ea0a76e69c3b8843976a3db69c93badadd86b320
[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 ** Directory-local variables can now be defined.
258 By default, Emacs looks in .dir-settings.el for directory-local
259 variables. For more information, see `set-directory-project' and
260 `define-project-bindings'.
261
262 ** Emacs can now use `auth-source' for authentication.
263 `smtpmail' and `url' (Tramp and Gnus also) use `auth-source' to obtain
264 login names and passwords. The match, if found, is reported
265 in *Messages* with the password blanked out.
266
267 ** `where-is-preferred-modifier' can specify your favorite modifier.
268
269 \f
270 * Startup Changes in Emacs 23.1
271
272 +++
273 ** The option `inhibit-startup-screen' (with aliases to old names
274 `inhibit-splash-screen' and `inhibit-startup-message') doesn't inhibit
275 display of the initial message in the *scratch* buffer. If you don't
276 want to display the initial message in the *scratch* buffer at startup,
277 you can set the option `initial-scratch-message' to nil.
278
279 ** New user option `initial-buffer-choice' specifies what to display
280 after starting Emacs: startup screen, *scratch* buffer, visiting a
281 file or directory.
282
283 ** New alias `argv' for `command-line-args-left'
284 This is a convenience alias, so that one can write `(pop argv)'
285 inside of --eval command line arguments in order to access
286 following arguments.
287
288 ** The abbrev file is no longer read at startup in batch mode.
289 \f
290 * Incompatible Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
291
292 ** In Dired, `dired-flag-garbage-files' is rebound from `&' to `%&'
293 on the regexp command prefix map.
294
295 +++
296 ** In Dired-x, all command guesses for ! are now added to the default
297 list accessible by M-n instead of pushing all guesses temporarily into
298 the history list.
299
300 +++
301 ** In Isearch mode, a special case of typing `C-w' at the beginning of
302 the minibuffer that toggles word search (i.e. using key sequences
303 `C-s RET C-w' or `C-s M-e C-w') is obsolete. You can use the global key
304 `M-s w' to start word search, or type `M-s w' in Isearch mode to
305 toggle word search.
306
307 ** In Text mode, `center-line' and `center-paragraph' are rebound
308 from `M-s' and `M-S' to global keys `M-o M-s' and `M-o M-S' on the
309 global prefix map `M-o' intended for such formatting commands.
310
311 ---
312 ** The following input methods were removed in Emacs 22.2, but this was
313 not advertised: danish-alt-postfix, esperanto-alt-postfix,
314 finnish-alt-postfix, german-alt-postfix, icelandic-alt-postfix,
315 norwegian-alt-postfix, scandinavian-alt-postfix, spanish-alt-postfix,
316 and swedish-alt-postfix. Use the versions without "alt-", which are
317 identical.
318
319 \f
320 * Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
321
322 +++
323 ** The C-n and C-p line-motion commands now move by screen lines,
324 taking continued lines and variable-width characters into account.
325 Setting `line-move-visual' to nil reverts this to the previous
326 behavior (motion by logical lines based on buffer contents alone).
327
328 +++
329 ** C-x C-c now invokes `save-buffers-kill-terminal', and C-z now
330 invokes `suspend-frame'. This change is for compatibility with the
331 new multi-tty support (see `Improved X Window System support' above).
332
333 ** Mark changes
334 +++
335 *** Transient Mark mode is now on by default.
336 +++
337 *** mark-even-if-inactive now defaults to t
338 +++
339 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, C-SPC C-SPC pushes a mark without
340 activating it.
341 +++
342 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-q now fills the region if the
343 region is active. Otherwise, it fills the current paragraph.
344 +++
345 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-$ now checks spelling of the
346 region if the region is active. Otherwise, it checks spelling of the
347 word at point.
348
349 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, TAB now indents the region if the
350 region is active.
351
352 *** `use-empty-active-region' controls whether an empty active region
353 in Transient Mark mode should make commands operate on that empty
354 region.
355
356 ** Temporarily active regions
357 +++
358 *** The new variable shift-select-mode, non-nil by default, controls
359 shift-selection. When Shift Select mode is on, shift-translated
360 motion keys (e.g. S-left and S-down) activate and extend a temporary
361 region, similar to mouse-selection.
362 +++
363 *** Temporarily active regions, created using shift-selection or
364 mouse-selection, are not necessarily deactivated in the next command.
365 They are only deactivated after point motion commands that are not
366 shift-translated, or after commands that would ordinarily deactivate
367 the mark in Transient Mark mode (e.g., any command that modifies the
368 buffer).
369
370 ** Minibuffer and completion changes
371 +++
372 *** When M-n in the minibuffer reaches the end of the list of defaults,
373 it adds the completion list to the end, so next M-n continues putting
374 completion items to the minibuffer. The same principle applies to
375 incremental search commands as well: C-s or C-M-s starts searching
376 the default values and after the end of defaults they continue
377 searching minibuffer completion items.
378 ---
379 *** Minibuffer input of shell commands now comes with completion.
380
381 *** In the `C-x d' (Dired) prompt, typing M-n gives the visited file
382 name of the current buffer.
383
384 *** In the M-! (shell-command) prompt, M-n provides some default commands.
385 These are guessed using the file extension of the current file, based
386 on the file-handlers specified in the operating system's `mailcap'
387 file. The ! command in Dired (dired-do-shell-command) works
388 similarly, using the file displayed on the current line.
389
390 *** A list of regexp default values is available via M-n for `occur',
391 `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many'. This list includes the active
392 region in transient-mark-mode, the word under the cursor, the last Isearch
393 regexp, the last Isearch string and the last replacement regexp.
394 ---
395 *** When enable-recursive-minibuffers is non-nil, operations which use
396 switch-to-buffer (such as C-x b and C-x C-f) do not fail any more when
397 used in a minibuffer or a dedicated window. Instead, they fallback on
398 using pop-to-buffer, which will use some other window. This change
399 has no effect when enable-recursive-minibuffers is nil (the default).
400 +++
401 *** Isearch started in the minibuffer searches in the minibuffer history.
402 Reverse Isearch commands (C-r, C-M-r) search in previous minibuffer
403 history elements, and forward Isearch commands (C-s, C-M-s) search in
404 next history elements. When the reverse search reaches the first history
405 element, it wraps to the last history element, and the forward search
406 wraps to the first history element. When the search is terminated, the
407 history element containing the search string becomes the current.
408
409 *** The variable read-file-name-completion-ignore-case overrides
410 completion-ignore-case for file name completion.
411
412 *** The variable read-buffer-completion-ignore-case overrides
413 completion-ignore-case for buffer name completion.
414 ---
415 *** `completion-styles' can be customized to choose your favorite
416 completion style.
417 ---
418 *** The default completion styles include a form of partial-completion.
419 ---
420 *** The new command `minibuffer-force-complete' chooses one of the
421 possible completions, rather than stopping at the common prefix.
422 +++
423 *** If `completion-auto-help' is `lazy', Emacs shows the completions
424 buffer only on the second attempt to complete. This was already
425 supported in `partial-completion-mode'.
426
427 ** Face changes
428
429 *** S-down-mouse-1 now pops up a menu for changing the font and text
430 size of the default face in the current buffer. The face is changed
431 via face remapping (see below).
432
433 *** FIXME face-remap
434
435 ** Primary selection changes
436
437 *** If `select-active-regions' is t, setting the mark automatically
438 makes the new region into the primary selection (for interaction with
439 other window applications). If you enable this, you might want to
440 bind `mouse-yank-primary' to Mouse-2.
441
442 *** You can disable kill ring commands from accessing the primary
443 selection by setting `x-select-enable-primary' to nil.
444
445 ** Continuation lines can now be wrapped at word boundaries
446 (word-wrapping). This is controlled by the new per-buffer variable
447 `word-wrap'. Word wrapping does not take place if continuation lines
448 are not shown, e.g. if truncate-lines is non-nil. The most convenient
449 way to enable word-wrapping is using the new minor mode Visual Line
450 mode; in addition to setting `word-wrap' to t, this rebinds some
451 editing commands to work on screen lines rather than text lines. See
452 New Modes and Packages, below.
453
454 ** Window management changes
455
456 *** truncate-partial-width-windows now accepts integer values, which
457 specify a minimum window width for partial-width windows, below which
458 lines are truncated. The default has been changed to 50.
459
460 *** The new command balance-windows-area balances windows both
461 vertically and horizontally.
462
463 ** Miscellaneous changes:
464
465 +++
466 *** C-l is bound to the new command recenter-top-bottom, rather than recenter.
467 This moves the current line to window center, top and bottom on
468 successive invokations.
469
470 *** scroll-preserve-screen-position also preserves the column position.
471
472 *** If `yank-pop-change-selection' is t, rotating the kill ring also
473 updates the selection or clipboard to the current yank, just as M-w
474 would do so with the text it copies to the kill ring.
475
476 +++
477 *** C-M-% now shows replacement as it would look in the buffer, with
478 `\N' and `\&' substituted according to the match. Old behavior can be
479 restored by customizing `query-replace-show-replacement'.
480
481 *** The command shell prompts for the default directory, when it is
482 called with a prefix and the default directory is a remote file name.
483 This is because some file name handlers (like ange-ftp) are not able to
484 run processes remotely.
485
486 +++
487 *** The new command kill-matching-buffers kills buffers whose name
488 matches a regexp.
489
490 *** The new commands `pp-macroexpand-expression' and
491 `pp-macroexpand-last-sexp' pretty-print macro expansions.
492
493 \f
494 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
495
496 ** FIXME add details of new packages imported from lisp/gnus.
497 [Maybe some information from doc/misc/gnus-coding.texi can be reused]
498
499 ** Auto Composition Mode is a minor mode that composes characters
500 automatically when they are displayed. It is globally on by default.
501 It uses `auto-composition-function' (default `auto-compose-chars').
502
503 ** Bubbles, a new game, is similar to SameGame.
504
505 ** bug-reference.el provides clickable links to bug reports.
506
507 ** dbus.el provides D-Bus language bindings.
508 D-Bus is an inter-process communication mechanism for applications
509 residing on the same host. See the manual for details.
510
511 ** Doc View mode allows viewing of PDF, PostScript and DVI documents.
512 One can also search for a regular expression in the document. For
513 details, see the commentary in doc-view.el.
514
515 PDF and DVI files are now opened in Doc View mode by default.
516
517 In Postcript mode, C-c C-c launches Doc View minor mode for viewing
518 the postscript file.
519
520 ** EasyPG provides an interface to the GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG).
521 It includes a GnuPG keyring browser, cryptographic operations on
522 regions and files, and automatic encryption of *.gpg files. For
523 details, see the EasyPG Assistant User's Manual.
524
525 ** json.el is a library for parsing and generating JSON
526 (JavaScript Object Notation), a lightweight data-interchange format.
527
528 ** linum.el is a new minor mode to display line numbers for the
529 current buffer.
530
531 ** mairix.el is an interface to mairix, a free tool for indexing and
532 searching locally stored mail. It allows you to query mairix and
533 display the search results with Rmail, Gnus and VM. Note that there
534 is an existing Gnus back end, nnmairix.el, which should be used with
535 Maildir/MH setups.
536
537 ** minibuffer-depth-indicate-mode shows the minibuffer depth in the prompt.
538
539 ** nXML Mode
540 This is a new mode for editing XML documents. It allows a schema to
541 be associated with the XML document being edited, using Relax NG as
542 the schema language. The schema is used to provide two key features:
543
544 *** Continuous validation. nXML validates as you type, highlighting
545 any invalid parts of your document.
546
547 *** Completion. nXML can assist you in entering an element name,
548 attribute name or data value by using information about what is
549 allowed by the schema in that context.
550
551 ** proced.el provides a Dired-like interface for operating on processes.
552 Proced makes an Emacs buffer containing a listing of the current
553 processes (using ps(1)). You can use the normal Emacs commands to
554 move around in this buffer, and special Proced commands to operate on
555 the processes listed.
556
557 ** Remember Mode is a mode for jotting down things to remember.
558 Notes can be saved to a Diary file. For details, see the Remember
559 Manual.
560
561 ** RST mode is a major mode for editing ReSTructured-Text files.
562
563 +++
564 ** Visual Line mode provides support for editing by visual lines.
565 It turns on word-wrapping in the current buffer, and rebinds C-a, C-e,
566 and C-k to commands that operate by visual lines instead of logical
567 lines. This is a more reliable replacement for longlines-mode.
568 This can also be turned on using the menu bar, via
569 Options -> Line Wrapping in this Buffer -> Word Wrap
570
571 ** xesam.el is an implementation of Xesam, an interface to (desktop)
572 search engines like Beagle, Strigi, and Tracker. The Xesam API
573 requires D-Bus for communication.
574
575 ** zeroconf.el offers service discovery and service publishing
576 interfaces according to the zeroconf specification. It communicates
577 with Avahi, a zeroconf implementation, via D-Bus messages on systems
578 which have installed this software.
579
580 ** There is a new `whitespace' package.
581 (The pre-existing one has been renamed to `old-whitespace'.)
582 Now, besides reporting bogus blanks, the whitespace package has a
583 minor mode and a global minor mode to visualize blanks (TAB, (HARD)
584 SPACE and NEWLINE). The visualization is made via faces and/or display
585 table. It can also indicate lines that extend beyond a given column,
586 trailing blanks, and empty lines at the start or end of a buffer.
587 See `whitespace-style' for more details. The `whitespace-action' option
588 specifies what to do when a buffer is visited, killed, or written.
589
590 \f
591 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
592
593 ** Abbrev has been rewritten in Elisp and extended with more flexibility.
594 *** New functions: abbrev-get, abbrev-put, abbrev-table-get, abbrev-table-put,
595 abbrev-table-p, abbrev-insert, abbrev-table-menu.
596 *** Special hook `abbrev-expand-functions' obsoletes `pre-abbrev-expand-hook'.
597 *** `make-abbrev-table', `define-abbrev', `define-abbrev-table' all take
598 extra arguments for arbitrary properties.
599 *** New variable `abbrev-minor-mode-table-alist'.
600 *** `local-abbrev-table' can hold a list of abbrev-tables.
601 *** Abbrevs have now the following special properties:
602 `:count', `:system', `:enable-function', `:case-fixed'.
603 *** Abbrev-tables have now the following special properties:
604 `:parents', `:case-fixed', `:enable-function', `:regexp',
605 `abbrev-table-modiff'.
606
607 ** Apropos
608 *** `apropos-library' describes the elements defined in a given library.
609 *** Set `apropos-compact-layout' is you want a more compact (but wider) layout.
610
611 ** Archive Mode has basic support to browse Rar archives.
612
613 ** BibTeX mode
614
615 *** New command `bibtex-initialize' (re)initializes BibTeX buffers.
616
617 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' options `whitespace', `braces', and
618 `string', disabled by default.
619
620 *** New variable `bibtex-cite-matcher-alist' contains rules to
621 identify cited keys in BibTeX entries, used by `bibtex-find-crossref'.
622
623 *** Command `bibtex-url' allows multiple URLs per entry.
624
625 ** Calendar and diary
626
627 +++
628 *** There is a new date style, `iso', essentially year/month/day.
629 The variable `european-calendar-style' is obsolete - use `calendar-date-style'.
630 Similarly, the commands `american-calendar' and `european-calendar'
631 should be replaced by `calendar-set-date-style'.
632
633 +++
634 *** The calendar namespace has been rationalized.
635 All functions and variables now begin with a `calendar-', `diary-', or
636 `holiday-' prefix. The various calendar systems have secondary
637 prefixes, eg `calendar-french-'. The old names you are likely to use
638 directly still exist, for the time being, as aliases, but please start
639 using the new names.
640
641 +++
642 *** The whitespace in the calendar layout can be customized.
643 See the variables:
644 calendar-left-margin, calendar-intermonth-spacing, calendar-column-width,
645 calendar-day-header-width, and calendar-day-digit-width.
646
647 +++
648 *** Text (e.g. ISO weeks) can be displayed between the calendar months.
649 See the variables calendar-intermonth-header and calendar-intermonth-text.
650
651 +++
652 *** The function `holiday-chinese' computes holidays on the Chinese calendar.
653 It has been used to add items to the list `holiday-oriental-holidays'.
654
655 ---
656 *** `diary-remind' accepts a negative number -DAYS as a shorthand for
657 the list (1 2 ... DAYS).
658
659 ** Change Log mode
660
661 *** The new command C-c C-f (change-log-find-file) finds the file
662 associated with the current log entry.
663
664 *** The new command C-c C-c (change-log-goto-source) goes to the
665 source code associated with a log entry.
666
667 ** Compile and grep modes
668
669 *** The mode-line entry for the *compilation* and *grep* buffer is color coded.
670 It has different colors for to show that: (a) the command is still
671 running, (b) successful completion, (c) error.
672
673 *** compilation-auto-jump-to-first-error tells `compile' to jump to
674 the first error encountered during compilations.
675
676 *** The `cc' alias for C++ files in `grep-file-aliases' has been
677 improved. `hh' can be used to match C++ header files and `cchh' both
678 C++ sources and headers.
679
680 ** Copyright
681
682 *** You can specify your copyright holders' names.
683 Only copyright lines with holders matching `copyright-names-regexp' are
684 considered for update.
685
686 *** Copyrights can be at the end of the buffer.
687 This is controlled by `copyright-at-end-flag' (used by, e.g., change-log-mode).
688
689 ** Custom
690 +++
691 *** defcustom accepts new keyword arguments, `:safe' and `:risky', which
692 set a variable's `safe-local-variable' and `risky-local-variable' property.
693
694 ** Diff mode
695
696 *** diff-refine-hunk highlights word-level details of changes in a diff hunk.
697 It's used automatically as you move through hunks, see
698 diff-auto-refine-mode. It is bound to `C-c C-b'.
699
700 *** diff-add-change-log-entries-other-window iterates through the diff
701 buffer and tries to create ChangeLog entries for each change.
702 It is bound to `C-x 4 A'.
703
704 *** The new function `diff-show-trailing-whitespaces' shows
705 trailing whitespace problems in the modified lines of a diff buffer.
706
707 ** Dired
708
709 *** In Dired, C-x C-q now runs the command wdired-change-to-wdired-mode,
710 and C-x C-q in wdired-mode exits it with asking a question about
711 saving changes.
712
713 *** `&' runs the command `dired-do-async-shell-command' that executes
714 the command asynchronously without the need to manually add ampersand
715 to the end of the command. Its output appears in the buffer `*Async Shell
716 Command*'.
717
718 *** `M-s f C-s' and `M-s f M-C-s' run Isearch that matches only at file names.
719 When a new user option `dired-isearch-filenames' is non-nil, then even
720 ordinary Isearch started with `C-s' and `C-M-s' matches only at file names
721 in the Dired buffer. You can toggle file names matching on or off
722 by typing `M-s f' in Isearch mode.
723
724 *** `M-s a C-s' and `M-s a M-C-s' run multi-file Isearch on the marked files.
725 They visit the first marked file in the sequence and display the usual Isearch
726 prompt for a string or a regexp where all Isearch commands are available.
727
728 *** `Q' in Dired provides two new keys for multi-file replacement.
729 The upper case key `Y' replaces all remaining matches in all remaining files
730 with no more questions. The upper case key `N' stops doing replacements
731 in the current file and skips to the next file. These multi-file keys
732 are available for all commands that use `tags-query-replace'
733 including `dired-do-query-replace-regexp', `vc-dir-query-replace-regexp',
734 `reftex-query-replace-document'.
735
736 ** Fortran
737 +++
738 *** The line length of fixed-form Fortran is not fixed at 72 any more.
739 Customize the variable `fortran-line-length' to change it.
740
741 +++
742 *** In Fortran mode, M-; is now bound to the standard comment-dwim,
743 rather than fortran-indent-comment.
744
745 +++
746 *** (The increasingly misnamed) F90 mode supports Fortran 2003 syntax.
747
748 ** Gnus
749
750 *** The Gnus package has been updated
751 There are many news features, bug fixes and improvements; see the file
752 GNUS-NEWS or the node "No Gnus" in the Gnus manual for details.
753
754 *** In Emacs 23, Gnus uses Emacs' new internal coding system `utf-8-emacs' for
755 saving articles drafts and ~/.newsrc.eld. These file may not be read
756 correctly in Emacs 22 and below. If you want to Gnus across different Emacs
757 versions, you may set `mm-auto-save-coding-system' to `emacs-mule'.
758
759 *** Password are consistently loaded through `auth-source'
760 Gnus can use `auth-source' for POP and IMAP passwords. Also see that
761 `smtpmail' and `url' support `auth-source' for SMTP and HTTP/HTTPS/RSS
762 authentication respectively.
763
764 ** Help mode
765 *** New macro `with-help-window' should set up help windows better
766 than `with-output-to-temp-buffer' with `print-help-return-message'.
767 *** New option `help-window-select' permits to customize whether help
768 window shall be automatically selected when invoking help.
769 *** New variable `help-window-point-marker' permits to specify new
770 position of point in help window (for example in `view-lossage').
771
772 ** Isearch
773 +++
774 *** New command `isearch-forward-word' bound globally to `M-s w' starts
775 incremental word search. New command `isearch-toggle-word' bound to the
776 same key `M-s w' in Isearch mode toggles word searching on or off
777 while Isearch is active.
778
779 *** New command `isearch-highlight-regexp' bound to `M-s h r' in Isearch
780 mode runs `highlight-regexp' (`hi-lock-face-buffer') with the current
781 search string as its regexp argument. The same key `M-s h r' and
782 other keys on the `M-s h' prefix are bound globally to the command
783 `highlight-regexp' and other hi-lock commands.
784 +++
785 *** New command `isearch-occur' bound to `M-s o' in Isearch mode
786 runs `occur' with the current search string. The same key `M-s o'
787 is bound globally to the command `occur'.
788 ---
789 *** Isearch can now search through multiple ChangeLog files.
790 When running Isearch in a ChangeLog file, if the search fails,
791 then another C-s tries searching the previous ChangeLog,
792 if there is one (e.g. go from ChangeLog to ChangeLog.12).
793 This is enabled if multi-isearch-search is non-nil.
794
795 *** Two new commands to start Isearch on a list of marked buffers
796 for buff-menu.el and ibuffer.el are bound to the keys `M-s a C-s' and
797 `M-s a M-C-s'.
798 +++
799 *** The part of an Isearch that failed to match is highlighted in
800 `isearch-fail' face.
801
802 *** `C-h C-h' in Isearch mode displays isearch-specific Help screen,
803 `C-h b' displays all Isearch key bindings, `C-h k' displays the full
804 documentation of the given Isearch key sequence, `C-h m' displays
805 documentation of Isearch mode. All the rest Help commands exit Isearch mode
806 and execute their global definitions.
807 +++
808 *** When started in the minibuffer, Isearch searches in the minibuffer
809 history. See `Minibuffer changes', above.
810
811 +++
812 ** MH-E
813
814 *** Upgraded to MH-E version 8.1. See MH-E-NEWS for details.
815
816 ** Python
817 *** The file etc/emacs.py now supports both Python 2 and 3, meaning
818 that either version can be used as inferior Python by python.el.
819
820 *** Python mode now has `pdbtrack' functionality. When using pdb to
821 debug a Python program, pdbtrack notices the pdb prompt and displays
822 the source file and line that the program is stopped at, much the same
823 way as gud-mode does for debugging C programs with gdb.
824
825 ** Recentf
826
827 *** The default value of `recentf-keep' prevents from checking of
828 remote files, if there is no established connection to the
829 corresponding remote host.
830
831 ** TeX modes
832
833 *** New option latex-indent-within-escaped-parens
834 permits to customize indentation of LaTeX environments delimited
835 by escaped parens.
836
837 ** T-mouse Mode
838
839 *** If the gpm mouse server is running and t-mouse-mode is enabled,
840 Emacs uses a Unix socket in a GNU/Linux console to talk to server,
841 rather than faking events using the client program mev. This C level
842 approach provides mouse highlighting and help echoing in the
843 minibuffer.
844
845 +++
846 ** Tramp
847
848 *** New connection methods.
849 The new methods "plinkx", "plink2", "psftp", "sftp" and "fish" have
850 been introduced. There are also new so-called gateway methods
851 "tunnel" and "socks".
852
853 *** Multihop syntax has been removed.
854 The pseudo-method "multi" has been removed. Instead of, multi hops
855 can be specified by the new variable `tramp-default-proxies-alist'.
856
857 *** More default settings.
858 Default values can be set via the variables `tramp-default-user',
859 `tramp-default-user-alist' and `tramp-default-host'.
860
861 *** Connection information is cached.
862 In order to reduce connection setup, information about used
863 connections are kept persistent in a file. The name of this file is
864 defined in the variable `tramp-persistency-file-name'.
865
866 *** Control of remote processes.
867 Running processes on a remote host can be controlled by settings in
868 `tramp-remote-path' and `tramp-remote-process-environment'.
869
870 *** Success of remote copy is checked.
871 When the variable `file-precious-flag' is set, the success of a remote
872 file copy is checked via the file's checksum.
873
874 *** Passwords can be read from an authentification file.
875 Tramp uses the package `auth-source' to read passwords from a file, if
876 necessary.
877
878 ** VC and related modes
879
880 *** VC now supports applying VC operations to a set of files at a time.
881 This enables VC to work much more effectively with changeset-oriented
882 version-control systems such as Subversion, GNU Arch, Mercurial, Git
883 and Bzr. VC will now pass a multiple-file commit to these systems as
884 a single changeset.
885
886 *** vc-dir is a new command that displays file names and their VC
887 status. It allows to apply various VC operations to a file, a
888 directory or a set of files/directories.
889
890 *** Clicking on the VC mode-line entry now pops the VC menu.
891
892 *** The VC mode-line entry now has a tooltip that explains the VC file status.
893
894 *** In VC Annotate mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
895 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
896 by typing the D key.
897
898 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type v to toggle the annotation visibility.
899
900 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type f to show the file revision on
901 the current line.
902
903 *** In VC Annotate mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you
904 can see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current
905 file) by typing the D key or using the "Show changeset diff of
906 revision at line" menu entry.
907
908 *** Asynchronous VC commands display [Waiting...] in the mode-line
909 of the corresponding buffer as long as the asynchronous process is
910 active.
911
912 *** Log entries can be modified using the key "e" in log-view.
913 For now only CVS, RCS, SCCS and SVN support this functionality.
914 This is done by the `modify-change-comment' backend function.
915
916 *** In log-view-mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
917 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
918 by typing the D key or using the "Changeset Diff" menu entry.
919
920 *** In Log Edit mode, C-c C-d now shows the diff for the files involved.
921
922 *** vc-git supports the "git grep" command.
923
924 *** VC Support for Meta-CVS has been removed for lack of maintainer able
925 to update it to the new VC.
926
927 ** Miscellaneous
928
929 *** comint-mode uses `start-file-process' now (see Lisp Changes).
930 If `default-directory' is a remote file name, subprocesses are started
931 on the corresponding remote system.
932
933 *** Eldoc highlights the function argument under point
934 with the face `eldoc-highlight-function-argument'.
935
936 *** In Etags, the --members option is now the default.
937 Use --no-members if you want the old default behavior of not tagging
938 struct members in C, members variables in C++ and variables in PHP.
939
940 *** The `gdb' command only works with the graphical interface now.
941 Use `gud-gdb' if you want the (old) text command mode.
942
943 *** goto-address.el provides two new minor modes, goto-address-mode and
944 goto-address-prog-mode, which buttonize URLS and email addresses.
945
946 *** The new command `eshell/info' runs info in an eshell buffer.
947
948 *** The new variable `ffap-rfc-directories' specifies a list of local
949 directories in which `ffap-rfc' will first search for RFCs.
950
951 *** hide-ifdef-mode allows shadowing ifdef-blocks instead of hiding them.
952 See option `hide-ifdef-shadow' and function `hide-ifdef-toggle-shadowing'.
953
954 *** `icomplete-prospects-height' now supercedes `icomplete-prospects-length'.
955
956 *** Info displays breadcrumbs in the header of the page.
957 See Info-breadcrumbs-depth to control it.
958
959 *** net-utils has an `iwconfig' command, similar to the existing `ifconfig'.
960 It is used to configure wireless interfaces.
961
962 *** The pcmpl-unix package supports hostname completion for ssh and scp.
963
964 *** sgml-electric-tag-pair-mode lets you simultaneously edit matched tag pairs.
965
966 *** smerge-refine highlights word-level details of changes in conflict.
967 It's used automatically as you move through conflicts, see
968 smerge-auto-refine-mode.
969
970 *** talk.el has been extended for multiple tty support.
971
972 *** A new command `display-time-world' has been added to the Time
973 package. It creates a buffer with an updating time display using
974 several time zones.
975
976 *** The appearance of superscript and subscript in TeX is more customizable.
977 See the documentation of the variables: tex-fontify-script,
978 tex-font-script-display, tex-suscript-height-ratio, and
979 tex-suscript-height-minimum.
980
981 *** view-remove-frame-by-deleting is now by default t
982 since users found iconification of view-mode frames distracting.
983
984 *** WoMan tries to add locale-specific manual page directories to the
985 search path. This can be disabled by setting `woman-locale' to nil.
986
987 \f
988 * Changes in Emacs 23.1 on non-free operating systems
989
990 ** Case is now considered significant in completion on MS-Windows.
991 The default value of `completion-ignore-case' is now nil on
992 MS-Windows, the same as it is for other operating systems. The
993 variable doesn't apply to reading a file name -- in that case Emacs
994 heeds `read-file-name-completion-ignore-case' instead.
995
996 ---
997 ** IPv6 is supported on MS-Windows.
998 Emacs now supports IPv6 on Windows XP and later, and earlier versions
999 of Windows with third party IPv6 stacks installed. In Emacs 22, IPv6 was
1000 supported on other platforms, but not on Windows due to using the winsock
1001 1.1 header file, even though Emacs was linking to the winsock 2 library.
1002
1003 ---
1004 ** Busy cursor (hourglass) now displays on MS-Windows.
1005 When Emacs is busy, an hourglass mouse cursor is displayed on Windows.
1006 In Emacs 22 only X supported the busy cursor.
1007
1008 ---
1009 ** Battery status is available on MS-Windows
1010 Emacs can now display the battery status in the mode-line when enabled with
1011 display-battery-mode or from the Options menu. More verbose battery
1012 information is also available with the command `battery'. In Emacs 22
1013 battery status was supported only on GNU/Linux and Mac.
1014
1015 ** More keys available on MS-Windows.
1016 Keys normally associated with IMEs, and some exotic keys not normally found
1017 on standard keyboards have been given names so they can be bound to functions
1018 inside Emacs. If there are keys on your keyboard that have not been exposed
1019 to Emacs in the past, try C-h k to see if they are available now.
1020
1021 Emacs can now bind functions to the extra buttons for media player and
1022 browser control present on some keyboards. These buttons are disabled
1023 by default, since enabling them prevents their system-wide use when
1024 Emacs has focus. To enable them, set the variable
1025 w32-pass-multimedia-buttons to nil. See the doc string of that variable
1026 for the list of extra keys that are available.
1027
1028 ** BDF fonts no longer supported on MS-Windows.
1029 The font backend was completely rewritten for this release. The focus
1030 on Windows has been getting acceptable performance and full unicode
1031 support, including complex script shaping for native Windows fonts. A
1032 rewrite of the BDF font support has not happened due to lack of time
1033 and developers. If demand still exists for such a backend even with
1034 the improved language support for native Windows fonts, future
1035 development in this direction will most likely be based on the
1036 freetype library, giving access to a wider range of font formats.
1037
1038 \f
1039 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
1040
1041 +++
1042 ** Variables cannot be both buffer-local and frame-local any more.
1043
1044 +++
1045 ** `functionp' returns nil for special forms.
1046 I.e., it only returns t for objects that can be passed to `funcall'.
1047
1048 +++
1049 ** The behavior of map-char-table has changed. It may call the
1050 specified function with a cons (FROM . TO) as a key if characters in
1051 that range have the same value.
1052
1053 ** Process changes
1054 +++
1055 *** The function `dired-call-process' has been removed.
1056 +++
1057 *** The multibyteness of process filters is now determined by the
1058 coding-system used for decoding. The functions
1059 `process-filter-multibyte-p' and `set-process-filter-multibyte' are
1060 obsolete.
1061
1062 ---
1063 ** The variable `byte-compile-warnings' can now be a list starting with `not',
1064 meaning to disable the specified warnings. The meaning of this list
1065 may therefore be the reverse of what you expect (of course, this is
1066 only an issue if you make use of the new `not' syntax). Rather than
1067 checking/manipulating elements directly, use the new functions
1068 `byte-compile-warning-enabled-p', `byte-compile-disable-warning', and
1069 `byte-compile-enable-warning.'
1070
1071 +++
1072 ** `mode-name' is no longer guaranteed to be a string.
1073 Use `(format-mode-line mode-name)' to ensure a string value.
1074
1075 ** Internationalization changes
1076
1077 *** The value of the function `charset-id' is now always 0.
1078
1079 *** The functions `register-char-codings' and `coding-system-spec'
1080 have been removed.
1081
1082 *** The cpXXX coding systems are now supported automatically.
1083 The functions cp-...-codepage, which you had to use in Emacs 22 to
1084 enable support for these coding systems, have been deleted.
1085
1086 *** The following features have been removed. They were used for
1087 displaying various scripts with specific fonts, and are no longer
1088 needed now that OpenType font support is available:
1089
1090 **** `devanagari' and `devan-util', and all associated devanagari-* and
1091 dev-* functions and variables (formerly used for Devanagari script).
1092
1093 **** `kannada' and `knd-util', and all associated kannada-* and knd-*
1094 functions and variables (formerly used for Kannada script).
1095
1096 **** `malayalam' and `mlm-util', and all associated malayalam-* and
1097 mlm-* functions and variables (formerly used for Malayalam script).
1098
1099 **** `tamil' and `tml-util, and all associated tamil-* and tml-*
1100 functions and variables (formerly used for Tamil script).
1101
1102 \f
1103 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
1104
1105 +++
1106 ** New primitives `list-system-processes' and `system-process-attributes'
1107 let Lisp programs access the processes that are running on the local
1108 machine. See the doc strings of these functions for more details.
1109 Not all platforms support accessing this information; on those that
1110 don't, these primitives will return nil.
1111
1112 +++
1113 ** New variable `user-emacs-directory'.
1114 Use this instead of "~/.emacs.d".
1115
1116 +++
1117 ** If a local hook function has a non-nil `permanent-local-hook'
1118 property, `kill-all-local-variables' does not remove it from the local
1119 value of the hook variable; it remains even if you change major modes.
1120
1121 +++
1122 ** `frame-inherited-parameters' lets new frames inherit parameters from
1123 the selected frame.
1124
1125 +++
1126 ** New keymap `input-decode-map' overrides like key-translation-map, but
1127 applies before function-key-map. Also it is terminal-local contrary to
1128 key-translation-map. Terminal-specific key-sequences are generally added to
1129 this map rather than to function-key-map now.
1130
1131 ** `ignore-errors' is now a standard macro (does not require the CL package).
1132
1133 ** `interprogram-paste-function' can now return one string or a list
1134 of strings. In the latter case, Emacs puts the second and following
1135 strings on the kill ring.
1136
1137 +++
1138 ** In `condition-case', a handler can specify "let the debugger run first".
1139 You do this by writing `debug' in the list of conditions to be handled,
1140 like this:
1141
1142 (condition-case nil
1143 (foo bar)
1144 ((debug error) nil))
1145
1146 +++
1147 ** clone-indirect-buffer now runs the clone-indirect-buffer-hook.
1148
1149 ** `beginning-of-defun-function' now takes one argument, the count
1150 given to `beginning-of-defun'.
1151
1152 +++
1153 ** `file-remote-p' has new optional parameters IDENTIFICATION and CONNECTED.
1154 IDENTIFICATION specifies which part of the remote identifier has to be
1155 returned. With CONNECTED passed non-nil, it is checked whether a
1156 remote connection has been established already.
1157
1158 +++
1159 ** The new macro `declare-function' suppresses compiler warnings about
1160 undefined functions.
1161
1162 ** Changes to interactive function handling
1163
1164 *** The new interactive spec code ^ says to first call
1165 handle-shift-selection if shift-select-mode is non-nil, before reading
1166 the command arguments. This is used for shift-selection (see above).
1167
1168 *** Built-in functions can now have an interactive specification that
1169 is not a prompt string. If the `intspec' parameter of a `DEFUN'
1170 starts with a `(', the string is evaluated as a Lisp form.
1171
1172 *** The interactive-form of a function can be added post-facto via the
1173 `interactive-form' symbol property. Mostly useful to add complex
1174 interactive forms to subroutines.
1175
1176 ** Region changes
1177
1178 *** Commands should use `use-region-p' to test whether there is
1179 an active region that they should operate on.
1180
1181 *** `region-active-p' returns non-nil when Transient Mark mode is
1182 enabled and there is an active region. This is NOT the best function
1183 to use to test whether a command should operate on the region instead
1184 of the usual behavior -- for that, use `use-region-p'.
1185
1186 *** If a command sets `transient-mark-mode' to (only . OLDVAL), that
1187 means to activate transient-mark-mode temporarily, until the next
1188 unshifted point motion command or mark deactivation. Afterwards,
1189 reset transient-mark-mode to the value OLDVAL. The values `only' and
1190 `identity', introduced in Emacs 22, are now deprecated.
1191
1192 ** Emacs session information
1193
1194 *** The new variables `before-init-time' and `after-init-time' record the
1195 value of `current-time' before and after Emacs loads the init files.
1196
1197 *** The new function `emacs-uptime' returns the uptime of an Emacs instance.
1198
1199 *** The new function `emacs-init-time' returns the duration of the
1200 Emacs initialization.
1201
1202 ** Changes affecting display-buffer
1203
1204 *** New value nil for split-height-threshold inhibits vertical splitting
1205 unless there's no other window.
1206
1207 *** New option split-width-threshold controls horizontal splitting.
1208
1209 *** A window can be split horizontally even when it's not full-width.
1210
1211 *** New option split-window-preferred-function can be set to a function
1212 to override the default splitting mechanism of display-buffer.
1213
1214 *** If pop-up-frames has the value `graphic-only', display-buffer only
1215 makes a separate frame on graphic displays.
1216
1217 ** Minibuffer and completion changes
1218 +++
1219 *** A list of default values can be specified for the DEFAULT argument of
1220 functions `read-from-minibuffer', `read-string', `read-command',
1221 `read-variable', `read-buffer', `completing-read'. Elements of this list
1222 are available for inserting into the minibuffer by typing `M-n'.
1223 For empty input these functions return the first element of this list.
1224
1225 *** New function `read-regexp' uses the regexp history and some useful
1226 regexp defaults (string at point, last Isearch/replacement regexp/string)
1227 via M-n when reading a regexp in the minibuffer.
1228
1229 *** minibuffer-local-must-match-filename-map is now named
1230 minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map.
1231
1232 *** `all-completions' may now return the base size in the last cdr.
1233 Since this means the returned list is not properly nil-terminated, this
1234 is an incompatible change and is thus enabled by the new variable
1235 completion-all-completions-with-base-size.
1236
1237 *** The `require-match' argument to `completing-read' accepts a new value
1238 `confirm-only'.
1239
1240 ** Search and replacement changes
1241 +++
1242 *** The regexp form \(?<num>:<regexp>\) specifies the group number explicitly.
1243 +++
1244 *** New function `match-substitute-replacement' returns the result of
1245 `replace-match' without actually using it in the buffer.
1246
1247 *** The new variable `replace-search-function' determines the function
1248 to use for searching in query-replace and replace-string.
1249
1250 *** The new variable `replace-re-search-function' determines the
1251 function to use for searching in `query-replace-regexp',
1252 `replace-regexp', `query-replace-regexp-eval', and
1253 `map-query-replace-regexp'.
1254
1255 *** New keymap `search-map' bound to `M-s' provides global bindings
1256 for search related commands.
1257
1258 *** New keymap `multi-query-replace-map' contains additonal keys bound
1259 to `automatic-all' and `exit-current' for multi-buffer interactive replacement.
1260
1261 *** The variable `inhibit-changing-match-data', if non-nil, prevents
1262 the search and match primitives from changing the match data.
1263
1264 *** New functions `word-search-forward-lax' and `word-search-backward-lax'.
1265 These are like `word-search-forward and `word-search-backward', except
1266 that the end of the search string need not match a word boundary,
1267 unless it ends in whitespace.
1268
1269 ** File handling changes
1270
1271 *** set-file-modes is now interactive and can take the mode value in
1272 symbolic notation thanks to auxiliary functions.
1273
1274 *** If you set find-file-confirm-nonexistent-file to t, then C-x C-f
1275 requires confirmation before opening a non-existent file.
1276
1277 ** Process changes
1278 +++
1279 *** The new function `start-file-process' is similar to `start-process',
1280 but obeys file handlers. The file handler is chosen based on
1281 `default-directory'. The functions `start-file-process-shell-command'
1282 and `process-file-shell-command' are also new; they call internally
1283 `start-file-process' and `process-file', respectively.
1284
1285 *** The new function `process-lines' executes an external program and
1286 returns its output as a list of lines.
1287
1288 ** Character code, representation, and charset changes.
1289
1290 The character code space is now 0x0..0x3FFFFF with no gap.
1291 Characters of code 0x0..0x10FFFF are Unicode characters of the same code points.
1292 Characters of code 0x3FFF80..0x3FFFFF are raw 8-bit bytes.
1293
1294 +++
1295 Generic characters no longer exist.
1296
1297 In buffers and strings, characters are represented by UTF-8 byte
1298 sequences in a multibyte buffer/string.
1299
1300 The concept of a charset has changed. A single character may belong
1301 to multiple charsets (e.g. a-grave, U+00E0, belongs to charsets
1302 unicode, iso-8859-1, iso-8859-3, etc).
1303
1304 *** The functions `split-char' and `make-char' now accept up to 4
1305 positional codes instead of just 2.
1306
1307 *** The functions `encode-char' and `decode-char' now accept any character sets.
1308
1309 *** The function `define-charset' now accepts a completely different
1310 form of arguments (old-style arguments still work).
1311
1312 *** The value of the function `char-charset' depends on the current
1313 priorities of charsets.
1314
1315 *** The function get-char-code-property now accepts many Unicode base
1316 character properties. They are `name', `general-category',
1317 `canonical-combining-class', `bidi-class', `decomposition',
1318 `decimal-digit-value', `digit-value', `numeric-value', `mirrored',
1319 `old-name', `iso-10646-comment', `uppercase', `lowercase', and
1320 `titlecase'.
1321
1322 *** The functions `modify-syntax-entry' and `modify-category-entry' now
1323 accept a cons of characters as the first argument, and modify all
1324 entries in that range of characters.
1325
1326 +++
1327 *** `translation-table-for-input' is now obsolete.
1328
1329 *** New functions:
1330
1331 **** `characterp' returns t if and only if the argument is a character.
1332 This replaces `char-valid-p', which is now obsolete.
1333
1334 **** `max-char' returns the maximum character code (currently #x3FFFFF).
1335
1336 **** `define-charset-alias' defines an alias of a charset.
1337
1338 **** `set-charset-priority' sets priorities of charsets.
1339
1340 **** `charset-priority-list' returns a prioritized list of charsets.
1341
1342 **** `unibyte-string' makes a unibyte string from bytes.
1343
1344 **** `define-char-code-property' defines a character code property.
1345
1346 **** `char-code-property-description' returns the description string of
1347 a character code property.
1348
1349 *** New variables:
1350
1351 **** file-local-variables-alist stores an alist of file-local
1352 variables defined in the current buffer.
1353
1354 **** `find-word-boundary-function-table' is a char-table of functions to
1355 search for a word boundary.
1356
1357 **** `char-script-table' is a char-table of script names.
1358
1359 **** `char-width-table' is a char-table of character widths.
1360
1361 **** `print-charset-text-property' controls how to handle `charset' text
1362 property on printing a string.
1363
1364 **** `printable-chars' is a char-table of printable characters.
1365
1366 ** Code conversion changes
1367
1368 *** The new function `define-coding-system' should be used to define a
1369 coding system instead of `make-coding-system' (which is now obsolete).
1370
1371 *** The functions `encode-coding-region' and `decode-coding-region'
1372 have an optional 4th argument to specify where the result of
1373 conversion should go.
1374
1375 *** The functions `encode-coding-string' and `decode-coding-string'
1376 have an optional 4th argument specifying a buffer to store the result
1377 of conversion.
1378
1379 *** The functions `set-coding-priority' and `make-coding-system' are obsolete.
1380
1381 *** New functions:
1382
1383 **** `with-coding-priority' executes Lisp code using the specified
1384 coding system priority order.
1385
1386 **** `check-coding-systems-region' checks if the text in the region is
1387 encodable by the specified coding systems.
1388
1389 **** `coding-system-aliases' returns a list of aliases of a coding system.
1390
1391 **** `coding-system-charset-list' returns a list of charsets supported
1392 by a coding system.
1393
1394 **** `coding-system-priority-list' returns a list of coding systems
1395 ordered by their priorities.
1396
1397 **** `set-coding-system-priority' sets priorities of coding systems.
1398
1399 ** There is a new input method, Robin, different from Quail.
1400 It has three functionalities:
1401 i) a simple input method (converts an ASCII sequence into a string).
1402 ii) converts an existing buffer substring into another string
1403 iii) reverse conversion (each character produced by a
1404 robin rule can hold the original ASCII sequence as a char-code-property)
1405
1406 *** The new function `robin-define-package' defines a Robin package.
1407
1408 *** The new function `robin-modify-package' modifies an existing Robin package.
1409
1410 *** The new function `robin-use-package' starts using a Robin package
1411 as an input method.
1412
1413 *** The new function `string-to-unibyte' is like `string-as-unibyte'
1414 but signals an error if STRING contains a non-ASCII, non-eight-bit
1415 character.
1416
1417 ** Changes related to the new font backend
1418
1419 Which font backends to use can be specified by the X resource "FontBackend".
1420 For instance, to use both X core fonts and Xft fonts:
1421
1422 Emacs.FontBackend: x,xft
1423
1424 If this resource is not set, Emacs tries to use all font backends
1425 available on your graphic device.
1426
1427 *** New frame parameter `font-backend' specifies a list of
1428 font-backends supported by the frame's graphic device. On X, they are
1429 currently `x' and `xft'.
1430
1431 *** The function `set-fontset-font' now accepts a script name as the
1432 second argument, and has an optional 5th argument to control how to
1433 set the font.
1434
1435 *** New functions:
1436
1437 **** `fontp' checks if the argument is a font-spec or font-entity.
1438
1439 **** `font-spec' creates a new font-spec object.
1440
1441 **** `font-get' returns a font property value.
1442
1443 **** `font-put' sets a font property value.
1444
1445 **** `font-face-attributes' returns a plist of face attributes set by a font.
1446
1447 **** `list-fonts' returns a list of font-entities matching a font spec.
1448
1449 **** `font-font' returns the font-entity best matching the given font spec.
1450
1451 **** `list-families' returns a list of family names of available fonts.
1452
1453 **** `font-xlfd-name' returns an XLFD name of a given font spec, font
1454 entity, or font object.
1455
1456 **** `clear-font-cache' clears all font caches.
1457
1458 ** Changes related to multiple-terminal (multi-tty) support
1459
1460 *** $TERM is now set to `dumb' for subprocesses. If you want to know the
1461 $TERM inherited by Emacs you will have to look inside initial-environment.
1462
1463 *** $DISPLAY is now dynamically inherited from the frame's `display'.
1464
1465 *** The `window-system' variable is now frame-local. The new
1466 `initial-window-system' variable contains the `window-system' value
1467 for the first frame. `window-system' is also now a function that
1468 takes a frame argument.
1469
1470 *** The `keyboard-translate-table' variable and the terminal and
1471 keyboard coding systems are now terminal-local.
1472
1473 *** You can specify a terminal device (`tty' parameter) and a terminal
1474 type (`tty-type' parameter) to `make-terminal-frame'.
1475
1476 *** The function `make-frame-on-display' now works during a tty
1477 session, and `make-frame-on-tty' works during a graphical session.
1478
1479 *** A new data type for terminals with functions: `get-device-terminal',
1480 `terminal-parameters', `terminal-parameter', `set-terminal-parameter'.
1481
1482 *** Function key sequences are now mapped using `local-function-key-map',
1483 a new variable. This inherits from the global variable function-key-map,
1484 which is not used directly any more.
1485
1486 *** New hooks:
1487
1488 **** before-hack-local-variables-hook is called after setting new
1489 variable file-local-variables-alist, and before actually applying the
1490 file-local variables.
1491
1492 **** `suspend-tty-functions' and `resume-tty-functions' are called
1493 after a tty frame has been suspended or resumed, respectively. The
1494 functions are called with the terminal id of the frame being
1495 suspended/resumed as a parameter.
1496
1497 **** The special hook `delete-terminal-functions' is called before
1498 deleting a terminal.
1499
1500 *** New functions:
1501
1502 **** `environment'
1503
1504 **** `make-frame-on-tty' creates a new frame on another tty device.
1505
1506 **** `delete-tty'
1507
1508 **** `suspend-tty'
1509
1510 **** `resume-tty'.
1511
1512 *** `initial-environment' holds the environment inherited from Emacs's parent.
1513
1514 ** Redisplay changes
1515
1516 *** For underlined characters, the distance between the underline and
1517 the baseline is controlled by a new variable, `underline-minimum-offset'.
1518
1519 *** You can now pass the value of the `invisible' property to
1520 invisible-p to check whether it would cause the text to be invisible.
1521 Convenient when checking invisibility of text with no buffer position
1522 (e.g. in before/after-strings).
1523
1524 *** `clear-image-cache' can be told to flush only images of a specific file.
1525
1526 *** `vertical-motion' can now be given a goal column.
1527 It now accepts a cons cell (COLS . LINES) in its first argument, which
1528 says to stop, where possible, at a pixel x-position equal to COLS
1529 times the default column width.
1530
1531 ** The Lisp interpreter now treats non-breaking space as whitespace.
1532
1533 ** Miscellaneous new functions
1534
1535 *** `format-seconds' converts a number of seconds into a readable
1536 string of days, hours, etc.
1537
1538 *** `apply-partially' performs a "curried" application of a function.
1539
1540 *** `read-shell-command' does what its name says, with completion. It
1541 uses the minibuffer-local-shell-command-map for that.
1542
1543 *** `buffer-swap-text' swaps text between two buffers. This can be
1544 useful for modes such as tar-mode, archive-mode, RMAIL.
1545
1546 *** `read-color' reads a color name using the minibuffer.
1547
1548 *** `face-all-attributes' returns an alist describing all the basic
1549 attributes of a given face.
1550
1551 *** `window-full-width-p' returns t if a window is as wide as its
1552 frame.
1553
1554 *** `split-string-and-unquote' does (what?)
1555
1556 *** `combine-and-quote-strings' does (what?)
1557
1558 *** `image-refresh' refreshes all images associated with a given image
1559 specification.
1560
1561 *** The two new functions `looking-at-p' and `string-match-p' can do
1562 the same matching as `looking-at' and `string-match' without changing
1563 the match data.
1564
1565 *** The two new functions `make-serial-process' and
1566 `serial-process-configure' provide a Lisp interface to the new serial
1567 port support (see Emacs changes, above).
1568
1569 ** Miscellaneous new variables
1570
1571 *** `this-command-keys-shift-translated' is non-nil if the key
1572 sequence invoking the current command was found by shift-translation.
1573
1574 *** `window-point-insertion-type' determines the insertion-type of the
1575 marker used for window-point.
1576
1577 *** bookmark provides `bookmark-make-record-function' so special major
1578 modes like Info can teach bookmark.el how to save and restore the
1579 relevant data.
1580
1581 *** `next-error-recenter' specifies how next-error should recenter the
1582 visited source file. Its value can be a number (for example, 0 for
1583 top line, -1 for bottom line), or nil for no recentering.
1584
1585 *** `fill-forward-paragraph-function' specifies which function the
1586 filling code should use to find paragraph boundaries.
1587
1588 *** `custom-note-var-changed' tells Custom to treat the change in a
1589 certain variable as having been made within Custom.
1590
1591 \f
1592 * New Packages for Lisp Programming in Emacs 23.1
1593
1594 ** The new package avl-tree.el deals with the AVL tree data structure.
1595
1596 +++
1597 ** The new package check-declare.el verifies the accuracy of
1598 declare-function macros (see Lisp Changes, above).
1599
1600 ** find-cmd.el can build `find' commands using lisp syntax.
1601
1602 ** The package misearch.el has been added. It allows Isearch to search
1603 through multiple buffers. A variable `multi-isearch-next-buffer-function'
1604 defines the function to call to get the next buffer to search in the series
1605 of multiple buffers. Top-level commands `multi-isearch-buffers',
1606 `multi-isearch-buffers-regexp', `multi-isearch-files' and
1607 `multi-isearch-files-regexp' accept a single argument that specifies
1608 a list of buffers/files to search for a string/regexp.
1609
1610 ** The new major mode `special-mode' is intended as a parent for
1611 major modes such as those that set the "'mode-class 'special" property.
1612
1613 \f
1614 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1615 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
1616
1617 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1618 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1619 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1620 (at your option) any later version.
1621
1622 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1623 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1624 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1625 GNU General Public License for more details.
1626
1627 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1628 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
1629
1630 \f
1631 Local variables:
1632 mode: outline
1633 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
1634 end:
1635
1636 arch-tag: e759449d-88b3-4de4-9900-3a6c3dfa23e2