1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 24.
11 See files NEWS.23, NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18,
12 and NEWS.1-17 for changes in older Emacs versions.
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
18 +++ indicates that all necessary updates to the manuals in doc/ are complete.
19 --- means no change in the manuals is needed.
20 When you add a new item, use the appropriate mark if you know it applies,
21 otherwise leave it unmarked.
24 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.4
26 ** Emacs can now be compiled with ACL support.
27 This happens by default if a suitable support library is found at
28 build time, like libacl on GNU/Linux. To prevent this, use the
29 configure option `--disable-acl'.
31 ** Emacs can now be compiled with file notification support.
32 This happens by default if a suitable system library is found at
33 build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
34 `--with-file-notification-no'. See below for file-notify features.
35 FIXME? This feature is not available for the Nextstep port. (?)
37 ** The configure option `--without-compress-info' has been generalized,
38 and renamed to `--without-compress-install'. It now prevents compression
39 of _any_ files during installation.
41 ** The configure option `--with-crt-dir' has been removed.
42 It is no longer needed, as the crt*.o files are no longer linked
45 ** Directories passed to configure option `--enable-locallisppath' are
46 no longer created during installation.
48 ** Emacs can be compiled with zlib support.
49 If this library is present (which it normally is on most systems), the
50 function `zlib-decompress-region' becomes available, which can
51 decompress gzip- and zlib-format compressed data.
54 ** Emacs for NS (OSX, GNUStep) can be built with ImageMagick support.
55 pkg-config is required to find ImageMagick libraries.
57 ** For OSX >= 10.5, the Core text based font backend from the Mac port is used.
58 For GNUStep and OSX 10.4 the old backend is used.
59 To use the old backend by default, do on the command line:
60 % defaults write org.gnu.Emacs FontBackend ns
63 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.4
66 ** When initializing `load-path', an empty element in the EMACSLOADPATH
67 environment variable (either leading, e.g., ":/foo"; trailing, e.g.,
68 "/foo:"; or embedded, e.g., "/foo::/bar") is replaced with the default
69 load-path (the one that would have been used if EMACSLOADPATH was unset).
70 This makes it easier to _extend_ the load-path via EMACSLOADPATH
71 (previously, EMACSLOADPATH had to specify the complete load-path,
72 including the defaults). (In older versions of Emacs, an empty element
73 was replaced by ".", so use an explicit "." now if that is what you want.)
76 ** The -L option, which normally prepends its argument to load-path,
77 will instead append, if the argument begins with `:' (or `;' on MS Windows;
78 i.e., `path-separator').
81 ** If you use either site-load.el or site-init.el to customize the dumped
82 Emacs executable, any changes to `load-path' that these files make
83 will no longer be present after dumping. To affect a permanent change
84 to `load-path', use the `--enable-locallisppath' option of `configure'.
87 ** The user option `initial-buffer-choice' can now specify a function
88 to set up the initial buffer.
91 * Changes in Emacs 24.4
94 ** New option `gnutls-verify-error', if non-nil, means that Emacs
95 should reject SSL/TLS certificates that GnuTLS determines as invalid.
96 (This option defaults to nil at present, but this is expected to change
100 ** Emacs now supports menus on text-mode terminals.
101 If the terminal supports a mouse, clicking on the menu bar, or on
102 sensitive portions of the mode line or header line, will drop down the
103 menu defined at that position. Likewise, clicking C-mouse-2 or
104 C-mouse-2 or C-mouse-3 on the text area will pop up the menus defined
107 If the text terminal does not support a mouse, you can activate the
108 first menu-bar menu by typing F10, which invokes `menu-bar-open'.
110 If you want the previous behavior, whereby F10 invoked `tmm-menubar',
111 customize the option `tty-menu-open-use-tmm' to a non-nil value.
112 (Typing M-` will always invoke `tmm-menubar', even if
113 `tty-menu-open-use-tmm' is nil.)
116 ** The *Messages* buffer is created in `messages-buffer-mode',
117 a new major mode, with read-only status. Any code that might create
118 the *Messages* buffer should call the function `messages-buffer' to do
119 so and set up the mode.
121 ** Emacs now supports ACLs (access control lists).
123 *** Emacs preserves the ACL entries of files when backing up.
125 *** New functions `file-acl' and `set-file-acl' get and set the ACL
126 entries of a file. On GNU/Linux, the POSIX ACL interface is used via
127 libacl. On MS-Windows, the NT Security APIs are used to emulate the
128 POSIX ACL interfaces.
130 ** Multi-monitor support has been added.
132 *** New functions `display-monitor-attributes-list' and
133 `frame-monitor-attributes' can be used to obtain information about
134 each physical monitor on multi-monitor setups.
136 *** The functions `display-pixel-width' and `display-pixel-height' now
137 behave consistently among the platforms: they return the pixel width
138 or height for all physical monitors associated with the given display
139 as just they were on X11. To get information for each physical
140 monitor, use the new functions above. Similar notes also apply to
141 `x-display-pixel-width', `x-display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
142 `display-mm-height', `x-display-mm-width', and `x-display-mm-height'.
145 ** The cursor stops blinking after 10 blinks (by default) on X and NS.
146 You can change the default by customizing `blink-cursor-blinks'.
149 ** In keymaps where SPC scrolls forward, S-SPC now scrolls backward.
150 This affects View mode, etc.
155 *** The command `apropos-variable' is renamed to `apropos-user-option'.
156 `apropos-user-option' shows all user options while `apropos-variable'
157 shows all variables. When called with a universal prefix argument,
158 the two commands swap their behaviors. When `apropos-do-all' is
159 non-nil, they output the same results.
162 *** The key `?' now describes prefix bindings, like `C-h'.
164 *** The command `quail-help' is deleted. Use `C-h C-\'
165 (`describe-input-method') instead.
167 ** Frame and window changes
170 *** New commands `toggle-frame-fullscreen' and `toggle-frame-maximized',
171 bound to <f11> and M-<f10>, respectively.
173 *** New command `frameset-to-register' is now bound to `C-x r f', replacing
174 `frame-configuration-to-register'. It offers similar functionality,
175 plus enhancements like the ability to restore deleted frames. The
176 command `frame-configuration-to-register' still exists, but is unbound.
179 *** New hooks `focus-in-hook', `focus-out-hook'.
180 These are normal hooks run when an Emacs frame gains or loses input focus.
183 *** `split-window' is now a non-interactive function, not a command.
184 As a command, it was a special case of `C-x 2' (`split-window-below'),
185 and as such superfluous. After being reimplemented in Lisp, its
186 interactive form was mistakenly retained.
189 *** New option `scroll-bar-adjust-thumb-portion'.
190 Available only on X, this option allows to control over-scrolling
191 using the scroll bar (i.e. dragging the thumb down even when the end
192 of the buffer is visible).
194 ** Lisp evaluation changes
196 *** `eval-defun' on an already defined defcustom calls the :set function,
199 *** A zero prefix arg of `eval-last-sexp' (`C-x C-e'),
200 `eval-expression' (`M-:') and `eval-print-last-sexp' (`C-j') inserts
201 a list with no limit on its length and level (by using nil values of
202 `print-length' and `print-level'), and inserts additional formats for
203 integers (octal, hexadecimal, and character).
206 ** `write-region-inhibit-fsync' now defaults to t in batch mode.
209 ** `cache-long-line-scans' has been renamed to `cache-long-scans'
210 because it affects caching of paragraph scanning results as well.
213 ** The option `set-mark-default-inactive' has been deleted.
214 This unfinished feature was introduced by accident in Emacs 23.1;
215 simply disabling Transient Mark mode does the same thing.
217 ** The default value of `comment-use-global-state' is changed to t,
218 and this variable has been marked obsolete.
222 *** `read-regexp-defaults-function' defines a function to read regexps,
223 used by commands like `rgrep', `lgrep' `occur', `highlight-regexp',
224 etc. You can customize this to specify a function that provides a
225 default value from the regexp last history element, or from the symbol
228 *** `load-prefer-newer', affects how the `load' function chooses the
229 file to load. If this is non-nil, then when both .el and .elc
230 versions of a file exist, and the caller did not explicitly specify
231 which one to load, then the newer file is loaded. The default, nil,
232 means to always load the .elc file.
235 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.4
237 ** Indentation changes
240 *** The behavior of `C-x TAB' (`indent-rigidly') has changed.
241 When invoked without a prefix argument, it now activates a transient
242 mode in which typing <left>, <right>, <S-left>, and <S-right> adjusts
243 the text indentation in the region. Typing any other key resumes
244 normal editing behavior.
246 *** `electric-indent-mode' is enabled by default.
248 *** `tab-stop-list' is now implicitly extended to infinity by repeating
249 the last step. Its default value is changed to nil which means a tab
250 stop every `tab-width' columns.
254 *** New command `cycle-spacing' cycles between spacing conventions:
255 having just one space, no spaces, or reverting to the original
256 spacing. Like `just-one-space', it can handle or ignore newlines and
257 leave different number of spaces.
259 *** `fill-single-char-nobreak-p' prevents fill from breaking a line after
260 a 1-letter word, which is an error according to Polish and
261 Czech typography rules. To globally enable this feature, evaluate:
263 (add-hook 'fill-nobreak-predicate 'fill-single-char-nobreak-p)
266 ** Uniquify is enabled by default with `post-forward-angle-brackets' style.
268 ** New command `C-x SPC' (`rectangle-mark-mode') makes a rectangular region.
269 Most commands are still unaware of it, but kill/yank do work on the rectangle.
272 ** New option `visual-order-cursor-movement'.
273 If this is non-nil, cursor motion with arrow keys will follow the
274 visual order of characters on the screen: <left> always moves to the
275 left, <right> always moves to the right, disregarding the surrounding
276 bidirectional context.
280 *** All register commands can now show help with preview.
283 *** New command `C-x C-k x' (`kmacro-to-register') stores keyboard
286 *** New command `C-x r f' (`frameset-to-register').
287 See Changes in Emacs 24.4, above.
289 ** New command `delete-duplicate-lines'.
290 When its arg ADJACENT is non-nil (when called interactively with C-u
291 C-u) it works like the utility `uniq'. Otherwise by default it
292 deletes duplicate lines everywhere in the region without regard to
293 adjacency. When its arg KEEP-BLANKS is non-nil (when called
294 interactively with C-u C-u C-u), duplicate blank lines are preserved.
297 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.4
299 ** More packages look for ~/.emacs.d/<foo> additionally to ~/.<foo>.
301 ~/.emacs.d/timelog replaces ~/.timelog
302 ~/.emacs.d/vip replaces ~/.vip
303 ~/.emacs.d/viper replaces ~/.viper
304 ~/.emacs.d/ido.last replaces ~/.ido.last
305 ~/.emacs.d/kkcrc replaces ~/.kkcrc
306 ~/.emacs.d/quickurls replaces ~/.quickurls
307 ~/.emacs.d/idlwave replaces ~/.idlwave
308 ~/.emacs.d/bdfcache.el replaces ~/.bdfcache.el
309 ~/.emacs.d/places replaces ~/.emacs-places
310 ~/.emacs.d/shadows replaces ~/.shadows
311 ~/.emacs.d/shadow_todo replaces ~/.shadow_todo
312 ~/.emacs.d/strokes replaces ~/.strokes
313 ~/.emacs.d/notes replaces ~/.notes
314 ~/.emacs.d/type-break replaces ~/.type-break
315 Also the following files used by the now obsolete otodo-mode.el:
316 ~/.emacs.d/todo-do replaces ~/.todo-do
317 ~/.emacs.d/todo-done replaces ~/.todo-done
318 ~/.emacs.d/todo-top replaces ~/.todo-top
320 ** Backtrace and debugger
322 *** The Lisp debugger's `e' command now includes the lexical environment
323 when evaluating the code in the context at point. Hence, it now lets
324 you access lexical variables.
327 *** New command `v' (`debugger-toggle-locals') displays local vars.
329 *** New minor mode `jit-lock-debug-mode' lets you use the debuggers on
330 code run via JIT Lock.
335 *** Battery information via the BSD `apm' utility is now supported.
339 *** `M-s a C-o' shows lines matching a regexp in marked buffers using Occur.
341 ** Calendar and Diary
344 *** New faces `calendar-weekday-header', `calendar-weekend-header',
345 and `calendar-month-header'.
347 *** New option `calendar-day-header-array'.
350 *** New variable `diary-from-outlook-function', used by the command
351 `diary-from-outlook'.
353 *** The variable `calendar-font-lock-keywords' is obsolete.
357 *** Calc by default now uses the Gregorian calendar for all dates, and
358 uses January 1, 1 AD as its day number 1. Previously Calc used the
359 Julian calendar for dates before September 14, 1752, and it used
360 December 31, 1 BC as its day number 1; the new scheme is more
361 consistent with Calendar's calendrical system and day numbering.
363 *** The new variable `calc-gregorian-switch' lets you configure the
364 date when Calc switches from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar.
365 Nil, the default value, means to always use the Gregorian calendar.
366 The value (YEAR MONTH DAY) means to start using the Gregorian calendar
369 *** Support for ISO 8601 dates.
375 **** The cpp-root project now supports executing a compile command.
376 It can be set through the new :compile-command slot or the
377 buffer-local variable `compile-command'.
379 **** Better selection of include directories for the 'linux' project.
380 Include directories now support out-of-tree build directories and
381 target architecture auto-detection.
385 **** Improved detection of used namespaces in current scope in C++.
387 **** Parsing of default values for variables and function arguments in C/C++.
388 They are also displayed by the summarize feature in the modeline.
390 **** Improved parsing of function pointers in C/C++.
391 This also includes parsing of function pointers as function arguments.
393 **** Parsing of C/C++ preprocessor macros which open new scope.
394 For example, this enables parsing of macros which open new namespaces.
396 **** Support for 'this' pointer in inline member functions in C++.
400 *** New macro `cl-tagbody'.
403 *** letf is now just an alias for cl-letf.
407 *** CUA mode now uses `delete-selection-mode' and `shift-select-mode'.
408 Hence, you can now enable it independently from `transient-mark-mode',
409 `delete-selection-mode', and `shift-select-mode'.
411 *** `cua-highlight-region-shift-only' is now obsolete.
412 You can disable `transient-mark-mode' to get the same result.
414 *** CUA's rectangles can now be used via `cua-rectangle-mark-mode'.
418 *** Support for completion, ElDoc, and Flycheck has been added.
420 *** The current CFEngine syntax is parsed from "cf-promises -s json".
421 There is a fallback syntax available if you don't have cf-promises or
422 if it doesn't support that option.
424 ** Delete Selection mode can now be used without `transient-mark-mode'.
428 *** `desktop-auto-save-timeout' defines the number of seconds idle time
429 before auto-save of the desktop.
431 *** `desktop-restore-frames', enabled by default, allows saving and
432 restoring the frame/window configuration (frameset). Additional options
433 `desktop-restore-in-current-display', `desktop-restore-reuses-frames'
434 and `desktop-restore-forces-onscreen' offer further customization.
438 *** New minor mode `dired-hide-details-mode' hides details.
440 ** Eldoc Mode works properly in the minibuffer.
444 *** New option `epa-mail-aliases'.
446 You can set this to a list of alias expansions for keys to use
447 in `epa-mail-encrypt'.
449 If one element of the variable's value is ("foo@bar.com" "foo@hello.org"),
450 that means: when one of the recipients of the message being encrypted
451 is `foo@bar.com', encrypt the message for `foo@hello.org' instead.
453 If one element of the variable's value is ("foo@bar.com"),
454 that means: when one of the recipients of the message being encrypted
455 is `foo@bar.com', ignore that name as regards encryption.
456 This is useful to avoid a query when you have no key for that name.
460 *** New option `erc-accidental-paste-threshold-seconds'.
461 If set to a number, this can be used to avoid accidentally paste large
462 amounts of data into the ERC input.
467 *** New macro `skip-unless' allows skipping ERT tests.
468 See the ERT manual for details.
473 *** `eshell' now supports visual subcommands and options
474 Eshell has been able to handle "visual" commands (interactive,
475 non-line oriented commands such as top that require display
476 capabilities not provided by eshell) by running them in an Emacs
477 terminal emulator. See `eshell-visual-commands'.
479 This feature has been extended to subcommands and options that make a
480 usually line-oriented command a visual command. Typical examples are
481 "git log" and "git <command> --help" which display their output in a
482 pager by default. See `eshell-visual-subcommands' and
483 `eshell-visual-options'.
486 *** Added Eshell-Tramp module
487 External su and sudo commands are now the default; the internal,
488 Tramp-using variants can still be used by enabling the eshell-tramp
493 *** New option `f90-smart-end-names'.
495 ** Icomplete is a bit more like Ido.
497 *** key bindings to navigate through and select the completions.
499 *** The icomplete-separator is customizable, and its default has changed.
501 *** Removed icomplete-show-key-bindings.
503 *** Icomplete-mode by defaults applies to all forms of minibuffer completion.
504 (setq icomplete-with-completion-tables '(internal-complete-buffer))
505 will revert to the old behavior.
509 *** Ido has a manual now.
511 *** `ido-use-virtual-buffers' takes a new value 'auto.
513 *** `ido-decorations' has been slightly extended to give a bit more control.
518 *** New commands `n' (`image-next-file') and `p' (`image-previous-file')
519 visit the next image file and the previous image file in the same
520 directory, respectively.
522 *** New commands to show specific frames of multi-frame images.
523 `f' (`image-next-frame') and `b' (`image-previous-frame') visit the
524 next or previous frame. `F' (`image-goto-frame') shows a specific frame.
526 *** New commands to speed up, slow down, or reverse animation.
528 *** The command `image-mode-fit-frame' deletes other windows.
529 When toggling, it restores the frame's previous window configuration.
530 It also has an optional frame argument, which can be used by Lisp
531 callers to fit the image to a frame other than the selected frame.
535 *** New option `hi-lock-auto-select-face'. When non-nil, hi-lock commands
536 will cycle through faces in `hi-lock-face-defaults' without prompting.
539 *** New global command `M-s h .' (`highlight-symbol-at-point')
540 highlights the symbol found near point without prompting,
541 using the next face automatically.
545 *** New option `imenu-generic-skip-comments-and-strings'.
549 *** New face `info-index-match' is used to highlight matches in index
550 entries displayed by `Info-index-next', `Info-virtual-index' and
555 *** Better indentation of multiple-variable declarations.
556 If declaration spans several lines, variables on the following lines
557 are lined up to the first one.
559 *** We now recognize and better indent continuations in array
562 *** New option `js-switch-indent-offset`.
564 ** MH-E has been updated to MH-E version 8.5.
565 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
569 *** Font locking for texinfo comments and new keywords
570 *** Completion in Octave file buffers
572 *** Jump to definition
573 *** Documentation lookup/search
574 *** Code cleanup and various bug fixes
576 ** OPascal mode is the new name for Delphi mode.
578 *** All delphi-* variables and functions have been renamed to opascal-*.
579 *** `delphi-newline-always-indents' is not supported any more.
580 Use `electric-indent-mode' instead.
581 *** `delphi-tab' is gone, replaced by `indent-for-tab-command'.
585 *** The format of `archive-contents' files, generated by package
586 repositories, has changed to allow a new (fifth) element in the data
587 vectors, containing an associative list with extra properties.
589 *** `describe-package' buffer uses the `:url' extra property to
590 display a `Homepage' header, if it's present.
592 *** In the buffer produced by `describe-package', there are now buttons
593 listing the keywords related to that package. You can click on them
594 to see other packages related to any given keyword.
596 *** In the *Packages* buffer, `f' or the Package->Filter menu filters
597 the packages by a keyword.
601 *** `prolog-use-smie' has been removed, along with the non-SMIE
606 *** The new command `remember-notes' creates a buffer which is saved
609 You may think of it as a *scratch* buffer whose content is preserved.
610 In fact, it was designed as a replacement for *scratch* buffer and can
611 be used that way by setting `initial-buffer-choice' to
612 `remember-notes' and `remember-notes-buffer-name' to "*scratch*".
613 Without the second change, *scratch* buffer will still be there for
614 notes that do not need to be preserved.
616 *** The Remember package can now store notes in separates files.
617 You can use the new function `remember-store-in-files' within the
618 `remember-handler-functions' option.
620 See `remember-data-directory' and `remember-directory-file-name-format'
621 for new options related to this function.
625 *** Customize `rmail-mbox-format' to influence some minor aspects of
626 how Rmail displays non-MIME messages.
629 *** The `unrmail' command now converts from BABYL to mboxrd format,
630 rather than mboxo. Customize `unrmail-mbox-format' to change this.
634 *** New option `ruby-encoding-magic-comment-style'.
636 *** New option `ruby-custom-encoding-magic-comment-template'.
640 *** Improved syntax highlighting and indentation.
642 *** Add more Ruby file types to `auto-mode-alist'.
644 *** New option `ruby-align-to-stmt-keywords'.
646 *** New `electric-indent-mode' integration.
648 ** Search and Replace
651 *** New global command `M-s .' (`isearch-forward-symbol-at-point')
652 starts a symbol (identifier) incremental search forward with the
653 symbol found near point added to the search string initially.
655 *** `C-x 8 RET' in Isearch mode reads a character by its Unicode name
656 and adds it to the search string.
658 *** `M-s i' in Isearch mode toggles the variable `isearch-invisible'
659 between nil and the value of the option `search-invisible' (or `open'
662 *** `query-replace' skips invisible text when `search-invisible' is nil,
663 and opens overlays with hidden text when `search-invisible' is `open'.
666 *** A negative prefix arg of replacement commands replaces backward.
667 `M-- M-%' replaces a string backward, `M-- C-M-%' replaces a regexp
668 backward, `M-s w words M-- M-%' replaces a sequence of words backward.
671 *** By default, prefix arguments do not now terminate Isearch mode.
672 Set `isearch-allow-prefix' to nil to restore old behavior.
674 *** More Isearch commands accept prefix arguments, namely
675 `isearch-printing-char', `isearch-quote-char', `isearch-yank-word',
678 *** Word search now matches whitespace at the beginning/end
679 of the search string if it contains leading/trailing whitespace.
680 In an incremental word search or when using a non-nil LAX argument
681 of `word-search-regexp', the lax matching can also match part of
682 the first word (in addition to the lax matching of the last word).
683 The same rules are now applied to the symbol search with the difference
684 that it matches symbols, and non-symbol characters between symbols.
689 *** New command `ses-rename-cell' allows assigning names to SES cells.
693 *** `explicit-bash-args' now always defaults to use --noediting.
694 During initialization, Emacs no longer expends a process to decide
695 whether it is safe to use Bash's --noediting option. These days
696 --noediting is ubiquitous; it was introduced in 1996 in Bash version 2.
700 *** `sh-mode' now has the mode own `add-log-current-defun-function'.
701 You can pick the name of the function and the variables with `C-x 4 a'.
703 *** The SMIE indentation engine is now used by default.
705 ** SMIE indentation can be customized via `smie-config'.
706 The customization can be guessed by Emacs by providing a sample indented
707 file and letting SMIE learn from it.
711 *** New option `term-suppress-hard-newline'.
713 ** Todo mode has been rewritten and enhanced.
714 New features include:
715 - support for multiple todo files and archive files of done items;
716 - renaming, reordering, moving, merging, and deleting categories;
717 - sortable tabular summaries of categories and the types of items they contain;
718 - cross-category lists of items filtered by specific criteria;
719 - more fine-grained interaction with the Emacs diary, by being able to decide
720 for each todo item whether it appears in the Fancy Diary display;
721 - highly flexible new item insertion and item editing;
722 - moving items between categories, storing done items in their category or in
723 archive files, undoing or unarchiving done items;
724 - reprioritizing items by inputting a numerical priority;
725 - extensive customizability of operation and display, including numerous faces.
726 The Todo mode user manual describes all commands and most user options.
727 To support some of these features, a new file format is used, which is
728 incompatible with the old format; however, you can convert old todo and done
729 item files to the new format on initializing the first new todo file, or at any
730 later time with the provided conversion command. The old version of
731 todo-mode.el has been made obsolete and renamed otodo-mode.el.
733 ** trace-function was largely rewritten.
734 New features include:
735 - no prompting for the destination buffer, unless a prefix-arg was used.
736 - additionally to prompting for a destination buffer, when a prefix-arg is
737 used, the user can enter a "context", i.e. Lisp expression whose value at the
738 time the function is entered/exited will be printed along with the function
739 name and arguments. Useful to trace the value of (current-buffer) or
740 (point) when the function is invoked.
744 *** The experimental url syntax for remote file names is withdrawn.
747 *** New connection method "adb", which allows to access Android
748 devices by the Android Debug Bridge. The variable `tramp-adb-program'
749 can be used to adapt the path of the "adb" program, if needed.
751 *** The connection methods "plink1", "ssh1", "ssh2", "scp1", "scp2",
752 "scpc" and "rsyncc" are discontinued. The ssh option
753 "ControlMaster=auto" is set automatically in all ssh-based methods,
757 *** Handlers for `file-acl' and `set-file-acl' for remote machines
758 which support POSIX ACLs.
761 *** Handlers for `file-notify-add-watch' and `file-notify-rm-watch'
762 for remote machines which support filesystem notifications.
764 ** VC and related modes
767 *** In VC directory mode, `D' displays diffs between VC-controlled
768 whole tree revisions.
771 *** In VC directory mode, `L' lists the change log for the current VC
772 controlled tree in a window.
775 *** In VC directory mode, `I' shows a log of changes that will be
776 received with a pull operation.
779 *** `C-x v G' (globally) and `G' (in VC directory mode) ignores a file
780 under current version control system. When called with a prefix
781 argument, you can remove a file from the ignored file list.
784 *** `cvs-append-to-ignore' has been renamed to `vc-cvs-append-to-ignore'
785 because it is moved to vc-cvs.el.
789 *** New options: `vhdl-actual-generic-name', `vhdl-beautify-options'.
791 *** New commands: `vhdl-fix-statement-region', `vhdl-fix-statement-buffer'.
795 *** The commands `woman-default-faces' and `woman-monochrome-faces'
796 are obsolete. Customize the `woman-*' faces instead.
798 ** Obsolete packages:
800 *** Iswitchb is made obsolete by icomplete-mode.
802 *** longlines.el is obsolete; use visual-line-mode instead.
807 *** terminal.el is obsolete; use term.el instead.
809 *** The previous version of todo-mode.el is obsolete and renamed otodo-mode.el.
814 *** yow.el is obsolete; use fortune.el or cookie1.el instead.
817 *** The Info-edit command is obsolete. Editing Info nodes by hand
818 has not been relevant for some time.
821 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.4
823 ** New package `eww' is a built-in web browser.
824 It is only available if Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support.
826 ** New minor mode `superword-mode', defined in subword.el
827 `superword-mode' overrides the default word motion commands to treat
828 symbol_words as a single word, similar to what `subword-mode' does and
829 using the same internal functions.
831 ** New package nadvice.el offers lighter-weight advice facilities.
833 - add-function/remove-function which can be used to add/remove code on any
834 function-carrying place, such as process-filters or `<foo>-function' hooks.
835 - advice-add/advice-remove to add/remove a piece of advice on a named function,
836 much like `defadvice' does.
838 ** New package frameset.el.
839 It provides a set of operations to save a frameset (the state of all
840 or a subset of the existing frames and windows, somewhat similar to a
841 frame configuration), both in-session and persistently, and restore it
842 at some point in the future.
845 ** New package filenotify.el provides an interface for file system
846 notifications. It requires that Emacs be compiled with one of the
847 low-level libraries gfilenotify.c, inotify.c or w32notify.c.
850 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.4
853 ** `kill-region' lost its `yank-handler' optional argument.
856 ** `(input-pending-p)' no longer runs other timers which are ready to
857 run. The new optional CHECK-TIMERS param allows for the prior behavior.
859 ** `defvar' and `defcustom' in a let-binding affect the "external" default.
862 ** The syntax of ?» and ?« is now punctuation instead of matched parens.
863 Some languages match those as »...« and others as «...» so better stay neutral.
866 ** In compiled Lisp files, the header no longer includes a timestamp.
869 ** The default file coding for Emacs Lisp files is now utf-8.
870 (See `file-coding-system-alist'.) In most cases, this change is
871 transparent, but files that contain unusual characters without
872 specifying an explicit coding system may fail to load with obscure
873 errors. You should either convert them to utf-8 or add an explicit
877 ** `overriding-terminal-local-map' no longer replaces the local keymaps.
878 It used to disable the minor mode, major mode, and text-property keymaps,
879 whereas now it simply has higher precedence.
881 ** Default process filters and sentinels are not nil any more.
882 Instead they default to a function which does what the nil value used to do.
884 ** `read-event' does not return decoded chars in ttys any more.
885 Just as was the case in Emacs-22 and before, decoding of tty input according to
886 keyboard-coding-system is not performed in read-event any more. But contrary
887 to that past, it is still done before input-decode-map/function-key-map/...
890 ** Removed `inhibit-local-menu-bar-menus'.
893 ** Frame-local variables that affect redisplay do not work any more.
894 More specifically, the redisplay does not bother to check for a frame-local
895 value when looking up variables.
897 ** nil and "unbound" are indistinguishable in `symbol-function'.
898 `symbol-function' never signals `void-function' any more.
899 `fboundp' returns non-nil if the symbol was `fset' to nil.
901 ** `defadvice' does not honor the `freeze' flag and cannot advise
902 special-forms any more.
904 ** `dolist' in lexical-binding mode does not bind VAR in RESULT any more.
905 VAR was bound to nil which was not tremendously useful and just lead to
906 spurious warnings about an unused var.
908 ** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
909 The second argument is no longer an SELinux context, instead it is an
910 alist of extended attributes as returned by the new function
911 `file-extended-attributes'. The attributes can be applied to another
912 file using `set-file-extended-attributes'.
914 ** `visited-file-modtime' now returns -1 for nonexistent files.
915 Formerly it returned a list (-1 LOW USEC PSEC), but this was ambiguous
916 in the presence of files with negative time stamps.
918 ** The cars of the elements in `interpreter-mode-alist' are now
919 treated as regexps rather than literal strings. This change should
920 not affect you unless you are using `interpreter-mode-alist' for
921 something (not just adding elements to it).
924 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.4
927 ** The second argument of `eval' can now specify a lexical environment.
930 ** New functions `special-form-p' and `macrop'.
932 ** New macro `define-alternatives' can be used to define generic commands.
933 Generic commands are interactive functions whose implementation can be
934 selected among several alternatives, as a matter of user preference.
936 ** The `defalias-fset-function' property lets you catch `defalias'
937 calls, and redirect them to your own function, instead of `fset'.
939 ** Docstrings can be made dynamic by adding a `dynamic-docstring-function'
940 text-property on the first char.
943 ** New variable `enable-dir-local-variables'.
944 Directory-local variables are ignored if this is nil. This may be
945 useful for modes that want to ignore directory-locals while still
946 respecting file-local variables.
949 ** New function `get-pos-property'.
951 ** Completion changes
953 *** The separator for `completing-read-multiple' can now be a regexp.
954 The default separator has been changed to allow surrounding spaces
957 *** The `common-substring' arg of `display-completion-list' is obsolete.
958 Either use `completion-all-completions', which returns highlighted
959 strings (including for partial or substring completion), or call
960 `completion-hilit-commonality' to add the highlight.
965 *** Functions to pop up menus and dialogs now work on all terminals,
966 including TTYs. This includes `x-popup-menu', `x-popup-dialog',
967 `message-box', `yes-or-no-p', etc.
969 The function `display-popup-menus-p' will now return non-nil for a
970 display or frame whenever a mouse is supported on that display or
973 *** New hook `tty-setup-hook'.
975 ** New hook `pre-redisplay-function'.
978 ** New bool-vector set operation functions:
979 *** `bool-vector-exclusive-or'
980 *** `bool-vector-union'
981 *** `bool-vector-intersection'
982 *** `bool-vector-set-difference'
983 *** `bool-vector-not'
984 *** `bool-vector-subsetp'
985 *** `bool-vector-count-consecutive'
986 *** `bool-vector-count-population'
989 ** Comparison functions =, <, >, <=, >= now take many arguments.
991 ** Error-handling changes
994 *** New function `define-error'.
996 *** `with-demoted-errors' takes an additional argument `format'.
999 ** New macro with-eval-after-load. Like eval-after-load, but better behaved.
1001 ** New library subr-x.el for misc helper functions
1003 *** `hash-table-keys'
1005 *** `hash-table-values'
1007 *** `string-blank-p`
1008 *** `string-empty-p`
1010 *** `string-reverse`
1011 *** `string-trim-left'
1012 *** `string-trim-right'
1014 *** `string-remove-prefix'
1015 *** `string-remove-suffix'
1017 ** Obsoleted functions:
1020 *** `lisp-complete-symbol'
1021 *** `field-complete'
1022 *** `minibuffer-completion-contents'
1023 *** `isearch-nonincremental-exit-minibuffer'
1024 *** `isearch-filter-visible'
1025 *** `generic-make-keywords-list'
1026 *** `get-upcase-table' (use `case-table-get-table' instead).
1028 ** `with-wrapper-hook' is obsoleted by `add-function'.
1029 The few hooks that used with-wrapper-hook are replaced as follows:
1030 *** `abbrev-expand-function' obsoletes `abbrev-expand-functions'.
1031 *** `completion-in-region-function' obsoletes `completion-in-region-functions'.
1032 *** `filter-buffer-substring-function' obsoletes `filter-buffer-substring-functions'.
1034 ** `byte-compile-interactive-only-functions' is now obsolete.
1035 It has been replaced by the symbol property 'interactive-only.
1038 ** `split-string' now takes an optional argument TRIM.
1039 The value, if non-nil, is a regexp that specifies what to trim from
1040 the start and end of each substring.
1042 ** New function `string-suffix-p'.
1044 ** File-handling changes
1047 *** Support for filesystem notifications.
1048 Emacs now supports notifications of filesystem changes, such as
1049 creation, modification, and deletion of files. This requires the
1050 `glib' API, or the 'inotify' API (on GNU/Linux systems only). On
1051 MS-Windows systems, this is supported for Windows XP and newer
1055 *** The 9th element returned by `file-attributes' is now unspecified.
1056 Formerly, it was t if the file's gid would change if file were deleted
1057 and recreated. This value has been inaccurate for years on many
1058 platforms, and nobody seems to have noticed or cared.
1061 *** The 6th argument to `copy-file' has been renamed to
1062 PRESERVE-EXTENDED-ATTRIBUTES as it now handles both SELinux context
1066 *** The function `file-ownership-preserved-p' now has an optional
1067 argument GROUP which causes it check for file group too. This can be
1068 used in place of the 9th element of `file-attributes'.
1070 *** The function `set-visited-file-modtime' now accepts a 0 or -1
1071 argument, with the same interpretation as the returned value of
1072 `visited-file-modtime'.
1074 ** Changes in autorevert.el
1077 *** If Emacs is compiled with file notification support, notifications
1078 are used instead of checking the time stamp of the files. You can
1079 disable this by setting the user option `auto-revert-use-notify' to
1080 nil. Alternatively, a regular expression of directories to be
1081 excluded from file notifications can be specified by
1082 `auto-revert-notify-exclude-dir-regexp'.
1085 *** The new user option `auto-revert-remote-files' enables reversion
1086 of remote files when set to non-nil.
1090 *** The function `face-spec-set' is now like `setq' for face specs.
1091 Its third arg now accepts values specifying a face spec type (defface,
1092 custom, or override spec), and the relevant spec is set accordingly.
1095 *** New function `add-face-text-property', which can be used to
1096 conveniently prepend/append new face properties.
1098 *** Face specs set via Custom themes now replace the `defface' spec
1099 rather than inheriting from it (as do face specs set via Customize).
1101 *** New face characteristic (supports :underline (:style wave))
1102 specifies whether or not the terminal can display a wavy line.
1105 *** New face spec attribute :distant-foreground
1106 specifies foreground to use if background color is near the foreground
1107 color that would otherwise have been used.
1112 *** `image-animated-p' is now `image-multi-frame-p'.
1113 It returns non-nil for any image that contains multiple frames,
1114 whether or not it specifies a frame delay.
1117 *** New variable `image-default-frame-delay' gives the frame delay for
1118 animated images which do not specify a frame delay.
1121 *** New functions `image-current-frame' and `image-show-frame' for getting
1122 and setting the current frame of a multi-frame image.
1126 *** Namespace cleanup by obsolete-aliasing functions to use `eieio-' prefix.
1127 **** object-name -> eieio-object-name
1128 **** object-class -> eieio-object-class
1129 **** object-class-fast -> eieio--object-class
1130 **** object-name-string -> eieio-object-name-string
1131 **** object-num-slots -> eieio--object-num-slots
1132 **** object-set-name-string -> eieio-object-set-name-string
1133 **** class-parent -> eieio-class-parent
1134 **** class-parents -> eieio-class-parents
1135 **** class-children -> eieio-class-children
1136 **** class-num-slots -> eieio--class-num-slots
1137 **** class-precedence-list -> eieio-class-precedence-list
1138 **** All generated class-* and object-* field accessors are now
1139 prefixed with `eieio-' as well.
1141 *** Obsoleted functions:
1143 **** class-direct-subclasses
1144 **** class-direct-superclasses
1146 ** Changes in encoding and decoding of text
1149 *** New coding-system `prefer-utf-8'.
1150 This is like `undecided' but prefers UTF-8 on decoding if the text to
1151 be decoded does not contain any invalid UTF-8 sequences. On encoding,
1152 any non-ASCII characters are automatically encoded as UTF-8.
1155 *** New attributes of coding-systems whose type is `undecided'.
1156 Two new attributes, `:inhibit-null-byte-detection' and
1157 `:inhibit-iso-escape-detection', determine how to detect encoding of
1158 text that includes null bytes and ISO-2022 escape sequences,
1159 respectively. Each of these attributes can be either nil, zero, or
1160 t. If it is t, decoding text ignores null bytes and, respectively,
1161 ISO-2022 sequences. If it is nil, null bytes cause text to be decoded
1162 with no-conversion and ISO-2022 sequences cause Emacs to assume the
1163 text is encoded in one of the ISO-2022 encodings, such as
1164 iso-2022-7bit. If the value is zero, Emacs consults the variables
1165 inhibit-null-byte-detection and inhibit-iso-escape-detection, which
1167 The new attribute `:prefer-utf-8', if non-nil, causes Emacs to prefer
1168 UTF-8 encoding and decoding, whenever possible.
1170 These attributes are only meaningful for coding-systems of type
1171 `undecided'. (The type of a coding-system is determined by its
1172 `:coding-type' attribute and can be accessed by calling the
1173 `coding-system-type' function.)
1175 ** `time-to-seconds' is not obsolete any more.
1177 ** The lock for 'DIR/FILE' is now 'DIR/.#FILE' and may be a regular file.
1178 When you edit DIR/FILE, Emacs normally creates a symbolic link
1179 DIR/.#FILE as a lock that warns other instances of Emacs that DIR/FILE
1180 is being edited. Formerly, if there was already a non-symlink file
1181 named DIR/.#FILE, Emacs fell back on the lock names DIR/.#FILE.0
1182 through DIR/.#FILE.9. These fallbacks have been removed, so that
1183 Emacs now no longer locks DIR/FILE in that case.
1185 On file systems that do not support symbolic links, the lock is now a
1186 regular file with contents being what would have been in the symlink.
1189 ** New functions `group-gid' and `group-real-gid'.
1191 ** Changes to the Emacs Lisp Coding Conventions in Emacs 24.4
1194 *** The package descriptor and name of global variables, constants,
1195 and functions should be separated by two hyphens if the symbol is not
1196 meant to be used by other packages.
1199 * Changes in Emacs 24.4 on Non-Free Operating Systems
1201 ** The procedure for building Emacs on MS-Windows has changed.
1202 It is now built by running the same configure script as on all other
1203 platforms. This requires the MSYS environment and MinGW development
1204 tools. See the updated instructions in nt/INSTALL for details.
1206 Using the Posix configure script and Makefile's also means a change in
1207 the directory structure of the Emacs installation on Windows. It is
1208 now the same as on GNU and Unix systems. In particular, the auxiliary
1209 programs, such as cmdproxy.exe and hexl.exe, are in
1210 libexec/emacs/VERSION/i686-pc-mingw32 (where VERSION is the Emacs
1211 version), version-independent site-lisp is in share/emacs/site-lisp,
1212 version-specific Lisp files are in share/emacs/VERSION/lisp and in
1213 share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, Info docs are in share/info, and data
1214 files are in share/emacs/VERSION/etc. (Emacs knows about all these
1215 directories and will find the files in there automatically; there's no
1216 need to set any variables due to this change.)
1219 ** Emacs on Windows 2000 and later can now access files and directories
1220 whose names cannot be encoded in the current system codepage.
1222 The new variable `w32-unicode-filenames' controls this feature: if it
1223 is t, Emacs uses Unicode APIs to pass file names to system calls,
1224 which lifts the limitation of file names to the current locale.
1227 ** The "generate a backtrace on fatal error" feature now works on MS Windows.
1228 The backtrace is written to the 'emacs_backtrace.txt' file in the
1229 directory where Emacs was running.
1232 ** The variable `buffer-file-type' is no longer supported.
1233 Setting it has no effect, and %t in the mode-line format is ignored.
1234 Likewise, `file-name-buffer-file-type-alist' is now obsolete, and
1235 modifying it has no effect.
1238 ** Lock files now work on MS-Windows.
1239 This allows to avoid losing your edits if the same file is being
1240 edited in another Emacs session or by another user. See the node
1241 "Interlocking" in the Emacs User Manual for the details. To disable
1242 file locking, customize `create-lockfiles' to nil.
1244 ** Improved fullscreen support on Mac OS X.
1245 Both native (>= OSX 10.7) and "old style" fullscreen are supported.
1246 Customize `ns-use-native-fullscreen' to change style. For >= 10.7
1247 native is the default.
1249 ** OSX >= 10.7 can use sRGB colorspace.
1250 Customize `ns-use-srgb-colorspace' to change style. nil is the default.
1251 Note: This does not apply to images.
1254 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.3
1256 ** The default X toolkit is now Gtk+ version 3.
1257 If you don't pass `--with-x-toolkit' to configure, or if you use
1258 `--with-x-toolkit=gtk' or `--with-x-toolkit=yes', configure will try
1259 to build with Gtk+ version 3, and if that fails, try Gtk+ version 2.
1260 You can explicitly require a specific version by passing
1261 `--with-x-toolkit=gtk2' or `--with-x-toolkit=gtk3' to configure.
1263 ** New configure option `--enable-link-time-optimization', to utilize
1264 an appropriate feature provided by GCC since version 4.5.0.
1266 ** New configure option `--without-all' to disable most of the optional
1267 features (image support, etc.) that are normally enabled by default.
1269 ** New configure option `--enable-gcc-warnings' (for developing/debugging
1270 Emacs). If building with GCC, this enables compile-time checks that
1271 warn/give errors about possibly-questionable C code. On a recent GNU
1272 system there should be no warnings; on older and on non-GNU systems
1273 the results may be useful to developers.
1275 ** The configure option `--enable-use-lisp-union-type' has been
1276 renamed to `--enable-check-lisp-object-type', as the resulting
1277 Lisp_Object type no longer uses a union to implement the compile time
1278 check that this option enables.
1280 ** The configure option `--disable-maintainer-mode' has been removed,
1281 as it was confusingly-named and rarely useful.
1283 ** The configure options `--program-prefix', `--program-suffix', and
1284 `--program-transform-name' apply to more than just the installed
1285 binaries. Now they also affect the man pages, icons, and the
1286 etc/emacs.desktop file; but not the info pages, since this would break
1287 links between the various manuals.
1289 ** You can use `NO_BIN_LINK=t make install' to prevent the installation
1290 overwriting "emacs" in the installation bin/ directory with a link
1293 ** Emacs uses libtinfo in preference to libncurses, if available.
1295 ** On FreeBSD and NetBSD, configure no longer adds /usr/local/lib and
1296 /usr/pkg/lib to the linker search path. You must add them yourself if
1299 ** The standalone scripts `rcs-checkin' and `vcdiff' have been removed
1300 (from the bin and libexec directories, respectively). The former is
1301 no longer relevant, the latter is replaced by lisp (in vc-sccs.el).
1304 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.3
1306 ** Emacs no longer searches for `leim-list.el' files beneath the standard
1307 lisp/ directory. There should not be any there anyway. If you have
1308 been adding them there, put them somewhere else; e.g., site-lisp.
1310 ** The `--no-site-lisp' command line option now works for Nextstep builds.
1313 * Changes in Emacs 24.3
1317 *** `C-h f' (`describe-function') can now perform autoloading.
1318 When this command is called for an autoloaded function whose docstring
1319 contains a key substitution construct, that function's library is
1320 automatically loaded, so that the documentation can be shown
1321 correctly. To disable this, set `help-enable-auto-load' to nil.
1323 *** `C-h f' now reports previously-autoloaded functions as "autoloaded",
1324 even after their associated libraries have been loaded (and the
1325 autoloads have been redefined as functions).
1329 *** Images displayed via ImageMagick now support transparency and the
1330 :background image specification property.
1332 *** When available, ImageMagick support is automatically enabled.
1333 It is no longer necessary to call `imagemagick-register-types'
1334 explicitly to install ImageMagick image types; that function is called
1335 automatically at startup, or when customizing an imagemagick- option.
1337 *** Setting `imagemagick-types-inhibit' to t now disables the use of
1338 ImageMagick to view images. (You must call `imagemagick-register-types'
1339 afterwards if you do not use customize to change this.)
1341 *** The new variable `imagemagick-enabled-types' also affects which
1342 ImageMagick types are treated as images. The function
1343 `imagemagick-filter-types' returns the list of types that will be
1346 *** ImageMagick images now support the :max-width and :max-height
1349 *** Some data types aren't auto-detected by ImageMagick. Adding
1350 :format to `create-image' may help if the content type is in the
1351 new variable `image-format-suffixes'.
1355 *** In minibuffer filename prompts, `C-M-f' and `C-M-b' now move to the
1356 next and previous path separator, respectively.
1358 *** `minibuffer-electric-default-mode' can shorten "(default ...)" to "[...]"
1359 in minibuffer prompts. Just set `minibuffer-eldef-shorten-default'
1360 non-nil before enabling the mode.
1364 *** New option `mode-line-default-help-echo' specifies the help text
1365 (shown in a tooltip or in the echo area) for any part of the mode line
1366 that does not have its own specialized help text.
1368 *** You can now click mouse-3 in the coding system indicator to invoke
1369 `set-buffer-file-coding-system'.
1371 ** Server and client
1373 *** emacsclient now obeys string values for `initial-buffer-choice',
1374 if it is told to open a new frame without specifying any file to visit
1375 or expression to evaluate.
1377 *** New option `server-auth-key' specifies a shared server key.
1379 ** Emacs now generates backtraces on fatal errors.
1380 On encountering a fatal error, Emacs now outputs a textual description
1381 of the fatal signal, and a short backtrace on platforms like glibc
1382 that support backtraces.
1384 ** `C-x C-q' is now bound to the new minor mode `read-only-mode'.
1385 This minor mode replaces `toggle-read-only', which is now obsolete.
1387 ** Most `y-or-n' prompts now allow you to scroll the selected window.
1388 Typing `C-v' or `M-v' at a y-or-n prompt scrolls forward or backward
1389 respectively, without exiting from the prompt.
1391 ** In the Package Menu, newly-available packages are listed as "new",
1392 and sorted above the other "available" packages by default.
1394 ** If your Emacs was built from a bzr checkout, the new variable
1395 `emacs-bzr-version' contains information about the bzr revision used.
1397 ** New option `create-lockfiles' specifies usage of lockfiles.
1398 It defaults to t. Changing it to nil inhibits the creation of lock
1399 files (use this with caution).
1401 ** New option `enable-remote-dir-locals', if non-nil, allows directory-local
1402 variables on remote hosts.
1404 ** The entry for PCL-CVS has been removed from the Tools menu.
1405 The PCL-CVS commands are still available via the keyboard.
1407 ** Using "unibyte: t" in Lisp source files is obsolete.
1408 Use "coding: raw-text" instead.
1410 ** In the buffer made by `M-x report-emacs-bug', the `C-c m' binding
1411 has been changed to `C-c M-i' (`report-emacs-bug-insert-to-mailer').
1412 The previous binding, introduced in Emacs 24.1, was a mistake, because
1413 `C-c LETTER' bindings are reserved for user customizations.
1415 ** Internationalization
1417 *** New language environment: Persian.
1419 *** New input method `vietnamese-vni'.
1421 ** Nextstep (GNUstep / Mac OS X) port
1423 *** Support for fullscreen and the frame parameter fullscreen.
1425 *** A file dialog is used for open/save operations initiated from the
1429 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.3
1431 ** Search and Replace
1433 *** Non-regexp Isearch now performs "lax" space matching.
1434 Each sequence of spaces in the supplied search string may match any
1435 sequence of one or more whitespace characters, as specified by the
1436 variable `search-whitespace-regexp'. (This variable is also used by a
1437 similar existing feature for regexp Isearch.)
1439 *** New Isearch command `M-s SPC' toggles lax space matching.
1440 This applies to both ordinary and regexp Isearch.
1442 *** New option `replace-lax-whitespace'.
1443 If non-nil, `query-replace' uses flexible whitespace matching too.
1446 *** Global `M-s _' starts a symbol (identifier) incremental search,
1447 and `M-s _' in Isearch toggles symbol search mode.
1448 `M-s c' in Isearch toggles search case-sensitivity.
1450 ** Navigation commands
1452 *** New binding `M-g c' for `goto-char'.
1454 *** New binding `M-g TAB' for `move-to-column'.
1456 *** `M-g TAB' (`move-to-column') prompts for a column number if called
1457 interactively with no prefix arg. Previously, it moved to column 1.
1459 ** New option `yank-handled-properties' allows processing of text
1460 properties on yanked text, in ways that are more general than just
1461 removing them (as is done by `yank-excluded-properties').
1463 ** New option `delete-trailing-lines' specifies whether
1464 M-x delete-trailing-whitespace should delete trailing lines at the end
1465 of the buffer. It defaults to t.
1467 ** `C-u M-=' now counts lines/words/characters in the entire buffer.
1469 ** `C-x 8 RET' is now bound to `insert-char', which is now a command.
1470 `ucs-insert' is now an obsolete alias for `insert-char'.
1472 ** The `z' key no longer has a binding in most special modes.
1473 It used to be bound to `kill-this-buffer', but `z' is too easy to
1476 ** New command `C-x r M-w' (`copy-rectangle-as-kill').
1477 It copies the region-rectangle as the last rectangle kill.
1481 *** `C-x r +' is now overloaded to invoke `append-to-register'.
1483 *** New option `register-separator' specifies the register containing
1484 the text to put between collected texts for use with
1485 M-x append-to-register and M-x prepend-to-register.
1488 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.3
1490 ** Common Lisp emulation (CL)
1492 *** CL's main entry is now (require 'cl-lib).
1493 `cl-lib' is like the old `cl' except that it uses the namespace cleanly;
1494 i.e., all its definitions have the "cl-" prefix (and internal definitions
1495 use the "cl--" prefix).
1497 If `cl' provided a feature under the name `foo', then `cl-lib'
1498 provides it under the name `cl-foo' instead; with the exceptions of the
1499 few `cl' definitions that had to use `foo*' to avoid conflicts with
1500 pre-existing Elisp entities. These have been renamed to `cl-foo'
1501 rather than `cl-foo*'.
1503 The old `cl' is now deprecated and is mainly just a bunch of aliases that
1504 provide the old, non-prefixed names. Some exceptions are listed below:
1506 *** `cl-flet' is not like `flet' (which is deprecated).
1507 Instead it obeys the behavior of Common-Lisp's `flet'.
1508 In particular, in cl-flet function definitions are lexically scoped,
1509 whereas in flet the scoping is dynamic.
1511 *** `cl-labels' is slightly different from `labels'.
1512 The difference is that it relies on the `lexical-binding' machinery
1513 (as opposed to the `lexical-let' machinery used previously) to capture
1514 definitions in closures, so such closures will only work if `lexical-binding'
1517 *** `cl-letf' is not exactly like `letf'.
1518 The only difference is in details that relate to some deprecated usage
1519 of `symbol-function' in place forms.
1521 *** `progv' was rewritten to use the `let' machinery.
1522 A side effect is that variables without corresponding values are bound
1523 to nil rather than being made unbound.
1525 *** The following methods of extending `setf' are obsolete
1526 (use features from gv.el instead):
1527 `define-modify-macro' (use `gv-letplace')
1528 `defsetf' (use `gv-define-simple-setter' or `gv-define-setter')
1529 `define-setf-expander' (use `gv-define-setter' or `gv-define-expander')
1530 `get-setf-method' no longer exists (see "Incompatible Lisp Changes")
1534 *** Changes are now highlighted using the same color scheme as in
1535 modern VCSes. Deletions are displayed in red (new faces
1536 `diff-refine-removed' and `smerge-refined-removed', and new definition
1537 of `diff-removed'), insertions in green (new faces `diff-refine-added'
1538 and `smerge-refined-added', and new definition of `diff-added').
1540 *** The variable `diff-use-changed-face' defines whether to use the
1541 face `diff-changed', or `diff-removed' and `diff-added' to highlight
1542 changes in context diffs.
1544 *** The new command `diff-delete-trailing-whitespace' removes trailing
1545 whitespace introduced by a diff.
1547 ** Ediff now uses the same color scheme as Diff mode.
1551 A new version of python.el, which provides several new features, including:
1552 per-buffer shells, better indentation, Python 3 support, and improved
1553 shell-interaction compatible with iPython (and virtually any other
1556 *** Some user options have been replaced/renamed, including (old -> new):
1557 **** python-indent -> python-indent-offset
1558 **** python-guess-indent -> python-indent-guess-indent-offset
1559 **** python-pdbtrack-do-tracking-p -> python-pdbtrack-activate
1560 **** python-use-skeletons -> python-skeleton-autoinsert
1562 *** Some user options have been removed, including:
1564 **** `python-indent-string-contents': Strings are never indented.
1566 **** `python-honour-comment-indentation':
1567 Comments are always considered as indentation markers.
1569 **** `python-continuation-offset': Indentation is automatically
1570 calculated in a pep8 compliant way depending on the context.
1572 **** `python-shell-prompt-alist', `python-shell-continuation-prompt-alist':
1573 Have no direct mapping as the shell interaction is completely different.
1575 **** `python-python-command', `python-jython-command':
1576 Replaced by `python-shell-interpreter'.
1578 **** `inferior-python-filter-regexp', `python-remove-cwd-from-path',
1579 `python-pdbtrack-minor-mode-string', `python-source-modes':
1582 *** Some commands have been replaced (old -> new):
1583 **** python-insert-class -> python-skeleton-class
1584 **** python-insert-def -> python-skeleton-def
1585 **** python-insert-for -> python-skeleton-for
1586 **** python-insert-if -> python-skeleton-if
1587 **** python-insert-try/except -> python-skeleton-try
1588 **** python-insert-try/finally -> python-skeleton-try
1589 **** python-insert-while -> python-skeleton-while
1590 **** python-find-function -> python-nav-jump-to-defun
1591 **** python-next-statement -> python-nav-forward-sentence
1592 **** python-previous-statement -> python-nav-backward-sentence
1593 **** python-beginning-of-defun-function -> python-nav-beginning-of-defun
1594 **** python-end-of-defun-function -> python-nav-end-of-defun
1595 **** python-send-buffer -> python-shell-send-buffer
1596 **** python-send-defun -> python-shell-send-defun
1597 **** python-send-region -> python-shell-send-region
1598 **** python-send-region-and-go -> emulate with python-shell-send-region
1599 and python-shell-switch-to-shell
1600 **** python-send-string -> python-shell-send-string
1601 **** python-switch-to-python -> python-shell-switch-to-shell
1602 **** python-describe-symbol -> python-eldoc-at-point
1606 *** New variables `dbus-compiled-version' and `dbus-runtime-version'.
1608 *** The D-Bus object manager interface is implemented.
1610 *** Variables of type :(u)int32 and :(u)int64 accept floating points,
1611 if their value does not fit into Emacs's integer range.
1613 *** The function `dbus-call-method' is now non-blocking.
1614 It can be interrupted by `C-g'. `dbus-call-method-non-blocking' is obsolete.
1616 *** Signals can also be sent as unicast messages.
1618 *** The argument list of `dbus-register-signal' has been extended,
1619 according to the new match rule types of D-Bus.
1621 *** `dbus-init-bus' supports private connections.
1623 *** There is a new function `dbus-setenv'.
1625 ** `desktop-path' no longer includes the "." directory.
1626 Desktop files are now located in ~/.emacs.d by default.
1630 *** `dired-do-async-shell-command' executes each file sequentially
1631 if the command ends in `;' (when operating on multiple files).
1632 Otherwise, it executes the command on each file in parallel.
1634 *** Typing `M-n' in the minibuffer of `dired-do-chmod', `dired-do-chgrp',
1635 `dired-do-chown', and `dired-do-touch' yanks the attributes of the
1638 *** When the region is active, `m' (`dired-mark'), `u' (`dired-unmark'),
1639 `DEL' (`dired-unmark-backward'), and `d' (`dired-flag-file-deletion')
1640 mark/unmark/flag all files in the active region.
1642 *** The minibuffer default for `=' (`dired-diff') has changed.
1643 It is now the backup file for the file at point, if one exists.
1644 In Transient Mark mode the default is the file at the active mark.
1646 *** `M-=' is no longer bound to `dired-backup-diff' in Dired buffers.
1647 The global binding for `M-=', `count-words-region' is in effect.
1651 *** New module "notifications", which can send a notification when you
1652 receive a private message or your nickname is mentioned.
1654 *** ERC will look up server/channel names via auth-source and use any
1657 *** New option `erc-lurker-hide-list', similar to `erc-hide-list', but
1658 only applies to messages sent by lurkers.
1660 ** reStructuredText mode
1662 *** Keybindings (see `C-c C-h'), TAB indentation, filling and auto-filling,
1663 fontification, comment handling, and customization have all been revised
1666 *** Support for `imenu' and `which-function-mode'.
1668 *** The reStructuredText syntax is more closely covered.
1669 Sphinx support has been improved.
1671 *** `rst-insert-list' inserts new list or continues existing lists.
1673 *** A negative prefix argument always works for `rst-adjust'.
1675 *** The window configuration is reset after displaying a TOC.
1677 *** The constant `rst-version' describes the rst.el package version.
1681 *** Support for percent literals and recognition of regular expressions
1682 in method calls without parentheses with more methods, including Cucumber
1685 *** Improved syntax highlighting and indentation.
1687 *** New command `ruby-toggle-block', bound to `C-c {'.
1689 *** Some non-standard keybindings/commands have been removed:
1691 **** `ruby-electric-brace'; use `electric-indent-mode' instead.
1693 **** `ruby-mark-defun'; use `mark-defun'.
1695 **** `ruby-beginning-of-defun' and `ruby-end-of-defun' are replaced by
1696 appropriate settings for the variables `beginning-of-defun-function'
1697 and `end-of-defun-function'.
1699 **** Non-standard keybindings for `backward-kill-word', `comment-region',
1700 `reindent-then-newline-and-indent' and `newline' have been removed.
1702 ** Shell Script mode
1704 *** Pairing of parens/quotes uses `electric-pair-mode' instead of skeleton-pair.
1706 *** `sh-electric-here-document-mode' now controls auto-insertion of here-docs.
1708 *** `sh-use-smie' lets you choose a new indentation and navigation code.
1712 *** The free software compiler GHDL is supported (and now the default).
1714 *** Support for the VHDL-AMS packages has been added/updated.
1716 *** Updated to the 2002 revision of the VHDL standard.
1718 *** Accepts \r and \f as whitespace.
1722 *** The faces used by Apropos are now directly customizable.
1723 These faces are named `apropos-symbol', `apropos-keybinding', and so on;
1724 see the `apropos' Custom group for details.
1726 *** The old options whose values specified faces to use have been removed
1727 (i.e. `apropos-symbol-face', `apropos-keybinding-face', etc.).
1731 *** This package has been rewritten to use Tabulated List mode.
1733 *** Option `Buffer-menu-buffer+size-width' is now obsolete.
1734 Use `Buffer-menu-name-width' and `Buffer-menu-size-width' instead.
1738 *** Algebraic simplification mode is now the default.
1739 To restrict to the limited simplifications given by the former
1740 default simplification mode, use `m I'.
1744 *** You can customize the header text that appears above each calendar month.
1745 See the variable `calendar-month-header'.
1747 *** New LaTeX calendar style, produced by `cal-tex-cursor-week2-summary'.
1749 *** The calendars produced by cal-html include holidays.
1750 Customize `cal-html-holidays' to change this.
1754 *** The major modes from the parser generators "Bovine" and "Wisent"
1755 are now properly integrated in Emacs. The file suffixes ".by" and ".wy"
1756 are in `auto-mode-alist', and the corresponding manuals are included.
1760 **** Menu support for the "Configuration" feature. This allows users to
1761 choose the active configuration (such as debug or install) from the menu.
1763 **** New command `ede-set' to interactively set project-local variables.
1765 **** Support for compiling, debugging, and running in "generic" projects.
1767 **** Autoconf editing support for M4 macros with complex arguments.
1769 **** Compilation support for the "linux" project type.
1771 **** "simple" projects have been removed; use "generic" projects instead.
1775 **** Support for parsing #include statements inside a namespace in C/C++.
1777 **** Improved support for 'extern "C"' declarations in C/C++.
1779 **** The ability to ignore more common special C/C++ preprocessor symbols,
1780 such as '__nonnull' and '__asm'. Add '__cplusplus' macro when parsing C++.
1781 If available, include cdefs.h as an additional source of preprocessor symbols.
1783 **** Improved C/C++ function pointer parsing.
1785 **** In Python, support for converting imports to include file names.
1787 **** Ability to dynamically determine the Python load path.
1789 **** Support for the Python 'WITH' and 'AT' keywords.
1791 **** Improved tooltip completion.
1795 **** The SRecode manual is now included.
1797 **** Tag generation supports constructor/destructor settings and system
1798 include differentiation.
1800 **** Addition of 'Framework' support: Frameworks are specified when a
1801 particular kind of library (such as Android) is needed in a common language
1804 **** Support for nested templates and let variables override based on priority.
1806 **** Support for merging tables from multiple related modes, such as
1807 default -> c++ -> arduino.
1809 ** Compile has a new option `compilation-always-kill'.
1813 *** `custom-reset-button-menu' now defaults to t.
1815 *** Non-option variables are never matched in `customize-apropos' and
1816 `customize-apropos-options' (i.e., the prefix argument does nothing for
1817 these commands now).
1821 *** The variables `term-default-fg-color' and `term-default-bg-color'
1822 are now deprecated in favor of the customizable face `term'.
1824 *** You can customize how to display ANSI terminal colors and styles
1825 by customizing the corresponding `term-color-<COLOR>',
1826 `term-color-underline' and `term-color-bold' faces.
1830 *** The syntax has been extended in order to allow ad-hoc proxy definitions.
1832 *** Remote processes are now also supported on remote MS-Windows hosts.
1836 *** Structs made by `url-generic-parse-url' have nil `attributes' slot.
1837 Previously, this slot stored semicolon-separated attribute-value pairs
1838 appended to some imap URLs, but this is not compatible with RFC 3986.
1839 So now the `filename' slot stores the entire path and query components,
1840 and the `attributes' slot is always nil.
1842 *** New function `url-encode-url' for encoding a URI string.
1843 The `url-retrieve' function now uses this to encode its URL argument,
1844 in case that is not properly encoded.
1846 *** New command `url-cookie-list' displays all the current cookies, and
1847 allows deleting selected cookies.
1849 ** notifications.el supports now version 1.2 of the Notifications API.
1850 The function `notifications-get-capabilities' returns the supported
1853 ** Flymake uses fringe bitmaps to indicate errors and warnings.
1854 See `flymake-fringe-indicator-position', `flymake-error-bitmap' and
1855 `flymake-warning-bitmap'.
1857 ** The FFAP option `ffap-url-unwrap-remote' can now be a list of strings,
1858 specifying URL types that should be converted to remote file names at
1859 the FFAP prompt. The default is now '("ftp").
1861 ** New Ibuffer `derived-mode' filter, bound to `/ M'.
1862 The old binding for `/ M' (filter by used-mode) is now bound to `/ m'.
1864 ** New option `mouse-avoidance-banish-position' specifies where the
1865 `banish' mouse avoidance setting moves the mouse.
1867 ** In Perl mode, new option `perl-indent-parens-as-block' causes non-block
1868 closing brackets to be aligned with the line of the opening bracket.
1870 ** In Proced mode, new command `proced-renice' renices marked processes.
1872 ** New option `async-shell-command-buffer' specifies the buffer to use
1873 for a new asynchronous `shell-command' when the default output buffer
1874 `*Async Shell Command*' is already in use.
1876 ** SQL mode has a new option `sql-db2-escape-newlines'.
1877 If non-nil, newlines sent to the command interpreter will be escaped
1878 by a backslash. The default does not escape the newlines and assumes
1879 that the sql statement will be terminated by a semicolon.
1881 ** New command `tabulated-list-sort', bound to `S' in Tabulated List mode
1882 (and modes that derive from it), sorts the column at point, or the Nth
1883 column if a numeric prefix argument is given.
1885 ** `which-func-modes' now defaults to t, so Which Function mode, when
1886 enabled, applies to all applicable major modes.
1888 ** `winner-mode-hook' now runs when the mode is disabled, as well as when
1891 ** Follow mode no longer works by using advice.
1892 The option `follow-intercept-processes' has been removed.
1894 ** `javascript-generic-mode' is now an obsolete alias for `js-mode'.
1896 ** Hooks renamed to avoid obsolete "-hooks" suffix:
1897 *** semantic-lex-reset-hooks -> semantic-lex-reset-functions
1898 *** semantic-change-hooks -> semantic-change-functions
1899 *** semantic-edits-new-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-new-change-functions
1900 *** semantic-edits-delete-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-delete-change-functions
1901 *** semantic-edits-reparse-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-reparse-change-functions
1902 *** semanticdb-save-database-hooks -> semanticdb-save-database-functions
1903 *** c-prepare-bug-report-hooks -> c-prepare-bug-report-hook
1904 *** rcirc-sentinel-hooks -> rcirc-sentinel-functions
1905 *** rcirc-receive-message-hooks -> rcirc-receive-message-functions
1906 *** rcirc-activity-hooks -> rcirc-activity-functions
1907 *** rcirc-print-hooks -> rcirc-print-functions
1908 *** dbus-event-error-hooks -> dbus-event-error-functions
1909 *** eieio-pre-method-execution-hooks -> eieio-pre-method-execution-functions
1910 *** checkdoc-style-hooks -> checkdoc-style-functions
1911 *** checkdoc-comment-style-hooks -> checkdoc-comment-style-functions
1912 *** archive-extract-hooks -> archive-extract-hook
1913 *** filesets-cache-fill-content-hooks -> filesets-cache-fill-content-hook
1914 *** hfy-post-html-hooks -> hfy-post-html-hook
1915 *** nndiary-request-create-group-hooks -> nndiary-request-create-group-functions
1916 *** nndiary-request-update-info-hooks -> nndiary-request-update-info-functions
1917 *** nndiary-request-accept-article-hooks -> nndiary-request-accept-article-functions
1918 *** gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-hooks -> gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-functions
1920 ** Obsolete packages
1923 In most cases, assoc+member+push+delq work just as well.
1924 And in any case it's just a terrible package: ugly semantics, terrible
1925 inefficiency, and not namespace-clean.
1934 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.3
1936 ** Docstrings starting with `*' no longer indicate user options.
1937 Only variables defined using `defcustom' are considered user options.
1938 The function `user-variable-p' is now an obsolete alias for
1939 `custom-variable-p'.
1941 ** The return values of `defalias', `defun' and `defmacro' have changed,
1942 and are now undefined. For backwards compatibility, `defun' and
1943 `defmacro' currently return the name of the newly defined
1944 function/macro, but this should not be relied upon.
1946 ** `random' by default now returns a different random sequence in
1947 every Emacs run. Use `(random S)', where S is a string, to set the
1948 random seed to a value based on S, in order to get a repeatable
1949 sequence in later calls.
1951 ** If the NEWTEXT arg to `replace-match' contains a substring "\?",
1952 that substring is inserted literally even if the LITERAL arg is
1953 non-nil, instead of causing an error to be signaled.
1955 ** `select-window' now always makes the window's buffer current.
1956 It does so even if the window was selected before.
1958 ** The function `x-select-font' can return a font spec, instead of a
1959 font name as a string. Whether it returns a font spec or a font name
1960 depends on the graphical library.
1962 ** `face-spec-set' no longer sets frame-specific attributes when the
1963 third argument is a frame (that usage was obsolete since Emacs 22.2).
1965 ** `set-buffer-multibyte' now signals an error in narrowed buffers.
1967 ** The CL package's `get-setf-method' function no longer exists.
1968 Generalized variables are now part of core Emacs Lisp, and implemented
1969 differently to the way cl.el used to do it. It is not possible to
1970 define a compatible replacement for `get-setf-method'. See the file
1971 gv.el for internal details of the new implementation.
1973 ** The arguments of `dbus-register-signal' are no longer just strings,
1974 but keywords or keyword-string pairs. The old argument list will
1975 still be supported for Emacs 24.x.
1977 ** Miscellaneous name changes
1978 Some Lisp symbols have been renamed to correct their spelling,
1979 or to be more consistent with standard Emacs terminology.
1981 *** Renamed functions
1982 **** hangul-input-method-inactivate -> hangul-input-method-deactivate
1983 **** inactivate-input-method -> deactivate-input-method
1984 **** quail-inactivate -> quail-deactivate
1985 **** robin-inactivate -> robin-deactivate
1986 **** viper-inactivate-input-method -> viper-deactivate-input-method
1987 **** viper-inactivate-input-method-action ->
1988 viper-deactivate-input-method-action
1989 **** ucs-input-inactivate -> ucs-input-deactivate
1992 The old hooks are still supported for backward compatibility, but they
1993 are deprecated and will be removed eventually.
1994 **** input-method-inactivate-hook -> input-method-deactivate-hook
1995 **** robin-inactivate-hook -> robin-deactivate-hook
1996 **** quail-inactivate-hook -> quail-deactivate-hook
1998 *** Renamed variables
1999 **** follow-deactive-menu -> follow-inactive-menu
2000 **** inactivate-current-input-method-function ->
2001 deactivate-current-input-method-function
2003 ** Some obsolete functions, variables, and faces have been removed:
2004 *** `last-input-char', `last-command-char', `unread-command-char'
2005 *** `facemenu-unlisted-faces'
2006 *** `rmail-decode-mime-charset'
2007 *** `iswitchb-read-buffer'
2008 *** `sc-version', `sc-submit-bug-report'
2009 *** `set-char-table-default'
2010 *** `string-to-sequence' (use `string-to-list' or `string-to-vector')
2011 *** `compile-internal'
2013 *** `mode-line-inverse-video'
2014 *** `follow-mode-off-hook'
2015 *** `cvs-commit-buffer-require-final-newline'
2016 (use `log-edit-require-final-newline' instead)
2017 *** `cvs-changelog-full-paragraphs'
2018 (use `log-edit-changelog-full-paragraphs' instead)
2019 *** `cvs-diff-ignore-marks', `cvs-diff-buffer-name'
2020 *** `vc-ignore-vc-files' (use `vc-handled-backends' instead)
2021 *** `vc-master-templates' (use `vc-handled-backends' instead)
2022 *** `vc-checkout-carefully'
2025 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.3
2027 ** CL-style generalized variables are now in core Elisp.
2028 `setf' is autoloaded; `push' and `pop' accept generalized variables.
2029 You can define your own generalized variables using `gv-define-simple-setter',
2030 `gv-define-setter', etc.
2032 ** Emacs tries to macroexpand interpreted (non-compiled) files during load.
2033 This can significantly speed up execution of non-byte-compiled code,
2034 but can also bump into previously unnoticed cyclic dependencies.
2035 These are generally harmless: they will simply cause the macro calls
2036 to be left for later expansion (as before), but will result in a
2037 warning ("Eager macro-expansion skipped due to cycle") describing the cycle.
2038 You may wish to restructure your code so this does not happen.
2040 ** New sampling-based Elisp profiler.
2041 Try M-x profiler-start, do some work, and then call M-x profiler-report.
2042 When finished, use M-x profiler-stop. The sampling rate can be based on
2043 CPU time or memory allocations.
2045 ** `defun' also accepts a (declare DECLS) form, like `defmacro'.
2046 The interpretation of the DECLS is determined by `defun-declarations-alist'.
2048 ** New macros `setq-local' and `defvar-local'.
2050 ** Face underlining can now use a wave.
2052 ** `read-regexp' has a new argument HISTORY; the first argument PROMPT
2053 of `read-regexp' accepts a string ending with a colon and space, and its
2054 second argument DEFAULTS can be a list of strings accessible via `M-n'
2055 in the minibuffer ahead of other hard-coded useful regexp-related values.
2056 More commands use `read-regexp' now to read their regexp arguments.
2060 *** New function `completion-table-with-quoting' to handle completion
2061 in the presence of quoting, such as file completion in shell buffers.
2063 *** New function `completion-table-subvert' to use an existing completion
2064 table, but with a different prefix.
2068 *** New error type and new function `user-error'.
2069 These do not trigger the debugger.
2071 *** New option `debugger-bury-or-kill', saying what to do with the
2072 debugger buffer when exiting debug.
2074 *** Set `debug-on-message' to enter the debugger when a certain
2075 message is displayed in the echo area. This can be useful when trying
2076 to work out which code is doing something.
2078 *** New var `inhibit-debugger', automatically set to prevent accidental
2079 recursive invocations.
2083 *** New command `fit-frame-to-buffer' adjusts the frame height to
2086 *** The command `fit-window-to-buffer' can adjust the frame height
2087 if the new option `fit-frame-to-buffer' is non-nil.
2089 *** New macro `with-temp-buffer-window', similar to
2090 `with-output-to-temp-buffer'.
2092 *** `temp-buffer-resize-mode' no longer resizes windows that have been
2095 *** New option `switch-to-buffer-preserve-window-point' to restore a
2096 window's point when switching buffers.
2098 *** New display action function `display-buffer-no-window' to not
2099 display the buffer in a window.
2101 *** New display action alist entry `allow-no-window' to indicate the
2102 caller of `display-buffer' is ready to handle the case of not
2103 displaying the buffer in a window.
2105 *** New display action alist entries `window-height' and `window-width'
2106 specify the size of new windows created by `display-buffer'.
2108 *** New display action alist entry `pop-up-frame-parameters', if
2109 non-nil, specifies frame parameters to give any newly-created frame.
2111 *** New display action alist entry `inhibit-switch-frame', if non-nil,
2112 tells display action functions to avoid changing which frame is
2115 *** New display action alist entry `previous-window', if non-nil,
2116 specifies window to reuse in `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
2118 *** New display action functions `display-buffer-below-selected',
2119 and `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
2121 *** The functions `get-lru-window', `get-mru-window' and `get-largest-window'
2122 now accept a third argument to avoid choosing the selected window.
2124 *** Additional values recognized for option `window-combination-limit'.
2126 *** The following variables are obsolete, as they can be replaced by
2127 appropriate entries in the `display-buffer-alist' function introduced
2129 **** `dired-shrink-to-fit'
2130 **** `display-buffer-reuse-frames'
2131 **** `display-buffer-function'
2132 **** `special-display-buffer-names'
2133 **** `special-display-frame-alist'
2134 **** `special-display-function'
2135 **** `special-display-regexps'
2139 *** `current-time-string' no longer requires that its argument's year
2140 must be in the range 1000..9999. It now works with any year supported
2141 by the underlying C implementation.
2143 *** `current-time' now returns extended-format time stamps
2144 (HIGH LOW USEC PSEC), where the new PSEC slot specifies picoseconds.
2145 PSEC is typically a multiple of 1000 on current machines. Other
2146 functions that use this format, such as `file-attributes' and
2147 `format-time-string', have been changed accordingly. Old-format time
2148 stamps are still accepted.
2150 *** The format of timers in `timer-list' and `timer-idle-list' is now
2151 [TRIGGERED-P HI-SECS LO-SECS USECS REPEAT-DELAY FUNCTION ARGS IDLE-DELAY PSECS].
2152 The PSECS slot is new, and uses picosecond resolution. It can be
2153 accessed via the new `timer--psecs' accessor.
2155 *** Last-modified time stamps in undo lists now are of the form
2156 (t HI-SECS LO-SECS USECS PSECS) instead of (t HI-SECS . LO-SECS).
2160 *** Improved security when handling persistent objects:
2162 **** `eieio-persistent-read' now features optional arguments for specifying
2163 the class to load, as well as a flag stating whether subclasses are allowed;
2164 if provided, other classes will be rejected by the reader. For
2165 compatibility with existing code, if the class is omitted only a
2168 **** New specialized reader for pulling in classes and signaling errors
2169 without evaluation of suspicious code.
2171 **** All slots that contain objects must have a :type. Slots with lists
2172 of objects must use a new type predicate for a list of an object type.
2174 *** Support for `find-function' and similar utilities, through the addition
2175 of filename support to generated symbols.
2177 ** Floating point functions now always return special values like NaN,
2178 instead of signaling errors, if given invalid args; e.g., (log -1.0).
2179 Previously, they returned NaNs on some platforms but signaled errors
2180 on others. The affected functions are acos, asin, tan, exp, expt,
2181 log, log10, sqrt, and mod.
2183 ** New fringe bitmap `exclamation-mark'.
2185 ** Miscellaneous changes to special forms and macros
2187 *** `defun' and `defmacro' are now macros rather than special forms.
2189 *** `kbd' is now a function rather than a macro.
2191 ** Miscellaneous new functions
2193 *** `set-transient-map' sets up a temporary keymap, active for one key
2194 (and optionally more). This keymap takes precedence over other maps.
2196 *** `autoloadp' tests if its argument is an autoloaded object.
2198 *** `autoload-do-load' performs the autoloading operation.
2200 *** `buffer-narrowed-p' tests if the buffer is narrowed.
2202 *** `file-name-base' returns a file name sans directory and extension.
2204 *** `function-get' fetches a function property, following aliases.
2206 *** `posnp' tests if an object is a `posn'.
2208 *** `system-users' returns the user names on the system.
2210 *** `system-groups' returns the group names on the system.
2212 *** `tty-top-frame' returns the topmost frame of a text terminal.
2214 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
2215 *** `automount-dir-prefix' (use `directory-abbrev-alist')
2216 *** `buffer-has-markers-at'
2217 *** `macro-declaration-function' (use `macro-declarations-alist')
2218 *** `window-system-version' (provides no useful information)
2219 *** `dired-pop-to-buffer' (use `dired-mark-pop-up')
2220 *** `query-replace-interactive'
2221 *** `font-list-limit' (has had no effect since Emacs < 23)
2224 * Changes in Emacs 24.3 on Non-Free Operating Systems
2226 ** Cygwin builds can use the native MS Windows user interface.
2227 Pass `--with-w32' to configure. The default remains the X11 interface.
2229 ** Two new functions are available in Cygwin builds:
2230 `cygwin-convert-file-name-from-windows' and
2231 `cygwin-convert-file-name-to-windows'. These functions allow Lisp
2232 code to access the Cygwin file-name mapping machinery to convert
2233 between Cygwin and Windows-native file and directory names.
2235 ** When invoked with the -nw switch to run on the Windows text-mode terminal,
2236 Emacs now supports `mouse-highlight', help-echo (in the echo area), and
2237 `mouse-autoselect-window'.
2239 ** On MS Windows Vista and later Emacs now supports symbolic links.
2241 ** On MS Windows, you can pass `--without-libxml2' to configure.bat to omit
2242 support for libxml2, even if its presence is detected.
2244 ** On Mac OS X, the Nextstep port requires OS X 10.4 or later.
2246 ** On Mac OS X, configure no longer automatically adds the Fink "/sw"
2247 directories to the search path. You must add them yourself if you want them.
2250 * Changes in Emacs 24.2
2252 ** This is mainly a bug-fix release.
2255 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
2257 ** Emacs can be compiled with Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
2258 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
2259 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
2262 ** Emacs can be compiled with GnuTLS support.
2263 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
2264 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
2265 `--without-gnutls'. See below for GnuTLS features.
2267 ** Emacs can be compiled with SELinux support.
2268 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
2269 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
2270 `--without-selinux'. See below for SELinux features.
2272 ** Emacs can be compiled with ImageMagick support.
2273 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
2274 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
2275 `--without-imagemagick'. See below for ImageMagick features.
2276 This feature is not available for the Nextstep or MS ports.
2278 ** Emacs can be compiled with libxml2 support.
2279 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
2280 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
2281 `--without-xml2'. See below for libxml2 features.
2283 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
2284 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
2286 ** New configure option --with-wide-int.
2287 With it, Emacs integers typically have 62 bits, even on 32-bit machines.
2288 On 32-bit hosts, this raises the limit on buffer sizes from about 512 MiB
2291 ** New configure options: --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
2292 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
2293 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
2295 ** New configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
2296 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
2297 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
2299 ** The standalone programs digest-doc and sorted-doc are removed.
2300 Emacs now uses Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
2302 ** The standalone program `fakemail' is removed.
2303 If you need it, feedmail.el provides a superset of the functionality.
2306 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
2308 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
2309 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
2310 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
2312 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
2313 from load-path. -Q now implies this. This option does not affect the
2314 EMACSLOADPATH environment variable (and hence has no effect for
2318 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
2322 *** Many packages now use the `completion-at-point' command,
2323 rather than implementing separate completion commands.
2325 *** `completion-at-point' now handles tags and semantic completion.
2327 *** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
2328 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
2330 *** New option `completion-cycle-threshold' allows completion cycling.
2332 *** New option `completion-category-overrides' for overriding the
2333 default completion style in certain circumstances.
2335 *** New completion style `substring'.
2337 *** Completion of buffer names uses `substring' completion by default.
2339 *** The option `widget-complete-field' has been removed.
2343 *** The first time you try sending mail, Emacs asks for a mail method.
2344 This is implemented by a new default for `send-mail-function', which
2345 is `sendmail-query-once'. This offers to use the smtpmail package, or
2346 to use the old defaults relying on external mail facilities
2347 (`sendmail-send-it' on GNU/Linux and other Unix-like systems, and
2348 `mailclient-send-it' on Windows).
2350 *** Typing `C-c m' in the buffer made by `M-x report-emacs-bug'
2351 transfers the report to your desktop's preferred mail client, if there
2352 is one. This uses either the "xdg-email" utility, or Mac OS's "open"
2355 *** See Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages for SMTPmail changes
2356 and Mail mode changes
2358 ** Emacs server and client changes
2360 *** New option `server-port' specifies the port for TCP Emacs servers.
2362 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
2364 *** New emacsclient argument --frame-parameters specifies the frame
2365 parameters of any newly-created graphical frame.
2367 *** If emacsclient shuts down due to Emacs signaling an error,
2368 its exit status is 1.
2370 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID.
2371 This opens a client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed, similar
2372 to the --parent-id argument to Emacs.
2374 ** Internationalization changes
2376 *** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
2377 Right-to-left (RTL) scripts, such as Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew, are
2378 displayed in the correct visual order as expected by users of those
2379 scripts. The display reordering is a "full bidirectionality" class
2380 implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm (UBA). Buffers
2381 with no RTL text should look exactly the same as before.
2383 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-display-reordering'.
2384 To disable display reordering in a buffer, change this to nil.
2386 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction'.
2387 If nil (the default), Emacs determines the base direction of each
2388 paragraph from its text, as specified by the UBA. Setting the value
2389 to `right-to-left' or `left-to-right' forces a base direction on each
2392 Paragraphs with right-to-left base direction are displayed starting at
2393 the right window edge.
2395 *** Enhanced support for characters with no glyphs in available fonts,
2396 or, on text terminals, characters that cannot be encoded by the
2397 terminal coding system. The new option `glyphless-char-display-control'
2398 specifies how to display them: as a hexadecimal code in a box, a thin
2399 1-pixel space, an empty box, etc.
2401 *** New input methods for Farsi and Bulgarian
2402 (farsi-isiri-9147, farsi-transliterate-banan, bulgarian-alt-phonetic).
2404 *** `nobreak-char-display' now also highlights Unicode hyphen chars
2405 (U+2010 and U+2011).
2407 *** New Hebrew translation of the Emacs Tutorial.
2408 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
2409 automatically select it.
2411 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
2412 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
2413 from a package repository at http://elpa.gnu.org.
2415 *** M-x list-packages shows a list of packages, which can be
2416 selected for installation.
2418 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
2420 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded automatically when
2421 Emacs starts up. To disable this, set `package-enable-at-startup' to
2422 nil. To specify the packages to load, customize `package-load-list'.
2424 ** Custom theme changes
2426 *** New command `M-x customize-themes', which provides a convenient
2427 interface for enabling and disabling Custom themes.
2429 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
2430 Emacs no longer looks for Custom themes in `load-path'. The default
2431 value of `custom-theme-load-path' says to look for themes in
2432 `custom-theme-directory', followed by a subdirectory of
2433 `data-directory' named "themes/", which contains a small selection of
2434 built-in Custom themes.
2436 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
2437 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
2438 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
2439 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
2441 ** Improved GTK integration
2443 *** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
2444 The function `set-scroll-bar-mode' can change this.
2446 *** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
2447 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose the style. On a Gnome desktop,
2448 the default is taken from desktop settings.
2450 *** GTK tool bars can be placed on any edge of the frame.
2451 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the
2452 values top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has
2455 *** The default colors for selected text (the `region' face) are taken
2456 from the GTK theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
2458 *** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK.
2459 You can disable this by changing `x-gtk-use-system-tooltips' to nil.
2461 ** Graphical interface changes
2463 *** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
2464 Also, the first dash (which does not indicate anything) is just
2465 displayed as a space.
2467 *** `menu-bar-select-buffer-function' lets you choose another operation
2468 instead of `switch-to-buffer' when selecting an item in the Buffers menu.
2470 *** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is
2471 built with Xft. These fonts can be set via X resources, for example:
2472 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
2476 *** Emacs now calls `kill-emacs' if it receives SIGTERM or SIGHUP,
2477 or if it receives a SIGINT signal in batch mode.
2479 *** `kill-emacs-hook' is now also run in batch mode.
2480 Third-party code which adds to `kill-emacs-hook' should check if they
2481 do the right thing in batch mode.
2483 ** Scrolling changes
2485 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
2486 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
2487 of buffer at first key-press (instead they move to top/bottom of buffer)
2488 when `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
2490 *** New option `scroll-error-top-bottom' (see above).
2492 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
2493 scroll a line instead of full screen.
2495 *** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
2496 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
2498 *** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
2499 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
2500 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
2501 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
2502 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
2504 *** "Aggressive" scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
2505 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
2506 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
2507 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
2510 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
2511 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
2513 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up.
2514 Also, the function `copy-file' has an extra optional argument for
2515 preserving SELinux context, and the return value of `backup-buffer'
2516 now includes the SELinux context.
2518 *** New functions `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
2519 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
2523 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
2524 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
2526 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
2527 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
2529 ** File- and directory-local variable changes
2531 *** You can stop directory local vars from applying to subdirectories.
2532 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
2533 settings to indicate that the section should not apply to
2536 *** Directory local variables can apply to some file-less buffers.
2537 Affected modes include dired, vc-dir, and log-edit. For example,
2538 adding "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to .dir-locals.el will
2539 turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should call
2540 `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
2542 *** Using "mode: MINOR-MODE" to enable a minor mode is deprecated.
2543 Instead, use "eval: (minor-mode 1)".
2545 *** The variable `inhibit-first-line-modes-regexps' has been renamed
2546 to `inhibit-local-variables-regexps'. As the name suggests, it now
2547 applies to ALL file local variables, not just -*- lines. The
2548 associated `inhibit-first-line-modes-suffixes' has been renamed in the
2553 *** The `quit-window' command now restores the last buffer displayed
2554 in the quitted window.
2556 *** Resizing an Emacs frame now preserves proportional window sizes,
2557 modulo restrictions like window minimum sizes and fixed-size windows.
2559 *** The behavior of `display-buffer' is now customizable in detail.
2561 **** New option `display-buffer-base-action' specifies a list of
2562 user-determined display "actions" (functions and optional arguments
2563 for choosing the displaying window).
2565 This takes precedence over the default display action, which is
2566 specified by `display-buffer-fallback-action'.
2568 **** New option `display-buffer-alist' maps buffer name regexps to
2569 display actions, taking precedence over `display-buffer-base-action'.
2571 *** New option `window-combination-limit'.
2572 The new option `window-combination-limit' allows to return the space
2573 obtained for resizing or creating a window more reliably to the window
2574 from which such space was obtained.
2576 *** New option `window-combination-resize'.
2577 The new option `window-combination-resize' allows to split a window that
2578 otherwise cannot be split because it's too small by stealing space from
2579 other windows in the same combination. Subsequent resizing or deletion
2580 of the window will resize all windows in the same combination as well.
2582 *** New option `frame-auto-hide-function' lets you choose between
2583 iconifying or deleting a frame when burying a buffer in a dedicated
2584 frame, or quitting a window showing a buffer in a frame of its own.
2586 *** New commands `maximize-window' and `minimize-window'.
2587 These maximize and minimize the size of a window within its frame.
2589 *** New commands `switch-to-prev-buffer' and `switch-to-next-buffer'.
2590 These functions allow to navigate through the live buffers that have
2591 been shown in a specific window.
2593 ** Minibuffer changes
2595 *** The inactive minibuffer has its own major mode `minibuffer-inactive-mode'.
2596 This is handy for minibuffer-only frames, and is also used for the feature
2597 where mouse-1 pops up *Messages*"', which can now easily be changed.
2599 *** Minibuffers set `truncate-lines' to nil.
2600 If you want to change the value to something else, you could use
2601 for example `minibuffer-setup-hook'.
2603 ** `auto-mode-case-fold' is now enabled by default.
2605 ** `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' now defaults to t.
2607 ** New basic faces `error', `warning', `success'.
2608 These are used to highlight text indicating failure, caution or
2609 successful operation.
2611 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
2612 for `list-colors-display'.
2614 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
2617 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
2621 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-kill', instead of
2622 `isearch-yank-line'.
2624 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-pop', instead of
2625 `isearch-yank-kill'.
2627 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-line'.
2629 ** New commands `count-words-region' and `count-words'.
2631 *** M-= is bound to `count-words-region', not `count-lines-region'.
2632 The `count-words-region' command, when called interactively, reports
2633 the number of lines, words, and characters in the region. It is a
2634 superset of the old `count-lines-region', which is now an obsolete
2637 ** The command `just-one-space' (M-SPC), if given a negative argument,
2638 also deletes newlines around point.
2642 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
2643 If non-nil, [delete] and DEL delete the region if it is active and no
2644 prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', those commands kill
2647 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to [delete].
2648 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
2649 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
2651 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
2652 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
2653 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; Lisp
2654 callers should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
2656 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
2658 ** Selection changes.
2660 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections has been
2661 changed to conform with modern X applications. In short, most
2662 commands for killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while
2663 mouse commands use the primary selection.
2665 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
2666 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
2668 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
2669 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
2670 the kill ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
2671 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
2673 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
2674 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
2675 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
2676 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
2677 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
2679 **** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
2681 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
2682 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
2683 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
2685 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
2687 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
2688 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
2689 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
2691 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
2692 exactly equivalent to M-w, C-w, and C-y respectively.
2694 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
2695 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
2696 between applications.
2698 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
2700 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
2701 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
2702 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
2703 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
2704 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
2706 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
2708 *** X clipboard managers are now supported.
2709 To inhibit this, change `x-select-enable-clipboard-manager' to nil.
2711 ** New command `C-x r N' (`rectangle-number-lines') numbers the lines
2712 in the current rectangle. With a prefix argument, this prompts for a
2713 number to count from and for a format string.
2715 ** `redisplay-dont-pause' now defaults to t.
2716 This makes Emacs feel more responsive to editing commands that arrive
2717 at high rate, e.g. if you lean on some key, because stopping redisplay
2718 in the middle (when this variable is nil) forces more expensive
2719 updates later on, and Emacs appears to be unable to keep up.
2721 ** The behavior of <TAB> for active regions in Text mode has changed.
2722 In Text and related modes, typing <TAB> (`indent-for-tab-command')
2723 when the region is active causes Emacs to indent all the lines in the
2724 region, aligning them with the line previous to the first line in the
2725 region (or with the left margin if there is no previous line).
2727 ** When `occur' is called with a prefix argument, matching strings are
2728 collected into the `*Occur*' buffer without line numbers. If there
2729 are parenthesized subexpressions in the specified regexp, `occur'
2730 reads replacement text that may contain \\& and \\N whose convention
2731 follows `replace-match'.
2734 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
2736 ** Archive Mode has basic support for browsing and updating 7z archives.
2740 *** BibTeX mode now supports biblatex.
2741 Use the variable `bibtex-dialect' to select different BibTeX dialects.
2742 `bibtex-entry-field-alist' is now an obsolete alias for
2743 `bibtex-BibTeX-entry-alist'.
2745 *** New command `bibtex-search-entries', bound to C-c C-a.
2747 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `sort-fields', disabled by default.
2749 *** New variable `bibtex-search-entry-globally'.
2753 *** New option `browse-url-mailto-function' specifies how to handle "mailto:"s.
2755 *** The default browser used by the package is now the "xdg-open" program,
2756 on platforms that support it. This calls your desktop's preferred browser.
2760 *** Support for musical notes.
2762 *** Support for logarithmic units.
2764 *** No longer uses the tex prefix for TeX specific unit names when
2765 using TeX or LaTeX mode.
2767 *** New option to highlight selections using faces.
2769 *** `calc-histogram' has the option of using a vector to determine the bins.
2771 *** New "O" option prefix.
2773 *** Use the "O" prefix to "d r" (`calc-radix') to turn on twos-complement mode.
2775 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
2777 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing "comments".
2778 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
2780 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
2781 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
2783 *** The function specified by `appt-disp-window-function' may be passed
2784 lists of arguments if multiple appointments are due at similar times.
2785 If you are using a custom function for this, you should update it.
2787 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
2789 *** Elements of `calendar-day-abbrev-array' and `calendar-month-abbrev-array'
2790 may no longer be nil, but must all be strings.
2792 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt
2793 package by adding `appt-make-list' to `diary-hook' has been removed.
2794 Use `appt-activate' instead.
2796 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
2797 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
2798 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
2800 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
2801 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
2805 *** New feature to "guess" the style in an existing buffer.
2806 The main entry point is M-x c-guess.
2808 *** Java Mode now supports Java 5.0 (Tiger) and 6 (Mustang).
2810 *** `c-beginning-of-defun' and `c-end-of-defun' now respect nested scopes.
2811 Thus C-M-a will, by default, go to the beginning of the immediate function,
2814 *** "Macros with semicolons" can be registered for correct indentation.
2815 Where such a macro ends a line (no semicolon) the next statement is no longer
2816 parsed as a statement continuation.
2818 ** Comint and modes derived from it use the standard completion code.
2822 *** Compilation mode can be used without Font Lock mode.
2823 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
2825 *** New variable `compilation-filter-start', which is bound while
2826 `compilation-filter-hook' runs. It records the start position of the
2827 text inserted by `compilation-filter'.
2829 *** `compilation-error-screen-columns' and `compilation-first-column'
2830 are obeyed in the editing buffer. So programming language modes can
2831 set them, whereas previously only the value in the *Compilation*
2836 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
2837 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
2838 To turn off the search field, set `custom-search-field' to nil.
2840 *** Options in customize group buffers start out hidden if not customized.
2841 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
2843 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
2845 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
2846 choose a color via `list-colors-display'.
2850 *** It is now possible to access buses other than the default system
2853 *** The `dbus-register-method' and `dbus-register-property' functions
2854 optionally do not register names.
2856 *** The new function `dbus-register-service' registers a known service
2857 name on a D-Bus without also registering a property or a method.
2861 *** C-x C-j (`dired-jump') and C-x 4 C-j (`dired-jump-other-window'),
2862 if called with a prefix argument, read a file name from the minibuffer
2863 instead of using the current buffer.
2865 *** The "dired local variables" feature of Dired-x is obsolete.
2866 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
2870 *** New options `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay',
2871 controlling attempts to autojoin a channel.
2873 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
2874 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
2875 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
2876 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
2880 *** The default value of `eshell-directory-name' has changed
2881 to be an "eshell" directory in `user-emacs-directory'.
2882 The old "~/.eshell/" directory is still used if it exists, though.
2886 *** The M-x gdb command now uses the GDB Machine Interface protocol.
2887 It now supports multithread non-stop debugging and simultaneous
2888 debugging of several threads.
2892 *** RET (`image-toggle-animation') toggles animation, if applicable.
2893 Animation plays once, unless the option `image-animate-loop' is non-nil.
2897 *** New command M-x info-display-manual displays a named Info manual.
2898 If that manual is already visited in some Info buffer, it displays
2899 that buffer. (This is handy if you have many manuals in many *info*
2900 buffers, and don't remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual
2901 you want to consult.) Otherwise, it loads and displays the manual.
2903 *** `e' is now bound to `end-of-buffer' rather than to `Info-edit'.
2904 This is for compatibility with the stand-alone Info reader program,
2905 and also because `Info-edit' is a rarely used command that is disabled
2908 ** Mail mode changes (not Message mode)
2910 *** New command M-x mail-add-attachment for adding MIME attachments
2912 *** The command M-x mail-attach-file was renamed to M-x mail-insert-file.
2913 (Its name is misleading, since it has nothing to do with MIME
2914 attachments.) The old name is now an obsolete alias to the new name.
2916 ** MH-E has been updated to MH-E version 8.3.1.
2917 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
2919 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
2921 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
2923 ** nXML mode no longer binds C-RET to `nxml-complete'.
2924 Completion is now performed via `completion-at-point', bound to C-M-i
2925 or M-TAB. If `nxml-bind-meta-tab-to-complete-flag' is non-nil (the
2926 default), this performs tag completion.
2928 ** Org mode has been updated to version 7.8.09.
2929 See ORG-NEWS for details.
2931 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
2932 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity,
2933 support for more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
2937 *** The command `rmail-epa-decrypt' decrypts OpenPGP data
2938 in the Rmail incoming message.
2940 *** The variable `rmail-message-filter' no longer has any effect.
2941 This change was made in Emacs 23.1 but was not advertised at the time.
2942 Try using `rmail-show-message-hook' instead.
2946 *** M-x shell prompts for the shell path name if the default directory
2947 is a remote file name and neither the environment variable $ESHELL nor
2948 the variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
2950 *** TAB is now bound to the standard `completion-at-point' command,
2951 which now implements the pcomplete rules for shell command completion.
2955 *** SMTPmail now uses encrypted connections (via STARTTLS) by default
2956 if the mail server supports them. This uses either built-in GnuTLS
2957 support, or the starttls.el library. Customize `smtpmail-stream-type'
2960 *** The variable `smtpmail-auth-credentials' has been removed.
2961 By default, the information is now stored in the file ~/.authinfo.
2962 This was the default value of smtpmail-auth-credentials. If you had
2963 customized smtpmail-auth-credentials to a list of user names and
2964 passwords, those settings are not used. During your first connection
2965 to the smtp server, Emacs will prompt for the user name and password,
2966 and offer to save them to ~/.authinfo. Or you can manually copy the
2967 credentials to ~/.authinfo. For example, if you had
2969 (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials
2970 '(("mail.example.org" 25 "jim" "s!cret")))
2972 then the equivalent line in ~/.authinfo would be
2974 machine mail.example.org port 25 login jim password s!cret
2976 See the auth-source manual for more information, e.g. on encrypting
2977 the credentials file.
2979 *** The variable `smtpmail-starttls-credentials' has been removed.
2980 If you had that set, you need to put
2982 machine smtp.whatever.foo port 25 key "~/.my_smtp_tls.key" cert "~/.my_smtp_tls.cert"
2984 in your ~/.authinfo file instead.
2986 *** SMTPmail defaults to using the address in the From: header as the
2987 SMTP MAIL FROM envelope. To override this, set `mail-envelope-from'
2988 to the address you wish to use instead.
2992 *** New options `sql-port', `sql-connection-alist', `sql-send-terminator',
2993 and `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
2995 *** New options controlling prompting for login parameters.
2996 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params',
2997 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
2998 connection is established.
3000 *** The command `sql-product-interactive' now takes a prefix argument,
3001 which causes it to prompt for an SQL product.
3003 *** Product-specific SQL interactive commands now take prefix arguments.
3004 These commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres', `sql-mysql', etc.),
3005 given a prefix argument, prompt for a name for the SQL interactive
3006 buffer. This reduces the need for calling `sql-rename-buffer'.
3008 *** SQL interactive modes suppress command continuation prompts, and
3009 replace tabs with spaces. The first change impacts multiple line SQL
3010 statements entered with C-j between each line, statements yanked into
3011 the buffer and statements sent with `sql-send-*' functions. The
3012 second prevents the MySQL and Postgres interpreters from listing
3013 object name completions when sent text via `sql-send-*' functions.
3015 *** New command `sql-connect' starts a predefined SQLi session,
3016 using the login parameters from `sql-connection-alist'.
3018 *** New "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
3019 This gathers the login params specified for the SQLi session, if it
3020 was not started by a connection, and saves them as a new connection.
3022 *** New commands for listing database objects and details:
3023 sql-list-all and sql-list-table.
3025 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
3029 *** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
3033 *** New inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
3035 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
3036 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
3038 *** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
3039 remote file attributes are cached for better performance.
3041 *** The option `ange-ftp-binary-file-name-regexp' has changed its
3042 default value to "".
3044 *** Handlers for `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
3045 for remote machines which support SELinux.
3047 ** New function `url-queue-retrieve', which behaves like url-retrieve,
3048 but with limits (`url-queue-parallel-processes', `url-queue-timeout') on
3049 the degree of parallelism.
3051 ** VC and related modes
3053 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
3054 The command C-x v + (`vc-pull') runs a "pull" operation, if it is
3055 supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to update the
3056 current branch and working tree. A prefix argument means to prompt
3057 the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
3059 *** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
3061 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
3062 The command C-x v m (`vc-merge') now runs a "merge" operation, if it
3063 is supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to merge
3064 changes from another branch into the current one. It prompts for
3065 specifics, e.g. a merge source.
3067 *** New option `vc-revert-show-diff' controls whether `vc-revert'
3068 shows a diff while querying the user. It defaults to t.
3070 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
3071 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
3072 This is currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial (to support
3073 another backend, define a `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function').
3074 In the Log View buffers made by C-x v L (`vc-print-root-log'), you can
3075 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
3077 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
3078 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
3080 *** The option `vc-initial-comment' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but
3081 this was not advertised at the time.
3083 *** `vc-toggle-read-only' is an obsolete alias for `toggle-read-only'.
3084 Since Emacs 23, it has done the same thing as `toggle-read-only', but
3085 this was not advertised at the time.
3091 *** erc-hecomplete.el (use erc-pcomplete.el instead)
3093 *** partial-completion-mode (complete.el) is obsolete.
3094 You can get a comparable behavior with:
3095 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
3096 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
3098 *** pc-mode.el is obsolete (CUA mode is much more comprehensive).
3100 *** pgg is obsolete (use EasyPG instead).
3102 *** sregex.el is obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
3104 *** s-region.el and pc-select.el are obsolete.
3105 They are superseded by shift-select-mode, enabled by default since 23.1.
3107 *** vc-mcvs.el is obsolete (for lack of a maintainer).
3111 *** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
3112 Its functions and variables have been similarly renamed.
3114 *** In `ido-file-completion-map', C-v is no longer bound to `ido-toggle-vc'.
3115 (This interfered with cua-mode.)
3117 *** f90.el has some support for Fortran 2008 syntax.
3119 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
3121 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
3124 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
3126 ** Occur Edit mode applies edits made in *Occur* buffers to the
3127 original buffers. It is bound to "e" in Occur mode.
3129 ** New global minor mode electric-pair-mode.
3130 When enabled, typing an open parenthesis automatically inserts the
3131 matching closing one.
3133 ** New global minor mode electric-indent-mode.
3134 When enabled, typing certain characters triggers reindentation.
3135 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-indent-chars or
3136 electric-indent-functions.
3138 ** New global minor mode electric-layout-mode.
3139 When enabled, typing certain characters automatically inserts newlines.
3140 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-layout-rules.
3142 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
3143 from which other modes can be derived.
3145 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
3147 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
3148 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
3149 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
3150 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
3153 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
3154 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
3156 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
3157 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
3159 ** New generic mode, xmodmap-generic-mode, for xmodmap files.
3161 ** New emacs-lock.el package.
3162 The previous version has been moved to obsolete/old-emacs-lock.el.
3163 Now, there is a proper minor mode `emacs-lock-mode'. Protection
3164 against exiting Emacs and killing the buffer can be set separately.
3165 The mechanism for automatically turning off protection for buffers
3166 with dead inferior processes has been generalized.
3169 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
3171 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function call now ENABLES
3172 the minor mode unconditionally. This is so that you can write e.g.
3174 (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'foo-mode)
3176 to enable foo-mode in Text mode buffers, removing the need for
3177 `turn-on-foo-mode' style functions. This affects all mode commands
3178 defined by `define-minor-mode'. If called interactively, the mode
3179 command still toggles the minor mode.
3181 ** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
3182 It is now a list of three elements, where the second element is a list
3183 describing the original file's SELinux context. If Emacs or the
3184 system lacks SELinux support, the context list is (nil nil nil nil).
3185 See "Basic SELinux support" above, under "Changes in Emacs 24.1".
3187 ** `char-direction-table' and the `char-direction' function were deleted.
3188 They were buggy and inferior to the new support of bidirectional
3189 editing introduced in Emacs 24. If you need the bidirectional
3190 properties of a character, use `get-char-code-property' with the last
3191 argument `bidi-class'.
3193 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
3194 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
3195 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
3196 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
3198 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
3199 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
3200 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
3203 ** Support for "old-style" backquotes, obsolete for 10+ years, has
3204 been further reduced. Now a backquote not followed by a space is
3205 always treated as a "new-style" backquote. Please remove all
3206 "old-style" backquotes from your code. If your code uses backquotes
3207 as documented in the Elisp manual, and compiles without warning, then
3208 you have nothing to do in this regard. Code not following the
3209 appropriate conventions may fail to compile.
3211 The most common cause of trouble seems to be an old-style backquote
3212 followed by a newline. Another cause of trouble is vector notation
3213 for key sequence notation: instead of [(control ,)] and [(control ')],
3214 you should write [(control ?,)] and [(control ?')], which will work in
3217 ** The macro `eval-at-startup' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but this
3218 was not advertised at the time. The function `custom-initialize-delay'
3219 replaced all known uses.
3221 ** `view-buffer' now treats special mode-class in the same way that
3222 `view-file' has since Emacs 22 (i.e. it won't enable View mode if the
3223 major mode is special).
3225 ** Menu and tool bar changes
3227 *** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
3228 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
3229 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
3230 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
3231 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
3232 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
3234 *** The menu bar bindings's caches are not used any more.
3235 Use (where-is-internal <def> nil t) instead.
3237 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
3238 similar to those created by shift-selection (see Selection changes
3239 above). In previous Emacs versions, these regions were delineated by
3240 `mouse-drag-overlay'; that variable has been removed.
3242 ** The fourth argument of `filter-buffer-substring' has been removed.
3243 If you want to remove text properties from the final result, simply
3244 pass the result through substring-no-properties.
3246 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
3248 ** The following obsolete functions and aliases have been removed
3249 (the appropriate new function is given in parentheses; "not needed"
3250 means you can just remove all calls to the function in question):
3252 *** `comint-kill-output' (`comint-delete-output')
3253 *** `decompose-composite-char' (`char-to-string')
3254 *** `outline-visible' (`outline-invisible-p')
3255 *** `internal-find-face' (`facep')
3256 *** `internal-get-face' (`facep and check-face')
3257 *** `frame-update-faces' (not needed)
3258 *** `frame-update-face-colors' (`frame-set-background-mode')
3259 *** `x-frob-font-weight' and `x-frob-font-slant' (`make-face-*' functions)
3260 *** `x-make-font-bold and x-make-font-demibold (`make-face-bold')
3261 *** `x-make-font-italic' and `x-make-font-oblique' (`make-face-italic')
3262 *** `x-make-font-bold-italic' (`make-face-bold-italic')
3263 *** `x-make-font-unbold' (`make-face-unbold')
3264 *** `x-make-font-unitalic' (`make-face-unitalic')
3265 *** `mldrag-drag-mode-line' (`mouse-drag-mode-line')
3266 *** `mldrag-drag-vertical-line' (`mouse-drag-vertical-line')
3267 *** `iswitchb-default-keybindings' (`iswitchb-mode')
3268 *** `char-bytes' (== 1)
3269 *** `isearch-return-char' (`isearch-printing-char')
3270 *** `make-local-hook' (not needed)
3271 *** `set-screen-height' (`set-frame-height')
3272 *** `set-screen-width' (`set-frame-width')
3274 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed
3275 (the appropriate new variable is given in parentheses):
3277 *** `checkdoc-minor-keymap' (`checkdoc-minor-mode-map')
3278 *** `vc-header-alist' (`vc-BACKEND-header')
3279 *** `directory-sep-char' (== ?/)
3280 *** `font-lock-defaults-alist' (`font-lock-defaults')
3281 *** `e' (`float-e').
3283 ** The following obsolete files were removed:
3284 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
3286 ** The format of the finder-inf.el file has changed, since the Finder
3287 mechanism is now based on the package system. The variable
3288 `finder-package-info' is replaced by `package--builtins' and
3289 `finder-keywords-hash'.
3291 ** When generating autoloads, `update-directory-autoloads' no longer
3292 assumes every inspected file is in your `load-path'. It instead
3293 generates relative names according to the current `load-path'.
3296 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
3298 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
3299 The `lexical-binding' variable enables lexical scoping for local
3300 variables. It is typically set via a file-local variable in the first
3301 line of the file, in which case it applies to all the code in that
3304 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
3305 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
3307 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
3308 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
3310 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
3312 *** `defvar' and `defconst' now mark the variable as special (dynamic).
3313 So do `defcustom' and other forms that call `defvar' as a subroutine.
3315 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
3316 declared as dynamically bound.
3318 *** The form ((lambda ...) ...) is deprecated.
3320 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
3321 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
3322 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
3324 ** Changes for bidirectional display and editing
3326 *** New function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction'.
3327 This returns the base direction of the paragraph at point.
3329 *** New function `bidi-string-mark-left-to-right'.
3330 Given a string containing characters from right-to-left scripts, this
3331 function returns another string which can be safely inserted into a
3332 buffer, such that any following text will be always displayed to the
3333 right of that string. (This works by appending an invisible Unicode
3334 "LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK" character if the argument string might need it.)
3336 This is useful when the buffer has overall left-to-right paragraph
3337 direction and you need to insert a string whose contents are not known
3338 in advance, without disrupting the layout of the line.
3342 *** Window tree functions are accessible in Elisp.
3343 Functions are provided to return the parent, siblings or child windows
3344 of any window including internal windows (windows not associated with a
3345 buffer) in the window tree.
3347 **** New function `window-valid-p' gives non-nil for live and internal
3350 **** Window manipulation can deal with internal windows.
3351 Many window handling functions like `split-window', `delete-window', or
3352 `delete-other-windows' as well as the window resizing functions can now
3353 act on any window including internal ones.
3355 *** window-total-height/-width vs window-body-height/-width.
3356 The function `window-height' has been renamed to `window-total-height'
3357 and `window-width' has been renamed to `window-body-width'. The old
3358 names are provided as aliases. Two new functions `window-total-width'
3359 and `window-body-height' are provided.
3361 *** Window parameters specific to window handling functions.
3362 For each window you can specify a parameter to override the default
3363 behavior of a number of functions like `split-window', `delete-window'
3364 and `delete-other-windows'. The variable `ignore-window-parameters'
3365 allows to ignore processing such parameters.
3367 *** New semantics of third argument of `split-window'.
3368 The third argument of `split-window' has been renamed to SIDE and can be
3369 set to any of the values 'below, 'right, 'above, or 'left to make the
3370 new window appear on the corresponding side of the window that shall be
3371 split. Any other value of SIDE will cause `split-window' to split the
3372 window into two side-by-side windows as before.
3374 *** Window resizing functions.
3375 A new standard function for resizing windows called `window-resize' has
3376 been introduced. This and all other functions for resizing windows no
3377 longer delete any windows when they become too small.
3379 *** Deleting the selected window now selects the most recently selected
3380 live window on that frame instead.
3382 *** `adjust-window-trailing-edge' adjustments.
3383 `adjust-window-trailing-edge' can now deal with fixed-size windows and
3384 is able to resize other windows if a window adjacent to the trailing
3385 edge cannot be shrunk any more. This makes its behavior more similar to
3386 that of Emacs 21 without compromising, however, its inability to delete
3387 windows which was introduced in Emacs 22.
3389 *** Window-local buffer lists.
3390 Windows now have local buffer lists. This means that removing a buffer
3391 from display in a window will preferably show the buffer previously
3392 shown in that window with its previous window-start and window-point
3393 positions. This also means that the same buffer may be automatically
3394 shown twice even if it already appears in another window.
3396 *** `switch-to-buffer' has a new optional argument FORCE-SAME-WINDOW,
3397 which if non-nil requires the buffer to be displayed in the currently
3398 selected window, signaling an error otherwise. If nil, another window
3399 can be used, e.g. if the selected one is strongly dedicated.
3401 *** `split-window-vertically' and `split-window-horizontally' renamed
3402 to `split-window-below' and `split-window-right' respectively.
3403 The old names are kept as aliases.
3407 **** The second arg to `display-buffer' and `pop-to-buffer' is now
3408 named ACTION, and takes a display action of the same form as
3409 `display-buffer-base-action' (see Changes, above). A non-nil,
3410 non-list value is treated specially, as the old meaning.
3412 **** New variable `display-buffer-overriding-action'.
3414 **** The procedure of `display-buffer' etc. to choose a window is
3415 determined by combining `display-buffer-overriding-action',
3416 `display-buffer-alist', the ACTION arg, `display-buffer-base-action',
3417 and `display-buffer-fallback-action'. The second and fourth of these
3418 are user-customizable variables.
3420 See the docstring of `display-buffer' for details.
3422 *** New functions `window-state-get' and `window-state-put'.
3423 These functions allow to save and restore the state of an arbitrary
3424 frame or window as an Elisp object.
3428 *** New variable `completion-extra-properties' used to specify extra
3429 properties of the current completion:
3430 - :annotate-function, same as the old completion-annotate-function.
3431 - :exit-function, function to call after completion took place.
3433 *** Functions on `completion-at-point-functions' can return any of the
3434 properties valid for `completion-extra-properties'.
3436 *** `completion-annotate-function' is obsolete.
3438 *** New `metadata' method for completion tables. The metadata thus returned
3439 can specify various details of the data returned by `all-completions':
3440 - `category' is the kind of objects returned (e.g., `buffer', `file', ...),
3441 used to select a style in completion-category-overrides.
3442 - `annotation-function' to add annotations in *Completions*.
3443 - `display-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries in *Completions*.
3444 - `cycle-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries when cycling.
3446 *** `minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map' is not used any more.
3447 Instead, the bindings in `minibuffer-local-filename-completion-map'
3448 are combined with `minibuffer-local-must-match-map'.
3450 *** New variable `completing-read-function' allows overriding the
3451 behavior of `completing-read'.
3453 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
3454 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
3456 ** `pre-command-hook'/`post-command-hook' are not reset to nil on error.
3457 Instead, the offending function is removed.
3461 *** New function `run-hook-wrapped' for running an abnormal hook by
3462 passing the hook functions as arguments to a "wrapping" function.
3463 Like `run-hook-with-args-until-success', it stops at the first
3464 non-nil return value.
3466 *** New macro `with-wrapper-hook' for running an abnormal hook as a
3467 set of "wrapping" filters, similar to around advice.
3468 (A version of this macro was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not
3469 advertised at the time.)
3473 *** New macro `condition-case-unless-debug' (this was actually added in
3474 Emacs 23.1 as condition-case-no-debug, but not advertised)
3476 *** The macro `with-demoted-errors' was added in Emacs 23.1, but not advertised.
3478 *** Variable `stack-trace-on-error' removed.
3480 *** The debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will
3481 jump to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked
3482 instead of jumping all the way to the top-level.
3484 *** Set `debug-on-event' to enter the debugger on events like SIGUSR1.
3485 This can be useful when `inhibit-quit' is set.
3487 ** The new function `server-eval-at' allows evaluation of Lisp forms on
3488 named Emacs server instances.
3490 ** `call-process' and `call-process-region' allow a `(:file "file")' spec
3491 to redirect STDOUT to a file.
3493 ** The function `format-time-string' now supports the %N directive,
3494 for higher-resolution time stamps.
3496 ** New input reading functions
3498 *** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of
3499 characters, discarding any inputs not inside the set.
3501 *** The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name
3502 or RGB triplet, instead of signaling an error if the user provides
3505 **** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
3507 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
3508 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
3509 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
3512 ** Syntax parsing changes
3514 *** New variable `syntax-propertize-function'.
3515 This replaces `font-lock-syntactic-keywords' which is now obsolete.
3516 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
3517 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
3518 Together with this new variable come a new hook
3519 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
3520 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
3521 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
3524 *** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
3526 ** New hook `post-self-insert-hook', run after `self-insert-command'.
3528 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
3530 ** Major and minor mode changes
3532 *** `set-auto-mode' now respects mode: local variables at the end of files,
3533 as well as those in the -*- line.
3535 *** `prog-mode' is a new major mode from which programming modes
3538 **** `prog-mode-hook' can be used to enable features for programming
3539 modes, e.g. (add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'flyspell-prog-mode) to enable
3540 on-the-fly spell checking for comments and strings.
3542 **** New minor modes `prettify-symbols-mode' and
3543 `global-prettify-symbols-mode' let the user enable symbol
3544 prettification (replacing a string like "lambda" with the Greek lambda
3547 *** New hook `change-major-mode-after-body-hook', run by
3548 `run-mode-hooks' just before any other mode hooks.
3550 *** Enabled globalized minor modes can be disabled in specific major modes.
3551 If the global mode is global-FOO-mode, then run (FOO-mode -1) in the
3552 major mode's hook, where FOO-mode toggles the mode on a per-buffer basis.
3554 *** `define-minor-mode' accepts new keywords :variable, :after-hook.
3556 ** File-handling changes
3558 *** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
3559 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
3560 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
3561 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
3563 *** New file predicates: `file-equal-p', `file-in-directory-p'.
3565 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
3566 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
3567 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
3571 *** Animated images support (currently animated gifs only).
3573 **** `image-animated-p' returns non-nil if an image can be animated.
3575 **** `image-animate' animates a supplied image spec.
3577 **** `image-animate-timer' returns the timer object for an image that
3580 *** `image-extension-data' has been renamed to `image-metadata'.
3581 The old name is an obsolete alias to the new one.
3583 *** Image mode can view any image type that ImageMagick supports.
3584 This requires Emacs to be built with ImageMagick support.
3586 **** New function `imagemagick-types', defined if ImageMagick support
3587 is enabled, returns a list of image file extensions that your
3588 ImageMagick installation supports.
3590 **** New function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick
3591 image types in Image mode and in `create-image' and other helper
3594 **** New option `imagemagick-types-inhibit' excludes certain
3595 ImageMagick image types from `imagemagick-register-types'.
3597 **** With ImageMagick support, there are extra Image mode commands to
3598 resize and rotate images: `image-transform-fit-to-height',
3599 `image-transform-fit-to-width', `image-transform-set-rotation', and
3600 `image-transform-set-scale'.
3602 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
3603 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
3604 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail. For
3605 example, this is used by Rmail to optionally delete a mail window.
3607 ** XML and HTML parsing
3608 If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support, there are two new
3609 functions: `libxml-parse-html-region' (which parses "real world" HTML)
3610 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
3611 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
3613 ** Networking and encryption changes
3615 *** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
3616 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
3617 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
3618 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
3619 must also be supplied.
3621 *** New library gnutls.el.
3622 The new function `gnutls-available-p' returns non-nil if Emacs is
3623 built with GnuTLS support. The main entry points are
3624 `open-gnutls-stream' and `gnutls-negotiate'. It's easiest to use
3625 these functions through `open-network-stream', because that can
3626 upgrade connections through STARTTLS opportunistically or use plain
3627 SSL, depending on your needs. For debugging, set `gnutls-log-level'
3630 *** New primitive `secure-hash' that supports many secure hash algorithms:
3631 md5, sha1, sha2, sha224, sha256, sha384, and sha512. The lisp library
3632 sha1.el has been removed. The `sha1' feature is provided by default.
3636 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
3638 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
3639 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
3640 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
3641 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
3642 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
3643 displayed with a "spinning bar".
3645 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
3646 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
3648 ** New variables `delayed-warnings-list' and `delayed-warnings-hook'.
3649 If delayed-warnings-list is non-nil, the command loop calls
3650 `delayed-warnings-hook' after `post-command-hook'. At present, this
3651 is only used by Emacs on some platforms to display warnings during
3652 startup, which might otherwise not be noticed. This uses the
3653 functions `display-delayed-warnings' and `collapse-delayed-warnings'.
3655 ** rx.el has a new `group-n' construct for explicitly numbered groups.
3657 ** New function `make-composed-keymap' that constructs a new keymap
3658 from multiple input maps. You can use this to make a keymap that
3659 inherits from multiple maps, eg:
3660 (set-keymap-parent newmap (make-composed-keymap othermap parent))
3662 ** New function `string-prefix-p'.
3663 (This was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not advertised at the time.)
3665 ** New reader macro ## that stands for the empty symbol.
3666 This means that the empty symbol can now be read back. Also, #: by itself
3667 (when not immediately followed by a possible symbol character) stands for
3668 an empty uninterned symbol.
3670 ** New math functions `isnan', `copysign', `frexp', `ldexp'.
3672 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
3674 *** `tooltip-use-echo-area' is obsolete.
3675 Rather than setting this to t, disable Tooltip mode instead.
3677 *** buffer-substring-filters is obsolete.
3678 Use `filter-buffer-substring-functions' instead.
3680 *** `byte-compile-disable-print-circle' is obsolete.
3682 *** `deferred-action-list' and `deferred-action-function' are obsolete.
3683 Use `post-command-hook' instead.
3685 *** `font-lock-maximum-size' is obsolete.
3688 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on Non-Free Operating Systems
3690 ** On MS Windows, Emacs warns when using the obsolete init file _emacs,
3691 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
3693 ** New configure.bat options
3695 *** --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra runtime checks.
3697 *** --distfiles specifies files to be included in binary distribution.
3699 *** --without-gnutls disables automatic GnuTLS detection.
3701 *** --lib for general library linkage, works with the USER_LIBS build variable.
3703 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
3705 ** The Lisp function `w32-default-color-map' is now obsolete.
3706 (It is only used internally in the Emacs C code.)
3708 ** Customize ns-auto-hide-menu-bar to have the menu-bar hidden, but
3709 reappear on mouse-over. (Requires OS X 10.6 or later.)
3711 ** On Mac OS X, dragging a file into Emacs visits the file, like on
3712 other platforms, rather than inserting its contents into the buffer.
3715 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
3716 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
3718 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
3719 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
3720 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
3721 (at your option) any later version.
3723 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
3724 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
3725 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
3726 GNU General Public License for more details.
3728 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
3729 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
3734 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"