NEWS trivia
[bpt/emacs.git] / etc / NEWS
1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
5
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
8
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 24.
10
11 See files NEWS.23, NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18,
12 and NEWS.1-17 for changes in older Emacs versions.
13
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
16
17 Temporary note:
18 +++ indicates that all necessary updates to the manuals in doc/ are complete.
19 --- means no change in the manuals is needed.
20 When you add a new item, use the appropriate mark if you know it applies,
21 otherwise leave it unmarked.
22
23 \f
24 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.4
25
26 ** Emacs can be compiled with ACL support.
27 This happens by default if a suitable support library is found at
28 build time, like libacl on GNU/Linux. To prevent this, use the
29 configure option `--disable-acl'.
30
31 ** Emacs can be compiled with file notification support.
32 This happens by default if a suitable system library is found at
33 build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
34 `--with-file-notification-no'. See below for file-notify features.
35 FIXME? This feature is not available for the Nextstep port. (?)
36
37 ** The configure option `without-compress-info' has been generalized,
38 and renamed to `without-compress-install'. It now prevents compression
39 of _any_ files during installation.
40
41 ** The configure option --with-crt-dir has been removed.
42 It is no longer needed, as the crt*.o files are no longer linked
43 specially.
44
45 ** Directories passed to configure option `--enable-locallisppath' are
46 no longer created during installation.
47
48 ** Emacs can be compiled with zlib support. If this library is present
49 (which it normally is on most systems), the function
50 `zlib-decompress-region' becomes available, which can decompress gzip-
51 and zlib-format compressed data.
52
53 ---
54 ** Emacs for NS (OSX, GNUStep) can be built with ImageMagick support.
55 pkg-config is required to find ImageMagick libraries.
56
57 ** For OSX >= 10.5, the Core text based font backend from the Mac port is used.
58 For GNUStep and OSX 10.4 the old backend is used.
59 To use the old backend by default, do on the command line:
60 % defaults write org.gnu.Emacs FontBackend ns
61
62 \f
63 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.4
64
65 +++
66 ** When initializing `load-path', an empty element in the EMACSLOADPATH
67 environment variable (either leading, e.g., ":/foo"; trailing, e.g.,
68 "/foo:"; or embedded, e.g., "/foo::/bar") is replaced with the default
69 load-path (the one that would have been used if EMACSLOADPATH was unset).
70 This makes it easier to _extend_ the load-path via EMACSLOADPATH
71 (previously, EMACSLOADPATH had to specify the complete load-path,
72 including the defaults). (In older versions of Emacs, an empty element
73 was replaced by ".", so use an explicit "." now if that is what you want.)
74
75 +++
76 ** The -L option, which normally prepends its argument to load-path,
77 will instead append, if the argument begins with `:' (or `;' on MS Windows;
78 i.e., `path-separator').
79
80 \f
81 * Changes in Emacs 24.4
82
83 +++
84 ** Emacs now supports menus on text-mode terminals.
85 If the terminal supports a mouse, clicking on the menu bar, or on
86 sensitive portions of the mode line or header line, will drop down the
87 menu defined at that position. Likewise, clicking C-mouse-2 or
88 C-mouse-2 or C-mouse-3 on the text area will pop up the menus defined
89 for those locations.
90
91 If the text terminal does not support a mouse, you can activate the
92 first menu-bar menu by typing F10, which invokes `menu-bar-open'.
93
94 If you want the previous behavior, whereby F10 invoked `tmm-menubar',
95 customize the option `tty-menu-open-use-tmm' to a non-nil value.
96 (Typing M-` will always invoke `tmm-menubar', even if
97 `tty-menu-open-use-tmm' is nil.)
98
99 ** Key ? also describes prefix bindings like C-h.
100
101 +++
102 ** `cache-long-line-scans' has been renamed to `cache-long-scans'
103 because it affects caching of paragraph scanning results as well.
104
105 +++
106 ** `apropos-variable' is now `apropos-user-option'
107 `apropos-user-option' shows all user options while `apropos-variable'
108 shows all variables. When called with a universal prefix argument,
109 the two commands swap their behaviors. When `apropos-do-all' is
110 non-nil, they output the same results.
111
112 +++
113 ** `eval-defun' on an already defined defcustom calls the :set function,
114 if there is one.
115
116 ** If the new variable `enable-dir-local-variables' is nil,
117 directory local variables are ignored. May be useful for some modes
118 that want to ignore directory-locals while still respecting file-locals.
119
120 ** The option `set-mark-default-inactive' has been deleted.
121 This unfinished feature was introduced by accident in Emacs 23.1;
122 simply disabling Transient Mark mode does the same thing.
123
124 ** `initial-buffer-choice' can now specify a function to set up the
125 initial buffer.
126
127 ** The *Messages* buffer is created in a new major mode `messages-buffer-mode',
128 and read-only. Code that might create the *Messages* buffer should
129 call the function `messages-buffer' to do so and set the mode.
130
131 ** `remember-notes' creates a buffer whose content is saved on kill-emacs.
132 You may think of it as a *scratch* buffer whose content is preserved.
133 In fact, it was designed as a replacement for *scratch* buffer and can
134 be used that way by setting `initial-buffer-choice' to `remember-notes'
135 and `remember-notes-buffer-name' to "*scratch*". Without the second
136 change, *scratch* buffer will still be there for notes that do not
137 need to be preserved.
138
139 ** `write-region-inhibit-fsync' now defaults to t in batch mode.
140
141 ** ACL support has been added.
142 +++
143 *** Emacs preserves the ACL entries of files when backing up.
144 +++
145 *** New functions `file-acl' and `set-file-acl' get and set the ACL
146 entries of a file. On GNU/Linux, the POSIX ACL interface is used via
147 libacl. On MS-Windows, the NT Security APIs are used to emulate the
148 POSIX ACL interfaces.
149
150 ** New option `scroll-bar-adjust-thumb-portion'.
151 Available only on X, this option allows to control over-scrolling
152 using the scroll bar (i.e. dragging the thumb down even when the end
153 of the buffer is visible).
154
155 ** New function `add-face-text-property' has been added, which can be
156 used to conveniently prepend/append new face attributes to text.
157
158 ** In compiled Lisp files, the header no longer includes a timestamp.
159
160 ** Multi-monitor support has been added.
161
162 *** New functions `display-monitor-attributes-list' and
163 `frame-monitor-attributes' can be used to obtain information about
164 each physical monitor on multi-monitor setups.
165
166 *** The functions `display-pixel-width' and `display-pixel-height' now
167 behave consistently among the platforms: they return the pixel width
168 or height for all physical monitors associated with the given display
169 as just they were on X11. To get information for each physical
170 monitor, use the new functions above. Similar notes also apply to
171 `x-display-pixel-width', `x-display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
172 `display-mm-height', `x-display-mm-width', and `x-display-mm-height'.
173
174 ** New macro `define-alternatives' can be used to define generic commands.
175 Generic commands are interactive functions whose implementation can be
176 selected among several alternatives, as a matter of user preference.
177
178 ** New hooks `focus-in-hook', `focus-out-hook'.
179 These are normal hooks run when an Emacs frame gains or loses input focus.
180
181 ** The blink cursor stops blinking after 10 blinks (default) on X and NS.
182 You can change the default by customizing the variable blink-cursor-blinks.
183 Also timers for blinking are stopped when no blinking is done, so Emacs does
184 not consume CPU cycles.
185
186 ** New command `frameset-to-register' is now bound to `C-x r f', replacing
187 `frame-configuration-to-register'. It offers similar functionality, plus
188 some enhancements, like the ability to restore deleted frames. Command
189 `frame-configuration-to-register' is still available, but unbound.
190
191 ** The command `quail-help' is deleted. Use `C-h C-\'
192 (`describe-input-method') instead.
193
194 ** The default value of `comment-use-global-state' is changed to t,
195 and this variable has been marked obsolete.
196
197 ** `fill-single-char-nobreak-p' prevents fill from breaking a line after
198 a 1-letter word, which is an error according to Polish and
199 Czech typography rules. To globally enable this feature, evaluate:
200
201 (add-hook 'fill-nobreak-predicate 'fill-single-char-nobreak-p)
202
203 \f
204 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.4
205
206 ** `electric-indent-mode' is enabled by default.
207
208 ** Uniquify is enabled by default.
209
210 ** Command `rectangle-mark-mode' bound to C-x SPC makes a rectangular region.
211 Most commands are still unaware of it, but kill/yank do work on the rectangle.
212
213 ** C-x TAB enters a transient interactive mode.
214 You can then use the left/right cursor keys to move the block of text.
215
216 ** `tab-stop-list' is now implicitly extended to infinity by repeating
217 the last step. Its default value is changed to nil which means a tab
218 stop every `tab-width' columns.
219
220 ** `split-window' is no longer a command, just a non-interactive function.
221 As a command it was a special case of `split-window-below', and as such
222 superfluous. After being reimplemented in Lisp, its interactive form
223 was mistakenly retained.
224
225 ** New commands `toggle-frame-fullscreen' and `toggle-frame-maximized',
226 bound to <f11> and M-<f10>, respectively.
227
228 ** In keymaps where SPC scrolls, S-SPC now scrolls in the reverse direction.
229 Eg View mode, etc.
230
231 +++
232 ** New option `visual-order-cursor-movement'.
233 If this is non-nil, cursor motion with arrow keys will follow the
234 visual order of characters on the screen: <left> always moves to the
235 left, <right> always moves to the right, disregarding the surrounding
236 bidirectional context.
237
238 ** All register commands can now show help with preview.
239
240 ** New command `kmacro-to-register' to store keyboard macros in registers.
241
242 ** Shell Script mode
243
244 *** `sh-mode' now has the mode own `add-log-current-defun-function'.
245 You can pick the name of the function and the variables with `C-x 4 a'.
246
247 \f
248 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.4
249
250 ** The backtrace debugger can display local vars with `v'.
251
252 ** prolog-use-smie has been removed, along with the non-SMIE indentation code.
253
254 ** SMIE indentation can be customized via `smie-config'.
255 The customization can be guessed by Emacs by providing a sample indented
256 file and letting SMIE learn from it.
257
258 ** sh-script now uses its SMIE indentation algorithm by default.
259
260 ** The debugger's `e' command evaluates the code in the context at point.
261 This includes using the lexical environment at point, which means that
262 `e' now lets you access lexical variables as well.
263
264 ** `eshell' now supports visual subcommands and options
265 Eshell has been able to handle "visual" commands (interactive,
266 non-line oriented commands such as top that require display
267 capabilities not provided by eshell) by running them in an Emacs
268 terminal emulator. See `eshell-visual-commands'.
269
270 This feature has been extended to subcommands and options that make a
271 usually line-oriented command a visual command. Typical examples are
272 "git log" and "git <command> --help" which display their output in a
273 pager by default. See `eshell-visual-subcommands' and
274 `eshell-visual-options'.
275
276 ** If your Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support, you can use the new
277 built-in web browser `eww'.
278
279 ** `remember' can now store notes in separates files
280 You can use the new function `remember-store-in-files' within the
281 `remember-handler-functions' option.
282
283 See `remember-data-directory' and `remember-directory-file-name-format'
284 for new options related to this function.
285
286 ** More packages look for ~/.emacs.d/<foo> additionally to ~/.<foo>.
287 Affected files:
288 ~/.emacs.d/timelog replaces ~/.timelog
289 ~/.emacs.d/vip replaces ~/.vip
290 ~/.emacs.d/viper replaces ~/.viper
291 ~/.emacs.d/ido.last replaces ~/.ido.last
292 ~/.emacs.d/kkcrc replaces ~/.kkcrc
293 ~/.emacs.d/quickurls replaces ~/.quickurls
294 ~/.emacs.d/idlwave replaces ~/.idlwave
295 ~/.emacs.d/bdfcache.el replaces ~/.bdfcache.el
296 ~/.emacs.d/places replaces ~/.emacs-places
297 ~/.emacs.d/shadows replaces ~/.shadows
298 ~/.emacs.d/shadow_todo replaces ~/.shadow_todo
299 ~/.emacs.d/strokes replaces ~/.strokes
300 ~/.emacs.d/notes replaces ~/.notes
301 ~/.emacs.d/type-break replaces ~/.type-break
302 Also the following files used by the now obsolete otodo-mode.el:
303 ~/.emacs.d/todo-do replaces ~/.todo-do
304 ~/.emacs.d/todo-done replaces ~/.todo-done
305 ~/.emacs.d/todo-top replaces ~/.todo-top
306
307
308 ** Delphi mode is now called OPascal mode.
309 *** All delphi-* variables and functions have been renamed to opascal-*.
310 *** `delphi-newline-always-indents' is not supported any more.
311 Use `electric-indent-mode' instead.
312 *** `delphi-tab' is gone, replaced by `indent-for-tab-command'.
313
314 ** Eldoc Mode works properly in the minibuffer.
315
316 ** jit-lock-debug-mode lets you use the debuggers on code run via jit-lock.
317
318 ** completing-read-multiple's separator can now be a regexp.
319 The default separator is changed to allow surrounding spaces around the comma.
320
321 ** Battery
322
323 *** Battery information via the BSD `apm' utility is now supported.
324
325 ** Buffer Menu
326
327 *** `M-s a C-o' shows lines matching a regexp in marked buffers using Occur.
328
329 ** Calendar and Diary
330
331 *** New faces: `calendar-weekday-header', `calendar-weekend-header',
332 `calendar-month-header'.
333
334 *** New option `calendar-day-header-array'.
335
336 *** The variable `calendar-font-lock-keywords' is obsolete.
337
338 +++
339 *** New variable `diary-from-outlook-function', used by the command
340 `diary-from-outlook'.
341
342 ** VC and related modes
343
344 *** In VC directory mode, `D' displays diffs between VC-controlled
345 whole tree revisions.
346
347 *** In VC directory mode, `L' lists the change log for the current VC
348 controlled tree in a window.
349
350 *** In VC directory mode, `I' shows a log of changes that will be
351 received with a pull operation.
352
353 *** `C-x v G' (globally) and `G' (in VC directory mode) ignores a file
354 under current version control system. When called with a prefix
355 argument, you can remove a file from the ignored file list.
356
357 *** `cvs-append-to-ignore' has been renamed to `vc-cvs-append-to-ignore'
358 because it is moved to vc-cvs.el.
359
360 ** cl-lib
361
362 *** New macro cl-tagbody.
363
364 +++
365 *** letf is now just an alias for cl-letf.
366
367 ** Calc
368
369 *** Calc by default now uses the Gregorian calendar for all dates, and
370 uses January 1, 1 AD as its day number 1. Previously Calc used the
371 Julian calendar for dates before September 14, 1752, and it used
372 December 31, 1 BC as its day number 1; the new scheme is more
373 consistent with Calendar's calendrical system and day numbering.
374
375 *** The new variable `calc-gregorian-switch' lets you configure the
376 date when Calc switches from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar.
377 Nil, the default value, means to always use the Gregorian calendar.
378 The value (YEAR MONTH DAY) means to start using the Gregorian calendar
379 on the given date.
380
381 *** Support for ISO 8601 dates.
382
383 ** Desktop
384
385 *** `desktop-auto-save-timeout' defines the number of seconds between
386 auto-saves of the desktop.
387
388 *** `desktop-restore-frames', enabled by default, allows saving and
389 restoring the frame/window configuration (frameset). Additional options
390 `desktop-restore-in-current-display', `desktop-restore-reuses-frames'
391 and `desktop-restore-forces-onscreen' offer further customization.
392
393 ** Dired
394
395 *** New minor mode `dired-hide-details-mode' hides details.
396
397 ** ERC
398
399 *** New option `erc-accidental-paste-threshold-seconds'.
400 If set to a number, this can be used to avoid accidentally paste large
401 amounts of data into the ERC input.
402
403 ** EPA
404
405 *** New option `epa-mail-aliases'.
406
407 You can set this to a list of alias expansions for keys to use
408 in `epa-mail-encrypt'.
409
410 If one element of the variable's value is ("foo@bar.com" "foo@hello.org"),
411 that means: when one of the recipients of the message being encrypted
412 is `foo@bar.com', encrypt the message for `foo@hello.org' instead.
413
414 If one element of the variable's value is ("foo@bar.com"),
415 that means: when one of the recipients of the message being encrypted
416 is `foo@bar.com', ignore that name as regards encryption.
417 This is useful to avoid a query when you have no key for that name.
418
419 ---
420 ** New F90 mode option `f90-smart-end-names'.
421
422 ** Icomplete is a bit more like Ido.
423 *** key bindings to navigate through and select the completions.
424 *** The icomplete-separator is customizable, and its default has changed.
425 *** Removed icomplete-show-key-bindings.
426 *** Icomplete-mode by defaults applies to all forms of minibuffer completion.
427 (setq icomplete-with-completion-tables '(internal-complete-buffer))
428 will revert to the old behavior.
429
430
431 ** New features for Octave mode:
432 *** Font locking for texinfo comments and new keywords
433 *** Completion in Octave file buffers
434 *** Eldoc support
435 *** Jump to definition
436 *** Documentation lookup/search
437 *** Code cleanup and various bug fixes
438
439 ** Ido
440 *** Ido has a manual now.
441 *** `ido-use-virtual-buffers' takes a new value 'auto.
442 *** `ido-decorations' has been slightly extended to give a bit more control.
443
444 ** Image mode
445
446 *** New commands `n' (`image-next-file') and `p' (`image-previous-file')
447 visit the next image file and the previous image file in the same
448 directory, respectively.
449
450 *** New commands to show specific frames of multi-frame images.
451 `f' (`image-next-frame') and `b' (`image-previous-frame') visit the
452 next or previous frame. `F' (`image-goto-frame') shows a specific frame.
453
454 *** New commands to speed up, slow down, or reverse animation.
455
456 ---
457 *** The command `image-mode-fit-frame' deletes other windows.
458 When toggling, it restores the frame's previous window configuration.
459 It also has an optional frame argument, which can be used by Lisp
460 callers to fit the image to a frame other than the selected frame.
461
462 ** Info
463
464 *** New face `info-index-match' is used to highlight matches in index
465 entries displayed by `Info-index-next', `Info-virtual-index' and
466 `info-apropos'.
467
468 ** Hi-Lock
469
470 *** New option `hi-lock-auto-select-face'. When non-nil, hi-lock commands
471 will cycle through faces in `hi-lock-face-defaults' without prompting.
472
473 +++
474 *** New global command `M-s h .' (`highlight-symbol-at-point')
475 highlights the symbol found near point without prompting,
476 using the next face automatically.
477
478 ** Search and Replace
479
480 *** New global command `M-s .' (`isearch-forward-symbol-at-point')
481 starts a symbol (identifier) incremental search forward with the
482 symbol found near point added to the search string initially.
483
484 *** `C-x 8 RET' in Isearch mode reads a character by its Unicode name
485 and adds it to the search string.
486
487 *** `M-s i' in Isearch mode toggles the variable `isearch-invisible'
488 between nil and the value of the option `search-invisible' (or `open'
489 when it's nil).
490
491 *** `query-replace' skips invisible text when `search-invisible' is nil,
492 and opens overlays with hidden text when `search-invisible' is `open'.
493
494 +++
495 *** By default, prefix arguments do not now terminate Isearch mode.
496 Set `isearch-allow-prefix' to nil to restore old behavior.
497
498 *** More Isearch commands accept prefix arguments, namely
499 `isearch-printing-char', `isearch-quote-char', `isearch-yank-word',
500 `isearch-yank-line'.
501
502 *** Word search now matches whitespace at the beginning/end
503 of the search string if it contains leading/trailing whitespace.
504 In an incremental word search or when using a non-nil LAX argument
505 of `word-search-regexp', the lax matching can also match part of
506 the first word (in addition to the lax matching of the last word).
507 The same rules are now applied to the symbol search with the difference
508 that it matches symbols, and non-symbol characters between symbols.
509
510 ** MH-E has been updated to MH-E version 8.5.
511 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
512
513 ---
514 ** The unrmail command converts from BABYL to mboxrd rather than mboxo.
515 Customize `unrmail-mbox-format' to change this.
516
517 ---
518 ** Similarly, customize `rmail-mbox-format' to influence some minor aspects
519 of how Rmail displays non-MIME messages.
520
521 +++
522 ** New function `ses-rename-cell' to give SES cells arbitrary names.
523
524 ** trace-function was largely rewritten.
525 New features include:
526 - no prompting for the destination buffer, unless a prefix-arg was used.
527 - additionally to prompting for a destination buffer, when a prefix-arg is
528 used, the user can enter a "context", i.e. Lisp expression whose value at the
529 time the function is entered/exited will be printed along with the function
530 name and arguments. Useful to trace the value of (current-buffer) or
531 (point) when the function is invoked.
532
533 ** New command `delete-duplicate-lines' has new types of operation:
534 When its arg ADJACENT is non-nil (when called interactively with C-u C-u)
535 it works like the utility `uniq'. Otherwise by default it deletes
536 duplicate lines everywhere in the region without regard to adjacency.
537 When its arg KEEP-BLANKS is non-nil (when called interactively with
538 C-u C-u C-u), duplicate blank lines are preserved.
539
540 ** New `cycle-spacing' command allows cycling between having just one
541 space, no spaces, or reverting to the original spacing. Like
542 `just-one-space' command it can handle or ignore newlines and
543 leave different number of spaces.
544
545 ** Todo mode has been rewritten and enhanced.
546 New features include:
547 - support for multiple todo files and archive files of done items;
548 - renaming, reordering, moving, merging, and deleting categories;
549 - sortable tabular summaries of categories and the types of items they contain;
550 - cross-category lists of items filtered by specific criteria;
551 - more fine-grained interaction with the Emacs diary, by being able to decide
552 for each todo item whether it appears in the Fancy Diary display;
553 - highly flexible new item insertion and item editing;
554 - moving items between categories, storing done items in their category or in
555 archive files, undoing or unarchiving done items;
556 - reprioritizing items by inputting a numerical priority;
557 - extensive customizability of operation and display, including numerous faces.
558 The Todo mode user manual describes all commands and most user options.
559 To support some of these features, a new file format is used, which is
560 incompatible with the old format; however, you can convert old todo and done
561 item files to the new format on initializing the first new todo file, or at any
562 later time with the provided conversion command. The old version of
563 todo-mode.el has been made obsolete and renamed otodo-mode.el.
564
565 ** Tramp
566
567 *** The experimental url syntax for remote file names is withdrawn.
568
569 +++
570 *** New connection method "adb", which allows to access Android
571 devices by the Android Debug Bridge. The variable `tramp-adb-program'
572 can be used to adapt the path of the "adb" program, if needed.
573
574 *** The connection methods "plink1", "ssh1", "ssh2", "scp1", "scp2",
575 "scpc" and "rsyncc" are discontinued. The ssh option
576 "ControlMaster=auto" is set automatically in all ssh-based methods,
577 when possible.
578
579 +++
580 *** Handlers for `file-acl' and `set-file-acl' for remote machines
581 which support POSIX ACLs.
582
583 +++
584 *** Handlers for `file-notify-add-watch' and `file-notify-rm-watch'
585 for remote machines which support filesystem notifications.
586
587 ** VHDL mode
588
589 *** New options: `vhdl-actual-generic-name', `vhdl-beautify-options'.
590
591 *** New commands: `vhdl-fix-statement-region', `vhdl-fix-statement-buffer'.
592
593 ** Woman
594
595 *** The commands `woman-default-faces' and `woman-monochrome-faces'
596 are obsolete. Customize the `woman-*' faces instead.
597
598 ** Eshell
599
600 *** Added Eshell-Tramp module
601 External su and sudo commands are now the default; the internal,
602 Tramp-using variants can still be used by enabling the eshell-tramp
603 module.
604
605 ** Package
606
607 *** The format of `archive-contents' files, generated by package
608 repositories, has changed to allow a new (fifth) element in the data
609 vectors, containing an associative list with extra properties.
610
611 *** `describe-package' buffer uses the `:url' extra property to
612 display a `Homepage' header, if it's present.
613
614 ** New term.el option `term-suppress-hard-newline'.
615
616 ** Obsolete packages:
617
618 *** Iswitchb is made obsolete by icomplete-mode.
619
620 *** longlines.el is obsolete; use visual-line-mode instead.
621
622 +++
623 *** sup-mouse.el.
624
625 *** terminal.el is obsolete; use term.el instead.
626
627 *** The previous version of todo-mode.el is obsolete and renamed otodo-mode.el.
628
629 *** xesam.el.
630
631 +++
632 *** yow.el is obsolete; use fortune.el or cookie1.el instead.
633
634 ---
635 *** The Info-edit command is obsolete. Editing Info nodes by hand
636 has not been relevant for some time.
637
638 ** Shell
639
640 *** `explicit-bash-args' now always defaults to use --noediting.
641 During initialization, Emacs no longer expends a process to decide
642 whether it is safe to use Bash's --noediting option. These days
643 --noediting is ubiquitous; it was introduced in 1996 in Bash version 2.
644
645 +++
646 ** There is a new macro `skip-unless' for skipping ERT tests. See the manual.
647
648 ** Imenu
649
650 *** New option `imenu-generic-skip-comments-and-strings'.
651
652 ** Ruby mode
653
654 *** New option `ruby-encoding-magic-comment-style'.
655
656 *** New option `ruby-custom-encoding-magic-comment-template'.
657
658 *** New mode menu.
659
660 *** Improved syntax highlighting and indentation.
661
662 *** Add more Ruby file types to `auto-mode-alist'.
663
664 \f
665 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.4
666
667 ** New `superword-mode' in subword.el
668 `superword-mode' overrides the default word motion commands to treat
669 symbol_words as a single word, similar to what `subword-mode' does and
670 using the same internal functions.
671
672 ** New nadvice.el package offering lighter-weight advice facilities.
673 It is layered as:
674 - add-function/remove-function which can be used to add/remove code on any
675 function-carrying place, such as process-filters or `<foo>-function' hooks.
676 - advice-add/advice-remove to add/remove a piece of advice on a named function,
677 much like `defadvice' does.
678
679 ** New frameset.el package.
680 It provides a set of operations to save a frameset (the state of all
681 or a subset of the existing frames and windows, somewhat similar to a
682 frame configuration), both in-session and persistently, and restore it
683 at some point in the future.
684
685 +++
686 ** The package filenotify.el provides an interface for file system
687 notifications. It requires, that Emacs is compiled with one of the
688 low-level libraries gfilenotify.c, inotify.c or w32notify.c.
689
690 \f
691 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.4
692
693 ** `kill-region' lost its `yank-handler' optional argument.
694
695 ** `(input-pending-p)' no longer runs other timers which are ready to
696 run. The new optional CHECK-TIMERS param allows for the prior behavior.
697
698 ** `defvar' and `defcustom' in a let-binding affect the "external" default.
699
700 ** The syntax of ?» and ?« is now punctuation instead of matched parens.
701 Some languages match those as »...« and others as «...» so better stay neutral.
702
703 ** The default file coding for Emacs Lisp files is now utf-8.
704 (See file-coding-system-alist.) In most cases, this change is transparent, but
705 files that contain unusual characters without specifying an explicit coding
706 system may fail to load with obscure errors.
707 You should either convert them to utf-8 or add an explicit `coding:' cookie.
708
709 ** overriding-terminal-local-map does not replace the local keymaps any more.
710 It used to disable the minor mode, major mode, and text-property keymaps,
711 whereas now it simply has higher precedence.
712
713 ** Default process filters and sentinels are not nil any more.
714 Instead they default to a function which does what the nil value used to do.
715
716 ** `read-event' does not return decoded chars in ttys any more.
717 Just as was the case in Emacs-22 and before, decoding of tty input according to
718 keyboard-coding-system is not performed in read-event any more. But contrary
719 to that past, it is still done before input-decode-map/function-key-map/...
720
721 ** Removed inhibit-local-menu-bar-menus.
722
723 ** frame-local variables that affect redisplay do not work any more.
724 More specifically, the redisplay does not bother to check for a frame-local
725 value when looking up variables.
726
727 ** nil and "unbound" are indistinguishable in symbol-function.
728 `symbol-function' never signals `void-function' any more.
729 `fboundp' returns non-nil if the symbol was `fset' to nil.
730
731 ** `defadvice' does not honor the `freeze' flag and cannot advise
732 special-forms any more.
733
734 ** `dolist' in lexical-binding mode does not bind VAR in RESULT any more.
735 VAR was bound to nil which was not tremendously useful and just lead to
736 spurious warnings about an unused var.
737
738 ** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
739 The second argument is no longer an SELinux context, instead it is an
740 alist of extended attributes as returned by the new function
741 `file-extended-attributes'. The attributes can be applied to another
742 file using `set-file-extended-attributes'.
743
744 ** `visited-file-modtime' now returns -1 for nonexistent files.
745 Formerly it returned a list (-1 LOW USEC PSEC), but this was ambiguous
746 in the presence of files with negative time stamps.
747
748 ** The cars of the elements in `interpreter-mode-alist' are now treated
749 as regexps rather than literal strings. Technically this is an
750 incompatible change, but unless you are using interpreter-mode-alist
751 for something (not just adding elements to it), it ought not to affect you.
752
753 \f
754 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.4
755
756 ** New function get-pos-property.
757
758 ** New hook `pre-redisplay-function'.
759
760 +++
761 ** Functions that pop up menus and dialogs now work on all terminal types,
762 including TTYs.
763 This includes `x-popup-menu', `x-popup-dialog', `message-box',
764 `yes-or-no-p', etc.
765
766 The function `display-popup-menus-p' will now return non-nil for a
767 display or frame whenever a mouse is supported on that display or
768 frame.
769
770 ** New bool-vector set operation functions:
771 *** `bool-vector-exclusive-or'
772 *** `bool-vector-union'
773 *** `bool-vector-intersection'
774 *** `bool-vector-set-difference'
775 *** `bool-vector-not'
776 *** `bool-vector-subsetp'
777 *** `bool-vector-count-consecutive'
778 *** `bool-vector-count-population'
779
780 ** Comparison functions =, <, >, <=, >= now take many arguments.
781
782 ** The second argument of `eval' can now be a lexical-environment.
783
784 ** `with-demoted-errors' takes an additional argument `format'.
785 +++
786 ** New function `define-error'.
787
788 ** New hook `tty-setup-hook'.
789
790 +++
791 ** New macro with-eval-after-load. Like eval-after-load, but better behaved.
792
793 ** New library helpers.el for misc helper functions
794 *** `hash-table-keys'
795 *** `hash-table-values'
796 *** `string-blank-p`
797 *** `string-empty-p`
798 *** `string-join`
799 *** `string-reverse`
800 *** `string-trim-left'
801 *** `string-trim-right'
802 *** `string-trim'
803
804 ** Obsoleted functions:
805 *** `log10'
806 *** `dont-compile'
807 *** `lisp-complete-symbol'
808 *** `field-complete'
809 *** `minibuffer-completion-contents'
810 *** `isearch-nonincremental-exit-minibuffer'
811 *** `isearch-filter-visible'
812 *** `generic-make-keywords-list'
813
814 ** `with-wrapper-hook' is obsoleted by `add-function'.
815 The few hooks that used with-wrapper-hook are replaced as follows:
816 *** `abbrev-expand-function' obsoletes `abbrev-expand-functions'.
817 *** `completion-in-region-function' obsoletes `completion-in-region-functions'.
818 *** `filter-buffer-substring-function' obsoletes `filter-buffer-substring-functions'.
819
820 ** `byte-compile-interactive-only-functions' is now obsolete.
821 It has been replaced by the symbol property 'interactive-only.
822
823 ** `split-string' now takes an optional argument TRIM.
824 The value, if non-nil, is a regexp that specifies what to trim from
825 the start and end of each substring.
826
827 ** New function `string-suffix-p'.
828
829 ** `get-upcase-table' is obsoleted by the new `case-table-get-table'.
830
831 ** Support for filesystem notifications.
832 Emacs now supports notifications of filesystem changes, such as
833 creation, modification, and deletion of files. This requires the
834 `glib' API, or the 'inotify' API (on GNU/Linux systems only). On
835 MS-Windows systems, this is supported for Windows XP and newer
836 versions.
837
838 ** Changes in autorevert.el
839
840 ---
841 *** If Emacs is compiled with file notification support, notifications
842 are used instead of checking the time stamp of the files. You can
843 disable this by setting the user option `auto-revert-use-notify' to
844 nil. Alternatively, a regular expression of directories to be
845 excluded from file notifications can be specified by
846 `auto-revert-notify-exclude-dir-regexp'.
847
848 ---
849 *** The new user option `auto-revert-remote-files' enables reversion
850 of remote files when set to non-nil.
851
852 ** Face changes
853
854 *** The function `face-spec-set' is now analogous to `setq' for face specs.
855 Its third arg now accepts values specifying exactly which face spec to
856 set (defface, custom, or user spec), and it directly sets the relevant
857 property using the supplied face spec.
858
859 *** Face specs set via Custom themes now replace the `defface' spec
860 rather than inheriting from it (as do face specs set via Customize).
861
862 *** New face characteristic (supports :underline (:style wave))
863 specifies whether or not the terminal can display a wavy line.
864
865 *** New face spec attribute :distant-foreground
866 specifies foreground to use if background color is near the foreground
867 color that would otherwise have been used.
868
869 ** Image API
870
871 +++
872 *** `image-animated-p' is now `image-multi-frame-p'.
873 It returns non-nil for any image that contains multiple frames,
874 whether or not it specifies a frame delay.
875
876 +++
877 *** When animating images that do not specify a frame delay,
878 Emacs uses `image-default-frame-delay'.
879
880 +++
881 *** New functions `image-current-frame' and `image-show-frame' for getting
882 and setting the current frame of a multi-frame image.
883
884 *** You can change the speed of animated images.
885
886 ** Changes in encoding and decoding of text
887
888 ---
889 *** New coding-system `prefer-utf-8'.
890 This is like `undecided' but prefers UTF-8 on decoding if the text to
891 be decoded does not contain any invalid UTF-8 sequences. On encoding,
892 any non-ASCII characters are automatically encoded as UTF-8.
893
894 ---
895 *** New attributes of coding-systems whose type is `undecided'.
896 Two new attributes, `:inhibit-null-byte-detection' and
897 `:inhibit-iso-escape-detection', determine how to detect encoding of
898 text that includes null bytes and ISO-2022 escape sequences,
899 respectively. Each of these attributes can be either nil, zero, or
900 t. If it is t, decoding text ignores null bytes and, respectively,
901 ISO-2022 sequences. If it is nil, null bytes cause text to be decoded
902 with no-conversion and ISO-2022 sequences cause Emacs to assume the
903 text is encoded in one of the ISO-2022 encodings, such as
904 iso-2022-7bit. If the value is zero, Emacs consults the variables
905 inhibit-null-byte-detection and inhibit-iso-escape-detection, which
906 see.
907 The new attribute `:prefer-utf-8', if non-nil, causes Emacs to prefer
908 UTF-8 encoding and decoding, whenever possible.
909
910 These attributes are only meaningful for coding-systems of type
911 `undecided'. (The type of a coding-system is determined by its
912 `:coding-type' attribute and can be accessed by calling the
913 `coding-system-type' function.)
914
915 ** The function `set-visited-file-modtime' now accepts a 0 or -1 argument
916 with the same interpretation as the returned value of `visited-file-modtime'.
917
918 ** time-to-seconds is not obsolete any more.
919 ** New functions special-form-p and macrop.
920 ** Docstrings can be made dynamic by adding a `dynamic-docstring-function'
921 text-property on the first char.
922
923 ** The `defalias-fset-function' property lets you catch calls to defalias
924 and redirect them to your own function instead of `fset'.
925
926 ** The lock for 'DIR/FILE' is now 'DIR/.#FILE' and may be a regular file.
927 When you edit DIR/FILE, Emacs normally creates a symbolic link
928 DIR/.#FILE as a lock that warns other instances of Emacs that DIR/FILE
929 is being edited. Formerly, if there was already a non-symlink file
930 named DIR/.#FILE, Emacs fell back on the lock names DIR/.#FILE.0
931 through DIR/.#FILE.9. These fallbacks have been removed, so that
932 Emacs now no longer locks DIR/FILE in that case.
933
934 On file systems that do not support symbolic links, the lock is now a
935 regular file with contents being what would have been in the symlink.
936
937 ** The 9th element returned by `file-attributes' is now unspecified.
938 Formerly, it was t if the file's gid would change if file were deleted
939 and recreated. This value has been inaccurate for years on many
940 platforms, and nobody seems to have noticed or cared.
941
942 ** The function `file-ownership-preserved-p' now has an optional
943 argument GROUP which causes it check for file group too. This can be
944 used in place of the 9th element of `file-attributes'.
945
946 ** New functions `group-gid' and `group-real-gid'.
947
948 ** The 6th argument to `copy-file' has been renamed to
949 `preserve-extended-attributes' as it now handles both SELinux context
950 and ACL entries.
951
952 ** The `common-substring' argument of display-completion-list is obsolete.
953 Either use `completion-all-completions' which already returns highlighted
954 strings (including for partial or substring completion) or call
955 `completion-hilit-commonality' to add the highlight.
956
957 ** Changes to the Emacs Lisp Coding Conventions in Emacs 24.4
958
959 *** The package descriptor and name of global variables, constants,
960 and functions should be separated by two hyphens if the symbol is not
961 meant to be used by other packages.
962
963 \f
964 * Changes in Emacs 24.4 on Non-Free Operating Systems
965
966 ** The procedure for building Emacs on MS-Windows has changed.
967 It is now built by running the same configure script as on all other
968 platforms. This requires the MSYS environment and MinGW development
969 tools. See the updated instructions in nt/INSTALL for details.
970
971 Using the Posix configure script and Makefile's also means a change in
972 the directory structure of the Emacs installation on Windows. It is
973 now the same as on GNU and Unix systems. In particular, the auxiliary
974 programs, such as cmdproxy.exe and hexl.exe, are in
975 libexec/emacs/VERSION/i686-pc-mingw32 (where VERSION is the Emacs
976 version), version-independent site-lisp is in share/emacs/site-lisp,
977 version-specific Lisp files are in share/emacs/VERSION/lisp and in
978 share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, Info docs are in share/info, and data
979 files are in share/emacs/VERSION/etc. (Emacs knows about all these
980 directories and will find the files in there automatically; there's no
981 need to set any variables due to this change.)
982
983 +++
984 ** The "generate a backtrace on fatal error" feature now works on MS Windows.
985 The backtrace is written to the 'emacs_backtrace.txt' file in the
986 directory where Emacs was running.
987
988 +++
989 ** The variable `buffer-file-type' is no longer supported.
990 Setting it has no effect, and %t in the mode-line format is ignored.
991 Likewise, `file-name-buffer-file-type-alist' is now obsolete, and
992 modifying it has no effect.
993
994 ---
995 ** Lock files now work on MS-Windows.
996 This allows to avoid losing your edits if the same file is being
997 edited in another Emacs session or by another user. See the node
998 "Interlocking" in the Emacs User Manual for the details. To disable
999 file locking, customize `create-lockfiles' to nil.
1000
1001 ** Improved fullscreen support on Mac OS X.
1002 Both native (>= OSX 10.7) and "old style" fullscreen are supported.
1003 Customize `ns-use-native-fullscreen' to change style. For >= 10.7
1004 native is the default.
1005
1006 \f
1007 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.3
1008
1009 ** The default X toolkit is now Gtk+ version 3.
1010 If you don't pass `--with-x-toolkit' to configure, or if you use
1011 `--with-x-toolkit=gtk' or `--with-x-toolkit=yes', configure will try
1012 to build with Gtk+ version 3, and if that fails, try Gtk+ version 2.
1013 You can explicitly require a specific version by passing
1014 `--with-x-toolkit=gtk2' or `--with-x-toolkit=gtk3' to configure.
1015
1016 ** New configure option `--enable-link-time-optimization', to utilize
1017 an appropriate feature provided by GCC since version 4.5.0.
1018
1019 ** New configure option `--without-all' to disable most of the optional
1020 features (image support, etc.) that are normally enabled by default.
1021
1022 ** New configure option `--enable-gcc-warnings' (for developing/debugging
1023 Emacs). If building with GCC, this enables compile-time checks that
1024 warn/give errors about possibly-questionable C code. On a recent GNU
1025 system there should be no warnings; on older and on non-GNU systems
1026 the results may be useful to developers.
1027
1028 ** The configure option `--enable-use-lisp-union-type' has been
1029 renamed to `--enable-check-lisp-object-type', as the resulting
1030 Lisp_Object type no longer uses a union to implement the compile time
1031 check that this option enables.
1032
1033 ** The configure option `--disable-maintainer-mode' has been removed,
1034 as it was confusingly-named and rarely useful.
1035
1036 ** The configure options `--program-prefix', `--program-suffix', and
1037 `--program-transform-name' apply to more than just the installed
1038 binaries. Now they also affect the man pages, icons, and the
1039 etc/emacs.desktop file; but not the info pages, since this would break
1040 links between the various manuals.
1041
1042 ** You can use `NO_BIN_LINK=t make install' to prevent the installation
1043 overwriting "emacs" in the installation bin/ directory with a link
1044 to "emacs-VERSION".
1045
1046 ** Emacs uses libtinfo in preference to libncurses, if available.
1047
1048 ** On FreeBSD and NetBSD, configure no longer adds /usr/local/lib and
1049 /usr/pkg/lib to the linker search path. You must add them yourself if
1050 you want them.
1051
1052 ** The standalone scripts `rcs-checkin' and `vcdiff' have been removed
1053 (from the bin and libexec directories, respectively). The former is
1054 no longer relevant, the latter is replaced by lisp (in vc-sccs.el).
1055
1056 \f
1057 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.3
1058
1059 ** Emacs no longer searches for `leim-list.el' files beneath the standard
1060 lisp/ directory. There should not be any there anyway. If you have
1061 been adding them there, put them somewhere else; e.g., site-lisp.
1062
1063 ** The `--no-site-lisp' command line option now works for Nextstep builds.
1064
1065 \f
1066 * Changes in Emacs 24.3
1067
1068 ** Help
1069
1070 *** `C-h f' (`describe-function') can now perform autoloading.
1071 When this command is called for an autoloaded function whose docstring
1072 contains a key substitution construct, that function's library is
1073 automatically loaded, so that the documentation can be shown
1074 correctly. To disable this, set `help-enable-auto-load' to nil.
1075
1076 *** `C-h f' now reports previously-autoloaded functions as "autoloaded",
1077 even after their associated libraries have been loaded (and the
1078 autoloads have been redefined as functions).
1079
1080 ** ImageMagick
1081
1082 *** Images displayed via ImageMagick now support transparency and the
1083 :background image specification property.
1084
1085 *** When available, ImageMagick support is automatically enabled.
1086 It is no longer necessary to call `imagemagick-register-types'
1087 explicitly to install ImageMagick image types; that function is called
1088 automatically at startup, or when customizing an imagemagick- option.
1089
1090 *** Setting `imagemagick-types-inhibit' to t now disables the use of
1091 ImageMagick to view images. (You must call `imagemagick-register-types'
1092 afterwards if you do not use customize to change this.)
1093
1094 *** The new variable `imagemagick-enabled-types' also affects which
1095 ImageMagick types are treated as images. The function
1096 `imagemagick-filter-types' returns the list of types that will be
1097 treated as images.
1098
1099 *** ImageMagick images now support the :max-width and :max-height
1100 keywords.
1101
1102 *** Some data types aren't auto-detected by ImageMagick. Adding
1103 :format to `create-image' may help if the content type is in the
1104 new variable `image-format-suffixes'.
1105
1106 ** Minibuffer
1107
1108 *** In minibuffer filename prompts, `C-M-f' and `C-M-b' now move to the
1109 next and previous path separator, respectively.
1110
1111 *** `minibuffer-electric-default-mode' can shorten "(default ...)" to "[...]"
1112 in minibuffer prompts. Just set `minibuffer-eldef-shorten-default'
1113 non-nil before enabling the mode.
1114
1115 ** Mode line
1116
1117 *** New option `mode-line-default-help-echo' specifies the help text
1118 (shown in a tooltip or in the echo area) for any part of the mode line
1119 that does not have its own specialized help text.
1120
1121 *** You can now click mouse-3 in the coding system indicator to invoke
1122 `set-buffer-file-coding-system'.
1123
1124 ** Server and client
1125
1126 *** emacsclient now obeys string values for `initial-buffer-choice',
1127 if it is told to open a new frame without specifying any file to visit
1128 or expression to evaluate.
1129
1130 *** New option `server-auth-key' specifies a shared server key.
1131
1132 ** Emacs now generates backtraces on fatal errors.
1133 On encountering a fatal error, Emacs now outputs a textual description
1134 of the fatal signal, and a short backtrace on platforms like glibc
1135 that support backtraces.
1136
1137 ** `C-x C-q' is now bound to the new minor mode `read-only-mode'.
1138 This minor mode replaces `toggle-read-only', which is now obsolete.
1139
1140 ** Most `y-or-n' prompts now allow you to scroll the selected window.
1141 Typing `C-v' or `M-v' at a y-or-n prompt scrolls forward or backward
1142 respectively, without exiting from the prompt.
1143
1144 ** In the Package Menu, newly-available packages are listed as "new",
1145 and sorted above the other "available" packages by default.
1146
1147 ** If your Emacs was built from a bzr checkout, the new variable
1148 `emacs-bzr-version' contains information about the bzr revision used.
1149
1150 ** New option `create-lockfiles' specifies usage of lockfiles.
1151 It defaults to t. Changing it to nil inhibits the creation of lock
1152 files (use this with caution).
1153
1154 ** New option `enable-remote-dir-locals', if non-nil, allows directory-local
1155 variables on remote hosts.
1156
1157 ** The entry for PCL-CVS has been removed from the Tools menu.
1158 The PCL-CVS commands are still available via the keyboard.
1159
1160 ** Using "unibyte: t" in Lisp source files is obsolete.
1161 Use "coding: raw-text" instead.
1162
1163 ** In the buffer made by `M-x report-emacs-bug', the `C-c m' binding
1164 has been changed to `C-c M-i' (`report-emacs-bug-insert-to-mailer').
1165 The previous binding, introduced in Emacs 24.1, was a mistake, because
1166 `C-c LETTER' bindings are reserved for user customizations.
1167
1168 ** Internationalization
1169
1170 *** New language environment: Persian.
1171
1172 *** New input method `vietnamese-vni'.
1173
1174 ** Nextstep (GNUstep / Mac OS X) port
1175
1176 *** Support for fullscreen and the frame parameter fullscreen.
1177
1178 *** A file dialog is used for open/save operations initiated from the
1179 menu/toolbar.
1180
1181 \f
1182 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.3
1183
1184 ** Search and Replace
1185
1186 *** Non-regexp Isearch now performs "lax" space matching.
1187 Each sequence of spaces in the supplied search string may match any
1188 sequence of one or more whitespace characters, as specified by the
1189 variable `search-whitespace-regexp'. (This variable is also used by a
1190 similar existing feature for regexp Isearch.)
1191
1192 *** New Isearch command `M-s SPC' toggles lax space matching.
1193 This applies to both ordinary and regexp Isearch.
1194
1195 *** New option `replace-lax-whitespace'.
1196 If non-nil, `query-replace' uses flexible whitespace matching too.
1197 The default is nil.
1198
1199 *** Global `M-s _' starts a symbol (identifier) incremental search,
1200 and `M-s _' in Isearch toggles symbol search mode.
1201 `M-s c' in Isearch toggles search case-sensitivity.
1202
1203 ** Navigation commands
1204
1205 *** New binding `M-g c' for `goto-char'.
1206
1207 *** New binding `M-g TAB' for `move-to-column'.
1208
1209 *** `M-g TAB' (`move-to-column') prompts for a column number if called
1210 interactively with no prefix arg. Previously, it moved to column 1.
1211
1212 ** New option `yank-handled-properties' allows processing of text
1213 properties on yanked text, in ways that are more general than just
1214 removing them (as is done by `yank-excluded-properties').
1215
1216 ** New option `delete-trailing-lines' specifies whether
1217 M-x delete-trailing-whitespace should delete trailing lines at the end
1218 of the buffer. It defaults to t.
1219
1220 ** `C-u M-=' now counts lines/words/characters in the entire buffer.
1221
1222 ** `C-x 8 RET' is now bound to `insert-char', which is now a command.
1223 `ucs-insert' is now an obsolete alias for `insert-char'.
1224
1225 ** The `z' key no longer has a binding in most special modes.
1226 It used to be bound to `kill-this-buffer', but `z' is too easy to
1227 accidentally type.
1228
1229 ** New command `C-x r M-w' (`copy-rectangle-as-kill').
1230 It copies the region-rectangle as the last rectangle kill.
1231
1232 ** Registers
1233
1234 *** `C-x r +' is now overloaded to invoke `append-to-register'.
1235
1236 *** New option `register-separator' specifies the register containing
1237 the text to put between collected texts for use with
1238 M-x append-to-register and M-x prepend-to-register.
1239
1240 \f
1241 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.3
1242
1243 ** Common Lisp emulation (CL)
1244
1245 *** CL's main entry is now (require 'cl-lib).
1246 `cl-lib' is like the old `cl' except that it uses the namespace cleanly;
1247 i.e., all its definitions have the "cl-" prefix (and internal definitions
1248 use the "cl--" prefix).
1249
1250 If `cl' provided a feature under the name `foo', then `cl-lib'
1251 provides it under the name `cl-foo' instead; with the exceptions of the
1252 few `cl' definitions that had to use `foo*' to avoid conflicts with
1253 pre-existing Elisp entities. These have been renamed to `cl-foo'
1254 rather than `cl-foo*'.
1255
1256 The old `cl' is now deprecated and is mainly just a bunch of aliases that
1257 provide the old, non-prefixed names. Some exceptions are listed below:
1258
1259 *** `cl-flet' is not like `flet' (which is deprecated).
1260 Instead it obeys the behavior of Common-Lisp's `flet'.
1261 In particular, in cl-flet function definitions are lexically scoped,
1262 whereas in flet the scoping is dynamic.
1263
1264 *** `cl-labels' is slightly different from `labels'.
1265 The difference is that it relies on the `lexical-binding' machinery
1266 (as opposed to the `lexical-let' machinery used previously) to capture
1267 definitions in closures, so such closures will only work if `lexical-binding'
1268 is in use.
1269
1270 *** `cl-letf' is not exactly like `letf'.
1271 The only difference is in details that relate to some deprecated usage
1272 of `symbol-function' in place forms.
1273
1274 *** `progv' was rewritten to use the `let' machinery.
1275 A side effect is that variables without corresponding values are bound
1276 to nil rather than being made unbound.
1277
1278 *** The following methods of extending `setf' are obsolete
1279 (use features from gv.el instead):
1280 `define-modify-macro' (use `gv-letplace')
1281 `defsetf' (use `gv-define-simple-setter' or `gv-define-setter')
1282 `define-setf-expander' (use `gv-define-setter' or `gv-define-expander')
1283 `get-setf-method' no longer exists (see "Incompatible Lisp Changes")
1284
1285 ** Diff mode
1286
1287 *** Changes are now highlighted using the same color scheme as in
1288 modern VCSes. Deletions are displayed in red (new faces
1289 `diff-refine-removed' and `smerge-refined-removed', and new definition
1290 of `diff-removed'), insertions in green (new faces `diff-refine-added'
1291 and `smerge-refined-added', and new definition of `diff-added').
1292
1293 *** The variable `diff-use-changed-face' defines whether to use the
1294 face `diff-changed', or `diff-removed' and `diff-added' to highlight
1295 changes in context diffs.
1296
1297 *** The new command `diff-delete-trailing-whitespace' removes trailing
1298 whitespace introduced by a diff.
1299
1300 ** Ediff now uses the same color scheme as Diff mode.
1301
1302 ** Python mode
1303
1304 A new version of python.el, which provides several new features, including:
1305 per-buffer shells, better indentation, Python 3 support, and improved
1306 shell-interaction compatible with iPython (and virtually any other
1307 text based shell).
1308
1309 *** Some user options have been replaced/renamed, including (old -> new):
1310 **** python-indent -> python-indent-offset
1311 **** python-guess-indent -> python-indent-guess-indent-offset
1312 **** python-pdbtrack-do-tracking-p -> python-pdbtrack-activate
1313 **** python-use-skeletons -> python-skeleton-autoinsert
1314
1315 *** Some user options have been removed, including:
1316
1317 **** `python-indent-string-contents': Strings are never indented.
1318
1319 **** `python-honour-comment-indentation':
1320 Comments are always considered as indentation markers.
1321
1322 **** `python-continuation-offset': Indentation is automatically
1323 calculated in a pep8 compliant way depending on the context.
1324
1325 **** `python-shell-prompt-alist', `python-shell-continuation-prompt-alist':
1326 Have no direct mapping as the shell interaction is completely different.
1327
1328 **** `python-python-command', `python-jython-command':
1329 Replaced by `python-shell-interpreter'.
1330
1331 **** `inferior-python-filter-regexp', `python-remove-cwd-from-path',
1332 `python-pdbtrack-minor-mode-string', `python-source-modes':
1333 No longer relevant.
1334
1335 *** Some commands have been replaced (old -> new):
1336 **** python-insert-class -> python-skeleton-class
1337 **** python-insert-def -> python-skeleton-def
1338 **** python-insert-for -> python-skeleton-for
1339 **** python-insert-if -> python-skeleton-if
1340 **** python-insert-try/except -> python-skeleton-try
1341 **** python-insert-try/finally -> python-skeleton-try
1342 **** python-insert-while -> python-skeleton-while
1343 **** python-find-function -> python-nav-jump-to-defun
1344 **** python-next-statement -> python-nav-forward-sentence
1345 **** python-previous-statement -> python-nav-backward-sentence
1346 **** python-beginning-of-defun-function -> python-nav-beginning-of-defun
1347 **** python-end-of-defun-function -> python-nav-end-of-defun
1348 **** python-send-buffer -> python-shell-send-buffer
1349 **** python-send-defun -> python-shell-send-defun
1350 **** python-send-region -> python-shell-send-region
1351 **** python-send-region-and-go -> emulate with python-shell-send-region
1352 and python-shell-switch-to-shell
1353 **** python-send-string -> python-shell-send-string
1354 **** python-switch-to-python -> python-shell-switch-to-shell
1355 **** python-describe-symbol -> python-eldoc-at-point
1356
1357 ** D-Bus
1358
1359 *** New variables `dbus-compiled-version' and `dbus-runtime-version'.
1360
1361 *** The D-Bus object manager interface is implemented.
1362
1363 *** Variables of type :(u)int32 and :(u)int64 accept floating points,
1364 if their value does not fit into Emacs's integer range.
1365
1366 *** The function `dbus-call-method' is now non-blocking.
1367 It can be interrupted by `C-g'. `dbus-call-method-non-blocking' is obsolete.
1368
1369 *** Signals can also be sent as unicast messages.
1370
1371 *** The argument list of `dbus-register-signal' has been extended,
1372 according to the new match rule types of D-Bus.
1373
1374 *** `dbus-init-bus' supports private connections.
1375
1376 *** There is a new function `dbus-setenv'.
1377
1378 ** `desktop-path' no longer includes the "." directory.
1379 Desktop files are now located in ~/.emacs.d by default.
1380
1381 ** Dired
1382
1383 *** `dired-do-async-shell-command' executes each file sequentially
1384 if the command ends in `;' (when operating on multiple files).
1385 Otherwise, it executes the command on each file in parallel.
1386
1387 *** Typing `M-n' in the minibuffer of `dired-do-chmod', `dired-do-chgrp',
1388 `dired-do-chown', and `dired-do-touch' yanks the attributes of the
1389 file at point.
1390
1391 *** When the region is active, `m' (`dired-mark'), `u' (`dired-unmark'),
1392 `DEL' (`dired-unmark-backward'), and `d' (`dired-flag-file-deletion')
1393 mark/unmark/flag all files in the active region.
1394
1395 *** The minibuffer default for `=' (`dired-diff') has changed.
1396 It is now the backup file for the file at point, if one exists.
1397 In Transient Mark mode the default is the file at the active mark.
1398
1399 *** `M-=' is no longer bound to `dired-backup-diff' in Dired buffers.
1400 The global binding for `M-=', `count-words-region' is in effect.
1401
1402 ** ERC
1403
1404 *** New module "notifications", which can send a notification when you
1405 receive a private message or your nickname is mentioned.
1406
1407 *** ERC will look up server/channel names via auth-source and use any
1408 channel keys found.
1409
1410 *** New option `erc-lurker-hide-list', similar to `erc-hide-list', but
1411 only applies to messages sent by lurkers.
1412
1413 ** reStructuredText mode
1414
1415 *** Keybindings (see `C-c C-h'), TAB indentation, filling and auto-filling,
1416 fontification, comment handling, and customization have all been revised
1417 and improved.
1418
1419 *** Support for `imenu' and `which-function-mode'.
1420
1421 *** The reStructuredText syntax is more closely covered.
1422 Sphinx support has been improved.
1423
1424 *** `rst-insert-list' inserts new list or continues existing lists.
1425
1426 *** A negative prefix argument always works for `rst-adjust'.
1427
1428 *** The window configuration is reset after displaying a TOC.
1429
1430 *** The constant `rst-version' describes the rst.el package version.
1431
1432 ** Ruby mode
1433
1434 *** Support for percent literals and recognition of regular expressions
1435 in method calls without parentheses with more methods, including Cucumber
1436 steps definitions.
1437
1438 *** Improved syntax highlighting and indentation.
1439
1440 *** New command `ruby-toggle-block', bound to `C-c {'.
1441
1442 *** Some non-standard keybindings/commands have been removed:
1443
1444 **** `ruby-electric-brace'; use `electric-indent-mode' instead.
1445
1446 **** `ruby-mark-defun'; use `mark-defun'.
1447
1448 **** `ruby-beginning-of-defun' and `ruby-end-of-defun' are replaced by
1449 appropriate settings for the variables `beginning-of-defun-function'
1450 and `end-of-defun-function'.
1451
1452 **** Non-standard keybindings for `backward-kill-word', `comment-region',
1453 `reindent-then-newline-and-indent' and `newline' have been removed.
1454
1455 ** Shell Script mode
1456
1457 *** Pairing of parens/quotes uses `electric-pair-mode' instead of skeleton-pair.
1458
1459 *** `sh-electric-here-document-mode' now controls auto-insertion of here-docs.
1460
1461 *** `sh-use-smie' lets you choose a new indentation and navigation code.
1462
1463 ** VHDL mode
1464
1465 *** The free software compiler GHDL is supported (and now the default).
1466
1467 *** Support for the VHDL-AMS packages has been added/updated.
1468
1469 *** Updated to the 2002 revision of the VHDL standard.
1470
1471 *** Accepts \r and \f as whitespace.
1472
1473 ** Apropos
1474
1475 *** The faces used by Apropos are now directly customizable.
1476 These faces are named `apropos-symbol', `apropos-keybinding', and so on;
1477 see the `apropos' Custom group for details.
1478
1479 *** The old options whose values specified faces to use have been removed
1480 (i.e. `apropos-symbol-face', `apropos-keybinding-face', etc.).
1481
1482 ** Buffer Menu
1483
1484 *** This package has been rewritten to use Tabulated List mode.
1485
1486 *** Option `Buffer-menu-buffer+size-width' is now obsolete.
1487 Use `Buffer-menu-name-width' and `Buffer-menu-size-width' instead.
1488
1489 ** Calc
1490
1491 *** Algebraic simplification mode is now the default.
1492 To restrict to the limited simplifications given by the former
1493 default simplification mode, use `m I'.
1494
1495 ** Calendar
1496
1497 *** You can customize the header text that appears above each calendar month.
1498 See the variable `calendar-month-header'.
1499
1500 *** New LaTeX calendar style, produced by `cal-tex-cursor-week2-summary'.
1501
1502 *** The calendars produced by cal-html include holidays.
1503 Customize `cal-html-holidays' to change this.
1504
1505 ** CEDET
1506
1507 *** The major modes from the parser generators "Bovine" and "Wisent"
1508 are now properly integrated in Emacs. The file suffixes ".by" and ".wy"
1509 are in `auto-mode-alist', and the corresponding manuals are included.
1510
1511 *** EDE
1512
1513 **** Menu support for the "Configuration" feature. This allows users to
1514 choose the active configuration (such as debug or install) from the menu.
1515
1516 **** New command `ede-set' to interactively set project-local variables.
1517
1518 **** Support for compiling, debugging, and running in "generic" projects.
1519
1520 **** Autoconf editing support for M4 macros with complex arguments.
1521
1522 **** Compilation support for the "linux" project type.
1523
1524 **** "simple" projects have been removed; use "generic" projects instead.
1525
1526 *** Semantic
1527
1528 **** Support for parsing #include statements inside a namespace in C/C++.
1529
1530 **** Improved support for 'extern "C"' declarations in C/C++.
1531
1532 **** The ability to ignore more common special C/C++ preprocessor symbols,
1533 such as '__nonnull' and '__asm'. Add '__cplusplus' macro when parsing C++.
1534 If available, include cdefs.h as an additional source of preprocessor symbols.
1535
1536 **** Improved C/C++ function pointer parsing.
1537
1538 **** In Python, support for converting imports to include file names.
1539
1540 **** Ability to dynamically determine the Python load path.
1541
1542 **** Support for the Python 'WITH' and 'AT' keywords.
1543
1544 **** Improved tooltip completion.
1545
1546 *** SRecode
1547
1548 **** The SRecode manual is now included.
1549
1550 **** Tag generation supports constructor/destructor settings and system
1551 include differentiation.
1552
1553 **** Addition of 'Framework' support: Frameworks are specified when a
1554 particular kind of library (such as Android) is needed in a common language
1555 mode (like Java).
1556
1557 **** Support for nested templates and let variables override based on priority.
1558
1559 **** Support for merging tables from multiple related modes, such as
1560 default -> c++ -> arduino.
1561
1562 ** Compile has a new option `compilation-always-kill'.
1563
1564 ** Customize
1565
1566 *** `custom-reset-button-menu' now defaults to t.
1567
1568 *** Non-option variables are never matched in `customize-apropos' and
1569 `customize-apropos-options' (i.e., the prefix argument does nothing for
1570 these commands now).
1571
1572 ** Term
1573
1574 *** The variables `term-default-fg-color' and `term-default-bg-color'
1575 are now deprecated in favor of the customizable face `term'.
1576
1577 *** You can customize how to display ANSI terminal colors and styles
1578 by customizing the corresponding `term-color-<COLOR>',
1579 `term-color-underline' and `term-color-bold' faces.
1580
1581 ** Tramp
1582
1583 *** The syntax has been extended in order to allow ad-hoc proxy definitions.
1584
1585 *** Remote processes are now also supported on remote MS-Windows hosts.
1586
1587 ** URL
1588
1589 *** Structs made by `url-generic-parse-url' have nil `attributes' slot.
1590 Previously, this slot stored semicolon-separated attribute-value pairs
1591 appended to some imap URLs, but this is not compatible with RFC 3986.
1592 So now the `filename' slot stores the entire path and query components,
1593 and the `attributes' slot is always nil.
1594
1595 *** New function `url-encode-url' for encoding a URI string.
1596 The `url-retrieve' function now uses this to encode its URL argument,
1597 in case that is not properly encoded.
1598
1599 *** New command `url-cookie-list' displays all the current cookies, and
1600 allows deleting selected cookies.
1601
1602 ** notifications.el supports now version 1.2 of the Notifications API.
1603 The function `notifications-get-capabilities' returns the supported
1604 server properties.
1605
1606 ** Flymake uses fringe bitmaps to indicate errors and warnings.
1607 See `flymake-fringe-indicator-position', `flymake-error-bitmap' and
1608 `flymake-warning-bitmap'.
1609
1610 ** The FFAP option `ffap-url-unwrap-remote' can now be a list of strings,
1611 specifying URL types that should be converted to remote file names at
1612 the FFAP prompt. The default is now '("ftp").
1613
1614 ** New Ibuffer `derived-mode' filter, bound to `/ M'.
1615 The old binding for `/ M' (filter by used-mode) is now bound to `/ m'.
1616
1617 ** New option `mouse-avoidance-banish-position' specifies where the
1618 `banish' mouse avoidance setting moves the mouse.
1619
1620 ** In Perl mode, new option `perl-indent-parens-as-block' causes non-block
1621 closing brackets to be aligned with the line of the opening bracket.
1622
1623 ** In Proced mode, new command `proced-renice' renices marked processes.
1624
1625 ** New option `async-shell-command-buffer' specifies the buffer to use
1626 for a new asynchronous `shell-command' when the default output buffer
1627 `*Async Shell Command*' is already in use.
1628
1629 ** SQL mode has a new option `sql-db2-escape-newlines'.
1630 If non-nil, newlines sent to the command interpreter will be escaped
1631 by a backslash. The default does not escape the newlines and assumes
1632 that the sql statement will be terminated by a semicolon.
1633
1634 ** New command `tabulated-list-sort', bound to `S' in Tabulated List mode
1635 (and modes that derive from it), sorts the column at point, or the Nth
1636 column if a numeric prefix argument is given.
1637
1638 ** `which-func-modes' now defaults to t, so Which Function mode, when
1639 enabled, applies to all applicable major modes.
1640
1641 ** `winner-mode-hook' now runs when the mode is disabled, as well as when
1642 it is enabled.
1643
1644 ** Follow mode no longer works by using advice.
1645 The option `follow-intercept-processes' has been removed.
1646
1647 ** `javascript-generic-mode' is now an obsolete alias for `js-mode'.
1648
1649 ** Hooks renamed to avoid obsolete "-hooks" suffix:
1650 *** semantic-lex-reset-hooks -> semantic-lex-reset-functions
1651 *** semantic-change-hooks -> semantic-change-functions
1652 *** semantic-edits-new-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-new-change-functions
1653 *** semantic-edits-delete-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-delete-change-functions
1654 *** semantic-edits-reparse-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-reparse-change-functions
1655 *** semanticdb-save-database-hooks -> semanticdb-save-database-functions
1656 *** c-prepare-bug-report-hooks -> c-prepare-bug-report-hook
1657 *** rcirc-sentinel-hooks -> rcirc-sentinel-functions
1658 *** rcirc-receive-message-hooks -> rcirc-receive-message-functions
1659 *** rcirc-activity-hooks -> rcirc-activity-functions
1660 *** rcirc-print-hooks -> rcirc-print-functions
1661 *** dbus-event-error-hooks -> dbus-event-error-functions
1662 *** eieio-pre-method-execution-hooks -> eieio-pre-method-execution-functions
1663 *** checkdoc-style-hooks -> checkdoc-style-functions
1664 *** checkdoc-comment-style-hooks -> checkdoc-comment-style-functions
1665 *** archive-extract-hooks -> archive-extract-hook
1666 *** filesets-cache-fill-content-hooks -> filesets-cache-fill-content-hook
1667 *** hfy-post-html-hooks -> hfy-post-html-hook
1668 *** nndiary-request-create-group-hooks -> nndiary-request-create-group-functions
1669 *** nndiary-request-update-info-hooks -> nndiary-request-update-info-functions
1670 *** nndiary-request-accept-article-hooks -> nndiary-request-accept-article-functions
1671 *** gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-hooks -> gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-functions
1672
1673 ** Obsolete packages
1674
1675 *** assoc.el
1676 In most cases, assoc+member+push+delq work just as well.
1677 And in any case it's just a terrible package: ugly semantics, terrible
1678 inefficiency, and not namespace-clean.
1679 *** bruce.el
1680 *** cust-print.el
1681 *** ledit.el
1682 *** mailpost.el
1683 *** mouse-sel.el
1684 *** patcomp.el
1685
1686 \f
1687 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.3
1688
1689 ** Docstrings starting with `*' no longer indicate user options.
1690 Only variables defined using `defcustom' are considered user options.
1691 The function `user-variable-p' is now an obsolete alias for
1692 `custom-variable-p'.
1693
1694 ** The return values of `defalias', `defun' and `defmacro' have changed,
1695 and are now undefined. For backwards compatibility, `defun' and
1696 `defmacro' currently return the name of the newly defined
1697 function/macro, but this should not be relied upon.
1698
1699 ** `random' by default now returns a different random sequence in
1700 every Emacs run. Use `(random S)', where S is a string, to set the
1701 random seed to a value based on S, in order to get a repeatable
1702 sequence in later calls.
1703
1704 ** If the NEWTEXT arg to `replace-match' contains a substring "\?",
1705 that substring is inserted literally even if the LITERAL arg is
1706 non-nil, instead of causing an error to be signaled.
1707
1708 ** `select-window' now always makes the window's buffer current.
1709 It does so even if the window was selected before.
1710
1711 ** The function `x-select-font' can return a font spec, instead of a
1712 font name as a string. Whether it returns a font spec or a font name
1713 depends on the graphical library.
1714
1715 ** `face-spec-set' no longer sets frame-specific attributes when the
1716 third argument is a frame (that usage was obsolete since Emacs 22.2).
1717
1718 ** `set-buffer-multibyte' now signals an error in narrowed buffers.
1719
1720 ** The CL package's `get-setf-method' function no longer exists.
1721 Generalized variables are now part of core Emacs Lisp, and implemented
1722 differently to the way cl.el used to do it. It is not possible to
1723 define a compatible replacement for `get-setf-method'. See the file
1724 gv.el for internal details of the new implementation.
1725
1726 ** The arguments of `dbus-register-signal' are no longer just strings,
1727 but keywords or keyword-string pairs. The old argument list will
1728 still be supported for Emacs 24.x.
1729
1730 ** Miscellaneous name changes
1731 Some Lisp symbols have been renamed to correct their spelling,
1732 or to be more consistent with standard Emacs terminology.
1733
1734 *** Renamed functions
1735 **** hangul-input-method-inactivate -> hangul-input-method-deactivate
1736 **** inactivate-input-method -> deactivate-input-method
1737 **** quail-inactivate -> quail-deactivate
1738 **** robin-inactivate -> robin-deactivate
1739 **** viper-inactivate-input-method -> viper-deactivate-input-method
1740 **** viper-inactivate-input-method-action ->
1741 viper-deactivate-input-method-action
1742 **** ucs-input-inactivate -> ucs-input-deactivate
1743
1744 *** Renamed hooks
1745 The old hooks are still supported for backward compatibility, but they
1746 are deprecated and will be removed eventually.
1747 **** input-method-inactivate-hook -> input-method-deactivate-hook
1748 **** robin-inactivate-hook -> robin-deactivate-hook
1749 **** quail-inactivate-hook -> quail-deactivate-hook
1750
1751 *** Renamed variables
1752 **** follow-deactive-menu -> follow-inactive-menu
1753 **** inactivate-current-input-method-function ->
1754 deactivate-current-input-method-function
1755
1756 ** Some obsolete functions, variables, and faces have been removed:
1757 *** `last-input-char', `last-command-char', `unread-command-char'
1758 *** `facemenu-unlisted-faces'
1759 *** `rmail-decode-mime-charset'
1760 *** `iswitchb-read-buffer'
1761 *** `sc-version', `sc-submit-bug-report'
1762 *** `set-char-table-default'
1763 *** `string-to-sequence' (use `string-to-list' or `string-to-vector')
1764 *** `compile-internal'
1765 *** `modeline'
1766 *** `mode-line-inverse-video'
1767 *** `follow-mode-off-hook'
1768 *** `cvs-commit-buffer-require-final-newline'
1769 (use `log-edit-require-final-newline' instead)
1770 *** `cvs-changelog-full-paragraphs'
1771 (use `log-edit-changelog-full-paragraphs' instead)
1772 *** `cvs-diff-ignore-marks', `cvs-diff-buffer-name'
1773 *** `vc-ignore-vc-files' (use `vc-handled-backends' instead)
1774 *** `vc-master-templates' (use `vc-handled-backends' instead)
1775 *** `vc-checkout-carefully'
1776
1777 \f
1778 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.3
1779
1780 ** CL-style generalized variables are now in core Elisp.
1781 `setf' is autoloaded; `push' and `pop' accept generalized variables.
1782 You can define your own generalized variables using `gv-define-simple-setter',
1783 `gv-define-setter', etc.
1784
1785 ** Emacs tries to macroexpand interpreted (non-compiled) files during load.
1786 This can significantly speed up execution of non-byte-compiled code,
1787 but can also bump into previously unnoticed cyclic dependencies.
1788 These are generally harmless: they will simply cause the macro calls
1789 to be left for later expansion (as before), but will result in a
1790 warning ("Eager macro-expansion skipped due to cycle") describing the cycle.
1791 You may wish to restructure your code so this does not happen.
1792
1793 ** New sampling-based Elisp profiler.
1794 Try M-x profiler-start, do some work, and then call M-x profiler-report.
1795 When finished, use M-x profiler-stop. The sampling rate can be based on
1796 CPU time or memory allocations.
1797
1798 ** `defun' also accepts a (declare DECLS) form, like `defmacro'.
1799 The interpretation of the DECLS is determined by `defun-declarations-alist'.
1800
1801 ** New macros `setq-local' and `defvar-local'.
1802
1803 ** Face underlining can now use a wave.
1804
1805 ** `read-regexp' has a new argument HISTORY; the first argument PROMPT
1806 of `read-regexp' accepts a string ending with a colon and space, and its
1807 second argument DEFAULTS can be a list of strings accessible via `M-n'
1808 in the minibuffer ahead of other hard-coded useful regexp-related values.
1809 More commands use `read-regexp' now to read their regexp arguments.
1810
1811 ** Completion
1812
1813 *** New function `completion-table-with-quoting' to handle completion
1814 in the presence of quoting, such as file completion in shell buffers.
1815
1816 *** New function `completion-table-subvert' to use an existing completion
1817 table, but with a different prefix.
1818
1819 ** Debugger
1820
1821 *** New error type and new function `user-error'.
1822 These do not trigger the debugger.
1823
1824 *** New option `debugger-bury-or-kill', saying what to do with the
1825 debugger buffer when exiting debug.
1826
1827 *** Set `debug-on-message' to enter the debugger when a certain
1828 message is displayed in the echo area. This can be useful when trying
1829 to work out which code is doing something.
1830
1831 *** New var `inhibit-debugger', automatically set to prevent accidental
1832 recursive invocations.
1833
1834 ** Window handling
1835
1836 *** New command `fit-frame-to-buffer' adjusts the frame height to
1837 fit the contents.
1838
1839 *** The command `fit-window-to-buffer' can adjust the frame height
1840 if the new option `fit-frame-to-buffer' is non-nil.
1841
1842 *** New macro `with-temp-buffer-window', similar to
1843 `with-output-to-temp-buffer'.
1844
1845 *** `temp-buffer-resize-mode' no longer resizes windows that have been
1846 reused.
1847
1848 *** New option `switch-to-buffer-preserve-window-point' to restore a
1849 window's point when switching buffers.
1850
1851 *** New display action function `display-buffer-no-window' to not
1852 display the buffer in a window.
1853
1854 *** New display action alist entry `allow-no-window' to indicate the
1855 caller of `display-buffer' is ready to handle the case of not
1856 displaying the buffer in a window.
1857
1858 *** New display action alist entries `window-height' and `window-width'
1859 specify the size of new windows created by `display-buffer'.
1860
1861 *** New display action alist entry `pop-up-frame-parameters', if
1862 non-nil, specifies frame parameters to give any newly-created frame.
1863
1864 *** New display action alist entry `inhibit-switch-frame', if non-nil,
1865 tells display action functions to avoid changing which frame is
1866 selected.
1867
1868 *** New display action alist entry `previous-window', if non-nil,
1869 specifies window to reuse in `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
1870
1871 *** New display action functions `display-buffer-below-selected',
1872 and `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
1873
1874 *** The functions `get-lru-window', `get-mru-window' and `get-largest-window'
1875 now accept a third argument to avoid choosing the selected window.
1876
1877 *** Additional values recognized for option `window-combination-limit'.
1878
1879 *** The following variables are obsolete, as they can be replaced by
1880 appropriate entries in the `display-buffer-alist' function introduced
1881 in Emacs 24.1:
1882 **** `dired-shrink-to-fit'
1883 **** `display-buffer-reuse-frames'
1884 **** `display-buffer-function'
1885 **** `special-display-buffer-names'
1886 **** `special-display-frame-alist'
1887 **** `special-display-function'
1888 **** `special-display-regexps'
1889
1890 ** Time
1891
1892 *** `current-time-string' no longer requires that its argument's year
1893 must be in the range 1000..9999. It now works with any year supported
1894 by the underlying C implementation.
1895
1896 *** `current-time' now returns extended-format time stamps
1897 (HIGH LOW USEC PSEC), where the new PSEC slot specifies picoseconds.
1898 PSEC is typically a multiple of 1000 on current machines. Other
1899 functions that use this format, such as `file-attributes' and
1900 `format-time-string', have been changed accordingly. Old-format time
1901 stamps are still accepted.
1902
1903 *** The format of timers in `timer-list' and `timer-idle-list' is now
1904 [TRIGGERED-P HI-SECS LO-SECS USECS REPEAT-DELAY FUNCTION ARGS IDLE-DELAY PSECS].
1905 The PSECS slot is new, and uses picosecond resolution. It can be
1906 accessed via the new `timer--psecs' accessor.
1907
1908 *** Last-modified time stamps in undo lists now are of the form
1909 (t HI-SECS LO-SECS USECS PSECS) instead of (t HI-SECS . LO-SECS).
1910
1911 ** EIEIO
1912
1913 *** Improved security when handling persistent objects:
1914
1915 **** `eieio-persistent-read' now features optional arguments for specifying
1916 the class to load, as well as a flag stating whether subclasses are allowed;
1917 if provided, other classes will be rejected by the reader. For
1918 compatibility with existing code, if the class is omitted only a
1919 warning is issued.
1920
1921 **** New specialized reader for pulling in classes and signaling errors
1922 without evaluation of suspicious code.
1923
1924 **** All slots that contain objects must have a :type. Slots with lists
1925 of objects must use a new type predicate for a list of an object type.
1926
1927 *** Support for `find-function' and similar utilities, through the addition
1928 of filename support to generated symbols.
1929
1930 ** Floating point functions now always return special values like NaN,
1931 instead of signaling errors, if given invalid args; e.g., (log -1.0).
1932 Previously, they returned NaNs on some platforms but signaled errors
1933 on others. The affected functions are acos, asin, tan, exp, expt,
1934 log, log10, sqrt, and mod.
1935
1936 ** New fringe bitmap `exclamation-mark'.
1937
1938 ** Miscellaneous changes to special forms and macros
1939
1940 *** `defun' and `defmacro' are now macros rather than special forms.
1941
1942 *** `kbd' is now a function rather than a macro.
1943
1944 ** Miscellaneous new functions
1945
1946 *** `set-temporary-overlay-map' sets up a temporary keymap that
1947 takes precedence over most other maps for a short while (normally one key).
1948
1949 *** `autoloadp' tests if its argument is an autoloaded object.
1950
1951 *** `autoload-do-load' performs the autoloading operation.
1952
1953 *** `buffer-narrowed-p' tests if the buffer is narrowed.
1954
1955 *** `file-name-base' returns a file name sans directory and extension.
1956
1957 *** `function-get' fetches a function property, following aliases.
1958
1959 *** `posnp' tests if an object is a `posn'.
1960
1961 *** `system-users' returns the user names on the system.
1962
1963 *** `system-groups' returns the group names on the system.
1964
1965 *** `tty-top-frame' returns the topmost frame of a text terminal.
1966
1967 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
1968 *** `automount-dir-prefix' (use `directory-abbrev-alist')
1969 *** `buffer-has-markers-at'
1970 *** `macro-declaration-function' (use `macro-declarations-alist')
1971 *** `window-system-version' (provides no useful information)
1972 *** `dired-pop-to-buffer' (use `dired-mark-pop-up')
1973 *** `query-replace-interactive'
1974 *** `font-list-limit' (has had no effect since Emacs < 23)
1975
1976 \f
1977 * Changes in Emacs 24.3 on Non-Free Operating Systems
1978
1979 ** Cygwin builds can use the native MS Windows user interface.
1980 Pass `--with-w32' to configure. The default remains the X11 interface.
1981
1982 ** Two new functions are available in Cygwin builds:
1983 `cygwin-convert-file-name-from-windows' and
1984 `cygwin-convert-file-name-to-windows'. These functions allow Lisp
1985 code to access the Cygwin file-name mapping machinery to convert
1986 between Cygwin and Windows-native file and directory names.
1987
1988 ** When invoked with the -nw switch to run on the Windows text-mode terminal,
1989 Emacs now supports `mouse-highlight', help-echo (in the echo area), and
1990 `mouse-autoselect-window'.
1991
1992 ** On MS Windows Vista and later Emacs now supports symbolic links.
1993
1994 ** On MS Windows, you can pass `--without-libxml2' to configure.bat to omit
1995 support for libxml2, even if its presence is detected.
1996
1997 ** On Mac OS X, the Nextstep port requires OS X 10.4 or later.
1998
1999 ** On Mac OS X, configure no longer automatically adds the Fink "/sw"
2000 directories to the search path. You must add them yourself if you want them.
2001
2002 \f
2003 * Changes in Emacs 24.2
2004
2005 ** This is mainly a bug-fix release.
2006
2007 \f
2008 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
2009
2010 ** Emacs can be compiled with Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
2011 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
2012 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
2013 --without-gconf.
2014
2015 ** Emacs can be compiled with GnuTLS support.
2016 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
2017 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
2018 `--without-gnutls'. See below for GnuTLS features.
2019
2020 ** Emacs can be compiled with SELinux support.
2021 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
2022 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
2023 `--without-selinux'. See below for SELinux features.
2024
2025 ** Emacs can be compiled with ImageMagick support.
2026 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
2027 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
2028 `--without-imagemagick'. See below for ImageMagick features.
2029 This feature is not available for the Nextstep or MS ports.
2030
2031 ** Emacs can be compiled with libxml2 support.
2032 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
2033 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
2034 `--without-xml2'. See below for libxml2 features.
2035
2036 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
2037 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
2038
2039 ** New configure option --with-wide-int.
2040 With it, Emacs integers typically have 62 bits, even on 32-bit machines.
2041 On 32-bit hosts, this raises the limit on buffer sizes from about 512 MiB
2042 to about 2 GiB.
2043
2044 ** New configure options: --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
2045 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
2046 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
2047
2048 ** New configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
2049 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
2050 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
2051
2052 ** The standalone programs digest-doc and sorted-doc are removed.
2053 Emacs now uses Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
2054
2055 ** The standalone program `fakemail' is removed.
2056 If you need it, feedmail.el provides a superset of the functionality.
2057
2058 \f
2059 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
2060
2061 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
2062 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
2063 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
2064
2065 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
2066 from load-path. -Q now implies this. This option does not affect the
2067 EMACSLOADPATH environment variable (and hence has no effect for
2068 Nextstep builds).
2069
2070 \f
2071 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
2072
2073 ** Completion
2074
2075 *** Many packages now use the `completion-at-point' command,
2076 rather than implementing separate completion commands.
2077
2078 *** `completion-at-point' now handles tags and semantic completion.
2079
2080 *** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
2081 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
2082
2083 *** New option `completion-cycle-threshold' allows completion cycling.
2084
2085 *** New option `completion-category-overrides' for overriding the
2086 default completion style in certain circumstances.
2087
2088 *** New completion style `substring'.
2089
2090 *** Completion of buffer names uses `substring' completion by default.
2091
2092 *** The option `widget-complete-field' has been removed.
2093
2094 ** Mail changes
2095
2096 *** The first time you try sending mail, Emacs asks for a mail method.
2097 This is implemented by a new default for `send-mail-function', which
2098 is `sendmail-query-once'. This offers to use the smtpmail package, or
2099 to use the old defaults relying on external mail facilities
2100 (`sendmail-send-it' on GNU/Linux and other Unix-like systems, and
2101 `mailclient-send-it' on Windows).
2102
2103 *** Typing `C-c m' in the buffer made by `M-x report-emacs-bug'
2104 transfers the report to your desktop's preferred mail client, if there
2105 is one. This uses either the "xdg-email" utility, or Mac OS's "open"
2106 command.
2107
2108 *** See Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages for SMTPmail changes
2109 and Mail mode changes
2110
2111 ** Emacs server and client changes
2112
2113 *** New option `server-port' specifies the port for TCP Emacs servers.
2114
2115 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
2116
2117 *** New emacsclient argument --frame-parameters specifies the frame
2118 parameters of any newly-created graphical frame.
2119
2120 *** If emacsclient shuts down due to Emacs signaling an error,
2121 its exit status is 1.
2122
2123 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID.
2124 This opens a client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed, similar
2125 to the --parent-id argument to Emacs.
2126
2127 ** Internationalization changes
2128
2129 *** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
2130 Right-to-left (RTL) scripts, such as Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew, are
2131 displayed in the correct visual order as expected by users of those
2132 scripts. The display reordering is a "full bidirectionality" class
2133 implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm (UBA). Buffers
2134 with no RTL text should look exactly the same as before.
2135
2136 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-display-reordering'.
2137 To disable display reordering in a buffer, change this to nil.
2138
2139 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction'.
2140 If nil (the default), Emacs determines the base direction of each
2141 paragraph from its text, as specified by the UBA. Setting the value
2142 to `right-to-left' or `left-to-right' forces a base direction on each
2143 paragraph.
2144
2145 Paragraphs with right-to-left base direction are displayed starting at
2146 the right window edge.
2147
2148 *** Enhanced support for characters with no glyphs in available fonts,
2149 or, on text terminals, characters that cannot be encoded by the
2150 terminal coding system. The new option `glyphless-char-display-control'
2151 specifies how to display them: as a hexadecimal code in a box, a thin
2152 1-pixel space, an empty box, etc.
2153
2154 *** New input methods for Farsi and Bulgarian
2155 (farsi-isiri-9147, farsi-transliterate-banan, bulgarian-alt-phonetic).
2156
2157 *** `nobreak-char-display' now also highlights Unicode hyphen chars
2158 (U+2010 and U+2011).
2159
2160 *** New Hebrew translation of the Emacs Tutorial.
2161 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
2162 automatically select it.
2163
2164 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
2165 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
2166 from a package repository at http://elpa.gnu.org.
2167
2168 *** M-x list-packages shows a list of packages, which can be
2169 selected for installation.
2170
2171 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
2172
2173 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded automatically when
2174 Emacs starts up. To disable this, set `package-enable-at-startup' to
2175 nil. To specify the packages to load, customize `package-load-list'.
2176
2177 ** Custom theme changes
2178
2179 *** New command `M-x customize-themes', which provides a convenient
2180 interface for enabling and disabling Custom themes.
2181
2182 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
2183 Emacs no longer looks for Custom themes in `load-path'. The default
2184 value of `custom-theme-load-path' says to look for themes in
2185 `custom-theme-directory', followed by a subdirectory of
2186 `data-directory' named "themes/", which contains a small selection of
2187 built-in Custom themes.
2188
2189 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
2190 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
2191 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
2192 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
2193
2194 ** Improved GTK integration
2195
2196 *** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
2197 The function `set-scroll-bar-mode' can change this.
2198
2199 *** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
2200 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose the style. On a Gnome desktop,
2201 the default is taken from desktop settings.
2202
2203 *** GTK tool bars can be placed on any edge of the frame.
2204 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the
2205 values top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has
2206 entries for this.
2207
2208 *** The default colors for selected text (the `region' face) are taken
2209 from the GTK theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
2210
2211 *** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK.
2212 You can disable this by changing `x-gtk-use-system-tooltips' to nil.
2213
2214 ** Graphical interface changes
2215
2216 *** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
2217 Also, the first dash (which does not indicate anything) is just
2218 displayed as a space.
2219
2220 *** `menu-bar-select-buffer-function' lets you choose another operation
2221 instead of `switch-to-buffer' when selecting an item in the Buffers menu.
2222
2223 *** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is
2224 built with Xft. These fonts can be set via X resources, for example:
2225 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
2226
2227 ** Exiting changes
2228
2229 *** Emacs now calls `kill-emacs' if it receives SIGTERM or SIGHUP,
2230 or if it receives a SIGINT signal in batch mode.
2231
2232 *** `kill-emacs-hook' is now also run in batch mode.
2233 Third-party code which adds to `kill-emacs-hook' should check if they
2234 do the right thing in batch mode.
2235
2236 ** Scrolling changes
2237
2238 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
2239 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
2240 of buffer at first key-press (instead they move to top/bottom of buffer)
2241 when `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
2242
2243 *** New option `scroll-error-top-bottom' (see above).
2244
2245 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
2246 scroll a line instead of full screen.
2247
2248 *** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
2249 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
2250
2251 *** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
2252 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
2253 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
2254 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
2255 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
2256
2257 *** "Aggressive" scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
2258 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
2259 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
2260 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
2261 margin.
2262
2263 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
2264 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
2265
2266 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up.
2267 Also, the function `copy-file' has an extra optional argument for
2268 preserving SELinux context, and the return value of `backup-buffer'
2269 now includes the SELinux context.
2270
2271 *** New functions `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
2272 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
2273
2274 ** Trash changes
2275
2276 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
2277 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
2278
2279 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
2280 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
2281
2282 ** File- and directory-local variable changes
2283
2284 *** You can stop directory local vars from applying to subdirectories.
2285 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
2286 settings to indicate that the section should not apply to
2287 subdirectories.
2288
2289 *** Directory local variables can apply to some file-less buffers.
2290 Affected modes include dired, vc-dir, and log-edit. For example,
2291 adding "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to .dir-locals.el will
2292 turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should call
2293 `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
2294
2295 *** Using "mode: MINOR-MODE" to enable a minor mode is deprecated.
2296 Instead, use "eval: (minor-mode 1)".
2297
2298 *** The variable `inhibit-first-line-modes-regexps' has been renamed
2299 to `inhibit-local-variables-regexps'. As the name suggests, it now
2300 applies to ALL file local variables, not just -*- lines. The
2301 associated `inhibit-first-line-modes-suffixes' has been renamed in the
2302 corresponding way.
2303
2304 ** Window changes
2305
2306 *** The `quit-window' command now restores the last buffer displayed
2307 in the quitted window.
2308
2309 *** Resizing an Emacs frame now preserves proportional window sizes,
2310 modulo restrictions like window minimum sizes and fixed-size windows.
2311
2312 *** The behavior of `display-buffer' is now customizable in detail.
2313
2314 **** New option `display-buffer-base-action' specifies a list of
2315 user-determined display "actions" (functions and optional arguments
2316 for choosing the displaying window).
2317
2318 This takes precedence over the default display action, which is
2319 specified by `display-buffer-fallback-action'.
2320
2321 **** New option `display-buffer-alist' maps buffer name regexps to
2322 display actions, taking precedence over `display-buffer-base-action'.
2323
2324 *** New option `window-combination-limit'.
2325 The new option `window-combination-limit' allows to return the space
2326 obtained for resizing or creating a window more reliably to the window
2327 from which such space was obtained.
2328
2329 *** New option `window-combination-resize'.
2330 The new option `window-combination-resize' allows to split a window that
2331 otherwise cannot be split because it's too small by stealing space from
2332 other windows in the same combination. Subsequent resizing or deletion
2333 of the window will resize all windows in the same combination as well.
2334
2335 *** New option `frame-auto-hide-function' lets you choose between
2336 iconifying or deleting a frame when burying a buffer in a dedicated
2337 frame, or quitting a window showing a buffer in a frame of its own.
2338
2339 *** New commands `maximize-window' and `minimize-window'.
2340 These maximize and minimize the size of a window within its frame.
2341
2342 *** New commands `switch-to-prev-buffer' and `switch-to-next-buffer'.
2343 These functions allow to navigate through the live buffers that have
2344 been shown in a specific window.
2345
2346 ** Minibuffer changes
2347
2348 *** The inactive minibuffer has its own major mode `minibuffer-inactive-mode'.
2349 This is handy for minibuffer-only frames, and is also used for the feature
2350 where mouse-1 pops up *Messages*"', which can now easily be changed.
2351
2352 *** Minibuffers set `truncate-lines' to nil.
2353 If you want to change the value to something else, you could use
2354 for example `minibuffer-setup-hook'.
2355
2356 ** `auto-mode-case-fold' is now enabled by default.
2357
2358 ** `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' now defaults to t.
2359
2360 ** New basic faces `error', `warning', `success'.
2361 These are used to highlight text indicating failure, caution or
2362 successful operation.
2363
2364 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
2365 for `list-colors-display'.
2366
2367 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
2368
2369 \f
2370 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
2371
2372 ** Search changes
2373
2374 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-kill', instead of
2375 `isearch-yank-line'.
2376
2377 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-pop', instead of
2378 `isearch-yank-kill'.
2379
2380 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-line'.
2381
2382 ** New commands `count-words-region' and `count-words'.
2383
2384 *** M-= is bound to `count-words-region', not `count-lines-region'.
2385 The `count-words-region' command, when called interactively, reports
2386 the number of lines, words, and characters in the region. It is a
2387 superset of the old `count-lines-region', which is now an obsolete
2388 alias for it.
2389
2390 ** The command `just-one-space' (M-SPC), if given a negative argument,
2391 also deletes newlines around point.
2392
2393 ** Deletion changes
2394
2395 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
2396 If non-nil, [delete] and DEL delete the region if it is active and no
2397 prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', those commands kill
2398 instead.
2399
2400 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to [delete].
2401 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
2402 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
2403
2404 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
2405 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
2406 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; Lisp
2407 callers should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
2408
2409 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
2410
2411 ** Selection changes.
2412
2413 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections has been
2414 changed to conform with modern X applications. In short, most
2415 commands for killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while
2416 mouse commands use the primary selection.
2417
2418 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
2419 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
2420
2421 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
2422 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
2423 the kill ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
2424 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
2425
2426 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
2427 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
2428 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
2429 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
2430 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
2431
2432 **** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
2433
2434 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
2435 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
2436 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
2437
2438 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
2439
2440 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
2441 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
2442 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
2443
2444 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
2445 exactly equivalent to M-w, C-w, and C-y respectively.
2446
2447 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
2448 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
2449 between applications.
2450
2451 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
2452
2453 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
2454 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
2455 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
2456 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
2457 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
2458
2459 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
2460
2461 *** X clipboard managers are now supported.
2462 To inhibit this, change `x-select-enable-clipboard-manager' to nil.
2463
2464 ** New command `C-x r N' (`rectangle-number-lines') numbers the lines
2465 in the current rectangle. With a prefix argument, this prompts for a
2466 number to count from and for a format string.
2467
2468 ** `redisplay-dont-pause' now defaults to t.
2469 This makes Emacs feel more responsive to editing commands that arrive
2470 at high rate, e.g. if you lean on some key, because stopping redisplay
2471 in the middle (when this variable is nil) forces more expensive
2472 updates later on, and Emacs appears to be unable to keep up.
2473
2474 ** The behavior of <TAB> for active regions in Text mode has changed.
2475 In Text and related modes, typing <TAB> (`indent-for-tab-command')
2476 when the region is active causes Emacs to indent all the lines in the
2477 region, aligning them with the line previous to the first line in the
2478 region (or with the left margin if there is no previous line).
2479
2480 ** When `occur' is called with a prefix argument, matching strings are
2481 collected into the `*Occur*' buffer without line numbers. If there
2482 are parenthesized subexpressions in the specified regexp, `occur'
2483 reads replacement text that may contain \\& and \\N whose convention
2484 follows `replace-match'.
2485
2486 \f
2487 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
2488
2489 ** Archive Mode has basic support for browsing and updating 7z archives.
2490
2491 ** BibTeX mode
2492
2493 *** BibTeX mode now supports biblatex.
2494 Use the variable `bibtex-dialect' to select different BibTeX dialects.
2495 `bibtex-entry-field-alist' is now an obsolete alias for
2496 `bibtex-BibTeX-entry-alist'.
2497
2498 *** New command `bibtex-search-entries', bound to C-c C-a.
2499
2500 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `sort-fields', disabled by default.
2501
2502 *** New variable `bibtex-search-entry-globally'.
2503
2504 ** Browse-url
2505
2506 *** New option `browse-url-mailto-function' specifies how to handle "mailto:"s.
2507
2508 *** The default browser used by the package is now the "xdg-open" program,
2509 on platforms that support it. This calls your desktop's preferred browser.
2510
2511 ** Calc
2512
2513 *** Support for musical notes.
2514
2515 *** Support for logarithmic units.
2516
2517 *** No longer uses the tex prefix for TeX specific unit names when
2518 using TeX or LaTeX mode.
2519
2520 *** New option to highlight selections using faces.
2521
2522 *** `calc-histogram' has the option of using a vector to determine the bins.
2523
2524 *** New "O" option prefix.
2525
2526 *** Use the "O" prefix to "d r" (`calc-radix') to turn on twos-complement mode.
2527
2528 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
2529
2530 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing "comments".
2531 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
2532
2533 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
2534 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
2535
2536 *** The function specified by `appt-disp-window-function' may be passed
2537 lists of arguments if multiple appointments are due at similar times.
2538 If you are using a custom function for this, you should update it.
2539
2540 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
2541
2542 *** Elements of `calendar-day-abbrev-array' and `calendar-month-abbrev-array'
2543 may no longer be nil, but must all be strings.
2544
2545 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt
2546 package by adding `appt-make-list' to `diary-hook' has been removed.
2547 Use `appt-activate' instead.
2548
2549 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
2550 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
2551 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
2552
2553 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
2554 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
2555
2556 ** CC Mode
2557
2558 *** New feature to "guess" the style in an existing buffer.
2559 The main entry point is M-x c-guess.
2560
2561 *** Java Mode now supports Java 5.0 (Tiger) and 6 (Mustang).
2562
2563 *** `c-beginning-of-defun' and `c-end-of-defun' now respect nested scopes.
2564 Thus C-M-a will, by default, go to the beginning of the immediate function,
2565 not the top level.
2566
2567 *** "Macros with semicolons" can be registered for correct indentation.
2568 Where such a macro ends a line (no semicolon) the next statement is no longer
2569 parsed as a statement continuation.
2570
2571 ** Comint and modes derived from it use the standard completion code.
2572
2573 ** Compilation mode
2574
2575 *** Compilation mode can be used without Font Lock mode.
2576 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
2577
2578 *** New variable `compilation-filter-start', which is bound while
2579 `compilation-filter-hook' runs. It records the start position of the
2580 text inserted by `compilation-filter'.
2581
2582 *** `compilation-error-screen-columns' and `compilation-first-column'
2583 are obeyed in the editing buffer. So programming language modes can
2584 set them, whereas previously only the value in the *Compilation*
2585 buffer was used.
2586
2587 ** Customize
2588
2589 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
2590 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
2591 To turn off the search field, set `custom-search-field' to nil.
2592
2593 *** Options in customize group buffers start out hidden if not customized.
2594 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
2595
2596 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
2597
2598 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
2599 choose a color via `list-colors-display'.
2600
2601 ** D-Bus
2602
2603 *** It is now possible to access buses other than the default system
2604 or session bus.
2605
2606 *** The `dbus-register-method' and `dbus-register-property' functions
2607 optionally do not register names.
2608
2609 *** The new function `dbus-register-service' registers a known service
2610 name on a D-Bus without also registering a property or a method.
2611
2612 ** Dired-x
2613
2614 *** C-x C-j (`dired-jump') and C-x 4 C-j (`dired-jump-other-window'),
2615 if called with a prefix argument, read a file name from the minibuffer
2616 instead of using the current buffer.
2617
2618 *** The "dired local variables" feature of Dired-x is obsolete.
2619 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
2620
2621 ** ERC changes
2622
2623 *** New options `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay',
2624 controlling attempts to autojoin a channel.
2625
2626 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
2627 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
2628 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
2629 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
2630
2631 ** Eshell changes
2632
2633 *** The default value of `eshell-directory-name' has changed
2634 to be an "eshell" directory in `user-emacs-directory'.
2635 The old "~/.eshell/" directory is still used if it exists, though.
2636
2637 ** gdb-mi
2638
2639 *** The M-x gdb command now uses the GDB Machine Interface protocol.
2640 It now supports multithread non-stop debugging and simultaneous
2641 debugging of several threads.
2642
2643 ** Image mode
2644
2645 *** RET (`image-toggle-animation') toggles animation, if applicable.
2646 Animation plays once, unless the option `image-animate-loop' is non-nil.
2647
2648 ** Info
2649
2650 *** New command M-x info-display-manual displays a named Info manual.
2651 If that manual is already visited in some Info buffer, it displays
2652 that buffer. (This is handy if you have many manuals in many *info*
2653 buffers, and don't remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual
2654 you want to consult.) Otherwise, it loads and displays the manual.
2655
2656 *** `e' is now bound to `end-of-buffer' rather than to `Info-edit'.
2657 This is for compatibility with the stand-alone Info reader program,
2658 and also because `Info-edit' is a rarely used command that is disabled
2659 by default.
2660
2661 ** Mail mode changes (not Message mode)
2662
2663 *** New command M-x mail-add-attachment for adding MIME attachments
2664
2665 *** The command M-x mail-attach-file was renamed to M-x mail-insert-file.
2666 (Its name is misleading, since it has nothing to do with MIME
2667 attachments.) The old name is now an obsolete alias to the new name.
2668
2669 ** MH-E has been updated to MH-E version 8.3.1.
2670 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
2671
2672 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
2673
2674 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
2675
2676 ** nXML mode no longer binds C-RET to `nxml-complete'.
2677 Completion is now performed via `completion-at-point', bound to C-M-i
2678 or M-TAB. If `nxml-bind-meta-tab-to-complete-flag' is non-nil (the
2679 default), this performs tag completion.
2680
2681 ** Org mode has been updated to version 7.8.09.
2682 See ORG-NEWS for details.
2683
2684 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
2685 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity,
2686 support for more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
2687
2688 ** Rmail
2689
2690 *** The command `rmail-epa-decrypt' decrypts OpenPGP data
2691 in the Rmail incoming message.
2692
2693 *** The variable `rmail-message-filter' no longer has any effect.
2694 This change was made in Emacs 23.1 but was not advertised at the time.
2695 Try using `rmail-show-message-hook' instead.
2696
2697 ** Shell mode
2698
2699 *** M-x shell prompts for the shell path name if the default directory
2700 is a remote file name and neither the environment variable $ESHELL nor
2701 the variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
2702
2703 *** TAB is now bound to the standard `completion-at-point' command,
2704 which now implements the pcomplete rules for shell command completion.
2705
2706 ** SMTPmail
2707
2708 *** SMTPmail now uses encrypted connections (via STARTTLS) by default
2709 if the mail server supports them. This uses either built-in GnuTLS
2710 support, or the starttls.el library. Customize `smtpmail-stream-type'
2711 to change this.
2712
2713 *** The variable `smtpmail-auth-credentials' has been removed.
2714 By default, the information is now stored in the file ~/.authinfo.
2715 This was the default value of smtpmail-auth-credentials. If you had
2716 customized smtpmail-auth-credentials to a list of user names and
2717 passwords, those settings are not used. During your first connection
2718 to the smtp server, Emacs will prompt for the user name and password,
2719 and offer to save them to ~/.authinfo. Or you can manually copy the
2720 credentials to ~/.authinfo. For example, if you had
2721
2722 (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials
2723 '(("mail.example.org" 25 "jim" "s!cret")))
2724
2725 then the equivalent line in ~/.authinfo would be
2726
2727 machine mail.example.org port 25 login jim password s!cret
2728
2729 See the auth-source manual for more information, e.g. on encrypting
2730 the credentials file.
2731
2732 *** The variable `smtpmail-starttls-credentials' has been removed.
2733 If you had that set, you need to put
2734
2735 machine smtp.whatever.foo port 25 key "~/.my_smtp_tls.key" cert "~/.my_smtp_tls.cert"
2736
2737 in your ~/.authinfo file instead.
2738
2739 *** SMTPmail defaults to using the address in the From: header as the
2740 SMTP MAIL FROM envelope. To override this, set `mail-envelope-from'
2741 to the address you wish to use instead.
2742
2743 ** SQL mode
2744
2745 *** New options `sql-port', `sql-connection-alist', `sql-send-terminator',
2746 and `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
2747
2748 *** New options controlling prompting for login parameters.
2749 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params',
2750 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
2751 connection is established.
2752
2753 *** The command `sql-product-interactive' now takes a prefix argument,
2754 which causes it to prompt for an SQL product.
2755
2756 *** Product-specific SQL interactive commands now take prefix arguments.
2757 These commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres', `sql-mysql', etc.),
2758 given a prefix argument, prompt for a name for the SQL interactive
2759 buffer. This reduces the need for calling `sql-rename-buffer'.
2760
2761 *** SQL interactive modes suppress command continuation prompts, and
2762 replace tabs with spaces. The first change impacts multiple line SQL
2763 statements entered with C-j between each line, statements yanked into
2764 the buffer and statements sent with `sql-send-*' functions. The
2765 second prevents the MySQL and Postgres interpreters from listing
2766 object name completions when sent text via `sql-send-*' functions.
2767
2768 *** New command `sql-connect' starts a predefined SQLi session,
2769 using the login parameters from `sql-connection-alist'.
2770
2771 *** New "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
2772 This gathers the login params specified for the SQLi session, if it
2773 was not started by a connection, and saves them as a new connection.
2774
2775 *** New commands for listing database objects and details:
2776 sql-list-all and sql-list-table.
2777
2778 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
2779
2780 ** TeX modes
2781
2782 *** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
2783
2784 ** Tramp
2785
2786 *** New inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
2787
2788 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
2789 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
2790
2791 *** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
2792 remote file attributes are cached for better performance.
2793
2794 *** The option `ange-ftp-binary-file-name-regexp' has changed its
2795 default value to "".
2796
2797 *** Handlers for `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
2798 for remote machines which support SELinux.
2799
2800 ** New function `url-queue-retrieve', which behaves like url-retrieve,
2801 but with limits (`url-queue-parallel-processes', `url-queue-timeout') on
2802 the degree of parallelism.
2803
2804 ** VC and related modes
2805
2806 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
2807 The command C-x v + (`vc-pull') runs a "pull" operation, if it is
2808 supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to update the
2809 current branch and working tree. A prefix argument means to prompt
2810 the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
2811
2812 *** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
2813
2814 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
2815 The command C-x v m (`vc-merge') now runs a "merge" operation, if it
2816 is supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to merge
2817 changes from another branch into the current one. It prompts for
2818 specifics, e.g. a merge source.
2819
2820 *** New option `vc-revert-show-diff' controls whether `vc-revert'
2821 shows a diff while querying the user. It defaults to t.
2822
2823 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
2824 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
2825 This is currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial (to support
2826 another backend, define a `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function').
2827 In the Log View buffers made by C-x v L (`vc-print-root-log'), you can
2828 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
2829
2830 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
2831 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
2832
2833 *** The option `vc-initial-comment' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but
2834 this was not advertised at the time.
2835
2836 *** `vc-toggle-read-only' is an obsolete alias for `toggle-read-only'.
2837 Since Emacs 23, it has done the same thing as `toggle-read-only', but
2838 this was not advertised at the time.
2839
2840 ** Obsolete modes
2841
2842 *** abbrevlist.el
2843
2844 *** erc-hecomplete.el (use erc-pcomplete.el instead)
2845
2846 *** partial-completion-mode (complete.el) is obsolete.
2847 You can get a comparable behavior with:
2848 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
2849 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
2850
2851 *** pc-mode.el is obsolete (CUA mode is much more comprehensive).
2852
2853 *** pgg is obsolete (use EasyPG instead).
2854
2855 *** sregex.el is obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
2856
2857 *** s-region.el and pc-select.el are obsolete.
2858 They are superseded by shift-select-mode, enabled by default since 23.1.
2859
2860 *** vc-mcvs.el is obsolete (for lack of a maintainer).
2861
2862 ** Miscellaneous
2863
2864 *** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
2865 Its functions and variables have been similarly renamed.
2866
2867 *** In `ido-file-completion-map', C-v is no longer bound to `ido-toggle-vc'.
2868 (This interfered with cua-mode.)
2869
2870 *** f90.el has some support for Fortran 2008 syntax.
2871
2872 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
2873
2874 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
2875
2876 \f
2877 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
2878
2879 ** Occur Edit mode applies edits made in *Occur* buffers to the
2880 original buffers. It is bound to "e" in Occur mode.
2881
2882 ** New global minor mode electric-pair-mode.
2883 When enabled, typing an open parenthesis automatically inserts the
2884 matching closing one.
2885
2886 ** New global minor mode electric-indent-mode.
2887 When enabled, typing certain characters triggers reindentation.
2888 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-indent-chars or
2889 electric-indent-functions.
2890
2891 ** New global minor mode electric-layout-mode.
2892 When enabled, typing certain characters automatically inserts newlines.
2893 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-layout-rules.
2894
2895 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
2896 from which other modes can be derived.
2897
2898 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
2899
2900 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
2901 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
2902 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
2903 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
2904 secrets.
2905
2906 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
2907 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
2908
2909 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
2910 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
2911
2912 ** New generic mode, xmodmap-generic-mode, for xmodmap files.
2913
2914 ** New emacs-lock.el package.
2915 The previous version has been moved to obsolete/old-emacs-lock.el.
2916 Now, there is a proper minor mode `emacs-lock-mode'. Protection
2917 against exiting Emacs and killing the buffer can be set separately.
2918 The mechanism for automatically turning off protection for buffers
2919 with dead inferior processes has been generalized.
2920
2921 \f
2922 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
2923
2924 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function call now ENABLES
2925 the minor mode unconditionally. This is so that you can write e.g.
2926
2927 (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'foo-mode)
2928
2929 to enable foo-mode in Text mode buffers, removing the need for
2930 `turn-on-foo-mode' style functions. This affects all mode commands
2931 defined by `define-minor-mode'. If called interactively, the mode
2932 command still toggles the minor mode.
2933
2934 ** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
2935 It is now a list of three elements, where the second element is a list
2936 describing the original file's SELinux context. If Emacs or the
2937 system lacks SELinux support, the context list is (nil nil nil nil).
2938 See "Basic SELinux support" above, under "Changes in Emacs 24.1".
2939
2940 ** `char-direction-table' and the `char-direction' function were deleted.
2941 They were buggy and inferior to the new support of bidirectional
2942 editing introduced in Emacs 24. If you need the bidirectional
2943 properties of a character, use `get-char-code-property' with the last
2944 argument `bidi-class'.
2945
2946 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
2947 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
2948 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
2949 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
2950
2951 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
2952 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
2953 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
2954 of the header line.
2955
2956 ** Support for "old-style" backquotes, obsolete for 10+ years, has
2957 been further reduced. Now a backquote not followed by a space is
2958 always treated as a "new-style" backquote. Please remove all
2959 "old-style" backquotes from your code. If your code uses backquotes
2960 as documented in the Elisp manual, and compiles without warning, then
2961 you have nothing to do in this regard. Code not following the
2962 appropriate conventions may fail to compile.
2963
2964 The most common cause of trouble seems to be an old-style backquote
2965 followed by a newline. Another cause of trouble is vector notation
2966 for key sequence notation: instead of [(control ,)] and [(control ')],
2967 you should write [(control ?,)] and [(control ?')], which will work in
2968 older Emacsen too.
2969
2970 ** The macro `eval-at-startup' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but this
2971 was not advertised at the time. The function `custom-initialize-delay'
2972 replaced all known uses.
2973
2974 ** `view-buffer' now treats special mode-class in the same way that
2975 `view-file' has since Emacs 22 (i.e. it won't enable View mode if the
2976 major mode is special).
2977
2978 ** Menu and tool bar changes
2979
2980 *** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
2981 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
2982 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
2983 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
2984 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
2985 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
2986
2987 *** The menu bar bindings's caches are not used any more.
2988 Use (where-is-internal <def> nil t) instead.
2989
2990 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
2991 similar to those created by shift-selection (see Selection changes
2992 above). In previous Emacs versions, these regions were delineated by
2993 `mouse-drag-overlay'; that variable has been removed.
2994
2995 ** The fourth argument of `filter-buffer-substring' has been removed.
2996 If you want to remove text properties from the final result, simply
2997 pass the result through substring-no-properties.
2998
2999 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
3000
3001 ** The following obsolete functions and aliases have been removed
3002 (the appropriate new function is given in parentheses; "not needed"
3003 means you can just remove all calls to the function in question):
3004
3005 *** `comint-kill-output' (`comint-delete-output')
3006 *** `decompose-composite-char' (`char-to-string')
3007 *** `outline-visible' (`outline-invisible-p')
3008 *** `internal-find-face' (`facep')
3009 *** `internal-get-face' (`facep and check-face')
3010 *** `frame-update-faces' (not needed)
3011 *** `frame-update-face-colors' (`frame-set-background-mode')
3012 *** `x-frob-font-weight' and `x-frob-font-slant' (`make-face-*' functions)
3013 *** `x-make-font-bold and x-make-font-demibold (`make-face-bold')
3014 *** `x-make-font-italic' and `x-make-font-oblique' (`make-face-italic')
3015 *** `x-make-font-bold-italic' (`make-face-bold-italic')
3016 *** `x-make-font-unbold' (`make-face-unbold')
3017 *** `x-make-font-unitalic' (`make-face-unitalic')
3018 *** `mldrag-drag-mode-line' (`mouse-drag-mode-line')
3019 *** `mldrag-drag-vertical-line' (`mouse-drag-vertical-line')
3020 *** `iswitchb-default-keybindings' (`iswitchb-mode')
3021 *** `char-bytes' (== 1)
3022 *** `isearch-return-char' (`isearch-printing-char')
3023 *** `make-local-hook' (not needed)
3024 *** `set-screen-height' (`set-frame-height')
3025 *** `set-screen-width' (`set-frame-width')
3026
3027 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed
3028 (the appropriate new variable is given in parentheses):
3029
3030 *** `checkdoc-minor-keymap' (`checkdoc-minor-mode-map')
3031 *** `vc-header-alist' (`vc-BACKEND-header')
3032 *** `directory-sep-char' (== ?/)
3033 *** `font-lock-defaults-alist' (`font-lock-defaults')
3034 *** `e' (`float-e').
3035
3036 ** The following obsolete files were removed:
3037 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
3038
3039 ** The format of the finder-inf.el file has changed, since the Finder
3040 mechanism is now based on the package system. The variable
3041 `finder-package-info' is replaced by `package--builtins' and
3042 `finder-keywords-hash'.
3043
3044 ** When generating autoloads, `update-directory-autoloads' no longer
3045 assumes every inspected file is in your `load-path'. It instead
3046 generates relative names according to the current `load-path'.
3047
3048 \f
3049 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
3050
3051 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
3052 The `lexical-binding' variable enables lexical scoping for local
3053 variables. It is typically set via a file-local variable in the first
3054 line of the file, in which case it applies to all the code in that
3055 file.
3056
3057 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
3058 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
3059
3060 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
3061 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
3062
3063 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
3064
3065 *** `defvar' and `defconst' now mark the variable as special (dynamic).
3066 So do `defcustom' and other forms that call `defvar' as a subroutine.
3067
3068 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
3069 declared as dynamically bound.
3070
3071 *** The form ((lambda ...) ...) is deprecated.
3072
3073 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
3074 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
3075 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
3076
3077 ** Changes for bidirectional display and editing
3078
3079 *** New function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction'.
3080 This returns the base direction of the paragraph at point.
3081
3082 *** New function `bidi-string-mark-left-to-right'.
3083 Given a string containing characters from right-to-left scripts, this
3084 function returns another string which can be safely inserted into a
3085 buffer, such that any following text will be always displayed to the
3086 right of that string. (This works by appending an invisible Unicode
3087 "LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK" character if the argument string might need it.)
3088
3089 This is useful when the buffer has overall left-to-right paragraph
3090 direction and you need to insert a string whose contents are not known
3091 in advance, without disrupting the layout of the line.
3092
3093 ** Window changes
3094
3095 *** Window tree functions are accessible in Elisp.
3096 Functions are provided to return the parent, siblings or child windows
3097 of any window including internal windows (windows not associated with a
3098 buffer) in the window tree.
3099
3100 **** New function `window-valid-p' gives non-nil for live and internal
3101 windows.
3102
3103 **** Window manipulation can deal with internal windows.
3104 Many window handling functions like `split-window', `delete-window', or
3105 `delete-other-windows' as well as the window resizing functions can now
3106 act on any window including internal ones.
3107
3108 *** window-total-height/-width vs window-body-height/-width.
3109 The function `window-height' has been renamed to `window-total-height'
3110 and `window-width' has been renamed to `window-body-width'. The old
3111 names are provided as aliases. Two new functions `window-total-width'
3112 and `window-body-height' are provided.
3113
3114 *** Window parameters specific to window handling functions.
3115 For each window you can specify a parameter to override the default
3116 behavior of a number of functions like `split-window', `delete-window'
3117 and `delete-other-windows'. The variable `ignore-window-parameters'
3118 allows to ignore processing such parameters.
3119
3120 *** New semantics of third argument of `split-window'.
3121 The third argument of `split-window' has been renamed to SIDE and can be
3122 set to any of the values 'below, 'right, 'above, or 'left to make the
3123 new window appear on the corresponding side of the window that shall be
3124 split. Any other value of SIDE will cause `split-window' to split the
3125 window into two side-by-side windows as before.
3126
3127 *** Window resizing functions.
3128 A new standard function for resizing windows called `window-resize' has
3129 been introduced. This and all other functions for resizing windows no
3130 longer delete any windows when they become too small.
3131
3132 *** Deleting the selected window now selects the most recently selected
3133 live window on that frame instead.
3134
3135 *** `adjust-window-trailing-edge' adjustments.
3136 `adjust-window-trailing-edge' can now deal with fixed-size windows and
3137 is able to resize other windows if a window adjacent to the trailing
3138 edge cannot be shrunk any more. This makes its behavior more similar to
3139 that of Emacs 21 without compromising, however, its inability to delete
3140 windows which was introduced in Emacs 22.
3141
3142 *** Window-local buffer lists.
3143 Windows now have local buffer lists. This means that removing a buffer
3144 from display in a window will preferably show the buffer previously
3145 shown in that window with its previous window-start and window-point
3146 positions. This also means that the same buffer may be automatically
3147 shown twice even if it already appears in another window.
3148
3149 *** `switch-to-buffer' has a new optional argument FORCE-SAME-WINDOW,
3150 which if non-nil requires the buffer to be displayed in the currently
3151 selected window, signaling an error otherwise. If nil, another window
3152 can be used, e.g. if the selected one is strongly dedicated.
3153
3154 *** `split-window-vertically' and `split-window-horizontally' renamed
3155 to `split-window-below' and `split-window-right' respectively.
3156 The old names are kept as aliases.
3157
3158 *** Display actions
3159
3160 **** The second arg to `display-buffer' and `pop-to-buffer' is now
3161 named ACTION, and takes a display action of the same form as
3162 `display-buffer-base-action' (see Changes, above). A non-nil,
3163 non-list value is treated specially, as the old meaning.
3164
3165 **** New variable `display-buffer-overriding-action'.
3166
3167 **** The procedure of `display-buffer' etc. to choose a window is
3168 determined by combining `display-buffer-overriding-action',
3169 `display-buffer-alist', the ACTION arg, `display-buffer-base-action',
3170 and `display-buffer-fallback-action'. The second and fourth of these
3171 are user-customizable variables.
3172
3173 See the docstring of `display-buffer' for details.
3174
3175 *** New functions `window-state-get' and `window-state-put'.
3176 These functions allow to save and restore the state of an arbitrary
3177 frame or window as an Elisp object.
3178
3179 ** Completion
3180
3181 *** New variable `completion-extra-properties' used to specify extra
3182 properties of the current completion:
3183 - :annotate-function, same as the old completion-annotate-function.
3184 - :exit-function, function to call after completion took place.
3185
3186 *** Functions on `completion-at-point-functions' can return any of the
3187 properties valid for `completion-extra-properties'.
3188
3189 *** `completion-annotate-function' is obsolete.
3190
3191 *** New `metadata' method for completion tables. The metadata thus returned
3192 can specify various details of the data returned by `all-completions':
3193 - `category' is the kind of objects returned (e.g., `buffer', `file', ...),
3194 used to select a style in completion-category-overrides.
3195 - `annotation-function' to add annotations in *Completions*.
3196 - `display-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries in *Completions*.
3197 - `cycle-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries when cycling.
3198
3199 *** `minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map' is not used any more.
3200 Instead, the bindings in `minibuffer-local-filename-completion-map'
3201 are combined with `minibuffer-local-must-match-map'.
3202
3203 *** New variable `completing-read-function' allows overriding the
3204 behavior of `completing-read'.
3205
3206 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
3207 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
3208
3209 ** `pre-command-hook'/`post-command-hook' are not reset to nil on error.
3210 Instead, the offending function is removed.
3211
3212 ** New hook types
3213
3214 *** New function `run-hook-wrapped' for running an abnormal hook by
3215 passing the hook functions as arguments to a "wrapping" function.
3216 Like `run-hook-with-args-until-success', it stops at the first
3217 non-nil return value.
3218
3219 *** New macro `with-wrapper-hook' for running an abnormal hook as a
3220 set of "wrapping" filters, similar to around advice.
3221 (A version of this macro was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not
3222 advertised at the time.)
3223
3224 ** Debugger changes
3225
3226 *** New macro `condition-case-unless-debug' (this was actually added in
3227 Emacs 23.1 as condition-case-no-debug, but not advertised)
3228
3229 *** The macro `with-demoted-errors' was added in Emacs 23.1, but not advertised.
3230
3231 *** Variable `stack-trace-on-error' removed.
3232
3233 *** The debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will
3234 jump to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked
3235 instead of jumping all the way to the top-level.
3236
3237 *** Set `debug-on-event' to enter the debugger on events like SIGUSR1.
3238 This can be useful when `inhibit-quit' is set.
3239
3240 ** The new function `server-eval-at' allows evaluation of Lisp forms on
3241 named Emacs server instances.
3242
3243 ** `call-process' and `call-process-region' allow a `(:file "file")' spec
3244 to redirect STDOUT to a file.
3245
3246 ** The function `format-time-string' now supports the %N directive,
3247 for higher-resolution time stamps.
3248
3249 ** New input reading functions
3250
3251 *** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of
3252 characters, discarding any inputs not inside the set.
3253
3254 *** The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name
3255 or RGB triplet, instead of signaling an error if the user provides
3256 invalid input.
3257
3258 **** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
3259
3260 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
3261 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
3262 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
3263 obsolete alias.
3264
3265 ** Syntax parsing changes
3266
3267 *** New variable `syntax-propertize-function'.
3268 This replaces `font-lock-syntactic-keywords' which is now obsolete.
3269 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
3270 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
3271 Together with this new variable come a new hook
3272 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
3273 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
3274 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
3275 syntactic rules.
3276
3277 *** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
3278
3279 ** New hook `post-self-insert-hook', run after `self-insert-command'.
3280
3281 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
3282
3283 ** Major and minor mode changes
3284
3285 *** `set-auto-mode' now respects mode: local variables at the end of files,
3286 as well as those in the -*- line.
3287
3288 *** `prog-mode' is a new major mode from which programming modes
3289 should be derived.
3290
3291 **** `prog-mode-hook' can be used to enable features for programming
3292 modes, e.g. (add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'flyspell-prog-mode) to enable
3293 on-the-fly spell checking for comments and strings.
3294
3295 **** New minor modes `prettify-symbols-mode' and
3296 `global-prettify-symbols-mode' let the user enable symbol
3297 prettification (replacing a string like "lambda" with the Greek lambda
3298 character).
3299
3300 *** New hook `change-major-mode-after-body-hook', run by
3301 `run-mode-hooks' just before any other mode hooks.
3302
3303 *** Enabled globalized minor modes can be disabled in specific major modes.
3304 If the global mode is global-FOO-mode, then run (FOO-mode -1) in the
3305 major mode's hook, where FOO-mode toggles the mode on a per-buffer basis.
3306
3307 *** `define-minor-mode' accepts new keywords :variable, :after-hook.
3308
3309 ** File-handling changes
3310
3311 *** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
3312 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
3313 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
3314 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
3315
3316 *** New file predicates: `file-equal-p', `file-in-directory-p'.
3317
3318 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
3319 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
3320 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
3321
3322 ** Image API
3323
3324 *** Animated images support (currently animated gifs only).
3325
3326 **** `image-animated-p' returns non-nil if an image can be animated.
3327
3328 **** `image-animate' animates a supplied image spec.
3329
3330 **** `image-animate-timer' returns the timer object for an image that
3331 is being animated.
3332
3333 *** `image-extension-data' has been renamed to `image-metadata'.
3334 The old name is an obsolete alias to the new one.
3335
3336 *** Image mode can view any image type that ImageMagick supports.
3337 This requires Emacs to be built with ImageMagick support.
3338
3339 **** New function `imagemagick-types', defined if ImageMagick support
3340 is enabled, returns a list of image file extensions that your
3341 ImageMagick installation supports.
3342
3343 **** New function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick
3344 image types in Image mode and in `create-image' and other helper
3345 functions.
3346
3347 **** New option `imagemagick-types-inhibit' excludes certain
3348 ImageMagick image types from `imagemagick-register-types'.
3349
3350 **** With ImageMagick support, there are extra Image mode commands to
3351 resize and rotate images: `image-transform-fit-to-height',
3352 `image-transform-fit-to-width', `image-transform-set-rotation', and
3353 `image-transform-set-scale'.
3354
3355 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
3356 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
3357 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail. For
3358 example, this is used by Rmail to optionally delete a mail window.
3359
3360 ** XML and HTML parsing
3361 If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support, there are two new
3362 functions: `libxml-parse-html-region' (which parses "real world" HTML)
3363 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
3364 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
3365
3366 ** Networking and encryption changes
3367
3368 *** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
3369 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
3370 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
3371 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
3372 must also be supplied.
3373
3374 *** New library gnutls.el.
3375 The new function `gnutls-available-p' returns non-nil if Emacs is
3376 built with GnuTLS support. The main entry points are
3377 `open-gnutls-stream' and `gnutls-negotiate'. It's easiest to use
3378 these functions through `open-network-stream', because that can
3379 upgrade connections through STARTTLS opportunistically or use plain
3380 SSL, depending on your needs. For debugging, set `gnutls-log-level'
3381 greater than 0.
3382
3383 *** New primitive `secure-hash' that supports many secure hash algorithms:
3384 md5, sha1, sha2, sha224, sha256, sha384, and sha512. The lisp library
3385 sha1.el has been removed. The `sha1' feature is provided by default.
3386
3387 ** Isearch
3388
3389 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
3390
3391 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
3392 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
3393 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
3394 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
3395 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
3396 displayed with a "spinning bar".
3397
3398 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
3399 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
3400
3401 ** New variables `delayed-warnings-list' and `delayed-warnings-hook'.
3402 If delayed-warnings-list is non-nil, the command loop calls
3403 `delayed-warnings-hook' after `post-command-hook'. At present, this
3404 is only used by Emacs on some platforms to display warnings during
3405 startup, which might otherwise not be noticed. This uses the
3406 functions `display-delayed-warnings' and `collapse-delayed-warnings'.
3407
3408 ** rx.el has a new `group-n' construct for explicitly numbered groups.
3409
3410 ** New function `make-composed-keymap' that constructs a new keymap
3411 from multiple input maps. You can use this to make a keymap that
3412 inherits from multiple maps, eg:
3413 (set-keymap-parent newmap (make-composed-keymap othermap parent))
3414
3415 ** New function `string-prefix-p'.
3416 (This was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not advertised at the time.)
3417
3418 ** New reader macro ## that stands for the empty symbol.
3419 This means that the empty symbol can now be read back. Also, #: by itself
3420 (when not immediately followed by a possible symbol character) stands for
3421 an empty uninterned symbol.
3422
3423 ** New math functions `isnan', `copysign', `frexp', `ldexp'.
3424
3425 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
3426
3427 *** `tooltip-use-echo-area' is obsolete.
3428 Rather than setting this to t, disable Tooltip mode instead.
3429
3430 *** buffer-substring-filters is obsolete.
3431 Use `filter-buffer-substring-functions' instead.
3432
3433 *** `byte-compile-disable-print-circle' is obsolete.
3434
3435 *** `deferred-action-list' and `deferred-action-function' are obsolete.
3436 Use `post-command-hook' instead.
3437
3438 *** `font-lock-maximum-size' is obsolete.
3439
3440 \f
3441 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on Non-Free Operating Systems
3442
3443 ** On MS Windows, Emacs warns when using the obsolete init file _emacs,
3444 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
3445
3446 ** New configure.bat options
3447
3448 *** --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra runtime checks.
3449
3450 *** --distfiles specifies files to be included in binary distribution.
3451
3452 *** --without-gnutls disables automatic GnuTLS detection.
3453
3454 *** --lib for general library linkage, works with the USER_LIBS build variable.
3455
3456 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
3457
3458 ** The Lisp function `w32-default-color-map' is now obsolete.
3459 (It is only used internally in the Emacs C code.)
3460
3461 ** Customize ns-auto-hide-menu-bar to have the menu-bar hidden, but
3462 reappear on mouse-over. (Requires OS X 10.6 or later.)
3463
3464 ** On Mac OS X, dragging a file into Emacs visits the file, like on
3465 other platforms, rather than inserting its contents into the buffer.
3466
3467 \f
3468 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
3469 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
3470
3471 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
3472 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
3473 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
3474 (at your option) any later version.
3475
3476 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
3477 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
3478 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
3479 GNU General Public License for more details.
3480
3481 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
3482 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
3483
3484 \f
3485 Local variables:
3486 mode: outline
3487 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
3488 end: