1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
3 Copyright (C) 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 23.
11 See files NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18, and NEWS.1-17
12 for changes in older Emacs versions.
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
18 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
19 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
20 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
21 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
24 * About external Lisp packages
27 * Installation Changes in Emacs 23.1
29 ** The default X toolkit is now Gtk+, rather than Lucid.
31 ** Fonts are handled by new code capable of dealing with multiple font
32 backends. This requires the freetype and fontconfig libraries, and
33 supports local fonts (fonts installed on the machine where Emacs is
34 running). Additionally, the Xft library can be used for antialiasing
35 support, the otf library for complex text layout by OpenType fonts,
36 and the m17n library for text shaping. Emacs now accepts font names
37 supplied in the fontconfig format (e.g. "monospace-12:bold") and GTK
38 format (e.g. "Monospace Bold 12").
40 ** The new configuration option "--with-dbus" enables D-Bus language
43 ** The Mac Carbon port is no longer supported.
44 Instead, use... [FIXME what?]
46 ** configure now checks for libgif before libungif when searching for
49 ** Support for systems without alloca has been removed.
51 ** Support for Sun windows has been removed.
53 ** Support for many obsolete platforms has been removed.
54 See the list at the end of etc/MACHINES for details.
56 ** The `emacstool' utility has been removed.
58 ** The configure options `--with-gcc', `--without-gcc' have been removed.
59 Configure will use gcc by default. Set the CC environment variable if
60 you need control over which C compiler is used.
62 ** The configure option `--with-gtk' has been removed. Gtk is now the
63 default toolkit, but you can use --with-x-toolkit=gtk if necessary.
65 * Changes in Emacs 23.1
67 ** `underline-minimum-offset' keeps the underline away from the baseline.
69 ** Info displays breadcrumbs in the header of the page.
70 See Info-breadcrumbs-depth to control it.
72 ** Emacs now supports serial port access on GNU/Linux, Unix, and
73 Windows. `serial-term' starts an interactive terminal,
74 `make-serial-process' and `serial-process-configure' provide a Lisp
75 interface. The serial port can be configured at runtime with the
79 *** `apropos-library' describes the elements defined in a given library.
80 *** Set `apropos-compact-layout' is you want a more compact (but wider) layout.
82 ** scroll-preserve-screen-position also preserves the column position.
84 *** `completion-styles' can be customized to choose your favorite completion.
85 *** The default completion styles include a form of partial-completion.
86 *** The new command `minibuffer-force-complete chooses one of the possible
87 completions, rather than stopping at the common prefix.
88 *** `completion-auto-help' can be set to `lazy' to list the completions only
89 if you repeat the completion. This was already supported in
90 `partial-completion-mode'.
92 ** Emacs now supports using both X displays and ttys in one session.
93 Start the server (M-x server-start). Then `emacsclient -t' creates a
94 tty frame connected to the running emacs server. You can also use any
95 number of different ttys. `emacsclient -c' creates a new X11 frame on
96 the current $DISPLAY or a tty frame if $DISPLAY is not set.
98 You can test for the presence of this feature in your Lisp code by
99 testing for the `multi-tty' feature.
101 ** The Emacs character set is now a superset of Unicode.
102 (It has about four times the code space, which should be plenty).
104 The internal encoding used for buffers and strings is now
105 Unicode-based and called `utf-8-emacs'. utf-8-emacs is backwards
106 compatible with the UTF-8 encoding of Unicode. The `emacs-mule'
107 coding system can still read and write data in the old internal encoding.
109 Since the internal encoding is also used by default for byte-compiled
110 files -- i.e. the normal coding system for byte-compiled Lisp files is
111 now utf-8-Emacs -- Lisp containing non-ASCII characters which is
112 compiled by Emacs 23 can't be read by earlier versions of Emacs. Files
113 compiled by Emacs 20, 21, or 22 are loaded correctly as emacs-mule
114 (whether or not they contain multibyte characters), which makes loading
115 them somewhat slower than Emacs 23-compiled files. Thus it may be worth
116 recompiling existing .elc files which don't need to be shared with older
119 ** There are assorted new coding systems/aliases -- see M-x list-coding-systems.
121 ** There is a new charset implementation with many new charsets.
122 See M-x list-character-sets. New charsets can be defined conveniently
123 as tables of unicodes.
125 The dimension of a charset is now 1, 2, 3, or 4, and the size of each
126 dimension is no longer limited to 94 or 96.
128 A dynamic charset priority list is used to infer the charset of
129 characters for display.
131 ** There are new Chinese-GBK, Chinese-GB18030, Khmer, Bengali,
132 Punjabi, Gujarati, Oriya, Telugu, Sinhala, and TaiViet language
135 ** Emacs now supports the XEmbed specification.
136 You can embed Emacs in another application on X11. The new command line option
137 --parent-id is used to pass the parent window id to Emacs. See
138 http://standards.freedesktop.org/xembed-spec/xembed-spec-latest.html
139 for details about XEmbed.
141 ** Controlling the frame opacity
142 The opacity of a frame can now be controlled by setting
143 the `alpha' frame parameter, on a compositing window manager
144 (e.g. Compiz, Beryl and Compiz Fusion) for the X Window System.
146 The alpha parameter should be an integer between 0 (transparent) and
147 100 (opaque) or a float number between 0.0 and 1.0. Optionally, the
148 opacity can be set by a cons cell; the first item controls the
149 opacity of an active frame, and the second item controls that of
152 (set-frame-parameter nil 'alpha 80)
153 (set-frame-parameter nil 'alpha 0.8)
154 (set-frame-parameter nil 'alpha '(100 70)) ; (<active> [<inactive>])
155 (set-frame-parameter nil 'alpha nil)
157 Note that the threshold opacity of a frame is defined by the variable
158 `frame-alpha-lower-limit' (default 20), so that the user may not lose
159 control of the frame.
161 ** Emacs comes with a new set of default icons.
162 Various resolutions are available as etc/images/icons/hicolor/*/apps/emacs.png.
163 The Emacs 22 icon is available as `emacs22.png' in the same location.
165 ** Built-in functions (subr) can now have an interactive specification
166 that is not a prompt string. If the `intspec' parameter of a `DEFUN'
167 starts with a `(', the string is evaluated as a Lisp form.
169 ** set-file-modes is now interactive and can take the mode value in
170 symbolic notation thanks to auxiliary functions.
172 ** Changes affecting display-buffer
173 *** New value nil for split-height-threshold inhibits vertical splitting
174 unless there's no other window.
175 *** New option split-width-threshold controls horizontal splitting.
176 *** A window can be split horizontally even when it's not full-width.
177 *** New option split-window-preferred-function can be set to a function
178 to override the default splitting mechanism of display-buffer.
182 *** The Options menu contains a new entry to turn on Longlines mode.
184 *** In the Options menu, the "Set Default Font" item applies the
185 selected font to the `default' face on all frames, not just the
186 current frame. This font setting will be saved if the "Save Options"
187 item is used. Furthermore, if Emacs is compiled with both GTK and
188 Fontconfig support, the "Set Default Font" item uses the GTK font
189 selection dialog instead of an Emacs pop-up menu.
191 ** Emacsclient has been extended to support opening a new terminal
192 frame. Its behavior has been changed to open a new Emacs frame by
193 default. Use the -c option to get the old behavior of opening files in
194 the currently selected Emacs frame.
196 ** The refcards are now shipped as PDF files.
198 ** Emacs now supports the SVG image format through librsvg2.
200 ** If you set find-file-confirm-nonexistent-file to t, then C-x C-f
201 requires confirmation before opening a non-existent file.
203 ** If the gpm mouse server is running and t-mouse-mode enabled, Emacs uses a
204 Unix socket in a GNU/Linux console to talk to server, rather than faking events
205 using the client program mev. This C level approach provides mouse
206 highlighting, and help echoing in the minibuffer.
208 ** Recentering changes
210 *** The new variable next-error-recenter specifies how next-error should
211 recenter the visited source file. Its value can be a number (for example,
212 0 for top line, -1 for bottom line), or nil for no recentering.
214 *** New command recenter-top-bottom moves the current line to window
215 center, top and bottom on successive invokations.
217 *** C-l is bound to the new command recenter-top-bottom, rather than recenter.
219 ** The mode-line displays a `@' if the default-directory for the current buffer
220 is on a remote machine, or a hyphen otherwise.
222 ** The mode-line displays a mode menu when mouse-1 is clicked on a minor mode,
223 in the same way as it already did for major modes.
225 ** The new command balance-windows-area balances windows both vertically
228 ** The new command close-display-connection can be used to close a connection
229 to a remote display, e.g. because the display is about to become unreachable.
231 ** The command shell prompts for the default directory, when it is
232 called with a prefix, and the default directory is a remote file name.
233 This is because some file name handlers (like ange-ftp) are not able to
234 run processes remotely.
236 ** The new command `display-time-world' starts an updating time display
237 using several time zones, in a buffer.
239 ** Directory-local variables are now found in .dir-settings.el. See
240 also `set-directory-project' and `define-project-bindings'.
242 ** The new function `format-seconds' converts a number of seconds into a
243 readable string of days, hours, etc.
245 ** The new variables `before-init-time' and `after-init-time' record the
246 value of `current-time' before and after Emacs loads the init files.
248 ** The new function `emacs-uptime' returns the uptime of an Emacs instance.
250 ** The new function `emacs-init-time' returns the duration of the
251 Emacs initialization.
253 ** The minor modes unify-8859-on-encoding-mode, unify-8859-on-decoding-mode
256 ** The new commands `pp-macroexpand-expression' and `pp-macroexpand-last-sexp'
257 pretty-print macro expansions.
260 * Startup Changes in Emacs 23.1
262 ** The option `inhibit-startup-screen' (with aliases to old names
263 `inhibit-splash-screen' and `inhibit-startup-message') doesn't inhibit
264 display of the initial message in the *scratch* buffer. If you don't
265 want to display the initial message in the *scratch* buffer at startup,
266 you can set the option `initial-scratch-message' to nil.
268 ** New user option `initial-buffer-choice' specifies what to display
269 after starting Emacs: startup screen, *scratch* buffer, visiting a
272 ** New alias `argv' for `command-line-args-left'
273 This is a convenience alias, so that one can write `(pop argv)'
274 inside of --eval command line arguments in order to access
277 ** The abbrev file is no longer read at startup in batch mode.
279 * Incompatible Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
282 ** In Dired-x, all command guesses for ! are now added to the default
283 list accessible by M-n instead of pushing all guesses temporarily into
286 ** The following input methods were removed in Emacs 22.2, but this was
287 not advertised: danish-alt-postfix, esperanto-alt-postfix,
288 finnish-alt-postfix, german-alt-postfix, icelandic-alt-postfix,
289 norwegian-alt-postfix, scandinavian-alt-postfix, spanish-alt-postfix,
290 and swedish-alt-postfix. Use the versions without "alt-", which are
294 * Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
299 *** Transient Mark mode is now on by default.
302 *** mark-even-if-inactive now defaults to t
305 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, C-SPC C-SPC pushes a mark without activating it.
308 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-q now fills the region if the
309 region is active. Otherwise, it fills the current paragraph.
312 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-$ now checks spelling of the
313 region if the region is active. Otherwise, it checks spelling of the
316 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, TAB now indents the region if the
319 *** `use-empty-active-region' controls whether an empty active region
320 in Transient Mark mode should make commands operate on that empty
323 ** Temporarily active regions
325 *** The new variable shift-select-mode, non-nil by default, controls
326 shift-selection. When Shift Select mode is on, shift-translated
327 motion keys (e.g. S-left and S-down) activate and extend a temporary
328 region, similar to mouse-selection.
330 *** Temporarily active regions, created using shift-selection or
331 mouse-selection, are not necessarily deactivated in the next command.
332 They are only deactivated after point motion commands that are not
333 shift-translated, or after commands that would ordinarily deactivate
334 the mark in Transient Mark mode (e.g., any command that modifies the
338 ** C-M-% now shows replacement as it would look in the buffer, with
339 `\N' and `\&' substituted according to the match. Old behavior can be
340 restored by customizing `query-replace-show-replacement'.
342 ** C-z now invokes `suspend-frame', C-x C-c now invokes
343 `save-buffers-kill-terminal'.
345 ** New command kill-matching-buffers kills buffers whose name matches a regexp.
347 ** You can disable kill ring commands from accessing the primary selection
348 by setting `x-select-enable-primary' to nil.
350 ** If `select-active-regions' is t, setting the mark automatically
351 makes the new region into the primary selection (for interaction with
352 other window applications). If you enable this, you might want to bind
353 `mouse-yank-primary' to Mouse-2.
355 ** If `yank-pop-change-selection' is t, rotating the kill ring
356 also updates the selection or clipboard to the current yank,
357 just as M-w would do so with the text it copies to the kill ring.
359 ** Minibuffer changes
361 *** Minibuffer input of shell commands now comes with completion.
363 *** Operations like C-x b and C-x C-f which use switch-to-buffer do not fail
364 any more when used in a minibuffer or a dedicated window. Instead, they
365 fallback on using pop-to-buffer which will use some other window.
367 *** When M-n in the minibuffer reaches the end of the list of defaults,
368 it adds the completion list to the end, so next M-n continues putting
369 completion items to the minibuffer. The same principle applies to
370 incremental search commands as well: C-s or C-M-s starts searching
371 the default values and after the end of defaults they continue
372 searching minibuffer completion items.
374 *** In C-x d, if you type M-n you get the visited file name of the
377 *** A list of default commands extracted from mailcap according to
378 file extensions are available in the list of default values
379 accessible by M-n in the minibuffer that reads a shell command
380 for M-! (shell-command) and fills a list of commands for the current
381 file, and in Dired for ! (dired-do-shell-command) that fills a list of
382 commands for the intersection of file types of marked Dired files.
384 *** A list of regexp default values is available via M-n for `occur',
385 `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many'. This list includes the active
386 region in transient-mark-mode, the word under the cursor, the last isearch
387 regexp, the last isearch string and the last replacement regexp.
389 *** isearch started in the minibuffer searches in the minibuffer history.
390 Reverse isearch commands (C-r, C-M-r) search in previous minibuffer
391 history elements, and forward isearch commands (C-s, C-M-s) search in
392 next history elements. When the reverse search reaches the first history
393 element, it wraps to the last history element, and the forward search
394 wraps to the first history element. When the search is terminated, the
395 history element containing the search string becomes the current.
399 *** `mode-line-emphasis' is used to highlight certain mode-line information;
400 for example while waiting for a VC command to finish.
404 *** The new function `face-all-attributes' returns an alist describing
405 all the basic attributes of a given face.
407 *** S-down-mouse-1 now pops up a menu for changing the default font
408 and text size of the default face in the current buffer. The face is
409 changed via face remapping (see below).
414 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
416 ** rst-mode for ReSTructured-Text files.
418 ** FIXME add details of new packages imported from lisp/gnus.
419 [Maybe some information from doc/misc/gnus-coding.texi can be reused]
421 ** The package doc-view.el has been added. It supports viewing of PDF,
422 PostScript and DVI documents inside an Emacs buffer by converting the
423 document to a set of PNG images first. One can also search for a
424 regular expression in the document. The commentary of the file explains
427 ** The nXML package has been added. It is a new mode for editing XML
428 documents. nXML mode allows a schema to be associated with the XML
429 document being edited. nXML mode uses Relax NG as its schema
430 language. The schema is used to provide two key features:
432 *** Continuous validation. nXML validates as you type, highlighting
433 any invalid parts of your document.
435 *** Completion. nXML can assist you in entering an element name,
436 attribute name or data value by using information about what is
437 allowed by the schema in that context.
439 ** A new game called `bubbles' has been added. This is a version of
440 the "Same Game" with configurable difficulty level.
442 ** minibuffer-indicate-depth-mode shows the minibuffer depth in the prompt.
444 ** Remember Mode (remember.el) is now included with Emacs. It is a
445 mode for quickly jotting down things to remember. Included with
446 remember.el is a backend that can save notes to a Diary file. Please
447 consult the Remember Manual for usage details.
449 ** D-Bus language bindings for Elisp are provided by the package
450 dbus.el and by extensions to the C modules of Emacs. D-Bus is an
451 inter-process communication mechanism for applications residing on the
452 same host, based on messages. See the manual for further details.
454 ** zeroconf.el offers service discovery and service publishing
455 interfaces according to the zeroconf specification. It communicates
456 with Avahi, a zeroconf implementation, via D-Bus messages on systems
457 which have installed this software.
459 ** EasyPG is now part of the Emacs distribution. It is an all-in-one
460 GnuPG interface which includes GnuPG keyring browser, cryptographic
461 operations on regions and files, and automatic encryption of *.gpg
462 files. See the EasyPG Assistant User's Manual for further details.
464 ** json.el is now included with Emacs. It is a library for parsing
465 and generating JSON (JavaScript Object Notation). JSON is a
466 lightweight data-interchange format.
468 ** Auto Composition Mode is a minor mode that composes characters
469 automatically when they are displayed. It is globally on by default.
470 It uses `auto-composition-function' (default `auto-compose-chars').
472 ** The package linum.el is now included with Emacs. It it a new minor
473 mode to display line numbers for the current buffer.
475 ** proced.el has been added. It operates on processes like dired.
476 Proced makes an Emacs buffer containing a listing of the current processes
477 (using ps(1)). You can use the normal Emacs commands to move around in
478 this buffer, and special Proced commands to operate on the processes listed.
480 ** bug-reference.el provides clickable links to bug reports.
483 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
485 ** Icomplete: `icomplete-prospects-height' supercedes `icomplete-prospects-length'.
487 ** A new `whitespace' package has been installed, and the pre-existing one
488 renamed to `old-whitespace'.
489 [FIXME someone explain why this is good, if it is...]
491 ** abbrev was rewritten in Elisp and extended with more flexibility.
492 *** New functions: abbrev-get, abbrev-put, abbrev-table-get, abbrev-table-put,
493 abbrev-table-p, abbrev-insert, abbrev-table-menu.
494 *** Special hook `abbrev-expand-functions' obsoletes `pre-abbrev-expand-hook'.
495 *** `make-abbrev-table', `define-abbrev', `define-abbrev-table' all take
496 extra arguments for arbitrary properties.
497 *** New variable `abbrev-minor-mode-table-alist'.
498 *** `local-abbrev-table' can hold a list of abbrev-tables.
499 *** Abbrevs have now the following special properties:
500 `:count', `:system', `:enable-function', `:case-fixed'.
501 *** Abbrev-tables have now the following special properties:
502 `:parents', `:case-fixed', `:enable-function', `:regexp',
503 `abbrev-table-modiff'.
506 *** New macro `with-help-window' should set up help windows better
507 than `with-output-to-temp-buffer' with `print-help-return-message'.
508 *** New option `help-window-select' permits to customize whether help
509 window shall be automatically selected when invoking help.
510 *** New variable `help-window-point-marker' permits to specify new
511 position of point in help window (for example in `view-lossage').
513 ** view-remove-frame-by-deleting is now by default t
514 since users found iconification of view-mode frames distracting.
518 *** New command `isearch-occur' bound to `M-s o' in isearch mode
519 runs `occur' with the current search string.
521 *** isearch can now search through multiple ChangeLog files.
522 When running isearch in a ChangeLog file, if the search fails,
523 then another C-s tries searching the previous ChangeLog,
524 if there is one (e.g. go from ChangeLog to ChangeLog.12).
526 This is enabled if isearch-buffers-multi is non-nil.
528 *** The part of an isearch that failed to match is highlighted in `isearch-fail'
531 *** `C-h C-h' in isearch mode displays isearch-specific Help screen,
532 `C-h b' displays all isearch key bindings, `C-h k' displays the full
533 documentation of the given isearch key sequence, `C-h m' displays
534 documentation of isearch mode. All the rest Help commands exit isearch mode
535 and execute their global definitions.
537 ** archive-mode has basic support to browse Rar archives.
539 ** talk.el has been extended for multiple tty support.
541 ** Compile and grep modes
543 *** The mode-line entry for the *compilation* and *grep* buffer is color coded.
544 It has different colors for to show that: (a) the command is still
545 running, (b) successful completion, (c) error.
547 *** compilation-auto-jump-to-first-error tells `compile' to jump to
548 the first error encountered during compilations.
550 ** In the `copyright' package, you can specify your copyright holders' names.
551 Only copyright lines with holders matching copyright-names-regexp will be
552 considered for update.
554 ** The `copyright' package looks for copyright at the end of the buffer
555 if `copyright-at-end-flag' is non-nil (change-log-mode sets this).
557 ** eldoc highlights the function argument under point
558 with the face `eldoc-highlight-function-argument'.
560 ** hide-ifdef-mode permits to shadow ifdef-blocks instead of hiding them.
561 See option `hide-ifdef-shadow' and function `hide-ifdef-toggle-shadowing'.
564 ** defcustom accepts new keyword arguments, `:safe' and `:risky', which
565 set a variable's `safe-local-variable' and `risky-local-variable' property.
568 *** The --members option is now the default.
570 Use --no-members if you want the old default behaviour of not tagging
571 struct members in C, members variables in C++ and variables in PHP.
575 *** VC now supports applying VC operations to a set of files at a time.
576 This enables VC to work much more effectively with changeset-oriented
577 version-control systems such as Subversion, GNU Arch, Mercurial, Git
578 and Bzr. VC will now pass a multiple-file commit to these systems as
581 *** vc-dir is a new command that displays file names and their VC
582 status. It allows to apply various VC operations to a file or a
585 *** Clicking on the VC mode-line entry now pops the VC menu.
587 *** The VC mode-line entry now has a tooltip that explains the VC file status.
589 *** In VC Annotate mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
590 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
591 by using the vc-annotate-show-changeset-diff-revision-at-line function.
593 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type V to toggle the annotation visibility.
595 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type f to show the file revision on
598 *** vc-git supports the "git grep" command.
600 *** Asynchronous VC commands display [Waiting...] in the mode-line
601 of the corresponding buffer as long as the asynchronous process is
604 *** Log entries can be modified using the key "e" in log-view.
605 For now only CVS, RCS, SCCS and SVN support this functionality.
606 This is done by the `modify-change-comment' backend function.
608 *** In log-view-mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
609 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
610 by typing the D key or using the "Changeset Diff" menu entry.
612 *** VC Support for Meta-CVS has been removed for lack of maintainer able
613 to update it to the new VC.
615 ** smerge-refine highlights word-level details of changes in conflict.
616 It's used automatically as you move through conflicts, see smerge-auto-refine.
620 *** diff-refine-hunk highlights word-level details of changes in a diff hunk.
621 It's used automatically as you move through hunks, see
622 diff-auto-refine. It is bound to `C-c C-b'.
624 *** diff-add-change-log-entries-other-window iterates through the diff
625 buffer and tries to create ChangeLog entries for each change.
626 It is bound to `C-x 4 A'.
628 ** log-edit now has a command bound to C-c C-d to show the diff for
631 ** In Change Log mode, the new function `change-log-find-file', bound to
632 C-c C-f, finds the file associated with the current log entry.
634 ** sgml-electric-tag-pair-mode lets you simultaneously edit matched tag pairs.
636 ** The appearance of superscript and subscript in TeX is more customizable.
637 See the documentation of the variables: tex-fontify-script,
638 tex-font-script-display, tex-suscript-height-ratio, and
639 tex-suscript-height-minimum.
643 *** New command `bibtex-initialize' (re)initializes BibTeX buffers.
645 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' options `whitespace', `braces', and
646 `string', disabled by default.
648 *** New variable `bibtex-cite-matcher-alist' contains rules to
649 identify cited keys in BibTeX entries, used by `bibtex-find-crossref'.
651 *** Command `bibtex-url' allows multiple URLs per entry.
656 *** New connection methods.
657 The new methods "plinkx", "plink2", "psftp", "sftp" and "fish" have
658 been introduced. There are also new so-called gateway methods
659 "tunnel" and "socks".
661 *** Multihop syntax has been removed.
662 The pseudo-method "multi" has been removed. Instead of, multi hops
663 can be specified by the new variable `tramp-default-proxies-alist'.
665 *** More default settings.
666 Default values can be set via the variables `tramp-default-user',
667 `tramp-default-user-alist' and `tramp-default-host'.
669 *** Connection information is cached.
670 In order to reduce connection setup, information about used
671 connections are kept persistent in a file. The name of this file is
672 defined in the variable `tramp-persistency-file-name'.
674 *** Control of remote processes.
675 Running processes on a remote host can be controlled by settings in
676 `tramp-remote-path' and `tramp-remote-process-environment'.
678 *** Success of remote copy is checked.
679 When the variable `file-precious-flag' is set, the success of a remote
680 file copy is checked via the file's checksum.
682 *** Passwords can be read from an authentification file.
683 Tramp uses the package `auth-source' to read passwords from a file, if
686 ** Calendar and diary
689 *** There is a new date style, `iso', essentially year/month/day.
690 The variable `european-calendar-style' is obsolete - use `calendar-date-style'.
691 Similarly, the commands `american-calendar' and `european-calendar'
692 should be replaced by `calendar-set-date-style'.
695 *** The calendar namespace has been rationalized.
696 All functions and variables now begin with a `calendar-', `diary-', or
697 `holiday-' prefix. The various calendar systems have secondary
698 prefixes, eg `calendar-french-'. The old names you are likely to use
699 directly still exist, for the time being, as aliases, but please start
702 *** The function `holiday-chinese' computes holidays on the Chinese calendar.
703 It has been used to add items to the list `holiday-oriental-holidays'.
705 *** `diary-remind' accepts a negative number -DAYS as a shorthand for
706 the list (1 2 ... DAYS).
708 ** Miscellaneous programming mode changes
710 *** The file etc/emacs.py now supports both Python 2 and 3, meaning
711 that either version can be used as inferior Python by python.el.
713 *** Python mode now has `pdbtrack' functionality. When using pdb to
714 debug a Python program, pdbtrack notices the pdb prompt and displays
715 the source file and line that the program is stopped at, much the same
716 way as gud-mode does for debugging C programs with gdb.
718 *** The variable `fortran-line-length' can change the fixed-form line-length.
720 *** In Fortran mode, M-; is now bound to the standard comment-dwim,
721 rather than fortran-indent-comment.
724 *** (The increasingly misnamed) F90 mode supports Fortran 2003 syntax.
726 *** The function `gdb' only works with the graphical interface now.
727 Use `gud-gdb' if you want the (old) text command mode.
731 *** The Gnus package has been updated
733 *** In Emacs 23, Gnus uses Emacs' new internal coding system `utf-8-emacs' for
734 saving articles drafts and ~/.newsrc.eld. These file may not be read
735 correctly in Emacs 22 and below. If you want to Gnus across different Emacs
736 versions, you may set `mm-auto-save-coding-system' to `emacs-mule'.
738 *** There are many news features, bug fixes and improvements.
740 See the file GNUS-NEWS or the node "No Gnus" in the Gnus manual for details.
744 *** goto-address.el provides two new minor modes, goto-address-mode and
745 goto-address-prog-mode, which buttonize URLS and email addresses.
747 *** comint-mode uses `start-file-process' now (see Lisp Changes).
748 If `default-directory' is a remote file name, subprocesses are started
749 on the corresponding remote system.
751 *** C-x C-q in dired-mode now runs the command wdired-change-to-wdired-mode,
752 and C-x C-q in wdired-mode exits it with asking a question about
755 *** The new command `eshell/info' runs info in an eshell buffer.
757 *** The pcmpl-unix package supports hostname completion for ssh and scp.
759 *** WoMan tries to add locale-specific manual page directories to the
760 search path. This can be disabled by setting `woman-locale' to nil.
762 *** The new variable `ffap-rfc-directories' specifies a list of local
763 directories in which `ffap-rfc' will first search for RFCs.
765 *** net-utils has an `iwconfig' command, similar to the existing `ifconfig'.
766 It is used to configure wireless interfaces.
769 * Changes in Emacs 23.1 on non-free operating systems
771 ** Case is now considered significant in completion on MS-Windows.
772 The default value of `completion-ignore-case' is now nil on
773 MS-Windows, the same as it is for other operating systems. The
774 variable doesn't apply to reading a file name -- in that case Emacs
775 heeds `read-file-name-completion-ignore-case' instead.
778 ** IPv6 is supported on MS-Windows.
779 Emacs now supports IPv6 on Windows XP and later, and earlier versions
780 of Windows with third party IPv6 stacks installed. In Emacs 22, IPv6 was
781 supported on other platforms, but not on Windows due to using the winsock
782 1.1 header file, even though Emacs was linking to the winsock 2 library.
785 ** Busy cursor (hourglass) now displays on MS-Windows.
786 When Emacs is busy, an hourglass mouse cursor is displayed on Windows.
787 In Emacs 22 only X supported the busy cursor.
790 ** Battery status is available on MS-Windows
791 Emacs can now display the battery status in the mode-line when enabled with
792 display-battery-mode or from the Options menu. More verbose battery
793 information is also available with the command `battery'. In Emacs 22
794 battery status was supported only on GNU/Linux and Mac.
796 ** More keys available on MS-Windows.
797 Keys normally associated with IMEs, and some exotic keys not normally found
798 on standard keyboards have been given names so they can be bound to functions
799 inside Emacs. If there are keys on your keyboard that have not been exposed
800 to Emacs in the past, try C-h k to see if they are available now.
802 Emacs can now bind functions to the extra buttons for media player and
803 browser control present on some keyboards. These buttons are disabled
804 by default, since enabling them prevents their system-wide use when
805 Emacs has focus. To enable them, set the variable
806 w32-pass-multimedia-buttons to nil. See the doc string of that variable
807 for the list of extra keys that are available.
810 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
812 ** Variables cannot be both buffer-local and frame-local any more.
813 ** The argument DEFAULT of minibuffer input functions `read-from-minibuffer',
814 `read-string', `completing-read', `read-buffer', `read-command',
815 `read-variable' now can be a list of default values. The elements of
816 this list are available for inserting to the minibuffer with `M-n'.
817 If the user enters empty input, the first element is used as the default.
819 ** `functionp' returns nil for special forms.
820 I.e., it only returns t for objects that can be passed to `funcall'.
823 ** The multibyteness of process filters is determined by the coding-system
824 used for decoding. The functions `process-filter-multibyte-p' and
825 `set-process-filter-multibyte' are obsolete.
827 ** The behavior of map-char-table has changed. It may call the
828 specified function with a cons (FROM . TO) as a key if characters in
829 that range have the same value.
831 ** The value of the function `charset-id' is now always 0.
833 ** The functions `register-char-codings' and `coding-system-spec'
836 ** The cpXXX coding systems are now supported automatically. The
837 functions cp-...-codepage, which you had to use in Emacs 22 to enable
838 support for these coding systems, have been deleted.
841 ** The function `dired-call-process' has been removed.
843 ** The variable `byte-compile-warnings' can now be a list starting with `not',
844 meaning to disable the specified warnings. The meaning of this list
845 may therefore be the reverse of what you expect (of course, this is
846 only an issue if you make use of the new `not' syntax). Rather than
847 checking/manipulating elements directly, use the new functions
848 `byte-compile-warning-enabled-p', `byte-compile-disable-warning', and
849 `byte-compile-enable-warning.'
851 ** `mode-name' is no longer guaranteed to be a string.
852 Use `(format-mode-line mode-name)' to ensure a string value.
854 ** The following features have been removed. They were used for
855 displaying various scripts with specific fonts, and are no longer
856 needed now that OpenType font support is available:
858 *** `devanagari' and `devan-util', and all associated devanagari-* and
859 dev-* functions and variables (formerly used for Devanagari script).
861 *** `kannada' and `knd-util', and all associated kannada-* and knd-*
862 functions and variables (formerly used for Kannada script).
864 *** `malayalam' and `mlm-util', and all associated malayalam-* and
865 mlm-* functions and variables (formerly used for Malayalam script).
867 *** `tamil' and `tml-util, and all associated tamil-* and tml-*
868 functions and variables (formerly used for Tamil script).
871 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
873 ** The variable window-point-insertion-type determines the insertion-type
874 of the marker used for window-point.
876 ** minibuffer-local-must-match-filename-map is now named
877 minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map.
879 ** `all-completions' may now return the base size in the last cdr.
880 Since this means the returned list is not properly nil-terminated, this
881 is an incompatible change and is thus enabled by the new variable
882 completion-all-completions-with-base-size.
884 ** New function `apply-partially' for curried application.
886 ** `fill-forward-paragraph-function' specifies which function the filling
887 code should use to find paragraph boundaries.
889 ** The variable `this-command-keys-shift-translated' is non-nil if the
890 key sequence invoking the current command was found by
893 ** The new interactive spec code ^ says to first call
894 handle-shift-selection if shift-select-mode is non-nil, before reading
895 the command arguments.
897 ** When deleting a terminal, the special hook `delete-terminal-functions'
900 ** The `read-shell-command' function does what its name says, with completion.
901 It uses the minibuffer-local-shell-command-map for that.
903 ** The `buffer-swap-text' function can swap the text between two buffers.
904 This can be useful for modes such as tar-mode, archive-mode, RMAIL.
906 ** `clear-image-cache' can be told to flush only images of a specific file.
908 ** clone-indirect-buffer now runs the clone-indirect-buffer-hook.
910 ** `beginning-of-defun-function' now takes one argument, the count
911 given to `beginning-of-defun'.
913 ** The variable `inhibit-changing-match-data', if non-nil, prevents the
914 search and match primitives from changing the match data.
917 ** New function `match-substitute-replacement' returns the result of
918 `replace-match' without actually using it in the buffer.
920 ** The new variable `replace-search-function' determines the function
921 to use for searching in query-replace and replace-string.
923 ** The new variable `replace-re-search-function' determines the
924 function to use for searching in `query-replace-regexp',
925 `replace-regexp', + `query-replace-regexp-eval', and
926 `map-query-replace-regexp'.
928 ** If a local hook function has a non-nil `permanent-local-hook'
929 property, then `kill-all-local-variables' does not remove it from
930 the local value of the hook variable. This means it remains
931 even if you change major modes.
934 ** A list of default values can be specified for the DEFAULT argument of
935 functions `read-from-minibuffer', `read-string', `read-command',
936 `read-variable', `read-buffer', `completing-read'. Elements of this list
937 are available for inserting into the minibuffer by typing `M-n'.
938 For empty input these functions return the first element of this list.
940 ** `custom-note-var-changed' tells Custom to treat the change in a certain
941 variable as having been made within Custom.
943 ** `frame-inherited-parameters' lets new frames inherit parameters from
946 ** Commands should use `use-region-p' to test whether there is
947 an active region that they should operate on.
949 ** `region-active-p' returns non-nil when Transient Mark mode
950 is enabled and there is an active region. This is NOT the best function
951 to use to test whether a command should operate on the region instead
952 of the usual behavior -- for that, use `use-region-p'.
954 ** If a command sets `transient-mark-mode' to (only . OLDVAL), that
955 means to activate transient-mark-mode temporarily, until the next
956 unshifted point motion command or mark deactivation. Afterwards,
957 reset transient-mark-mode to the value OLDVAL. The values `only' and
958 `identity', introduced in Emacs 22, are now deprecated.
960 ** New keymap `input-decode-map' overrides like key-translation-map, but
961 applies before function-key-map. Also it is terminal-local contrary to
962 key-translation-map. Terminal-specific key-sequences are generally added to
963 this map rather than to function-key-map now.
965 ** The new macro `declare-function' suppresses compiler warnings about
966 undefined functions. The new `check-declare' package verifies that such
967 statements are accurate (i.e. the functions are actually defined in
968 the specified files).
970 ** `ignore-errors' is now a standard macro (does not require the CL package).
972 ** The new function `read-color' reads a color name using the minibuffer.
974 ** `interprogram-paste-function' can now return one string or a list
975 of strings. In the latter case, Emacs puts the second and following
976 strings on the kill ring.
978 ** Character code, representation, and charset changes.
980 The character code space is now 0x0..0x3FFFFF with no gap.
981 Characters of code 0x0..0x10FFFF are Unicode characters of the same code points.
982 Characters of code 0x3FFF80..0x3FFFFF are raw 8-bit bytes.
984 Generic characters no longer exist.
986 In buffer and string, characters are represented by UTF-8 byte
987 sequence in a multibyte buffer/string.
989 The concept of a charset has changed. A single character may belong to
990 multiple charsets (e.g. a-grave, U+00E0, belongs to charsets unicode,
991 iso-8859-1, iso-8859-3, etc).
993 *** The new function `characterp' returns t if and only if the argument
994 is a character. This replaces `char-valid-p', which is now obsolete.
996 *** The new function `max-char' returns the maximum character code
997 (currently it is #x3FFFFF).
999 *** The functions `encode-char' and `decode-char' now accept any character sets.
1001 *** The function `define-charset' now accepts a completely different
1002 form of arguments (old-style arguments still work).
1004 *** The new function `define-charset-alias' defines an alias of a charset.
1006 *** The value of the function `char-charset' depends on the current
1007 priorities of charsets.
1009 *** The new function `charset-priority-list' returns the list of
1010 charsets ordered by priority.
1012 *** The new function `set-charset-priority' sets priorities of charsets.
1014 *** The new function `unibyte-string' make a unibyte string from bytes.
1016 *** The new function `define-char-code-property' defines a character
1019 *** The new function `char-code-property-description' returns the
1020 description string of a character code property.
1022 *** The function get-char-code-property now accepts many Unicode base
1023 character properties. They are `name', `general-category',
1024 `canonical-combining-class', `bidi-class', `decomposition',
1025 `decimal-digit-value', `digit-value', `numeric-value', `mirrored',
1026 `old-name', `iso-10646-comment', `uppercase', `lowercase', and
1029 *** The new variable `find-word-boundary-function-table' is a
1030 char-table of functions to search for a word boundary.
1032 *** The new variable `char-script-table' is a char-table of script names.
1034 *** The new variable `char-width-table' is a char-table of character widths.
1036 *** The new variable `print-charset-text-property' controls how to
1037 handle `charset' text property on printing a string.
1039 *** The new variable `printable-chars' is a char-table defining if a
1040 character is printable or not.
1042 *** The functions `modify-syntax-entry' and `modify-category-entry' now
1043 accepts a cons of characters as the first argument, and modify all
1044 entries in that range of characters.
1046 *** `translation-table-for-input' is now obsolete.
1048 ** Code conversion changes
1050 *** The new function `define-coding-system' should be used to define a
1051 coding system instead of `make-coding-system' (which is now obsolete).
1053 *** The functions `encode-coding-region' and `decode-coding-region'
1054 have an optional 4th argument to specify where the result of
1055 conversion should go.
1057 *** The functions `encode-coding-string' and `decode-coding-string'
1058 have an optional 4th argument specifying a buffer to store the result
1061 *** The new function `with-coding-priority' executes the body part with
1062 the specified coding system priority order.
1064 *** The new function `check-coding-systems-region' checks if the text
1065 in the region is encodable by the specified coding systems.
1067 *** The new function `coding-system-aliases' returns a list of aliases
1070 *** The new function `coding-system-charset-list' returns a list of
1071 charsets supported by a coding system.
1073 *** The new function `coding-system-priority-list' returns a list of
1074 coding systems ordered by their priorities.
1076 *** The new function `set-coding-system-priority' sets priorities of
1079 *** The functions `set-coding-priority' and `make-coding-system' are obsolete.
1081 ** There is a new input method, Robin, different from Quail.
1082 It has three functionalities:
1083 i) a simple input method (converts an ASCII sequence into a string).
1084 ii) converts an existing buffer substring into another string
1085 iii) reverse conversion (each character produced by a
1086 robin rule can hold the original ASCII sequence as a char-code-property)
1088 *** The new function `robin-define-package' defines a Robin package.
1090 *** The new function `robin-modify-package' modifies an existing Robin package.
1092 *** The new function `robin-use-package' starts using a Robin package
1095 ** Changes related to the new font backend
1097 Which font backends to use can be specified by the X resource "FontBackend".
1098 For instance, to use both X core fonts and Xft fonts:
1100 Emacs.FontBackend: x,xft
1102 If this resource is not set, Emacs tries to use all font backends
1103 available on your graphic device.
1105 *** New frame parameter `font-backend' specifies a list of
1106 font-backends supported by the frame's graphic device. On X, they are
1107 currently `x' and `xft'.
1109 *** New function `fontp' checks if the argument is a font-spec or font-entity.
1111 *** New function `font-spec' creates a new font-spec object.
1113 *** New function `font-get' returns a font property value.
1115 *** New function `font-face-attributes' returns a plist of face
1116 attributes set by a font.
1118 *** New function `font-put' sets a font property value.
1120 *** New function `list-fonts' returns a list of font-entities matching
1121 the given specification.
1123 *** New function `list-families' returns a list of family names of
1126 *** New function `font-font' returns a font-entity best matching with
1127 the given specification.
1129 *** New function `font-xlfd-name' returns an XLFD name of a given font
1130 (font-spec, font-entity, or font-object).
1132 *** New function `clear-font-cache' clears all font caches.
1134 *** The function `set-fontset-font' now accepts a script name as the
1135 second argument, and has an optional 5th argument to control how to
1138 ** Changes related to multiple tty support
1140 *** $TERM is now set to `dumb' for subprocesses. If you want to know the
1141 $TERM inherited by Emacs you will have to look inside initial-environment.
1143 *** $DISPLAY is now dynamically inherited from the frame's `display'.
1145 *** The `window-system' variable has been made frame-local. The new
1146 `initial-window-system' variable contains the `window-system' value
1147 for the first frame. `window-system' is also now a function that
1148 takes a frame argument.
1150 *** You can specify a terminal device (`tty' parameter) and a terminal
1151 type (`tty-type' parameter) to `make-terminal-frame'.
1153 *** The new function `make-frame-on-tty' allows you to create a new
1154 frame on another tty device interactively.
1156 *** The function `make-frame-on-display' now works during a tty
1157 session, and `make-frame-on-tty' works during a graphical session.
1159 *** New functions: `delete-tty', `suspend-tty', `resume-tty'.
1161 *** A new data type for terminals with functions: `get-device-terminal',
1162 `terminal-parameters', `terminal-parameter', `set-terminal-parameter'.
1164 *** New hooks: `suspend-tty-functions' and `resume-tty-functions'
1165 are called after a tty frame has been suspended or resumed,
1166 respectively. The functions are called with the terminal id of the frame
1167 being suspended/resumed as a parameter.
1169 *** New function: `environment'.
1171 *** New variable: `local-function-key-map'.
1172 This in addition to the global function-key-map variable that
1173 already existed. The global variable is not used directly any more;
1174 instead, the local-function-key-map is initialized so as to inherit from
1177 *** `initial-environment' holds the environment inherited from Emacs's parent.
1179 *** The `keyboard-translate-table' variable and the terminal and
1180 keyboard coding systems have been made terminal-local.
1182 *** In addition to the global function-key-map, Emacs has terminal-local
1183 local-function-key-map variables, and uses them instead of the
1184 global keymaps to set up translations and function key sequences
1185 relevant to a specific terminal device.
1188 ** You can now also pass the value of the `invisible' property to invisible-p
1189 to check whether it would cause the text to be invisible. Convenient when
1190 checking invisibility of text which has no buffer position
1191 (e.g. in before/after-strings).
1193 ** Non-breaking space now acts as whitespace.
1196 ** In `condition-case', a handler can specify "let the debugger run first".
1198 You do this by writing `debug' in the list of conditions to be handled,
1203 ((debug error) nil))
1205 ** The `require-match' argument to `completing-read' accepts a new value
1209 ** The regexp form \(?<num>:<regexp>\) specifies the group number explicitly.
1211 ** New function `window-full-width-p' returns t if a window is as wide
1214 ** The new function `split-string-and-unquote' does (what?)
1216 ** The new function `combine-and-quote-strings' does (what?)
1218 ** The new function `image-refresh' refreshes all images associated
1219 with a given image specification.
1222 ** New variable `user-emacs-directory'.
1223 Use this instead of "~/.emacs.d".
1226 ** The new function `start-file-process' is similar to `start-process',
1227 but obeys file handlers. The file handler is chosen based on
1228 `default-directory'. The functions `start-file-process-shell-command'
1229 and `process-file-shell-command' are also new; they call internally
1230 `start-file-process' and `process-file', respectively.
1232 ** The new function `process-lines' executes an external program and
1233 returns its output as a list of lines.
1236 ** `file-remote-p' has new optional parameters IDENTIFICATION and CONNECTED.
1237 IDENTIFICATION specifies which part of the remote identifier has to be
1238 returned. With CONNECTED passed non-nil, it is checked whether a
1239 remote connection has been established already.
1241 ** The two new functions `looking-at-p' and `string-match-p' can do
1242 the same matching as `looking-at' and `string-match' without changing
1245 ** The interactive-form of a function can be added post-facto via the
1246 `interactive-form' symbol property. Mostly useful to add complex interactive
1247 forms to subroutines.
1249 * New Packages for Lisp Programming in Emacs 23.1
1251 ** The new major mode `special-mode' is intended as a parent for
1252 major modes such as those that set the "'mode-class 'special" property.
1254 ** find-cmd.el can build `find' commands using lisp syntax.
1256 ** The package isearch-multi.el has been added. It implements a new mode
1257 `isearch-buffers-minor-mode' that allows isearch to search through
1258 multiple buffers. In this mode a new variable
1259 `isearch-buffers-next-buffer-function' defines the function to call
1260 to get the next buffer to search in the series of multiple buffers.
1262 ** The new package avl-tree.el deals with the AVL tree data structure.
1265 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1266 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
1268 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1269 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1270 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1271 (at your option) any later version.
1273 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1274 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1275 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1276 GNU General Public License for more details.
1278 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1279 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
1284 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"
1287 arch-tag: e759449d-88b3-4de4-9900-3a6c3dfa23e2