Merge from mainline.
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1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
5
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
8
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 24.
10
11 See files NEWS.23, NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18,
12 and NEWS.1-17 for changes in older Emacs versions.
13
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
16
17
18 Temporary note:
19 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
20 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
21 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
22 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
23
24 \f
25 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
26
27 ** Configure links against libselinux if it is found.
28 You can disable this by using --without-selinux.
29
30 ---
31 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
32 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
33
34 ---
35 ** There are new configure options:
36 --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
37 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
38 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
39
40 ---
41 ** Emacs can be compiled against Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
42 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
43 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
44 --without-gconf.
45
46 ** There is a new configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
47 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
48 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
49
50 ---
51 ** New translation of the Emacs Tutorial in Hebrew is available
52 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
53 automatically select it.
54
55 \f
56 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
57
58 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
59 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
60 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
61
62 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
63 from load-path. -Q now implies this.
64
65 ** On Windows, Emacs now warns when the obsolete _emacs init file is used.
66
67 \f
68 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
69
70 ** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
71 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
72
73 ** emacsclient changes
74
75 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID can be used to open a
76 client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed. This works like the
77 --parent-id argument to Emacs.
78
79 +++
80 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
81
82 *** If emacsclient shuts down as a result of Emacs signalling an
83 error, its exit status is 1.
84
85 ** Completion can cycle, depending on completion-cycle-threshold.
86
87 ** `completing-read' can be customized using the new variable
88 `completing-read-function'
89
90 ** auto-mode-case-fold is now enabled by default.
91
92 +++
93 ** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
94
95 See the node "Bidirectional Editing" in the Emacs Manual for some
96 initial documentation.
97
98 To turn this on in any given buffer, set the buffer-local variable
99 `bidi-display-reordering' to a non-nil value. The default is nil.
100
101 The buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction', if non-nil,
102 forces each paragraph in the buffer to have its base direction
103 according to the value of this variable. Possible values are
104 `right-to-left' and `left-to-right'. If the value is nil (the
105 default), Emacs determines the base direction of each paragraph from
106 its text, as specified by the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm.
107
108 The function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction' returns the actual
109 value of paragraph base direction at point.
110
111 Reordering of bidirectional text for display in Emacs is a "Full
112 bidirectionality" class implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional
113 Algorithm.
114
115 Note that some advanced display features, such as overlay strings and
116 `display' text properties, do not yet work correctly when
117 bidirectional text is reordered for display.
118
119 ** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
120 Use `set-scroll-bar-mode' to change this.
121
122 ** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
123 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose style. On a Gnome desktop, the default
124 is taken from the desktop settings.
125
126 ** GTK tool bars can be placed on the left/right or top/bottom of the frame.
127 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the values
128 top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has entries
129 for this.
130
131 ** ImageMagick support.
132 It is now possible to use the ImageMagick library to load many new
133 image formats in Emacs. By default, Emacs links with the ImageMagick
134 libraries if they are present at build time. This needs ImageMagick
135 6.2.8 or newer (versions newer than 6.0.7 _may_ work but have not been
136 tested). To disable ImageMagick support, use the configure option
137 `--without-imagemagick'.
138
139 The new function `imagemagick-types' returns a list of image file
140 extensions that your installation of ImageMagick supports. The
141 function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick support for
142 these image types, minus those listed in `imagemagick-types-inhibit'.
143
144 See the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual for more information.
145
146 ** The colors for selected text (the region face) are taken from the GTK
147 theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
148
149 ** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK. You can turn that
150 off by customizing x-gtk-use-system-tooltips.
151
152 ** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is built
153 with Xft. To change font, use the X resource font, for example:
154 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
155
156 +++
157 ** Enhanced support for characters that have no glyphs in available fonts
158 If a character has no glyphs in any of the available fonts, Emacs by
159 default will display it either as a hexadecimal code in a box or as a
160 thin 1-pixel space. In addition to these two methods, Emacs can
161 display these characters as empty box, as an acronym, or not display
162 them at all. To change how these characters are displayed, customize
163 the variable `glyphless-char-display-control'.
164
165 On character terminals these methods are used for characters that
166 cannot be encoded by the `terminal-coding-system'.
167
168 ** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
169
170 ** On Nextstep/OSX, the menu bar can be hidden by customizing
171 ns-auto-hide-menu-bar.
172
173 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
174 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
175
176 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up, and
177 optionally when copying files. To this end, copy-file has an extra
178 optional argument, and backup-buffer and friends include the SELinux
179 context in their return values.
180
181 *** The new functions file-selinux-context and set-file-selinux-context
182 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
183
184 *** Tramp offers handlers for file-selinux-context and set-file-selinux-context
185 for remote machines which support SELinux.
186
187 +++
188 ** The function format-time-string now supports the %N directive, for
189 higher-resolution time stamps.
190
191 ** The function kill-emacs is now run upon receipt of the signals SIGTERM
192 and SIGHUP, and upon SIGINT in batch mode.
193
194 ** kill-emacs-hook is now also run in batch mode.
195 If you have code that adds something to kill-emacs-hook, you should
196 consider if it is still appropriate to add it in the noninteractive case.
197
198 ** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
199 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
200 of buffer at first key-press (instead move to top/bottom of buffer)
201 when a new variable `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
202
203 ** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
204 scroll a line instead of full screen.
205
206 ** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
207 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
208
209 +++
210 ** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
211 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
212 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
213 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
214 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
215
216 ---
217 ** ``Aggressive'' scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
218 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
219 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
220 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
221 margin.
222
223 ** Trash changes
224
225 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
226 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
227
228 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
229 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
230
231 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
232 for `list-colors-display'.
233
234 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
235 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
236 from a package repository at elpa.gnu.org.
237
238 *** `M-x list-packages' shows a list of packages, which can be
239 selected for installation.
240
241 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
242
243 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded and activated
244 automatically when Emacs starts up. To disable this, set
245 `package-enable-at-startup' to nil. To change which packages are
246 loaded, customize `package-load-list'.
247
248 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
249 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
250 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
251
252 ** Custom Themes
253
254 *** `M-x customize-themes' lists Custom themes which can be enabled.
255
256 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
257 Emacs no longer looks for custom themes in `load-path'. The default
258 is to search in `custom-theme-directory', followed by a built-in theme
259 directory named "themes/" in `data-directory'.
260
261 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
262 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
263 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
264 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
265
266 ** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
267 the remote file-name cache is used for read access.
268
269 ** The standalone programs lib-src/digest-doc and sorted-doc have been
270 replaced with Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
271
272 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
273
274 \f
275 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
276
277 ** Search changes
278
279 +++
280 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to isearch-yank-kill, instead of
281 isearch-yank-line.
282
283 +++
284 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to isearch-yank-line.
285
286 +++
287 ** There is a new command `count-words-region', which does what you expect.
288
289 ** completion-at-point now handles tags and semantic completion.
290
291 ** The default value of `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' is now t.
292
293 ** The command `just-one-space' (C-SPC), if given a negative argument,
294 also deletes newlines around point.
295
296 ** Deletion changes
297
298 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
299 If non-nil, C-d, [delete], and DEL delete the region if it is active
300 and no prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', these commands
301 kill instead.
302
303 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to C-d and [delete].
304 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
305 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
306
307 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
308 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
309 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; you
310 should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
311
312 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
313
314 ** Selection changes.
315
316 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections was changed
317 to conform with modern X applications. In short, most commands for
318 killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while mouse commands
319 use the primary selection.
320
321 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
322 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
323
324 *** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
325 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
326 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
327 the kill-ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
328 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
329
330 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
331 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
332 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
333 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
334 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
335
336 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
337 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
338 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
339
340 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
341 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
342 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
343 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
344
345 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
346 exactly equivalent to, respectively M-w, C-w, and C-y.
347
348 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
349 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
350 between applications.
351
352 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
353
354 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
355 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
356 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
357 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
358 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
359
360 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
361
362 ** New command `rectangle-number-lines', bound to `C-x r N', numbers
363 the lines in the current rectangle. With an prefix argument, this
364 prompts for a number to count from and for a format string.
365
366 ** The command shell prompts for the shell path name, when the default
367 directory is a remote file name and neither environment variable
368 $ESHELL nor variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
369
370 \f
371 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
372
373 ** The compile.el mode can be used without font-lock-mode.
374 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
375
376 ** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
377
378 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
379 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity, support for
380 more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
381
382 ** shell-mode can track your cwd by reading it from your prompt.
383 Just set shell-dir-cookie-re to an appropriate regexp.
384
385 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
386
387 ** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
388
389 ** FIXME: xdg-open for browse-url and reportbug, 2010/08.
390
391 ** Archive Mode has basic support to browse 7z archives.
392
393 ** browse-url has gotten a new variable that is used for mailto: URLs,
394 `browse-url-mailto-function', which defaults to `browse-url-mail'.
395
396 ** Directory local variables can apply to file-less buffers, in certain modes
397 (eg dired, vc-dir, log-edit). For example, adding
398 "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to your .dir-locals.el file,
399 will turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should
400 call `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
401
402 +++
403 ** You can prevent directory local variables from applying to subdirectories.
404 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
405 settings to indicate said section should not be applied to subdirectories.
406
407 ** ERC changes
408
409 *** New vars `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay'.
410 If the value of `erc-autojoin-timing' is 'ident, ERC autojoins after a
411 successful NickServ identification, or after `erc-autojoin-delay'
412 seconds. The default value, 'ident, means to autojoin immediately
413 after connecting.
414
415 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
416 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
417 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
418 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
419
420 ** Eshell changes
421
422 *** The default value of eshell-directory-name is a directory named
423 "eshell" in `user-emacs-directory'. If the old "~/.eshell/" directory
424 exists, that is used instead.
425
426 ** In ido-mode, C-v is no longer bound to ido-toggle-vc.
427 The reason is that this interferes with cua-mode.
428
429 ** partial-completion-mode is now obsolete.
430 You can get a comparable behavior with:
431 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
432 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
433
434 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
435
436 ** server can listen on a specific port using the server-port option.
437
438 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
439
440 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
441
442 ---
443 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt package
444 by adding appt-make-list to diary-hook has been removed. Use appt-activate.
445
446 ---
447 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
448 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
449 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
450
451 ---
452 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
453 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
454
455 ** Customize
456
457 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
458 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
459 To turn off the search field, set custom-search-field to nil.
460
461 *** Custom options now start out hidden if at their default values.
462 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
463
464 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
465
466 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
467 choose a color via list-colors-display.
468
469 ** Dired-x
470
471 *** dired-jump and dired-jump-other-window called with a prefix argument
472 read a file name from the minibuffer instead of using buffer-file-name.
473
474 +++
475 *** The `dired local variables' feature provided by Dired-x is obsolete.
476 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
477
478 ** SQL Mode enhancements.
479
480 *** `sql-dialect' is a synonym for `sql-product'.
481
482 *** Added ability to login with a port on MySQL and Postgres.
483 The custom variable `sql-port' can be specified for connection to
484 MySQL or Postgres servers. By default, the port is not listed in
485 either login parameter, but will be added to the command line if set
486 to a non-zero value.
487
488 *** Dynamic selection of product in an SQL interactive session.
489 If you use `sql-product-interactive' to start an SQL interactive
490 session it uses the current value of `sql-product'. Preceding the
491 invocation with C-u will force it to ask for the product before
492 creating the session.
493
494 *** Renaming a SQL interactive buffer when it is created.
495 Prefixing the SQL interactive commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres',
496 `sql-mysql', etc.) with C-u will force a new interactive session to be
497 started and will prompt for the new name. This will reduce the need
498 for `sql-rename-buffer' is most common use cases.
499
500 *** Command continuation prompts in SQL interactive mode are suppressed.
501 Multiple line commands in SQL interactive mode, generate command
502 continuation prompts which needlessly confuse the output. These
503 prompts are now filtered out from the output. This change impacts
504 multiple line SQL statements entered with C-j between each line,
505 statements yanked into the buffer and statements sent with
506 `sql-send-*' functions.
507
508 *** Custom variables control prompting for login parameters.
509 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params'
510 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
511 connection is established.
512
513 The lists consist of the following five tokens: `user', `password',
514 `database', `server', and `port'. The order in which they appear is
515 the order in which they are prompted. The tokens symbols can be
516 replaced by a sublist starting with the token and followed by a plist
517 which control the prompting for values. The tokens `user',
518 `database', and `server' each can take a property of :default which
519 specifies the value to be used if no value is entered. The
520 `database', `server', and `port' tokens handle the :completion
521 property which restricts the entry to either one of the values in the
522 list or to one of the values returned by the function provided as the
523 property value. The `database' and `server' tokens also accept the
524 :file property whose value is a regexp to identify useful file names.
525
526 (user :default DEF)
527 (database :default DEF
528 :file FILEPAT
529 :completion COMPLETE)
530 (server :default DEF
531 :file FILEPAT
532 :completion COMPLETE)
533
534 The FILEPAT when :file is specified is a regexp that will match valid
535 file names (without the directory portion). Generally these strings
536 will be of the form ".+\.SUF" where SUF is the desired file suffix.
537
538 When :completion is specified, the COMPLETE corresponds to the
539 PREDICATE argument to the `completing-read' function (a list of
540 possible values or a function returning such a list).
541
542 *** Added `sql-connection-alist' to record login parameter values.
543 An alist for recording different username, database and server
544 values. If there are multiple databases that you connect to the
545 parameters needed can be stored in this alist.
546
547 For example, the following might be set in the user's init.el:
548
549 (setq sql-connection-alist
550 '((dev (sql-product 'sqlite)
551 (sql-database "/home/mmaug/dev.db"))
552 (prd (sql-product 'oracle)
553 (sql-user "mmaug")
554 (sql-database "iprd2a"))))
555
556 This defines two connections named "dev" and "prd".
557
558 *** Added `sql-connect' to use predefined connections.
559 Sets the login parameters based on the values in the
560 `sql-connection-alist' and start a SQL interactive session. Any
561 values specified in the connection will not be prompted for.
562
563 In the example above, if the user were to invoke M-x sql-connect, they
564 would be prompted for the connection. The user can respond with
565 either "dev" or "prd". The "dev" connection would connect to the
566 SQLite database without prompting; the "prd" connection would prompt
567 for the users password and then connect to the Oracle database.
568
569 **** Added SQL->Start... submenu when connections are defined.
570 When connections have been defined, there is a submenu available that
571 allows the user to select one to start a SQLi session. The "Start
572 SQLi Session" item moves to the "Start..." submenu when cnnections
573 have been defined.
574
575 **** Added "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
576 When a SQLi session is not started by a connection then
577 `sql-save-connection' will gather the login params specified for the
578 session and save them as a new connection.
579
580 *** List database objects and details.
581 Once a SQL interactive session has been started, you can get a list of
582 the objects in the database and see details of those objects. The
583 objects shown and the details available are product specific.
584
585 **** List all objects.
586 Using `M-x sql-list-all', `C-c C-l a' or selecting "SQL->List all
587 objects" will list all the objects in the database. At a minimum it
588 lists the tables and views in the database. Preceding the command by
589 universal argument may provide additional details or extend the
590 listing to include other schemas objects. The list will appear in a
591 separate window in view-mode.
592
593 **** List Table details.
594 Using `M-x sql-list-table', `C-c C-l t' or selecting "SQL->List Table
595 details" will ask for the name of a database table or view and display
596 the list of columns in the relation. Preceding the command with the
597 universal argument may provide additional details about each column.
598 The list will appear in a separate window in view-mode.
599
600 *** Added option `sql-send-terminator'.
601 When set makes sure that each command sent with `sql-send-*' commands
602 are properly terminated and submitted to the SQL processor.
603
604 *** Added option `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
605 When set commands sent to Oracle's SQL*Plus are scanned for strings
606 starting with an ampersand and the user is asked for replacement text.
607 In general, the SQL*Plus option SCAN should always be set OFF under
608 SQL interactive mode and this option used in its place.
609
610 *** SQL interactive mode will replace tabs with spaces.
611 This prevents the command interpreter for MySQL and Postgres from
612 listing object name completions when being sent text via
613 `sql-send-*' functions.
614
615 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
616
617 ** sregex.el is now obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
618
619 ** s-region.el and pc-select are now declared obsolete,
620 superseded by shift-select-mode enabled by default in 23.1.
621 ** pc-mode.el is also declared obsolete.
622 ** gdb-mi
623
624 *** GDB User Interface migrated to GDB Machine Interface and now
625 supports multithread non-stop debugging and debugging of several
626 threads simultaneously.
627
628 ** D-Bus
629
630 *** It is possible now, to access alternative buses than the default
631 system or session bus.
632
633 *** dbus-register-{service,method,property}
634 The -method and -property functions do not automatically register
635 names anymore.
636
637 The new function dbus-register-service registers a service known name
638 on a D-Bus without simultaneously registering a property or a method.
639
640 ** Tramp
641
642 *** There exists a new inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
643
644 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
645 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
646
647 ** VC and related modes
648
649 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
650 The vc-pull command runs a "pull" operation, if it is supported.
651 This updates the current branch from upstream. A prefix argument
652 means to prompt the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
653
654 **** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
655
656 **** Currently supported by Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
657
658 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
659 The vc-merge command now runs a "merge" operation, if it is supported.
660 This merges another branch into the current one. This command prompts
661 the user for specifics, e.g. a merge source.
662
663 **** Currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
664
665 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
666 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
667 In the Log View buffers made by `C-x v L' (vc-print-root-log), you can
668 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
669
670 **** Currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
671
672 **** Packages using Log View mode can enable this functionality by
673 binding `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function' to a suitable function.
674
675 ** Miscellaneous
676
677 ---
678 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
679
680 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
681
682 *** The new command `info-display-manual' will display an Info manual
683 specified by its name. If that manual is already visited in some Info
684 buffer within the current session, the command will display that
685 buffer. Otherwise, it will load the manual and display it. This is
686 handy if you have many manuals in many Info buffers, and don't
687 remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual you want to
688 consult.
689
690 \f
691 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
692
693 ** New global minor modes electric-pair-mode, electric-indent-mode,
694 and electric-layout-mode.
695
696 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
697 from which other modes can be derived.
698
699 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
700
701 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
702 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
703 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
704 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
705 secrets.
706
707 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
708 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
709
710 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
711 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
712
713 ** xmodmap-generic-mode for xmodmap files.
714
715 \f
716 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
717
718 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
719 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
720 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
721 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
722
723 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
724 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
725 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail.
726 This is currently used by Rmail to delete a mail window.
727
728 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
729 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
730 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
731 of the header line.
732
733 ** Remove obsolete name `e' (use `float-e' instead).
734
735 ** A backquote not followed by a space is now always treated as new-style.
736
737 ** Test for special mode-class was moved from view-file to view-buffer.
738 FIXME: This only says what was changed, but not what are the
739 programmer-visible consequences.
740
741 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function now turns the mode
742 ON unconditionally.
743
744 ** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
745 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
746 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
747 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
748 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
749 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
750
751 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
752 similar to the ones created by shift-selection. In previous Emacs
753 versions, these regions were delineated by `mouse-drag-overlay', which
754 has now been removed.
755
756 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
757
758 ** The following functions and aliases, obsolete since at least Emacs 21.1,
759 have been removed:
760 comint-kill-output, decompose-composite-char, outline-visible,
761 internal-find-face, internal-get-face, frame-update-faces,
762 frame-update-face-colors, x-frob-font-weight, x-frob-font-slant,
763 x-make-font-bold, x-make-font-demibold, x-make-font-unbold
764 x-make-font-italic, x-make-font-oblique, x-make-font-unitalic
765 x-make-font-bold-italic, mldrag-drag-mode-line, mldrag-drag-vertical-line,
766 iswitchb-default-keybindings, char-bytes, isearch-return-char,
767 make-local-hook
768
769 ** The following variables and aliases, obsolete since at least Emacs 21.1,
770 have been removed:
771 checkdoc-minor-keymap, vc-header-alist, directory-sep-char,
772 font-lock-defaults-alist
773
774 ** The following files, obsolete since at least Emacs 21.1, have been removed:
775 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
776
777 ** FIXME finder-inf.el changes.
778
779 \f
780 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.1
781
782 ** `glyphless-char-table' can now distinguish between graphical and
783 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
784
785 ** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
786 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
787 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
788 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
789 must also be supplied.
790
791 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
792 The `lexical-binding' variable lets code use lexical scoping for local
793 variables. It is typically set via file-local variables, in which case it
794 applies to all the code in that file.
795
796 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
797 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
798
799 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
800 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
801
802 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
803
804 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
805 declared as dynamically bound.
806
807 ** pre/post-command-hook are not reset to nil upon error.
808 Instead, the offending function is removed.
809
810 ** New low-level function run-hook-wrapped.
811
812 ** byte-compile-disable-print-circle is obsolete.
813 ** deferred-action-list and deferred-action-function are obsolete.
814 ** Removed the stack-trace-on-error variable.
815 Also the debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will jump
816 to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked instead of
817 jumping all the way to the top-level.
818
819 ** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of characters,
820 discarding any inputs not inside the set.
821
822 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
823 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
824 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
825 obsolete alias.
826
827 ** New variable syntax-propertize-function to set syntax-table properties.
828 Replaces font-lock-syntactic-keywords which are now obsolete.
829 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
830 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
831 Together with this new variable come a new hook
832 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
833 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
834 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
835 syntactic rules.
836
837 ** New hook post-self-insert-hook run at the end of self-insert-command.
838
839 +++
840 ** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
841 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
842 ** prog-mode is a new major-mode meant to be the parent of programming mode.
843 ** define-minor-mode accepts a new keyword :variable.
844
845 ** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
846 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
847 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
848 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
849
850 ** buffer-substring-filters is obsoleted by filter-buffer-substring-functions.
851
852 ** New completion style `substring'.
853
854 ** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
855 The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name or RGB
856 triplet, instead of signalling an error if the user provides a invalid
857 input.
858
859 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
860 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
861 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
862
863 ** Image API
864
865 *** When the image type is one of listed in `image-animated-types'
866 and the number of sub-images in the image is more than one, then the
867 new function `create-animated-image' creates an animated image where
868 sub-images are displayed successively with the duration defined by
869 `image-animate-max-time' and the delay between sub-images defined
870 by the Graphic Control Extension of the image.
871
872 *** `image-extension-data' is renamed to `image-metadata'.
873
874 ** XML and HTML parsing
875
876 *** If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support (which is the default),
877 two new Emacs Lisp-level functions are defined:
878 `libxml-parse-html-region' (which will parse "real world" HTML)
879 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
880 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
881
882 FIXME: These should be front-ended by xml.el.
883
884 ** FIXME GnuTLS
885
886 ** Isearch
887
888 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
889
890 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
891 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
892 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
893 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
894 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
895 displayed with a "spinning bar".
896
897 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
898 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
899
900 \f
901 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on non-free operating systems
902
903 ** New configure.bat option --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra
904 runtime checks.
905
906 ** New configure.bat option --distfiles to specify files to be
907 included in binary distribution.
908
909 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
910
911 \f
912 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
913 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
914
915 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
916 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
917 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
918 (at your option) any later version.
919
920 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
921 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
922 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
923 GNU General Public License for more details.
924
925 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
926 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
927
928 \f
929 Local variables:
930 mode: outline
931 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
932 end: