Minor doc tweaks for display-*-width, height
[bpt/emacs.git] / etc / NEWS
1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2014 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 documentation updates are complete.
19 (This means all relevant manuals in doc/ AND lisp doc-strings.)
20 --- means no change in the manuals is needed.
21 When you add a new item, use the appropriate mark if you are sure it applies,
22 otherwise leave it unmarked.
23
24 \f
25 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.4
26
27 ---
28 ** Emacs can now be compiled with ACL support.
29 This happens by default if a suitable support library is found at
30 build time, like libacl on GNU/Linux. To prevent this, use the
31 configure option `--disable-acl'. See below for related features.
32
33 ---
34 ** Emacs can now be compiled with file notification support.
35 This happens by default if a suitable system library is found at
36 build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
37 `--without-file-notification'. See below for file-notify features.
38 This feature is not available for the Nextstep port.
39
40 ---
41 ** Emacs can now be compiled with zlib support.
42 This happens by default if zlib is present, which it normally is.
43 To prevent this, use the configure option `--without-zlib'.
44 This provides the function `zlib-decompress-region'; see below for details.
45
46 ---
47 ** The configure option `--without-compress-info' has been generalized,
48 and renamed to `--without-compress-install'. It now prevents compression
49 of _any_ files during installation.
50
51 ---
52 ** The configure option `--with-crt-dir' has been removed.
53 It is no longer needed, as the crt*.o files are no longer linked specially.
54
55 ---
56 ** Directories passed to configure option `--enable-locallisppath' are
57 no longer created during installation.
58
59 ---
60 ** Emacs for NS (Mac OS X, GNUstep) can be built with ImageMagick support.
61 This requires pkg-config to be available at build time.
62
63 \f
64 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.4
65
66 +++
67 ** When initializing `load-path', an empty element in the EMACSLOADPATH
68 environment variable (either leading, e.g., ":/foo"; trailing, e.g.,
69 "/foo:"; or embedded, e.g., "/foo::/bar") is replaced with the default
70 load-path (the one that would have been used if EMACSLOADPATH was unset).
71 This makes it easier to _extend_ the load-path via EMACSLOADPATH
72 (previously, EMACSLOADPATH had to specify the complete load-path,
73 including the defaults). (In older versions of Emacs, an empty element
74 was replaced by ".", so use an explicit "." now if that is what you want.)
75
76 +++
77 ** The -L option, which normally prepends its argument to load-path,
78 will instead append, if the argument begins with `:' (or `;' on MS Windows;
79 i.e., `path-separator').
80
81 +++
82 ** If you use either site-load.el or site-init.el to customize the dumped
83 Emacs executable, any changes to `load-path' that these files make
84 will no longer be present after dumping. To affect a permanent change
85 to `load-path', use the `--enable-locallisppath' option of `configure'.
86
87 +++
88 ** The user option `initial-buffer-choice' can now specify a function
89 to set up the initial buffer.
90
91 \f
92 * Changes in Emacs 24.4
93
94 +++
95 ** New function `zlib-decompress-region', which decompresses gzip- and
96 zlib-format compressed data using built-in zlib support, if available.
97
98 +++
99 ** New option `gnutls-verify-error', if non-nil, means that Emacs
100 should reject SSL/TLS certificates that GnuTLS determines as invalid.
101 (This option defaults to nil at present, but this is expected to change
102 in a future release.)
103
104 +++
105 ** Emacs now supports menus on text-mode terminals.
106 If the terminal supports a mouse, clicking on the menu bar, or on
107 sensitive portions of the mode line or header line, will drop down the
108 menu defined at that position. Likewise, clicking C-mouse-2 or
109 C-mouse-2 or C-mouse-3 on the text area will pop up the menus defined
110 for those locations.
111
112 If the text terminal does not support a mouse, you can activate the
113 first menu-bar menu by typing F10, which invokes `menu-bar-open'.
114
115 If you want the previous behavior, whereby F10 invoked `tmm-menubar',
116 customize the option `tty-menu-open-use-tmm' to a non-nil value.
117 (Typing M-` always invokes `tmm-menubar', even if `tty-menu-open-use-tmm'
118 is nil.)
119
120 +++
121 ** The *Messages* buffer is created in `messages-buffer-mode',
122 a new major mode, with read-only status. Any code that might create
123 the *Messages* buffer should call the function `messages-buffer' to do
124 so and set up the mode.
125
126 +++
127 ** Emacs can now support ACLs (access control lists).
128 This requires a suitable support library to be found at build time.
129 On GNU/Linux, the POSIX ACL interface is used via libacl.
130 On MS-Windows, the NT Security APIs are used to emulate the POSIX interface.
131
132 +++
133 *** Emacs preserves the ACL entries of files when backing up.
134 +++
135 *** New functions `file-acl' and `set-file-acl' get and set the ACL
136 entries of a file.
137
138 ** Multi-monitor support has been added.
139
140 +++
141 *** New functions `display-monitor-attributes-list' and
142 `frame-monitor-attributes' can be used to obtain information about
143 each physical monitor on multi-monitor setups.
144
145 +++
146 *** The functions `display-pixel-width' and `display-pixel-height' now
147 behave consistently among the platforms: they return the pixel width
148 or height for all physical monitors associated with the given display
149 as if they were on X. To get information for each physical
150 monitor, use the new functions above. Similar notes also apply to
151 `x-display-pixel-width', `x-display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
152 `display-mm-height', `x-display-mm-width', and `x-display-mm-height'.
153
154 +++
155 ** The cursor stops blinking after 10 blinks (by default) on X and NS.
156 You can change the default by customizing `blink-cursor-blinks'.
157
158 +++
159 ** In keymaps where SPC scrolls forward, S-SPC now scrolls backward.
160 This affects View mode, etc.
161
162 ** Help changes
163
164 +++
165 *** The command `apropos-variable' is renamed to `apropos-user-option'.
166 `apropos-user-option' shows all user options while `apropos-variable'
167 shows all variables. When called with a universal prefix argument,
168 the two commands swap their behaviors. When `apropos-do-all' is
169 non-nil, they output the same results.
170
171 +++
172 *** The key `?' now describes prefix bindings, like `C-h'.
173
174 ---
175 *** The command `describe-function' has been extended for EIEIO.
176 Running it on constructors will show a full description of the
177 generated class. For generic functions, it will show all
178 implementations together with links to the source. The old commands
179 `describe-class', `describe-constructor' and `describe-generic' were
180 removed.
181
182 ---
183 *** The function `quail-help' is no longer an interactive command.
184 Use `C-h C-\' (`describe-input-method') instead.
185
186 ** ImageMagick
187
188 +++
189 *** ImageMagick images now support the :max-width and :max-height keywords.
190
191 +++
192 *** When using `create-image' with image data, you can pass a :format
193 attribute (via the property-list argument) in order to help
194 ImageMagick detect the image type. The value should be a MIME
195 content-type that is found in the new variable `image-format-suffixes'.
196
197 ** Frame and window changes
198
199 +++
200 *** New commands `toggle-frame-fullscreen' and `toggle-frame-maximized',
201 bound to <f11> and M-<f10>, respectively.
202
203 +++
204 *** New hooks `focus-in-hook', `focus-out-hook'.
205 These are normal hooks run when an Emacs frame gains or loses input focus.
206
207 *** Emacs can now change frame sizes in units of pixels, rather than
208 text rows or columns. When maximizing a frame or making it fullscreen,
209 remaining extra pixels are no longer given to the minibuffer, the rightmost
210 fringe, or other unusable space, but are distributed among the text
211 areas of the frame's windows. If the new option `frame-resize-pixelwise'
212 is non-nil, all frame size changes happen pixelwise and set the
213 corresponding size hints for the window manager.
214
215 *** Emacs can now change window sizes in units of pixels.
216 Mouse-dragging a mode line or window divider now changes the size of
217 adjacent windows pixelwise. If the new option `window-resize-pixelwise'
218 is non-nil, functions like `balance-windows-area' and `fit-window-to-buffer'
219 resize windows pixelwise. Most functions for changing or accessing
220 window sizes now have an additional argument that allows changes to apply,
221 or values to be returned, in pixels instead of lines/columns.
222
223 *** Emacs can now draw dividers between adjacent windows. To put
224 dividers between side-by-side/vertically stacked windows customize the
225 frame parameters `right-divider-width' and `bottom-divider-width' to
226 some positive integer. You can drag dividers with the mouse (they show
227 a corresponding cursor when the mouse hovers over them). You can change
228 the appearance of dividers by customizing the faces `window-divider',
229 `window-divider-first-pixel', and `window-divider-last-pixel'. The last
230 two are useful to provide a 3D effect, or to better distinguish dividers
231 from surrounding display objects.
232
233 *** New functions are provided to return the pixel sizes of window
234 components, namely `window-scroll-bar-width', `window-mode-line-height'
235 `window-header-line-height', `window-right-divider-width' and
236 `window-bottom-divider-width'.
237
238 *** The new function `window-text-pixel-size' returns the size of the
239 text of a window's buffer in pixels. This allows functions like
240 `fit-frame-to-buffer' and `fit-window-to-buffer' to accurately fit a
241 window to its buffer as it will be displayed.
242
243 *** `fit-window-to-buffer' can now resize windows horizontally.
244 This behavior is controlled by the new option
245 `fit-window-to-buffer-horizontally'.
246
247 *** `fit-frame-to-buffer' can now fit frames in both directions.
248 This behavior is controlled by the option `fit-frame-to-buffer' which
249 tells in which direction(s) the frame shall be fit. The new options
250 `fit-frame-to-buffer-margins' and `fit-frame-to-buffer-sizes' allow to
251 control the size of the frame and its position on screen.
252
253 *** Temp Buffer Resize Mode can now adjust height and width of windows
254 and frames. `temp-buffer-resize-mode' is now able to adjust the height
255 and the width of a window displaying a temporary buffer. The new option
256 `temp-buffer-max-width' allows to control the width of temporary buffer
257 windows. Moreover, if the new option `fit-frame-to-buffer' is non-nil
258 and the buffer appears in the root window of a frame, Temp Buffer Resize
259 Mode will try to adjust width and/or height of the frame.
260
261 ---
262 *** `split-window' is now a non-interactive function, not a command.
263 As a command, it was a special case of `C-x 2' (`split-window-below'),
264 and as such superfluous. After being reimplemented in Lisp, its
265 interactive form was mistakenly retained.
266
267 +++
268 *** The functions `window-size' and `window-total-size' now have an
269 optional argument to return a rounded size value.
270
271 +++
272 *** `window-state-put' now allows to put a window state into internal
273 windows too.
274
275 +++
276 *** New option `scroll-bar-adjust-thumb-portion'.
277 Available only on X, this option allows to control over-scrolling
278 using the scroll bar (i.e. dragging the thumb down even when the end
279 of the buffer is visible).
280
281 +++
282 *** New basic action function `display-buffer-in-previous-window' has
283 `display-buffer' display a buffer in a window previously showing that
284 buffer.
285
286 +++
287 *** New basic action function `display-buffer-at-bottom' has
288 `display-buffer' choose or make a window at the bottom of the selected
289 frame.
290
291 *** New display action function `display-buffer-no-window' to not
292 display the buffer in a window.
293
294 *** New display action alist entry `allow-no-window' to indicate the
295 caller of `display-buffer' is ready to handle the case of not
296 displaying the buffer in a window.
297
298 ** Lisp evaluation changes
299 +++
300 *** `eval-defun' on an already defined defcustom calls the :set function,
301 if there is one.
302
303 +++
304 *** The commands `eval-expression' (`M-:'), `eval-last-sexp' (`C-x C-e'),
305 and `eval-print-last-sexp' (`C-j' in Lisp Interaction mode) can take a
306 zero prefix argument. This disables truncation of lists in the output,
307 equivalent to setting `(eval-expression-)print-length' and
308 `(eval-expression-)print-level' to nil. Additionally, it causes integers
309 to be printed in other formats (octal, hexadecimal, and character).
310
311 ---
312 *** New hook `eval-expression-minibuffer-setup-hook' run by
313 `eval-expression' on entering the minibuffer.
314
315 ---
316 ** `write-region-inhibit-fsync' now defaults to t in batch mode.
317
318 +++
319 ** `cache-long-line-scans' is now non-nil, and renamed to `cache-long-scans',
320 because it affects caching of paragraph scanning results as well.
321 There is no reason to set this to nil except for debugging purposes.
322
323 ---
324 ** The option `set-mark-default-inactive' has been deleted.
325 This unfinished feature was introduced by accident in Emacs 23.1;
326 simply disabling Transient Mark mode does the same thing.
327
328 ---
329 ** The default value of `comment-use-global-state' is now t,
330 and this variable has been marked obsolete.
331
332 ---
333 ** `emacs-bzr-version' has been renamed to `emacs-repository-version',
334 and works for git too, if you fetch the repository notes.
335
336 +++
337 ** New option `load-prefer-newer' affects how the `load' function chooses
338 the file to load. If this is non-nil, then when both .el and .elc
339 versions of a file exist, and the caller did not explicitly specify
340 which one to load, then the newer file is loaded. The default, nil,
341 means to always load the .elc file.
342
343 \f
344 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.4
345
346 ** Indentation changes
347
348 +++
349 *** The behavior of `C-x TAB' (`indent-rigidly') has changed.
350 When invoked without a prefix argument, it now activates a transient
351 mode in which typing <left>, <right>, <S-left>, and <S-right> adjusts
352 the text indentation in the region. Typing any other key resumes
353 normal editing behavior.
354
355 *** `electric-indent-mode' is enabled by default.
356
357 +++
358 *** `tab-stop-list' is now implicitly extended to infinity by repeating
359 the last step. Its default value is changed to nil, which means a tab
360 stop every `tab-width' columns.
361
362 +++
363 ** New command `cycle-spacing' acts like a smarter `just-one-space'.
364 When called in succession, it cycles between spacing conventions:
365 one space, no spaces, original spacing.
366
367 +++
368 ** The new function `fill-single-char-nobreak-p' can stop fill from breaking
369 a line after a one-letter word, which is an error in some typographical
370 conventions. To use it, add it to the `fill-nobreak-predicate' hook.
371
372 +++
373 ** Uniquify is enabled by default, with `post-forward-angle-brackets' style.
374
375 +++
376 ** New command `C-x SPC' (`rectangle-mark-mode') makes a rectangular region.
377 Most commands are still unaware of it, but kill/yank do work on the rectangle.
378
379 +++
380 ** New option `visual-order-cursor-movement'.
381 If this is non-nil, cursor motion with arrow keys will follow the
382 visual order of characters on the screen: <left> always moves to the
383 left, <right> always moves to the right, disregarding the surrounding
384 bidirectional context.
385
386 ** Register changes
387
388 +++
389 *** All interactive commands that read a register (`copy-to-register', etc.)
390 now display a temporary window after `register-preview-delay' seconds
391 that summarizes existing registers. To disable this, set that option to nil.
392 Interactive commands that read registers and want to make use of this
393 should use `register-read-with-preview' to read register names.
394
395 +++
396 *** New command `frameset-to-register' bound to `C-x r f', replacing
397 `frame-configuration-to-register'. It offers similar functionality,
398 plus enhancements like the ability to restore deleted frames.
399 (`frame-configuration-to-register' still exists, but no longer has a
400 key binding.)
401
402 +++
403 *** New command `C-x C-k x' (`kmacro-to-register') stores keyboard
404 macros in registers.
405
406 +++
407 ** New command `delete-duplicate-lines'.
408 This searches the region for identical lines, and removes all but one
409 copy of each repeated line. The lines need not be sorted.
410
411 \f
412 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.4
413
414 +++
415 ** More packages look for ~/.emacs.d/<foo> additionally to ~/.<foo>.
416 Affected files:
417 ~/.emacs.d/timelog replaces ~/.timelog
418 ~/.emacs.d/vip replaces ~/.vip
419 ~/.emacs.d/viper replaces ~/.viper
420 ~/.emacs.d/ido.last replaces ~/.ido.last
421 ~/.emacs.d/kkcrc replaces ~/.kkcrc
422 ~/.emacs.d/quickurls replaces ~/.quickurls
423 ~/.emacs.d/idlwave/ replaces ~/.idlwave/
424 ~/.emacs.d/bdfcache.el replaces ~/.bdfcache.el
425 ~/.emacs.d/places replaces ~/.emacs-places
426 ~/.emacs.d/shadows replaces ~/.shadows
427 ~/.emacs.d/shadow_todo replaces ~/.shadow_todo
428 ~/.emacs.d/strokes replaces ~/.strokes
429 ~/.emacs.d/notes replaces ~/.notes
430 ~/.emacs.d/type-break replaces ~/.type-break
431 Also the following files used by the now obsolete otodo-mode.el:
432 ~/.emacs.d/todo-do replaces ~/.todo-do
433 ~/.emacs.d/todo-done replaces ~/.todo-done
434 ~/.emacs.d/todo-top replaces ~/.todo-top
435
436 ** Backtrace and debugger
437
438 +++
439 *** New Lisp debugger command `v' (`debugger-toggle-locals') toggles the
440 display of local variables of the current stack frame.
441
442 +++
443 *** The Lisp debugger's `e' command (`debugger-eval-expression') now includes
444 the lexical environment when evaluating the code in the context at point
445 (and so allows you to access lexical variables).
446
447 ---
448 *** New minor mode `jit-lock-debug-mode' helps you debug code run via JIT Lock.
449
450 ---
451 ** Battery information can now be retrieved from BSD's `apm' utility.
452
453 ---
454 ** In the Buffer Menu, `M-s a C-o' shows matches for a regexp in marked buffers.
455
456 ** Calendar and Diary
457
458 ---
459 *** New faces `calendar-weekday-header', `calendar-weekend-header',
460 and `calendar-month-header'.
461
462 +++
463 *** New option `calendar-day-header-array'.
464
465 +++
466 *** New variable `diary-from-outlook-function', used by the command
467 `diary-from-outlook'.
468
469 ---
470 *** The variable `calendar-font-lock-keywords' is obsolete.
471
472 ** Calc
473
474 +++
475 *** Calc by default now uses the Gregorian calendar for all dates, and
476 uses January 1, 1 AD as its day number 1. Previously Calc used the
477 Julian calendar for dates before September 14, 1752, and it used
478 December 31, 1 BC as its day number 1; the new scheme is more
479 consistent with Calendar's calendrical system and day numbering.
480
481 +++
482 *** The new option `calc-gregorian-switch' lets you configure if
483 (and when) Calc switches from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar.
484
485 +++
486 *** Support for ISO 8601 dates.
487
488 ** CEDET
489
490 *** EDE
491
492 **** The cpp-root project now supports executing a compile command.
493 It can be set through the new :compile-command slot or the
494 buffer-local variable `compile-command'.
495
496 **** Better selection of include directories for the 'linux' project.
497 Include directories now support out-of-tree build directories and
498 target architecture auto-detection.
499
500 *** Semantic
501
502 **** Improved detection of used namespaces in current scope in C++.
503
504 **** Parsing of default values for variables and function arguments in C/C++.
505 They are also displayed by the summarize feature in the mode line.
506
507 **** Improved parsing of function pointers in C/C++.
508 This also includes parsing of function pointers as function arguments.
509
510 **** Parsing of C/C++ preprocessor macros that open new scope.
511 For example, this enables parsing of macros that open new namespaces.
512
513 **** Support for 'this' pointer in inline member functions in C++.
514
515 ** cl-lib
516
517 +++
518 *** New macro `cl-tagbody'.
519 This executes statements while allowing for control transfer to labels.
520
521 +++
522 *** letf is now just an alias for cl-letf.
523
524 ** CUA mode
525
526 +++
527 *** CUA mode now uses `delete-selection-mode' and `shift-select-mode'.
528 Hence, you can now enable it independently from those modes, and from
529 `transient-mark-mode'.
530
531 ---
532 *** `cua-highlight-region-shift-only' is now obsolete.
533 You can disable `transient-mark-mode' to get the same result.
534
535 +++
536 *** CUA's rectangles can now be used without CUA by calling the command
537 `cua-rectangle-mark-mode'.
538
539 ** CFEngine mode
540
541 ---
542 *** Support for completion, ElDoc, and Flycheck has been added.
543
544 ---
545 *** The current CFEngine syntax is parsed from "cf-promises -s json".
546 There is a fallback syntax available if you don't have cf-promises or
547 if your version doesn't support that option. See option `cfengine-cf-promises'.
548
549 ---
550 ** Delete Selection mode can now be used without Transient Mark mode.
551
552 ** Desktop
553
554 +++
555 *** `desktop-save-mode' by default now auto-saves an existing desktop file
556 after `desktop-auto-save-timeout'. To disable this, customize that option
557 to nil (or zero).
558
559 +++
560 *** `desktop-restore-frames', enabled by default, allows saving and
561 restoring the frame/window configuration (frameset). Additional options
562 `desktop-restore-in-current-display', `desktop-restore-reuses-frames'
563 and `desktop-restore-forces-onscreen' offer further customization.
564
565 +++
566 ** New Dired minor mode `dired-hide-details-mode' toggles whether details,
567 such as file ownership or permissions, are visible.
568
569 ---
570 ** You can enable ElDoc inside the `eval-expression' minibuffer with:
571 (add-hook 'eval-expression-minibuffer-setup-hook 'eldoc-mode)
572 The results display in the mode line.
573
574 ** Electric Pair mode
575
576 +++
577 *** New option `electric-pair-preserve-balance', enabled by default.
578 If non-nil, pairing/skipping only kicks in when that help the balance
579 of parentheses and quotes, i.e. the buffer should end up at least as
580 balanced as before.
581
582 You can further control this behavior by adjusting the predicates
583 stored in `electric-pair-inhibit-predicate' and `electric-pair-skip-self'.
584
585 +++
586 *** New option `electric-pair-delete-adjacent-pairs', enabled by default.
587 In `electric-pair-mode', the commands `backward-delete-char' and
588 `backward-delete-char-untabify' are now bound to electric variants
589 that delete the closer when invoked between adjacent pairs.
590
591 +++
592 *** New option `electric-pair-open-newline-between-pairs', enabled by default.
593 In `electric-pair-mode', inserting a newline between adjacent pairs
594 opens an extra newline after point, which is indented if
595 `electric-indent-mode' is also set.
596
597 +++
598 *** New option `electric-pair-skip-whitespace', enabled by default.
599 This controls if skipping over closing delimiters should jump over any
600 whitespace slack. Setting it to `chomp' makes it delete this
601 whitespace. See also the variable `electric-pair-skip-whitespace-chars'.
602
603 ---
604 *** New variables control the pairing in strings and comments.
605 You can customize `electric-pair-text-pairs' and
606 `electric-pair-text-syntax-table' to tweak pairing behavior inside
607 strings and comments.
608
609 +++
610 ** New EPA option `epa-mail-aliases'.
611 You can set this to a list of email address aliases that `epa-mail-encrypt'
612 should use to find keys.
613
614 ---
615 ** New ERC option `erc-accidental-paste-threshold-seconds'.
616 If set to a number, this can be used to avoid accidentally pasting large
617 amounts of data into the ERC input.
618
619 +++
620 ** New ERT macro `skip-unless' allows skipping ERT tests.
621 See the ERT manual for details.
622
623 ** Eshell
624
625 +++
626 *** `eshell' now supports visual subcommands and options.
627 Eshell has been able to handle "visual" commands (interactive,
628 non-line oriented commands such as top that require display
629 capabilities not provided by eshell) by running them in an Emacs
630 terminal emulator. See `eshell-visual-commands'.
631
632 This feature has been extended to subcommands and options that make a
633 usually line-oriented command a visual command. Typical examples are
634 "git log" and "git <command> --help", which display their output in a
635 pager by default. See `eshell-visual-subcommands' and
636 `eshell-visual-options'.
637
638 ---
639 *** New Eshell-Tramp module.
640 External su and sudo commands are now the default; the internal,
641 Tramp-using variants can still be used by enabling the eshell-tramp
642 module.
643
644 ---
645 ** New F90 mode option `f90-smart-end-names'.
646
647 ** Icomplete
648 Icomplete is now more similar to Ido.
649
650 ---
651 *** Icomplete by default now applies to all forms of minibuffer completion.
652 The variable `icomplete-with-completion-tables' (now a user option)
653 controls this. To restore the old behavior, set it back to
654 '(internal-complete-buffer).
655
656 +++
657 *** You can navigate through and select completions using the keys
658 from `icomplete-minibuffer-map'.
659
660 ---
661 *** The string that separates potential completions is now a customizable
662 option (`icomplete-separator'). The default is " | " rather than ",".
663
664 ---
665 *** New face `icomplete-first-match'; and new options
666 `icomplete-hide-common-prefix' and `icomplete-show-matches-on-no-input'.
667
668 ---
669 *** The option `icomplete-show-key-bindings' has been removed.
670
671 ** Ido
672
673 +++
674 *** An Ido user manual is now included.
675
676 ---
677 *** The option `ido-use-virtual-buffers' can now take the value `auto'.
678 This means to use virtual buffers if the current ido input does not match
679 an existing buffer.
680
681 ---
682 *** The variable `ido-decorations' can optionally have two new elements,
683 which are the brackets to use around the sole remaining completion.
684
685 ** Image mode
686
687 +++
688 *** New commands `n' (`image-next-file') and `p' (`image-previous-file')
689 visit the next image file and the previous image file in the same
690 directory, respectively.
691
692 +++
693 *** New commands to show specific frames of multi-frame images.
694 `f' (`image-next-frame') and `b' (`image-previous-frame') visit the
695 next or previous frame. `F' (`image-goto-frame') shows a specific frame.
696
697 +++
698 *** New commands to speed up, slow down, or reverse animation.
699 `a +' (`image-increase-speed') and `a -' (`image-decrease-speed') to
700 speed up and slow down the animation. `a r' (`image-reverse-speed')
701 to reverse it and `a 0' (`image-reset-speed') to reset it.
702
703 ---
704 *** The command `image-mode-fit-frame' deletes other windows.
705 When toggling, it restores the frame's previous window configuration.
706 It also has an optional frame argument, which can be used by Lisp
707 callers to fit the image to a frame other than the selected frame.
708
709 ** Hi-Lock
710
711 +++
712 *** New global command `M-s h .' (`highlight-symbol-at-point') highlights
713 the symbol found near point.
714
715 +++
716 *** New option `hi-lock-auto-select-face'. When non-nil, hi-lock commands
717 will cycle through faces in `hi-lock-face-defaults' without prompting.
718
719 ---
720 ** New Imenu option `imenu-generic-skip-comments-and-strings'.
721
722 ** Info
723
724 ---
725 *** New Info face `info-index-match', used to highlight matches in index
726 entries displayed by `Info-index-next', `Info-virtual-index' and
727 `info-apropos'.
728
729 ---
730 *** The Info-edit command is obsolete. Editing Info nodes by hand
731 has not been relevant for some time.
732
733 ** JS Mode
734
735 ---
736 *** New option `js-switch-indent-offset'.
737
738 ---
739 *** Better indentation of multiple-variable declarations.
740 If a declaration spans several lines, variables on the following lines
741 are lined up to the first one.
742
743 ---
744 *** Recognition and better indentation of continuations in array comprehensions.
745
746 +++
747 ** MH-E has been updated to version 8.5 - see separate MH-E-NEWS file.
748
749 +++
750 ** Octave mode
751
752 *** Font locking for Texinfo comments and new keywords.
753
754 *** Completion in Octave file buffers.
755
756 *** ElDoc support.
757
758 *** Jump to definition.
759
760 *** Documentation lookup/search.
761
762 +++
763 ** OPascal mode is the new name for Delphi mode
764
765 ---
766 *** All delphi-* variables and functions have been renamed to opascal-*.
767 Obsolete aliases exist for those likely to have been used externally.
768
769 ---
770 *** The option `delphi-newline-always-indents' has been removed.
771 Use `electric-indent-mode' instead.
772
773 ---
774 *** The TAB key runs the standard `indent-for-tab-command', not `delphi-tab'.
775
776 ** Package
777
778 +++
779 *** In the `list-packages' buffer, you can use `f' (`package-menu-filter')
780 to filter the list of packages by a keyword.
781
782 +++
783 *** In the `describe-package' buffer, there are now buttons listing the
784 keywords related to the package. Click on a button to see other packages
785 related to that keyword.
786
787 ---
788 *** The format of `archive-contents' files, generated by package
789 repositories, has changed to allow a new (fifth) element in the data
790 vectors, containing an associative list with extra properties.
791 (For example, `describe-package' uses the `:url' extra property to
792 display a "Homepage" header.)
793
794 ---
795 ** In Prolog mode, `prolog-use-smie' has been removed,
796 along with the non-SMIE indentation code.
797
798 ** Remember
799
800 +++
801 *** The new command `remember-notes' creates a buffer that is saved on exit.
802 You can use it as a more permanent *scratch* buffer.
803
804 +++
805 *** Remember can now store notes in separate files.
806 To use this, add `remember-store-in-files' to the `remember-handler-functions'
807 option. The files are saved in `remember-data-directory' using
808 names specified by `remember-directory-file-name-format'.
809
810 ** Rmail
811
812 +++
813 *** Customize `rmail-mbox-format' to influence some minor aspects of
814 how Rmail displays non-MIME messages.
815
816 ---
817 *** The `unrmail' command now converts from BABYL to mboxrd format,
818 rather than mboxo. Customize `unrmail-mbox-format' to change this.
819
820 ** Ruby mode
821
822 ---
823 *** Improved syntax highlighting and indentation.
824
825 ---
826 *** New `electric-indent-mode' integration.
827
828 ---
829 *** New option `ruby-encoding-magic-comment-style'.
830
831 ---
832 *** New option `ruby-custom-encoding-magic-comment-template'.
833
834 ---
835 *** New option `ruby-align-to-stmt-keywords'.
836
837 ---
838 *** New option `ruby-align-chained-calls'.
839
840 ---
841 *** More Ruby file types have been added to `auto-mode-alist'.
842
843 ** Search and Replace
844
845 +++
846 *** New global command `M-s .' (`isearch-forward-symbol-at-point')
847 starts a symbol (identifier) incremental search forward with the
848 symbol found near point added to the search string initially.
849
850 +++
851 *** `C-x 8 RET' in Isearch mode reads a character by its Unicode name
852 and adds it to the search string.
853
854 +++
855 *** `M-s i' in Isearch mode toggles whether search matches invisible text.
856
857 +++
858 *** `query-replace' skips invisible text when `search-invisible' is nil,
859 and opens overlays with hidden text when `search-invisible' is `open'.
860
861 +++
862 *** A negative prefix arg of replacement commands replaces backward.
863 `M-- M-%' replaces a string backward, `M-- C-M-%' replaces a regexp
864 backward, `M-s w words M-- M-%' replaces a sequence of words backward.
865
866 +++
867 *** By default, prefix arguments do not now terminate Isearch mode.
868 Set `isearch-allow-prefix' to nil to restore old behavior.
869
870 +++
871 *** More Isearch commands accept prefix arguments, namely
872 `isearch-printing-char', `isearch-quote-char', `isearch-yank-word',
873 `isearch-yank-line'.
874
875 +++
876 *** Word search now matches whitespace at the beginning/end
877 of the search string if it contains leading/trailing whitespace.
878 In an incremental word search or when using a non-nil LAX argument
879 of `word-search-regexp', the lax matching can also match part of
880 the first word (in addition to the lax matching of the last word).
881 The same rules are now applied to the symbol search with the difference
882 that it matches symbols, and non-symbol characters between symbols.
883
884 +++
885 ** New SES command `ses-rename-cell' allows assignment of names to SES cells.
886
887 ---
888 ** The shell.el option `explicit-bash-args' includes --noediting by default.
889 All non-ancient Bash versions support this option.
890
891 ** Shell Script mode
892
893 ---
894 *** The SMIE indentation engine is now used by default - see `sh-use-smie'.
895
896 ---
897 *** `sh-mode' now has its own setting for `add-log-current-defun-function'.
898
899 ** SMIE indentation can be customized via `smie-config'.
900 Emacs can learn the appropriate indentation settings if you provide it
901 with an indented sample file.
902
903 ---
904 ** SQL mode
905
906 *** Improved login monitoring and appropriate response to login failures.
907 New variable `sql-login-delay' defines maximum wait time for a connection.
908
909 *** Oracle support.
910 SQL*Plus script placeholders are properly highlighted and identified
911 in `sql-placeholders-filter'. When starting SQL*Plus, `sql-oracle-options'
912 are passed before the logon parameter, as required. The default now
913 includes `-L', to limit the number of logon attempts per invocation.
914
915 ---
916 ** New Term mode option `term-suppress-hard-newline'.
917
918 +++
919 ** Todo mode has been rewritten and enhanced.
920 The Todo mode user manual describes all commands and most user
921 options. To support some of these features, a new file format is
922 used, which is incompatible with the old format; however, you can
923 convert old todo and done item files to the new format on initializing
924 the first new todo file, or at any later time with the provided
925 conversion command. The previous version of todo-mode.el has been
926 renamed to otodo-mode.el and is now obsolete. New features include:
927
928 *** Support for multiple todo files and archive files of done items.
929
930 *** Renaming, reordering, moving, merging, and deleting categories.
931
932 *** Sortable tabular summaries of categories and the item types they contain.
933
934 *** Cross-category lists of items filtered by specific criteria.
935
936 *** More fine-grained interaction with the Emacs diary, by being able to
937 decide for each todo item whether it appears in the Fancy Diary display.
938
939 *** Highly flexible new item insertion and item editing.
940
941 *** Moving items between categories, storing done items in their category
942 or in archive files, undoing or unarchiving done items.
943
944 *** Reprioritizing items by inputting a numerical priority.
945
946 *** Extensive customizability of operation and display, including many faces.
947
948 ** Trace
949
950 ---
951 *** `trace-function' and `trace-function-background' no longer prompt for
952 the output buffer. Unless you use a prefix argument, they output to
953 `trace-buffer'.
954
955 ---
956 *** With a prefix argument, `trace-function' and `trace-function-background'
957 will prompt for a "context". This is a Lisp expression, whose value at the
958 time the function is entered/exited is printed along with the function's
959 name and arguments.
960
961 ** Tramp
962
963 +++
964 *** The experimental url syntax for remote file names has been removed.
965
966 +++
967 *** New connection method "adb", which allows to access Android
968 devices by the Android Debug Bridge. The variable `tramp-adb-program'
969 can be used to adapt the path of the "adb" program, if needed.
970
971 +++
972 *** The connection methods "plink1", "ssh1", "ssh2", "scp1", "scp2",
973 "scpc" and "rsyncc" are discontinued. The ssh option
974 "ControlMaster=auto" is set automatically in all ssh-based methods,
975 when possible. See `tramp-use-ssh-controlmaster-options'.
976
977 +++
978 *** Handlers for `file-acl' and `set-file-acl' for remote machines
979 which support POSIX ACLs.
980
981 +++
982 *** Handlers for `file-notify-add-watch' and `file-notify-rm-watch'
983 for remote machines which support filesystem notifications.
984
985 +++
986 ** New URL command `url-cookie-list' displays the current cookies,
987 and allows you to interactively remove cookies.
988
989 ** VC and related modes
990
991 +++
992 *** In VC directory mode, `D' displays diffs between VC-controlled
993 whole tree revisions.
994
995 +++
996 *** In VC directory mode, `L' lists the change log for the current VC
997 controlled tree in a window.
998
999 +++
1000 *** In VC directory mode, `I' shows a log of changes that will be
1001 received with a pull operation.
1002
1003 +++
1004 *** `C-x v G' (globally) and `G' (in VC directory mode) ignores a file
1005 under current version control system. When called with a prefix
1006 argument, you can remove a file from the ignored file list.
1007
1008 ** VHDL mode
1009
1010 ---
1011 *** New options: `vhdl-actual-generic-name', `vhdl-beautify-options'.
1012
1013 ---
1014 *** New commands: `vhdl-fix-statement-region', `vhdl-fix-statement-buffer'.
1015
1016 ---
1017 ** The Woman commands `woman-default-faces' and `woman-monochrome-faces'
1018 are obsolete. Customize the `woman-*' faces instead.
1019
1020 ** Obsolete packages
1021
1022 +++
1023 *** iswitchb.el; use icomplete-mode.
1024
1025 ---
1026 *** longlines.el; use visual-line-mode.
1027
1028 ---
1029 *** meese.el.
1030
1031 +++
1032 *** sup-mouse.el.
1033
1034 ---
1035 *** terminal.el; use term.el instead.
1036
1037 ---
1038 *** the old version of todo-mode.el (renamed to otodo-mode.el).
1039
1040 ---
1041 *** xesam.el (owing to the cancellation of the XESAM project).
1042
1043 +++
1044 *** yow.el; use fortune.el or cookie1.el instead.
1045
1046 \f
1047 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.4
1048
1049 +++
1050 ** New package `eww' is a built-in web browser.
1051 It is only available if Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support.
1052
1053 +++
1054 ** New minor mode `superword-mode'.
1055 This overrides the default word motion commands to treat "symbol_words"
1056 as a single word, similar to what `subword-mode' does.
1057
1058 +++
1059 ** New package nadvice.el offers lighter-weight advice facilities.
1060 It is layered as:
1061
1062 *** add-function/remove-function, which can be used to add/remove code on any
1063 function-carrying place, such as process-filters or `<foo>-function' hooks.
1064
1065 *** advice-add/advice-remove to add/remove a piece of advice on a named
1066 function, much like `defadvice' does.
1067
1068 ** New package frameset.el.
1069 It provides a set of operations to save a frameset (the state of all
1070 or a subset of the existing frames and windows, somewhat similar to a
1071 frame configuration), both in-session and persistently, and restore it
1072 at some point in the future.
1073
1074 +++
1075 ** New package filenotify.el provides an interface for file system
1076 notifications. It requires that Emacs be compiled with one of the
1077 low-level libraries gfilenotify.c, inotify.c or w32notify.c.
1078
1079 \f
1080 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.4
1081
1082 ---
1083 ** `kill-region' has lost its `yank-handler' optional argument.
1084
1085 +++
1086 ** `(input-pending-p)' no longer runs other timers that are ready to run.
1087 The new optional CHECK-TIMERS parameter allows for the prior behavior.
1088
1089 +++
1090 ** `defvar' and `defcustom' in a let-binding affect the "external" default.
1091
1092 ---
1093 ** The syntax of ?» and ?« is now punctuation instead of matched parens.
1094 Some languages match those as »...«, and others as «...», so it is
1095 better for Emacs to stay neutral by default.
1096
1097 ---
1098 ** In compiled Lisp files, the header no longer includes a timestamp.
1099
1100 +++
1101 ** The default file coding for Emacs Lisp files is now utf-8.
1102 (See `file-coding-system-alist'.) In most cases, this change is
1103 transparent, but files that contain unusual characters without
1104 specifying an explicit coding system may fail to load with obscure
1105 errors. You should either convert them to utf-8 or add an explicit
1106 `coding:' cookie.
1107
1108 +++
1109 ** `overriding-terminal-local-map' no longer replaces the local keymaps.
1110 It used to disable the minor mode, major mode, and text-property keymaps,
1111 whereas now it simply has higher precedence.
1112
1113 +++
1114 ** Default process filters and sentinels are not nil any more.
1115 Instead they default to a function that does what the nil value used to do.
1116
1117 +++
1118 ** `read-event' does not return decoded chars in ttys any more.
1119 As was the case in Emacs 22 and before, the decoding of terminal
1120 input, according to `keyboard-coding-system', is not performed in
1121 `read-event' any more. But unlike in Emacs 22, this decoding is still
1122 done before input-decode-map, function-key-map, etc.
1123
1124 ---
1125 ** The option `inhibit-local-menu-bar-menus' has been removed.
1126
1127 ---
1128 ** Frame-local variables that affect redisplay do not work any more.
1129 More specifically, redisplay does not bother to check for a frame-local
1130 value when looking up variables.
1131
1132 +++
1133 ** nil and "unbound" are indistinguishable in `symbol-function'.
1134 `symbol-function' does not signal a `void-function' error any more.
1135 To determine if a symbol's function definition is void, use `fboundp'.
1136
1137 +++
1138 ** `defadvice' does not honor the `freeze' flag and cannot advise
1139 special-forms any more.
1140
1141 ---
1142 ** `dolist' no longer binds VAR while evaluating the RESULT form,
1143 when lexical binding is enabled. Previously, VAR was bound to nil,
1144 which often led to spurious unused-variable warnings.
1145
1146 +++
1147 ** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
1148 The second argument is no longer an SELinux context, instead it is an
1149 alist of extended attributes as returned by the new function
1150 `file-extended-attributes'. The attributes can be applied to another
1151 file using `set-file-extended-attributes'.
1152
1153 +++
1154 ** By default `copy-file' no longer copies file permission bits to an
1155 existing destination; and it sets the file permission bits of a newly
1156 created destination to those of the source, masked by the default file
1157 permissions. To copy the file permission bits, pass t as the
1158 PRESERVE-PERMISSIONS argument of `copy-file'.
1159
1160 +++
1161 ** `visited-file-modtime' now returns -1 for nonexistent files.
1162 Formerly it returned a list (-1 LOW USEC PSEC), but this was ambiguous
1163 in the presence of files with negative time stamps.
1164
1165 +++
1166 ** The cars of the elements in `interpreter-mode-alist' are now
1167 treated as regexps rather than literal strings.
1168
1169 \f
1170 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.4
1171
1172 +++
1173 ** The second argument of `eval' can now specify a lexical environment.
1174
1175 +++
1176 ** New functions `special-form-p' and `macrop'.
1177
1178 +++
1179 ** New macro `define-alternatives' can be used to define generic commands.
1180 Generic commands are interactive functions whose implementation can be
1181 selected among several alternatives, as a matter of user preference.
1182
1183 +++
1184 ** If you give a symbol a `defalias-fset-function' property, `defalias'
1185 on that symbol will use the associated value as a function to call
1186 in place of `fset'.
1187
1188 +++
1189 ** New variable `enable-dir-local-variables'.
1190 Directory-local variables are ignored if this is nil. This may be
1191 useful for modes that want to ignore directory-locals while still
1192 respecting file-local variables.
1193
1194 +++
1195 ** New function `get-pos-property'.
1196
1197 +++
1198 ** `read-regexp' now uses the new variable `read-regexp-defaults-function'
1199 as a function to call to provide default values.
1200
1201 ** Completion changes
1202
1203 ---
1204 *** The separator used by `completing-read-multiple' is now a regexp.
1205 The default `crm-separator' has been changed to allow surrounding spaces
1206 around the comma.
1207
1208 +++
1209 *** The `common-substring' argument of `display-completion-list',
1210 which has been documented as obsolete since Emacs 23.1, is now _really_
1211 obsolete, and no longer advertised. Instead either call
1212 `completion-hilit-commonality' to add the highlighting; or use
1213 `completion-all-completions', which returns highlighted strings.
1214
1215 +++
1216 *** New function `completion-table-with-cache' is a wrapper for
1217 `completion-table-dynamic' that caches the result of the last lookup.
1218
1219 +++
1220 *** New function `completion-table-merge' to combine several
1221 completion tables by merging their completions.
1222
1223 +++
1224 ** New minor modes `prettify-symbols-mode' and `global-prettify-symbols-mode'
1225 display specified symbols as composed characters. E.g., in Emacs Lisp mode,
1226 this replaces the string "lambda" with the Greek lambda character.
1227
1228 ** Terminal changes
1229
1230 +++
1231 *** Functions to pop up menus and dialogs now work on all terminals,
1232 including TTYs. This includes `x-popup-menu', `x-popup-dialog',
1233 `message-box', `yes-or-no-p', etc.
1234
1235 The function `display-popup-menus-p' will now return non-nil for a
1236 display or frame whenever a mouse is supported on that display or
1237 frame.
1238
1239 +++
1240 *** New hook `tty-setup-hook', run at the end of initializing a text terminal.
1241
1242 +++
1243 *** The hook `term-setup-hook' is obsolete. It is entirely equivalent
1244 to `emacs-startup-hook'. See also the new `tty-setup-hook'.
1245
1246 +++
1247 ** New hook `pre-redisplay-function'.
1248
1249 +++
1250 ** New bool-vector set operation functions
1251 *** `bool-vector-exclusive-or'
1252 *** `bool-vector-union'
1253 *** `bool-vector-intersection'
1254 *** `bool-vector-set-difference'
1255 *** `bool-vector-not'
1256 *** `bool-vector-subsetp'
1257 *** `bool-vector-count-consecutive'
1258 *** `bool-vector-count-population'
1259
1260 +++
1261 ** Comparison functions =, <, >, <=, >= can now take many arguments.
1262
1263 ** Error-handling changes
1264
1265 +++
1266 *** New function `define-error'.
1267
1268 +++
1269 *** `with-demoted-errors' takes an additional argument `format'.
1270
1271 +++
1272 ** New macro `with-eval-after-load'.
1273 This is like the old `eval-after-load', but better behaved.
1274
1275 ---
1276 ** New library subr-x.el with miscellaneous small utility functions
1277 *** `hash-table-keys'
1278 *** `hash-table-values'
1279 *** `string-blank-p'
1280 *** `string-empty-p'
1281 *** `string-join'
1282 *** `string-reverse'
1283 *** `string-trim-left'
1284 *** `string-trim-right'
1285 *** `string-trim'
1286 *** `string-remove-prefix'
1287 *** `string-remove-suffix'
1288
1289 +++
1290 ** Obsoleted functions
1291 *** `log10'
1292 *** `dont-compile'
1293 *** `lisp-complete-symbol'
1294 *** `field-complete'
1295 *** `minibuffer-completion-contents'
1296 *** `isearch-nonincremental-exit-minibuffer'
1297 *** `isearch-filter-visible'
1298 *** `generic-make-keywords-list'
1299 *** `get-upcase-table' (use `case-table-get-table' instead).
1300
1301 +++
1302 ** `with-wrapper-hook' is obsoleted by `add-function'.
1303 The few hooks that used with-wrapper-hook are replaced as follows:
1304 *** `abbrev-expand-function' obsoletes `abbrev-expand-functions'.
1305 *** `completion-in-region-function' obsoletes `completion-in-region-functions'.
1306 *** `filter-buffer-substring-function' obsoletes `filter-buffer-substring-functions'.
1307
1308 +++
1309 ** `byte-compile-interactive-only-functions' is now obsolete.
1310 To specify that a command should only be called interactively, give it
1311 a non-nil `interactive-only' property.
1312
1313 +++
1314 ** `split-string' now takes an optional argument TRIM.
1315 The value, if non-nil, is a regexp that specifies what to trim from
1316 the start and end of each substring.
1317
1318 +++
1319 ** New function `string-suffix-p'.
1320
1321 ** File-handling changes
1322
1323 +++
1324 *** Support for filesystem notifications.
1325 Emacs now supports notifications of filesystem changes, such as
1326 creation, modification, and deletion of files. This requires the
1327 `glib' API, or the 'inotify' API (on GNU/Linux systems only). On
1328 MS-Windows systems, this is supported for Windows XP and newer
1329 versions.
1330
1331 +++
1332 *** The 9th element returned by `file-attributes' is now unspecified.
1333 Formerly, it was t if the file's gid would change if file were deleted
1334 and recreated. This value has been inaccurate for years on many
1335 platforms, and nobody seems to have noticed or cared.
1336
1337 +++
1338 *** The 6th argument to `copy-file' has been renamed to
1339 PRESERVE-PERMISSIONS as it now handles ACL entries and the traditional
1340 Unix file permission bits as well as SELinux context.
1341
1342 +++
1343 *** The function `file-ownership-preserved-p' now has an optional
1344 argument GROUP which causes it check for file group too. This can be
1345 used in place of the 9th element of `file-attributes'.
1346
1347 ---
1348 *** The function `set-visited-file-modtime' now accepts a 0 or -1
1349 argument, with the same interpretation as the returned value of
1350 `visited-file-modtime'.
1351
1352 ** Autorevert changes
1353
1354 ---
1355 *** If Emacs is compiled with file notification support, notifications
1356 are used instead of checking the time stamp of the files. You can
1357 disable this by setting the user option `auto-revert-use-notify' to
1358 nil. Alternatively, a regular expression of directories to be
1359 excluded from file notifications can be specified by
1360 `auto-revert-notify-exclude-dir-regexp'.
1361
1362 ---
1363 *** The new user option `auto-revert-remote-files' enables reversion
1364 of remote files when set to non-nil.
1365
1366 ** Face changes
1367
1368 +++
1369 *** The function `face-spec-set' is now like `setq' for face specs.
1370 Its third arg now accepts values specifying a face spec type (defface,
1371 custom, or override spec), and the relevant spec is set accordingly.
1372
1373 +++
1374 *** New function `add-face-text-property', which can be used to
1375 conveniently prepend/append new face properties.
1376
1377 *** Face specs set via Custom themes now replace the `defface' spec
1378 rather than inheriting from it (as do face specs set via Customize).
1379
1380 ---
1381 *** New face characteristic (supports :underline (:style wave))
1382 specifies whether or not the terminal can display a wavy line.
1383
1384 +++
1385 *** New face spec attribute :distant-foreground
1386 specifies foreground to use if background color is near the foreground
1387 color that would otherwise have been used.
1388
1389 ** Image API
1390
1391 +++
1392 *** `image-animated-p' is now `image-multi-frame-p'.
1393 It returns non-nil for any image that contains multiple frames,
1394 whether or not it specifies a frame delay.
1395
1396 +++
1397 *** New variable `image-default-frame-delay' gives the frame delay for
1398 animated images which do not specify a frame delay.
1399
1400 +++
1401 *** New functions `image-current-frame' and `image-show-frame' for getting
1402 and setting the current frame of a multi-frame image.
1403
1404 ** EIEIO
1405
1406 +++
1407 *** Namespace cleanup by obsolete-aliasing functions to use `eieio-' prefix.
1408 **** object-name -> eieio-object-name
1409 **** object-class -> eieio-object-class
1410 **** object-class-fast -> eieio--object-class
1411 **** object-class-name -> eieio-object-class-name
1412 **** object-name-string -> eieio-object-name-string
1413 **** object-num-slots -> eieio--object-num-slots
1414 **** object-set-name-string -> eieio-object-set-name-string
1415 **** class-of -> eieio-object-class
1416 **** class-name -> eieio-class-name
1417 **** class-parent -> eieio-class-parent
1418 **** class-parents -> eieio-class-parents
1419 **** class-parents-fast -> eieio-class-parents-fast
1420 **** class-children -> eieio-class-children
1421 **** class-num-slots -> eieio--class-num-slots
1422 **** class-precedence-list -> eieio-class-precedence-list
1423 **** class-direct-subclasses -> eieio-class-children
1424 **** class-direct-superclasses -> eieio-class-parents
1425
1426 ** Changes in encoding and decoding of text
1427
1428 ---
1429 *** New coding-system `prefer-utf-8'.
1430 This is like `undecided' but prefers UTF-8 on decoding if the text to
1431 be decoded does not contain any invalid UTF-8 sequences. On encoding,
1432 any non-ASCII characters are automatically encoded as UTF-8.
1433
1434 ---
1435 *** New attributes of coding-systems whose type is `undecided'.
1436 Two new attributes, `:inhibit-null-byte-detection' and
1437 `:inhibit-iso-escape-detection', determine how to detect encoding of
1438 text that includes null bytes and ISO-2022 escape sequences,
1439 respectively. Each of these attributes can be either nil, zero, or
1440 t. If it is t, decoding text ignores null bytes and, respectively,
1441 ISO-2022 sequences. If it is nil, null bytes cause text to be decoded
1442 with no-conversion and ISO-2022 sequences cause Emacs to assume the
1443 text is encoded in one of the ISO-2022 encodings, such as
1444 iso-2022-7bit. If the value is zero, Emacs consults the variables
1445 inhibit-null-byte-detection and inhibit-iso-escape-detection, which
1446 see.
1447 The new attribute `:prefer-utf-8', if non-nil, causes Emacs to prefer
1448 UTF-8 encoding and decoding, whenever possible.
1449
1450 These attributes are only meaningful for coding-systems of type
1451 `undecided'. (The type of a coding-system is determined by its
1452 `:coding-type' attribute and can be accessed by calling the
1453 `coding-system-type' function.)
1454
1455 ---
1456 ** The `time-to-seconds' alias to `float-time' is no longer marked obsolete.
1457
1458 +++
1459 ** New functions `group-gid' and `group-real-gid'.
1460
1461 ---
1462 ** The spelling of the rx.el category `chinese-two-byte' has been
1463 corrected (the first 'e' was missing).
1464
1465 ---
1466 ** Minor internal changes to the details of lock files.
1467 The lock for DIR/FILE is now _always_ DIR/.#FILE.
1468 If DIR/.#FILE already exists and is not an Emacs lock file,
1469 Emacs makes no attempt to lock DIR/FILE. (Previously, it fell back to
1470 numbered lock files DIR/.#FILE.0...).
1471 On file systems that do not support symbolic links, the lock is now a
1472 regular file with contents being what would have been in the symlink.
1473
1474 ** Changes to the Emacs Lisp Coding Conventions in Emacs 24.4
1475
1476 +++
1477 *** The package descriptor and name of global variables, constants,
1478 and functions should be separated by two hyphens if the symbol is not
1479 meant to be used by other packages.
1480
1481 \f
1482 * Changes in Emacs 24.4 on Non-Free Operating Systems
1483
1484 ---
1485 ** The procedure for building Emacs on MS-Windows has changed.
1486 It is now built by running the same configure script as on all other
1487 platforms. This requires the MSYS environment and MinGW development
1488 tools. See the updated instructions in nt/INSTALL for details.
1489
1490 Using the Posix configure script and Makefile's also means a change in
1491 the directory structure of the Emacs installation on Windows. It is
1492 now the same as on GNU and Unix systems. In particular, the auxiliary
1493 programs, such as cmdproxy.exe and hexl.exe, are in
1494 libexec/emacs/VERSION/i686-pc-mingw32 (where VERSION is the Emacs
1495 version), version-independent site-lisp is in share/emacs/site-lisp,
1496 version-specific Lisp files are in share/emacs/VERSION/lisp and in
1497 share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, Info docs are in share/info, and data
1498 files are in share/emacs/VERSION/etc. (Emacs knows about all these
1499 directories and will find the files in there automatically; there's no
1500 need to set any variables due to this change.)
1501
1502 +++
1503 ** Emacs on Windows 2000 and later can now access files and directories
1504 whose names cannot be encoded in the current system codepage.
1505
1506 The new variable `w32-unicode-filenames' controls this feature: if it
1507 is t, Emacs uses Unicode APIs to pass file names to system calls,
1508 which lifts the limitation of file names to the current locale.
1509
1510 +++
1511 ** The "generate a backtrace on fatal error" feature now works on MS Windows.
1512 The backtrace is written to the 'emacs_backtrace.txt' file in the
1513 directory where Emacs was running.
1514
1515 +++
1516 ** The variable `buffer-file-type' is no longer supported.
1517 Setting it has no effect, and %t in the mode-line format is ignored.
1518 Likewise, `file-name-buffer-file-type-alist' is now obsolete, and
1519 modifying it has no effect.
1520
1521 ---
1522 ** Lock files now work on MS-Windows.
1523 This helps to prevent losing your edits if the same file is being
1524 edited in another Emacs session or by another user. See the node
1525 "Interlocking" in the Emacs User Manual for the details. To disable
1526 file locking, customize `create-lockfiles' to nil.
1527
1528 ** New Core Text based font backend for Mac OS X 10.5 and newer.
1529 GNUstep and Mac OS X 10.4 use the old font backend.
1530 To use the old backend by default, do on the command line:
1531 % defaults write org.gnu.Emacs FontBackend ns
1532
1533 ** Improved fullscreen support on Mac OS X.
1534 Emacs supports both native (Mac OS X 10.7 and newer) and "old style" fullscreen.
1535 Customize `ns-use-native-fullscreen' to change the style.
1536 For Mac OS X 10.7 and newer, native is the default.
1537
1538 ** On Mac OS X 10.7 and newer, Emacs uses sRGB colorspace by default.
1539 Customize `ns-use-srgb-colorspace' to disable this. Note that this
1540 does not apply to images.
1541
1542 \f
1543 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.3
1544
1545 ** The default X toolkit is now Gtk+ version 3.
1546 If you don't pass `--with-x-toolkit' to configure, or if you use
1547 `--with-x-toolkit=gtk' or `--with-x-toolkit=yes', configure will try
1548 to build with Gtk+ version 3, and if that fails, try Gtk+ version 2.
1549 You can explicitly require a specific version by passing
1550 `--with-x-toolkit=gtk2' or `--with-x-toolkit=gtk3' to configure.
1551
1552 ** New configure option `--enable-link-time-optimization', to utilize
1553 an appropriate feature provided by GCC since version 4.5.0.
1554
1555 ** New configure option `--without-all' to disable most of the optional
1556 features (image support, etc.) that are normally enabled by default.
1557
1558 ** New configure option `--enable-gcc-warnings' (for developing/debugging
1559 Emacs). If building with GCC, this enables compile-time checks that
1560 warn/give errors about possibly-questionable C code. On a recent GNU
1561 system there should be no warnings; on older and on non-GNU systems
1562 the results may be useful to developers.
1563
1564 ** The configure option `--enable-use-lisp-union-type' has been
1565 renamed to `--enable-check-lisp-object-type', as the resulting
1566 Lisp_Object type no longer uses a union to implement the compile time
1567 check that this option enables.
1568
1569 ** The configure option `--disable-maintainer-mode' has been removed,
1570 as it was confusingly-named and rarely useful.
1571
1572 ** The configure options `--program-prefix', `--program-suffix', and
1573 `--program-transform-name' apply to more than just the installed
1574 binaries. Now they also affect the man pages, icons, and the
1575 etc/emacs.desktop file; but not the info pages, since this would break
1576 links between the various manuals.
1577
1578 ** You can use `NO_BIN_LINK=t make install' to prevent the installation
1579 overwriting "emacs" in the installation bin/ directory with a link
1580 to "emacs-VERSION".
1581
1582 ** Emacs uses libtinfo in preference to libncurses, if available.
1583
1584 ** On FreeBSD and NetBSD, configure no longer adds /usr/local/lib and
1585 /usr/pkg/lib to the linker search path. You must add them yourself if
1586 you want them.
1587
1588 ** The standalone scripts `rcs-checkin' and `vcdiff' have been removed
1589 (from the bin and libexec directories, respectively). The former is
1590 no longer relevant, the latter is replaced by lisp (in vc-sccs.el).
1591
1592 \f
1593 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.3
1594
1595 ** Emacs no longer searches for `leim-list.el' files beneath the standard
1596 lisp/ directory. There should not be any there anyway. If you have
1597 been adding them there, put them somewhere else; e.g., site-lisp.
1598
1599 ** The `--no-site-lisp' command line option now works for Nextstep builds.
1600
1601 \f
1602 * Changes in Emacs 24.3
1603
1604 ** Help
1605
1606 *** `C-h f' (`describe-function') can now perform autoloading.
1607 When this command is called for an autoloaded function whose docstring
1608 contains a key substitution construct, that function's library is
1609 automatically loaded, so that the documentation can be shown
1610 correctly. To disable this, set `help-enable-auto-load' to nil.
1611
1612 *** `C-h f' now reports previously-autoloaded functions as "autoloaded",
1613 even after their associated libraries have been loaded (and the
1614 autoloads have been redefined as functions).
1615
1616 ** ImageMagick
1617
1618 *** Images displayed via ImageMagick now support transparency and the
1619 :background image specification property.
1620
1621 *** When available, ImageMagick support is automatically enabled.
1622 It is no longer necessary to call `imagemagick-register-types'
1623 explicitly to install ImageMagick image types; that function is called
1624 automatically at startup, or when customizing an imagemagick- option.
1625
1626 *** Setting `imagemagick-types-inhibit' to t now disables the use of
1627 ImageMagick to view images. (You must call `imagemagick-register-types'
1628 afterwards if you do not use customize to change this.)
1629
1630 *** The new variable `imagemagick-enabled-types' also affects which
1631 ImageMagick types are treated as images. The function
1632 `imagemagick-filter-types' returns the list of types that will be
1633 treated as images.
1634
1635 ** Minibuffer
1636
1637 *** In minibuffer filename prompts, `C-M-f' and `C-M-b' now move to the
1638 next and previous path separator, respectively.
1639
1640 *** `minibuffer-electric-default-mode' can shorten "(default ...)" to "[...]"
1641 in minibuffer prompts. Just set `minibuffer-eldef-shorten-default'
1642 non-nil before enabling the mode.
1643
1644 ** Mode line
1645
1646 *** New option `mode-line-default-help-echo' specifies the help text
1647 (shown in a tooltip or in the echo area) for any part of the mode line
1648 that does not have its own specialized help text.
1649
1650 *** You can now click mouse-3 in the coding system indicator to invoke
1651 `set-buffer-file-coding-system'.
1652
1653 ** Server and client
1654
1655 *** emacsclient now obeys string values for `initial-buffer-choice',
1656 if it is told to open a new frame without specifying any file to visit
1657 or expression to evaluate.
1658
1659 *** New option `server-auth-key' specifies a shared server key.
1660
1661 ** Emacs now generates backtraces on fatal errors.
1662 On encountering a fatal error, Emacs now outputs a textual description
1663 of the fatal signal, and a short backtrace on platforms like glibc
1664 that support backtraces.
1665
1666 ** `C-x C-q' is now bound to the new minor mode `read-only-mode'.
1667 This minor mode replaces `toggle-read-only', which is now obsolete.
1668
1669 ** Most `y-or-n' prompts now allow you to scroll the selected window.
1670 Typing `C-v' or `M-v' at a y-or-n prompt scrolls forward or backward
1671 respectively, without exiting from the prompt.
1672
1673 ** In the Package Menu, newly-available packages are listed as "new",
1674 and sorted above the other "available" packages by default.
1675
1676 ** If your Emacs was built from a repository checkout, the new variable
1677 `emacs-bzr-version' contains information about the bzr revision used.
1678
1679 ** New option `create-lockfiles' specifies usage of lockfiles.
1680 It defaults to t. Changing it to nil inhibits the creation of lock
1681 files (use this with caution).
1682
1683 ** New option `enable-remote-dir-locals', if non-nil, allows directory-local
1684 variables on remote hosts.
1685
1686 ** The entry for PCL-CVS has been removed from the Tools menu.
1687 The PCL-CVS commands are still available via the keyboard.
1688
1689 ** Using "unibyte: t" in Lisp source files is obsolete.
1690 Use "coding: raw-text" instead.
1691
1692 ** In the buffer made by `M-x report-emacs-bug', the `C-c m' binding
1693 has been changed to `C-c M-i' (`report-emacs-bug-insert-to-mailer').
1694 The previous binding, introduced in Emacs 24.1, was a mistake, because
1695 `C-c LETTER' bindings are reserved for user customizations.
1696
1697 ** Internationalization
1698
1699 *** New language environment: Persian.
1700
1701 *** New input method `vietnamese-vni'.
1702
1703 ** Nextstep (GNUstep / Mac OS X) port
1704
1705 *** Support for fullscreen and the frame parameter fullscreen.
1706
1707 *** A file dialog is used for open/save operations initiated from the
1708 menu/toolbar.
1709
1710 \f
1711 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.3
1712
1713 ** Search and Replace
1714
1715 *** Non-regexp Isearch now performs "lax" space matching.
1716 Each sequence of spaces in the supplied search string may match any
1717 sequence of one or more whitespace characters, as specified by the
1718 variable `search-whitespace-regexp'. (This variable is also used by a
1719 similar existing feature for regexp Isearch.)
1720
1721 *** New Isearch command `M-s SPC' toggles lax space matching.
1722 This applies to both ordinary and regexp Isearch.
1723
1724 *** New option `replace-lax-whitespace'.
1725 If non-nil, `query-replace' uses flexible whitespace matching too.
1726 The default is nil.
1727
1728 *** Global `M-s _' starts a symbol (identifier) incremental search,
1729 and `M-s _' in Isearch toggles symbol search mode.
1730 `M-s c' in Isearch toggles search case-sensitivity.
1731
1732 ** Navigation commands
1733
1734 *** New binding `M-g c' for `goto-char'.
1735
1736 *** New binding `M-g TAB' for `move-to-column'.
1737
1738 *** `M-g TAB' (`move-to-column') prompts for a column number if called
1739 interactively with no prefix arg. Previously, it moved to column 1.
1740
1741 ** New option `yank-handled-properties' allows processing of text
1742 properties on yanked text, in ways that are more general than just
1743 removing them (as is done by `yank-excluded-properties').
1744
1745 ** New option `delete-trailing-lines' specifies whether
1746 M-x delete-trailing-whitespace should delete trailing lines at the end
1747 of the buffer. It defaults to t.
1748
1749 ** `C-u M-=' now counts lines/words/characters in the entire buffer.
1750
1751 ** `C-x 8 RET' is now bound to `insert-char', which is now a command.
1752 `ucs-insert' is now an obsolete alias for `insert-char'.
1753
1754 ** The `z' key no longer has a binding in most special modes.
1755 It used to be bound to `kill-this-buffer', but `z' is too easy to
1756 accidentally type.
1757
1758 ** New command `C-x r M-w' (`copy-rectangle-as-kill').
1759 It copies the region-rectangle as the last rectangle kill.
1760
1761 ** Registers
1762
1763 *** `C-x r +' is now overloaded to invoke `append-to-register'.
1764
1765 *** New option `register-separator' specifies the register containing
1766 the text to put between collected texts for use with
1767 M-x append-to-register and M-x prepend-to-register.
1768
1769 \f
1770 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.3
1771
1772 ** Common Lisp emulation (CL)
1773
1774 *** CL's main entry is now (require 'cl-lib).
1775 `cl-lib' is like the old `cl' except that it uses the namespace cleanly;
1776 i.e., all its definitions have the "cl-" prefix (and internal definitions
1777 use the "cl--" prefix).
1778
1779 If `cl' provided a feature under the name `foo', then `cl-lib'
1780 provides it under the name `cl-foo' instead; with the exceptions of the
1781 few `cl' definitions that had to use `foo*' to avoid conflicts with
1782 pre-existing Elisp entities. These have been renamed to `cl-foo'
1783 rather than `cl-foo*'.
1784
1785 The old `cl' is now deprecated and is mainly just a bunch of aliases that
1786 provide the old, non-prefixed names. Some exceptions are listed below:
1787
1788 *** `cl-flet' is not like `flet' (which is deprecated).
1789 Instead it obeys the behavior of Common-Lisp's `flet'.
1790 In particular, in cl-flet function definitions are lexically scoped,
1791 whereas in flet the scoping is dynamic.
1792
1793 *** `cl-labels' is slightly different from `labels'.
1794 The difference is that it relies on the `lexical-binding' machinery
1795 (as opposed to the `lexical-let' machinery used previously) to capture
1796 definitions in closures, so such closures will only work if `lexical-binding'
1797 is in use.
1798
1799 *** `cl-letf' is not exactly like `letf'.
1800 The only difference is in details that relate to some deprecated usage
1801 of `symbol-function' in place forms.
1802
1803 *** `progv' was rewritten to use the `let' machinery.
1804 A side effect is that variables without corresponding values are bound
1805 to nil rather than being made unbound.
1806
1807 *** The following methods of extending `setf' are obsolete
1808 (use features from gv.el instead):
1809 `define-modify-macro' (use `gv-letplace')
1810 `defsetf' (use `gv-define-simple-setter' or `gv-define-setter')
1811 `define-setf-expander' (use `gv-define-setter' or `gv-define-expander')
1812 `get-setf-method' no longer exists (see "Incompatible Lisp Changes")
1813
1814 ** Diff mode
1815
1816 *** Changes are now highlighted using the same color scheme as in
1817 modern VCSes. Deletions are displayed in red (new faces
1818 `diff-refine-removed' and `smerge-refined-removed', and new definition
1819 of `diff-removed'), insertions in green (new faces `diff-refine-added'
1820 and `smerge-refined-added', and new definition of `diff-added').
1821
1822 *** The variable `diff-use-changed-face' defines whether to use the
1823 face `diff-changed', or `diff-removed' and `diff-added' to highlight
1824 changes in context diffs.
1825
1826 *** The new command `diff-delete-trailing-whitespace' removes trailing
1827 whitespace introduced by a diff.
1828
1829 ** Ediff now uses the same color scheme as Diff mode.
1830
1831 ** Python mode
1832
1833 A new version of python.el, which provides several new features, including:
1834 per-buffer shells, better indentation, Python 3 support, and improved
1835 shell-interaction compatible with iPython (and virtually any other
1836 text based shell).
1837
1838 *** Some user options have been replaced/renamed, including (old -> new):
1839 **** python-indent -> python-indent-offset
1840 **** python-guess-indent -> python-indent-guess-indent-offset
1841 **** python-pdbtrack-do-tracking-p -> python-pdbtrack-activate
1842 **** python-use-skeletons -> python-skeleton-autoinsert
1843
1844 *** Some user options have been removed, including:
1845
1846 **** `python-indent-string-contents': Strings are never indented.
1847
1848 **** `python-honour-comment-indentation':
1849 Comments are always considered as indentation markers.
1850
1851 **** `python-continuation-offset': Indentation is automatically
1852 calculated in a pep8 compliant way depending on the context.
1853
1854 **** `python-shell-prompt-alist', `python-shell-continuation-prompt-alist':
1855 Have no direct mapping as the shell interaction is completely different.
1856
1857 **** `python-python-command', `python-jython-command':
1858 Replaced by `python-shell-interpreter'.
1859
1860 **** `inferior-python-filter-regexp', `python-remove-cwd-from-path',
1861 `python-pdbtrack-minor-mode-string', `python-source-modes':
1862 No longer relevant.
1863
1864 *** Some commands have been replaced (old -> new):
1865 **** python-insert-class -> python-skeleton-class
1866 **** python-insert-def -> python-skeleton-def
1867 **** python-insert-for -> python-skeleton-for
1868 **** python-insert-if -> python-skeleton-if
1869 **** python-insert-try/except -> python-skeleton-try
1870 **** python-insert-try/finally -> python-skeleton-try
1871 **** python-insert-while -> python-skeleton-while
1872 **** python-find-function -> python-nav-jump-to-defun
1873 **** python-next-statement -> python-nav-forward-sentence
1874 **** python-previous-statement -> python-nav-backward-sentence
1875 **** python-beginning-of-defun-function -> python-nav-beginning-of-defun
1876 **** python-end-of-defun-function -> python-nav-end-of-defun
1877 **** python-send-buffer -> python-shell-send-buffer
1878 **** python-send-defun -> python-shell-send-defun
1879 **** python-send-region -> python-shell-send-region
1880 **** python-send-region-and-go -> emulate with python-shell-send-region
1881 and python-shell-switch-to-shell
1882 **** python-send-string -> python-shell-send-string
1883 **** python-switch-to-python -> python-shell-switch-to-shell
1884 **** python-describe-symbol -> python-eldoc-at-point
1885
1886 ** D-Bus
1887
1888 *** New variables `dbus-compiled-version' and `dbus-runtime-version'.
1889
1890 *** The D-Bus object manager interface is implemented.
1891
1892 *** Variables of type :(u)int32 and :(u)int64 accept floating points,
1893 if their value does not fit into Emacs's integer range.
1894
1895 *** The function `dbus-call-method' is now non-blocking.
1896 It can be interrupted by `C-g'. `dbus-call-method-non-blocking' is obsolete.
1897
1898 *** Signals can also be sent as unicast messages.
1899
1900 *** The argument list of `dbus-register-signal' has been extended,
1901 according to the new match rule types of D-Bus.
1902
1903 *** `dbus-init-bus' supports private connections.
1904
1905 *** There is a new function `dbus-setenv'.
1906
1907 ** `desktop-path' no longer includes the "." directory.
1908 Desktop files are now located in ~/.emacs.d by default.
1909
1910 ** Dired
1911
1912 *** `dired-do-async-shell-command' executes each file sequentially
1913 if the command ends in `;' (when operating on multiple files).
1914 Otherwise, it executes the command on each file in parallel.
1915
1916 *** Typing `M-n' in the minibuffer of `dired-do-chmod', `dired-do-chgrp',
1917 `dired-do-chown', and `dired-do-touch' yanks the attributes of the
1918 file at point.
1919
1920 *** When the region is active, `m' (`dired-mark'), `u' (`dired-unmark'),
1921 `DEL' (`dired-unmark-backward'), and `d' (`dired-flag-file-deletion')
1922 mark/unmark/flag all files in the active region.
1923
1924 *** The minibuffer default for `=' (`dired-diff') has changed.
1925 It is now the backup file for the file at point, if one exists.
1926 In Transient Mark mode the default is the file at the active mark.
1927
1928 *** `M-=' is no longer bound to `dired-backup-diff' in Dired buffers.
1929 The global binding for `M-=', `count-words-region' is in effect.
1930
1931 ** ERC
1932
1933 *** New module "notifications", which can send a notification when you
1934 receive a private message or your nickname is mentioned.
1935
1936 *** ERC will look up server/channel names via auth-source and use any
1937 channel keys found.
1938
1939 *** New option `erc-lurker-hide-list', similar to `erc-hide-list', but
1940 only applies to messages sent by lurkers.
1941
1942 ** reStructuredText mode
1943
1944 *** Keybindings (see `C-c C-h'), TAB indentation, filling and auto-filling,
1945 fontification, comment handling, and customization have all been revised
1946 and improved.
1947
1948 *** Support for `imenu' and `which-function-mode'.
1949
1950 *** The reStructuredText syntax is more closely covered.
1951 Sphinx support has been improved.
1952
1953 *** `rst-insert-list' inserts new list or continues existing lists.
1954
1955 *** A negative prefix argument always works for `rst-adjust'.
1956
1957 *** The window configuration is reset after displaying a TOC.
1958
1959 *** The constant `rst-version' describes the rst.el package version.
1960
1961 ** Ruby mode
1962
1963 *** Support for percent literals and recognition of regular expressions
1964 in method calls without parentheses with more methods, including Cucumber
1965 steps definitions.
1966
1967 *** Improved syntax highlighting and indentation.
1968
1969 *** New command `ruby-toggle-block', bound to `C-c {'.
1970
1971 *** Some non-standard keybindings/commands have been removed:
1972
1973 **** `ruby-electric-brace'; use `electric-indent-mode' instead.
1974
1975 **** `ruby-mark-defun'; use `mark-defun'.
1976
1977 **** `ruby-beginning-of-defun' and `ruby-end-of-defun' are replaced by
1978 appropriate settings for the variables `beginning-of-defun-function'
1979 and `end-of-defun-function'.
1980
1981 **** Non-standard keybindings for `backward-kill-word', `comment-region',
1982 `reindent-then-newline-and-indent' and `newline' have been removed.
1983
1984 ** Shell Script mode
1985
1986 *** Pairing of parens/quotes uses `electric-pair-mode' instead of skeleton-pair.
1987
1988 *** `sh-electric-here-document-mode' now controls auto-insertion of here-docs.
1989
1990 *** `sh-use-smie' lets you choose a new indentation and navigation code.
1991
1992 ** VHDL mode
1993
1994 *** The free software compiler GHDL is supported (and now the default).
1995
1996 *** Support for the VHDL-AMS packages has been added/updated.
1997
1998 *** Updated to the 2002 revision of the VHDL standard.
1999
2000 *** Accepts \r and \f as whitespace.
2001
2002 ** Apropos
2003
2004 *** The faces used by Apropos are now directly customizable.
2005 These faces are named `apropos-symbol', `apropos-keybinding', and so on;
2006 see the `apropos' Custom group for details.
2007
2008 *** The old options whose values specified faces to use have been removed
2009 (i.e. `apropos-symbol-face', `apropos-keybinding-face', `apropos-label-face',
2010 `apropos-match-face' and `apropos-property-face'.).
2011
2012 ** Buffer Menu
2013
2014 *** This package has been rewritten to use Tabulated List mode.
2015
2016 *** Option `Buffer-menu-buffer+size-width' is now obsolete.
2017 Use `Buffer-menu-name-width' and `Buffer-menu-size-width' instead.
2018
2019 ** Calc
2020
2021 *** Algebraic simplification mode is now the default.
2022 To restrict to the limited simplifications given by the former
2023 default simplification mode, use `m I'.
2024
2025 ** Calendar
2026
2027 *** You can customize the header text that appears above each calendar month.
2028 See the variable `calendar-month-header'.
2029
2030 *** New LaTeX calendar style, produced by `cal-tex-cursor-week2-summary'.
2031
2032 *** The calendars produced by cal-html include holidays.
2033 Customize `cal-html-holidays' to change this.
2034
2035 ** CEDET
2036
2037 *** The major modes from the parser generators "Bovine" and "Wisent"
2038 are now properly integrated in Emacs. The file suffixes ".by" and ".wy"
2039 are in `auto-mode-alist', and the corresponding manuals are included.
2040
2041 *** EDE
2042
2043 **** Menu support for the "Configuration" feature. This allows users to
2044 choose the active configuration (such as debug or install) from the menu.
2045
2046 **** New command `ede-set' to interactively set project-local variables.
2047
2048 **** Support for compiling, debugging, and running in "generic" projects.
2049
2050 **** Autoconf editing support for M4 macros with complex arguments.
2051
2052 **** Compilation support for the "linux" project type.
2053
2054 **** "simple" projects have been removed; use "generic" projects instead.
2055
2056 *** Semantic
2057
2058 **** Support for parsing #include statements inside a namespace in C/C++.
2059
2060 **** Improved support for 'extern "C"' declarations in C/C++.
2061
2062 **** The ability to ignore more common special C/C++ preprocessor symbols,
2063 such as '__nonnull' and '__asm'. Add '__cplusplus' macro when parsing C++.
2064 If available, include cdefs.h as an additional source of preprocessor symbols.
2065
2066 **** Improved C/C++ function pointer parsing.
2067
2068 **** In Python, support for converting imports to include file names.
2069
2070 **** Ability to dynamically determine the Python load path.
2071
2072 **** Support for the Python 'WITH' and 'AT' keywords.
2073
2074 **** Improved tooltip completion.
2075
2076 *** SRecode
2077
2078 **** The SRecode manual is now included.
2079
2080 **** Tag generation supports constructor/destructor settings and system
2081 include differentiation.
2082
2083 **** Addition of 'Framework' support: Frameworks are specified when a
2084 particular kind of library (such as Android) is needed in a common language
2085 mode (like Java).
2086
2087 **** Support for nested templates and let variables override based on priority.
2088
2089 **** Support for merging tables from multiple related modes, such as
2090 default -> c++ -> arduino.
2091
2092 ** Compile has a new option `compilation-always-kill'.
2093
2094 ** Customize
2095
2096 *** `custom-reset-button-menu' now defaults to t.
2097
2098 *** Non-option variables are never matched in `customize-apropos' and
2099 `customize-apropos-options' (i.e., the prefix argument does nothing for
2100 these commands now).
2101
2102 ** Term
2103
2104 *** The variables `term-default-fg-color' and `term-default-bg-color'
2105 are now deprecated in favor of the customizable face `term'.
2106
2107 *** You can customize how to display ANSI terminal colors and styles
2108 by customizing the corresponding `term-color-<COLOR>',
2109 `term-color-underline' and `term-color-bold' faces.
2110
2111 ** Tramp
2112
2113 *** The syntax has been extended in order to allow ad-hoc proxy definitions.
2114
2115 *** Remote processes are now also supported on remote MS-Windows hosts.
2116
2117 ** URL
2118
2119 *** Structs made by `url-generic-parse-url' have nil `attributes' slot.
2120 Previously, this slot stored semicolon-separated attribute-value pairs
2121 appended to some imap URLs, but this is not compatible with RFC 3986.
2122 So now the `filename' slot stores the entire path and query components,
2123 and the `attributes' slot is always nil.
2124
2125 *** New function `url-encode-url' for encoding a URI string.
2126 The `url-retrieve' function now uses this to encode its URL argument,
2127 in case that is not properly encoded.
2128
2129 ** notifications.el supports now version 1.2 of the Notifications API.
2130 The function `notifications-get-capabilities' returns the supported
2131 server properties.
2132
2133 ** Flymake uses fringe bitmaps to indicate errors and warnings.
2134 See `flymake-fringe-indicator-position', `flymake-error-bitmap' and
2135 `flymake-warning-bitmap'.
2136
2137 ** The FFAP option `ffap-url-unwrap-remote' can now be a list of strings,
2138 specifying URL types that should be converted to remote file names at
2139 the FFAP prompt. The default is now '("ftp").
2140
2141 ** New Ibuffer `derived-mode' filter, bound to `/ M'.
2142 The old binding for `/ M' (filter by used-mode) is now bound to `/ m'.
2143
2144 ** New option `mouse-avoidance-banish-position' specifies where the
2145 `banish' mouse avoidance setting moves the mouse.
2146
2147 ** In Perl mode, new option `perl-indent-parens-as-block' causes non-block
2148 closing brackets to be aligned with the line of the opening bracket.
2149
2150 ** In Proced mode, new command `proced-renice' renices marked processes.
2151
2152 ** New option `async-shell-command-buffer' specifies the buffer to use
2153 for a new asynchronous `shell-command' when the default output buffer
2154 `*Async Shell Command*' is already in use.
2155
2156 ** SQL mode has a new option `sql-db2-escape-newlines'.
2157 If non-nil, newlines sent to the command interpreter will be escaped
2158 by a backslash. The default does not escape the newlines and assumes
2159 that the sql statement will be terminated by a semicolon.
2160
2161 ** New command `tabulated-list-sort', bound to `S' in Tabulated List mode
2162 (and modes that derive from it), sorts the column at point, or the Nth
2163 column if a numeric prefix argument is given.
2164
2165 ** `which-func-modes' now defaults to t, so Which Function mode, when
2166 enabled, applies to all applicable major modes.
2167
2168 ** `winner-mode-hook' now runs when the mode is disabled, as well as when
2169 it is enabled.
2170
2171 ** Follow mode no longer works by using advice.
2172 The option `follow-intercept-processes' has been removed.
2173
2174 ** `javascript-generic-mode' is now an obsolete alias for `js-mode'.
2175
2176 ** Hooks renamed to avoid obsolete "-hooks" suffix:
2177 *** semantic-lex-reset-hooks -> semantic-lex-reset-functions
2178 *** semantic-change-hooks -> semantic-change-functions
2179 *** semantic-edits-new-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-new-change-functions
2180 *** semantic-edits-delete-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-delete-change-functions
2181 *** semantic-edits-reparse-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-reparse-change-functions
2182 *** semanticdb-save-database-hooks -> semanticdb-save-database-functions
2183 *** c-prepare-bug-report-hooks -> c-prepare-bug-report-hook
2184 *** rcirc-sentinel-hooks -> rcirc-sentinel-functions
2185 *** rcirc-receive-message-hooks -> rcirc-receive-message-functions
2186 *** rcirc-activity-hooks -> rcirc-activity-functions
2187 *** rcirc-print-hooks -> rcirc-print-functions
2188 *** dbus-event-error-hooks -> dbus-event-error-functions
2189 *** eieio-pre-method-execution-hooks -> eieio-pre-method-execution-functions
2190 *** checkdoc-style-hooks -> checkdoc-style-functions
2191 *** checkdoc-comment-style-hooks -> checkdoc-comment-style-functions
2192 *** archive-extract-hooks -> archive-extract-hook
2193 *** filesets-cache-fill-content-hooks -> filesets-cache-fill-content-hook
2194 *** hfy-post-html-hooks -> hfy-post-html-hook
2195 *** nndiary-request-create-group-hooks -> nndiary-request-create-group-functions
2196 *** nndiary-request-update-info-hooks -> nndiary-request-update-info-functions
2197 *** nndiary-request-accept-article-hooks -> nndiary-request-accept-article-functions
2198 *** gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-hooks -> gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-functions
2199
2200 ** Obsolete packages
2201
2202 *** assoc.el
2203 In most cases, assoc+member+push+delq work just as well.
2204 And in any case it's just a terrible package: ugly semantics, terrible
2205 inefficiency, and not namespace-clean.
2206 *** bruce.el
2207 *** cust-print.el
2208 *** ledit.el
2209 *** mailpost.el
2210 *** mouse-sel.el
2211 *** patcomp.el
2212
2213 \f
2214 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.3
2215
2216 ** Docstrings starting with `*' no longer indicate user options.
2217 Only variables defined using `defcustom' are considered user options.
2218 The function `user-variable-p' is now an obsolete alias for
2219 `custom-variable-p'.
2220
2221 ** The return values of `defalias', `defun' and `defmacro' have changed,
2222 and are now undefined. For backwards compatibility, `defun' and
2223 `defmacro' currently return the name of the newly defined
2224 function/macro, but this should not be relied upon.
2225
2226 ** `random' by default now returns a different random sequence in
2227 every Emacs run. Use `(random S)', where S is a string, to set the
2228 random seed to a value based on S, in order to get a repeatable
2229 sequence in later calls.
2230
2231 ** If the NEWTEXT arg to `replace-match' contains a substring "\?",
2232 that substring is inserted literally even if the LITERAL arg is
2233 non-nil, instead of causing an error to be signaled.
2234
2235 ** `select-window' now always makes the window's buffer current.
2236 It does so even if the window was selected before.
2237
2238 ** The function `x-select-font' can return a font spec, instead of a
2239 font name as a string. Whether it returns a font spec or a font name
2240 depends on the graphical library.
2241
2242 ** `face-spec-set' no longer sets frame-specific attributes when the
2243 third argument is a frame (that usage was obsolete since Emacs 22.2).
2244
2245 ** `set-buffer-multibyte' now signals an error in narrowed buffers.
2246
2247 ** The CL package's `get-setf-method' function no longer exists.
2248 Generalized variables are now part of core Emacs Lisp, and implemented
2249 differently to the way cl.el used to do it. It is not possible to
2250 define a compatible replacement for `get-setf-method'. See the file
2251 gv.el for internal details of the new implementation.
2252
2253 ** The arguments of `dbus-register-signal' are no longer just strings,
2254 but keywords or keyword-string pairs. The old argument list will
2255 still be supported for Emacs 24.x.
2256
2257 ** Miscellaneous name changes
2258 Some Lisp symbols have been renamed to correct their spelling,
2259 or to be more consistent with standard Emacs terminology.
2260
2261 *** Renamed functions
2262 **** hangul-input-method-inactivate -> hangul-input-method-deactivate
2263 **** inactivate-input-method -> deactivate-input-method
2264 **** quail-inactivate -> quail-deactivate
2265 **** robin-inactivate -> robin-deactivate
2266 **** viper-inactivate-input-method -> viper-deactivate-input-method
2267 **** viper-inactivate-input-method-action ->
2268 viper-deactivate-input-method-action
2269 **** ucs-input-inactivate -> ucs-input-deactivate
2270
2271 *** Renamed hooks
2272 The old hooks are still supported for backward compatibility, but they
2273 are deprecated and will be removed eventually.
2274 **** input-method-inactivate-hook -> input-method-deactivate-hook
2275 **** robin-inactivate-hook -> robin-deactivate-hook
2276 **** quail-inactivate-hook -> quail-deactivate-hook
2277
2278 *** Renamed variables
2279 **** follow-deactive-menu -> follow-inactive-menu
2280 **** inactivate-current-input-method-function ->
2281 deactivate-current-input-method-function
2282
2283 ** Some obsolete functions, variables, and faces have been removed:
2284 *** `last-input-char', `last-command-char', `unread-command-char'
2285 *** `facemenu-unlisted-faces'
2286 *** `rmail-decode-mime-charset'
2287 *** `iswitchb-read-buffer'
2288 *** `sc-version', `sc-submit-bug-report'
2289 *** `set-char-table-default'
2290 *** `string-to-sequence' (use `string-to-list' or `string-to-vector')
2291 *** `compile-internal'
2292 *** `modeline'
2293 *** `mode-line-inverse-video'
2294 *** `follow-mode-off-hook'
2295 *** `cvs-commit-buffer-require-final-newline'
2296 (use `log-edit-require-final-newline' instead)
2297 *** `cvs-changelog-full-paragraphs'
2298 (use `log-edit-changelog-full-paragraphs' instead)
2299 *** `cvs-diff-ignore-marks', `cvs-diff-buffer-name'
2300 *** `vc-ignore-vc-files' (use `vc-handled-backends' instead)
2301 *** `vc-master-templates' (use `vc-handled-backends' instead)
2302 *** `vc-checkout-carefully'
2303
2304 \f
2305 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.3
2306
2307 ** CL-style generalized variables are now in core Elisp.
2308 `setf' is autoloaded; `push' and `pop' accept generalized variables.
2309 You can define your own generalized variables using `gv-define-simple-setter',
2310 `gv-define-setter', etc.
2311
2312 ** Emacs tries to macroexpand interpreted (non-compiled) files during load.
2313 This can significantly speed up execution of non-byte-compiled code,
2314 but can also bump into previously unnoticed cyclic dependencies.
2315 These are generally harmless: they will simply cause the macro calls
2316 to be left for later expansion (as before), but will result in a
2317 warning ("Eager macro-expansion skipped due to cycle") describing the cycle.
2318 You may wish to restructure your code so this does not happen.
2319
2320 ** New sampling-based Elisp profiler.
2321 Try M-x profiler-start, do some work, and then call M-x profiler-report.
2322 When finished, use M-x profiler-stop. The sampling rate can be based on
2323 CPU time or memory allocations.
2324
2325 ** `defun' also accepts a (declare DECLS) form, like `defmacro'.
2326 The interpretation of the DECLS is determined by `defun-declarations-alist'.
2327
2328 ** New macros `setq-local' and `defvar-local'.
2329
2330 ** Face underlining can now use a wave.
2331
2332 ** `read-regexp' has a new argument HISTORY; the first argument PROMPT
2333 of `read-regexp' accepts a string ending with a colon and space, and its
2334 second argument DEFAULTS can be a list of strings accessible via `M-n'
2335 in the minibuffer ahead of other hard-coded useful regexp-related values.
2336 More commands use `read-regexp' now to read their regexp arguments.
2337
2338 ** Completion
2339
2340 *** New function `completion-table-with-quoting' to handle completion
2341 in the presence of quoting, such as file completion in shell buffers.
2342
2343 *** New function `completion-table-subvert' to use an existing completion
2344 table, but with a different prefix.
2345
2346 ** Debugger
2347
2348 *** New error type and new function `user-error'.
2349 These do not trigger the debugger.
2350
2351 *** New option `debugger-bury-or-kill', saying what to do with the
2352 debugger buffer when exiting debug.
2353
2354 *** Set `debug-on-message' to enter the debugger when a certain
2355 message is displayed in the echo area. This can be useful when trying
2356 to work out which code is doing something.
2357
2358 *** New var `inhibit-debugger', automatically set to prevent accidental
2359 recursive invocations.
2360
2361 ** Window handling
2362
2363 *** New command `fit-frame-to-buffer' adjusts the frame height to
2364 fit the contents.
2365
2366 *** The command `fit-window-to-buffer' can adjust the frame height
2367 if the new option `fit-frame-to-buffer' is non-nil.
2368
2369 *** New macro `with-temp-buffer-window', similar to
2370 `with-output-to-temp-buffer'.
2371
2372 *** `temp-buffer-resize-mode' no longer resizes windows that have been
2373 reused.
2374
2375 *** New option `switch-to-buffer-preserve-window-point' to restore a
2376 window's point when switching buffers.
2377
2378 *** New display action alist entries `window-height' and `window-width'
2379 specify the size of new windows created by `display-buffer'.
2380
2381 *** New display action alist entry `pop-up-frame-parameters', if
2382 non-nil, specifies frame parameters to give any newly-created frame.
2383
2384 *** New display action alist entry `inhibit-switch-frame', if non-nil,
2385 tells display action functions to avoid changing which frame is
2386 selected.
2387
2388 *** New display action alist entry `previous-window', if non-nil,
2389 specifies window to reuse in `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
2390
2391 *** New display action functions `display-buffer-below-selected',
2392 and `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
2393
2394 *** The functions `get-lru-window', `get-mru-window' and `get-largest-window'
2395 now accept a third argument to avoid choosing the selected window.
2396
2397 *** Additional values recognized for option `window-combination-limit'.
2398
2399 *** The following variables are obsolete, as they can be replaced by
2400 appropriate entries in the `display-buffer-alist' function introduced
2401 in Emacs 24.1:
2402 **** `dired-shrink-to-fit'
2403 **** `display-buffer-reuse-frames'
2404 **** `display-buffer-function'
2405 **** `special-display-buffer-names'
2406 **** `special-display-frame-alist'
2407 **** `special-display-function'
2408 **** `special-display-regexps'
2409
2410 ** Time
2411
2412 *** `current-time-string' no longer requires that its argument's year
2413 must be in the range 1000..9999. It now works with any year supported
2414 by the underlying C implementation.
2415
2416 *** `current-time' now returns extended-format time stamps
2417 (HIGH LOW USEC PSEC), where the new PSEC slot specifies picoseconds.
2418 PSEC is typically a multiple of 1000 on current machines. Other
2419 functions that use this format, such as `file-attributes' and
2420 `format-time-string', have been changed accordingly. Old-format time
2421 stamps are still accepted.
2422
2423 *** The format of timers in `timer-list' and `timer-idle-list' is now
2424 [TRIGGERED-P HI-SECS LO-SECS USECS REPEAT-DELAY FUNCTION ARGS IDLE-DELAY PSECS].
2425 The PSECS slot is new, and uses picosecond resolution. It can be
2426 accessed via the new `timer--psecs' accessor.
2427
2428 *** Last-modified time stamps in undo lists now are of the form
2429 (t HI-SECS LO-SECS USECS PSECS) instead of (t HI-SECS . LO-SECS).
2430
2431 ** EIEIO
2432
2433 *** Improved security when handling persistent objects:
2434
2435 **** `eieio-persistent-read' now features optional arguments for specifying
2436 the class to load, as well as a flag stating whether subclasses are allowed;
2437 if provided, other classes will be rejected by the reader. For
2438 compatibility with existing code, if the class is omitted only a
2439 warning is issued.
2440
2441 **** New specialized reader for pulling in classes and signaling errors
2442 without evaluation of suspicious code.
2443
2444 **** All slots that contain objects must have a :type. Slots with lists
2445 of objects must use a new type predicate for a list of an object type.
2446
2447 *** Support for `find-function' and similar utilities, through the addition
2448 of filename support to generated symbols.
2449
2450 ** Floating point functions now always return special values like NaN,
2451 instead of signaling errors, if given invalid args; e.g., (log -1.0).
2452 Previously, they returned NaNs on some platforms but signaled errors
2453 on others. The affected functions are acos, asin, tan, exp, expt,
2454 log, log10, sqrt, and mod.
2455
2456 ** New fringe bitmap `exclamation-mark'.
2457
2458 ** Miscellaneous changes to special forms and macros
2459
2460 *** `defun' and `defmacro' are now macros rather than special forms.
2461
2462 *** `kbd' is now a function rather than a macro.
2463
2464 ** Miscellaneous new functions
2465
2466 *** `set-temporary-overlay-map' sets up a temporary keymap that
2467 takes precedence over most other maps for a short while (normally one key).
2468
2469 *** `autoloadp' tests if its argument is an autoloaded object.
2470
2471 *** `autoload-do-load' performs the autoloading operation.
2472
2473 *** `buffer-narrowed-p' tests if the buffer is narrowed.
2474
2475 *** `file-name-base' returns a file name sans directory and extension.
2476
2477 *** `function-get' fetches a function property, following aliases.
2478
2479 *** `posnp' tests if an object is a `posn'.
2480
2481 *** `system-users' returns the user names on the system.
2482
2483 *** `system-groups' returns the group names on the system.
2484
2485 *** `tty-top-frame' returns the topmost frame of a text terminal.
2486
2487 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
2488 *** `automount-dir-prefix' (use `directory-abbrev-alist')
2489 *** `buffer-has-markers-at'
2490 *** `macro-declaration-function' (use `macro-declarations-alist')
2491 *** `window-system-version' (provides no useful information)
2492 *** `dired-pop-to-buffer' (use `dired-mark-pop-up')
2493 *** `query-replace-interactive'
2494 *** `font-list-limit' (has had no effect since Emacs < 23)
2495
2496 \f
2497 * Changes in Emacs 24.3 on Non-Free Operating Systems
2498
2499 ** Cygwin builds can use the native MS Windows user interface.
2500 Pass `--with-w32' to configure. The default remains the X11 interface.
2501
2502 ** Two new functions are available in Cygwin builds:
2503 `cygwin-convert-file-name-from-windows' and
2504 `cygwin-convert-file-name-to-windows'. These functions allow Lisp
2505 code to access the Cygwin file-name mapping machinery to convert
2506 between Cygwin and Windows-native file and directory names.
2507
2508 ** When invoked with the -nw switch to run on the Windows text-mode terminal,
2509 Emacs now supports `mouse-highlight', help-echo (in the echo area), and
2510 `mouse-autoselect-window'.
2511
2512 ** On MS Windows Vista and later Emacs now supports symbolic links.
2513
2514 ** On MS Windows, you can pass `--without-libxml2' to configure.bat to omit
2515 support for libxml2, even if its presence is detected.
2516
2517 ** On Mac OS X, the Nextstep port requires OS X 10.4 or later.
2518
2519 ** On Mac OS X, configure no longer automatically adds the Fink "/sw"
2520 directories to the search path. You must add them yourself if you want them.
2521
2522 \f
2523 * Changes in Emacs 24.2
2524
2525 ** This is mainly a bug-fix release.
2526
2527 \f
2528 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
2529
2530 ** Emacs can be compiled with Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
2531 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
2532 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
2533 --without-gconf.
2534
2535 ** Emacs can be compiled with GnuTLS support.
2536 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
2537 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
2538 `--without-gnutls'. See below for GnuTLS features.
2539
2540 ** Emacs can be compiled with SELinux support.
2541 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
2542 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
2543 `--without-selinux'. See below for SELinux features.
2544
2545 ** Emacs can be compiled with ImageMagick support.
2546 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
2547 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
2548 `--without-imagemagick'. See below for ImageMagick features.
2549 This feature is not available for the Nextstep or MS ports.
2550
2551 ** Emacs can be compiled with libxml2 support.
2552 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
2553 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
2554 `--without-xml2'. See below for libxml2 features.
2555
2556 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
2557 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
2558
2559 ** New configure option --with-wide-int.
2560 With it, Emacs integers typically have 62 bits, even on 32-bit machines.
2561 On 32-bit hosts, this raises the limit on buffer sizes from about 512 MiB
2562 to about 2 GiB.
2563
2564 ** New configure options: --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
2565 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
2566 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
2567
2568 ** New configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
2569 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
2570 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
2571
2572 ** The standalone programs digest-doc and sorted-doc are removed.
2573 Emacs now uses Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
2574
2575 ** The standalone program `fakemail' is removed.
2576 If you need it, feedmail.el provides a superset of the functionality.
2577
2578 \f
2579 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
2580
2581 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
2582 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
2583 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
2584
2585 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
2586 from load-path. -Q now implies this. This option does not affect the
2587 EMACSLOADPATH environment variable (and hence has no effect for
2588 Nextstep builds).
2589
2590 \f
2591 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
2592
2593 ** Completion
2594
2595 *** Many packages now use the `completion-at-point' command,
2596 rather than implementing separate completion commands.
2597
2598 *** `completion-at-point' now handles tags and semantic completion.
2599
2600 *** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
2601 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
2602
2603 *** New option `completion-cycle-threshold' allows completion cycling.
2604
2605 *** New option `completion-category-overrides' for overriding the
2606 default completion style in certain circumstances.
2607
2608 *** New completion style `substring'.
2609
2610 *** Completion of buffer names uses `substring' completion by default.
2611
2612 *** The option `widget-complete-field' has been removed.
2613
2614 ** Mail changes
2615
2616 *** The first time you try sending mail, Emacs asks for a mail method.
2617 This is implemented by a new default for `send-mail-function', which
2618 is `sendmail-query-once'. This offers to use the smtpmail package, or
2619 to use the old defaults relying on external mail facilities
2620 (`sendmail-send-it' on GNU/Linux and other Unix-like systems, and
2621 `mailclient-send-it' on Windows).
2622
2623 *** Typing `C-c m' in the buffer made by `M-x report-emacs-bug'
2624 transfers the report to your desktop's preferred mail client, if there
2625 is one. This uses either the "xdg-email" utility, or Mac OS's "open"
2626 command.
2627
2628 *** See Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages for SMTPmail changes
2629 and Mail mode changes
2630
2631 ** Emacs server and client changes
2632
2633 *** New option `server-port' specifies the port for TCP Emacs servers.
2634
2635 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
2636
2637 *** New emacsclient argument --frame-parameters specifies the frame
2638 parameters of any newly-created graphical frame.
2639
2640 *** If emacsclient shuts down due to Emacs signaling an error,
2641 its exit status is 1.
2642
2643 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID.
2644 This opens a client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed, similar
2645 to the --parent-id argument to Emacs.
2646
2647 ** Internationalization changes
2648
2649 *** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
2650 Right-to-left (RTL) scripts, such as Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew, are
2651 displayed in the correct visual order as expected by users of those
2652 scripts. The display reordering is a "full bidirectionality" class
2653 implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm (UBA). Buffers
2654 with no RTL text should look exactly the same as before.
2655
2656 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-display-reordering'.
2657 To disable display reordering in a buffer, change this to nil.
2658
2659 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction'.
2660 If nil (the default), Emacs determines the base direction of each
2661 paragraph from its text, as specified by the UBA. Setting the value
2662 to `right-to-left' or `left-to-right' forces a base direction on each
2663 paragraph.
2664
2665 Paragraphs with right-to-left base direction are displayed starting at
2666 the right window edge.
2667
2668 *** Enhanced support for characters with no glyphs in available fonts,
2669 or, on text terminals, characters that cannot be encoded by the
2670 terminal coding system. The new option `glyphless-char-display-control'
2671 specifies how to display them: as a hexadecimal code in a box, a thin
2672 1-pixel space, an empty box, etc.
2673
2674 *** New input methods for Farsi and Bulgarian
2675 (farsi-isiri-9147, farsi-transliterate-banan, bulgarian-alt-phonetic).
2676
2677 *** `nobreak-char-display' now also highlights Unicode hyphen chars
2678 (U+2010 and U+2011).
2679
2680 *** New Hebrew translation of the Emacs Tutorial.
2681 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
2682 automatically select it.
2683
2684 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
2685 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
2686 from a package repository at http://elpa.gnu.org.
2687
2688 *** M-x list-packages shows a list of packages, which can be
2689 selected for installation.
2690
2691 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
2692
2693 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded automatically when
2694 Emacs starts up. To disable this, set `package-enable-at-startup' to
2695 nil. To specify the packages to load, customize `package-load-list'.
2696
2697 ** Custom theme changes
2698
2699 *** New command `M-x customize-themes', which provides a convenient
2700 interface for enabling and disabling Custom themes.
2701
2702 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
2703 Emacs no longer looks for Custom themes in `load-path'. The default
2704 value of `custom-theme-load-path' says to look for themes in
2705 `custom-theme-directory', followed by a subdirectory of
2706 `data-directory' named "themes/", which contains a small selection of
2707 built-in Custom themes.
2708
2709 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
2710 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
2711 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
2712 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
2713
2714 ** Improved GTK integration
2715
2716 *** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
2717 The function `set-scroll-bar-mode' can change this.
2718
2719 *** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
2720 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose the style. On a Gnome desktop,
2721 the default is taken from desktop settings.
2722
2723 *** GTK tool bars can be placed on any edge of the frame.
2724 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the
2725 values top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has
2726 entries for this.
2727
2728 *** The default colors for selected text (the `region' face) are taken
2729 from the GTK theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
2730
2731 *** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK.
2732 You can disable this by changing `x-gtk-use-system-tooltips' to nil.
2733
2734 ** Graphical interface changes
2735
2736 *** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
2737 Also, the first dash (which does not indicate anything) is just
2738 displayed as a space.
2739
2740 *** `menu-bar-select-buffer-function' lets you choose another operation
2741 instead of `switch-to-buffer' when selecting an item in the Buffers menu.
2742
2743 *** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is
2744 built with Xft. These fonts can be set via X resources, for example:
2745 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
2746
2747 ** Exiting changes
2748
2749 *** Emacs now calls `kill-emacs' if it receives SIGTERM or SIGHUP,
2750 or if it receives a SIGINT signal in batch mode.
2751
2752 *** `kill-emacs-hook' is now also run in batch mode.
2753 Third-party code which adds to `kill-emacs-hook' should check if they
2754 do the right thing in batch mode.
2755
2756 ** Scrolling changes
2757
2758 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
2759 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
2760 of buffer at first key-press (instead they move to top/bottom of buffer)
2761 when `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
2762
2763 *** New option `scroll-error-top-bottom' (see above).
2764
2765 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
2766 scroll a line instead of full screen.
2767
2768 *** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
2769 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
2770
2771 *** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
2772 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
2773 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
2774 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
2775 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
2776
2777 *** "Aggressive" scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
2778 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
2779 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
2780 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
2781 margin.
2782
2783 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
2784 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
2785
2786 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up.
2787 Also, the function `copy-file' has an extra optional argument for
2788 preserving SELinux context, and the return value of `backup-buffer'
2789 now includes the SELinux context.
2790
2791 *** New functions `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
2792 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
2793
2794 ** Trash changes
2795
2796 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
2797 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
2798
2799 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
2800 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
2801
2802 ** File- and directory-local variable changes
2803
2804 *** You can stop directory local vars from applying to subdirectories.
2805 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
2806 settings to indicate that the section should not apply to
2807 subdirectories.
2808
2809 *** Directory local variables can apply to some file-less buffers.
2810 Affected modes include dired, vc-dir, and log-edit. For example,
2811 adding "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to .dir-locals.el will
2812 turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should call
2813 `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
2814
2815 *** Using "mode: MINOR-MODE" to enable a minor mode is deprecated.
2816 Instead, use "eval: (minor-mode 1)".
2817
2818 *** The variable `inhibit-first-line-modes-regexps' has been renamed
2819 to `inhibit-local-variables-regexps'. As the name suggests, it now
2820 applies to ALL file local variables, not just -*- lines. The
2821 associated `inhibit-first-line-modes-suffixes' has been renamed in the
2822 corresponding way.
2823
2824 ** Window changes
2825
2826 *** The `quit-window' command now restores the last buffer displayed
2827 in the quitted window.
2828
2829 *** Resizing an Emacs frame now preserves proportional window sizes,
2830 modulo restrictions like window minimum sizes and fixed-size windows.
2831
2832 *** The behavior of `display-buffer' is now customizable in detail.
2833
2834 **** New option `display-buffer-base-action' specifies a list of
2835 user-determined display "actions" (functions and optional arguments
2836 for choosing the displaying window).
2837
2838 This takes precedence over the default display action, which is
2839 specified by `display-buffer-fallback-action'.
2840
2841 **** New option `display-buffer-alist' maps buffer name regexps to
2842 display actions, taking precedence over `display-buffer-base-action'.
2843
2844 *** New option `window-combination-limit'.
2845 The new option `window-combination-limit' allows to return the space
2846 obtained for resizing or creating a window more reliably to the window
2847 from which such space was obtained.
2848
2849 *** New option `window-combination-resize'.
2850 The new option `window-combination-resize' allows to split a window that
2851 otherwise cannot be split because it's too small by stealing space from
2852 other windows in the same combination. Subsequent resizing or deletion
2853 of the window will resize all windows in the same combination as well.
2854
2855 *** New option `frame-auto-hide-function' lets you choose between
2856 iconifying or deleting a frame when burying a buffer in a dedicated
2857 frame, or quitting a window showing a buffer in a frame of its own.
2858
2859 *** New commands `maximize-window' and `minimize-window'.
2860 These maximize and minimize the size of a window within its frame.
2861
2862 *** New commands `switch-to-prev-buffer' and `switch-to-next-buffer'.
2863 These functions allow to navigate through the live buffers that have
2864 been shown in a specific window.
2865
2866 ** Minibuffer changes
2867
2868 *** The inactive minibuffer has its own major mode `minibuffer-inactive-mode'.
2869 This is handy for minibuffer-only frames, and is also used for the feature
2870 where mouse-1 pops up *Messages*"', which can now easily be changed.
2871
2872 *** Minibuffers set `truncate-lines' to nil.
2873 If you want to change the value to something else, you could use
2874 for example `minibuffer-setup-hook'.
2875
2876 ** `auto-mode-case-fold' is now enabled by default.
2877
2878 ** `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' now defaults to t.
2879
2880 ** New basic faces `error', `warning', `success'.
2881 These are used to highlight text indicating failure, caution or
2882 successful operation.
2883
2884 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
2885 for `list-colors-display'.
2886
2887 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
2888
2889 \f
2890 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
2891
2892 ** Search changes
2893
2894 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-kill', instead of
2895 `isearch-yank-line'.
2896
2897 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-pop', instead of
2898 `isearch-yank-kill'.
2899
2900 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-line'.
2901
2902 ** New commands `count-words-region' and `count-words'.
2903
2904 *** M-= is bound to `count-words-region', not `count-lines-region'.
2905 The `count-words-region' command, when called interactively, reports
2906 the number of lines, words, and characters in the region. It is a
2907 superset of the old `count-lines-region', which is now an obsolete
2908 alias for it.
2909
2910 ** The command `just-one-space' (M-SPC), if given a negative argument,
2911 also deletes newlines around point.
2912
2913 ** Deletion changes
2914
2915 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
2916 If non-nil, [delete] and DEL delete the region if it is active and no
2917 prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', those commands kill
2918 instead.
2919
2920 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to [delete].
2921 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
2922 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
2923
2924 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
2925 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
2926 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; Lisp
2927 callers should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
2928
2929 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
2930
2931 ** Selection changes.
2932
2933 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections has been
2934 changed to conform with modern X applications. In short, most
2935 commands for killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while
2936 mouse commands use the primary selection.
2937
2938 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
2939 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
2940
2941 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
2942 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
2943 the kill ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
2944 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
2945
2946 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
2947 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
2948 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
2949 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
2950 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
2951
2952 **** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
2953
2954 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
2955 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
2956 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
2957
2958 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
2959
2960 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
2961 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
2962 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
2963
2964 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
2965 exactly equivalent to M-w, C-w, and C-y respectively.
2966
2967 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
2968 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
2969 between applications.
2970
2971 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
2972
2973 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
2974 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
2975 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
2976 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
2977 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
2978
2979 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
2980
2981 *** X clipboard managers are now supported.
2982 To inhibit this, change `x-select-enable-clipboard-manager' to nil.
2983
2984 ** New command `C-x r N' (`rectangle-number-lines') numbers the lines
2985 in the current rectangle. With a prefix argument, this prompts for a
2986 number to count from and for a format string.
2987
2988 ** `redisplay-dont-pause' now defaults to t.
2989 This makes Emacs feel more responsive to editing commands that arrive
2990 at high rate, e.g. if you lean on some key, because stopping redisplay
2991 in the middle (when this variable is nil) forces more expensive
2992 updates later on, and Emacs appears to be unable to keep up.
2993
2994 ** The behavior of <TAB> for active regions in Text mode has changed.
2995 In Text and related modes, typing <TAB> (`indent-for-tab-command')
2996 when the region is active causes Emacs to indent all the lines in the
2997 region, aligning them with the line previous to the first line in the
2998 region (or with the left margin if there is no previous line).
2999
3000 ** When `occur' is called with a prefix argument, matching strings are
3001 collected into the `*Occur*' buffer without line numbers. If there
3002 are parenthesized subexpressions in the specified regexp, `occur'
3003 reads replacement text that may contain \\& and \\N whose convention
3004 follows `replace-match'.
3005
3006 \f
3007 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
3008
3009 ** Archive Mode has basic support for browsing and updating 7z archives.
3010
3011 ** BibTeX mode
3012
3013 *** BibTeX mode now supports biblatex.
3014 Use the variable `bibtex-dialect' to select different BibTeX dialects.
3015 `bibtex-entry-field-alist' is now an obsolete alias for
3016 `bibtex-BibTeX-entry-alist'.
3017
3018 *** New command `bibtex-search-entries', bound to C-c C-a.
3019
3020 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `sort-fields', disabled by default.
3021
3022 *** New variable `bibtex-search-entry-globally'.
3023
3024 ** Browse-url
3025
3026 *** New option `browse-url-mailto-function' specifies how to handle "mailto:"s.
3027
3028 *** The default browser used by the package is now the "xdg-open" program,
3029 on platforms that support it. This calls your desktop's preferred browser.
3030
3031 ** Calc
3032
3033 *** Support for musical notes.
3034
3035 *** Support for logarithmic units.
3036
3037 *** No longer uses the tex prefix for TeX specific unit names when
3038 using TeX or LaTeX mode.
3039
3040 *** New option to highlight selections using faces.
3041
3042 *** `calc-histogram' has the option of using a vector to determine the bins.
3043
3044 *** New "O" option prefix.
3045
3046 *** Use the "O" prefix to "d r" (`calc-radix') to turn on twos-complement mode.
3047
3048 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
3049
3050 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing "comments".
3051 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
3052
3053 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
3054 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
3055
3056 *** The function specified by `appt-disp-window-function' may be passed
3057 lists of arguments if multiple appointments are due at similar times.
3058 If you are using a custom function for this, you should update it.
3059
3060 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
3061
3062 *** Elements of `calendar-day-abbrev-array' and `calendar-month-abbrev-array'
3063 may no longer be nil, but must all be strings.
3064
3065 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt
3066 package by adding `appt-make-list' to `diary-hook' has been removed.
3067 Use `appt-activate' instead.
3068
3069 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
3070 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
3071 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
3072
3073 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
3074 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
3075
3076 ** CC Mode
3077
3078 *** New feature to "guess" the style in an existing buffer.
3079 The main entry point is M-x c-guess.
3080
3081 *** Java Mode now supports Java 5.0 (Tiger) and 6 (Mustang).
3082
3083 *** `c-beginning-of-defun' and `c-end-of-defun' now respect nested scopes.
3084 Thus C-M-a will, by default, go to the beginning of the immediate function,
3085 not the top level.
3086
3087 *** "Macros with semicolons" can be registered for correct indentation.
3088 Where such a macro ends a line (no semicolon) the next statement is no longer
3089 parsed as a statement continuation.
3090
3091 ** Comint and modes derived from it use the standard completion code.
3092
3093 ** Compilation mode
3094
3095 *** Compilation mode can be used without Font Lock mode.
3096 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
3097
3098 *** New variable `compilation-filter-start', which is bound while
3099 `compilation-filter-hook' runs. It records the start position of the
3100 text inserted by `compilation-filter'.
3101
3102 *** `compilation-error-screen-columns' and `compilation-first-column'
3103 are obeyed in the editing buffer. So programming language modes can
3104 set them, whereas previously only the value in the *Compilation*
3105 buffer was used.
3106
3107 ** Customize
3108
3109 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
3110 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
3111 To turn off the search field, set `custom-search-field' to nil.
3112
3113 *** Options in customize group buffers start out hidden if not customized.
3114 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
3115
3116 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
3117
3118 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
3119 choose a color via `list-colors-display'.
3120
3121 ** D-Bus
3122
3123 *** It is now possible to access buses other than the default system
3124 or session bus.
3125
3126 *** The `dbus-register-method' and `dbus-register-property' functions
3127 optionally do not register names.
3128
3129 *** The new function `dbus-register-service' registers a known service
3130 name on a D-Bus without also registering a property or a method.
3131
3132 ** Dired-x
3133
3134 *** C-x C-j (`dired-jump') and C-x 4 C-j (`dired-jump-other-window'),
3135 if called with a prefix argument, read a file name from the minibuffer
3136 instead of using the current buffer.
3137
3138 *** The "dired local variables" feature of Dired-x is obsolete.
3139 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
3140
3141 ** ERC changes
3142
3143 *** New options `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay',
3144 controlling attempts to autojoin a channel.
3145
3146 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
3147 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
3148 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
3149 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
3150
3151 ** Eshell changes
3152
3153 *** The default value of `eshell-directory-name' has changed
3154 to be an "eshell" directory in `user-emacs-directory'.
3155 The old "~/.eshell/" directory is still used if it exists, though.
3156
3157 ** gdb-mi
3158
3159 *** The M-x gdb command now uses the GDB Machine Interface protocol.
3160 It now supports multithread non-stop debugging and simultaneous
3161 debugging of several threads.
3162
3163 ** Image mode
3164
3165 *** RET (`image-toggle-animation') toggles animation, if applicable.
3166 Animation plays once, unless the option `image-animate-loop' is non-nil.
3167
3168 ** Info
3169
3170 *** New command M-x info-display-manual displays a named Info manual.
3171 If that manual is already visited in some Info buffer, it displays
3172 that buffer. (This is handy if you have many manuals in many *info*
3173 buffers, and don't remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual
3174 you want to consult.) Otherwise, it loads and displays the manual.
3175
3176 *** `e' is now bound to `end-of-buffer' rather than to `Info-edit'.
3177 This is for compatibility with the stand-alone Info reader program,
3178 and also because `Info-edit' is a rarely used command that is disabled
3179 by default.
3180
3181 ** Mail mode changes (not Message mode)
3182
3183 *** New command M-x mail-add-attachment for adding MIME attachments
3184
3185 *** The command M-x mail-attach-file was renamed to M-x mail-insert-file.
3186 (Its name is misleading, since it has nothing to do with MIME
3187 attachments.) The old name is now an obsolete alias to the new name.
3188
3189 ** MH-E has been updated to MH-E version 8.3.1.
3190 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
3191
3192 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
3193
3194 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
3195
3196 ** nXML mode no longer binds C-RET to `nxml-complete'.
3197 Completion is now performed via `completion-at-point', bound to C-M-i
3198 or M-TAB. If `nxml-bind-meta-tab-to-complete-flag' is non-nil (the
3199 default), this performs tag completion.
3200
3201 ** Org mode has been updated to version 7.8.09.
3202 See ORG-NEWS for details.
3203
3204 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
3205 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity,
3206 support for more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
3207
3208 ** Rmail
3209
3210 *** The command `rmail-epa-decrypt' decrypts OpenPGP data
3211 in the Rmail incoming message.
3212
3213 *** The variable `rmail-message-filter' no longer has any effect.
3214 This change was made in Emacs 23.1 but was not advertised at the time.
3215 Try using `rmail-show-message-hook' instead.
3216
3217 ** Shell mode
3218
3219 *** M-x shell prompts for the shell path name if the default directory
3220 is a remote file name and neither the environment variable $ESHELL nor
3221 the variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
3222
3223 *** TAB is now bound to the standard `completion-at-point' command,
3224 which now implements the pcomplete rules for shell command completion.
3225
3226 ** SMTPmail
3227
3228 *** SMTPmail now uses encrypted connections (via STARTTLS) by default
3229 if the mail server supports them. This uses either built-in GnuTLS
3230 support, or the starttls.el library. Customize `smtpmail-stream-type'
3231 to change this.
3232
3233 *** The variable `smtpmail-auth-credentials' has been removed.
3234 By default, the information is now stored in the file ~/.authinfo.
3235 This was the default value of smtpmail-auth-credentials. If you had
3236 customized smtpmail-auth-credentials to a list of user names and
3237 passwords, those settings are not used. During your first connection
3238 to the smtp server, Emacs will prompt for the user name and password,
3239 and offer to save them to ~/.authinfo. Or you can manually copy the
3240 credentials to ~/.authinfo. For example, if you had
3241
3242 (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials
3243 '(("mail.example.org" 25 "jim" "s!cret")))
3244
3245 then the equivalent line in ~/.authinfo would be
3246
3247 machine mail.example.org port 25 login jim password s!cret
3248
3249 See the auth-source manual for more information, e.g. on encrypting
3250 the credentials file.
3251
3252 *** The variable `smtpmail-starttls-credentials' has been removed.
3253 If you had that set, you need to put
3254
3255 machine smtp.whatever.foo port 25 key "~/.my_smtp_tls.key" cert "~/.my_smtp_tls.cert"
3256
3257 in your ~/.authinfo file instead.
3258
3259 *** SMTPmail defaults to using the address in the From: header as the
3260 SMTP MAIL FROM envelope. To override this, set `mail-envelope-from'
3261 to the address you wish to use instead.
3262
3263 ** SQL mode
3264
3265 *** New options `sql-port', `sql-connection-alist', `sql-send-terminator',
3266 and `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
3267
3268 *** New options controlling prompting for login parameters.
3269 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params',
3270 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
3271 connection is established.
3272
3273 *** The command `sql-product-interactive' now takes a prefix argument,
3274 which causes it to prompt for an SQL product.
3275
3276 *** Product-specific SQL interactive commands now take prefix arguments.
3277 These commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres', `sql-mysql', etc.),
3278 given a prefix argument, prompt for a name for the SQL interactive
3279 buffer. This reduces the need for calling `sql-rename-buffer'.
3280
3281 *** SQL interactive modes suppress command continuation prompts, and
3282 replace tabs with spaces. The first change impacts multiple line SQL
3283 statements entered with C-j between each line, statements yanked into
3284 the buffer and statements sent with `sql-send-*' functions. The
3285 second prevents the MySQL and Postgres interpreters from listing
3286 object name completions when sent text via `sql-send-*' functions.
3287
3288 *** New command `sql-connect' starts a predefined SQLi session,
3289 using the login parameters from `sql-connection-alist'.
3290
3291 *** New "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
3292 This gathers the login params specified for the SQLi session, if it
3293 was not started by a connection, and saves them as a new connection.
3294
3295 *** New commands for listing database objects and details:
3296 sql-list-all and sql-list-table.
3297
3298 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
3299
3300 ** TeX modes
3301
3302 *** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
3303
3304 ** Tramp
3305
3306 *** New inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
3307
3308 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
3309 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
3310
3311 *** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
3312 remote file attributes are cached for better performance.
3313
3314 *** The option `ange-ftp-binary-file-name-regexp' has changed its
3315 default value to "".
3316
3317 *** Handlers for `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
3318 for remote machines which support SELinux.
3319
3320 ** New function `url-queue-retrieve', which behaves like url-retrieve,
3321 but with limits (`url-queue-parallel-processes', `url-queue-timeout') on
3322 the degree of parallelism.
3323
3324 ** VC and related modes
3325
3326 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
3327 The command C-x v + (`vc-pull') runs a "pull" operation, if it is
3328 supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to update the
3329 current branch and working tree. A prefix argument means to prompt
3330 the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
3331
3332 *** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
3333
3334 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
3335 The command C-x v m (`vc-merge') now runs a "merge" operation, if it
3336 is supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to merge
3337 changes from another branch into the current one. It prompts for
3338 specifics, e.g. a merge source.
3339
3340 *** New option `vc-revert-show-diff' controls whether `vc-revert'
3341 shows a diff while querying the user. It defaults to t.
3342
3343 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
3344 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
3345 This is currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial (to support
3346 another backend, define a `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function').
3347 In the Log View buffers made by C-x v L (`vc-print-root-log'), you can
3348 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
3349
3350 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
3351 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
3352
3353 *** The option `vc-initial-comment' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but
3354 this was not advertised at the time.
3355
3356 *** `vc-toggle-read-only' is an obsolete alias for `toggle-read-only'.
3357 Since Emacs 23, it has done the same thing as `toggle-read-only', but
3358 this was not advertised at the time.
3359
3360 ** Obsolete modes
3361
3362 *** abbrevlist.el
3363
3364 *** erc-hecomplete.el (use erc-pcomplete.el instead)
3365
3366 *** partial-completion-mode (complete.el) is obsolete.
3367 You can get a comparable behavior with:
3368 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
3369 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
3370
3371 *** pc-mode.el is obsolete (CUA mode is much more comprehensive).
3372
3373 *** pgg is obsolete (use EasyPG instead).
3374
3375 *** sregex.el is obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
3376
3377 *** s-region.el and pc-select.el are obsolete.
3378 They are superseded by shift-select-mode, enabled by default since 23.1.
3379
3380 *** vc-mcvs.el is obsolete (for lack of a maintainer).
3381
3382 ** Miscellaneous
3383
3384 *** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
3385 Its functions and variables have been similarly renamed.
3386
3387 *** In `ido-file-completion-map', C-v is no longer bound to `ido-toggle-vc'.
3388 (This interfered with cua-mode.)
3389
3390 *** f90.el has some support for Fortran 2008 syntax.
3391
3392 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
3393
3394 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
3395
3396 \f
3397 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
3398
3399 ** Occur Edit mode applies edits made in *Occur* buffers to the
3400 original buffers. It is bound to "e" in Occur mode.
3401
3402 ** New global minor mode electric-pair-mode.
3403 When enabled, typing an open parenthesis automatically inserts the
3404 matching closing one.
3405
3406 ** New global minor mode electric-indent-mode.
3407 When enabled, typing certain characters triggers reindentation.
3408 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-indent-chars or
3409 electric-indent-functions.
3410
3411 ** New global minor mode electric-layout-mode.
3412 When enabled, typing certain characters automatically inserts newlines.
3413 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-layout-rules.
3414
3415 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
3416 from which other modes can be derived.
3417
3418 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
3419
3420 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
3421 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
3422 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
3423 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
3424 secrets.
3425
3426 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
3427 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
3428
3429 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
3430 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
3431
3432 ** New generic mode, xmodmap-generic-mode, for xmodmap files.
3433
3434 ** New emacs-lock.el package.
3435 The previous version has been moved to obsolete/old-emacs-lock.el.
3436 Now, there is a proper minor mode `emacs-lock-mode'. Protection
3437 against exiting Emacs and killing the buffer can be set separately.
3438 The mechanism for automatically turning off protection for buffers
3439 with dead inferior processes has been generalized.
3440
3441 \f
3442 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
3443
3444 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function call now ENABLES
3445 the minor mode unconditionally. This is so that you can write e.g.
3446
3447 (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'foo-mode)
3448
3449 to enable foo-mode in Text mode buffers, removing the need for
3450 `turn-on-foo-mode' style functions. This affects all mode commands
3451 defined by `define-minor-mode'. If called interactively, the mode
3452 command still toggles the minor mode.
3453
3454 ** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
3455 It is now a list of three elements, where the second element is a list
3456 describing the original file's SELinux context. If Emacs or the
3457 system lacks SELinux support, the context list is (nil nil nil nil).
3458 See "Basic SELinux support" above, under "Changes in Emacs 24.1".
3459
3460 ** `char-direction-table' and the `char-direction' function were deleted.
3461 They were buggy and inferior to the new support of bidirectional
3462 editing introduced in Emacs 24. If you need the bidirectional
3463 properties of a character, use `get-char-code-property' with the last
3464 argument `bidi-class'.
3465
3466 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
3467 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
3468 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
3469 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
3470
3471 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
3472 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
3473 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
3474 of the header line.
3475
3476 ** Support for "old-style" backquotes, obsolete for 10+ years, has
3477 been further reduced. Now a backquote not followed by a space is
3478 always treated as a "new-style" backquote. Please remove all
3479 "old-style" backquotes from your code. If your code uses backquotes
3480 as documented in the Elisp manual, and compiles without warning, then
3481 you have nothing to do in this regard. Code not following the
3482 appropriate conventions may fail to compile.
3483
3484 The most common cause of trouble seems to be an old-style backquote
3485 followed by a newline. Another cause of trouble is vector notation
3486 for key sequence notation: instead of [(control ,)] and [(control ')],
3487 you should write [(control ?,)] and [(control ?')], which will work in
3488 older Emacsen too.
3489
3490 ** The macro `eval-at-startup' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but this
3491 was not advertised at the time. The function `custom-initialize-delay'
3492 replaced all known uses.
3493
3494 ** `view-buffer' now treats special mode-class in the same way that
3495 `view-file' has since Emacs 22 (i.e. it won't enable View mode if the
3496 major mode is special).
3497
3498 ** Menu and tool bar changes
3499
3500 *** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
3501 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
3502 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
3503 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
3504 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
3505 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
3506
3507 *** The menu bar bindings's caches are not used any more.
3508 Use (where-is-internal <def> nil t) instead.
3509
3510 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
3511 similar to those created by shift-selection (see Selection changes
3512 above). In previous Emacs versions, these regions were delineated by
3513 `mouse-drag-overlay'; that variable has been removed.
3514
3515 ** The fourth argument of `filter-buffer-substring' has been removed.
3516 If you want to remove text properties from the final result, simply
3517 pass the result through substring-no-properties.
3518
3519 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
3520
3521 ** The following obsolete functions and aliases have been removed
3522 (the appropriate new function is given in parentheses; "not needed"
3523 means you can just remove all calls to the function in question):
3524
3525 *** `comint-kill-output' (`comint-delete-output')
3526 *** `decompose-composite-char' (`char-to-string')
3527 *** `outline-visible' (`outline-invisible-p')
3528 *** `internal-find-face' (`facep')
3529 *** `internal-get-face' (`facep and check-face')
3530 *** `frame-update-faces' (not needed)
3531 *** `frame-update-face-colors' (`frame-set-background-mode')
3532 *** `x-frob-font-weight' and `x-frob-font-slant' (`make-face-*' functions)
3533 *** `x-make-font-bold' and `x-make-font-demibold' (`make-face-bold')
3534 *** `x-make-font-italic' and `x-make-font-oblique' (`make-face-italic')
3535 *** `x-make-font-bold-italic' (`make-face-bold-italic')
3536 *** `x-make-font-unbold' (`make-face-unbold')
3537 *** `x-make-font-unitalic' (`make-face-unitalic')
3538 *** `mldrag-drag-mode-line' (`mouse-drag-mode-line')
3539 *** `mldrag-drag-vertical-line' (`mouse-drag-vertical-line')
3540 *** `iswitchb-default-keybindings' (`iswitchb-mode')
3541 *** `char-bytes' (== 1)
3542 *** `isearch-return-char' (`isearch-printing-char')
3543 *** `make-local-hook' (not needed)
3544 *** `set-screen-height' (`set-frame-height')
3545 *** `set-screen-width' (`set-frame-width')
3546
3547 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed
3548 (the appropriate new variable is given in parentheses):
3549
3550 *** `checkdoc-minor-keymap' (`checkdoc-minor-mode-map')
3551 *** `vc-header-alist' (`vc-BACKEND-header')
3552 *** `directory-sep-char' (== ?/)
3553 *** `font-lock-defaults-alist' (`font-lock-defaults')
3554 *** `e' (`float-e').
3555
3556 ** The following obsolete files were removed:
3557 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
3558
3559 ** The format of the finder-inf.el file has changed, since the Finder
3560 mechanism is now based on the package system. The variable
3561 `finder-package-info' is replaced by `package--builtins' and
3562 `finder-keywords-hash'.
3563
3564 ** When generating autoloads, `update-directory-autoloads' no longer
3565 assumes every inspected file is in your `load-path'. It instead
3566 generates relative names according to the current `load-path'.
3567
3568 \f
3569 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
3570
3571 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
3572 The `lexical-binding' variable enables lexical scoping for local
3573 variables. It is typically set via a file-local variable in the first
3574 line of the file, in which case it applies to all the code in that
3575 file.
3576
3577 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
3578 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
3579
3580 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
3581 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
3582
3583 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
3584
3585 *** `defvar' and `defconst' now mark the variable as special (dynamic).
3586 So do `defcustom' and other forms that call `defvar' as a subroutine.
3587
3588 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
3589 declared as dynamically bound.
3590
3591 *** The form ((lambda ...) ...) is deprecated.
3592
3593 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
3594 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
3595 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
3596
3597 ** Changes for bidirectional display and editing
3598
3599 *** New function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction'.
3600 This returns the base direction of the paragraph at point.
3601
3602 *** New function `bidi-string-mark-left-to-right'.
3603 Given a string containing characters from right-to-left scripts, this
3604 function returns another string which can be safely inserted into a
3605 buffer, such that any following text will be always displayed to the
3606 right of that string. (This works by appending an invisible Unicode
3607 "LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK" character if the argument string might need it.)
3608
3609 This is useful when the buffer has overall left-to-right paragraph
3610 direction and you need to insert a string whose contents are not known
3611 in advance, without disrupting the layout of the line.
3612
3613 ** Window changes
3614
3615 *** Window tree functions are accessible in Elisp.
3616 Functions are provided to return the parent, siblings or child windows
3617 of any window including internal windows (windows not associated with a
3618 buffer) in the window tree.
3619
3620 **** New function `window-valid-p' gives non-nil for live and internal
3621 windows.
3622
3623 **** Window manipulation can deal with internal windows.
3624 Many window handling functions like `split-window', `delete-window', or
3625 `delete-other-windows' as well as the window resizing functions can now
3626 act on any window including internal ones.
3627
3628 *** window-total-height/-width vs window-body-height/-width.
3629 The function `window-height' has been renamed to `window-total-height'
3630 and `window-width' has been renamed to `window-body-width'. The old
3631 names are provided as aliases. Two new functions `window-total-width'
3632 and `window-body-height' are provided.
3633
3634 *** Window parameters specific to window handling functions.
3635 For each window you can specify a parameter to override the default
3636 behavior of a number of functions like `split-window', `delete-window'
3637 and `delete-other-windows'. The variable `ignore-window-parameters'
3638 allows to ignore processing such parameters.
3639
3640 *** New semantics of third argument of `split-window'.
3641 The third argument of `split-window' has been renamed to SIDE and can be
3642 set to any of the values 'below, 'right, 'above, or 'left to make the
3643 new window appear on the corresponding side of the window that shall be
3644 split. Any other value of SIDE will cause `split-window' to split the
3645 window into two side-by-side windows as before.
3646
3647 *** Window resizing functions.
3648 A new standard function for resizing windows called `window-resize' has
3649 been introduced. This and all other functions for resizing windows no
3650 longer delete any windows when they become too small.
3651
3652 *** Deleting the selected window now selects the most recently selected
3653 live window on that frame instead.
3654
3655 *** `adjust-window-trailing-edge' adjustments.
3656 `adjust-window-trailing-edge' can now deal with fixed-size windows and
3657 is able to resize other windows if a window adjacent to the trailing
3658 edge cannot be shrunk any more. This makes its behavior more similar to
3659 that of Emacs 21 without compromising, however, its inability to delete
3660 windows which was introduced in Emacs 22.
3661
3662 *** Window-local buffer lists.
3663 Windows now have local buffer lists. This means that removing a buffer
3664 from display in a window will preferably show the buffer previously
3665 shown in that window with its previous window-start and window-point
3666 positions. This also means that the same buffer may be automatically
3667 shown twice even if it already appears in another window.
3668
3669 *** `switch-to-buffer' has a new optional argument FORCE-SAME-WINDOW,
3670 which if non-nil requires the buffer to be displayed in the currently
3671 selected window, signaling an error otherwise. If nil, another window
3672 can be used, e.g. if the selected one is strongly dedicated.
3673
3674 *** `split-window-vertically' and `split-window-horizontally' renamed
3675 to `split-window-below' and `split-window-right' respectively.
3676 The old names are kept as aliases.
3677
3678 *** Display actions
3679
3680 **** The second arg to `display-buffer' and `pop-to-buffer' is now
3681 named ACTION, and takes a display action of the same form as
3682 `display-buffer-base-action' (see Changes, above). A non-nil,
3683 non-list value is treated specially, as the old meaning.
3684
3685 **** New variable `display-buffer-overriding-action'.
3686
3687 **** The procedure of `display-buffer' etc. to choose a window is
3688 determined by combining `display-buffer-overriding-action',
3689 `display-buffer-alist', the ACTION arg, `display-buffer-base-action',
3690 and `display-buffer-fallback-action'. The second and fourth of these
3691 are user-customizable variables.
3692
3693 See the docstring of `display-buffer' for details.
3694
3695 *** New functions `window-state-get' and `window-state-put'.
3696 These functions allow to save and restore the state of an arbitrary
3697 frame or window as an Elisp object.
3698
3699 ** Completion
3700
3701 *** New variable `completion-extra-properties' used to specify extra
3702 properties of the current completion:
3703 - :annotate-function, same as the old completion-annotate-function.
3704 - :exit-function, function to call after completion took place.
3705
3706 *** Functions on `completion-at-point-functions' can return any of the
3707 properties valid for `completion-extra-properties'.
3708
3709 *** `completion-annotate-function' is obsolete.
3710
3711 *** New `metadata' method for completion tables. The metadata thus returned
3712 can specify various details of the data returned by `all-completions':
3713 - `category' is the kind of objects returned (e.g., `buffer', `file', ...),
3714 used to select a style in completion-category-overrides.
3715 - `annotation-function' to add annotations in *Completions*.
3716 - `display-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries in *Completions*.
3717 - `cycle-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries when cycling.
3718
3719 *** `minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map' is not used any more.
3720 Instead, the bindings in `minibuffer-local-filename-completion-map'
3721 are combined with `minibuffer-local-must-match-map'.
3722
3723 *** New variable `completing-read-function' allows overriding the
3724 behavior of `completing-read'.
3725
3726 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
3727 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
3728
3729 ** `pre-command-hook'/`post-command-hook' are not reset to nil on error.
3730 Instead, the offending function is removed.
3731
3732 ** New hook types
3733
3734 *** New function `run-hook-wrapped' for running an abnormal hook by
3735 passing the hook functions as arguments to a "wrapping" function.
3736 Like `run-hook-with-args-until-success', it stops at the first
3737 non-nil return value.
3738
3739 *** New macro `with-wrapper-hook' for running an abnormal hook as a
3740 set of "wrapping" filters, similar to around advice.
3741 (A version of this macro was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not
3742 advertised at the time.)
3743
3744 ** Debugger changes
3745
3746 *** New macro `condition-case-unless-debug' (this was actually added in
3747 Emacs 23.1 as condition-case-no-debug, but not advertised)
3748
3749 *** The macro `with-demoted-errors' was added in Emacs 23.1, but not advertised.
3750
3751 *** Variable `stack-trace-on-error' removed.
3752
3753 *** The debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will
3754 jump to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked
3755 instead of jumping all the way to the top-level.
3756
3757 *** Set `debug-on-event' to enter the debugger on events like SIGUSR1.
3758 This can be useful when `inhibit-quit' is set.
3759
3760 ** The new function `server-eval-at' allows evaluation of Lisp forms on
3761 named Emacs server instances.
3762
3763 ** `call-process' and `call-process-region' allow a `(:file "file")' spec
3764 to redirect STDOUT to a file.
3765
3766 ** The function `format-time-string' now supports the %N directive,
3767 for higher-resolution time stamps.
3768
3769 ** New input reading functions
3770
3771 *** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of
3772 characters, discarding any inputs not inside the set.
3773
3774 *** The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name
3775 or RGB triplet, instead of signaling an error if the user provides
3776 invalid input.
3777
3778 **** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
3779
3780 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
3781 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
3782 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
3783 obsolete alias.
3784
3785 ** Syntax parsing changes
3786
3787 *** New variable `syntax-propertize-function'.
3788 This replaces `font-lock-syntactic-keywords' which is now obsolete.
3789 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
3790 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
3791 Together with this new variable come a new hook
3792 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
3793 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
3794 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
3795 syntactic rules.
3796
3797 *** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
3798
3799 ** New hook `post-self-insert-hook', run after `self-insert-command'.
3800
3801 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
3802
3803 ** Major and minor mode changes
3804
3805 *** `set-auto-mode' now respects mode: local variables at the end of files,
3806 as well as those in the -*- line.
3807
3808 *** `prog-mode' is a new major mode from which programming modes
3809 should be derived.
3810
3811 **** `prog-mode-hook' can be used to enable features for programming
3812 modes, e.g. (add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'flyspell-prog-mode) to enable
3813 on-the-fly spell checking for comments and strings.
3814
3815 *** New hook `change-major-mode-after-body-hook', run by
3816 `run-mode-hooks' just before any other mode hooks.
3817
3818 *** Enabled globalized minor modes can be disabled in specific major modes.
3819 If the global mode is global-FOO-mode, then run (FOO-mode -1) in the
3820 major mode's hook, where FOO-mode toggles the mode on a per-buffer basis.
3821
3822 *** `define-minor-mode' accepts new keywords :variable, :after-hook.
3823
3824 ** File-handling changes
3825
3826 *** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
3827 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
3828 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
3829 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
3830
3831 *** New file predicates: `file-equal-p', `file-in-directory-p'.
3832
3833 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
3834 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
3835 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
3836
3837 ** Image API
3838
3839 *** Animated images support (currently animated gifs only).
3840
3841 **** `image-animated-p' returns non-nil if an image can be animated.
3842
3843 **** `image-animate' animates a supplied image spec.
3844
3845 **** `image-animate-timer' returns the timer object for an image that
3846 is being animated.
3847
3848 *** `image-extension-data' has been renamed to `image-metadata'.
3849 The old name is an obsolete alias to the new one.
3850
3851 *** Image mode can view any image type that ImageMagick supports.
3852 This requires Emacs to be built with ImageMagick support.
3853
3854 **** New function `imagemagick-types', defined if ImageMagick support
3855 is enabled, returns a list of image file extensions that your
3856 ImageMagick installation supports.
3857
3858 **** New function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick
3859 image types in Image mode and in `create-image' and other helper
3860 functions.
3861
3862 **** New option `imagemagick-types-inhibit' excludes certain
3863 ImageMagick image types from `imagemagick-register-types'.
3864
3865 **** With ImageMagick support, there are extra Image mode commands to
3866 resize and rotate images: `image-transform-fit-to-height',
3867 `image-transform-fit-to-width', `image-transform-set-rotation', and
3868 `image-transform-set-scale'.
3869
3870 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
3871 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
3872 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail. For
3873 example, this is used by Rmail to optionally delete a mail window.
3874
3875 ** XML and HTML parsing
3876 If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support, there are two new
3877 functions: `libxml-parse-html-region' (which parses "real world" HTML)
3878 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
3879 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
3880
3881 ** Networking and encryption changes
3882
3883 *** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
3884 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
3885 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
3886 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
3887 must also be supplied.
3888
3889 *** New library gnutls.el.
3890 The new function `gnutls-available-p' returns non-nil if Emacs is
3891 built with GnuTLS support. The main entry points are
3892 `open-gnutls-stream' and `gnutls-negotiate'. It's easiest to use
3893 these functions through `open-network-stream', because that can
3894 upgrade connections through STARTTLS opportunistically or use plain
3895 SSL, depending on your needs. For debugging, set `gnutls-log-level'
3896 greater than 0.
3897
3898 *** New primitive `secure-hash' that supports many secure hash algorithms:
3899 md5, sha1, sha2, sha224, sha256, sha384, and sha512. The lisp library
3900 sha1.el has been removed. The `sha1' feature is provided by default.
3901
3902 ** Isearch
3903
3904 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
3905
3906 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
3907 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
3908 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
3909 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
3910 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
3911 displayed with a "spinning bar".
3912
3913 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
3914 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
3915
3916 ** New variables `delayed-warnings-list' and `delayed-warnings-hook'.
3917 If delayed-warnings-list is non-nil, the command loop calls
3918 `delayed-warnings-hook' after `post-command-hook'. At present, this
3919 is only used by Emacs on some platforms to display warnings during
3920 startup, which might otherwise not be noticed. This uses the
3921 functions `display-delayed-warnings' and `collapse-delayed-warnings'.
3922
3923 ** rx.el has a new `group-n' construct for explicitly numbered groups.
3924
3925 ** New function `make-composed-keymap' that constructs a new keymap
3926 from multiple input maps. You can use this to make a keymap that
3927 inherits from multiple maps, eg:
3928 (set-keymap-parent newmap (make-composed-keymap othermap parent))
3929
3930 ** New function `string-prefix-p'.
3931 (This was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not advertised at the time.)
3932
3933 ** New reader macro ## that stands for the empty symbol.
3934 This means that the empty symbol can now be read back. Also, #: by itself
3935 (when not immediately followed by a possible symbol character) stands for
3936 an empty uninterned symbol.
3937
3938 ** New math functions `isnan', `copysign', `frexp', `ldexp'.
3939
3940 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
3941
3942 *** `tooltip-use-echo-area' is obsolete.
3943 Rather than setting this to t, disable Tooltip mode instead.
3944
3945 *** buffer-substring-filters is obsolete.
3946 Use `filter-buffer-substring-functions' instead.
3947
3948 *** `byte-compile-disable-print-circle' is obsolete.
3949
3950 *** `deferred-action-list' and `deferred-action-function' are obsolete.
3951 Use `post-command-hook' instead.
3952
3953 *** `font-lock-maximum-size' is obsolete.
3954
3955 \f
3956 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on Non-Free Operating Systems
3957
3958 ** On MS Windows, Emacs warns when using the obsolete init file _emacs,
3959 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
3960
3961 ** New configure.bat options
3962
3963 *** --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra runtime checks.
3964
3965 *** --distfiles specifies files to be included in binary distribution.
3966
3967 *** --without-gnutls disables automatic GnuTLS detection.
3968
3969 *** --lib for general library linkage, works with the USER_LIBS build variable.
3970
3971 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
3972
3973 ** The Lisp function `w32-default-color-map' is now obsolete.
3974 (It is only used internally in the Emacs C code.)
3975
3976 ** Customize ns-auto-hide-menu-bar to have the menu-bar hidden, but
3977 reappear on mouse-over. (Requires OS X 10.6 or later.)
3978
3979 ** On Mac OS X, dragging a file into Emacs visits the file, like on
3980 other platforms, rather than inserting its contents into the buffer.
3981
3982 \f
3983 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
3984 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
3985
3986 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
3987 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
3988 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
3989 (at your option) any later version.
3990
3991 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
3992 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
3993 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
3994 GNU General Public License for more details.
3995
3996 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
3997 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
3998
3999 \f
4000 Local variables:
4001 mode: outline
4002 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
4003 end: