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[bpt/emacs.git] / etc / NEWS
1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2
3 Copyright (C) 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
5
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
8
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 23.
10
11 See files NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18, and NEWS.1-17
12 for changes in older Emacs versions.
13
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
16
17 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 * About external Lisp packages
25
26 \f
27 * Installation Changes in Emacs 23.1
28
29 ** The default X toolkit is now Gtk+, rather than Lucid.
30 The configure option `--with-gtk' has been removed. Gtk is now the
31 default toolkit, but you can use --with-x-toolkit=gtk if necessary.
32
33 ** New font code.
34 Fonts are handled by new code capable of dealing with multiple font
35 backends. This uses the freetype and fontconfig libraries.
36
37 *** Emacs now accepts font names supplied in the fontconfig format
38 (e.g. "monospace-12:bold") and GTK format (e.g. "Monospace Bold 12").
39
40 *** Added support for local fonts (fonts installed on the machine
41 where Emacs is running).
42
43 *** Added support for the Xft library for antialiasing.
44
45 *** Added support for the otf library for complex text layout by
46 OpenType fonts.
47
48 *** Added support for the m17n library for text shaping.
49
50 ** Changes to image support
51 ---
52 *** configure now checks for libgif before libungif when searching for
53 a GIF library.
54 +++
55 *** Emacs now supports the SVG image format through librsvg2.
56
57 *** Emacs now supports multi-page TIFF images.
58
59 ** New NeXTSTEP-based port
60 This provides support for GNUstep (via the GNUstep libraries) and Mac
61 OS X (via the Cocoa libraries).
62
63 Specify --with-ns to configure for this. By default, a self-contained
64 app will be built (containing all lisp). To install/share lisp with
65 other emacsen (e.g. X11 build) use --disable-ns-self-contained. See
66 nextstep/README and nextstep/INSTALL in the Emacs source directory.
67
68 ** Mac OS X is no longer supported via Carbon.
69 Use the NeXTSTEP port, described above.
70
71 ** The new configuration option "--with-dbus" enables D-Bus language
72 bindings for Emacs.
73
74 ** Support for many obsolete platforms has been removed.
75 See the list at the end of etc/MACHINES for details.
76 ---
77 *** Support for systems without alloca has been removed.
78 ---
79 *** Support for Sun windows has been removed.
80 ---
81 *** The `emacstool' utility has been removed.
82
83 ** The following platforms will be removed in a future Emacs version:
84 If you are still using Emacs on one of these platforms, please email
85 emacs-devel@gnu.org to inform the Emacs developers.
86
87 *** Old GNU/Linux systems based on libc version 5.
88
89 *** Old FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD systems based on the COFF
90 executable format.
91
92 *** Solaris versions 2.6 and below.
93
94 *** Solaris on IBM RS6000 machines.
95
96 *** UNIX System V (the original SysV, not later platforms based on it).
97
98 *** Unixware on non-x86 machines.
99
100 *** Platforms not supporting shared libraries (i.e., requiring the
101 NO_SHARED_LIBS compilation flag).
102
103 ---
104 ** The configure options `--with-gcc', `--without-gcc' have been removed.
105 Configure will use gcc by default. Set the CC environment variable if
106 you need control over which C compiler is used.
107
108 ** The refcards are now shipped as PDF files.
109
110 ---
111 ** Emacs 23 comes with a new set of default icons.
112 Various resolutions are available as etc/images/icons/hicolor/*/apps/emacs.png.
113 The Emacs 22 icon is available as `emacs22.png' in the same location.
114 \f
115 * Changes in Emacs 23.1
116
117 ** Improved X Window System support
118 +++
119 *** Emacs now supports using both X displays and ttys in one session.
120 With an Emacs server active (M-x server-start), `emacsclient -t'
121 creates a tty frame connected to the running emacs server. You can
122 use any number of different ttys. `emacsclient -c' creates a new X11
123 frame on the current $DISPLAY (or a tty frame if $DISPLAY is not set).
124
125 You can test for the presence of this feature in your Lisp code by
126 testing for the `multi-tty' feature.
127 +++
128 **** Emacsclient can now open new terminal frames.
129 Now, the default behavior is to open a new Emacs frame by default.
130 Use the -c option to get the old behavior of opening files in the
131 currently selected Emacs frame.
132 +++
133 *** Emacs can now start in background, as a daemon when using the
134 --daemon command line argument. It disconnects from the terminal and
135 starts the server. Clients can connect and create graphical or
136 terminal frames using emacsclient.
137
138 *** The new command close-display-connection closes a connection to a
139 remote display.
140
141 *** Emacs now supports the XEmbed specification.
142 You can embed Emacs in another application on X11. The new command line
143 option --parent-id is used to pass the parent window id to Emacs. See
144 http://standards.freedesktop.org/xembed-spec/xembed-spec-latest.html
145 for details about XEmbed.
146
147 *** Emacs can now set the frame opacity.
148 The opacity of a frame can be controlled by setting the `alpha' frame
149 parameter. This only takes effect on a compositing window manager for
150 the X Window System, such as Compiz, Beryl and Compiz Fusion, or on
151 Windows 2000 and later versions of Windows.
152
153 The alpha parameter should be an integer between 0 (transparent) and
154 100 (opaque), or a float number between 0.0 and 1.0. It can also be a
155 cons cell (ACTIVE . INACTIVE), where ACTIVE is the opacity of an
156 active frame and INACTIVE is the opactity of non-active frames.
157
158 The variable `frame-alpha-lower-limit' defines a lower bound for the
159 opacity; the default is 20.
160
161 ** Internationalization changes
162
163 *** The Emacs character set is now a superset of Unicode.
164 (It has about four times the code space, which should be plenty).
165
166 The internal encoding used for buffers and strings is now
167 Unicode-based and called `utf-8-emacs'. This encoding is backwards
168 compatible with Unicode's UTF-8 encoding. The internal encoding
169 previously used by Emacs, `emacs-mule', is still available.
170
171 During byte-compilation, Emacs 23 uses `utf-8-emacs' to write files.
172 As a result, byte-compiled files containing non-ASCII characters can't
173 be read by earlier versions of Emacs. Files compiled by Emacs 20, 21,
174 or 22 are loaded correctly as emacs-mule (whether or not they contain
175 multibyte characters). This takes somewhat more time, so it may be
176 worth recompiling existing .elc files which don't need to be shared
177 with older Emacsen.
178
179 *** There are new coding systems/aliases; see M-x list-coding-systems.
180
181 *** There is a new charset implementation with many new charsets.
182 See M-x list-character-sets. New charsets can be defined conveniently
183 as tables of unicodes.
184
185 **** The dimension of a charset is now 1, 2, 3, or 4, and the size of
186 each dimension is no longer limited to 94 or 96.
187
188 **** A dynamic charset priority list is used to infer the charset of
189 characters for display.
190
191 *** There are new language environments for Chinese-GBK,
192 Chinese-GB18030, Khmer, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Oriya, Telugu,
193 Sinhala, and TaiViet.
194
195 *** The minor modes unify-8859-on-encoding-mode and
196 unify-8859-on-decoding-mode are obsolete.
197
198 *** `ucs-insert' is bound to `C-x 8 RET' and in addition to hex numbers
199 accepts numbers in hash notation (e.g. #o21430 for octal, or #10r8984 for
200 decimal). It also accepts Unicode character names with completion.
201
202 *** The `cyrillic-translit' input method supports many new characters.
203 Common typographical characters available from Unicode were added to
204 `cyrillic-translit': punctuation marks, accented characters, fractions,
205 and others.
206
207 ** Emacs now supports serial port access on GNU/Linux, Unix, and
208 Windows. The new command `serial-term' starts an interactive terminal
209 on a serial port. The serial port can be configured at runtime with
210 the mode-line mouse menu.
211
212 ** Menu Bar changes
213 ---
214 *** In the Options menu, the "Set Default Font" item applies the
215 selected font to the `default' face on all frames, not just the
216 current frame. Furthermore, if Emacs is compiled with both GTK and
217 Fontconfig support, the "Set Default Font" item uses the GTK font
218 selection dialog instead of an Emacs pop-up menu.
219 ---
220 *** The font setting chosen by "Set Default Font" is saved if the
221 "Save Options" item is used.
222
223 *** The Tools menu contains a new Encryption/Decryption submenu.
224 This contains commands provided by EasyPG, the newly-included
225 interface to GnuPG (see New Modes and Packages).
226 ---
227 *** In the Options menu, the "Truncate Long Lines in the Buffer" entry
228 has been replaced with a submenu offering three different ways to
229 handle long lines: truncation, continuation at the window edge, and
230 the new word wrapping behavior (see Editing Changes, below).
231
232 *** Improvements to menus for major and minor modes
233 More major and minor modes now have a mode specific menu, and existing
234 mode menus have been improved to include more functionality.
235
236 ** Mode-line changes
237 +++
238 *** The mode-line displays a `@', instead of `-', if the
239 default-directory for the current buffer is on a remote machine.
240 ---
241 *** The mode-line displays a mode menu when mouse-1 is clicked on a
242 minor mode, in the same way as it already did for major modes.
243
244 *** The `mode-line-emphasis' face is used to highlight certain
245 mode-line information (e.g. waiting for a VC command to finish).
246 ---
247 *** The mode-line tooltips have been improved to provide more details.
248 +++
249 *** The VC, line/colum number and minor mode indicators on the mode
250 line are now interactive: mouse-1 can be used on them to pop up a menu.
251
252 ** File deletion can make use of the Recycle Bin or system Trash folder.
253 Set `delete-by-moving-to-trash' non-nil to use this. Deleted files
254 and directories will then be sent to the Recyle Bin on Windows, and
255 to `trash-directory' on other systems.
256
257 +++
258 ** Directory-local variables can now be defined.
259 By default, Emacs looks in .dir-settings.el for directory-local
260 variables. For more information, see `set-directory-project' and
261 `define-project-bindings'.
262
263 ** Emacs can now use `auth-source' for authentication.
264 `smtpmail' and `url' (Tramp and Gnus also) use `auth-source' to obtain
265 login names and passwords. The match, if found, is reported
266 in *Messages* with the password blanked out.
267
268 ** `where-is-preferred-modifier' can specify your favorite modifier.
269
270 \f
271 * Startup Changes in Emacs 23.1
272
273 +++
274 ** The option `inhibit-startup-screen' (with aliases to old names
275 `inhibit-splash-screen' and `inhibit-startup-message') doesn't inhibit
276 display of the initial message in the *scratch* buffer. If you don't
277 want to display the initial message in the *scratch* buffer at startup,
278 you can set the option `initial-scratch-message' to nil.
279
280 ** New user option `initial-buffer-choice' specifies what to display
281 after starting Emacs: startup screen, *scratch* buffer, visiting a
282 file or directory.
283
284 ** New alias `argv' for `command-line-args-left'
285 This is a convenience alias, so that one can write `(pop argv)'
286 inside of --eval command line arguments in order to access
287 following arguments.
288
289 +++
290 ** The abbrev file is no longer read at startup in batch mode.
291
292 ** Emacs now supports invocation by an X session manager.
293 It can save a session and restore it later. See the documentation of
294 the functions `emacs-session-save' and `emacs-session-restore'.
295 (Actually, this feature was introduced with Emacs 22, but it was not
296 documented.)
297 \f
298 * Incompatible Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
299
300 ** In Dired, `dired-flag-garbage-files' is rebound from `&' to `%&'
301 on the regexp command prefix map.
302
303 +++
304 ** In Dired-x, all command guesses for ! are now added to the default
305 list accessible by M-n instead of pushing all guesses temporarily into
306 the history list.
307
308 +++
309 ** In Isearch mode, a special case of typing `C-w' at the beginning of
310 the minibuffer that toggles word search (i.e. using key sequences
311 `C-s RET C-w' or `C-s M-e C-w') is obsolete. You can use the global key
312 `M-s w' to start word search, or type `M-s w' in Isearch mode to
313 toggle word search.
314
315 ** In Text mode, `center-line' and `center-paragraph' are rebound
316 from `M-s' and `M-S' to global keys `M-o M-s' and `M-o M-S' on the
317 global prefix map `M-o' intended for such formatting commands.
318
319 ---
320 ** The following input methods were removed in Emacs 22.2, but this was
321 not advertised: danish-alt-postfix, esperanto-alt-postfix,
322 finnish-alt-postfix, german-alt-postfix, icelandic-alt-postfix,
323 norwegian-alt-postfix, scandinavian-alt-postfix, spanish-alt-postfix,
324 and swedish-alt-postfix. Use the versions without "alt-", which are
325 identical.
326
327 \f
328 * Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
329
330 +++
331 ** The C-n and C-p line-motion commands now move by screen lines,
332 taking continued lines and variable-width characters into account.
333 Setting `line-move-visual' to nil reverts this to the previous
334 behavior (motion by logical lines based on buffer contents alone).
335
336 +++
337 ** C-x C-c now invokes `save-buffers-kill-terminal', and C-z now
338 invokes `suspend-frame'. This change is for compatibility with the
339 new multi-tty support (see `Improved X Window System support' above).
340
341 ** Mark changes
342 +++
343 *** Transient Mark mode is now on by default.
344 +++
345 *** mark-even-if-inactive now defaults to t
346 +++
347 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, C-SPC C-SPC pushes a mark without
348 activating it.
349 +++
350 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-q now fills the region if the
351 region is active. Otherwise, it fills the current paragraph.
352 +++
353 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-$ now checks spelling of the
354 region if the region is active. Otherwise, it checks spelling of the
355 word at point.
356 +++
357 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, TAB now indents the region if the
358 region is active.
359 +++
360 *** `use-empty-active-region' controls whether an empty active region
361 in Transient Mark mode should make commands operate on that empty
362 region.
363
364 ** Temporarily active regions
365 +++
366 *** The new variable shift-select-mode, non-nil by default, controls
367 shift-selection. When Shift Select mode is on, shift-translated
368 motion keys (e.g. S-left and S-down) activate and extend a temporary
369 region, similar to mouse-selection.
370 +++
371 *** Temporarily active regions, created using shift-selection or
372 mouse-selection, are not necessarily deactivated in the next command.
373 They are only deactivated after point motion commands that are not
374 shift-translated, or after commands that would ordinarily deactivate
375 the mark in Transient Mark mode (e.g., any command that modifies the
376 buffer).
377
378 ** Minibuffer and completion changes
379 +++
380 *** When M-n in the minibuffer reaches the end of the list of defaults,
381 it adds the completion list to the end, so next M-n continues putting
382 completion items to the minibuffer. The same principle applies to
383 incremental search commands as well: C-s or C-M-s starts searching
384 the default values and after the end of defaults they continue
385 searching minibuffer completion items.
386 ---
387 *** Minibuffer input of shell commands now comes with completion.
388
389 *** In the `C-x d' (Dired) prompt, typing M-n gives the visited file
390 name of the current buffer.
391
392 *** In the M-! (shell-command) prompt, M-n provides some default commands.
393 These are guessed using the file extension of the current file, based
394 on the file-handlers specified in the operating system's `mailcap'
395 file. The ! command in Dired (dired-do-shell-command) works
396 similarly, using the file displayed on the current line.
397
398 *** A list of regexp default values is available via M-n for `occur',
399 `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many'. This list includes the active
400 region in transient-mark-mode, the word under the cursor, the last Isearch
401 regexp, the last Isearch string and the last replacement regexp.
402 ---
403 *** When enable-recursive-minibuffers is non-nil, operations which use
404 switch-to-buffer (such as C-x b and C-x C-f) do not fail any more when
405 used in a minibuffer or a dedicated window. Instead, they fallback on
406 using pop-to-buffer, which will use some other window. This change
407 has no effect when enable-recursive-minibuffers is nil (the default).
408 +++
409 *** Isearch started in the minibuffer searches in the minibuffer history.
410 Reverse Isearch commands (C-r, C-M-r) search in previous minibuffer
411 history elements, and forward Isearch commands (C-s, C-M-s) search in
412 next history elements. When the reverse search reaches the first history
413 element, it wraps to the last history element, and the forward search
414 wraps to the first history element. When the search is terminated, the
415 history element containing the search string becomes the current.
416
417 *** The variable read-file-name-completion-ignore-case overrides
418 completion-ignore-case for file name completion.
419
420 *** The variable read-buffer-completion-ignore-case overrides
421 completion-ignore-case for buffer name completion.
422 ---
423 *** `completion-styles' can be customized to choose your favorite
424 completion style.
425 ---
426 *** The default completion styles include a form of partial-completion.
427 ---
428 *** The new command `minibuffer-force-complete' chooses one of the
429 possible completions, rather than stopping at the common prefix.
430 +++
431 *** If `completion-auto-help' is `lazy', Emacs shows the completions
432 buffer only on the second attempt to complete. This was already
433 supported in `partial-completion-mode'.
434
435 ** Face changes
436 +++
437 *** S-down-mouse-1 now pops up a menu for changing the font and text
438 size of the default face in the current buffer. The face is changed
439 via face remapping (see below).
440
441 *** FIXME face-remap
442
443 ** Primary selection changes
444 +++
445 *** If `select-active-regions' is t, setting the mark automatically
446 makes the new region into the primary selection (for interaction with
447 other window applications). If you enable this, you might want to
448 bind `mouse-yank-primary' to Mouse-2.
449 +++
450 *** You can disable kill ring commands from accessing the primary
451 selection by setting `x-select-enable-primary' to nil.
452
453 ** Continuation lines can now be wrapped at word boundaries
454 (word-wrapping). This is controlled by the new per-buffer variable
455 `word-wrap'. Word wrapping does not take place if continuation lines
456 are not shown, e.g. if truncate-lines is non-nil. The most convenient
457 way to enable word-wrapping is using the new minor mode Visual Line
458 mode; in addition to setting `word-wrap' to t, this rebinds some
459 editing commands to work on screen lines rather than text lines. See
460 New Modes and Packages, below.
461
462 ** Window management changes
463
464 *** truncate-partial-width-windows now accepts integer values, which
465 specify a minimum window width for partial-width windows, below which
466 lines are truncated. The default has been changed to 50.
467
468 *** The new command balance-windows-area balances windows both
469 vertically and horizontally.
470
471 *** pop-to-buffer now always sets input focus when the popped-to window
472 is on a different frame.
473
474 ** Miscellaneous changes:
475 +++
476 *** C-l is bound to the new command recenter-top-bottom, rather than recenter.
477 This moves the current line to window center, top and bottom on
478 successive invokations.
479
480 *** scroll-preserve-screen-position also preserves the column position.
481 +++
482 *** If `yank-pop-change-selection' is t, rotating the kill ring also
483 updates the selection or clipboard to the current yank, just as M-w
484 would do so with the text it copies to the kill ring.
485 +++
486 *** C-M-% now shows replacement as it would look in the buffer, with
487 `\N' and `\&' substituted according to the match. Old behavior can be
488 restored by customizing `query-replace-show-replacement'.
489
490 *** The command shell prompts for the default directory, when it is
491 called with a prefix and the default directory is a remote file name.
492 This is because some file name handlers (like ange-ftp) are not able to
493 run processes remotely.
494 +++
495 *** The new command kill-matching-buffers kills buffers whose name
496 matches a regexp.
497
498 *** The new commands `pp-macroexpand-expression' and
499 `pp-macroexpand-last-sexp' pretty-print macro expansions.
500
501 *** The new command `set-file-modes' allows to set file's mode bits.
502 The mode bits can be specified in symbolic notation, like with GNU
503 Coreutils, in addition to an octal number.
504 +++
505 *** If you set find-file-confirm-nonexistent-file to t, then C-x C-f
506 requires confirmation before opening a non-existent file.
507
508 *** `next-error-recenter' specifies how next-error should recenter the
509 visited source file. Its value can be a number (for example, 0 for
510 top line, -1 for bottom line), or nil for no recentering.
511
512 \f
513 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
514
515 ** FIXME add details of new packages imported from lisp/gnus.
516 [Maybe some information from doc/misc/gnus-coding.texi can be reused]
517
518 ** Auto Composition Mode is a minor mode that composes characters
519 automatically when they are displayed. It is globally on by default.
520 It uses `auto-composition-function' (default `auto-compose-chars').
521
522 ** Bubbles, a new game, is similar to SameGame.
523
524 ** bug-reference.el provides clickable links to bug reports.
525
526 ** dbus.el provides D-Bus language bindings.
527 D-Bus is an inter-process communication mechanism for applications
528 residing on the same host. See the manual for details.
529
530 ** Doc View mode allows viewing of PDF, PostScript and DVI documents.
531 One can also search for a regular expression in the document. For
532 details, see the commentary in doc-view.el.
533
534 PDF and DVI files are now opened in Doc View mode by default.
535
536 In Postcript mode, C-c C-c launches Doc View minor mode for viewing
537 the postscript file.
538
539 ** EasyPG provides an interface to the GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG).
540 It includes a GnuPG keyring browser, cryptographic operations on
541 regions and files, and automatic encryption of *.gpg files. For
542 details, see the EasyPG Assistant User's Manual.
543
544 ** json.el is a library for parsing and generating JSON
545 (JavaScript Object Notation), a lightweight data-interchange format.
546
547 ** linum.el is a new minor mode to display line numbers for the
548 current buffer.
549
550 ** mairix.el is an interface to mairix, a free tool for indexing and
551 searching locally stored mail. It allows you to query mairix and
552 display the search results with Rmail, Gnus and VM. Note that there
553 is an existing Gnus back end, nnmairix.el, which should be used with
554 Maildir/MH setups.
555
556 ** minibuffer-depth-indicate-mode shows the minibuffer depth in the prompt.
557
558 ** nXML Mode
559 This is a new mode for editing XML documents. It allows a schema to
560 be associated with the XML document being edited, using Relax NG as
561 the schema language. The schema is used to provide two key features:
562
563 *** Continuous validation. nXML validates as you type, highlighting
564 any invalid parts of your document.
565
566 *** Completion. nXML can assist you in entering an element name,
567 attribute name or data value by using information about what is
568 allowed by the schema in that context.
569
570 ** proced.el provides a Dired-like interface for operating on processes.
571 Proced makes an Emacs buffer containing a listing of the current
572 processes (using ps(1)). You can use the normal Emacs commands to
573 move around in this buffer, and special Proced commands to operate on
574 the processes listed.
575
576 ** Remember Mode is a mode for jotting down things to remember.
577 Notes can be saved to a Diary file. For details, see the Remember
578 Manual.
579
580 ** RST mode is a major mode for editing ReSTructured-Text files.
581
582 +++
583 ** Visual Line mode provides support for editing by visual lines.
584 It turns on word-wrapping in the current buffer, and rebinds C-a, C-e,
585 and C-k to commands that operate by visual lines instead of logical
586 lines. This is a more reliable replacement for longlines-mode.
587 This can also be turned on using the menu bar, via
588 Options -> Line Wrapping in this Buffer -> Word Wrap
589
590 ** xesam.el is an implementation of Xesam, an interface to (desktop)
591 search engines like Beagle, Strigi, and Tracker. The Xesam API
592 requires D-Bus for communication.
593
594 ** zeroconf.el offers service discovery and service publishing
595 interfaces according to the zeroconf specification. It communicates
596 with Avahi, a zeroconf implementation, via D-Bus messages on systems
597 which have installed this software.
598
599 ** There is a new `whitespace' package.
600 (The pre-existing one has been renamed to `old-whitespace'.)
601 Now, besides reporting bogus blanks, the whitespace package has a
602 minor mode and a global minor mode to visualize blanks (TAB, (HARD)
603 SPACE and NEWLINE). The visualization is made via faces and/or display
604 table. It can also indicate lines that extend beyond a given column,
605 trailing blanks, and empty lines at the start or end of a buffer.
606 See `whitespace-style' for more details. The `whitespace-action' option
607 specifies what to do when a buffer is visited, killed, or written.
608
609 \f
610 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
611
612 ** Abbrev has been rewritten in Elisp and extended with more flexibility.
613 *** New functions: abbrev-get, abbrev-put, abbrev-table-get, abbrev-table-put,
614 abbrev-table-p, abbrev-insert, abbrev-table-menu.
615 *** Special hook `abbrev-expand-functions' obsoletes `pre-abbrev-expand-hook'.
616 *** `make-abbrev-table', `define-abbrev', `define-abbrev-table' all take
617 extra arguments for arbitrary properties.
618 *** New variable `abbrev-minor-mode-table-alist'.
619 *** `local-abbrev-table' can hold a list of abbrev-tables.
620 *** Abbrevs have now the following special properties:
621 `:count', `:system', `:enable-function', `:case-fixed'.
622 *** Abbrev-tables have now the following special properties:
623 `:parents', `:case-fixed', `:enable-function', `:regexp',
624 `abbrev-table-modiff'.
625
626 ** Apropos
627 *** `apropos-library' describes the elements defined in a given library.
628 *** Set `apropos-compact-layout' is you want a more compact (but wider) layout.
629
630 +++
631 ** Archive Mode has basic support to browse Rar archives.
632 Note, however, that the free version of the unrar command only handles
633 versions 1 and 2 of the Rar format.
634
635 ** BibTeX mode
636
637 *** New command `bibtex-initialize' (re)initializes BibTeX buffers.
638
639 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' options `whitespace', `braces', and
640 `string', disabled by default.
641
642 *** New variable `bibtex-cite-matcher-alist' contains rules to
643 identify cited keys in BibTeX entries, used by `bibtex-find-crossref'.
644
645 *** Command `bibtex-url' allows multiple URLs per entry.
646
647 ** Calendar and diary
648
649 +++
650 *** There is a new date style, `iso', essentially year/month/day.
651 The variable `european-calendar-style' is obsolete - use `calendar-date-style'.
652 Similarly, the commands `american-calendar' and `european-calendar'
653 should be replaced by `calendar-set-date-style'.
654
655 +++
656 *** The calendar namespace has been rationalized.
657 All functions and variables now begin with a `calendar-', `diary-', or
658 `holiday-' prefix. The various calendar systems have secondary
659 prefixes, eg `calendar-french-'. The old names you are likely to use
660 directly still exist, for the time being, as aliases, but please start
661 using the new names.
662
663 +++
664 *** The whitespace in the calendar layout can be customized.
665 See the variables:
666 calendar-left-margin, calendar-intermonth-spacing, calendar-column-width,
667 calendar-day-header-width, and calendar-day-digit-width.
668
669 +++
670 *** Text (e.g. ISO weeks) can be displayed between the calendar months.
671 See the variables calendar-intermonth-header and calendar-intermonth-text.
672
673 +++
674 *** The function `holiday-chinese' computes holidays on the Chinese calendar.
675 It has been used to add items to the list `holiday-oriental-holidays'.
676
677 ---
678 *** `diary-remind' accepts a negative number -DAYS as a shorthand for
679 the list (1 2 ... DAYS).
680
681 ** Change Log mode
682
683 *** The new command C-c C-f (change-log-find-file) finds the file
684 associated with the current log entry.
685
686 *** The new command C-c C-c (change-log-goto-source) goes to the
687 source code associated with a log entry.
688
689 ** Compile and grep modes
690 ---
691 *** The mode-line entry for the *compilation* and *grep* buffer is color coded.
692 It has different colors for to show that: (a) the command is still
693 running, (b) successful completion, (c) error.
694 +++
695 *** compilation-auto-jump-to-first-error tells `compile' to jump to
696 the first error encountered during compilations.
697 ---
698 *** The `cc' alias for C++ files in `grep-file-aliases' has been
699 improved. `hh' can be used to match C++ header files and `cchh' both
700 C++ sources and headers.
701
702 ** Copyright
703
704 *** You can specify your copyright holders' names.
705 Only copyright lines with holders matching `copyright-names-regexp' are
706 considered for update.
707
708 *** Copyrights can be at the end of the buffer.
709 This is controlled by `copyright-at-end-flag' (used by, e.g., change-log-mode).
710
711 ** Custom
712 +++
713 *** defcustom accepts new keyword arguments, `:safe' and `:risky', which
714 set a variable's `safe-local-variable' and `risky-local-variable' property.
715
716 ** Diff mode
717 +++
718 *** diff-refine-hunk highlights word-level details of changes in a diff hunk.
719 It's used automatically as you move through hunks, see
720 diff-auto-refine-mode. It is bound to `C-c C-b'.
721 +++
722 *** diff-add-change-log-entries-other-window iterates through the diff
723 buffer and tries to create ChangeLog entries for each change.
724 It is bound to `C-x 4 A'.
725 +++
726 *** The new function `diff-show-trailing-whitespaces' shows
727 trailing whitespace problems in the modified lines of a diff buffer.
728
729 ** Dired
730
731 *** In Dired, C-x C-q now runs the command wdired-change-to-wdired-mode,
732 and C-x C-q in wdired-mode exits it with asking a question about
733 saving changes.
734
735 *** `&' runs the command `dired-do-async-shell-command' that executes
736 the command asynchronously without the need to manually add ampersand
737 to the end of the command. Its output appears in the buffer `*Async Shell
738 Command*'.
739
740 *** `M-s f C-s' and `M-s f M-C-s' run Isearch that matches only at file names.
741 When a new user option `dired-isearch-filenames' is non-nil, then even
742 ordinary Isearch started with `C-s' and `C-M-s' matches only at file names
743 in the Dired buffer. You can toggle file names matching on or off
744 by typing `M-s f' in Isearch mode.
745
746 *** `M-s a C-s' and `M-s a M-C-s' run multi-file Isearch on the marked files.
747 They visit the first marked file in the sequence and display the usual Isearch
748 prompt for a string or a regexp where all Isearch commands are available.
749
750 *** `Q' in Dired provides two new keys for multi-file replacement.
751 The upper case key `Y' replaces all remaining matches in all remaining files
752 with no more questions. The upper case key `N' stops doing replacements
753 in the current file and skips to the next file. These multi-file keys
754 are available for all commands that use `tags-query-replace'
755 including `dired-do-query-replace-regexp', `vc-dir-query-replace-regexp',
756 `reftex-query-replace-document'.
757
758 ** Fortran
759 +++
760 *** The line length of fixed-form Fortran is not fixed at 72 any more.
761 Customize the variable `fortran-line-length' to change it.
762
763 +++
764 *** In Fortran mode, M-; is now bound to the standard comment-dwim,
765 rather than fortran-indent-comment.
766
767 +++
768 *** (The increasingly misnamed) F90 mode supports Fortran 2003 syntax.
769
770 ** Gnus
771
772 *** The Gnus package has been updated
773 There are many news features, bug fixes and improvements; see the file
774 GNUS-NEWS or the node "No Gnus" in the Gnus manual for details.
775
776 *** In Emacs 23, Gnus uses Emacs' new internal coding system `utf-8-emacs' for
777 saving articles drafts and ~/.newsrc.eld. These file may not be read
778 correctly in Emacs 22 and below. If you want to Gnus across different Emacs
779 versions, you may set `mm-auto-save-coding-system' to `emacs-mule'.
780
781 *** Password are consistently loaded through `auth-source'
782 Gnus can use `auth-source' for POP and IMAP passwords. Also see that
783 `smtpmail' and `url' support `auth-source' for SMTP and HTTP/HTTPS/RSS
784 authentication respectively.
785
786 ** Help mode
787 *** New macro `with-help-window' should set up help windows better
788 than `with-output-to-temp-buffer' with `print-help-return-message'.
789
790 *** New option `help-window-select' permits to customize whether help
791 window shall be automatically selected when invoking help.
792
793 *** New variable `help-window-point-marker' permits to specify new
794 position of point in help window (for example in `view-lossage').
795
796 ** Isearch
797 +++
798 *** New command `isearch-forward-word' bound globally to `M-s w' starts
799 incremental word search. New command `isearch-toggle-word' bound to the
800 same key `M-s w' in Isearch mode toggles word searching on or off
801 while Isearch is active.
802
803 *** New command `isearch-highlight-regexp' bound to `M-s h r' in Isearch
804 mode runs `highlight-regexp' (`hi-lock-face-buffer') with the current
805 search string as its regexp argument. The same key `M-s h r' and
806 other keys on the `M-s h' prefix are bound globally to the command
807 `highlight-regexp' and other hi-lock commands.
808 +++
809 *** New command `isearch-occur' bound to `M-s o' in Isearch mode
810 runs `occur' with the current search string. The same key `M-s o'
811 is bound globally to the command `occur'.
812 ---
813 *** Isearch can now search through multiple ChangeLog files.
814 When running Isearch in a ChangeLog file, if the search fails,
815 then another C-s tries searching the previous ChangeLog,
816 if there is one (e.g. go from ChangeLog to ChangeLog.12).
817 This is enabled if multi-isearch-search is non-nil.
818
819 *** Two new commands to start Isearch on a list of marked buffers
820 for buff-menu.el and ibuffer.el are bound to the keys `M-s a C-s' and
821 `M-s a M-C-s'.
822 +++
823 *** The part of an Isearch that failed to match is highlighted in
824 `isearch-fail' face.
825
826 *** `C-h C-h' in Isearch mode displays isearch-specific Help screen,
827 `C-h b' displays all Isearch key bindings, `C-h k' displays the full
828 documentation of the given Isearch key sequence, `C-h m' displays
829 documentation of Isearch mode. All the rest Help commands exit Isearch mode
830 and execute their global definitions.
831 +++
832 *** When started in the minibuffer, Isearch searches in the minibuffer
833 history. See `Minibuffer changes', above.
834
835 +++
836 ** MH-E
837
838 *** Upgraded to MH-E version 8.1. See MH-E-NEWS for details.
839
840 ** Python
841 *** The file etc/emacs.py now supports both Python 2 and 3, meaning
842 that either version can be used as inferior Python by python.el.
843
844 *** Python mode now has `pdbtrack' functionality. When using pdb to
845 debug a Python program, pdbtrack notices the pdb prompt and displays
846 the source file and line that the program is stopped at, much the same
847 way as gud-mode does for debugging C programs with gdb.
848
849 ** Recentf
850
851 *** The default value of `recentf-keep' prevents from checking of
852 remote files, if there is no established connection to the
853 corresponding remote host.
854
855 ** TeX modes
856
857 *** New option latex-indent-within-escaped-parens
858 permits to customize indentation of LaTeX environments delimited
859 by escaped parens.
860
861 ** T-mouse Mode
862 ---
863 *** If the gpm mouse server is running and t-mouse-mode is enabled,
864 Emacs uses a Unix socket in a GNU/Linux console to talk to server,
865 rather than faking events using the client program mev. This C level
866 approach provides mouse highlighting and help echoing in the
867 minibuffer.
868
869 +++
870 ** Tramp
871
872 *** New connection methods.
873 The new methods "plinkx", "plink2", "psftp", "sftp" and "fish" have
874 been introduced. There are also new so-called gateway methods
875 "tunnel" and "socks".
876
877 *** Multihop syntax has been removed.
878 The pseudo-method "multi" has been removed. Instead of, multi hops
879 can be specified by the new variable `tramp-default-proxies-alist'.
880
881 *** More default settings.
882 Default values can be set via the variables `tramp-default-user',
883 `tramp-default-user-alist' and `tramp-default-host'.
884
885 *** Connection information is cached.
886 In order to reduce connection setup, information about used
887 connections are kept persistent in a file. The name of this file is
888 defined in the variable `tramp-persistency-file-name'.
889
890 *** Control of remote processes.
891 Running processes on a remote host can be controlled by settings in
892 `tramp-remote-path' and `tramp-remote-process-environment'.
893
894 *** Success of remote copy is checked.
895 When the variable `file-precious-flag' is set, the success of a remote
896 file copy is checked via the file's checksum.
897
898 *** Passwords can be read from an authentification file.
899 Tramp uses the package `auth-source' to read passwords from a file, if
900 necessary.
901
902 ** VC and related modes
903 +++
904 *** VC now supports applying VC operations to a set of files at a time.
905 This enables VC to work much more effectively with changeset-oriented
906 version-control systems such as Subversion, GNU Arch, Mercurial, Git
907 and Bzr. VC will now pass a multiple-file commit to these systems as
908 a single changeset.
909 +++
910 *** vc-dir is a new command that displays file names and their VC
911 status. It allows to apply various VC operations to a file, a
912 directory or a set of files/directories.
913 +++
914 *** Clicking on the VC mode-line entry now pops the VC menu.
915 +++
916 *** The VC mode-line entry now has a tooltip that explains the VC file status.
917 +++
918 *** In VC Annotate mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
919 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
920 by typing the D key. Using the "Show changeset diff of revision at
921 line" menu entry does the same thing.
922 +++
923 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type v to toggle the annotation visibility.
924 +++
925 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type f to show the file revision on
926 the current line.
927 ---
928 *** Asynchronous VC commands display [Waiting...] in the mode-line
929 of the corresponding buffer as long as the asynchronous process is
930 active.
931 +++
932 *** Log entries can be modified using the key "e" in log-view.
933 For now only CVS, RCS, SCCS and SVN support this functionality.
934 This is done by the `modify-change-comment' backend function.
935 +++
936 *** In log-view-mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
937 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
938 by typing the D key or using the "Changeset Diff" menu entry.
939 +++
940 *** In Log Edit mode, C-c C-d now shows the diff for the files involved.
941
942 *** vc-git supports the "git grep" command.
943 +++
944 *** VC Support for Meta-CVS has been removed for lack of maintainer able
945 to update it to the new VC.
946
947 ** Miscellaneous
948
949 *** comint-mode uses `start-file-process' now (see Lisp Changes).
950 If `default-directory' is a remote file name, subprocesses are started
951 on the corresponding remote system.
952
953 *** Eldoc highlights the function argument under point
954 with the face `eldoc-highlight-function-argument'.
955 +++
956 *** In Etags, the --members option is now the default.
957 Use --no-members if you want the old default behavior of not tagging
958 struct members in C, members variables in C++ and variables in PHP.
959 +++
960 *** The `gdb' command only works with the graphical interface now.
961 Use `gud-gdb' if you want the (old) text command mode.
962
963 *** goto-address.el provides two new minor modes, goto-address-mode and
964 goto-address-prog-mode, which buttonize URLS and email addresses.
965
966 *** The new command `eshell/info' runs info in an eshell buffer.
967
968 *** The new variable `ffap-rfc-directories' specifies a list of local
969 directories in which `ffap-rfc' will first search for RFCs.
970
971 *** hide-ifdef-mode allows shadowing ifdef-blocks instead of hiding them.
972 See option `hide-ifdef-shadow' and function `hide-ifdef-toggle-shadowing'.
973
974 *** `icomplete-prospects-height' now supercedes `icomplete-prospects-length'.
975
976 *** Info displays breadcrumbs in the header of the page.
977 See Info-breadcrumbs-depth to control it.
978
979 *** net-utils has an `iwconfig' command, similar to the existing `ifconfig'.
980 It is used to configure wireless interfaces.
981
982 *** The pcmpl-unix package supports hostname completion for ssh and scp.
983
984 *** sgml-electric-tag-pair-mode lets you simultaneously edit matched tag pairs.
985
986 *** smerge-refine highlights word-level details of changes in conflict.
987 It's used automatically as you move through conflicts, see
988 smerge-auto-refine-mode.
989
990 *** talk.el has been extended for multiple tty support.
991
992 *** A new command `display-time-world' has been added to the Time
993 package. It creates a buffer with an updating time display using
994 several time zones.
995
996 *** The appearance of superscript and subscript in TeX is more customizable.
997 See the documentation of the variables: tex-fontify-script,
998 tex-font-script-display, tex-suscript-height-ratio, and
999 tex-suscript-height-minimum.
1000
1001 *** view-remove-frame-by-deleting is now by default t
1002 since users found iconification of view-mode frames distracting.
1003
1004 *** WoMan tries to add locale-specific manual page directories to the
1005 search path. This can be disabled by setting `woman-locale' to nil.
1006
1007 \f
1008 * Changes in Emacs 23.1 on non-free operating systems
1009
1010 ** Case is now considered significant in completion on MS-Windows.
1011 The default value of `completion-ignore-case' is now nil on
1012 MS-Windows, the same as it is for other operating systems. The
1013 variable doesn't apply to reading a file name -- in that case Emacs
1014 heeds `read-file-name-completion-ignore-case' instead.
1015
1016 ---
1017 ** IPv6 is supported on MS-Windows.
1018 Emacs now supports IPv6 on Windows XP and later, and earlier versions
1019 of Windows with third party IPv6 stacks installed. In Emacs 22, IPv6 was
1020 supported on other platforms, but not on Windows due to using the winsock
1021 1.1 header file, even though Emacs was linking to the winsock 2 library.
1022
1023 ---
1024 ** Busy cursor (hourglass) now displays on MS-Windows.
1025 When Emacs is busy, an hourglass mouse cursor is displayed on Windows.
1026 In Emacs 22 only X supported the busy cursor.
1027
1028 ---
1029 ** Battery status is available on MS-Windows
1030 Emacs can now display the battery status in the mode-line when enabled with
1031 display-battery-mode or from the Options menu. More verbose battery
1032 information is also available with the command `battery'. In Emacs 22
1033 battery status was supported only on GNU/Linux and Mac.
1034
1035 ** More keys available on MS-Windows.
1036 Keys normally associated with IMEs, and some exotic keys not normally found
1037 on standard keyboards have been given names so they can be bound to functions
1038 inside Emacs. If there are keys on your keyboard that have not been exposed
1039 to Emacs in the past, try C-h k to see if they are available now.
1040
1041 Emacs can now bind functions to the extra buttons for media player and
1042 browser control present on some keyboards. These buttons are disabled
1043 by default, since enabling them prevents their system-wide use when
1044 Emacs has focus. To enable them, set the variable
1045 w32-pass-multimedia-buttons to nil. See the doc string of that variable
1046 for the list of extra keys that are available.
1047
1048 ** BDF fonts no longer supported on MS-Windows.
1049 The font backend was completely rewritten for this release. The focus
1050 on Windows has been getting acceptable performance and full unicode
1051 support, including complex script shaping for native Windows fonts. A
1052 rewrite of the BDF font support has not happened due to lack of time
1053 and developers. If demand still exists for such a backend even with
1054 the improved language support for native Windows fonts, future
1055 development in this direction will most likely be based on the
1056 freetype library, giving access to a wider range of font formats.
1057
1058 \f
1059 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
1060
1061 +++
1062 ** Variables cannot be both buffer-local and frame-local any more.
1063
1064 +++
1065 ** `functionp' returns nil for special forms.
1066 I.e., it only returns t for objects that can be passed to `funcall'.
1067
1068 +++
1069 ** The behavior of map-char-table has changed. It may call the
1070 specified function with a cons (FROM . TO) as a key if characters in
1071 that range have the same value.
1072
1073 ** Process changes
1074 +++
1075 *** The function `dired-call-process' has been removed.
1076 +++
1077 *** The multibyteness of process filters is now determined by the
1078 coding-system used for decoding. The functions
1079 `process-filter-multibyte-p' and `set-process-filter-multibyte' are
1080 obsolete.
1081
1082 ---
1083 ** The variable `byte-compile-warnings' can now be a list starting with `not',
1084 meaning to disable the specified warnings. The meaning of this list
1085 may therefore be the reverse of what you expect (of course, this is
1086 only an issue if you make use of the new `not' syntax). Rather than
1087 checking/manipulating elements directly, use the new functions
1088 `byte-compile-warning-enabled-p', `byte-compile-disable-warning', and
1089 `byte-compile-enable-warning.'
1090
1091 +++
1092 ** `mode-name' is no longer guaranteed to be a string.
1093 Use `(format-mode-line mode-name)' to ensure a string value.
1094
1095 ** Internationalization changes
1096
1097 *** The value of the function `charset-id' is now always 0.
1098
1099 *** The functions `register-char-codings' and `coding-system-spec'
1100 have been removed.
1101
1102 *** The cpXXX coding systems are now supported automatically.
1103 The functions cp-...-codepage, which you had to use in Emacs 22 to
1104 enable support for these coding systems, have been deleted.
1105
1106 *** The following features have been removed. They were used for
1107 displaying various scripts with specific fonts, and are no longer
1108 needed now that OpenType font support is available:
1109
1110 **** `devanagari' and `devan-util', and all associated devanagari-* and
1111 dev-* functions and variables (formerly used for Devanagari script).
1112
1113 **** `kannada' and `knd-util', and all associated kannada-* and knd-*
1114 functions and variables (formerly used for Kannada script).
1115
1116 **** `malayalam' and `mlm-util', and all associated malayalam-* and
1117 mlm-* functions and variables (formerly used for Malayalam script).
1118
1119 **** `tamil' and `tml-util, and all associated tamil-* and tml-*
1120 functions and variables (formerly used for Tamil script).
1121
1122 \f
1123 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
1124
1125 ** New coding system alias `emacs-internal'.
1126
1127 +++
1128 ** New primitives `list-system-processes' and `system-process-attributes'
1129 let Lisp programs access the processes that are running on the local
1130 machine. See the doc strings of these functions for more details.
1131 Not all platforms support accessing this information; on those that
1132 don't, these primitives will return nil.
1133
1134 +++
1135 ** New variable `user-emacs-directory'.
1136 Use this instead of "~/.emacs.d".
1137
1138 +++
1139 ** If a local hook function has a non-nil `permanent-local-hook'
1140 property, `kill-all-local-variables' does not remove it from the local
1141 value of the hook variable; it remains even if you change major modes.
1142
1143 +++
1144 ** `frame-inherited-parameters' lets new frames inherit parameters from
1145 the selected frame.
1146
1147 +++
1148 ** New keymap `input-decode-map' overrides like key-translation-map, but
1149 applies before function-key-map. Also it is terminal-local contrary to
1150 key-translation-map. Terminal-specific key-sequences are generally added to
1151 this map rather than to function-key-map now.
1152
1153 +++
1154 ** `ignore-errors' is now a standard macro (does not require the CL package).
1155
1156 +++
1157 ** `interprogram-paste-function' can now return one string or a list
1158 of strings. In the latter case, Emacs puts the second and following
1159 strings on the kill ring.
1160
1161 +++
1162 ** In `condition-case', a handler can specify "let the debugger run first".
1163 You do this by writing `debug' in the list of conditions to be handled,
1164 like this:
1165
1166 (condition-case nil
1167 (foo bar)
1168 ((debug error) nil))
1169
1170 +++
1171 ** clone-indirect-buffer now runs the clone-indirect-buffer-hook.
1172
1173 +++
1174 ** `beginning-of-defun-function' now takes one argument, the count
1175 given to `beginning-of-defun'.
1176
1177 +++
1178 ** `file-remote-p' has new optional parameters IDENTIFICATION and CONNECTED.
1179 IDENTIFICATION specifies which part of the remote identifier has to be
1180 returned. With CONNECTED passed non-nil, it is checked whether a
1181 remote connection has been established already.
1182
1183 +++
1184 ** The new macro `declare-function' suppresses compiler warnings about
1185 undefined functions.
1186
1187 ** Changes to interactive function handling
1188
1189 +++
1190 *** The new interactive spec code ^ says to first call
1191 handle-shift-selection if shift-select-mode is non-nil, before reading
1192 the command arguments. This is used for shift-selection (see above).
1193
1194 +++
1195 *** Built-in functions can now have an interactive specification that
1196 is not a prompt string. If the `intspec' parameter of a `DEFUN'
1197 starts with a `(', the string is evaluated as a Lisp form.
1198
1199 +++
1200 *** The interactive-form of a function can be added post-facto via the
1201 `interactive-form' symbol property. Mostly useful to add complex
1202 interactive forms to subroutines.
1203
1204 ** Region changes
1205
1206 +++
1207 *** Commands should use `use-region-p' to test whether there is
1208 an active region that they should operate on.
1209
1210 *** `region-active-p' returns non-nil when Transient Mark mode is
1211 enabled and there is an active region. This is NOT the best function
1212 to use to test whether a command should operate on the region instead
1213 of the usual behavior -- for that, use `use-region-p'.
1214
1215 +++
1216 *** If a command sets `transient-mark-mode' to (only . OLDVAL), that
1217 means to activate transient-mark-mode temporarily, until the next
1218 unshifted point motion command or mark deactivation. Afterwards,
1219 reset transient-mark-mode to the value OLDVAL. The values `only' and
1220 `identity', introduced in Emacs 22, are now deprecated.
1221
1222 ** Emacs session information
1223
1224 +++
1225 *** The new variables `before-init-time' and `after-init-time' record the
1226 value of `current-time' before and after Emacs loads the init files.
1227
1228 +++
1229 *** The new function `emacs-uptime' returns the uptime of an Emacs instance.
1230
1231 +++
1232 *** The new function `emacs-init-time' returns the duration of the
1233 Emacs initialization.
1234
1235 ** Changes affecting display-buffer
1236
1237 +++
1238 *** New value nil for split-height-threshold inhibits vertical splitting
1239 unless there's no other window.
1240
1241 +++
1242 *** New option split-width-threshold controls horizontal splitting.
1243
1244 +++
1245 *** A window can be split horizontally even when it's not full-width.
1246
1247 +++
1248 *** New option split-window-preferred-function can be set to a function
1249 to override the default splitting mechanism of display-buffer.
1250
1251 +++
1252 *** If pop-up-frames has the value `graphic-only', display-buffer only
1253 makes a separate frame on graphic displays.
1254
1255 *** select-frame and set-frame-selected-window have new optional
1256 argument NORECORD. If non-nil, this will avoid messing with the order
1257 of recently selected windows and the buffer list.
1258
1259 ** Window parameters can now be defined.
1260 These are analogous to frame parameters, but are associated with
1261 individual windows.
1262 +++
1263 *** The new functions window-parameters, window-parameter, and
1264 set-window-parameter are used to query and set window parameters.
1265
1266 ** Minibuffer and completion changes
1267 +++
1268 *** A list of default values can be specified for the DEFAULT argument of
1269 functions `read-from-minibuffer', `read-string', `read-command',
1270 `read-variable', `read-buffer', `completing-read'. Elements of this list
1271 are available for inserting into the minibuffer by typing `M-n'.
1272 For empty input these functions return the first element of this list.
1273
1274 +++
1275 *** New function `read-regexp' uses the regexp history and some useful
1276 regexp defaults (string at point, last Isearch/replacement regexp/string)
1277 via M-n when reading a regexp in the minibuffer.
1278
1279 +++
1280 *** minibuffer-local-must-match-filename-map is now named
1281 minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map.
1282
1283 ---
1284 *** `all-completions' may now return the base size in the last cdr.
1285 Since this means the returned list is not properly nil-terminated, this
1286 is an incompatible change and is thus enabled by the new variable
1287 completion-all-completions-with-base-size.
1288
1289 +++
1290 *** The `require-match' argument to `completing-read' accepts a new value
1291 `confirm-only'.
1292
1293 ** Search and replacement changes
1294 +++
1295 *** The regexp form \(?<num>:<regexp>\) specifies the group number explicitly.
1296 +++
1297 *** New function `match-substitute-replacement' returns the result of
1298 `replace-match' without actually using it in the buffer.
1299
1300 +++
1301 *** The new variable `replace-search-function' determines the function
1302 to use for searching in query-replace and replace-string. The
1303 function it specifies is called by `perform-replace' when its 4th
1304 argument is nil.
1305
1306 +++
1307 *** The new variable `replace-re-search-function' determines the
1308 function to use for searching in `query-replace-regexp',
1309 `replace-regexp', `query-replace-regexp-eval', and
1310 `map-query-replace-regexp'. The function it specifies is called by
1311 `perform-replace' when its 4th argument is non-nil.
1312
1313 +++
1314 *** New keymap `search-map' bound to `M-s' provides global bindings
1315 for search related commands.
1316
1317 +++
1318 *** New keymap `multi-query-replace-map' contains additonal keys bound
1319 to `automatic-all' and `exit-current' for multi-buffer interactive replacement.
1320
1321 ---
1322 *** The variable `inhibit-changing-match-data', if non-nil, prevents
1323 the search and match primitives from changing the match data.
1324
1325 ---
1326 *** New functions `word-search-forward-lax' and `word-search-backward-lax'.
1327 These are like `word-search-forward and `word-search-backward', except
1328 that the end of the search string need not match a word boundary,
1329 unless it ends in whitespace.
1330
1331 ** File handling changes
1332
1333 +++
1334 *** set-file-modes is now interactive and can take the mode value in
1335 symbolic notation thanks to auxiliary functions.
1336 +++
1337 *** file-local-variables-alist stores an alist of file-local
1338 variables defined in the current buffer.
1339
1340 ** Process changes
1341 +++
1342 *** The new function `start-file-process' is similar to `start-process',
1343 but obeys file handlers. The file handler is chosen based on
1344 `default-directory'. The functions `start-file-process-shell-command'
1345 and `process-file-shell-command' are also new; they call internally
1346 `start-file-process' and `process-file', respectively.
1347
1348 +++
1349 *** The new function `process-lines' executes an external program and
1350 returns its output as a list of lines.
1351
1352 ** Character code, representation, and charset changes.
1353
1354 +++
1355 The character code space is now 0x0..0x3FFFFF with no gap.
1356 Characters of code 0x0..0x10FFFF are Unicode characters of the same code points.
1357 Characters of code 0x3FFF80..0x3FFFFF are raw 8-bit bytes.
1358
1359 +++
1360 Generic characters no longer exist.
1361
1362 +++
1363 In buffers and strings, characters are represented by UTF-8 byte
1364 sequences in a multibyte buffer/string.
1365
1366 The concept of a charset has changed. A single character may belong
1367 to multiple charsets (e.g. a-grave, U+00E0, belongs to charsets
1368 unicode, iso-8859-1, iso-8859-3, etc).
1369
1370 *** The functions `split-char' and `make-char' now accept up to 4
1371 positional codes instead of just 2.
1372
1373 *** The functions `encode-char' and `decode-char' now accept any character sets.
1374
1375 *** The function `define-charset' now accepts a completely different
1376 form of arguments (old-style arguments still work).
1377
1378 *** The value of the function `char-charset' depends on the current
1379 priorities of charsets.
1380
1381 *** The function get-char-code-property now accepts many Unicode base
1382 character properties. They are `name', `general-category',
1383 `canonical-combining-class', `bidi-class', `decomposition',
1384 `decimal-digit-value', `digit-value', `numeric-value', `mirrored',
1385 `old-name', `iso-10646-comment', `uppercase', `lowercase', and
1386 `titlecase'.
1387
1388 *** The functions `modify-syntax-entry' and `modify-category-entry' now
1389 accept a cons of characters as the first argument, and modify all
1390 entries in that range of characters.
1391
1392 +++
1393 *** `translation-table-for-input' is now obsolete.
1394
1395 *** New functions:
1396
1397 **** `characterp' returns t if and only if the argument is a character.
1398 This replaces `char-valid-p', which is now obsolete.
1399
1400 **** `max-char' returns the maximum character code (currently #x3FFFFF).
1401
1402 **** `define-charset-alias' defines an alias of a charset.
1403
1404 **** `set-charset-priority' sets priorities of charsets.
1405
1406 **** `charset-priority-list' returns a prioritized list of charsets.
1407
1408 **** `unibyte-string' makes a unibyte string from bytes.
1409
1410 **** `define-char-code-property' defines a character code property.
1411
1412 **** `char-code-property-description' returns the description string of
1413 a character code property.
1414
1415 *** New variables:
1416
1417 **** `find-word-boundary-function-table' is a char-table of functions to
1418 search for a word boundary.
1419
1420 **** `char-script-table' is a char-table of script names.
1421
1422 **** `char-width-table' is a char-table of character widths.
1423
1424 **** `print-charset-text-property' controls how to handle `charset' text
1425 property on printing a string.
1426
1427 **** `printable-chars' is a char-table of printable characters.
1428
1429 ** Code conversion changes
1430
1431 *** The new function `define-coding-system' should be used to define a
1432 coding system instead of `make-coding-system' (which is now obsolete).
1433
1434 *** The functions `encode-coding-region' and `decode-coding-region'
1435 have an optional 4th argument to specify where the result of
1436 conversion should go.
1437
1438 *** The functions `encode-coding-string' and `decode-coding-string'
1439 have an optional 4th argument specifying a buffer to store the result
1440 of conversion.
1441
1442 *** The functions `set-coding-priority' and `make-coding-system' are obsolete.
1443
1444 *** New functions:
1445
1446 **** `with-coding-priority' executes Lisp code using the specified
1447 coding system priority order.
1448
1449 **** `check-coding-systems-region' checks if the text in the region is
1450 encodable by the specified coding systems.
1451
1452 **** `coding-system-aliases' returns a list of aliases of a coding system.
1453
1454 **** `coding-system-charset-list' returns a list of charsets supported
1455 by a coding system.
1456
1457 **** `coding-system-priority-list' returns a list of coding systems
1458 ordered by their priorities.
1459
1460 **** `set-coding-system-priority' sets priorities of coding systems.
1461
1462 ** There is a new input method, Robin, different from Quail.
1463 It has three functionalities:
1464 i) a simple input method (converts an ASCII sequence into a string).
1465 ii) converts an existing buffer substring into another string
1466 iii) reverse conversion (each character produced by a
1467 robin rule can hold the original ASCII sequence as a char-code-property)
1468
1469 *** The new function `robin-define-package' defines a Robin package.
1470
1471 *** The new function `robin-modify-package' modifies an existing Robin package.
1472
1473 *** The new function `robin-use-package' starts using a Robin package
1474 as an input method.
1475
1476 *** The new function `string-to-unibyte' is like `string-as-unibyte'
1477 but signals an error if STRING contains a non-ASCII, non-eight-bit
1478 character.
1479
1480 ** Changes related to the new font backend
1481
1482 Which font backends to use can be specified by the X resource "FontBackend".
1483 For instance, to use both X core fonts and Xft fonts:
1484
1485 Emacs.FontBackend: x,xft
1486
1487 If this resource is not set, Emacs tries to use all font backends
1488 available on your graphic device.
1489
1490 *** New frame parameter `font-backend' specifies a list of
1491 font-backends supported by the frame's graphic device. On X, they are
1492 currently `x' and `xft'.
1493
1494 *** The function `set-fontset-font' now accepts a script name as the
1495 second argument, and has an optional 5th argument to control how to
1496 set the font.
1497
1498 *** New functions:
1499
1500 **** `fontp' checks if the argument is a font-spec or font-entity.
1501
1502 **** `font-spec' creates a new font-spec object.
1503
1504 **** `font-get' returns a font property value.
1505
1506 **** `font-put' sets a font property value.
1507
1508 **** `font-face-attributes' returns a plist of face attributes set by a font.
1509
1510 **** `list-fonts' returns a list of font-entities matching a font spec.
1511
1512 **** `font-font' returns the font-entity best matching the given font spec.
1513
1514 **** `list-families' returns a list of family names of available fonts.
1515
1516 **** `font-xlfd-name' returns an XLFD name of a given font spec, font
1517 entity, or font object.
1518
1519 **** `clear-font-cache' clears all font caches.
1520
1521 ** Changes related to multiple-terminal (multi-tty) support
1522
1523 *** $TERM is now set to `dumb' for subprocesses. If you want to know the
1524 $TERM inherited by Emacs you will have to look inside initial-environment.
1525
1526 *** $DISPLAY is now dynamically inherited from the frame's `display'.
1527
1528 *** The `window-system' variable is now frame-local. The new
1529 `initial-window-system' variable contains the `window-system' value
1530 for the first frame. `window-system' is also now a function that
1531 takes a frame argument.
1532
1533 *** The `keyboard-translate-table' variable and the terminal and
1534 keyboard coding systems are now terminal-local.
1535
1536 *** You can specify a terminal device (`tty' parameter) and a terminal
1537 type (`tty-type' parameter) to `make-terminal-frame'.
1538
1539 *** The function `make-frame-on-display' now works during a tty
1540 session, and `make-frame-on-tty' works during a graphical session.
1541
1542 *** A new data type for terminals with functions: `get-device-terminal',
1543 `terminal-parameters', `terminal-parameter', `set-terminal-parameter'.
1544
1545 *** Function key sequences are now mapped using `local-function-key-map',
1546 a new variable. This inherits from the global variable function-key-map,
1547 which is not used directly any more.
1548
1549 *** New hooks:
1550
1551 +++
1552 **** before-hack-local-variables-hook is called after setting new
1553 variable file-local-variables-alist, and before actually applying the
1554 file-local variables.
1555
1556 **** `suspend-tty-functions' and `resume-tty-functions' are called
1557 after a tty frame has been suspended or resumed, respectively. The
1558 functions are called with the terminal id of the frame being
1559 suspended/resumed as a parameter.
1560
1561 **** The special hook `delete-terminal-functions' is called before
1562 deleting a terminal.
1563
1564 *** New functions:
1565
1566 **** `environment'
1567
1568 **** `make-frame-on-tty' creates a new frame on another tty device.
1569
1570 **** `delete-tty'
1571
1572 **** `suspend-tty'
1573
1574 **** `resume-tty'.
1575
1576 *** `initial-environment' holds the environment inherited from Emacs's parent.
1577
1578 ** Redisplay changes
1579
1580 *** For underlined characters, the distance between the underline and
1581 the baseline is controlled by a new variable, `underline-minimum-offset'.
1582
1583 *** You can now pass the value of the `invisible' property to
1584 invisible-p to check whether it would cause the text to be invisible.
1585 Convenient when checking invisibility of text with no buffer position
1586 (e.g. in before/after-strings).
1587
1588 +++
1589 *** `clear-image-cache' can be told to flush only images of a specific file.
1590
1591 *** `vertical-motion' can now be given a goal column.
1592 It now accepts a cons cell (COLS . LINES) in its first argument, which
1593 says to stop, where possible, at a pixel x-position equal to COLS
1594 times the default column width.
1595
1596 *** redisplay-end-trigger-functions, set-window-redisplay-end-trigger,
1597 and window-redisplay-end-trigger are obsolete. Use `jit-lock-register'
1598 instead.
1599
1600 ** The Lisp interpreter now treats non-breaking space as whitespace.
1601
1602 ** Miscellaneous new functions
1603
1604 +++
1605 *** `format-seconds' converts a number of seconds into a readable
1606 string of days, hours, etc.
1607
1608 +++
1609 *** `apply-partially' performs a "curried" application of a function.
1610
1611 +++
1612 *** `read-shell-command' does what its name says, with completion. It
1613 uses the minibuffer-local-shell-command-map for that.
1614
1615 +++
1616 *** `buffer-swap-text' swaps text between two buffers. This can be
1617 useful for modes such as tar-mode, archive-mode, RMAIL.
1618
1619 +++
1620 *** `read-color' reads a color name using the minibuffer.
1621
1622 +++
1623 *** `face-all-attributes' returns an alist describing all the basic
1624 attributes of a given face.
1625
1626 +++
1627 *** `split-string-and-unquote' splits a string into a list of substrings
1628 on the boundaries of a given delimiter, and unquotes the substrings that
1629 are quoted. Useful for taking apart shell commands.
1630
1631 +++
1632 *** `combine-and-quote-strings' produces a single string from a list of strings
1633 sticking a separator string in between each pair, and quoting those
1634 strings that include the separator as their substring. Useful for
1635 consing shell command lines from the individual arguments.
1636
1637 +++
1638 *** `image-refresh' refreshes all images associated with a given image
1639 specification.
1640
1641 +++
1642 *** The two new functions `looking-at-p' and `string-match-p' can do
1643 the same matching as `looking-at' and `string-match' without changing
1644 the match data.
1645
1646 +++
1647 *** The two new functions `make-serial-process' and
1648 `serial-process-configure' provide a Lisp interface to the new serial
1649 port support (see Emacs changes, above).
1650
1651 *** `locate-user-emacs-file' helps packages to select the appropriate
1652 place to save user-specific files. It defaults to `user-emacs-directory'
1653 unless the file already exists at $HOME.
1654
1655 ** Miscellaneous new variables
1656
1657 +++
1658 *** `this-command-keys-shift-translated' is non-nil if the key
1659 sequence invoking the current command was found by shift-translation.
1660
1661 *** `window-point-insertion-type' determines the insertion-type of the
1662 marker used for window-point.
1663
1664 ---
1665 *** bookmark provides `bookmark-make-record-function' so special major
1666 modes like Info can teach bookmark.el how to save and restore the
1667 relevant data.
1668
1669 *** `fill-forward-paragraph-function' specifies which function the
1670 filling code should use to find paragraph boundaries.
1671
1672 *** `custom-note-var-changed' tells Custom to treat the change in a
1673 certain variable as having been made within Custom.
1674
1675 \f
1676 * New Packages for Lisp Programming in Emacs 23.1
1677
1678 ** The new package avl-tree.el deals with the AVL tree data structure.
1679
1680 +++
1681 ** The new package check-declare.el verifies the accuracy of
1682 declare-function macros (see Lisp Changes, above).
1683
1684 ** find-cmd.el can build `find' commands using lisp syntax.
1685
1686 ** The package misearch.el has been added. It allows Isearch to search
1687 through multiple buffers. A variable `multi-isearch-next-buffer-function'
1688 defines the function to call to get the next buffer to search in the series
1689 of multiple buffers. Top-level commands `multi-isearch-buffers',
1690 `multi-isearch-buffers-regexp', `multi-isearch-files' and
1691 `multi-isearch-files-regexp' accept a single argument that specifies
1692 a list of buffers/files to search for a string/regexp.
1693
1694 ** The new major mode `special-mode' is intended as a parent for
1695 major modes such as those that set the "'mode-class 'special" property.
1696
1697 \f
1698 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1699 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
1700
1701 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1702 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1703 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1704 (at your option) any later version.
1705
1706 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1707 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1708 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1709 GNU General Public License for more details.
1710
1711 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1712 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
1713
1714 \f
1715 Local variables:
1716 mode: outline
1717 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
1718 end:
1719
1720 arch-tag: e759449d-88b3-4de4-9900-3a6c3dfa23e2