* doc/emacs/cal-xtra.texi (Sexp Diary Entries): Mention diary-hebrew-birthday.
[bpt/emacs.git] / etc / NEWS
1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
5
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
8
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 24.
10
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.
13
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
16
17
18 Temporary note:
19 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
20 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
21 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
22 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
23
24 \f
25 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
26
27 ** Configure links against libselinux if it is found.
28 You can disable this by using --without-selinux.
29
30 ---
31 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
32 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
33
34 ---
35 ** There are new configure options:
36 --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
37 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
38 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
39
40 ---
41 ** Emacs can be compiled against Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
42 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
43 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
44 --without-gconf.
45
46 ** There is a new configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
47 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
48 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
49
50 ---
51 ** New translation of the Emacs Tutorial in Hebrew is available.
52 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
53 automatically select it.
54
55 \f
56 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
57
58 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
59 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
60 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
61
62 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
63 from load-path. -Q now implies this.
64
65 ** On Windows, Emacs now warns when the obsolete _emacs init file is used,
66 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
67
68 \f
69 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
70
71 ** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
72 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
73
74 ** emacsclient changes
75
76 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID can be used to open a
77 client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed. This works like the
78 --parent-id argument to Emacs.
79
80 +++
81 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
82
83 *** If emacsclient shuts down as a result of Emacs signalling an
84 error, its exit status is 1.
85
86 ** Completion can cycle, depending on completion-cycle-threshold.
87
88 ** `completing-read' can be customized using the new variable
89 `completing-read-function'.
90
91 ** auto-mode-case-fold is now enabled by default.
92
93 +++
94 ** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
95
96 See the node "Bidirectional Editing" in the Emacs Manual for some
97 initial documentation.
98
99 To turn this on in any given buffer, set the buffer-local variable
100 `bidi-display-reordering' to a non-nil value. The default is nil.
101
102 The buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction', if non-nil,
103 forces each paragraph in the buffer to have its base direction
104 according to the value of this variable. Possible values are
105 `right-to-left' and `left-to-right'. If the value is nil (the
106 default), Emacs determines the base direction of each paragraph from
107 its text, as specified by the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm.
108
109 The function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction' returns the actual
110 value of paragraph base direction at point.
111
112 Reordering of bidirectional text for display in Emacs is a "Full
113 bidirectionality" class implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional
114 Algorithm.
115
116 Note that some advanced display features, such as overlay strings and
117 `display' text properties, do not yet work correctly when
118 bidirectional text is reordered for display.
119
120 ** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
121 Use `set-scroll-bar-mode' to change this.
122
123 ** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
124 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose style. On a Gnome desktop, the default
125 is taken from the desktop settings.
126
127 ** GTK tool bars can be placed on the left/right or top/bottom of the frame.
128 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the values
129 top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has entries
130 for this.
131
132 ** ImageMagick support.
133 It is now possible to use the ImageMagick library to load many new
134 image formats in Emacs. By default, Emacs links with the ImageMagick
135 libraries if they are present at build time. This needs ImageMagick
136 6.2.8 or newer (versions newer than 6.0.7 _may_ work but have not been
137 tested). To disable ImageMagick support, use the configure option
138 `--without-imagemagick'.
139
140 The new function `imagemagick-types' returns a list of image file
141 extensions that your installation of ImageMagick supports. The
142 function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick support for
143 these image types, minus those listed in `imagemagick-types-inhibit'.
144
145 See the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual for more information.
146
147 ** The colors for selected text (the region face) are taken from the GTK
148 theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
149
150 ** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK. You can turn that
151 off by customizing x-gtk-use-system-tooltips.
152
153 ** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is built
154 with Xft. To change font, use the X resource font, for example:
155 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
156
157 +++
158 ** Enhanced support for characters that have no glyphs in available fonts.
159 If a character has no glyphs in any of the available fonts, Emacs by
160 default will display it either as a hexadecimal code in a box or as a
161 thin 1-pixel space. In addition to these two methods, Emacs can
162 display these characters as empty box, as an acronym, or not display
163 them at all. To change how these characters are displayed, customize
164 the variable `glyphless-char-display-control'.
165
166 On character terminals these methods are used for characters that
167 cannot be encoded by the `terminal-coding-system'.
168
169 ** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
170
171 ** On Nextstep/OSX, the menu bar can be hidden by customizing
172 ns-auto-hide-menu-bar.
173
174 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
175 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
176
177 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up, and
178 optionally when copying files. To this end, copy-file has an extra
179 optional argument, and backup-buffer and friends include the SELinux
180 context in their return values.
181
182 *** The new functions file-selinux-context and set-file-selinux-context
183 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
184
185 *** Tramp offers handlers for file-selinux-context and set-file-selinux-context
186 for remote machines which support SELinux.
187
188 +++
189 ** The function format-time-string now supports the %N directive, for
190 higher-resolution time stamps.
191
192 ** The function kill-emacs is now run upon receipt of the signals SIGTERM
193 and SIGHUP, and upon SIGINT in batch mode.
194
195 ** kill-emacs-hook is now also run in batch mode.
196 If you have code that adds something to kill-emacs-hook, you should
197 consider if it is still appropriate to add it in the noninteractive case.
198
199 ** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
200 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
201 of buffer at first key-press (instead move to top/bottom of buffer)
202 when a new variable `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
203
204 ** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
205 scroll a line instead of full screen.
206
207 ** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
208 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
209
210 +++
211 ** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
212 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
213 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
214 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
215 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
216
217 ---
218 ** ``Aggressive'' scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
219 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
220 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
221 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
222 margin.
223
224 ** Trash changes
225
226 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
227 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
228
229 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
230 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
231
232 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
233 for `list-colors-display'.
234
235 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
236 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
237 from a package repository at elpa.gnu.org.
238
239 *** `M-x list-packages' shows a list of packages, which can be
240 selected for installation.
241
242 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
243
244 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded and activated
245 automatically when Emacs starts up. To disable this, set
246 `package-enable-at-startup' to nil. To change which packages are
247 loaded, customize `package-load-list'.
248
249 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
250 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
251 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
252
253 ** Custom Themes
254
255 *** `M-x customize-themes' lists Custom themes which can be enabled.
256
257 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
258 Emacs no longer looks for custom themes in `load-path'. The default
259 is to search in `custom-theme-directory', followed by a built-in theme
260 directory named "themes/" in `data-directory'.
261
262 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
263 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
264 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
265 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
266
267 ** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
268 the remote file-name cache is used for read access.
269
270 ** The standalone programs lib-src/digest-doc and sorted-doc have been
271 replaced with Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
272
273 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
274
275 \f
276 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
277
278 ** Search changes
279
280 +++
281 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to isearch-yank-kill, instead of
282 isearch-yank-line.
283
284 ---
285 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to isearch-yank-pop, instead of
286 isearch-yank-kill.
287
288 +++
289 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to isearch-yank-line.
290
291 +++
292 ** There is a new command `count-words-region', which does what you expect.
293
294 ** completion-at-point now handles tags and semantic completion.
295
296 ** The default value of `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' is now t.
297
298 ** The command `just-one-space' (C-SPC), if given a negative argument,
299 also deletes newlines around point.
300
301 ** Deletion changes
302
303 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
304 If non-nil, C-d, [delete], and DEL delete the region if it is active
305 and no prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', these commands
306 kill instead.
307
308 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to C-d and [delete].
309 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
310 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
311
312 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
313 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
314 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; you
315 should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
316
317 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
318
319 ** Selection changes.
320
321 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections was changed
322 to conform with modern X applications. In short, most commands for
323 killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while mouse commands
324 use the primary selection.
325
326 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
327 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
328
329 *** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
330 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
331 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
332 the kill-ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
333 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
334
335 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
336 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
337 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
338 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
339 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
340
341 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
342 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
343 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
344
345 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
346 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
347 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
348 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
349
350 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
351 exactly equivalent to, respectively M-w, C-w, and C-y.
352
353 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
354 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
355 between applications.
356
357 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
358
359 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
360 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
361 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
362 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
363 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
364
365 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
366
367 ** New command `rectangle-number-lines', bound to `C-x r N', numbers
368 the lines in the current rectangle. With an prefix argument, this
369 prompts for a number to count from and for a format string.
370
371 ** The command shell prompts for the shell path name, when the default
372 directory is a remote file name and neither environment variable
373 $ESHELL nor variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
374
375 \f
376 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
377
378 ** comint and modes derived from it use the generic completion code.
379
380 ** The compile.el mode can be used without font-lock-mode.
381 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
382
383 ** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
384
385 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
386 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity, support for
387 more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
388
389 ** shell-mode can track your cwd by reading it from your prompt.
390 Just set shell-dir-cookie-re to an appropriate regexp.
391
392 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
393
394 ** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
395
396 ** FIXME: xdg-open for browse-url and reportbug, 2010/08.
397
398 ** Archive Mode has basic support to browse 7z archives.
399
400 ** browse-url has gotten a new variable that is used for mailto: URLs,
401 `browse-url-mailto-function', which defaults to `browse-url-mail'.
402
403 ** `url-queue-retrieve' downloads web pages asynchronously, but allow
404 controlling the degree of parallelism.
405
406 ** Directory local variables can apply to file-less buffers, in certain modes
407 (eg dired, vc-dir, log-edit). For example, adding
408 "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to your .dir-locals.el file,
409 will turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should
410 call `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
411
412 +++
413 ** You can prevent directory local variables from applying to subdirectories.
414 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
415 settings to indicate said section should not be applied to subdirectories.
416
417 ** ERC changes
418
419 *** New vars `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay'.
420 If the value of `erc-autojoin-timing' is 'ident, ERC autojoins after a
421 successful NickServ identification, or after `erc-autojoin-delay'
422 seconds. The default value, 'ident, means to autojoin immediately
423 after connecting.
424
425 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
426 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
427 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
428 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
429
430 ** Eshell changes
431
432 *** The default value of eshell-directory-name is a directory named
433 "eshell" in `user-emacs-directory'. If the old "~/.eshell/" directory
434 exists, that is used instead.
435
436 ** In ido-mode, C-v is no longer bound to ido-toggle-vc.
437 The reason is that this interferes with cua-mode.
438
439 ** partial-completion-mode is now obsolete.
440 You can get a comparable behavior with:
441 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
442 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
443
444 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
445
446 ** server can listen on a specific port using the server-port option.
447
448 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
449
450 +++
451 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing `comments'.
452 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
453
454 +++
455 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
456 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
457
458 +++
459 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
460
461 ---
462 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt package
463 by adding appt-make-list to diary-hook has been removed. Use appt-activate.
464
465 ---
466 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
467 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
468 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
469
470 ---
471 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
472 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
473
474 ** Customize
475
476 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
477 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
478 To turn off the search field, set custom-search-field to nil.
479
480 *** Custom options now start out hidden if at their default values.
481 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
482
483 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
484
485 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
486 choose a color via list-colors-display.
487
488 ** Dired-x
489
490 *** dired-jump and dired-jump-other-window called with a prefix argument
491 read a file name from the minibuffer instead of using buffer-file-name.
492
493 +++
494 *** The `dired local variables' feature provided by Dired-x is obsolete.
495 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
496
497 ** SQL Mode enhancements.
498
499 *** `sql-dialect' is a synonym for `sql-product'.
500
501 *** Added ability to login with a port on MySQL and Postgres.
502 The custom variable `sql-port' can be specified for connection to
503 MySQL or Postgres servers. By default, the port is not listed in
504 either login parameter, but will be added to the command line if set
505 to a non-zero value.
506
507 *** Dynamic selection of product in an SQL interactive session.
508 If you use `sql-product-interactive' to start an SQL interactive
509 session it uses the current value of `sql-product'. Preceding the
510 invocation with C-u will force it to ask for the product before
511 creating the session.
512
513 *** Renaming a SQL interactive buffer when it is created.
514 Prefixing the SQL interactive commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres',
515 `sql-mysql', etc.) with C-u will force a new interactive session to be
516 started and will prompt for the new name. This will reduce the need
517 for `sql-rename-buffer' is most common use cases.
518
519 *** Command continuation prompts in SQL interactive mode are suppressed.
520 Multiple line commands in SQL interactive mode, generate command
521 continuation prompts which needlessly confuse the output. These
522 prompts are now filtered out from the output. This change impacts
523 multiple line SQL statements entered with C-j between each line,
524 statements yanked into the buffer and statements sent with
525 `sql-send-*' functions.
526
527 *** Custom variables control prompting for login parameters.
528 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params'
529 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
530 connection is established.
531
532 The lists consist of the following five tokens: `user', `password',
533 `database', `server', and `port'. The order in which they appear is
534 the order in which they are prompted. The tokens symbols can be
535 replaced by a sublist starting with the token and followed by a plist
536 which control the prompting for values. The tokens `user',
537 `database', and `server' each can take a property of :default which
538 specifies the value to be used if no value is entered. The
539 `database', `server', and `port' tokens handle the :completion
540 property which restricts the entry to either one of the values in the
541 list or to one of the values returned by the function provided as the
542 property value. The `database' and `server' tokens also accept the
543 :file property whose value is a regexp to identify useful file names.
544
545 (user :default DEF)
546 (database :default DEF
547 :file FILEPAT
548 :completion COMPLETE)
549 (server :default DEF
550 :file FILEPAT
551 :completion COMPLETE)
552
553 The FILEPAT when :file is specified is a regexp that will match valid
554 file names (without the directory portion). Generally these strings
555 will be of the form ".+\.SUF" where SUF is the desired file suffix.
556
557 When :completion is specified, the COMPLETE corresponds to the
558 PREDICATE argument to the `completing-read' function (a list of
559 possible values or a function returning such a list).
560
561 *** Added `sql-connection-alist' to record login parameter values.
562 An alist for recording different username, database and server
563 values. If there are multiple databases that you connect to the
564 parameters needed can be stored in this alist.
565
566 For example, the following might be set in the user's init.el:
567
568 (setq sql-connection-alist
569 '((dev (sql-product 'sqlite)
570 (sql-database "/home/mmaug/dev.db"))
571 (prd (sql-product 'oracle)
572 (sql-user "mmaug")
573 (sql-database "iprd2a"))))
574
575 This defines two connections named "dev" and "prd".
576
577 *** Added `sql-connect' to use predefined connections.
578 Sets the login parameters based on the values in the
579 `sql-connection-alist' and start a SQL interactive session. Any
580 values specified in the connection will not be prompted for.
581
582 In the example above, if the user were to invoke M-x sql-connect, they
583 would be prompted for the connection. The user can respond with
584 either "dev" or "prd". The "dev" connection would connect to the
585 SQLite database without prompting; the "prd" connection would prompt
586 for the users password and then connect to the Oracle database.
587
588 **** Added SQL->Start... submenu when connections are defined.
589 When connections have been defined, there is a submenu available that
590 allows the user to select one to start a SQLi session. The "Start
591 SQLi Session" item moves to the "Start..." submenu when cnnections
592 have been defined.
593
594 **** Added "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
595 When a SQLi session is not started by a connection then
596 `sql-save-connection' will gather the login params specified for the
597 session and save them as a new connection.
598
599 *** List database objects and details.
600 Once a SQL interactive session has been started, you can get a list of
601 the objects in the database and see details of those objects. The
602 objects shown and the details available are product specific.
603
604 **** List all objects.
605 Using `M-x sql-list-all', `C-c C-l a' or selecting "SQL->List all
606 objects" will list all the objects in the database. At a minimum it
607 lists the tables and views in the database. Preceding the command by
608 universal argument may provide additional details or extend the
609 listing to include other schemas objects. The list will appear in a
610 separate window in view-mode.
611
612 **** List Table details.
613 Using `M-x sql-list-table', `C-c C-l t' or selecting "SQL->List Table
614 details" will ask for the name of a database table or view and display
615 the list of columns in the relation. Preceding the command with the
616 universal argument may provide additional details about each column.
617 The list will appear in a separate window in view-mode.
618
619 *** Added option `sql-send-terminator'.
620 When set makes sure that each command sent with `sql-send-*' commands
621 are properly terminated and submitted to the SQL processor.
622
623 *** Added option `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
624 When set commands sent to Oracle's SQL*Plus are scanned for strings
625 starting with an ampersand and the user is asked for replacement text.
626 In general, the SQL*Plus option SCAN should always be set OFF under
627 SQL interactive mode and this option used in its place.
628
629 *** SQL interactive mode will replace tabs with spaces.
630 This prevents the command interpreter for MySQL and Postgres from
631 listing object name completions when being sent text via
632 `sql-send-*' functions.
633
634 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
635
636 ** sregex.el is now obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
637
638 ** s-region.el and pc-select are now declared obsolete,
639 superseded by shift-select-mode enabled by default in 23.1.
640 ** pc-mode.el is also declared obsolete.
641 ** gdb-mi
642
643 *** GDB User Interface migrated to GDB Machine Interface and now
644 supports multithread non-stop debugging and debugging of several
645 threads simultaneously.
646
647 ** D-Bus
648
649 *** It is possible now, to access alternative buses than the default
650 system or session bus.
651
652 *** dbus-register-{service,method,property}
653 The -method and -property functions do not automatically register
654 names anymore.
655
656 The new function dbus-register-service registers a service known name
657 on a D-Bus without simultaneously registering a property or a method.
658
659 ** Tramp
660
661 *** There exists a new inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
662
663 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
664 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
665
666 ** VC and related modes
667
668 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
669 The vc-pull command runs a "pull" operation, if it is supported.
670 This updates the current branch from upstream. A prefix argument
671 means to prompt the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
672
673 **** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
674
675 **** Currently supported by Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
676
677 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
678 The vc-merge command now runs a "merge" operation, if it is supported.
679 This merges another branch into the current one. This command prompts
680 the user for specifics, e.g. a merge source.
681
682 **** Currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
683
684 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
685 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
686 In the Log View buffers made by `C-x v L' (vc-print-root-log), you can
687 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
688
689 **** Currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
690
691 **** Packages using Log View mode can enable this functionality by
692 binding `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function' to a suitable function.
693
694 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
695 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
696
697 ** Miscellaneous
698
699 ---
700 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
701
702 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
703
704 *** The new command `info-display-manual' will display an Info manual
705 specified by its name. If that manual is already visited in some Info
706 buffer within the current session, the command will display that
707 buffer. Otherwise, it will load the manual and display it. This is
708 handy if you have many manuals in many Info buffers, and don't
709 remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual you want to
710 consult.
711
712 \f
713 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
714
715 ** New global minor modes electric-pair-mode, electric-indent-mode,
716 and electric-layout-mode.
717
718 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
719 from which other modes can be derived.
720
721 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
722
723 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
724 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
725 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
726 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
727 secrets.
728
729 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
730 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
731
732 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
733 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
734
735 ** xmodmap-generic-mode for xmodmap files.
736
737 \f
738 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
739
740 ---
741 ** `char-direction-table' and the associated function `char-direction'
742 were deleted. They were buggy and inferior to the new support of
743 bidirectional editing introduced in Emacs 24. If you need the
744 bidirectional properties of a character, use `get-char-code-property'
745 with the last argument `bidi-class'.
746
747 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
748 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
749 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
750 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
751
752 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
753 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
754 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail.
755 This is currently used by Rmail to delete a mail window.
756
757 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
758 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
759 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
760 of the header line.
761
762 ** Remove obsolete name `e' (use `float-e' instead).
763
764 ** A backquote not followed by a space is now always treated as new-style.
765
766 ** Test for special mode-class was moved from view-file to view-buffer.
767 FIXME: This only says what was changed, but not what are the
768 programmer-visible consequences.
769
770 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function now turns the mode
771 ON unconditionally.
772
773 ** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
774 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
775 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
776 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
777 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
778 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
779
780 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
781 similar to the ones created by shift-selection. In previous Emacs
782 versions, these regions were delineated by `mouse-drag-overlay', which
783 has now been removed.
784
785 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
786
787 ** The following functions and aliases, obsolete since at least Emacs 21.1,
788 have been removed:
789 comint-kill-output, decompose-composite-char, outline-visible,
790 internal-find-face, internal-get-face, frame-update-faces,
791 frame-update-face-colors, x-frob-font-weight, x-frob-font-slant,
792 x-make-font-bold, x-make-font-demibold, x-make-font-unbold
793 x-make-font-italic, x-make-font-oblique, x-make-font-unitalic
794 x-make-font-bold-italic, mldrag-drag-mode-line, mldrag-drag-vertical-line,
795 iswitchb-default-keybindings, char-bytes, isearch-return-char,
796 make-local-hook
797
798 ** The following variables and aliases, obsolete since at least Emacs 21.1,
799 have been removed:
800 checkdoc-minor-keymap, vc-header-alist, directory-sep-char,
801 font-lock-defaults-alist
802
803 ** The following files, obsolete since at least Emacs 21.1, have been removed:
804 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
805
806 ** FIXME finder-inf.el changes.
807
808 \f
809 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.1
810
811 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
812 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
813
814 ** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
815 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
816 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
817 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
818 must also be supplied.
819
820 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
821 The `lexical-binding' variable lets code use lexical scoping for local
822 variables. It is typically set via file-local variables, in which case it
823 applies to all the code in that file.
824
825 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
826 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
827
828 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
829 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
830
831 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
832
833 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
834 declared as dynamically bound.
835
836 ** pre/post-command-hook are not reset to nil upon error.
837 Instead, the offending function is removed.
838
839 ** New low-level function run-hook-wrapped.
840
841 ** `server-eval-at' is provided to allow evaluating forms on different
842 Emacs server instances.
843
844 ** `call-process' allows a `(:file "file")' spec to redirect STDOUT to
845 a file.
846
847 ** byte-compile-disable-print-circle is obsolete.
848 ** deferred-action-list and deferred-action-function are obsolete.
849 ** Removed the stack-trace-on-error variable.
850 Also the debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will jump
851 to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked instead of
852 jumping all the way to the top-level.
853
854 ** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of characters,
855 discarding any inputs not inside the set.
856
857 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
858 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
859 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
860 obsolete alias.
861
862 ** New variable syntax-propertize-function to set syntax-table properties.
863 Replaces font-lock-syntactic-keywords which are now obsolete.
864 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
865 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
866 Together with this new variable come a new hook
867 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
868 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
869 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
870 syntactic rules.
871
872 ** New hook post-self-insert-hook run at the end of self-insert-command.
873
874 +++
875 ** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
876 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
877 ** prog-mode is a new major-mode meant to be the parent of programming mode.
878 ** define-minor-mode accepts a new keyword :variable.
879
880 ** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
881 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
882 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
883 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
884
885 ** buffer-substring-filters is obsoleted by filter-buffer-substring-functions.
886
887 ** New completion style `substring'.
888
889 ** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
890 The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name or RGB
891 triplet, instead of signalling an error if the user provides a invalid
892 input.
893
894 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
895 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
896 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
897
898 ** Image API
899
900 *** When the image type is one of listed in `image-animated-types'
901 and the number of sub-images in the image is more than one, then the
902 new function `create-animated-image' creates an animated image where
903 sub-images are displayed successively with the duration defined by
904 `image-animate-max-time' and the delay between sub-images defined
905 by the Graphic Control Extension of the image.
906
907 *** `image-extension-data' is renamed to `image-metadata'.
908
909 ** XML and HTML parsing
910
911 *** If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support (which is the default),
912 two new Emacs Lisp-level functions are defined:
913 `libxml-parse-html-region' (which will parse "real world" HTML)
914 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
915 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
916
917 FIXME: These should be front-ended by xml.el.
918
919 ** GnuTLS
920
921 *** Emacs can be compiled with libgnutls support
922 This is the default. You will then be able to use the functionality
923 in gnutls.el, namely the `open-gnutls-stream' and `gnutls-negotiate'
924 functions. It's easiest to use these functions through
925 `open-network-stream' because it can upgrade connections through
926 STARTTLS opportunistically or use plain SSL, depending on your needs.
927
928 Only versions 2.8.x and higher or GnuTLS have been tested.
929
930 *** gnutls-log-level
931 Set `gnutls-log-level' higher than 0 to get debug output. 1 is for
932 important messages, 2 is for debug data, and higher numbers are as per
933 the GnuTLS logging conventions. The output is in *Messages*.
934
935 ** Isearch
936
937 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
938
939 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
940 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
941 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
942 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
943 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
944 displayed with a "spinning bar".
945
946 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
947 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
948
949 ** New variables `delayed-warnings-list' and `delayed-warnings-hook' allow
950 deferring warnings until the main command loop is executed.
951
952 \f
953 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on non-free operating systems
954
955 ** New configure.bat option --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra
956 runtime checks.
957
958 ** New configure.bat option --distfiles to specify files to be
959 included in binary distribution.
960
961 ** New configure.bat option --without-gnutls to disable automatic
962 GnuTLS detection.
963
964 ** New configure.bat option --lib for general library linkage, works
965 with the USER_LIBS build variable.
966
967 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
968
969 \f
970 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
971 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
972
973 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
974 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
975 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
976 (at your option) any later version.
977
978 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
979 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
980 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
981 GNU General Public License for more details.
982
983 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
984 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
985
986 \f
987 Local variables:
988 mode: outline
989 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
990 end: