1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 24.
11 See files NEWS.23, NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18,
12 and NEWS.1-17 for changes in older Emacs versions.
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
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.
25 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.4
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
56 ** Directories passed to configure option `--enable-locallisppath' are
57 no longer created during installation.
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.
64 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.4
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.)
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').
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'.
88 ** The user option `initial-buffer-choice' can now specify a function
89 to set up the initial buffer.
92 * Changes in Emacs 24.4
95 ** New function `zlib-decompress-region', which decompresses gzip- and
96 zlib-format compressed data using built-in zlib support, if available.
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.)
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
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'.
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'
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.
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.
133 *** Emacs preserves the ACL entries of files when backing up.
135 *** New functions `file-acl' and `set-file-acl' get and set the ACL
138 ** Multi-monitor support has been added.
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.
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'.
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'.
159 ** In keymaps where SPC scrolls forward, S-SPC now scrolls backward.
160 This affects View mode, etc.
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.
172 *** The key `?' now describes prefix bindings, like `C-h'.
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
183 *** The function `quail-help' is no longer an interactive command.
184 Use `C-h C-\' (`describe-input-method') instead.
189 *** ImageMagick images now support the :max-width and :max-height keywords.
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'.
197 ** Frame and window changes
200 *** The function `window-in-direction' introduced in Emacs 24.1 now
201 takes additional arguments for specifying a reference point, wrapping
202 selection around frame borders, and specifying ways to select the
206 *** New commands `toggle-frame-fullscreen' and `toggle-frame-maximized',
207 bound to <f11> and M-<f10>, respectively.
210 *** New hooks `focus-in-hook', `focus-out-hook'.
211 These are normal hooks run when an Emacs frame gains or loses input focus.
214 *** Emacs can now change frame sizes in units of pixels, rather than
215 text rows or columns. When maximizing a frame or making it fullscreen,
216 remaining extra pixels are no longer given to the minibuffer, the rightmost
217 fringe, or other unusable space, but are distributed among the text
218 areas of the frame's windows. If the new option `frame-resize-pixelwise'
219 is non-nil, all frame size changes happen pixelwise and set the
220 corresponding size hints for the window manager.
223 *** Emacs can now change window sizes in units of pixels.
224 Mouse-dragging a mode line or window divider now changes the size of
225 adjacent windows pixelwise. If the new option `window-resize-pixelwise'
226 is non-nil, functions like `balance-windows-area' and `fit-window-to-buffer'
227 resize windows pixelwise. Most functions for changing or accessing
228 window sizes now have an additional argument that allows changes to apply,
229 or values to be returned, in pixels instead of lines/columns.
232 *** The functions `window-body-height' and `window-body-width' now never
233 count partially visible lines or columns if called with a nil PIXELWISE
237 *** Emacs can now draw dividers between adjacent windows. To put
238 dividers between side-by-side/vertically stacked windows customize the
239 frame parameters `right-divider-width' and `bottom-divider-width' to
240 some positive integer. You can drag dividers with the mouse (they show
241 a corresponding cursor when the mouse hovers over them). You can change
242 the appearance of dividers by customizing the faces `window-divider',
243 `window-divider-first-pixel', and `window-divider-last-pixel'. The last
244 two are useful to provide a 3D effect, or to better distinguish dividers
245 from surrounding display objects.
248 *** New functions are provided to return the pixel sizes of window
249 components, namely `window-scroll-bar-width', `window-mode-line-height'
250 `window-header-line-height', `window-right-divider-width' and
251 `window-bottom-divider-width'.
254 *** The new function `window-text-pixel-size' returns the size of the
255 text of a window's buffer in pixels. This allows functions like
256 `fit-frame-to-buffer' and `fit-window-to-buffer' to accurately fit a
257 window to its buffer as it will be displayed.
260 *** `fit-window-to-buffer' can now resize windows in both dimensions.
261 This behavior is controlled by the new option
262 `fit-window-to-buffer-horizontally'. The new option
263 `fit-frame-to-buffer' allows to fit the window's frame to its buffer.
266 *** `fit-frame-to-buffer' now fits frames in both dimensions. The new
267 options `fit-frame-to-buffer-margins' and `fit-frame-to-buffer-sizes'
268 control the size of the frame and its position on screen.
271 *** Temp Buffer Resize Mode can now adjust height and width of windows
272 and frames. `temp-buffer-resize-mode' is now able to adjust the height
273 and the width of a window displaying a temporary buffer. The new option
274 `temp-buffer-max-width' allows to control the width of temporary buffer
275 windows. Moreover, if the new option `fit-frame-to-buffer' is non-nil
276 and the buffer appears in the root window of a frame, Temp Buffer Resize
277 Mode will try to adjust width and/or height of the frame.
280 *** `split-window' is now a non-interactive function, not a command.
281 As a command, it was a special case of `C-x 2' (`split-window-below'),
282 and as such superfluous. After being reimplemented in Lisp, its
283 interactive form was mistakenly retained.
286 *** The functions `window-size' and `window-total-size' now have an
287 optional argument to return a rounded size value.
290 *** `window-state-put' now allows to put a window state into internal
294 *** New option `scroll-bar-adjust-thumb-portion'.
295 Available only on X, this option allows to control over-scrolling
296 using the scroll bar (i.e. dragging the thumb down even when the end
297 of the buffer is visible).
300 *** New basic action function `display-buffer-in-previous-window' has
301 `display-buffer' display a buffer in a window previously showing that
305 *** New basic action function `display-buffer-at-bottom' has
306 `display-buffer' choose or make a window at the bottom of the selected
310 *** New display action function `display-buffer-no-window' to not
311 display the buffer in a window.
314 *** New display action alist entry `allow-no-window' to indicate the
315 caller of `display-buffer' is ready to handle the case of not
316 displaying the buffer in a window.
318 ** Lisp evaluation changes
320 *** `eval-defun' on an already defined defcustom calls the :set function,
324 *** The commands `eval-expression' (`M-:'), `eval-last-sexp' (`C-x C-e'),
325 and `eval-print-last-sexp' (`C-j' in Lisp Interaction mode) can take a
326 zero prefix argument. This disables truncation of lists in the output,
327 equivalent to setting `(eval-expression-)print-length' and
328 `(eval-expression-)print-level' to nil. Additionally, it causes integers
329 to be printed in other formats (octal, hexadecimal, and character).
332 *** New hook `eval-expression-minibuffer-setup-hook' run by
333 `eval-expression' on entering the minibuffer.
336 ** `write-region-inhibit-fsync' now defaults to t in batch mode.
339 ** `cache-long-line-scans' is now non-nil, and renamed to `cache-long-scans',
340 because it affects caching of paragraph scanning results as well.
341 There is no reason to set this to nil except for debugging purposes.
344 ** The option `set-mark-default-inactive' has been deleted.
345 This unfinished feature was introduced by accident in Emacs 23.1;
346 simply disabling Transient Mark mode does the same thing.
349 ** The default value of `comment-use-global-state' is now t,
350 and this variable has been marked obsolete.
353 ** `emacs-bzr-version' has been renamed to `emacs-repository-version',
354 and works for git too, if you fetch the repository notes.
357 ** New option `load-prefer-newer' affects how the `load' function chooses
358 the file to load. If this is non-nil, then when both .el and .elc
359 versions of a file exist, and the caller did not explicitly specify
360 which one to load, then the newer file is loaded. The default, nil,
361 means to always load the .elc file.
364 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.4
366 ** Indentation changes
369 *** `electric-indent-mode' is now enabled by default.
370 Typing RET reindents the current line and indents the new line.
371 `C-j' inserts a newline but does not indent. In some programming modes,
372 additional characters are electric (eg `{').
375 *** New buffer-local `electric-indent-local-mode'.
378 *** The behavior of `C-x TAB' (`indent-rigidly') has changed.
379 When invoked without a prefix argument, it now activates a transient
380 mode in which typing <left>, <right>, <S-left>, and <S-right> adjusts
381 the text indentation in the region. Typing any other key resumes
382 normal editing behavior.
385 *** `tab-stop-list' is now implicitly extended to infinity by repeating
386 the last step. Its default value is changed to nil, which means a tab
387 stop every `tab-width' columns.
390 ** New command `cycle-spacing' acts like a smarter `just-one-space'.
391 When called in succession, it cycles between spacing conventions:
392 one space, no spaces, original spacing.
395 ** The new function `fill-single-char-nobreak-p' can stop fill from breaking
396 a line after a one-letter word, which is an error in some typographical
397 conventions. To use it, add it to the `fill-nobreak-predicate' hook.
400 ** Uniquify is enabled by default, with `post-forward-angle-brackets' style.
403 ** New command `C-x SPC' (`rectangle-mark-mode') makes a rectangular region.
404 Most commands are still unaware of it, but kill/yank do work on the rectangle.
407 ** New option `visual-order-cursor-movement'.
408 If this is non-nil, cursor motion with arrow keys will follow the
409 visual order of characters on the screen: <left> always moves to the
410 left, <right> always moves to the right, disregarding the surrounding
411 bidirectional context.
416 *** All interactive commands that read a register (`copy-to-register', etc.)
417 now display a temporary window after `register-preview-delay' seconds
418 that summarizes existing registers. To disable this, set that option to nil.
419 Interactive commands that read registers and want to make use of this
420 should use `register-read-with-preview' to read register names.
423 *** New command `frameset-to-register' bound to `C-x r f', replacing
424 `frame-configuration-to-register'. It offers similar functionality,
425 plus enhancements like the ability to restore deleted frames.
426 (`frame-configuration-to-register' still exists, but no longer has a
430 *** New command `C-x C-k x' (`kmacro-to-register') stores keyboard
434 ** New command `delete-duplicate-lines'.
435 This searches the region for identical lines, and removes all but one
436 copy of each repeated line. The lines need not be sorted.
439 ** `blink-matching-paren' now only highlights the matching open-paren
440 by default, instead of moving cursor. Set this variable to `jump' to
441 enable the old behavior.
444 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.4
447 ** More packages look for ~/.emacs.d/<foo> additionally to ~/.<foo>.
449 ~/.emacs.d/timelog replaces ~/.timelog
450 ~/.emacs.d/vip replaces ~/.vip
451 ~/.emacs.d/viper replaces ~/.viper
452 ~/.emacs.d/ido.last replaces ~/.ido.last
453 ~/.emacs.d/kkcrc replaces ~/.kkcrc
454 ~/.emacs.d/quickurls replaces ~/.quickurls
455 ~/.emacs.d/idlwave/ replaces ~/.idlwave/
456 ~/.emacs.d/bdfcache.el replaces ~/.bdfcache.el
457 ~/.emacs.d/places replaces ~/.emacs-places
458 ~/.emacs.d/shadows replaces ~/.shadows
459 ~/.emacs.d/shadow_todo replaces ~/.shadow_todo
460 ~/.emacs.d/strokes replaces ~/.strokes
461 ~/.emacs.d/notes replaces ~/.notes
462 ~/.emacs.d/type-break replaces ~/.type-break
463 Also the following files used by the now obsolete otodo-mode.el:
464 ~/.emacs.d/todo-do replaces ~/.todo-do
465 ~/.emacs.d/todo-done replaces ~/.todo-done
466 ~/.emacs.d/todo-top replaces ~/.todo-top
468 ** Backtrace and debugger
471 *** New Lisp debugger command `v' (`debugger-toggle-locals') toggles the
472 display of local variables of the current stack frame.
475 *** The Lisp debugger's `e' command (`debugger-eval-expression') now includes
476 the lexical environment when evaluating the code in the context at point
477 (and so allows you to access lexical variables).
480 *** New minor mode `jit-lock-debug-mode' helps you debug code run via JIT Lock.
483 ** Battery information can now be retrieved from BSD's `apm' utility.
486 ** In the Buffer Menu, `M-s a C-o' shows matches for a regexp in marked buffers.
488 ** Calendar and Diary
491 *** New faces `calendar-weekday-header', `calendar-weekend-header',
492 and `calendar-month-header'.
495 *** New option `calendar-day-header-array'.
498 *** New variable `diary-from-outlook-function', used by the command
499 `diary-from-outlook'.
502 *** The variable `calendar-font-lock-keywords' is obsolete.
507 *** Calc by default now uses the Gregorian calendar for all dates, and
508 uses January 1, 1 AD as its day number 1. Previously Calc used the
509 Julian calendar for dates before September 14, 1752, and it used
510 December 31, 1 BC as its day number 1; the new scheme is more
511 consistent with Calendar's calendrical system and day numbering.
514 *** The new option `calc-gregorian-switch' lets you configure if
515 (and when) Calc switches from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar.
518 *** Support for ISO 8601 dates.
525 **** The cpp-root project now supports executing a compile command.
526 It can be set through the new :compile-command slot or the
527 buffer-local variable `compile-command'.
530 **** Better selection of include directories for the 'linux' project.
531 Include directories now support out-of-tree build directories and
532 target architecture auto-detection.
537 **** Improved detection of used namespaces in current scope in C++.
539 **** Parsing of default values for variables and function arguments in C/C++.
540 They are also displayed by the summarize feature in the mode line.
542 **** Improved parsing of function pointers in C/C++.
543 This also includes parsing of function pointers as function arguments.
545 **** Parsing of C/C++ preprocessor macros that open new scope.
546 For example, this enables parsing of macros that open new namespaces.
548 **** Support for 'this' pointer in inline member functions in C++.
553 *** New macro `cl-tagbody'.
554 This executes statements while allowing for control transfer to labels.
557 *** letf is now just an alias for cl-letf.
562 *** CUA mode now uses `delete-selection-mode' and `shift-select-mode'.
563 Hence, you can now enable it independently from those modes, and from
564 `transient-mark-mode'.
567 *** `cua-highlight-region-shift-only' is now obsolete.
568 You can disable `transient-mark-mode' to get the same result.
571 *** CUA's rectangles can now be used without CUA by calling the command
572 `cua-rectangle-mark-mode'.
577 *** Support for completion, ElDoc, and Flycheck has been added.
580 *** The current CFEngine syntax is parsed from "cf-promises -s json".
581 There is a fallback syntax available if you don't have cf-promises or
582 if your version doesn't support that option. See option `cfengine-cf-promises'.
585 ** Delete Selection mode can now be used without Transient Mark mode.
590 *** `desktop-save-mode' by default now auto-saves an existing desktop file
591 after `desktop-auto-save-timeout'. To disable this, customize that option
595 *** Desktop now saves and restores the frame/window configuration.
596 To disable this, set `desktop-restore-frames' to nil.
597 See also related options `desktop-restore-reuses-frames',
598 `desktop-restore-in-current-display', and `desktop-restore-forces-onscreen'.
601 ** New Dired minor mode `dired-hide-details-mode' toggles whether details,
602 such as file ownership or permissions, are visible.
605 ** You can enable ElDoc inside the `eval-expression' minibuffer with:
606 (add-hook 'eval-expression-minibuffer-setup-hook 'eldoc-mode)
607 The results display in the mode line.
609 ** Electric Pair mode
612 *** New option `electric-pair-preserve-balance', enabled by default.
613 If non-nil, pairing/skipping only kicks in when that help the balance
614 of parentheses and quotes, i.e. the buffer should end up at least as
617 You can further control this behavior by adjusting the predicates
618 stored in `electric-pair-inhibit-predicate' and `electric-pair-skip-self'.
621 *** New option `electric-pair-delete-adjacent-pairs', enabled by default.
622 In `electric-pair-mode', the commands `backward-delete-char' and
623 `backward-delete-char-untabify' are now bound to electric variants
624 that delete the closer when invoked between adjacent pairs.
627 *** New option `electric-pair-open-newline-between-pairs', enabled by default.
628 In `electric-pair-mode', inserting a newline between adjacent pairs
629 opens an extra newline after point, which is indented if
630 `electric-indent-mode' is also set.
633 *** New option `electric-pair-skip-whitespace', enabled by default.
634 This controls if skipping over closing delimiters should jump over any
635 whitespace slack. Setting it to `chomp' makes it delete this
636 whitespace. See also the variable `electric-pair-skip-whitespace-chars'.
639 *** New variables control the pairing in strings and comments.
640 You can customize `electric-pair-text-pairs' and
641 `electric-pair-text-syntax-table' to tweak pairing behavior inside
642 strings and comments.
645 ** New EPA option `epa-mail-aliases'.
646 You can set this to a list of email address aliases that `epa-mail-encrypt'
647 should use to find keys.
650 ** New ERC option `erc-accidental-paste-threshold-seconds'.
651 If set to a number, this can be used to avoid accidentally pasting large
652 amounts of data into the ERC input.
655 ** New ERT macro `skip-unless' allows skipping ERT tests.
656 See the ERT manual for details.
661 *** `eshell' now supports visual subcommands and options.
662 Eshell has been able to handle "visual" commands (interactive,
663 non-line oriented commands such as top that require display
664 capabilities not provided by eshell) by running them in an Emacs
665 terminal emulator. See `eshell-visual-commands'.
667 This feature has been extended to subcommands and options that make a
668 usually line-oriented command a visual command. Typical examples are
669 "git log" and "git <command> --help", which display their output in a
670 pager by default. See `eshell-visual-subcommands' and
671 `eshell-visual-options'.
674 *** New Eshell-Tramp module.
675 External su and sudo commands are now the default; the internal,
676 Tramp-using variants can still be used by enabling the eshell-tramp
680 ** New F90 mode option `f90-smart-end-names'.
683 Icomplete is now more similar to Ido.
686 *** Icomplete by default now applies to all forms of minibuffer completion.
687 The variable `icomplete-with-completion-tables' (now a user option)
688 controls this. To restore the old behavior, set it back to
689 '(internal-complete-buffer).
692 *** You can navigate through and select completions using the keys
693 from `icomplete-minibuffer-map'.
696 *** The string that separates potential completions is now a customizable
697 option (`icomplete-separator'). The default is " | " rather than ",".
700 *** New face `icomplete-first-match'; and new options
701 `icomplete-hide-common-prefix' and `icomplete-show-matches-on-no-input'.
704 *** The option `icomplete-show-key-bindings' has been removed.
709 *** An Ido user manual is now included.
712 *** The option `ido-use-virtual-buffers' can now take the value `auto'.
713 This means to use virtual buffers if the current ido input does not match
717 *** The variable `ido-decorations' can optionally have two new elements,
718 which are the brackets to use around the sole remaining completion.
723 *** New commands `n' (`image-next-file') and `p' (`image-previous-file')
724 visit the next image file and the previous image file in the same
725 directory, respectively.
728 *** New commands to show specific frames of multi-frame images.
729 `f' (`image-next-frame') and `b' (`image-previous-frame') visit the
730 next or previous frame. `F' (`image-goto-frame') shows a specific frame.
733 *** New commands to speed up, slow down, or reverse animation.
734 `a +' (`image-increase-speed') and `a -' (`image-decrease-speed') to
735 speed up and slow down the animation. `a r' (`image-reverse-speed')
736 to reverse it and `a 0' (`image-reset-speed') to reset it.
739 *** The command `image-mode-fit-frame' deletes other windows.
740 When toggling, it restores the frame's previous window configuration.
741 It also has an optional frame argument, which can be used by Lisp
742 callers to fit the image to a frame other than the selected frame.
747 *** New global command `M-s h .' (`highlight-symbol-at-point') highlights
748 the symbol found near point.
751 *** New option `hi-lock-auto-select-face'. When non-nil, hi-lock commands
752 will cycle through faces in `hi-lock-face-defaults' without prompting.
755 ** New Imenu option `imenu-generic-skip-comments-and-strings'.
760 *** New Info face `info-index-match', used to highlight matches in index
761 entries displayed by `Info-index-next', `Info-virtual-index' and
765 *** The Info-edit command is obsolete. Editing Info nodes by hand
766 has not been relevant for some time.
771 *** New option `js-switch-indent-offset'.
774 *** Better indentation of multiple-variable declarations.
775 If a declaration spans several lines, variables on the following lines
776 are lined up to the first one.
779 *** Recognition and better indentation of continuations in array comprehensions.
782 ** MH-E has been updated to version 8.5 - see separate MH-E-NEWS file.
787 *** Font locking for Texinfo comments and new keywords.
789 *** Completion in Octave file buffers.
793 *** Jump to definition.
795 *** Documentation lookup/search.
798 ** OPascal mode is the new name for Delphi mode
801 *** All delphi-* variables and functions have been renamed to opascal-*.
802 Obsolete aliases exist for those likely to have been used externally.
805 *** The option `delphi-newline-always-indents' has been removed.
806 Use `electric-indent-mode' instead.
809 *** The TAB key runs the standard `indent-for-tab-command', not `delphi-tab'.
814 *** In the `list-packages' buffer, you can use `f' (`package-menu-filter')
815 to filter the list of packages by a keyword.
818 *** In the `describe-package' buffer, there are now buttons listing the
819 keywords related to the package. Click on a button to see other packages
820 related to that keyword.
823 *** The format of `archive-contents' files, generated by package
824 repositories, has changed to allow a new (fifth) element in the data
825 vectors, containing an associative list with extra properties.
826 (For example, `describe-package' uses the `:url' extra property to
827 display a "Homepage" header.)
830 ** In Prolog mode, `prolog-use-smie' has been removed,
831 along with the non-SMIE indentation code.
836 *** The new command `remember-notes' creates a buffer that is saved on exit.
837 You can use it as a more permanent *scratch* buffer.
840 *** Remember can now store notes in separate files.
841 To use this, add `remember-store-in-files' to the `remember-handler-functions'
842 option. The files are saved in `remember-data-directory' using
843 names specified by `remember-directory-file-name-format'.
848 *** Customize `rmail-mbox-format' to influence some minor aspects of
849 how Rmail displays non-MIME messages.
852 *** The `unrmail' command now converts from BABYL to mboxrd format,
853 rather than mboxo. Customize `unrmail-mbox-format' to change this.
858 *** Improved syntax highlighting and indentation.
861 *** New `electric-indent-mode' integration.
864 *** New option `ruby-encoding-magic-comment-style'.
867 *** New option `ruby-custom-encoding-magic-comment-template'.
870 *** New option `ruby-align-to-stmt-keywords'.
873 *** New option `ruby-align-chained-calls'.
876 *** More Ruby file types have been added to `auto-mode-alist'.
878 ** Search and Replace
881 *** New global command `M-s .' (`isearch-forward-symbol-at-point')
882 starts a symbol (identifier) incremental search forward with the
883 symbol found near point added to the search string initially.
886 *** `C-x 8 RET' in Isearch mode reads a character by its Unicode name
887 and adds it to the search string.
890 *** `M-s i' in Isearch mode toggles whether search matches invisible text.
893 *** `query-replace' skips invisible text when `search-invisible' is nil,
894 and opens overlays with hidden text when `search-invisible' is `open'.
897 *** A negative prefix arg of replacement commands replaces backward.
898 `M-- M-%' replaces a string backward, `M-- C-M-%' replaces a regexp
899 backward, `M-s w words M-- M-%' replaces a sequence of words backward.
902 *** By default, prefix arguments do not now terminate Isearch mode.
903 Set `isearch-allow-prefix' to nil to restore old behavior.
906 *** More Isearch commands accept prefix arguments, namely
907 `isearch-printing-char', `isearch-quote-char', `isearch-yank-word',
911 *** Word search now matches whitespace at the beginning/end
912 of the search string if it contains leading/trailing whitespace.
913 In an incremental word search or when using a non-nil LAX argument
914 of `word-search-regexp', the lax matching can also match part of
915 the first word (in addition to the lax matching of the last word).
916 The same rules are now applied to the symbol search with the difference
917 that it matches symbols, and non-symbol characters between symbols.
920 ** New SES command `ses-rename-cell' allows assignment of names to SES cells.
923 ** The shell.el option `explicit-bash-args' includes --noediting by default.
924 All non-ancient Bash versions support this option.
929 *** The SMIE indentation engine is now used by default - see `sh-use-smie'.
932 *** `sh-mode' now has its own setting for `add-log-current-defun-function'.
937 *** You can customize the SMIE indentation of a mode via `smie-config'.
938 The command `smie-config-guess' can help you derive the appropriate
939 indentation settings, if you provide it with an indented sample file.
940 Use `smie-config-save' to save the result.
943 *** You can customize the SMIE indentation of a file by adding an entry to
944 the file's local variables of the form: `eval: (smie-config-local '(RULES))'.
947 *** New commands `smie-config-show-indent' and `smie-config-set-indent'.
952 *** Improved login monitoring and appropriate response to login failures.
953 New variable `sql-login-delay' defines maximum wait time for a connection.
956 SQL*Plus script placeholders are properly highlighted and identified
957 in `sql-placeholders-filter'. When starting SQL*Plus, `sql-oracle-options'
958 are passed before the logon parameter, as required. The default now
959 includes `-L', to limit the number of logon attempts per invocation.
962 ** New Term mode option `term-suppress-hard-newline'.
965 ** Todo mode has been rewritten and enhanced.
966 The Todo mode user manual describes all commands and most user
967 options. To support some of these features, a new file format is
968 used, which is incompatible with the old format; however, you can
969 convert old todo and done item files to the new format on initializing
970 the first new todo file, or at any later time with the provided
971 conversion command. The previous version of todo-mode.el has been
972 renamed to otodo-mode.el and is now obsolete. New features include:
974 *** Support for multiple todo files and archive files of done items.
976 *** Renaming, reordering, moving, merging, and deleting categories.
978 *** Sortable tabular summaries of categories and the item types they contain.
980 *** Cross-category lists of items filtered by specific criteria.
982 *** More fine-grained interaction with the Emacs diary, by being able to
983 decide for each todo item whether it appears in the Fancy Diary display.
985 *** Highly flexible new item insertion and item editing.
987 *** Moving items between categories, storing done items in their category
988 or in archive files, undoing or unarchiving done items.
990 *** Reprioritizing items by inputting a numerical priority.
992 *** Extensive customizability of operation and display, including many faces.
997 *** `trace-function' and `trace-function-background' no longer prompt for
998 the output buffer. Unless you use a prefix argument, they output to
1002 *** With a prefix argument, `trace-function' and `trace-function-background'
1003 will prompt for a "context". This is a Lisp expression, whose value at the
1004 time the function is entered/exited is printed along with the function's
1010 *** The experimental url syntax for remote file names has been removed.
1013 *** New connection method "adb", which allows to access Android
1014 devices by the Android Debug Bridge. The variable `tramp-adb-program'
1015 can be used to adapt the path of the "adb" program, if needed.
1018 *** The connection methods "plink1", "ssh1", "ssh2", "scp1", "scp2",
1019 "scpc" and "rsyncc" are discontinued. The ssh option
1020 "ControlMaster=auto" is set automatically in all ssh-based methods,
1021 when possible. See `tramp-use-ssh-controlmaster-options'.
1024 *** Handlers for `file-acl' and `set-file-acl' for remote machines
1025 which support POSIX ACLs.
1028 *** Handlers for `file-notify-add-watch' and `file-notify-rm-watch'
1029 for remote machines which support filesystem notifications.
1032 ** New URL command `url-cookie-list' displays the current cookies,
1033 and allows you to interactively remove cookies.
1035 ** VC and related modes
1038 *** In VC directory mode, `D' displays diffs between VC-controlled
1039 whole tree revisions.
1042 *** In VC directory mode, `L' lists the change log for the current VC
1043 controlled tree in a window.
1046 *** In VC directory mode, `I' shows a log of changes that will be
1047 received with a pull operation.
1050 *** `C-x v G' (globally) and `G' (in VC directory mode) ignores a file
1051 under current version control system. When called with a prefix
1052 argument, you can remove a file from the ignored file list.
1057 *** New options: `vhdl-actual-generic-name', `vhdl-beautify-options'.
1060 *** New commands: `vhdl-fix-statement-region', `vhdl-fix-statement-buffer'.
1063 ** The Woman commands `woman-default-faces' and `woman-monochrome-faces'
1064 are obsolete. Customize the `woman-*' faces instead.
1066 ** Obsolete packages
1069 *** iswitchb.el; use icomplete-mode.
1072 *** longlines.el; use visual-line-mode.
1081 *** terminal.el; use term.el instead.
1084 *** the old version of todo-mode.el (renamed to otodo-mode.el).
1087 *** xesam.el (owing to the cancellation of the XESAM project).
1090 *** yow.el; use fortune.el or cookie1.el instead.
1093 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.4
1096 ** New package `eww' is a built-in web browser.
1097 It is only available if Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support.
1100 ** New minor mode `superword-mode'.
1101 This overrides the default word motion commands to treat "symbol_words"
1102 as a single word, similar to what `subword-mode' does.
1105 ** New package nadvice.el offers lighter-weight advice facilities.
1108 *** add-function/remove-function, which can be used to add/remove code on any
1109 function-carrying place, such as process-filters or `<foo>-function' hooks.
1111 *** advice-add/advice-remove to add/remove a piece of advice on a named
1112 function, much like `defadvice' does.
1114 ** New package frameset.el.
1115 It provides a set of operations to save a frameset (the state of all
1116 or a subset of the existing frames and windows, somewhat similar to a
1117 frame configuration), both in-session and persistently, and restore it
1118 at some point in the future.
1121 ** New package filenotify.el provides an interface for file system
1122 notifications. It requires that Emacs be compiled with one of the
1123 low-level libraries gfilenotify.c, inotify.c or w32notify.c.
1126 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.4
1129 ** `kill-region' has lost its `yank-handler' optional argument.
1132 ** `(input-pending-p)' no longer runs other timers that are ready to run.
1133 The new optional CHECK-TIMERS parameter allows for the prior behavior.
1136 ** `defvar' and `defcustom' in a let-binding affect the "external" default.
1139 ** The syntax of ?» and ?« is now punctuation instead of matched parens.
1140 Some languages match those as »...«, and others as «...», so it is
1141 better for Emacs to stay neutral by default.
1144 ** In compiled Lisp files, the header no longer includes a timestamp.
1147 ** The default file coding for Emacs Lisp files is now utf-8.
1148 (See `file-coding-system-alist'.) In most cases, this change is
1149 transparent, but files that contain unusual characters without
1150 specifying an explicit coding system may fail to load with obscure
1151 errors. You should either convert them to utf-8 or add an explicit
1155 ** `overriding-terminal-local-map' no longer replaces the local keymaps.
1156 It used to disable the minor mode, major mode, and text-property keymaps,
1157 whereas now it simply has higher precedence.
1160 ** Default process filters and sentinels are not nil any more.
1161 Instead they default to a function that does what the nil value used to do.
1164 ** `read-event' does not return decoded chars in ttys any more.
1165 As was the case in Emacs 22 and before, the decoding of terminal
1166 input, according to `keyboard-coding-system', is not performed in
1167 `read-event' any more. But unlike in Emacs 22, this decoding is still
1168 done before input-decode-map, function-key-map, etc.
1171 ** The option `inhibit-local-menu-bar-menus' has been removed.
1174 ** Frame-local variables that affect redisplay do not work any more.
1175 More specifically, redisplay does not bother to check for a frame-local
1176 value when looking up variables.
1179 ** nil and "unbound" are indistinguishable in `symbol-function'.
1180 `symbol-function' does not signal a `void-function' error any more.
1181 To determine if a symbol's function definition is void, use `fboundp'.
1184 ** `defadvice' does not honor the `freeze' flag and cannot advise
1185 special-forms any more.
1188 ** `dolist' no longer binds VAR while evaluating the RESULT form,
1189 when lexical binding is enabled. Previously, VAR was bound to nil,
1190 which often led to spurious unused-variable warnings.
1193 ** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
1194 The second argument is no longer an SELinux context, instead it is an
1195 alist of extended attributes as returned by the new function
1196 `file-extended-attributes'. The attributes can be applied to another
1197 file using `set-file-extended-attributes'.
1200 ** By default `copy-file' no longer copies file permission bits to an
1201 existing destination; and it sets the file permission bits of a newly
1202 created destination to those of the source, masked by the default file
1203 permissions. To copy the file permission bits, pass t as the
1204 PRESERVE-PERMISSIONS argument of `copy-file'.
1207 ** `visited-file-modtime' now returns -1 for nonexistent files.
1208 Formerly it returned a list (-1 LOW USEC PSEC), but this was ambiguous
1209 in the presence of files with negative time stamps.
1212 ** The cars of the elements in `interpreter-mode-alist' are now
1213 treated as regexps rather than literal strings.
1216 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.4
1219 ** The second argument of `eval' can now specify a lexical environment.
1222 ** New functions `special-form-p' and `macrop'.
1225 ** New macro `define-alternatives' can be used to define generic commands.
1226 Generic commands are interactive functions whose implementation can be
1227 selected among several alternatives, as a matter of user preference.
1230 ** If you give a symbol a `defalias-fset-function' property, `defalias'
1231 on that symbol will use the associated value as a function to call
1235 ** New variable `enable-dir-local-variables'.
1236 Directory-local variables are ignored if this is nil. This may be
1237 useful for modes that want to ignore directory-locals while still
1238 respecting file-local variables.
1241 ** New function `get-pos-property'.
1244 ** `read-regexp' now uses the new variable `read-regexp-defaults-function'
1245 as a function to call to provide default values.
1247 ** Completion changes
1250 *** The separator used by `completing-read-multiple' is now a regexp.
1251 The default `crm-separator' has been changed to allow surrounding spaces
1255 *** The `common-substring' argument of `display-completion-list',
1256 which has been documented as obsolete since Emacs 23.1, is now _really_
1257 obsolete, and no longer advertised. Instead either call
1258 `completion-hilit-commonality' to add the highlighting; or use
1259 `completion-all-completions', which returns highlighted strings.
1262 *** New function `completion-table-with-cache' is a wrapper for
1263 `completion-table-dynamic' that caches the result of the last lookup.
1266 *** New function `completion-table-merge' to combine several
1267 completion tables by merging their completions.
1270 ** New minor modes `prettify-symbols-mode' and `global-prettify-symbols-mode'
1271 display specified symbols as composed characters. E.g., in Emacs Lisp mode,
1272 this replaces the string "lambda" with the Greek lambda character.
1277 *** Functions to pop up menus and dialogs now work on all terminals,
1278 including TTYs. This includes `x-popup-menu', `x-popup-dialog',
1279 `message-box', `yes-or-no-p', etc.
1281 The function `display-popup-menus-p' will now return non-nil for a
1282 display or frame whenever a mouse is supported on that display or
1286 *** New hook `tty-setup-hook', run at the end of initializing a text terminal.
1289 *** The hook `term-setup-hook' is obsolete. It is entirely equivalent
1290 to `emacs-startup-hook'. See also the new `tty-setup-hook'.
1293 ** New hook `pre-redisplay-function'.
1296 ** New bool-vector set operation functions
1297 *** `bool-vector-exclusive-or'
1298 *** `bool-vector-union'
1299 *** `bool-vector-intersection'
1300 *** `bool-vector-set-difference'
1301 *** `bool-vector-not'
1302 *** `bool-vector-subsetp'
1303 *** `bool-vector-count-consecutive'
1304 *** `bool-vector-count-population'
1307 ** Comparison functions =, <, >, <=, >= can now take many arguments.
1309 ** Error-handling changes
1312 *** New function `define-error'.
1315 *** `with-demoted-errors' takes an additional argument `format'.
1318 ** New macro `with-eval-after-load'.
1319 This is like the old `eval-after-load', but better behaved.
1322 ** New library subr-x.el with miscellaneous small utility functions
1323 *** `hash-table-keys'
1324 *** `hash-table-values'
1325 *** `string-blank-p'
1326 *** `string-empty-p'
1328 *** `string-reverse'
1329 *** `string-trim-left'
1330 *** `string-trim-right'
1332 *** `string-remove-prefix'
1333 *** `string-remove-suffix'
1336 ** Obsoleted functions
1339 *** `lisp-complete-symbol'
1340 *** `field-complete'
1341 *** `minibuffer-completion-contents'
1342 *** `isearch-nonincremental-exit-minibuffer'
1343 *** `isearch-filter-visible'
1344 *** `generic-make-keywords-list'
1345 *** `get-upcase-table' (use `case-table-get-table' instead).
1348 ** `with-wrapper-hook' is obsoleted by `add-function'.
1349 The few hooks that used with-wrapper-hook are replaced as follows:
1350 *** `abbrev-expand-function' obsoletes `abbrev-expand-functions'.
1351 *** `completion-in-region-function' obsoletes `completion-in-region-functions'.
1352 *** `filter-buffer-substring-function' obsoletes `filter-buffer-substring-functions'.
1355 ** `byte-compile-interactive-only-functions' is now obsolete.
1356 To specify that a command should only be called interactively, give it
1357 a non-nil `interactive-only' property.
1360 ** `split-string' now takes an optional argument TRIM.
1361 The value, if non-nil, is a regexp that specifies what to trim from
1362 the start and end of each substring.
1365 ** New function `string-suffix-p'.
1367 ** File-handling changes
1370 *** Support for filesystem notifications.
1371 Emacs now supports notifications of filesystem changes, such as
1372 creation, modification, and deletion of files. This requires the
1373 `glib' API, or the 'inotify' API (on GNU/Linux systems only). On
1374 MS-Windows systems, this is supported for Windows XP and newer
1378 *** The 9th element returned by `file-attributes' is now unspecified.
1379 Formerly, it was t if the file's gid would change if file were deleted
1380 and recreated. This value has been inaccurate for years on many
1381 platforms, and nobody seems to have noticed or cared.
1384 *** The 6th argument to `copy-file' has been renamed to
1385 PRESERVE-PERMISSIONS as it now handles ACL entries and the traditional
1386 Unix file permission bits as well as SELinux context.
1389 *** The function `file-ownership-preserved-p' now has an optional
1390 argument GROUP which causes it check for file group too. This can be
1391 used in place of the 9th element of `file-attributes'.
1394 *** The function `set-visited-file-modtime' now accepts a 0 or -1
1395 argument, with the same interpretation as the returned value of
1396 `visited-file-modtime'.
1398 ** Revert and Autorevert changes
1400 *** The default value of `revert-buffer-function' is no longer nil.
1401 Instead it defaults to a function that does what the nil value used to.
1402 The same applies for `revert-buffer-insert-file-contents-function'.
1405 *** If Emacs is compiled with file notification support, it uses notifications
1406 instead of checking file time stamps. To disable this, set the user option
1407 `auto-revert-use-notify' to nil. Alternatively, you can specify a regular
1408 expression matching directories to be excluded from file notifications via
1409 `auto-revert-notify-exclude-dir-regexp'.
1412 *** The new user option `auto-revert-remote-files' enables reversion
1413 of remote files, if set to non-nil.
1418 *** The function `face-spec-set' is now like `setq' for face specs.
1419 Its third arg now accepts values specifying a face spec type (defface,
1420 custom, or override spec), and the relevant spec is set accordingly.
1423 *** New function `add-face-text-property', which can be used to
1424 conveniently prepend/append new face properties.
1427 *** Face specs set via Custom themes now replace the `defface' spec
1428 rather than inheriting from it. In other words, setting a face via a
1429 theme now behaves like setting it via Customize: you only need to
1430 specify the attributes that you want, you don't need to unset those
1431 that you don't want.
1434 *** New face characteristic (supports :underline (:style wave))
1435 specifies whether or not the terminal can display a wavy line.
1438 *** New face spec attribute :distant-foreground
1439 specifies foreground to use if background color is near the foreground
1440 color that would otherwise have been used.
1445 *** `image-animated-p' is now `image-multi-frame-p'.
1446 It returns non-nil for any image that contains multiple frames,
1447 whether or not it specifies a frame delay.
1450 *** New variable `image-default-frame-delay' gives the frame delay for
1451 animated images which do not specify a frame delay.
1454 *** New functions `image-current-frame' and `image-show-frame' for getting
1455 and setting the current frame of a multi-frame image.
1460 *** Namespace cleanup by obsolete-aliasing functions to use `eieio-' prefix.
1461 **** object-name -> eieio-object-name
1462 **** object-class -> eieio-object-class
1463 **** object-class-fast -> eieio--object-class
1464 **** object-class-name -> eieio-object-class-name
1465 **** object-name-string -> eieio-object-name-string
1466 **** object-num-slots -> eieio--object-num-slots
1467 **** object-set-name-string -> eieio-object-set-name-string
1468 **** class-of -> eieio-object-class
1469 **** class-name -> eieio-class-name
1470 **** class-parent -> eieio-class-parent
1471 **** class-parents -> eieio-class-parents
1472 **** class-parents-fast -> eieio-class-parents-fast
1473 **** class-children -> eieio-class-children
1474 **** class-num-slots -> eieio--class-num-slots
1475 **** class-precedence-list -> eieio-class-precedence-list
1476 **** class-direct-subclasses -> eieio-class-children
1477 **** class-direct-superclasses -> eieio-class-parents
1479 ** Changes in encoding and decoding of text
1482 *** New coding-system `prefer-utf-8'.
1483 This is like `undecided' but prefers UTF-8 on decoding if the text to
1484 be decoded does not contain any invalid UTF-8 sequences. On encoding,
1485 any non-ASCII characters are automatically encoded as UTF-8.
1488 *** New attributes of coding-systems whose type is `undecided'.
1489 Two new attributes, `:inhibit-null-byte-detection' and
1490 `:inhibit-iso-escape-detection', determine how to detect encoding of
1491 text that includes null bytes and ISO-2022 escape sequences,
1492 respectively. Each of these attributes can be either nil, zero, or
1493 t. If it is t, decoding text ignores null bytes and, respectively,
1494 ISO-2022 sequences. If it is nil, null bytes cause text to be decoded
1495 with no-conversion and ISO-2022 sequences cause Emacs to assume the
1496 text is encoded in one of the ISO-2022 encodings, such as
1497 iso-2022-7bit. If the value is zero, Emacs consults the variables
1498 inhibit-null-byte-detection and inhibit-iso-escape-detection, which
1500 The new attribute `:prefer-utf-8', if non-nil, causes Emacs to prefer
1501 UTF-8 encoding and decoding, whenever possible.
1503 These attributes are only meaningful for coding-systems of type
1504 `undecided'. (The type of a coding-system is determined by its
1505 `:coding-type' attribute and can be accessed by calling the
1506 `coding-system-type' function.)
1509 ** The `time-to-seconds' alias to `float-time' is no longer marked obsolete.
1512 ** New functions `group-gid' and `group-real-gid'.
1515 ** The spelling of the rx.el category `chinese-two-byte' has been
1516 corrected (the first 'e' was missing).
1519 ** Minor internal changes to the details of lock files.
1520 The lock for DIR/FILE is now _always_ DIR/.#FILE.
1521 If DIR/.#FILE already exists and is not an Emacs lock file,
1522 Emacs makes no attempt to lock DIR/FILE. (Previously, it fell back to
1523 numbered lock files DIR/.#FILE.0...).
1524 On file systems that do not support symbolic links, the lock is now a
1525 regular file with contents being what would have been in the symlink.
1527 ** Changes to the Emacs Lisp Coding Conventions in Emacs 24.4
1530 *** The package descriptor and name of global variables, constants,
1531 and functions should be separated by two hyphens if the symbol is not
1532 meant to be used by other packages.
1535 * Changes in Emacs 24.4 on Non-Free Operating Systems
1538 ** The procedure for building Emacs on MS-Windows has changed.
1539 It is now built by running the same configure script as on all other
1540 platforms. This requires the MSYS environment and MinGW development
1541 tools. See the updated instructions in nt/INSTALL for details.
1543 Using the Posix configure script and Makefile's also means a change in
1544 the directory structure of the Emacs installation on Windows. It is
1545 now the same as on GNU and Unix systems. In particular, the auxiliary
1546 programs, such as cmdproxy.exe and hexl.exe, are in
1547 libexec/emacs/VERSION/i686-pc-mingw32 (where VERSION is the Emacs
1548 version), version-independent site-lisp is in share/emacs/site-lisp,
1549 version-specific Lisp files are in share/emacs/VERSION/lisp and in
1550 share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, Info docs are in share/info, and data
1551 files are in share/emacs/VERSION/etc. (Emacs knows about all these
1552 directories and will find the files in there automatically; there's no
1553 need to set any variables due to this change.)
1556 ** Emacs on Windows 2000 and later can now access files and directories
1557 whose names cannot be encoded in the current system codepage.
1559 The new variable `w32-unicode-filenames' controls this feature: if it
1560 is t, Emacs uses Unicode APIs to pass file names to system calls,
1561 which lifts the limitation of file names to the current locale.
1564 ** The "generate a backtrace on fatal error" feature now works on MS Windows.
1565 The backtrace is written to the 'emacs_backtrace.txt' file in the
1566 directory where Emacs was running.
1569 ** The variable `buffer-file-type' is no longer supported.
1570 Setting it has no effect, and %t in the mode-line format is ignored.
1571 Likewise, `file-name-buffer-file-type-alist' is now obsolete, and
1572 modifying it has no effect.
1575 ** Lock files now work on MS-Windows.
1576 This helps to prevent losing your edits if the same file is being
1577 edited in another Emacs session or by another user. See the node
1578 "Interlocking" in the Emacs User Manual for the details. To disable
1579 file locking, customize `create-lockfiles' to nil.
1581 ** New Core Text based font backend for Mac OS X 10.5 and newer.
1582 GNUstep and Mac OS X 10.4 use the old font backend.
1583 To use the old backend by default, do on the command line:
1584 % defaults write org.gnu.Emacs FontBackend ns
1586 ** Improved fullscreen support on Mac OS X.
1587 Emacs supports both native (Mac OS X 10.7 and newer) and "old style" fullscreen.
1588 Customize `ns-use-native-fullscreen' to change the style.
1589 For Mac OS X 10.7 and newer, native is the default.
1591 ** On Mac OS X 10.7 and newer, Emacs uses sRGB colorspace by default.
1592 Customize `ns-use-srgb-colorspace' to disable this. Note that this
1593 does not apply to images.
1596 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.3
1598 ** The default X toolkit is now Gtk+ version 3.
1599 If you don't pass `--with-x-toolkit' to configure, or if you use
1600 `--with-x-toolkit=gtk' or `--with-x-toolkit=yes', configure will try
1601 to build with Gtk+ version 3, and if that fails, try Gtk+ version 2.
1602 You can explicitly require a specific version by passing
1603 `--with-x-toolkit=gtk2' or `--with-x-toolkit=gtk3' to configure.
1605 ** New configure option `--enable-link-time-optimization', to utilize
1606 an appropriate feature provided by GCC since version 4.5.0.
1608 ** New configure option `--without-all' to disable most of the optional
1609 features (image support, etc.) that are normally enabled by default.
1611 ** New configure option `--enable-gcc-warnings' (for developing/debugging
1612 Emacs). If building with GCC, this enables compile-time checks that
1613 warn/give errors about possibly-questionable C code. On a recent GNU
1614 system there should be no warnings; on older and on non-GNU systems
1615 the results may be useful to developers.
1617 ** The configure option `--enable-use-lisp-union-type' has been
1618 renamed to `--enable-check-lisp-object-type', as the resulting
1619 Lisp_Object type no longer uses a union to implement the compile time
1620 check that this option enables.
1622 ** The configure option `--disable-maintainer-mode' has been removed,
1623 as it was confusingly-named and rarely useful.
1625 ** The configure options `--program-prefix', `--program-suffix', and
1626 `--program-transform-name' apply to more than just the installed
1627 binaries. Now they also affect the man pages, icons, and the
1628 etc/emacs.desktop file; but not the info pages, since this would break
1629 links between the various manuals.
1631 ** You can use `NO_BIN_LINK=t make install' to prevent the installation
1632 overwriting "emacs" in the installation bin/ directory with a link
1635 ** Emacs uses libtinfo in preference to libncurses, if available.
1637 ** On FreeBSD and NetBSD, configure no longer adds /usr/local/lib and
1638 /usr/pkg/lib to the linker search path. You must add them yourself if
1641 ** The standalone scripts `rcs-checkin' and `vcdiff' have been removed
1642 (from the bin and libexec directories, respectively). The former is
1643 no longer relevant, the latter is replaced by lisp (in vc-sccs.el).
1646 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.3
1648 ** Emacs no longer searches for `leim-list.el' files beneath the standard
1649 lisp/ directory. There should not be any there anyway. If you have
1650 been adding them there, put them somewhere else; e.g., site-lisp.
1652 ** The `--no-site-lisp' command line option now works for Nextstep builds.
1655 * Changes in Emacs 24.3
1659 *** `C-h f' (`describe-function') can now perform autoloading.
1660 When this command is called for an autoloaded function whose docstring
1661 contains a key substitution construct, that function's library is
1662 automatically loaded, so that the documentation can be shown
1663 correctly. To disable this, set `help-enable-auto-load' to nil.
1665 *** `C-h f' now reports previously-autoloaded functions as "autoloaded",
1666 even after their associated libraries have been loaded (and the
1667 autoloads have been redefined as functions).
1671 *** Images displayed via ImageMagick now support transparency and the
1672 :background image specification property.
1674 *** When available, ImageMagick support is automatically enabled.
1675 It is no longer necessary to call `imagemagick-register-types'
1676 explicitly to install ImageMagick image types; that function is called
1677 automatically at startup, or when customizing an imagemagick- option.
1679 *** Setting `imagemagick-types-inhibit' to t now disables the use of
1680 ImageMagick to view images. (You must call `imagemagick-register-types'
1681 afterwards if you do not use customize to change this.)
1683 *** The new variable `imagemagick-enabled-types' also affects which
1684 ImageMagick types are treated as images. The function
1685 `imagemagick-filter-types' returns the list of types that will be
1690 *** In minibuffer filename prompts, `C-M-f' and `C-M-b' now move to the
1691 next and previous path separator, respectively.
1693 *** `minibuffer-electric-default-mode' can shorten "(default ...)" to "[...]"
1694 in minibuffer prompts. Just set `minibuffer-eldef-shorten-default'
1695 non-nil before enabling the mode.
1699 *** New option `mode-line-default-help-echo' specifies the help text
1700 (shown in a tooltip or in the echo area) for any part of the mode line
1701 that does not have its own specialized help text.
1703 *** You can now click mouse-3 in the coding system indicator to invoke
1704 `set-buffer-file-coding-system'.
1706 ** Server and client
1708 *** emacsclient now obeys string values for `initial-buffer-choice',
1709 if it is told to open a new frame without specifying any file to visit
1710 or expression to evaluate.
1712 *** New option `server-auth-key' specifies a shared server key.
1714 ** Emacs now generates backtraces on fatal errors.
1715 On encountering a fatal error, Emacs now outputs a textual description
1716 of the fatal signal, and a short backtrace on platforms like glibc
1717 that support backtraces.
1719 ** `C-x C-q' is now bound to the new minor mode `read-only-mode'.
1720 This minor mode replaces `toggle-read-only', which is now obsolete.
1722 ** Most `y-or-n' prompts now allow you to scroll the selected window.
1723 Typing `C-v' or `M-v' at a y-or-n prompt scrolls forward or backward
1724 respectively, without exiting from the prompt.
1726 ** In the Package Menu, newly-available packages are listed as "new",
1727 and sorted above the other "available" packages by default.
1729 ** If your Emacs was built from a repository checkout, the new variable
1730 `emacs-bzr-version' contains information about the bzr revision used.
1732 ** New option `create-lockfiles' specifies usage of lockfiles.
1733 It defaults to t. Changing it to nil inhibits the creation of lock
1734 files (use this with caution).
1736 ** New option `enable-remote-dir-locals', if non-nil, allows directory-local
1737 variables on remote hosts.
1739 ** The entry for PCL-CVS has been removed from the Tools menu.
1740 The PCL-CVS commands are still available via the keyboard.
1742 ** Using "unibyte: t" in Lisp source files is obsolete.
1743 Use "coding: raw-text" instead.
1745 ** In the buffer made by `M-x report-emacs-bug', the `C-c m' binding
1746 has been changed to `C-c M-i' (`report-emacs-bug-insert-to-mailer').
1747 The previous binding, introduced in Emacs 24.1, was a mistake, because
1748 `C-c LETTER' bindings are reserved for user customizations.
1750 ** Internationalization
1752 *** New language environment: Persian.
1754 *** New input method `vietnamese-vni'.
1756 ** Nextstep (GNUstep / Mac OS X) port
1758 *** Support for fullscreen and the frame parameter fullscreen.
1760 *** A file dialog is used for open/save operations initiated from the
1764 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.3
1766 ** Search and Replace
1768 *** Non-regexp Isearch now performs "lax" space matching.
1769 Each sequence of spaces in the supplied search string may match any
1770 sequence of one or more whitespace characters, as specified by the
1771 variable `search-whitespace-regexp'. (This variable is also used by a
1772 similar existing feature for regexp Isearch.)
1774 *** New Isearch command `M-s SPC' toggles lax space matching.
1775 This applies to both ordinary and regexp Isearch.
1777 *** New option `replace-lax-whitespace'.
1778 If non-nil, `query-replace' uses flexible whitespace matching too.
1781 *** Global `M-s _' starts a symbol (identifier) incremental search,
1782 and `M-s _' in Isearch toggles symbol search mode.
1783 `M-s c' in Isearch toggles search case-sensitivity.
1785 ** Navigation commands
1787 *** New binding `M-g c' for `goto-char'.
1789 *** New binding `M-g TAB' for `move-to-column'.
1791 *** `M-g TAB' (`move-to-column') prompts for a column number if called
1792 interactively with no prefix arg. Previously, it moved to column 1.
1794 ** New option `yank-handled-properties' allows processing of text
1795 properties on yanked text, in ways that are more general than just
1796 removing them (as is done by `yank-excluded-properties').
1798 ** New option `delete-trailing-lines' specifies whether
1799 M-x delete-trailing-whitespace should delete trailing lines at the end
1800 of the buffer. It defaults to t.
1802 ** `C-u M-=' now counts lines/words/characters in the entire buffer.
1804 ** `C-x 8 RET' is now bound to `insert-char', which is now a command.
1805 `ucs-insert' is now an obsolete alias for `insert-char'.
1807 ** The `z' key no longer has a binding in most special modes.
1808 It used to be bound to `kill-this-buffer', but `z' is too easy to
1811 ** New command `C-x r M-w' (`copy-rectangle-as-kill').
1812 It copies the region-rectangle as the last rectangle kill.
1816 *** `C-x r +' is now overloaded to invoke `append-to-register'.
1818 *** New option `register-separator' specifies the register containing
1819 the text to put between collected texts for use with
1820 M-x append-to-register and M-x prepend-to-register.
1823 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.3
1825 ** Common Lisp emulation (CL)
1827 *** CL's main entry is now (require 'cl-lib).
1828 `cl-lib' is like the old `cl' except that it uses the namespace cleanly;
1829 i.e., all its definitions have the "cl-" prefix (and internal definitions
1830 use the "cl--" prefix).
1832 If `cl' provided a feature under the name `foo', then `cl-lib'
1833 provides it under the name `cl-foo' instead; with the exceptions of the
1834 few `cl' definitions that had to use `foo*' to avoid conflicts with
1835 pre-existing Elisp entities. These have been renamed to `cl-foo'
1836 rather than `cl-foo*'.
1838 The old `cl' is now deprecated and is mainly just a bunch of aliases that
1839 provide the old, non-prefixed names. Some exceptions are listed below:
1841 *** `cl-flet' is not like `flet' (which is deprecated).
1842 Instead it obeys the behavior of Common-Lisp's `flet'.
1843 In particular, in cl-flet function definitions are lexically scoped,
1844 whereas in flet the scoping is dynamic.
1846 *** `cl-labels' is slightly different from `labels'.
1847 The difference is that it relies on the `lexical-binding' machinery
1848 (as opposed to the `lexical-let' machinery used previously) to capture
1849 definitions in closures, so such closures will only work if `lexical-binding'
1852 *** `cl-letf' is not exactly like `letf'.
1853 The only difference is in details that relate to some deprecated usage
1854 of `symbol-function' in place forms.
1856 *** `progv' was rewritten to use the `let' machinery.
1857 A side effect is that variables without corresponding values are bound
1858 to nil rather than being made unbound.
1860 *** The following methods of extending `setf' are obsolete
1861 (use features from gv.el instead):
1862 `define-modify-macro' (use `gv-letplace')
1863 `defsetf' (use `gv-define-simple-setter' or `gv-define-setter')
1864 `define-setf-expander' (use `gv-define-setter' or `gv-define-expander')
1865 `get-setf-method' no longer exists (see "Incompatible Lisp Changes")
1869 *** Changes are now highlighted using the same color scheme as in
1870 modern VCSes. Deletions are displayed in red (new faces
1871 `diff-refine-removed' and `smerge-refined-removed', and new definition
1872 of `diff-removed'), insertions in green (new faces `diff-refine-added'
1873 and `smerge-refined-added', and new definition of `diff-added').
1875 *** The variable `diff-use-changed-face' defines whether to use the
1876 face `diff-changed', or `diff-removed' and `diff-added' to highlight
1877 changes in context diffs.
1879 *** The new command `diff-delete-trailing-whitespace' removes trailing
1880 whitespace introduced by a diff.
1882 ** Ediff now uses the same color scheme as Diff mode.
1886 A new version of python.el, which provides several new features, including:
1887 per-buffer shells, better indentation, Python 3 support, and improved
1888 shell-interaction compatible with iPython (and virtually any other
1891 *** Some user options have been replaced/renamed, including (old -> new):
1892 **** python-indent -> python-indent-offset
1893 **** python-guess-indent -> python-indent-guess-indent-offset
1894 **** python-pdbtrack-do-tracking-p -> python-pdbtrack-activate
1895 **** python-use-skeletons -> python-skeleton-autoinsert
1897 *** Some user options have been removed, including:
1899 **** `python-indent-string-contents': Strings are never indented.
1901 **** `python-honour-comment-indentation':
1902 Comments are always considered as indentation markers.
1904 **** `python-continuation-offset': Indentation is automatically
1905 calculated in a pep8 compliant way depending on the context.
1907 **** `python-shell-prompt-alist', `python-shell-continuation-prompt-alist':
1908 Have no direct mapping as the shell interaction is completely different.
1910 **** `python-python-command', `python-jython-command':
1911 Replaced by `python-shell-interpreter'.
1913 **** `inferior-python-filter-regexp', `python-remove-cwd-from-path',
1914 `python-pdbtrack-minor-mode-string', `python-source-modes':
1917 *** Some commands have been replaced (old -> new):
1918 **** python-insert-class -> python-skeleton-class
1919 **** python-insert-def -> python-skeleton-def
1920 **** python-insert-for -> python-skeleton-for
1921 **** python-insert-if -> python-skeleton-if
1922 **** python-insert-try/except -> python-skeleton-try
1923 **** python-insert-try/finally -> python-skeleton-try
1924 **** python-insert-while -> python-skeleton-while
1925 **** python-find-function -> python-nav-jump-to-defun
1926 **** python-next-statement -> python-nav-forward-sentence
1927 **** python-previous-statement -> python-nav-backward-sentence
1928 **** python-beginning-of-defun-function -> python-nav-beginning-of-defun
1929 **** python-end-of-defun-function -> python-nav-end-of-defun
1930 **** python-send-buffer -> python-shell-send-buffer
1931 **** python-send-defun -> python-shell-send-defun
1932 **** python-send-region -> python-shell-send-region
1933 **** python-send-region-and-go -> emulate with python-shell-send-region
1934 and python-shell-switch-to-shell
1935 **** python-send-string -> python-shell-send-string
1936 **** python-switch-to-python -> python-shell-switch-to-shell
1937 **** python-describe-symbol -> python-eldoc-at-point
1941 *** New variables `dbus-compiled-version' and `dbus-runtime-version'.
1943 *** The D-Bus object manager interface is implemented.
1945 *** Variables of type :(u)int32 and :(u)int64 accept floating points,
1946 if their value does not fit into Emacs's integer range.
1948 *** The function `dbus-call-method' is now non-blocking.
1949 It can be interrupted by `C-g'. `dbus-call-method-non-blocking' is obsolete.
1951 *** Signals can also be sent as unicast messages.
1953 *** The argument list of `dbus-register-signal' has been extended,
1954 according to the new match rule types of D-Bus.
1956 *** `dbus-init-bus' supports private connections.
1958 *** There is a new function `dbus-setenv'.
1960 ** `desktop-path' no longer includes the "." directory.
1961 Desktop files are now located in ~/.emacs.d by default.
1965 *** `dired-do-async-shell-command' executes each file sequentially
1966 if the command ends in `;' (when operating on multiple files).
1967 Otherwise, it executes the command on each file in parallel.
1969 *** Typing `M-n' in the minibuffer of `dired-do-chmod', `dired-do-chgrp',
1970 `dired-do-chown', and `dired-do-touch' yanks the attributes of the
1973 *** When the region is active, `m' (`dired-mark'), `u' (`dired-unmark'),
1974 `DEL' (`dired-unmark-backward'), and `d' (`dired-flag-file-deletion')
1975 mark/unmark/flag all files in the active region.
1977 *** The minibuffer default for `=' (`dired-diff') has changed.
1978 It is now the backup file for the file at point, if one exists.
1979 In Transient Mark mode the default is the file at the active mark.
1981 *** `M-=' is no longer bound to `dired-backup-diff' in Dired buffers.
1982 The global binding for `M-=', `count-words-region' is in effect.
1986 *** New module "notifications", which can send a notification when you
1987 receive a private message or your nickname is mentioned.
1989 *** ERC will look up server/channel names via auth-source and use any
1992 *** New option `erc-lurker-hide-list', similar to `erc-hide-list', but
1993 only applies to messages sent by lurkers.
1995 ** reStructuredText mode
1997 *** Keybindings (see `C-c C-h'), TAB indentation, filling and auto-filling,
1998 fontification, comment handling, and customization have all been revised
2001 *** Support for `imenu' and `which-function-mode'.
2003 *** The reStructuredText syntax is more closely covered.
2004 Sphinx support has been improved.
2006 *** `rst-insert-list' inserts new list or continues existing lists.
2008 *** A negative prefix argument always works for `rst-adjust'.
2010 *** The window configuration is reset after displaying a TOC.
2012 *** The constant `rst-version' describes the rst.el package version.
2016 *** Support for percent literals and recognition of regular expressions
2017 in method calls without parentheses with more methods, including Cucumber
2020 *** Improved syntax highlighting and indentation.
2022 *** New command `ruby-toggle-block', bound to `C-c {'.
2024 *** Some non-standard keybindings/commands have been removed:
2026 **** `ruby-electric-brace'; use `electric-indent-mode' instead.
2028 **** `ruby-mark-defun'; use `mark-defun'.
2030 **** `ruby-beginning-of-defun' and `ruby-end-of-defun' are replaced by
2031 appropriate settings for the variables `beginning-of-defun-function'
2032 and `end-of-defun-function'.
2034 **** Non-standard keybindings for `backward-kill-word', `comment-region',
2035 `reindent-then-newline-and-indent' and `newline' have been removed.
2037 ** Shell Script mode
2039 *** Pairing of parens/quotes uses `electric-pair-mode' instead of skeleton-pair.
2041 *** `sh-electric-here-document-mode' now controls auto-insertion of here-docs.
2043 *** `sh-use-smie' lets you choose a new indentation and navigation code.
2047 *** The free software compiler GHDL is supported (and now the default).
2049 *** Support for the VHDL-AMS packages has been added/updated.
2051 *** Updated to the 2002 revision of the VHDL standard.
2053 *** Accepts \r and \f as whitespace.
2057 *** The faces used by Apropos are now directly customizable.
2058 These faces are named `apropos-symbol', `apropos-keybinding', and so on;
2059 see the `apropos' Custom group for details.
2061 *** The old options whose values specified faces to use have been removed
2062 (i.e. `apropos-symbol-face', `apropos-keybinding-face', `apropos-label-face',
2063 `apropos-match-face' and `apropos-property-face'.).
2067 *** This package has been rewritten to use Tabulated List mode.
2069 *** Option `Buffer-menu-buffer+size-width' is now obsolete.
2070 Use `Buffer-menu-name-width' and `Buffer-menu-size-width' instead.
2074 *** Algebraic simplification mode is now the default.
2075 To restrict to the limited simplifications given by the former
2076 default simplification mode, use `m I'.
2080 *** You can customize the header text that appears above each calendar month.
2081 See the variable `calendar-month-header'.
2083 *** New LaTeX calendar style, produced by `cal-tex-cursor-week2-summary'.
2085 *** The calendars produced by cal-html include holidays.
2086 Customize `cal-html-holidays' to change this.
2090 *** The major modes from the parser generators "Bovine" and "Wisent"
2091 are now properly integrated in Emacs. The file suffixes ".by" and ".wy"
2092 are in `auto-mode-alist', and the corresponding manuals are included.
2096 **** Menu support for the "Configuration" feature. This allows users to
2097 choose the active configuration (such as debug or install) from the menu.
2099 **** New command `ede-set' to interactively set project-local variables.
2101 **** Support for compiling, debugging, and running in "generic" projects.
2103 **** Autoconf editing support for M4 macros with complex arguments.
2105 **** Compilation support for the "linux" project type.
2107 **** "simple" projects have been removed; use "generic" projects instead.
2111 **** Support for parsing #include statements inside a namespace in C/C++.
2113 **** Improved support for 'extern "C"' declarations in C/C++.
2115 **** The ability to ignore more common special C/C++ preprocessor symbols,
2116 such as '__nonnull' and '__asm'. Add '__cplusplus' macro when parsing C++.
2117 If available, include cdefs.h as an additional source of preprocessor symbols.
2119 **** Improved C/C++ function pointer parsing.
2121 **** In Python, support for converting imports to include file names.
2123 **** Ability to dynamically determine the Python load path.
2125 **** Support for the Python 'WITH' and 'AT' keywords.
2127 **** Improved tooltip completion.
2131 **** The SRecode manual is now included.
2133 **** Tag generation supports constructor/destructor settings and system
2134 include differentiation.
2136 **** Addition of 'Framework' support: Frameworks are specified when a
2137 particular kind of library (such as Android) is needed in a common language
2140 **** Support for nested templates and let variables override based on priority.
2142 **** Support for merging tables from multiple related modes, such as
2143 default -> c++ -> arduino.
2145 ** Compile has a new option `compilation-always-kill'.
2149 *** `custom-reset-button-menu' now defaults to t.
2151 *** Non-option variables are never matched in `customize-apropos' and
2152 `customize-apropos-options' (i.e., the prefix argument does nothing for
2153 these commands now).
2157 *** The variables `term-default-fg-color' and `term-default-bg-color'
2158 are now deprecated in favor of the customizable face `term'.
2160 *** You can customize how to display ANSI terminal colors and styles
2161 by customizing the corresponding `term-color-<COLOR>',
2162 `term-color-underline' and `term-color-bold' faces.
2166 *** The syntax has been extended in order to allow ad-hoc proxy definitions.
2168 *** Remote processes are now also supported on remote MS-Windows hosts.
2172 *** Structs made by `url-generic-parse-url' have nil `attributes' slot.
2173 Previously, this slot stored semicolon-separated attribute-value pairs
2174 appended to some imap URLs, but this is not compatible with RFC 3986.
2175 So now the `filename' slot stores the entire path and query components,
2176 and the `attributes' slot is always nil.
2178 *** New function `url-encode-url' for encoding a URI string.
2179 The `url-retrieve' function now uses this to encode its URL argument,
2180 in case that is not properly encoded.
2182 ** notifications.el supports now version 1.2 of the Notifications API.
2183 The function `notifications-get-capabilities' returns the supported
2186 ** Flymake uses fringe bitmaps to indicate errors and warnings.
2187 See `flymake-fringe-indicator-position', `flymake-error-bitmap' and
2188 `flymake-warning-bitmap'.
2190 ** The FFAP option `ffap-url-unwrap-remote' can now be a list of strings,
2191 specifying URL types that should be converted to remote file names at
2192 the FFAP prompt. The default is now '("ftp").
2194 ** New Ibuffer `derived-mode' filter, bound to `/ M'.
2195 The old binding for `/ M' (filter by used-mode) is now bound to `/ m'.
2197 ** New option `mouse-avoidance-banish-position' specifies where the
2198 `banish' mouse avoidance setting moves the mouse.
2200 ** In Perl mode, new option `perl-indent-parens-as-block' causes non-block
2201 closing brackets to be aligned with the line of the opening bracket.
2203 ** In Proced mode, new command `proced-renice' renices marked processes.
2205 ** New option `async-shell-command-buffer' specifies the buffer to use
2206 for a new asynchronous `shell-command' when the default output buffer
2207 `*Async Shell Command*' is already in use.
2209 ** SQL mode has a new option `sql-db2-escape-newlines'.
2210 If non-nil, newlines sent to the command interpreter will be escaped
2211 by a backslash. The default does not escape the newlines and assumes
2212 that the sql statement will be terminated by a semicolon.
2214 ** New command `tabulated-list-sort', bound to `S' in Tabulated List mode
2215 (and modes that derive from it), sorts the column at point, or the Nth
2216 column if a numeric prefix argument is given.
2218 ** `which-func-modes' now defaults to t, so Which Function mode, when
2219 enabled, applies to all applicable major modes.
2221 ** `winner-mode-hook' now runs when the mode is disabled, as well as when
2224 ** Follow mode no longer works by using advice.
2225 The option `follow-intercept-processes' has been removed.
2227 ** `javascript-generic-mode' is now an obsolete alias for `js-mode'.
2229 ** Hooks renamed to avoid obsolete "-hooks" suffix:
2230 *** semantic-lex-reset-hooks -> semantic-lex-reset-functions
2231 *** semantic-change-hooks -> semantic-change-functions
2232 *** semantic-edits-new-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-new-change-functions
2233 *** semantic-edits-delete-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-delete-change-functions
2234 *** semantic-edits-reparse-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-reparse-change-functions
2235 *** semanticdb-save-database-hooks -> semanticdb-save-database-functions
2236 *** c-prepare-bug-report-hooks -> c-prepare-bug-report-hook
2237 *** rcirc-sentinel-hooks -> rcirc-sentinel-functions
2238 *** rcirc-receive-message-hooks -> rcirc-receive-message-functions
2239 *** rcirc-activity-hooks -> rcirc-activity-functions
2240 *** rcirc-print-hooks -> rcirc-print-functions
2241 *** dbus-event-error-hooks -> dbus-event-error-functions
2242 *** eieio-pre-method-execution-hooks -> eieio-pre-method-execution-functions
2243 *** checkdoc-style-hooks -> checkdoc-style-functions
2244 *** checkdoc-comment-style-hooks -> checkdoc-comment-style-functions
2245 *** archive-extract-hooks -> archive-extract-hook
2246 *** filesets-cache-fill-content-hooks -> filesets-cache-fill-content-hook
2247 *** hfy-post-html-hooks -> hfy-post-html-hook
2248 *** nndiary-request-create-group-hooks -> nndiary-request-create-group-functions
2249 *** nndiary-request-update-info-hooks -> nndiary-request-update-info-functions
2250 *** nndiary-request-accept-article-hooks -> nndiary-request-accept-article-functions
2251 *** gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-hooks -> gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-functions
2253 ** Obsolete packages
2256 In most cases, assoc+member+push+delq work just as well.
2257 And in any case it's just a terrible package: ugly semantics, terrible
2258 inefficiency, and not namespace-clean.
2267 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.3
2269 ** Docstrings starting with `*' no longer indicate user options.
2270 Only variables defined using `defcustom' are considered user options.
2271 The function `user-variable-p' is now an obsolete alias for
2272 `custom-variable-p'.
2274 ** The return values of `defalias', `defun' and `defmacro' have changed,
2275 and are now undefined. For backwards compatibility, `defun' and
2276 `defmacro' currently return the name of the newly defined
2277 function/macro, but this should not be relied upon.
2279 ** `random' by default now returns a different random sequence in
2280 every Emacs run. Use `(random S)', where S is a string, to set the
2281 random seed to a value based on S, in order to get a repeatable
2282 sequence in later calls.
2284 ** If the NEWTEXT arg to `replace-match' contains a substring "\?",
2285 that substring is inserted literally even if the LITERAL arg is
2286 non-nil, instead of causing an error to be signaled.
2288 ** `select-window' now always makes the window's buffer current.
2289 It does so even if the window was selected before.
2291 ** The function `x-select-font' can return a font spec, instead of a
2292 font name as a string. Whether it returns a font spec or a font name
2293 depends on the graphical library.
2295 ** `face-spec-set' no longer sets frame-specific attributes when the
2296 third argument is a frame (that usage was obsolete since Emacs 22.2).
2298 ** `set-buffer-multibyte' now signals an error in narrowed buffers.
2300 ** The CL package's `get-setf-method' function no longer exists.
2301 Generalized variables are now part of core Emacs Lisp, and implemented
2302 differently to the way cl.el used to do it. It is not possible to
2303 define a compatible replacement for `get-setf-method'. See the file
2304 gv.el for internal details of the new implementation.
2306 ** The arguments of `dbus-register-signal' are no longer just strings,
2307 but keywords or keyword-string pairs. The old argument list will
2308 still be supported for Emacs 24.x.
2310 ** Miscellaneous name changes
2311 Some Lisp symbols have been renamed to correct their spelling,
2312 or to be more consistent with standard Emacs terminology.
2314 *** Renamed functions
2315 **** hangul-input-method-inactivate -> hangul-input-method-deactivate
2316 **** inactivate-input-method -> deactivate-input-method
2317 **** quail-inactivate -> quail-deactivate
2318 **** robin-inactivate -> robin-deactivate
2319 **** viper-inactivate-input-method -> viper-deactivate-input-method
2320 **** viper-inactivate-input-method-action ->
2321 viper-deactivate-input-method-action
2322 **** ucs-input-inactivate -> ucs-input-deactivate
2325 The old hooks are still supported for backward compatibility, but they
2326 are deprecated and will be removed eventually.
2327 **** input-method-inactivate-hook -> input-method-deactivate-hook
2328 **** robin-inactivate-hook -> robin-deactivate-hook
2329 **** quail-inactivate-hook -> quail-deactivate-hook
2331 *** Renamed variables
2332 **** follow-deactive-menu -> follow-inactive-menu
2333 **** inactivate-current-input-method-function ->
2334 deactivate-current-input-method-function
2336 ** Some obsolete functions, variables, and faces have been removed:
2337 *** `last-input-char', `last-command-char', `unread-command-char'
2338 *** `facemenu-unlisted-faces'
2339 *** `rmail-decode-mime-charset'
2340 *** `iswitchb-read-buffer'
2341 *** `sc-version', `sc-submit-bug-report'
2342 *** `set-char-table-default'
2343 *** `string-to-sequence' (use `string-to-list' or `string-to-vector')
2344 *** `compile-internal'
2346 *** `mode-line-inverse-video'
2347 *** `follow-mode-off-hook'
2348 *** `cvs-commit-buffer-require-final-newline'
2349 (use `log-edit-require-final-newline' instead)
2350 *** `cvs-changelog-full-paragraphs'
2351 (use `log-edit-changelog-full-paragraphs' instead)
2352 *** `cvs-diff-ignore-marks', `cvs-diff-buffer-name'
2353 *** `vc-ignore-vc-files' (use `vc-handled-backends' instead)
2354 *** `vc-master-templates' (use `vc-handled-backends' instead)
2355 *** `vc-checkout-carefully'
2358 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.3
2360 ** CL-style generalized variables are now in core Elisp.
2361 `setf' is autoloaded; `push' and `pop' accept generalized variables.
2362 You can define your own generalized variables using `gv-define-simple-setter',
2363 `gv-define-setter', etc.
2365 ** Emacs tries to macroexpand interpreted (non-compiled) files during load.
2366 This can significantly speed up execution of non-byte-compiled code,
2367 but can also bump into previously unnoticed cyclic dependencies.
2368 These are generally harmless: they will simply cause the macro calls
2369 to be left for later expansion (as before), but will result in a
2370 warning ("Eager macro-expansion skipped due to cycle") describing the cycle.
2371 You may wish to restructure your code so this does not happen.
2373 ** New sampling-based Elisp profiler.
2374 Try M-x profiler-start, do some work, and then call M-x profiler-report.
2375 When finished, use M-x profiler-stop. The sampling rate can be based on
2376 CPU time or memory allocations.
2378 ** `defun' also accepts a (declare DECLS) form, like `defmacro'.
2379 The interpretation of the DECLS is determined by `defun-declarations-alist'.
2381 ** New macros `setq-local' and `defvar-local'.
2383 ** Face underlining can now use a wave.
2385 ** `read-regexp' has a new argument HISTORY; the first argument PROMPT
2386 of `read-regexp' accepts a string ending with a colon and space, and its
2387 second argument DEFAULTS can be a list of strings accessible via `M-n'
2388 in the minibuffer ahead of other hard-coded useful regexp-related values.
2389 More commands use `read-regexp' now to read their regexp arguments.
2393 *** New function `completion-table-with-quoting' to handle completion
2394 in the presence of quoting, such as file completion in shell buffers.
2396 *** New function `completion-table-subvert' to use an existing completion
2397 table, but with a different prefix.
2401 *** New error type and new function `user-error'.
2402 These do not trigger the debugger.
2404 *** New option `debugger-bury-or-kill', saying what to do with the
2405 debugger buffer when exiting debug.
2407 *** Set `debug-on-message' to enter the debugger when a certain
2408 message is displayed in the echo area. This can be useful when trying
2409 to work out which code is doing something.
2411 *** New var `inhibit-debugger', automatically set to prevent accidental
2412 recursive invocations.
2416 *** New command `fit-frame-to-buffer' adjusts the frame height to
2419 *** The command `fit-window-to-buffer' can adjust the frame height
2420 if the new option `fit-frame-to-buffer' is non-nil.
2422 *** New macro `with-temp-buffer-window', similar to
2423 `with-output-to-temp-buffer'.
2425 *** `temp-buffer-resize-mode' no longer resizes windows that have been
2428 *** New option `switch-to-buffer-preserve-window-point' to restore a
2429 window's point when switching buffers.
2431 *** New display action alist entries `window-height' and `window-width'
2432 specify the size of new windows created by `display-buffer'.
2434 *** New display action alist entry `pop-up-frame-parameters', if
2435 non-nil, specifies frame parameters to give any newly-created frame.
2437 *** New display action alist entry `inhibit-switch-frame', if non-nil,
2438 tells display action functions to avoid changing which frame is
2441 *** New display action alist entry `previous-window', if non-nil,
2442 specifies window to reuse in `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
2444 *** New display action functions `display-buffer-below-selected',
2445 and `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
2447 *** The functions `get-lru-window', `get-mru-window' and `get-largest-window'
2448 now accept a third argument to avoid choosing the selected window.
2450 *** Additional values recognized for option `window-combination-limit'.
2452 *** The following variables are obsolete, as they can be replaced by
2453 appropriate entries in the `display-buffer-alist' function introduced
2455 **** `dired-shrink-to-fit'
2456 **** `display-buffer-reuse-frames'
2457 **** `display-buffer-function'
2458 **** `special-display-buffer-names'
2459 **** `special-display-frame-alist'
2460 **** `special-display-function'
2461 **** `special-display-regexps'
2465 *** `current-time-string' no longer requires that its argument's year
2466 must be in the range 1000..9999. It now works with any year supported
2467 by the underlying C implementation.
2469 *** `current-time' now returns extended-format time stamps
2470 (HIGH LOW USEC PSEC), where the new PSEC slot specifies picoseconds.
2471 PSEC is typically a multiple of 1000 on current machines. Other
2472 functions that use this format, such as `file-attributes' and
2473 `format-time-string', have been changed accordingly. Old-format time
2474 stamps are still accepted.
2476 *** The format of timers in `timer-list' and `timer-idle-list' is now
2477 [TRIGGERED-P HI-SECS LO-SECS USECS REPEAT-DELAY FUNCTION ARGS IDLE-DELAY PSECS].
2478 The PSECS slot is new, and uses picosecond resolution. It can be
2479 accessed via the new `timer--psecs' accessor.
2481 *** Last-modified time stamps in undo lists now are of the form
2482 (t HI-SECS LO-SECS USECS PSECS) instead of (t HI-SECS . LO-SECS).
2486 *** Improved security when handling persistent objects:
2488 **** `eieio-persistent-read' now features optional arguments for specifying
2489 the class to load, as well as a flag stating whether subclasses are allowed;
2490 if provided, other classes will be rejected by the reader. For
2491 compatibility with existing code, if the class is omitted only a
2494 **** New specialized reader for pulling in classes and signaling errors
2495 without evaluation of suspicious code.
2497 **** All slots that contain objects must have a :type. Slots with lists
2498 of objects must use a new type predicate for a list of an object type.
2500 *** Support for `find-function' and similar utilities, through the addition
2501 of filename support to generated symbols.
2503 ** Floating point functions now always return special values like NaN,
2504 instead of signaling errors, if given invalid args; e.g., (log -1.0).
2505 Previously, they returned NaNs on some platforms but signaled errors
2506 on others. The affected functions are acos, asin, tan, exp, expt,
2507 log, log10, sqrt, and mod.
2509 ** New fringe bitmap `exclamation-mark'.
2511 ** Miscellaneous changes to special forms and macros
2513 *** `defun' and `defmacro' are now macros rather than special forms.
2515 *** `kbd' is now a function rather than a macro.
2517 ** Miscellaneous new functions
2519 *** `set-temporary-overlay-map' sets up a temporary keymap that
2520 takes precedence over most other maps for a short while (normally one key).
2522 *** `autoloadp' tests if its argument is an autoloaded object.
2524 *** `autoload-do-load' performs the autoloading operation.
2526 *** `buffer-narrowed-p' tests if the buffer is narrowed.
2528 *** `file-name-base' returns a file name sans directory and extension.
2530 *** `function-get' fetches a function property, following aliases.
2532 *** `posnp' tests if an object is a `posn'.
2534 *** `system-users' returns the user names on the system.
2536 *** `system-groups' returns the group names on the system.
2538 *** `tty-top-frame' returns the topmost frame of a text terminal.
2540 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
2541 *** `automount-dir-prefix' (use `directory-abbrev-alist')
2542 *** `buffer-has-markers-at'
2543 *** `macro-declaration-function' (use `macro-declarations-alist')
2544 *** `window-system-version' (provides no useful information)
2545 *** `dired-pop-to-buffer' (use `dired-mark-pop-up')
2546 *** `query-replace-interactive'
2547 *** `font-list-limit' (has had no effect since Emacs < 23)
2550 * Changes in Emacs 24.3 on Non-Free Operating Systems
2552 ** Cygwin builds can use the native MS Windows user interface.
2553 Pass `--with-w32' to configure. The default remains the X11 interface.
2555 ** Two new functions are available in Cygwin builds:
2556 `cygwin-convert-file-name-from-windows' and
2557 `cygwin-convert-file-name-to-windows'. These functions allow Lisp
2558 code to access the Cygwin file-name mapping machinery to convert
2559 between Cygwin and Windows-native file and directory names.
2561 ** When invoked with the -nw switch to run on the Windows text-mode terminal,
2562 Emacs now supports `mouse-highlight', help-echo (in the echo area), and
2563 `mouse-autoselect-window'.
2565 ** On MS Windows Vista and later Emacs now supports symbolic links.
2567 ** On MS Windows, you can pass `--without-libxml2' to configure.bat to omit
2568 support for libxml2, even if its presence is detected.
2570 ** On Mac OS X, the Nextstep port requires OS X 10.4 or later.
2572 ** On Mac OS X, configure no longer automatically adds the Fink "/sw"
2573 directories to the search path. You must add them yourself if you want them.
2576 * Changes in Emacs 24.2
2578 ** This is mainly a bug-fix release.
2581 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
2583 ** Emacs can be compiled with Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
2584 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
2585 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
2588 ** Emacs can be compiled with GnuTLS support.
2589 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
2590 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
2591 `--without-gnutls'. See below for GnuTLS features.
2593 ** Emacs can be compiled with SELinux support.
2594 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
2595 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
2596 `--without-selinux'. See below for SELinux features.
2598 ** Emacs can be compiled with ImageMagick support.
2599 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
2600 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
2601 `--without-imagemagick'. See below for ImageMagick features.
2602 This feature is not available for the Nextstep or MS ports.
2604 ** Emacs can be compiled with libxml2 support.
2605 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
2606 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
2607 `--without-xml2'. See below for libxml2 features.
2609 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
2610 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
2612 ** New configure option --with-wide-int.
2613 With it, Emacs integers typically have 62 bits, even on 32-bit machines.
2614 On 32-bit hosts, this raises the limit on buffer sizes from about 512 MiB
2617 ** New configure options: --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
2618 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
2619 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
2621 ** New configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
2622 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
2623 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
2625 ** The standalone programs digest-doc and sorted-doc are removed.
2626 Emacs now uses Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
2628 ** The standalone program `fakemail' is removed.
2629 If you need it, feedmail.el provides a superset of the functionality.
2632 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
2634 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
2635 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
2636 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
2638 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
2639 from load-path. -Q now implies this. This option does not affect the
2640 EMACSLOADPATH environment variable (and hence has no effect for
2644 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
2648 *** Many packages now use the `completion-at-point' command,
2649 rather than implementing separate completion commands.
2651 *** `completion-at-point' now handles tags and semantic completion.
2653 *** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
2654 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
2656 *** New option `completion-cycle-threshold' allows completion cycling.
2658 *** New option `completion-category-overrides' for overriding the
2659 default completion style in certain circumstances.
2661 *** New completion style `substring'.
2663 *** Completion of buffer names uses `substring' completion by default.
2665 *** The option `widget-complete-field' has been removed.
2669 *** The first time you try sending mail, Emacs asks for a mail method.
2670 This is implemented by a new default for `send-mail-function', which
2671 is `sendmail-query-once'. This offers to use the smtpmail package, or
2672 to use the old defaults relying on external mail facilities
2673 (`sendmail-send-it' on GNU/Linux and other Unix-like systems, and
2674 `mailclient-send-it' on Windows).
2676 *** Typing `C-c m' in the buffer made by `M-x report-emacs-bug'
2677 transfers the report to your desktop's preferred mail client, if there
2678 is one. This uses either the "xdg-email" utility, or Mac OS's "open"
2681 *** See Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages for SMTPmail changes
2682 and Mail mode changes
2684 ** Emacs server and client changes
2686 *** New option `server-port' specifies the port for TCP Emacs servers.
2688 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
2690 *** New emacsclient argument --frame-parameters specifies the frame
2691 parameters of any newly-created graphical frame.
2693 *** If emacsclient shuts down due to Emacs signaling an error,
2694 its exit status is 1.
2696 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID.
2697 This opens a client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed, similar
2698 to the --parent-id argument to Emacs.
2700 ** Internationalization changes
2702 *** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
2703 Right-to-left (RTL) scripts, such as Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew, are
2704 displayed in the correct visual order as expected by users of those
2705 scripts. The display reordering is a "full bidirectionality" class
2706 implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm (UBA). Buffers
2707 with no RTL text should look exactly the same as before.
2709 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-display-reordering'.
2710 To disable display reordering in a buffer, change this to nil.
2712 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction'.
2713 If nil (the default), Emacs determines the base direction of each
2714 paragraph from its text, as specified by the UBA. Setting the value
2715 to `right-to-left' or `left-to-right' forces a base direction on each
2718 Paragraphs with right-to-left base direction are displayed starting at
2719 the right window edge.
2721 *** Enhanced support for characters with no glyphs in available fonts,
2722 or, on text terminals, characters that cannot be encoded by the
2723 terminal coding system. The new option `glyphless-char-display-control'
2724 specifies how to display them: as a hexadecimal code in a box, a thin
2725 1-pixel space, an empty box, etc.
2727 *** New input methods for Farsi and Bulgarian
2728 (farsi-isiri-9147, farsi-transliterate-banan, bulgarian-alt-phonetic).
2730 *** `nobreak-char-display' now also highlights Unicode hyphen chars
2731 (U+2010 and U+2011).
2733 *** New Hebrew translation of the Emacs Tutorial.
2734 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
2735 automatically select it.
2737 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
2738 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
2739 from a package repository at http://elpa.gnu.org.
2741 *** M-x list-packages shows a list of packages, which can be
2742 selected for installation.
2744 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
2746 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded automatically when
2747 Emacs starts up. To disable this, set `package-enable-at-startup' to
2748 nil. To specify the packages to load, customize `package-load-list'.
2750 ** Custom theme changes
2752 *** New command `M-x customize-themes', which provides a convenient
2753 interface for enabling and disabling Custom themes.
2755 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
2756 Emacs no longer looks for Custom themes in `load-path'. The default
2757 value of `custom-theme-load-path' says to look for themes in
2758 `custom-theme-directory', followed by a subdirectory of
2759 `data-directory' named "themes/", which contains a small selection of
2760 built-in Custom themes.
2762 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
2763 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
2764 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
2765 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
2767 ** Improved GTK integration
2769 *** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
2770 The function `set-scroll-bar-mode' can change this.
2772 *** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
2773 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose the style. On a Gnome desktop,
2774 the default is taken from desktop settings.
2776 *** GTK tool bars can be placed on any edge of the frame.
2777 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the
2778 values top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has
2781 *** The default colors for selected text (the `region' face) are taken
2782 from the GTK theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
2784 *** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK.
2785 You can disable this by changing `x-gtk-use-system-tooltips' to nil.
2787 ** Graphical interface changes
2789 *** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
2790 Also, the first dash (which does not indicate anything) is just
2791 displayed as a space.
2793 *** `menu-bar-select-buffer-function' lets you choose another operation
2794 instead of `switch-to-buffer' when selecting an item in the Buffers menu.
2796 *** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is
2797 built with Xft. These fonts can be set via X resources, for example:
2798 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
2802 *** Emacs now calls `kill-emacs' if it receives SIGTERM or SIGHUP,
2803 or if it receives a SIGINT signal in batch mode.
2805 *** `kill-emacs-hook' is now also run in batch mode.
2806 Third-party code which adds to `kill-emacs-hook' should check if they
2807 do the right thing in batch mode.
2809 ** Scrolling changes
2811 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
2812 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
2813 of buffer at first key-press (instead they move to top/bottom of buffer)
2814 when `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
2816 *** New option `scroll-error-top-bottom' (see above).
2818 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
2819 scroll a line instead of full screen.
2821 *** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
2822 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
2824 *** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
2825 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
2826 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
2827 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
2828 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
2830 *** "Aggressive" scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
2831 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
2832 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
2833 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
2836 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
2837 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
2839 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up.
2840 Also, the function `copy-file' has an extra optional argument for
2841 preserving SELinux context, and the return value of `backup-buffer'
2842 now includes the SELinux context.
2844 *** New functions `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
2845 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
2849 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
2850 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
2852 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
2853 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
2855 ** File- and directory-local variable changes
2857 *** You can stop directory local vars from applying to subdirectories.
2858 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
2859 settings to indicate that the section should not apply to
2862 *** Directory local variables can apply to some file-less buffers.
2863 Affected modes include dired, vc-dir, and log-edit. For example,
2864 adding "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to .dir-locals.el will
2865 turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should call
2866 `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
2868 *** Using "mode: MINOR-MODE" to enable a minor mode is deprecated.
2869 Instead, use "eval: (minor-mode 1)".
2871 *** The variable `inhibit-first-line-modes-regexps' has been renamed
2872 to `inhibit-local-variables-regexps'. As the name suggests, it now
2873 applies to ALL file local variables, not just -*- lines. The
2874 associated `inhibit-first-line-modes-suffixes' has been renamed in the
2879 *** The `quit-window' command now restores the last buffer displayed
2880 in the quitted window.
2882 *** Resizing an Emacs frame now preserves proportional window sizes,
2883 modulo restrictions like window minimum sizes and fixed-size windows.
2885 *** The behavior of `display-buffer' is now customizable in detail.
2887 **** New option `display-buffer-base-action' specifies a list of
2888 user-determined display "actions" (functions and optional arguments
2889 for choosing the displaying window).
2891 This takes precedence over the default display action, which is
2892 specified by `display-buffer-fallback-action'.
2894 **** New option `display-buffer-alist' maps buffer name regexps to
2895 display actions, taking precedence over `display-buffer-base-action'.
2897 *** New option `window-combination-limit'.
2898 The new option `window-combination-limit' allows to return the space
2899 obtained for resizing or creating a window more reliably to the window
2900 from which such space was obtained.
2902 *** New option `window-combination-resize'.
2903 The new option `window-combination-resize' allows to split a window that
2904 otherwise cannot be split because it's too small by stealing space from
2905 other windows in the same combination. Subsequent resizing or deletion
2906 of the window will resize all windows in the same combination as well.
2908 *** New option `frame-auto-hide-function' lets you choose between
2909 iconifying or deleting a frame when burying a buffer in a dedicated
2910 frame, or quitting a window showing a buffer in a frame of its own.
2912 *** New commands `maximize-window' and `minimize-window'.
2913 These maximize and minimize the size of a window within its frame.
2915 *** New commands `switch-to-prev-buffer' and `switch-to-next-buffer'.
2916 These functions allow to navigate through the live buffers that have
2917 been shown in a specific window.
2919 ** Minibuffer changes
2921 *** The inactive minibuffer has its own major mode `minibuffer-inactive-mode'.
2922 This is handy for minibuffer-only frames, and is also used for the feature
2923 where mouse-1 pops up *Messages*"', which can now easily be changed.
2925 *** Minibuffers set `truncate-lines' to nil.
2926 If you want to change the value to something else, you could use
2927 for example `minibuffer-setup-hook'.
2929 ** `auto-mode-case-fold' is now enabled by default.
2931 ** `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' now defaults to t.
2933 ** New basic faces `error', `warning', `success'.
2934 These are used to highlight text indicating failure, caution or
2935 successful operation.
2937 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
2938 for `list-colors-display'.
2940 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
2943 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
2947 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-kill', instead of
2948 `isearch-yank-line'.
2950 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-pop', instead of
2951 `isearch-yank-kill'.
2953 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-line'.
2955 ** New commands `count-words-region' and `count-words'.
2957 *** M-= is bound to `count-words-region', not `count-lines-region'.
2958 The `count-words-region' command, when called interactively, reports
2959 the number of lines, words, and characters in the region. It is a
2960 superset of the old `count-lines-region', which is now an obsolete
2963 ** The command `just-one-space' (M-SPC), if given a negative argument,
2964 also deletes newlines around point.
2968 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
2969 If non-nil, [delete] and DEL delete the region if it is active and no
2970 prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', those commands kill
2973 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to [delete].
2974 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
2975 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
2977 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
2978 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
2979 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; Lisp
2980 callers should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
2982 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
2984 ** Selection changes.
2986 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections has been
2987 changed to conform with modern X applications. In short, most
2988 commands for killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while
2989 mouse commands use the primary selection.
2991 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
2992 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
2994 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
2995 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
2996 the kill ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
2997 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
2999 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
3000 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
3001 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
3002 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
3003 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
3005 **** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
3007 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
3008 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
3009 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
3011 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
3013 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
3014 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
3015 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
3017 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
3018 exactly equivalent to M-w, C-w, and C-y respectively.
3020 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
3021 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
3022 between applications.
3024 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
3026 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
3027 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
3028 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
3029 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
3030 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
3032 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
3034 *** X clipboard managers are now supported.
3035 To inhibit this, change `x-select-enable-clipboard-manager' to nil.
3037 ** New command `C-x r N' (`rectangle-number-lines') numbers the lines
3038 in the current rectangle. With a prefix argument, this prompts for a
3039 number to count from and for a format string.
3041 ** `redisplay-dont-pause' now defaults to t.
3042 This makes Emacs feel more responsive to editing commands that arrive
3043 at high rate, e.g. if you lean on some key, because stopping redisplay
3044 in the middle (when this variable is nil) forces more expensive
3045 updates later on, and Emacs appears to be unable to keep up.
3047 ** The behavior of <TAB> for active regions in Text mode has changed.
3048 In Text and related modes, typing <TAB> (`indent-for-tab-command')
3049 when the region is active causes Emacs to indent all the lines in the
3050 region, aligning them with the line previous to the first line in the
3051 region (or with the left margin if there is no previous line).
3053 ** When `occur' is called with a prefix argument, matching strings are
3054 collected into the `*Occur*' buffer without line numbers. If there
3055 are parenthesized subexpressions in the specified regexp, `occur'
3056 reads replacement text that may contain \\& and \\N whose convention
3057 follows `replace-match'.
3060 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
3062 ** Archive Mode has basic support for browsing and updating 7z archives.
3066 *** BibTeX mode now supports biblatex.
3067 Use the variable `bibtex-dialect' to select different BibTeX dialects.
3068 `bibtex-entry-field-alist' is now an obsolete alias for
3069 `bibtex-BibTeX-entry-alist'.
3071 *** New command `bibtex-search-entries', bound to C-c C-a.
3073 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `sort-fields', disabled by default.
3075 *** New variable `bibtex-search-entry-globally'.
3079 *** New option `browse-url-mailto-function' specifies how to handle "mailto:"s.
3081 *** The default browser used by the package is now the "xdg-open" program,
3082 on platforms that support it. This calls your desktop's preferred browser.
3086 *** Support for musical notes.
3088 *** Support for logarithmic units.
3090 *** No longer uses the tex prefix for TeX specific unit names when
3091 using TeX or LaTeX mode.
3093 *** New option to highlight selections using faces.
3095 *** `calc-histogram' has the option of using a vector to determine the bins.
3097 *** New "O" option prefix.
3099 *** Use the "O" prefix to "d r" (`calc-radix') to turn on twos-complement mode.
3101 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
3103 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing "comments".
3104 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
3106 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
3107 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
3109 *** The function specified by `appt-disp-window-function' may be passed
3110 lists of arguments if multiple appointments are due at similar times.
3111 If you are using a custom function for this, you should update it.
3113 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
3115 *** Elements of `calendar-day-abbrev-array' and `calendar-month-abbrev-array'
3116 may no longer be nil, but must all be strings.
3118 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt
3119 package by adding `appt-make-list' to `diary-hook' has been removed.
3120 Use `appt-activate' instead.
3122 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
3123 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
3124 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
3126 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
3127 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
3131 *** New feature to "guess" the style in an existing buffer.
3132 The main entry point is M-x c-guess.
3134 *** Java Mode now supports Java 5.0 (Tiger) and 6 (Mustang).
3136 *** `c-beginning-of-defun' and `c-end-of-defun' now respect nested scopes.
3137 Thus C-M-a will, by default, go to the beginning of the immediate function,
3140 *** "Macros with semicolons" can be registered for correct indentation.
3141 Where such a macro ends a line (no semicolon) the next statement is no longer
3142 parsed as a statement continuation.
3144 ** Comint and modes derived from it use the standard completion code.
3148 *** Compilation mode can be used without Font Lock mode.
3149 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
3151 *** New variable `compilation-filter-start', which is bound while
3152 `compilation-filter-hook' runs. It records the start position of the
3153 text inserted by `compilation-filter'.
3155 *** `compilation-error-screen-columns' and `compilation-first-column'
3156 are obeyed in the editing buffer. So programming language modes can
3157 set them, whereas previously only the value in the *Compilation*
3162 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
3163 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
3164 To turn off the search field, set `custom-search-field' to nil.
3166 *** Options in customize group buffers start out hidden if not customized.
3167 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
3169 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
3171 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
3172 choose a color via `list-colors-display'.
3176 *** It is now possible to access buses other than the default system
3179 *** The `dbus-register-method' and `dbus-register-property' functions
3180 optionally do not register names.
3182 *** The new function `dbus-register-service' registers a known service
3183 name on a D-Bus without also registering a property or a method.
3187 *** C-x C-j (`dired-jump') and C-x 4 C-j (`dired-jump-other-window'),
3188 if called with a prefix argument, read a file name from the minibuffer
3189 instead of using the current buffer.
3191 *** The "dired local variables" feature of Dired-x is obsolete.
3192 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
3196 *** New options `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay',
3197 controlling attempts to autojoin a channel.
3199 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
3200 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
3201 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
3202 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
3206 *** The default value of `eshell-directory-name' has changed
3207 to be an "eshell" directory in `user-emacs-directory'.
3208 The old "~/.eshell/" directory is still used if it exists, though.
3212 *** The M-x gdb command now uses the GDB Machine Interface protocol.
3213 It now supports multithread non-stop debugging and simultaneous
3214 debugging of several threads.
3218 *** RET (`image-toggle-animation') toggles animation, if applicable.
3219 Animation plays once, unless the option `image-animate-loop' is non-nil.
3223 *** New command M-x info-display-manual displays a named Info manual.
3224 If that manual is already visited in some Info buffer, it displays
3225 that buffer. (This is handy if you have many manuals in many *info*
3226 buffers, and don't remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual
3227 you want to consult.) Otherwise, it loads and displays the manual.
3229 *** `e' is now bound to `end-of-buffer' rather than to `Info-edit'.
3230 This is for compatibility with the stand-alone Info reader program,
3231 and also because `Info-edit' is a rarely used command that is disabled
3234 ** Mail mode changes (not Message mode)
3236 *** New command M-x mail-add-attachment for adding MIME attachments
3238 *** The command M-x mail-attach-file was renamed to M-x mail-insert-file.
3239 (Its name is misleading, since it has nothing to do with MIME
3240 attachments.) The old name is now an obsolete alias to the new name.
3242 ** MH-E has been updated to MH-E version 8.3.1.
3243 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
3245 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
3247 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
3249 ** nXML mode no longer binds C-RET to `nxml-complete'.
3250 Completion is now performed via `completion-at-point', bound to C-M-i
3251 or M-TAB. If `nxml-bind-meta-tab-to-complete-flag' is non-nil (the
3252 default), this performs tag completion.
3254 ** Org mode has been updated to version 7.8.09.
3255 See ORG-NEWS for details.
3257 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
3258 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity,
3259 support for more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
3263 *** The command `rmail-epa-decrypt' decrypts OpenPGP data
3264 in the Rmail incoming message.
3266 *** The variable `rmail-message-filter' no longer has any effect.
3267 This change was made in Emacs 23.1 but was not advertised at the time.
3268 Try using `rmail-show-message-hook' instead.
3272 *** M-x shell prompts for the shell path name if the default directory
3273 is a remote file name and neither the environment variable $ESHELL nor
3274 the variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
3276 *** TAB is now bound to the standard `completion-at-point' command,
3277 which now implements the pcomplete rules for shell command completion.
3281 *** SMTPmail now uses encrypted connections (via STARTTLS) by default
3282 if the mail server supports them. This uses either built-in GnuTLS
3283 support, or the starttls.el library. Customize `smtpmail-stream-type'
3286 *** The variable `smtpmail-auth-credentials' has been removed.
3287 By default, the information is now stored in the file ~/.authinfo.
3288 This was the default value of smtpmail-auth-credentials. If you had
3289 customized smtpmail-auth-credentials to a list of user names and
3290 passwords, those settings are not used. During your first connection
3291 to the smtp server, Emacs will prompt for the user name and password,
3292 and offer to save them to ~/.authinfo. Or you can manually copy the
3293 credentials to ~/.authinfo. For example, if you had
3295 (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials
3296 '(("mail.example.org" 25 "jim" "s!cret")))
3298 then the equivalent line in ~/.authinfo would be
3300 machine mail.example.org port 25 login jim password s!cret
3302 See the auth-source manual for more information, e.g. on encrypting
3303 the credentials file.
3305 *** The variable `smtpmail-starttls-credentials' has been removed.
3306 If you had that set, you need to put
3308 machine smtp.whatever.foo port 25 key "~/.my_smtp_tls.key" cert "~/.my_smtp_tls.cert"
3310 in your ~/.authinfo file instead.
3312 *** SMTPmail defaults to using the address in the From: header as the
3313 SMTP MAIL FROM envelope. To override this, set `mail-envelope-from'
3314 to the address you wish to use instead.
3318 *** New options `sql-port', `sql-connection-alist', `sql-send-terminator',
3319 and `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
3321 *** New options controlling prompting for login parameters.
3322 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params',
3323 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
3324 connection is established.
3326 *** The command `sql-product-interactive' now takes a prefix argument,
3327 which causes it to prompt for an SQL product.
3329 *** Product-specific SQL interactive commands now take prefix arguments.
3330 These commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres', `sql-mysql', etc.),
3331 given a prefix argument, prompt for a name for the SQL interactive
3332 buffer. This reduces the need for calling `sql-rename-buffer'.
3334 *** SQL interactive modes suppress command continuation prompts, and
3335 replace tabs with spaces. The first change impacts multiple line SQL
3336 statements entered with C-j between each line, statements yanked into
3337 the buffer and statements sent with `sql-send-*' functions. The
3338 second prevents the MySQL and Postgres interpreters from listing
3339 object name completions when sent text via `sql-send-*' functions.
3341 *** New command `sql-connect' starts a predefined SQLi session,
3342 using the login parameters from `sql-connection-alist'.
3344 *** New "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
3345 This gathers the login params specified for the SQLi session, if it
3346 was not started by a connection, and saves them as a new connection.
3348 *** New commands for listing database objects and details:
3349 sql-list-all and sql-list-table.
3351 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
3355 *** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
3359 *** New inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
3361 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
3362 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
3364 *** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
3365 remote file attributes are cached for better performance.
3367 *** The option `ange-ftp-binary-file-name-regexp' has changed its
3368 default value to "".
3370 *** Handlers for `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
3371 for remote machines which support SELinux.
3373 ** New function `url-queue-retrieve', which behaves like url-retrieve,
3374 but with limits (`url-queue-parallel-processes', `url-queue-timeout') on
3375 the degree of parallelism.
3377 ** VC and related modes
3379 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
3380 The command C-x v + (`vc-pull') runs a "pull" operation, if it is
3381 supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to update the
3382 current branch and working tree. A prefix argument means to prompt
3383 the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
3385 *** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
3387 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
3388 The command C-x v m (`vc-merge') now runs a "merge" operation, if it
3389 is supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to merge
3390 changes from another branch into the current one. It prompts for
3391 specifics, e.g. a merge source.
3393 *** New option `vc-revert-show-diff' controls whether `vc-revert'
3394 shows a diff while querying the user. It defaults to t.
3396 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
3397 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
3398 This is currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial (to support
3399 another backend, define a `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function').
3400 In the Log View buffers made by C-x v L (`vc-print-root-log'), you can
3401 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
3403 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
3404 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
3406 *** The option `vc-initial-comment' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but
3407 this was not advertised at the time.
3409 *** `vc-toggle-read-only' is an obsolete alias for `toggle-read-only'.
3410 Since Emacs 23, it has done the same thing as `toggle-read-only', but
3411 this was not advertised at the time.
3417 *** erc-hecomplete.el (use erc-pcomplete.el instead)
3419 *** partial-completion-mode (complete.el) is obsolete.
3420 You can get a comparable behavior with:
3421 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
3422 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
3424 *** pc-mode.el is obsolete (CUA mode is much more comprehensive).
3426 *** pgg is obsolete (use EasyPG instead).
3428 *** sregex.el is obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
3430 *** s-region.el and pc-select.el are obsolete.
3431 They are superseded by shift-select-mode, enabled by default since 23.1.
3433 *** vc-mcvs.el is obsolete (for lack of a maintainer).
3437 *** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
3438 Its functions and variables have been similarly renamed.
3440 *** In `ido-file-completion-map', C-v is no longer bound to `ido-toggle-vc'.
3441 (This interfered with cua-mode.)
3443 *** f90.el has some support for Fortran 2008 syntax.
3445 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
3447 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
3450 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
3452 ** Occur Edit mode applies edits made in *Occur* buffers to the
3453 original buffers. It is bound to "e" in Occur mode.
3455 ** New global minor mode electric-pair-mode.
3456 When enabled, typing an open parenthesis automatically inserts the
3457 matching closing one.
3459 ** New global minor mode electric-indent-mode.
3460 When enabled, typing certain characters triggers reindentation.
3461 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-indent-chars or
3462 electric-indent-functions.
3464 ** New global minor mode electric-layout-mode.
3465 When enabled, typing certain characters automatically inserts newlines.
3466 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-layout-rules.
3468 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
3469 from which other modes can be derived.
3471 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
3473 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
3474 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
3475 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
3476 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
3479 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
3480 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
3482 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
3483 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
3485 ** New generic mode, xmodmap-generic-mode, for xmodmap files.
3487 ** New emacs-lock.el package.
3488 The previous version has been moved to obsolete/old-emacs-lock.el.
3489 Now, there is a proper minor mode `emacs-lock-mode'. Protection
3490 against exiting Emacs and killing the buffer can be set separately.
3491 The mechanism for automatically turning off protection for buffers
3492 with dead inferior processes has been generalized.
3495 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
3497 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function call now ENABLES
3498 the minor mode unconditionally. This is so that you can write e.g.
3500 (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'foo-mode)
3502 to enable foo-mode in Text mode buffers, removing the need for
3503 `turn-on-foo-mode' style functions. This affects all mode commands
3504 defined by `define-minor-mode'. If called interactively, the mode
3505 command still toggles the minor mode.
3507 ** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
3508 It is now a list of three elements, where the second element is a list
3509 describing the original file's SELinux context. If Emacs or the
3510 system lacks SELinux support, the context list is (nil nil nil nil).
3511 See "Basic SELinux support" above, under "Changes in Emacs 24.1".
3513 ** `char-direction-table' and the `char-direction' function were deleted.
3514 They were buggy and inferior to the new support of bidirectional
3515 editing introduced in Emacs 24. If you need the bidirectional
3516 properties of a character, use `get-char-code-property' with the last
3517 argument `bidi-class'.
3519 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
3520 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
3521 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
3522 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
3524 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
3525 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
3526 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
3529 ** Support for "old-style" backquotes, obsolete for 10+ years, has
3530 been further reduced. Now a backquote not followed by a space is
3531 always treated as a "new-style" backquote. Please remove all
3532 "old-style" backquotes from your code. If your code uses backquotes
3533 as documented in the Elisp manual, and compiles without warning, then
3534 you have nothing to do in this regard. Code not following the
3535 appropriate conventions may fail to compile.
3537 The most common cause of trouble seems to be an old-style backquote
3538 followed by a newline. Another cause of trouble is vector notation
3539 for key sequence notation: instead of [(control ,)] and [(control ')],
3540 you should write [(control ?,)] and [(control ?')], which will work in
3543 ** The macro `eval-at-startup' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but this
3544 was not advertised at the time. The function `custom-initialize-delay'
3545 replaced all known uses.
3547 ** `view-buffer' now treats special mode-class in the same way that
3548 `view-file' has since Emacs 22 (i.e. it won't enable View mode if the
3549 major mode is special).
3551 ** Menu and tool bar changes
3553 *** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
3554 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
3555 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
3556 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
3557 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
3558 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
3560 *** The menu bar bindings's caches are not used any more.
3561 Use (where-is-internal <def> nil t) instead.
3563 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
3564 similar to those created by shift-selection (see Selection changes
3565 above). In previous Emacs versions, these regions were delineated by
3566 `mouse-drag-overlay'; that variable has been removed.
3568 ** The fourth argument of `filter-buffer-substring' has been removed.
3569 If you want to remove text properties from the final result, simply
3570 pass the result through substring-no-properties.
3572 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
3574 ** The following obsolete functions and aliases have been removed
3575 (the appropriate new function is given in parentheses; "not needed"
3576 means you can just remove all calls to the function in question):
3578 *** `comint-kill-output' (`comint-delete-output')
3579 *** `decompose-composite-char' (`char-to-string')
3580 *** `outline-visible' (`outline-invisible-p')
3581 *** `internal-find-face' (`facep')
3582 *** `internal-get-face' (`facep and check-face')
3583 *** `frame-update-faces' (not needed)
3584 *** `frame-update-face-colors' (`frame-set-background-mode')
3585 *** `x-frob-font-weight' and `x-frob-font-slant' (`make-face-*' functions)
3586 *** `x-make-font-bold' and `x-make-font-demibold' (`make-face-bold')
3587 *** `x-make-font-italic' and `x-make-font-oblique' (`make-face-italic')
3588 *** `x-make-font-bold-italic' (`make-face-bold-italic')
3589 *** `x-make-font-unbold' (`make-face-unbold')
3590 *** `x-make-font-unitalic' (`make-face-unitalic')
3591 *** `mldrag-drag-mode-line' (`mouse-drag-mode-line')
3592 *** `mldrag-drag-vertical-line' (`mouse-drag-vertical-line')
3593 *** `iswitchb-default-keybindings' (`iswitchb-mode')
3594 *** `char-bytes' (== 1)
3595 *** `isearch-return-char' (`isearch-printing-char')
3596 *** `make-local-hook' (not needed)
3597 *** `set-screen-height' (`set-frame-height')
3598 *** `set-screen-width' (`set-frame-width')
3600 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed
3601 (the appropriate new variable is given in parentheses):
3603 *** `checkdoc-minor-keymap' (`checkdoc-minor-mode-map')
3604 *** `vc-header-alist' (`vc-BACKEND-header')
3605 *** `directory-sep-char' (== ?/)
3606 *** `font-lock-defaults-alist' (`font-lock-defaults')
3607 *** `e' (`float-e').
3609 ** The following obsolete files were removed:
3610 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
3612 ** The format of the finder-inf.el file has changed, since the Finder
3613 mechanism is now based on the package system. The variable
3614 `finder-package-info' is replaced by `package--builtins' and
3615 `finder-keywords-hash'.
3617 ** When generating autoloads, `update-directory-autoloads' no longer
3618 assumes every inspected file is in your `load-path'. It instead
3619 generates relative names according to the current `load-path'.
3622 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
3624 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
3625 The `lexical-binding' variable enables lexical scoping for local
3626 variables. It is typically set via a file-local variable in the first
3627 line of the file, in which case it applies to all the code in that
3630 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
3631 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
3633 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
3634 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
3636 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
3638 *** `defvar' and `defconst' now mark the variable as special (dynamic).
3639 So do `defcustom' and other forms that call `defvar' as a subroutine.
3641 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
3642 declared as dynamically bound.
3644 *** The form ((lambda ...) ...) is deprecated.
3646 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
3647 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
3648 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
3650 ** Changes for bidirectional display and editing
3652 *** New function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction'.
3653 This returns the base direction of the paragraph at point.
3655 *** New function `bidi-string-mark-left-to-right'.
3656 Given a string containing characters from right-to-left scripts, this
3657 function returns another string which can be safely inserted into a
3658 buffer, such that any following text will be always displayed to the
3659 right of that string. (This works by appending an invisible Unicode
3660 "LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK" character if the argument string might need it.)
3662 This is useful when the buffer has overall left-to-right paragraph
3663 direction and you need to insert a string whose contents are not known
3664 in advance, without disrupting the layout of the line.
3668 *** Window tree functions are accessible in Elisp.
3669 Functions are provided to return the parent, siblings or child windows
3670 of any window including internal windows (windows not associated with a
3671 buffer) in the window tree.
3673 **** New function `window-valid-p' gives non-nil for live and internal
3676 **** Window manipulation can deal with internal windows.
3677 Many window handling functions like `split-window', `delete-window', or
3678 `delete-other-windows' as well as the window resizing functions can now
3679 act on any window including internal ones.
3681 *** window-total-height/-width vs window-body-height/-width.
3682 The function `window-height' has been renamed to `window-total-height'
3683 and `window-width' has been renamed to `window-body-width'. The old
3684 names are provided as aliases. Two new functions `window-total-width'
3685 and `window-body-height' are provided.
3687 *** Window parameters specific to window handling functions.
3688 For each window you can specify a parameter to override the default
3689 behavior of a number of functions like `split-window', `delete-window'
3690 and `delete-other-windows'. The variable `ignore-window-parameters'
3691 allows to ignore processing such parameters.
3693 *** New semantics of third argument of `split-window'.
3694 The third argument of `split-window' has been renamed to SIDE and can be
3695 set to any of the values 'below, 'right, 'above, or 'left to make the
3696 new window appear on the corresponding side of the window that shall be
3697 split. Any other value of SIDE will cause `split-window' to split the
3698 window into two side-by-side windows as before.
3700 *** Window resizing functions.
3701 A new standard function for resizing windows called `window-resize' has
3702 been introduced. This and all other functions for resizing windows no
3703 longer delete any windows when they become too small.
3705 *** Deleting the selected window now selects the most recently selected
3706 live window on that frame instead.
3708 *** `adjust-window-trailing-edge' adjustments.
3709 `adjust-window-trailing-edge' can now deal with fixed-size windows and
3710 is able to resize other windows if a window adjacent to the trailing
3711 edge cannot be shrunk any more. This makes its behavior more similar to
3712 that of Emacs 21 without compromising, however, its inability to delete
3713 windows which was introduced in Emacs 22.
3715 *** Window-local buffer lists.
3716 Windows now have local buffer lists. This means that removing a buffer
3717 from display in a window will preferably show the buffer previously
3718 shown in that window with its previous window-start and window-point
3719 positions. This also means that the same buffer may be automatically
3720 shown twice even if it already appears in another window.
3722 *** `switch-to-buffer' has a new optional argument FORCE-SAME-WINDOW,
3723 which if non-nil requires the buffer to be displayed in the currently
3724 selected window, signaling an error otherwise. If nil, another window
3725 can be used, e.g. if the selected one is strongly dedicated.
3727 *** `split-window-vertically' and `split-window-horizontally' renamed
3728 to `split-window-below' and `split-window-right' respectively.
3729 The old names are kept as aliases.
3733 **** The second arg to `display-buffer' and `pop-to-buffer' is now
3734 named ACTION, and takes a display action of the same form as
3735 `display-buffer-base-action' (see Changes, above). A non-nil,
3736 non-list value is treated specially, as the old meaning.
3738 **** New variable `display-buffer-overriding-action'.
3740 **** The procedure of `display-buffer' etc. to choose a window is
3741 determined by combining `display-buffer-overriding-action',
3742 `display-buffer-alist', the ACTION arg, `display-buffer-base-action',
3743 and `display-buffer-fallback-action'. The second and fourth of these
3744 are user-customizable variables.
3746 See the docstring of `display-buffer' for details.
3748 *** New functions `window-state-get' and `window-state-put'.
3749 These functions allow to save and restore the state of an arbitrary
3750 frame or window as an Elisp object.
3754 *** New variable `completion-extra-properties' used to specify extra
3755 properties of the current completion:
3756 - :annotate-function, same as the old completion-annotate-function.
3757 - :exit-function, function to call after completion took place.
3759 *** Functions on `completion-at-point-functions' can return any of the
3760 properties valid for `completion-extra-properties'.
3762 *** `completion-annotate-function' is obsolete.
3764 *** New `metadata' method for completion tables. The metadata thus returned
3765 can specify various details of the data returned by `all-completions':
3766 - `category' is the kind of objects returned (e.g., `buffer', `file', ...),
3767 used to select a style in completion-category-overrides.
3768 - `annotation-function' to add annotations in *Completions*.
3769 - `display-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries in *Completions*.
3770 - `cycle-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries when cycling.
3772 *** `minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map' is not used any more.
3773 Instead, the bindings in `minibuffer-local-filename-completion-map'
3774 are combined with `minibuffer-local-must-match-map'.
3776 *** New variable `completing-read-function' allows overriding the
3777 behavior of `completing-read'.
3779 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
3780 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
3782 ** `pre-command-hook'/`post-command-hook' are not reset to nil on error.
3783 Instead, the offending function is removed.
3787 *** New function `run-hook-wrapped' for running an abnormal hook by
3788 passing the hook functions as arguments to a "wrapping" function.
3789 Like `run-hook-with-args-until-success', it stops at the first
3790 non-nil return value.
3792 *** New macro `with-wrapper-hook' for running an abnormal hook as a
3793 set of "wrapping" filters, similar to around advice.
3794 (A version of this macro was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not
3795 advertised at the time.)
3799 *** New macro `condition-case-unless-debug' (this was actually added in
3800 Emacs 23.1 as condition-case-no-debug, but not advertised)
3802 *** The macro `with-demoted-errors' was added in Emacs 23.1, but not advertised.
3804 *** Variable `stack-trace-on-error' removed.
3806 *** The debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will
3807 jump to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked
3808 instead of jumping all the way to the top-level.
3810 *** Set `debug-on-event' to enter the debugger on events like SIGUSR1.
3811 This can be useful when `inhibit-quit' is set.
3813 ** The new function `server-eval-at' allows evaluation of Lisp forms on
3814 named Emacs server instances.
3816 ** `call-process' and `call-process-region' allow a `(:file "file")' spec
3817 to redirect STDOUT to a file.
3819 ** The function `format-time-string' now supports the %N directive,
3820 for higher-resolution time stamps.
3822 ** New input reading functions
3824 *** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of
3825 characters, discarding any inputs not inside the set.
3827 *** The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name
3828 or RGB triplet, instead of signaling an error if the user provides
3831 **** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
3833 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
3834 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
3835 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
3838 ** Syntax parsing changes
3840 *** New variable `syntax-propertize-function'.
3841 This replaces `font-lock-syntactic-keywords' which is now obsolete.
3842 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
3843 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
3844 Together with this new variable come a new hook
3845 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
3846 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
3847 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
3850 *** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
3852 ** New hook `post-self-insert-hook', run after `self-insert-command'.
3854 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
3856 ** Major and minor mode changes
3858 *** `set-auto-mode' now respects mode: local variables at the end of files,
3859 as well as those in the -*- line.
3861 *** `prog-mode' is a new major mode from which programming modes
3864 **** `prog-mode-hook' can be used to enable features for programming
3865 modes, e.g. (add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'flyspell-prog-mode) to enable
3866 on-the-fly spell checking for comments and strings.
3868 *** New hook `change-major-mode-after-body-hook', run by
3869 `run-mode-hooks' just before any other mode hooks.
3871 *** Enabled globalized minor modes can be disabled in specific major modes.
3872 If the global mode is global-FOO-mode, then run (FOO-mode -1) in the
3873 major mode's hook, where FOO-mode toggles the mode on a per-buffer basis.
3875 *** `define-minor-mode' accepts new keywords :variable, :after-hook.
3877 ** File-handling changes
3879 *** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
3880 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
3881 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
3882 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
3884 *** New file predicates: `file-equal-p', `file-in-directory-p'.
3886 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
3887 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
3888 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
3892 *** Animated images support (currently animated gifs only).
3894 **** `image-animated-p' returns non-nil if an image can be animated.
3896 **** `image-animate' animates a supplied image spec.
3898 **** `image-animate-timer' returns the timer object for an image that
3901 *** `image-extension-data' has been renamed to `image-metadata'.
3902 The old name is an obsolete alias to the new one.
3904 *** Image mode can view any image type that ImageMagick supports.
3905 This requires Emacs to be built with ImageMagick support.
3907 **** New function `imagemagick-types', defined if ImageMagick support
3908 is enabled, returns a list of image file extensions that your
3909 ImageMagick installation supports.
3911 **** New function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick
3912 image types in Image mode and in `create-image' and other helper
3915 **** New option `imagemagick-types-inhibit' excludes certain
3916 ImageMagick image types from `imagemagick-register-types'.
3918 **** With ImageMagick support, there are extra Image mode commands to
3919 resize and rotate images: `image-transform-fit-to-height',
3920 `image-transform-fit-to-width', `image-transform-set-rotation', and
3921 `image-transform-set-scale'.
3923 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
3924 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
3925 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail. For
3926 example, this is used by Rmail to optionally delete a mail window.
3928 ** XML and HTML parsing
3929 If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support, there are two new
3930 functions: `libxml-parse-html-region' (which parses "real world" HTML)
3931 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
3932 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
3934 ** Networking and encryption changes
3936 *** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
3937 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
3938 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
3939 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
3940 must also be supplied.
3942 *** New library gnutls.el.
3943 The new function `gnutls-available-p' returns non-nil if Emacs is
3944 built with GnuTLS support. The main entry points are
3945 `open-gnutls-stream' and `gnutls-negotiate'. It's easiest to use
3946 these functions through `open-network-stream', because that can
3947 upgrade connections through STARTTLS opportunistically or use plain
3948 SSL, depending on your needs. For debugging, set `gnutls-log-level'
3951 *** New primitive `secure-hash' that supports many secure hash algorithms:
3952 md5, sha1, sha2, sha224, sha256, sha384, and sha512. The lisp library
3953 sha1.el has been removed. The `sha1' feature is provided by default.
3957 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
3959 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
3960 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
3961 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
3962 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
3963 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
3964 displayed with a "spinning bar".
3966 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
3967 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
3969 ** New variables `delayed-warnings-list' and `delayed-warnings-hook'.
3970 If delayed-warnings-list is non-nil, the command loop calls
3971 `delayed-warnings-hook' after `post-command-hook'. At present, this
3972 is only used by Emacs on some platforms to display warnings during
3973 startup, which might otherwise not be noticed. This uses the
3974 functions `display-delayed-warnings' and `collapse-delayed-warnings'.
3976 ** rx.el has a new `group-n' construct for explicitly numbered groups.
3978 ** New function `make-composed-keymap' that constructs a new keymap
3979 from multiple input maps. You can use this to make a keymap that
3980 inherits from multiple maps, eg:
3981 (set-keymap-parent newmap (make-composed-keymap othermap parent))
3983 ** New function `string-prefix-p'.
3984 (This was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not advertised at the time.)
3986 ** New reader macro ## that stands for the empty symbol.
3987 This means that the empty symbol can now be read back. Also, #: by itself
3988 (when not immediately followed by a possible symbol character) stands for
3989 an empty uninterned symbol.
3991 ** New math functions `isnan', `copysign', `frexp', `ldexp'.
3993 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
3995 *** `tooltip-use-echo-area' is obsolete.
3996 Rather than setting this to t, disable Tooltip mode instead.
3998 *** buffer-substring-filters is obsolete.
3999 Use `filter-buffer-substring-functions' instead.
4001 *** `byte-compile-disable-print-circle' is obsolete.
4003 *** `deferred-action-list' and `deferred-action-function' are obsolete.
4004 Use `post-command-hook' instead.
4006 *** `font-lock-maximum-size' is obsolete.
4009 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on Non-Free Operating Systems
4011 ** On MS Windows, Emacs warns when using the obsolete init file _emacs,
4012 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
4014 ** New configure.bat options
4016 *** --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra runtime checks.
4018 *** --distfiles specifies files to be included in binary distribution.
4020 *** --without-gnutls disables automatic GnuTLS detection.
4022 *** --lib for general library linkage, works with the USER_LIBS build variable.
4024 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
4026 ** The Lisp function `w32-default-color-map' is now obsolete.
4027 (It is only used internally in the Emacs C code.)
4029 ** Customize ns-auto-hide-menu-bar to have the menu-bar hidden, but
4030 reappear on mouse-over. (Requires OS X 10.6 or later.)
4032 ** On Mac OS X, dragging a file into Emacs visits the file, like on
4033 other platforms, rather than inserting its contents into the buffer.
4036 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
4037 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
4039 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
4040 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
4041 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
4042 (at your option) any later version.
4044 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
4045 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
4046 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
4047 GNU General Public License for more details.
4049 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
4050 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
4055 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"