* lisp/server.el (server-execute): Respect initial-buffer-choice
[bpt/emacs.git] / etc / NEWS
1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2012 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 Temporary note:
18 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
19 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
20 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
21 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
22
23 \f
24 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.2
25
26 ** New configure option '--enable-gcc-warnings', intended for developers.
27 If building with GCC, this enables compile-time checks that warn about
28 possibly-questionable C code. On a recent GNU system there should be
29 no warnings; on older and on non-GNU systems the generated warnings
30 may be useful.
31
32 \f
33 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.2
34
35 ** Emacs no longer searches for `leim-list.el' files beneath the standard
36 lisp/ directory. There should not be any there anyway. If you have
37 been adding them there, put them somewhere else, eg site-lisp.
38
39 \f
40 * Changes in Emacs 24.2
41
42 ** New functions `system-users', `system-groups' return lists of the user
43 name, group names known to the system (where possible).
44
45 ** If your Emacs was built from a bzr checkout, the new variable
46 `emacs-bzr-version' contains information about which bzr revision was used.
47
48 ** ImageMagick support, if available, is automatically enabled.
49 It is no longer necessary to call `imagemagick-register-types'
50 explicitly to install ImageMagick image types; that function is called
51 automatically when setting `imagemagick-types-inhibit'.
52
53 *** Setting `imagemagick-types-inhibit' to t now disables the use of
54 ImageMagick to view images, set
55
56 ** String values for `initial-buffer-choice' also apply to emacsclient
57 frames, if emacsclient is only told to open a new frame without
58 specifying any file to visit or expression to evaluate.
59
60 \f
61 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.2
62
63 ** M-x move-to-column, if called interactively with no prefix arg, now
64 prompts for a column number.
65
66 ** `mouse-avoidance-banish-position' can now be used to customize
67 `mouse-avoidance-mode' further.
68
69 ** `C-M-f' and `C-M-b' will now move to the path name separator
70 character when doing minibuffer filename prompts.
71
72 ** `goto-char' is now bound to `M-g c'.
73
74 \f
75 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.2
76
77 ** which-function-mode now applies to all applicable major modes by default.
78
79 ** erc will look up server/channel names via auth-source and use the
80 channel keys found, if any.
81
82 ** The `server-auth-key' variable can be used to set a permanent
83 shared key for Emacs Server.
84
85 ** In Perl mode, new option `perl-indent-parens-as-block' causes non-block
86 closing brackets to be aligned with the line of the opening bracket.
87
88 ** FIXME something happened to ses.el, 2012-04-17.
89
90 ** Obsolete packages:
91
92 *** mailpost.el
93
94 *** mouse-sel.el
95
96 \f
97 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.2
98 \f
99 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.2
100
101 +++
102 ** Docstrings starting with `*' no longer indicate user options.
103 Only variables defined using `defcustom' are considered user options.
104 The function `user-variable-p' is now an obsolete alias for
105 `custom-variable-p'.
106
107 \f
108 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.2
109 \f
110 * Changes in Emacs 24.2 on non-free operating systems
111
112 ** New configure.bat options on MS-Windows:
113
114 *** --without-libxml2 omits support for libxml2, even if its presence
115 is detected.
116
117 \f
118 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
119
120 ** Emacs can be compiled with Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
121 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
122 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
123 --without-gconf.
124
125 ** Emacs can be compiled with GnuTLS support.
126 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
127 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
128 `--without-gnutls'. See below for GnuTLS features.
129
130 ** Emacs can be compiled with SELinux support.
131 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
132 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
133 `--without-selinux'. See below for SELinux features.
134
135 ** Emacs can be compiled with ImageMagick support.
136 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
137 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
138 `--without-imagemagick'. See below for ImageMagick features.
139 This feature is not available for the Nextstep or MS ports.
140
141 ** Emacs can be compiled with libxml2 support.
142 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
143 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
144 `--without-xml2'. See below for libxml2 features.
145
146 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
147 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
148
149 ** New configure option --with-wide-int.
150 With it, Emacs integers typically have 62 bits, even on 32-bit machines.
151 On 32-bit hosts, this raises the limit on buffer sizes from about 512 MiB
152 to about 2 GiB.
153
154 ** New configure options: --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
155 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
156 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
157
158 ** New configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
159 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
160 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
161
162 ** The standalone programs digest-doc and sorted-doc are removed.
163 Emacs now uses Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
164
165 ** The standalone program `fakemail' is removed.
166 If you need it, feedmail.el provides a superset of the functionality.
167
168 \f
169 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
170
171 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
172 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
173 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
174
175 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
176 from load-path. -Q now implies this. This option does not affect the
177 EMACSLOADPATH environment variable (and hence has no effect for
178 Nextstep builds).
179
180 \f
181 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
182
183 ** Completion
184
185 *** Many packages now use the `completion-at-point' command,
186 rather than implementing separate completion commands.
187
188 *** `completion-at-point' now handles tags and semantic completion.
189
190 *** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
191 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
192
193 *** New option `completion-cycle-threshold' allows completion cycling.
194
195 *** New option `completion-category-overrides' for overriding the
196 default completion style in certain circumstances.
197
198 *** New completion style `substring'.
199
200 *** Completion of buffer names uses `substring' completion by default.
201
202 *** The option `widget-complete-field' has been removed.
203
204 ** Mail changes
205
206 *** The first time you try sending mail, Emacs asks for a mail method.
207 This is implemented by a new default for `send-mail-function', which
208 is `sendmail-query-once'. This offers to use the smtpmail package, or
209 to use the old defaults relying on external mail facilities
210 (`sendmail-send-it' on GNU/Linux and other Unix-like systems, and
211 `mailclient-send-it' on Windows).
212
213 *** Typing C-c m in the buffer made by M-x report-emacs-bug transfers
214 the report to your desktop's preferred mail client, if there is one.
215 This uses either the "xdg-email" utility, or Mac OS's "open" command.
216
217 *** See Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages for SMTPmail changes
218 and Mail mode changes
219
220 ** Emacs server and client changes
221
222 *** New option `server-port' specifies the port for TCP Emacs servers.
223
224 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
225
226 *** New emacsclient argument --frame-parameters specifies the frame
227 parameters of any newly-created graphical frame.
228
229 *** If emacsclient shuts down due to Emacs signaling an error,
230 its exit status is 1.
231
232 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID.
233 This opens a client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed, similar
234 to the --parent-id argument to Emacs.
235
236 ** Internationalization changes
237
238 *** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
239 Right-to-left (RTL) scripts, such as Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew, are
240 displayed in the correct visual order as expected by users of those
241 scripts. The display reordering is a "full bidirectionality" class
242 implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm (UBA). Buffers
243 with no RTL text should look exactly the same as before.
244
245 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-display-reordering'.
246 To disable display reordering in a buffer, change this to nil.
247
248 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction'.
249 If nil (the default), Emacs determines the base direction of each
250 paragraph from its text, as specified by the UBA. Setting the value
251 to `right-to-left' or `left-to-right' forces a base direction on each
252 paragraph.
253
254 Paragraphs with right-to-left base direction are displayed starting at
255 the right window edge.
256
257 *** Enhanced support for characters with no glyphs in available fonts,
258 or, on text terminals, characters that cannot be encoded by the
259 terminal coding system. The new option `glyphless-char-display-control'
260 specifies how to display them: as a hexadecimal code in a box, a thin
261 1-pixel space, an empty box, etc.
262
263 *** New input methods: farsi, farsi-translit, bulgarian-alt-phonetic.
264
265 *** `nobreak-char-display' now also highlights Unicode hyphen chars
266 (U+2010 and U+2011).
267
268 *** New Hebrew translation of the Emacs Tutorial.
269 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
270 automatically select it.
271
272 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
273 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
274 from a package repository at http://elpa.gnu.org.
275
276 *** M-x list-packages shows a list of packages, which can be
277 selected for installation.
278
279 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
280
281 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded automatically when
282 Emacs starts up. To disable this, set `package-enable-at-startup' to
283 nil. To specify the packages to load, customize `package-load-list'.
284
285 ** Custom theme changes
286
287 *** New command `M-x customize-themes', which provides a convenient
288 interface for enabling and disabling Custom themes.
289
290 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
291 Emacs no longer looks for Custom themes in `load-path'. The default
292 value of `custom-theme-load-path' says to look for themes in
293 `custom-theme-directory', followed by a subdirectory of
294 `data-directory' named "themes/", which contains a small selection of
295 built-in Custom themes.
296
297 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
298 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
299 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
300 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
301
302 ** Improved GTK integration
303
304 *** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
305 The function `set-scroll-bar-mode' can change this.
306
307 *** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
308 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose the style. On a Gnome desktop,
309 the default is taken from desktop settings.
310
311 *** GTK tool bars can be placed on any edge of the frame.
312 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the
313 values top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has
314 entries for this.
315
316 *** The default colors for selected text (the `region' face) are taken
317 from the GTK theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
318
319 *** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK.
320 You can disable this by changing `x-gtk-use-system-tooltips' to nil.
321
322 ** Graphical interface changes
323
324 *** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
325 Also, the first dash (which does not indicate anything) is just
326 displayed as a space.
327
328 *** `menu-bar-select-buffer-function' lets you choose another operation
329 instead of `switch-to-buffer' when selecting an item in the Buffers menu.
330
331 *** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is
332 built with Xft. These fonts can be set via X resources, for example:
333 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
334
335 ** Exiting changes
336
337 *** Emacs now calls `kill-emacs' if it receives SIGTERM or SIGHUP,
338 or if it receives a SIGINT signal in batch mode.
339
340 *** `kill-emacs-hook' is now also run in batch mode.
341 Third-party code which adds to `kill-emacs-hook' should check if they
342 do the right thing in batch mode.
343
344 ** Scrolling changes
345
346 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
347 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
348 of buffer at first key-press (instead they move to top/bottom of buffer)
349 when `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
350
351 *** New option `scroll-error-top-bottom' (see above).
352
353 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
354 scroll a line instead of full screen.
355
356 *** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
357 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
358
359 *** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
360 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
361 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
362 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
363 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
364
365 *** "Aggressive" scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
366 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
367 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
368 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
369 margin.
370
371 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
372 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
373
374 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up.
375 Also, the function `copy-file' has an extra optional argument for
376 preserving SELinux context, and the return value of `backup-buffer'
377 now includes the SELinux context.
378
379 *** New functions `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
380 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
381
382 ** Trash changes
383
384 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
385 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
386
387 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
388 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
389
390 ** File- and directory-local variable changes
391
392 *** You can stop directory local vars from applying to subdirectories.
393 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
394 settings to indicate that the section should not apply to
395 subdirectories.
396
397 *** Directory local variables can apply to some file-less buffers.
398 Affected modes include dired, vc-dir, and log-edit. For example,
399 adding "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to .dir-locals.el will
400 turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should call
401 `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
402
403 *** Using "mode: MINOR-MODE" to enable a minor mode is deprecated.
404 Instead, use "eval: (minor-mode 1)".
405
406 *** The variable `inhibit-first-line-modes-regexps' has been renamed
407 to `inhibit-local-variables-regexps'. As the name suggests, it now
408 applies to ALL file local variables, not just -*- lines. The
409 associated `inhibit-first-line-modes-suffixes' has been renamed in the
410 corresponding way.
411
412 ** Window changes
413
414 *** The `quit-window' command now restores the last buffer displayed
415 in the quitted window.
416
417 *** Resizing an Emacs frame now preserves proportional window sizes,
418 modulo restrictions like window minimum sizes and fixed-size windows.
419
420 *** The behavior of `display-buffer' is now customizable in detail.
421
422 **** New option `display-buffer-base-action' specifies a list of
423 user-determined display "actions" (functions and optional arguments
424 for choosing the displaying window).
425
426 This takes precedence over the default display action, which is
427 specified by `display-buffer-fallback-action'.
428
429 **** New option `display-buffer-alist' maps buffer name regexps to
430 display actions, taking precedence over `display-buffer-base-action'.
431
432 *** New option `window-combination-limit'.
433 The new option `window-combination-limit' allows to return the space
434 obtained for resizing or creating a window more reliably to the window
435 from which such space was obtained.
436
437 *** New option `window-combination-resize'.
438 The new option `window-combination-resize' allows to split a window that
439 otherwise cannot be split because it's too small by stealing space from
440 other windows in the same combination. Subsequent resizing or deletion
441 of the window will resize all windows in the same combination as well.
442
443 *** New option `frame-auto-hide-function' lets you choose between
444 iconifying or deleting a frame when burying a buffer in a dedicated
445 frame, or quitting a window showing a buffer in a frame of its own.
446
447 *** New commands `maximize-window' and `minimize-window'.
448 These maximize and minimize the size of a window within its frame.
449
450 *** New commands `switch-to-prev-buffer' and `switch-to-next-buffer'.
451 These functions allow to navigate through the live buffers that have
452 been shown in a specific window.
453
454 ** Minibuffer changes
455
456 *** The inactive minibuffer has its own major mode `minibuffer-inactive-mode'.
457 This is handy for minibuffer-only frames, and is also used for the feature
458 where mouse-1 pops up *Messages*"', which can now easily be changed.
459
460 *** Minibuffers set `truncate-lines' to nil.
461 If you want to change the value to something else, you could use
462 for example `minibuffer-setup-hook'.
463
464 ** `auto-mode-case-fold' is now enabled by default.
465
466 ** `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' now defaults to t.
467
468 ** New basic faces `error', `warning', `success'.
469 These are used to highlight text indicating failure, caution or
470 successful operation.
471
472 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
473 for `list-colors-display'.
474
475 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
476
477 \f
478 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
479
480 ** Search changes
481
482 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-kill', instead of
483 `isearch-yank-line'.
484
485 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-pop', instead of
486 `isearch-yank-kill'.
487
488 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-line'.
489
490 ** New commands `count-words-region' and `count-words'.
491
492 *** M-= is bound to `count-words-region', not `count-lines-region'.
493 The `count-words-region' command, when called interactively, reports
494 the number of lines, words, and characters in the region. It is a
495 superset of the old `count-lines-region', which is now an obsolete
496 alias for it.
497
498 ** The command `just-one-space' (M-SPC), if given a negative argument,
499 also deletes newlines around point.
500
501 ** Deletion changes
502
503 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
504 If non-nil, [delete] and DEL delete the region if it is active and no
505 prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', those commands kill
506 instead.
507
508 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to [delete].
509 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
510 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
511
512 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
513 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
514 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; Lisp
515 callers should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
516
517 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
518
519 ** Selection changes.
520
521 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections has been
522 changed to conform with modern X applications. In short, most
523 commands for killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while
524 mouse commands use the primary selection.
525
526 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
527 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
528
529 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
530 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
531 the kill ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
532 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
533
534 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
535 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
536 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
537 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
538 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
539
540 **** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
541
542 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
543 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
544 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
545
546 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
547
548 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
549 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
550 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
551
552 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
553 exactly equivalent to M-w, C-w, and C-y respectively.
554
555 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
556 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
557 between applications.
558
559 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
560
561 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
562 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
563 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
564 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
565 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
566
567 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
568
569 *** X clipboard managers are now supported.
570 To inhibit this, change `x-select-enable-clipboard-manager' to nil.
571
572 ** New command `C-x r N' (`rectangle-number-lines') numbers the lines
573 in the current rectangle. With a prefix argument, this prompts for a
574 number to count from and for a format string.
575
576 ** `redisplay-dont-pause' now defaults to t.
577 This makes Emacs feel more responsive to editing commands that arrive
578 at high rate, e.g. if you lean on some key, because stopping redisplay
579 in the middle (when this variable is nil) forces more expensive
580 updates later on, and Emacs appears to be unable to keep up.
581
582 ** The behavior of <TAB> for active regions in Text mode has changed.
583 In Text and related modes, typing <TAB> (`indent-for-tab-command')
584 when the region is active causes Emacs to indent all the lines in the
585 region, aligning them with the line previous to the first line in the
586 region (or with the left margin if there is no previous line).
587
588 ** When `occur' is called with a prefix argument, matching strings are
589 collected into the `*Occur*' buffer without line numbers. If there
590 are parenthesized subexpressions in the specified regexp, `occur'
591 reads replacement text that may contain \\& and \\N whose convention
592 follows `replace-match'.
593
594 \f
595 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
596
597 ** Archive Mode has basic support for browsing and updating 7z archives.
598
599 ** BibTeX mode
600
601 *** BibTeX mode now supports biblatex.
602 Use the variable `bibtex-dialect' to select different BibTeX dialects.
603 `bibtex-entry-field-alist' is now an obsolete alias for
604 `bibtex-BibTeX-entry-alist'.
605
606 *** New command `bibtex-search-entries', bound to C-c C-a.
607
608 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `sort-fields', disabled by default.
609
610 *** New variable `bibtex-search-entry-globally'.
611
612 ** Browse-url
613
614 *** New option `browse-url-mailto-function' specifies how to handle "mailto:"s.
615
616 *** The default browser used by the package is now the "xdg-open" program,
617 on platforms that support it. This calls your desktop's preferred browser.
618
619 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
620
621 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing "comments".
622 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
623
624 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
625 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
626
627 *** The function specified by `appt-disp-window-function' may be passed
628 lists of arguments if multiple appointments are due at similar times.
629 If you are using a custom function for this, you should update it.
630
631 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
632
633 *** Elements of `calendar-day-abbrev-array' and `calendar-month-abbrev-array'
634 may no longer be nil, but must all be strings.
635
636 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt
637 package by adding `appt-make-list' to `diary-hook' has been removed.
638 Use `appt-activate' instead.
639
640 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
641 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
642 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
643
644 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
645 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
646
647 ** CC Mode
648
649 *** New feature to "guess" the style in an existing buffer.
650 The main entry point is M-x c-guess.
651
652 *** Java Mode now supports Java 5.0 (Tiger) and 6 (Mustang).
653
654 *** `c-beginning-of-defun' and `c-end-of-defun' now respect nested scopes.
655 Thus C-M-a will, by default, go to the beginning of the immediate function,
656 not the top level.
657
658 *** "Macros with semicolons" can be registered for correct indentation.
659 Where such a macro ends a line (no semicolon) the next statement is no longer
660 parsed as a statement continuation.
661
662 ** Comint and modes derived from it use the standard completion code.
663
664 ** Compilation mode
665
666 *** Compilation mode can be used without Font Lock mode.
667 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
668
669 *** New variable `compilation-filter-start', which is bound while
670 `compilation-filter-hook' runs. It records the start position of the
671 text inserted by `compilation-filter'.
672
673 *** `compilation-error-screen-columns' and `compilation-first-column'
674 are obeyed in the editing buffer. So programming language modes can
675 set them, whereas previously only the value in the *Compilation*
676 buffer was used.
677
678 ** Customize
679
680 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
681 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
682 To turn off the search field, set `custom-search-field' to nil.
683
684 *** Custom options now start out hidden if at their default values.
685 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
686
687 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
688
689 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
690 choose a color via `list-colors-display'.
691
692 ** D-Bus
693
694 *** It is now possible to access buses other than the default system
695 or session bus.
696
697 *** The `dbus-register-method' and `dbus-register-property' functions
698 optionally do not register names.
699
700 *** The new function `dbus-register-service' registers a known service
701 name on a D-Bus without also registering a property or a method.
702
703 ** Dired-x
704
705 *** C-x C-j (`dired-jump') and C-x 4 C-j (`dired-jump-other-window'),
706 if called with a prefix argument, read a file name from the minibuffer
707 instead of using the current buffer.
708
709 *** The "dired local variables" feature of Dired-x is obsolete.
710 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
711
712 ** ERC changes
713
714 *** New options `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay',
715 controlling attempts to autojoin a channel.
716
717 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
718 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
719 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
720 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
721
722 ** Eshell changes
723
724 *** The default value of `eshell-directory-name' has changed
725 to be an "eshell" directory in `user-emacs-directory'.
726 The old "~/.eshell/" directory is still used if it exists, though.
727
728 ** gdb-mi
729
730 *** The M-x gdb command now uses the GDB Machine Interface protocol.
731 It now supports multithread non-stop debugging and simultaneous
732 debugging of several threads.
733
734 ** Image mode
735
736 *** RET (`image-toggle-animation') toggles animation, if applicable.
737 Animation plays once, unless the option `image-animate-loop' is non-nil.
738
739 ** Info
740
741 *** New command M-x info-display-manual displays a named Info manual.
742 If that manual is already visited in some Info buffer, it displays
743 that buffer. (This is handy if you have many manuals in many *info*
744 buffers, and don't remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual
745 you want to consult.) Otherwise, it loads and displays the manual.
746
747 *** `e' is now bound to `end-of-buffer' rather than to `Info-edit'.
748 This is for compatibility with the stand-alone Info reader program,
749 and also because `Info-edit' is a rarely used command that is disabled
750 by default.
751
752 ** Mail mode changes (not Message mode)
753
754 *** New command M-x mail-add-attachment for adding MIME attachments
755
756 *** The command M-x mail-attach-file was renamed to M-x mail-insert-file.
757 (Its name is misleading, since it has nothing to do with MIME
758 attachments.) The old name is now an obsolete alias to the new name.
759
760 ** MH-E has been upgraded to MH-E version 8.3.1.
761 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
762
763 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
764
765 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
766
767 ** nXML mode no longer binds C-RET to `nxml-complete'.
768 Completion is now performed via `completion-at-point', bound to C-M-i
769 or M-TAB. If `nxml-bind-meta-tab-to-complete-flag' is non-nil (the
770 default), this performs tag completion.
771
772 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
773 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity,
774 support for more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
775
776 ** Rmail
777
778 *** The command `rmail-epa-decrypt' decrypts OpenPGP data
779 in the Rmail incoming message.
780
781 *** The variable `rmail-message-filter' no longer has any effect.
782 This change was made in Emacs 23.1 but was not advertised at the time.
783 Try using `rmail-show-message-hook' instead.
784
785 ** Shell mode
786
787 *** M-x shell prompts for the shell path name if the default directory
788 is a remote file name and neither the environment variable $ESHELL nor
789 the variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
790
791 *** TAB is now bound to the standard `completion-at-point' command,
792 which now implements the pcomplete rules for shell command completion.
793
794 ** SMTPmail
795
796 *** SMTPmail now uses encrypted connections (via STARTTLS) by default
797 if the mail server supports them. This uses either built-in GnuTLS
798 support, or the starttls.el library. Customize `smtpmail-stream-type'
799 to change this.
800
801 *** The variable `smtpmail-auth-credentials' has been removed.
802 By default, the information is now stored in the file ~/.authinfo.
803 This was the default value of smtpmail-auth-credentials. If you had
804 customized smtpmail-auth-credentials to a list of user names and
805 passwords, those settings are not used. During your first connection
806 to the smtp server, Emacs will prompt for the user name and password,
807 and offer to save them to ~/.authinfo. Or you can manually copy the
808 credentials to ~/.authinfo. For example, if you had
809
810 (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials
811 '(("mail.example.org" 25 "jim" "s!cret")))
812
813 then the equivalent line in ~/.authinfo would be
814
815 machine mail.example.org port 25 login jim password s!cret
816
817 See the auth-source manual for more information, e.g. on encrypting
818 the credentials file.
819
820 *** The variable `smtpmail-starttls-credentials' has been removed.
821 If you had that set, you need to put
822
823 machine smtp.whatever.foo port 25 key "~/.my_smtp_tls.key" cert "~/.my_smtp_tls.cert"
824
825 in your ~/.authinfo file instead.
826
827 ** SQL mode
828
829 *** New options `sql-port', `sql-connection-alist', `sql-send-terminator',
830 and `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
831
832 *** New options controlling prompting for login parameters.
833 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params',
834 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
835 connection is established.
836
837 *** The command `sql-product-interactive' now takes a prefix argument,
838 which causes it to prompt for an SQL product.
839
840 *** Product-specific SQL interactive commands now take prefix arguments.
841 These commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres', `sql-mysql', etc.),
842 given a prefix argument, prompt for a name for the SQL interactive
843 buffer. This reduces the need for calling `sql-rename-buffer'.
844
845 *** SQL interactive modes suppress command continuation prompts, and
846 replace tabs with spaces. The first change impacts multiple line SQL
847 statements entered with C-j between each line, statements yanked into
848 the buffer and statements sent with `sql-send-*' functions. The
849 second prevents the MySQL and Postgres interpreters from listing
850 object name completions when sent text via `sql-send-*' functions.
851
852 *** New command `sql-connect' starts a predefined SQLi session,
853 using the login parameters from `sql-connection-alist'.
854
855 *** New "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
856 This gathers the login params specified for the SQLi session, if it
857 was not started by a connection, and saves them as a new connection.
858
859 *** New commands for listing database objects and details:
860 sql-list-all and sql-list-table.
861
862 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
863
864 ** TeX modes
865
866 *** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
867
868 ** Tramp
869
870 *** New inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
871
872 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
873 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
874
875 *** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
876 remote file attributes are cached for better performance.
877
878 *** The option `ange-ftp-binary-file-name-regexp' has changed its
879 default value to "".
880
881 *** Handlers for `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
882 for remote machines which support SELinux.
883
884 ** New function `url-queue-retrieve', which behaves like url-retrieve,
885 but with limits (`url-queue-parallel-processes', `url-queue-timeout') on
886 the degree of parallelism.
887
888 ** VC and related modes
889
890 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
891 The command C-x v + (`vc-pull') runs a "pull" operation, if it is
892 supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to update the
893 current branch and working tree. A prefix argument means to prompt
894 the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
895
896 *** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
897
898 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
899 The command C-x v m (`vc-merge') now runs a "merge" operation, if it
900 is supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to merge
901 changes from another branch into the current one. It prompts for
902 specifics, e.g. a merge source.
903
904 *** New option `vc-revert-show-diff' controls whether `vc-revert'
905 shows a diff while querying the user. It defaults to t.
906
907 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
908 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
909 This is currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial (to support
910 another backend, define a `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function').
911 In the Log View buffers made by C-x v L (`vc-print-root-log'), you can
912 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
913
914 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
915 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
916
917 *** The option `vc-initial-comment' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but
918 this was not advertised at the time.
919
920 *** `vc-toggle-read-only' is an obsolete alias for `toggle-read-only'.
921 Since Emacs 23, it has done the same thing as `toggle-read-only', but
922 this was not advertised at the time.
923
924 ** Obsolete modes
925
926 *** abbrevlist.el
927
928 *** erc-hecomplete.el (use erc-pcomplete.el instead)
929
930 *** partial-completion-mode (complete.el) is obsolete.
931 You can get a comparable behavior with:
932 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
933 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
934
935 *** pc-mode.el is obsolete (CUA mode is much more comprehensive).
936
937 *** pgg is obsolete (use EasyPG instead).
938
939 *** sregex.el is obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
940
941 *** s-region.el and pc-select.el are obsolete.
942 They are superseded by shift-select-mode, enabled by default since 23.1.
943
944 *** vc-mcvs.el is obsolete (for lack of a maintainer).
945
946 ** Miscellaneous
947
948 *** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
949 Its functions and variables have been similarly renamed.
950
951 *** In `ido-file-completion-map', C-v is no longer bound to `ido-toggle-vc'.
952 (This interfered with cua-mode.)
953
954 *** f90.el has some support for Fortran 2008 syntax.
955
956 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
957
958 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
959
960 \f
961 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
962
963 ** Occur Edit mode applies edits made in *Occur* buffers to the
964 original buffers. It is bound to "e" in Occur mode.
965
966 ** New global minor mode electric-pair-mode.
967 When enabled, typing an open parenthesis automatically inserts the
968 matching closing one.
969
970 ** New global minor mode electric-indent-mode.
971 When enabled, typing certain characters triggers reindentation.
972 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-indent-chars or
973 electric-indent-functions.
974
975 ** New global minor mode electric-layout-mode.
976 When enabled, typing certain characters automatically inserts newlines.
977 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-layout-rules.
978
979 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
980 from which other modes can be derived.
981
982 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
983
984 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
985 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
986 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
987 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
988 secrets.
989
990 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
991 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
992
993 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
994 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
995
996 ** New generic mode, xmodmap-generic-mode, for xmodmap files.
997
998 ** New emacs-lock.el package.
999 The previous version has been moved to obsolete/old-emacs-lock.el.
1000 Now, there is a proper minor mode `emacs-lock-mode'. Protection
1001 against exiting Emacs and killing the buffer can be set separately.
1002 The mechanism for automatically turning off protection for buffers
1003 with dead inferior processes has been generalized.
1004
1005 \f
1006 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
1007
1008 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function call now ENABLES
1009 the minor mode unconditionally. This is so that you can write e.g.
1010
1011 (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'foo-mode)
1012
1013 to enable foo-mode in Text mode buffers, removing the need for
1014 `turn-on-foo-mode' style functions. This affects all mode commands
1015 defined by `define-minor-mode'. If called interactively, the mode
1016 command still toggles the minor mode.
1017
1018 ** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
1019 It is now a list of three elements, where the second element is a list
1020 describing the original file's SELinux context. If Emacs or the
1021 system lacks SELinux support, the context list is (nil nil nil nil).
1022 See "Basic SELinux support" above, under "Changes in Emacs 24.1".
1023
1024 ** `char-direction-table' and the `char-direction' function were deleted.
1025 They were buggy and inferior to the new support of bidirectional
1026 editing introduced in Emacs 24. If you need the bidirectional
1027 properties of a character, use `get-char-code-property' with the last
1028 argument `bidi-class'.
1029
1030 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
1031 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
1032 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
1033 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
1034
1035 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
1036 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
1037 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
1038 of the header line.
1039
1040 ** Support for "old-style" backquotes, obsolete for 10+ years, has
1041 been further reduced. Now a backquote not followed by a space is
1042 always treated as a "new-style" backquote. Please remove all
1043 "old-style" backquotes from your code. If your code uses backquotes
1044 as documented in the Elisp manual, and compiles without warning, then
1045 you have nothing to do in this regard. Code not following the
1046 appropriate conventions may fail to compile.
1047
1048 The most common cause of trouble seems to be an old-style backquote
1049 followed by a newline. Another cause of trouble is vector notation
1050 for key sequence notation: instead of [(control ,)] and [(control ')],
1051 you should write [(control ?,)] and [(control ?')], which will work in
1052 older Emacsen too.
1053
1054 ** The macro `eval-at-startup' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but this
1055 was not advertised at the time. The function `custom-initialize-delay'
1056 replaced all known uses.
1057
1058 ** `view-buffer' now treats special mode-class in the same way that
1059 `view-file' has since Emacs 22 (i.e. it won't enable View mode if the
1060 major mode is special).
1061
1062 ** Menu and tool bar changes
1063
1064 *** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
1065 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
1066 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
1067 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
1068 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
1069 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
1070
1071 *** The menu bar bindings's caches are not used any more.
1072 Use (where-is-internal <def> nil t) instead.
1073
1074 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
1075 similar to those created by shift-selection (see Selection changes
1076 above). In previous Emacs versions, these regions were delineated by
1077 `mouse-drag-overlay'; that variable has been removed.
1078
1079 ** The fourth argument of `filter-buffer-substring' has been removed.
1080 If you want to remove text properties from the final result, simply
1081 pass the result through substring-no-properties.
1082
1083 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
1084
1085 ** The following obsolete functions and aliases have been removed
1086 (the appropriate new function is given in parentheses; "not needed"
1087 means you can just remove all calls to the function in question):
1088
1089 *** `comint-kill-output' (`comint-delete-output')
1090 *** `decompose-composite-char' (`char-to-string')
1091 *** `outline-visible' (`outline-invisible-p')
1092 *** `internal-find-face' (`facep')
1093 *** `internal-get-face' (`facep and check-face')
1094 *** `frame-update-faces' (not needed)
1095 *** `frame-update-face-colors' (`frame-set-background-mode')
1096 *** `x-frob-font-weight' and `x-frob-font-slant' (`make-face-*' functions)
1097 *** `x-make-font-bold and x-make-font-demibold (`make-face-bold')
1098 *** `x-make-font-italic' and `x-make-font-oblique' (`make-face-italic')
1099 *** `x-make-font-bold-italic' (`make-face-bold-italic')
1100 *** `x-make-font-unbold' (`make-face-unbold')
1101 *** `x-make-font-unitalic' (`make-face-unitalic')
1102 *** `mldrag-drag-mode-line' (`mouse-drag-mode-line')
1103 *** `mldrag-drag-vertical-line' (`mouse-drag-vertical-line')
1104 *** `iswitchb-default-keybindings' (`iswitchb-mode')
1105 *** `char-bytes' (== 1)
1106 *** `isearch-return-char' (`isearch-printing-char')
1107 *** `make-local-hook' (not needed)
1108 *** `set-screen-height' (`set-frame-height')
1109 *** `set-screen-width' (`set-frame-width')
1110
1111 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed
1112 (the appropriate new variable is given in parentheses):
1113
1114 *** `checkdoc-minor-keymap' (`checkdoc-minor-mode-map')
1115 *** `vc-header-alist' (`vc-BACKEND-header')
1116 *** `directory-sep-char' (== ?/)
1117 *** `font-lock-defaults-alist' (`font-lock-defaults')
1118 *** `e' (`float-e').
1119
1120 ** The following obsolete files were removed:
1121 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
1122
1123 ** The format of the finder-inf.el file has changed, since the Finder
1124 mechanism is now based on the package system. The variable
1125 `finder-package-info' is replaced by `package--builtins' and
1126 `finder-keywords-hash'.
1127
1128 ** When generating autoloads, `update-directory-autoloads' no longer
1129 assumes every inspected file is in your `load-path'. It instead
1130 generates relative names according to the current `load-path'.
1131
1132 \f
1133 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.1
1134
1135 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
1136 The `lexical-binding' variable enables lexical scoping for local
1137 variables. It is typically set via a file-local variable in the first
1138 line of the file, in which case it applies to all the code in that
1139 file.
1140
1141 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
1142 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
1143
1144 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
1145 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
1146
1147 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
1148
1149 *** `defvar' and `defconst' now mark the variable as special (dynamic).
1150 So do `defcustom' and other forms that call `defvar' as a subroutine.
1151
1152 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
1153 declared as dynamically bound.
1154
1155 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
1156 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
1157 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
1158
1159 ** Changes for bidirectional display and editing
1160
1161 *** New function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction'.
1162 This returns the base direction of the paragraph at point.
1163
1164 *** New function `bidi-string-mark-left-to-right'.
1165 Given a string containing characters from right-to-left scripts, this
1166 function returns another string which can be safely inserted into a
1167 buffer, such that any following text will be always displayed to the
1168 right of that string. (This works by appending an invisible Unicode
1169 "LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK" character if the argument string might need it.)
1170
1171 This is useful when the buffer has overall left-to-right paragraph
1172 direction and you need to insert a string whose contents are not known
1173 in advance, without disrupting the layout of the line.
1174
1175 ** Window changes
1176
1177 *** Window tree functions are accessible in Elisp.
1178 Functions are provided to return the parent, siblings or child windows
1179 of any window including internal windows (windows not associated with a
1180 buffer) in the window tree.
1181
1182 **** New function `window-valid-p' gives non-nil for live and internal
1183 windows.
1184
1185 **** Window manipulation can deal with internal windows.
1186 Many window handling functions like `split-window', `delete-window', or
1187 `delete-other-windows' as well as the window resizing functions can now
1188 act on any window including internal ones.
1189
1190 *** window-total-height/-width vs window-body-height/-width.
1191 The function `window-height' has been renamed to `window-total-height'
1192 and `window-width' has been renamed to `window-body-width'. The old
1193 names are provided as aliases. Two new functions `window-total-width'
1194 and `window-body-height' are provided.
1195
1196 *** Window parameters specific to window handling functions.
1197 For each window you can specify a parameter to override the default
1198 behavior of a number of functions like `split-window', `delete-window'
1199 and `delete-other-windows'. The variable `ignore-window-parameters'
1200 allows to ignore processing such parameters.
1201
1202 *** New semantics of third argument of `split-window'.
1203 The third argument of `split-window' has been renamed to SIDE and can be
1204 set to any of the values 'below, 'right, 'above, or 'left to make the
1205 new window appear on the corresponding side of the window that shall be
1206 split. Any other value of SIDE will cause `split-window' to split the
1207 window into two side-by-side windows as before.
1208
1209 *** Window resizing functions.
1210 A new standard function for resizing windows called `window-resize' has
1211 been introduced. This and all other functions for resizing windows no
1212 longer delete any windows when they become too small.
1213
1214 *** Deleting the selected window now selects the most recently selected
1215 live window on that frame instead.
1216
1217 *** `adjust-window-trailing-edge' adjustments.
1218 `adjust-window-trailing-edge' can now deal with fixed-size windows and
1219 is able to resize other windows if a window adjacent to the trailing
1220 edge cannot be shrunk any more. This makes its behavior more similar to
1221 that of Emacs 21 without compromising, however, its inability to delete
1222 windows which was introduced in Emacs 22.
1223
1224 *** Window-local buffer lists.
1225 Windows now have local buffer lists. This means that removing a buffer
1226 from display in a window will preferably show the buffer previously
1227 shown in that window with its previous window-start and window-point
1228 positions. This also means that the same buffer may be automatically
1229 shown twice even if it already appears in another window.
1230
1231 *** `switch-to-buffer' has a new optional argument FORCE-SAME-WINDOW,
1232 which if non-nil requires the buffer to be displayed in the currently
1233 selected window, signaling an error otherwise. If nil, another window
1234 can be used, e.g. if the selected one is strongly dedicated.
1235
1236 *** `split-window-vertically' and `split-window-horizontally' renamed
1237 to `split-window-below' and `split-window-right' respectively.
1238 The old names are kept as aliases.
1239
1240 *** Display actions
1241
1242 **** The second arg to `display-buffer' and `pop-to-buffer' is now
1243 named ACTION, and takes a display action of the same form as
1244 `display-buffer-base-action' (see Changes, above). A non-nil,
1245 non-list value is treated specially, as the old meaning.
1246
1247 **** New variable `display-buffer-overriding-action'.
1248
1249 **** The procedure of `display-buffer' etc. to choose a window is
1250 determined by combining `display-buffer-overriding-action',
1251 `display-buffer-alist', the ACTION arg, `display-buffer-base-action',
1252 and `display-buffer-fallback-action'. The second and fourth of these
1253 are user-customizable variables.
1254
1255 See the docstring of `display-buffer' for details.
1256
1257 *** New functions `window-state-get' and `window-state-put'.
1258 These functions allow to save and restore the state of an arbitrary
1259 frame or window as an Elisp object.
1260
1261 ** Completion
1262
1263 *** New variable `completion-extra-properties' used to specify extra
1264 properties of the current completion:
1265 - :annotate-function, same as the old completion-annotate-function.
1266 - :exit-function, function to call after completion took place.
1267
1268 *** Functions on `completion-at-point-functions' can return any of the
1269 properties valid for `completion-extra-properties'.
1270
1271 *** `completion-annotate-function' is obsolete.
1272
1273 *** New `metadata' method for completion tables. The metadata thus returned
1274 can specify various details of the data returned by `all-completions':
1275 - `category' is the kind of objects returned (e.g., `buffer', `file', ...),
1276 used to select a style in completion-category-overrides.
1277 - `annotation-function' to add annotations in *Completions*.
1278 - `display-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries in *Completions*.
1279 - `cycle-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries when cycling.
1280
1281 *** `minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map' is not used any more.
1282 Instead, the bindings in `minibuffer-local-filename-completion-map'
1283 are combined with `minibuffer-local-must-match-map'.
1284
1285 *** New variable `completing-read-function' allows overriding the
1286 behavior of `completing-read'.
1287
1288 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
1289 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
1290
1291 ** `pre-command-hook'/`post-command-hook' are not reset to nil on error.
1292 Instead, the offending function is removed.
1293
1294 ** New hook types
1295
1296 *** New function `run-hook-wrapped' for running an abnormal hook by
1297 passing the hook functions as arguments to a "wrapping" function.
1298 Like `run-hook-with-args-until-success', it stops at the first
1299 non-nil return value.
1300
1301 *** New macro `with-wrapper-hook' for running an abnormal hook as a
1302 set of "wrapping" filters, similar to around advice.
1303 (A version of this macro was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not
1304 advertised at the time.)
1305
1306 ** Debugger changes
1307
1308 *** New macro `condition-case-unless-debug' (this was actually added in
1309 Emacs 23.1 as condition-case-no-debug, but not advertised)
1310
1311 *** The macro `with-demoted-errors' was added in Emacs 23.1, but not advertised.
1312
1313 *** Variable `stack-trace-on-error' removed.
1314
1315 *** The debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will
1316 jump to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked
1317 instead of jumping all the way to the top-level.
1318
1319 *** Set `debug-on-event' to enter the debugger on events like SIGUSR1.
1320 This can be useful when `inhibit-quit' is set.
1321
1322 ** The new function `server-eval-at' allows evaluation of Lisp forms on
1323 named Emacs server instances.
1324
1325 ** `call-process' and `call-process-region' allow a `(:file "file")' spec
1326 to redirect STDOUT to a file.
1327
1328 ** The function `format-time-string' now supports the %N directive,
1329 for higher-resolution time stamps.
1330
1331 ** New input reading functions
1332
1333 *** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of
1334 characters, discarding any inputs not inside the set.
1335
1336 *** The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name
1337 or RGB triplet, instead of signaling an error if the user provides
1338 invalid input.
1339
1340 **** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
1341
1342 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
1343 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
1344 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
1345 obsolete alias.
1346
1347 ** Syntax parsing changes
1348
1349 *** New variable `syntax-propertize-function'.
1350 This replaces `font-lock-syntactic-keywords' which is now obsolete.
1351 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
1352 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
1353 Together with this new variable come a new hook
1354 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
1355 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
1356 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
1357 syntactic rules.
1358
1359 *** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
1360
1361 ** New hook `post-self-insert-hook', run after `self-insert-command'.
1362
1363 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
1364
1365 ** Major and minor mode changes
1366
1367 *** `set-auto-mode' now respects mode: local variables at the end of files,
1368 as well as those in the -*- line.
1369
1370 *** `prog-mode' is a new major mode from which programming modes
1371 should be derived.
1372
1373 **** `prog-mode-hook' can be used to enable features for programming
1374 modes, e.g. (add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'flyspell-prog-mode) to enable
1375 on-the-fly spell checking for comments and strings.
1376
1377 *** New hook `change-major-mode-after-body-hook', run by
1378 `run-mode-hooks' just before any other mode hooks.
1379
1380 *** Enabled globalized minor modes can be disabled in specific major modes.
1381 If the global mode is global-FOO-mode, then run (FOO-mode -1) in the
1382 major mode's hook, where FOO-mode toggles the mode on a per-buffer basis.
1383
1384 *** `define-minor-mode' accepts new keywords :variable, :after-hook.
1385
1386 ** File-handling changes
1387
1388 *** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
1389 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
1390 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
1391 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
1392
1393 *** New file predicates: `file-equal-p', `file-in-directory-p'.
1394
1395 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
1396 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
1397 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
1398
1399 ** Image API
1400
1401 *** Animated images support (currently animated gifs only).
1402
1403 **** `image-animated-p' returns non-nil if an image can be animated.
1404
1405 **** `image-animate' animates a supplied image spec.
1406
1407 **** `image-animate-timer' returns the timer object for an image that
1408 is being animated.
1409
1410 *** `image-extension-data' has been renamed to `image-metadata'.
1411 The old name is an obsolete alias to the new one.
1412
1413 *** Image mode can view any image type that ImageMagick supports.
1414 This requires Emacs to be built with ImageMagick support.
1415
1416 **** New function `imagemagick-types', defined if ImageMagick support
1417 is enabled, returns a list of image file extensions that your
1418 ImageMagick installation supports.
1419
1420 **** New function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick
1421 image types in Image mode and in `create-image' and other helper
1422 functions.
1423
1424 **** New option `imagemagick-types-inhibit' excludes certain
1425 ImageMagick image types from `imagemagick-register-types'.
1426
1427 **** With ImageMagick support, there are extra Image mode commands to
1428 resize and rotate images: `image-transform-fit-to-height',
1429 `image-transform-fit-to-width', `image-transform-set-rotation', and
1430 `image-transform-set-scale'.
1431
1432 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
1433 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
1434 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail. For
1435 example, this is used by Rmail to optionally delete a mail window.
1436
1437 ** XML and HTML parsing
1438 If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support, there are two new
1439 functions: `libxml-parse-html-region' (which parses "real world" HTML)
1440 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
1441 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
1442
1443 ** Networking and encryption changes
1444
1445 *** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
1446 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
1447 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
1448 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
1449 must also be supplied.
1450
1451 *** New library gnutls.el.
1452 The new function `gnutls-available-p' returns non-nil if Emacs is
1453 built with GnuTLS support. The main entry points are
1454 `open-gnutls-stream' and `gnutls-negotiate'. It's easiest to use
1455 these functions through `open-network-stream', because that can
1456 upgrade connections through STARTTLS opportunistically or use plain
1457 SSL, depending on your needs. For debugging, set `gnutls-log-level'
1458 greater than 0.
1459
1460 *** New primitive `secure-hash' that supports many secure hash algorithms:
1461 md5, sha1, sha2, sha224, sha256, sha384, and sha512. The lisp library
1462 sha1.el has been removed. The `sha1' feature is provided by default.
1463
1464 ** Isearch
1465
1466 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
1467
1468 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
1469 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
1470 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
1471 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
1472 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
1473 displayed with a "spinning bar".
1474
1475 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
1476 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
1477
1478 ** New variables `delayed-warnings-list' and `delayed-warnings-hook'.
1479 If delayed-warnings-list is non-nil, the command loop calls
1480 `delayed-warnings-hook' after `post-command-hook'. At present, this
1481 is only used by Emacs on some platforms to display warnings during
1482 startup, which might otherwise not be noticed. This uses the
1483 functions `display-delayed-warnings' and `collapse-delayed-warnings'.
1484
1485 ** rx.el has a new `group-n' construct for explicitly numbered groups.
1486
1487 ** New function `make-composed-keymap' that constructs a new keymap
1488 from multiple input maps. You can use this to make a keymap that
1489 inherits from multiple maps, eg:
1490 (set-keymap-parent newmap (make-composed-keymap othermap parent))
1491
1492 ** New function `string-prefix-p'.
1493 (This was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not advertised at the time.)
1494
1495 ** New reader macro ## that stands for the empty symbol.
1496 This means that the empty symbol can now be read back. Also, #: by itself
1497 (when not immediately followed by a possible symbol character) stands for
1498 an empty uninterned symbol.
1499
1500 ** New math functions `isnan', `copysign', `frexp', `ldexp'.
1501
1502 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
1503
1504 *** `tooltip-use-echo-area' is obsolete.
1505 Rather than setting this to t, disable Tooltip mode instead.
1506
1507 *** buffer-substring-filters is obsolete.
1508 Use `filter-buffer-substring-functions' instead.
1509
1510 *** `byte-compile-disable-print-circle' is obsolete.
1511
1512 *** `deferred-action-list' and `deferred-action-function' are obsolete.
1513 Use `post-command-hook' instead.
1514
1515 *** `font-lock-maximum-size' is obsolete.
1516
1517 \f
1518 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on non-free operating systems
1519
1520 ** On MS Windows, Emacs warns when using the obsolete init file _emacs,
1521 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
1522
1523 ** New configure.bat options
1524
1525 *** --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra runtime checks.
1526
1527 *** --distfiles specifies files to be included in binary distribution.
1528
1529 *** --without-gnutls disables automatic GnuTLS detection.
1530
1531 *** --lib for general library linkage, works with the USER_LIBS build variable.
1532
1533 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
1534
1535 ** The Lisp function `w32-default-color-map' is now obsolete.
1536 (It is only used internally in the Emacs C code.)
1537
1538 ** Customize ns-auto-hide-menu-bar to have the menu-bar hidden, but
1539 reappear on mouse-over. (Requires OS X 10.6 or later.)
1540
1541 ** On Mac OS X, dragging a file into Emacs visits the file, like on
1542 other platforms, rather than inserting its contents into the buffer.
1543
1544 \f
1545 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1546 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
1547
1548 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1549 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1550 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1551 (at your option) any later version.
1552
1553 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1554 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1555 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1556 GNU General Public License for more details.
1557
1558 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1559 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
1560
1561 \f
1562 Local variables:
1563 mode: outline
1564 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
1565 end: