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