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 E.g., typing RET reindents the current line and indents the new line.
371 `C-j' inserts a newline but does not indent.
374 *** New buffer-local `electric-indent-local-mode'.
377 *** The behavior of `C-x TAB' (`indent-rigidly') has changed.
378 When invoked without a prefix argument, it now activates a transient
379 mode in which typing <left>, <right>, <S-left>, and <S-right> adjusts
380 the text indentation in the region. Typing any other key resumes
381 normal editing behavior.
384 *** `tab-stop-list' is now implicitly extended to infinity by repeating
385 the last step. Its default value is changed to nil, which means a tab
386 stop every `tab-width' columns.
389 ** New command `cycle-spacing' acts like a smarter `just-one-space'.
390 When called in succession, it cycles between spacing conventions:
391 one space, no spaces, original spacing.
394 ** The new function `fill-single-char-nobreak-p' can stop fill from breaking
395 a line after a one-letter word, which is an error in some typographical
396 conventions. To use it, add it to the `fill-nobreak-predicate' hook.
399 ** Uniquify is enabled by default, with `post-forward-angle-brackets' style.
402 ** New command `C-x SPC' (`rectangle-mark-mode') makes a rectangular region.
403 Most commands are still unaware of it, but kill/yank do work on the rectangle.
406 ** New option `visual-order-cursor-movement'.
407 If this is non-nil, cursor motion with arrow keys will follow the
408 visual order of characters on the screen: <left> always moves to the
409 left, <right> always moves to the right, disregarding the surrounding
410 bidirectional context.
415 *** All interactive commands that read a register (`copy-to-register', etc.)
416 now display a temporary window after `register-preview-delay' seconds
417 that summarizes existing registers. To disable this, set that option to nil.
418 Interactive commands that read registers and want to make use of this
419 should use `register-read-with-preview' to read register names.
422 *** New command `frameset-to-register' bound to `C-x r f', replacing
423 `frame-configuration-to-register'. It offers similar functionality,
424 plus enhancements like the ability to restore deleted frames.
425 (`frame-configuration-to-register' still exists, but no longer has a
429 *** New command `C-x C-k x' (`kmacro-to-register') stores keyboard
433 ** New command `delete-duplicate-lines'.
434 This searches the region for identical lines, and removes all but one
435 copy of each repeated line. The lines need not be sorted.
438 ** `blink-matching-paren' now only highlights the matching open-paren
439 by default, instead of moving cursor. Set this variable to `jump' to
440 enable the old behavior.
443 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.4
446 ** More packages look for ~/.emacs.d/<foo> additionally to ~/.<foo>.
448 ~/.emacs.d/timelog replaces ~/.timelog
449 ~/.emacs.d/vip replaces ~/.vip
450 ~/.emacs.d/viper replaces ~/.viper
451 ~/.emacs.d/ido.last replaces ~/.ido.last
452 ~/.emacs.d/kkcrc replaces ~/.kkcrc
453 ~/.emacs.d/quickurls replaces ~/.quickurls
454 ~/.emacs.d/idlwave/ replaces ~/.idlwave/
455 ~/.emacs.d/bdfcache.el replaces ~/.bdfcache.el
456 ~/.emacs.d/places replaces ~/.emacs-places
457 ~/.emacs.d/shadows replaces ~/.shadows
458 ~/.emacs.d/shadow_todo replaces ~/.shadow_todo
459 ~/.emacs.d/strokes replaces ~/.strokes
460 ~/.emacs.d/notes replaces ~/.notes
461 ~/.emacs.d/type-break replaces ~/.type-break
462 Also the following files used by the now obsolete otodo-mode.el:
463 ~/.emacs.d/todo-do replaces ~/.todo-do
464 ~/.emacs.d/todo-done replaces ~/.todo-done
465 ~/.emacs.d/todo-top replaces ~/.todo-top
467 ** Backtrace and debugger
470 *** New Lisp debugger command `v' (`debugger-toggle-locals') toggles the
471 display of local variables of the current stack frame.
474 *** The Lisp debugger's `e' command (`debugger-eval-expression') now includes
475 the lexical environment when evaluating the code in the context at point
476 (and so allows you to access lexical variables).
479 *** New minor mode `jit-lock-debug-mode' helps you debug code run via JIT Lock.
482 ** Battery information can now be retrieved from BSD's `apm' utility.
485 ** In the Buffer Menu, `M-s a C-o' shows matches for a regexp in marked buffers.
487 ** Calendar and Diary
490 *** New faces `calendar-weekday-header', `calendar-weekend-header',
491 and `calendar-month-header'.
494 *** New option `calendar-day-header-array'.
497 *** New variable `diary-from-outlook-function', used by the command
498 `diary-from-outlook'.
501 *** The variable `calendar-font-lock-keywords' is obsolete.
506 *** Calc by default now uses the Gregorian calendar for all dates, and
507 uses January 1, 1 AD as its day number 1. Previously Calc used the
508 Julian calendar for dates before September 14, 1752, and it used
509 December 31, 1 BC as its day number 1; the new scheme is more
510 consistent with Calendar's calendrical system and day numbering.
513 *** The new option `calc-gregorian-switch' lets you configure if
514 (and when) Calc switches from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar.
517 *** Support for ISO 8601 dates.
524 **** The cpp-root project now supports executing a compile command.
525 It can be set through the new :compile-command slot or the
526 buffer-local variable `compile-command'.
529 **** Better selection of include directories for the 'linux' project.
530 Include directories now support out-of-tree build directories and
531 target architecture auto-detection.
536 **** Improved detection of used namespaces in current scope in C++.
538 **** Parsing of default values for variables and function arguments in C/C++.
539 They are also displayed by the summarize feature in the mode line.
541 **** Improved parsing of function pointers in C/C++.
542 This also includes parsing of function pointers as function arguments.
544 **** Parsing of C/C++ preprocessor macros that open new scope.
545 For example, this enables parsing of macros that open new namespaces.
547 **** Support for 'this' pointer in inline member functions in C++.
552 *** New macro `cl-tagbody'.
553 This executes statements while allowing for control transfer to labels.
556 *** letf is now just an alias for cl-letf.
561 *** CUA mode now uses `delete-selection-mode' and `shift-select-mode'.
562 Hence, you can now enable it independently from those modes, and from
563 `transient-mark-mode'.
566 *** `cua-highlight-region-shift-only' is now obsolete.
567 You can disable `transient-mark-mode' to get the same result.
570 *** CUA's rectangles can now be used without CUA by calling the command
571 `cua-rectangle-mark-mode'.
576 *** Support for completion, ElDoc, and Flycheck has been added.
579 *** The current CFEngine syntax is parsed from "cf-promises -s json".
580 There is a fallback syntax available if you don't have cf-promises or
581 if your version doesn't support that option. See option `cfengine-cf-promises'.
584 ** Delete Selection mode can now be used without Transient Mark mode.
589 *** `desktop-save-mode' by default now auto-saves an existing desktop file
590 after `desktop-auto-save-timeout'. To disable this, customize that option
594 *** Desktop now saves and restores the frame/window configuration.
595 To disable this, set `desktop-restore-frames' to nil.
596 See also related options `desktop-restore-reuses-frames',
597 `desktop-restore-in-current-display', and `desktop-restore-forces-onscreen'.
600 ** New Dired minor mode `dired-hide-details-mode' toggles whether details,
601 such as file ownership or permissions, are visible.
604 ** You can enable ElDoc inside the `eval-expression' minibuffer with:
605 (add-hook 'eval-expression-minibuffer-setup-hook 'eldoc-mode)
606 The results display in the mode line.
608 ** Electric Pair mode
611 *** New option `electric-pair-preserve-balance', enabled by default.
612 If non-nil, pairing/skipping only kicks in when that help the balance
613 of parentheses and quotes, i.e. the buffer should end up at least as
616 You can further control this behavior by adjusting the predicates
617 stored in `electric-pair-inhibit-predicate' and `electric-pair-skip-self'.
620 *** New option `electric-pair-delete-adjacent-pairs', enabled by default.
621 In `electric-pair-mode', the commands `backward-delete-char' and
622 `backward-delete-char-untabify' are now bound to electric variants
623 that delete the closer when invoked between adjacent pairs.
626 *** New option `electric-pair-open-newline-between-pairs', enabled by default.
627 In `electric-pair-mode', inserting a newline between adjacent pairs
628 opens an extra newline after point, which is indented if
629 `electric-indent-mode' is also set.
632 *** New option `electric-pair-skip-whitespace', enabled by default.
633 This controls if skipping over closing delimiters should jump over any
634 whitespace slack. Setting it to `chomp' makes it delete this
635 whitespace. See also the variable `electric-pair-skip-whitespace-chars'.
638 *** New variables control the pairing in strings and comments.
639 You can customize `electric-pair-text-pairs' and
640 `electric-pair-text-syntax-table' to tweak pairing behavior inside
641 strings and comments.
644 ** New EPA option `epa-mail-aliases'.
645 You can set this to a list of email address aliases that `epa-mail-encrypt'
646 should use to find keys.
649 ** New ERC option `erc-accidental-paste-threshold-seconds'.
650 If set to a number, this can be used to avoid accidentally pasting large
651 amounts of data into the ERC input.
654 ** New ERT macro `skip-unless' allows skipping ERT tests.
655 See the ERT manual for details.
660 *** `eshell' now supports visual subcommands and options.
661 Eshell has been able to handle "visual" commands (interactive,
662 non-line oriented commands such as top that require display
663 capabilities not provided by eshell) by running them in an Emacs
664 terminal emulator. See `eshell-visual-commands'.
666 This feature has been extended to subcommands and options that make a
667 usually line-oriented command a visual command. Typical examples are
668 "git log" and "git <command> --help", which display their output in a
669 pager by default. See `eshell-visual-subcommands' and
670 `eshell-visual-options'.
673 *** New Eshell-Tramp module.
674 External su and sudo commands are now the default; the internal,
675 Tramp-using variants can still be used by enabling the eshell-tramp
679 ** New F90 mode option `f90-smart-end-names'.
682 Icomplete is now more similar to Ido.
685 *** Icomplete by default now applies to all forms of minibuffer completion.
686 The variable `icomplete-with-completion-tables' (now a user option)
687 controls this. To restore the old behavior, set it back to
688 '(internal-complete-buffer).
691 *** You can navigate through and select completions using the keys
692 from `icomplete-minibuffer-map'.
695 *** The string that separates potential completions is now a customizable
696 option (`icomplete-separator'). The default is " | " rather than ",".
699 *** New face `icomplete-first-match'; and new options
700 `icomplete-hide-common-prefix' and `icomplete-show-matches-on-no-input'.
703 *** The option `icomplete-show-key-bindings' has been removed.
708 *** An Ido user manual is now included.
711 *** The option `ido-use-virtual-buffers' can now take the value `auto'.
712 This means to use virtual buffers if the current ido input does not match
716 *** The variable `ido-decorations' can optionally have two new elements,
717 which are the brackets to use around the sole remaining completion.
722 *** New commands `n' (`image-next-file') and `p' (`image-previous-file')
723 visit the next image file and the previous image file in the same
724 directory, respectively.
727 *** New commands to show specific frames of multi-frame images.
728 `f' (`image-next-frame') and `b' (`image-previous-frame') visit the
729 next or previous frame. `F' (`image-goto-frame') shows a specific frame.
732 *** New commands to speed up, slow down, or reverse animation.
733 `a +' (`image-increase-speed') and `a -' (`image-decrease-speed') to
734 speed up and slow down the animation. `a r' (`image-reverse-speed')
735 to reverse it and `a 0' (`image-reset-speed') to reset it.
738 *** The command `image-mode-fit-frame' deletes other windows.
739 When toggling, it restores the frame's previous window configuration.
740 It also has an optional frame argument, which can be used by Lisp
741 callers to fit the image to a frame other than the selected frame.
746 *** New global command `M-s h .' (`highlight-symbol-at-point') highlights
747 the symbol found near point.
750 *** New option `hi-lock-auto-select-face'. When non-nil, hi-lock commands
751 will cycle through faces in `hi-lock-face-defaults' without prompting.
754 ** New Imenu option `imenu-generic-skip-comments-and-strings'.
759 *** New Info face `info-index-match', used to highlight matches in index
760 entries displayed by `Info-index-next', `Info-virtual-index' and
764 *** The Info-edit command is obsolete. Editing Info nodes by hand
765 has not been relevant for some time.
770 *** New option `js-switch-indent-offset'.
773 *** Better indentation of multiple-variable declarations.
774 If a declaration spans several lines, variables on the following lines
775 are lined up to the first one.
778 *** Recognition and better indentation of continuations in array comprehensions.
781 ** MH-E has been updated to version 8.5 - see separate MH-E-NEWS file.
786 *** Font locking for Texinfo comments and new keywords.
788 *** Completion in Octave file buffers.
792 *** Jump to definition.
794 *** Documentation lookup/search.
797 ** OPascal mode is the new name for Delphi mode
800 *** All delphi-* variables and functions have been renamed to opascal-*.
801 Obsolete aliases exist for those likely to have been used externally.
804 *** The option `delphi-newline-always-indents' has been removed.
805 Use `electric-indent-mode' instead.
808 *** The TAB key runs the standard `indent-for-tab-command', not `delphi-tab'.
813 *** In the `list-packages' buffer, you can use `f' (`package-menu-filter')
814 to filter the list of packages by a keyword.
817 *** In the `describe-package' buffer, there are now buttons listing the
818 keywords related to the package. Click on a button to see other packages
819 related to that keyword.
822 *** The format of `archive-contents' files, generated by package
823 repositories, has changed to allow a new (fifth) element in the data
824 vectors, containing an associative list with extra properties.
825 (For example, `describe-package' uses the `:url' extra property to
826 display a "Homepage" header.)
829 ** In Prolog mode, `prolog-use-smie' has been removed,
830 along with the non-SMIE indentation code.
835 *** The new command `remember-notes' creates a buffer that is saved on exit.
836 You can use it as a more permanent *scratch* buffer.
839 *** Remember can now store notes in separate files.
840 To use this, add `remember-store-in-files' to the `remember-handler-functions'
841 option. The files are saved in `remember-data-directory' using
842 names specified by `remember-directory-file-name-format'.
847 *** Customize `rmail-mbox-format' to influence some minor aspects of
848 how Rmail displays non-MIME messages.
851 *** The `unrmail' command now converts from BABYL to mboxrd format,
852 rather than mboxo. Customize `unrmail-mbox-format' to change this.
857 *** Improved syntax highlighting and indentation.
860 *** New `electric-indent-mode' integration.
863 *** New option `ruby-encoding-magic-comment-style'.
866 *** New option `ruby-custom-encoding-magic-comment-template'.
869 *** New option `ruby-align-to-stmt-keywords'.
872 *** New option `ruby-align-chained-calls'.
875 *** More Ruby file types have been added to `auto-mode-alist'.
877 ** Search and Replace
880 *** New global command `M-s .' (`isearch-forward-symbol-at-point')
881 starts a symbol (identifier) incremental search forward with the
882 symbol found near point added to the search string initially.
885 *** `C-x 8 RET' in Isearch mode reads a character by its Unicode name
886 and adds it to the search string.
889 *** `M-s i' in Isearch mode toggles whether search matches invisible text.
892 *** `query-replace' skips invisible text when `search-invisible' is nil,
893 and opens overlays with hidden text when `search-invisible' is `open'.
896 *** A negative prefix arg of replacement commands replaces backward.
897 `M-- M-%' replaces a string backward, `M-- C-M-%' replaces a regexp
898 backward, `M-s w words M-- M-%' replaces a sequence of words backward.
901 *** By default, prefix arguments do not now terminate Isearch mode.
902 Set `isearch-allow-prefix' to nil to restore old behavior.
905 *** More Isearch commands accept prefix arguments, namely
906 `isearch-printing-char', `isearch-quote-char', `isearch-yank-word',
910 *** Word search now matches whitespace at the beginning/end
911 of the search string if it contains leading/trailing whitespace.
912 In an incremental word search or when using a non-nil LAX argument
913 of `word-search-regexp', the lax matching can also match part of
914 the first word (in addition to the lax matching of the last word).
915 The same rules are now applied to the symbol search with the difference
916 that it matches symbols, and non-symbol characters between symbols.
919 ** New SES command `ses-rename-cell' allows assignment of names to SES cells.
922 ** The shell.el option `explicit-bash-args' includes --noediting by default.
923 All non-ancient Bash versions support this option.
928 *** The SMIE indentation engine is now used by default - see `sh-use-smie'.
931 *** `sh-mode' now has its own setting for `add-log-current-defun-function'.
936 *** You can customize the SMIE indentation of a mode via `smie-config'.
937 The command `smie-config-guess' can help you derive the appropriate
938 indentation settings, if you provide it with an indented sample file.
939 Use `smie-config-save' to save the result.
942 *** You can customize the SMIE indentation of a file by adding an entry to
943 the file's local variables of the form: `eval: (smie-config-local '(RULES))'.
946 *** New commands `smie-config-show-indent' and `smie-config-set-indent'.
951 *** Improved login monitoring and appropriate response to login failures.
952 New variable `sql-login-delay' defines maximum wait time for a connection.
955 SQL*Plus script placeholders are properly highlighted and identified
956 in `sql-placeholders-filter'. When starting SQL*Plus, `sql-oracle-options'
957 are passed before the logon parameter, as required. The default now
958 includes `-L', to limit the number of logon attempts per invocation.
961 ** New Term mode option `term-suppress-hard-newline'.
964 ** Todo mode has been rewritten and enhanced.
965 The Todo mode user manual describes all commands and most user
966 options. To support some of these features, a new file format is
967 used, which is incompatible with the old format; however, you can
968 convert old todo and done item files to the new format on initializing
969 the first new todo file, or at any later time with the provided
970 conversion command. The previous version of todo-mode.el has been
971 renamed to otodo-mode.el and is now obsolete. New features include:
973 *** Support for multiple todo files and archive files of done items.
975 *** Renaming, reordering, moving, merging, and deleting categories.
977 *** Sortable tabular summaries of categories and the item types they contain.
979 *** Cross-category lists of items filtered by specific criteria.
981 *** More fine-grained interaction with the Emacs diary, by being able to
982 decide for each todo item whether it appears in the Fancy Diary display.
984 *** Highly flexible new item insertion and item editing.
986 *** Moving items between categories, storing done items in their category
987 or in archive files, undoing or unarchiving done items.
989 *** Reprioritizing items by inputting a numerical priority.
991 *** Extensive customizability of operation and display, including many faces.
996 *** `trace-function' and `trace-function-background' no longer prompt for
997 the output buffer. Unless you use a prefix argument, they output to
1001 *** With a prefix argument, `trace-function' and `trace-function-background'
1002 will prompt for a "context". This is a Lisp expression, whose value at the
1003 time the function is entered/exited is printed along with the function's
1009 *** The experimental url syntax for remote file names has been removed.
1012 *** New connection method "adb", which allows to access Android
1013 devices by the Android Debug Bridge. The variable `tramp-adb-program'
1014 can be used to adapt the path of the "adb" program, if needed.
1017 *** The connection methods "plink1", "ssh1", "ssh2", "scp1", "scp2",
1018 "scpc" and "rsyncc" are discontinued. The ssh option
1019 "ControlMaster=auto" is set automatically in all ssh-based methods,
1020 when possible. See `tramp-use-ssh-controlmaster-options'.
1023 *** Handlers for `file-acl' and `set-file-acl' for remote machines
1024 which support POSIX ACLs.
1027 *** Handlers for `file-notify-add-watch' and `file-notify-rm-watch'
1028 for remote machines which support filesystem notifications.
1031 ** New URL command `url-cookie-list' displays the current cookies,
1032 and allows you to interactively remove cookies.
1034 ** VC and related modes
1037 *** In VC directory mode, `D' displays diffs between VC-controlled
1038 whole tree revisions.
1041 *** In VC directory mode, `L' lists the change log for the current VC
1042 controlled tree in a window.
1045 *** In VC directory mode, `I' shows a log of changes that will be
1046 received with a pull operation.
1049 *** `C-x v G' (globally) and `G' (in VC directory mode) ignores a file
1050 under current version control system. When called with a prefix
1051 argument, you can remove a file from the ignored file list.
1056 *** New options: `vhdl-actual-generic-name', `vhdl-beautify-options'.
1059 *** New commands: `vhdl-fix-statement-region', `vhdl-fix-statement-buffer'.
1062 ** The Woman commands `woman-default-faces' and `woman-monochrome-faces'
1063 are obsolete. Customize the `woman-*' faces instead.
1065 ** Obsolete packages
1068 *** iswitchb.el; use icomplete-mode.
1071 *** longlines.el; use visual-line-mode.
1080 *** terminal.el; use term.el instead.
1083 *** the old version of todo-mode.el (renamed to otodo-mode.el).
1086 *** xesam.el (owing to the cancellation of the XESAM project).
1089 *** yow.el; use fortune.el or cookie1.el instead.
1092 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.4
1095 ** New package `eww' is a built-in web browser.
1096 It is only available if Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support.
1099 ** New minor mode `superword-mode'.
1100 This overrides the default word motion commands to treat "symbol_words"
1101 as a single word, similar to what `subword-mode' does.
1104 ** New package nadvice.el offers lighter-weight advice facilities.
1107 *** add-function/remove-function, which can be used to add/remove code on any
1108 function-carrying place, such as process-filters or `<foo>-function' hooks.
1110 *** advice-add/advice-remove to add/remove a piece of advice on a named
1111 function, much like `defadvice' does.
1113 ** New package frameset.el.
1114 It provides a set of operations to save a frameset (the state of all
1115 or a subset of the existing frames and windows, somewhat similar to a
1116 frame configuration), both in-session and persistently, and restore it
1117 at some point in the future.
1120 ** New package filenotify.el provides an interface for file system
1121 notifications. It requires that Emacs be compiled with one of the
1122 low-level libraries gfilenotify.c, inotify.c or w32notify.c.
1125 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.4
1128 ** `kill-region' has lost its `yank-handler' optional argument.
1131 ** `(input-pending-p)' no longer runs other timers that are ready to run.
1132 The new optional CHECK-TIMERS parameter allows for the prior behavior.
1135 ** `defvar' and `defcustom' in a let-binding affect the "external" default.
1138 ** The syntax of ?» and ?« is now punctuation instead of matched parens.
1139 Some languages match those as »...«, and others as «...», so it is
1140 better for Emacs to stay neutral by default.
1143 ** In compiled Lisp files, the header no longer includes a timestamp.
1146 ** The default file coding for Emacs Lisp files is now utf-8.
1147 (See `file-coding-system-alist'.) In most cases, this change is
1148 transparent, but files that contain unusual characters without
1149 specifying an explicit coding system may fail to load with obscure
1150 errors. You should either convert them to utf-8 or add an explicit
1154 ** `overriding-terminal-local-map' no longer replaces the local keymaps.
1155 It used to disable the minor mode, major mode, and text-property keymaps,
1156 whereas now it simply has higher precedence.
1159 ** Default process filters and sentinels are not nil any more.
1160 Instead they default to a function that does what the nil value used to do.
1163 ** `read-event' does not return decoded chars in ttys any more.
1164 As was the case in Emacs 22 and before, the decoding of terminal
1165 input, according to `keyboard-coding-system', is not performed in
1166 `read-event' any more. But unlike in Emacs 22, this decoding is still
1167 done before input-decode-map, function-key-map, etc.
1170 ** The option `inhibit-local-menu-bar-menus' has been removed.
1173 ** Frame-local variables that affect redisplay do not work any more.
1174 More specifically, redisplay does not bother to check for a frame-local
1175 value when looking up variables.
1178 ** nil and "unbound" are indistinguishable in `symbol-function'.
1179 `symbol-function' does not signal a `void-function' error any more.
1180 To determine if a symbol's function definition is void, use `fboundp'.
1183 ** `defadvice' does not honor the `freeze' flag and cannot advise
1184 special-forms any more.
1187 ** `dolist' no longer binds VAR while evaluating the RESULT form,
1188 when lexical binding is enabled. Previously, VAR was bound to nil,
1189 which often led to spurious unused-variable warnings.
1192 ** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
1193 The second argument is no longer an SELinux context, instead it is an
1194 alist of extended attributes as returned by the new function
1195 `file-extended-attributes'. The attributes can be applied to another
1196 file using `set-file-extended-attributes'.
1199 ** By default `copy-file' no longer copies file permission bits to an
1200 existing destination; and it sets the file permission bits of a newly
1201 created destination to those of the source, masked by the default file
1202 permissions. To copy the file permission bits, pass t as the
1203 PRESERVE-PERMISSIONS argument of `copy-file'.
1206 ** `visited-file-modtime' now returns -1 for nonexistent files.
1207 Formerly it returned a list (-1 LOW USEC PSEC), but this was ambiguous
1208 in the presence of files with negative time stamps.
1211 ** The cars of the elements in `interpreter-mode-alist' are now
1212 treated as regexps rather than literal strings.
1215 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.4
1218 ** The second argument of `eval' can now specify a lexical environment.
1221 ** New functions `special-form-p' and `macrop'.
1224 ** New macro `define-alternatives' can be used to define generic commands.
1225 Generic commands are interactive functions whose implementation can be
1226 selected among several alternatives, as a matter of user preference.
1229 ** If you give a symbol a `defalias-fset-function' property, `defalias'
1230 on that symbol will use the associated value as a function to call
1234 ** New variable `enable-dir-local-variables'.
1235 Directory-local variables are ignored if this is nil. This may be
1236 useful for modes that want to ignore directory-locals while still
1237 respecting file-local variables.
1240 ** New function `get-pos-property'.
1243 ** `read-regexp' now uses the new variable `read-regexp-defaults-function'
1244 as a function to call to provide default values.
1246 ** Completion changes
1249 *** The separator used by `completing-read-multiple' is now a regexp.
1250 The default `crm-separator' has been changed to allow surrounding spaces
1254 *** The `common-substring' argument of `display-completion-list',
1255 which has been documented as obsolete since Emacs 23.1, is now _really_
1256 obsolete, and no longer advertised. Instead either call
1257 `completion-hilit-commonality' to add the highlighting; or use
1258 `completion-all-completions', which returns highlighted strings.
1261 *** New function `completion-table-with-cache' is a wrapper for
1262 `completion-table-dynamic' that caches the result of the last lookup.
1265 *** New function `completion-table-merge' to combine several
1266 completion tables by merging their completions.
1269 ** New minor modes `prettify-symbols-mode' and `global-prettify-symbols-mode'
1270 display specified symbols as composed characters. E.g., in Emacs Lisp mode,
1271 this replaces the string "lambda" with the Greek lambda character.
1276 *** Functions to pop up menus and dialogs now work on all terminals,
1277 including TTYs. This includes `x-popup-menu', `x-popup-dialog',
1278 `message-box', `yes-or-no-p', etc.
1280 The function `display-popup-menus-p' will now return non-nil for a
1281 display or frame whenever a mouse is supported on that display or
1285 *** New hook `tty-setup-hook', run at the end of initializing a text terminal.
1288 *** The hook `term-setup-hook' is obsolete. It is entirely equivalent
1289 to `emacs-startup-hook'. See also the new `tty-setup-hook'.
1292 ** New hook `pre-redisplay-function'.
1295 ** New bool-vector set operation functions
1296 *** `bool-vector-exclusive-or'
1297 *** `bool-vector-union'
1298 *** `bool-vector-intersection'
1299 *** `bool-vector-set-difference'
1300 *** `bool-vector-not'
1301 *** `bool-vector-subsetp'
1302 *** `bool-vector-count-consecutive'
1303 *** `bool-vector-count-population'
1306 ** Comparison functions =, <, >, <=, >= can now take many arguments.
1308 ** Error-handling changes
1311 *** New function `define-error'.
1314 *** `with-demoted-errors' takes an additional argument `format'.
1317 ** New macro `with-eval-after-load'.
1318 This is like the old `eval-after-load', but better behaved.
1321 ** New library subr-x.el with miscellaneous small utility functions
1322 *** `hash-table-keys'
1323 *** `hash-table-values'
1324 *** `string-blank-p'
1325 *** `string-empty-p'
1327 *** `string-reverse'
1328 *** `string-trim-left'
1329 *** `string-trim-right'
1331 *** `string-remove-prefix'
1332 *** `string-remove-suffix'
1335 ** Obsoleted functions
1338 *** `lisp-complete-symbol'
1339 *** `field-complete'
1340 *** `minibuffer-completion-contents'
1341 *** `isearch-nonincremental-exit-minibuffer'
1342 *** `isearch-filter-visible'
1343 *** `generic-make-keywords-list'
1344 *** `get-upcase-table' (use `case-table-get-table' instead).
1347 ** `with-wrapper-hook' is obsoleted by `add-function'.
1348 The few hooks that used with-wrapper-hook are replaced as follows:
1349 *** `abbrev-expand-function' obsoletes `abbrev-expand-functions'.
1350 *** `completion-in-region-function' obsoletes `completion-in-region-functions'.
1351 *** `filter-buffer-substring-function' obsoletes `filter-buffer-substring-functions'.
1354 ** `byte-compile-interactive-only-functions' is now obsolete.
1355 To specify that a command should only be called interactively, give it
1356 a non-nil `interactive-only' property.
1359 ** `split-string' now takes an optional argument TRIM.
1360 The value, if non-nil, is a regexp that specifies what to trim from
1361 the start and end of each substring.
1364 ** New function `string-suffix-p'.
1366 ** File-handling changes
1369 *** Support for filesystem notifications.
1370 Emacs now supports notifications of filesystem changes, such as
1371 creation, modification, and deletion of files. This requires the
1372 `glib' API, or the 'inotify' API (on GNU/Linux systems only). On
1373 MS-Windows systems, this is supported for Windows XP and newer
1377 *** The 9th element returned by `file-attributes' is now unspecified.
1378 Formerly, it was t if the file's gid would change if file were deleted
1379 and recreated. This value has been inaccurate for years on many
1380 platforms, and nobody seems to have noticed or cared.
1383 *** The 6th argument to `copy-file' has been renamed to
1384 PRESERVE-PERMISSIONS as it now handles ACL entries and the traditional
1385 Unix file permission bits as well as SELinux context.
1388 *** The function `file-ownership-preserved-p' now has an optional
1389 argument GROUP which causes it check for file group too. This can be
1390 used in place of the 9th element of `file-attributes'.
1393 *** The function `set-visited-file-modtime' now accepts a 0 or -1
1394 argument, with the same interpretation as the returned value of
1395 `visited-file-modtime'.
1397 ** Autorevert changes
1400 *** If Emacs is compiled with file notification support, notifications
1401 are used instead of checking the time stamp of the files. You can
1402 disable this by setting the user option `auto-revert-use-notify' to
1403 nil. Alternatively, a regular expression of directories to be
1404 excluded from file notifications can be specified by
1405 `auto-revert-notify-exclude-dir-regexp'.
1408 *** The new user option `auto-revert-remote-files' enables reversion
1409 of remote files when set to non-nil.
1414 *** The function `face-spec-set' is now like `setq' for face specs.
1415 Its third arg now accepts values specifying a face spec type (defface,
1416 custom, or override spec), and the relevant spec is set accordingly.
1419 *** New function `add-face-text-property', which can be used to
1420 conveniently prepend/append new face properties.
1423 *** Face specs set via Custom themes now replace the `defface' spec
1424 rather than inheriting from it. In other words, setting a face via a
1425 theme now behaves like setting it via Customize: you only need to
1426 specify the attributes that you want, you don't need to unset those
1427 that you don't want.
1430 *** New face characteristic (supports :underline (:style wave))
1431 specifies whether or not the terminal can display a wavy line.
1434 *** New face spec attribute :distant-foreground
1435 specifies foreground to use if background color is near the foreground
1436 color that would otherwise have been used.
1441 *** `image-animated-p' is now `image-multi-frame-p'.
1442 It returns non-nil for any image that contains multiple frames,
1443 whether or not it specifies a frame delay.
1446 *** New variable `image-default-frame-delay' gives the frame delay for
1447 animated images which do not specify a frame delay.
1450 *** New functions `image-current-frame' and `image-show-frame' for getting
1451 and setting the current frame of a multi-frame image.
1456 *** Namespace cleanup by obsolete-aliasing functions to use `eieio-' prefix.
1457 **** object-name -> eieio-object-name
1458 **** object-class -> eieio-object-class
1459 **** object-class-fast -> eieio--object-class
1460 **** object-class-name -> eieio-object-class-name
1461 **** object-name-string -> eieio-object-name-string
1462 **** object-num-slots -> eieio--object-num-slots
1463 **** object-set-name-string -> eieio-object-set-name-string
1464 **** class-of -> eieio-object-class
1465 **** class-name -> eieio-class-name
1466 **** class-parent -> eieio-class-parent
1467 **** class-parents -> eieio-class-parents
1468 **** class-parents-fast -> eieio-class-parents-fast
1469 **** class-children -> eieio-class-children
1470 **** class-num-slots -> eieio--class-num-slots
1471 **** class-precedence-list -> eieio-class-precedence-list
1472 **** class-direct-subclasses -> eieio-class-children
1473 **** class-direct-superclasses -> eieio-class-parents
1475 ** Changes in encoding and decoding of text
1478 *** New coding-system `prefer-utf-8'.
1479 This is like `undecided' but prefers UTF-8 on decoding if the text to
1480 be decoded does not contain any invalid UTF-8 sequences. On encoding,
1481 any non-ASCII characters are automatically encoded as UTF-8.
1484 *** New attributes of coding-systems whose type is `undecided'.
1485 Two new attributes, `:inhibit-null-byte-detection' and
1486 `:inhibit-iso-escape-detection', determine how to detect encoding of
1487 text that includes null bytes and ISO-2022 escape sequences,
1488 respectively. Each of these attributes can be either nil, zero, or
1489 t. If it is t, decoding text ignores null bytes and, respectively,
1490 ISO-2022 sequences. If it is nil, null bytes cause text to be decoded
1491 with no-conversion and ISO-2022 sequences cause Emacs to assume the
1492 text is encoded in one of the ISO-2022 encodings, such as
1493 iso-2022-7bit. If the value is zero, Emacs consults the variables
1494 inhibit-null-byte-detection and inhibit-iso-escape-detection, which
1496 The new attribute `:prefer-utf-8', if non-nil, causes Emacs to prefer
1497 UTF-8 encoding and decoding, whenever possible.
1499 These attributes are only meaningful for coding-systems of type
1500 `undecided'. (The type of a coding-system is determined by its
1501 `:coding-type' attribute and can be accessed by calling the
1502 `coding-system-type' function.)
1505 ** The `time-to-seconds' alias to `float-time' is no longer marked obsolete.
1508 ** New functions `group-gid' and `group-real-gid'.
1511 ** The spelling of the rx.el category `chinese-two-byte' has been
1512 corrected (the first 'e' was missing).
1515 ** Minor internal changes to the details of lock files.
1516 The lock for DIR/FILE is now _always_ DIR/.#FILE.
1517 If DIR/.#FILE already exists and is not an Emacs lock file,
1518 Emacs makes no attempt to lock DIR/FILE. (Previously, it fell back to
1519 numbered lock files DIR/.#FILE.0...).
1520 On file systems that do not support symbolic links, the lock is now a
1521 regular file with contents being what would have been in the symlink.
1523 ** Changes to the Emacs Lisp Coding Conventions in Emacs 24.4
1526 *** The package descriptor and name of global variables, constants,
1527 and functions should be separated by two hyphens if the symbol is not
1528 meant to be used by other packages.
1531 * Changes in Emacs 24.4 on Non-Free Operating Systems
1534 ** The procedure for building Emacs on MS-Windows has changed.
1535 It is now built by running the same configure script as on all other
1536 platforms. This requires the MSYS environment and MinGW development
1537 tools. See the updated instructions in nt/INSTALL for details.
1539 Using the Posix configure script and Makefile's also means a change in
1540 the directory structure of the Emacs installation on Windows. It is
1541 now the same as on GNU and Unix systems. In particular, the auxiliary
1542 programs, such as cmdproxy.exe and hexl.exe, are in
1543 libexec/emacs/VERSION/i686-pc-mingw32 (where VERSION is the Emacs
1544 version), version-independent site-lisp is in share/emacs/site-lisp,
1545 version-specific Lisp files are in share/emacs/VERSION/lisp and in
1546 share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, Info docs are in share/info, and data
1547 files are in share/emacs/VERSION/etc. (Emacs knows about all these
1548 directories and will find the files in there automatically; there's no
1549 need to set any variables due to this change.)
1552 ** Emacs on Windows 2000 and later can now access files and directories
1553 whose names cannot be encoded in the current system codepage.
1555 The new variable `w32-unicode-filenames' controls this feature: if it
1556 is t, Emacs uses Unicode APIs to pass file names to system calls,
1557 which lifts the limitation of file names to the current locale.
1560 ** The "generate a backtrace on fatal error" feature now works on MS Windows.
1561 The backtrace is written to the 'emacs_backtrace.txt' file in the
1562 directory where Emacs was running.
1565 ** The variable `buffer-file-type' is no longer supported.
1566 Setting it has no effect, and %t in the mode-line format is ignored.
1567 Likewise, `file-name-buffer-file-type-alist' is now obsolete, and
1568 modifying it has no effect.
1571 ** Lock files now work on MS-Windows.
1572 This helps to prevent losing your edits if the same file is being
1573 edited in another Emacs session or by another user. See the node
1574 "Interlocking" in the Emacs User Manual for the details. To disable
1575 file locking, customize `create-lockfiles' to nil.
1577 ** New Core Text based font backend for Mac OS X 10.5 and newer.
1578 GNUstep and Mac OS X 10.4 use the old font backend.
1579 To use the old backend by default, do on the command line:
1580 % defaults write org.gnu.Emacs FontBackend ns
1582 ** Improved fullscreen support on Mac OS X.
1583 Emacs supports both native (Mac OS X 10.7 and newer) and "old style" fullscreen.
1584 Customize `ns-use-native-fullscreen' to change the style.
1585 For Mac OS X 10.7 and newer, native is the default.
1587 ** On Mac OS X 10.7 and newer, Emacs uses sRGB colorspace by default.
1588 Customize `ns-use-srgb-colorspace' to disable this. Note that this
1589 does not apply to images.
1592 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.3
1594 ** The default X toolkit is now Gtk+ version 3.
1595 If you don't pass `--with-x-toolkit' to configure, or if you use
1596 `--with-x-toolkit=gtk' or `--with-x-toolkit=yes', configure will try
1597 to build with Gtk+ version 3, and if that fails, try Gtk+ version 2.
1598 You can explicitly require a specific version by passing
1599 `--with-x-toolkit=gtk2' or `--with-x-toolkit=gtk3' to configure.
1601 ** New configure option `--enable-link-time-optimization', to utilize
1602 an appropriate feature provided by GCC since version 4.5.0.
1604 ** New configure option `--without-all' to disable most of the optional
1605 features (image support, etc.) that are normally enabled by default.
1607 ** New configure option `--enable-gcc-warnings' (for developing/debugging
1608 Emacs). If building with GCC, this enables compile-time checks that
1609 warn/give errors about possibly-questionable C code. On a recent GNU
1610 system there should be no warnings; on older and on non-GNU systems
1611 the results may be useful to developers.
1613 ** The configure option `--enable-use-lisp-union-type' has been
1614 renamed to `--enable-check-lisp-object-type', as the resulting
1615 Lisp_Object type no longer uses a union to implement the compile time
1616 check that this option enables.
1618 ** The configure option `--disable-maintainer-mode' has been removed,
1619 as it was confusingly-named and rarely useful.
1621 ** The configure options `--program-prefix', `--program-suffix', and
1622 `--program-transform-name' apply to more than just the installed
1623 binaries. Now they also affect the man pages, icons, and the
1624 etc/emacs.desktop file; but not the info pages, since this would break
1625 links between the various manuals.
1627 ** You can use `NO_BIN_LINK=t make install' to prevent the installation
1628 overwriting "emacs" in the installation bin/ directory with a link
1631 ** Emacs uses libtinfo in preference to libncurses, if available.
1633 ** On FreeBSD and NetBSD, configure no longer adds /usr/local/lib and
1634 /usr/pkg/lib to the linker search path. You must add them yourself if
1637 ** The standalone scripts `rcs-checkin' and `vcdiff' have been removed
1638 (from the bin and libexec directories, respectively). The former is
1639 no longer relevant, the latter is replaced by lisp (in vc-sccs.el).
1642 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.3
1644 ** Emacs no longer searches for `leim-list.el' files beneath the standard
1645 lisp/ directory. There should not be any there anyway. If you have
1646 been adding them there, put them somewhere else; e.g., site-lisp.
1648 ** The `--no-site-lisp' command line option now works for Nextstep builds.
1651 * Changes in Emacs 24.3
1655 *** `C-h f' (`describe-function') can now perform autoloading.
1656 When this command is called for an autoloaded function whose docstring
1657 contains a key substitution construct, that function's library is
1658 automatically loaded, so that the documentation can be shown
1659 correctly. To disable this, set `help-enable-auto-load' to nil.
1661 *** `C-h f' now reports previously-autoloaded functions as "autoloaded",
1662 even after their associated libraries have been loaded (and the
1663 autoloads have been redefined as functions).
1667 *** Images displayed via ImageMagick now support transparency and the
1668 :background image specification property.
1670 *** When available, ImageMagick support is automatically enabled.
1671 It is no longer necessary to call `imagemagick-register-types'
1672 explicitly to install ImageMagick image types; that function is called
1673 automatically at startup, or when customizing an imagemagick- option.
1675 *** Setting `imagemagick-types-inhibit' to t now disables the use of
1676 ImageMagick to view images. (You must call `imagemagick-register-types'
1677 afterwards if you do not use customize to change this.)
1679 *** The new variable `imagemagick-enabled-types' also affects which
1680 ImageMagick types are treated as images. The function
1681 `imagemagick-filter-types' returns the list of types that will be
1686 *** In minibuffer filename prompts, `C-M-f' and `C-M-b' now move to the
1687 next and previous path separator, respectively.
1689 *** `minibuffer-electric-default-mode' can shorten "(default ...)" to "[...]"
1690 in minibuffer prompts. Just set `minibuffer-eldef-shorten-default'
1691 non-nil before enabling the mode.
1695 *** New option `mode-line-default-help-echo' specifies the help text
1696 (shown in a tooltip or in the echo area) for any part of the mode line
1697 that does not have its own specialized help text.
1699 *** You can now click mouse-3 in the coding system indicator to invoke
1700 `set-buffer-file-coding-system'.
1702 ** Server and client
1704 *** emacsclient now obeys string values for `initial-buffer-choice',
1705 if it is told to open a new frame without specifying any file to visit
1706 or expression to evaluate.
1708 *** New option `server-auth-key' specifies a shared server key.
1710 ** Emacs now generates backtraces on fatal errors.
1711 On encountering a fatal error, Emacs now outputs a textual description
1712 of the fatal signal, and a short backtrace on platforms like glibc
1713 that support backtraces.
1715 ** `C-x C-q' is now bound to the new minor mode `read-only-mode'.
1716 This minor mode replaces `toggle-read-only', which is now obsolete.
1718 ** Most `y-or-n' prompts now allow you to scroll the selected window.
1719 Typing `C-v' or `M-v' at a y-or-n prompt scrolls forward or backward
1720 respectively, without exiting from the prompt.
1722 ** In the Package Menu, newly-available packages are listed as "new",
1723 and sorted above the other "available" packages by default.
1725 ** If your Emacs was built from a repository checkout, the new variable
1726 `emacs-bzr-version' contains information about the bzr revision used.
1728 ** New option `create-lockfiles' specifies usage of lockfiles.
1729 It defaults to t. Changing it to nil inhibits the creation of lock
1730 files (use this with caution).
1732 ** New option `enable-remote-dir-locals', if non-nil, allows directory-local
1733 variables on remote hosts.
1735 ** The entry for PCL-CVS has been removed from the Tools menu.
1736 The PCL-CVS commands are still available via the keyboard.
1738 ** Using "unibyte: t" in Lisp source files is obsolete.
1739 Use "coding: raw-text" instead.
1741 ** In the buffer made by `M-x report-emacs-bug', the `C-c m' binding
1742 has been changed to `C-c M-i' (`report-emacs-bug-insert-to-mailer').
1743 The previous binding, introduced in Emacs 24.1, was a mistake, because
1744 `C-c LETTER' bindings are reserved for user customizations.
1746 ** Internationalization
1748 *** New language environment: Persian.
1750 *** New input method `vietnamese-vni'.
1752 ** Nextstep (GNUstep / Mac OS X) port
1754 *** Support for fullscreen and the frame parameter fullscreen.
1756 *** A file dialog is used for open/save operations initiated from the
1760 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.3
1762 ** Search and Replace
1764 *** Non-regexp Isearch now performs "lax" space matching.
1765 Each sequence of spaces in the supplied search string may match any
1766 sequence of one or more whitespace characters, as specified by the
1767 variable `search-whitespace-regexp'. (This variable is also used by a
1768 similar existing feature for regexp Isearch.)
1770 *** New Isearch command `M-s SPC' toggles lax space matching.
1771 This applies to both ordinary and regexp Isearch.
1773 *** New option `replace-lax-whitespace'.
1774 If non-nil, `query-replace' uses flexible whitespace matching too.
1777 *** Global `M-s _' starts a symbol (identifier) incremental search,
1778 and `M-s _' in Isearch toggles symbol search mode.
1779 `M-s c' in Isearch toggles search case-sensitivity.
1781 ** Navigation commands
1783 *** New binding `M-g c' for `goto-char'.
1785 *** New binding `M-g TAB' for `move-to-column'.
1787 *** `M-g TAB' (`move-to-column') prompts for a column number if called
1788 interactively with no prefix arg. Previously, it moved to column 1.
1790 ** New option `yank-handled-properties' allows processing of text
1791 properties on yanked text, in ways that are more general than just
1792 removing them (as is done by `yank-excluded-properties').
1794 ** New option `delete-trailing-lines' specifies whether
1795 M-x delete-trailing-whitespace should delete trailing lines at the end
1796 of the buffer. It defaults to t.
1798 ** `C-u M-=' now counts lines/words/characters in the entire buffer.
1800 ** `C-x 8 RET' is now bound to `insert-char', which is now a command.
1801 `ucs-insert' is now an obsolete alias for `insert-char'.
1803 ** The `z' key no longer has a binding in most special modes.
1804 It used to be bound to `kill-this-buffer', but `z' is too easy to
1807 ** New command `C-x r M-w' (`copy-rectangle-as-kill').
1808 It copies the region-rectangle as the last rectangle kill.
1812 *** `C-x r +' is now overloaded to invoke `append-to-register'.
1814 *** New option `register-separator' specifies the register containing
1815 the text to put between collected texts for use with
1816 M-x append-to-register and M-x prepend-to-register.
1819 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.3
1821 ** Common Lisp emulation (CL)
1823 *** CL's main entry is now (require 'cl-lib).
1824 `cl-lib' is like the old `cl' except that it uses the namespace cleanly;
1825 i.e., all its definitions have the "cl-" prefix (and internal definitions
1826 use the "cl--" prefix).
1828 If `cl' provided a feature under the name `foo', then `cl-lib'
1829 provides it under the name `cl-foo' instead; with the exceptions of the
1830 few `cl' definitions that had to use `foo*' to avoid conflicts with
1831 pre-existing Elisp entities. These have been renamed to `cl-foo'
1832 rather than `cl-foo*'.
1834 The old `cl' is now deprecated and is mainly just a bunch of aliases that
1835 provide the old, non-prefixed names. Some exceptions are listed below:
1837 *** `cl-flet' is not like `flet' (which is deprecated).
1838 Instead it obeys the behavior of Common-Lisp's `flet'.
1839 In particular, in cl-flet function definitions are lexically scoped,
1840 whereas in flet the scoping is dynamic.
1842 *** `cl-labels' is slightly different from `labels'.
1843 The difference is that it relies on the `lexical-binding' machinery
1844 (as opposed to the `lexical-let' machinery used previously) to capture
1845 definitions in closures, so such closures will only work if `lexical-binding'
1848 *** `cl-letf' is not exactly like `letf'.
1849 The only difference is in details that relate to some deprecated usage
1850 of `symbol-function' in place forms.
1852 *** `progv' was rewritten to use the `let' machinery.
1853 A side effect is that variables without corresponding values are bound
1854 to nil rather than being made unbound.
1856 *** The following methods of extending `setf' are obsolete
1857 (use features from gv.el instead):
1858 `define-modify-macro' (use `gv-letplace')
1859 `defsetf' (use `gv-define-simple-setter' or `gv-define-setter')
1860 `define-setf-expander' (use `gv-define-setter' or `gv-define-expander')
1861 `get-setf-method' no longer exists (see "Incompatible Lisp Changes")
1865 *** Changes are now highlighted using the same color scheme as in
1866 modern VCSes. Deletions are displayed in red (new faces
1867 `diff-refine-removed' and `smerge-refined-removed', and new definition
1868 of `diff-removed'), insertions in green (new faces `diff-refine-added'
1869 and `smerge-refined-added', and new definition of `diff-added').
1871 *** The variable `diff-use-changed-face' defines whether to use the
1872 face `diff-changed', or `diff-removed' and `diff-added' to highlight
1873 changes in context diffs.
1875 *** The new command `diff-delete-trailing-whitespace' removes trailing
1876 whitespace introduced by a diff.
1878 ** Ediff now uses the same color scheme as Diff mode.
1882 A new version of python.el, which provides several new features, including:
1883 per-buffer shells, better indentation, Python 3 support, and improved
1884 shell-interaction compatible with iPython (and virtually any other
1887 *** Some user options have been replaced/renamed, including (old -> new):
1888 **** python-indent -> python-indent-offset
1889 **** python-guess-indent -> python-indent-guess-indent-offset
1890 **** python-pdbtrack-do-tracking-p -> python-pdbtrack-activate
1891 **** python-use-skeletons -> python-skeleton-autoinsert
1893 *** Some user options have been removed, including:
1895 **** `python-indent-string-contents': Strings are never indented.
1897 **** `python-honour-comment-indentation':
1898 Comments are always considered as indentation markers.
1900 **** `python-continuation-offset': Indentation is automatically
1901 calculated in a pep8 compliant way depending on the context.
1903 **** `python-shell-prompt-alist', `python-shell-continuation-prompt-alist':
1904 Have no direct mapping as the shell interaction is completely different.
1906 **** `python-python-command', `python-jython-command':
1907 Replaced by `python-shell-interpreter'.
1909 **** `inferior-python-filter-regexp', `python-remove-cwd-from-path',
1910 `python-pdbtrack-minor-mode-string', `python-source-modes':
1913 *** Some commands have been replaced (old -> new):
1914 **** python-insert-class -> python-skeleton-class
1915 **** python-insert-def -> python-skeleton-def
1916 **** python-insert-for -> python-skeleton-for
1917 **** python-insert-if -> python-skeleton-if
1918 **** python-insert-try/except -> python-skeleton-try
1919 **** python-insert-try/finally -> python-skeleton-try
1920 **** python-insert-while -> python-skeleton-while
1921 **** python-find-function -> python-nav-jump-to-defun
1922 **** python-next-statement -> python-nav-forward-sentence
1923 **** python-previous-statement -> python-nav-backward-sentence
1924 **** python-beginning-of-defun-function -> python-nav-beginning-of-defun
1925 **** python-end-of-defun-function -> python-nav-end-of-defun
1926 **** python-send-buffer -> python-shell-send-buffer
1927 **** python-send-defun -> python-shell-send-defun
1928 **** python-send-region -> python-shell-send-region
1929 **** python-send-region-and-go -> emulate with python-shell-send-region
1930 and python-shell-switch-to-shell
1931 **** python-send-string -> python-shell-send-string
1932 **** python-switch-to-python -> python-shell-switch-to-shell
1933 **** python-describe-symbol -> python-eldoc-at-point
1937 *** New variables `dbus-compiled-version' and `dbus-runtime-version'.
1939 *** The D-Bus object manager interface is implemented.
1941 *** Variables of type :(u)int32 and :(u)int64 accept floating points,
1942 if their value does not fit into Emacs's integer range.
1944 *** The function `dbus-call-method' is now non-blocking.
1945 It can be interrupted by `C-g'. `dbus-call-method-non-blocking' is obsolete.
1947 *** Signals can also be sent as unicast messages.
1949 *** The argument list of `dbus-register-signal' has been extended,
1950 according to the new match rule types of D-Bus.
1952 *** `dbus-init-bus' supports private connections.
1954 *** There is a new function `dbus-setenv'.
1956 ** `desktop-path' no longer includes the "." directory.
1957 Desktop files are now located in ~/.emacs.d by default.
1961 *** `dired-do-async-shell-command' executes each file sequentially
1962 if the command ends in `;' (when operating on multiple files).
1963 Otherwise, it executes the command on each file in parallel.
1965 *** Typing `M-n' in the minibuffer of `dired-do-chmod', `dired-do-chgrp',
1966 `dired-do-chown', and `dired-do-touch' yanks the attributes of the
1969 *** When the region is active, `m' (`dired-mark'), `u' (`dired-unmark'),
1970 `DEL' (`dired-unmark-backward'), and `d' (`dired-flag-file-deletion')
1971 mark/unmark/flag all files in the active region.
1973 *** The minibuffer default for `=' (`dired-diff') has changed.
1974 It is now the backup file for the file at point, if one exists.
1975 In Transient Mark mode the default is the file at the active mark.
1977 *** `M-=' is no longer bound to `dired-backup-diff' in Dired buffers.
1978 The global binding for `M-=', `count-words-region' is in effect.
1982 *** New module "notifications", which can send a notification when you
1983 receive a private message or your nickname is mentioned.
1985 *** ERC will look up server/channel names via auth-source and use any
1988 *** New option `erc-lurker-hide-list', similar to `erc-hide-list', but
1989 only applies to messages sent by lurkers.
1991 ** reStructuredText mode
1993 *** Keybindings (see `C-c C-h'), TAB indentation, filling and auto-filling,
1994 fontification, comment handling, and customization have all been revised
1997 *** Support for `imenu' and `which-function-mode'.
1999 *** The reStructuredText syntax is more closely covered.
2000 Sphinx support has been improved.
2002 *** `rst-insert-list' inserts new list or continues existing lists.
2004 *** A negative prefix argument always works for `rst-adjust'.
2006 *** The window configuration is reset after displaying a TOC.
2008 *** The constant `rst-version' describes the rst.el package version.
2012 *** Support for percent literals and recognition of regular expressions
2013 in method calls without parentheses with more methods, including Cucumber
2016 *** Improved syntax highlighting and indentation.
2018 *** New command `ruby-toggle-block', bound to `C-c {'.
2020 *** Some non-standard keybindings/commands have been removed:
2022 **** `ruby-electric-brace'; use `electric-indent-mode' instead.
2024 **** `ruby-mark-defun'; use `mark-defun'.
2026 **** `ruby-beginning-of-defun' and `ruby-end-of-defun' are replaced by
2027 appropriate settings for the variables `beginning-of-defun-function'
2028 and `end-of-defun-function'.
2030 **** Non-standard keybindings for `backward-kill-word', `comment-region',
2031 `reindent-then-newline-and-indent' and `newline' have been removed.
2033 ** Shell Script mode
2035 *** Pairing of parens/quotes uses `electric-pair-mode' instead of skeleton-pair.
2037 *** `sh-electric-here-document-mode' now controls auto-insertion of here-docs.
2039 *** `sh-use-smie' lets you choose a new indentation and navigation code.
2043 *** The free software compiler GHDL is supported (and now the default).
2045 *** Support for the VHDL-AMS packages has been added/updated.
2047 *** Updated to the 2002 revision of the VHDL standard.
2049 *** Accepts \r and \f as whitespace.
2053 *** The faces used by Apropos are now directly customizable.
2054 These faces are named `apropos-symbol', `apropos-keybinding', and so on;
2055 see the `apropos' Custom group for details.
2057 *** The old options whose values specified faces to use have been removed
2058 (i.e. `apropos-symbol-face', `apropos-keybinding-face', `apropos-label-face',
2059 `apropos-match-face' and `apropos-property-face'.).
2063 *** This package has been rewritten to use Tabulated List mode.
2065 *** Option `Buffer-menu-buffer+size-width' is now obsolete.
2066 Use `Buffer-menu-name-width' and `Buffer-menu-size-width' instead.
2070 *** Algebraic simplification mode is now the default.
2071 To restrict to the limited simplifications given by the former
2072 default simplification mode, use `m I'.
2076 *** You can customize the header text that appears above each calendar month.
2077 See the variable `calendar-month-header'.
2079 *** New LaTeX calendar style, produced by `cal-tex-cursor-week2-summary'.
2081 *** The calendars produced by cal-html include holidays.
2082 Customize `cal-html-holidays' to change this.
2086 *** The major modes from the parser generators "Bovine" and "Wisent"
2087 are now properly integrated in Emacs. The file suffixes ".by" and ".wy"
2088 are in `auto-mode-alist', and the corresponding manuals are included.
2092 **** Menu support for the "Configuration" feature. This allows users to
2093 choose the active configuration (such as debug or install) from the menu.
2095 **** New command `ede-set' to interactively set project-local variables.
2097 **** Support for compiling, debugging, and running in "generic" projects.
2099 **** Autoconf editing support for M4 macros with complex arguments.
2101 **** Compilation support for the "linux" project type.
2103 **** "simple" projects have been removed; use "generic" projects instead.
2107 **** Support for parsing #include statements inside a namespace in C/C++.
2109 **** Improved support for 'extern "C"' declarations in C/C++.
2111 **** The ability to ignore more common special C/C++ preprocessor symbols,
2112 such as '__nonnull' and '__asm'. Add '__cplusplus' macro when parsing C++.
2113 If available, include cdefs.h as an additional source of preprocessor symbols.
2115 **** Improved C/C++ function pointer parsing.
2117 **** In Python, support for converting imports to include file names.
2119 **** Ability to dynamically determine the Python load path.
2121 **** Support for the Python 'WITH' and 'AT' keywords.
2123 **** Improved tooltip completion.
2127 **** The SRecode manual is now included.
2129 **** Tag generation supports constructor/destructor settings and system
2130 include differentiation.
2132 **** Addition of 'Framework' support: Frameworks are specified when a
2133 particular kind of library (such as Android) is needed in a common language
2136 **** Support for nested templates and let variables override based on priority.
2138 **** Support for merging tables from multiple related modes, such as
2139 default -> c++ -> arduino.
2141 ** Compile has a new option `compilation-always-kill'.
2145 *** `custom-reset-button-menu' now defaults to t.
2147 *** Non-option variables are never matched in `customize-apropos' and
2148 `customize-apropos-options' (i.e., the prefix argument does nothing for
2149 these commands now).
2153 *** The variables `term-default-fg-color' and `term-default-bg-color'
2154 are now deprecated in favor of the customizable face `term'.
2156 *** You can customize how to display ANSI terminal colors and styles
2157 by customizing the corresponding `term-color-<COLOR>',
2158 `term-color-underline' and `term-color-bold' faces.
2162 *** The syntax has been extended in order to allow ad-hoc proxy definitions.
2164 *** Remote processes are now also supported on remote MS-Windows hosts.
2168 *** Structs made by `url-generic-parse-url' have nil `attributes' slot.
2169 Previously, this slot stored semicolon-separated attribute-value pairs
2170 appended to some imap URLs, but this is not compatible with RFC 3986.
2171 So now the `filename' slot stores the entire path and query components,
2172 and the `attributes' slot is always nil.
2174 *** New function `url-encode-url' for encoding a URI string.
2175 The `url-retrieve' function now uses this to encode its URL argument,
2176 in case that is not properly encoded.
2178 ** notifications.el supports now version 1.2 of the Notifications API.
2179 The function `notifications-get-capabilities' returns the supported
2182 ** Flymake uses fringe bitmaps to indicate errors and warnings.
2183 See `flymake-fringe-indicator-position', `flymake-error-bitmap' and
2184 `flymake-warning-bitmap'.
2186 ** The FFAP option `ffap-url-unwrap-remote' can now be a list of strings,
2187 specifying URL types that should be converted to remote file names at
2188 the FFAP prompt. The default is now '("ftp").
2190 ** New Ibuffer `derived-mode' filter, bound to `/ M'.
2191 The old binding for `/ M' (filter by used-mode) is now bound to `/ m'.
2193 ** New option `mouse-avoidance-banish-position' specifies where the
2194 `banish' mouse avoidance setting moves the mouse.
2196 ** In Perl mode, new option `perl-indent-parens-as-block' causes non-block
2197 closing brackets to be aligned with the line of the opening bracket.
2199 ** In Proced mode, new command `proced-renice' renices marked processes.
2201 ** New option `async-shell-command-buffer' specifies the buffer to use
2202 for a new asynchronous `shell-command' when the default output buffer
2203 `*Async Shell Command*' is already in use.
2205 ** SQL mode has a new option `sql-db2-escape-newlines'.
2206 If non-nil, newlines sent to the command interpreter will be escaped
2207 by a backslash. The default does not escape the newlines and assumes
2208 that the sql statement will be terminated by a semicolon.
2210 ** New command `tabulated-list-sort', bound to `S' in Tabulated List mode
2211 (and modes that derive from it), sorts the column at point, or the Nth
2212 column if a numeric prefix argument is given.
2214 ** `which-func-modes' now defaults to t, so Which Function mode, when
2215 enabled, applies to all applicable major modes.
2217 ** `winner-mode-hook' now runs when the mode is disabled, as well as when
2220 ** Follow mode no longer works by using advice.
2221 The option `follow-intercept-processes' has been removed.
2223 ** `javascript-generic-mode' is now an obsolete alias for `js-mode'.
2225 ** Hooks renamed to avoid obsolete "-hooks" suffix:
2226 *** semantic-lex-reset-hooks -> semantic-lex-reset-functions
2227 *** semantic-change-hooks -> semantic-change-functions
2228 *** semantic-edits-new-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-new-change-functions
2229 *** semantic-edits-delete-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-delete-change-functions
2230 *** semantic-edits-reparse-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-reparse-change-functions
2231 *** semanticdb-save-database-hooks -> semanticdb-save-database-functions
2232 *** c-prepare-bug-report-hooks -> c-prepare-bug-report-hook
2233 *** rcirc-sentinel-hooks -> rcirc-sentinel-functions
2234 *** rcirc-receive-message-hooks -> rcirc-receive-message-functions
2235 *** rcirc-activity-hooks -> rcirc-activity-functions
2236 *** rcirc-print-hooks -> rcirc-print-functions
2237 *** dbus-event-error-hooks -> dbus-event-error-functions
2238 *** eieio-pre-method-execution-hooks -> eieio-pre-method-execution-functions
2239 *** checkdoc-style-hooks -> checkdoc-style-functions
2240 *** checkdoc-comment-style-hooks -> checkdoc-comment-style-functions
2241 *** archive-extract-hooks -> archive-extract-hook
2242 *** filesets-cache-fill-content-hooks -> filesets-cache-fill-content-hook
2243 *** hfy-post-html-hooks -> hfy-post-html-hook
2244 *** nndiary-request-create-group-hooks -> nndiary-request-create-group-functions
2245 *** nndiary-request-update-info-hooks -> nndiary-request-update-info-functions
2246 *** nndiary-request-accept-article-hooks -> nndiary-request-accept-article-functions
2247 *** gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-hooks -> gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-functions
2249 ** Obsolete packages
2252 In most cases, assoc+member+push+delq work just as well.
2253 And in any case it's just a terrible package: ugly semantics, terrible
2254 inefficiency, and not namespace-clean.
2263 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.3
2265 ** Docstrings starting with `*' no longer indicate user options.
2266 Only variables defined using `defcustom' are considered user options.
2267 The function `user-variable-p' is now an obsolete alias for
2268 `custom-variable-p'.
2270 ** The return values of `defalias', `defun' and `defmacro' have changed,
2271 and are now undefined. For backwards compatibility, `defun' and
2272 `defmacro' currently return the name of the newly defined
2273 function/macro, but this should not be relied upon.
2275 ** `random' by default now returns a different random sequence in
2276 every Emacs run. Use `(random S)', where S is a string, to set the
2277 random seed to a value based on S, in order to get a repeatable
2278 sequence in later calls.
2280 ** If the NEWTEXT arg to `replace-match' contains a substring "\?",
2281 that substring is inserted literally even if the LITERAL arg is
2282 non-nil, instead of causing an error to be signaled.
2284 ** `select-window' now always makes the window's buffer current.
2285 It does so even if the window was selected before.
2287 ** The function `x-select-font' can return a font spec, instead of a
2288 font name as a string. Whether it returns a font spec or a font name
2289 depends on the graphical library.
2291 ** `face-spec-set' no longer sets frame-specific attributes when the
2292 third argument is a frame (that usage was obsolete since Emacs 22.2).
2294 ** `set-buffer-multibyte' now signals an error in narrowed buffers.
2296 ** The CL package's `get-setf-method' function no longer exists.
2297 Generalized variables are now part of core Emacs Lisp, and implemented
2298 differently to the way cl.el used to do it. It is not possible to
2299 define a compatible replacement for `get-setf-method'. See the file
2300 gv.el for internal details of the new implementation.
2302 ** The arguments of `dbus-register-signal' are no longer just strings,
2303 but keywords or keyword-string pairs. The old argument list will
2304 still be supported for Emacs 24.x.
2306 ** Miscellaneous name changes
2307 Some Lisp symbols have been renamed to correct their spelling,
2308 or to be more consistent with standard Emacs terminology.
2310 *** Renamed functions
2311 **** hangul-input-method-inactivate -> hangul-input-method-deactivate
2312 **** inactivate-input-method -> deactivate-input-method
2313 **** quail-inactivate -> quail-deactivate
2314 **** robin-inactivate -> robin-deactivate
2315 **** viper-inactivate-input-method -> viper-deactivate-input-method
2316 **** viper-inactivate-input-method-action ->
2317 viper-deactivate-input-method-action
2318 **** ucs-input-inactivate -> ucs-input-deactivate
2321 The old hooks are still supported for backward compatibility, but they
2322 are deprecated and will be removed eventually.
2323 **** input-method-inactivate-hook -> input-method-deactivate-hook
2324 **** robin-inactivate-hook -> robin-deactivate-hook
2325 **** quail-inactivate-hook -> quail-deactivate-hook
2327 *** Renamed variables
2328 **** follow-deactive-menu -> follow-inactive-menu
2329 **** inactivate-current-input-method-function ->
2330 deactivate-current-input-method-function
2332 ** Some obsolete functions, variables, and faces have been removed:
2333 *** `last-input-char', `last-command-char', `unread-command-char'
2334 *** `facemenu-unlisted-faces'
2335 *** `rmail-decode-mime-charset'
2336 *** `iswitchb-read-buffer'
2337 *** `sc-version', `sc-submit-bug-report'
2338 *** `set-char-table-default'
2339 *** `string-to-sequence' (use `string-to-list' or `string-to-vector')
2340 *** `compile-internal'
2342 *** `mode-line-inverse-video'
2343 *** `follow-mode-off-hook'
2344 *** `cvs-commit-buffer-require-final-newline'
2345 (use `log-edit-require-final-newline' instead)
2346 *** `cvs-changelog-full-paragraphs'
2347 (use `log-edit-changelog-full-paragraphs' instead)
2348 *** `cvs-diff-ignore-marks', `cvs-diff-buffer-name'
2349 *** `vc-ignore-vc-files' (use `vc-handled-backends' instead)
2350 *** `vc-master-templates' (use `vc-handled-backends' instead)
2351 *** `vc-checkout-carefully'
2354 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.3
2356 ** CL-style generalized variables are now in core Elisp.
2357 `setf' is autoloaded; `push' and `pop' accept generalized variables.
2358 You can define your own generalized variables using `gv-define-simple-setter',
2359 `gv-define-setter', etc.
2361 ** Emacs tries to macroexpand interpreted (non-compiled) files during load.
2362 This can significantly speed up execution of non-byte-compiled code,
2363 but can also bump into previously unnoticed cyclic dependencies.
2364 These are generally harmless: they will simply cause the macro calls
2365 to be left for later expansion (as before), but will result in a
2366 warning ("Eager macro-expansion skipped due to cycle") describing the cycle.
2367 You may wish to restructure your code so this does not happen.
2369 ** New sampling-based Elisp profiler.
2370 Try M-x profiler-start, do some work, and then call M-x profiler-report.
2371 When finished, use M-x profiler-stop. The sampling rate can be based on
2372 CPU time or memory allocations.
2374 ** `defun' also accepts a (declare DECLS) form, like `defmacro'.
2375 The interpretation of the DECLS is determined by `defun-declarations-alist'.
2377 ** New macros `setq-local' and `defvar-local'.
2379 ** Face underlining can now use a wave.
2381 ** `read-regexp' has a new argument HISTORY; the first argument PROMPT
2382 of `read-regexp' accepts a string ending with a colon and space, and its
2383 second argument DEFAULTS can be a list of strings accessible via `M-n'
2384 in the minibuffer ahead of other hard-coded useful regexp-related values.
2385 More commands use `read-regexp' now to read their regexp arguments.
2389 *** New function `completion-table-with-quoting' to handle completion
2390 in the presence of quoting, such as file completion in shell buffers.
2392 *** New function `completion-table-subvert' to use an existing completion
2393 table, but with a different prefix.
2397 *** New error type and new function `user-error'.
2398 These do not trigger the debugger.
2400 *** New option `debugger-bury-or-kill', saying what to do with the
2401 debugger buffer when exiting debug.
2403 *** Set `debug-on-message' to enter the debugger when a certain
2404 message is displayed in the echo area. This can be useful when trying
2405 to work out which code is doing something.
2407 *** New var `inhibit-debugger', automatically set to prevent accidental
2408 recursive invocations.
2412 *** New command `fit-frame-to-buffer' adjusts the frame height to
2415 *** The command `fit-window-to-buffer' can adjust the frame height
2416 if the new option `fit-frame-to-buffer' is non-nil.
2418 *** New macro `with-temp-buffer-window', similar to
2419 `with-output-to-temp-buffer'.
2421 *** `temp-buffer-resize-mode' no longer resizes windows that have been
2424 *** New option `switch-to-buffer-preserve-window-point' to restore a
2425 window's point when switching buffers.
2427 *** New display action alist entries `window-height' and `window-width'
2428 specify the size of new windows created by `display-buffer'.
2430 *** New display action alist entry `pop-up-frame-parameters', if
2431 non-nil, specifies frame parameters to give any newly-created frame.
2433 *** New display action alist entry `inhibit-switch-frame', if non-nil,
2434 tells display action functions to avoid changing which frame is
2437 *** New display action alist entry `previous-window', if non-nil,
2438 specifies window to reuse in `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
2440 *** New display action functions `display-buffer-below-selected',
2441 and `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
2443 *** The functions `get-lru-window', `get-mru-window' and `get-largest-window'
2444 now accept a third argument to avoid choosing the selected window.
2446 *** Additional values recognized for option `window-combination-limit'.
2448 *** The following variables are obsolete, as they can be replaced by
2449 appropriate entries in the `display-buffer-alist' function introduced
2451 **** `dired-shrink-to-fit'
2452 **** `display-buffer-reuse-frames'
2453 **** `display-buffer-function'
2454 **** `special-display-buffer-names'
2455 **** `special-display-frame-alist'
2456 **** `special-display-function'
2457 **** `special-display-regexps'
2461 *** `current-time-string' no longer requires that its argument's year
2462 must be in the range 1000..9999. It now works with any year supported
2463 by the underlying C implementation.
2465 *** `current-time' now returns extended-format time stamps
2466 (HIGH LOW USEC PSEC), where the new PSEC slot specifies picoseconds.
2467 PSEC is typically a multiple of 1000 on current machines. Other
2468 functions that use this format, such as `file-attributes' and
2469 `format-time-string', have been changed accordingly. Old-format time
2470 stamps are still accepted.
2472 *** The format of timers in `timer-list' and `timer-idle-list' is now
2473 [TRIGGERED-P HI-SECS LO-SECS USECS REPEAT-DELAY FUNCTION ARGS IDLE-DELAY PSECS].
2474 The PSECS slot is new, and uses picosecond resolution. It can be
2475 accessed via the new `timer--psecs' accessor.
2477 *** Last-modified time stamps in undo lists now are of the form
2478 (t HI-SECS LO-SECS USECS PSECS) instead of (t HI-SECS . LO-SECS).
2482 *** Improved security when handling persistent objects:
2484 **** `eieio-persistent-read' now features optional arguments for specifying
2485 the class to load, as well as a flag stating whether subclasses are allowed;
2486 if provided, other classes will be rejected by the reader. For
2487 compatibility with existing code, if the class is omitted only a
2490 **** New specialized reader for pulling in classes and signaling errors
2491 without evaluation of suspicious code.
2493 **** All slots that contain objects must have a :type. Slots with lists
2494 of objects must use a new type predicate for a list of an object type.
2496 *** Support for `find-function' and similar utilities, through the addition
2497 of filename support to generated symbols.
2499 ** Floating point functions now always return special values like NaN,
2500 instead of signaling errors, if given invalid args; e.g., (log -1.0).
2501 Previously, they returned NaNs on some platforms but signaled errors
2502 on others. The affected functions are acos, asin, tan, exp, expt,
2503 log, log10, sqrt, and mod.
2505 ** New fringe bitmap `exclamation-mark'.
2507 ** Miscellaneous changes to special forms and macros
2509 *** `defun' and `defmacro' are now macros rather than special forms.
2511 *** `kbd' is now a function rather than a macro.
2513 ** Miscellaneous new functions
2515 *** `set-temporary-overlay-map' sets up a temporary keymap that
2516 takes precedence over most other maps for a short while (normally one key).
2518 *** `autoloadp' tests if its argument is an autoloaded object.
2520 *** `autoload-do-load' performs the autoloading operation.
2522 *** `buffer-narrowed-p' tests if the buffer is narrowed.
2524 *** `file-name-base' returns a file name sans directory and extension.
2526 *** `function-get' fetches a function property, following aliases.
2528 *** `posnp' tests if an object is a `posn'.
2530 *** `system-users' returns the user names on the system.
2532 *** `system-groups' returns the group names on the system.
2534 *** `tty-top-frame' returns the topmost frame of a text terminal.
2536 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
2537 *** `automount-dir-prefix' (use `directory-abbrev-alist')
2538 *** `buffer-has-markers-at'
2539 *** `macro-declaration-function' (use `macro-declarations-alist')
2540 *** `window-system-version' (provides no useful information)
2541 *** `dired-pop-to-buffer' (use `dired-mark-pop-up')
2542 *** `query-replace-interactive'
2543 *** `font-list-limit' (has had no effect since Emacs < 23)
2546 * Changes in Emacs 24.3 on Non-Free Operating Systems
2548 ** Cygwin builds can use the native MS Windows user interface.
2549 Pass `--with-w32' to configure. The default remains the X11 interface.
2551 ** Two new functions are available in Cygwin builds:
2552 `cygwin-convert-file-name-from-windows' and
2553 `cygwin-convert-file-name-to-windows'. These functions allow Lisp
2554 code to access the Cygwin file-name mapping machinery to convert
2555 between Cygwin and Windows-native file and directory names.
2557 ** When invoked with the -nw switch to run on the Windows text-mode terminal,
2558 Emacs now supports `mouse-highlight', help-echo (in the echo area), and
2559 `mouse-autoselect-window'.
2561 ** On MS Windows Vista and later Emacs now supports symbolic links.
2563 ** On MS Windows, you can pass `--without-libxml2' to configure.bat to omit
2564 support for libxml2, even if its presence is detected.
2566 ** On Mac OS X, the Nextstep port requires OS X 10.4 or later.
2568 ** On Mac OS X, configure no longer automatically adds the Fink "/sw"
2569 directories to the search path. You must add them yourself if you want them.
2572 * Changes in Emacs 24.2
2574 ** This is mainly a bug-fix release.
2577 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
2579 ** Emacs can be compiled with Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
2580 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
2581 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
2584 ** Emacs can be compiled with GnuTLS support.
2585 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
2586 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
2587 `--without-gnutls'. See below for GnuTLS features.
2589 ** Emacs can be compiled with SELinux support.
2590 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
2591 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
2592 `--without-selinux'. See below for SELinux features.
2594 ** Emacs can be compiled with ImageMagick support.
2595 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
2596 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
2597 `--without-imagemagick'. See below for ImageMagick features.
2598 This feature is not available for the Nextstep or MS ports.
2600 ** Emacs can be compiled with libxml2 support.
2601 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
2602 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
2603 `--without-xml2'. See below for libxml2 features.
2605 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
2606 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
2608 ** New configure option --with-wide-int.
2609 With it, Emacs integers typically have 62 bits, even on 32-bit machines.
2610 On 32-bit hosts, this raises the limit on buffer sizes from about 512 MiB
2613 ** New configure options: --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
2614 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
2615 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
2617 ** New configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
2618 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
2619 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
2621 ** The standalone programs digest-doc and sorted-doc are removed.
2622 Emacs now uses Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
2624 ** The standalone program `fakemail' is removed.
2625 If you need it, feedmail.el provides a superset of the functionality.
2628 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
2630 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
2631 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
2632 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
2634 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
2635 from load-path. -Q now implies this. This option does not affect the
2636 EMACSLOADPATH environment variable (and hence has no effect for
2640 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
2644 *** Many packages now use the `completion-at-point' command,
2645 rather than implementing separate completion commands.
2647 *** `completion-at-point' now handles tags and semantic completion.
2649 *** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
2650 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
2652 *** New option `completion-cycle-threshold' allows completion cycling.
2654 *** New option `completion-category-overrides' for overriding the
2655 default completion style in certain circumstances.
2657 *** New completion style `substring'.
2659 *** Completion of buffer names uses `substring' completion by default.
2661 *** The option `widget-complete-field' has been removed.
2665 *** The first time you try sending mail, Emacs asks for a mail method.
2666 This is implemented by a new default for `send-mail-function', which
2667 is `sendmail-query-once'. This offers to use the smtpmail package, or
2668 to use the old defaults relying on external mail facilities
2669 (`sendmail-send-it' on GNU/Linux and other Unix-like systems, and
2670 `mailclient-send-it' on Windows).
2672 *** Typing `C-c m' in the buffer made by `M-x report-emacs-bug'
2673 transfers the report to your desktop's preferred mail client, if there
2674 is one. This uses either the "xdg-email" utility, or Mac OS's "open"
2677 *** See Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages for SMTPmail changes
2678 and Mail mode changes
2680 ** Emacs server and client changes
2682 *** New option `server-port' specifies the port for TCP Emacs servers.
2684 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
2686 *** New emacsclient argument --frame-parameters specifies the frame
2687 parameters of any newly-created graphical frame.
2689 *** If emacsclient shuts down due to Emacs signaling an error,
2690 its exit status is 1.
2692 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID.
2693 This opens a client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed, similar
2694 to the --parent-id argument to Emacs.
2696 ** Internationalization changes
2698 *** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
2699 Right-to-left (RTL) scripts, such as Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew, are
2700 displayed in the correct visual order as expected by users of those
2701 scripts. The display reordering is a "full bidirectionality" class
2702 implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm (UBA). Buffers
2703 with no RTL text should look exactly the same as before.
2705 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-display-reordering'.
2706 To disable display reordering in a buffer, change this to nil.
2708 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction'.
2709 If nil (the default), Emacs determines the base direction of each
2710 paragraph from its text, as specified by the UBA. Setting the value
2711 to `right-to-left' or `left-to-right' forces a base direction on each
2714 Paragraphs with right-to-left base direction are displayed starting at
2715 the right window edge.
2717 *** Enhanced support for characters with no glyphs in available fonts,
2718 or, on text terminals, characters that cannot be encoded by the
2719 terminal coding system. The new option `glyphless-char-display-control'
2720 specifies how to display them: as a hexadecimal code in a box, a thin
2721 1-pixel space, an empty box, etc.
2723 *** New input methods for Farsi and Bulgarian
2724 (farsi-isiri-9147, farsi-transliterate-banan, bulgarian-alt-phonetic).
2726 *** `nobreak-char-display' now also highlights Unicode hyphen chars
2727 (U+2010 and U+2011).
2729 *** New Hebrew translation of the Emacs Tutorial.
2730 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
2731 automatically select it.
2733 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
2734 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
2735 from a package repository at http://elpa.gnu.org.
2737 *** M-x list-packages shows a list of packages, which can be
2738 selected for installation.
2740 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
2742 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded automatically when
2743 Emacs starts up. To disable this, set `package-enable-at-startup' to
2744 nil. To specify the packages to load, customize `package-load-list'.
2746 ** Custom theme changes
2748 *** New command `M-x customize-themes', which provides a convenient
2749 interface for enabling and disabling Custom themes.
2751 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
2752 Emacs no longer looks for Custom themes in `load-path'. The default
2753 value of `custom-theme-load-path' says to look for themes in
2754 `custom-theme-directory', followed by a subdirectory of
2755 `data-directory' named "themes/", which contains a small selection of
2756 built-in Custom themes.
2758 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
2759 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
2760 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
2761 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
2763 ** Improved GTK integration
2765 *** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
2766 The function `set-scroll-bar-mode' can change this.
2768 *** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
2769 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose the style. On a Gnome desktop,
2770 the default is taken from desktop settings.
2772 *** GTK tool bars can be placed on any edge of the frame.
2773 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the
2774 values top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has
2777 *** The default colors for selected text (the `region' face) are taken
2778 from the GTK theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
2780 *** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK.
2781 You can disable this by changing `x-gtk-use-system-tooltips' to nil.
2783 ** Graphical interface changes
2785 *** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
2786 Also, the first dash (which does not indicate anything) is just
2787 displayed as a space.
2789 *** `menu-bar-select-buffer-function' lets you choose another operation
2790 instead of `switch-to-buffer' when selecting an item in the Buffers menu.
2792 *** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is
2793 built with Xft. These fonts can be set via X resources, for example:
2794 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
2798 *** Emacs now calls `kill-emacs' if it receives SIGTERM or SIGHUP,
2799 or if it receives a SIGINT signal in batch mode.
2801 *** `kill-emacs-hook' is now also run in batch mode.
2802 Third-party code which adds to `kill-emacs-hook' should check if they
2803 do the right thing in batch mode.
2805 ** Scrolling changes
2807 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
2808 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
2809 of buffer at first key-press (instead they move to top/bottom of buffer)
2810 when `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
2812 *** New option `scroll-error-top-bottom' (see above).
2814 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
2815 scroll a line instead of full screen.
2817 *** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
2818 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
2820 *** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
2821 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
2822 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
2823 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
2824 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
2826 *** "Aggressive" scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
2827 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
2828 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
2829 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
2832 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
2833 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
2835 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up.
2836 Also, the function `copy-file' has an extra optional argument for
2837 preserving SELinux context, and the return value of `backup-buffer'
2838 now includes the SELinux context.
2840 *** New functions `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
2841 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
2845 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
2846 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
2848 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
2849 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
2851 ** File- and directory-local variable changes
2853 *** You can stop directory local vars from applying to subdirectories.
2854 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
2855 settings to indicate that the section should not apply to
2858 *** Directory local variables can apply to some file-less buffers.
2859 Affected modes include dired, vc-dir, and log-edit. For example,
2860 adding "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to .dir-locals.el will
2861 turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should call
2862 `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
2864 *** Using "mode: MINOR-MODE" to enable a minor mode is deprecated.
2865 Instead, use "eval: (minor-mode 1)".
2867 *** The variable `inhibit-first-line-modes-regexps' has been renamed
2868 to `inhibit-local-variables-regexps'. As the name suggests, it now
2869 applies to ALL file local variables, not just -*- lines. The
2870 associated `inhibit-first-line-modes-suffixes' has been renamed in the
2875 *** The `quit-window' command now restores the last buffer displayed
2876 in the quitted window.
2878 *** Resizing an Emacs frame now preserves proportional window sizes,
2879 modulo restrictions like window minimum sizes and fixed-size windows.
2881 *** The behavior of `display-buffer' is now customizable in detail.
2883 **** New option `display-buffer-base-action' specifies a list of
2884 user-determined display "actions" (functions and optional arguments
2885 for choosing the displaying window).
2887 This takes precedence over the default display action, which is
2888 specified by `display-buffer-fallback-action'.
2890 **** New option `display-buffer-alist' maps buffer name regexps to
2891 display actions, taking precedence over `display-buffer-base-action'.
2893 *** New option `window-combination-limit'.
2894 The new option `window-combination-limit' allows to return the space
2895 obtained for resizing or creating a window more reliably to the window
2896 from which such space was obtained.
2898 *** New option `window-combination-resize'.
2899 The new option `window-combination-resize' allows to split a window that
2900 otherwise cannot be split because it's too small by stealing space from
2901 other windows in the same combination. Subsequent resizing or deletion
2902 of the window will resize all windows in the same combination as well.
2904 *** New option `frame-auto-hide-function' lets you choose between
2905 iconifying or deleting a frame when burying a buffer in a dedicated
2906 frame, or quitting a window showing a buffer in a frame of its own.
2908 *** New commands `maximize-window' and `minimize-window'.
2909 These maximize and minimize the size of a window within its frame.
2911 *** New commands `switch-to-prev-buffer' and `switch-to-next-buffer'.
2912 These functions allow to navigate through the live buffers that have
2913 been shown in a specific window.
2915 ** Minibuffer changes
2917 *** The inactive minibuffer has its own major mode `minibuffer-inactive-mode'.
2918 This is handy for minibuffer-only frames, and is also used for the feature
2919 where mouse-1 pops up *Messages*"', which can now easily be changed.
2921 *** Minibuffers set `truncate-lines' to nil.
2922 If you want to change the value to something else, you could use
2923 for example `minibuffer-setup-hook'.
2925 ** `auto-mode-case-fold' is now enabled by default.
2927 ** `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' now defaults to t.
2929 ** New basic faces `error', `warning', `success'.
2930 These are used to highlight text indicating failure, caution or
2931 successful operation.
2933 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
2934 for `list-colors-display'.
2936 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
2939 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
2943 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-kill', instead of
2944 `isearch-yank-line'.
2946 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-pop', instead of
2947 `isearch-yank-kill'.
2949 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-line'.
2951 ** New commands `count-words-region' and `count-words'.
2953 *** M-= is bound to `count-words-region', not `count-lines-region'.
2954 The `count-words-region' command, when called interactively, reports
2955 the number of lines, words, and characters in the region. It is a
2956 superset of the old `count-lines-region', which is now an obsolete
2959 ** The command `just-one-space' (M-SPC), if given a negative argument,
2960 also deletes newlines around point.
2964 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
2965 If non-nil, [delete] and DEL delete the region if it is active and no
2966 prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', those commands kill
2969 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to [delete].
2970 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
2971 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
2973 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
2974 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
2975 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; Lisp
2976 callers should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
2978 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
2980 ** Selection changes.
2982 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections has been
2983 changed to conform with modern X applications. In short, most
2984 commands for killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while
2985 mouse commands use the primary selection.
2987 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
2988 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
2990 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
2991 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
2992 the kill ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
2993 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
2995 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
2996 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
2997 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
2998 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
2999 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
3001 **** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
3003 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
3004 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
3005 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
3007 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
3009 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
3010 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
3011 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
3013 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
3014 exactly equivalent to M-w, C-w, and C-y respectively.
3016 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
3017 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
3018 between applications.
3020 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
3022 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
3023 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
3024 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
3025 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
3026 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
3028 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
3030 *** X clipboard managers are now supported.
3031 To inhibit this, change `x-select-enable-clipboard-manager' to nil.
3033 ** New command `C-x r N' (`rectangle-number-lines') numbers the lines
3034 in the current rectangle. With a prefix argument, this prompts for a
3035 number to count from and for a format string.
3037 ** `redisplay-dont-pause' now defaults to t.
3038 This makes Emacs feel more responsive to editing commands that arrive
3039 at high rate, e.g. if you lean on some key, because stopping redisplay
3040 in the middle (when this variable is nil) forces more expensive
3041 updates later on, and Emacs appears to be unable to keep up.
3043 ** The behavior of <TAB> for active regions in Text mode has changed.
3044 In Text and related modes, typing <TAB> (`indent-for-tab-command')
3045 when the region is active causes Emacs to indent all the lines in the
3046 region, aligning them with the line previous to the first line in the
3047 region (or with the left margin if there is no previous line).
3049 ** When `occur' is called with a prefix argument, matching strings are
3050 collected into the `*Occur*' buffer without line numbers. If there
3051 are parenthesized subexpressions in the specified regexp, `occur'
3052 reads replacement text that may contain \\& and \\N whose convention
3053 follows `replace-match'.
3056 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
3058 ** Archive Mode has basic support for browsing and updating 7z archives.
3062 *** BibTeX mode now supports biblatex.
3063 Use the variable `bibtex-dialect' to select different BibTeX dialects.
3064 `bibtex-entry-field-alist' is now an obsolete alias for
3065 `bibtex-BibTeX-entry-alist'.
3067 *** New command `bibtex-search-entries', bound to C-c C-a.
3069 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `sort-fields', disabled by default.
3071 *** New variable `bibtex-search-entry-globally'.
3075 *** New option `browse-url-mailto-function' specifies how to handle "mailto:"s.
3077 *** The default browser used by the package is now the "xdg-open" program,
3078 on platforms that support it. This calls your desktop's preferred browser.
3082 *** Support for musical notes.
3084 *** Support for logarithmic units.
3086 *** No longer uses the tex prefix for TeX specific unit names when
3087 using TeX or LaTeX mode.
3089 *** New option to highlight selections using faces.
3091 *** `calc-histogram' has the option of using a vector to determine the bins.
3093 *** New "O" option prefix.
3095 *** Use the "O" prefix to "d r" (`calc-radix') to turn on twos-complement mode.
3097 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
3099 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing "comments".
3100 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
3102 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
3103 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
3105 *** The function specified by `appt-disp-window-function' may be passed
3106 lists of arguments if multiple appointments are due at similar times.
3107 If you are using a custom function for this, you should update it.
3109 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
3111 *** Elements of `calendar-day-abbrev-array' and `calendar-month-abbrev-array'
3112 may no longer be nil, but must all be strings.
3114 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt
3115 package by adding `appt-make-list' to `diary-hook' has been removed.
3116 Use `appt-activate' instead.
3118 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
3119 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
3120 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
3122 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
3123 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
3127 *** New feature to "guess" the style in an existing buffer.
3128 The main entry point is M-x c-guess.
3130 *** Java Mode now supports Java 5.0 (Tiger) and 6 (Mustang).
3132 *** `c-beginning-of-defun' and `c-end-of-defun' now respect nested scopes.
3133 Thus C-M-a will, by default, go to the beginning of the immediate function,
3136 *** "Macros with semicolons" can be registered for correct indentation.
3137 Where such a macro ends a line (no semicolon) the next statement is no longer
3138 parsed as a statement continuation.
3140 ** Comint and modes derived from it use the standard completion code.
3144 *** Compilation mode can be used without Font Lock mode.
3145 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
3147 *** New variable `compilation-filter-start', which is bound while
3148 `compilation-filter-hook' runs. It records the start position of the
3149 text inserted by `compilation-filter'.
3151 *** `compilation-error-screen-columns' and `compilation-first-column'
3152 are obeyed in the editing buffer. So programming language modes can
3153 set them, whereas previously only the value in the *Compilation*
3158 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
3159 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
3160 To turn off the search field, set `custom-search-field' to nil.
3162 *** Options in customize group buffers start out hidden if not customized.
3163 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
3165 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
3167 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
3168 choose a color via `list-colors-display'.
3172 *** It is now possible to access buses other than the default system
3175 *** The `dbus-register-method' and `dbus-register-property' functions
3176 optionally do not register names.
3178 *** The new function `dbus-register-service' registers a known service
3179 name on a D-Bus without also registering a property or a method.
3183 *** C-x C-j (`dired-jump') and C-x 4 C-j (`dired-jump-other-window'),
3184 if called with a prefix argument, read a file name from the minibuffer
3185 instead of using the current buffer.
3187 *** The "dired local variables" feature of Dired-x is obsolete.
3188 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
3192 *** New options `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay',
3193 controlling attempts to autojoin a channel.
3195 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
3196 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
3197 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
3198 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
3202 *** The default value of `eshell-directory-name' has changed
3203 to be an "eshell" directory in `user-emacs-directory'.
3204 The old "~/.eshell/" directory is still used if it exists, though.
3208 *** The M-x gdb command now uses the GDB Machine Interface protocol.
3209 It now supports multithread non-stop debugging and simultaneous
3210 debugging of several threads.
3214 *** RET (`image-toggle-animation') toggles animation, if applicable.
3215 Animation plays once, unless the option `image-animate-loop' is non-nil.
3219 *** New command M-x info-display-manual displays a named Info manual.
3220 If that manual is already visited in some Info buffer, it displays
3221 that buffer. (This is handy if you have many manuals in many *info*
3222 buffers, and don't remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual
3223 you want to consult.) Otherwise, it loads and displays the manual.
3225 *** `e' is now bound to `end-of-buffer' rather than to `Info-edit'.
3226 This is for compatibility with the stand-alone Info reader program,
3227 and also because `Info-edit' is a rarely used command that is disabled
3230 ** Mail mode changes (not Message mode)
3232 *** New command M-x mail-add-attachment for adding MIME attachments
3234 *** The command M-x mail-attach-file was renamed to M-x mail-insert-file.
3235 (Its name is misleading, since it has nothing to do with MIME
3236 attachments.) The old name is now an obsolete alias to the new name.
3238 ** MH-E has been updated to MH-E version 8.3.1.
3239 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
3241 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
3243 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
3245 ** nXML mode no longer binds C-RET to `nxml-complete'.
3246 Completion is now performed via `completion-at-point', bound to C-M-i
3247 or M-TAB. If `nxml-bind-meta-tab-to-complete-flag' is non-nil (the
3248 default), this performs tag completion.
3250 ** Org mode has been updated to version 7.8.09.
3251 See ORG-NEWS for details.
3253 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
3254 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity,
3255 support for more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
3259 *** The command `rmail-epa-decrypt' decrypts OpenPGP data
3260 in the Rmail incoming message.
3262 *** The variable `rmail-message-filter' no longer has any effect.
3263 This change was made in Emacs 23.1 but was not advertised at the time.
3264 Try using `rmail-show-message-hook' instead.
3268 *** M-x shell prompts for the shell path name if the default directory
3269 is a remote file name and neither the environment variable $ESHELL nor
3270 the variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
3272 *** TAB is now bound to the standard `completion-at-point' command,
3273 which now implements the pcomplete rules for shell command completion.
3277 *** SMTPmail now uses encrypted connections (via STARTTLS) by default
3278 if the mail server supports them. This uses either built-in GnuTLS
3279 support, or the starttls.el library. Customize `smtpmail-stream-type'
3282 *** The variable `smtpmail-auth-credentials' has been removed.
3283 By default, the information is now stored in the file ~/.authinfo.
3284 This was the default value of smtpmail-auth-credentials. If you had
3285 customized smtpmail-auth-credentials to a list of user names and
3286 passwords, those settings are not used. During your first connection
3287 to the smtp server, Emacs will prompt for the user name and password,
3288 and offer to save them to ~/.authinfo. Or you can manually copy the
3289 credentials to ~/.authinfo. For example, if you had
3291 (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials
3292 '(("mail.example.org" 25 "jim" "s!cret")))
3294 then the equivalent line in ~/.authinfo would be
3296 machine mail.example.org port 25 login jim password s!cret
3298 See the auth-source manual for more information, e.g. on encrypting
3299 the credentials file.
3301 *** The variable `smtpmail-starttls-credentials' has been removed.
3302 If you had that set, you need to put
3304 machine smtp.whatever.foo port 25 key "~/.my_smtp_tls.key" cert "~/.my_smtp_tls.cert"
3306 in your ~/.authinfo file instead.
3308 *** SMTPmail defaults to using the address in the From: header as the
3309 SMTP MAIL FROM envelope. To override this, set `mail-envelope-from'
3310 to the address you wish to use instead.
3314 *** New options `sql-port', `sql-connection-alist', `sql-send-terminator',
3315 and `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
3317 *** New options controlling prompting for login parameters.
3318 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params',
3319 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
3320 connection is established.
3322 *** The command `sql-product-interactive' now takes a prefix argument,
3323 which causes it to prompt for an SQL product.
3325 *** Product-specific SQL interactive commands now take prefix arguments.
3326 These commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres', `sql-mysql', etc.),
3327 given a prefix argument, prompt for a name for the SQL interactive
3328 buffer. This reduces the need for calling `sql-rename-buffer'.
3330 *** SQL interactive modes suppress command continuation prompts, and
3331 replace tabs with spaces. The first change impacts multiple line SQL
3332 statements entered with C-j between each line, statements yanked into
3333 the buffer and statements sent with `sql-send-*' functions. The
3334 second prevents the MySQL and Postgres interpreters from listing
3335 object name completions when sent text via `sql-send-*' functions.
3337 *** New command `sql-connect' starts a predefined SQLi session,
3338 using the login parameters from `sql-connection-alist'.
3340 *** New "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
3341 This gathers the login params specified for the SQLi session, if it
3342 was not started by a connection, and saves them as a new connection.
3344 *** New commands for listing database objects and details:
3345 sql-list-all and sql-list-table.
3347 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
3351 *** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
3355 *** New inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
3357 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
3358 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
3360 *** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
3361 remote file attributes are cached for better performance.
3363 *** The option `ange-ftp-binary-file-name-regexp' has changed its
3364 default value to "".
3366 *** Handlers for `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
3367 for remote machines which support SELinux.
3369 ** New function `url-queue-retrieve', which behaves like url-retrieve,
3370 but with limits (`url-queue-parallel-processes', `url-queue-timeout') on
3371 the degree of parallelism.
3373 ** VC and related modes
3375 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
3376 The command C-x v + (`vc-pull') runs a "pull" operation, if it is
3377 supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to update the
3378 current branch and working tree. A prefix argument means to prompt
3379 the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
3381 *** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
3383 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
3384 The command C-x v m (`vc-merge') now runs a "merge" operation, if it
3385 is supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to merge
3386 changes from another branch into the current one. It prompts for
3387 specifics, e.g. a merge source.
3389 *** New option `vc-revert-show-diff' controls whether `vc-revert'
3390 shows a diff while querying the user. It defaults to t.
3392 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
3393 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
3394 This is currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial (to support
3395 another backend, define a `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function').
3396 In the Log View buffers made by C-x v L (`vc-print-root-log'), you can
3397 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
3399 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
3400 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
3402 *** The option `vc-initial-comment' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but
3403 this was not advertised at the time.
3405 *** `vc-toggle-read-only' is an obsolete alias for `toggle-read-only'.
3406 Since Emacs 23, it has done the same thing as `toggle-read-only', but
3407 this was not advertised at the time.
3413 *** erc-hecomplete.el (use erc-pcomplete.el instead)
3415 *** partial-completion-mode (complete.el) is obsolete.
3416 You can get a comparable behavior with:
3417 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
3418 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
3420 *** pc-mode.el is obsolete (CUA mode is much more comprehensive).
3422 *** pgg is obsolete (use EasyPG instead).
3424 *** sregex.el is obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
3426 *** s-region.el and pc-select.el are obsolete.
3427 They are superseded by shift-select-mode, enabled by default since 23.1.
3429 *** vc-mcvs.el is obsolete (for lack of a maintainer).
3433 *** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
3434 Its functions and variables have been similarly renamed.
3436 *** In `ido-file-completion-map', C-v is no longer bound to `ido-toggle-vc'.
3437 (This interfered with cua-mode.)
3439 *** f90.el has some support for Fortran 2008 syntax.
3441 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
3443 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
3446 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
3448 ** Occur Edit mode applies edits made in *Occur* buffers to the
3449 original buffers. It is bound to "e" in Occur mode.
3451 ** New global minor mode electric-pair-mode.
3452 When enabled, typing an open parenthesis automatically inserts the
3453 matching closing one.
3455 ** New global minor mode electric-indent-mode.
3456 When enabled, typing certain characters triggers reindentation.
3457 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-indent-chars or
3458 electric-indent-functions.
3460 ** New global minor mode electric-layout-mode.
3461 When enabled, typing certain characters automatically inserts newlines.
3462 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-layout-rules.
3464 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
3465 from which other modes can be derived.
3467 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
3469 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
3470 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
3471 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
3472 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
3475 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
3476 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
3478 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
3479 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
3481 ** New generic mode, xmodmap-generic-mode, for xmodmap files.
3483 ** New emacs-lock.el package.
3484 The previous version has been moved to obsolete/old-emacs-lock.el.
3485 Now, there is a proper minor mode `emacs-lock-mode'. Protection
3486 against exiting Emacs and killing the buffer can be set separately.
3487 The mechanism for automatically turning off protection for buffers
3488 with dead inferior processes has been generalized.
3491 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
3493 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function call now ENABLES
3494 the minor mode unconditionally. This is so that you can write e.g.
3496 (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'foo-mode)
3498 to enable foo-mode in Text mode buffers, removing the need for
3499 `turn-on-foo-mode' style functions. This affects all mode commands
3500 defined by `define-minor-mode'. If called interactively, the mode
3501 command still toggles the minor mode.
3503 ** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
3504 It is now a list of three elements, where the second element is a list
3505 describing the original file's SELinux context. If Emacs or the
3506 system lacks SELinux support, the context list is (nil nil nil nil).
3507 See "Basic SELinux support" above, under "Changes in Emacs 24.1".
3509 ** `char-direction-table' and the `char-direction' function were deleted.
3510 They were buggy and inferior to the new support of bidirectional
3511 editing introduced in Emacs 24. If you need the bidirectional
3512 properties of a character, use `get-char-code-property' with the last
3513 argument `bidi-class'.
3515 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
3516 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
3517 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
3518 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
3520 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
3521 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
3522 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
3525 ** Support for "old-style" backquotes, obsolete for 10+ years, has
3526 been further reduced. Now a backquote not followed by a space is
3527 always treated as a "new-style" backquote. Please remove all
3528 "old-style" backquotes from your code. If your code uses backquotes
3529 as documented in the Elisp manual, and compiles without warning, then
3530 you have nothing to do in this regard. Code not following the
3531 appropriate conventions may fail to compile.
3533 The most common cause of trouble seems to be an old-style backquote
3534 followed by a newline. Another cause of trouble is vector notation
3535 for key sequence notation: instead of [(control ,)] and [(control ')],
3536 you should write [(control ?,)] and [(control ?')], which will work in
3539 ** The macro `eval-at-startup' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but this
3540 was not advertised at the time. The function `custom-initialize-delay'
3541 replaced all known uses.
3543 ** `view-buffer' now treats special mode-class in the same way that
3544 `view-file' has since Emacs 22 (i.e. it won't enable View mode if the
3545 major mode is special).
3547 ** Menu and tool bar changes
3549 *** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
3550 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
3551 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
3552 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
3553 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
3554 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
3556 *** The menu bar bindings's caches are not used any more.
3557 Use (where-is-internal <def> nil t) instead.
3559 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
3560 similar to those created by shift-selection (see Selection changes
3561 above). In previous Emacs versions, these regions were delineated by
3562 `mouse-drag-overlay'; that variable has been removed.
3564 ** The fourth argument of `filter-buffer-substring' has been removed.
3565 If you want to remove text properties from the final result, simply
3566 pass the result through substring-no-properties.
3568 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
3570 ** The following obsolete functions and aliases have been removed
3571 (the appropriate new function is given in parentheses; "not needed"
3572 means you can just remove all calls to the function in question):
3574 *** `comint-kill-output' (`comint-delete-output')
3575 *** `decompose-composite-char' (`char-to-string')
3576 *** `outline-visible' (`outline-invisible-p')
3577 *** `internal-find-face' (`facep')
3578 *** `internal-get-face' (`facep and check-face')
3579 *** `frame-update-faces' (not needed)
3580 *** `frame-update-face-colors' (`frame-set-background-mode')
3581 *** `x-frob-font-weight' and `x-frob-font-slant' (`make-face-*' functions)
3582 *** `x-make-font-bold' and `x-make-font-demibold' (`make-face-bold')
3583 *** `x-make-font-italic' and `x-make-font-oblique' (`make-face-italic')
3584 *** `x-make-font-bold-italic' (`make-face-bold-italic')
3585 *** `x-make-font-unbold' (`make-face-unbold')
3586 *** `x-make-font-unitalic' (`make-face-unitalic')
3587 *** `mldrag-drag-mode-line' (`mouse-drag-mode-line')
3588 *** `mldrag-drag-vertical-line' (`mouse-drag-vertical-line')
3589 *** `iswitchb-default-keybindings' (`iswitchb-mode')
3590 *** `char-bytes' (== 1)
3591 *** `isearch-return-char' (`isearch-printing-char')
3592 *** `make-local-hook' (not needed)
3593 *** `set-screen-height' (`set-frame-height')
3594 *** `set-screen-width' (`set-frame-width')
3596 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed
3597 (the appropriate new variable is given in parentheses):
3599 *** `checkdoc-minor-keymap' (`checkdoc-minor-mode-map')
3600 *** `vc-header-alist' (`vc-BACKEND-header')
3601 *** `directory-sep-char' (== ?/)
3602 *** `font-lock-defaults-alist' (`font-lock-defaults')
3603 *** `e' (`float-e').
3605 ** The following obsolete files were removed:
3606 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
3608 ** The format of the finder-inf.el file has changed, since the Finder
3609 mechanism is now based on the package system. The variable
3610 `finder-package-info' is replaced by `package--builtins' and
3611 `finder-keywords-hash'.
3613 ** When generating autoloads, `update-directory-autoloads' no longer
3614 assumes every inspected file is in your `load-path'. It instead
3615 generates relative names according to the current `load-path'.
3618 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
3620 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
3621 The `lexical-binding' variable enables lexical scoping for local
3622 variables. It is typically set via a file-local variable in the first
3623 line of the file, in which case it applies to all the code in that
3626 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
3627 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
3629 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
3630 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
3632 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
3634 *** `defvar' and `defconst' now mark the variable as special (dynamic).
3635 So do `defcustom' and other forms that call `defvar' as a subroutine.
3637 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
3638 declared as dynamically bound.
3640 *** The form ((lambda ...) ...) is deprecated.
3642 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
3643 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
3644 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
3646 ** Changes for bidirectional display and editing
3648 *** New function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction'.
3649 This returns the base direction of the paragraph at point.
3651 *** New function `bidi-string-mark-left-to-right'.
3652 Given a string containing characters from right-to-left scripts, this
3653 function returns another string which can be safely inserted into a
3654 buffer, such that any following text will be always displayed to the
3655 right of that string. (This works by appending an invisible Unicode
3656 "LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK" character if the argument string might need it.)
3658 This is useful when the buffer has overall left-to-right paragraph
3659 direction and you need to insert a string whose contents are not known
3660 in advance, without disrupting the layout of the line.
3664 *** Window tree functions are accessible in Elisp.
3665 Functions are provided to return the parent, siblings or child windows
3666 of any window including internal windows (windows not associated with a
3667 buffer) in the window tree.
3669 **** New function `window-valid-p' gives non-nil for live and internal
3672 **** Window manipulation can deal with internal windows.
3673 Many window handling functions like `split-window', `delete-window', or
3674 `delete-other-windows' as well as the window resizing functions can now
3675 act on any window including internal ones.
3677 *** window-total-height/-width vs window-body-height/-width.
3678 The function `window-height' has been renamed to `window-total-height'
3679 and `window-width' has been renamed to `window-body-width'. The old
3680 names are provided as aliases. Two new functions `window-total-width'
3681 and `window-body-height' are provided.
3683 *** Window parameters specific to window handling functions.
3684 For each window you can specify a parameter to override the default
3685 behavior of a number of functions like `split-window', `delete-window'
3686 and `delete-other-windows'. The variable `ignore-window-parameters'
3687 allows to ignore processing such parameters.
3689 *** New semantics of third argument of `split-window'.
3690 The third argument of `split-window' has been renamed to SIDE and can be
3691 set to any of the values 'below, 'right, 'above, or 'left to make the
3692 new window appear on the corresponding side of the window that shall be
3693 split. Any other value of SIDE will cause `split-window' to split the
3694 window into two side-by-side windows as before.
3696 *** Window resizing functions.
3697 A new standard function for resizing windows called `window-resize' has
3698 been introduced. This and all other functions for resizing windows no
3699 longer delete any windows when they become too small.
3701 *** Deleting the selected window now selects the most recently selected
3702 live window on that frame instead.
3704 *** `adjust-window-trailing-edge' adjustments.
3705 `adjust-window-trailing-edge' can now deal with fixed-size windows and
3706 is able to resize other windows if a window adjacent to the trailing
3707 edge cannot be shrunk any more. This makes its behavior more similar to
3708 that of Emacs 21 without compromising, however, its inability to delete
3709 windows which was introduced in Emacs 22.
3711 *** Window-local buffer lists.
3712 Windows now have local buffer lists. This means that removing a buffer
3713 from display in a window will preferably show the buffer previously
3714 shown in that window with its previous window-start and window-point
3715 positions. This also means that the same buffer may be automatically
3716 shown twice even if it already appears in another window.
3718 *** `switch-to-buffer' has a new optional argument FORCE-SAME-WINDOW,
3719 which if non-nil requires the buffer to be displayed in the currently
3720 selected window, signaling an error otherwise. If nil, another window
3721 can be used, e.g. if the selected one is strongly dedicated.
3723 *** `split-window-vertically' and `split-window-horizontally' renamed
3724 to `split-window-below' and `split-window-right' respectively.
3725 The old names are kept as aliases.
3729 **** The second arg to `display-buffer' and `pop-to-buffer' is now
3730 named ACTION, and takes a display action of the same form as
3731 `display-buffer-base-action' (see Changes, above). A non-nil,
3732 non-list value is treated specially, as the old meaning.
3734 **** New variable `display-buffer-overriding-action'.
3736 **** The procedure of `display-buffer' etc. to choose a window is
3737 determined by combining `display-buffer-overriding-action',
3738 `display-buffer-alist', the ACTION arg, `display-buffer-base-action',
3739 and `display-buffer-fallback-action'. The second and fourth of these
3740 are user-customizable variables.
3742 See the docstring of `display-buffer' for details.
3744 *** New functions `window-state-get' and `window-state-put'.
3745 These functions allow to save and restore the state of an arbitrary
3746 frame or window as an Elisp object.
3750 *** New variable `completion-extra-properties' used to specify extra
3751 properties of the current completion:
3752 - :annotate-function, same as the old completion-annotate-function.
3753 - :exit-function, function to call after completion took place.
3755 *** Functions on `completion-at-point-functions' can return any of the
3756 properties valid for `completion-extra-properties'.
3758 *** `completion-annotate-function' is obsolete.
3760 *** New `metadata' method for completion tables. The metadata thus returned
3761 can specify various details of the data returned by `all-completions':
3762 - `category' is the kind of objects returned (e.g., `buffer', `file', ...),
3763 used to select a style in completion-category-overrides.
3764 - `annotation-function' to add annotations in *Completions*.
3765 - `display-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries in *Completions*.
3766 - `cycle-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries when cycling.
3768 *** `minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map' is not used any more.
3769 Instead, the bindings in `minibuffer-local-filename-completion-map'
3770 are combined with `minibuffer-local-must-match-map'.
3772 *** New variable `completing-read-function' allows overriding the
3773 behavior of `completing-read'.
3775 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
3776 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
3778 ** `pre-command-hook'/`post-command-hook' are not reset to nil on error.
3779 Instead, the offending function is removed.
3783 *** New function `run-hook-wrapped' for running an abnormal hook by
3784 passing the hook functions as arguments to a "wrapping" function.
3785 Like `run-hook-with-args-until-success', it stops at the first
3786 non-nil return value.
3788 *** New macro `with-wrapper-hook' for running an abnormal hook as a
3789 set of "wrapping" filters, similar to around advice.
3790 (A version of this macro was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not
3791 advertised at the time.)
3795 *** New macro `condition-case-unless-debug' (this was actually added in
3796 Emacs 23.1 as condition-case-no-debug, but not advertised)
3798 *** The macro `with-demoted-errors' was added in Emacs 23.1, but not advertised.
3800 *** Variable `stack-trace-on-error' removed.
3802 *** The debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will
3803 jump to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked
3804 instead of jumping all the way to the top-level.
3806 *** Set `debug-on-event' to enter the debugger on events like SIGUSR1.
3807 This can be useful when `inhibit-quit' is set.
3809 ** The new function `server-eval-at' allows evaluation of Lisp forms on
3810 named Emacs server instances.
3812 ** `call-process' and `call-process-region' allow a `(:file "file")' spec
3813 to redirect STDOUT to a file.
3815 ** The function `format-time-string' now supports the %N directive,
3816 for higher-resolution time stamps.
3818 ** New input reading functions
3820 *** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of
3821 characters, discarding any inputs not inside the set.
3823 *** The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name
3824 or RGB triplet, instead of signaling an error if the user provides
3827 **** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
3829 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
3830 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
3831 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
3834 ** Syntax parsing changes
3836 *** New variable `syntax-propertize-function'.
3837 This replaces `font-lock-syntactic-keywords' which is now obsolete.
3838 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
3839 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
3840 Together with this new variable come a new hook
3841 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
3842 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
3843 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
3846 *** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
3848 ** New hook `post-self-insert-hook', run after `self-insert-command'.
3850 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
3852 ** Major and minor mode changes
3854 *** `set-auto-mode' now respects mode: local variables at the end of files,
3855 as well as those in the -*- line.
3857 *** `prog-mode' is a new major mode from which programming modes
3860 **** `prog-mode-hook' can be used to enable features for programming
3861 modes, e.g. (add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'flyspell-prog-mode) to enable
3862 on-the-fly spell checking for comments and strings.
3864 *** New hook `change-major-mode-after-body-hook', run by
3865 `run-mode-hooks' just before any other mode hooks.
3867 *** Enabled globalized minor modes can be disabled in specific major modes.
3868 If the global mode is global-FOO-mode, then run (FOO-mode -1) in the
3869 major mode's hook, where FOO-mode toggles the mode on a per-buffer basis.
3871 *** `define-minor-mode' accepts new keywords :variable, :after-hook.
3873 ** File-handling changes
3875 *** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
3876 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
3877 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
3878 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
3880 *** New file predicates: `file-equal-p', `file-in-directory-p'.
3882 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
3883 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
3884 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
3888 *** Animated images support (currently animated gifs only).
3890 **** `image-animated-p' returns non-nil if an image can be animated.
3892 **** `image-animate' animates a supplied image spec.
3894 **** `image-animate-timer' returns the timer object for an image that
3897 *** `image-extension-data' has been renamed to `image-metadata'.
3898 The old name is an obsolete alias to the new one.
3900 *** Image mode can view any image type that ImageMagick supports.
3901 This requires Emacs to be built with ImageMagick support.
3903 **** New function `imagemagick-types', defined if ImageMagick support
3904 is enabled, returns a list of image file extensions that your
3905 ImageMagick installation supports.
3907 **** New function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick
3908 image types in Image mode and in `create-image' and other helper
3911 **** New option `imagemagick-types-inhibit' excludes certain
3912 ImageMagick image types from `imagemagick-register-types'.
3914 **** With ImageMagick support, there are extra Image mode commands to
3915 resize and rotate images: `image-transform-fit-to-height',
3916 `image-transform-fit-to-width', `image-transform-set-rotation', and
3917 `image-transform-set-scale'.
3919 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
3920 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
3921 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail. For
3922 example, this is used by Rmail to optionally delete a mail window.
3924 ** XML and HTML parsing
3925 If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support, there are two new
3926 functions: `libxml-parse-html-region' (which parses "real world" HTML)
3927 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
3928 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
3930 ** Networking and encryption changes
3932 *** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
3933 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
3934 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
3935 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
3936 must also be supplied.
3938 *** New library gnutls.el.
3939 The new function `gnutls-available-p' returns non-nil if Emacs is
3940 built with GnuTLS support. The main entry points are
3941 `open-gnutls-stream' and `gnutls-negotiate'. It's easiest to use
3942 these functions through `open-network-stream', because that can
3943 upgrade connections through STARTTLS opportunistically or use plain
3944 SSL, depending on your needs. For debugging, set `gnutls-log-level'
3947 *** New primitive `secure-hash' that supports many secure hash algorithms:
3948 md5, sha1, sha2, sha224, sha256, sha384, and sha512. The lisp library
3949 sha1.el has been removed. The `sha1' feature is provided by default.
3953 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
3955 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
3956 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
3957 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
3958 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
3959 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
3960 displayed with a "spinning bar".
3962 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
3963 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
3965 ** New variables `delayed-warnings-list' and `delayed-warnings-hook'.
3966 If delayed-warnings-list is non-nil, the command loop calls
3967 `delayed-warnings-hook' after `post-command-hook'. At present, this
3968 is only used by Emacs on some platforms to display warnings during
3969 startup, which might otherwise not be noticed. This uses the
3970 functions `display-delayed-warnings' and `collapse-delayed-warnings'.
3972 ** rx.el has a new `group-n' construct for explicitly numbered groups.
3974 ** New function `make-composed-keymap' that constructs a new keymap
3975 from multiple input maps. You can use this to make a keymap that
3976 inherits from multiple maps, eg:
3977 (set-keymap-parent newmap (make-composed-keymap othermap parent))
3979 ** New function `string-prefix-p'.
3980 (This was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not advertised at the time.)
3982 ** New reader macro ## that stands for the empty symbol.
3983 This means that the empty symbol can now be read back. Also, #: by itself
3984 (when not immediately followed by a possible symbol character) stands for
3985 an empty uninterned symbol.
3987 ** New math functions `isnan', `copysign', `frexp', `ldexp'.
3989 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
3991 *** `tooltip-use-echo-area' is obsolete.
3992 Rather than setting this to t, disable Tooltip mode instead.
3994 *** buffer-substring-filters is obsolete.
3995 Use `filter-buffer-substring-functions' instead.
3997 *** `byte-compile-disable-print-circle' is obsolete.
3999 *** `deferred-action-list' and `deferred-action-function' are obsolete.
4000 Use `post-command-hook' instead.
4002 *** `font-lock-maximum-size' is obsolete.
4005 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on Non-Free Operating Systems
4007 ** On MS Windows, Emacs warns when using the obsolete init file _emacs,
4008 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
4010 ** New configure.bat options
4012 *** --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra runtime checks.
4014 *** --distfiles specifies files to be included in binary distribution.
4016 *** --without-gnutls disables automatic GnuTLS detection.
4018 *** --lib for general library linkage, works with the USER_LIBS build variable.
4020 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
4022 ** The Lisp function `w32-default-color-map' is now obsolete.
4023 (It is only used internally in the Emacs C code.)
4025 ** Customize ns-auto-hide-menu-bar to have the menu-bar hidden, but
4026 reappear on mouse-over. (Requires OS X 10.6 or later.)
4028 ** On Mac OS X, dragging a file into Emacs visits the file, like on
4029 other platforms, rather than inserting its contents into the buffer.
4032 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
4033 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
4035 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
4036 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
4037 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
4038 (at your option) any later version.
4040 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
4041 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
4042 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
4043 GNU General Public License for more details.
4045 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
4046 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
4051 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"