Merge from mainline.
[bpt/emacs.git] / etc / NEWS.23
1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2
3 Copyright (C) 2007-2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
5
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
8
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 23.
10
11 See files NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18, and NEWS.1-17
12 for changes in older Emacs versions.
13
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
16
17 \f
18 * Installation Changes in Emacs 23.3
19
20 ** New configure option --with-crt-dir specifies the location of your
21 crt*.o files, if they are in a non-standard location. This is only
22 used on x86-64 and s390x GNU/Linux architectures.
23
24 * Changes in Emacs 23.3
25
26 ** The last-resort backup file `%backup%~' is now written to
27 `user-emacs-directory', instead of the user's home directory.
28
29 ** If Emacs creates `user-emacs-directory', that directory's
30 permissions are now set to rwx------, ignoring the umask.
31
32 \f
33 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.3
34
35 ** Calendar and diary
36
37 *** The appt-add command takes an optional argument, the warning time.
38 This can be used in place of the default appt-message-warning-time.
39
40 ** Python mode
41
42 *** You can allow inferior Python processes to load modules from the
43 current directory by setting `python-remove-cwd-from-path' to nil.
44
45 ** Rmail
46
47 *** The default value of `rmail-enable-mime' is now t. Rmail decodes
48 MIME contents automatically. You can customize the variable
49 `rmail-enable-mime' back to `nil' to disable this automatic MIME
50 decoding.
51
52 *** The command `rmail-mime' change the displaying of a MIME message
53 between decoded presentation form and raw data if `rmail-enable-mime'
54 is non-nil. And, with prefix argument, it change only the displaying
55 of the MIME entity at point.
56
57 *** The new command `rmail-mime-next-item' (bound to TAB) moves point
58 to the next item of MIME message.
59
60 *** The new command `rmail-mime-previous-item' (bound to backtab) moves
61 point to the previous item of MIME message.
62
63 *** The new command `rmail-mime-toggle-hidden' (RET) hide or show the
64 body of the MIME entity at point.
65
66 ** VC and related modes
67
68 *** New VC command `vc-log-incoming', bound to `C-x v I'.
69 This shows a log of changes to be received with a pull operation.
70 For Git, this runs "git fetch" to make the necessary data available
71 locally; this requires version 1.7 or newer.
72
73 *** New VC command `vc-log-outgoing', bound to `C-x v O'.
74 This shows a log of changes to be sent in the next commit.
75
76 *** New VC command vc-find-conflicted-file.
77
78 *** The 'g' key in VC diff, log, log-incoming and log-outgoing buffers
79 reruns the corresponding VC command to compute an up to date version
80 of the buffer.
81
82 *** vc-dir for Bzr supports viewing shelve contents and shelving snapshots.
83
84 *** Special markup can be added to log-edit buffers.
85 You can add headers specifying additional information to be supplied
86 to the version control system. For example:
87
88 Author: J. R. Hacker <jrh@example.com>
89 Fixes: 4204
90 Actual text of log entry...
91
92 Bazaar recognizes the headers "Author", "Date" and "Fixes".
93 Git, Mercurial, and Monotone recognize "Author" and "Date".
94 Any unknown header is left as is in the message, so it is not lost.
95
96 ** Obsolete packages
97
98 *** lmenu.el and cl-compat.el are now obsolete.
99
100 \f
101 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.3
102
103 ** smie.el is a generic navigation and indentation engine.
104 It takes a simple BNF description of the grammar, and provides both
105 sexp-style navigation (jumping over begin..end pairs) as well as
106 indentation, which can be adjusted via ad-hoc indentation rules.
107
108 \f
109 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.3
110
111 ** posn-col-row now excludes the header line from the row count
112 If the frame has a header line, posn-col-row will count row numbers
113 starting from the first line of text below the header line.
114
115 \f
116 * Lisp changes in Emacs 23.3
117
118 ** `e' and `pi' are now called `float-e' and `float-pi'.
119 The old names are obsolete.
120
121 ** The use of unintern without an obarray arg is now obsolete.
122
123 ** The function `princ-list' is now obsolete.
124
125 ** The yank-handler argument to kill-region and friends is now obsolete.
126
127 ** New function byte-to-string, like char-to-string but for bytes.
128
129 \f
130 * Changes in Emacs 23.3 on non-free operating systems
131
132 ** The nextstep port can have different modifiers for the left and right
133 alt/option key by customizing the value for ns-right-alternate-modifier.
134
135 \f
136 * Installation Changes in Emacs 23.2
137
138 ** New configure options for Emacs developers.
139 These are not new features; only the configure flags are new.
140
141 *** --enable-profiling builds Emacs with profiling enabled.
142 This might not work on all platforms.
143
144 *** --enable-checking[=OPTIONS] builds emacs with extra runtime checks.
145
146 ** `make install' now consistently ignores umask, creating a
147 world-readable install.
148
149 ** Emacs compiles with Gconf support, if it is detected.
150 Use the configure option --without-gconf to disable this.
151 This is used by the `font-use-system-font' feature (see below).
152
153 * Startup Changes in Emacs 23.2
154
155 ** The command-line option -Q (--quick) also inhibits loading X resources.
156 However, if Emacs is compiled with the Lucid or Motif toolkit, X
157 resource settings for the graphical widgets are still applied.
158 On Windows, the -Q option causes Emacs to ignore Registry settings,
159 but environment variables set on the Registry are still honored.
160
161 *** The new variable `inhibit-x-resources' shows whether X resources
162 were loaded.
163
164 ** New command-line option -mm (--maximized) maximizes the initial frame.
165
166 * Changes in Emacs 23.2
167
168 ** The maximum size of buffers (and the largest fixnum) is doubled.
169 On typical 32bit systems, buffers can now be up to 512MB.
170
171 ** The default value of `trash-directory' is now nil.
172 This means that `move-file-to-trash' trashes files according to
173 freedesktop.org specifications, the same method used by the Gnome,
174 KDE, and XFCE desktops. (This change has no effect on Windows, which
175 uses `system-move-file-to-trash' for trashing.)
176
177 ** The pointer now becomes invisible when typing.
178 Customize `make-pointer-invisible' to disable this feature.
179
180 ** Font changes
181
182 *** Emacs can use the system default monospaced font in Gnome.
183 To enable this feature, set `font-use-system-font' to non-nil (it is
184 nil by default). If the system default changes, Emacs changes also.
185 This feature requires Gconf support, which is automatically included
186 at compile-time if configure detects the gconf libraries (you can
187 disable this with the configure option --without-gconf).
188
189 *** On X11, Emacs reacts to Xft changes made by configuration tools,
190 via the XSETTINGS mechanism. This includes antialias, hinting,
191 hintstyle, RGBA, DPI and lcdfilter changes.
192
193 ** Killing a buffer with a running process now asks for confirmation.
194 To remove this query, remove `process-kill-buffer-query-function' from
195 `kill-buffer-query-functions', or set the appropriate process flag
196 with `set-process-query-on-exit-flag'.
197
198 ** File-local variable changes
199
200 *** Specifying a minor mode as a local variables enables that mode,
201 unconditionally. The previous behavior, toggling the mode, was
202 neither reliable nor generally desirable.
203
204 *** There are new commands for adding and removing file-local variables:
205 `add-file-local-variable', `delete-file-local-variable',
206 `add-file-local-variable-prop-line', and
207 `delete-file-local-variable-prop-line'.
208
209 *** There are new commands for adding and removing directory-local variables,
210 and copying them to and from file-local variable lists:
211 `add-dir-local-variable', `delete-dir-local-variable',
212 `copy-dir-locals-to-file-locals',
213 `copy-dir-locals-to-file-locals-prop-line' and
214 `copy-file-locals-to-dir-locals'.
215
216 ** Internationalization changes
217
218 *** Unibyte sessions are now considered obsolete.
219 This refers to the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable as well as the
220 --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte command line
221 arguments. Customizing enable-multibyte-characters and setting
222 default-enable-multibyte-characters are also deprecated.
223
224 *** New coding system `utf-8-hfs'.
225 This is suitable for default-file-name-coding-system on Mac OS X; see
226 international/ucs-normalize.el.
227
228 ** Function arguments in *Help* buffers are now shown in upper-case.
229 Customize `help-downcase-arguments' to t to show them in lower-case.
230
231 ** New command `async-shell-command', bound globally to `M-&'.
232 This executes the command asynchronously, similar to calling `M-!' and
233 manually adding an ampersand to the end of the command. With `M-&',
234 you don't need the ampersand. The output appears in the buffer
235 `*Async Shell Command*'.
236
237 ** When running in a new enough xterm (newer than version 242), Emacs
238 asks xterm what the background color is and it sets up faces
239 accordingly for a dark background if needed (the current default is to
240 consider the background light).
241
242 \f
243 * Editing Changes in Emacs 23.2
244
245 ** Kill-ring and selection changes
246
247 *** If `select-active-regions' is t, any active region automatically
248 becomes the primary selection (for interaction with other window
249 applications). If you enable this, you might want to bind
250 `mouse-yank-primary' to Mouse-2.
251
252 *** When `save-interprogram-paste-before-kill' is non-nil, the kill
253 commands save the interprogram-paste selection into the kill ring
254 before doing anything else. This avoids losing the selection.
255
256 *** When `kill-do-not-save-duplicates' is non-nil, identical
257 subsequent kills are not duplicated in the `kill-ring'.
258
259 ** Completion changes
260
261 *** The new command `completion-at-point' provides mode-sensitive completion.
262
263 *** tab-always-indent set to `complete' lets TAB do completion as well.
264
265 *** The new completion-style `initials' is available.
266 For instance, this can complete M-x lch to list-command-history.
267
268 *** The new variable `completions-format' determines how completions
269 are displayed in the *Completions* buffer. If you set it to
270 `vertical', completions are sorted vertically in columns.
271
272 ** The default value of `blink-matching-paren-distance' is increased.
273
274 ** M-n provides more default values in the minibuffer for commands
275 that read file names. These include the file name at point (when ffap
276 is loaded without ffap-bindings), the file name on the current line
277 (in Dired buffers), and the directory names of adjacent Dired windows
278 (for Dired commands that operate on several directories, such as copy,
279 rename, or diff).
280
281 ** M-r is bound to the new `move-to-window-line-top-bottom'.
282 This moves point to the window center, top and bottom on successive
283 invocations, in the same spirit as the C-l (recenter-top-bottom)
284 command.
285
286 ** The new variable `recenter-positions' determines the default
287 cycling order of C-l (`recenter-top-bottom').
288
289 ** The abbrevs file is now a file named abbrev_defs in
290 user-emacs-directory; but the old location, ~/.abbrev_defs, is used if
291 that file exists.
292
293 \f
294 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.2
295
296 ** The bookmark menu has a narrowing search via bookmark-bmenu-search.
297
298 ** Calc
299
300 *** The Calc settings file is now a file named calc.el in
301 user-emacs-directory; but the old location, ~/.calc.el, is used if
302 that file exists.
303
304 *** Graphing commands (`g f' etc.) now work on MS-Windows, if you have
305 the native Windows port of Gnuplot version 3.8 or later installed.
306
307 ** Calendar and diary
308
309 *** Fancy diary display is now the default.
310 If you prefer the simple display, customize `diary-display-function'.
311
312 *** The diary's fancy display now enables view-mode.
313
314 *** The command `calendar-current-date' accepts an optional argument
315 giving an offset from today.
316
317 ** Desktop
318
319 *** The default value for `desktop-buffers-not-to-save' is nil.
320 This means Desktop will try restoring all buffers, when you restart
321 your Emacs session. Also, `desktop-buffers-not-to-save' is only
322 effective for buffers that have no associated file. If you want to
323 exempt buffers that do correspond to files, customize the value of
324 `desktop-files-not-to-save' instead.
325
326 ** Dired
327
328 *** The new variable `dired-auto-revert-buffer', if non-nil, causes
329 Dired buffers to be reverted automatically on revisiting them.
330
331 ** DocView
332
333 *** When `doc-view-continuous' is non-nil, scrolling a line
334 on the page edge advances to the next/previous page.
335
336 ** Elint
337
338 *** Elint now uses compilation-mode.
339
340 *** Elint can now scan individual files and whole directories,
341 and can be run in batch mode.
342
343 *** Elint does a more thorough initialization, and recognizes more built-in
344 functions and variables. Customize `elint-scan-preloaded' if you want
345 to sacrifice some accuracy for a faster startup.
346
347 *** Elint attempts some basic understanding of featurep and (f)boundp tests.
348
349 *** Customize `elint-ignored-warnings' to suppress some warnings.
350
351 ** GDB-UI
352
353 *** Toolbar functionality for reverse debugging. Display of STL
354 collections as watch expressions. These features require GDB 7.0 or later.
355
356 ** Grep
357
358 *** A new command `zrgrep' searches recursively in gzipped files.
359
360 ** Info
361
362 *** The new command `Info-virtual-index' bound to "I" displays a menu of
363 matched topics found in the index.
364
365 *** The new command `info-finder' replaces finder.el with a virtual Info
366 manual that generates an Info file which gives the same information
367 through a menu structure.
368
369 ** LaTeX mode now provides completion (via completion-at-point).
370
371 ** Message mode is now the default mode for composing mail.
372
373 The default for `mail-user-agent' is now message-user-agent, so the
374 C-x m (`compose-mail') command uses Message mode instead of Mail mode.
375
376 Message mode has been included in Emacs, as part of the Gnus package,
377 for several years. It provides several features that are absent in
378 Mail mode, such as MIME handling.
379
380 *** If the user has not customized mail-user-agent, `compose-mail'
381 checks for Mail mode customizations, and issues a warning if these
382 customizations are found. This alerts users who may otherwise be
383 unaware that their mail configuration has changed.
384
385 To disable this check, set compose-mail-user-agent-warnings to nil.
386
387 ** The default value of mail-interactive is t, since Emacs 23.1.
388 (This was not announced at the time.) It means that when sending mail,
389 Emacs will wait for the process sending mail to return. If you
390 experience delays when sending mail, you may wish to set this to nil.
391
392 ** nXML mode is now the default for editing XML files.
393
394 ** pcomplete provides a new command `pcomplete-std-completion' which
395 is similar to `pcomplete' but using the standard completion UI code.
396
397 ** Shell (and other comint modes)
398
399 *** M-s is no longer bound to `comint-next-matching-input'.
400
401 *** M-r is now bound to `comint-history-isearch-backward-regexp'.
402 This starts an incremental search of the comint/shell input history.
403
404 *** ansi-color is now enabled by default in Shell mode.
405 To disable it, set ansi-color-for-comint-mode to nil.
406
407 ** Tramp
408
409 *** New connection methods "rsyncc", "imap" and "imaps".
410 On systems which support GVFS-Fuse, Tramp offers also the new
411 connection methods "dav", "davs", "obex" and "synce".
412
413 ** VC and related modes
414
415 *** When using C-x v v or C-x v i on a unregistered file that is in a
416 directory not controlled by any VCS, ask the user what VC backend to
417 use to create a repository, create a new repository and register the
418 file.
419
420 *** New command `vc-root-print-log', bound to `C-x v L'.
421 This displays a `*vc-change-log*' buffer showing the history of the
422 version-controlled directory tree as a whole.
423
424 *** New command `vc-root-diff', bound to `C-x v D'.
425 This is similar to `vc-diff', but compares the entire directory tree
426 of the current VC directory with its working revision.
427
428 *** `C-x v l' and `C-x v L' do not show the full log by default.
429 The number of entries shown can be chosen interactively with a prefix
430 argument, or by customizing vc-log-show-limit. The `*vc-change-log*'
431 buffer now contains buttons at the end of the buffer, which can be
432 used to increase the number of entries shown. RCS, SCCS, and CVS do
433 not support this feature.
434
435 *** vc-annotate supports annotations through file copies and renames,
436 it displays the old names for the files and it can show logs/diffs for
437 the corresponding lines. Currently only Git and Mercurial take
438 advantage of this feature.
439
440 *** The log command in vc-annotate can display a single log entry
441 instead of redisplaying the full log. The RCS, CVS and SCCS VC
442 backends do not support this.
443
444 *** When a file is not found, VC will not try to check it out of RCS anymore.
445
446 *** Diff and log operations can be used from Dired buffers.
447
448 *** vc-git changes
449
450 **** The short log format for git makes use of the graph display,
451 so it's not supported on git versions earlier than 1.5.6.
452
453 **** vc-dir uses the --relative option of git, and so requires at least
454 git version 1.5.5.
455
456 **** Support for operating with stashes has been added to vc-dir:
457 the stash list is displayed in the *vc-dir* header, stashes can be
458 created, removed, applied and their content displayed.
459
460 *** vc-bzr supports operating with shelves: the shelve list is
461 displayed in the *vc-dir* header, shelves can be created, removed and applied.
462
463 *** log-edit-strip-single-file-name controls whether or not single filenames
464 are stripped when copying text from the ChangeLog to the *VC-Log* buffer.
465
466 ** Miscellaneous
467
468 *** Interactively `multi-isearch-buffers' and `multi-isearch-buffers-regexp'
469 read buffer names to search, one by one, ended with RET. With a prefix
470 argument, they ask for a regexp, and search in buffers whose names match
471 the specified regexp. Interactively `multi-isearch-files' and
472 `multi-isearch-files-regexp' read file names to search, one by one,
473 ended with RET. With a prefix argument, they ask for a wildcard, and
474 search in file buffers whose file names match the specified wildcard.
475
476 *** Autorevert Tail mode now works also for remote files.
477
478 *** The new eshell built-in commands `su' and `sudo' support Tramp.
479 Thus, they change `default-directory' to reflect the new user id, and
480 let commands run under that user's permissions. This works even when
481 `default-directory' is already remote. Calling the external commands
482 is possible via `*su' or `*sudo', respectively.
483
484 ** Obsolete packages
485
486 *** sym-comp.el is now obsolete, superseded by completion-at-point.
487
488 *** lucid.el and levents.el are now obsolete.
489
490 \f
491 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.2
492
493 ** CEDET (the Collection of Emacs Development Tools) is now in Emacs.
494 This is a collection of packages to aid with using Emacs as an IDE
495 (integrated development environment):
496
497 *** The Semantic package allows the use of parsers to intelligently
498 edit and navigate source code. Parsers for C/C++, Java, Javascript,
499 and several other languages are included by default, and Semantic can
500 also interface with external tools such as GNU Global and GNU Idutils.
501
502 To enable Semantic, use the global minor mode `semantic-mode'.
503 See the Semantic manual for details.
504
505 *** EDE (Emacs Development Environment) is a package for managing code
506 projects, including features such as automatic Makefile generation.
507
508 To enable EDE, use the minor mode `global-ede-mode'.
509 See the EDE manual for details.
510
511 *** SRecode is a library for recoding Semantic tags back into source
512 code. It is currently used by some parts of Semantic and EDE; in the
513 future, it may be used for code generation features.
514
515 *** The EIEIO library implements a subset of the Common Lisp Object
516 System (CLOS). It is used by the other CEDET packages.
517
518 ** mpc.el is a front end for the Music Player Daemon. Run it with M-x mpc.
519
520 ** htmlfontify.el turns a fontified Emacs buffer into an HTML page.
521
522 ** js.el is a new major mode for JavaScript files.
523
524 ** imap-hash.el is a new library to address IMAP mailboxes as hashtables.
525
526 \f
527 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.2
528
529 ** The Lisp reader turns integers that are too large/small into floats.
530 For instance, on machines where `536870911' is the largest integer,
531 reading `536870912' gives the floating-point object `536870912.0'.
532
533 This change only concerns the Lisp reader; it does not affect how
534 actual integer objects overflow.
535
536 ** Several obsolete functions removed.
537 The functions have been obsolete since Emacs 19, and are unlikely to
538 be in use:
539
540 time-stamp-month-dd-yyyy, time-stamp-dd/mm/yyyy, time-stamp-mon-dd-yyyy
541 time-stamp-dd-mon-yy, time-stamp-yy/mm/dd, time-stamp-yyyy/mm/dd,
542 time-stamp-yyyy-mm-dd, time-stamp-yymmdd, time-stamp-hh:mm:ss,
543 time-stamp-hhmm, baud-rate
544
545 ** Support for generating Emacs 18 compatible bytecode (by setting
546 the variable `byte-compile-compatibility') has been removed.
547
548 ** In image-mode.el `image-mode-maybe' is obsolete.
549 Instead, you can either use `image-mode' (which displays an image file
550 as the actual image initially), or `image-mode-as-text' (when you want
551 to display an image file as text initially). `image-mode-as-text' is a
552 combination of a non-image mode from `auto-mode-alist' (or Fundamental
553 mode) and `image-minor-mode'. `image-minor-mode' provides a `C-c C-c'
554 key binding to toggle image display.
555 `image-toggle-display-text' removes image properties.
556 `image-toggle-display-image' adds image properties.
557 `image-toggle-display' toggles between `image-mode-as-text' and `image-mode'.
558
559 \f
560 * Lisp changes in Emacs 23.2
561
562 ** All the default-FOO variables that hold the default value of the FOO
563 variable, are now declared obsolete.
564
565 ** read-key is a function halfway between read-event and read-key-sequence.
566 It reads a single key, but obeys input and escape sequence decoding.
567
568 ** Frame parameter changes
569
570 *** You can give the `fullscreen' frame parameter the value `maximized'.
571 This maximizes the frame.
572
573 *** The new frame parameter `sticky' makes Emacs frames sticky in
574 virtual desktops.
575
576 ** Completion changes
577
578 *** completion-base-size is obsoleted by completion-base-position.
579 This change causes a few backward incompatibilities, mostly with
580 choose-completion-string-functions where the `mini-p' argument has
581 been replaced by a `base-position' argument, and where the `base-size'
582 argument is now always nil.
583
584 *** New function `completion-in-region' to use the standard completion
585 facilities on a particular region of text.
586
587 *** The 4th arg to all-completions (aka hide-spaces) is declared obsolete.
588
589 *** completion-annotate-function specifies how to compute annotations
590 for completions displayed in *Completions*.
591
592 ** Minibuffer changes
593
594 *** read-file-name-predicate is obsolete. It was used to pass the predicate
595 to read-file-name-internal because read-file-name-internal abused its `pred'
596 argument to pass the current directory, but this hack is not needed
597 any more.
598
599 ** Changes to file-manipulation functions
600
601 *** `delete-directory' has an optional parameter RECURSIVE.
602
603 *** New function `copy-directory', which copies a directory recursively.
604
605 ** called-interactively-p now takes one argument and replaces interactive-p
606 which is now marked obsolete.
607
608 ** New function set-advertised-calling-convention makes it possible
609 to obsolete arguments as well as make some arguments mandatory.
610
611 ** You can control which binding is preferentially shown in menus and
612 docstrings by adding a `:advertised-binding' property to the corresponding
613 command's symbol. That property can hold a single binding or a list
614 of bindings.
615
616 ** Network and process changes
617
618 *** start-process-shell-command and start-file-process-shell-command
619 now only take a single `command' argument.
620
621 *** The new variable `process-file-side-effects' should be set to nil
622 if a `process-file' call does not change a remote file. This allows
623 file name handlers such as Tramp to optimizations.
624
625 *** make-network-process can now also create `seqpacket' Unix sockets.
626
627 ** Loading changes
628
629 *** eval-next-after-load is obsolete.
630
631 *** New hook `after-load-functions' run after loading an Elisp file.
632
633 ** Byte compilation changes
634
635 *** Changing the file-names generated by byte-compilation by redefining
636 the function `byte-compile-dest-file' before loading bytecomp.el is obsolete.
637 Instead, customize byte-compile-dest-file-function.
638
639 *** `byte-compile-warnings' has new members, `constants' and `suspicious'.
640
641 ** New macro with-silent-modifications to tweak text properties without
642 affecting the buffer's modification state.
643
644 ** Hash tables have a new printed representation that is readable.
645 The feature `hashtable-print-readable' identifies this new
646 functionality.
647
648 ** New functions for performing Unicode normalization:
649 ucs-normalize-NFD-region, ucs-normalize-NFD-string,
650 ucs-normalize-NFC-region, ucs-normalize-NFC-string,
651 ucs-normalize-NFKD-region, ucs-normalize-NFKD-string,
652 ucs-normalize-NFKC-region, ucs-normalize-NFKC-string,
653 ucs-normalize-HFS-NFD-region, ucs-normalize-HFS-NFD-string,
654 ucs-normalize-HFS-NFC-region, ucs-normalize-HFS-NFC-string.
655
656 ** Face aliases can now be marked as obsolete, using the macro
657 `define-obsolete-face-alias'.
658
659 ** New function `window-full-height-p', analogous to the full-width version.
660
661 \f
662 * Changes in Emacs 23.2 on non-free operating systems
663
664 ** On MS-Windows, `display-time' now displays the system load average
665 as well as the time, as it does on GNU and Unix.
666
667 \f
668 * Installation Changes in Emacs 23.1
669
670 ** The default X toolkit is now Gtk+, rather than Lucid.
671 The configure option `--with-gtk' has been removed. Gtk is now the
672 default toolkit, but you can use --with-x-toolkit=gtk if necessary.
673
674 ** New font code.
675 Fonts are handled by new code capable of dealing with multiple font
676 backends. This uses the freetype and fontconfig libraries.
677
678 *** Emacs now accepts font names supplied in the fontconfig format
679 (e.g. "monospace-12:bold") and GTK format (e.g. "Monospace Bold 12").
680
681 *** Added support for local fonts (fonts installed on the machine
682 where Emacs is running).
683
684 *** Added support for the Xft library for antialiasing.
685
686 *** Added support for the otf library for complex text layout by
687 OpenType fonts.
688
689 *** Added support for the m17n library for text shaping.
690
691 ** Changes to image support
692
693 *** configure now checks for libgif before libungif when searching for
694 a GIF library.
695
696 *** Emacs now supports the SVG image format through librsvg2.
697
698 *** Emacs now supports multi-page TIFF images.
699
700 ** New NeXTSTEP-based port.
701 This provides support for GNUstep (via the GNUstep libraries) and Mac
702 OS X (via the Cocoa libraries).
703
704 Specify --with-ns to configure for this. By default, a self-contained
705 app will be built (containing all lisp). To install/share lisp with
706 other emacsen (e.g. X11 build) use --disable-ns-self-contained. See
707 nextstep/README and nextstep/INSTALL in the Emacs source directory.
708
709 ** Mac OS X is no longer supported via Carbon.
710 Use the NeXTSTEP port, described above.
711
712 ** The new configuration option "--with-dbus" enables D-Bus language
713 bindings for Emacs.
714
715 ** Support for many obsolete platforms has been removed.
716 See the list at the end of etc/MACHINES for details.
717
718 *** Support for systems without alloca has been removed.
719
720 *** Support for Sun windows has been removed.
721
722 *** The `emacstool' utility has been removed.
723
724 ** The following platforms will be removed in a future Emacs version:
725 If you are still using Emacs on one of these platforms, please email
726 emacs-devel@gnu.org to inform the Emacs developers.
727
728 *** Old GNU/Linux systems based on libc version 5.
729
730 *** Old FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD systems based on the COFF
731 executable format.
732
733 *** Solaris versions 2.6 and below.
734
735 *** Solaris on IBM RS6000 machines.
736
737 *** UNIX System V (the original SysV, not later platforms based on it).
738
739 *** Unixware on non-x86 machines.
740
741 *** Platforms not supporting shared libraries (i.e., requiring the
742 NO_SHARED_LIBS compilation flag).
743
744 ** The configure options `--with-gcc', `--without-gcc' have been removed.
745 Configure will use gcc by default. Set the CC environment variable if
746 you need control over which C compiler is used.
747
748 ** The refcards are now shipped as PDF files.
749
750 ** The manuals are now licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License v1.3,
751 or any later version.
752
753 ** Emacs 23 comes with a new set of default icons.
754 Various resolutions are available as etc/images/icons/hicolor/*/apps/emacs.png.
755 The Emacs 22 icon is available as `emacs22.png' in the same location.
756 \f
757 * Changes in Emacs 23.1
758
759 ** Improved X Window System support
760
761 *** Emacs now supports using both X displays and ttys in one session.
762 With an Emacs server active (M-x server-start), `emacsclient -t'
763 creates a tty frame connected to the running emacs server. You can
764 use any number of different ttys. `emacsclient -c' creates a new X11
765 frame on the current $DISPLAY (or a tty frame if $DISPLAY is not set).
766 There may be problems if a display exits unexpectedly and Emacs is compiled
767 with Gtk+, see etc/PROBLEMS.
768
769 You can test for the presence of this feature in your Lisp code by
770 testing for the `multi-tty' feature.
771
772 *** Emacs starts in the background, as a daemon, when given the
773 --daemon command line argument. It disconnects from the terminal and
774 starts the server. Clients can connect and create graphical or
775 terminal frames using emacsclient.
776
777 **** emacsclient starts emacs in daemon mode and connects to it when
778 --alternate-editor="" is used (or when the evironment variable
779 ALTERNATE_EDITOR is set to "") and emacsclient cannot connect to an
780 emacs server.
781
782 *** The new command close-display-connection closes a connection to a
783 remote display. There are some bugs for Gtk+. See etc/PROBLEMS.
784
785 *** Emacs now supports the XEmbed specification.
786 You can embed Emacs in another application on X11. The new command line
787 option --parent-id is used to pass the parent window id to Emacs. See
788 http://standards.freedesktop.org/xembed-spec/xembed-spec-latest.html
789 for details about XEmbed.
790
791 *** Emacs can now set the frame opacity.
792 The opacity of a frame can be controlled by setting the `alpha' frame
793 parameter. This only takes effect on a compositing window manager for
794 the X Window System, such as Compiz, Beryl and Compiz Fusion, on Mac
795 OS X, or on Windows 2000 and later versions of Windows.
796
797 The alpha parameter should be an integer between 0 (transparent) and
798 100 (opaque), or a float number between 0.0 and 1.0. It can also be a
799 cons cell (ACTIVE . INACTIVE), where ACTIVE is the opacity of an
800 active frame and INACTIVE is the opacity of non-active frames.
801
802 The variable `frame-alpha-lower-limit' defines a lower bound for the
803 opacity; the default is 20.
804
805 ** Internationalization changes
806
807 *** The Emacs character set is now a superset of Unicode.
808 (It has about four times the code space, which should be plenty).
809
810 The internal encoding used for buffers and strings is now
811 Unicode-based and called `utf-8-emacs' (`emacs-internal' is an alias
812 for this). This encoding is backward-compatible with Unicode's UTF-8
813 encoding. The internal encoding previously used by Emacs,
814 `emacs-mule', is still available for reading and writing files.
815
816 During byte-compilation, Emacs 23 uses `utf-8-emacs' to write files.
817 As a result, byte-compiled files containing non-ASCII characters can't
818 be read by earlier versions of Emacs. Files compiled by Emacs 20, 21,
819 or 22 are loaded correctly as `emacs-mule' (whether or not they
820 contain multibyte characters). This takes somewhat more time, so it
821 may be worth recompiling existing .elc files which don't need to be
822 shared with older Emacsen.
823
824 *** There are new coding systems/aliases; see M-x list-coding-systems.
825
826 *** There is a new charset implementation with many new charsets.
827 See M-x list-character-sets. New charsets can be defined conveniently
828 as tables of unicodes.
829
830 *** There are new language environments for Chinese-GBK,
831 Chinese-GB18030, Khmer, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Oriya, Telugu,
832 Sinhala, and TaiViet.
833
834 *** The minor modes unify-8859-on-encoding-mode and
835 unify-8859-on-decoding-mode are obsolete.
836
837 *** `ucs-insert' is bound to `C-x 8 RET' and in addition to hex numbers
838 accepts numbers in hash notation (e.g. #o21430 for octal, or #10r8984 for
839 decimal). It also accepts Unicode character names with completion.
840
841 *** The `cyrillic-translit' input method supports many new characters.
842 Common typographical characters available from Unicode were added to
843 `cyrillic-translit': punctuation marks, accented characters, fractions,
844 and others.
845
846 ** Emacs now supports serial port access on GNU/Linux, Unix, and
847 Windows. The new command `serial-term' starts an interactive terminal
848 on a serial port. The serial port can be configured at runtime with
849 the mode-line mouse menu.
850
851 ** Menu Bar changes
852
853 *** In the Options menu, the "Set Default Font" item applies the
854 selected font to the `default' face on all frames, not just the
855 current frame. Furthermore, if Emacs is compiled with both GTK and
856 Fontconfig support, the "Set Default Font" item uses the GTK font
857 selection dialog instead of an Emacs pop-up menu.
858
859 *** The font setting chosen by "Set Default Font" is saved if the
860 "Save Options" item is used.
861
862 *** The Tools menu contains a new Encryption/Decryption submenu.
863 This contains commands provided by EasyPG, the newly-included
864 interface to GnuPG (see New Modes and Packages).
865
866 *** In the Options menu, the "Truncate Long Lines in the Buffer" entry
867 has been replaced with a submenu offering three different ways to
868 handle long lines: truncation, continuation at the window edge, and
869 the new word wrapping behavior (see Editing Changes, below).
870
871 *** Improvements to menus for major and minor modes
872 More major and minor modes now have a mode specific menu, and existing
873 mode menus have been improved to include more functionality.
874
875 ** Mode-line changes
876
877 *** The mode-line displays a `@', instead of `-', if the
878 default-directory for the current buffer is on a remote machine.
879
880 *** The mode-line displays a mode menu when mouse-1 is clicked on a
881 minor mode, in the same way as it already did for major modes.
882
883 *** The `mode-line-emphasis' face is used to highlight certain
884 mode-line information (e.g. waiting for a VC command to finish).
885
886 *** The mode-line tooltips have been improved to provide more details.
887
888 *** The VC, line/colum number and minor mode indicators on the mode
889 line are now interactive: mouse-1 can be used on them to pop up a menu.
890
891 ** File deletion can make use of the Recycle Bin or system Trash folder.
892 Set `delete-by-moving-to-trash' non-nil to use this. Deleted files
893 and directories will then be sent to the Recycle Bin on Windows, and
894 to `trash-directory' on other systems.
895
896 ** Directory-local variables can now be defined.
897 By default, Emacs looks in .dir-locals.el for directory-local
898 variables. For more information, see `dir-locals-set-directory-class'
899 and `dir-locals-set-class-variables'.
900
901 ** Emacs can now use `auth-source' for authentication.
902 `smtpmail' and `url' (Tramp and Gnus also) use `auth-source' to obtain
903 login names and passwords. The match, if found, is reported
904 in *Messages* with the password blanked out.
905
906 ** `where-is-preferred-modifier' can specify your favorite modifier.
907
908 \f
909 * Startup Changes in Emacs 23.1
910
911 ** The option `inhibit-startup-screen' (with aliases to old names
912 `inhibit-splash-screen' and `inhibit-startup-message') doesn't inhibit
913 display of the initial message in the *scratch* buffer. If you don't
914 want to display the initial message in the *scratch* buffer at startup,
915 you can set the option `initial-scratch-message' to nil.
916
917 ** New user option `initial-buffer-choice' specifies what to display
918 after starting Emacs: startup screen, *scratch* buffer, visiting a
919 file or directory.
920
921 ** New alias `argv' for `command-line-args-left'
922 This is a convenience alias, so that one can write `(pop argv)'
923 inside of --eval command line arguments in order to access
924 following arguments.
925
926 ** The abbrev file is no longer read at startup in batch mode.
927
928 ** Emacs now supports invocation by an X session manager.
929 It can save a session and restore it later. See the documentation of
930 the functions `emacs-session-save' and `emacs-session-restore'.
931 (Actually, this feature was introduced with Emacs 22, but it was not
932 documented.)
933 \f
934 * Incompatible Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
935
936 ** In Dired, `dired-flag-garbage-files' is rebound from `&' to `%&'
937 on the regexp command prefix map.
938
939 ** In Dired-x, all command guesses for ! are now added to the default
940 list accessible by M-n instead of pushing all guesses temporarily into
941 the history list.
942
943 ** In Isearch mode, a special case of typing `C-w' at the beginning of
944 the minibuffer that toggles word search (i.e. using key sequences
945 `C-s RET C-w' or `C-s M-e C-w') is obsolete. You can use the global key
946 `M-s w' to start word search, or type `M-s w' in Isearch mode to
947 toggle word search. To start nonincremental word search you can now use
948 `M-s w RET' and `M-s w C-r RET' instead of `C-s RET C-w' and `C-r RET C-w'.
949
950 ** In Info, `Info-search' is unbound from `M-s' to allow using `M-s w'
951 for word search as well as other search commands from the global prefix
952 key `M-s'. `Info-search' is still bound to `s', and also incremental
953 search commands `C-s', `C-M-s', `C-r', `C-M-r' are available for searching
954 through multiple Info nodes, together with their nonincremental versions
955 `C-s RET', `C-r RET', `C-M-s RET', `C-M-r RET', `M-s w RET'.
956
957 ** In Text mode, `center-line' and `center-paragraph' are rebound from
958 `M-s' and `M-S' to global keys `M-o M-s' and `M-o M-S' on the global
959 prefix map `M-o', which is intended for such formatting commands.
960
961 ** The following input methods were removed in Emacs 22.2, but this was
962 not advertised: danish-alt-postfix, esperanto-alt-postfix,
963 finnish-alt-postfix, german-alt-postfix, icelandic-alt-postfix,
964 norwegian-alt-postfix, scandinavian-alt-postfix, spanish-alt-postfix,
965 and swedish-alt-postfix. Use the versions without "alt-", which are
966 identical.
967
968 \f
969 * Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
970
971 ** The C-n and C-p line-motion commands now move by screen lines,
972 taking continued lines and variable-width characters into account.
973 Setting `line-move-visual' to nil reverts this to the previous
974 behavior (i.e., motion by logical lines based on buffer contents
975 alone).
976
977 ** C-x C-c now invokes `save-buffers-kill-terminal', and C-z now
978 invokes `suspend-frame'. These changes are for compatibility with the
979 new multi-tty support (see `Improved X Window System support' above).
980
981 ** Mark changes
982
983 *** Transient Mark mode is now on by default.
984
985 *** mark-even-if-inactive now defaults to t
986
987 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, C-SPC C-SPC pushes a mark without
988 activating it.
989
990 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-q now fills the region if the
991 region is active. Otherwise, it fills the current paragraph.
992
993 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-$ now checks spelling of the
994 region if the region is active. Otherwise, it checks spelling of the
995 word at point.
996
997 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, TAB now indents the region if the
998 region is active.
999
1000 *** The variable `use-empty-active-region' controls whether an empty
1001 active region in Transient Mark mode should make commands operate on
1002 that empty region.
1003
1004 ** Temporarily active regions
1005
1006 *** The new variable shift-select-mode, non-nil by default, controls
1007 shift-selection. When Shift Select mode is on, shift-translated
1008 motion keys (e.g. S-left and S-down) activate and extend a temporary
1009 region, similar to mouse-selection.
1010
1011 *** Temporarily active regions, created using shift-selection or
1012 mouse-selection, are not necessarily deactivated in the next command.
1013 They are only deactivated after point motion commands that are not
1014 shift-translated, or after commands that would ordinarily deactivate
1015 the mark in Transient Mark mode (e.g., any command that modifies the
1016 buffer).
1017
1018 ** Minibuffer and completion changes
1019
1020 *** Emacs may ask for confirmation before opening a non-existent file
1021 or buffer. By default, Emacs requests confirmation if you type RET
1022 immediately after TAB, and the resulting input is not an existing file
1023 or buffer; this usually happens when the minibuffer input did not
1024 complete far enough and you entered RET by mistake. In that case,
1025 Emacs puts the message "[Confirm]" in the minibuffer; type RET again
1026 to create the file or buffer.
1027
1028 The new variable confirm-nonexistent-file-or-buffer determines whether
1029 Emacs asks for confirmation. The default value is `after-completion'.
1030 If you change it to t, Emacs always asks for confirmation; if you
1031 change it to nil, Emacs never asks for confirmation.
1032
1033 *** The rules for performing completion have been changed.
1034 When generating completion alternatives, Emacs now takes the
1035 minibuffer text after point, if any, into account: this text is
1036 treated as a substring of the remaining part of the completion
1037 alternative (i.e., the part not matched by the minibuffer text before
1038 point). If no completion alternatives are found this way, Emacs
1039 attempts to perform partial-completion. If still no completion
1040 alternatives are found, we fall back on the Emacs 22 rules for
1041 performing completion.
1042
1043 The new variable `completion-styles' can be customized to choose your
1044 favorite completion style.
1045
1046 *** When M-n in the minibuffer reaches the end of the list of defaults,
1047 it adds the completion list to the end, so next M-n continues putting
1048 completion items to the minibuffer. The same principle applies to
1049 incremental search commands as well: C-s or C-M-s starts searching
1050 the default values and after the end of defaults they continue
1051 searching minibuffer completion items.
1052
1053 *** Minibuffer input of shell commands now comes with completion.
1054
1055 *** In the `C-x d' (Dired) prompt, typing M-n gives the visited file
1056 name of the current buffer.
1057
1058 *** In the M-! (shell-command) prompt, M-n provides some default commands.
1059 These are guessed using the file extension of the current file, based
1060 on the file-handlers specified in the operating system's `mailcap'
1061 file. The ! command in Dired (dired-do-shell-command) works
1062 similarly, using the file displayed on the current line.
1063
1064 *** A list of regexp default values is available via M-n for `occur',
1065 `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many'. This list includes the active
1066 region in transient-mark-mode, the word under the cursor, the last Isearch
1067 regexp, the last Isearch string and the last replacement regexp.
1068
1069 *** When enable-recursive-minibuffers is non-nil, operations which use
1070 switch-to-buffer (such as C-x b and C-x C-f) do not fail any more when
1071 used in a minibuffer or a dedicated window. Instead, they fallback on
1072 using pop-to-buffer, which will use some other window. This change
1073 has no effect when enable-recursive-minibuffers is nil (the default).
1074
1075 *** Isearch started in the minibuffer searches in the minibuffer history.
1076 Reverse Isearch commands (C-r, C-M-r) search in previous minibuffer
1077 history elements, and forward Isearch commands (C-s, C-M-s) search in
1078 next history elements. When the reverse search reaches the first history
1079 element, it wraps to the last history element, and the forward search
1080 wraps to the first history element. When the search is terminated, the
1081 history element containing the search string becomes the current.
1082
1083 *** The variable read-file-name-completion-ignore-case overrides
1084 completion-ignore-case for file name completion.
1085
1086 *** The variable read-buffer-completion-ignore-case overrides
1087 completion-ignore-case for buffer name completion.
1088
1089 *** The new command `minibuffer-force-complete' chooses one of the
1090 possible completions, rather than stopping at the common prefix.
1091
1092 *** If `completion-auto-help' is `lazy', Emacs shows the completions
1093 buffer only on the second attempt to complete. This was already
1094 supported in `partial-completion-mode'.
1095
1096 ** Face changes
1097
1098 *** S-down-mouse-1 now pops up a menu for changing the font and text
1099 size of the default face in the current buffer. The face is changed
1100 via face remapping (see Lisp changes, below).
1101
1102 *** New commands to change the default face size in the current buffer.
1103 To increase it, type `C-x C-+' or `C-x C-='. To decrease it, type
1104 `C-x C--'. To restore the default (global) face size, type `C-x C-0'.
1105 These work via Text Scale mode, a new minor mode.
1106
1107 The final key in the above commands may be repeated without the
1108 leading `C-x', e.g. `C-x C-= C-= C-=' increases the face height by
1109 three steps. Each step scales the height of the default face by the
1110 value of the variable `text-scale-mode-step'.
1111
1112 *** The commands buffer-face-mode and buffer-face-set can be used to
1113 remap the default face in the current buffer. See "Buffer Face mode",
1114 under New Modes and Packages.
1115
1116 ** Primary selection changes
1117
1118 *** You can disable kill ring commands from accessing the primary
1119 selection by setting `x-select-enable-primary' to nil.
1120
1121 ** Continuation lines can now be wrapped at word boundaries
1122 (word-wrapping). This is controlled by the new per-buffer variable
1123 `word-wrap'. Word wrapping does not take place if continuation lines
1124 are not shown, e.g. if truncate-lines is non-nil. The most convenient
1125 way to enable word-wrapping is using the new minor mode Visual Line
1126 mode; in addition to setting `word-wrap' to t, this rebinds some
1127 editing commands to work on screen lines rather than text lines. See
1128 New Modes and Packages, below.
1129
1130 ** Window management changes
1131
1132 *** truncate-partial-width-windows now accepts integer values, which
1133 specify a minimum window width for partial-width windows, below which
1134 lines are truncated. The default has been changed to 50.
1135
1136 *** The new command balance-windows-area balances windows both
1137 vertically and horizontally.
1138
1139 *** pop-to-buffer now always sets input focus when the popped-to window
1140 is on a different frame.
1141
1142 ** Miscellaneous changes:
1143
1144 *** C-l is bound to the new command recenter-top-bottom, rather than recenter.
1145 This moves the current line to window center, top and bottom on
1146 successive invocations.
1147
1148 *** scroll-preserve-screen-position also preserves the column position.
1149
1150 *** If `yank-pop-change-selection' is t, rotating the kill ring also
1151 updates the selection or clipboard to the current yank, just as M-w
1152 would do so with the text it copies to the kill ring.
1153
1154 *** C-M-% now shows replacement as it would look in the buffer, with
1155 `\N' and `\&' substituted according to the match. Old behavior can be
1156 restored by customizing `query-replace-show-replacement'.
1157
1158 *** The command shell prompts for the default directory, when it is
1159 called with a prefix and the default directory is a remote file name.
1160 This is because some file name handlers (like ange-ftp) are not able to
1161 run processes remotely.
1162
1163 *** The new command kill-matching-buffers kills buffers whose name
1164 matches a regexp.
1165
1166 *** The value of comment-style now defaults to `indent'.
1167 Thefore, comment-start markers are inserted at the current indentation
1168 of the region to comment, rather than the leftmost column.
1169
1170 *** The new commands `pp-macroexpand-expression' and
1171 `pp-macroexpand-last-sexp' pretty-print macro expansions.
1172
1173 *** The new command `set-file-modes' allows to set file's mode bits.
1174 The mode bits can be specified in symbolic notation, like with GNU
1175 Coreutils, in addition to an octal number. `chmod' is a new
1176 convenience alias for this function.
1177
1178 *** `next-error-recenter' specifies how next-error should recenter the
1179 visited source file. Its value can be a number (for example, 0 for
1180 top line, -1 for bottom line), or nil for no recentering.
1181
1182 *** When typing in a password in the echo area, C-y yanks the current
1183 kill into the password.
1184
1185 *** Tooltip frame parameters `font' and `color' in `tooltip-frame-parameters'
1186 are ignored. Customize the `tooltip' face instead.
1187
1188 *** `mkdir' is a new convenience alias for `make-directory'.
1189 \f
1190 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
1191
1192 ** Auto Composition Mode is a minor mode that composes characters
1193 automatically when they are displayed. It is globally on by default.
1194 It uses `auto-composition-function' (default `auto-compose-chars').
1195
1196 ** Bubbles, a new game, is similar to SameGame.
1197
1198 ** Buffer Face mode is a minor mode for remapping the default face in
1199 the current buffer. The variable `buffer-face-mode-face' specifies
1200 the face to remap to. The command `buffer-face-set' prompts for a
1201 face name, sets `buffer-face-mode-face' to it, and enables
1202 buffer-face-mode. See "Face changes", under Editing Changes, for a
1203 description of face remapping.
1204
1205 ** butterfly flips the desired bit on the drive platter.
1206 See http://xkcd.com/378/
1207
1208 ** bug-reference.el provides clickable links to bug reports.
1209
1210 ** dbus.el provides D-Bus language bindings.
1211 D-Bus is an inter-process communication mechanism for applications
1212 residing on the same host. See the manual for details.
1213
1214 ** DocView mode allows viewing of PDF, PostScript and DVI documents.
1215 One can also search for a regular expression in the document. For
1216 details, see the commentary in doc-view.el.
1217
1218 PDF and DVI files are now opened in Doc View mode by default.
1219
1220 In Postcript mode, C-c C-c launches Doc View minor mode for viewing
1221 the postscript file.
1222
1223 ** EasyPG provides an interface to the GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG).
1224 It includes a GnuPG keyring browser, cryptographic operations on
1225 regions and files, and automatic encryption of *.gpg files. For
1226 details, see the EasyPG Assistant User's Manual.
1227
1228 ** json.el is a library for parsing and generating JSON
1229 (JavaScript Object Notation), a lightweight data-interchange format.
1230
1231 ** linum.el is a new minor mode to display line numbers for the
1232 current buffer.
1233
1234 ** mairix.el is an interface to mairix, a free tool for indexing and
1235 searching locally stored mail. It allows you to query mairix and
1236 display the search results with Rmail, Gnus and VM. Note that there
1237 is an existing Gnus back end, nnmairix.el, which should be used with
1238 Maildir/MH setups.
1239
1240 ** minibuffer-depth-indicate-mode shows the minibuffer depth in the prompt.
1241
1242 ** nXML Mode
1243 This is a new mode for editing XML documents. It allows a schema to
1244 be associated with the XML document being edited, using Relax NG as
1245 the schema language. The schema is used to provide two key features:
1246
1247 *** Continuous validation. nXML validates as you type, highlighting
1248 any invalid parts of your document.
1249
1250 *** Completion. nXML can assist you in entering an element name,
1251 attribute name or data value by using information about what is
1252 allowed by the schema in that context.
1253
1254 ** proced.el provides a Dired-like interface for operating on
1255 processes. Proced makes an Emacs buffer containing a listing of the
1256 current processes. You can use the normal Emacs commands to move
1257 around in this buffer, and special Proced commands to operate on the
1258 processes listed. It is currently only functional on GNU/Linux,
1259 MS-Windows and Solaris.
1260
1261 ** Remember Mode is a mode for jotting down things to remember.
1262 Notes can be saved to a Diary file. For details, see the Remember
1263 Manual.
1264
1265 ** RST mode is a major mode for editing reStructuredText files.
1266
1267 ** Ruby mode is a major mode for Ruby files.
1268
1269 ** Visual Line mode provides support for editing by visual lines.
1270 It turns on word-wrapping in the current buffer, and rebinds C-a, C-e,
1271 and C-k to commands that operate by visual lines instead of logical
1272 lines. This is a more reliable replacement for longlines-mode.
1273 This can also be turned on using the menu bar, via
1274 Options -> Line Wrapping in this Buffer -> Word Wrap
1275
1276 ** xesam.el is an implementation of Xesam, an interface to (desktop)
1277 search engines like Beagle, Strigi, and Tracker. The Xesam API
1278 requires D-Bus for communication.
1279
1280 ** zeroconf.el offers service discovery and service publishing
1281 interfaces according to the zeroconf specification. It communicates
1282 with Avahi, a zeroconf implementation, via D-Bus messages on systems
1283 which have installed this software.
1284
1285 ** There is a new `whitespace' package.
1286 (The pre-existing one has been renamed to `old-whitespace'.)
1287 Now, besides reporting bogus blanks, the whitespace package has a
1288 minor mode and a global minor mode to visualize blanks (TAB, (HARD)
1289 SPACE and NEWLINE). The visualization is made via faces and/or display
1290 table. It can also indicate lines that extend beyond a given column,
1291 trailing blanks, and empty lines at the start or end of a buffer.
1292 See `whitespace-style' for more details. The `whitespace-action' option
1293 specifies what to do when a buffer is visited, killed, or written.
1294
1295 \f
1296 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
1297
1298 ** Abbrev has been rewritten in Elisp and extended with more flexibility.
1299
1300 *** New functions: abbrev-get, abbrev-put, abbrev-table-get, abbrev-table-put,
1301 abbrev-table-p, abbrev-insert, abbrev-table-menu.
1302
1303 *** Special hook `abbrev-expand-functions' obsoletes `pre-abbrev-expand-hook'.
1304
1305 *** `make-abbrev-table', `define-abbrev', `define-abbrev-table' all take
1306 extra arguments for arbitrary properties.
1307
1308 *** New variable `abbrev-minor-mode-table-alist'.
1309
1310 *** `local-abbrev-table' can hold a list of abbrev-tables.
1311
1312 *** Abbrevs have now the following special properties:
1313 `:count', `:system', `:enable-function', `:case-fixed'.
1314
1315 *** Abbrev-tables have now the following special properties:
1316 `:parents', `:case-fixed', `:enable-function', `:regexp',
1317 `abbrev-table-modiff'.
1318
1319 ** Apropos
1320
1321 *** `apropos-library' describes the elements defined in a given library.
1322
1323 *** Set `apropos-compact-layout' is you want a more compact (but wider) layout.
1324
1325 ** Archive Mode has basic support to browse Rar archives.
1326 Note, however, that the free version of the unrar command only handles
1327 versions 1 and 2 of the Rar format.
1328
1329 ** BibTeX mode
1330
1331 *** New command `bibtex-initialize' (re)initializes BibTeX buffers.
1332
1333 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' options `whitespace', `braces', and
1334 `string', disabled by default.
1335
1336 *** New variable `bibtex-cite-matcher-alist' contains rules to
1337 identify cited keys in BibTeX entries, used by `bibtex-find-crossref'.
1338
1339 *** Command `bibtex-url' allows multiple URLs per entry.
1340
1341 ** Bookmarks
1342
1343 *** bookmark.el saves bookmarks in a pre-Emacs-23-incompatible file format
1344 bookmark.el can read a .emacs.bmk file saved by an older Emacs, but an
1345 older Emacs cannot read one saved by Emacs 23.
1346
1347 ** Calendar and diary
1348
1349 *** There is a new date style, `iso', essentially year/month/day.
1350 The variable `european-calendar-style' is obsolete - use `calendar-date-style'.
1351 Similarly, the commands `american-calendar' and `european-calendar'
1352 should be replaced by `calendar-set-date-style'.
1353
1354 *** The calendar namespace has been rationalized.
1355 All functions and variables now begin with a `calendar-', `diary-', or
1356 `holiday-' prefix. The various calendar systems have secondary
1357 prefixes, eg `calendar-french-'. The old names you are likely to use
1358 directly still exist, for the time being, as aliases, but please start
1359 using the new names.
1360
1361 *** The whitespace in the calendar layout can be customized.
1362 See the variables:
1363 calendar-left-margin, calendar-intermonth-spacing, calendar-column-width,
1364 calendar-day-header-width, and calendar-day-digit-width.
1365
1366 *** Text (e.g. ISO weeks) can be displayed between the calendar months.
1367 See the variables calendar-intermonth-header and calendar-intermonth-text.
1368
1369 *** The function `holiday-chinese' computes holidays on the Chinese calendar.
1370 It has been used to add items to the list `holiday-oriental-holidays'.
1371
1372 *** `diary-remind' accepts a negative number -DAYS as a shorthand for
1373 the list (1 2 ... DAYS).
1374
1375 ** Change Log mode
1376
1377 *** The new command C-c C-f (change-log-find-file) finds the file
1378 associated with the current log entry.
1379
1380 *** The new command C-c C-c (change-log-goto-source) goes to the
1381 source code associated with a log entry.
1382
1383 ** Compile and grep modes
1384
1385 *** The mode-line entry for the *compilation* and *grep* buffer is color coded.
1386 It has different colors for to show that: (a) the command is still
1387 running, (b) successful completion, (c) error.
1388
1389 *** compilation-auto-jump-to-first-error tells `compile' to jump to
1390 the first error encountered during compilations.
1391
1392 *** compilation-scroll-output accepts a new value, `first-error', which
1393 says to stop auto scrolling at the first error that occurs.
1394
1395 *** The `cc' alias for C++ files in `grep-file-aliases' has been
1396 improved. `hh' can be used to match C++ header files and `cchh' both
1397 C++ sources and headers.
1398
1399 ** Copyright
1400
1401 *** You can specify your copyright holders' names.
1402 Only copyright lines with holders matching `copyright-names-regexp' are
1403 considered for update.
1404
1405 *** Copyrights can be at the end of the buffer.
1406 This is controlled by `copyright-at-end-flag' (used by, e.g., change-log-mode).
1407
1408 ** Custom
1409
1410 *** defcustom accepts new keyword arguments, `:safe' and `:risky', which
1411 set a variable's `safe-local-variable' and `risky-local-variable' property.
1412
1413 ** Diff mode
1414
1415 *** diff-refine-hunk highlights word-level details of changes in a diff hunk.
1416 It's used automatically as you move through hunks, see
1417 diff-auto-refine-mode. It is bound to `C-c C-b'.
1418
1419 *** diff-add-change-log-entries-other-window iterates through the diff
1420 buffer and tries to create ChangeLog entries for each change.
1421 It is bound to `C-x 4 A'.
1422
1423 *** Turning on `whitespace-mode' in a diff buffer will show trailing
1424 whitespace problems in the modified lines.
1425
1426 ** Dired
1427
1428 *** In Dired, C-x C-q now runs the command wdired-change-to-wdired-mode,
1429 and C-x C-q in wdired-mode exits it with asking a question about
1430 saving changes.
1431
1432 *** `&' runs the command `dired-do-async-shell-command' that executes
1433 the command asynchronously without the need to manually add ampersand
1434 to the end of the command. Its output appears in the buffer `*Async Shell
1435 Command*'.
1436
1437 *** `M-s f C-s' and `M-s f M-C-s' run Isearch that matches only at file names.
1438 When a new user option `dired-isearch-filenames' is t, then even ordinary
1439 Isearch started with `C-s' and `C-M-s' matches only at file names in the
1440 Dired buffer. When `dired-isearch-filenames' is `dwim' then activation of
1441 file name Isearch depends on the position of point - if point is on a file
1442 name initially, then Isearch matches only file names, otherwise it matches
1443 everywhere in the Dired buffer. You can toggle file names matching on or
1444 off by typing `M-s f' in Isearch mode.
1445
1446 *** `M-s a C-s' and `M-s a M-C-s' run multi-file Isearch on the marked files.
1447 They visit the first marked file in the sequence and display the usual Isearch
1448 prompt for a string or a regexp where all Isearch commands are available.
1449
1450 *** `Q' in Dired provides two new keys for multi-file replacement.
1451 The upper case key `Y' replaces all remaining matches in all remaining files
1452 with no more questions. The upper case key `N' stops doing replacements
1453 in the current file and skips to the next file. These multi-file keys
1454 are available for all commands that use `tags-query-replace'
1455 including `dired-do-query-replace-regexp', `vc-dir-query-replace-regexp',
1456 `reftex-query-replace-document'.
1457
1458 ** Fortran
1459
1460 *** The line length of fixed-form Fortran is not fixed at 72 any more.
1461 Customize the variable `fortran-line-length' to change it.
1462
1463 *** In Fortran mode, M-; is now bound to the standard comment-dwim,
1464 rather than fortran-indent-comment.
1465
1466 *** (The increasingly misnamed) F90 mode supports Fortran 2003 syntax.
1467
1468 ** Gnus
1469
1470 *** The Gnus package has been updated
1471 There are many new features, bug fixes and improvements; see the file
1472 GNUS-NEWS or the node "No Gnus" in the Gnus manual for details.
1473
1474 *** In Emacs 23, Gnus uses Emacs' new internal coding system `utf-8-emacs' for
1475 saving articles, drafts, and ~/.newsrc.eld. These file may not be read
1476 correctly in Emacs 22 and below. If you want to Gnus across different Emacs
1477 versions, you may set `mm-auto-save-coding-system' to `emacs-mule'.
1478
1479 *** Passwords are consistently loaded through `auth-source'
1480 Gnus can use `auth-source' for POP and IMAP passwords. Also see that
1481 `smtpmail' and `url' support `auth-source' for SMTP and HTTP/HTTPS/RSS
1482 authentication respectively.
1483
1484 ** Help mode
1485
1486 *** New macro `with-help-window' should set up help windows better
1487 than `with-output-to-temp-buffer' with `print-help-return-message'.
1488
1489 *** New option `help-window-select' permits to customize whether help
1490 window shall be automatically selected when invoking help.
1491
1492 *** New variable `help-window-point-marker' permits one to specify a new
1493 position for point in help window (for example in `view-lossage').
1494
1495 ** Isearch
1496
1497 *** New command `isearch-forward-word' bound globally to `M-s w' starts
1498 incremental word search. New command `isearch-toggle-word' bound to the
1499 same key `M-s w' in Isearch mode toggles word searching on or off
1500 while Isearch is active.
1501
1502 *** New command `isearch-highlight-regexp' bound to `M-s h r' in Isearch
1503 mode runs `highlight-regexp' (`hi-lock-face-buffer') with the current
1504 search string as its regexp argument. The same key `M-s h r' and
1505 other keys on the `M-s h' prefix are bound globally to the command
1506 `highlight-regexp' and other hi-lock commands.
1507
1508 *** New command `isearch-occur' bound to `M-s o' in Isearch mode
1509 runs `occur' with the current search string. The same key `M-s o'
1510 is bound globally to the command `occur'.
1511
1512 *** Isearch can now search through multiple ChangeLog files.
1513 When running Isearch in a ChangeLog file, if the search fails,
1514 then another C-s tries searching the previous ChangeLog,
1515 if there is one (e.g. going from ChangeLog to ChangeLog.12).
1516 This is enabled if multi-isearch-search is non-nil.
1517
1518 *** Two new commands to start Isearch on a list of marked buffers
1519 for buff-menu.el and ibuffer.el are bound to the keys `M-s a C-s' and
1520 `M-s a M-C-s'.
1521
1522 *** The part of an Isearch that failed to match is highlighted in
1523 `isearch-fail' face.
1524
1525 *** `C-h C-h' in Isearch mode displays isearch-specific Help screen,
1526 `C-h b' displays all Isearch key bindings, `C-h k' displays the full
1527 documentation of the given Isearch key sequence, `C-h m' displays
1528 documentation for Isearch mode. All the other Help commands exit
1529 Isearch mode and execute their global definitions.
1530
1531 *** When started in the minibuffer, Isearch searches in the minibuffer
1532 history. See `Minibuffer changes', above.
1533
1534 ** MH-E
1535
1536 *** Upgraded to MH-E version 8.2. See MH-E-NEWS for details.
1537
1538 ** Python
1539 *** The file etc/emacs.py now supports both Python 2 and 3, meaning
1540 that either version can be used as inferior Python by python.el.
1541
1542 *** Python mode now has `pdbtrack' functionality. When using pdb to
1543 debug a Python program, pdbtrack notices the pdb prompt and displays
1544 the source file and line that the program is stopped at, much the same
1545 way as gud-mode does for debugging C programs with gdb.
1546
1547 ** Recentf
1548
1549 *** The default value of `recentf-keep' prevents from checking of
1550 remote files, if there is no established connection to the
1551 corresponding remote host.
1552
1553 ** Rmail
1554
1555 *** Rmail no longer converts the messages to Babyl format.
1556 Instead, it uses UNIX mbox format, both on disk and in Rmail buffers,
1557 and does conversion and decoding when a message is displayed.
1558
1559 The first time you visit an Rmail file in Babyl format, Rmail
1560 automatically converts it to mbox format. This is a one-time
1561 conversion, but it can take a few minutes, depending on how fast is
1562 your machine and on the size of the file. You should find the rest of
1563 Rmail usage unaltered.
1564
1565 However, M-x set-rmail-inbox-list now lasts only for one session
1566 because there is no way to save the list of inbox files in an
1567 mbox-format file.
1568
1569 Also, whereas with Babyl format M-x find-file would switch to Rmail
1570 mode, with mbox format this is no longer the case (there being no way
1571 to add an "-*- rmail-*-" cookie to an mbox file). Use C-u M-x rmail
1572 instead.
1573
1574 If you have written any extensions to Rmail, they are likely to need
1575 updating. Conceptually, the Rmail buffer that you see is no longer
1576 just a narrowed portion of the whole. So you cannot access the whole
1577 of a message (or message collection) by a simple save-restriction and
1578 widen. Instead, there are two buffers: the rmail-buffer, and the
1579 rmail-view-buffer. The former is the buffer that you see, the latter
1580 is invisible. Most of the time, the invisible `view' buffer contains
1581 the full contents of the Rmail file, and the Rmail buffer contains a
1582 decoded copy of the current message (with only a subset of the
1583 headers). In this state, Rmail is said to be `swapped'.
1584
1585 You may find the following functions useful:
1586
1587 `rmail-get-header' and `rmail-set-header' get or set the value of a
1588 message header, whether or not it is currently visible.
1589
1590 `rmail-apply-in-message' is a general purpose function that calls a
1591 function (with arguments) which you specify on the full text of a given
1592 message. To further narrow to just the headers, search forward for "\n\n".
1593
1594 *** The new command `rmail-mime' displays MIME messages.
1595 It is bound to `v' in Rmail buffers and summaries. It displays plain
1596 text and multipart messages in a temporary buffer, and offers buttons
1597 to save attachments.
1598
1599 *** The command `rmail-redecode-body' no longer accepts the optional arg RAW.
1600 Since Rmail now holds messages in their original undecoded form in a
1601 separate buffer, `rmail-redecode-body' no longer encodes the original
1602 message, and therefore there should be no need to avoid encoding it.
1603
1604 *** The o command is now `rmail-output'. It is an all-purpose command
1605 for copying messages from Rmail and appending them to files. It
1606 handles Babyl-format files as well as mbox-format files, and it
1607 handles both kinds properly when they are visited in Emacs. It always
1608 copies the full headers of the message.
1609
1610 *** The C-o command is now `rmail-output-as-seen'. It uses
1611 the message as displayed, appending it to an mbox file.
1612
1613 *** The modified status of the Rmail buffer is reported in the mode-line.
1614 Previously, this information was hidden.
1615
1616 ** TeX modes
1617
1618 *** New option latex-indent-within-escaped-parens
1619 permits to customize indentation of LaTeX environments delimited
1620 by escaped parens.
1621
1622 ** T-mouse Mode
1623
1624 *** If the gpm mouse server is running and t-mouse-mode is enabled,
1625 Emacs uses a Unix socket in a GNU/Linux console to talk to server,
1626 rather than faking events using the client program mev. This C level
1627 approach provides mouse highlighting and help echoing in the
1628 minibuffer.
1629
1630 ** Tramp
1631
1632 *** New connection methods.
1633 The new methods "plinkx", "plink2", "psftp", "sftp" and "fish" have
1634 been introduced. There are also new so-called gateway methods
1635 "tunnel" and "socks".
1636
1637 *** IPv6 addresses.
1638 IPv6 addresses are supported now as host names. They must be embedded
1639 in square brackets, like in "/ssh:[::1]:".
1640
1641 *** Multihop syntax has been removed.
1642 The pseudo-method "multi" has been removed. Instead, multi hops
1643 can be specified by the new variable `tramp-default-proxies-alist'.
1644
1645 *** More default settings.
1646 Default values can be set via the variables `tramp-default-user',
1647 `tramp-default-user-alist' and `tramp-default-host'.
1648
1649 *** Connection information is cached.
1650 In order to reduce connection setup, information about used
1651 connections is kept persistently in a file. The name of this file is
1652 defined in the variable `tramp-persistency-file-name'.
1653
1654 *** Control of remote processes.
1655 Running processes on a remote host can be controlled by settings in
1656 `tramp-remote-path' and `tramp-remote-process-environment'.
1657
1658 *** Success of remote copy is checked.
1659 When the variable `file-precious-flag' is set, the success of a remote
1660 file copy is checked via the file's checksum.
1661
1662 *** Passwords can be read from an authentification file.
1663 Tramp uses the package `auth-source' to read passwords from a file, if
1664 necessary.
1665
1666 ** VC and related modes
1667
1668 *** VC now supports applying VC operations to a set of files at a time.
1669 This enables VC to work much more effectively with changeset-oriented
1670 version-control systems such as Subversion, GNU Arch, Mercurial, Git
1671 and Bzr. VC will now pass a multiple-file commit to these systems as
1672 a single changeset.
1673
1674 *** vc-dir is a new command that displays file names and their VC
1675 status. It allows to apply various VC operations to a file, a
1676 directory or a set of files/directories.
1677
1678 *** VC switches are no longer appended, rather the first non-nil value is used.
1679 (This was for the most part true in Emacs 22, but was not advertised).
1680 This is because there is an increasing variety of VC systems, and they
1681 do not all accept the same "common" options. For example, a CVS diff
1682 command used to append the values of `vc-cvs-diff-switches',
1683 `vc-diff-switches', and `diff-switches'. Now the first non-nil value
1684 from that sequence is used. The special value `t' means "no switches".
1685
1686 *** Clicking on the VC mode-line entry now pops the VC menu.
1687
1688 *** The VC mode-line entry now has a tooltip that explains the VC file status.
1689
1690 *** In VC Annotate mode, the key bindings have changed to use lower
1691 case keys instead of the upper case keys used in the past.
1692
1693 *** In VC Annotate mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
1694 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
1695 by typing the D key. Using the "Show changeset diff of revision at
1696 line" menu entry does the same thing.
1697
1698 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type v to toggle the annotation visibility.
1699
1700 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type f to show the file revision on
1701 the current line.
1702
1703 *** Asynchronous VC commands display [Waiting...] in the mode-line
1704 of the corresponding buffer as long as the asynchronous process is
1705 active.
1706
1707 *** Log entries can be modified using the key "e" in log-view.
1708 For now only CVS, RCS, SCCS and SVN support this functionality.
1709 This is done by the `modify-change-comment' backend function.
1710
1711 *** In log-view-mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
1712 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
1713 by typing the D key or using the "Changeset Diff" menu entry.
1714
1715 *** In Log Edit mode, C-c C-d now shows the diff for the files involved.
1716
1717 *** vc-git supports the "git grep" command.
1718
1719 *** VC Support for Meta-CVS has been removed for lack of a maintainer able
1720 to update it to the new VC.
1721
1722 ** Miscellaneous
1723
1724 *** comint-mode uses `start-file-process' now (see Lisp Changes).
1725 If `default-directory' is a remote file name, subprocesses are started
1726 on the corresponding remote system.
1727
1728 *** Eldoc highlights the function argument under point
1729 with the face `eldoc-highlight-function-argument'.
1730
1731 *** In Etags, the --members option is now the default.
1732 Use --no-members if you want the old default behavior of not tagging
1733 struct members in C, members variables in C++ and variables in PHP.
1734
1735 *** The `gdb' command only works with the graphical interface now.
1736 Use `gud-gdb' if you want the (old) text command mode.
1737
1738 *** goto-address.el provides two new minor modes, goto-address-mode and
1739 goto-address-prog-mode, which buttonize URLS and email addresses.
1740
1741 *** The new command `eshell/info' runs info in an eshell buffer.
1742
1743 *** The new variable `ffap-rfc-directories' specifies a list of local
1744 directories in which `ffap-rfc' will first search for RFCs.
1745
1746 *** hide-ifdef-mode allows shadowing ifdef-blocks instead of hiding them.
1747 See option `hide-ifdef-shadow' and function `hide-ifdef-toggle-shadowing'.
1748
1749 *** `icomplete-prospects-height' now supersedes `icomplete-prospects-length'.
1750
1751 *** Info displays breadcrumbs in the header of the page.
1752 See Info-breadcrumbs-depth to control it.
1753
1754 *** net-utils has an `iwconfig' command, similar to the existing `ifconfig'.
1755 It is used to configure wireless interfaces.
1756
1757 *** The pcmpl-unix package supports hostname completion for ssh and scp.
1758
1759 *** sgml-electric-tag-pair-mode lets you simultaneously edit matched tag pairs.
1760
1761 *** smerge-refine highlights word-level details of changes in conflict.
1762 It's used automatically as you move through conflicts, see
1763 smerge-auto-refine-mode.
1764
1765 *** talk.el has been extended for multiple tty support.
1766
1767 *** A new command `display-time-world' has been added to the Time
1768 package. It creates a buffer with an updating time display using
1769 several time zones.
1770
1771 *** The appearance of superscript and subscript in TeX is more customizable.
1772 See the documentation of the variables: tex-fontify-script,
1773 tex-font-script-display, tex-suscript-height-ratio, and
1774 tex-suscript-height-minimum.
1775
1776 *** view-remove-frame-by-deleting is now by default t
1777 since users found iconification of view-mode frames distracting.
1778
1779 *** WoMan tries to add locale-specific manual page directories to the
1780 search path. This can be disabled by setting `woman-locale' to nil.
1781
1782 \f
1783 * Changes in Emacs 23.1 on non-free operating systems
1784
1785 ** Case is now considered significant in completion on MS-Windows.
1786 The default value of `completion-ignore-case' is now nil on
1787 MS-Windows, the same as it is for other operating systems. The
1788 variable doesn't apply to reading a file name -- in that case Emacs
1789 heeds `read-file-name-completion-ignore-case' instead.
1790
1791 ** IPv6 is supported on MS-Windows.
1792 Emacs now supports IPv6 on Windows XP and later, and earlier versions
1793 of Windows with third party IPv6 stacks installed. In Emacs 22, IPv6 was
1794 supported on other platforms, but not on Windows due to using the winsock
1795 1.1 header file, even though Emacs was linking to the winsock 2 library.
1796
1797 ** Busy cursor (hourglass) now displays on MS-Windows.
1798 When Emacs is busy, an hourglass mouse cursor is displayed on Windows.
1799 In Emacs 22 only X supported the busy cursor.
1800
1801 ** Battery status is available on MS-Windows
1802 Emacs can now display the battery status in the mode-line when enabled with
1803 display-battery-mode or from the Options menu. More verbose battery
1804 information is also available with the command `battery'. In Emacs 22
1805 battery status was supported only on GNU/Linux and Mac.
1806
1807 ** More keys available on MS-Windows.
1808 Keys normally associated with IMEs, and some exotic keys not normally found
1809 on standard keyboards have been given names so they can be bound to functions
1810 inside Emacs. If there are keys on your keyboard that have not been exposed
1811 to Emacs in the past, try C-h k to see if they are available now.
1812
1813 Emacs can now bind functions to the extra buttons for media player and
1814 browser control present on some keyboards. These buttons are disabled
1815 by default, since enabling them prevents their system-wide use when
1816 Emacs has focus. To enable them, set the variable
1817 w32-pass-multimedia-buttons to nil. See the doc string of that variable
1818 for the list of extra keys that are available.
1819
1820 ** BDF fonts no longer supported on MS-Windows.
1821 The font backend was completely rewritten for this release. The focus
1822 on Windows has been getting acceptable performance and full unicode
1823 support, including complex script shaping for native Windows fonts. A
1824 rewrite of the BDF font support has not happened due to lack of time
1825 and developers. If demand still exists for such a backend even with
1826 the improved language support for native Windows fonts, future
1827 development in this direction will most likely be based on the
1828 freetype library, giving access to a wider range of font formats.
1829
1830 \f
1831 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
1832
1833 ** Variables cannot be both buffer-local and frame-local any more.
1834
1835 ** `functionp' returns nil for special forms.
1836 I.e., it only returns t for objects that can be passed to `funcall'.
1837
1838 ** The behavior of map-char-table has changed. It may call the
1839 specified function with a cons (FROM . TO) as a key if characters in
1840 that range have the same value.
1841
1842 ** Process changes
1843
1844 *** The function `dired-call-process' has been removed.
1845
1846 *** The multibyteness of process filters is now determined by the
1847 coding-system used for decoding. The functions
1848 `process-filter-multibyte-p' and `set-process-filter-multibyte' are
1849 obsolete.
1850
1851 ** The variable `byte-compile-warnings' can now be a list starting with `not',
1852 meaning to disable the specified warnings. The meaning of this list
1853 may therefore be the reverse of what you expect (of course, this is
1854 only an issue if you make use of the new `not' syntax). Rather than
1855 checking/manipulating elements directly, use the new functions
1856 `byte-compile-warning-enabled-p', `byte-compile-disable-warning', and
1857 `byte-compile-enable-warning.'
1858
1859 ** `mode-name' is no longer guaranteed to be a string.
1860 Use `(format-mode-line mode-name)' to ensure a string value.
1861
1862 ** The function x-font-family-list has been removed.
1863 Use the new function font-family-list (see Lisp Changes, below).
1864
1865 ** Internationalization changes
1866
1867 *** The value of the function `charset-id' is now always 0.
1868
1869 *** The functions `register-char-codings' and `coding-system-spec'
1870 have been removed.
1871
1872 *** The cpXXX coding systems are now supported automatically.
1873 The functions cp-...-codepage, which you had to use in Emacs 22 to
1874 enable support for these coding systems, have been deleted.
1875
1876 *** The following features have been removed. They were used for
1877 displaying various scripts with specific fonts, and are no longer
1878 needed now that OpenType font support is available:
1879
1880 **** `devanagari' and `devan-util', and all associated devanagari-* and
1881 dev-* functions and variables (formerly used for Devanagari script).
1882
1883 **** `kannada' and `knd-util', and all associated kannada-* and knd-*
1884 functions and variables (formerly used for Kannada script).
1885
1886 **** `malayalam' and `mlm-util', and all associated malayalam-* and
1887 mlm-* functions and variables (formerly used for Malayalam script).
1888
1889 **** `tamil' and `tml-util, and all associated tamil-* and tml-*
1890 functions and variables (formerly used for Tamil script).
1891
1892 *** The meaning of NAME argument of `set-fontset-font' is changed.
1893 Previously nil is accepted as the default fontset. Now, nil is for
1894 the fontset of the selected frame and t is for the default fontset.
1895
1896 *** The meaning of FONTSET argument of `print-fontset' is changed.
1897 Now, nil is for the fontset of the selected frame and t is for the
1898 default fontset.
1899
1900 ** If a function in write-region-annotate-functions returns with a
1901 different buffer current, Emacs no longer kills that buffer
1902 automatically. This behavior existed in previous versions of Emacs,
1903 but was undocumented. To kill a buffer after write-region, give the
1904 variable `write-region-post-annotation-function' a buffer-local value
1905 of `kill-buffer'.
1906
1907 ** The variable temp-file-name-pattern has been removed.
1908 This variable was only used by call-process-region, which now uses
1909 temporary-file-directory instead.
1910
1911 ** The COUNT and SYSTEM-FLAG arguments to define-abbrev have been
1912 removed. The function now takes extra arguments for specifying
1913 arbitrary abbrev properties.
1914
1915 ** end-of-defun-function is now guaranteed to work only when called
1916 from the start of a defun. It must now leave point exactly at the end
1917 of defun, since `end-of-defun' now itself moves forward over
1918 whitespace after calling it.
1919
1920 \f
1921 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
1922
1923 ** The new variable `generate-autoload-cookie' controls the magic comment
1924 string used by `update-file-autoloads' to find autoloaded forms. The
1925 variable `generated-autoload-file' similarly controls the name of the
1926 file where `update-file-autoloads' writes the calls to `autoload'.
1927 The default values are ";;;###autoload" and `loaddefs.el',
1928 respectively.
1929
1930 ** New primitives `list-system-processes' and `process-attributes'
1931 let Lisp programs access the processes that are running on the local
1932 machine. See the doc strings of these functions for more details.
1933 Not all platforms support accessing this information; on those that
1934 don't, these primitives will return nil.
1935
1936 ** New variable `user-emacs-directory'.
1937 Use this instead of "~/.emacs.d".
1938
1939 ** If a local hook function has a non-nil `permanent-local-hook'
1940 property, `kill-all-local-variables' does not remove it from the local
1941 value of the hook variable; it remains even if you change major modes.
1942
1943 ** `frame-inherited-parameters' lets new frames inherit parameters from
1944 the selected frame.
1945
1946 ** New keymap `input-decode-map' overrides like key-translation-map, but
1947 applies before function-key-map. Also it is terminal-local contrary to
1948 key-translation-map. Terminal-specific key-sequences are generally added to
1949 this map rather than to function-key-map now.
1950
1951 ** `ignore-errors' is now a standard macro (does not require the CL package).
1952
1953 ** `interprogram-paste-function' can now return one string or a list
1954 of strings. In the latter case, Emacs puts the second and following
1955 strings on the kill ring.
1956
1957 ** In `condition-case', a handler can specify "let the debugger run first".
1958 You do this by writing `debug' in the list of conditions to be handled,
1959 like this:
1960
1961 (condition-case nil
1962 (foo bar)
1963 ((debug error) nil))
1964
1965 ** clone-indirect-buffer now runs the clone-indirect-buffer-hook.
1966
1967 ** `beginning-of-defun-function' now takes one argument, the count given to
1968 `beginning-of-defun'. (N.B. `end-of-defun-function' doesn't take any
1969 arguments.)
1970
1971 ** `file-remote-p' has new optional parameters IDENTIFICATION and CONNECTED.
1972 IDENTIFICATION specifies which part of the remote identifier has to be
1973 returned. With CONNECTED passed non-nil, it is checked whether a
1974 remote connection has been established already.
1975
1976 ** The new macro `declare-function' suppresses compiler warnings about
1977 undefined functions.
1978
1979 ** Changes to interactive function handling
1980
1981 *** The new interactive spec code ^ says to first call
1982 handle-shift-selection if shift-select-mode is non-nil, before reading
1983 the command arguments. This is used for shift-selection (see above).
1984
1985 *** Built-in functions can now have an interactive specification that
1986 is not a prompt string. If the `intspec' parameter of a `DEFUN'
1987 starts with a `(', the string is evaluated as a Lisp form.
1988
1989 *** The interactive-form of a function can be added post-facto via the
1990 `interactive-form' symbol property. Mostly useful to add complex
1991 interactive forms to subroutines.
1992
1993 ** Region changes
1994
1995 *** Commands should use `use-region-p' to test whether there is
1996 an active region that they should operate on.
1997
1998 *** `region-active-p' returns non-nil when Transient Mark mode is
1999 enabled and the mark is active. Most commands that act specially on
2000 the active region in Transient Mark mode should use `use-region-p'
2001 instead of `region-active-p', because `use-region-p' obeys the new
2002 user option `use-empty-active-region' (see Editing Changes, above).
2003
2004 *** If a command sets `transient-mark-mode' to (only . OLDVAL), that
2005 means to activate transient-mark-mode temporarily, until the next
2006 unshifted point motion command or mark deactivation. Afterwards,
2007 reset transient-mark-mode to the value OLDVAL. The values `only' and
2008 `identity', introduced in Emacs 22, are now deprecated.
2009
2010 ** Emacs session information
2011
2012 *** The new variables `before-init-time' and `after-init-time' record the
2013 value of `current-time' before and after Emacs loads the init files.
2014
2015 *** The new function `emacs-uptime' returns the uptime of an Emacs instance.
2016
2017 *** The new function `emacs-init-time' returns the duration of the
2018 Emacs initialization.
2019
2020 ** Changes affecting display-buffer
2021
2022 *** display-buffer tries to be smarter when splitting windows.
2023 The new option split-window-preferred-function lets you specify your own
2024 function to pop up new windows. Its default value split-window-sensibly
2025 can split a window either vertically or horizontally, whichever seems
2026 more suitable in the current configuration. You can tune the behavior
2027 of split-window-sensibly by customizing split-height-threshold and the
2028 new option split-width-threshold. Both options now take the value nil
2029 to inhibit splitting in one direction. Setting split-width-threshold to
2030 nil inhibits horizontal splitting and gets you the behavior of Emacs 22
2031 in this respect. In any case, display-buffer may now split the largest
2032 window vertically even when it is not as wide as the containing frame.
2033
2034 *** If pop-up-frames has the value `graphic-only', display-buffer only
2035 makes a separate frame on graphic displays.
2036
2037 *** select-frame and set-frame-selected-window have a new optional
2038 argument NORECORD. If non-nil, this will avoid messing with the order
2039 of recently selected windows and the buffer list.
2040
2041 ** Window parameters can now be defined.
2042 These are analogous to frame parameters, but are associated with
2043 individual windows.
2044
2045 *** The new functions window-parameters, window-parameter, and
2046 set-window-parameter are used to query and set window parameters.
2047
2048 ** Minibuffer and completion changes
2049
2050 *** A list of default values can be specified for the DEFAULT argument of
2051 functions `read-from-minibuffer', `read-string', `read-command',
2052 `read-variable', `read-buffer', `completing-read'. Elements of this list
2053 are available for inserting into the minibuffer by typing `M-n'.
2054 For empty input these functions return the first element of this list.
2055
2056 *** New function `read-regexp' uses the regexp history and some useful
2057 regexp defaults (string at point, last Isearch/replacement regexp/string)
2058 via M-n when reading a regexp in the minibuffer.
2059
2060 *** minibuffer-local-must-match-filename-map is now named
2061 minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map.
2062
2063 *** The `require-match' argument to `completing-read' accepts the new
2064 values `confirm-only' and `confirm-after-completion'.
2065
2066 ** Search and replacement changes
2067
2068 *** The regexp form \(?<num>:<regexp>\) specifies the group number explicitly.
2069
2070 *** New function `match-substitute-replacement' returns the result of
2071 `replace-match' without actually using it in the buffer.
2072
2073 *** The new variable `replace-search-function' determines the function
2074 to use for searching in query-replace and replace-string. The
2075 function it specifies is called by `perform-replace' when its 4th
2076 argument is nil.
2077
2078 *** The new variable `replace-re-search-function' determines the
2079 function to use for searching in `query-replace-regexp',
2080 `replace-regexp', `query-replace-regexp-eval', and
2081 `map-query-replace-regexp'. The function it specifies is called by
2082 `perform-replace' when its 4th argument is non-nil.
2083
2084 *** New keymap `search-map' bound to `M-s' provides global bindings
2085 for search related commands.
2086
2087 *** New keymap `multi-query-replace-map' contains additonal keys bound
2088 to `automatic-all' and `exit-current' for multi-buffer interactive replacement.
2089
2090 *** The variable `inhibit-changing-match-data', if non-nil, prevents
2091 the search and match primitives from changing the match data.
2092
2093 *** New functions `word-search-forward-lax' and `word-search-backward-lax'.
2094 These are like `word-search-forward and `word-search-backward', except
2095 that the end of the search string need not match a word boundary,
2096 unless it ends in whitespace.
2097
2098 ** File handling changes
2099
2100 *** set-file-modes is now interactive and can take the mode value in
2101 symbolic notation thanks to auxiliary functions.
2102
2103 *** file-local-variables-alist stores an alist of file-local
2104 variables defined in the current buffer.
2105
2106 ** Face-remapping
2107
2108 *** Each face can be remapped to a different face definition using the
2109 variable `face-remapping-alist'. This is an alist that maps faces to
2110 replacement definitions (which can be face names, lists of face names,
2111 or attribute/value plists. If this variable is buffer-local, the
2112 remapping occurs only in that buffer.
2113
2114 *** text-scale-mode remaps the default face to a larger or smaller
2115 size in the current buffer. This feature is used by the Buffer Face
2116 menu and the new `C-x C-+', `C-x C--', and `C-x C-0' commands (see
2117 Editing Changes, above).
2118
2119 *** New functions:
2120
2121 **** `face-remap-add-relative' adds a face remapping entry to the
2122 current buffer.
2123
2124 **** ``face-remap-remove-relative' removes a face remapping entry from
2125 the current buffer.
2126
2127 **** `face-remap-reset-base' restores a face to its global definition.
2128
2129 **** `face-remap-set-base' sets the base remapping of a face.
2130
2131 ** Process changes
2132
2133 *** The new function `start-file-process' is similar to `start-process',
2134 but obeys file handlers. The file handler is chosen based on
2135 `default-directory'. The functions `start-file-process-shell-command'
2136 and `process-file-shell-command' are also new; they call internally
2137 `start-file-process' and `process-file', respectively.
2138
2139 *** The new function `process-lines' executes an external program and
2140 returns its output as a list of lines.
2141
2142 ** Character code, representation, and charset changes.
2143
2144 *** In multibyte buffers and strings, characters are represented by
2145 UTF-8 byte sequences. The character code space is now 0x0..0x3FFFFF
2146 with no gap; code points 0x0..0x10FFFF are Unicode characters of the
2147 same code points, while code points 0x3FFF80..0x3FFFFF are raw 8-bit
2148 bytes.
2149
2150 *** Generic characters no longer exist.
2151
2152 *** The concept of a charset has changed. A single character may
2153 belong to multiple charsets (e.g. a-grave, U+00E0, belongs to charsets
2154 unicode, iso-8859-1, iso-8859-3, etc).
2155
2156 **** The dimension of a charset is now 1, 2, 3, or 4, and the size of
2157 each dimension is no longer limited to 94 or 96.
2158
2159 **** A dynamic charset priority list is used to infer the charset of
2160 characters for display.
2161
2162 *** The functions `split-char' and `make-char' now accept up to 4
2163 positional codes instead of just 2.
2164
2165 *** The functions `encode-char' and `decode-char' now accept any character sets.
2166
2167 *** The function `define-charset' now accepts a completely different
2168 form of arguments (old-style arguments still work).
2169
2170 *** The value of the function `char-charset' depends on the current
2171 priorities of charsets.
2172
2173 *** The function get-char-code-property now accepts many Unicode base
2174 character properties. They are `name', `general-category',
2175 `canonical-combining-class', `bidi-class', `decomposition',
2176 `decimal-digit-value', `digit-value', `numeric-value', `mirrored',
2177 `old-name', `iso-10646-comment', `uppercase', `lowercase', and
2178 `titlecase'.
2179
2180 *** The functions `modify-syntax-entry' and `modify-category-entry' now
2181 accept a cons of characters as the first argument, and modify all
2182 entries in that range of characters.
2183
2184 *** Use of `translation-table-for-input' for character code unification
2185 is now obsolete, since Emacs 23.1 and later uses Unicode as basis for
2186 internal representation of characters.
2187
2188 *** New functions:
2189
2190 **** `characterp' returns t if and only if the argument is a character.
2191 This replaces `char-valid-p', which is now obsolete.
2192
2193 **** `max-char' returns the maximum character code (currently #x3FFFFF).
2194
2195 **** `define-charset-alias' defines an alias of a charset.
2196
2197 **** `set-charset-priority' sets priorities of charsets.
2198
2199 **** `charset-priority-list' returns a prioritized list of charsets.
2200
2201 **** `unibyte-string' makes a unibyte string from bytes.
2202
2203 **** `define-char-code-property' defines a character code property.
2204
2205 **** `char-code-property-description' returns the description string of
2206 a character code property.
2207
2208 *** New variables:
2209
2210 **** `find-word-boundary-function-table' is a char-table of functions to
2211 search for a word boundary.
2212
2213 **** `char-script-table' is a char-table of script names.
2214
2215 **** `char-width-table' is a char-table of character widths.
2216
2217 **** `print-charset-text-property' controls how to handle `charset' text
2218 property on printing a string.
2219
2220 **** `printable-chars' is a char-table of printable characters.
2221
2222 ** Code conversion changes
2223
2224 *** The new function `define-coding-system' should be used to define a
2225 coding system instead of `make-coding-system' (which is now obsolete).
2226
2227 *** The functions `encode-coding-region' and `decode-coding-region'
2228 have an optional 4th argument to specify where the result of
2229 conversion should go.
2230
2231 *** The functions `encode-coding-string' and `decode-coding-string'
2232 have an optional 4th argument specifying a buffer to store the result
2233 of conversion.
2234
2235 *** The new variable `inhibit-null-byte-detection' controls whether to
2236 consider text with null bytes as binary data. By default, it is
2237 `nil', and Emacs uses `no-conversion' for any text containing null
2238 bytes.
2239
2240 *** The functions `set-coding-priority' and `make-coding-system' are obsolete.
2241
2242 *** New functions:
2243
2244 **** `with-coding-priority' executes Lisp code using the specified
2245 coding system priority order.
2246
2247 **** `check-coding-systems-region' checks if the text in the region is
2248 encodable by the specified coding systems.
2249
2250 **** `coding-system-aliases' returns a list of aliases of a coding system.
2251
2252 **** `coding-system-charset-list' returns a list of charsets supported
2253 by a coding system.
2254
2255 **** `coding-system-priority-list' returns a list of coding systems
2256 ordered by their priorities.
2257
2258 **** `set-coding-system-priority' sets priorities of coding systems.
2259
2260 **** `coding-system-from-name' returns a coding system matching with
2261 the argument name.
2262
2263 ** There is a new input method, Robin, different from Quail.
2264 It has three functionalities:
2265 i) a simple input method (converts an ASCII sequence into a string).
2266 ii) converts an existing buffer substring into another string
2267 iii) reverse conversion (each character produced by a
2268 robin rule can hold the original ASCII sequence as a char-code-property)
2269
2270 *** The new function `robin-define-package' defines a Robin package.
2271
2272 *** The new function `robin-modify-package' modifies an existing Robin package.
2273
2274 *** The new function `robin-use-package' starts using a Robin package
2275 as an input method.
2276
2277 *** The new function `string-to-unibyte' is like `string-as-unibyte'
2278 but signals an error if STRING contains a non-ASCII, non-eight-bit
2279 character.
2280
2281 ** Changes related to the new font backend
2282
2283 *** Which font backends to use can be specified by the X resource
2284 "FontBackend". For instance, to use both X core fonts and Xft fonts:
2285
2286 Emacs.FontBackend: x,xft
2287
2288 If this resource is not set, Emacs tries to use all font backends
2289 available on your graphic device.
2290
2291 *** New frame parameter `font-backend' specifies a list of
2292 font-backends supported by the frame's graphic device. On X, they are
2293 currently `x' and `xft'.
2294
2295 *** The function `set-fontset-font' now accepts a script name as the
2296 second argument, and has an optional 5th argument to control how to
2297 set the font.
2298
2299 *** New functions:
2300
2301 **** `fontp' checks if the argument is a font-spec or font-entity.
2302
2303 **** `font-spec' creates a new font-spec object.
2304
2305 **** `font-get' returns a font property value.
2306
2307 **** `font-put' sets a font property value.
2308
2309 **** `font-face-attributes' returns a plist of face attributes set by a font.
2310
2311 **** `list-fonts' returns a list of font-entities matching a font spec.
2312
2313 **** `find-font' returns the font-entity best matching the given font spec.
2314
2315 **** `font-family-list' returns a list of family names of available fonts.
2316
2317 **** `font-xlfd-name' returns an XLFD name of a given font spec, font
2318 entity, or font object.
2319
2320 **** `clear-font-cache' clears all font caches.
2321
2322 ** Changes related to multiple-terminal (multi-tty) support
2323
2324 *** $TERM is now set to `dumb' for subprocesses. If you want to know the
2325 $TERM inherited by Emacs you will have to look inside initial-environment.
2326
2327 *** $DISPLAY is now dynamically inherited from the frame's `display'.
2328
2329 *** The `window-system' variable is now frame-local. The new
2330 `initial-window-system' variable contains the `window-system' value
2331 for the first frame. `window-system' is also now a function that
2332 takes a frame argument.
2333
2334 *** The `keyboard-translate-table' variable and the terminal and
2335 keyboard coding systems are now terminal-local.
2336
2337 *** You can specify a terminal device (`tty' parameter) and a terminal
2338 type (`tty-type' parameter) to `make-terminal-frame'.
2339
2340 *** The function `make-frame-on-display' now works during a tty
2341 session.
2342
2343 *** A new `terminal' data type.
2344 The functions `get-device-terminal', `terminal-parameters',
2345 `terminal-parameter', `set-terminal-parameter' use this data type.
2346
2347 *** Function key sequences are now mapped using `local-function-key-map',
2348 a new variable. This inherits from the global variable function-key-map,
2349 which is not used directly any more.
2350
2351 *** New hooks:
2352
2353 **** before-hack-local-variables-hook is called after setting new
2354 variable file-local-variables-alist, and before actually applying the
2355 file-local variables.
2356
2357 **** `suspend-tty-functions' and `resume-tty-functions' are called
2358 after a tty frame has been suspended or resumed, respectively. The
2359 functions are called with the terminal id of the frame being
2360 suspended/resumed as a parameter.
2361
2362 **** The special hook `delete-terminal-functions' is called before
2363 deleting a terminal.
2364
2365 *** New functions:
2366
2367 **** `delete-terminal'
2368
2369 **** `suspend-tty'
2370
2371 **** `resume-tty'.
2372
2373 *** `initial-environment' holds the environment inherited from Emacs's parent.
2374
2375 ** Redisplay changes
2376
2377 *** For underlined characters, the distance between the underline and
2378 the baseline is controlled by a new variable, `underline-minimum-offset'.
2379
2380 *** You can now pass the value of the `invisible' property to
2381 invisible-p to check whether it would cause the text to be invisible.
2382 This is convenient when checking invisibility of text with no buffer
2383 position (e.g. in before/after-strings).
2384
2385 *** `clear-image-cache' can be told to flush only images of a specific file.
2386
2387 *** `vertical-motion' can now be given a goal column.
2388 It now accepts a cons cell (COLS . LINES) in its first argument, which
2389 says to stop, where possible, at a pixel x-position equal to COLS
2390 times the default column width.
2391
2392 *** redisplay-end-trigger-functions, set-window-redisplay-end-trigger,
2393 and window-redisplay-end-trigger are obsolete. Use `jit-lock-register'
2394 instead.
2395
2396 *** The new variables `wrap-prefix' and `line-prefix' specify display
2397 specs which are appended at display-time to every continuation line
2398 and non-continuation line, respectively. In addition, Emacs
2399 recognizes the `wrap-prefix' and `line-prefix' text or overlay
2400 properties; these have the same effects as the variables of the same
2401 name, but take precedence.
2402
2403 ** The Lisp interpreter now treats non-breaking space as whitespace.
2404
2405 ** Miscellaneous new functions
2406
2407 *** `apply-partially' performs a "curried" application of a function.
2408
2409 *** `buffer-swap-text' swaps text between two buffers. This can be
2410 useful for modes such as tar-mode, archive-mode, RMAIL.
2411
2412 *** `combine-and-quote-strings' produces a single string from a list of strings
2413 sticking a separator string in between each pair, and quoting those
2414 strings that include the separator as their substring. Useful for
2415 consing shell command lines from the individual arguments.
2416
2417 *** `custom-note-var-changed' tells Custom to treat the change in a
2418 certain variable as having been made within Custom.
2419
2420 *** `face-all-attributes' returns an alist describing all the basic
2421 attributes of a given face.
2422
2423 *** `format-seconds' converts a number of seconds into a readable
2424 string of days, hours, etc.
2425
2426 *** `image-refresh' refreshes all images associated with a given image
2427 specification.
2428
2429 *** `locate-user-emacs-file' helps packages to select the appropriate
2430 place to save user-specific files. It defaults to `user-emacs-directory'
2431 unless the file already exists at $HOME.
2432
2433 *** `read-color' reads a color name using the minibuffer.
2434
2435 *** `read-shell-command' does what its name says, with completion. It
2436 uses the minibuffer-local-shell-command-map for that.
2437
2438 *** `split-string-and-unquote' splits a string into a list of substrings
2439 on the boundaries of a given delimiter, and unquotes the substrings that
2440 are quoted. Useful for taking apart shell commands.
2441
2442 *** The two new functions `looking-at-p' and `string-match-p' can do
2443 the same matching as `looking-at' and `string-match' without changing
2444 the match data.
2445
2446 *** The two new functions `make-serial-process' and
2447 `serial-process-configure' provide a Lisp interface to the new serial
2448 port support (see Emacs changes, above).
2449
2450 ** Miscellaneous new variables
2451
2452 *** `auto-save-include-big-deletions', if non-nil, means auto-save is
2453 not turned off automatically after a big deletion.
2454
2455 *** `read-circle', if nil, disables the reading of recursive Lisp
2456 structures using the #N= and #N# syntax.
2457
2458 *** `this-command-keys-shift-translated' is non-nil if the key
2459 sequence invoking the current command was found by shift-translation.
2460
2461 *** `window-point-insertion-type' determines the insertion-type of the
2462 marker used for window-point.
2463
2464 *** bookmark provides `bookmark-make-record-function' so special major
2465 modes like Info can teach bookmark.el how to save and restore the
2466 relevant data.
2467
2468 *** `fill-forward-paragraph-function' specifies which function the
2469 filling code should use to find paragraph boundaries.
2470
2471 \f
2472 * New Packages for Lisp Programming in Emacs 23.1
2473
2474 ** The new package avl-tree.el deals with the AVL tree data structure.
2475
2476 ** The new package check-declare.el verifies the accuracy of
2477 declare-function macros (see Lisp Changes, above).
2478
2479 ** find-cmd.el can build `find' commands using lisp syntax.
2480
2481 ** The package misearch.el has been added. It allows Isearch to search
2482 through multiple buffers. A variable `multi-isearch-next-buffer-function'
2483 defines the function to call to get the next buffer to search in the series
2484 of multiple buffers. Top-level functions `multi-isearch-buffers',
2485 `multi-isearch-buffers-regexp', `multi-isearch-files' and
2486 `multi-isearch-files-regexp' accept a single argument that specifies
2487 a list of buffers/files to search for a string/regexp.
2488
2489 ** The new major mode `special-mode' is intended as a parent for
2490 major modes such as those that set the "'mode-class 'special" property.
2491
2492 \f
2493 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
2494 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
2495
2496 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
2497 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2498 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
2499 (at your option) any later version.
2500
2501 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2502 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2503 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2504 GNU General Public License for more details.
2505
2506 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2507 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
2508
2509 \f
2510 Local variables:
2511 mode: outline
2512 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
2513 end:
2514