1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2011 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.
19 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
20 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
21 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
22 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
25 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
27 ** Configure links against libselinux if it is found.
28 You can disable this by using --without-selinux.
31 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
32 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
35 ** There are new configure options:
36 --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
37 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
38 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
41 ** Emacs can be compiled against Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
42 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
43 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
46 ** There is a new configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
47 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
48 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
51 ** New translation of the Emacs Tutorial in Hebrew is available.
52 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
53 automatically select it.
56 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
58 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
59 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
60 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
62 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
63 from load-path. -Q now implies this.
65 ** On Windows, Emacs now warns when the obsolete _emacs init file is used,
66 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
69 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
71 ** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
72 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
74 ** emacsclient changes
76 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID can be used to open a
77 client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed. This works like the
78 --parent-id argument to Emacs.
81 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
83 *** If emacsclient shuts down as a result of Emacs signalling an
84 error, its exit status is 1.
86 ** Completion can cycle, depending on completion-cycle-threshold.
88 ** `completing-read' can be customized using the new variable
89 `completing-read-function'.
91 ** auto-mode-case-fold is now enabled by default.
94 ** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
96 See the node "Bidirectional Editing" in the Emacs Manual for some
97 initial documentation.
99 To turn this on in any given buffer, set the buffer-local variable
100 `bidi-display-reordering' to a non-nil value. The default is nil.
102 The buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction', if non-nil,
103 forces each paragraph in the buffer to have its base direction
104 according to the value of this variable. Possible values are
105 `right-to-left' and `left-to-right'. If the value is nil (the
106 default), Emacs determines the base direction of each paragraph from
107 its text, as specified by the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm.
109 The function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction' returns the actual
110 value of paragraph base direction at point.
112 Reordering of bidirectional text for display in Emacs is a "Full
113 bidirectionality" class implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional
116 Note that some advanced display features, such as overlay strings and
117 `display' text properties, do not yet work correctly when
118 bidirectional text is reordered for display.
120 ** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
121 Use `set-scroll-bar-mode' to change this.
123 ** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
124 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose style. On a Gnome desktop, the default
125 is taken from the desktop settings.
127 ** GTK tool bars can be placed on the left/right or top/bottom of the frame.
128 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the values
129 top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has entries
132 ** ImageMagick support.
133 It is now possible to use the ImageMagick library to load many new
134 image formats in Emacs. By default, Emacs links with the ImageMagick
135 libraries if they are present at build time. This needs ImageMagick
136 6.2.8 or newer (versions newer than 6.0.7 _may_ work but have not been
137 tested). To disable ImageMagick support, use the configure option
138 `--without-imagemagick'.
140 The new function `imagemagick-types' returns a list of image file
141 extensions that your installation of ImageMagick supports. The
142 function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick support for
143 these image types, minus those listed in `imagemagick-types-inhibit'.
145 See the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual for more information.
147 ** The colors for selected text (the region face) are taken from the GTK
148 theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
150 ** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK. You can turn that
151 off by customizing x-gtk-use-system-tooltips.
153 ** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is built
154 with Xft. To change font, use the X resource font, for example:
155 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
158 ** Enhanced support for characters that have no glyphs in available fonts.
159 If a character has no glyphs in any of the available fonts, Emacs by
160 default will display it either as a hexadecimal code in a box or as a
161 thin 1-pixel space. In addition to these two methods, Emacs can
162 display these characters as empty box, as an acronym, or not display
163 them at all. To change how these characters are displayed, customize
164 the variable `glyphless-char-display-control'.
166 On character terminals these methods are used for characters that
167 cannot be encoded by the `terminal-coding-system'.
169 ** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
171 ** On Nextstep/OSX, the menu bar can be hidden by customizing
172 ns-auto-hide-menu-bar.
174 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
175 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
177 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up, and
178 optionally when copying files. To this end, copy-file has an extra
179 optional argument, and backup-buffer and friends include the SELinux
180 context in their return values.
182 *** The new functions file-selinux-context and set-file-selinux-context
183 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
185 *** Tramp offers handlers for file-selinux-context and set-file-selinux-context
186 for remote machines which support SELinux.
189 ** The function format-time-string now supports the %N directive, for
190 higher-resolution time stamps.
192 ** The function kill-emacs is now run upon receipt of the signals SIGTERM
193 and SIGHUP, and upon SIGINT in batch mode.
195 ** kill-emacs-hook is now also run in batch mode.
196 If you have code that adds something to kill-emacs-hook, you should
197 consider if it is still appropriate to add it in the noninteractive case.
199 ** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
200 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
201 of buffer at first key-press (instead move to top/bottom of buffer)
202 when a new variable `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
204 ** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
205 scroll a line instead of full screen.
207 ** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
208 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
211 ** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
212 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
213 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
214 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
215 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
218 ** ``Aggressive'' scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
219 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
220 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
221 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
226 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
227 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
229 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
230 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
232 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
233 for `list-colors-display'.
235 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
236 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
237 from a package repository at elpa.gnu.org.
239 *** `M-x list-packages' shows a list of packages, which can be
240 selected for installation.
242 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
244 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded and activated
245 automatically when Emacs starts up. To disable this, set
246 `package-enable-at-startup' to nil. To change which packages are
247 loaded, customize `package-load-list'.
249 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
250 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
251 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
255 *** `M-x customize-themes' lists Custom themes which can be enabled.
257 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
258 Emacs no longer looks for custom themes in `load-path'. The default
259 is to search in `custom-theme-directory', followed by a built-in theme
260 directory named "themes/" in `data-directory'.
262 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
263 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
264 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
265 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
267 ** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
268 the remote file-name cache is used for read access.
270 ** The standalone programs lib-src/digest-doc and sorted-doc have been
271 replaced with Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
273 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
276 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
281 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to isearch-yank-kill, instead of
285 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to isearch-yank-line.
288 ** There is a new command `count-words-region', which does what you expect.
290 ** completion-at-point now handles tags and semantic completion.
292 ** The default value of `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' is now t.
294 ** The command `just-one-space' (C-SPC), if given a negative argument,
295 also deletes newlines around point.
299 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
300 If non-nil, C-d, [delete], and DEL delete the region if it is active
301 and no prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', these commands
304 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to C-d and [delete].
305 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
306 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
308 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
309 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
310 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; you
311 should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
313 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
315 ** Selection changes.
317 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections was changed
318 to conform with modern X applications. In short, most commands for
319 killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while mouse commands
320 use the primary selection.
322 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
323 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
325 *** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
326 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
327 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
328 the kill-ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
329 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
331 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
332 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
333 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
334 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
335 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
337 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
338 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
339 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
341 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
342 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
343 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
344 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
346 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
347 exactly equivalent to, respectively M-w, C-w, and C-y.
349 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
350 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
351 between applications.
353 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
355 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
356 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
357 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
358 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
359 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
361 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
363 ** New command `rectangle-number-lines', bound to `C-x r N', numbers
364 the lines in the current rectangle. With an prefix argument, this
365 prompts for a number to count from and for a format string.
367 ** The command shell prompts for the shell path name, when the default
368 directory is a remote file name and neither environment variable
369 $ESHELL nor variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
372 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
374 ** comint and modes derived from it use the generic completion code.
376 ** The compile.el mode can be used without font-lock-mode.
377 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
379 ** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
381 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
382 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity, support for
383 more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
385 ** shell-mode can track your cwd by reading it from your prompt.
386 Just set shell-dir-cookie-re to an appropriate regexp.
388 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
390 ** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
392 ** FIXME: xdg-open for browse-url and reportbug, 2010/08.
394 ** Archive Mode has basic support to browse 7z archives.
396 ** browse-url has gotten a new variable that is used for mailto: URLs,
397 `browse-url-mailto-function', which defaults to `browse-url-mail'.
399 ** Directory local variables can apply to file-less buffers, in certain modes
400 (eg dired, vc-dir, log-edit). For example, adding
401 "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to your .dir-locals.el file,
402 will turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should
403 call `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
406 ** You can prevent directory local variables from applying to subdirectories.
407 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
408 settings to indicate said section should not be applied to subdirectories.
412 *** New vars `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay'.
413 If the value of `erc-autojoin-timing' is 'ident, ERC autojoins after a
414 successful NickServ identification, or after `erc-autojoin-delay'
415 seconds. The default value, 'ident, means to autojoin immediately
418 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
419 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
420 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
421 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
425 *** The default value of eshell-directory-name is a directory named
426 "eshell" in `user-emacs-directory'. If the old "~/.eshell/" directory
427 exists, that is used instead.
429 ** In ido-mode, C-v is no longer bound to ido-toggle-vc.
430 The reason is that this interferes with cua-mode.
432 ** partial-completion-mode is now obsolete.
433 You can get a comparable behavior with:
434 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
435 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
437 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
439 ** server can listen on a specific port using the server-port option.
441 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
443 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
446 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt package
447 by adding appt-make-list to diary-hook has been removed. Use appt-activate.
450 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
451 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
452 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
455 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
456 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
460 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
461 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
462 To turn off the search field, set custom-search-field to nil.
464 *** Custom options now start out hidden if at their default values.
465 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
467 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
469 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
470 choose a color via list-colors-display.
474 *** dired-jump and dired-jump-other-window called with a prefix argument
475 read a file name from the minibuffer instead of using buffer-file-name.
478 *** The `dired local variables' feature provided by Dired-x is obsolete.
479 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
481 ** SQL Mode enhancements.
483 *** `sql-dialect' is a synonym for `sql-product'.
485 *** Added ability to login with a port on MySQL and Postgres.
486 The custom variable `sql-port' can be specified for connection to
487 MySQL or Postgres servers. By default, the port is not listed in
488 either login parameter, but will be added to the command line if set
491 *** Dynamic selection of product in an SQL interactive session.
492 If you use `sql-product-interactive' to start an SQL interactive
493 session it uses the current value of `sql-product'. Preceding the
494 invocation with C-u will force it to ask for the product before
495 creating the session.
497 *** Renaming a SQL interactive buffer when it is created.
498 Prefixing the SQL interactive commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres',
499 `sql-mysql', etc.) with C-u will force a new interactive session to be
500 started and will prompt for the new name. This will reduce the need
501 for `sql-rename-buffer' is most common use cases.
503 *** Command continuation prompts in SQL interactive mode are suppressed.
504 Multiple line commands in SQL interactive mode, generate command
505 continuation prompts which needlessly confuse the output. These
506 prompts are now filtered out from the output. This change impacts
507 multiple line SQL statements entered with C-j between each line,
508 statements yanked into the buffer and statements sent with
509 `sql-send-*' functions.
511 *** Custom variables control prompting for login parameters.
512 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params'
513 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
514 connection is established.
516 The lists consist of the following five tokens: `user', `password',
517 `database', `server', and `port'. The order in which they appear is
518 the order in which they are prompted. The tokens symbols can be
519 replaced by a sublist starting with the token and followed by a plist
520 which control the prompting for values. The tokens `user',
521 `database', and `server' each can take a property of :default which
522 specifies the value to be used if no value is entered. The
523 `database', `server', and `port' tokens handle the :completion
524 property which restricts the entry to either one of the values in the
525 list or to one of the values returned by the function provided as the
526 property value. The `database' and `server' tokens also accept the
527 :file property whose value is a regexp to identify useful file names.
530 (database :default DEF
532 :completion COMPLETE)
535 :completion COMPLETE)
537 The FILEPAT when :file is specified is a regexp that will match valid
538 file names (without the directory portion). Generally these strings
539 will be of the form ".+\.SUF" where SUF is the desired file suffix.
541 When :completion is specified, the COMPLETE corresponds to the
542 PREDICATE argument to the `completing-read' function (a list of
543 possible values or a function returning such a list).
545 *** Added `sql-connection-alist' to record login parameter values.
546 An alist for recording different username, database and server
547 values. If there are multiple databases that you connect to the
548 parameters needed can be stored in this alist.
550 For example, the following might be set in the user's init.el:
552 (setq sql-connection-alist
553 '((dev (sql-product 'sqlite)
554 (sql-database "/home/mmaug/dev.db"))
555 (prd (sql-product 'oracle)
557 (sql-database "iprd2a"))))
559 This defines two connections named "dev" and "prd".
561 *** Added `sql-connect' to use predefined connections.
562 Sets the login parameters based on the values in the
563 `sql-connection-alist' and start a SQL interactive session. Any
564 values specified in the connection will not be prompted for.
566 In the example above, if the user were to invoke M-x sql-connect, they
567 would be prompted for the connection. The user can respond with
568 either "dev" or "prd". The "dev" connection would connect to the
569 SQLite database without prompting; the "prd" connection would prompt
570 for the users password and then connect to the Oracle database.
572 **** Added SQL->Start... submenu when connections are defined.
573 When connections have been defined, there is a submenu available that
574 allows the user to select one to start a SQLi session. The "Start
575 SQLi Session" item moves to the "Start..." submenu when cnnections
578 **** Added "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
579 When a SQLi session is not started by a connection then
580 `sql-save-connection' will gather the login params specified for the
581 session and save them as a new connection.
583 *** List database objects and details.
584 Once a SQL interactive session has been started, you can get a list of
585 the objects in the database and see details of those objects. The
586 objects shown and the details available are product specific.
588 **** List all objects.
589 Using `M-x sql-list-all', `C-c C-l a' or selecting "SQL->List all
590 objects" will list all the objects in the database. At a minimum it
591 lists the tables and views in the database. Preceding the command by
592 universal argument may provide additional details or extend the
593 listing to include other schemas objects. The list will appear in a
594 separate window in view-mode.
596 **** List Table details.
597 Using `M-x sql-list-table', `C-c C-l t' or selecting "SQL->List Table
598 details" will ask for the name of a database table or view and display
599 the list of columns in the relation. Preceding the command with the
600 universal argument may provide additional details about each column.
601 The list will appear in a separate window in view-mode.
603 *** Added option `sql-send-terminator'.
604 When set makes sure that each command sent with `sql-send-*' commands
605 are properly terminated and submitted to the SQL processor.
607 *** Added option `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
608 When set commands sent to Oracle's SQL*Plus are scanned for strings
609 starting with an ampersand and the user is asked for replacement text.
610 In general, the SQL*Plus option SCAN should always be set OFF under
611 SQL interactive mode and this option used in its place.
613 *** SQL interactive mode will replace tabs with spaces.
614 This prevents the command interpreter for MySQL and Postgres from
615 listing object name completions when being sent text via
616 `sql-send-*' functions.
618 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
620 ** sregex.el is now obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
622 ** s-region.el and pc-select are now declared obsolete,
623 superseded by shift-select-mode enabled by default in 23.1.
624 ** pc-mode.el is also declared obsolete.
627 *** GDB User Interface migrated to GDB Machine Interface and now
628 supports multithread non-stop debugging and debugging of several
629 threads simultaneously.
633 *** It is possible now, to access alternative buses than the default
634 system or session bus.
636 *** dbus-register-{service,method,property}
637 The -method and -property functions do not automatically register
640 The new function dbus-register-service registers a service known name
641 on a D-Bus without simultaneously registering a property or a method.
645 *** There exists a new inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
647 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
648 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
650 ** VC and related modes
652 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
653 The vc-pull command runs a "pull" operation, if it is supported.
654 This updates the current branch from upstream. A prefix argument
655 means to prompt the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
657 **** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
659 **** Currently supported by Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
661 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
662 The vc-merge command now runs a "merge" operation, if it is supported.
663 This merges another branch into the current one. This command prompts
664 the user for specifics, e.g. a merge source.
666 **** Currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
668 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
669 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
670 In the Log View buffers made by `C-x v L' (vc-print-root-log), you can
671 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
673 **** Currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
675 **** Packages using Log View mode can enable this functionality by
676 binding `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function' to a suitable function.
678 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
679 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
684 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
686 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
688 *** The new command `info-display-manual' will display an Info manual
689 specified by its name. If that manual is already visited in some Info
690 buffer within the current session, the command will display that
691 buffer. Otherwise, it will load the manual and display it. This is
692 handy if you have many manuals in many Info buffers, and don't
693 remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual you want to
697 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
699 ** New global minor modes electric-pair-mode, electric-indent-mode,
700 and electric-layout-mode.
702 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
703 from which other modes can be derived.
705 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
707 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
708 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
709 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
710 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
713 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
714 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
716 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
717 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
719 ** xmodmap-generic-mode for xmodmap files.
722 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
725 ** `char-direction-table' and the associated function `char-direction'
726 were deleted. They were buggy and inferior to the new support of
727 bidirectional editing introduced in Emacs 24. If you need the
728 bidirectional properties of a character, use `get-char-code-property'
729 with the last argument `bidi-class'.
731 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
732 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
733 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
734 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
736 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
737 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
738 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail.
739 This is currently used by Rmail to delete a mail window.
741 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
742 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
743 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
746 ** Remove obsolete name `e' (use `float-e' instead).
748 ** A backquote not followed by a space is now always treated as new-style.
750 ** Test for special mode-class was moved from view-file to view-buffer.
751 FIXME: This only says what was changed, but not what are the
752 programmer-visible consequences.
754 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function now turns the mode
757 ** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
758 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
759 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
760 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
761 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
762 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
764 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
765 similar to the ones created by shift-selection. In previous Emacs
766 versions, these regions were delineated by `mouse-drag-overlay', which
767 has now been removed.
769 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
771 ** The following functions and aliases, obsolete since at least Emacs 21.1,
773 comint-kill-output, decompose-composite-char, outline-visible,
774 internal-find-face, internal-get-face, frame-update-faces,
775 frame-update-face-colors, x-frob-font-weight, x-frob-font-slant,
776 x-make-font-bold, x-make-font-demibold, x-make-font-unbold
777 x-make-font-italic, x-make-font-oblique, x-make-font-unitalic
778 x-make-font-bold-italic, mldrag-drag-mode-line, mldrag-drag-vertical-line,
779 iswitchb-default-keybindings, char-bytes, isearch-return-char,
782 ** The following variables and aliases, obsolete since at least Emacs 21.1,
784 checkdoc-minor-keymap, vc-header-alist, directory-sep-char,
785 font-lock-defaults-alist
787 ** The following files, obsolete since at least Emacs 21.1, have been removed:
788 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
790 ** FIXME finder-inf.el changes.
793 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.1
795 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
796 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
798 ** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
799 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
800 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
801 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
802 must also be supplied.
804 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
805 The `lexical-binding' variable lets code use lexical scoping for local
806 variables. It is typically set via file-local variables, in which case it
807 applies to all the code in that file.
809 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
810 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
812 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
813 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
815 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
817 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
818 declared as dynamically bound.
820 ** pre/post-command-hook are not reset to nil upon error.
821 Instead, the offending function is removed.
823 ** New low-level function run-hook-wrapped.
825 ** byte-compile-disable-print-circle is obsolete.
826 ** deferred-action-list and deferred-action-function are obsolete.
827 ** Removed the stack-trace-on-error variable.
828 Also the debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will jump
829 to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked instead of
830 jumping all the way to the top-level.
832 ** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of characters,
833 discarding any inputs not inside the set.
835 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
836 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
837 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
840 ** New variable syntax-propertize-function to set syntax-table properties.
841 Replaces font-lock-syntactic-keywords which are now obsolete.
842 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
843 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
844 Together with this new variable come a new hook
845 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
846 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
847 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
850 ** New hook post-self-insert-hook run at the end of self-insert-command.
853 ** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
854 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
855 ** prog-mode is a new major-mode meant to be the parent of programming mode.
856 ** define-minor-mode accepts a new keyword :variable.
858 ** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
859 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
860 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
861 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
863 ** buffer-substring-filters is obsoleted by filter-buffer-substring-functions.
865 ** New completion style `substring'.
867 ** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
868 The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name or RGB
869 triplet, instead of signalling an error if the user provides a invalid
872 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
873 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
874 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
878 *** When the image type is one of listed in `image-animated-types'
879 and the number of sub-images in the image is more than one, then the
880 new function `create-animated-image' creates an animated image where
881 sub-images are displayed successively with the duration defined by
882 `image-animate-max-time' and the delay between sub-images defined
883 by the Graphic Control Extension of the image.
885 *** `image-extension-data' is renamed to `image-metadata'.
887 ** XML and HTML parsing
889 *** If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support (which is the default),
890 two new Emacs Lisp-level functions are defined:
891 `libxml-parse-html-region' (which will parse "real world" HTML)
892 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
893 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
895 FIXME: These should be front-ended by xml.el.
901 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
903 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
904 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
905 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
906 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
907 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
908 displayed with a "spinning bar".
910 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
911 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
913 ** New variables `delayed-warnings-list' and `delayed-warnings-hook' allow
914 deferring warnings until the main command loop is executed.
917 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on non-free operating systems
919 ** New configure.bat option --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra
922 ** New configure.bat option --distfiles to specify files to be
923 included in binary distribution.
925 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
928 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
929 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
931 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
932 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
933 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
934 (at your option) any later version.
936 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
937 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
938 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
939 GNU General Public License for more details.
941 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
942 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
947 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"