1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2001-03-15
2 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
6 For older news, see the file ONEWS
9 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
10 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
11 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
15 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.3
17 ** Emacs now supports new configure options `--program-prefix',
18 `--program-suffix' and `--program-transform-name' that affect the names of
22 ** Leim is now part of the Emacs distribution.
23 You no longer need to download a separate tarball in order to build
27 ** Support for AIX 5.1 was added.
30 ** Support for FreeBSD/Alpha has been added.
33 ** Support for BSD/OS 5.0 was added.
36 * Changes in Emacs 21.3
38 ** Limited support for charset unification has been added.
39 By default, Emacs now knows how to translate latin-N chars between their
40 charset and some other latin-N charset or unicode. You can force a
41 more complete unification by calling (unify-8859-on-decoding-mode 1).
43 ** The scrollbar under Motif has a smoother drag-scrolling.
44 On the other hand, the size of the thumb does not represent the actual
45 amount of text shown any more (only a crude approximation of it).
48 ** PO translation files are decoded according to their MIME headers
49 when Emacs visits them.
51 ** The game `mpuz' is enhanced.
53 `mpuz' now allows the 2nd factor not to have two identical digits. By
54 default, all trivial operations involving whole lines are performed
55 automatically. The game uses faces for better visual feedback.
57 ** On X and MS Windows, the blinking cursor's "off" state is now shown
58 as a hollow box or a thin bar.
61 ** Emacs now supports ICCCM Extended Segments in X selections.
63 Some versions of X, notably XFree86, use Extended Segments to encode
64 in X selections characters that belong to character sets which are not
65 part of the list of standard charsets supported by the ICCCM spec.
66 Examples of such non-standard character sets include ISO 8859-14, ISO
67 8859-15, KOI8-R, and BIG5. The new coding system
68 `compound-text-with-extensions' supports these extensions, and is now
69 used by default for encoding and decoding X selections. If you don't
70 want this support, set `selection-coding-system' to `compound-text'.
73 ** The parameters of automatic hscrolling can now be customized.
74 The variable `hscroll-margin' determines how many columns away from
75 the window edge point is allowed to get before automatic hscrolling
76 will horizontally scroll the window. The default value is 5.
78 The variable `hscroll-step' determines how many columns automatic
79 hscrolling will scroll the window when point gets too close to the
80 window edge. If its value is zero, the default, Emacs scrolls the
81 window so as to center point. If its value is an integer, it says how
82 many columns to scroll. If the value is a floating-point number, it
83 gives the fraction of the window's width to scroll the window.
86 ** The variable `automatic-hscrolling' was renamed to `auto-hscroll-mode'.
87 The old name is still available as an alias.
89 ** New display feature: focus follows mouse. If you set the variable
90 mouse-autoselect-window to non-nil value, moving the mouse to a different
91 Emacs window will select that window (minibuffer window can be selected
92 only when it is active). The default is nil, so that this feature is not
95 ** The new command `describe-text-at' pops up a buffer with description
96 of text properties, overlays, and widgets at point, and lets you get
97 more information about them, by clicking on mouse-sensitive areas or
98 moving there and pressing RET.
100 ** Emacs normally highlights mouse sensitive text whenever the mouse
101 is over the text. By setting the new variable `mouse-highlight', you
102 can optionally enable mouse highlighting only after you move the
103 mouse, so that highlighting disappears when you press a key. You can
104 also disable mouse highlighting.
106 ** font-lock: in modes like C and Lisp where the fontification assumes that
107 an open-paren in column 0 is always outside of any string or comment,
108 font-lock now highlights any such open-paren-in-column-zero in bold-red
109 if it is inside a string or a comment, to indicate that it can cause
110 trouble with fontification and/or indentation.
113 ** There's a new face `minibuffer-prompt'.
114 Emacs adds this face to the list of text properties stored in the
115 variable `minibuffer-prompt-properties', which is used to display the
119 ** The new face `mode-line-inactive' is used to display the mode line
120 of non-selected windows. The `mode-line' face is now used to display
121 the mode line of the currently selected window.
123 The new variable `mode-line-in-non-selected-windows' controls whether
124 the `mode-line-inactive' face is used.
126 ** A menu item "Show/Hide" was added to the top-level menu "Options".
127 This menu allows you to turn various display features on and off (like
128 tool bar and the menu bar itself). You can also move the vertical
129 scroll bar to either side here or turn it off completely. There is also
130 a menu-item to toggle displaying of current date and time, current line
131 and column number in the mode-line.
133 ** Speedbar has moved from the "Tools" top level menu to "Show/Hide".
135 ** Emacs can now indicate in the mode-line the presence of new e-mails in
136 directory in addition to file. See the documentation of the user option
137 `display-time-mail-directory'.
140 ** The new option `Info-scroll-prefer-subnodes' causes Info to behave
141 like the stand-alone Info reader (from the GNU Texinfo package) as far
142 as motion between nodes and their subnodes is concerned. If it is t
143 (the default), Emacs behaves as before when you type SPC in a menu: it
144 visits the subnode pointed to by the first menu entry. If this option
145 is nil, SPC scrolls to the end of the current node, and only then goes
146 to the first menu item, like the stand-alone reader does.
148 This change was already in Emacs 21.1, but wasn't advertised in the
152 ** LDAP support now defaults to ldapsearch from OpenLDAP version 2.
155 ** You can now disable pc-selection-mode after enabling it.
156 M-x pc-selection-mode behaves like a proper minor mode, and with no
157 argument it toggles the mode.
159 Turning off PC-Selection mode restores the global key bindings
160 that were replaced by turning on the mode.
162 ** Changes in support of colors on character terminals
165 *** The new command-line option --color=MODE lets you specify a standard
166 mode for a tty color support. It is meant to be used on character
167 terminals whose capabilities are not set correctly in the terminal
168 database, or with terminal emulators which support colors, but don't
169 set the TERM environment variable to a name of a color-capable
170 terminal. "emacs --color" uses the same color commands as GNU `ls'
171 when invoked with "ls --color", so if your terminal can support colors
172 in "ls --color", it will support "emacs --color" as well. See the
173 user manual for the possible values of the MODE parameter.
176 *** Emacs now supports several character terminals which provide more
177 than 8 colors. For example, for `xterm', 16-color, 88-color, and
178 256-color modes are supported. Emacs automatically notes at startup
179 the extended number of colors, and defines the appropriate entries for
183 *** There's a new support for colors on `rxvt' terminal emulator.
186 ** Emacs can now be invoked in full-screen mode on a windowed display.
188 When Emacs is invoked on a window system, the new command-line options
189 `--fullwidth', `--fullheight', and `--fullscreen' produce a frame
190 whose width, height, or both width and height take up the entire
191 screen size. (For now, this works only on GNU and Unix systems, and
192 not with every window manager.)
194 ** Info-index finally offers completion.
196 ** shell-mode now supports programmable completion using `pcomplete'.
198 ** Controlling the left and right fringe widths.
200 The left and right fringe widths can now be controlled by setting the
201 `left-fringe' and `right-fringe' frame parameters to an integer value
202 specifying the width in pixels. Setting the width to 0 effectively
203 removes the corresponding fringe.
205 The actual fringe widths may deviate from the specified widths, since
206 the combined fringe widths must match an integral number of columns.
207 The extra width is distributed evenly between the left and right fringe.
208 For force a specific fringe width, specify the width as a negative
209 integer (if both widths are negative, only the left fringe gets the
212 Setting the width to nil (the default), restores the default fringe
213 width which is the minimum number of pixels necessary to display any
214 of the currently defined fringe bitmaps. The width of the built-in
215 fringe bitmaps is 8 pixels.
217 ** Changes in C-h bindings:
219 C-h e displays the *Messages* buffer.
221 C-h followed by a control character is used for displaying files
224 C-h C-f displays the FAQ.
225 C-h C-e displays the PROBLEMS file.
227 The info-search bindings on C-h C-f, C-h C-k and C-h C-i
228 have been moved to C-h F, C-h K and C-h S.
230 C-h c, C-h k, C-h w, and C-h f now handle remapped interactive commands.
232 - C-h c and C-h k report the actual command (after possible remapping)
233 run by the key sequence.
235 - C-h w and C-h f on a command which has been remapped now report the
236 command it is remapped to, and the keys which can be used to run
239 For example, if C-k is bound to kill-line, and kill-line is remapped
240 to new-kill-line, these commands now report:
242 - C-h c and C-h k C-k reports:
243 C-k runs the command new-kill-line
245 - C-h w and C-h f kill-line reports:
246 kill-line is remapped to new-kill-line which is on C-k, <deleteline>
248 - C-h w and C-h f new-kill-line reports:
249 new-kill-line is on C-k
251 ** C-w in incremental search now grabs either a character or a word,
252 making the decision in a heuristic way. This new job is done by the
253 command `isearch-yank-word-or-char'. To restore the old behavior,
254 bind C-w to `isearch-yank-word' in `isearch-mode-map'.
256 ** In GUD mode when talking to GDB, C-x C-a C-j "jumps" the program
257 counter to the specified source line (the one where point is).
259 ** GUD mode improvements for jdb:
261 *** Search for source files using jdb classpath and class
262 information. Fast startup since there is no need to scan all
263 source files up front. There is also no need to create and maintain
264 lists of source directories to scan. Look at `gud-jdb-use-classpath'
265 and `gud-jdb-classpath' customization variables documentation.
267 *** Supports the standard breakpoint (gud-break, gud-clear)
268 set/clear operations from java source files under the classpath, stack
269 traversal (gud-up, gud-down), and run until current stack finish
272 *** Supports new jdb (Java 1.2 and later) in addition to oldjdb
275 *** The previous method of searching for source files has been
276 preserved in case someone still wants/needs to use it.
277 Set gud-jdb-use-classpath to nil.
279 Added Customization Variables
281 *** gud-jdb-command-name. What command line to use to invoke jdb.
283 *** gud-jdb-use-classpath. Allows selection of java source file searching
284 method: set to t for new method, nil to scan gud-jdb-directories for
285 java sources (previous method).
287 *** gud-jdb-directories. List of directories to scan and search for java
288 classes using the original gud-jdb method (if gud-jdb-use-classpath
293 *** Do not allow debugger output history variable to grow without bounds.
295 ** hide-ifdef-mode now uses overlays rather than selective-display
296 to hide its text. This should be mostly transparent but slightly
297 changes the behavior of motion commands line C-e and C-p.
299 ** In Dired's ! command (dired-do-shell-command), `*' and `?' now
300 control substitution of the file names only when they are surrounded
301 by whitespace. This means you can now use them as shell wildcards
302 too. If you want to use just plain `*' as a wildcard, type `*""'; the
303 doublequotes make no difference in the shell, but they prevent
304 special treatment in `dired-do-shell-command'.
306 ** Unquoted `$' in file names do not signal an error any more when
307 the corresponding environment variable does not exist.
308 Instead, the `$ENVVAR' text is left as is, so that `$$' quoting
309 is only rarely needed.
311 ** jit-lock can now be delayed with `jit-lock-defer-time'.
313 If this variable is non-nil, its value should be the amount of Emacs
314 idle time in seconds to wait before starting fontification. For
315 example, if you set `jit-lock-defer-time' to 0.25, fontification will
316 only happen after 0.25s of idle time.
319 ** Marking commands extend the region when invoked multiple times. If
320 you hit M-C-SPC (mark-sexp), M-@ (mark-word), M-h (mark-paragraph), or
321 C-M-h (mark-defun) repeatedly, the marked region will now be extended
322 each time, so you can mark the next two sexps with M-C-SPC M-C-SPC,
323 for example. This feature also works for mark-end-of-sentence, if you
326 ** In the *Occur* buffer, `o' switches to it in another window, and
327 C-o displays the current line's occurrence in another window without
330 ** When you specify a frame size with --geometry, the size applies to
331 all frames you create. A position specified with --geometry only
332 affects the initial frame.
335 ** M-h (mark-paragraph) now accepts a prefix arg.
336 With positive arg, M-h marks the current and the following paragraphs;
337 if the arg is negative, it marks the current and the preceding
340 ** In Dired, the w command now copies the current line's file name
343 ** The variables dired-free-space-program and dired-free-space-args
344 have been renamed to directory-free-space-program and
345 directory-free-space-args, and they now apply whenever Emacs puts a
346 directory listing into a buffer.
348 ** mouse-wheels can now scroll a specific fraction of the window
349 (rather than a fixed number of lines) and the scrolling is `progressive'.
351 ** The keyboard-coding-system is now automatically set based on
352 your current locale settings. If it turns out that your terminal
353 does not support the encoding implied by your locale (for example,
354 it inserts non-ASCII chars if you hit M-i), you will need to add
356 (set-keyboard-coding-system nil)
358 to your .emacs to revert to the old behavior.
360 ** A new coding system `euc-tw' has been added for traditional Chinese
361 in CNS encoding; it accepts both Big 5 and CNS as input; on saving,
362 Big 5 is then converted to CNS.
365 ** Emacs now reads the standard abbrevs file ~/.abbrev_defs
366 automatically at startup, if it exists. When Emacs offers to save
367 modified buffers, it saves the abbrevs too if they have changed. It
368 can do this either silently or asking for confirmation first,
369 according to the value of `save-abbrevs'.
371 ** Display of hollow cursors now obeys the buffer-local value (if any)
372 of `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' in the buffer that the cursor
375 ** The default values of `tooltip-delay' and `tooltip-hide-delay'
378 ** On terminals whose erase-char is ^H (Backspace), Emacs
379 now uses normal-erase-is-backspace-mode.
383 *** There is a new user option `vc-cvs-global-switches' that allows
384 you to specify switches that are passed to any CVS command invoked
385 by VC. These switches are used as "global options" for CVS, which
386 means they are inserted before the command name. For example, this
387 allows you to specify a compression level using the "-z#" option for
393 *** When comparing directories.
394 Typing D brings up a buffer that lists the differences between the contents of
395 directories. Now it is possible to use this buffer to copy the missing files
396 from one directory to another.
399 *** When comparing files or buffers.
400 Typing the = key now offers to perform the word-by-word comparison of the
401 currently highlighted regions in an inferior Ediff session. If you answer 'n'
402 then it reverts to the old behavior and asks the user to select regions for
407 *** In Prolog, etags creates tags for rules in addition to predicates.
409 *** In Perl, packages are tags.
410 Subroutine tags are named from their package. You can jump to sub tags
411 as you did before, by the sub name, or additionally by looking for
414 *** New language PHP: tags are functions, classes and defines.
415 If the --members option is specified to etags, tags are vars also.
417 *** Honour #line directives.
418 When Etags parses an input file that contains C preprocessor's #line
419 directives, it creates tags using the file name and line number
420 specified in those directives. This is useful when dealing with code
421 created from Cweb source files. When Etags tags the generated file, it
422 writes tags pointing to the source file.
425 ** The command line option --no-windows has been changed to
426 --no-window-system. The old one still works, but is deprecated.
428 ** `buffer-menu' and `list-buffers' now list buffers whose names begin
429 with a space, if they visit files.
431 ** You can now customize fill-nobreak-predicate to control where
432 filling can break lines. We provide two sample predicates,
433 fill-single-word-nobreak-p and fill-french-nobreak-p.
435 ** New user option `add-log-always-start-new-record'.
436 When this option is enabled, M-x add-change-log-entry will always
437 start a new record regardless of when the last record is.
439 ** New user option `sgml-xml'.
440 When this option is enabled, SGML tags are inserted in XML style,
441 i.e., there is always a closing tag.
442 When not customized, it becomes buffer-local when it can be inferred
443 from the file name or buffer contents.
445 ** New user option `isearch-resume-enabled'.
446 This option can be disabled, to avoid the normal behaviour of isearch
447 which puts calls to `isearch-resume' in the command history.
449 ** When the *scratch* buffer is recreated, its mode is set from
450 initial-major-mode, which normally is lisp-interaction-mode,
451 instead of using default-major-mode.
453 ** Byte compiler warning and error messages have been brought more
454 in line with the output of other GNU tools.
456 ** Lisp-mode now uses font-lock-doc-face for the docstrings.
458 ** perl-mode has a new variable `perl-indent-continued-arguments'.
460 ** `special-display-buffer-names' and `special-display-regexps' now
461 understand two new boolean pseudo-frame-parameters `same-frame' and
464 ** When pure storage overflows while dumping, Emacs now prints how
465 much pure storage it will approximately need.
467 ** M-x setenv now expands environment variables of the form `$foo' and
468 `${foo}' in the specified new value of the environment variable. To
469 include a `$' in the value, use `$$'.
472 ** File-name completion can now ignore directories.
473 If an element of the list in `completion-ignored-extensions' ends in a
474 slash `/', it indicates a subdirectory that should be ignored when
475 completing file names. Elements of `completion-ignored-extensions'
476 which do not end in a slash are never considered when a completion
477 candidate is a directory.
479 ** New user option `inhibit-startup-buffer-menu'.
480 When loading many files, for instance with `emacs *', Emacs normally
481 displays a buffer menu. This option turns the buffer menu off.
483 ** Rmail now displays 5-digit message ids in its summary buffer.
485 ** When using M-x revert-buffer in a compilation buffer to rerun a
486 compilation, it is now made sure that the compilation buffer is reused
487 in case it has been renamed.
489 ** On MS Windows, the "system caret" now follows the cursor.
490 This enables Emacs to work better with programs that need to track
491 the cursor, for example screen magnifiers and text to speech programs.
493 ** Tooltips now work on MS Windows.
494 See the Emacs 21.1 NEWS entry for tooltips for details.
496 ** Some images are now supported on Windows.
497 PBM and XBM images are supported, other formats which require external
498 libraries may be supported in future.
500 ** Pointing devices with more than 3 buttons are now supported on MS Windows.
501 The new variable `w32-pass-extra-mouse-buttons-to-system' controls
502 whether Emacs should handle the extra buttons itself (the default), or
503 pass them to Windows to be handled with system-wide functions.
505 ** Under X11, it is possible to swap Alt and Meta (and Super and Hyper).
506 The new variables `x-alt-keysym', `x-hyper-keysym', `x-meta-keysym',
507 and `x-super-keysym' can be used to choose which keysyms Emacs should
508 use for the modifiers. For example, the following two lines swap
510 (setq x-alt-keysym 'meta)
511 (setq x-meta-keysym 'alt)
514 ** A French translation of the `Emacs Survival Guide' is available.
517 ** A French translation of the Emacs Tutorial is available.
520 ** Indentation of simple and extended loop forms has been added to the
521 cl-indent package. The new user options
522 `lisp-loop-keyword-indentation', `lisp-loop-forms-indentation', and
523 `lisp-simple-loop-indentation' can be used to customize the
524 indentation of keywords and forms in loop forms.
526 ** Indentation of backquoted forms has been made customizable in the
527 cl-indent package. See the new user option `lisp-backquote-indentation'.
529 ** New modes and packages
532 *** Calc is now part of the Emacs distribution.
534 Calc is an advanced desk calculator and mathematical tool written in
535 Emacs Lisp. Its documentation is in a separate manual; within Emacs,
536 type "C-h i m calc RET" to read that manual. A reference card is
537 available in `etc/calccard.tex' and `etc/calccard.ps'.
540 *** The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual is now part of the distribution.
542 The ELisp reference manual in Info format is built as part of the
543 Emacs build procedure and installed together with the Emacs User
544 Manual. A menu item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy
545 accessible (Help->More Manuals->Emacs Lisp Reference).
547 *** The Introduction to Programming in Emacs Lisp manual is now part of
550 This manual is now part of the standard distribution and is installed,
551 together with the Emacs User Manual, into the Info directory. A menu
552 item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy accessible
553 (Help->More Manuals->Introduction to Emacs Lisp).
555 *** The ruler-mode.el library provides a minor mode for displaying an
556 "active" ruler in the header line. You can use the mouse to visually
557 change the `fill-column', `window-margins' and `tab-stop-list'
560 *** The reveal.el package provides the minor modes `reveal-mode' and
561 `global-reveal-mode' which will make text visible on the fly as you
562 move your cursor into hidden region of the buffer.
563 It should work with any package that uses overlays to hide parts
564 of a buffer, such as outline-minor-mode, hs-minor-mode, hide-ifdef-mode, ...
566 *** master-mode.el implements a minor mode for scrolling a slave
567 buffer without leaving your current buffer, the master buffer.
569 It can be used by sql.el, for example: the SQL buffer is the master
570 and its SQLi buffer is the slave. This allows you to scroll the SQLi
571 buffer containing the output from the SQL buffer containing the
574 This is how to use sql.el and master.el together: the variable
575 sql-buffer contains the slave buffer. It is a local variable in the
578 (add-hook 'sql-mode-hook
581 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
582 (add-hook 'sql-set-sqli-hook
584 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
587 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 21.3
589 ** The `defmacro' form may contain declarations specifying how to
590 indent the macro in Lisp mode and how to debug it with Edebug. The
591 syntax of defmacro has been extended to
593 (defmacro NAME LAMBDA-LIST [DOC-STRING] [DECLARATION ...] ...)
595 DECLARATION is a list `(declare DECLARATION-SPECIFIER ...)'. The
596 declaration specifiers supported are:
599 Set NAME's `lisp-indent-function' property to INDENT.
602 Set NAME's `edebug-form-spec' property to DEBUG. (This is
603 equivalent to writing a `def-edebug-spec' for the macro.
605 ** Interactive commands can be remapped through keymaps.
607 This is an alternative to using defadvice or substitute-key-definition
608 to modify the behaviour of a key binding using the normal keymap
609 binding and lookup functionality.
611 When a key sequence is bound to a command, and that command is
612 remapped to another command, that command is run instead of the
616 Suppose that minor mode my-mode has defined the commands
617 my-kill-line and my-kill-word, and it wants C-k (and any other key
618 bound to kill-line) to run the command my-kill-line instead of
619 kill-line, and likewise it wants to run my-kill-word instead of
622 Instead of rebinding C-k and the other keys in the minor mode map,
623 command remapping allows you to directly map kill-line into
624 my-kill-line and kill-word into my-kill-word through the minor mode
625 map using define-key:
627 (define-key my-mode-map [remap kill-line] 'my-kill-line)
628 (define-key my-mode-map [remap kill-word] 'my-kill-word)
630 Now, when my-mode is enabled, and the user enters C-k or M-d,
631 the commands my-kill-line and my-kill-word are run.
633 Notice that only one level of remapping is supported. In the above
634 example, this means that if my-kill-line is remapped to other-kill,
635 then C-k still runs my-kill-line.
637 The following changes have been made to provide command remapping:
639 - Command remappings are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
640 `remap', i.e. `(define-key MAP [remap CMD] DEF)' remaps command CMD
641 to definition DEF in keymap MAP. The definition is not limited to
642 another command; it can be anything accepted for a normal binding.
644 - The new function `remap-command' returns the binding for a remapped
645 command in the current keymaps, or nil if it isn't remapped.
647 - key-binding now remaps interactive commands unless the optional
648 third argument NO-REMAP is non-nil.
650 - where-is-internal now returns nil for a remapped command (e.g.
651 kill-line if my-mode is enabled), and the actual key binding for
652 the command it is remapped to (e.g. C-k for my-kill-line).
653 It also has a new optional fifth argument, NO-REMAP, which inhibits
654 remapping if non-nil (e.g. it returns C-k for kill-line and
655 <kill-line> for my-kill-line).
657 - The new variable `this-original-command' contains the original
658 command before remapping. It is equal to `this-command' when the
659 command was not remapped.
661 ** Atomic change groups.
663 To perform some changes in the current buffer "atomically" so that
664 they either all succeed or are all undone, use `atomic-change-group'
665 around the code that makes changes. For instance:
671 If an error (or other nonlocal exit) occurs inside the body of
672 `atomic-change-group', it unmakes all the changes in that buffer that
673 were during the execution of the body. The change group has no effect
674 on any other buffers--any such changes remain.
676 If you need something more sophisticated, you can directly call the
677 lower-level functions that `atomic-change-group' uses. Here is how.
679 To set up a change group for one buffer, call `prepare-change-group'.
680 Specify the buffer as argument; it defaults to the current buffer.
681 This function returns a "handle" for the change group. You must save
682 the handle to activate the change group and then finish it.
684 Before you change the buffer again, you must activate the change
685 group. Pass the handle to `activate-change-group' afterward to
688 After you make the changes, you must finish the change group. You can
689 either accept the changes or cancel them all. Call
690 `accept-change-group' to accept the changes in the group as final;
691 call `cancel-change-group' to undo them all.
693 You should use `unwind-protect' to make sure the group is always
694 finished. The call to `activate-change-group' should be inside the
695 `unwind-protect', in case the user types C-g just after it runs.
696 (This is one reason why `prepare-change-group' and
697 `activate-change-group' are separate functions.) Once you finish the
698 group, don't use the handle again--don't try to finish the same group
701 To make a multibuffer change group, call `prepare-change-group' once
702 for each buffer you want to cover, then use `nconc' to combine the
703 returned values, like this:
705 (nconc (prepare-change-group buffer-1)
706 (prepare-change-group buffer-2))
708 You can then activate the multibuffer change group with a single call
709 to `activate-change-group', and finish it with a single call to
710 `accept-change-group' or `cancel-change-group'.
712 Nested use of several change groups for the same buffer works as you
713 would expect. Non-nested use of change groups for the same buffer
714 will lead to undesirable results, so don't let it happen; the first
715 change group you start for any given buffer should be the last one
718 ** Enhanced networking support.
720 *** There is a new `make-network-process' function which supports
721 opening of stream and datagram connections to a server, as well as
722 create a stream or datagram server inside emacs.
724 - A server is started using :server t arg.
725 - Datagram connection is selected using :type 'datagram arg.
726 - A server can open on a random port using :service t arg.
727 - Local sockets are supported using :family 'local arg.
728 - Non-blocking connect is supported using :nowait t arg.
730 To test for the availability of a given feature, use featurep like this:
731 (featurep 'make-network-process '(:type datagram))
733 *** Original open-network-stream is now emulated using make-network-process.
735 *** New function open-network-stream-nowait.
737 This function initiates a non-blocking connect and returns immediately
738 before the connection is established. The filter and sentinel
739 functions can be specified as arguments to open-network-stream-nowait.
740 When the non-blocking connect completes, the sentinel is called with
741 the status matching "open" or "failed".
743 *** New function open-network-stream-server.
744 MORE INFO NEEDED HERE.
746 *** New functions process-datagram-address and set-process-datagram-address.
747 MORE INFO NEEDED HERE.
749 *** By default, the function process-contact still returns (HOST SERVICE)
750 for a network process. Using the new optional KEY arg, the complete list
751 of network process properties or a specific property can be selected.
753 Using :local and :remote as the KEY, the address of the local or
754 remote end-point is returned. An Inet address is represented as a 5
755 element vector, where the first 4 elements contain the IP address and
756 the fifth is the port number.
758 *** Network processes can now be stopped and restarted with
759 `stop-process' and `continue-process'. For a server process, no
760 connections are accepted in the stopped state. For a client process,
761 no input is received in the stopped state.
763 *** Function list-processes now has an optional argument; if non-nil,
764 only the processes whose query-on-exit flag is set are listed.
766 *** New set-process-query-on-exit-flag and process-query-on-exit-flag
767 functions. The existing process-kill-without-query function is still
768 supported, but new code should use the new functions.
770 ** New function substring-no-properties.
772 ** New function minibuffer-selected-window.
775 *** The meanings of scroll-up-aggressively and scroll-down-aggressively
776 have been interchanged, so that the former now controls scrolling up,
777 and the latter now controls scrolling down.
780 ** New function window-body-height.
782 This is like window-height but does not count the mode line
785 ** New functions `lax-plist-get' and `lax-plist-put'.
787 These functions are like `plist-get' and `plist-put' except that they
788 compare the property name using `equal' rather than `eq'.
790 ** New function `tool-bar-local-item-from-menu'
792 The `tool-bar-add-item-from-menu' most not be used (as previously
793 recommended) for making entries in the tool bar for local keymaps.
794 Instead, use the function `tool-bar-local-item-from-menu', which lets
795 you specify the map to use as an argument.
798 ** The function `atan' now accepts an optional second argument.
800 When called with 2 arguments, as in `(atan Y X)', `atan' returns the
801 angle in radians between the vector [X, Y] and the X axis. (This is
802 equivalent to the standard C library function `atan2'.)
805 ** You can now make a window as short as one line.
807 A window that is just one line tall does not display either a mode
808 line or a header line, even if the variables `mode-line-format' and
809 `header-line-format' call for them. A window that is two lines tall
810 cannot display both a mode line and a header line at once; if the
811 variables call for both, only the mode line actually appears.
814 ** The new frame parameter `tty-color-mode' specifies the mode to use
815 for color support on character terminal frames. Its value can be a
816 number of colors to support, or a symbol. See the Emacs Lisp
817 Reference manual for more detailed documentation.
819 ** Already true in Emacs 21.1, but not emphasized clearly enough:
821 Multibyte buffers can now faithfully record all 256 character codes
822 from 0 to 255. As a result, most of the past reasons to use unibyte
823 buffers no longer exist. We only know of three reasons to use them
826 1. If you prefer to use unibyte text all of the time.
828 2. For reading files into temporary buffers, when you want to avoid
829 the time it takes to convert the format.
831 3. For binary files where format conversion would be pointless and
834 ** If text has a `keymap' property, that keymap takes precedence
835 over minor mode keymaps.
837 ** A hex escape in a string forces the string to be multibyte.
838 An octal escape makes it unibyte.
840 ** The position after an invisible, intangible character
841 is considered an unacceptable value for point;
842 intangibility processing effectively treats the following character
843 as part of the intangible region even if it is not itself intangible.
845 Thus, point can go before an invisible, intangible region, but not
846 after it. This prevents C-f and C-b from appearing to stand still on
850 ** define-abbrev now accepts an optional argument SYSTEM-FLAG. If
851 non-nil, this marks the abbrev as a "system" abbrev, which means that
852 it won't be stored in the user's abbrevs file if he saves the abbrevs.
853 Major modes that predefine some abbrevs should always specify this
856 ** Support for Mocklisp has been removed.
858 ** The function insert-string is now obsolete.
860 ** The precedence of file-name-handlers has been changed.
861 Instead of blindly choosing the first handler that matches,
862 find-file-name-handler now gives precedence to a file-name handler
863 that matches near the end of the file name. More specifically, the
864 handler whose (match-beginning 0) is the largest is chosen.
865 In case of ties, the old "first matched" rule applies.
867 ** Dense keymaps now handle inheritance correctly.
868 Previously a dense keymap would hide all of the simple-char key
869 bindings of the parent keymap.
871 ** jit-lock obeys a new text-property `jit-lock-defer-multiline'.
872 If a piece of text with that property gets contextually refontified
873 (see jit-lock-defer-contextually), then all of that text will
874 be refontified. This is useful when the syntax of a textual element
875 depends on text several lines further down (and when font-lock-multiline
876 is not appropriate to solve that problem). For example in Perl:
884 Adding/removing the last `e' changes the `bar' from being a piece of
885 text to being a piece of code, so you'd put a jit-lock-defer-multiline
886 property over the second half of the command to force (deferred)
887 refontification of `bar' whenever the `e' is added/removed.
889 ** describe-vector now takes a second argument `describer' which is
890 called to print the entries' values. It defaults to `princ'.
892 ** defcustom and other custom declarations now use a default group
893 (the last group defined in the same file) when no :group was given.
895 ** emacsserver now runs pre-command-hook and post-command-hook when
896 it receives a request from emacsclient.
898 ** The variable `recursive-load-depth-limit' has been deleted.
899 Emacs now signals an error if the same file is loaded with more
900 than 3 levels of nesting.
902 ** The default values of paragraph-start and indent-line-function have
903 been changed to reflect those used in Text mode rather than those used
904 in Indented-Text mode.
906 ** If a major mode function has a non-nil `no-clone-indirect'
907 property, `clone-indirect-buffer' signals an error if you use
910 ** If you set `query-replace-skip-read-only' non-nil,
911 `query-replace' and related functions simply ignore
912 a match if part of it has a read-only property.
914 ** In `replace-match', the replacement text no longer inherits
915 properties from surrounding text.
917 ** New function `buffer-local-value'.
919 - Function: buffer-local-value variable buffer
921 This function returns the buffer-local binding of VARIABLE (a symbol)
922 in buffer BUFFER. If VARIABLE does not have a buffer-local binding in
923 buffer BUFFER, it returns the default value of VARIABLE instead.
925 ** The default value of `paragraph-start' and `indent-line-function' has
926 been changed to reflect the one used in Text mode rather than the one
927 used in Indented Text mode.
929 ** New function `text-clone-create'. Text clones are chunks of text
930 that are kept identical by transparently propagating changes from one
933 ** font-lock can manage arbitrary text-properties beside `face'.
934 *** the FACENAME returned in font-lock-keywords can be a list
935 of the form (face FACE PROP1 VAL1 PROP2 VAL2 ...) so you can set
936 other properties than `face'.
937 *** font-lock-extra-managed-props can be set to make sure those extra
938 properties are automatically cleaned up by font-lock.
940 ** The special treatment of faces whose names are of the form `fg:COLOR'
941 or `bg:COLOR' has been removed. Lisp programs should use the
942 `defface' facility for defining faces with specific colors.
944 ** The new function `run-mode-hooks' and the new macro `delay-mode-hooks'
945 are used by define-derived-mode to make sure the mode hook for the
946 parent mode is run at the end of the child mode.
948 ** `provide' and `featurep' now accept an optional second argument
949 to test/provide subfeatures. Also `provide' now checks `after-load-alist'
950 and run any code associated with the provided feature.
952 ** The variable `compilation-parse-errors-filename-function' can
953 be used to transform filenames found in compilation output.
956 ** Functions `file-name-sans-extension' and `file-name-extension' now
957 ignore the leading dots in file names, so that file names such as
958 `.emacs' are treated as extensionless.
960 ** Functions `user-uid' and `user-real-uid' now return floats if the
961 user UID doesn't fit in a Lisp integer. Function `user-full-name'
962 accepts a float as UID parameter.
964 ** `define-key-after' now accepts keys longer than 1.
966 ** `define-derived-mode' now accepts nil as the parent.
968 ** The local variable `no-byte-compile' in elisp files is now obeyed.
970 ** New functions `keymap-prompt' and `current-active-maps'.
972 ** New function `describe-buffer-bindings'.
974 ** New vars `exec-suffixes' and `load-suffixes' used when
975 searching for an executable resp. an elisp file.
977 ** Variable aliases have been implemented
979 - Macro: defvaralias ALIAS-VAR BASE-VAR
981 This defines the symbol ALIAS-VAR as a variable alias for symbol
982 BASE-VAR. This means that retrieving the value of ALIAS-VAR returns
983 the value of BASE-VAR, and changing the value of ALIAS-VAR changes the
986 - Function: indirect-variable VARIABLE
988 This function returns the variable at the end of the chain of aliases
989 of VARIABLE. If VARIABLE is not a symbol, or if VARIABLE is not
990 defined as an alias, the function returns VARIABLE.
992 It might be noteworthy that variables aliases work for all kinds of
993 variables, including buffer-local and frame-local variables.
995 ** Functions from `post-gc-hook' are run at the end of garbage
996 collection. The hook is run with GC inhibited, so use it with care.
998 ** If the second argument to `copy-file' is the name of a directory,
999 the file is copied to that directory instead of signaling an error.
1001 ** The variables most-positive-fixnum and most-negative-fixnum
1002 have been moved from the CL package to the core.
1004 ** On MS Windows, locale-coding-system is used to interact with the OS.
1005 The Windows specific variable w32-system-coding-system, which was
1006 formerly used for that purpose is now an alias for locale-coding-system.
1008 ** Functions y-or-n-p, read-char, read-keysequence and alike that
1009 display a prompt but don't use the minibuffer now display the prompt
1010 using the text properties (esp. the face) of the prompt string.
1014 *** The new package syntax.el provides an efficient way to find the
1015 current syntactic context (as returned by parse-partial-sexp).
1017 *** The TCL package tcl-mode.el was replaced by tcl.el.
1018 This was actually done in Emacs-21.1, and was not documented.
1020 *** The new package Ibuffer provides a powerful, completely
1021 customizable replacement for buff-menu.el.
1024 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
1026 See the INSTALL file for information on installing extra libraries and
1027 fonts to take advantage of the new graphical features and extra
1028 charsets in this release.
1030 ** Support for GNU/Linux on IA64 machines has been added.
1032 ** Support for LynxOS has been added.
1034 ** There are new configure options associated with the support for
1035 images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option in `configure'
1038 ** You can build a 64-bit Emacs for SPARC/Solaris systems which
1039 support 64-bit executables and also on Irix 6.5. This increases the
1040 maximum buffer size. See etc/MACHINES for instructions. Changes to
1041 build on other 64-bit systems should be straightforward modulo any
1042 necessary changes to unexec.
1044 ** There is a new configure option `--disable-largefile' to omit
1045 Unix-98-style support for large files if that is available.
1047 ** There is a new configure option `--without-xim' that instructs
1048 Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if these are available.
1050 ** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
1051 the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
1053 ** This version can be built for the Macintosh, but does not implement
1054 all of the new display features described below. The port currently
1055 lacks unexec, asynchronous processes, and networking support. See the
1056 "Emacs and the Mac OS" appendix in the Emacs manual, for the
1057 description of aspects specific to the Mac.
1059 ** Note that the MS-Windows port does not yet implement various of the
1060 new display features described below.
1063 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
1065 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
1067 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
1068 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
1069 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
1070 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
1073 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
1075 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
1076 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
1077 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
1078 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
1081 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
1082 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
1083 under Lisp changes, below.
1085 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
1087 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
1088 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
1089 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
1090 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
1091 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
1092 attributes such as `overline', `strike-through', and `box' are ignored
1095 The command-line options `-fg COLOR', `-bg COLOR', and `-rv' are now
1096 supported on character terminals.
1098 Emacs automatically remaps all X-style color specifications to one of
1099 the colors supported by the terminal. This means you could have the
1100 same color customizations that work both on a windowed display and on
1101 a TTY or when Emacs is invoked with the -nw option.
1103 ** New default font is Courier 12pt under X.
1107 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD (Voxware
1108 driver and native BSD driver, a.k.a. Luigi's driver). Currently
1109 supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio (*.au).
1110 You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes' to enable
1113 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
1115 If a message is longer than one line, or minibuffer contents are
1116 longer than one line, Emacs can resize the minibuffer window unless it
1117 is on a frame of its own. You can control resizing and the maximum
1118 minibuffer window size by setting the following variables:
1120 - User option: max-mini-window-height
1122 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
1123 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
1124 specifies a number of lines.
1128 - User option: resize-mini-windows
1130 How to resize mini-windows. If nil, don't resize. If t, always
1131 resize to fit the size of the text. If `grow-only', let mini-windows
1132 grow only, until they become empty, at which point they are shrunk
1135 Default is `grow-only'.
1139 Emacs now runs with the LessTif toolkit (see
1140 <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will need version 0.92.26, or later.
1142 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
1144 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
1145 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
1148 ** File selection dialog on MS-Windows is supported.
1150 When a file is visited by clicking File->Open, the MS-Windows version
1151 now pops up a standard file selection dialog where you can select a
1152 file to visit. File->Save As also pops up that dialog.
1154 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
1156 Emacs now uses toolkit scroll bars if available. When configured for
1157 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scroll bar. Otherwise, when
1158 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
1159 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
1160 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
1163 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
1164 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
1165 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
1166 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
1167 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
1168 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
1170 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
1171 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
1172 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
1173 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
1174 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
1175 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
1177 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
1178 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
1179 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
1180 imake configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
1181 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
1183 ** Tool bar support.
1185 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
1186 of how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level
1187 changes. Tool-bar global minor mode controls whether or not it is
1188 displayed and is on by default. The appearance of the bar is improved
1189 if Emacs has been built with XPM image support. Otherwise monochrome
1192 To make the tool bar more useful, we need contributions of extra icons
1193 for specific modes (with copyright assignments).
1197 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
1198 mouse position. The Lisp package `tooltip' implements them. You can
1199 turn them off via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
1201 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
1202 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
1203 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
1204 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
1206 ** Automatic Hscrolling
1208 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
1209 `automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
1212 If a window is scrolled horizontally with set-window-hscroll, or
1213 scroll-left/scroll-right (C-x <, C-x >), this serves as a lower bound
1214 for automatic horizontal scrolling. Automatic scrolling will scroll
1215 the text more to the left if necessary, but won't scroll the text more
1216 to the right than the column set with set-window-hscroll etc.
1218 ** When using a windowing terminal, each Emacs window now has a cursor
1219 of its own. By default, when a window is selected, the cursor is
1220 solid; otherwise, it is hollow. The user-option
1221 `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to display the
1222 cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is shown, if
1223 non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown.
1225 ** Fringes to the left and right of windows are used to display
1226 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
1227 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
1228 customizing face `fringe'.
1230 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default.
1231 You can change its appearance by modifying the face `mode-line'.
1232 In particular, setting the `:box' attribute to nil turns off the 3D
1233 appearance of the mode line. (The 3D appearance makes the mode line
1234 occupy more space, and thus might cause the first or the last line of
1235 the window to be partially obscured.)
1237 The variable `mode-line-inverse-video', which was used in older
1238 versions of emacs to make the mode-line stand out, is now deprecated.
1239 However, setting it to nil will cause the `mode-line' face to be
1240 ignored, and mode-lines to be drawn using the default text face.
1242 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
1244 Different parts of the mode line have been made mouse-sensitive on all
1245 systems which support the mouse. Moving the mouse to a
1246 mouse-sensitive part in the mode line changes the appearance of the
1247 mouse pointer to an arrow, and help about available mouse actions is
1248 displayed either in the echo area, or in the tooltip window if you
1251 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
1253 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line goes to the next buffer.
1255 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name goes to the previous buffer.
1257 - Mouse-2 on the read-only or modified status in the mode line (`%' or
1258 `*') toggles the status.
1260 - Mouse-3 on the mode name displays a minor-mode menu.
1262 ** Hourglass pointer
1264 Emacs can optionally display an hourglass pointer under X. You can
1265 turn the display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
1269 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
1270 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
1271 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
1274 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
1276 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
1277 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
1278 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
1281 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
1282 have to do anything to activate it.
1284 ** The default binding of the Delete key has changed.
1286 The new user-option `normal-erase-is-backspace' can be set to
1287 determine the effect of the Delete and Backspace function keys.
1289 On window systems, the default value of this option is chosen
1290 according to the keyboard used. If the keyboard has both a Backspace
1291 key and a Delete key, and both are mapped to their usual meanings, the
1292 option's default value is set to t, so that Backspace can be used to
1293 delete backward, and Delete can be used to delete forward. On
1294 keyboards which either have only one key (usually labeled DEL), or two
1295 keys DEL and BS which produce the same effect, the option's value is
1296 set to nil, and these keys delete backward.
1298 If not running under a window system, setting this option accomplishes
1299 a similar effect by mapping C-h, which is usually generated by the
1300 Backspace key, to DEL, and by mapping DEL to C-d via
1301 `keyboard-translate'. The former functionality of C-h is available on
1302 the F1 key. You should probably not use this setting on a text-only
1303 terminal if you don't have both Backspace, Delete and F1 keys.
1305 Programmatically, you can call function normal-erase-is-backspace-mode
1306 to toggle the behavior of the Delete and Backspace keys.
1308 ** The default for user-option `next-line-add-newlines' has been
1309 changed to nil, i.e. C-n will no longer add newlines at the end of a
1312 ** The <home> and <end> keys now move to the beginning or end of the
1313 current line, respectively. C-<home> and C-<end> move to the
1314 beginning and end of the buffer.
1316 ** Emacs now checks for recursive loads of Lisp files. If the
1317 recursion depth exceeds `recursive-load-depth-limit', an error is
1320 ** When an error is signaled during the loading of the user's init
1321 file, Emacs now pops up the *Messages* buffer.
1323 ** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
1324 compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
1327 The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs's byte
1328 compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
1331 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
1333 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
1334 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
1335 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
1337 ** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
1338 more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
1339 now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
1341 ** Item Save Options on the Options menu allows saving options set
1344 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
1346 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
1347 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
1348 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
1349 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
1350 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
1353 ** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
1354 all frames except the selected one.
1356 ** The new user-option `confirm-kill-emacs' can be customized to
1357 let Emacs ask for confirmation before exiting.
1359 ** The header line in an Info buffer is now displayed as an emacs
1360 header-line (which is like a mode-line, but at the top of the window),
1361 so that it remains visible even when the buffer has been scrolled.
1362 This behavior may be disabled by customizing the option
1363 `Info-use-header-line'.
1365 ** Polish, Czech, German, and French translations of Emacs' reference card
1366 have been added. They are named `pl-refcard.tex', `cs-refcard.tex',
1367 `de-refcard.tex' and `fr-refcard.tex'. Postscript files are included.
1369 ** An `Emacs Survival Guide', etc/survival.tex, is available.
1371 ** A reference card for Dired has been added. Its name is
1372 `dired-ref.tex'. A French translation is available in
1375 ** C-down-mouse-3 is bound differently. Now if the menu bar is not
1376 displayed it pops up a menu containing the items which would be on the
1377 menu bar. If the menu bar is displayed, it pops up the major mode
1378 menu or the Edit menu if there is no major mode menu.
1380 ** Variable `load-path' is no longer customizable through Customize.
1382 You can no longer use `M-x customize-variable' to customize `load-path'
1383 because it now contains a version-dependent component. You can still
1384 use `add-to-list' and `setq' to customize this variable in your
1385 `~/.emacs' init file or to modify it from any Lisp program in general.
1387 ** C-u C-x = provides detailed information about the character at
1388 point in a pop-up window.
1390 ** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
1391 under XFree86. To enable this, use the `mouse-wheel-mode' command, or
1392 customize the variable `mouse-wheel-mode'.
1394 The variables `mouse-wheel-follow-mouse' and `mouse-wheel-scroll-amount'
1395 determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
1397 ** Emacs' auto-save list files are now by default stored in a
1398 sub-directory `.emacs.d/auto-save-list/' of the user's home directory.
1399 (On MS-DOS, this subdirectory's name is `_emacs.d/auto-save.list/'.)
1400 You can customize `auto-save-list-file-prefix' to change this location.
1402 ** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
1404 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
1405 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
1407 ** The new command M-x delete-trailing-whitespace RET will delete the
1408 trailing whitespace within the current restriction. You can also add
1409 this function to `write-file-hooks' or `local-write-file-hooks'.
1411 ** When visiting a file with M-x find-file-literally, no newlines will
1412 be added to the end of the buffer even if `require-final-newline' is
1415 ** The new user-option `find-file-suppress-same-file-warnings' can be
1416 set to suppress warnings ``X and Y are the same file'' when visiting a
1417 file that is already visited under a different name.
1419 ** The new user-option `electric-help-shrink-window' can be set to
1420 nil to prevent adjusting the help window size to the buffer size.
1422 ** New command M-x describe-character-set reads a character set name
1423 and displays information about that.
1425 ** The new variable `auto-mode-interpreter-regexp' contains a regular
1426 expression matching interpreters, for file mode determination.
1428 This regular expression is matched against the first line of a file to
1429 determine the file's mode in `set-auto-mode' when Emacs can't deduce a
1430 mode from the file's name. If it matches, the file is assumed to be
1431 interpreted by the interpreter matched by the second group of the
1432 regular expression. The mode is then determined as the mode
1433 associated with that interpreter in `interpreter-mode-alist'.
1435 ** New function executable-make-buffer-file-executable-if-script-p is
1436 suitable as an after-save-hook as an alternative to `executable-chmod'.
1438 ** The most preferred coding-system is now used to save a buffer if
1439 buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and it is safe for the buffer
1440 contents. (The most preferred is set by set-language-environment or
1441 by M-x prefer-coding-system.) Thus if you visit an ASCII file and
1442 insert a non-ASCII character from your current language environment,
1443 the file will be saved silently with the appropriate coding.
1444 Previously you would be prompted for a safe coding system.
1446 ** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
1447 been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
1449 ** The new Custom option `keyboard-coding-system' specifies a coding
1450 system for keyboard input.
1452 ** New variable `inhibit-iso-escape-detection' determines if Emacs'
1453 coding system detection algorithm should pay attention to ISO2022's
1454 escape sequences. If this variable is non-nil, the algorithm ignores
1455 such escape sequences. The default value is nil, and it is
1456 recommended not to change it except for the special case that you
1457 always want to read any escape code verbatim. If you just want to
1458 read a specific file without decoding escape codes, use C-x RET c
1459 (`universal-coding-system-argument'). For instance, C-x RET c latin-1
1460 RET C-x C-f filename RET.
1462 ** Variable `default-korean-keyboard' is initialized properly from the
1463 environment variable `HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE'.
1465 ** New command M-x list-charset-chars reads a character set name and
1466 displays all characters in that character set.
1468 ** M-x set-terminal-coding-system (C-x RET t) now allows CCL-based
1469 coding systems such as cpXXX and cyrillic-koi8.
1471 ** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
1472 and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
1473 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
1475 ** New language environments `Polish', `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
1476 Latin-8 and Latin-9 correspond respectively to the ISO character sets
1477 8859-14 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign).
1478 GNU Intlfonts doesn't support these yet but recent X releases have
1479 8859-15. See etc/INSTALL for information on obtaining extra fonts.
1480 There are new Leim input methods for Latin-8 and Latin-9 prefix (only)
1483 ** New language environments `Dutch' and `Spanish'.
1484 These new environments mainly select appropriate translations
1487 ** In Ethiopic language environment, special key bindings for
1488 function keys are changed as follows. This is to conform to "Emacs
1489 Lisp Coding Convention".
1491 new command old-binding
1492 --- ------- -----------
1493 f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-buffer f5
1494 S-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-region f5
1495 C-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-mail-or-marker f5
1497 f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-buffer unchanged
1498 S-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-region unchanged
1499 C-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-mail-or-marker unchanged
1501 S-f5 ethio-toggle-punctuation f3
1502 S-f6 ethio-modify-vowel f6
1503 S-f7 ethio-replace-space f7
1504 S-f8 ethio-input-special-character f8
1505 S-f9 ethio-replace-space unchanged
1506 C-f9 ethio-toggle-space f2
1508 ** There are new Leim input methods.
1509 New input methods "turkish-postfix", "turkish-alt-postfix",
1510 "greek-mizuochi", "TeX", and "greek-babel" are now part of the Leim
1513 ** The rule of input method "slovak" is slightly changed. Now the
1514 rules for translating "q" and "Q" to "`" (backquote) are deleted, thus
1515 typing them inserts "q" and "Q" respectively. Rules for translating
1516 "=q", "+q", "=Q", and "+Q" to "`" are also deleted. Now, to input
1517 "`", you must type "=q".
1519 ** When your terminal can't display characters from some of the ISO
1520 8859 character sets but can display Latin-1, you can display
1521 more-or-less mnemonic sequences of ASCII/Latin-1 characters instead of
1522 empty boxes (under a window system) or question marks (not under a
1523 window system). Customize the option `latin1-display' to turn this
1526 ** M-; now calls comment-dwim which tries to do something clever based
1527 on the context. M-x kill-comment is now an alias to comment-kill,
1528 defined in newcomment.el. You can choose different styles of region
1529 commenting with the variable `comment-style'.
1531 ** New user options `display-time-mail-face' and
1532 `display-time-use-mail-icon' control the appearance of mode-line mail
1533 indicator used by the display-time package. On a suitable display the
1534 indicator can be an icon and is mouse-sensitive.
1536 ** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
1537 on the display using several methods
1539 - By setting frame parameter `line-spacing' to PIXELS. PIXELS must be
1540 a positive integer, and specifies that PIXELS number of pixels should
1541 be put below text lines on the affected frame or frames.
1543 - By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
1544 equivalent to specifying the frame parameter.
1546 - By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
1548 - By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
1549 the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
1551 ** The new command `clone-indirect-buffer' can be used to create
1552 an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. The
1553 command `clone-indirect-buffer-other-window', bound to C-x 4 c,
1554 does the same but displays the indirect buffer in another window.
1556 ** New user options `backup-directory-alist' and
1557 `make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
1558 typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
1560 ** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
1561 characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
1563 ** New X resources recognized
1565 *** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
1566 whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
1567 is useful for debugging X problems.
1571 emacs.synchronous: true
1573 *** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
1574 visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
1575 the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
1576 and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
1577 visual class names are
1586 Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
1587 `pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
1590 The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
1591 supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
1592 `visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
1597 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
1599 *** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
1600 specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
1601 default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
1602 resource values are `true' or `on'.
1606 emacs.privateColormap: true
1608 ** Faces and frame parameters.
1610 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
1611 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
1612 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
1613 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
1614 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
1615 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
1616 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
1618 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
1619 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
1620 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
1621 `default' face and vice versa.
1625 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
1627 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
1629 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
1630 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
1631 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
1632 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
1634 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
1635 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
1636 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
1638 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
1641 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
1643 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
1644 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
1645 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
1646 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
1648 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
1650 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
1652 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
1654 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
1657 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
1660 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
1662 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
1663 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
1664 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
1666 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
1667 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi and Less).
1669 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
1670 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
1671 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
1673 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
1675 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
1676 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggressively' is a
1677 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
1678 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
1680 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
1681 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggressively' is a
1682 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
1683 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
1685 ** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either
1686 M-x clone-buffer, C-u m <entry> RET or C-u g <entry> RET.
1687 M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and several other special
1690 ** The command `Info-search' now uses a search history.
1692 ** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
1693 abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
1694 `directory-abbrev-alist'.
1696 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
1697 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
1698 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
1699 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
1700 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
1701 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
1703 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
1705 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
1706 notably at the end of lines.
1708 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
1709 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
1711 ** The function `replace-rectangle' is an alias for `string-rectangle'.
1713 ** The new command M-x string-insert-rectangle is like `string-rectangle',
1714 but inserts text instead of replacing it.
1716 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
1717 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
1718 after each match to get the replacement text.
1720 ** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `e' (or `E') that lets
1721 you edit the replacement string.
1723 ** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB'
1724 (if you load the library `mailabbrev'), lets you complete mail aliases
1725 in the text, analogous to lisp-complete-symbol.
1727 ** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
1729 ** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
1730 to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
1732 ** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
1733 the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X, on MS-Windows, and
1734 MS-DOS, either in the echo area or with tooltips. Many standard menus
1735 displayed by Emacs now have help strings.
1738 ** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
1739 read mail from the menu etc.
1741 ** The environment variable `EMACSLOCKDIR' is no longer used on MS-Windows.
1742 This environment variable was used when creating lock files. Emacs on
1743 MS-Windows does not use this variable anymore. This change was made
1744 before Emacs 21.1, but wasn't documented until now.
1746 ** Highlighting of mouse-sensitive regions is now supported in the
1747 MS-DOS version of Emacs.
1749 ** The new command `msdos-set-mouse-buttons' forces the MS-DOS version
1750 of Emacs to behave as if the mouse had a specified number of buttons.
1751 This comes handy with mice that don't report their number of buttons
1752 correctly. One example is the wheeled mice, which report 3 buttons,
1753 but clicks on the middle button are not passed to the MS-DOS version
1756 ** Customize changes
1758 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
1759 `State' menu to add comments, or give a prefix argument to
1760 M-x customize-set-variable or M-x customize-set-value. Note that
1761 customization comments will cause the customizations to fail in
1762 earlier versions of Emacs.
1764 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
1765 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
1768 *** If Emacs was invoked with the `-q' or `--no-init-file' options, it
1769 does not allow you to save customizations in your `~/.emacs' init
1770 file. This is because saving customizations from such a session would
1771 wipe out all the other customizationss you might have on your init
1774 ** If Emacs was invoked with the `-q' or `--no-init-file' options, it
1775 does not save disabled and enabled commands for future sessions, to
1776 avoid overwriting existing customizations of this kind that are
1777 already in your init file.
1779 ** New features in evaluation commands
1781 *** The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
1782 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
1783 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the new
1784 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
1785 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
1787 The default values for the first two of these variables are 12 and 4
1788 respectively, which means that `eval-expression' now prints at most
1789 the first 12 members of a list and at most 4 nesting levels deep (if
1790 the list is longer or deeper than that, an ellipsis `...' is
1793 <RET> or <mouse-2> on the printed text toggles between an abbreviated
1794 printed representation and an unabbreviated one.
1796 The default value of eval-expression-debug-on-error is t, so any error
1797 during evaluation produces a backtrace.
1799 *** The function `eval-defun' (C-M-x) now loads Edebug and instruments
1800 code when called with a prefix argument.
1804 Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
1805 current user setups (although it's believed that these
1806 incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
1807 However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
1808 back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
1809 compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
1812 *** The hardcoded switch to "java" style in Java mode is gone.
1813 CC Mode used to automatically set the style to "java" when Java mode
1814 is entered. This has now been removed since it caused too much
1817 However, to keep backward compatibility to a certain extent, the
1818 default value for c-default-style now specifies the "java" style for
1819 java-mode, but "gnu" for all other modes (as before). So you won't
1820 notice the change if you haven't touched that variable.
1822 *** New cleanups, space-before-funcall and compact-empty-funcall.
1823 Two new cleanups have been added to c-cleanup-list:
1825 space-before-funcall causes a space to be inserted before the opening
1826 parenthesis of a function call, which gives the style "foo (bar)".
1828 compact-empty-funcall causes any space before a function call opening
1829 parenthesis to be removed if there are no arguments to the function.
1830 It's typically useful together with space-before-funcall to get the
1831 style "foo (bar)" and "foo()".
1833 *** Some keywords now automatically trigger reindentation.
1834 Keywords like "else", "while", "catch" and "finally" have been made
1835 "electric" to make them reindent automatically when they continue an
1836 earlier statement. An example:
1838 for (i = 0; i < 17; i++)
1840 res += a[i]->offset;
1843 Here, the "else" should be indented like the preceding "if", since it
1844 continues that statement. CC Mode will automatically reindent it after
1845 the "else" has been typed in full, since it's not until then it's
1846 possible to decide whether it's a new statement or a continuation of
1849 CC Mode uses Abbrev mode to achieve this, which is therefore turned on
1852 *** M-a and M-e now moves by sentence in multiline strings.
1853 Previously these two keys only moved by sentence in comments, which
1854 meant that sentence movement didn't work in strings containing
1855 documentation or other natural language text.
1857 The reason it's only activated in multiline strings (i.e. strings that
1858 contain a newline, even when escaped by a '\') is to avoid stopping in
1859 the short strings that often reside inside statements. Multiline
1860 strings almost always contain text in a natural language, as opposed
1861 to other strings that typically contain format specifications,
1862 commands, etc. Also, it's not that bothersome that M-a and M-e misses
1863 sentences in single line strings, since they're short anyway.
1865 *** Support for autodoc comments in Pike mode.
1866 Autodoc comments for Pike are used to extract documentation from the
1867 source, like Javadoc in Java. Pike mode now recognize this markup in
1868 comment prefixes and paragraph starts.
1870 *** The comment prefix regexps on c-comment-prefix may be mode specific.
1871 When c-comment-prefix is an association list, it specifies the comment
1872 line prefix on a per-mode basis, like c-default-style does. This
1873 change came about to support the special autodoc comment prefix in
1876 *** Better handling of syntactic errors.
1877 The recovery after unbalanced parens earlier in the buffer has been
1878 improved; CC Mode now reports them by dinging and giving a message
1879 stating the offending line, but still recovers and indent the
1880 following lines in a sane way (most of the time). An "else" with no
1881 matching "if" is handled similarly. If an error is discovered while
1882 indenting a region, the whole region is still indented and the error
1883 is reported afterwards.
1885 *** Lineup functions may now return absolute columns.
1886 A lineup function can give an absolute column to indent the line to by
1887 returning a vector with the desired column as the first element.
1889 *** More robust and warning-free byte compilation.
1890 Although this is strictly not a user visible change (well, depending
1891 on the view of a user), it's still worth mentioning that CC Mode now
1892 can be compiled in the standard ways without causing trouble. Some
1893 code have also been moved between the subpackages to enhance the
1894 modularity somewhat. Thanks to Martin Buchholz for doing the
1897 *** c-style-variables-are-local-p now defaults to t.
1898 This is an incompatible change that has been made to make the behavior
1899 of the style system wrt global variable settings less confusing for
1900 non-advanced users. If you know what this variable does you might
1901 want to set it to nil in your .emacs, otherwise you probably don't
1904 Defaulting c-style-variables-are-local-p to t avoids the confusing
1905 situation that occurs when a user sets some style variables globally
1906 and edits both a Java and a non-Java file in the same Emacs session.
1907 If the style variables aren't buffer local in this case, loading of
1908 the second file will cause the default style (either "gnu" or "java"
1909 by default) to override the global settings made by the user.
1911 *** New initialization procedure for the style system.
1912 When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
1913 variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
1914 take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
1915 is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
1916 settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
1917 possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
1918 Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
1920 By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
1921 special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
1922 the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
1923 of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
1926 Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
1927 when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
1928 function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
1929 call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
1930 then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
1931 values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
1932 only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
1933 function documentation for more info.
1935 The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
1936 especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
1937 with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
1938 intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
1939 such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
1940 is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
1941 configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
1942 global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
1944 (Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
1946 **** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
1947 This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
1949 This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
1950 variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
1951 completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
1952 the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
1953 empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
1956 **** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
1957 In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
1958 c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
1961 *** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
1962 CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
1963 surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
1964 chapter about this in the manual.
1966 **** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
1967 The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
1968 recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
1969 primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
1970 adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
1972 **** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
1973 This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
1974 c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
1976 **** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
1977 This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
1979 It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
1980 Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
1981 A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
1984 Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
1985 causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
1986 the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
1987 available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
1990 **** The variables `c-hanging-comment-starter-p' and
1991 `c-hanging-comment-ender-p', which controlled how comment starters and
1992 enders were filled, are not used anymore. The new version of the
1993 function `c-fill-paragraph' keeps the comment starters and enders as
1994 they were before the filling.
1996 **** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
1997 The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
1998 specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
2001 **** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
2002 It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
2003 prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
2004 you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
2007 *** Fixes to IDL mode.
2008 It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
2009 to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
2010 struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
2011 Thanks to Eric Eide.
2013 *** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
2014 It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
2015 opening braces hangs and when they don't.
2017 **** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
2019 *** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
2020 See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
2021 better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
2022 and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
2024 *** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
2025 previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
2026 the column specified by comment-column.
2028 *** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
2029 In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
2030 is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
2031 prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
2032 contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
2033 don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
2035 *** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
2036 instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
2039 *** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
2041 *** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
2042 c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
2043 c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
2044 variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
2047 *** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
2051 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
2052 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
2053 is, delete only empty directories.
2055 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
2056 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
2057 copy directories recursively.
2059 *** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
2060 in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
2061 the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
2063 *** The new command `dired-find-alternate-file' (usually bound to `a')
2064 replaces the Dired buffer with the buffer for an alternate file or
2067 *** The new command `dired-show-file-type' (usually bound to `y') shows
2068 a message in the echo area describing what type of file the point is on.
2069 This command invokes the external program `file' do its work, and so
2070 will only work on systems with that program, and will be only as
2071 accurate or inaccurate as it is.
2073 *** Dired now properly handles undo changes of adding/removing `-R'
2076 *** Dired commands that prompt for a destination file now allow the use
2077 of the `M-n' command in the minibuffer to insert the source filename,
2078 which the user can then edit. This only works if there is a single
2079 source file, not when operating on multiple marked files.
2083 The Gnus NEWS entries are short, but they reflect sweeping changes in
2084 four areas: Article display treatment, MIME treatment,
2085 internationalization and mail-fetching.
2087 *** The mail-fetching functions have changed. See the manual for the
2088 many details. In particular, all procmail fetching variables are gone.
2090 If you used procmail like in
2092 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
2093 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
2094 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/mail/incoming/")
2095 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "\\.in")
2097 this now has changed to
2100 '((directory :path "~/mail/incoming/"
2103 More information is available in the info doc at Select Methods ->
2104 Getting Mail -> Mail Sources
2106 *** Gnus is now a MIME-capable reader. This affects many parts of
2107 Gnus, and adds a slew of new commands. See the manual for details.
2108 Separate MIME packages like RMIME, mime-compose etc., will probably no
2109 longer work; remove them and use the native facilities.
2111 The FLIM/SEMI package still works with Emacs 21, but if you want to
2112 use the native facilities, you must remove any mailcap.el[c] that was
2113 installed by FLIM/SEMI version 1.13 or earlier.
2115 *** Gnus has also been multilingualized. This also affects too many
2116 parts of Gnus to summarize here, and adds many new variables. There
2117 are built-in facilities equivalent to those of gnus-mule.el, which is
2118 now just a compatibility layer.
2120 *** gnus-mule.el is now just a compatibility layer over the built-in
2123 *** gnus-auto-select-first can now be a function to be
2124 called to position point.
2126 *** The user can now decide which extra headers should be included in
2127 summary buffers and NOV files.
2129 *** `gnus-article-display-hook' has been removed. Instead, a number
2130 of variables starting with `gnus-treat-' have been added.
2132 *** The Gnus posting styles have been redone again and now work in a
2133 subtly different manner.
2135 *** New web-based backends have been added: nnslashdot, nnwarchive
2136 and nnultimate. nnweb has been revamped, again, to keep up with
2137 ever-changing layouts.
2139 *** Gnus can now read IMAP mail via nnimap.
2141 *** There is image support of various kinds and some sound support.
2143 ** Changes in Texinfo mode.
2145 *** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
2149 -------------------------
2153 C-c C-c q @quotation
2155 C-c C-o @<block> ... @end <block>
2158 *** The " key now inserts either " or `` or '' depending on context.
2160 ** Changes in Outline mode.
2162 There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
2163 `outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
2164 the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
2166 ** Changes to Emacs Server
2168 *** The new option `server-kill-new-buffers' specifies what to do
2169 with buffers when done with them. If non-nil, the default, buffers
2170 are killed, unless they were already present before visiting them with
2171 Emacs Server. If nil, `server-temp-file-regexp' specifies which
2172 buffers to kill, as before.
2174 Please note that only buffers are killed that still have a client,
2175 i.e. buffers visited with `emacsclient --no-wait' are never killed in
2178 ** Both emacsclient and Emacs itself now accept command line options
2179 of the form +LINE:COLUMN in addition to +LINE.
2181 ** Changes to Show Paren mode.
2183 *** Overlays used by Show Paren mode now use a priority property.
2184 The new user option show-paren-priority specifies the priority to
2185 use. Default is 1000.
2187 ** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
2188 groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
2190 ** Changes to hideshow.el
2192 *** Generalized block selection and traversal
2194 A block is now recognized by its start and end regexps (both strings),
2195 and an integer specifying which sub-expression in the start regexp
2196 serves as the place where a `forward-sexp'-like function can operate.
2197 See the documentation of variable `hs-special-modes-alist'.
2199 *** During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active,
2200 hidden blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' can
2201 be used in the mode line format to show the line at the beginning of
2204 *** User option `hs-hide-all-non-comment-function' specifies a
2205 function to be called at each top-level block beginning, instead of
2206 the normal block-hiding function.
2208 *** The command `hs-show-region' has been removed.
2210 *** The key bindings have changed to fit the Emacs conventions,
2211 roughly imitating those of Outline minor mode. Notably, the prefix
2212 for all bindings is now `C-c @'. For details, see the documentation
2213 for `hs-minor-mode'.
2215 *** The variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' has been removed, and
2216 hideshow.el now always behaves as if this variable were set to t.
2218 ** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
2220 *** If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes
2221 an entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
2222 log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
2224 **** New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the
2227 *** New command M-x change-log-redate fixes any old-style date entries
2230 *** Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log
2231 entries if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
2232 Unless the file is under version control the search for a file's
2233 version number is performed based on regular expressions from
2234 `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be customized.
2235 Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of a file.
2237 *** Change Log mode now defines its own faces for font-lock highlighting.
2239 ** Changes to cmuscheme
2241 *** The user-option `scheme-program-name' has been renamed
2242 `cmuscheme-program-name' due to conflicts with xscheme.el.
2244 ** Changes in Font Lock
2246 *** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
2247 font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major mode.
2249 *** Multi-line patterns are now supported. Modes using this, should
2250 set font-lock-multiline to t in their font-lock-defaults.
2252 *** `font-lock-syntactic-face-function' allows major-modes to choose
2253 the face used for each string/comment.
2255 *** A new standard face `font-lock-doc-face'.
2256 Meant for Lisp docstrings, Javadoc comments and other "documentation in code".
2258 ** Changes to Shell mode
2260 *** The `shell' command now accepts an optional argument to specify the buffer
2261 to use, which defaults to "*shell*". When used interactively, a
2262 non-default buffer may be specified by giving the `shell' command a
2263 prefix argument (causing it to prompt for the buffer name).
2265 ** Comint (subshell) changes
2267 These changes generally affect all modes derived from comint mode, which
2268 include shell-mode, gdb-mode, scheme-interaction-mode, etc.
2270 *** Comint now by default interprets some carriage-control characters.
2271 Comint now removes CRs from CR LF sequences, and treats single CRs and
2272 BSs in the output in a way similar to a terminal (by deleting to the
2273 beginning of the line, or deleting the previous character,
2274 respectively). This is achieved by adding `comint-carriage-motion' to
2275 the `comint-output-filter-functions' hook by default.
2277 *** By default, comint no longer uses the variable `comint-prompt-regexp'
2278 to distinguish prompts from user-input. Instead, it notices which
2279 parts of the text were output by the process, and which entered by the
2280 user, and attaches `field' properties to allow emacs commands to use
2281 this information. Common movement commands, notably beginning-of-line,
2282 respect field boundaries in a fairly natural manner. To disable this
2283 feature, and use the old behavior, customize the user option
2284 `comint-use-prompt-regexp-instead-of-fields'.
2286 *** Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
2287 and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
2289 *** The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
2290 buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
2291 buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
2293 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
2294 M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
2295 the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
2297 *** Packages based on comint now highlight user input and program prompts,
2298 and support choosing previous input with mouse-2. To control these features,
2299 see the user-options `comint-highlight-input' and `comint-highlight-prompt'.
2301 *** The new command `comint-write-output' (usually bound to `C-c C-s')
2302 saves the output from the most recent command to a file. With a prefix
2303 argument, it appends to the file.
2305 *** The command `comint-kill-output' has been renamed `comint-delete-output'
2306 (usually bound to `C-c C-o'); the old name is aliased to it for
2309 *** The new function `comint-add-to-input-history' adds commands to the input
2312 *** The new variable `comint-input-history-ignore' is a regexp for
2313 identifying history lines that should be ignored, like tcsh time-stamp
2314 strings, starting with a `#'. The default value of this variable is "^#".
2316 ** Changes to Rmail mode
2318 *** The new user-option rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
2319 set to fine tune the identification of the correspondent when
2320 receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
2321 recipient is taken as correspondent of a mail. If nil, the default,
2322 `user-login-name' and `user-mail-address' are used to exclude yourself
2325 Usually you don't have to set this variable, except if you collect
2326 mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
2327 regexp matching your mail addresses.
2329 *** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
2330 to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
2331 Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
2332 with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
2333 for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
2335 *** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
2338 *** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
2339 specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
2342 *** The new user option `rmail-automatic-folder-directives' specifies
2343 in which folder to put messages automatically.
2345 *** The new function `rmail-redecode-body' allows to fix a message
2346 with non-ASCII characters if Emacs happens to decode it incorrectly
2347 due to missing or malformed "charset=" header.
2349 ** The new user-option `mail-envelope-from' can be used to specify
2350 an envelope-from address different from user-mail-address.
2352 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
2353 use the -f option when sending mail.
2355 ** The Rmail command `o' (`rmail-output-to-rmail-file') now writes the
2356 current message in the internal `emacs-mule' encoding, rather than in
2357 the encoding taken from the variable `buffer-file-coding-system'.
2358 This allows to save messages whose characters cannot be safely encoded
2359 by the buffer's coding system, and makes sure the message will be
2360 displayed correctly when you later visit the target Rmail file.
2362 If you want your Rmail files be encoded in a specific coding system
2363 other than `emacs-mule', you can customize the variable
2364 `rmail-file-coding-system' to set its value to that coding system.
2366 ** Changes to TeX mode
2368 *** The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
2371 *** latex-mode now has a simple indentation algorithm.
2373 *** M-f and M-p jump around \begin...\end pairs.
2375 *** Added support for outline-minor-mode.
2377 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
2379 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
2380 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
2381 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
2382 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
2383 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
2384 can be edited from that buffer.
2386 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
2387 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
2388 `A' to use all marked entries).
2390 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
2391 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
2393 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
2394 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
2395 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
2398 ** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
2399 The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
2400 semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
2401 in column 1 are always made leaves.
2403 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
2404 has the following new features:
2406 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
2407 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
2408 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
2409 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
2411 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
2412 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
2413 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
2414 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
2415 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
2418 ** Partial Completion mode now completes environment variables in
2423 *** The command `ispell' now spell-checks a region if
2424 transient-mark-mode is on, and the mark is active. Otherwise it
2425 spell-checks the current buffer.
2427 *** Support for synchronous subprocesses - DOS/Windoze - has been
2430 *** An "alignment error" bug was fixed when a manual spelling
2431 correction is made and re-checked.
2433 *** An Italian, Portuguese, and Slovak dictionary definition has been added.
2435 *** Region skipping performance has been vastly improved in some
2438 *** Spell checking HTML buffers has been improved and isn't so strict
2441 *** The buffer-local words are now always placed on a new line at the
2444 *** Spell checking now works in the MS-DOS version of Emacs.
2446 ** Makefile mode changes
2448 *** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
2450 *** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
2451 Fontlock mode is active.
2455 *** Isearch now puts a call to `isearch-resume' in the command history,
2456 so that searches can be resumed.
2458 *** In Isearch mode, C-M-s and C-M-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
2459 respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
2460 that started the search.
2462 *** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
2463 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
2465 *** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
2467 Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
2468 `isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
2469 search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
2470 before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
2471 highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
2472 `secondary-selection'.
2474 The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
2475 will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
2476 Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
2477 using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
2478 usual snappy response.
2480 If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
2481 matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
2482 set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
2483 isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
2487 VC has been overhauled internally. It is now modular, making it
2488 easier to plug-in arbitrary version control backends. (See Lisp
2489 Changes for details on the new structure.) As a result, the mechanism
2490 to enable and disable support for particular version systems has
2491 changed: everything is now controlled by the new variable
2492 `vc-handled-backends'. Its value is a list of symbols that identify
2493 version systems; the default is '(RCS CVS SCCS). When finding a file,
2494 each of the backends in that list is tried in order to see whether the
2495 file is registered in that backend.
2497 When registering a new file, VC first tries each of the listed
2498 backends to see if any of them considers itself "responsible" for the
2499 directory of the file (e.g. because a corresponding subdirectory for
2500 master files exists). If none of the backends is responsible, then
2501 the first backend in the list that could register the file is chosen.
2502 As a consequence, the variable `vc-default-back-end' is now obsolete.
2504 The old variable `vc-master-templates' is also obsolete, although VC
2505 still supports it for backward compatibility. To define templates for
2506 RCS or SCCS, you should rather use the new variables
2507 vc-{rcs,sccs}-master-templates. (There is no such feature under CVS
2508 where it doesn't make sense.)
2510 The variables `vc-ignore-vc-files' and `vc-handle-cvs' are also
2511 obsolete now, you must set `vc-handled-backends' to nil or exclude
2512 `CVS' from the list, respectively, to achieve their effect now.
2516 The variable `vc-checkout-carefully' is obsolete: the corresponding
2517 checks are always done now.
2519 VC Dired buffers are now kept up-to-date during all version control
2522 `vc-diff' output is now displayed in `diff-mode'.
2523 `vc-print-log' uses `log-view-mode'.
2524 `vc-log-mode' (used for *VC-Log*) has been replaced by `log-edit-mode'.
2526 The command C-x v m (vc-merge) now accepts an empty argument as the
2527 first revision number. This means that any recent changes on the
2528 current branch should be picked up from the repository and merged into
2529 the working file (``merge news'').
2531 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
2532 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) now ask for a directory name from which to work
2535 *** Multiple Backends
2537 VC now lets you register files in more than one backend. This is
2538 useful, for example, if you are working with a slow remote CVS
2539 repository. You can then use RCS for local editing, and occasionally
2540 commit your changes back to CVS, or pick up changes from CVS into your
2543 To make this work, the ``more local'' backend (RCS in our example)
2544 should come first in `vc-handled-backends', and the ``more remote''
2545 backend (CVS) should come later. (The default value of
2546 `vc-handled-backends' already has it that way.)
2548 You can then commit changes to another backend (say, RCS), by typing
2549 C-u C-x v v RCS RET (i.e. vc-next-action now accepts a backend name as
2550 a revision number). VC registers the file in the more local backend
2551 if that hasn't already happened, and commits to a branch based on the
2552 current revision number from the more remote backend.
2554 If a file is registered in multiple backends, you can switch to
2555 another one using C-x v b (vc-switch-backend). This does not change
2556 any files, it only changes VC's perspective on the file. Use this to
2557 pick up changes from CVS while working under RCS locally.
2559 After you are done with your local RCS editing, you can commit your
2560 changes back to CVS using C-u C-x v v CVS RET. In this case, the
2561 local RCS archive is removed after the commit, and the log entry
2562 buffer is initialized to contain the entire RCS change log of the file.
2566 There is a new user option, `vc-cvs-stay-local'. If it is `t' (the
2567 default), then VC avoids network queries for files registered in
2568 remote repositories. The state of such files is then only determined
2569 by heuristics and past information. `vc-cvs-stay-local' can also be a
2570 regexp to match against repository hostnames; only files from hosts
2571 that match it are treated locally. If the variable is nil, then VC
2572 queries the repository just as often as it does for local files.
2574 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, then VC also makes local backups of
2575 repository versions. This means that ordinary diffs (C-x v =) and
2576 revert operations (C-x v u) can be done completely locally, without
2577 any repository interactions at all. The name of a local version
2578 backup of FILE is FILE.~REV.~, where REV is the repository version
2579 number. This format is similar to that used by C-x v ~
2580 (vc-version-other-window), except for the trailing dot. As a matter
2581 of fact, the two features can each use the files created by the other,
2582 the only difference being that files with a trailing `.' are deleted
2583 automatically after commit. (This feature doesn't work on MS-DOS,
2584 since DOS disallows more than a single dot in the trunk of a file
2587 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, and there have been changes in the
2588 repository, VC notifies you about it when you actually try to commit.
2589 If you want to check for updates from the repository without trying to
2590 commit, you can either use C-x v m RET to perform an update on the
2591 current file, or you can use C-x v r RET to get an update for an
2592 entire directory tree.
2594 The new user option `vc-cvs-use-edit' indicates whether VC should call
2595 "cvs edit" to make files writeable; it defaults to `t'. (This option
2596 is only meaningful if the CVSREAD variable is set, or if files are
2597 "watched" by other developers.)
2599 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
2600 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) are now also implemented for CVS. If you give
2601 an empty snapshot name to the latter, that performs a `cvs update',
2602 starting at the given directory.
2604 *** Lisp Changes in VC
2606 VC has been restructured internally to make it modular. You can now
2607 add support for arbitrary version control backends by writing a
2608 library that provides a certain set of backend-specific functions, and
2609 then telling VC to use that library. For example, to add support for
2610 a version system named SYS, you write a library named vc-sys.el, which
2611 provides a number of functions vc-sys-... (see commentary at the top
2612 of vc.el for a detailed list of them). To make VC use that library,
2613 you need to put it somewhere into Emacs' load path and add the symbol
2614 `SYS' to the list `vc-handled-backends'.
2616 ** The customizable EDT emulation package now supports the EDT
2617 SUBS command and EDT scroll margins. It also works with more
2618 terminal/keyboard configurations and it now works under XEmacs.
2619 See etc/edt-user.doc for more information.
2621 ** New modes and packages
2623 *** The new global minor mode `minibuffer-electric-default-mode'
2624 automatically hides the `(default ...)' part of minibuffer prompts when
2625 the default is not applicable.
2627 *** Artist is an Emacs lisp package that allows you to draw lines,
2628 rectangles and ellipses by using your mouse and/or keyboard. The
2629 shapes are made up with the ascii characters |, -, / and \.
2633 - Intersecting: When a `|' intersects with a `-', a `+' is
2634 drawn, like this: | \ /
2638 - Rubber-banding: When drawing lines you can interactively see the
2639 result while holding the mouse button down and moving the mouse. If
2640 your machine is not fast enough (a 386 is a bit too slow, but a
2641 pentium is well enough), you can turn this feature off. You will
2642 then see 1's and 2's which mark the 1st and 2nd endpoint of the line
2645 - Arrows: After having drawn a (straight) line or a (straight)
2646 poly-line, you can set arrows on the line-ends by typing < or >.
2648 - Flood-filling: You can fill any area with a certain character by
2651 - Cut copy and paste: You can cut, copy and paste rectangular
2652 regions. Artist also interfaces with the rect package (this can be
2653 turned off if it causes you any trouble) so anything you cut in
2654 artist can be yanked with C-x r y and vice versa.
2656 - Drawing with keys: Everything you can do with the mouse, you can
2657 also do without the mouse.
2659 - Aspect-ratio: You can set the variable artist-aspect-ratio to
2660 reflect the height-width ratio for the font you are using. Squares
2661 and circles are then drawn square/round. Note, that once your
2662 ascii-file is shown with font with a different height-width ratio,
2663 the squares won't be square and the circles won't be round.
2665 - Drawing operations: The following drawing operations are implemented:
2667 lines straight-lines
2669 poly-lines straight poly-lines
2671 text (see-thru) text (overwrite)
2672 spray-can setting size for spraying
2673 vaporize line vaporize lines
2674 erase characters erase rectangles
2676 Straight lines are lines that go horizontally, vertically or
2677 diagonally. Plain lines go in any direction. The operations in
2678 the right column are accessed by holding down the shift key while
2681 It is possible to vaporize (erase) entire lines and connected lines
2682 (rectangles for example) as long as the lines being vaporized are
2683 straight and connected at their endpoints. Vaporizing is inspired
2684 by the drawrect package by Jari Aalto <jari.aalto@poboxes.com>.
2686 - Picture mode compatibility: Artist is picture mode compatible (this
2689 *** The new package Eshell is an operating system command shell
2690 implemented entirely in Emacs Lisp. Use `M-x eshell' to invoke it.
2691 It functions similarly to bash and zsh, and allows running of Lisp
2692 functions and external commands using the same syntax. It supports
2693 history lists, aliases, extended globbing, smart scrolling, etc. It
2694 will work on any platform Emacs has been ported to. And since most of
2695 the basic commands -- ls, rm, mv, cp, ln, du, cat, etc. -- have been
2696 rewritten in Lisp, it offers an operating-system independent shell,
2697 all within the scope of your Emacs process.
2699 *** The new package timeclock.el is a mode is for keeping track of time
2700 intervals. You can use it for whatever purpose you like, but the
2701 typical scenario is to keep track of how much time you spend working
2702 on certain projects.
2704 *** The new package hi-lock.el provides commands to highlight matches
2705 of interactively entered regexps. For example,
2707 M-x highlight-regexp RET clearly RET RET
2709 will highlight all occurrences of `clearly' using a yellow background
2710 face. New occurrences of `clearly' will be highlighted as they are
2711 typed. `M-x unhighlight-regexp RET' will remove the highlighting.
2712 Any existing face can be used for highlighting and a set of
2713 appropriate faces is provided. The regexps can be written into the
2714 current buffer in a form that will be recognized the next time the
2715 corresponding file is read. There are commands to highlight matches
2716 to phrases and to highlight entire lines containing a match.
2718 *** The new package zone.el plays games with Emacs' display when
2721 *** The new package tildify.el allows to add hard spaces or other text
2722 fragments in accordance with the current major mode.
2724 *** The new package xml.el provides a simple but generic XML
2725 parser. It doesn't parse the DTDs however.
2727 *** The comment operations are now provided by the newcomment.el
2728 package which allows different styles of comment-region and should
2729 be more robust while offering the same functionality.
2730 `comment-region' now doesn't always comment a-line-at-a-time, but only
2731 comments the region, breaking the line at point if necessary.
2733 *** The Ebrowse package implements a C++ class browser and tags
2734 facilities tailored for use with C++. It is documented in a
2735 separate Texinfo file.
2737 *** The PCL-CVS package available by either running M-x cvs-examine or
2738 by visiting a CVS administrative directory (with a prefix argument)
2739 provides an alternative interface to VC-dired for CVS. It comes with
2740 `log-view-mode' to view RCS and SCCS logs and `log-edit-mode' used to
2741 enter check-in log messages.
2743 *** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
2744 without invoking external programs.
2746 The command `M-x woman' formats manual pages entirely in Emacs Lisp
2747 and then displays them, like `M-x manual-entry' does. Unlike
2748 `manual-entry', `woman' does not invoke any external programs, so it
2749 is useful on systems such as MS-DOS/MS-Windows where the `man' and
2750 Groff or `troff' commands are not readily available.
2752 The command `M-x woman-find-file' asks for the file name of a man
2753 page, then formats and displays it like `M-x woman' does.
2755 *** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
2756 authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
2758 The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
2759 the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
2760 the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
2761 Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
2762 even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
2765 On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
2766 matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
2767 probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
2768 contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
2770 *** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
2771 unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
2772 actually modifying content of a buffer.
2774 *** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
2777 Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
2779 The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
2781 ; comment (until end of line)
2785 $A default non-terminal
2786 $"C" default terminal
2787 $?C? default special
2788 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
2789 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
2790 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
2791 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
2792 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
2793 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
2794 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
2795 C+ one or more occurrences of C
2796 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
2797 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
2798 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
2799 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
2800 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
2801 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
2802 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
2804 Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
2806 *** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
2807 align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
2808 determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
2809 example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
2810 equal signs of assignments.
2812 *** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
2813 paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
2815 *** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
2816 list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
2817 buffer menu with this package. See the Custom group `bs'.
2819 *** find-lisp.el is a package emulating the Unix find command in Lisp.
2821 *** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
2822 replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
2823 is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
2824 and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
2825 not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
2826 which answers different needs.
2828 *** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
2829 suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
2830 expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
2831 course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
2832 reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
2835 *** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
2836 containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
2838 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
2840 *** hl-line.el provides `hl-line-mode', a minor mode to highlight the
2841 current line in the current buffer. It also provides
2842 `global-hl-line-mode' to provide the same behaviour in all buffers.
2844 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
2846 Please note: if `ansi-color-for-comint-mode' and
2847 `global-font-lock-mode' are non-nil, loading ansi-color.el will
2848 disable font-lock and add `ansi-color-apply' to
2849 `comint-preoutput-filter-functions' for all shell-mode buffers. This
2850 displays the output of "ls --color=yes" using the correct foreground
2851 and background colors.
2853 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
2856 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
2859 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
2861 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
2863 *** whitespace.el is a package for warning about and cleaning bogus
2864 whitespace in a file.
2866 *** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
2867 files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
2868 (very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
2869 interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
2870 often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
2871 uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
2872 codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
2874 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
2876 Here is an example of columns:
2879 dog pineapple car EXTRA
2880 porcupine strawberry airplane
2882 Doing the following settings:
2884 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
2885 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
2886 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
2887 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
2890 Selecting the lines above and typing:
2892 M-x delimit-columns-region
2896 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
2897 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
2898 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
2900 delim-col has the following options:
2902 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
2905 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
2906 between each column.
2908 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
2911 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
2914 delim-col has the following commands:
2916 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
2917 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
2919 *** Recentf mode maintains a menu for visiting files that were
2920 operated on recently. User option recentf-menu-filter specifies a
2921 menu filter function to change the menu appearance. For example, the
2922 recent file list can be displayed:
2924 - organized by major modes, directories or user defined rules.
2925 - sorted by file paths, file names, ascending or descending.
2926 - showing paths relative to the current default-directory
2928 The `recentf-filter-changer' menu filter function allows to
2929 dynamically change the menu appearance.
2931 *** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
2934 *** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
2935 of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
2936 specific to Message mode.
2938 *** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
2939 viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
2940 with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
2942 *** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
2943 interface to access directory servers using different directory
2944 protocols. It has a separate manual.
2946 *** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
2947 for Autoconf, selected automatically.
2949 *** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
2951 *** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
2952 minibuffer with completion.
2954 *** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
2955 with the diary features.
2957 *** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
2958 numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
2960 *** The function `turn-off-auto-fill' unconditionally turns off Auto
2963 *** pcomplete.el is a library that provides programmable completion
2964 facilities for Emacs, similar to what zsh and tcsh offer. The main
2965 difference is that completion functions are written in Lisp, meaning
2966 they can be profiled, debugged, etc.
2968 *** antlr-mode is a new major mode for editing ANTLR grammar files.
2969 It is automatically turned on for files whose names have the extension
2972 ** Changes in sort.el
2974 The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
2975 as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
2976 new user-option sort-numeric-base can be used to specify a default
2979 ** Changes to Ange-ftp
2981 *** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
2982 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
2983 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
2985 *** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
2986 ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
2988 *** Ange-ftp handles the output of the w32-style clients which
2989 output ^M at the end of lines.
2991 ** The recommended way of using Iswitchb is via the new global minor
2992 mode `iswitchb-mode'.
2994 ** Just loading the msb package doesn't switch on Msb mode anymore.
2995 If you have `(require 'msb)' in your .emacs, please replace it with
2998 ** Flyspell mode has various new options. See the `flyspell' Custom
3001 ** The user option `backward-delete-char-untabify-method' controls the
3002 behavior of `backward-delete-char-untabify'. The following values
3005 `untabify' -- turn a tab to many spaces, then delete one space;
3006 `hungry' -- delete all whitespace, both tabs and spaces;
3007 `all' -- delete all whitespace, including tabs, spaces and newlines;
3008 nil -- just delete one character.
3010 Default value is `untabify'.
3012 [This change was made in Emacs 20.3 but not mentioned then.]
3014 ** In Cperl mode `cperl-invalid-face' should now be a normal face
3015 symbol, not double-quoted.
3017 ** Some packages are declared obsolete, to be removed in a future
3018 version. They are: auto-show, c-mode, hilit19, hscroll, ooutline,
3019 profile, rnews, rnewspost, and sc. Their implementations have been
3020 moved to lisp/obsolete.
3022 ** auto-compression mode is no longer enabled just by loading jka-compr.el.
3023 To control it, set `auto-compression-mode' via Custom or use the
3024 `auto-compression-mode' command.
3026 ** `browse-url-gnome-moz' is a new option for
3027 `browse-url-browser-function', invoking Mozilla in GNOME, and
3028 `browse-url-kde' can be chosen for invoking the KDE browser.
3030 ** The user-option `browse-url-new-window-p' has been renamed to
3031 `browse-url-new-window-flag'.
3033 ** The functions `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many' now
3034 operate on the active region in Transient Mark mode.
3036 ** `gnus-user-agent' is a new possibility for `mail-user-agent'. It
3037 is like `message-user-agent', but with all the Gnus paraphernalia.
3039 ** The Strokes package has been updated. If your Emacs has XPM
3040 support, you can use it for pictographic editing. In Strokes mode,
3041 use C-mouse-2 to compose a complex stoke and insert it into the
3042 buffer. You can encode or decode a strokes buffer with new commands
3043 M-x strokes-encode-buffer and M-x strokes-decode-buffer. There is a
3044 new command M-x strokes-list-strokes.
3046 ** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
3047 a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
3049 ** Hexl mode allows to insert non-ASCII characters.
3051 The non-ASCII characters are encoded using the same encoding as the
3052 file you are visiting in Hexl mode.
3054 ** Shell script mode changes.
3056 Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
3057 derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizable, and
3058 sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
3062 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
3064 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
3065 possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
3066 {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
3067 This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
3068 a regular expression. The manual contains details.
3070 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
3071 declarations when given the --declarations option.
3073 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
3074 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
3076 *** You shouldn't generally need any more the -C or -c++ option: etags
3077 automatically switches to C++ parsing when it meets the `class' or
3078 `template' keywords.
3080 *** Etags now is able to delve at arbitrary deeps into nested structures in
3081 C-like languages. Previously, it was limited to one or two brace levels.
3083 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
3086 *** In Fortran, `procedure' is not tagged.
3088 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
3090 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
3093 *** In makefiles, tags the targets.
3095 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
3096 variables are tagged.
3098 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
3100 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
3103 ** Changes in etags.el
3105 *** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
3106 tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
3107 is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
3109 *** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
3110 the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
3112 If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
3113 FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
3114 TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
3115 obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
3117 TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
3119 FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
3120 List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
3122 A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
3124 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
3125 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
3126 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
3128 *** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
3129 of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
3131 *** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
3132 names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
3134 *** You can now search for tags that are part of the filename itself.
3135 If you have tagged the files topfile.c subdir/subfile.c
3136 /tmp/tempfile.c, you can now search for tags "topfile.c", "subfile.c",
3137 "dir/sub", "tempfile", "tempfile.c". If the tag matches the file name,
3138 point will go to the beginning of the file.
3140 *** Compressed files are now transparently supported if
3141 auto-compression-mode is active. You can tag (with Etags) and search
3142 (with find-tag) both compressed and uncompressed files.
3144 *** Tags commands like M-x tags-search no longer change point
3145 in buffers where no match is found. In buffers where a match is
3146 found, the original value of point is pushed on the marker ring.
3148 ** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sequence-nos' to
3149 remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
3150 appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
3152 ** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
3154 ** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
3156 ** The Dabbrev package has a new user-option `dabbrev-ignored-regexps'
3157 containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
3158 expression from that list, are not checked.
3160 ** Emacs can now figure out modification times of remote files.
3161 When you do C-x C-f /user@host:/path/file RET and edit the file,
3162 and someone else modifies the file, you will be prompted to revert
3163 the buffer, just like for the local files.
3165 ** The buffer menu (C-x C-b) no longer lists the *Buffer List* buffer.
3167 ** When invoked with a prefix argument, the command `list-abbrevs' now
3168 displays local abbrevs, only.
3170 ** Refill minor mode provides preliminary support for keeping
3171 paragraphs filled as you modify them.
3173 ** The variable `double-click-fuzz' specifies how much the mouse
3174 may be moved between clicks that are recognized as a pair. Its value
3175 is measured in pixels.
3177 ** The new global minor mode `auto-image-file-mode' allows image files
3178 to be visited as images.
3180 ** Two new user-options `grep-command' and `grep-find-command'
3181 were added to compile.el.
3183 ** Withdrawn packages
3185 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
3186 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
3188 *** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
3190 *** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
3193 * Incompatible Lisp changes
3195 There are a few Lisp changes which are not backwards-compatible and
3196 may require changes to existing code. Here is a list for reference.
3197 See the sections below for details.
3199 ** Since `format' preserves text properties, the idiom
3200 `(format "%s" foo)' no longer works to copy and remove properties.
3201 Use `copy-sequence' to copy the string, then use `set-text-properties'
3202 to remove the properties of the copy.
3204 ** Since the `keymap' text property now has significance, some code
3205 which uses both `local-map' and `keymap' properties (for portability)
3206 may, for instance, give rise to duplicate menus when the keymaps from
3207 these properties are active.
3209 ** The change in the treatment of non-ASCII characters in search
3210 ranges may affect some code.
3212 ** A non-nil value for the LOCAL arg of add-hook makes the hook
3213 buffer-local even if `make-local-hook' hasn't been called, which might
3214 make a difference to some code.
3216 ** The new treatment of the minibuffer prompt might affect code which
3217 operates on the minibuffer.
3219 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
3220 cause `no-conversion' and `emacs-mule-unix' coding systems to produce
3221 different results when reading files with non-ASCII characters
3222 (previously, both coding systems would produce the same results).
3223 Specifically, `no-conversion' interprets each 8-bit byte as a separate
3224 character. This makes `no-conversion' inappropriate for reading
3225 multibyte text, e.g. buffers written to disk in their internal MULE
3226 encoding (auto-saving does that, for example). If a Lisp program
3227 reads such files with `no-conversion', each byte of the multibyte
3228 sequence, including the MULE leading codes such as \201, is treated as
3229 a separate character, which prevents them from being interpreted in
3230 the buffer as multibyte characters.
3232 Therefore, Lisp programs that read files which contain the internal
3233 MULE encoding should use `emacs-mule-unix'. `no-conversion' is only
3234 appropriate for reading truly binary files.
3236 ** Code that relies on the obsolete `before-change-function' and
3237 `after-change-function' to detect buffer changes will now fail. Use
3238 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions' instead.
3240 ** Code that uses `concat' with integer args now gets an error, as
3241 long promised. So does any code that uses derivatives of `concat',
3242 such as `mapconcat'.
3244 ** The function base64-decode-string now always returns a unibyte
3247 ** Not a Lisp incompatibility as such but, with the introduction of
3248 extra private charsets, there is now only one slot free for a new
3249 dimension-2 private charset. User code which tries to add more than
3250 one extra will fail unless you rebuild Emacs with some standard
3251 charset(s) removed; that is probably inadvisable because it changes
3252 the emacs-mule encoding. Also, files stored in the emacs-mule
3253 encoding using Emacs 20 with additional private charsets defined will
3254 probably not be read correctly by Emacs 21.
3256 ** The variable `directory-sep-char' is slated for removal.
3257 Not really a change (yet), but a projected one that you should be
3258 aware of: The variable `directory-sep-char' is deprecated, and should
3259 not be used. It was always ignored on GNU/Linux and Unix systems and
3260 on MS-DOS, but the MS-Windows port tried to support it by adapting the
3261 behavior of certain primitives to the value of this variable. It
3262 turned out that such support cannot be reliable, so it was decided to
3263 remove this variable in the near future. Lisp programs are well
3264 advised not to set it to anything but '/', because any different value
3265 will not have any effect when support for this variable is removed.
3268 * Lisp changes made after edition 2.6 of the Emacs Lisp Manual,
3269 (Display-related features are described in a page of their own below.)
3271 ** Function assq-delete-all replaces function assoc-delete-all.
3273 ** The new function animate-string, from lisp/play/animate.el
3274 allows the animated display of strings.
3276 ** The new function `interactive-form' can be used to obtain the
3277 interactive form of a function.
3279 ** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
3280 between custom options. Example:
3282 (defcustom default-input-method nil
3283 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
3284 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
3285 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
3287 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
3288 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
3290 This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
3291 current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
3292 first in a custom-set-variables statement.
3294 ** The new hook `kbd-macro-termination-hook' is run at the end of
3295 function execute-kbd-macro. Functions on this hook are called with no
3296 args. The hook is run independent of how the macro was terminated
3297 (signal or normal termination).
3299 ** Functions `butlast' and `nbutlast' for removing trailing elements
3300 from a list are now available without requiring the CL package.
3302 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
3303 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
3305 ** The user-option `face-font-registry-alternatives' specifies
3306 alternative font registry names to try when looking for a font.
3308 ** Function `md5' calculates the MD5 "message digest"/"checksum".
3310 ** Function `delete-frame' runs `delete-frame-hook' before actually
3311 deleting the frame. The hook is called with one arg, the frame
3314 ** `add-hook' now makes the hook local if called with a non-nil LOCAL arg.
3316 ** The treatment of non-ASCII characters in search ranges has changed.
3317 If a range in a regular expression or the arg of
3318 skip-chars-forward/backward starts with a unibyte character C and ends
3319 with a multibyte character C2, the range is divided into two: one is
3320 C..?\377, the other is C1..C2, where C1 is the first character of C2's
3323 ** The new function `display-message-or-buffer' displays a message in
3324 the echo area or pops up a buffer, depending on the length of the
3327 ** The new macro `with-auto-compression-mode' allows evaluating an
3328 expression with auto-compression-mode enabled.
3330 ** In image specifications, `:heuristic-mask' has been replaced
3331 with the more general `:mask' property.
3333 ** Image specifications accept more `:conversion's.
3335 ** A `?' can be used in a symbol name without escaping it with a
3338 ** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
3339 is running in batch mode. For example,
3341 (message "%s" (read t))
3343 will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
3346 ** The argument of `down-list', `backward-up-list', `up-list',
3347 `kill-sexp', `backward-kill-sexp' and `mark-sexp' is now optional.
3349 ** If `display-buffer-reuse-frames' is set, function `display-buffer'
3350 will raise frames displaying a buffer, instead of creating a new
3353 ** Two new functions for removing elements from lists/sequences
3356 - Function: remove ELT SEQ
3358 Return a copy of SEQ with all occurrences of ELT removed. SEQ must be
3359 a list, vector, or string. The comparison is done with `equal'.
3361 - Function: remq ELT LIST
3363 Return a copy of LIST with all occurrences of ELT removed. The
3364 comparison is done with `eq'.
3366 ** The function `delete' now also works with vectors and strings.
3368 ** The meaning of the `:weakness WEAK' argument of make-hash-table
3369 has been changed: WEAK can now have new values `key-or-value' and
3370 `key-and-value', in addition the `nil', `key', `value', and `t'.
3372 ** Function `aset' stores any multibyte character in any string
3373 without signaling "Attempt to change char length of a string". It may
3374 convert a unibyte string to multibyte if necessary.
3376 ** The value of the `help-echo' text property is called as a function
3377 or evaluated, if it is not a string already, to obtain a help string.
3379 ** Function `make-obsolete' now has an optional arg to say when the
3380 function was declared obsolete.
3382 ** Function `plist-member' is renamed from `widget-plist-member' (which is
3383 retained as an alias).
3385 ** Easy-menu's :filter now works as in XEmacs.
3386 It takes the unconverted (i.e. XEmacs) form of the menu and the result
3387 is automatically converted to Emacs' form.
3389 ** The new function `window-list' has been defined
3391 - Function: window-list &optional FRAME WINDOW MINIBUF
3393 Return a list of windows on FRAME, starting with WINDOW. FRAME nil or
3394 omitted means use the selected frame. WINDOW nil or omitted means use
3395 the selected window. MINIBUF t means include the minibuffer window,
3396 even if it isn't active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means include the
3397 minibuffer window only if it's active. MINIBUF neither nil nor t
3398 means never include the minibuffer window.
3400 ** There's a new function `get-window-with-predicate' defined as follows
3402 - Function: get-window-with-predicate PREDICATE &optional MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES DEFAULT
3404 Return a window satisfying PREDICATE.
3406 This function cycles through all visible windows using `walk-windows',
3407 calling PREDICATE on each one. PREDICATE is called with a window as
3408 argument. The first window for which PREDICATE returns a non-nil
3409 value is returned. If no window satisfies PREDICATE, DEFAULT is
3412 Optional second arg MINIBUF t means count the minibuffer window even
3413 if not active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means count the minibuffer iff
3414 it is active. MINIBUF neither t nor nil means not to count the
3415 minibuffer even if it is active.
3417 Several frames may share a single minibuffer; if the minibuffer
3418 counts, all windows on all frames that share that minibuffer count
3419 too. Therefore, if you are using a separate minibuffer frame
3420 and the minibuffer is active and MINIBUF says it counts,
3421 `walk-windows' includes the windows in the frame from which you
3422 entered the minibuffer, as well as the minibuffer window.
3424 ALL-FRAMES is the optional third argument.
3425 ALL-FRAMES nil or omitted means cycle within the frames as specified above.
3426 ALL-FRAMES = `visible' means include windows on all visible frames.
3427 ALL-FRAMES = 0 means include windows on all visible and iconified frames.
3428 ALL-FRAMES = t means include windows on all frames including invisible frames.
3429 If ALL-FRAMES is a frame, it means include windows on that frame.
3430 Anything else means restrict to the selected frame.
3432 ** The function `single-key-description' now encloses function key and
3433 event names in angle brackets. When called with a second optional
3434 argument non-nil, angle brackets won't be printed.
3436 ** If the variable `message-truncate-lines' is bound to t around a
3437 call to `message', the echo area will not be resized to display that
3438 message; it will be truncated instead, as it was done in 20.x.
3439 Default value is nil.
3441 ** The user option `line-number-display-limit' can now be set to nil,
3444 ** The new user option `line-number-display-limit-width' controls
3445 the maximum width of lines in a buffer for which Emacs displays line
3446 numbers in the mode line. The default is 200.
3448 ** `select-safe-coding-system' now also checks the most preferred
3449 coding-system if buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and
3450 DEFAULT-CODING-SYSTEM is not specified,
3452 ** The function `subr-arity' provides information about the argument
3453 list of a primitive.
3455 ** `where-is-internal' now also accepts a list of keymaps.
3457 ** The text property `keymap' specifies a key map which overrides the
3458 buffer's local map and the map specified by the `local-map' property.
3459 This is probably what most current uses of `local-map' want, rather
3460 than replacing the local map.
3462 ** The obsolete variables `before-change-function' and
3463 `after-change-function' are no longer acted upon and have been
3464 removed. Use `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions'
3467 ** The function `apropos-mode' runs the hook `apropos-mode-hook'.
3469 ** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments,
3470 as promised long ago.
3472 ** The new function `float-time' returns the current time as a float.
3474 ** The new variable auto-coding-regexp-alist specifies coding systems
3475 for reading specific files, analogous to auto-coding-alist, but
3476 patterns are checked against file contents instead of file names.
3479 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
3481 ** The new package rx.el provides an alternative sexp notation for
3482 regular expressions.
3484 - Function: rx-to-string SEXP
3486 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
3490 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
3492 The following are valid subforms of regular expressions in sexp
3496 matches string STRING literally.
3499 matches character CHAR literally.
3502 matches any character except a newline.
3505 matches any character
3508 matches any character in SET. SET may be a character or string.
3509 Ranges of characters can be specified as `A-Z' in strings.
3515 matches any character not in SET
3518 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of a line
3519 in the text being matched
3522 is similar to `line-start' but matches only at the end of a line
3525 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
3526 string being matched against.
3529 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
3530 string being matched against.
3533 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
3534 buffer being matched against.
3537 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
3538 buffer being matched against.
3541 matches the empty string, but only at point.
3544 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
3548 matches the empty string, but only at the end of a word.
3551 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
3554 `(not word-boundary)'
3555 matches the empty string, but not at the beginning or end of a
3559 matches 0 through 9.
3562 matches ASCII control characters.
3565 matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
3568 matches space and tab only.
3571 matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
3575 matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
3579 matches letters and digits. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
3580 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
3583 matches letters. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
3584 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
3587 matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
3590 matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
3593 matches anything lower-case.
3596 matches anything upper-case.
3599 matches punctuation. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
3600 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
3603 matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
3606 matches anything that has word syntax.
3609 matches a character with syntax SYNTAX. SYNTAX must be one
3610 of the following symbols.
3612 `whitespace' (\\s- in string notation)
3613 `punctuation' (\\s.)
3616 `open-parenthesis' (\\s()
3617 `close-parenthesis' (\\s))
3618 `expression-prefix' (\\s')
3619 `string-quote' (\\s\")
3620 `paired-delimiter' (\\s$)
3622 `character-quote' (\\s/)
3623 `comment-start' (\\s<)
3624 `comment-end' (\\s>)
3626 `(not (syntax SYNTAX))'
3627 matches a character that has not syntax SYNTAX.
3629 `(category CATEGORY)'
3630 matches a character with category CATEGORY. CATEGORY must be
3631 either a character to use for C, or one of the following symbols.
3633 `consonant' (\\c0 in string notation)
3635 `upper-diacritical-mark' (\\c2)
3636 `lower-diacritical-mark' (\\c3)
3640 `vowel-modifying-diacritical-mark' (\\c7)
3642 `semivowel-lower' (\\c9)
3643 `not-at-end-of-line' (\\c<)
3644 `not-at-beginning-of-line' (\\c>)
3645 `alpha-numeric-two-byte' (\\cA)
3646 `chinse-two-byte' (\\cC)
3647 `greek-two-byte' (\\cG)
3648 `japanese-hiragana-two-byte' (\\cH)
3649 `indian-tow-byte' (\\cI)
3650 `japanese-katakana-two-byte' (\\cK)
3651 `korean-hangul-two-byte' (\\cN)
3652 `cyrillic-two-byte' (\\cY)
3661 `japanese-katakana' (\\ck)
3665 `japanese-roman' (\\cr)
3672 `(not (category CATEGORY))'
3673 matches a character that has not category CATEGORY.
3675 `(and SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
3676 matches what SEXP1 matches, followed by what SEXP2 matches, etc.
3678 `(submatch SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
3679 like `and', but makes the match accessible with `match-end',
3680 `match-beginning', and `match-string'.
3682 `(group SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
3683 another name for `submatch'.
3685 `(or SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
3686 matches anything that matches SEXP1 or SEXP2, etc. If all
3687 args are strings, use `regexp-opt' to optimize the resulting
3690 `(minimal-match SEXP)'
3691 produce a non-greedy regexp for SEXP. Normally, regexps matching
3692 zero or more occurrances of something are \"greedy\" in that they
3693 match as much as they can, as long as the overall regexp can
3694 still match. A non-greedy regexp matches as little as possible.
3696 `(maximal-match SEXP)'
3697 produce a greedy regexp for SEXP. This is the default.
3699 `(zero-or-more SEXP)'
3700 matches zero or more occurrences of what SEXP matches.
3703 like `zero-or-more'.
3706 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
3709 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
3711 `(one-or-more SEXP)'
3712 matches one or more occurrences of A.
3718 like `one-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
3721 like `one-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
3723 `(zero-or-one SEXP)'
3724 matches zero or one occurrences of A.
3730 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a greedy regexp.
3733 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
3736 matches N occurrences of what SEXP matches.
3739 matches N to M occurrences of what SEXP matches.
3742 evaluate FORM and insert result. If result is a string,
3746 include REGEXP in string notation in the result.
3748 *** The features `md5' and `overlay' are now provided by default.
3750 *** The special form `save-restriction' now works correctly even if the
3751 buffer is widened inside the save-restriction and changes made outside
3752 the original restriction. Previously, doing this would cause the saved
3753 restriction to be restored incorrectly.
3755 *** The functions `find-charset-region' and `find-charset-string' include
3756 `eight-bit-control' and/or `eight-bit-graphic' in the returned list
3757 when they find 8-bit characters. Previously, they included `ascii' in a
3758 multibyte buffer and `unknown' in a unibyte buffer.
3760 *** The functions `set-buffer-multibyte', `string-as-multibyte' and
3761 `string-as-unibyte' change the byte sequence of a buffer or a string
3762 if it contains a character from the `eight-bit-control' character set.
3764 *** The handling of multibyte sequences in a multibyte buffer is
3765 changed. Previously, a byte sequence matching the pattern
3766 [\200-\237][\240-\377]+ was interpreted as a single character
3767 regardless of the length of the trailing bytes [\240-\377]+. Thus, if
3768 the sequence was longer than what the leading byte indicated, the
3769 extra trailing bytes were ignored by Lisp functions. Now such extra
3770 bytes are independent 8-bit characters belonging to the charset
3773 ** Fontsets are now implemented using char-tables.
3775 A fontset can now be specified for each independent character, for
3776 a group of characters or for a character set rather than just for a
3777 character set as previously.
3779 *** The arguments of the function `set-fontset-font' are changed.
3780 They are NAME, CHARACTER, FONTNAME, and optional FRAME. The function
3781 modifies fontset NAME to use FONTNAME for CHARACTER.
3783 CHARACTER may be a cons (FROM . TO), where FROM and TO are non-generic
3784 characters. In that case FONTNAME is used for all characters in the
3785 range FROM and TO (inclusive). CHARACTER may be a charset. In that
3786 case FONTNAME is used for all character in the charset.
3788 FONTNAME may be a cons (FAMILY . REGISTRY), where FAMILY is the family
3789 name of a font and REGISTRY is a registry name of a font.
3791 *** Variable x-charset-registry has been deleted. The default charset
3792 registries of character sets are set in the default fontset
3795 *** The function `create-fontset-from-fontset-spec' ignores the second
3796 argument STYLE-VARIANT. It never creates style-variant fontsets.
3798 ** The method of composing characters is changed. Now character
3799 composition is done by a special text property `composition' in
3800 buffers and strings.
3802 *** Charset composition is deleted. Emacs never creates a `composite
3803 character' which is an independent character with a unique character
3804 code. Thus the following functions handling `composite characters'
3805 have been deleted: composite-char-component,
3806 composite-char-component-count, composite-char-composition-rule,
3807 composite-char-composition-rule and decompose-composite-char delete.
3808 The variables leading-code-composition and min-composite-char have
3811 *** Three more glyph reference points are added. They can be used to
3812 specify a composition rule. See the documentation of the variable
3813 `reference-point-alist' for more detail.
3815 *** The function `compose-region' takes new arguments COMPONENTS and
3816 MODIFICATION-FUNC. With COMPONENTS, you can specify not only a
3817 composition rule but also characters to be composed. Such characters
3818 may differ between buffer and string text.
3820 *** The function `compose-string' takes new arguments START, END,
3821 COMPONENTS, and MODIFICATION-FUNC.
3823 *** The function `compose-string' puts text property `composition'
3824 directly on the argument STRING instead of returning a new string.
3825 Likewise, the function `decompose-string' just removes text property
3826 `composition' from STRING.
3828 *** The new function `find-composition' returns information about
3829 a composition at a specified position in a buffer or a string.
3831 *** The function `decompose-composite-char' is now labeled as
3834 ** The new coding system `mac-roman' is primarily intended for use on
3835 the Macintosh but may be used generally for Macintosh-encoded text.
3837 ** The new character sets `mule-unicode-0100-24ff',
3838 `mule-unicode-2500-33ff', and `mule-unicode-e000-ffff' have been
3839 introduced for Unicode characters in the range U+0100..U+24FF,
3840 U+2500..U+33FF, U+E000..U+FFFF respectively.
3842 Note that the character sets are not yet unified in Emacs, so
3843 characters which belong to charsets such as Latin-2, Greek, Hebrew,
3844 etc. and the same characters in the `mule-unicode-*' charsets are
3845 different characters, as far as Emacs is concerned. For example, text
3846 which includes Unicode characters from the Latin-2 locale cannot be
3847 encoded by Emacs with ISO 8859-2 coding system.
3849 ** The new coding system `mule-utf-8' has been added.
3850 It provides limited support for decoding/encoding UTF-8 text. For
3851 details, please see the documentation string of this coding system.
3853 ** The new character sets `japanese-jisx0213-1' and
3854 `japanese-jisx0213-2' have been introduced for the new Japanese
3855 standard JIS X 0213 Plane 1 and Plane 2.
3857 ** The new character sets `latin-iso8859-14' and `latin-iso8859-15'
3858 have been introduced.
3860 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
3861 have been introduced for 8-bit characters in the ranges 0x80..0x9F and
3862 0xA0..0xFF respectively. Note that the multibyte representation of
3863 eight-bit-control is never exposed; this leads to an exception in the
3864 emacs-mule coding system, which encodes everything else to the
3865 buffer/string internal representation. Note that to search for
3866 eight-bit-graphic characters in a multibyte buffer, the search string
3867 must be multibyte, otherwise such characters will be converted to
3868 their multibyte equivalent.
3870 ** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
3871 that offset in the file before writing.
3873 ** The function `add-minor-mode' has been added for convenience and
3874 compatibility with XEmacs (and is used internally by define-minor-mode).
3876 ** The function `shell-command' now sets the default directory of the
3877 `*Shell Command Output*' buffer to the default directory of the buffer
3878 from which the command was issued.
3880 ** The functions `query-replace', `query-replace-regexp',
3881 `query-replace-regexp-eval' `map-query-replace-regexp',
3882 `replace-string', `replace-regexp', and `perform-replace' take two
3883 additional optional arguments START and END that specify the region to
3886 ** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
3887 to `window-buffer-height'.
3889 - Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
3891 Return the number of screen lines in the region between BEG and END.
3892 The number of screen lines may be different from the number of actual
3893 lines, due to line breaking, display table, etc.
3895 Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
3898 If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optional third argument
3899 COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
3901 The optional fourth argument WINDOW specifies the window used for
3902 obtaining parameters such as width, horizontal scrolling, and so
3903 on. The default is to use the selected window's parameters.
3905 Like `vertical-motion', `count-screen-lines' always uses the current
3906 buffer, regardless of which buffer is displayed in WINDOW. This makes
3907 possible to use `count-screen-lines' in any buffer, whether or not it
3908 is currently displayed in some window.
3910 ** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
3911 argument function's results.
3913 ** The functions base64-decode-region and base64-decode-string now
3914 signal an error instead of returning nil if decoding fails. Also,
3915 `base64-decode-string' now always returns a unibyte string (in Emacs
3916 20, it returned a multibyte string when the result was a valid multibyte
3919 ** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
3920 header in the list of headers passed to it.
3922 ** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
3923 ignores differences in case and text representation.
3925 ** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
3926 cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
3929 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
3930 nil don't display a cursor
3931 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
3932 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
3933 others display a box cursor.
3935 ** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
3936 an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
3937 defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
3938 set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
3940 ** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
3941 specifications in string form as accepted by `modify-syntax-entry' to
3942 the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
3943 text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
3947 (string-to-syntax "()")
3950 ** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
3953 *** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
3954 INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
3961 *** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
3966 *** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
3971 *** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
3978 ** The function `documentation-property' now evaluates the value of
3979 the given property to obtain a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
3982 ** If called for a symbol, the function `documentation' now looks for
3983 a `function-documentation' property of that symbol. If it has a non-nil
3984 value, the documentation is taken from that value. If the value is
3985 not a string, it is evaluated to obtain a string.
3987 ** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
3989 ** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
3990 for a regexp in a string.
3992 ** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
3993 `mouse-position-function'.
3995 ** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
3996 that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
3998 ** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
3999 Keywords are now always considered constants.
4001 ** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
4004 ** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
4005 returned by function `recent-keys'.
4007 ** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
4008 can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
4009 Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding C-M-a
4010 etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
4013 ** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
4014 and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
4016 ** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
4017 has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
4018 function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
4019 returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
4022 When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
4023 and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
4024 hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
4025 then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
4027 ** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
4028 In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
4029 and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
4031 ** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
4032 with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
4035 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
4037 Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
4038 TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
4039 saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
4042 ** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
4043 Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
4044 Also back-references like \2 are now considered as an error if the
4045 corresponding subgroup does not exist (or is not closed yet).
4046 Previously it would have been silently turned into `2' (ignoring the `\').
4048 ** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
4049 removed since it wasn't used by anything.
4051 ** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
4052 instead of being optional.
4054 ** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
4055 modify read-only text.
4057 ** New functions and variables for locales.
4059 The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
4060 decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
4061 time functions like strftime. The new variables
4062 `system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
4063 locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
4065 The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
4066 environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
4067 the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
4068 environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
4069 not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
4070 `locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
4071 `locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
4073 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
4074 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
4075 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
4078 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
4079 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
4081 ** New function `propertize'
4083 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
4084 strings with text properties.
4086 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
4088 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
4089 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
4090 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
4091 specified value of that property. Example:
4093 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
4095 ** push and pop macros.
4097 Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
4098 are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
4099 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
4101 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
4102 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
4103 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
4105 ** New dolist and dotimes macros.
4107 Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
4108 are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
4110 (dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
4111 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
4112 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
4113 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
4115 (dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
4116 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
4117 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
4118 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
4120 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such as
4121 [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on. These must be used within a character
4122 class--for instance, [-[:digit:].+] matches digits or a period
4125 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
4126 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
4127 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
4128 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
4129 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
4131 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
4133 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
4134 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
4135 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
4136 [:alpha:] matches letters.
4137 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
4138 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
4139 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
4140 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
4141 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
4142 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
4143 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
4144 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
4145 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
4146 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
4147 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
4149 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
4151 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
4153 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
4155 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
4156 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
4160 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
4161 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
4162 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
4166 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
4167 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
4169 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
4171 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
4172 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
4173 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
4174 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
4175 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
4177 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
4179 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
4180 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
4181 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
4185 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value',
4186 `key-or-value', `key-and-value', or t, meaning the same as
4187 `key-and-value'. Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage
4188 collection if their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere
4189 outside of the hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
4191 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
4193 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
4195 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
4197 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
4199 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
4201 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
4204 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
4206 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
4208 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
4210 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
4212 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
4214 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
4216 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
4218 Returns the size of TABLE.
4220 - Function: hash-table-test TABLE
4222 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
4224 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
4226 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
4228 - Function: clrhash TABLE
4232 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
4234 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
4237 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
4239 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
4240 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
4242 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
4244 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
4246 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
4248 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
4249 arguments KEY and VALUE.
4251 - Function: sxhash OBJ
4253 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
4255 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
4257 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
4258 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
4259 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
4260 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
4261 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
4263 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
4265 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
4266 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
4267 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
4269 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
4270 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
4272 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
4273 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
4275 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
4276 (sxhash (upcase a)))
4278 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
4279 'case-fold-string-hash))
4281 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
4283 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
4285 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
4286 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
4287 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
4289 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
4291 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
4292 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
4294 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
4295 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
4296 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
4297 is too short to reach that column.
4299 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
4300 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
4301 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
4302 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
4304 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
4305 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
4306 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
4308 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
4309 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
4311 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
4312 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
4314 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
4315 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
4316 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
4317 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
4318 temporary-file-directory instead.
4320 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
4321 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
4322 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
4323 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
4325 ** assq-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
4326 elements of an alist which have a car `eq' to a particular value.
4328 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
4330 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
4331 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
4332 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
4334 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
4336 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
4337 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
4338 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
4339 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
4340 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
4341 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
4343 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
4344 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
4345 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
4346 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
4348 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
4350 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
4351 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
4352 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
4355 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
4356 string where arguments appear in the result string.
4360 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
4362 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
4363 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
4366 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
4368 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
4370 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
4371 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
4374 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
4376 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
4377 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
4382 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
4383 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
4385 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
4386 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
4387 to enable sound support.
4389 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
4390 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
4391 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
4392 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
4393 sound to play, before playing the sound.
4395 The following sound properties are supported:
4399 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
4400 searched relative to `data-directory'.
4404 DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
4405 may be present, but not both.
4409 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
4410 0..1. This property is optional.
4414 DEVICE is a string specifying the system device on which to play the
4415 sound. The default device is system-dependent.
4417 Other properties are ignored.
4419 An alternative interface is called as
4420 (play-sound-file FILE &optional VOLUME DEVICE).
4422 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
4424 ** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
4427 ** Changes to garbage collection
4429 *** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
4430 of live and free strings.
4432 *** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
4433 strings that have been consed so far.
4436 * Lisp-level Display features added after release 2.6 of the Emacs
4439 ** The user-option `resize-mini-windows' controls how Emacs resizes
4442 ** The function `pos-visible-in-window-p' now has a third optional
4443 argument, PARTIALLY. If a character is only partially visible, nil is
4444 returned, unless PARTIALLY is non-nil.
4446 ** On window systems, `glyph-table' is no longer used.
4448 ** Help strings in menu items are now used to provide `help-echo' text.
4450 ** The function `image-size' can be used to determine the size of an
4453 - Function: image-size SPEC &optional PIXELS FRAME
4455 Return the size of an image as a pair (WIDTH . HEIGHT).
4457 SPEC is an image specification. PIXELS non-nil means return sizes
4458 measured in pixels, otherwise return sizes measured in canonical
4459 character units (fractions of the width/height of the frame's default
4460 font). FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed.
4461 FRAME nil or omitted means use the selected frame.
4463 ** The function `image-mask-p' can be used to determine if an image
4466 - Function: image-mask-p SPEC &optional FRAME
4468 Return t if image SPEC has a mask bitmap.
4469 FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed. FRAME nil
4470 or omitted means use the selected frame.
4472 ** The function `find-image' can be used to find a usable image
4473 satisfying one of a list of specifications.
4475 ** The STRING argument of `put-image' and `insert-image' is now
4478 ** Image specifications may contain the property `:ascent center' (see
4482 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
4484 ** The function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors can be used
4485 to make Emacs avoid displaying text with bold black foreground on TTYs.
4487 Some terminals, notably PC consoles, emulate bold text by displaying
4488 text in brighter colors. On such a console, a bold black foreground
4489 is displayed in a gray color. If this turns out to be hard to read on
4490 your monitor---the problem occurred with the mode line on
4491 laptops---you can instruct Emacs to ignore the text's boldness, and to
4492 just display it black instead.
4494 This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
4497 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
4501 ** New face implementation.
4503 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
4504 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
4508 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
4510 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
4512 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
4513 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
4515 3. Font height in 1/10pt
4517 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
4519 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
4521 6. Foreground color.
4523 7. Background color.
4525 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
4527 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
4529 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
4531 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
4533 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
4536 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
4537 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
4539 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
4540 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
4541 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
4542 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
4543 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each of the face
4544 attributes mentioned above.
4546 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
4547 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
4550 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
4551 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
4556 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
4557 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
4558 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
4559 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
4560 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
4561 results in a fully-specified face.
4563 *** Face realization.
4565 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
4566 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
4567 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
4568 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
4569 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
4570 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
4572 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
4573 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
4574 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
4575 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
4577 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
4578 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
4579 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
4580 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
4581 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
4583 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
4584 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
4585 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
4586 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
4587 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
4590 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
4591 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
4592 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
4593 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
4595 **** Clearing face caches.
4597 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
4598 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
4603 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
4604 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
4605 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
4607 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
4608 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
4609 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
4610 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
4611 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
4613 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
4614 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
4615 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
4617 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
4619 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
4620 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
4621 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
4622 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
4623 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
4624 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
4625 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
4627 Setting `face-font-family-alternatives' allows the user to specify
4628 alternative font families to try if a family specified by a face
4631 Setting `face-font-registry-alternatives' allows the user to specify
4632 all alternative font registry names to try for a face specifying a
4635 Please note that the interpretations of the above two variables are
4638 Setting face-ignored-fonts allows the user to ignore specific fonts.
4643 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
4644 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
4647 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
4648 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
4649 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
4650 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
4651 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
4654 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
4656 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
4658 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
4660 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
4662 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
4663 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
4664 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
4666 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
4667 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
4668 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
4669 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
4670 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
4671 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
4672 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
4673 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
4674 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
4675 of the face font sort order.
4677 - Function: x-font-family-list
4679 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
4680 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
4681 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
4682 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
4684 - Variable: font-list-limit
4686 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
4687 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
4688 matching font. The default is currently 100.
4690 *** Setting face attributes.
4692 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
4693 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
4694 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
4697 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
4698 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
4700 The following attributes are recognized:
4704 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
4705 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
4706 and `?' are allowed.
4710 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
4711 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
4712 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
4713 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
4717 VALUE must be either an integer specifying the height of the font to use
4718 in 1/10 pt, a floating point number specifying the amount by which to
4719 scale any underlying face, or a function, which is called with the old
4720 height (from the underlying face), and should return the new height.
4724 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
4725 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
4726 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
4730 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
4731 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
4734 `:foreground', `:background'
4736 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
4740 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
4741 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
4742 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
4747 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
4748 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
4749 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
4754 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
4755 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
4756 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
4757 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
4761 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
4762 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
4763 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
4764 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
4765 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
4766 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
4767 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
4768 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
4769 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
4770 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
4771 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
4772 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
4773 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
4774 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
4775 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
4776 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
4781 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
4782 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
4786 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
4787 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
4788 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
4789 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
4790 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
4791 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
4793 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
4794 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
4798 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
4799 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
4800 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
4803 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
4804 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
4805 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
4807 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
4812 VALUE is the name of a face from which to inherit attributes, or a list
4813 of face names. Attributes from inherited faces are merged into the face
4814 like an underlying face would be, with higher priority than underlying faces.
4816 *** Face attributes and X resources
4818 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
4821 Face attribute X resource class
4822 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
4823 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
4824 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
4825 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
4826 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
4827 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
4828 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
4829 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
4830 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
4831 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
4832 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
4833 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
4834 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
4835 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
4836 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
4837 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
4838 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
4839 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
4840 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
4841 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
4843 *** Text property `face'.
4845 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
4846 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
4847 specification can be
4849 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
4851 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
4852 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
4853 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
4854 for face attribute names.
4856 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
4857 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
4858 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
4860 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
4862 The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
4863 on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
4864 the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
4865 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
4866 `defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
4867 used to clear the mapping table.
4869 ** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
4871 The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
4872 and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
4873 type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
4874 color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
4875 display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
4876 old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
4877 `x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
4878 compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
4879 should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
4880 modify their color-related behavior.
4882 The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
4885 ** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
4887 The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
4888 `display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
4889 `display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
4890 `display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
4891 `display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
4892 `display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
4893 display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
4894 the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
4895 platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
4897 The new function `display-images-p' returns non-nil if a particular
4898 display can display image files.
4900 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
4902 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
4903 To disallow this completely (like previous versions of emacs), customize
4904 the variable `minibuffer-prompt-properties', and turn on the
4905 `Inviolable' option.
4907 The function `minibuffer-prompt-end' returns the current position of the
4908 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
4909 Otherwise, it returns `(point-min)'.
4911 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
4913 There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
4914 buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
4915 property (which can be a text property or an overlay).
4917 Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
4918 forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
4919 to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
4920 not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
4921 commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
4922 boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
4923 `inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
4926 Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
4927 a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
4928 editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
4930 The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
4932 - Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY
4934 Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
4936 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
4937 If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
4938 constrained position if that is different.
4940 If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
4941 positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
4942 ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
4943 constrained to the field that has the same `field' char-property
4944 as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
4945 is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
4946 fields. Additionally, if two fields are separated by another field with
4947 the special value `boundary', then any point within this special field is
4948 also considered to be `on the boundary'.
4950 If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
4951 NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
4952 unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
4953 C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
4954 only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
4956 If the optional argument INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY is non-nil, and OLD-POS has
4957 a non-nil property of that name, then any field boundaries are ignored.
4959 Field boundaries are not noticed if `inhibit-field-text-motion' is non-nil.
4961 - Function: delete-field &optional POS
4963 Delete the field surrounding POS.
4964 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
4965 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
4967 - Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
4969 Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
4970 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
4971 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
4972 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the beginning of its
4973 field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
4975 - Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
4977 Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
4978 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
4979 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
4980 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the end of its field,
4981 then the end of the *following* field is returned.
4983 - Function: field-string &optional POS
4985 Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
4986 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
4987 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
4989 - Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
4991 Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
4992 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
4993 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
4997 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
4998 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
4999 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
5000 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
5002 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
5003 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
5004 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
5005 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
5008 IMAGE is an image specification.
5010 *** Image specifications
5012 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
5013 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
5014 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
5015 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
5016 described below are ignored.
5018 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
5022 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, or the symbol `center'.
5023 If it is a number, it specifies the percentage of the image's height
5024 to use for its ascent.
5026 If not specified, ASCENT defaults to the value 50 which means that the
5027 image will be centered with the base line of the row it appears in.
5029 If ASCENT is `center' the image is vertically centered around a
5030 centerline which is the vertical center of text drawn at the position
5031 of the image, in the manner specified by the text properties and
5032 overlays that apply to the image.
5036 MARGIN must be either a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put
5037 as margin around the image, or a pair (X . Y) with X specifying the
5038 horizontal margin and Y specifying the vertical margin. Default is 0.
5042 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
5047 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it.
5049 ALGO `laplace' or `emboss' means apply a Laplace or ``emboss''
5050 edge-detection algorithm to the image.
5052 ALGO `(edge-detection :matrix MATRIX :color-adjust ADJUST)' means
5053 apply a general edge-detection algorithm. MATRIX must be either a
5054 nine-element list or a nine-element vector of numbers. A pixel at
5055 position x/y in the transformed image is computed from original pixels
5056 around that position. MATRIX specifies, for each pixel in the
5057 neighborhood of x/y, a factor with which that pixel will influence the
5058 transformed pixel; element 0 specifies the factor for the pixel at
5059 x-1/y-1, element 1 the factor for the pixel at x/y-1 etc. as shown
5062 (x-1/y-1 x/y-1 x+1/y-1
5064 x-1/y+1 x/y+1 x+1/y+1)
5066 The resulting pixel is computed from the color intensity of the color
5067 resulting from summing up the RGB values of surrounding pixels,
5068 multiplied by the specified factors, and dividing that sum by the sum
5069 of the factors' absolute values.
5071 Laplace edge-detection currently uses a matrix of
5077 Emboss edge-detection uses a matrix of
5083 ALGO `disabled' means transform the image so that it looks
5088 If MASK is `heuristic' or `(heuristic BG)', build a clipping mask for
5089 the image, so that the background of a frame is visible behind the
5090 image. If BG is not specified, or if BG is t, determine the
5091 background color of the image by looking at the 4 corners of the
5092 image, assuming the most frequently occurring color from the corners is
5093 the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must be a list `(RED
5094 GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the background of the
5097 If MASK is nil, remove a mask from the image, if it has one. Images
5098 in some formats include a mask which can be removed by specifying
5103 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
5104 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
5105 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
5106 may be present in the image specification.
5110 Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
5111 supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
5112 present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
5113 support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
5115 *** Supported image types
5117 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
5119 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
5120 properties supported are
5124 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
5125 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground.
5129 BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
5130 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
5132 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
5133 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
5134 instead of a `:file' property.
5138 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
5142 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
5148 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
5149 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
5151 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
5153 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
5156 4. a string that's an in-memory XBM file. Neither width nor
5157 height may be specified in this case because these are defined
5160 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
5162 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
5163 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
5164 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
5165 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
5167 Additional image properties supported are:
5169 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
5171 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
5172 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
5175 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
5176 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
5178 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
5179 to display compressed images.
5181 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
5183 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
5184 mono images are supported. Additional image properties supported for
5189 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
5190 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground.
5194 BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
5195 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
5197 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
5199 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
5200 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. Additional image properties
5203 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
5205 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
5206 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
5209 **** GIF, image type `gif'
5211 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
5212 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
5214 Additional image properties supported are:
5218 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
5219 multi-image GIF file. An error is signaled if INDEX is too large.
5221 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
5222 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
5223 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
5226 (defun show-anim (file max)
5227 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
5228 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
5230 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
5233 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
5236 (goto-char (point-min))
5237 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
5238 (insert-image img "x"))
5239 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
5241 **** PNG, image type `png'
5243 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
5244 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
5247 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
5249 Additional image properties supported are:
5253 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
5254 integer. This is a required property.
5258 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
5259 must be a integer. This is an required property.
5263 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
5264 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
5265 files. This is an required property.
5267 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
5272 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
5273 which are supported in the current configuration.
5275 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
5276 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
5277 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
5278 manually. Images in the cache are compared with `equal', i.e. all
5279 images with `equal' specifications share the same image.
5281 *** Simplified image API, image.el
5283 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
5284 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
5285 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
5286 define an image based on available image types. The functions
5287 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
5292 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
5295 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
5296 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
5297 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
5298 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
5299 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
5300 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
5301 of the display margins.
5303 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
5304 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
5305 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
5306 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
5311 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
5312 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
5313 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
5314 that have a `help-echo' property.
5316 If the value of the `help-echo' property is a function, that function
5317 is called with three arguments WINDOW, OBJECT and POSITION. WINDOW is
5318 the window in which the help was found.
5320 If OBJECT is a buffer, POS is the position in the buffer where the
5321 `help-echo' text property was found.
5323 If OBJECT is an overlay, that overlay has a `help-echo' property, and
5324 POS is the position in the overlay's buffer under the mouse.
5326 If OBJECT is a string (an overlay string or a string displayed with
5327 the `display' property), POS is the position in that string under the
5330 If the value of the `help-echo' property is neither a function nor a
5331 string, it is evaluated to obtain a help string.
5333 For tool-bar and menu-bar items, their key definition is used to
5334 determine the help to display. If their definition contains a
5335 property `:help FORM', FORM is evaluated to determine the help string.
5336 For tool-bar items without a help form, the caption of the item is
5337 used as help string.
5339 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
5340 the help string differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window
5341 causes the help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
5343 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
5345 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
5346 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
5348 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
5349 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
5350 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
5351 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
5354 (global-set-key [A-down]
5357 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
5358 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
5359 (global-set-key [A-up]
5362 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
5363 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
5365 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
5367 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
5368 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
5369 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
5370 is called with one argument, POS.
5372 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
5373 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
5374 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
5375 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
5376 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
5378 ** Tool bar support.
5380 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
5381 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
5382 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
5383 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
5384 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
5385 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
5387 *** Tool bar item definitions
5389 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
5390 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
5391 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
5393 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
5394 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
5395 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
5396 property (see below).
5398 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
5399 binding are currently ignored.
5401 The following properties are recognized:
5405 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
5410 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
5414 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
5415 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
5416 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
5418 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
5420 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
5421 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
5425 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
5426 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
5427 meaning of each of the four elements:
5429 Index Use when item is
5430 ----------------------------------------
5431 0 enabled and selected
5432 1 enabled and deselected
5433 2 disabled and selected
5434 3 disabled and deselected
5436 If IMAGE is a single image specification, a Laplace edge-detection
5437 algorithm is used on that image to draw the image in disabled state.
5439 `:help HELP-STRING'.
5441 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
5442 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
5444 The function `toolbar-add-item' is a convenience function for adding
5445 toolbar items generally, and `tool-bar-add-item-from-menu' can be used
5446 to define a toolbar item with a binding copied from an item on the
5449 The default bindings use a menu-item :filter to derive the tool-bar
5450 dynamically from variable `tool-bar-map' which may be set
5451 buffer-locally to override the global map.
5453 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
5455 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
5456 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
5457 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
5459 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
5460 raised when the mouse moves over them.
5462 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
5463 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
5464 pixels, or a pair of integers (X . Y) specifying horizontal and
5465 vertical margins . Default is 1.
5467 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
5468 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
5470 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
5472 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
5475 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
5476 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
5477 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
5479 is the original tool bar item definition, then
5481 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
5483 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
5486 ** Mode line changes.
5488 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
5490 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
5491 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
5492 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
5494 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
5495 a `local-map' text property.
5497 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
5498 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
5500 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
5501 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
5502 `local-map' property.
5504 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
5505 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
5508 *** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
5509 evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
5511 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
5512 variable mode-line-format to nil.
5514 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
5516 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
5517 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
5518 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
5519 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
5522 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
5525 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
5526 position in the header-line.
5528 ** Text property `display'
5530 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text,
5531 replace text with other text, display text in marginal area, and it is
5532 also used to control other aspects of how text displays. The value of
5533 the `display' property should be a display specification, as described
5534 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
5536 *** Replacing text, displaying text in marginal areas
5538 To replace the text having the `display' property with some other
5539 text, use a display specification of the form `(LOCATION STRING)'.
5541 If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)', STRING is displayed in the left
5542 marginal area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in
5543 the right marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' STRING
5544 is displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
5545 simpler form STRING as property value.
5547 *** Variable width and height spaces
5549 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
5550 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
5551 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
5552 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
5553 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
5554 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
5555 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
5557 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
5558 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
5559 properties described below.
5561 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
5562 characters having the `display' property.
5566 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
5567 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
5569 - :relative-width FACTOR
5571 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
5572 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
5573 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
5574 width of that character by FACTOR.
5578 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
5579 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
5581 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
5585 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
5588 - :relative-height FACTOR
5590 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
5591 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
5595 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
5596 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
5597 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
5600 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
5604 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
5605 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
5606 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
5607 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
5608 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
5609 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
5610 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
5611 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
5612 as display specification.
5614 *** Other display properties
5616 - (space-width FACTOR)
5618 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
5619 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
5624 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
5626 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
5627 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
5628 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
5629 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
5630 a font is available counts as a step.
5632 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
5633 as tall as the frame's default font.
5635 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
5636 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
5638 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
5639 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
5643 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
5644 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
5645 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
5646 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
5647 `height' subproperty.
5649 *** Conditional display properties
5651 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
5652 has the form `(when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC applies
5653 only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated. During the
5654 evaluation, `object' is bound to the string or buffer having the
5655 conditional display property; `position' and `buffer-position' are
5656 bound to the position within `object' and the buffer position where
5657 the display property was found, respectively. Both positions can be
5658 different when object is a string.
5660 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
5663 ** New menu separator types.
5665 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
5666 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
5667 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
5668 to specify other menu separator types.
5670 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
5672 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
5675 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
5677 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
5679 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
5681 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
5683 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
5685 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
5687 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
5689 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
5691 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
5693 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the form
5694 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
5696 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
5698 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
5700 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
5702 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
5704 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
5706 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
5708 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
5710 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
5712 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
5714 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
5716 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
5718 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
5720 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
5722 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
5724 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
5725 the corresponding single-line separators.
5727 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
5729 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
5730 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
5731 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
5732 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
5733 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
5734 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
5735 default foreground is black.
5737 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
5738 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
5739 `ScrollBarBackground').
5741 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
5742 settings for scroll bar colors.
5744 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
5745 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
5747 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
5748 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
5749 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
5750 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
5751 the original window start.
5753 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
5754 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
5755 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
5757 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
5759 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
5760 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
5761 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
5762 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
5764 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
5765 fixed-width and fixed-height.
5767 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
5769 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
5770 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
5771 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
5772 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
5773 temporarily to nil, for example
5775 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
5776 (enlarge-window 10))
5778 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
5779 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
5781 ** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
5782 terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
5783 to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
5784 overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
5785 horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
5786 support a vertical-bar cursor).
5790 * Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes
5792 ** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard
5795 ** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos.
5797 ** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages.
5799 ** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not
5800 only for character input, but also in incremental search. The
5801 exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets
5802 (e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence
5803 (e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search.
5805 ** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has
5809 * Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change
5811 ** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added.
5815 * Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
5817 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
5818 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
5820 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
5822 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
5824 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
5825 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
5826 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
5828 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
5829 is the one that is used.
5831 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
5832 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
5833 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
5834 separate from the command's regular output.
5835 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
5836 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
5837 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
5840 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
5841 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
5842 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
5843 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
5845 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
5846 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
5847 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
5848 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
5850 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
5851 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
5852 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
5853 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
5855 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
5856 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
5857 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
5858 they never ignore case.
5860 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
5861 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
5862 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
5863 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
5864 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
5865 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
5866 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
5868 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
5869 the same format that was used in the file before.
5871 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
5872 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
5874 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
5875 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
5876 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
5878 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
5879 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
5880 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
5881 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
5882 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
5883 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
5884 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
5886 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
5887 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
5888 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
5889 format. You can now customize these variables.
5891 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
5892 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
5893 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
5894 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
5896 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
5897 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
5898 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
5900 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
5901 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
5902 doesn't have any effect.
5904 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
5907 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
5908 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
5909 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
5911 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
5912 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
5913 `auto-show-mode' command.
5915 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
5916 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
5917 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
5918 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
5919 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
5921 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
5922 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
5924 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
5925 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
5926 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
5928 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
5929 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
5930 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
5931 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
5933 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
5935 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
5936 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
5937 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
5938 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
5939 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
5941 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
5942 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
5944 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
5945 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
5946 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
5947 `?' on other systems.
5949 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
5950 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
5953 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
5954 current codepage when it starts.
5958 *** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
5959 `mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
5960 appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
5961 non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
5962 MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
5963 headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
5967 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
5968 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
5970 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
5971 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
5972 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
5973 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
5974 buffer-file-coding-system.
5976 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
5977 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
5980 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
5981 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
5982 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
5983 list of possible coding systems.
5987 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
5988 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
5989 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
5990 docstring for details.
5992 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
5993 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
5994 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
5995 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
5996 lineup functions use this feature currently.
5998 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
5999 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
6001 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
6002 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
6004 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
6005 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
6006 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
6007 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
6010 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
6011 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
6013 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
6014 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
6015 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
6016 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
6018 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
6019 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
6020 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
6021 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
6022 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
6024 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
6026 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
6028 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
6029 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
6031 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
6033 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
6034 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
6035 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
6036 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
6037 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
6041 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
6042 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
6043 Gnus manual for the full story.
6045 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
6046 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
6047 group, which is created automatically.
6049 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
6052 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
6054 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
6055 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
6057 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
6060 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
6062 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
6063 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
6065 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
6067 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
6068 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
6070 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
6071 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
6073 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
6074 control over simplification.
6076 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
6078 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
6081 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
6083 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
6085 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
6086 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
6087 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
6089 *** Canceling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
6090 `a' forces normal posting method.
6092 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
6095 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
6098 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
6099 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
6101 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
6104 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
6106 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
6108 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
6109 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
6111 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
6112 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
6114 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
6116 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
6119 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
6120 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
6122 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
6123 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
6125 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
6127 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
6129 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
6131 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
6133 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
6134 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
6135 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
6137 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
6138 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
6139 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
6140 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
6141 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
6143 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
6144 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
6145 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
6146 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
6148 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
6149 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
6150 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
6153 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
6155 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
6156 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
6158 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
6159 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
6160 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
6161 removed from the label.
6163 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
6164 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
6166 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
6167 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
6169 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
6170 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
6173 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
6175 ** New/deleted modes and packages
6177 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
6178 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
6180 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
6181 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
6182 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
6184 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
6185 changes with a special face.
6187 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
6188 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
6189 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
6191 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
6193 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
6194 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
6195 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
6196 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
6197 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
6199 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
6200 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
6201 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
6203 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
6204 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
6205 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
6206 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
6207 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
6208 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
6209 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
6210 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
6211 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
6213 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
6214 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
6215 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
6216 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
6217 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
6220 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
6221 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
6222 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
6223 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
6224 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
6225 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
6227 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
6228 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
6229 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
6230 was not documented clearly before.
6232 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
6233 This includes Tetris and Snake.
6235 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
6237 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
6238 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
6239 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
6240 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
6242 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
6243 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
6244 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
6246 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
6248 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
6249 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
6251 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
6252 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
6255 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
6256 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
6257 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
6258 file names and attributes are returned.
6260 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
6261 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
6262 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its attributes.
6263 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
6266 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
6267 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
6269 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
6271 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
6272 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
6273 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
6276 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
6277 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
6280 The new function process-running-child-p
6281 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
6282 terminal to its own child process.
6284 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
6285 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
6286 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
6287 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
6289 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
6290 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
6292 ** easymenu.el now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
6293 :included is an alias for :visible.
6295 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
6296 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
6297 to move or copy menu entries.
6299 ** Multibyte editing changes
6301 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
6302 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
6303 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
6304 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
6305 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
6306 (setq char (sref str idx)
6307 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
6308 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
6310 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
6311 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
6312 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
6314 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
6315 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
6316 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
6318 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibited
6320 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
6321 across the boundary.
6323 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
6324 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
6325 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
6326 contains 8-bit characters.
6327 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
6328 contains invalid characters.
6330 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
6331 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
6332 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
6333 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
6336 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
6337 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
6338 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
6339 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
6341 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
6342 compose Thai characters in a string.
6344 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
6345 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
6346 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
6347 menus should always use the third argument.
6349 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
6350 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
6351 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
6352 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
6354 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
6355 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
6356 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
6357 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
6359 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
6360 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
6361 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
6364 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
6366 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
6367 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
6368 requested feature cannot be loaded.
6370 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
6371 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
6372 means to clear out that attribute.
6374 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
6375 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
6377 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
6378 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
6379 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
6380 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
6382 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
6383 the gap of the current buffer.
6385 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
6386 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
6389 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
6390 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
6391 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
6392 it back in after any modifications have been made.
6394 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
6396 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
6397 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
6398 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
6399 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
6400 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
6402 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
6403 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
6404 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
6405 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
6406 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
6408 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
6409 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
6410 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
6412 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
6413 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
6414 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
6415 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
6416 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
6419 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
6420 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
6421 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
6422 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
6424 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
6426 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
6427 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
6428 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
6429 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
6431 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
6432 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
6433 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
6434 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
6435 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
6436 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
6437 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
6440 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
6443 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
6444 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
6445 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
6446 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
6447 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
6449 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
6450 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
6451 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
6452 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
6454 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
6455 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
6456 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
6457 something that most users not do.
6459 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
6460 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
6461 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
6464 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
6467 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
6468 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
6469 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
6470 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
6473 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
6474 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
6475 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
6476 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
6477 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
6480 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
6481 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
6482 to be confused by TeX commands.
6484 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
6485 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
6486 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
6487 of various alternative replacements and actions.
6489 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
6490 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
6491 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
6492 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
6493 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
6495 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
6496 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
6498 ** Changes in input method usage.
6500 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
6501 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
6504 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
6506 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
6507 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
6509 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
6510 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
6512 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
6514 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
6516 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
6517 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
6519 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
6520 given in the following case:
6521 o When you are using a complex input method.
6522 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
6524 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
6525 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
6526 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
6527 setting it to t is helpful.
6529 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
6531 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
6533 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
6534 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
6535 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
6536 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
6539 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
6540 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
6541 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
6544 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
6546 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
6548 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
6549 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
6551 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
6552 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
6553 its owner and group.
6555 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
6556 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
6558 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
6559 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
6561 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
6562 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
6563 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
6564 by the left edge of the rectangle.
6566 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
6567 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
6568 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
6569 for writing keyboard macros.
6571 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
6572 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
6573 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
6574 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
6575 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
6578 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
6580 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
6581 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
6584 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
6585 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
6586 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
6587 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
6589 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
6590 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
6591 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
6593 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
6594 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
6595 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
6596 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
6598 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
6599 failure if the command produces no output.
6601 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
6602 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
6605 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
6606 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
6607 function and variable names.
6609 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
6610 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
6611 file-coding-system-alist.
6613 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
6614 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
6615 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
6616 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
6617 according to the current fontset.
6619 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
6621 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
6622 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
6623 nonascii-insert-offset.
6625 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
6626 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
6627 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
6628 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
6630 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
6631 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
6633 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
6634 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
6636 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
6637 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
6640 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
6641 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
6643 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
6644 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
6645 all variables that have documentation.
6647 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
6648 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
6649 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
6650 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
6651 it should show; the default is 20.
6653 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
6654 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
6657 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
6658 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
6659 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
6660 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
6661 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
6662 Newly added options are included as well.
6664 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
6665 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
6666 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
6668 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
6671 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
6672 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
6674 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
6675 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
6678 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
6679 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
6682 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
6683 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
6684 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
6685 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
6688 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
6690 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
6691 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
6692 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
6694 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
6695 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
6696 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
6701 *** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
6702 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
6704 *** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
6705 and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
6707 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
6708 read and post multi-lingual articles.
6710 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
6711 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
6712 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
6713 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
6714 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
6715 made invisible again.
6717 ** Mail reading and sending changes
6719 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
6720 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
6721 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
6724 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
6725 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
6726 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
6727 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
6728 rmail-default-body-file.
6730 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
6731 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
6732 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
6734 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
6735 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
6736 is evaluated to insert the signature.
6738 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
6739 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
6740 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
6741 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
6742 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
6743 especially interested in trying feedmail.
6745 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
6746 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
6747 provided by feedmail are:
6749 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
6750 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
6751 there is also a queue for draft messages
6753 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
6754 be prompted for confirmation
6756 **** does smart filling of address headers
6758 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
6759 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
6760 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
6762 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
6763 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
6764 /usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
6765 function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
6769 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
6770 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
6772 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
6773 run Dired on the directory name at point.
6775 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
6776 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
6777 for a specified regexp.
6781 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
6784 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
6785 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
6788 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
6789 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
6790 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
6791 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
6793 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
6794 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
6795 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
6796 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
6797 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
6799 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
6800 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
6801 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
6802 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
6803 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
6805 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
6806 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
6807 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
6808 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
6810 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
6811 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
6812 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
6814 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
6815 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
6816 session to resolve them.
6818 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
6819 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
6820 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
6823 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
6824 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
6825 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
6826 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
6827 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
6828 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
6831 ** Changes in Font Lock
6833 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
6834 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
6835 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
6836 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
6837 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
6839 ** Frame name display changes
6841 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
6842 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
6843 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
6844 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
6846 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
6847 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
6850 ** Comint (subshell) changes
6852 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
6853 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
6854 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
6856 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
6858 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
6859 that is, the line after the last line you got.
6860 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
6862 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
6863 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
6866 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
6867 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
6868 previously sent input.
6870 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
6871 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
6872 as the search string.
6874 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
6875 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
6879 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
6880 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
6881 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
6884 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
6885 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
6886 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
6887 style is still the default however.
6889 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
6891 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
6892 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
6893 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
6895 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
6896 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
6898 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
6899 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
6901 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
6902 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
6904 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
6905 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
6907 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
6908 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
6909 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
6910 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
6912 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
6914 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
6915 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
6916 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
6918 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
6919 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
6920 expanding dynamically.
6922 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
6923 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
6925 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
6926 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
6927 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
6928 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
6930 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
6932 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
6934 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
6935 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
6936 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
6937 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
6938 against the first word in the title.
6940 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
6941 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
6942 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
6943 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
6944 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
6945 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
6947 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
6948 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
6949 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
6950 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
6952 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
6954 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
6955 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
6956 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
6957 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
6958 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
6959 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
6961 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
6962 Editing group once the package is loaded.
6964 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
6965 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
6966 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behavior.
6968 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
6969 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
6973 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
6974 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
6975 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
6977 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
6978 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
6979 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
6980 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
6983 o URLs are automatically skipped
6984 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
6986 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
6988 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
6990 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
6991 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
6992 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
6993 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
6995 *** New recursive parser.
6997 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
6998 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
6999 recursive parser scans the individual files.
7001 *** Parsing only part of a document.
7003 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
7004 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
7005 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
7007 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
7009 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
7011 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
7013 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
7015 *** Using multiple selection buffers
7017 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
7018 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
7020 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
7022 *** References to external documents.
7024 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
7025 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
7026 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
7027 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
7028 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
7029 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
7030 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
7032 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
7034 The built-in command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
7035 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
7037 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
7038 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
7040 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
7042 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
7043 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
7045 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
7047 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
7048 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
7049 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
7050 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
7051 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
7052 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
7055 *** Support for the varioref package
7057 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
7061 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
7062 and citations are created. These hooks are
7063 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
7064 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
7066 *** Citations outside LaTeX
7068 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
7069 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
7071 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
7073 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
7074 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
7077 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
7079 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
7080 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
7081 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
7082 directories that contain the same file name.
7084 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
7085 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
7086 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
7087 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
7088 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
7089 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
7090 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
7093 ** New modes and packages
7095 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
7096 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
7097 it, but some do not.
7099 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
7102 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
7103 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
7106 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
7108 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
7109 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
7110 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
7111 established system of notation similar to Chess.
7113 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
7114 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
7115 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
7117 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
7118 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
7119 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
7120 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
7121 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
7124 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
7125 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
7127 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
7128 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
7129 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
7130 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
7132 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
7134 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
7135 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
7136 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
7137 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
7138 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
7139 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
7140 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
7141 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
7142 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
7143 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
7144 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
7146 Platform-specific modes:
7148 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
7149 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
7150 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
7151 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
7152 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
7153 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
7154 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
7155 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
7156 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
7158 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
7160 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
7161 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
7162 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
7163 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
7165 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
7166 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
7167 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
7169 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
7170 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
7171 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
7172 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
7174 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
7175 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
7176 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
7179 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
7180 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
7181 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
7182 current input method for reading this one event.
7184 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
7185 now control whether to output certain characters as
7186 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
7187 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
7188 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
7189 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
7191 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
7193 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
7194 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
7196 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
7197 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
7198 always increases point by 1.
7200 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
7201 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
7203 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
7205 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
7206 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
7207 default value changed. For example,
7209 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
7214 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
7217 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
7218 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
7219 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
7220 `:version' in the top level group.
7222 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
7224 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
7225 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
7227 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
7228 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
7229 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
7232 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
7233 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
7236 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
7237 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
7238 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
7240 ** Frame-local variables.
7242 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
7243 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
7244 local bindings for that variable.
7246 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
7247 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
7248 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
7251 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
7252 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
7253 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
7254 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
7256 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
7257 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
7258 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
7259 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
7261 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
7262 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
7263 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
7264 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
7265 See the documentation in sregex.el.
7267 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
7268 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
7269 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
7270 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
7272 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
7273 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
7275 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
7276 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
7277 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
7279 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
7280 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
7281 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
7282 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
7284 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
7285 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
7288 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
7289 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
7290 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
7291 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
7292 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
7294 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
7295 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
7296 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
7297 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
7299 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
7300 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
7301 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
7302 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
7303 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
7305 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
7306 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
7307 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
7308 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
7310 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
7311 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
7312 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
7314 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
7315 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
7316 was directed to display this buffer.
7318 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
7319 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
7320 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
7321 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
7322 set-window-configuration.
7324 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
7325 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
7326 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
7327 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
7329 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
7330 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
7331 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
7333 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
7334 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
7335 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
7337 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
7338 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
7340 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
7341 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
7343 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
7344 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
7345 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
7347 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
7348 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
7349 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
7350 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
7354 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
7355 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
7358 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
7359 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
7360 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
7361 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
7362 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
7364 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
7366 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
7367 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
7368 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
7369 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
7372 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
7373 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
7374 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
7375 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
7376 The supported properties include
7378 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
7380 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
7381 item should appear in the menu.
7383 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
7384 which will be REAL-BINDING.
7385 It should return a binding to use instead.
7387 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
7388 binding for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
7389 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
7390 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
7391 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
7394 This means that the command normally has no
7395 keyboard equivalent.
7396 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
7397 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
7398 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
7399 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
7400 value says whether this button is currently selected.
7402 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
7403 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
7405 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
7409 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
7410 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
7411 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
7412 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
7414 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
7416 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
7417 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
7418 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
7419 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
7420 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
7421 forward, away from the user.
7423 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
7425 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
7426 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
7427 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
7428 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
7429 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
7431 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
7433 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
7434 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
7435 that were dragged and dropped.
7437 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
7439 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
7441 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
7442 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
7443 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
7445 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
7446 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
7447 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
7449 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
7450 in Emacs 19 and before.
7452 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
7453 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
7455 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
7456 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
7457 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
7458 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
7460 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
7461 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
7462 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
7463 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
7464 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
7466 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
7467 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
7468 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
7469 consistent with the new representation.
7471 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
7472 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
7473 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
7474 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
7476 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
7477 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
7478 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
7480 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
7481 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
7482 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
7484 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
7485 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
7486 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
7488 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
7489 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
7491 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
7492 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
7494 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
7495 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
7496 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
7497 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
7499 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
7500 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
7502 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
7503 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
7504 buffer or string being searched.
7506 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
7507 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
7508 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
7509 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
7510 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
7511 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
7512 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
7514 *** Structure of coding system changed.
7516 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
7517 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
7518 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
7519 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
7520 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
7521 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
7522 define-coding-system-alias.
7524 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
7525 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
7526 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
7527 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
7528 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
7529 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
7530 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
7533 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
7534 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
7535 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
7536 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
7538 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
7539 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
7540 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
7541 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
7543 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
7544 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
7545 This function requires a user interaction.
7547 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
7548 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
7549 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
7550 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
7551 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
7552 select-safe-coding-system.
7554 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
7555 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
7556 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
7559 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
7560 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
7561 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
7563 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
7564 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
7565 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
7566 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
7568 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
7569 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
7570 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
7573 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
7574 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
7576 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
7577 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
7578 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
7579 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
7580 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
7581 range of characters.
7583 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
7584 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
7586 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
7587 in the current buffer at position POS.
7589 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
7590 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
7591 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
7592 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
7593 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
7594 binding input-method-function to nil.
7596 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
7597 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
7598 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
7599 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
7600 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
7602 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
7603 subsequent events of a key sequence.
7605 *** You can customize any language environment by using
7606 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
7608 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
7609 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
7610 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
7611 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
7612 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
7614 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
7616 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
7617 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
7618 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
7621 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
7622 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
7624 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
7625 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
7626 in your .emacs file.)
7628 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
7629 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
7631 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
7632 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
7634 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
7635 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
7638 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
7639 delete the character before point, as usual.
7641 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
7642 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
7643 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
7645 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
7646 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
7647 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
7648 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
7649 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
7652 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
7653 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
7654 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
7655 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
7656 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
7658 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
7659 and is an alias for it.
7661 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
7662 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
7664 ** Scrolling changes
7666 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
7667 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
7669 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
7670 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
7673 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
7674 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
7675 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
7676 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
7678 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
7679 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
7680 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
7681 recenters the window.
7683 ** International character set support (MULE)
7685 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
7686 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
7687 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
7688 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
7689 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
7690 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
7692 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
7693 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
7694 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
7695 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
7696 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
7698 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
7699 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
7700 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
7701 language, to make it possible to type them.
7703 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
7704 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
7706 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
7707 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
7709 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
7711 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
7713 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
7714 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
7715 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
7716 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
7717 characters for their work until they want to change.
7721 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
7722 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
7723 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
7724 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
7725 support several input methods.
7727 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
7728 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
7731 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
7732 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
7733 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
7734 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
7735 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
7738 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
7739 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
7740 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
7741 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
7742 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
7744 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
7745 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
7746 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
7747 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
7749 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
7750 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
7751 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
7752 the first guess is wrong.
7754 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
7755 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
7757 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
7758 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
7759 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
7760 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
7762 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
7763 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
7764 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
7765 translate automatically to and from either one.
7767 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
7769 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
7770 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
7771 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
7774 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
7775 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
7776 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
7777 multibyte characters in that buffer.
7779 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
7780 character conversion as well.
7782 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
7784 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
7785 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
7786 requires using many fonts.
7788 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
7789 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
7791 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
7792 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
7793 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
7794 you would use a font.
7796 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
7797 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
7798 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
7800 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
7801 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
7804 *** Defining fontsets.
7806 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
7807 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
7808 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
7810 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
7811 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
7812 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
7813 standard fontset are created automatically.
7815 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
7816 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
7817 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
7818 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
7819 name is `fontset-startup'.
7821 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
7822 The resource value should have this form:
7823 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
7824 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
7825 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
7826 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
7827 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
7828 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
7829 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
7830 CHARSET-NAME should be the name of a character set, and FONT-NAME
7831 should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
7833 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
7834 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
7835 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
7837 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
7838 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
7840 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
7841 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
7842 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
7843 Here is the substitution rule:
7844 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
7845 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
7846 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
7847 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
7848 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
7850 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
7851 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
7852 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
7854 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
7855 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
7856 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
7857 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
7860 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
7861 defaults for a particular choice of language.
7863 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
7864 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
7865 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
7866 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
7867 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
7868 system for new files that you create.
7870 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
7871 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
7872 whole Emacs session.
7874 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
7875 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
7876 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
7878 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
7879 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
7880 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
7881 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
7882 coding systems that Emacs supports.
7884 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
7885 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
7886 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
7887 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
7888 is used for *the immediately following command*.
7890 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
7891 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
7893 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
7894 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
7896 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
7897 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
7899 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
7900 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
7901 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
7902 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
7905 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
7906 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
7907 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
7908 translated into that character code.
7910 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
7911 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
7913 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
7915 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
7916 the coding system for keyboard input.
7918 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
7919 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
7920 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
7922 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
7924 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
7925 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
7926 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
7927 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
7928 designed to work with terminals.
7930 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
7931 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
7932 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
7933 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
7934 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
7935 in the corresponding buffer.
7937 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
7939 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
7940 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
7941 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
7943 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
7944 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
7945 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
7948 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
7949 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
7951 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
7952 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
7953 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
7954 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
7956 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
7957 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
7958 related information.
7960 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
7961 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
7964 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
7965 information about the support for a particular language.
7966 You specify the language as an argument.
7968 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
7969 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
7972 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
7973 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
7974 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
7975 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
7977 A alternativnyj (Russian)
7979 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
7980 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
7981 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
7982 E euc-japan (Japanese)
7983 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
7984 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
7985 K euc-korea (Korean)
7988 S shift_jis (Japanese)
7991 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
7992 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
7993 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
7997 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
7998 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
7999 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
8000 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
8002 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
8003 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
8005 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
8006 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
8007 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
8008 Rmail files themselves.
8010 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
8011 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
8013 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
8016 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
8017 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
8018 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
8019 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
8020 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
8022 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
8023 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
8024 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
8027 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
8028 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
8029 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
8030 without any conversion.
8032 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
8033 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
8034 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
8035 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
8037 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
8038 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
8040 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
8041 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
8043 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
8044 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
8046 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
8047 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
8048 in the buffer before point.
8050 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
8051 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
8054 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
8055 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
8057 ** File locking works with NFS now.
8059 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
8060 in the same directory as FILENAME.
8062 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
8063 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
8064 can become a bottleneck.
8066 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
8067 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
8068 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
8069 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
8070 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
8071 so useful that the change is worth while.
8073 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
8074 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
8075 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
8076 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
8078 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
8079 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
8082 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
8083 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
8084 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
8086 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
8087 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
8088 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
8090 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
8091 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
8092 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
8094 ** Changes in View mode.
8096 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
8097 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
8099 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
8100 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
8102 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
8105 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
8106 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
8108 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
8109 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
8110 not just the selected window.
8112 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
8113 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
8114 turns View mode on or off.
8116 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
8117 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
8118 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
8120 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
8121 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
8123 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
8124 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
8125 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
8126 which version to compare with.
8128 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
8129 blocks if a match is inside the block.
8131 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
8132 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
8133 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
8134 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
8136 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
8137 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
8138 blocks, all of them or none.
8140 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
8141 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
8144 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
8145 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
8146 However, the mode will not be changed if
8147 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
8148 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
8149 not suitable for ordinary files, or
8150 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
8152 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
8154 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
8155 these commands do not change the major mode.
8157 ** M-x occur changes.
8159 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
8160 it performs a case-sensitive search.
8162 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
8163 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
8164 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
8166 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
8167 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
8168 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
8169 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
8170 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
8172 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
8173 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
8174 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
8175 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
8177 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
8178 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
8179 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
8181 ** Outline mode changes.
8183 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
8185 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
8187 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
8188 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
8189 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
8192 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
8193 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
8196 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
8197 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
8199 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
8201 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
8202 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
8203 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
8204 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
8206 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
8207 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
8208 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
8210 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
8211 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
8214 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
8215 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
8216 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
8217 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
8219 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
8220 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
8221 can be. The default value is 30.
8223 ** Changes in Mail mode.
8225 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
8226 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
8227 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
8228 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
8229 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
8232 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
8233 compose-mail-other-frame.
8235 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
8236 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
8237 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
8238 buffer that shows the original message.
8240 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
8241 with separator lines around the contents.
8243 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
8244 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
8245 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
8246 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
8248 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
8250 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
8251 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
8252 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
8253 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
8255 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
8256 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
8259 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
8260 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
8263 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
8264 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
8265 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
8266 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
8268 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
8269 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
8270 be taken to be magic.
8272 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
8273 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
8274 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
8276 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
8277 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
8279 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
8280 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
8282 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
8284 new key dired.el binding old key
8285 ------- ---------------- -------
8286 * c dired-change-marks c
8288 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
8289 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
8290 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
8292 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
8293 * ? dired-unmark-all-files C-M-?
8294 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
8295 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
8296 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
8297 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
8301 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
8302 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
8303 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
8304 each time you run it.
8306 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
8307 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
8309 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
8310 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
8311 means to move in the opposite direction.
8313 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
8314 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
8316 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
8317 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
8318 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
8319 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
8324 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
8326 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
8329 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
8330 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
8332 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
8335 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
8337 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
8339 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
8341 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
8342 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
8343 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
8345 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
8347 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
8349 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
8350 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
8352 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
8353 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
8354 used to pick articles.
8356 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
8357 another have been added.
8359 `M-x gnus-change-server'
8361 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
8362 generating lines in buffers.
8364 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
8367 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
8369 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
8371 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
8373 *** Scores can be decayed.
8375 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
8377 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
8378 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
8380 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
8383 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
8385 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
8386 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `C-M-d'.
8388 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
8390 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
8391 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
8393 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
8394 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
8396 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
8399 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
8400 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
8402 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
8404 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
8406 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
8408 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
8410 Use the `Y c' command.
8412 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
8414 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
8416 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
8418 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
8419 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
8421 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
8423 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
8425 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
8426 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
8428 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
8430 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
8431 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
8432 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
8433 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
8436 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
8437 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
8438 particular news group. This can be done by:
8440 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
8442 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
8443 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
8444 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
8445 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
8446 for reading and posting).
8448 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
8449 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
8450 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
8451 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
8454 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
8455 default. Here are some of these default settings:
8457 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
8458 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
8459 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
8460 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
8461 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
8463 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
8464 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
8468 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
8469 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
8470 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
8471 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
8472 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
8475 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
8476 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
8477 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
8478 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
8479 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
8480 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
8482 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
8483 of the current buffer.
8485 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
8486 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
8487 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
8489 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
8490 style that the Python developers like.
8492 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
8493 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
8494 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
8498 *** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
8499 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
8500 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
8502 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
8503 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
8506 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
8507 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
8509 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
8510 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
8511 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
8512 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
8514 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
8515 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
8517 ** Calendar changes.
8519 *** A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or
8520 subclasses of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow
8521 you do this for the year of the selected date, or the
8522 following/previous years.
8524 *** There is now support for the Baha'i calendar system. Use `pb' in
8525 the *Calendar* buffer to display the current Baha'i date. The Baha'i
8526 calendar, or "Badi calendar" is a system of 19 months with 19 days
8527 each, and 4 intercalary days (5 during a Gregorian leap year). The
8528 calendar begins May 23, 1844, with each of the months named after a
8529 supposed attribute of God.
8533 There are some new user variables and subgroups for customizing the page
8536 *** Headers & Footers (subgroup)
8538 Some printer systems print a header page and force the first page to
8539 be printed on the back of the header page when using duplex. If your
8540 printer system has this behavior, set variable
8541 `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' to t.
8543 If variable `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' is non-nil, it prints a
8544 blank page as the very first printed page. So, it behaves as if the
8545 very first character of buffer (or region) were a form feed ^L (\014).
8547 The variable `ps-spool-config' specifies who is responsible for
8548 setting duplex mode and page size. Valid values are:
8550 lpr-switches duplex and page size are configured by `ps-lpr-switches'.
8551 Don't forget to set `ps-lpr-switches' to select duplex
8552 printing for your printer.
8554 setpagedevice duplex and page size are configured by ps-print using the
8555 setpagedevice PostScript operator.
8557 nil duplex and page size are configured by ps-print *not* using
8558 the setpagedevice PostScript operator.
8560 The variable `ps-spool-tumble' specifies how the page images on
8561 opposite sides of a sheet are oriented with respect to each other. If
8562 `ps-spool-tumble' is nil, ps-print produces output suitable for
8563 bindings on the left or right. If `ps-spool-tumble' is non-nil,
8564 ps-print produces output suitable for bindings at the top or bottom.
8565 This variable takes effect only if `ps-spool-duplex' is non-nil.
8566 The default value is nil.
8568 The variable `ps-header-frame-alist' specifies a header frame
8569 properties alist. Valid frame properties are:
8571 fore-color Specify the foreground frame color.
8572 Value should be a float number between 0.0 (black
8573 color) and 1.0 (white color), or a string which is a
8574 color name, or a list of 3 float numbers which
8575 correspond to the Red Green Blue color scale, each
8576 float number between 0.0 (dark color) and 1.0 (bright
8577 color). The default is 0 ("black").
8579 back-color Specify the background frame color (similar to fore-color).
8580 The default is 0.9 ("gray90").
8582 shadow-color Specify the shadow color (similar to fore-color).
8583 The default is 0 ("black").
8585 border-color Specify the border color (similar to fore-color).
8586 The default is 0 ("black").
8588 border-width Specify the border width.
8591 Any other property is ignored.
8593 Don't change this alist directly; instead use Custom, or the
8594 `ps-value', `ps-get', `ps-put' and `ps-del' functions (see there for
8597 Ps-print can also print footers. The footer variables are:
8598 `ps-print-footer', `ps-footer-offset', `ps-print-footer-frame',
8599 `ps-footer-font-family', `ps-footer-font-size', `ps-footer-line-pad',
8600 `ps-footer-lines', `ps-left-footer', `ps-right-footer' and
8601 `ps-footer-frame-alist'. These variables are similar to those
8602 controlling headers.
8604 *** Color management (subgroup)
8606 If `ps-print-color-p' is non-nil, the buffer's text will be printed in
8609 *** Face Management (subgroup)
8611 If you need to print without worrying about face background colors,
8612 set the variable `ps-use-face-background' which specifies if face
8613 background should be used. Valid values are:
8615 t always use face background color.
8616 nil never use face background color.
8617 (face...) list of faces whose background color will be used.
8619 *** N-up printing (subgroup)
8621 The variable `ps-n-up-printing' specifies the number of pages per
8624 The variable `ps-n-up-margin' specifies the margin in points (pt)
8625 between the sheet border and the n-up printing.
8627 If variable `ps-n-up-border-p' is non-nil, a border is drawn around
8630 The variable `ps-n-up-filling' specifies how the page matrix is filled
8631 on each sheet of paper. Following are the valid values for
8632 `ps-n-up-filling' with a filling example using a 3x4 page matrix:
8634 `left-top' 1 2 3 4 `left-bottom' 9 10 11 12
8638 `right-top' 4 3 2 1 `right-bottom' 12 11 10 9
8642 `top-left' 1 4 7 10 `bottom-left' 3 6 9 12
8646 `top-right' 10 7 4 1 `bottom-right' 12 9 6 3
8650 Any other value is treated as `left-top'.
8652 *** Zebra stripes (subgroup)
8654 The variable `ps-zebra-color' controls the zebra stripes grayscale or
8657 The variable `ps-zebra-stripe-follow' specifies how zebra stripes
8658 continue on next page. Visually, valid values are (the character `+'
8659 to the right of each column indicates that a line is printed):
8661 `nil' `follow' `full' `full-follow'
8662 Current Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
8663 1 XXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXX + 1 XXXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8664 2 XXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXX + 2 XXXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8665 3 XXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXX + 3 XXXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8669 7 XXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXX + 7 XXXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8670 8 XXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXX + 8 XXXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8671 9 XXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXX + 9 XXXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8674 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
8675 Next Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
8676 12 XXXXX + 12 + 10 XXXXXX + 10 +
8677 13 XXXXX + 13 XXXXXXXX + 11 XXXXXX + 11 +
8678 14 XXXXX + 14 XXXXXXXX + 12 XXXXXX + 12 +
8679 15 + 15 XXXXXXXX + 13 + 13 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8680 16 + 16 + 14 + 14 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8681 17 + 17 + 15 + 15 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8682 18 XXXXX + 18 + 16 XXXXXX + 16 +
8683 19 XXXXX + 19 XXXXXXXX + 17 XXXXXX + 17 +
8684 20 XXXXX + 20 XXXXXXXX + 18 XXXXXX + 18 +
8687 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
8689 Any other value is treated as `nil'.
8692 *** Printer management (subgroup)
8694 The variable `ps-printer-name-option' determines the option used by
8695 some utilities to indicate the printer name; it's used only when
8696 `ps-printer-name' is a non-empty string. If you're using the lpr
8697 utility to print, for example, `ps-printer-name-option' should be set
8700 The variable `ps-manual-feed' indicates if the printer requires manual
8701 paper feeding. If it's nil, automatic feeding takes place. If it's
8702 non-nil, manual feeding takes place.
8704 The variable `ps-end-with-control-d' specifies whether C-d (\x04)
8705 should be inserted at end of the generated PostScript. Non-nil means
8708 *** Page settings (subgroup)
8710 If variable `ps-warn-paper-type' is nil, it's *not* treated as an
8711 error if the PostScript printer doesn't have a paper with the size
8712 indicated by `ps-paper-type'; the default paper size will be used
8713 instead. If `ps-warn-paper-type' is non-nil, an error is signaled if
8714 the PostScript printer doesn't support a paper with the size indicated
8715 by `ps-paper-type'. This is used when `ps-spool-config' is set to
8718 The variable `ps-print-upside-down' determines the orientation for
8719 printing pages: nil means `normal' printing, non-nil means
8720 `upside-down' printing (that is, the page is rotated by 180 degrees).
8722 The variable `ps-selected-pages' specifies which pages to print. If
8723 it's nil, all pages are printed. If it's a list, list elements may be
8724 integers specifying a single page to print, or cons cells (FROM . TO)
8725 specifying to print from page FROM to TO. Invalid list elements, that
8726 is integers smaller than one, or elements whose FROM is greater than
8727 its TO, are ignored.
8729 The variable `ps-even-or-odd-pages' specifies how to print even/odd
8730 pages. Valid values are:
8732 nil print all pages.
8734 `even-page' print only even pages.
8736 `odd-page' print only odd pages.
8738 `even-sheet' print only even sheets.
8739 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
8740 `even-page', but for values greater than 1, it'll
8741 print only the even sheet of paper.
8743 `odd-sheet' print only odd sheets.
8744 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
8745 `odd-page'; but for values greater than 1, it'll print
8746 only the odd sheet of paper.
8748 Any other value is treated as nil.
8750 If you set `ps-selected-pages' (see there for documentation), pages
8751 are filtered by `ps-selected-pages', and then by
8752 `ps-even-or-odd-pages'. For example, if we have:
8754 (setq ps-selected-pages '(1 4 (6 . 10) (12 . 16) 20))
8756 and we combine this with `ps-even-or-odd-pages' and
8757 `ps-n-up-printing', we get:
8759 `ps-n-up-printing' = 1:
8760 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
8761 nil 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20
8762 even-page 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
8763 odd-page 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
8764 even-sheet 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
8765 odd-sheet 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
8767 `ps-n-up-printing' = 2:
8768 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
8769 nil 1/4, 6/7, 8/9, 10/12, 13/14, 15/16, 20
8770 even-page 4/6, 8/10, 12/14, 16/20
8771 odd-page 1/7, 9/13, 15
8772 even-sheet 6/7, 10/12, 15/16
8773 odd-sheet 1/4, 8/9, 13/14, 20
8775 *** Miscellany (subgroup)
8777 The variable `ps-error-handler-message' specifies where error handler
8778 messages should be sent.
8780 It is also possible to add a user-defined PostScript prologue code in
8781 front of all generated prologue code by setting the variable
8782 `ps-user-defined-prologue'.
8784 The variable `ps-line-number-font' specifies the font for line numbers.
8786 The variable `ps-line-number-font-size' specifies the font size in
8787 points for line numbers.
8789 The variable `ps-line-number-color' specifies the color for line
8790 numbers. See `ps-zebra-color' for documentation.
8792 The variable `ps-line-number-step' specifies the interval in which
8793 line numbers are printed. For example, if `ps-line-number-step' is set
8794 to 2, the printing will look like:
8806 integer an integer specifying the interval in which line numbers are
8807 printed. If it's smaller than or equal to zero, 1
8810 `zebra' specifies that only the line number of the first line in a
8811 zebra stripe is to be printed.
8813 Any other value is treated as `zebra'.
8815 The variable `ps-line-number-start' specifies the starting point in
8816 the interval given by `ps-line-number-step'. For example, if
8817 `ps-line-number-step' is set to 3, and `ps-line-number-start' is set to
8818 3, the output will look like:
8832 The variable `ps-postscript-code-directory' specifies the directory
8833 where the PostScript prologue file used by ps-print is found.
8835 The variable `ps-line-spacing' determines the line spacing in points,
8836 for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
8839 The variable `ps-paragraph-spacing' determines the paragraph spacing,
8840 in points, for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
8843 The variable `ps-paragraph-regexp' specifies the paragraph delimiter.
8845 The variable `ps-begin-cut-regexp' and `ps-end-cut-regexp' specify the
8846 start and end of a region to cut out when printing.
8848 ** hideshow changes.
8850 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
8853 *** Support for java-mode added.
8855 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
8856 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
8858 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the comments at
8859 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
8860 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
8862 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
8863 robust and a lot faster.
8865 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
8867 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
8868 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
8869 documentation for more details.
8871 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
8873 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
8874 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
8875 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
8876 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
8877 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
8879 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
8880 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
8881 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
8882 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
8888 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
8889 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
8890 faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
8891 group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
8892 your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
8893 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
8895 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
8897 *** Maximum decoration
8899 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
8900 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
8901 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
8902 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
8903 to get the old behavior.
8907 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
8909 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
8910 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
8912 *** Configurable support
8914 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
8915 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
8916 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
8917 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
8918 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
8919 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
8920 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
8922 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
8923 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
8924 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
8926 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
8928 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
8929 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
8932 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
8934 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
8940 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
8941 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
8942 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
8943 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
8945 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
8947 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
8948 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
8949 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
8951 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
8953 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
8954 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
8955 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
8956 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
8957 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
8958 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
8959 Lock mode behaviour and the behaviour of Font Lock mode.
8961 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
8962 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
8963 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
8964 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
8965 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
8966 the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
8968 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
8970 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
8971 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
8972 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
8973 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
8975 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
8978 ** Ada mode changes.
8980 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
8981 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
8982 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
8983 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
8986 *** There are two new commands:
8987 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
8988 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
8990 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
8991 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
8992 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
8994 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
8995 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
8996 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
8998 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
8999 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
9000 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
9001 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
9003 ** Scheme mode changes.
9005 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
9006 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
9007 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
9008 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
9011 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
9012 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
9013 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
9014 variables as buffer-local variables.
9016 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
9019 ** Changes to the emacsclient program
9021 *** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
9022 USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
9023 associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
9024 can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
9026 *** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
9027 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
9030 *** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
9031 use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
9032 ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
9033 option takes precedence.
9035 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
9036 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
9037 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
9039 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
9040 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
9043 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
9044 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
9046 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
9047 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
9050 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
9051 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
9052 these register values no longer become completely useless.
9053 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
9054 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
9055 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
9057 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
9058 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
9059 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
9060 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
9062 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
9063 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
9064 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
9065 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
9066 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
9068 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
9069 since it applies only to the current frame.
9071 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
9072 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
9073 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
9075 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
9076 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
9077 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
9078 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
9079 instead of just the file you are editing.
9083 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
9084 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
9085 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
9086 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
9087 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
9090 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
9091 knows which kind of label is needed.
9093 C-c ) reftex-reference
9094 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
9095 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
9097 C-c [ reftex-citation
9098 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
9099 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
9101 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
9102 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
9105 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
9106 can quickly jump to every section.
9108 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
9109 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
9110 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
9111 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
9112 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
9114 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
9116 *** Info documentation is now available.
9118 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
9119 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
9121 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
9122 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
9124 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
9125 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
9127 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
9128 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
9129 appropriate functions.
9131 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
9132 entries. They are bound by default to C-M-l and C-M-h.
9134 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
9137 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
9138 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
9140 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
9143 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
9144 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
9145 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
9147 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
9148 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
9149 prefixed with `ALT'.
9151 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
9152 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
9153 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
9156 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
9157 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
9158 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
9160 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
9161 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
9163 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
9164 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
9165 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
9167 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
9169 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
9171 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
9174 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
9175 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
9178 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
9181 *** Added support for imenu.
9183 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
9184 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
9185 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
9186 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
9188 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
9189 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
9191 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
9193 ** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
9195 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
9196 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
9197 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
9200 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
9201 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
9203 ** browse-url changes
9205 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
9206 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
9207 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
9208 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
9209 customization variables.
9211 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
9213 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
9214 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
9215 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
9219 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
9220 pops up the Info file for this command.
9222 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
9223 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
9224 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
9227 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
9228 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
9229 files in the same directory.
9231 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
9232 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
9233 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
9237 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
9238 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
9240 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
9241 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
9242 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
9243 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
9244 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
9245 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
9246 color when Viper is in insert state.
9247 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
9248 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
9249 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
9253 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
9254 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
9255 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
9256 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
9257 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
9259 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
9261 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
9262 constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
9264 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
9265 recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
9266 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
9268 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
9269 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
9270 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
9271 methods and protocols.
9273 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
9274 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
9275 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
9278 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
9279 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
9280 at least M times and as many as N times.
9282 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
9283 in files has changed slightly.
9285 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
9286 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
9287 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
9288 with old time-stamp-format values.
9290 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
9291 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
9292 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
9295 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
9296 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
9297 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
9298 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
9299 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
9300 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
9302 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
9303 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
9304 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
9306 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
9307 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
9308 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
9309 recommended now will continue to work then.
9311 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
9314 ** There are some additional major modes:
9316 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
9317 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
9318 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
9320 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
9321 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
9324 ** New Lisp packages include:
9326 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
9328 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
9329 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
9331 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
9333 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
9336 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
9337 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
9340 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
9341 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
9342 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
9343 strings or comments.
9345 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
9346 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
9347 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
9348 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
9351 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
9352 can visit them by short forms of their names.
9354 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
9355 Emacs Lisp function at point.
9357 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
9359 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
9360 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
9362 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
9364 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
9366 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
9368 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
9369 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
9371 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
9372 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
9373 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
9374 original place after inserting the copy.
9376 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
9379 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
9380 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
9381 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
9383 Enable mouse-drag with:
9384 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
9386 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
9388 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
9389 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
9391 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
9392 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
9396 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
9397 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
9398 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
9399 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
9400 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
9401 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
9402 instance) and vice versa.
9404 To use this package load it using
9405 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
9406 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
9407 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
9408 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
9409 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
9410 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
9412 *** Interface to ph.
9414 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
9416 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
9417 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
9420 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
9422 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
9423 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
9424 while the real cursor does not move.
9426 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
9427 for visiting your favorite web sites.
9429 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
9430 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
9434 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
9435 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
9436 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
9437 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
9439 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
9441 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
9443 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
9445 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
9446 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
9447 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
9448 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
9449 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
9451 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
9452 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
9453 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
9454 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
9455 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
9456 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
9458 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
9460 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
9461 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
9462 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
9463 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
9465 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
9466 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
9468 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
9469 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
9472 ** Basic Lisp changes
9474 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
9475 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
9477 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
9478 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
9481 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
9483 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
9485 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
9486 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
9488 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
9489 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
9492 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
9494 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
9496 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
9498 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
9499 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
9500 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
9503 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
9504 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
9505 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
9507 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
9508 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
9509 adding one of these suffixes.
9511 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
9512 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
9513 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
9515 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
9516 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
9518 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
9520 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
9521 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
9523 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
9524 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
9526 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
9528 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
9529 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
9531 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
9532 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
9533 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
9534 works using `save-current-buffer'.
9536 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
9537 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
9540 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
9541 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
9542 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
9545 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
9546 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
9549 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
9551 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
9552 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
9553 Then it returns that string.
9555 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
9557 (with-output-to-string
9558 (princ "The buffer is ")
9559 (princ (buffer-name)))
9561 returns "The buffer is foo".
9563 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
9566 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
9567 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
9568 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
9570 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
9571 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
9573 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
9574 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
9575 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
9576 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
9577 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
9578 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
9580 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
9581 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
9582 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
9585 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
9586 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
9587 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
9588 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
9589 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
9591 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
9592 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
9593 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
9594 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
9596 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
9597 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
9599 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
9601 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
9602 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
9603 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
9604 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
9607 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
9608 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
9611 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
9613 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
9614 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
9615 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
9616 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
9617 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
9619 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
9621 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
9622 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
9623 more than the number of characters.
9625 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
9626 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
9627 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
9628 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
9629 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
9630 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
9632 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
9633 and returns a string containing those characters.
9635 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
9636 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
9637 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
9638 character, sref signals an error.
9640 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
9641 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
9642 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
9644 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
9645 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
9646 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
9648 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
9649 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
9650 to a vector of the characters in it.
9652 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
9653 of a string. You call it as follows:
9655 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
9657 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
9658 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
9659 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
9660 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
9661 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
9663 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
9664 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
9666 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
9667 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
9669 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
9670 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
9671 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
9672 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
9674 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
9676 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
9678 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
9679 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
9680 are not included in the resulting value.
9682 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
9683 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
9684 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
9685 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
9687 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
9688 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
9689 character extends across that column), then the padding character
9690 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
9691 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
9692 column START-COLUMN.
9694 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
9695 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
9696 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
9697 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
9698 changed text, before the change.
9700 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
9701 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
9702 one character set for each script, not for each language.
9704 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
9706 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
9708 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
9709 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
9711 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
9712 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
9713 which identify the character within that character set.
9715 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
9716 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
9717 opposite of split-char.
9719 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
9720 of all the characters between BEG and END.
9722 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
9723 of all the characters in a string.
9725 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
9726 and specifying coding systems.
9728 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
9729 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
9730 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
9731 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
9732 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
9733 as what to do about code conversion.)
9735 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
9736 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
9738 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
9739 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
9740 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
9742 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
9743 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
9744 to match against a file name.
9746 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
9747 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
9748 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
9749 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
9750 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
9751 specifies the coding system for encoding.
9753 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
9754 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
9756 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
9757 the coding system to use for network sockets.
9759 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
9760 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
9761 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
9764 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
9765 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
9766 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
9767 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
9768 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
9769 specifies the coding system for encoding.
9771 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
9772 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
9774 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
9775 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
9776 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
9777 start the subprocess.
9779 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
9780 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
9781 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
9782 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
9783 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
9785 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
9786 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
9789 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
9790 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
9791 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
9792 connection permanently or until overridden.
9794 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
9795 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
9796 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
9797 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
9798 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
9799 system for one operation at a time.
9801 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
9802 files, subprocesses or network connections.
9804 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
9805 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
9806 The value is a cons cell,
9807 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
9808 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
9809 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
9810 input to the subprocess.
9812 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
9813 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
9815 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
9816 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
9817 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
9819 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
9820 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
9821 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
9822 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
9825 Thus, instead of writing
9827 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
9828 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
9830 you would now write this:
9832 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
9833 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
9837 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
9838 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
9839 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
9840 for a description of them.
9842 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
9843 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
9845 (defgroup ispell nil
9846 "Spell checking using Ispell."
9849 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
9850 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
9851 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
9852 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
9853 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
9855 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
9856 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
9857 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
9858 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
9859 first-level subgroups.
9861 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
9863 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
9864 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
9868 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
9869 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
9870 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
9871 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
9872 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
9873 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
9875 ** Text property changes
9877 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
9880 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
9881 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
9882 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
9883 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
9884 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
9886 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
9887 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
9888 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
9889 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
9891 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
9892 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
9893 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
9895 ** Changes in invisibility features
9897 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
9898 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
9899 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
9900 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
9901 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
9902 make the overlay visible.
9904 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
9905 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
9906 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
9907 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
9908 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
9909 t when it should hide it.
9911 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
9913 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
9914 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
9915 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
9916 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
9917 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
9918 Here is an example of how to do this:
9920 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
9921 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
9922 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
9923 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
9926 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
9929 ;; When done with the overlays:
9930 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
9932 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
9934 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
9936 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
9937 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
9938 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
9939 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
9941 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
9942 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
9943 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
9945 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
9946 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
9948 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
9949 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
9951 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
9952 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
9953 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
9955 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
9956 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
9957 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
9958 determine the syntax type of the character.
9960 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
9961 of the current buffer.
9963 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
9964 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
9965 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
9967 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
9968 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
9969 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
9970 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
9971 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
9973 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
9976 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
9977 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
9978 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
9980 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
9981 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
9982 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
9983 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
9984 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
9986 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
9987 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
9988 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
9990 ** Changes in face features
9992 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
9993 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
9995 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
9996 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
9998 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
9999 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
10001 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
10002 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
10004 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
10005 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
10006 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
10007 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
10010 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
10011 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
10013 ** Changes in file-handling functions
10015 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
10016 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
10017 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
10018 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
10020 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
10023 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
10024 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
10026 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
10027 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
10029 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
10030 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
10032 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
10033 character code conversion as well as other things.
10035 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
10036 (formerly it did not).
10038 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
10039 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
10041 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
10042 instead of constant strings.
10044 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
10045 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
10046 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
10048 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
10049 in the same way as before.
10051 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
10052 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
10053 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
10055 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
10056 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
10057 else, and returns nil.
10059 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
10060 directory cannot be listed.
10062 ** Changes in minibuffer input
10064 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
10065 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
10066 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
10067 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
10070 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
10071 It is available through the history command M-n.
10073 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
10074 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
10075 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
10076 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
10077 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
10079 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
10080 argument in this way.
10082 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
10083 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
10084 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
10086 ** Echo area features
10088 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
10089 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
10090 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
10091 after the echo area is cleared.
10093 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
10094 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
10096 ** Keyboard input features
10098 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
10099 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
10101 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
10102 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
10103 by keyboard macros.
10105 ** Frame-related changes
10107 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
10108 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
10109 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
10111 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
10112 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
10113 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
10115 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
10116 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
10117 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
10118 in the selected frame.
10120 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
10121 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
10122 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
10124 ** X Windows features
10126 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
10127 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
10128 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
10130 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
10131 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
10133 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
10134 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
10135 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
10137 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
10138 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
10140 ** Subprocess features
10142 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
10143 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
10146 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
10147 and returns the output from the command as a string.
10149 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
10150 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
10152 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
10153 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
10155 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
10156 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
10157 goes after the other menu items.
10159 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
10160 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
10161 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
10164 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
10165 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
10167 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
10168 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
10171 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
10172 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
10173 but its hook is still run.
10175 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
10176 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
10178 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
10179 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
10180 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
10182 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
10183 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
10184 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
10187 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
10188 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
10190 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
10191 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
10192 functions like display-time.
10194 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
10195 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
10197 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
10198 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
10199 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
10201 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
10202 if there is an error in compilation.
10204 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
10205 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
10206 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
10207 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
10209 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
10210 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
10211 the *scratch* buffer.
10213 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
10214 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
10215 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
10216 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
10218 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
10219 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
10220 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
10222 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
10223 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
10224 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
10225 and compose-mail-other-frame.
10227 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
10228 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
10229 full name of the specified user will be returned.
10231 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
10232 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
10233 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
10234 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
10235 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
10238 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
10239 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
10240 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
10241 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
10243 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
10244 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
10245 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
10246 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
10248 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
10250 ** imenu.el changes.
10252 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
10253 item from menu created by imenu.
10255 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
10256 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
10257 select one of those items.
10259 * For older news, see the file ONEWS
10261 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
10262 Copyright information:
10264 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
10266 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
10267 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
10268 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
10269 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
10271 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
10272 of this document, or of portions of it,
10273 under the above conditions, provided also that they
10274 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
10278 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"