** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
7625 and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
7627 ** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
7628 has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
7629 function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
7630 returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
7633 When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
7634 and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
7635 hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
7636 then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
7638 ** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
7639 In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
7640 and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
7642 ** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
7643 with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
7646 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
7648 Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
7649 TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
7650 saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
7653 ** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
7654 Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
7655 Also back-references like \2 are now considered as an error if the
7656 corresponding subgroup does not exist (or is not closed yet).
7657 Previously it would have been silently turned into `2' (ignoring the `\').
7659 ** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
7660 removed since it wasn't used by anything.
7662 ** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
7663 instead of being optional.
7665 ** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
7666 modify read-only text.
7668 ** New functions and variables for locales.
7670 The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
7671 decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
7672 time functions like strftime. The new variables
7673 `system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
7674 locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
7676 The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
7677 environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
7678 the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
7679 environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
7680 not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
7681 `locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
7682 `locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
7684 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
7685 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
7686 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
7689 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
7690 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
7692 ** New function `propertize'
7694 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
7695 strings with text properties.
7697 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
7699 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
7700 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
7701 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
7702 specified value of that property. Example:
7704 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
7706 ** push and pop macros.
7708 Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
7709 are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
7710 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
7712 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
7713 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
7714 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
7716 ** New dolist and dotimes macros.
7718 Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
7719 are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
7721 (dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
7722 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
7723 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
7724 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
7726 (dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
7727 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
7728 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
7729 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
7731 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such as
7732 [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on. These must be used within a character
7733 class--for instance, [-[:digit:].+] matches digits or a period
7736 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
7737 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
7738 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
7739 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
7740 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
7742 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
7744 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
7745 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
7746 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
7747 [:alpha:] matches letters.
7748 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
7749 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
7750 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
7751 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
7752 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
7753 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
7754 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
7755 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
7756 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
7757 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
7758 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
7760 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
7762 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
7764 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
7766 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
7767 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
7771 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
7772 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
7773 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
7777 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
7778 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
7780 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
7782 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
7783 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
7784 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
7785 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
7786 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
7788 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
7790 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
7791 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
7792 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
7796 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value',
7797 `key-or-value', `key-and-value', or t, meaning the same as
7798 `key-and-value'. Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage
7799 collection if their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere
7800 outside of the hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
7802 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
7804 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
7806 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
7808 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
7810 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
7812 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
7815 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
7817 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
7819 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
7821 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
7823 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
7825 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
7827 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
7829 Returns the size of TABLE.
7831 - Function: hash-table-test TABLE
7833 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
7835 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
7837 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
7839 - Function: clrhash TABLE
7843 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
7845 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
7848 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
7850 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
7851 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
7853 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
7855 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
7857 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
7859 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
7860 arguments KEY and VALUE.
7862 - Function: sxhash OBJ
7864 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
7866 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
7868 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
7869 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
7870 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
7871 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
7872 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
7874 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
7876 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
7877 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
7878 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
7880 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
7881 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
7883 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
7884 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
7886 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
7887 (sxhash (upcase a)))
7889 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
7890 'case-fold-string-hash))
7892 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
7894 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
7896 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
7897 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
7898 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
7900 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
7902 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
7903 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
7905 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
7906 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
7907 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
7908 is too short to reach that column.
7910 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
7911 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
7912 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
7913 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
7915 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
7916 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
7917 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
7919 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
7920 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
7922 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
7923 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
7925 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
7926 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
7927 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
7928 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
7929 temporary-file-directory instead.
7931 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
7932 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
7933 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
7934 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
7936 ** assq-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
7937 elements of an alist which have a car `eq' to a particular value.
7939 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
7941 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
7942 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
7943 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
7945 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
7947 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
7948 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
7949 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
7950 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
7951 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
7952 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
7954 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
7955 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
7956 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
7957 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
7959 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
7961 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
7962 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
7963 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
7966 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
7967 string where arguments appear in the result string.
7971 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
7973 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
7974 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
7977 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
7979 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
7981 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
7982 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
7985 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
7987 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
7988 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
7993 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
7994 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
7996 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
7997 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
7998 to enable sound support.
8000 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
8001 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
8002 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
8003 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
8004 sound to play, before playing the sound.
8006 The following sound properties are supported:
8010 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
8011 searched relative to `data-directory'.
8015 DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
8016 may be present, but not both.
8020 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
8021 0..1. This property is optional.
8025 DEVICE is a string specifying the system device on which to play the
8026 sound. The default device is system-dependent.
8028 Other properties are ignored.
8030 An alternative interface is called as
8031 (play-sound-file FILE &optional VOLUME DEVICE).
8033 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
8035 ** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
8038 ** Changes to garbage collection
8040 *** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
8041 of live and free strings.
8043 *** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
8044 strings that have been consed so far.
8047 * Lisp-level Display features added after release 2.6 of the Emacs
8050 ** The user-option `resize-mini-windows' controls how Emacs resizes
8053 ** The function `pos-visible-in-window-p' now has a third optional
8054 argument, PARTIALLY. If a character is only partially visible, nil is
8055 returned, unless PARTIALLY is non-nil.
8057 ** On window systems, `glyph-table' is no longer used.
8059 ** Help strings in menu items are now used to provide `help-echo' text.
8061 ** The function `image-size' can be used to determine the size of an
8064 - Function: image-size SPEC &optional PIXELS FRAME
8066 Return the size of an image as a pair (WIDTH . HEIGHT).
8068 SPEC is an image specification. PIXELS non-nil means return sizes
8069 measured in pixels, otherwise return sizes measured in canonical
8070 character units (fractions of the width/height of the frame's default
8071 font). FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed.
8072 FRAME nil or omitted means use the selected frame.
8074 ** The function `image-mask-p' can be used to determine if an image
8077 - Function: image-mask-p SPEC &optional FRAME
8079 Return t if image SPEC has a mask bitmap.
8080 FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed. FRAME nil
8081 or omitted means use the selected frame.
8083 ** The function `find-image' can be used to find a usable image
8084 satisfying one of a list of specifications.
8086 ** The STRING argument of `put-image' and `insert-image' is now
8089 ** Image specifications may contain the property `:ascent center' (see
8093 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
8095 ** The function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors can be used
8096 to make Emacs avoid displaying text with bold black foreground on TTYs.
8098 Some terminals, notably PC consoles, emulate bold text by displaying
8099 text in brighter colors. On such a console, a bold black foreground
8100 is displayed in a gray color. If this turns out to be hard to read on
8101 your monitor---the problem occurred with the mode line on
8102 laptops---you can instruct Emacs to ignore the text's boldness, and to
8103 just display it black instead.
8105 This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
8108 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
8112 ** New face implementation.
8114 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
8115 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
8119 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
8121 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
8123 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
8124 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
8126 3. Font height in 1/10pt
8128 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
8130 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
8132 6. Foreground color.
8134 7. Background color.
8136 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
8138 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
8140 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
8142 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
8144 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
8147 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
8148 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
8150 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
8151 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
8152 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
8153 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
8154 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each of the face
8155 attributes mentioned above.
8157 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
8158 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
8161 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
8162 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
8167 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
8168 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
8169 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
8170 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
8171 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
8172 results in a fully-specified face.
8174 *** Face realization.
8176 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
8177 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
8178 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
8179 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
8180 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
8181 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
8183 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
8184 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
8185 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
8186 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
8188 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
8189 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
8190 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
8191 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
8192 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
8194 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
8195 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
8196 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
8197 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
8198 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
8201 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
8202 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
8203 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
8204 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
8206 **** Clearing face caches.
8208 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
8209 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
8214 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
8215 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
8216 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
8218 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
8219 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
8220 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
8221 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
8222 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
8224 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
8225 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
8226 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
8228 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
8230 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
8231 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
8232 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
8233 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
8234 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
8235 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
8236 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
8238 Setting `face-font-family-alternatives' allows the user to specify
8239 alternative font families to try if a family specified by a face
8242 Setting `face-font-registry-alternatives' allows the user to specify
8243 all alternative font registry names to try for a face specifying a
8246 Please note that the interpretations of the above two variables are
8249 Setting face-ignored-fonts allows the user to ignore specific fonts.
8254 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
8255 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
8258 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
8259 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
8260 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
8261 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
8262 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
8265 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
8267 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
8269 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
8271 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
8273 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
8274 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
8275 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
8277 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
8278 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
8279 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
8280 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
8281 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
8282 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
8283 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
8284 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
8285 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
8286 of the face font sort order.
8288 - Function: x-font-family-list
8290 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
8291 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
8292 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
8293 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
8295 - Variable: font-list-limit
8297 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
8298 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
8299 matching font. The default is currently 100.
8301 *** Setting face attributes.
8303 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
8304 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
8305 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
8308 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
8309 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
8311 The following attributes are recognized:
8315 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
8316 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
8317 and `?' are allowed.
8321 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
8322 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
8323 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
8324 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
8328 VALUE must be either an integer specifying the height of the font to use
8329 in 1/10 pt, a floating point number specifying the amount by which to
8330 scale any underlying face, or a function, which is called with the old
8331 height (from the underlying face), and should return the new height.
8335 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
8336 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
8337 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
8341 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
8342 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
8345 `:foreground', `:background'
8347 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
8351 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
8352 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
8353 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
8358 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
8359 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
8360 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
8365 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
8366 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
8367 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
8368 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
8372 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
8373 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
8374 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
8375 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
8376 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
8377 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
8378 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
8379 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
8380 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
8381 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
8382 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
8383 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
8384 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
8385 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
8386 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
8387 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
8392 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
8393 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
8397 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
8398 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
8399 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
8400 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
8401 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
8402 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
8404 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
8405 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
8409 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
8410 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
8411 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
8414 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
8415 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
8416 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
8418 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
8423 VALUE is the name of a face from which to inherit attributes, or a list
8424 of face names. Attributes from inherited faces are merged into the face
8425 like an underlying face would be, with higher priority than underlying faces.
8427 *** Face attributes and X resources
8429 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
8432 Face attribute X resource class
8433 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
8434 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
8435 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
8436 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
8437 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
8438 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
8439 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
8440 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
8441 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
8442 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
8443 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
8444 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
8445 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
8446 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
8447 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
8448 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
8449 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
8450 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
8451 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
8452 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
8454 *** Text property `face'.
8456 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
8457 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
8458 specification can be
8460 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
8462 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
8463 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
8464 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
8465 for face attribute names.
8467 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
8468 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
8469 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
8471 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
8473 The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
8474 on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
8475 the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
8476 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
8477 `defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
8478 used to clear the mapping table.
8480 ** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
8482 The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
8483 and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
8484 type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
8485 color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
8486 display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
8487 old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
8488 `x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
8489 compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
8490 should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
8491 modify their color-related behavior.
8493 The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
8496 ** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
8498 The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
8499 `display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
8500 `display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
8501 `display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
8502 `display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
8503 `display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
8504 display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
8505 the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
8506 platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
8508 The new function `display-images-p' returns non-nil if a particular
8509 display can display image files.
8511 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
8513 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
8514 To disallow this completely (like previous versions of emacs), customize
8515 the variable `minibuffer-prompt-properties', and turn on the
8516 `Inviolable' option.
8518 The function `minibuffer-prompt-end' returns the current position of the
8519 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
8520 Otherwise, it returns `(point-min)'.
8522 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
8524 There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
8525 buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
8526 property (which can be a text property or an overlay).
8528 Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
8529 forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
8530 to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
8531 not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
8532 commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
8533 boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
8534 `inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
8537 Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
8538 a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
8539 editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
8541 The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
8543 - Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY
8545 Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
8547 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
8548 If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
8549 constrained position if that is different.
8551 If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
8552 positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
8553 ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
8554 constrained to the field that has the same `field' char-property
8555 as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
8556 is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
8557 fields. Additionally, if two fields are separated by another field with
8558 the special value `boundary', then any point within this special field is
8559 also considered to be `on the boundary'.
8561 If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
8562 NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
8563 unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
8564 C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
8565 only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
8567 If the optional argument INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY is non-nil, and OLD-POS has
8568 a non-nil property of that name, then any field boundaries are ignored.
8570 Field boundaries are not noticed if `inhibit-field-text-motion' is non-nil.
8572 - Function: delete-field &optional POS
8574 Delete the field surrounding POS.
8575 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
8576 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
8578 - Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
8580 Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
8581 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
8582 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
8583 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the beginning of its
8584 field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
8586 - Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
8588 Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
8589 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
8590 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
8591 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the end of its field,
8592 then the end of the *following* field is returned.
8594 - Function: field-string &optional POS
8596 Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
8597 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
8598 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
8600 - Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
8602 Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
8603 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
8604 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
8608 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
8609 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
8610 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
8611 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
8613 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
8614 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
8615 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
8616 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
8619 IMAGE is an image specification.
8621 *** Image specifications
8623 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
8624 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
8625 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
8626 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
8627 described below are ignored.
8629 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
8633 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, or the symbol `center'.
8634 If it is a number, it specifies the percentage of the image's height
8635 to use for its ascent.
8637 If not specified, ASCENT defaults to the value 50 which means that the
8638 image will be centered with the base line of the row it appears in.
8640 If ASCENT is `center' the image is vertically centered around a
8641 centerline which is the vertical center of text drawn at the position
8642 of the image, in the manner specified by the text properties and
8643 overlays that apply to the image.
8647 MARGIN must be either a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put
8648 as margin around the image, or a pair (X . Y) with X specifying the
8649 horizontal margin and Y specifying the vertical margin. Default is 0.
8653 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
8658 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it.
8660 ALGO `laplace' or `emboss' means apply a Laplace or ``emboss''
8661 edge-detection algorithm to the image.
8663 ALGO `(edge-detection :matrix MATRIX :color-adjust ADJUST)' means
8664 apply a general edge-detection algorithm. MATRIX must be either a
8665 nine-element list or a nine-element vector of numbers. A pixel at
8666 position x/y in the transformed image is computed from original pixels
8667 around that position. MATRIX specifies, for each pixel in the
8668 neighborhood of x/y, a factor with which that pixel will influence the
8669 transformed pixel; element 0 specifies the factor for the pixel at
8670 x-1/y-1, element 1 the factor for the pixel at x/y-1 etc. as shown
8673 (x-1/y-1 x/y-1 x+1/y-1
8675 x-1/y+1 x/y+1 x+1/y+1)
8677 The resulting pixel is computed from the color intensity of the color
8678 resulting from summing up the RGB values of surrounding pixels,
8679 multiplied by the specified factors, and dividing that sum by the sum
8680 of the factors' absolute values.
8682 Laplace edge-detection currently uses a matrix of
8688 Emboss edge-detection uses a matrix of
8694 ALGO `disabled' means transform the image so that it looks
8699 If MASK is `heuristic' or `(heuristic BG)', build a clipping mask for
8700 the image, so that the background of a frame is visible behind the
8701 image. If BG is not specified, or if BG is t, determine the
8702 background color of the image by looking at the 4 corners of the
8703 image, assuming the most frequently occurring color from the corners is
8704 the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must be a list `(RED
8705 GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the background of the
8708 If MASK is nil, remove a mask from the image, if it has one. Images
8709 in some formats include a mask which can be removed by specifying
8714 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
8715 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
8716 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
8717 may be present in the image specification.
8721 Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
8722 supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
8723 present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
8724 support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
8726 *** Supported image types
8728 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
8730 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
8731 properties supported are:
8735 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
8736 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground color.
8740 BG must be a string specifying the image background color, or nil
8741 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
8743 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
8744 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
8745 instead of a `:file' property.
8749 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
8753 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
8759 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
8760 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
8762 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
8764 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
8767 4. a string that's an in-memory XBM file. Neither width nor
8768 height may be specified in this case because these are defined
8771 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
8773 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
8774 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
8775 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
8776 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
8778 Additional image properties supported are:
8780 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
8782 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
8783 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
8786 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
8787 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
8789 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
8790 to display compressed images.
8792 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
8794 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
8795 mono images are supported. Additional image properties supported for
8800 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
8801 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground color.
8805 BG must be a string specifying the image background color, or nil
8806 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
8808 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
8810 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
8811 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
8814 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
8816 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
8817 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
8820 **** GIF, image type `gif'
8822 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
8823 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
8825 Additional image properties supported are:
8829 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
8830 multi-image GIF file. If INDEX is too large, the image displays
8833 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
8834 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
8835 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
8838 (defun show-anim (file max)
8839 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
8840 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
8842 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
8845 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
8848 (goto-char (point-min))
8849 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
8850 (insert-image img "x"))
8851 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
8853 **** PNG, image type `png'
8855 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
8856 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
8859 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
8861 Additional image properties supported are:
8865 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
8866 integer. This is a required property.
8870 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
8871 must be a integer. This is an required property.
8875 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
8876 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
8877 files. This is an required property.
8879 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
8884 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
8885 which are supported in the current configuration.
8887 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
8888 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
8889 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
8890 manually. Images in the cache are compared with `equal', i.e. all
8891 images with `equal' specifications share the same image.
8893 *** Simplified image API, image.el
8895 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
8896 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
8897 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
8898 define an image based on available image types. The functions
8899 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
8904 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
8907 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
8908 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
8909 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
8910 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
8911 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
8912 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
8913 of the display margins.
8915 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
8916 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
8917 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
8918 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
8923 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
8924 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
8925 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
8926 that have a `help-echo' property.
8928 If the value of the `help-echo' property is a function, that function
8929 is called with three arguments WINDOW, OBJECT and POSITION. WINDOW is
8930 the window in which the help was found.
8932 If OBJECT is a buffer, POS is the position in the buffer where the
8933 `help-echo' text property was found.
8935 If OBJECT is an overlay, that overlay has a `help-echo' property, and
8936 POS is the position in the overlay's buffer under the mouse.
8938 If OBJECT is a string (an overlay string or a string displayed with
8939 the `display' property), POS is the position in that string under the
8942 If the value of the `help-echo' property is neither a function nor a
8943 string, it is evaluated to obtain a help string.
8945 For tool-bar and menu-bar items, their key definition is used to
8946 determine the help to display. If their definition contains a
8947 property `:help FORM', FORM is evaluated to determine the help string.
8948 For tool-bar items without a help form, the caption of the item is
8949 used as help string.
8951 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
8952 the help string differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window
8953 causes the help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
8955 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
8957 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
8958 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
8960 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
8961 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
8962 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
8963 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
8966 (global-set-key [A-down]
8969 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
8970 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
8971 (global-set-key [A-up]
8974 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
8975 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
8977 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
8979 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
8980 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
8981 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
8982 is called with one argument, POS.
8984 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
8985 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
8986 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
8987 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
8988 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
8990 ** Tool bar support.
8992 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
8993 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
8994 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
8995 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
8996 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
8997 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
8999 *** Tool bar item definitions
9001 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
9002 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
9003 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
9005 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
9006 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
9007 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
9008 property (see below).
9010 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
9011 binding are currently ignored.
9013 The following properties are recognized:
9017 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
9022 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
9026 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
9027 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
9028 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
9030 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
9032 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
9033 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
9037 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
9038 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
9039 meaning of each of the four elements:
9041 Index Use when item is
9042 ----------------------------------------
9043 0 enabled and selected
9044 1 enabled and deselected
9045 2 disabled and selected
9046 3 disabled and deselected
9048 If IMAGE is a single image specification, a Laplace edge-detection
9049 algorithm is used on that image to draw the image in disabled state.
9051 `:help HELP-STRING'.
9053 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
9054 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
9056 The function `toolbar-add-item' is a convenience function for adding
9057 toolbar items generally, and `tool-bar-add-item-from-menu' can be used
9058 to define a toolbar item with a binding copied from an item on the
9061 The default bindings use a menu-item :filter to derive the tool-bar
9062 dynamically from variable `tool-bar-map' which may be set
9063 buffer-locally to override the global map.
9065 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
9067 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
9068 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
9069 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
9071 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
9072 raised when the mouse moves over them.
9074 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
9075 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
9076 pixels, or a pair of integers (X . Y) specifying horizontal and
9077 vertical margins . Default is 1.
9079 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
9080 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
9082 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
9084 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
9087 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
9088 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
9089 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
9091 is the original tool bar item definition, then
9093 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
9095 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
9098 ** Mode line changes.
9100 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
9102 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
9103 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
9104 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
9106 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
9107 a `local-map' text property.
9109 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
9110 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
9112 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
9113 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
9114 `local-map' property.
9116 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
9117 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
9120 *** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
9121 evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
9123 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
9124 variable mode-line-format to nil.
9126 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
9128 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
9129 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
9130 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
9131 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
9134 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
9137 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
9138 position in the header-line.
9140 ** Text property `display'
9142 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text,
9143 replace text with other text, display text in marginal area, and it is
9144 also used to control other aspects of how text displays. The value of
9145 the `display' property should be a display specification, as described
9146 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
9148 *** Replacing text, displaying text in marginal areas
9150 To replace the text having the `display' property with some other
9151 text, use a display specification of the form `(LOCATION STRING)'.
9153 If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)', STRING is displayed in the left
9154 marginal area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in
9155 the right marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' STRING
9156 is displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
9157 simpler form STRING as property value.
9159 *** Variable width and height spaces
9161 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
9162 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
9163 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
9164 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
9165 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
9166 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
9167 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
9169 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
9170 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
9171 properties described below.
9173 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
9174 characters having the `display' property.
9178 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
9179 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
9181 - :relative-width FACTOR
9183 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
9184 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
9185 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
9186 width of that character by FACTOR.
9190 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
9191 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
9193 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
9197 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
9200 - :relative-height FACTOR
9202 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
9203 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
9207 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
9208 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
9209 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
9212 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
9216 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
9217 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
9218 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
9219 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
9220 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
9221 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
9222 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
9223 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
9224 as display specification.
9226 *** Other display properties
9228 - (space-width FACTOR)
9230 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
9231 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
9236 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
9238 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
9239 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
9240 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
9241 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
9242 a font is available counts as a step.
9244 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
9245 as tall as the frame's default font.
9247 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
9248 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
9250 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
9251 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
9255 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
9256 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
9257 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
9258 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
9259 `height' subproperty.
9261 *** Conditional display properties
9263 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
9264 has the form `(when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC applies
9265 only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated. During the
9266 evaluation, `object' is bound to the string or buffer having the
9267 conditional display property; `position' and `buffer-position' are
9268 bound to the position within `object' and the buffer position where
9269 the display property was found, respectively. Both positions can be
9270 different when object is a string.
9272 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
9275 ** New menu separator types.
9277 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
9278 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
9279 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
9280 to specify other menu separator types.
9282 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
9284 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
9287 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
9289 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
9291 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
9293 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
9295 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
9297 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
9299 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
9301 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
9303 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
9305 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the form
9306 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
9308 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
9310 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
9312 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
9314 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
9316 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
9318 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
9320 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
9322 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
9324 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
9326 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
9328 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
9330 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
9332 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
9334 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
9336 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
9337 the corresponding single-line separators.
9339 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
9341 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
9342 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
9343 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
9344 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
9345 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
9346 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
9347 default foreground is black.
9349 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
9350 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
9351 `ScrollBarBackground').
9353 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
9354 settings for scroll bar colors.
9356 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
9357 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
9359 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
9360 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
9361 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
9362 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
9363 the original window start.
9365 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
9366 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
9367 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
9369 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
9371 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
9372 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
9373 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
9374 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
9376 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
9377 fixed-width and fixed-height.
9379 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
9381 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
9382 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
9383 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
9384 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
9385 temporarily to nil, for example
9387 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
9388 (enlarge-window 10))
9390 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
9391 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
9393 ** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
9394 terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
9395 to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
9396 overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
9397 horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
9398 support a vertical-bar cursor).
9402 * Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes
9404 ** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard
9407 ** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos.
9409 ** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages.
9411 ** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not
9412 only for character input, but also in incremental search. The
9413 exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets
9414 (e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence
9415 (e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search.
9417 ** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has
9421 * Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change
9423 ** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added.
9427 * Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
9429 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
9430 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
9432 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
9434 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
9436 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
9437 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
9438 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
9440 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
9441 is the one that is used.
9443 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
9444 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
9445 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
9446 separate from the command's regular output.
9447 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
9448 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
9449 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
9452 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
9453 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
9454 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
9455 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
9457 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
9458 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
9459 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
9460 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
9462 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
9463 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
9464 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
9465 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
9467 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
9468 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
9469 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
9470 they never ignore case.
9472 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
9473 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
9474 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
9475 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
9476 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
9477 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
9478 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
9480 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
9481 the same format that was used in the file before.
9483 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
9484 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
9486 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
9487 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
9488 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
9490 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
9491 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
9492 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
9493 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
9494 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
9495 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
9496 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
9498 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
9499 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
9500 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
9501 format. You can now customize these variables.
9503 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
9504 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
9505 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
9506 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
9508 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
9509 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
9510 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
9512 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
9513 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
9514 doesn't have any effect.
9516 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
9519 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
9520 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
9521 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
9523 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
9524 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
9525 `auto-show-mode' command.
9527 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
9528 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
9529 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
9530 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
9531 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
9533 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
9534 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
9536 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
9537 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
9538 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
9540 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
9541 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
9542 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
9543 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
9545 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
9547 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
9548 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
9549 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
9550 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
9551 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
9553 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
9554 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
9556 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
9557 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
9558 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
9559 `?' on other systems.
9561 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
9562 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
9565 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
9566 current codepage when it starts.
9570 *** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
9571 `mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
9572 appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
9573 non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
9574 MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
9575 headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
9579 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
9580 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
9582 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
9583 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
9584 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
9585 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
9586 buffer-file-coding-system.
9588 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
9589 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
9592 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
9593 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
9594 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
9595 list of possible coding systems.
9599 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
9600 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
9601 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
9602 docstring for details.
9604 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
9605 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
9606 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
9607 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
9608 lineup functions use this feature currently.
9610 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
9611 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
9613 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
9614 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
9616 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
9617 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
9618 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
9619 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
9622 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
9623 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
9625 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
9626 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
9627 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
9628 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
9630 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
9631 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
9632 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
9633 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
9634 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
9636 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
9638 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
9640 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
9641 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
9643 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
9645 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
9646 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
9647 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
9648 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
9649 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
9653 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
9654 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
9655 Gnus manual for the full story.
9657 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
9658 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
9659 group, which is created automatically.
9661 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
9664 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
9666 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
9667 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
9669 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
9672 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
9674 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
9675 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
9677 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
9679 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
9680 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
9682 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
9683 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
9685 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
9686 control over simplification.
9688 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
9690 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
9693 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
9695 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
9697 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
9698 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
9699 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
9701 *** Canceling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
9702 `a' forces normal posting method.
9704 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
9707 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
9710 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
9711 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
9713 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
9716 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
9718 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
9720 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
9721 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
9723 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
9724 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
9726 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
9728 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
9731 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
9732 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
9734 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
9735 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
9737 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
9739 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
9741 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
9743 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
9745 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
9746 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
9747 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
9749 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
9750 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
9751 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
9752 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
9753 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
9755 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
9756 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
9757 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
9758 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
9760 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
9761 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
9762 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
9765 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
9767 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
9768 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
9770 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
9771 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
9772 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
9773 removed from the label.
9775 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
9776 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
9778 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
9779 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
9781 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
9782 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
9785 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
9787 ** New/deleted modes and packages
9789 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
9790 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
9792 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
9793 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
9794 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
9796 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
9797 changes with a special face.
9799 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
9800 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
9801 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
9803 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
9805 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
9806 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
9807 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
9808 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
9809 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
9811 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
9812 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
9813 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
9815 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
9816 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
9817 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
9818 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
9819 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
9820 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
9821 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
9822 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
9823 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
9825 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
9826 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
9827 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
9828 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
9829 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
9832 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
9833 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
9834 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
9835 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
9836 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
9837 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
9839 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
9840 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
9841 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
9842 was not documented clearly before.
9844 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
9845 This includes Tetris and Snake.
9847 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
9849 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
9850 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
9851 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
9852 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
9854 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
9855 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
9856 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
9858 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
9860 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
9861 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
9863 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
9864 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
9867 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
9868 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
9869 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
9870 file names and attributes are returned.
9872 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
9873 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
9874 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its attributes.
9875 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
9878 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
9879 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
9881 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
9883 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
9884 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
9885 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
9888 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
9889 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
9892 The new function process-running-child-p
9893 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
9894 terminal to its own child process.
9896 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
9897 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
9898 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
9899 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
9901 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
9902 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
9904 ** easymenu.el now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
9905 :included is an alias for :visible.
9907 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
9908 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
9909 to move or copy menu entries.
9911 ** Multibyte editing changes
9913 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
9914 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
9915 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
9916 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
9917 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
9918 (setq char (sref str idx)
9919 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
9920 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
9922 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
9923 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
9924 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
9926 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
9927 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
9928 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
9930 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibited
9932 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
9933 across the boundary.
9935 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
9936 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
9937 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
9938 contains 8-bit characters.
9939 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
9940 contains invalid characters.
9942 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
9943 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
9944 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
9945 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
9948 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
9949 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
9950 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
9951 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
9953 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
9954 compose Thai characters in a string.
9956 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
9957 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
9958 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
9959 menus should always use the third argument.
9961 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
9962 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
9963 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
9964 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
9966 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
9967 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
9968 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
9969 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
9971 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
9972 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
9973 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
9976 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
9978 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
9979 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
9980 requested feature cannot be loaded.
9982 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
9983 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
9984 means to clear out that attribute.
9986 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
9987 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
9989 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
9990 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
9991 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
9992 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
9994 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
9995 the gap of the current buffer.
9997 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
9998 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
10001 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
10002 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
10003 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
10004 it back in after any modifications have been made.
10006 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
10008 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
10009 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
10010 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
10011 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
10012 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
10014 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
10015 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
10016 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
10017 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
10018 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
10020 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
10021 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
10022 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
10024 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
10025 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
10026 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
10027 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
10028 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
10031 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
10032 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
10033 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
10034 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
10036 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
10038 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
10039 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
10040 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
10041 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
10043 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
10044 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
10045 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
10046 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
10047 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
10048 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
10049 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
10052 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
10055 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
10056 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
10057 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
10058 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
10059 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
10061 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
10062 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
10063 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
10064 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
10066 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
10067 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
10068 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
10069 something that most users not do.
10071 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
10072 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
10073 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
10076 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
10077 pasting operations.
10079 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
10080 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
10081 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
10082 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
10085 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
10086 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
10087 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
10088 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
10089 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
10092 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
10093 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
10094 to be confused by TeX commands.
10096 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
10097 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
10098 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
10099 of various alternative replacements and actions.
10101 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
10102 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
10103 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
10104 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
10105 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
10107 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
10108 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
10110 ** Changes in input method usage.
10112 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
10113 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
10116 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
10118 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
10119 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
10121 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
10122 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
10124 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
10126 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
10128 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
10129 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
10131 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
10132 given in the following case:
10133 o When you are using a complex input method.
10134 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
10136 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
10137 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
10138 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
10139 setting it to t is helpful.
10141 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
10143 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
10145 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
10146 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
10147 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
10148 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
10151 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
10152 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
10153 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
10156 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
10158 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
10160 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
10161 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
10163 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
10164 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
10165 its owner and group.
10167 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
10168 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
10170 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
10171 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
10173 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
10174 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
10175 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
10176 by the left edge of the rectangle.
10178 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
10179 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
10180 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
10181 for writing keyboard macros.
10183 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
10184 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
10185 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
10186 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
10187 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
10190 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
10192 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
10193 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
10196 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
10197 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
10198 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
10199 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
10201 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
10202 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
10203 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
10205 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
10206 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
10207 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
10208 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
10210 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
10211 failure if the command produces no output.
10213 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
10214 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
10217 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
10218 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
10219 function and variable names.
10221 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
10222 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
10223 file-coding-system-alist.
10225 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
10226 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
10227 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
10228 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
10229 according to the current fontset.
10231 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
10233 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
10234 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
10235 nonascii-insert-offset.
10237 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
10238 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
10239 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
10240 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
10242 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
10243 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
10245 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
10246 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
10248 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
10249 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
10252 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
10253 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
10255 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
10256 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
10257 all variables that have documentation.
10259 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
10260 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
10261 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
10262 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
10263 it should show; the default is 20.
10265 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
10266 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
10269 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
10270 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
10271 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
10272 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
10273 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
10274 Newly added options are included as well.
10276 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
10277 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
10278 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
10280 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
10283 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
10284 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
10286 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
10287 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
10290 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
10291 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
10294 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
10295 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
10296 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
10297 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
10300 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
10302 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
10303 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
10304 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
10306 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
10307 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
10308 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
10313 *** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
10314 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
10316 *** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
10317 and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
10319 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
10320 read and post multi-lingual articles.
10322 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
10323 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
10324 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
10325 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
10326 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
10327 made invisible again.
10329 ** Mail reading and sending changes
10331 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
10332 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
10333 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
10336 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
10337 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
10338 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
10339 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
10340 rmail-default-body-file.
10342 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
10343 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
10344 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
10346 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
10347 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
10348 is evaluated to insert the signature.
10350 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
10351 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
10352 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
10353 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
10354 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
10355 especially interested in trying feedmail.
10357 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
10358 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
10359 provided by feedmail are:
10361 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
10362 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
10363 there is also a queue for draft messages
10365 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
10366 be prompted for confirmation
10368 **** does smart filling of address headers
10370 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
10371 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
10372 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
10374 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
10375 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
10376 /usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
10377 function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
10381 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
10382 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
10384 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
10385 run Dired on the directory name at point.
10387 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
10388 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
10389 for a specified regexp.
10393 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
10396 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
10397 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
10400 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
10401 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
10402 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
10403 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
10405 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
10406 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
10407 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
10408 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
10409 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
10411 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
10412 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
10413 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
10414 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
10415 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
10417 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
10418 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
10419 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
10420 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
10422 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
10423 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
10424 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
10426 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
10427 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
10428 session to resolve them.
10430 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
10431 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
10432 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
10435 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
10436 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
10437 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
10438 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
10439 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
10440 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
10443 ** Changes in Font Lock
10445 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
10446 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
10447 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
10448 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
10449 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
10451 ** Frame name display changes
10453 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
10454 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
10455 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
10456 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
10458 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
10459 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
10462 ** Comint (subshell) changes
10464 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
10465 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
10466 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
10468 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
10470 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
10471 that is, the line after the last line you got.
10472 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
10474 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
10475 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
10476 the following line.
10478 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
10479 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
10480 previously sent input.
10482 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
10483 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
10484 as the search string.
10486 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
10487 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
10491 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
10492 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
10493 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
10496 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
10497 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
10498 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
10499 style is still the default however.
10501 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
10503 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
10504 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
10505 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
10507 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
10508 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
10510 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
10511 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
10513 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
10514 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
10516 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
10517 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
10519 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
10520 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
10521 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
10522 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
10524 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
10526 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
10527 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
10528 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
10530 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
10531 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
10532 expanding dynamically.
10534 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
10535 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
10537 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
10538 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
10539 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
10540 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
10542 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
10544 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
10546 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
10547 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
10548 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
10549 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
10550 against the first word in the title.
10552 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
10553 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
10554 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
10555 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
10556 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
10557 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
10559 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
10560 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
10561 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
10562 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
10564 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
10566 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
10567 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
10568 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
10569 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
10570 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
10571 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
10573 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
10574 Editing group once the package is loaded.
10576 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
10577 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
10578 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behavior.
10580 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
10581 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
10585 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
10586 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
10587 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
10589 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
10590 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
10591 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
10592 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
10595 o URLs are automatically skipped
10596 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
10598 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
10600 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
10602 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
10603 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
10604 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
10605 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
10607 *** New recursive parser.
10609 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
10610 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
10611 recursive parser scans the individual files.
10613 *** Parsing only part of a document.
10615 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
10616 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
10617 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
10619 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
10621 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
10623 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
10625 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
10627 *** Using multiple selection buffers
10629 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
10630 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
10632 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
10634 *** References to external documents.
10636 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
10637 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
10638 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
10639 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
10640 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
10641 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
10642 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
10644 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
10646 The built-in command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
10647 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
10649 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
10650 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
10652 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
10654 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
10655 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
10657 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
10659 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
10660 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
10661 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
10662 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
10663 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
10664 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
10667 *** Support for the varioref package
10669 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
10673 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
10674 and citations are created. These hooks are
10675 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
10676 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
10678 *** Citations outside LaTeX
10680 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
10681 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
10683 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
10685 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
10686 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
10689 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
10691 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
10692 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
10693 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
10694 directories that contain the same file name.
10696 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
10697 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
10698 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
10699 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
10700 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
10701 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
10702 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
10705 ** New modes and packages
10707 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
10708 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
10709 it, but some do not.
10711 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
10714 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
10715 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
10716 around in a buffer.
10718 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
10720 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
10721 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
10722 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
10723 established system of notation similar to Chess.
10725 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
10726 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
10727 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
10729 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
10730 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
10731 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
10732 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
10733 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
10736 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
10737 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
10739 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
10740 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
10741 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
10742 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
10744 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
10746 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
10747 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
10748 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
10749 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
10750 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
10751 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
10752 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
10753 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
10754 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
10755 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
10756 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
10758 Platform-specific modes:
10760 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
10761 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
10762 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
10763 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
10764 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
10765 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
10766 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
10767 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
10768 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
10770 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
10772 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
10773 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
10774 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
10775 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
10777 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
10778 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
10779 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
10781 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
10782 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
10783 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
10784 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
10786 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
10787 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
10788 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
10791 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
10792 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
10793 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
10794 current input method for reading this one event.
10796 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
10797 now control whether to output certain characters as
10798 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
10799 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
10800 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
10801 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
10803 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
10805 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
10806 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
10808 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
10809 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
10810 always increases point by 1.
10812 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
10813 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
10815 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
10817 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
10818 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
10819 default value changed. For example,
10821 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
10826 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
10829 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
10830 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
10831 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
10832 `:version' in the top level group.
10834 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
10836 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
10837 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
10839 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
10840 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
10841 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
10844 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
10845 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
10848 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
10849 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
10850 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
10852 ** Frame-local variables.
10854 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
10855 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
10856 local bindings for that variable.
10858 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
10859 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
10860 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
10863 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
10864 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
10865 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
10866 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
10868 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
10869 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
10870 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
10871 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
10873 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
10874 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
10875 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
10876 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
10877 See the documentation in sregex.el.
10879 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
10880 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
10881 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
10882 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
10884 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
10885 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
10887 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
10888 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
10889 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
10891 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
10892 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
10893 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
10894 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
10896 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
10897 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
10900 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
10901 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
10902 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
10903 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
10904 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
10906 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
10907 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
10908 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
10909 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
10911 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
10912 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
10913 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
10914 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
10915 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
10917 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
10918 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
10919 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
10920 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
10922 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
10923 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
10924 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
10926 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
10927 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
10928 was directed to display this buffer.
10930 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
10931 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
10932 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
10933 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
10934 set-window-configuration.
10936 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
10937 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
10938 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
10939 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
10941 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
10942 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
10943 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
10945 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
10946 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
10947 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
10949 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
10950 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
10952 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
10953 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
10955 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
10956 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
10957 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
10959 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
10960 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
10961 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
10962 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
10966 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
10967 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
10970 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
10971 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
10972 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
10973 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
10974 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
10976 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
10978 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
10979 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
10980 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
10981 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
10984 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
10985 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
10986 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
10987 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
10988 The supported properties include
10990 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
10992 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
10993 item should appear in the menu.
10995 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
10996 which will be REAL-BINDING.
10997 It should return a binding to use instead.
10999 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
11000 binding for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
11001 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
11002 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
11003 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
11006 This means that the command normally has no
11007 keyboard equivalent.
11008 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
11009 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
11010 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
11011 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
11012 value says whether this button is currently selected.
11014 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
11015 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
11017 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
11021 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
11022 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
11023 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
11024 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
11026 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
11028 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
11029 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
11030 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
11031 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
11032 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
11033 forward, away from the user.
11035 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
11037 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
11038 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
11039 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
11040 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
11041 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
11043 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
11045 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
11046 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
11047 that were dragged and dropped.
11049 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
11051 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
11053 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
11054 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
11055 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
11057 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
11058 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
11059 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
11061 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
11062 in Emacs 19 and before.
11064 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
11065 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
11067 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
11068 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
11069 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
11070 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
11072 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
11073 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
11074 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
11075 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
11076 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
11078 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
11079 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
11080 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
11081 consistent with the new representation.
11083 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
11084 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
11085 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
11086 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
11088 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
11089 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
11090 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
11092 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
11093 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
11094 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
11096 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
11097 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
11098 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
11100 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
11101 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
11103 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
11104 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
11106 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
11107 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
11108 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
11109 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
11111 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
11112 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
11114 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
11115 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
11116 buffer or string being searched.
11118 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
11119 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
11120 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
11121 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
11122 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
11123 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
11124 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
11126 *** Structure of coding system changed.
11128 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
11129 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
11130 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
11131 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
11132 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
11133 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
11134 define-coding-system-alias.
11136 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
11137 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
11138 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
11139 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
11140 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
11141 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
11142 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
11145 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
11146 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
11147 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
11148 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
11150 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
11151 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
11152 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
11153 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
11155 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
11156 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
11157 This function requires a user interaction.
11159 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
11160 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
11161 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
11162 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
11163 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
11164 select-safe-coding-system.
11166 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
11167 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
11168 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
11171 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
11172 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
11173 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
11175 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
11176 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
11177 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
11178 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
11180 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
11181 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
11182 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
11185 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
11186 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
11188 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
11189 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
11190 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
11191 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
11192 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
11193 range of characters.
11195 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
11196 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
11198 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
11199 in the current buffer at position POS.
11201 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
11202 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
11203 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
11204 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
11205 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
11206 binding input-method-function to nil.
11208 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
11209 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
11210 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
11211 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
11212 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
11214 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
11215 subsequent events of a key sequence.
11217 *** You can customize any language environment by using
11218 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
11220 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
11221 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
11222 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
11223 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
11224 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
11226 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
11228 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
11229 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
11230 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
11233 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
11234 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
11236 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
11237 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
11238 in your .emacs file.)
11240 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
11241 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
11243 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
11244 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
11246 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
11247 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
11250 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
11251 delete the character before point, as usual.
11253 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
11254 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
11255 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
11257 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
11258 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
11259 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
11260 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
11261 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
11264 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
11265 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
11266 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
11267 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
11268 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
11270 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
11271 and is an alias for it.
11273 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
11274 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
11276 ** Scrolling changes
11278 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
11279 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
11281 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
11282 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
11285 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
11286 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
11287 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
11288 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
11290 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
11291 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
11292 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
11293 recenters the window.
11295 ** International character set support (MULE)
11297 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
11298 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
11299 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
11300 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
11301 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
11302 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
11304 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
11305 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
11306 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
11307 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
11308 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
11310 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
11311 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
11312 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
11313 language, to make it possible to type them.
11315 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
11316 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
11318 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
11319 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
11321 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
11323 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
11325 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
11326 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
11327 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
11328 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
11329 characters for their work until they want to change.
11333 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
11334 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
11335 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
11336 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
11337 support several input methods.
11339 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
11340 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
11343 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
11344 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
11345 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
11346 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
11347 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
11350 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
11351 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
11352 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
11353 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
11354 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
11356 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
11357 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
11358 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
11359 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
11361 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
11362 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
11363 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
11364 the first guess is wrong.
11366 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
11367 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
11369 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
11370 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
11371 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
11372 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
11374 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
11375 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
11376 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
11377 translate automatically to and from either one.
11379 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
11381 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
11382 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
11383 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
11386 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
11387 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
11388 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
11389 multibyte characters in that buffer.
11391 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
11392 character conversion as well.
11394 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
11396 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
11397 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
11398 requires using many fonts.
11400 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
11401 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
11403 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
11404 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
11405 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
11406 you would use a font.
11408 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
11409 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
11410 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
11412 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
11413 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
11416 *** Defining fontsets.
11418 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
11419 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
11420 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
11422 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
11423 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
11424 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
11425 standard fontset are created automatically.
11427 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
11428 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
11429 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
11430 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
11431 name is `fontset-startup'.
11433 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
11434 The resource value should have this form:
11435 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
11436 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
11437 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
11438 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
11439 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
11440 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
11441 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
11442 CHARSET-NAME should be the name of a character set, and FONT-NAME
11443 should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
11445 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
11446 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
11447 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
11449 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
11450 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
11451 following resource,
11452 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
11453 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
11454 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
11455 Here is the substitution rule:
11456 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
11457 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
11458 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
11459 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
11460 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
11462 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
11463 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
11464 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
11466 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
11467 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
11468 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
11469 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
11472 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
11473 defaults for a particular choice of language.
11475 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
11476 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
11477 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
11478 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
11479 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
11480 system for new files that you create.
11482 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
11483 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
11484 whole Emacs session.
11486 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
11487 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
11488 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
11490 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
11491 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
11492 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
11493 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
11494 coding systems that Emacs supports.
11496 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
11497 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
11498 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
11499 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
11500 is used for *the immediately following command*.
11502 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
11503 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
11505 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
11506 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
11508 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
11509 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
11511 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
11512 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
11513 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
11514 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
11517 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
11518 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
11519 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
11520 translated into that character code.
11522 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
11523 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
11525 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
11527 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
11528 the coding system for keyboard input.
11530 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
11531 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
11532 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
11534 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
11536 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
11537 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
11538 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
11539 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
11540 designed to work with terminals.
11542 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
11543 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
11544 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
11545 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
11546 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
11547 in the corresponding buffer.
11549 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
11551 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
11552 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
11553 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
11555 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
11556 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
11557 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
11560 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
11561 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
11563 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
11564 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
11565 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
11566 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
11568 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
11569 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
11570 related information.
11572 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
11573 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
11576 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
11577 information about the support for a particular language.
11578 You specify the language as an argument.
11580 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
11581 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
11584 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
11585 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
11586 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
11587 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
11589 A alternativnyj (Russian)
11591 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
11592 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
11593 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
11594 E euc-japan (Japanese)
11595 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
11596 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
11597 K euc-korea (Korean)
11600 S shift_jis (Japanese)
11603 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
11604 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
11605 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
11606 v viqr (Vietnamese)
11609 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
11610 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
11611 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
11612 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
11614 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
11615 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
11617 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
11618 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
11619 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
11620 Rmail files themselves.
11622 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
11623 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
11625 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
11628 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
11629 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
11630 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
11631 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
11632 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
11634 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
11635 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
11636 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
11639 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
11640 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
11641 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
11642 without any conversion.
11644 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
11645 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
11646 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
11647 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
11649 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
11650 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
11652 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
11653 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
11655 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
11656 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
11658 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
11659 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
11660 in the buffer before point.
11662 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
11663 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
11666 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
11667 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
11669 ** File locking works with NFS now.
11671 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
11672 in the same directory as FILENAME.
11674 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
11675 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
11676 can become a bottleneck.
11678 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
11679 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
11680 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
11681 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
11682 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
11683 so useful that the change is worth while.
11685 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
11686 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
11687 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
11688 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
11690 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
11691 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
11694 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
11695 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
11696 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
11698 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
11699 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
11700 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
11702 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
11703 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
11704 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
11706 ** Changes in View mode.
11708 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
11709 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
11711 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
11712 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
11714 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
11717 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
11718 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
11720 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
11721 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
11722 not just the selected window.
11724 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
11725 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
11726 turns View mode on or off.
11728 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
11729 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
11730 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
11732 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
11733 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
11735 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
11736 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
11737 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
11738 which version to compare with.
11740 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
11741 blocks if a match is inside the block.
11743 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
11744 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
11745 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
11746 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
11748 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
11749 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
11750 blocks, all of them or none.
11752 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
11753 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
11754 confirmation first.
11756 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
11757 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
11758 However, the mode will not be changed if
11759 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
11760 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
11761 not suitable for ordinary files, or
11762 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
11764 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
11766 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
11767 these commands do not change the major mode.
11769 ** M-x occur changes.
11771 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
11772 it performs a case-sensitive search.
11774 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
11775 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
11776 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
11778 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
11779 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
11780 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
11781 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
11782 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
11784 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
11785 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
11786 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
11787 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
11789 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
11790 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
11791 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
11793 ** Outline mode changes.
11795 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
11797 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
11799 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
11800 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
11801 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
11802 was already active.
11804 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
11805 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
11806 get confused by it.
11808 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
11809 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
11811 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
11813 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
11814 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
11815 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
11816 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
11818 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
11819 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
11820 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
11822 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
11823 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
11826 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
11827 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
11828 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
11829 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
11831 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
11832 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
11833 can be. The default value is 30.
11835 ** Changes in Mail mode.
11837 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
11838 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
11839 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
11840 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
11841 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
11844 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
11845 compose-mail-other-frame.
11847 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
11848 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
11849 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
11850 buffer that shows the original message.
11852 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
11853 with separator lines around the contents.
11855 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
11856 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
11857 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
11858 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
11860 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
11862 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
11863 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
11864 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
11865 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
11867 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
11868 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
11871 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
11872 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
11875 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
11876 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
11877 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
11878 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
11880 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
11881 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
11882 be taken to be magic.
11884 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
11885 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
11886 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
11888 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
11889 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
11891 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
11892 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
11894 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
11896 new key dired.el binding old key
11897 ------- ---------------- -------
11898 * c dired-change-marks c
11900 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
11901 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
11902 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
11904 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
11905 * ? dired-unmark-all-files C-M-?
11906 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
11907 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
11908 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
11909 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
11913 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
11914 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
11915 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
11916 each time you run it.
11918 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
11919 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
11921 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
11922 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
11923 means to move in the opposite direction.
11925 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
11926 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
11928 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
11929 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
11930 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
11931 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
11936 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
11938 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
11941 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
11942 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
11944 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
11947 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
11949 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
11951 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
11953 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
11954 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
11955 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
11957 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
11959 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
11961 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
11962 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
11964 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
11965 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
11966 used to pick articles.
11968 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
11969 another have been added.
11971 `M-x gnus-change-server'
11973 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
11974 generating lines in buffers.
11976 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
11979 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
11981 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
11983 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
11985 *** Scores can be decayed.
11987 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
11989 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
11990 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
11992 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
11995 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
11997 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
11998 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `C-M-d'.
12000 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
12002 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
12003 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
12005 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
12006 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
12008 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
12011 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
12012 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
12014 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
12016 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
12018 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
12020 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
12022 Use the `Y c' command.
12024 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
12026 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
12028 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
12030 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
12031 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
12033 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
12035 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
12037 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
12038 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
12040 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
12042 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
12043 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
12044 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
12045 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
12048 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
12049 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
12050 particular news group. This can be done by:
12052 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
12054 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
12055 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
12056 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
12057 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
12058 for reading and posting).
12060 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
12061 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
12062 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
12063 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
12066 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
12067 default. Here are some of these default settings:
12069 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
12070 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
12071 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
12072 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
12073 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
12075 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
12076 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
12078 ** CC mode changes.
12080 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
12081 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
12082 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
12083 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
12084 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
12087 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
12088 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
12089 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
12090 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
12091 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
12092 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
12094 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
12095 of the current buffer.
12097 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
12098 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
12099 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
12101 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
12102 style that the Python developers like.
12104 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
12105 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
12106 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
12108 ** VC Changes [new]
12110 *** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
12111 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
12112 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
12114 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
12115 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
12118 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
12119 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
12121 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
12122 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
12123 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
12124 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
12126 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
12127 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
12129 ** Calendar changes.
12131 *** A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or
12132 subclasses of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow
12133 you do this for the year of the selected date, or the
12134 following/previous years.
12136 *** There is now support for the Baha'i calendar system. Use `pb' in
12137 the *Calendar* buffer to display the current Baha'i date. The Baha'i
12138 calendar, or "Badi calendar" is a system of 19 months with 19 days
12139 each, and 4 intercalary days (5 during a Gregorian leap year). The
12140 calendar begins May 23, 1844, with each of the months named after a
12141 supposed attribute of God.
12143 ** ps-print changes
12145 There are some new user variables and subgroups for customizing the page
12148 *** Headers & Footers (subgroup)
12150 Some printer systems print a header page and force the first page to
12151 be printed on the back of the header page when using duplex. If your
12152 printer system has this behavior, set variable
12153 `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' to t.
12155 If variable `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' is non-nil, it prints a
12156 blank page as the very first printed page. So, it behaves as if the
12157 very first character of buffer (or region) were a form feed ^L (\014).
12159 The variable `ps-spool-config' specifies who is responsible for
12160 setting duplex mode and page size. Valid values are:
12162 lpr-switches duplex and page size are configured by `ps-lpr-switches'.
12163 Don't forget to set `ps-lpr-switches' to select duplex
12164 printing for your printer.
12166 setpagedevice duplex and page size are configured by ps-print using the
12167 setpagedevice PostScript operator.
12169 nil duplex and page size are configured by ps-print *not* using
12170 the setpagedevice PostScript operator.
12172 The variable `ps-spool-tumble' specifies how the page images on
12173 opposite sides of a sheet are oriented with respect to each other. If
12174 `ps-spool-tumble' is nil, ps-print produces output suitable for
12175 bindings on the left or right. If `ps-spool-tumble' is non-nil,
12176 ps-print produces output suitable for bindings at the top or bottom.
12177 This variable takes effect only if `ps-spool-duplex' is non-nil.
12178 The default value is nil.
12180 The variable `ps-header-frame-alist' specifies a header frame
12181 properties alist. Valid frame properties are:
12183 fore-color Specify the foreground frame color.
12184 Value should be a float number between 0.0 (black
12185 color) and 1.0 (white color), or a string which is a
12186 color name, or a list of 3 float numbers which
12187 correspond to the Red Green Blue color scale, each
12188 float number between 0.0 (dark color) and 1.0 (bright
12189 color). The default is 0 ("black").
12191 back-color Specify the background frame color (similar to fore-color).
12192 The default is 0.9 ("gray90").
12194 shadow-color Specify the shadow color (similar to fore-color).
12195 The default is 0 ("black").
12197 border-color Specify the border color (similar to fore-color).
12198 The default is 0 ("black").
12200 border-width Specify the border width.
12201 The default is 0.4.
12203 Any other property is ignored.
12205 Don't change this alist directly; instead use Custom, or the
12206 `ps-value', `ps-get', `ps-put' and `ps-del' functions (see there for
12209 Ps-print can also print footers. The footer variables are:
12210 `ps-print-footer', `ps-footer-offset', `ps-print-footer-frame',
12211 `ps-footer-font-family', `ps-footer-font-size', `ps-footer-line-pad',
12212 `ps-footer-lines', `ps-left-footer', `ps-right-footer' and
12213 `ps-footer-frame-alist'. These variables are similar to those
12214 controlling headers.
12216 *** Color management (subgroup)
12218 If `ps-print-color-p' is non-nil, the buffer's text will be printed in
12221 *** Face Management (subgroup)
12223 If you need to print without worrying about face background colors,
12224 set the variable `ps-use-face-background' which specifies if face
12225 background should be used. Valid values are:
12227 t always use face background color.
12228 nil never use face background color.
12229 (face...) list of faces whose background color will be used.
12231 *** N-up printing (subgroup)
12233 The variable `ps-n-up-printing' specifies the number of pages per
12236 The variable `ps-n-up-margin' specifies the margin in points (pt)
12237 between the sheet border and the n-up printing.
12239 If variable `ps-n-up-border-p' is non-nil, a border is drawn around
12242 The variable `ps-n-up-filling' specifies how the page matrix is filled
12243 on each sheet of paper. Following are the valid values for
12244 `ps-n-up-filling' with a filling example using a 3x4 page matrix:
12246 `left-top' 1 2 3 4 `left-bottom' 9 10 11 12
12250 `right-top' 4 3 2 1 `right-bottom' 12 11 10 9
12254 `top-left' 1 4 7 10 `bottom-left' 3 6 9 12
12258 `top-right' 10 7 4 1 `bottom-right' 12 9 6 3
12262 Any other value is treated as `left-top'.
12264 *** Zebra stripes (subgroup)
12266 The variable `ps-zebra-color' controls the zebra stripes grayscale or
12269 The variable `ps-zebra-stripe-follow' specifies how zebra stripes
12270 continue on next page. Visually, valid values are (the character `+'
12271 to the right of each column indicates that a line is printed):
12273 `nil' `follow' `full' `full-follow'
12274 Current Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
12275 1 XXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXX + 1 XXXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
12276 2 XXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXX + 2 XXXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
12277 3 XXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXX + 3 XXXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
12281 7 XXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXX + 7 XXXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
12282 8 XXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXX + 8 XXXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
12283 9 XXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXX + 9 XXXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
12286 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
12287 Next Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
12288 12 XXXXX + 12 + 10 XXXXXX + 10 +
12289 13 XXXXX + 13 XXXXXXXX + 11 XXXXXX + 11 +
12290 14 XXXXX + 14 XXXXXXXX + 12 XXXXXX + 12 +
12291 15 + 15 XXXXXXXX + 13 + 13 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
12292 16 + 16 + 14 + 14 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
12293 17 + 17 + 15 + 15 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
12294 18 XXXXX + 18 + 16 XXXXXX + 16 +
12295 19 XXXXX + 19 XXXXXXXX + 17 XXXXXX + 17 +
12296 20 XXXXX + 20 XXXXXXXX + 18 XXXXXX + 18 +
12299 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
12301 Any other value is treated as `nil'.
12304 *** Printer management (subgroup)
12306 The variable `ps-printer-name-option' determines the option used by
12307 some utilities to indicate the printer name; it's used only when
12308 `ps-printer-name' is a non-empty string. If you're using the lpr
12309 utility to print, for example, `ps-printer-name-option' should be set
12312 The variable `ps-manual-feed' indicates if the printer requires manual
12313 paper feeding. If it's nil, automatic feeding takes place. If it's
12314 non-nil, manual feeding takes place.
12316 The variable `ps-end-with-control-d' specifies whether C-d (\x04)
12317 should be inserted at end of the generated PostScript. Non-nil means
12320 *** Page settings (subgroup)
12322 If variable `ps-warn-paper-type' is nil, it's *not* treated as an
12323 error if the PostScript printer doesn't have a paper with the size
12324 indicated by `ps-paper-type'; the default paper size will be used
12325 instead. If `ps-warn-paper-type' is non-nil, an error is signaled if
12326 the PostScript printer doesn't support a paper with the size indicated
12327 by `ps-paper-type'. This is used when `ps-spool-config' is set to
12330 The variable `ps-print-upside-down' determines the orientation for
12331 printing pages: nil means `normal' printing, non-nil means
12332 `upside-down' printing (that is, the page is rotated by 180 degrees).
12334 The variable `ps-selected-pages' specifies which pages to print. If
12335 it's nil, all pages are printed. If it's a list, list elements may be
12336 integers specifying a single page to print, or cons cells (FROM . TO)
12337 specifying to print from page FROM to TO. Invalid list elements, that
12338 is integers smaller than one, or elements whose FROM is greater than
12339 its TO, are ignored.
12341 The variable `ps-even-or-odd-pages' specifies how to print even/odd
12342 pages. Valid values are:
12344 nil print all pages.
12346 `even-page' print only even pages.
12348 `odd-page' print only odd pages.
12350 `even-sheet' print only even sheets.
12351 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
12352 `even-page', but for values greater than 1, it'll
12353 print only the even sheet of paper.
12355 `odd-sheet' print only odd sheets.
12356 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
12357 `odd-page'; but for values greater than 1, it'll print
12358 only the odd sheet of paper.
12360 Any other value is treated as nil.
12362 If you set `ps-selected-pages' (see there for documentation), pages
12363 are filtered by `ps-selected-pages', and then by
12364 `ps-even-or-odd-pages'. For example, if we have:
12366 (setq ps-selected-pages '(1 4 (6 . 10) (12 . 16) 20))
12368 and we combine this with `ps-even-or-odd-pages' and
12369 `ps-n-up-printing', we get:
12371 `ps-n-up-printing' = 1:
12372 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
12373 nil 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20
12374 even-page 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
12375 odd-page 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
12376 even-sheet 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
12377 odd-sheet 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
12379 `ps-n-up-printing' = 2:
12380 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
12381 nil 1/4, 6/7, 8/9, 10/12, 13/14, 15/16, 20
12382 even-page 4/6, 8/10, 12/14, 16/20
12383 odd-page 1/7, 9/13, 15
12384 even-sheet 6/7, 10/12, 15/16
12385 odd-sheet 1/4, 8/9, 13/14, 20
12387 *** Miscellany (subgroup)
12389 The variable `ps-error-handler-message' specifies where error handler
12390 messages should be sent.
12392 It is also possible to add a user-defined PostScript prologue code in
12393 front of all generated prologue code by setting the variable
12394 `ps-user-defined-prologue'.
12396 The variable `ps-line-number-font' specifies the font for line numbers.
12398 The variable `ps-line-number-font-size' specifies the font size in
12399 points for line numbers.
12401 The variable `ps-line-number-color' specifies the color for line
12402 numbers. See `ps-zebra-color' for documentation.
12404 The variable `ps-line-number-step' specifies the interval in which
12405 line numbers are printed. For example, if `ps-line-number-step' is set
12406 to 2, the printing will look like:
12418 integer an integer specifying the interval in which line numbers are
12419 printed. If it's smaller than or equal to zero, 1
12422 `zebra' specifies that only the line number of the first line in a
12423 zebra stripe is to be printed.
12425 Any other value is treated as `zebra'.
12427 The variable `ps-line-number-start' specifies the starting point in
12428 the interval given by `ps-line-number-step'. For example, if
12429 `ps-line-number-step' is set to 3, and `ps-line-number-start' is set to
12430 3, the output will look like:
12444 The variable `ps-postscript-code-directory' specifies the directory
12445 where the PostScript prologue file used by ps-print is found.
12447 The variable `ps-line-spacing' determines the line spacing in points,
12448 for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
12451 The variable `ps-paragraph-spacing' determines the paragraph spacing,
12452 in points, for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
12455 The variable `ps-paragraph-regexp' specifies the paragraph delimiter.
12457 The variable `ps-begin-cut-regexp' and `ps-end-cut-regexp' specify the
12458 start and end of a region to cut out when printing.
12460 ** hideshow changes.
12462 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
12465 *** Support for java-mode added.
12467 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
12468 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
12470 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the comments at
12471 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
12472 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
12474 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
12475 robust and a lot faster.
12477 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
12479 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
12480 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
12481 documentation for more details.
12483 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
12485 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
12486 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
12487 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
12488 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
12489 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
12491 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
12492 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
12493 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
12494 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
12500 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
12501 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
12502 faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
12503 group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
12504 your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
12505 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
12507 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
12509 *** Maximum decoration
12511 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
12512 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
12513 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
12514 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
12515 to get the old behavior.
12519 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
12521 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
12522 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
12524 *** Configurable support
12526 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
12527 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
12528 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
12529 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
12530 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
12531 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
12532 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
12534 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
12535 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
12536 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
12538 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
12540 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
12541 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
12544 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
12546 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
12552 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
12553 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
12554 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
12555 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
12557 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
12559 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
12560 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
12561 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
12563 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
12565 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
12566 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
12567 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
12568 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
12569 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
12570 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
12571 Lock mode behavior and the behavior of Font Lock mode.
12573 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
12574 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
12575 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
12576 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
12577 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
12578 the command M-o M-o (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
12580 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
12582 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
12583 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
12584 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
12585 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
12587 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
12590 ** Ada mode changes.
12592 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
12593 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
12594 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
12595 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
12598 *** There are two new commands:
12599 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
12600 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
12602 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
12603 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
12604 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
12606 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
12607 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
12608 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
12610 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
12611 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
12612 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
12613 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
12615 ** Scheme mode changes.
12617 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
12618 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
12619 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
12620 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
12623 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
12624 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
12625 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
12626 variables as buffer-local variables.
12628 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
12629 Use M-x dsssl-mode.
12631 ** Changes to the emacsclient program
12633 *** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
12634 USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
12635 associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
12636 can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
12638 *** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
12639 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
12642 *** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
12643 use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
12644 ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
12645 option takes precedence.
12647 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
12648 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
12649 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
12651 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
12652 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
12655 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
12656 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
12658 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
12659 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
12662 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
12663 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
12664 these register values no longer become completely useless.
12665 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
12666 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
12667 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
12669 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
12670 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
12671 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
12672 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
12674 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
12675 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
12676 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
12677 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
12678 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
12680 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
12681 since it applies only to the current frame.
12683 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
12684 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
12685 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
12687 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
12688 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
12689 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
12690 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
12691 instead of just the file you are editing.
12695 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
12696 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
12697 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
12698 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
12699 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
12702 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
12703 knows which kind of label is needed.
12705 C-c ) reftex-reference
12706 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
12707 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
12709 C-c [ reftex-citation
12710 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
12711 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
12713 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
12714 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
12717 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
12718 can quickly jump to every section.
12720 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
12721 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
12722 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
12723 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
12724 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
12726 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
12728 *** Info documentation is now available.
12730 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
12731 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
12733 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
12734 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
12736 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
12737 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
12739 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
12740 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
12741 appropriate functions.
12743 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
12744 entries. They are bound by default to C-M-l and C-M-h.
12746 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
12749 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
12750 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
12752 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
12753 shall be delimited.
12755 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
12756 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
12757 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
12759 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
12760 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
12761 prefixed with `ALT'.
12763 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
12764 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
12765 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
12768 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
12769 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
12770 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
12772 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
12773 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
12775 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
12776 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
12777 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
12779 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
12781 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
12783 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
12784 from alien sources.
12786 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
12787 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
12790 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
12793 *** Added support for imenu.
12795 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
12796 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
12797 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
12798 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
12800 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
12801 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
12803 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
12805 ** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
12807 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
12808 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
12809 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
12812 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
12813 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
12815 ** browse-url changes
12817 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
12818 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
12819 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
12820 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
12821 customization variables.
12823 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
12825 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
12826 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
12827 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
12829 ** Changes in Ediff
12831 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
12832 pops up the Info file for this command.
12834 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
12835 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
12836 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
12839 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
12840 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
12841 files in the same directory.
12843 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
12844 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
12845 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
12847 ** Changes in Viper
12849 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
12850 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
12852 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
12853 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
12854 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
12855 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
12856 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
12857 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
12858 color when Viper is in insert state.
12859 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
12860 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
12861 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
12865 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
12866 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
12867 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
12868 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
12869 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
12871 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
12873 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
12874 constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
12876 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
12877 recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
12878 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
12880 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
12881 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
12882 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
12883 methods and protocols.
12885 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
12886 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
12887 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
12890 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
12891 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
12892 at least M times and as many as N times.
12894 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
12895 in files has changed slightly.
12897 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
12898 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
12899 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
12900 with old time-stamp-format values.
12902 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
12903 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
12904 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
12907 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
12908 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
12909 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
12910 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
12911 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
12912 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
12914 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
12915 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
12916 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
12918 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
12919 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
12920 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
12921 recommended now will continue to work then.
12923 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
12926 ** There are some additional major modes:
12928 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
12929 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
12930 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
12932 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
12933 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
12936 ** New Lisp packages include:
12938 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
12940 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
12941 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
12943 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
12945 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
12948 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
12949 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
12952 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
12953 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
12954 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
12955 strings or comments.
12957 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
12958 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
12959 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
12960 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
12963 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
12964 can visit them by short forms of their names.
12966 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
12967 Emacs Lisp function at point.
12969 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
12971 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
12972 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
12974 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
12976 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
12978 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
12980 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
12981 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
12983 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
12984 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
12985 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
12986 original place after inserting the copy.
12988 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
12991 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
12992 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
12993 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
12995 Enable mouse-drag with:
12996 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
12998 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
13000 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
13001 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
13003 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
13004 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
13008 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
13009 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
13010 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
13011 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
13012 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
13013 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
13014 instance) and vice versa.
13016 To use this package load it using
13017 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
13018 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
13019 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
13020 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
13021 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
13022 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
13024 *** Interface to ph.
13026 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
13028 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
13029 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
13032 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
13034 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
13035 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
13036 while the real cursor does not move.
13038 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
13039 for visiting your favorite web sites.
13041 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
13042 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
13046 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
13047 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
13048 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
13049 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
13051 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
13053 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
13055 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
13057 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
13058 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
13059 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
13060 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
13061 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
13063 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
13064 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
13065 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
13066 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
13067 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
13068 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
13070 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
13072 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
13073 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
13074 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
13075 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
13077 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
13078 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
13080 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
13081 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
13084 ** Basic Lisp changes
13086 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
13087 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
13089 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
13090 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
13093 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
13095 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
13097 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
13098 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
13100 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
13101 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
13104 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
13106 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
13108 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
13110 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
13111 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
13112 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
13115 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
13116 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
13117 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
13119 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
13120 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
13121 adding one of these suffixes.
13123 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
13124 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
13125 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
13127 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
13128 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
13130 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
13132 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
13133 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
13135 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
13136 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
13138 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
13140 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
13141 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
13143 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
13144 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
13145 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
13146 works using `save-current-buffer'.
13148 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
13149 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
13152 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
13153 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
13154 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
13157 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
13158 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
13161 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
13163 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
13164 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
13165 Then it returns that string.
13167 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
13169 (with-output-to-string
13170 (princ "The buffer is ")
13171 (princ (buffer-name)))
13173 returns "The buffer is foo".
13175 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
13178 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
13179 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
13180 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
13182 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
13183 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
13185 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
13186 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
13187 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
13188 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
13189 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
13190 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
13192 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
13193 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
13194 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
13197 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
13198 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
13199 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
13200 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
13201 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
13203 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
13204 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
13205 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
13206 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
13208 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
13209 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
13211 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
13213 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
13214 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
13215 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
13216 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
13219 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
13220 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
13223 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
13225 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
13226 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
13227 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
13228 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
13229 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
13231 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
13233 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
13234 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
13235 more than the number of characters.
13237 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
13238 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
13239 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
13240 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
13241 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
13242 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
13244 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
13245 and returns a string containing those characters.
13247 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
13248 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
13249 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
13250 character, sref signals an error.
13252 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
13253 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
13254 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
13256 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
13257 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
13258 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
13260 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
13261 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
13262 to a vector of the characters in it.
13264 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
13265 of a string. You call it as follows:
13267 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
13269 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
13270 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
13271 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
13272 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
13273 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
13275 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
13276 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
13278 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
13279 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
13281 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
13282 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
13283 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
13284 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
13286 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
13288 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
13290 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
13291 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
13292 are not included in the resulting value.
13294 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
13295 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
13296 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
13297 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
13299 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
13300 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
13301 character extends across that column), then the padding character
13302 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
13303 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
13304 column START-COLUMN.
13306 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
13307 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
13308 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
13309 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
13310 changed text, before the change.
13312 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
13313 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
13314 one character set for each script, not for each language.
13316 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
13318 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
13320 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
13321 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
13323 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
13324 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
13325 which identify the character within that character set.
13327 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
13328 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
13329 opposite of split-char.
13331 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
13332 of all the characters between BEG and END.
13334 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
13335 of all the characters in a string.
13337 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
13338 and specifying coding systems.
13340 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
13341 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
13342 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
13343 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
13344 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
13345 as what to do about code conversion.)
13347 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
13348 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
13350 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
13351 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
13352 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
13354 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
13355 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
13356 to match against a file name.
13358 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
13359 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
13360 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
13361 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
13362 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
13363 specifies the coding system for encoding.
13365 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
13366 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
13368 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
13369 the coding system to use for network sockets.
13371 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
13372 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
13373 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
13376 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
13377 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
13378 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
13379 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
13380 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
13381 specifies the coding system for encoding.
13383 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
13384 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
13386 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
13387 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
13388 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
13389 start the subprocess.
13391 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
13392 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
13393 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
13394 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
13395 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
13397 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
13398 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
13401 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
13402 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
13403 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
13404 connection permanently or until overridden.
13406 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
13407 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
13408 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
13409 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
13410 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
13411 system for one operation at a time.
13413 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
13414 files, subprocesses or network connections.
13416 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
13417 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
13418 The value is a cons cell,
13419 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
13420 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
13421 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
13422 input to the subprocess.
13424 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
13425 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
13427 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
13428 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
13429 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
13431 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
13432 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
13433 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
13434 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
13437 Thus, instead of writing
13439 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
13440 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
13442 you would now write this:
13444 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
13445 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
13449 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
13450 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
13451 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
13452 for a description of them.
13454 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
13455 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
13457 (defgroup ispell nil
13458 "Spell checking using Ispell."
13461 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
13462 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
13463 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
13464 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
13465 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
13467 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
13468 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
13469 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
13470 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
13471 first-level subgroups.
13473 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
13475 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
13476 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
13480 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
13481 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
13482 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
13483 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
13484 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
13485 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
13487 ** Text property changes
13489 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
13492 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
13493 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
13494 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
13495 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
13496 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
13498 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
13499 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
13500 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
13501 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
13503 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
13504 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
13505 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
13507 ** Changes in invisibility features
13509 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
13510 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
13511 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
13512 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
13513 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
13514 make the overlay visible.
13516 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
13517 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
13518 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
13519 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
13520 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
13521 t when it should hide it.
13523 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
13525 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
13526 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
13527 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
13528 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
13529 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
13530 Here is an example of how to do this:
13532 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
13533 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
13534 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
13535 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
13538 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
13541 ;; When done with the overlays:
13542 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
13543 ;; Or respectively:
13544 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
13546 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
13548 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
13549 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
13550 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
13551 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
13553 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
13554 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
13555 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
13557 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
13558 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
13560 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
13561 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
13563 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
13564 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
13565 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
13567 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
13568 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
13569 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
13570 determine the syntax type of the character.
13572 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
13573 of the current buffer.
13575 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
13576 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
13577 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
13579 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
13580 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
13581 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
13582 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
13583 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
13585 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
13588 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
13589 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
13590 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
13592 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
13593 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
13594 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
13595 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
13596 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
13598 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
13599 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
13600 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
13602 ** Changes in face features
13604 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
13605 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
13607 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
13608 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
13610 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
13611 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
13613 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
13614 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
13616 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
13617 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
13618 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
13619 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
13622 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
13623 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
13625 ** Changes in file-handling functions
13627 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
13628 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
13629 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
13630 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
13632 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
13635 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
13636 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
13638 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
13639 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
13641 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
13642 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
13644 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
13645 character code conversion as well as other things.
13647 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
13648 (formerly it did not).
13650 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
13651 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
13653 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
13654 instead of constant strings.
13656 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
13657 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
13658 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
13660 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
13661 in the same way as before.
13663 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
13664 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
13665 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
13667 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
13668 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
13669 else, and returns nil.
13671 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
13672 directory cannot be listed.
13674 ** Changes in minibuffer input
13676 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
13677 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
13678 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
13679 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
13682 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
13683 It is available through the history command M-n.
13685 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
13686 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
13687 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
13688 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
13689 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
13691 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
13692 argument in this way.
13694 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
13695 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
13696 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
13698 ** Echo area features
13700 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
13701 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
13702 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
13703 after the echo area is cleared.
13705 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
13706 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
13708 ** Keyboard input features
13710 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
13711 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
13713 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
13714 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
13715 by keyboard macros.
13717 ** Frame-related changes
13719 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
13720 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
13721 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
13723 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
13724 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
13725 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
13727 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
13728 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
13729 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
13730 in the selected frame.
13732 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
13733 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
13734 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
13736 ** X Windows features
13738 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
13739 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
13740 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
13742 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
13743 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
13745 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
13746 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
13747 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
13749 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
13750 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
13752 ** Subprocess features
13754 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
13755 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
13758 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
13759 and returns the output from the command as a string.
13761 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
13762 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
13764 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
13765 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
13767 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
13768 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
13769 goes after the other menu items.
13771 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
13772 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
13773 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
13776 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
13777 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
13779 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
13780 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
13783 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
13784 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
13785 but its hook is still run.
13787 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
13788 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
13790 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
13791 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
13792 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
13794 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
13795 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
13796 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
13799 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
13800 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
13802 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
13803 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
13804 functions like display-time.
13806 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
13807 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
13809 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
13810 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
13811 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
13813 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
13814 if there is an error in compilation.
13816 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
13817 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
13818 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
13819 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
13821 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
13822 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
13823 the *scratch* buffer.
13825 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
13826 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
13827 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
13828 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
13830 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
13831 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
13832 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
13834 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
13835 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
13836 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
13837 and compose-mail-other-frame.
13839 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
13840 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
13841 full name of the specified user will be returned.
13843 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
13844 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
13845 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
13846 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
13847 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
13850 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
13851 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
13852 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
13853 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
13855 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
13856 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
13857 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
13858 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
13860 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
13862 ** imenu.el changes.
13864 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
13865 item from menu created by imenu.
13867 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
13868 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
13869 select one of those items.
13871 * For older news, see the file ONEWS
13873 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
13874 Copyright information:
13876 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
13878 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
13879 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
13880 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
13881 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
13883 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
13884 of this document, or of portions of it,
13885 under the above conditions, provided also that they
13886 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
13890 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"
13893 arch-tag: 1aca9dfa-2ac4-4d14-bebf-0007cee12793