1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2001-03-15
2 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
6 For older news, see the file ONEWS
9 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
10 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
11 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
15 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.4
17 ** Emacs can now be built without sound support.
19 ** Emacs now supports new configure options `--program-prefix',
20 `--program-suffix' and `--program-transform-name' that affect the names of
23 ** By default, Emacs now uses a setgid helper program to update game
24 scores. The directory ${localstatedir}/games/emacs is the normal
25 place for game scores to be stored. This may be controlled by the
26 configure option `--with-game-dir'. The specific user that Emacs uses
27 to own the game scores is controlled by `--with-game-user'. If access
28 to a game user is not available, then scores will be stored separately
29 in each user's home directory.
32 ** Leim is now part of the Emacs distribution.
33 You no longer need to download a separate tarball in order to build
37 ** Support for AIX 5.1 was added.
40 ** Support for FreeBSD/Alpha has been added.
43 ** Support for BSD/OS 5.0 was added.
46 ** Support for GNU/Linux systems on S390 machines was added.
49 ** Support for MacOS X was added.
50 See the files mac/README and mac/INSTALL for build instructions.
52 ** Support for GNU/Linux systems on X86-64 machines was added.
54 * Changes in Emacs 21.4
57 ** You can now customize the use of window fringes. To control this
58 for all frames, use M-x fringe-mode or the Show/Hide submenu of the
59 top-level Options menu, or customize the `fringe-mode' variable. To
60 control this for a specific frame, use the command M-x
64 ** There is a new user option `mail-default-directory' that allows you
65 to specify the value of `default-directory' for mail buffers. This
66 directory is used for auto-save files of mail buffers. It defaults to
70 ** ps-print can now print Unicode characters.
72 Printing text with characters from the mule-unicode-* sets works with
73 ps-print, provided that you have installed the appropriate BDF fonts.
74 See the file INSTALL for URLs where you can find these fonts.
77 ** The new options `buffers-menu-show-directories' and
78 `buffers-menu-show-status' let you control how buffers are displayed
79 in the menu dropped down when you click "Buffers" from the menu bar.
81 `buffers-menu-show-directories' controls whether the menu displays
82 leading directories as part of the file name visited by the buffer.
83 If its value is `unless-uniquify', the default, directories will be
84 shown unless uniquify-buffer-name-style' is non-nil. The value of nil
85 and t turn the display of directories off and on, respectively.
87 `buffers-menu-show-status' controls whether the Buffers menu includes
88 the modified and read-only status of the buffers. By default it is
89 t, and the status is shown.
91 Setting these variables directly does not take effect until next time
92 the Buffers menu is regenerated.
95 ** `C-u C-x =' now displays text properties of the character at point.
98 ** The commands M-x customize-face and M-x customize-face-other-window
99 now look at the character after point. If a face or faces are
100 specified for that character, the commands by default customize those
103 ** Limited support for charset unification has been added.
104 By default, Emacs now knows how to translate latin-N chars between their
105 charset and some other latin-N charset or unicode. You can force a
106 more complete unification by calling (unify-8859-on-decoding-mode 1).
109 ** The scrollbar under LessTif or Motif has a smoother drag-scrolling.
110 On the other hand, the size of the thumb does not represent the actual
111 amount of text shown any more (only a crude approximation of it).
114 ** Emacs can produce an underscore-like (horizontal bar) cursor.
115 The underscore cursor is set by putting `(cursor-type . hbar)' in
116 default-frame-alist. It supports variable heights, like the `bar'
119 ** Filesets are collections of files. You can define a fileset in
120 various ways, such as based on a directory tree or based on
121 program files that include other program files.
123 Once you have defined a fileset, you can perform various operations on
124 all the files in it, such as visiting them or searching and replacing
128 ** PO translation files are decoded according to their MIME headers
129 when Emacs visits them.
132 ** The game `mpuz' is enhanced.
134 `mpuz' now allows the 2nd factor not to have two identical digits. By
135 default, all trivial operations involving whole lines are performed
136 automatically. The game uses faces for better visual feedback.
139 ** On X and MS Windows, the blinking cursor's "off" state is now shown
140 as a hollow box or a thin bar.
143 ** Emacs now supports compound-text Extended Segments in X selections.
145 Some versions of X, notably XFree86, use Extended Segments to encode
146 in X selections characters that belong to character sets which are not
147 part of the list of approved standard encodings defined by the ICCCM
148 spec. Examples of such non-standard encodings include ISO 8859-14, ISO
149 8859-15, KOI8-R, and BIG5. The new coding system
150 `compound-text-with-extensions' supports these extensions, and is now
151 used by default for encoding and decoding X selections. If you don't
152 want this support, set `selection-coding-system' to `compound-text'.
155 ** The parameters of automatic hscrolling can now be customized.
156 The variable `hscroll-margin' determines how many columns away from
157 the window edge point is allowed to get before automatic hscrolling
158 will horizontally scroll the window. The default value is 5.
160 The variable `hscroll-step' determines how many columns automatic
161 hscrolling will scroll the window when point gets too close to the
162 window edge. If its value is zero, the default, Emacs scrolls the
163 window so as to center point. If its value is an integer, it says how
164 many columns to scroll. If the value is a floating-point number, it
165 gives the fraction of the window's width to scroll the window.
168 ** The user option `tex-start-options-string' has been replaced
169 by two new user options: `tex-start-options', which should hold
170 command-line options to feed to TeX, and `tex-start-commands' which should hold
171 TeX commands to use at startup.
174 ** The variable `automatic-hscrolling' was renamed to `auto-hscroll-mode'.
175 The old name is still available as an alias.
178 ** New display feature: focus follows mouse. If you set the variable
179 mouse-autoselect-window to non-nil value, moving the mouse to a different
180 Emacs window will select that window (minibuffer window can be selected
181 only when it is active). The default is nil, so that this feature is not
184 ** The new command `describe-char pops up a buffer with description
185 various information about a character, including its encodings and
186 syntax, its text properties, overlays, and widgets at point. You can
187 get more information about some of them, by clicking on
188 mouse-sensitive areas or moving there and pressing RET.
191 ** The new command `multi-occur' is just like `occur', except it can
192 search multiple buffers. There is also a new command
193 `multi-occur-by-filename-regexp' which allows you to specify the
194 buffers to search by their filename. Internally, Occur mode has been
195 rewritten, and now uses font-lock, among other changes.
198 ** Emacs normally highlights mouse sensitive text whenever the mouse
199 is over the text. By setting the new variable `mouse-highlight', you
200 can optionally enable mouse highlighting only after you move the
201 mouse, so that highlighting disappears when you press a key. You can
202 also disable mouse highlighting.
205 ** font-lock: in modes like C and Lisp where the fontification assumes that
206 an open-paren in column 0 is always outside of any string or comment,
207 font-lock now highlights any such open-paren-in-column-zero in bold-red
208 if it is inside a string or a comment, to indicate that it can cause
209 trouble with fontification and/or indentation.
212 ** There's a new face `minibuffer-prompt'.
213 Emacs adds this face to the list of text properties stored in the
214 variable `minibuffer-prompt-properties', which is used to display the
218 ** The new face `mode-line-inactive' is used to display the mode line
219 of non-selected windows. The `mode-line' face is now used to display
220 the mode line of the currently selected window.
222 The new variable `mode-line-in-non-selected-windows' controls whether
223 the `mode-line-inactive' face is used.
226 ** A menu item "Show/Hide" was added to the top-level menu "Options".
227 This menu allows you to turn various display features on and off (such
228 as the fringes, the tool bar, the speedbar, and the menu bar itself).
229 You can also move the vertical scroll bar to either side here or turn
230 it off completely. There is also a menu-item to toggle displaying of
231 current date and time, current line and column number in the
235 ** Speedbar has moved from the "Tools" top level menu to "Show/Hide".
238 ** Emacs can now indicate in the mode-line the presence of new e-mails
239 in a directory or in a file. See the documentation of the user option
240 `display-time-mail-directory'.
243 ** The new option `Info-scroll-prefer-subnodes' causes Info to behave
244 like the stand-alone Info reader (from the GNU Texinfo package) as far
245 as motion between nodes and their subnodes is concerned. If it is t
246 (the default), Emacs behaves as before when you type SPC in a menu: it
247 visits the subnode pointed to by the first menu entry. If this option
248 is nil, SPC scrolls to the end of the current node, and only then goes
249 to the first menu item, like the stand-alone reader does.
251 This change was already in Emacs 21.1, but wasn't advertised in the
255 ** LDAP support now defaults to ldapsearch from OpenLDAP version 2.
258 ** You can now disable pc-selection-mode after enabling it.
259 M-x pc-selection-mode behaves like a proper minor mode, and with no
260 argument it toggles the mode.
262 Turning off PC-Selection mode restores the global key bindings
263 that were replaced by turning on the mode.
266 ** Emacs now displays a splash screen by default even if command-line
267 arguments were given. The new command-line option --no-splash
268 disables the splash screen; see also the variable
269 `inhibit-startup-message' (which is also aliased as
270 `inhibit-splash-screen').
272 ** Changes in support of colors on character terminals
275 *** The new command-line option --color=MODE lets you specify a standard
276 mode for a tty color support. It is meant to be used on character
277 terminals whose capabilities are not set correctly in the terminal
278 database, or with terminal emulators which support colors, but don't
279 set the TERM environment variable to a name of a color-capable
280 terminal. "emacs --color" uses the same color commands as GNU `ls'
281 when invoked with "ls --color", so if your terminal can support colors
282 in "ls --color", it will support "emacs --color" as well. See the
283 user manual for the possible values of the MODE parameter.
286 *** Emacs now supports several character terminals which provide more
287 than 8 colors. For example, for `xterm', 16-color, 88-color, and
288 256-color modes are supported. Emacs automatically notes at startup
289 the extended number of colors, and defines the appropriate entries for
293 *** There's a new support for colors on `rxvt' terminal emulator.
296 ** Emacs can now be invoked in full-screen mode on a windowed display.
298 When Emacs is invoked on a window system, the new command-line options
299 `--fullwidth', `--fullheight', and `--fullscreen' produce a frame
300 whose width, height, or both width and height take up the entire
301 screen size. (For now, this does not work with some window managers.)
303 ** Info-index finally offers completion.
305 ** shell-mode now supports programmable completion using `pcomplete'.
307 ** Emacs now tries to set up buffer coding systems for HTML/XML files
308 automatically. This is accomplished using the general mechanism of a
309 new variable called `auto-coding-functions', which you may add to. If
310 the coding system is detected incorrectly, you may use coding: tags to
313 ** The new command `comint-input-previous-argument' in comint-derived
314 modes (shell-mode etc) inserts arguments from previous command lines,
315 like bash's `ESC .' binding. It is bound by default to `C-c .', but
316 otherwise behaves quite similarly to the bash version.
318 ** Controlling the left and right fringe widths.
320 The left and right fringe widths can now be controlled by setting the
321 `left-fringe' and `right-fringe' frame parameters to an integer value
322 specifying the width in pixels. Setting the width to 0 effectively
323 removes the corresponding fringe.
325 The actual fringe widths may deviate from the specified widths, since
326 the combined fringe widths must match an integral number of columns.
327 The extra width is distributed evenly between the left and right fringe.
328 For force a specific fringe width, specify the width as a negative
329 integer (if both widths are negative, only the left fringe gets the
332 Setting the width to nil (the default), restores the default fringe
333 width which is the minimum number of pixels necessary to display any
334 of the currently defined fringe bitmaps. The width of the built-in
335 fringe bitmaps is 8 pixels.
337 ** Changes in C-h bindings:
339 C-h e displays the *Messages* buffer.
341 C-h followed by a control character is used for displaying files
344 C-h C-f displays the FAQ.
345 C-h C-e displays the PROBLEMS file.
347 The info-search bindings on C-h C-f, C-h C-k and C-h C-i
348 have been moved to C-h F, C-h K and C-h S.
350 C-h c, C-h k, C-h w, and C-h f now handle remapped interactive commands.
352 - C-h c and C-h k report the actual command (after possible remapping)
353 run by the key sequence.
355 - C-h w and C-h f on a command which has been remapped now report the
356 command it is remapped to, and the keys which can be used to run
359 For example, if C-k is bound to kill-line, and kill-line is remapped
360 to new-kill-line, these commands now report:
362 - C-h c and C-h k C-k reports:
363 C-k runs the command new-kill-line
365 - C-h w and C-h f kill-line reports:
366 kill-line is remapped to new-kill-line which is on C-k, <deleteline>
368 - C-h w and C-h f new-kill-line reports:
369 new-kill-line is on C-k
371 ** C-w in incremental search now grabs either a character or a word,
372 making the decision in a heuristic way. This new job is done by the
373 command `isearch-yank-word-or-char'. To restore the old behavior,
374 bind C-w to `isearch-yank-word' in `isearch-mode-map'.
376 ** Yanking text now discards certain text properties that can
377 be inconvenient when you did not expect them. The variable
378 `yank-excluded-properties' specifies which ones. Insertion
379 of register contents and rectangles also discards these properties.
381 ** Occur, Info, and comint-derived modes now support using
382 M-x font-lock-mode to toggle fontification. The variable
383 `Info-fontify' is no longer applicable; to disable fontification,
384 remove `turn-on-font-lock' from `Info-mode-hook'.
386 ** The Emacs Lisp byte-compiler now displays the actual line and
387 character position of errors, where possible. Additionally, the form
388 of its warning and error messages have been brought more in line with
389 the output of other GNU tools.
391 ** M-x grep now tries to avoid appending `/dev/null' to the command line
392 by using GNU grep `-H' option instead. M-x grep will automatically
393 detect whether this is possible or not the first time it is invoked.
394 When `-H' is used, the grep command line supplied by the user is passed
395 unchanged to the system to execute, which allows more complicated
396 command lines to be used than was possible before.
398 ** The face-customization widget has been reworked to be less confusing.
399 In particular, when you enable a face attribute using the corresponding
400 check-box, there's no longer a redundant `*' option in value selection
401 for that attribute; the values you can choose are only those which make
402 sense for the attribute. When an attribute is de-selected by unchecking
403 its check-box, then the (now ignored, but still present temporarily in
404 case you re-select the attribute) value is hidden.
406 ** In GUD mode when talking to GDB, C-x C-a C-j "jumps" the program
407 counter to the specified source line (the one where point is).
409 ** GUD mode improvements for jdb:
411 *** Search for source files using jdb classpath and class
412 information. Fast startup since there is no need to scan all
413 source files up front. There is also no need to create and maintain
414 lists of source directories to scan. Look at `gud-jdb-use-classpath'
415 and `gud-jdb-classpath' customization variables documentation.
417 *** Supports the standard breakpoint (gud-break, gud-clear)
418 set/clear operations from java source files under the classpath, stack
419 traversal (gud-up, gud-down), and run until current stack finish
422 *** Supports new jdb (Java 1.2 and later) in addition to oldjdb
425 *** The previous method of searching for source files has been
426 preserved in case someone still wants/needs to use it.
427 Set gud-jdb-use-classpath to nil.
429 Added Customization Variables
431 *** gud-jdb-command-name. What command line to use to invoke jdb.
433 *** gud-jdb-use-classpath. Allows selection of java source file searching
434 method: set to t for new method, nil to scan gud-jdb-directories for
435 java sources (previous method).
437 *** gud-jdb-directories. List of directories to scan and search for java
438 classes using the original gud-jdb method (if gud-jdb-use-classpath
443 *** Do not allow debugger output history variable to grow without bounds.
445 ** hide-ifdef-mode now uses overlays rather than selective-display
446 to hide its text. This should be mostly transparent but slightly
447 changes the behavior of motion commands line C-e and C-p.
449 ** In Dired's ! command (dired-do-shell-command), `*' and `?' now
450 control substitution of the file names only when they are surrounded
451 by whitespace. This means you can now use them as shell wildcards
452 too. If you want to use just plain `*' as a wildcard, type `*""'; the
453 doublequotes make no difference in the shell, but they prevent
454 special treatment in `dired-do-shell-command'.
456 ** Dired's v command now runs external viewers to view certain
457 types of files. The variable `dired-view-command-alist' controls
458 what external viewers to use and when.
460 ** Unquoted `$' in file names do not signal an error any more when
461 the corresponding environment variable does not exist.
462 Instead, the `$ENVVAR' text is left as is, so that `$$' quoting
463 is only rarely needed.
465 ** jit-lock can now be delayed with `jit-lock-defer-time'.
467 If this variable is non-nil, its value should be the amount of Emacs
468 idle time in seconds to wait before starting fontification. For
469 example, if you set `jit-lock-defer-time' to 0.25, fontification will
470 only happen after 0.25s of idle time.
473 ** Marking commands extend the region when invoked multiple times. If
474 you hit M-C-SPC (mark-sexp), M-@ (mark-word), M-h (mark-paragraph), or
475 C-M-h (mark-defun) repeatedly, the marked region will now be extended
476 each time, so you can mark the next two sexps with M-C-SPC M-C-SPC,
477 for example. This feature also works for mark-end-of-sentence, if you
480 ** Some commands do something special in Transient Mark mode when the
481 mark is active--for instance, they limit their operation to the
482 region. Even if you don't normally use Transient Mark mode, you might
483 want to get this behavior from a particular command. There are two
484 ways you can enable Transient Mark mode temporarily, and activate the
485 mark, for one command only.
487 One is to type C-SPC C-SPC; this also sets the mark. The other is to
488 type C-u C-x C-x, which does not alter the region.
490 After these commands, Transient Mark mode remains enabled
491 until you deactivate the mark--typically with a command that
492 alters the buffer, or typing C-g.
494 ** A prefix argument is no longer required to repeat a jump to a
495 previous mark, i.e. C-u C-SPC C-SPC C-SPC ... will cycle through the
496 mark ring. Use C-u C-u C-SPC to set the mark immediately after a jump.
498 ** In the *Occur* buffer, `o' switches to it in another window, and
499 C-o displays the current line's occurrence in another window without
502 ** When you specify a frame size with --geometry, the size applies to
503 all frames you create. A position specified with --geometry only
504 affects the initial frame.
507 ** M-h (mark-paragraph) now accepts a prefix arg.
508 With positive arg, M-h marks the current and the following paragraphs;
509 if the arg is negative, it marks the current and the preceding
512 ** In Dired, the w command now copies the current line's file name
515 ** The variables dired-free-space-program and dired-free-space-args
516 have been renamed to directory-free-space-program and
517 directory-free-space-args, and they now apply whenever Emacs puts a
518 directory listing into a buffer.
520 ** mouse-wheels can now scroll a specific fraction of the window
521 (rather than a fixed number of lines) and the scrolling is `progressive'.
523 ** The keyboard-coding-system is now automatically set based on
524 your current locale settings. If it turns out that your terminal
525 does not support the encoding implied by your locale (for example,
526 it inserts non-ASCII chars if you hit M-i), you will need to add
528 (set-keyboard-coding-system nil)
530 to your .emacs to revert to the old behavior.
532 ** A new coding system `euc-tw' has been added for traditional Chinese
533 in CNS encoding; it accepts both Big 5 and CNS as input; on saving,
534 Big 5 is then converted to CNS.
537 ** Emacs now reads the standard abbrevs file ~/.abbrev_defs
538 automatically at startup, if it exists. When Emacs offers to save
539 modified buffers, it saves the abbrevs too if they have changed. It
540 can do this either silently or asking for confirmation first,
541 according to the value of `save-abbrevs'.
543 ** Display of hollow cursors now obeys the buffer-local value (if any)
544 of `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' in the buffer that the cursor
547 ** The default values of `tooltip-delay' and `tooltip-hide-delay'
550 ** On terminals whose erase-char is ^H (Backspace), Emacs
551 now uses normal-erase-is-backspace-mode.
553 ** The variable `auto-save-file-name-transforms' now has a third element that
554 controls whether or not the function `make-auto-save-file-name' will
555 attempt to construct a unique auto-save name (e.g. for remote files).
559 *** There is a new user option `vc-cvs-global-switches' that allows
560 you to specify switches that are passed to any CVS command invoked
561 by VC. These switches are used as "global options" for CVS, which
562 means they are inserted before the command name. For example, this
563 allows you to specify a compression level using the "-z#" option for
569 *** When comparing directories.
570 Typing D brings up a buffer that lists the differences between the contents of
571 directories. Now it is possible to use this buffer to copy the missing files
572 from one directory to another.
575 *** When comparing files or buffers.
576 Typing the = key now offers to perform the word-by-word comparison of the
577 currently highlighted regions in an inferior Ediff session. If you answer 'n'
578 then it reverts to the old behavior and asks the user to select regions for
583 *** New regular expressions features
585 **** New syntax for regular expressions, multi-line regular expressions.
586 The syntax --ignore-case-regexp=/regex/ is now undocumented and retained
587 only for backward compatibility. The new equivalent syntax is
588 --regex=/regex/i. More generally, it is --regex=/TAGREGEX/TAGNAME/MODS,
589 where `/TAGNAME' is optional, as usual, and MODS is a string of 0 or
590 more characters among `i' (ignore case), `m' (multi-line) and `s'
591 (single-line). The `m' and `s' modifiers behave as in Perl regular
592 expressions: `m' allows regexps to match more than one line, while `s'
593 (which implies `m') means that `.' matches newlines. The ability to
594 span newlines allows writing of much more powerful regular expressions
595 and rapid prototyping for tagging new languages.
597 **** Regular expressions can use char escape sequences as in Gcc
598 The escaped character sequence \a, \b, \d, \e, \f, \n, \r, \t, \v,
599 respectively, stand for the ASCII characters BEL, BS, DEL, ESC, FF, NL,
602 **** Regular expressions can be bound to a given language
603 The syntax --regex={LANGUAGE}REGEX means that REGEX is used to make tags
604 only for files of language LANGUAGE, and ignored otherwise. This is
605 particularly useful when storing regexps in a file.
607 **** Regular expressions can be read from a file
608 The --regex=@regexfile option means read the regexps from a file, one
609 per line. Lines beginning with space or tab are ignored.
611 *** New language parsing features
613 **** In Perl, packages are tags.
614 Subroutine tags are named from their package. You can jump to sub tags
615 as you did before, by the sub name, or additionally by looking for
618 **** New language PHP: tags are functions, classes and defines.
619 If the --members option is specified to etags, tags are vars also.
621 **** New default keywords for TeX.
622 The new keywords are def, newcommand, renewcommand, newenvironment and
625 **** In Makefiles, constants are tagged
626 If you want the old behaviour instead, thus avoiding to increase the
627 size of the tags file, use the --no-globals option.
629 **** In Prolog, etags creates tags for rules in addition to predicates.
631 *** Honour #line directives.
632 When Etags parses an input file that contains C preprocessor's #line
633 directives, it creates tags using the file name and line number
634 specified in those directives. This is useful when dealing with code
635 created from Cweb source files. When Etags tags the generated file, it
636 writes tags pointing to the source file.
638 *** New option --parse-stdin=FILE
639 This option is mostly useful when calling etags from programs. It can
640 be used (only once) in place of a file name on the command line. Etags
641 will read from standard input and mark the produced tags as belonging to
645 ** The command line option --no-windows has been changed to
646 --no-window-system. The old one still works, but is deprecated.
648 ** The command `list-text-properties-at' has been deleted because
649 C-u C-x = gives the same information and more.
651 ** `buffer-menu' and `list-buffers' now list buffers whose names begin
652 with a space, if they visit files.
654 ** You can now customize fill-nobreak-predicate to control where
655 filling can break lines. We provide two sample predicates,
656 fill-single-word-nobreak-p and fill-french-nobreak-p.
658 ** New user option `add-log-always-start-new-record'.
659 When this option is enabled, M-x add-change-log-entry will always
660 start a new record regardless of when the last record is.
662 ** New user option `sgml-xml'.
663 When this option is enabled, SGML tags are inserted in XML style,
664 i.e., there is always a closing tag.
665 When not customized, it becomes buffer-local when it can be inferred
666 from the file name or buffer contents.
668 ** `xml-mode' is now an alias for `smgl-mode', which has XML support.
670 ** New user option `isearch-resume-enabled'.
671 This option can be disabled, to avoid the normal behaviour of isearch
672 which puts calls to `isearch-resume' in the command history.
675 ** When the *scratch* buffer is recreated, its mode is set from
676 initial-major-mode, which normally is lisp-interaction-mode,
677 instead of using default-major-mode.
680 ** Lisp-mode now uses font-lock-doc-face for the docstrings.
682 ** perl-mode has a new variable `perl-indent-continued-arguments'.
684 ** fortran-mode has a new variable `fortran-directive-re'.
686 ** f90-mode has new navigation commands `f90-end-of-block',
687 `f90-beginning-of-block', `f90-next-block', `f90-previous-block'.
689 ** prolog-mode has a new variable `prolog-font-lock-keywords'
690 to support use of font-lock.
692 ** `special-display-buffer-names' and `special-display-regexps' now
693 understand two new boolean pseudo-frame-parameters `same-frame' and
696 ** When pure storage overflows while dumping, Emacs now prints how
697 much pure storage it will approximately need.
699 ** M-x setenv now expands environment variables of the form `$foo' and
700 `${foo}' in the specified new value of the environment variable. To
701 include a `$' in the value, use `$$'.
704 ** File-name completion can now ignore directories.
705 If an element of the list in `completion-ignored-extensions' ends in a
706 slash `/', it indicates a subdirectory that should be ignored when
707 completing file names. Elements of `completion-ignored-extensions'
708 which do not end in a slash are never considered when a completion
709 candidate is a directory.
712 ** New user option `inhibit-startup-buffer-menu'.
713 When loading many files, for instance with `emacs *', Emacs normally
714 displays a buffer menu. This option turns the buffer menu off.
717 ** Rmail now displays 5-digit message ids in its summary buffer.
719 ** When using M-x revert-buffer in a compilation buffer to rerun a
720 compilation, it is now made sure that the compilation buffer is reused
721 in case it has been renamed.
724 ** On MS Windows, the "system caret" now follows the cursor.
725 This enables Emacs to work better with programs that need to track
726 the cursor, for example screen magnifiers and text to speech programs.
729 ** Tooltips now work on MS Windows.
730 See the Emacs 21.1 NEWS entry for tooltips for details.
733 ** Some images are now supported on Windows.
734 PBM and XBM images are supported, other formats which require external
735 libraries may be supported in future.
737 ** Pointing devices with more than 3 buttons are now supported on MS Windows.
738 The new variable `w32-pass-extra-mouse-buttons-to-system' controls
739 whether Emacs should handle the extra buttons itself (the default), or
740 pass them to Windows to be handled with system-wide functions.
742 ** Under X11, it is possible to swap Alt and Meta (and Super and Hyper).
743 The new variables `x-alt-keysym', `x-hyper-keysym', `x-meta-keysym',
744 and `x-super-keysym' can be used to choose which keysyms Emacs should
745 use for the modifiers. For example, the following two lines swap
747 (setq x-alt-keysym 'meta)
748 (setq x-meta-keysym 'alt)
751 ** A French translation of the `Emacs Survival Guide' is available.
754 ** A French translation of the Emacs Tutorial is available.
756 ** When emacs is configured to use `xaw3d' scroll-bars, emacs will
757 tell the scroll-bar library which colors to use for the bevels, to
758 prevent the library from using dithering.
760 ** New modes and packages
762 *** The new cua package provides CUA-like keybindings using C-x for
763 cut (kill), C-c for copy, C-v for paste (yank), and C-z for undo.
764 With cua, the region can be set and extended using shifted movement
765 keys (like pc-selection-mode) and typed text replaces the active
766 region (like delete-selection-mode). Do not enable these modes with
767 cua-mode. Customize the variable `cua-mode' to enable cua.
769 In addition, cua provides unified rectangle support with visible
770 rectangle highlighting: Use S-return to start a rectangle, extend it
771 using the movement commands (or mouse-3), and cut or copy it using C-x
772 or C-c (using C-w and M-w also works).
774 Use M-o and M-c to `open' or `close' the rectangle, use M-b or M-f, to
775 fill it with blanks or another character, use M-u or M-l to upcase or
776 downcase the rectangle, use M-i to increment the numbers in the
777 rectangle, use M-n to fill the rectangle with a numeric sequence (such
778 as 10 20 30...), use M-r to replace a regexp in the rectangle, and use
779 M-' or M-/ to restrict command on the rectangle to a subset of the
780 rows. See the commentary in cua-base.el for more rectangle commands.
782 Cua also provides unified support for registers: Use a numeric
783 prefix argument between 0 and 9, i.e. M-0 .. M-9, for C-x, C-c, and
784 C-v to cut or copy into register 0-9, or paste from register 0-9.
786 The last text deleted (not killed) is automatically stored in
787 register 0. This includes text deleted by typing text.
789 Finally, cua provides a global mark which is set using S-C-space.
790 When the global mark is active, any text which is cut or copied is
791 automatically inserted at the global mark position. See the
792 commentary in cua-base.el for more global mark related commands.
794 The features of cua also works with the standard emacs bindings for
795 kill, copy, yank, and undo. If you want to use cua mode, but don't
796 want the C-x, C-c, C-v, and C-z bindings, you may customize the
797 `cua-enable-cua-keys' variable.
799 *** The new keypad setup package provides simplified configuration
800 of the numeric keypad which is available on most keyboards.
803 *** Calc is now part of the Emacs distribution.
805 Calc is an advanced desk calculator and mathematical tool written in
806 Emacs Lisp. Its documentation is in a separate manual; within Emacs,
807 type "C-h i m calc RET" to read that manual. A reference card is
808 available in `etc/calccard.tex' and `etc/calccard.ps'.
811 *** The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual is now part of the distribution.
813 The ELisp reference manual in Info format is built as part of the
814 Emacs build procedure and installed together with the Emacs User
815 Manual. A menu item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy
816 accessible (Help->More Manuals->Emacs Lisp Reference).
818 *** Tramp is now part of the distribution.
820 This package is similar to Ange-FTP: it allows you to edit remote
821 files. But whereas Ange-FTP uses FTP to access the remote host,
822 Tramp uses a shell connection. The shell connection is always used
823 for filename completion and directory listings and suchlike, but for
824 the actual file transfer, you can choose between the so-called
825 `inline' methods (which transfer the files through the shell
826 connection using base64 or uu encoding) and the `out-of-band' methods
827 (which invoke an external copying program such as `rcp' or `scp' or
828 `rsync' to do the copying).
830 Shell connections can be acquired via `rsh', `ssh', `telnet' and also
834 ** Indentation of simple and extended loop forms has been added to the
835 cl-indent package. The new user options
836 `lisp-loop-keyword-indentation', `lisp-loop-forms-indentation', and
837 `lisp-simple-loop-indentation' can be used to customize the
838 indentation of keywords and forms in loop forms.
841 ** Indentation of backquoted forms has been made customizable in the
842 cl-indent package. See the new user option `lisp-backquote-indentation'.
845 *** The Introduction to Programming in Emacs Lisp manual is now part of
848 This manual is now part of the standard distribution and is installed,
849 together with the Emacs User Manual, into the Info directory. A menu
850 item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy accessible
851 (Help->More Manuals->Introduction to Emacs Lisp).
853 *** The new global minor mode `read-file-name-electric-shadow-mode'
854 modifies the way filenames being entered by the user in the minibuffer are
855 displayed, so that it's clear when part of the entered filename will be
856 ignored due to emacs' filename parsing rules. The ignored portion can be
857 made dim, invisible, or otherwise less visually noticable. The display
858 method may be displayed by customizing the variable
859 `read-file-name-electric-shadow-properties'.
861 *** The ruler-mode.el library provides a minor mode for displaying an
862 "active" ruler in the header line. You can use the mouse to visually
863 change the `fill-column', `window-margins' and `tab-stop-list'
866 *** The minor mode Reveal mode makes text visible on the fly as you
867 move your cursor into hidden region of the buffer.
868 It should work with any package that uses overlays to hide parts
869 of a buffer, such as outline-minor-mode, hs-minor-mode, hide-ifdef-mode, ...
871 There is also Global Reveal mode which affects all buffers.
874 *** The new package ibuffer provides a powerful, completely
875 customizable replacement for buff-menu.el.
878 ** Support for `magic cookie' standout modes has been removed.
879 Emacs will still work on terminals that require magic cookies in order
880 to use standout mode, however they will not be able to display
881 mode-lines in inverse-video.
884 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 21.4
886 ** The `read-file-name' function now takes an additional argument which
887 specifies a predicate which the file name read must satify. The
888 new variable `read-file-name-predicate' contains the predicate argument
889 while reading the file name from the minibuffer; the predicate in this
890 variable is used by read-file-name-internal to filter the completion list.
892 ** The new variable `read-file-name-function' can be used by lisp code
893 to override the internal read-file-name function.
895 ** The new function `read-directory-name' can be used instead of
896 `read-file-name' to read a directory name; when used, completion
897 will only show directories.
899 ** The New lisp library fringe.el controls the apperance of fringes.
901 ** The `defmacro' form may contain declarations specifying how to
902 indent the macro in Lisp mode and how to debug it with Edebug. The
903 syntax of defmacro has been extended to
905 (defmacro NAME LAMBDA-LIST [DOC-STRING] [DECLARATION ...] ...)
907 DECLARATION is a list `(declare DECLARATION-SPECIFIER ...)'. The
908 declaration specifiers supported are:
911 Set NAME's `lisp-indent-function' property to INDENT.
914 Set NAME's `edebug-form-spec' property to DEBUG. (This is
915 equivalent to writing a `def-edebug-spec' for the macro.
917 ** Interactive commands can be remapped through keymaps.
919 This is an alternative to using defadvice or substitute-key-definition
920 to modify the behaviour of a key binding using the normal keymap
921 binding and lookup functionality.
923 When a key sequence is bound to a command, and that command is
924 remapped to another command, that command is run instead of the
928 Suppose that minor mode my-mode has defined the commands
929 my-kill-line and my-kill-word, and it wants C-k (and any other key
930 bound to kill-line) to run the command my-kill-line instead of
931 kill-line, and likewise it wants to run my-kill-word instead of
934 Instead of rebinding C-k and the other keys in the minor mode map,
935 command remapping allows you to directly map kill-line into
936 my-kill-line and kill-word into my-kill-word through the minor mode
937 map using define-key:
939 (define-key my-mode-map [remap kill-line] 'my-kill-line)
940 (define-key my-mode-map [remap kill-word] 'my-kill-word)
942 Now, when my-mode is enabled, and the user enters C-k or M-d,
943 the commands my-kill-line and my-kill-word are run.
945 Notice that only one level of remapping is supported. In the above
946 example, this means that if my-kill-line is remapped to other-kill,
947 then C-k still runs my-kill-line.
949 The following changes have been made to provide command remapping:
951 - Command remappings are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
952 `remap', i.e. `(define-key MAP [remap CMD] DEF)' remaps command CMD
953 to definition DEF in keymap MAP. The definition is not limited to
954 another command; it can be anything accepted for a normal binding.
956 - The new function `remap-command' returns the binding for a remapped
957 command in the current keymaps, or nil if it isn't remapped.
959 - key-binding now remaps interactive commands unless the optional
960 third argument NO-REMAP is non-nil.
962 - where-is-internal now returns nil for a remapped command (e.g.
963 kill-line if my-mode is enabled), and the actual key binding for
964 the command it is remapped to (e.g. C-k for my-kill-line).
965 It also has a new optional fifth argument, NO-REMAP, which inhibits
966 remapping if non-nil (e.g. it returns C-k for kill-line and
967 <kill-line> for my-kill-line).
969 - The new variable `this-original-command' contains the original
970 command before remapping. It is equal to `this-command' when the
971 command was not remapped.
973 ** New variable emulation-mode-map-alists.
975 Lisp packages using many minor mode keymaps can now maintain their own
976 keymap alist separate from minor-mode-map-alist by adding their keymap
979 ** Atomic change groups.
981 To perform some changes in the current buffer "atomically" so that
982 they either all succeed or are all undone, use `atomic-change-group'
983 around the code that makes changes. For instance:
989 If an error (or other nonlocal exit) occurs inside the body of
990 `atomic-change-group', it unmakes all the changes in that buffer that
991 were during the execution of the body. The change group has no effect
992 on any other buffers--any such changes remain.
994 If you need something more sophisticated, you can directly call the
995 lower-level functions that `atomic-change-group' uses. Here is how.
997 To set up a change group for one buffer, call `prepare-change-group'.
998 Specify the buffer as argument; it defaults to the current buffer.
999 This function returns a "handle" for the change group. You must save
1000 the handle to activate the change group and then finish it.
1002 Before you change the buffer again, you must activate the change
1003 group. Pass the handle to `activate-change-group' afterward to
1006 After you make the changes, you must finish the change group. You can
1007 either accept the changes or cancel them all. Call
1008 `accept-change-group' to accept the changes in the group as final;
1009 call `cancel-change-group' to undo them all.
1011 You should use `unwind-protect' to make sure the group is always
1012 finished. The call to `activate-change-group' should be inside the
1013 `unwind-protect', in case the user types C-g just after it runs.
1014 (This is one reason why `prepare-change-group' and
1015 `activate-change-group' are separate functions.) Once you finish the
1016 group, don't use the handle again--don't try to finish the same group
1019 To make a multibuffer change group, call `prepare-change-group' once
1020 for each buffer you want to cover, then use `nconc' to combine the
1021 returned values, like this:
1023 (nconc (prepare-change-group buffer-1)
1024 (prepare-change-group buffer-2))
1026 You can then activate the multibuffer change group with a single call
1027 to `activate-change-group', and finish it with a single call to
1028 `accept-change-group' or `cancel-change-group'.
1030 Nested use of several change groups for the same buffer works as you
1031 would expect. Non-nested use of change groups for the same buffer
1032 will lead to undesirable results, so don't let it happen; the first
1033 change group you start for any given buffer should be the last one
1037 ** New variable char-property-alias-alist.
1039 This variable allows you to create alternative names for text
1040 properties. It works at the same level as `default-text-properties',
1041 although it applies to overlays as well. This variable was introduced
1042 to implement the `font-lock-face' property.
1044 ** New special text property `font-lock-face'.
1046 This property acts like the `face' property, but it is controlled by
1047 M-x font-lock-mode. It is not, strictly speaking, a builtin text
1048 property. Instead, it is implemented inside font-core.el, using the
1049 new variable `char-property-alias-alist'.
1051 ** New function remove-list-of-text-properties.
1053 The new function `remove-list-of-text-properties' is almost the same
1054 as `remove-text-properties'. The only difference is that it takes
1055 a list of property names as argument rather than a property list.
1057 ** New functions insert-for-yank and insert-buffer-substring-as-yank.
1059 These functions work like `insert' and `insert-buffer-substring', but
1060 removes the text properties in the `yank-excluded-properties' list.
1062 ** New function insert-buffer-substring-no-properties.
1064 ** New function display-supports-face-attributes-p may be used to test
1065 whether a given set of face attributes is actually displayable.
1067 A new predicate `supports' has also been added to the `defface' face
1068 specification language, which can be used to do this test for faces
1069 defined with defface.
1071 ** Enhanced networking support.
1073 *** There is a new `make-network-process' function which supports
1074 opening of stream and datagram connections to a server, as well as
1075 create a stream or datagram server inside emacs.
1077 - A server is started using :server t arg.
1078 - Datagram connection is selected using :type 'datagram arg.
1079 - A server can open on a random port using :service t arg.
1080 - Local sockets are supported using :family 'local arg.
1081 - Non-blocking connect is supported using :nowait t arg.
1083 To test for the availability of a given feature, use featurep like this:
1084 (featurep 'make-network-process '(:type datagram))
1086 *** Original open-network-stream is now emulated using make-network-process.
1088 *** New function open-network-stream-nowait.
1090 This function initiates a non-blocking connect and returns immediately
1091 before the connection is established. The filter and sentinel
1092 functions can be specified as arguments to open-network-stream-nowait.
1093 When the non-blocking connect completes, the sentinel is called with
1094 the status matching "open" or "failed".
1096 *** New function open-network-stream-server.
1097 MORE INFO NEEDED HERE.
1099 *** New functions process-datagram-address and set-process-datagram-address.
1100 MORE INFO NEEDED HERE.
1102 *** By default, the function process-contact still returns (HOST SERVICE)
1103 for a network process. Using the new optional KEY arg, the complete list
1104 of network process properties or a specific property can be selected.
1106 Using :local and :remote as the KEY, the address of the local or
1107 remote end-point is returned. An Inet address is represented as a 5
1108 element vector, where the first 4 elements contain the IP address and
1109 the fifth is the port number.
1111 *** Network processes can now be stopped and restarted with
1112 `stop-process' and `continue-process'. For a server process, no
1113 connections are accepted in the stopped state. For a client process,
1114 no input is received in the stopped state.
1116 *** Function list-processes now has an optional argument; if non-nil,
1117 only the processes whose query-on-exit flag is set are listed.
1119 *** New set-process-query-on-exit-flag and process-query-on-exit-flag
1120 functions. The existing process-kill-without-query function is still
1121 supported, but new code should use the new functions.
1123 ** New function copy-tree.
1125 ** New function substring-no-properties.
1127 ** New function minibuffer-selected-window.
1129 ** New function `call-process-shell-command'.
1131 ** The dummy function keys made by easymenu
1132 are now always lower case. If you specify the
1133 menu item name "Ada", for instance, it uses `ada'
1134 as the "key" bound by that key binding.
1136 This is relevant only if Lisp code looks for
1137 the bindings that were made with easymenu.
1139 ** The function `commandp' takes an additional optional
1140 argument. If it is non-nil, then `commandp' checks
1141 for a function that could be called with `call-interactively',
1142 and does not return t for keyboard macros.
1144 ** master-mode.el implements a minor mode for scrolling a slave
1145 buffer without leaving your current buffer, the master buffer.
1147 It can be used by sql.el, for example: the SQL buffer is the master
1148 and its SQLi buffer is the slave. This allows you to scroll the SQLi
1149 buffer containing the output from the SQL buffer containing the
1152 This is how to use sql.el and master.el together: the variable
1153 sql-buffer contains the slave buffer. It is a local variable in the
1156 (add-hook 'sql-mode-hook
1157 (function (lambda ()
1159 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
1160 (add-hook 'sql-set-sqli-hook
1161 (function (lambda ()
1162 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
1164 ** File local variables.
1166 A file local variables list cannot specify a string with text
1167 properties--any specified text properties are discarded.
1170 *** The meanings of scroll-up-aggressively and scroll-down-aggressively
1171 have been interchanged, so that the former now controls scrolling up,
1172 and the latter now controls scrolling down.
1175 ** New function window-body-height.
1177 This is like window-height but does not count the mode line
1180 ** New function format-mode-line.
1182 This returns the mode-line or header-line of the selected (or a
1183 specified) window as a string without text properties.
1185 ** New functions `lax-plist-get' and `lax-plist-put'.
1187 These functions are like `plist-get' and `plist-put' except that they
1188 compare the property name using `equal' rather than `eq'.
1190 ** New function `tool-bar-local-item-from-menu'
1192 The `tool-bar-add-item-from-menu' most not be used (as previously
1193 recommended) for making entries in the tool bar for local keymaps.
1194 Instead, use the function `tool-bar-local-item-from-menu', which lets
1195 you specify the map to use as an argument.
1198 ** The function `atan' now accepts an optional second argument.
1200 When called with 2 arguments, as in `(atan Y X)', `atan' returns the
1201 angle in radians between the vector [X, Y] and the X axis. (This is
1202 equivalent to the standard C library function `atan2'.)
1205 ** You can now make a window as short as one line.
1207 A window that is just one line tall does not display either a mode
1208 line or a header line, even if the variables `mode-line-format' and
1209 `header-line-format' call for them. A window that is two lines tall
1210 cannot display both a mode line and a header line at once; if the
1211 variables call for both, only the mode line actually appears.
1214 ** The new frame parameter `tty-color-mode' specifies the mode to use
1215 for color support on character terminal frames. Its value can be a
1216 number of colors to support, or a symbol. See the Emacs Lisp
1217 Reference manual for more detailed documentation.
1219 ** Mode line display ignores text properties in the value
1220 of a variable whose `risky-local-variables' property is nil.
1222 ** Already true in Emacs 21.1, but not emphasized clearly enough:
1224 Multibyte buffers can now faithfully record all 256 character codes
1225 from 0 to 255. As a result, most of the past reasons to use unibyte
1226 buffers no longer exist. We only know of three reasons to use them
1229 1. If you prefer to use unibyte text all of the time.
1231 2. For reading files into temporary buffers, when you want to avoid
1232 the time it takes to convert the format.
1234 3. For binary files where format conversion would be pointless and
1237 ** If text has a `keymap' property, that keymap takes precedence
1238 over minor mode keymaps.
1240 ** A hex escape in a string forces the string to be multibyte.
1241 An octal escape makes it unibyte.
1243 ** Only one of the beginning or end of an invisible, intangible region is
1244 considered an acceptable value for point; which one is determined by
1245 examining how the invisible/intangible properties are inherited when new
1246 text is inserted adjacent to them. If text inserted at the beginning would
1247 inherit the invisible/intangible properties, then that position is
1248 considered unacceptable, and point is forced to the position following the
1249 invisible/intangible text. If text inserted at the end would inherit the
1250 properties, then the opposite happens.
1252 Thus, point can only go to one end of an invisible, intangible region, but
1253 not the other one. This prevents C-f and C-b from appearing to stand still
1256 ** field-beginning and field-end now accept an additional optional
1260 ** define-abbrev now accepts an optional argument SYSTEM-FLAG. If
1261 non-nil, this marks the abbrev as a "system" abbrev, which means that
1262 it won't be stored in the user's abbrevs file if he saves the abbrevs.
1263 Major modes that predefine some abbrevs should always specify this
1266 ** Support for Mocklisp has been removed.
1268 ** The function insert-string is now obsolete.
1270 ** The precedence of file-name-handlers has been changed.
1271 Instead of blindly choosing the first handler that matches,
1272 find-file-name-handler now gives precedence to a file-name handler
1273 that matches near the end of the file name. More specifically, the
1274 handler whose (match-beginning 0) is the largest is chosen.
1275 In case of ties, the old "first matched" rule applies.
1277 ** Dense keymaps now handle inheritance correctly.
1278 Previously a dense keymap would hide all of the simple-char key
1279 bindings of the parent keymap.
1281 ** jit-lock obeys a new text-property `jit-lock-defer-multiline'.
1282 If a piece of text with that property gets contextually refontified
1283 (see jit-lock-defer-contextually), then all of that text will
1284 be refontified. This is useful when the syntax of a textual element
1285 depends on text several lines further down (and when font-lock-multiline
1286 is not appropriate to solve that problem). For example in Perl:
1294 Adding/removing the last `e' changes the `bar' from being a piece of
1295 text to being a piece of code, so you'd put a jit-lock-defer-multiline
1296 property over the second half of the command to force (deferred)
1297 refontification of `bar' whenever the `e' is added/removed.
1299 ** describe-vector now takes a second argument `describer' which is
1300 called to print the entries' values. It defaults to `princ'.
1302 ** face-attribute, face-foreground, face-background, and face-stipple now
1303 accept a new optional argument, INHERIT, which controls how face
1304 inheritance is used when determining the value of a face attribute.
1306 ** defcustom and other custom declarations now use a default group
1307 (the last group defined in the same file) when no :group was given.
1309 ** emacsserver now runs pre-command-hook and post-command-hook when
1310 it receives a request from emacsclient.
1312 ** The variable `recursive-load-depth-limit' has been deleted.
1313 Emacs now signals an error if the same file is loaded with more
1314 than 3 levels of nesting.
1316 ** The default values of paragraph-start and indent-line-function have
1317 been changed to reflect those used in Text mode rather than those used
1318 in Indented-Text mode.
1320 ** If a major mode function has a non-nil `no-clone-indirect'
1321 property, `clone-indirect-buffer' signals an error if you use
1324 ** If you set `query-replace-skip-read-only' non-nil,
1325 `query-replace' and related functions simply ignore
1326 a match if part of it has a read-only property.
1328 ** In `replace-match', the replacement text no longer inherits
1329 properties from surrounding text.
1331 ** New function `buffer-local-value'.
1333 - Function: buffer-local-value variable buffer
1335 This function returns the buffer-local binding of VARIABLE (a symbol)
1336 in buffer BUFFER. If VARIABLE does not have a buffer-local binding in
1337 buffer BUFFER, it returns the default value of VARIABLE instead.
1339 ** The default value of `paragraph-start' and `indent-line-function' has
1340 been changed to reflect the one used in Text mode rather than the one
1341 used in Indented Text mode.
1343 ** New function `text-clone-create'. Text clones are chunks of text
1344 that are kept identical by transparently propagating changes from one
1347 ** font-lock can manage arbitrary text-properties beside `face'.
1348 *** the FACENAME returned in font-lock-keywords can be a list
1349 of the form (face FACE PROP1 VAL1 PROP2 VAL2 ...) so you can set
1350 other properties than `face'.
1351 *** font-lock-extra-managed-props can be set to make sure those extra
1352 properties are automatically cleaned up by font-lock.
1354 ** The special treatment of faces whose names are of the form `fg:COLOR'
1355 or `bg:COLOR' has been removed. Lisp programs should use the
1356 `defface' facility for defining faces with specific colors.
1358 ** The new function `run-mode-hooks' and the new macro `delay-mode-hooks'
1359 are used by define-derived-mode to make sure the mode hook for the
1360 parent mode is run at the end of the child mode.
1362 ** `provide' and `featurep' now accept an optional second argument
1363 to test/provide subfeatures. Also `provide' now checks `after-load-alist'
1364 and run any code associated with the provided feature.
1366 ** The variable `compilation-parse-errors-filename-function' can
1367 be used to transform filenames found in compilation output.
1370 ** Functions `file-name-sans-extension' and `file-name-extension' now
1371 ignore the leading dots in file names, so that file names such as
1372 `.emacs' are treated as extensionless.
1374 ** Functions `user-uid' and `user-real-uid' now return floats if the
1375 user UID doesn't fit in a Lisp integer. Function `user-full-name'
1376 accepts a float as UID parameter.
1378 ** `define-key-after' now accepts keys longer than 1.
1380 ** `define-derived-mode' now accepts nil as the parent.
1382 ** The local variable `no-byte-compile' in elisp files is now obeyed.
1384 ** New functions `keymap-prompt' and `current-active-maps'.
1386 ** New function `describe-buffer-bindings'.
1388 ** New vars `exec-suffixes' and `load-suffixes' used when
1389 searching for an executable resp. an elisp file.
1391 ** Variable aliases have been implemented:
1393 - Macro: defvaralias ALIAS-VAR BASE-VAR
1395 This defines the symbol ALIAS-VAR as a variable alias for symbol
1396 BASE-VAR. This means that retrieving the value of ALIAS-VAR returns
1397 the value of BASE-VAR, and changing the value of ALIAS-VAR changes the
1400 - Function: indirect-variable VARIABLE
1402 This function returns the variable at the end of the chain of aliases
1403 of VARIABLE. If VARIABLE is not a symbol, or if VARIABLE is not
1404 defined as an alias, the function returns VARIABLE.
1406 It might be noteworthy that variables aliases work for all kinds of
1407 variables, including buffer-local and frame-local variables.
1409 ** Functions from `post-gc-hook' are run at the end of garbage
1410 collection. The hook is run with GC inhibited, so use it with care.
1412 ** If the second argument to `copy-file' is the name of a directory,
1413 the file is copied to that directory instead of signaling an error.
1415 ** The variables most-positive-fixnum and most-negative-fixnum
1416 have been moved from the CL package to the core.
1418 ** On MS Windows, locale-coding-system is used to interact with the OS.
1419 The Windows specific variable w32-system-coding-system, which was
1420 formerly used for that purpose is now an alias for locale-coding-system.
1422 ** Functions y-or-n-p, read-char, read-keysequence and alike that
1423 display a prompt but don't use the minibuffer now display the prompt
1424 using the text properties (esp. the face) of the prompt string.
1428 *** The new package syntax.el provides an efficient way to find the
1429 current syntactic context (as returned by parse-partial-sexp).
1431 *** The TCL package tcl-mode.el was replaced by tcl.el.
1432 This was actually done in Emacs-21.1, and was not documented.
1434 *** The new package button.el implements simple and fast `clickable buttons'
1435 in emacs buffers. `buttons' are much lighter-weight than the `widgets'
1436 implemented by widget.el, and can be used by lisp code that doesn't
1437 require the full power of widgets. Emacs uses buttons for such things
1438 as help and apropos buffers.
1441 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
1443 See the INSTALL file for information on installing extra libraries and
1444 fonts to take advantage of the new graphical features and extra
1445 charsets in this release.
1447 ** Support for GNU/Linux on IA64 machines has been added.
1449 ** Support for LynxOS has been added.
1451 ** There are new configure options associated with the support for
1452 images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option in `configure'
1455 ** You can build a 64-bit Emacs for SPARC/Solaris systems which
1456 support 64-bit executables and also on Irix 6.5. This increases the
1457 maximum buffer size. See etc/MACHINES for instructions. Changes to
1458 build on other 64-bit systems should be straightforward modulo any
1459 necessary changes to unexec.
1461 ** There is a new configure option `--disable-largefile' to omit
1462 Unix-98-style support for large files if that is available.
1464 ** There is a new configure option `--without-xim' that instructs
1465 Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if these are available.
1467 ** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
1468 the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
1470 ** This version can be built for the Macintosh, but does not implement
1471 all of the new display features described below. The port currently
1472 lacks unexec, asynchronous processes, and networking support. See the
1473 "Emacs and the Mac OS" appendix in the Emacs manual, for the
1474 description of aspects specific to the Mac.
1476 ** Note that the MS-Windows port does not yet implement various of the
1477 new display features described below.
1480 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
1482 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
1484 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
1485 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
1486 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
1487 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
1490 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
1492 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
1493 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
1494 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
1495 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
1498 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
1499 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
1500 under Lisp changes, below.
1502 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
1504 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
1505 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
1506 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
1507 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
1508 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
1509 attributes such as `overline', `strike-through', and `box' are ignored
1512 The command-line options `-fg COLOR', `-bg COLOR', and `-rv' are now
1513 supported on character terminals.
1515 Emacs automatically remaps all X-style color specifications to one of
1516 the colors supported by the terminal. This means you could have the
1517 same color customizations that work both on a windowed display and on
1518 a TTY or when Emacs is invoked with the -nw option.
1520 ** New default font is Courier 12pt under X.
1524 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD (Voxware
1525 driver and native BSD driver, a.k.a. Luigi's driver). Currently
1526 supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio (*.au).
1527 You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes' to enable
1530 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
1532 If a message is longer than one line, or minibuffer contents are
1533 longer than one line, Emacs can resize the minibuffer window unless it
1534 is on a frame of its own. You can control resizing and the maximum
1535 minibuffer window size by setting the following variables:
1537 - User option: max-mini-window-height
1539 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
1540 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
1541 specifies a number of lines.
1545 - User option: resize-mini-windows
1547 How to resize mini-windows. If nil, don't resize. If t, always
1548 resize to fit the size of the text. If `grow-only', let mini-windows
1549 grow only, until they become empty, at which point they are shrunk
1552 Default is `grow-only'.
1556 Emacs now runs with the LessTif toolkit (see
1557 <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will need version 0.92.26, or later.
1559 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
1561 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
1562 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
1565 ** File selection dialog on MS-Windows is supported.
1567 When a file is visited by clicking File->Open, the MS-Windows version
1568 now pops up a standard file selection dialog where you can select a
1569 file to visit. File->Save As also pops up that dialog.
1571 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
1573 Emacs now uses toolkit scroll bars if available. When configured for
1574 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scroll bar. Otherwise, when
1575 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
1576 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
1577 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
1580 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
1581 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
1582 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
1583 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
1584 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
1585 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
1587 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
1588 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
1589 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
1590 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
1591 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
1592 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
1594 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
1595 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
1596 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
1597 imake configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
1598 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
1600 ** Tool bar support.
1602 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
1603 of how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level
1604 changes. Tool-bar global minor mode controls whether or not it is
1605 displayed and is on by default. The appearance of the bar is improved
1606 if Emacs has been built with XPM image support. Otherwise monochrome
1609 To make the tool bar more useful, we need contributions of extra icons
1610 for specific modes (with copyright assignments).
1614 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
1615 mouse position. The Lisp package `tooltip' implements them. You can
1616 turn them off via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
1618 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
1619 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
1620 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
1621 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
1623 ** Automatic Hscrolling
1625 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
1626 `automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
1629 If a window is scrolled horizontally with set-window-hscroll, or
1630 scroll-left/scroll-right (C-x <, C-x >), this serves as a lower bound
1631 for automatic horizontal scrolling. Automatic scrolling will scroll
1632 the text more to the left if necessary, but won't scroll the text more
1633 to the right than the column set with set-window-hscroll etc.
1635 ** When using a windowing terminal, each Emacs window now has a cursor
1636 of its own. By default, when a window is selected, the cursor is
1637 solid; otherwise, it is hollow. The user-option
1638 `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to display the
1639 cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is shown, if
1640 non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown.
1642 ** Fringes to the left and right of windows are used to display
1643 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
1644 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
1645 customizing face `fringe'.
1647 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default.
1648 You can change its appearance by modifying the face `mode-line'.
1649 In particular, setting the `:box' attribute to nil turns off the 3D
1650 appearance of the mode line. (The 3D appearance makes the mode line
1651 occupy more space, and thus might cause the first or the last line of
1652 the window to be partially obscured.)
1654 The variable `mode-line-inverse-video', which was used in older
1655 versions of emacs to make the mode-line stand out, is now deprecated.
1656 However, setting it to nil will cause the `mode-line' face to be
1657 ignored, and mode-lines to be drawn using the default text face.
1659 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
1661 Different parts of the mode line have been made mouse-sensitive on all
1662 systems which support the mouse. Moving the mouse to a
1663 mouse-sensitive part in the mode line changes the appearance of the
1664 mouse pointer to an arrow, and help about available mouse actions is
1665 displayed either in the echo area, or in the tooltip window if you
1668 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
1670 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line goes to the next buffer.
1672 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name goes to the previous buffer.
1674 - Mouse-2 on the read-only or modified status in the mode line (`%' or
1675 `*') toggles the status.
1677 - Mouse-3 on the mode name displays a minor-mode menu.
1679 ** Hourglass pointer
1681 Emacs can optionally display an hourglass pointer under X. You can
1682 turn the display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
1686 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
1687 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
1688 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
1691 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
1693 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
1694 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
1695 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
1698 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
1699 have to do anything to activate it.
1701 ** The default binding of the Delete key has changed.
1703 The new user-option `normal-erase-is-backspace' can be set to
1704 determine the effect of the Delete and Backspace function keys.
1706 On window systems, the default value of this option is chosen
1707 according to the keyboard used. If the keyboard has both a Backspace
1708 key and a Delete key, and both are mapped to their usual meanings, the
1709 option's default value is set to t, so that Backspace can be used to
1710 delete backward, and Delete can be used to delete forward. On
1711 keyboards which either have only one key (usually labeled DEL), or two
1712 keys DEL and BS which produce the same effect, the option's value is
1713 set to nil, and these keys delete backward.
1715 If not running under a window system, setting this option accomplishes
1716 a similar effect by mapping C-h, which is usually generated by the
1717 Backspace key, to DEL, and by mapping DEL to C-d via
1718 `keyboard-translate'. The former functionality of C-h is available on
1719 the F1 key. You should probably not use this setting on a text-only
1720 terminal if you don't have both Backspace, Delete and F1 keys.
1722 Programmatically, you can call function normal-erase-is-backspace-mode
1723 to toggle the behavior of the Delete and Backspace keys.
1725 ** The default for user-option `next-line-add-newlines' has been
1726 changed to nil, i.e. C-n will no longer add newlines at the end of a
1729 ** The <home> and <end> keys now move to the beginning or end of the
1730 current line, respectively. C-<home> and C-<end> move to the
1731 beginning and end of the buffer.
1733 ** Emacs now checks for recursive loads of Lisp files. If the
1734 recursion depth exceeds `recursive-load-depth-limit', an error is
1737 ** When an error is signaled during the loading of the user's init
1738 file, Emacs now pops up the *Messages* buffer.
1740 ** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
1741 compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
1744 The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs's byte
1745 compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
1748 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
1750 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
1751 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
1752 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
1754 ** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
1755 more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
1756 now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
1758 ** Item Save Options on the Options menu allows saving options set
1761 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
1763 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
1764 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
1765 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
1766 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
1767 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
1770 ** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
1771 all frames except the selected one.
1773 ** The new user-option `confirm-kill-emacs' can be customized to
1774 let Emacs ask for confirmation before exiting.
1776 ** The header line in an Info buffer is now displayed as an emacs
1777 header-line (which is like a mode-line, but at the top of the window),
1778 so that it remains visible even when the buffer has been scrolled.
1779 This behavior may be disabled by customizing the option
1780 `Info-use-header-line'.
1782 ** Polish, Czech, German, and French translations of Emacs' reference card
1783 have been added. They are named `pl-refcard.tex', `cs-refcard.tex',
1784 `de-refcard.tex' and `fr-refcard.tex'. Postscript files are included.
1786 ** An `Emacs Survival Guide', etc/survival.tex, is available.
1788 ** A reference card for Dired has been added. Its name is
1789 `dired-ref.tex'. A French translation is available in
1792 ** C-down-mouse-3 is bound differently. Now if the menu bar is not
1793 displayed it pops up a menu containing the items which would be on the
1794 menu bar. If the menu bar is displayed, it pops up the major mode
1795 menu or the Edit menu if there is no major mode menu.
1797 ** Variable `load-path' is no longer customizable through Customize.
1799 You can no longer use `M-x customize-variable' to customize `load-path'
1800 because it now contains a version-dependent component. You can still
1801 use `add-to-list' and `setq' to customize this variable in your
1802 `~/.emacs' init file or to modify it from any Lisp program in general.
1804 ** C-u C-x = provides detailed information about the character at
1805 point in a pop-up window.
1807 ** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
1808 under XFree86. To enable this, use the `mouse-wheel-mode' command, or
1809 customize the variable `mouse-wheel-mode'.
1811 The variables `mouse-wheel-follow-mouse' and `mouse-wheel-scroll-amount'
1812 determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
1814 ** Emacs' auto-save list files are now by default stored in a
1815 sub-directory `.emacs.d/auto-save-list/' of the user's home directory.
1816 (On MS-DOS, this subdirectory's name is `_emacs.d/auto-save.list/'.)
1817 You can customize `auto-save-list-file-prefix' to change this location.
1819 ** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
1821 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
1822 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
1824 ** The new command M-x delete-trailing-whitespace RET will delete the
1825 trailing whitespace within the current restriction. You can also add
1826 this function to `write-file-hooks' or `local-write-file-hooks'.
1828 ** When visiting a file with M-x find-file-literally, no newlines will
1829 be added to the end of the buffer even if `require-final-newline' is
1832 ** The new user-option `find-file-suppress-same-file-warnings' can be
1833 set to suppress warnings ``X and Y are the same file'' when visiting a
1834 file that is already visited under a different name.
1836 ** The new user-option `electric-help-shrink-window' can be set to
1837 nil to prevent adjusting the help window size to the buffer size.
1839 ** New command M-x describe-character-set reads a character set name
1840 and displays information about that.
1842 ** The new variable `auto-mode-interpreter-regexp' contains a regular
1843 expression matching interpreters, for file mode determination.
1845 This regular expression is matched against the first line of a file to
1846 determine the file's mode in `set-auto-mode' when Emacs can't deduce a
1847 mode from the file's name. If it matches, the file is assumed to be
1848 interpreted by the interpreter matched by the second group of the
1849 regular expression. The mode is then determined as the mode
1850 associated with that interpreter in `interpreter-mode-alist'.
1852 ** New function executable-make-buffer-file-executable-if-script-p is
1853 suitable as an after-save-hook as an alternative to `executable-chmod'.
1855 ** The most preferred coding-system is now used to save a buffer if
1856 buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and it is safe for the buffer
1857 contents. (The most preferred is set by set-language-environment or
1858 by M-x prefer-coding-system.) Thus if you visit an ASCII file and
1859 insert a non-ASCII character from your current language environment,
1860 the file will be saved silently with the appropriate coding.
1861 Previously you would be prompted for a safe coding system.
1863 ** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
1864 been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
1866 ** The new Custom option `keyboard-coding-system' specifies a coding
1867 system for keyboard input.
1869 ** New variable `inhibit-iso-escape-detection' determines if Emacs'
1870 coding system detection algorithm should pay attention to ISO2022's
1871 escape sequences. If this variable is non-nil, the algorithm ignores
1872 such escape sequences. The default value is nil, and it is
1873 recommended not to change it except for the special case that you
1874 always want to read any escape code verbatim. If you just want to
1875 read a specific file without decoding escape codes, use C-x RET c
1876 (`universal-coding-system-argument'). For instance, C-x RET c latin-1
1877 RET C-x C-f filename RET.
1879 ** Variable `default-korean-keyboard' is initialized properly from the
1880 environment variable `HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE'.
1882 ** New command M-x list-charset-chars reads a character set name and
1883 displays all characters in that character set.
1885 ** M-x set-terminal-coding-system (C-x RET t) now allows CCL-based
1886 coding systems such as cpXXX and cyrillic-koi8.
1888 ** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
1889 and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
1890 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
1892 ** New language environments `Polish', `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
1893 Latin-8 and Latin-9 correspond respectively to the ISO character sets
1894 8859-14 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign).
1895 GNU Intlfonts doesn't support these yet but recent X releases have
1896 8859-15. See etc/INSTALL for information on obtaining extra fonts.
1897 There are new Leim input methods for Latin-8 and Latin-9 prefix (only)
1900 ** New language environments `Dutch' and `Spanish'.
1901 These new environments mainly select appropriate translations
1904 ** In Ethiopic language environment, special key bindings for
1905 function keys are changed as follows. This is to conform to "Emacs
1906 Lisp Coding Convention".
1908 new command old-binding
1909 --- ------- -----------
1910 f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-buffer f5
1911 S-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-region f5
1912 C-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-mail-or-marker f5
1914 f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-buffer unchanged
1915 S-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-region unchanged
1916 C-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-mail-or-marker unchanged
1918 S-f5 ethio-toggle-punctuation f3
1919 S-f6 ethio-modify-vowel f6
1920 S-f7 ethio-replace-space f7
1921 S-f8 ethio-input-special-character f8
1922 S-f9 ethio-replace-space unchanged
1923 C-f9 ethio-toggle-space f2
1925 ** There are new Leim input methods.
1926 New input methods "turkish-postfix", "turkish-alt-postfix",
1927 "greek-mizuochi", "TeX", and "greek-babel" are now part of the Leim
1930 ** The rule of input method "slovak" is slightly changed. Now the
1931 rules for translating "q" and "Q" to "`" (backquote) are deleted, thus
1932 typing them inserts "q" and "Q" respectively. Rules for translating
1933 "=q", "+q", "=Q", and "+Q" to "`" are also deleted. Now, to input
1934 "`", you must type "=q".
1936 ** When your terminal can't display characters from some of the ISO
1937 8859 character sets but can display Latin-1, you can display
1938 more-or-less mnemonic sequences of ASCII/Latin-1 characters instead of
1939 empty boxes (under a window system) or question marks (not under a
1940 window system). Customize the option `latin1-display' to turn this
1943 ** M-; now calls comment-dwim which tries to do something clever based
1944 on the context. M-x kill-comment is now an alias to comment-kill,
1945 defined in newcomment.el. You can choose different styles of region
1946 commenting with the variable `comment-style'.
1948 ** New user options `display-time-mail-face' and
1949 `display-time-use-mail-icon' control the appearance of mode-line mail
1950 indicator used by the display-time package. On a suitable display the
1951 indicator can be an icon and is mouse-sensitive.
1953 ** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
1954 on the display using several methods
1956 - By setting frame parameter `line-spacing' to PIXELS. PIXELS must be
1957 a positive integer, and specifies that PIXELS number of pixels should
1958 be put below text lines on the affected frame or frames.
1960 - By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
1961 equivalent to specifying the frame parameter.
1963 - By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
1965 - By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
1966 the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
1968 ** The new command `clone-indirect-buffer' can be used to create
1969 an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. The
1970 command `clone-indirect-buffer-other-window', bound to C-x 4 c,
1971 does the same but displays the indirect buffer in another window.
1973 ** New user options `backup-directory-alist' and
1974 `make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
1975 typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
1977 ** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
1978 characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
1980 ** New X resources recognized
1982 *** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
1983 whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
1984 is useful for debugging X problems.
1988 emacs.synchronous: true
1990 *** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
1991 visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
1992 the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
1993 and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
1994 visual class names are
2003 Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
2004 `pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
2007 The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
2008 supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
2009 `visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
2014 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
2016 *** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
2017 specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
2018 default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
2019 resource values are `true' or `on'.
2023 emacs.privateColormap: true
2025 ** Faces and frame parameters.
2027 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
2028 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
2029 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
2030 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
2031 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
2032 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
2033 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
2035 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
2036 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
2037 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
2038 `default' face and vice versa.
2042 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
2044 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
2046 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
2047 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
2048 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
2049 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
2051 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
2052 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
2053 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
2055 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
2058 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
2060 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
2061 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
2062 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
2063 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
2065 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
2067 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
2069 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
2071 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
2074 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
2077 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
2079 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
2080 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
2081 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
2083 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
2084 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi and Less).
2086 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
2087 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
2088 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
2090 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
2092 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
2093 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggressively' is a
2094 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
2095 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
2097 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
2098 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggressively' is a
2099 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
2100 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
2102 ** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either
2103 M-x clone-buffer, C-u m <entry> RET or C-u g <entry> RET.
2104 M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and several other special
2107 ** The command `Info-search' now uses a search history.
2109 ** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
2110 abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
2111 `directory-abbrev-alist'.
2113 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
2114 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
2115 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
2116 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
2117 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
2118 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
2120 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
2122 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
2123 notably at the end of lines.
2125 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
2126 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
2128 ** The function `replace-rectangle' is an alias for `string-rectangle'.
2130 ** The new command M-x string-insert-rectangle is like `string-rectangle',
2131 but inserts text instead of replacing it.
2133 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
2134 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
2135 after each match to get the replacement text.
2137 ** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `e' (or `E') that lets
2138 you edit the replacement string.
2140 ** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB'
2141 (if you load the library `mailabbrev'), lets you complete mail aliases
2142 in the text, analogous to lisp-complete-symbol.
2144 ** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
2146 ** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
2147 to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
2149 ** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
2150 the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X, on MS-Windows, and
2151 MS-DOS, either in the echo area or with tooltips. Many standard menus
2152 displayed by Emacs now have help strings.
2155 ** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
2156 read mail from the menu etc.
2158 ** The environment variable `EMACSLOCKDIR' is no longer used on MS-Windows.
2159 This environment variable was used when creating lock files. Emacs on
2160 MS-Windows does not use this variable anymore. This change was made
2161 before Emacs 21.1, but wasn't documented until now.
2163 ** Highlighting of mouse-sensitive regions is now supported in the
2164 MS-DOS version of Emacs.
2166 ** The new command `msdos-set-mouse-buttons' forces the MS-DOS version
2167 of Emacs to behave as if the mouse had a specified number of buttons.
2168 This comes handy with mice that don't report their number of buttons
2169 correctly. One example is the wheeled mice, which report 3 buttons,
2170 but clicks on the middle button are not passed to the MS-DOS version
2173 ** Customize changes
2175 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
2176 `State' menu to add comments, or give a prefix argument to
2177 M-x customize-set-variable or M-x customize-set-value. Note that
2178 customization comments will cause the customizations to fail in
2179 earlier versions of Emacs.
2181 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
2182 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
2185 *** If Emacs was invoked with the `-q' or `--no-init-file' options, it
2186 does not allow you to save customizations in your `~/.emacs' init
2187 file. This is because saving customizations from such a session would
2188 wipe out all the other customizationss you might have on your init
2191 ** If Emacs was invoked with the `-q' or `--no-init-file' options, it
2192 does not save disabled and enabled commands for future sessions, to
2193 avoid overwriting existing customizations of this kind that are
2194 already in your init file.
2196 ** New features in evaluation commands
2198 *** The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
2199 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
2200 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the new
2201 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
2202 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
2204 The default values for the first two of these variables are 12 and 4
2205 respectively, which means that `eval-expression' now prints at most
2206 the first 12 members of a list and at most 4 nesting levels deep (if
2207 the list is longer or deeper than that, an ellipsis `...' is
2210 <RET> or <mouse-2> on the printed text toggles between an abbreviated
2211 printed representation and an unabbreviated one.
2213 The default value of eval-expression-debug-on-error is t, so any error
2214 during evaluation produces a backtrace.
2216 *** The function `eval-defun' (C-M-x) now loads Edebug and instruments
2217 code when called with a prefix argument.
2221 Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
2222 current user setups (although it's believed that these
2223 incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
2224 However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
2225 back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
2226 compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
2229 *** The hardcoded switch to "java" style in Java mode is gone.
2230 CC Mode used to automatically set the style to "java" when Java mode
2231 is entered. This has now been removed since it caused too much
2234 However, to keep backward compatibility to a certain extent, the
2235 default value for c-default-style now specifies the "java" style for
2236 java-mode, but "gnu" for all other modes (as before). So you won't
2237 notice the change if you haven't touched that variable.
2239 *** New cleanups, space-before-funcall and compact-empty-funcall.
2240 Two new cleanups have been added to c-cleanup-list:
2242 space-before-funcall causes a space to be inserted before the opening
2243 parenthesis of a function call, which gives the style "foo (bar)".
2245 compact-empty-funcall causes any space before a function call opening
2246 parenthesis to be removed if there are no arguments to the function.
2247 It's typically useful together with space-before-funcall to get the
2248 style "foo (bar)" and "foo()".
2250 *** Some keywords now automatically trigger reindentation.
2251 Keywords like "else", "while", "catch" and "finally" have been made
2252 "electric" to make them reindent automatically when they continue an
2253 earlier statement. An example:
2255 for (i = 0; i < 17; i++)
2257 res += a[i]->offset;
2260 Here, the "else" should be indented like the preceding "if", since it
2261 continues that statement. CC Mode will automatically reindent it after
2262 the "else" has been typed in full, since it's not until then it's
2263 possible to decide whether it's a new statement or a continuation of
2266 CC Mode uses Abbrev mode to achieve this, which is therefore turned on
2269 *** M-a and M-e now moves by sentence in multiline strings.
2270 Previously these two keys only moved by sentence in comments, which
2271 meant that sentence movement didn't work in strings containing
2272 documentation or other natural language text.
2274 The reason it's only activated in multiline strings (i.e. strings that
2275 contain a newline, even when escaped by a '\') is to avoid stopping in
2276 the short strings that often reside inside statements. Multiline
2277 strings almost always contain text in a natural language, as opposed
2278 to other strings that typically contain format specifications,
2279 commands, etc. Also, it's not that bothersome that M-a and M-e misses
2280 sentences in single line strings, since they're short anyway.
2282 *** Support for autodoc comments in Pike mode.
2283 Autodoc comments for Pike are used to extract documentation from the
2284 source, like Javadoc in Java. Pike mode now recognize this markup in
2285 comment prefixes and paragraph starts.
2287 *** The comment prefix regexps on c-comment-prefix may be mode specific.
2288 When c-comment-prefix is an association list, it specifies the comment
2289 line prefix on a per-mode basis, like c-default-style does. This
2290 change came about to support the special autodoc comment prefix in
2293 *** Better handling of syntactic errors.
2294 The recovery after unbalanced parens earlier in the buffer has been
2295 improved; CC Mode now reports them by dinging and giving a message
2296 stating the offending line, but still recovers and indent the
2297 following lines in a sane way (most of the time). An "else" with no
2298 matching "if" is handled similarly. If an error is discovered while
2299 indenting a region, the whole region is still indented and the error
2300 is reported afterwards.
2302 *** Lineup functions may now return absolute columns.
2303 A lineup function can give an absolute column to indent the line to by
2304 returning a vector with the desired column as the first element.
2306 *** More robust and warning-free byte compilation.
2307 Although this is strictly not a user visible change (well, depending
2308 on the view of a user), it's still worth mentioning that CC Mode now
2309 can be compiled in the standard ways without causing trouble. Some
2310 code have also been moved between the subpackages to enhance the
2311 modularity somewhat. Thanks to Martin Buchholz for doing the
2314 *** c-style-variables-are-local-p now defaults to t.
2315 This is an incompatible change that has been made to make the behavior
2316 of the style system wrt global variable settings less confusing for
2317 non-advanced users. If you know what this variable does you might
2318 want to set it to nil in your .emacs, otherwise you probably don't
2321 Defaulting c-style-variables-are-local-p to t avoids the confusing
2322 situation that occurs when a user sets some style variables globally
2323 and edits both a Java and a non-Java file in the same Emacs session.
2324 If the style variables aren't buffer local in this case, loading of
2325 the second file will cause the default style (either "gnu" or "java"
2326 by default) to override the global settings made by the user.
2328 *** New initialization procedure for the style system.
2329 When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
2330 variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
2331 take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
2332 is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
2333 settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
2334 possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
2335 Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
2337 By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
2338 special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
2339 the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
2340 of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
2343 Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
2344 when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
2345 function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
2346 call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
2347 then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
2348 values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
2349 only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
2350 function documentation for more info.
2352 The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
2353 especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
2354 with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
2355 intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
2356 such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
2357 is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
2358 configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
2359 global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
2361 (Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
2363 **** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
2364 This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
2366 This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
2367 variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
2368 completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
2369 the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
2370 empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
2373 **** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
2374 In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
2375 c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
2378 *** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
2379 CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
2380 surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
2381 chapter about this in the manual.
2383 **** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
2384 The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
2385 recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
2386 primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
2387 adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
2389 **** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
2390 This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
2391 c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
2393 **** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
2394 This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
2396 It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
2397 Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
2398 A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
2401 Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
2402 causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
2403 the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
2404 available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
2407 **** The variables `c-hanging-comment-starter-p' and
2408 `c-hanging-comment-ender-p', which controlled how comment starters and
2409 enders were filled, are not used anymore. The new version of the
2410 function `c-fill-paragraph' keeps the comment starters and enders as
2411 they were before the filling.
2413 **** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
2414 The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
2415 specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
2418 **** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
2419 It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
2420 prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
2421 you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
2424 *** Fixes to IDL mode.
2425 It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
2426 to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
2427 struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
2428 Thanks to Eric Eide.
2430 *** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
2431 It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
2432 opening braces hangs and when they don't.
2434 **** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
2436 *** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
2437 See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
2438 better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
2439 and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
2441 *** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
2442 previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
2443 the column specified by comment-column.
2445 *** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
2446 In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
2447 is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
2448 prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
2449 contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
2450 don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
2452 *** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
2453 instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
2456 *** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
2458 *** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
2459 c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
2460 c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
2461 variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
2464 *** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
2468 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
2469 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
2470 is, delete only empty directories.
2472 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
2473 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
2474 copy directories recursively.
2476 *** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
2477 in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
2478 the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
2480 *** The new command `dired-find-alternate-file' (usually bound to `a')
2481 replaces the Dired buffer with the buffer for an alternate file or
2484 *** The new command `dired-show-file-type' (usually bound to `y') shows
2485 a message in the echo area describing what type of file the point is on.
2486 This command invokes the external program `file' do its work, and so
2487 will only work on systems with that program, and will be only as
2488 accurate or inaccurate as it is.
2490 *** Dired now properly handles undo changes of adding/removing `-R'
2493 *** Dired commands that prompt for a destination file now allow the use
2494 of the `M-n' command in the minibuffer to insert the source filename,
2495 which the user can then edit. This only works if there is a single
2496 source file, not when operating on multiple marked files.
2500 The Gnus NEWS entries are short, but they reflect sweeping changes in
2501 four areas: Article display treatment, MIME treatment,
2502 internationalization and mail-fetching.
2504 *** The mail-fetching functions have changed. See the manual for the
2505 many details. In particular, all procmail fetching variables are gone.
2507 If you used procmail like in
2509 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
2510 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
2511 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/mail/incoming/")
2512 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "\\.in")
2514 this now has changed to
2517 '((directory :path "~/mail/incoming/"
2520 More information is available in the info doc at Select Methods ->
2521 Getting Mail -> Mail Sources
2523 *** Gnus is now a MIME-capable reader. This affects many parts of
2524 Gnus, and adds a slew of new commands. See the manual for details.
2525 Separate MIME packages like RMIME, mime-compose etc., will probably no
2526 longer work; remove them and use the native facilities.
2528 The FLIM/SEMI package still works with Emacs 21, but if you want to
2529 use the native facilities, you must remove any mailcap.el[c] that was
2530 installed by FLIM/SEMI version 1.13 or earlier.
2532 *** Gnus has also been multilingualized. This also affects too many
2533 parts of Gnus to summarize here, and adds many new variables. There
2534 are built-in facilities equivalent to those of gnus-mule.el, which is
2535 now just a compatibility layer.
2537 *** gnus-mule.el is now just a compatibility layer over the built-in
2540 *** gnus-auto-select-first can now be a function to be
2541 called to position point.
2543 *** The user can now decide which extra headers should be included in
2544 summary buffers and NOV files.
2546 *** `gnus-article-display-hook' has been removed. Instead, a number
2547 of variables starting with `gnus-treat-' have been added.
2549 *** The Gnus posting styles have been redone again and now work in a
2550 subtly different manner.
2552 *** New web-based backends have been added: nnslashdot, nnwarchive
2553 and nnultimate. nnweb has been revamped, again, to keep up with
2554 ever-changing layouts.
2556 *** Gnus can now read IMAP mail via nnimap.
2558 *** There is image support of various kinds and some sound support.
2560 ** Changes in Texinfo mode.
2562 *** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
2566 -------------------------
2570 C-c C-c q @quotation
2572 C-c C-o @<block> ... @end <block>
2575 *** The " key now inserts either " or `` or '' depending on context.
2577 ** Changes in Outline mode.
2579 There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
2580 `outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
2581 the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
2583 ** Changes to Emacs Server
2585 *** The new option `server-kill-new-buffers' specifies what to do
2586 with buffers when done with them. If non-nil, the default, buffers
2587 are killed, unless they were already present before visiting them with
2588 Emacs Server. If nil, `server-temp-file-regexp' specifies which
2589 buffers to kill, as before.
2591 Please note that only buffers are killed that still have a client,
2592 i.e. buffers visited with `emacsclient --no-wait' are never killed in
2595 ** Both emacsclient and Emacs itself now accept command line options
2596 of the form +LINE:COLUMN in addition to +LINE.
2598 ** Changes to Show Paren mode.
2600 *** Overlays used by Show Paren mode now use a priority property.
2601 The new user option show-paren-priority specifies the priority to
2602 use. Default is 1000.
2604 ** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
2605 groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
2607 ** Changes to hideshow.el
2609 *** Generalized block selection and traversal
2611 A block is now recognized by its start and end regexps (both strings),
2612 and an integer specifying which sub-expression in the start regexp
2613 serves as the place where a `forward-sexp'-like function can operate.
2614 See the documentation of variable `hs-special-modes-alist'.
2616 *** During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active,
2617 hidden blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' can
2618 be used in the mode line format to show the line at the beginning of
2621 *** User option `hs-hide-all-non-comment-function' specifies a
2622 function to be called at each top-level block beginning, instead of
2623 the normal block-hiding function.
2625 *** The command `hs-show-region' has been removed.
2627 *** The key bindings have changed to fit the Emacs conventions,
2628 roughly imitating those of Outline minor mode. Notably, the prefix
2629 for all bindings is now `C-c @'. For details, see the documentation
2630 for `hs-minor-mode'.
2632 *** The variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' has been removed, and
2633 hideshow.el now always behaves as if this variable were set to t.
2635 ** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
2637 *** If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes
2638 an entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
2639 log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
2641 **** New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the
2644 *** New command M-x change-log-redate fixes any old-style date entries
2647 *** Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log
2648 entries if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
2649 Unless the file is under version control the search for a file's
2650 version number is performed based on regular expressions from
2651 `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be customized.
2652 Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of a file.
2654 *** Change Log mode now defines its own faces for font-lock highlighting.
2656 ** Changes to cmuscheme
2658 *** The user-option `scheme-program-name' has been renamed
2659 `cmuscheme-program-name' due to conflicts with xscheme.el.
2661 ** Changes in Font Lock
2663 *** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
2664 font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major mode.
2666 *** Multi-line patterns are now supported. Modes using this, should
2667 set font-lock-multiline to t in their font-lock-defaults.
2669 *** `font-lock-syntactic-face-function' allows major-modes to choose
2670 the face used for each string/comment.
2672 *** A new standard face `font-lock-doc-face'.
2673 Meant for Lisp docstrings, Javadoc comments and other "documentation in code".
2675 ** Changes to Shell mode
2677 *** The `shell' command now accepts an optional argument to specify the buffer
2678 to use, which defaults to "*shell*". When used interactively, a
2679 non-default buffer may be specified by giving the `shell' command a
2680 prefix argument (causing it to prompt for the buffer name).
2682 ** Comint (subshell) changes
2684 These changes generally affect all modes derived from comint mode, which
2685 include shell-mode, gdb-mode, scheme-interaction-mode, etc.
2687 *** Comint now by default interprets some carriage-control characters.
2688 Comint now removes CRs from CR LF sequences, and treats single CRs and
2689 BSs in the output in a way similar to a terminal (by deleting to the
2690 beginning of the line, or deleting the previous character,
2691 respectively). This is achieved by adding `comint-carriage-motion' to
2692 the `comint-output-filter-functions' hook by default.
2694 *** By default, comint no longer uses the variable `comint-prompt-regexp'
2695 to distinguish prompts from user-input. Instead, it notices which
2696 parts of the text were output by the process, and which entered by the
2697 user, and attaches `field' properties to allow emacs commands to use
2698 this information. Common movement commands, notably beginning-of-line,
2699 respect field boundaries in a fairly natural manner. To disable this
2700 feature, and use the old behavior, customize the user option
2701 `comint-use-prompt-regexp-instead-of-fields'.
2703 *** Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
2704 and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
2706 *** The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
2707 buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
2708 buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
2710 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
2711 M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
2712 the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
2714 *** Packages based on comint now highlight user input and program prompts,
2715 and support choosing previous input with mouse-2. To control these features,
2716 see the user-options `comint-highlight-input' and `comint-highlight-prompt'.
2718 *** The new command `comint-write-output' (usually bound to `C-c C-s')
2719 saves the output from the most recent command to a file. With a prefix
2720 argument, it appends to the file.
2722 *** The command `comint-kill-output' has been renamed `comint-delete-output'
2723 (usually bound to `C-c C-o'); the old name is aliased to it for
2726 *** The new function `comint-add-to-input-history' adds commands to the input
2729 *** The new variable `comint-input-history-ignore' is a regexp for
2730 identifying history lines that should be ignored, like tcsh time-stamp
2731 strings, starting with a `#'. The default value of this variable is "^#".
2733 ** Changes to Rmail mode
2735 *** The new user-option rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
2736 set to fine tune the identification of the correspondent when
2737 receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
2738 recipient is taken as correspondent of a mail. If nil, the default,
2739 `user-login-name' and `user-mail-address' are used to exclude yourself
2742 Usually you don't have to set this variable, except if you collect
2743 mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
2744 regexp matching your mail addresses.
2746 *** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
2747 to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
2748 Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
2749 with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
2750 for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
2752 *** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
2755 *** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
2756 specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
2759 *** The new user option `rmail-automatic-folder-directives' specifies
2760 in which folder to put messages automatically.
2762 *** The new function `rmail-redecode-body' allows to fix a message
2763 with non-ASCII characters if Emacs happens to decode it incorrectly
2764 due to missing or malformed "charset=" header.
2766 ** The new user-option `mail-envelope-from' can be used to specify
2767 an envelope-from address different from user-mail-address.
2769 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
2770 use the -f option when sending mail.
2772 ** The Rmail command `o' (`rmail-output-to-rmail-file') now writes the
2773 current message in the internal `emacs-mule' encoding, rather than in
2774 the encoding taken from the variable `buffer-file-coding-system'.
2775 This allows to save messages whose characters cannot be safely encoded
2776 by the buffer's coding system, and makes sure the message will be
2777 displayed correctly when you later visit the target Rmail file.
2779 If you want your Rmail files be encoded in a specific coding system
2780 other than `emacs-mule', you can customize the variable
2781 `rmail-file-coding-system' to set its value to that coding system.
2783 ** Changes to TeX mode
2785 *** The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
2788 *** latex-mode now has a simple indentation algorithm.
2790 *** M-f and M-p jump around \begin...\end pairs.
2792 *** Added support for outline-minor-mode.
2794 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
2796 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
2797 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
2798 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
2799 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
2800 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
2801 can be edited from that buffer.
2803 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
2804 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
2805 `A' to use all marked entries).
2807 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
2808 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
2810 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
2811 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
2812 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
2815 ** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
2816 The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
2817 semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
2818 in column 1 are always made leaves.
2820 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
2821 has the following new features:
2823 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
2824 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
2825 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
2826 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
2828 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
2829 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
2830 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
2831 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
2832 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
2835 ** Partial Completion mode now completes environment variables in
2840 *** The command `ispell' now spell-checks a region if
2841 transient-mark-mode is on, and the mark is active. Otherwise it
2842 spell-checks the current buffer.
2844 *** Support for synchronous subprocesses - DOS/Windoze - has been
2847 *** An "alignment error" bug was fixed when a manual spelling
2848 correction is made and re-checked.
2850 *** An Italian, Portuguese, and Slovak dictionary definition has been added.
2852 *** Region skipping performance has been vastly improved in some
2855 *** Spell checking HTML buffers has been improved and isn't so strict
2858 *** The buffer-local words are now always placed on a new line at the
2861 *** Spell checking now works in the MS-DOS version of Emacs.
2863 ** Makefile mode changes
2865 *** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
2867 *** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
2868 Fontlock mode is active.
2872 *** Isearch now puts a call to `isearch-resume' in the command history,
2873 so that searches can be resumed.
2875 *** In Isearch mode, C-M-s and C-M-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
2876 respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
2877 that started the search.
2879 *** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
2880 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
2882 *** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
2884 Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
2885 `isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
2886 search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
2887 before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
2888 highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
2889 `secondary-selection'.
2891 The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
2892 will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
2893 Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
2894 using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
2895 usual snappy response.
2897 If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
2898 matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
2899 set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
2900 isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
2904 VC has been overhauled internally. It is now modular, making it
2905 easier to plug-in arbitrary version control backends. (See Lisp
2906 Changes for details on the new structure.) As a result, the mechanism
2907 to enable and disable support for particular version systems has
2908 changed: everything is now controlled by the new variable
2909 `vc-handled-backends'. Its value is a list of symbols that identify
2910 version systems; the default is '(RCS CVS SCCS). When finding a file,
2911 each of the backends in that list is tried in order to see whether the
2912 file is registered in that backend.
2914 When registering a new file, VC first tries each of the listed
2915 backends to see if any of them considers itself "responsible" for the
2916 directory of the file (e.g. because a corresponding subdirectory for
2917 master files exists). If none of the backends is responsible, then
2918 the first backend in the list that could register the file is chosen.
2919 As a consequence, the variable `vc-default-back-end' is now obsolete.
2921 The old variable `vc-master-templates' is also obsolete, although VC
2922 still supports it for backward compatibility. To define templates for
2923 RCS or SCCS, you should rather use the new variables
2924 vc-{rcs,sccs}-master-templates. (There is no such feature under CVS
2925 where it doesn't make sense.)
2927 The variables `vc-ignore-vc-files' and `vc-handle-cvs' are also
2928 obsolete now, you must set `vc-handled-backends' to nil or exclude
2929 `CVS' from the list, respectively, to achieve their effect now.
2933 The variable `vc-checkout-carefully' is obsolete: the corresponding
2934 checks are always done now.
2936 VC Dired buffers are now kept up-to-date during all version control
2939 `vc-diff' output is now displayed in `diff-mode'.
2940 `vc-print-log' uses `log-view-mode'.
2941 `vc-log-mode' (used for *VC-Log*) has been replaced by `log-edit-mode'.
2943 The command C-x v m (vc-merge) now accepts an empty argument as the
2944 first revision number. This means that any recent changes on the
2945 current branch should be picked up from the repository and merged into
2946 the working file (``merge news'').
2948 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
2949 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) now ask for a directory name from which to work
2952 *** Multiple Backends
2954 VC now lets you register files in more than one backend. This is
2955 useful, for example, if you are working with a slow remote CVS
2956 repository. You can then use RCS for local editing, and occasionally
2957 commit your changes back to CVS, or pick up changes from CVS into your
2960 To make this work, the ``more local'' backend (RCS in our example)
2961 should come first in `vc-handled-backends', and the ``more remote''
2962 backend (CVS) should come later. (The default value of
2963 `vc-handled-backends' already has it that way.)
2965 You can then commit changes to another backend (say, RCS), by typing
2966 C-u C-x v v RCS RET (i.e. vc-next-action now accepts a backend name as
2967 a revision number). VC registers the file in the more local backend
2968 if that hasn't already happened, and commits to a branch based on the
2969 current revision number from the more remote backend.
2971 If a file is registered in multiple backends, you can switch to
2972 another one using C-x v b (vc-switch-backend). This does not change
2973 any files, it only changes VC's perspective on the file. Use this to
2974 pick up changes from CVS while working under RCS locally.
2976 After you are done with your local RCS editing, you can commit your
2977 changes back to CVS using C-u C-x v v CVS RET. In this case, the
2978 local RCS archive is removed after the commit, and the log entry
2979 buffer is initialized to contain the entire RCS change log of the file.
2983 There is a new user option, `vc-cvs-stay-local'. If it is `t' (the
2984 default), then VC avoids network queries for files registered in
2985 remote repositories. The state of such files is then only determined
2986 by heuristics and past information. `vc-cvs-stay-local' can also be a
2987 regexp to match against repository hostnames; only files from hosts
2988 that match it are treated locally. If the variable is nil, then VC
2989 queries the repository just as often as it does for local files.
2991 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, then VC also makes local backups of
2992 repository versions. This means that ordinary diffs (C-x v =) and
2993 revert operations (C-x v u) can be done completely locally, without
2994 any repository interactions at all. The name of a local version
2995 backup of FILE is FILE.~REV.~, where REV is the repository version
2996 number. This format is similar to that used by C-x v ~
2997 (vc-version-other-window), except for the trailing dot. As a matter
2998 of fact, the two features can each use the files created by the other,
2999 the only difference being that files with a trailing `.' are deleted
3000 automatically after commit. (This feature doesn't work on MS-DOS,
3001 since DOS disallows more than a single dot in the trunk of a file
3004 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, and there have been changes in the
3005 repository, VC notifies you about it when you actually try to commit.
3006 If you want to check for updates from the repository without trying to
3007 commit, you can either use C-x v m RET to perform an update on the
3008 current file, or you can use C-x v r RET to get an update for an
3009 entire directory tree.
3011 The new user option `vc-cvs-use-edit' indicates whether VC should call
3012 "cvs edit" to make files writeable; it defaults to `t'. (This option
3013 is only meaningful if the CVSREAD variable is set, or if files are
3014 "watched" by other developers.)
3016 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
3017 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) are now also implemented for CVS. If you give
3018 an empty snapshot name to the latter, that performs a `cvs update',
3019 starting at the given directory.
3021 *** Lisp Changes in VC
3023 VC has been restructured internally to make it modular. You can now
3024 add support for arbitrary version control backends by writing a
3025 library that provides a certain set of backend-specific functions, and
3026 then telling VC to use that library. For example, to add support for
3027 a version system named SYS, you write a library named vc-sys.el, which
3028 provides a number of functions vc-sys-... (see commentary at the top
3029 of vc.el for a detailed list of them). To make VC use that library,
3030 you need to put it somewhere into Emacs' load path and add the symbol
3031 `SYS' to the list `vc-handled-backends'.
3033 ** The customizable EDT emulation package now supports the EDT
3034 SUBS command and EDT scroll margins. It also works with more
3035 terminal/keyboard configurations and it now works under XEmacs.
3036 See etc/edt-user.doc for more information.
3038 ** New modes and packages
3040 *** The new global minor mode `minibuffer-electric-default-mode'
3041 automatically hides the `(default ...)' part of minibuffer prompts when
3042 the default is not applicable.
3044 *** Artist is an Emacs lisp package that allows you to draw lines,
3045 rectangles and ellipses by using your mouse and/or keyboard. The
3046 shapes are made up with the ascii characters |, -, / and \.
3050 - Intersecting: When a `|' intersects with a `-', a `+' is
3051 drawn, like this: | \ /
3055 - Rubber-banding: When drawing lines you can interactively see the
3056 result while holding the mouse button down and moving the mouse. If
3057 your machine is not fast enough (a 386 is a bit too slow, but a
3058 pentium is well enough), you can turn this feature off. You will
3059 then see 1's and 2's which mark the 1st and 2nd endpoint of the line
3062 - Arrows: After having drawn a (straight) line or a (straight)
3063 poly-line, you can set arrows on the line-ends by typing < or >.
3065 - Flood-filling: You can fill any area with a certain character by
3068 - Cut copy and paste: You can cut, copy and paste rectangular
3069 regions. Artist also interfaces with the rect package (this can be
3070 turned off if it causes you any trouble) so anything you cut in
3071 artist can be yanked with C-x r y and vice versa.
3073 - Drawing with keys: Everything you can do with the mouse, you can
3074 also do without the mouse.
3076 - Aspect-ratio: You can set the variable artist-aspect-ratio to
3077 reflect the height-width ratio for the font you are using. Squares
3078 and circles are then drawn square/round. Note, that once your
3079 ascii-file is shown with font with a different height-width ratio,
3080 the squares won't be square and the circles won't be round.
3082 - Drawing operations: The following drawing operations are implemented:
3084 lines straight-lines
3086 poly-lines straight poly-lines
3088 text (see-thru) text (overwrite)
3089 spray-can setting size for spraying
3090 vaporize line vaporize lines
3091 erase characters erase rectangles
3093 Straight lines are lines that go horizontally, vertically or
3094 diagonally. Plain lines go in any direction. The operations in
3095 the right column are accessed by holding down the shift key while
3098 It is possible to vaporize (erase) entire lines and connected lines
3099 (rectangles for example) as long as the lines being vaporized are
3100 straight and connected at their endpoints. Vaporizing is inspired
3101 by the drawrect package by Jari Aalto <jari.aalto@poboxes.com>.
3103 - Picture mode compatibility: Artist is picture mode compatible (this
3106 *** The new package Eshell is an operating system command shell
3107 implemented entirely in Emacs Lisp. Use `M-x eshell' to invoke it.
3108 It functions similarly to bash and zsh, and allows running of Lisp
3109 functions and external commands using the same syntax. It supports
3110 history lists, aliases, extended globbing, smart scrolling, etc. It
3111 will work on any platform Emacs has been ported to. And since most of
3112 the basic commands -- ls, rm, mv, cp, ln, du, cat, etc. -- have been
3113 rewritten in Lisp, it offers an operating-system independent shell,
3114 all within the scope of your Emacs process.
3116 *** The new package timeclock.el is a mode is for keeping track of time
3117 intervals. You can use it for whatever purpose you like, but the
3118 typical scenario is to keep track of how much time you spend working
3119 on certain projects.
3121 *** The new package hi-lock.el provides commands to highlight matches
3122 of interactively entered regexps. For example,
3124 M-x highlight-regexp RET clearly RET RET
3126 will highlight all occurrences of `clearly' using a yellow background
3127 face. New occurrences of `clearly' will be highlighted as they are
3128 typed. `M-x unhighlight-regexp RET' will remove the highlighting.
3129 Any existing face can be used for highlighting and a set of
3130 appropriate faces is provided. The regexps can be written into the
3131 current buffer in a form that will be recognized the next time the
3132 corresponding file is read. There are commands to highlight matches
3133 to phrases and to highlight entire lines containing a match.
3135 *** The new package zone.el plays games with Emacs' display when
3138 *** The new package tildify.el allows to add hard spaces or other text
3139 fragments in accordance with the current major mode.
3141 *** The new package xml.el provides a simple but generic XML
3142 parser. It doesn't parse the DTDs however.
3144 *** The comment operations are now provided by the newcomment.el
3145 package which allows different styles of comment-region and should
3146 be more robust while offering the same functionality.
3147 `comment-region' now doesn't always comment a-line-at-a-time, but only
3148 comments the region, breaking the line at point if necessary.
3150 *** The Ebrowse package implements a C++ class browser and tags
3151 facilities tailored for use with C++. It is documented in a
3152 separate Texinfo file.
3154 *** The PCL-CVS package available by either running M-x cvs-examine or
3155 by visiting a CVS administrative directory (with a prefix argument)
3156 provides an alternative interface to VC-dired for CVS. It comes with
3157 `log-view-mode' to view RCS and SCCS logs and `log-edit-mode' used to
3158 enter check-in log messages.
3160 *** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
3161 without invoking external programs.
3163 The command `M-x woman' formats manual pages entirely in Emacs Lisp
3164 and then displays them, like `M-x manual-entry' does. Unlike
3165 `manual-entry', `woman' does not invoke any external programs, so it
3166 is useful on systems such as MS-DOS/MS-Windows where the `man' and
3167 Groff or `troff' commands are not readily available.
3169 The command `M-x woman-find-file' asks for the file name of a man
3170 page, then formats and displays it like `M-x woman' does.
3172 *** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
3173 authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
3175 The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
3176 the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
3177 the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
3178 Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
3179 even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
3182 On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
3183 matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
3184 probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
3185 contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
3187 *** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
3188 unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
3189 actually modifying content of a buffer.
3191 *** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
3194 Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
3196 The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
3198 ; comment (until end of line)
3202 $A default non-terminal
3203 $"C" default terminal
3204 $?C? default special
3205 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
3206 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
3207 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
3208 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
3209 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
3210 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
3211 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
3212 C+ one or more occurrences of C
3213 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
3214 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
3215 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
3216 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
3217 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
3218 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
3219 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
3221 Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
3223 *** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
3224 align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
3225 determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
3226 example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
3227 equal signs of assignments.
3229 *** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
3230 paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
3232 *** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
3233 list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
3234 buffer menu with this package. See the Custom group `bs'.
3236 *** find-lisp.el is a package emulating the Unix find command in Lisp.
3238 *** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
3239 replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
3240 is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
3241 and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
3242 not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
3243 which answers different needs.
3245 *** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
3246 suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
3247 expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
3248 course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
3249 reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
3252 *** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
3253 containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
3255 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
3257 *** hl-line.el provides `hl-line-mode', a minor mode to highlight the
3258 current line in the current buffer. It also provides
3259 `global-hl-line-mode' to provide the same behaviour in all buffers.
3261 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
3263 Please note: if `ansi-color-for-comint-mode' and
3264 `global-font-lock-mode' are non-nil, loading ansi-color.el will
3265 disable font-lock and add `ansi-color-apply' to
3266 `comint-preoutput-filter-functions' for all shell-mode buffers. This
3267 displays the output of "ls --color=yes" using the correct foreground
3268 and background colors.
3270 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
3273 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
3276 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
3278 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
3280 *** whitespace.el is a package for warning about and cleaning bogus
3281 whitespace in a file.
3283 *** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
3284 files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
3285 (very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
3286 interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
3287 often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
3288 uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
3289 codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
3291 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
3293 Here is an example of columns:
3296 dog pineapple car EXTRA
3297 porcupine strawberry airplane
3299 Doing the following settings:
3301 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
3302 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
3303 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
3304 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
3307 Selecting the lines above and typing:
3309 M-x delimit-columns-region
3313 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
3314 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
3315 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
3317 delim-col has the following options:
3319 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
3322 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
3323 between each column.
3325 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
3328 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
3331 delim-col has the following commands:
3333 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
3334 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
3336 *** Recentf mode maintains a menu for visiting files that were
3337 operated on recently. User option recentf-menu-filter specifies a
3338 menu filter function to change the menu appearance. For example, the
3339 recent file list can be displayed:
3341 - organized by major modes, directories or user defined rules.
3342 - sorted by file paths, file names, ascending or descending.
3343 - showing paths relative to the current default-directory
3345 The `recentf-filter-changer' menu filter function allows to
3346 dynamically change the menu appearance.
3348 *** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
3351 *** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
3352 of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
3353 specific to Message mode.
3355 *** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
3356 viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
3357 with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
3359 *** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
3360 interface to access directory servers using different directory
3361 protocols. It has a separate manual.
3363 *** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
3364 for Autoconf, selected automatically.
3366 *** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
3368 *** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
3369 minibuffer with completion.
3371 *** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
3372 with the diary features.
3374 *** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
3375 numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
3377 *** The function `turn-off-auto-fill' unconditionally turns off Auto
3380 *** pcomplete.el is a library that provides programmable completion
3381 facilities for Emacs, similar to what zsh and tcsh offer. The main
3382 difference is that completion functions are written in Lisp, meaning
3383 they can be profiled, debugged, etc.
3385 *** antlr-mode is a new major mode for editing ANTLR grammar files.
3386 It is automatically turned on for files whose names have the extension
3389 ** Changes in sort.el
3391 The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
3392 as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
3393 new user-option sort-numeric-base can be used to specify a default
3396 ** Changes to Ange-ftp
3398 *** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
3399 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
3400 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
3402 *** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
3403 ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
3405 *** Ange-ftp handles the output of the w32-style clients which
3406 output ^M at the end of lines.
3408 ** The recommended way of using Iswitchb is via the new global minor
3409 mode `iswitchb-mode'.
3411 ** Just loading the msb package doesn't switch on Msb mode anymore.
3412 If you have `(require 'msb)' in your .emacs, please replace it with
3415 ** Flyspell mode has various new options. See the `flyspell' Custom
3418 ** The user option `backward-delete-char-untabify-method' controls the
3419 behavior of `backward-delete-char-untabify'. The following values
3422 `untabify' -- turn a tab to many spaces, then delete one space;
3423 `hungry' -- delete all whitespace, both tabs and spaces;
3424 `all' -- delete all whitespace, including tabs, spaces and newlines;
3425 nil -- just delete one character.
3427 Default value is `untabify'.
3429 [This change was made in Emacs 20.3 but not mentioned then.]
3431 ** In Cperl mode `cperl-invalid-face' should now be a normal face
3432 symbol, not double-quoted.
3434 ** Some packages are declared obsolete, to be removed in a future
3435 version. They are: auto-show, c-mode, hilit19, hscroll, ooutline,
3436 profile, rnews, rnewspost, and sc. Their implementations have been
3437 moved to lisp/obsolete.
3439 ** auto-compression mode is no longer enabled just by loading jka-compr.el.
3440 To control it, set `auto-compression-mode' via Custom or use the
3441 `auto-compression-mode' command.
3443 ** `browse-url-gnome-moz' is a new option for
3444 `browse-url-browser-function', invoking Mozilla in GNOME, and
3445 `browse-url-kde' can be chosen for invoking the KDE browser.
3447 ** The user-option `browse-url-new-window-p' has been renamed to
3448 `browse-url-new-window-flag'.
3450 ** The functions `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many' now
3451 operate on the active region in Transient Mark mode.
3453 ** `gnus-user-agent' is a new possibility for `mail-user-agent'. It
3454 is like `message-user-agent', but with all the Gnus paraphernalia.
3456 ** The Strokes package has been updated. If your Emacs has XPM
3457 support, you can use it for pictographic editing. In Strokes mode,
3458 use C-mouse-2 to compose a complex stoke and insert it into the
3459 buffer. You can encode or decode a strokes buffer with new commands
3460 M-x strokes-encode-buffer and M-x strokes-decode-buffer. There is a
3461 new command M-x strokes-list-strokes.
3463 ** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
3464 a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
3466 ** Hexl mode allows to insert non-ASCII characters.
3468 The non-ASCII characters are encoded using the same encoding as the
3469 file you are visiting in Hexl mode.
3471 ** Shell script mode changes.
3473 Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
3474 derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizable, and
3475 sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
3479 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
3481 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
3482 possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
3483 {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
3484 This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
3485 a regular expression. The manual contains details.
3487 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
3488 declarations when given the --declarations option.
3490 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
3491 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
3493 *** You shouldn't generally need any more the -C or -c++ option: etags
3494 automatically switches to C++ parsing when it meets the `class' or
3495 `template' keywords.
3497 *** Etags now is able to delve at arbitrary deeps into nested structures in
3498 C-like languages. Previously, it was limited to one or two brace levels.
3500 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
3503 *** In Fortran, `procedure' is not tagged.
3505 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
3507 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
3510 *** In makefiles, tags the targets.
3512 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
3513 variables are tagged.
3515 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
3517 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
3520 ** Changes in etags.el
3522 *** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
3523 tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
3524 is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
3526 *** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
3527 the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
3529 If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
3530 FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
3531 TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
3532 obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
3534 TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
3536 FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
3537 List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
3539 A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
3541 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
3542 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
3543 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
3545 *** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
3546 of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
3548 *** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
3549 names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
3551 *** You can now search for tags that are part of the filename itself.
3552 If you have tagged the files topfile.c subdir/subfile.c
3553 /tmp/tempfile.c, you can now search for tags "topfile.c", "subfile.c",
3554 "dir/sub", "tempfile", "tempfile.c". If the tag matches the file name,
3555 point will go to the beginning of the file.
3557 *** Compressed files are now transparently supported if
3558 auto-compression-mode is active. You can tag (with Etags) and search
3559 (with find-tag) both compressed and uncompressed files.
3561 *** Tags commands like M-x tags-search no longer change point
3562 in buffers where no match is found. In buffers where a match is
3563 found, the original value of point is pushed on the marker ring.
3565 ** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sequence-nos' to
3566 remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
3567 appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
3569 ** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
3571 ** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
3573 ** The Dabbrev package has a new user-option `dabbrev-ignored-regexps'
3574 containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
3575 expression from that list, are not checked.
3577 ** Emacs can now figure out modification times of remote files.
3578 When you do C-x C-f /user@host:/path/file RET and edit the file,
3579 and someone else modifies the file, you will be prompted to revert
3580 the buffer, just like for the local files.
3582 ** The buffer menu (C-x C-b) no longer lists the *Buffer List* buffer.
3584 ** When invoked with a prefix argument, the command `list-abbrevs' now
3585 displays local abbrevs, only.
3587 ** Refill minor mode provides preliminary support for keeping
3588 paragraphs filled as you modify them.
3590 ** The variable `double-click-fuzz' specifies how much the mouse
3591 may be moved between clicks that are recognized as a pair. Its value
3592 is measured in pixels.
3594 ** The new global minor mode `auto-image-file-mode' allows image files
3595 to be visited as images.
3597 ** Two new user-options `grep-command' and `grep-find-command'
3598 were added to compile.el.
3600 ** Withdrawn packages
3602 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
3603 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
3605 *** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
3607 *** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
3610 * Incompatible Lisp changes
3612 There are a few Lisp changes which are not backwards-compatible and
3613 may require changes to existing code. Here is a list for reference.
3614 See the sections below for details.
3616 ** Since `format' preserves text properties, the idiom
3617 `(format "%s" foo)' no longer works to copy and remove properties.
3618 Use `copy-sequence' to copy the string, then use `set-text-properties'
3619 to remove the properties of the copy.
3621 ** Since the `keymap' text property now has significance, some code
3622 which uses both `local-map' and `keymap' properties (for portability)
3623 may, for instance, give rise to duplicate menus when the keymaps from
3624 these properties are active.
3626 ** The change in the treatment of non-ASCII characters in search
3627 ranges may affect some code.
3629 ** A non-nil value for the LOCAL arg of add-hook makes the hook
3630 buffer-local even if `make-local-hook' hasn't been called, which might
3631 make a difference to some code.
3633 ** The new treatment of the minibuffer prompt might affect code which
3634 operates on the minibuffer.
3636 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
3637 cause `no-conversion' and `emacs-mule-unix' coding systems to produce
3638 different results when reading files with non-ASCII characters
3639 (previously, both coding systems would produce the same results).
3640 Specifically, `no-conversion' interprets each 8-bit byte as a separate
3641 character. This makes `no-conversion' inappropriate for reading
3642 multibyte text, e.g. buffers written to disk in their internal MULE
3643 encoding (auto-saving does that, for example). If a Lisp program
3644 reads such files with `no-conversion', each byte of the multibyte
3645 sequence, including the MULE leading codes such as \201, is treated as
3646 a separate character, which prevents them from being interpreted in
3647 the buffer as multibyte characters.
3649 Therefore, Lisp programs that read files which contain the internal
3650 MULE encoding should use `emacs-mule-unix'. `no-conversion' is only
3651 appropriate for reading truly binary files.
3653 ** Code that relies on the obsolete `before-change-function' and
3654 `after-change-function' to detect buffer changes will now fail. Use
3655 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions' instead.
3657 ** Code that uses `concat' with integer args now gets an error, as
3658 long promised. So does any code that uses derivatives of `concat',
3659 such as `mapconcat'.
3661 ** The function base64-decode-string now always returns a unibyte
3664 ** Not a Lisp incompatibility as such but, with the introduction of
3665 extra private charsets, there is now only one slot free for a new
3666 dimension-2 private charset. User code which tries to add more than
3667 one extra will fail unless you rebuild Emacs with some standard
3668 charset(s) removed; that is probably inadvisable because it changes
3669 the emacs-mule encoding. Also, files stored in the emacs-mule
3670 encoding using Emacs 20 with additional private charsets defined will
3671 probably not be read correctly by Emacs 21.
3673 ** The variable `directory-sep-char' is slated for removal.
3674 Not really a change (yet), but a projected one that you should be
3675 aware of: The variable `directory-sep-char' is deprecated, and should
3676 not be used. It was always ignored on GNU/Linux and Unix systems and
3677 on MS-DOS, but the MS-Windows port tried to support it by adapting the
3678 behavior of certain primitives to the value of this variable. It
3679 turned out that such support cannot be reliable, so it was decided to
3680 remove this variable in the near future. Lisp programs are well
3681 advised not to set it to anything but '/', because any different value
3682 will not have any effect when support for this variable is removed.
3685 * Lisp changes made after edition 2.6 of the Emacs Lisp Manual,
3686 (Display-related features are described in a page of their own below.)
3688 ** Function assq-delete-all replaces function assoc-delete-all.
3690 ** The new function animate-string, from lisp/play/animate.el
3691 allows the animated display of strings.
3693 ** The new function `interactive-form' can be used to obtain the
3694 interactive form of a function.
3696 ** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
3697 between custom options. Example:
3699 (defcustom default-input-method nil
3700 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
3701 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
3702 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
3704 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
3705 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
3707 This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
3708 current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
3709 first in a custom-set-variables statement.
3711 ** The new hook `kbd-macro-termination-hook' is run at the end of
3712 function execute-kbd-macro. Functions on this hook are called with no
3713 args. The hook is run independent of how the macro was terminated
3714 (signal or normal termination).
3716 ** Functions `butlast' and `nbutlast' for removing trailing elements
3717 from a list are now available without requiring the CL package.
3719 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
3720 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
3722 ** The user-option `face-font-registry-alternatives' specifies
3723 alternative font registry names to try when looking for a font.
3725 ** Function `md5' calculates the MD5 "message digest"/"checksum".
3727 ** Function `delete-frame' runs `delete-frame-hook' before actually
3728 deleting the frame. The hook is called with one arg, the frame
3731 ** `add-hook' now makes the hook local if called with a non-nil LOCAL arg.
3733 ** The treatment of non-ASCII characters in search ranges has changed.
3734 If a range in a regular expression or the arg of
3735 skip-chars-forward/backward starts with a unibyte character C and ends
3736 with a multibyte character C2, the range is divided into two: one is
3737 C..?\377, the other is C1..C2, where C1 is the first character of C2's
3740 ** The new function `display-message-or-buffer' displays a message in
3741 the echo area or pops up a buffer, depending on the length of the
3744 ** The new macro `with-auto-compression-mode' allows evaluating an
3745 expression with auto-compression-mode enabled.
3747 ** In image specifications, `:heuristic-mask' has been replaced
3748 with the more general `:mask' property.
3750 ** Image specifications accept more `:conversion's.
3752 ** A `?' can be used in a symbol name without escaping it with a
3755 ** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
3756 is running in batch mode. For example,
3758 (message "%s" (read t))
3760 will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
3763 ** The argument of `down-list', `backward-up-list', `up-list',
3764 `kill-sexp', `backward-kill-sexp' and `mark-sexp' is now optional.
3766 ** If `display-buffer-reuse-frames' is set, function `display-buffer'
3767 will raise frames displaying a buffer, instead of creating a new
3770 ** Two new functions for removing elements from lists/sequences
3773 - Function: remove ELT SEQ
3775 Return a copy of SEQ with all occurrences of ELT removed. SEQ must be
3776 a list, vector, or string. The comparison is done with `equal'.
3778 - Function: remq ELT LIST
3780 Return a copy of LIST with all occurrences of ELT removed. The
3781 comparison is done with `eq'.
3783 ** The function `delete' now also works with vectors and strings.
3785 ** The meaning of the `:weakness WEAK' argument of make-hash-table
3786 has been changed: WEAK can now have new values `key-or-value' and
3787 `key-and-value', in addition the `nil', `key', `value', and `t'.
3789 ** Function `aset' stores any multibyte character in any string
3790 without signaling "Attempt to change char length of a string". It may
3791 convert a unibyte string to multibyte if necessary.
3793 ** The value of the `help-echo' text property is called as a function
3794 or evaluated, if it is not a string already, to obtain a help string.
3796 ** Function `make-obsolete' now has an optional arg to say when the
3797 function was declared obsolete.
3799 ** Function `plist-member' is renamed from `widget-plist-member' (which is
3800 retained as an alias).
3802 ** Easy-menu's :filter now works as in XEmacs.
3803 It takes the unconverted (i.e. XEmacs) form of the menu and the result
3804 is automatically converted to Emacs' form.
3806 ** The new function `window-list' has been defined
3808 - Function: window-list &optional FRAME WINDOW MINIBUF
3810 Return a list of windows on FRAME, starting with WINDOW. FRAME nil or
3811 omitted means use the selected frame. WINDOW nil or omitted means use
3812 the selected window. MINIBUF t means include the minibuffer window,
3813 even if it isn't active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means include the
3814 minibuffer window only if it's active. MINIBUF neither nil nor t
3815 means never include the minibuffer window.
3817 ** There's a new function `get-window-with-predicate' defined as follows
3819 - Function: get-window-with-predicate PREDICATE &optional MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES DEFAULT
3821 Return a window satisfying PREDICATE.
3823 This function cycles through all visible windows using `walk-windows',
3824 calling PREDICATE on each one. PREDICATE is called with a window as
3825 argument. The first window for which PREDICATE returns a non-nil
3826 value is returned. If no window satisfies PREDICATE, DEFAULT is
3829 Optional second arg MINIBUF t means count the minibuffer window even
3830 if not active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means count the minibuffer iff
3831 it is active. MINIBUF neither t nor nil means not to count the
3832 minibuffer even if it is active.
3834 Several frames may share a single minibuffer; if the minibuffer
3835 counts, all windows on all frames that share that minibuffer count
3836 too. Therefore, if you are using a separate minibuffer frame
3837 and the minibuffer is active and MINIBUF says it counts,
3838 `walk-windows' includes the windows in the frame from which you
3839 entered the minibuffer, as well as the minibuffer window.
3841 ALL-FRAMES is the optional third argument.
3842 ALL-FRAMES nil or omitted means cycle within the frames as specified above.
3843 ALL-FRAMES = `visible' means include windows on all visible frames.
3844 ALL-FRAMES = 0 means include windows on all visible and iconified frames.
3845 ALL-FRAMES = t means include windows on all frames including invisible frames.
3846 If ALL-FRAMES is a frame, it means include windows on that frame.
3847 Anything else means restrict to the selected frame.
3849 ** The function `single-key-description' now encloses function key and
3850 event names in angle brackets. When called with a second optional
3851 argument non-nil, angle brackets won't be printed.
3853 ** If the variable `message-truncate-lines' is bound to t around a
3854 call to `message', the echo area will not be resized to display that
3855 message; it will be truncated instead, as it was done in 20.x.
3856 Default value is nil.
3858 ** The user option `line-number-display-limit' can now be set to nil,
3861 ** The new user option `line-number-display-limit-width' controls
3862 the maximum width of lines in a buffer for which Emacs displays line
3863 numbers in the mode line. The default is 200.
3865 ** `select-safe-coding-system' now also checks the most preferred
3866 coding-system if buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and
3867 DEFAULT-CODING-SYSTEM is not specified,
3869 ** The function `subr-arity' provides information about the argument
3870 list of a primitive.
3872 ** `where-is-internal' now also accepts a list of keymaps.
3874 ** The text property `keymap' specifies a key map which overrides the
3875 buffer's local map and the map specified by the `local-map' property.
3876 This is probably what most current uses of `local-map' want, rather
3877 than replacing the local map.
3879 ** The obsolete variables `before-change-function' and
3880 `after-change-function' are no longer acted upon and have been
3881 removed. Use `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions'
3884 ** The function `apropos-mode' runs the hook `apropos-mode-hook'.
3886 ** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments,
3887 as promised long ago.
3889 ** The new function `float-time' returns the current time as a float.
3891 ** The new variable auto-coding-regexp-alist specifies coding systems
3892 for reading specific files, analogous to auto-coding-alist, but
3893 patterns are checked against file contents instead of file names.
3896 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
3898 ** The new package rx.el provides an alternative sexp notation for
3899 regular expressions.
3901 - Function: rx-to-string SEXP
3903 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
3907 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
3909 The following are valid subforms of regular expressions in sexp
3913 matches string STRING literally.
3916 matches character CHAR literally.
3919 matches any character except a newline.
3922 matches any character
3925 matches any character in SET. SET may be a character or string.
3926 Ranges of characters can be specified as `A-Z' in strings.
3932 matches any character not in SET
3935 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of a line
3936 in the text being matched
3939 is similar to `line-start' but matches only at the end of a line
3942 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
3943 string being matched against.
3946 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
3947 string being matched against.
3950 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
3951 buffer being matched against.
3954 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
3955 buffer being matched against.
3958 matches the empty string, but only at point.
3961 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
3965 matches the empty string, but only at the end of a word.
3968 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
3971 `(not word-boundary)'
3972 matches the empty string, but not at the beginning or end of a
3976 matches 0 through 9.
3979 matches ASCII control characters.
3982 matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
3985 matches space and tab only.
3988 matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
3992 matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
3996 matches letters and digits. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
3997 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
4000 matches letters. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
4001 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
4004 matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
4007 matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
4010 matches anything lower-case.
4013 matches anything upper-case.
4016 matches punctuation. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
4017 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
4020 matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
4023 matches anything that has word syntax.
4026 matches a character with syntax SYNTAX. SYNTAX must be one
4027 of the following symbols.
4029 `whitespace' (\\s- in string notation)
4030 `punctuation' (\\s.)
4033 `open-parenthesis' (\\s()
4034 `close-parenthesis' (\\s))
4035 `expression-prefix' (\\s')
4036 `string-quote' (\\s\")
4037 `paired-delimiter' (\\s$)
4039 `character-quote' (\\s/)
4040 `comment-start' (\\s<)
4041 `comment-end' (\\s>)
4043 `(not (syntax SYNTAX))'
4044 matches a character that has not syntax SYNTAX.
4046 `(category CATEGORY)'
4047 matches a character with category CATEGORY. CATEGORY must be
4048 either a character to use for C, or one of the following symbols.
4050 `consonant' (\\c0 in string notation)
4052 `upper-diacritical-mark' (\\c2)
4053 `lower-diacritical-mark' (\\c3)
4057 `vowel-modifying-diacritical-mark' (\\c7)
4059 `semivowel-lower' (\\c9)
4060 `not-at-end-of-line' (\\c<)
4061 `not-at-beginning-of-line' (\\c>)
4062 `alpha-numeric-two-byte' (\\cA)
4063 `chinse-two-byte' (\\cC)
4064 `greek-two-byte' (\\cG)
4065 `japanese-hiragana-two-byte' (\\cH)
4066 `indian-tow-byte' (\\cI)
4067 `japanese-katakana-two-byte' (\\cK)
4068 `korean-hangul-two-byte' (\\cN)
4069 `cyrillic-two-byte' (\\cY)
4078 `japanese-katakana' (\\ck)
4082 `japanese-roman' (\\cr)
4089 `(not (category CATEGORY))'
4090 matches a character that has not category CATEGORY.
4092 `(and SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
4093 matches what SEXP1 matches, followed by what SEXP2 matches, etc.
4095 `(submatch SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
4096 like `and', but makes the match accessible with `match-end',
4097 `match-beginning', and `match-string'.
4099 `(group SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
4100 another name for `submatch'.
4102 `(or SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
4103 matches anything that matches SEXP1 or SEXP2, etc. If all
4104 args are strings, use `regexp-opt' to optimize the resulting
4107 `(minimal-match SEXP)'
4108 produce a non-greedy regexp for SEXP. Normally, regexps matching
4109 zero or more occurrences of something are \"greedy\" in that they
4110 match as much as they can, as long as the overall regexp can
4111 still match. A non-greedy regexp matches as little as possible.
4113 `(maximal-match SEXP)'
4114 produce a greedy regexp for SEXP. This is the default.
4116 `(zero-or-more SEXP)'
4117 matches zero or more occurrences of what SEXP matches.
4120 like `zero-or-more'.
4123 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
4126 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
4128 `(one-or-more SEXP)'
4129 matches one or more occurrences of A.
4135 like `one-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
4138 like `one-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
4140 `(zero-or-one SEXP)'
4141 matches zero or one occurrences of A.
4147 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a greedy regexp.
4150 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
4153 matches N occurrences of what SEXP matches.
4156 matches N to M occurrences of what SEXP matches.
4159 evaluate FORM and insert result. If result is a string,
4163 include REGEXP in string notation in the result.
4165 *** The features `md5' and `overlay' are now provided by default.
4167 *** The special form `save-restriction' now works correctly even if the
4168 buffer is widened inside the save-restriction and changes made outside
4169 the original restriction. Previously, doing this would cause the saved
4170 restriction to be restored incorrectly.
4172 *** The functions `find-charset-region' and `find-charset-string' include
4173 `eight-bit-control' and/or `eight-bit-graphic' in the returned list
4174 when they find 8-bit characters. Previously, they included `ascii' in a
4175 multibyte buffer and `unknown' in a unibyte buffer.
4177 *** The functions `set-buffer-multibyte', `string-as-multibyte' and
4178 `string-as-unibyte' change the byte sequence of a buffer or a string
4179 if it contains a character from the `eight-bit-control' character set.
4181 *** The handling of multibyte sequences in a multibyte buffer is
4182 changed. Previously, a byte sequence matching the pattern
4183 [\200-\237][\240-\377]+ was interpreted as a single character
4184 regardless of the length of the trailing bytes [\240-\377]+. Thus, if
4185 the sequence was longer than what the leading byte indicated, the
4186 extra trailing bytes were ignored by Lisp functions. Now such extra
4187 bytes are independent 8-bit characters belonging to the charset
4190 ** Fontsets are now implemented using char-tables.
4192 A fontset can now be specified for each independent character, for
4193 a group of characters or for a character set rather than just for a
4194 character set as previously.
4196 *** The arguments of the function `set-fontset-font' are changed.
4197 They are NAME, CHARACTER, FONTNAME, and optional FRAME. The function
4198 modifies fontset NAME to use FONTNAME for CHARACTER.
4200 CHARACTER may be a cons (FROM . TO), where FROM and TO are non-generic
4201 characters. In that case FONTNAME is used for all characters in the
4202 range FROM and TO (inclusive). CHARACTER may be a charset. In that
4203 case FONTNAME is used for all character in the charset.
4205 FONTNAME may be a cons (FAMILY . REGISTRY), where FAMILY is the family
4206 name of a font and REGISTRY is a registry name of a font.
4208 *** Variable x-charset-registry has been deleted. The default charset
4209 registries of character sets are set in the default fontset
4212 *** The function `create-fontset-from-fontset-spec' ignores the second
4213 argument STYLE-VARIANT. It never creates style-variant fontsets.
4215 ** The method of composing characters is changed. Now character
4216 composition is done by a special text property `composition' in
4217 buffers and strings.
4219 *** Charset composition is deleted. Emacs never creates a `composite
4220 character' which is an independent character with a unique character
4221 code. Thus the following functions handling `composite characters'
4222 have been deleted: composite-char-component,
4223 composite-char-component-count, composite-char-composition-rule,
4224 composite-char-composition-rule and decompose-composite-char delete.
4225 The variables leading-code-composition and min-composite-char have
4228 *** Three more glyph reference points are added. They can be used to
4229 specify a composition rule. See the documentation of the variable
4230 `reference-point-alist' for more detail.
4232 *** The function `compose-region' takes new arguments COMPONENTS and
4233 MODIFICATION-FUNC. With COMPONENTS, you can specify not only a
4234 composition rule but also characters to be composed. Such characters
4235 may differ between buffer and string text.
4237 *** The function `compose-string' takes new arguments START, END,
4238 COMPONENTS, and MODIFICATION-FUNC.
4240 *** The function `compose-string' puts text property `composition'
4241 directly on the argument STRING instead of returning a new string.
4242 Likewise, the function `decompose-string' just removes text property
4243 `composition' from STRING.
4245 *** The new function `find-composition' returns information about
4246 a composition at a specified position in a buffer or a string.
4248 *** The function `decompose-composite-char' is now labeled as
4251 ** The new coding system `mac-roman' is primarily intended for use on
4252 the Macintosh but may be used generally for Macintosh-encoded text.
4254 ** The new character sets `mule-unicode-0100-24ff',
4255 `mule-unicode-2500-33ff', and `mule-unicode-e000-ffff' have been
4256 introduced for Unicode characters in the range U+0100..U+24FF,
4257 U+2500..U+33FF, U+E000..U+FFFF respectively.
4259 Note that the character sets are not yet unified in Emacs, so
4260 characters which belong to charsets such as Latin-2, Greek, Hebrew,
4261 etc. and the same characters in the `mule-unicode-*' charsets are
4262 different characters, as far as Emacs is concerned. For example, text
4263 which includes Unicode characters from the Latin-2 locale cannot be
4264 encoded by Emacs with ISO 8859-2 coding system.
4266 ** The new coding system `mule-utf-8' has been added.
4267 It provides limited support for decoding/encoding UTF-8 text. For
4268 details, please see the documentation string of this coding system.
4270 ** The new character sets `japanese-jisx0213-1' and
4271 `japanese-jisx0213-2' have been introduced for the new Japanese
4272 standard JIS X 0213 Plane 1 and Plane 2.
4274 ** The new character sets `latin-iso8859-14' and `latin-iso8859-15'
4275 have been introduced.
4277 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
4278 have been introduced for 8-bit characters in the ranges 0x80..0x9F and
4279 0xA0..0xFF respectively. Note that the multibyte representation of
4280 eight-bit-control is never exposed; this leads to an exception in the
4281 emacs-mule coding system, which encodes everything else to the
4282 buffer/string internal representation. Note that to search for
4283 eight-bit-graphic characters in a multibyte buffer, the search string
4284 must be multibyte, otherwise such characters will be converted to
4285 their multibyte equivalent.
4287 ** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
4288 that offset in the file before writing.
4290 ** The function `add-minor-mode' has been added for convenience and
4291 compatibility with XEmacs (and is used internally by define-minor-mode).
4293 ** The function `shell-command' now sets the default directory of the
4294 `*Shell Command Output*' buffer to the default directory of the buffer
4295 from which the command was issued.
4297 ** The functions `query-replace', `query-replace-regexp',
4298 `query-replace-regexp-eval' `map-query-replace-regexp',
4299 `replace-string', `replace-regexp', and `perform-replace' take two
4300 additional optional arguments START and END that specify the region to
4303 ** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
4304 to `window-buffer-height'.
4306 - Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
4308 Return the number of screen lines in the region between BEG and END.
4309 The number of screen lines may be different from the number of actual
4310 lines, due to line breaking, display table, etc.
4312 Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
4315 If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optional third argument
4316 COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
4318 The optional fourth argument WINDOW specifies the window used for
4319 obtaining parameters such as width, horizontal scrolling, and so
4320 on. The default is to use the selected window's parameters.
4322 Like `vertical-motion', `count-screen-lines' always uses the current
4323 buffer, regardless of which buffer is displayed in WINDOW. This makes
4324 possible to use `count-screen-lines' in any buffer, whether or not it
4325 is currently displayed in some window.
4327 ** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
4328 argument function's results.
4330 ** The functions base64-decode-region and base64-decode-string now
4331 signal an error instead of returning nil if decoding fails. Also,
4332 `base64-decode-string' now always returns a unibyte string (in Emacs
4333 20, it returned a multibyte string when the result was a valid multibyte
4336 ** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
4337 header in the list of headers passed to it.
4339 ** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
4340 ignores differences in case and text representation.
4342 ** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
4343 cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
4346 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
4347 nil don't display a cursor
4348 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
4349 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
4350 others display a box cursor.
4352 ** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
4353 an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
4354 defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
4355 set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
4357 ** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
4358 specifications in string form as accepted by `modify-syntax-entry' to
4359 the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
4360 text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
4364 (string-to-syntax "()")
4367 ** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
4370 *** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
4371 INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
4378 *** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
4383 *** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
4388 *** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
4395 ** The function `documentation-property' now evaluates the value of
4396 the given property to obtain a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
4399 ** If called for a symbol, the function `documentation' now looks for
4400 a `function-documentation' property of that symbol. If it has a non-nil
4401 value, the documentation is taken from that value. If the value is
4402 not a string, it is evaluated to obtain a string.
4404 ** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
4406 ** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
4407 for a regexp in a string.
4409 ** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
4410 `mouse-position-function'.
4412 ** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
4413 that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
4415 ** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
4416 Keywords are now always considered constants.
4418 ** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
4421 ** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
4422 returned by function `recent-keys'.
4424 ** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
4425 can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
4426 Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding C-M-a
4427 etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
4430 ** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
4431 and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
4433 ** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
4434 has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
4435 function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
4436 returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
4439 When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
4440 and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
4441 hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
4442 then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
4444 ** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
4445 In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
4446 and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
4448 ** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
4449 with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
4452 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
4454 Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
4455 TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
4456 saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
4459 ** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
4460 Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
4461 Also back-references like \2 are now considered as an error if the
4462 corresponding subgroup does not exist (or is not closed yet).
4463 Previously it would have been silently turned into `2' (ignoring the `\').
4465 ** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
4466 removed since it wasn't used by anything.
4468 ** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
4469 instead of being optional.
4471 ** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
4472 modify read-only text.
4474 ** New functions and variables for locales.
4476 The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
4477 decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
4478 time functions like strftime. The new variables
4479 `system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
4480 locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
4482 The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
4483 environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
4484 the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
4485 environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
4486 not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
4487 `locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
4488 `locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
4490 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
4491 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
4492 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
4495 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
4496 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
4498 ** New function `propertize'
4500 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
4501 strings with text properties.
4503 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
4505 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
4506 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
4507 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
4508 specified value of that property. Example:
4510 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
4512 ** push and pop macros.
4514 Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
4515 are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
4516 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
4518 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
4519 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
4520 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
4522 ** New dolist and dotimes macros.
4524 Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
4525 are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
4527 (dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
4528 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
4529 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
4530 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
4532 (dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
4533 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
4534 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
4535 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
4537 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such as
4538 [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on. These must be used within a character
4539 class--for instance, [-[:digit:].+] matches digits or a period
4542 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
4543 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
4544 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
4545 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
4546 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
4548 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
4550 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
4551 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
4552 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
4553 [:alpha:] matches letters.
4554 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
4555 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
4556 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
4557 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
4558 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
4559 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
4560 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
4561 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
4562 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
4563 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
4564 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
4566 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
4568 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
4570 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
4572 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
4573 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
4577 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
4578 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
4579 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
4583 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
4584 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
4586 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
4588 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
4589 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
4590 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
4591 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
4592 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
4594 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
4596 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
4597 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
4598 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
4602 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value',
4603 `key-or-value', `key-and-value', or t, meaning the same as
4604 `key-and-value'. Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage
4605 collection if their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere
4606 outside of the hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
4608 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
4610 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
4612 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
4614 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
4616 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
4618 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
4621 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
4623 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
4625 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
4627 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
4629 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
4631 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
4633 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
4635 Returns the size of TABLE.
4637 - Function: hash-table-test TABLE
4639 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
4641 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
4643 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
4645 - Function: clrhash TABLE
4649 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
4651 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
4654 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
4656 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
4657 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
4659 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
4661 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
4663 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
4665 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
4666 arguments KEY and VALUE.
4668 - Function: sxhash OBJ
4670 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
4672 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
4674 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
4675 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
4676 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
4677 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
4678 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
4680 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
4682 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
4683 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
4684 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
4686 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
4687 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
4689 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
4690 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
4692 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
4693 (sxhash (upcase a)))
4695 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
4696 'case-fold-string-hash))
4698 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
4700 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
4702 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
4703 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
4704 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
4706 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
4708 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
4709 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
4711 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
4712 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
4713 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
4714 is too short to reach that column.
4716 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
4717 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
4718 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
4719 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
4721 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
4722 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
4723 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
4725 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
4726 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
4728 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
4729 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
4731 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
4732 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
4733 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
4734 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
4735 temporary-file-directory instead.
4737 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
4738 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
4739 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
4740 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
4742 ** assq-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
4743 elements of an alist which have a car `eq' to a particular value.
4745 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
4747 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
4748 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
4749 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
4751 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
4753 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
4754 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
4755 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
4756 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
4757 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
4758 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
4760 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
4761 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
4762 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
4763 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
4765 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
4767 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
4768 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
4769 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
4772 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
4773 string where arguments appear in the result string.
4777 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
4779 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
4780 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
4783 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
4785 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
4787 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
4788 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
4791 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
4793 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
4794 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
4799 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
4800 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
4802 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
4803 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
4804 to enable sound support.
4806 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
4807 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
4808 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
4809 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
4810 sound to play, before playing the sound.
4812 The following sound properties are supported:
4816 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
4817 searched relative to `data-directory'.
4821 DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
4822 may be present, but not both.
4826 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
4827 0..1. This property is optional.
4831 DEVICE is a string specifying the system device on which to play the
4832 sound. The default device is system-dependent.
4834 Other properties are ignored.
4836 An alternative interface is called as
4837 (play-sound-file FILE &optional VOLUME DEVICE).
4839 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
4841 ** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
4844 ** Changes to garbage collection
4846 *** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
4847 of live and free strings.
4849 *** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
4850 strings that have been consed so far.
4853 * Lisp-level Display features added after release 2.6 of the Emacs
4856 ** The user-option `resize-mini-windows' controls how Emacs resizes
4859 ** The function `pos-visible-in-window-p' now has a third optional
4860 argument, PARTIALLY. If a character is only partially visible, nil is
4861 returned, unless PARTIALLY is non-nil.
4863 ** On window systems, `glyph-table' is no longer used.
4865 ** Help strings in menu items are now used to provide `help-echo' text.
4867 ** The function `image-size' can be used to determine the size of an
4870 - Function: image-size SPEC &optional PIXELS FRAME
4872 Return the size of an image as a pair (WIDTH . HEIGHT).
4874 SPEC is an image specification. PIXELS non-nil means return sizes
4875 measured in pixels, otherwise return sizes measured in canonical
4876 character units (fractions of the width/height of the frame's default
4877 font). FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed.
4878 FRAME nil or omitted means use the selected frame.
4880 ** The function `image-mask-p' can be used to determine if an image
4883 - Function: image-mask-p SPEC &optional FRAME
4885 Return t if image SPEC has a mask bitmap.
4886 FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed. FRAME nil
4887 or omitted means use the selected frame.
4889 ** The function `find-image' can be used to find a usable image
4890 satisfying one of a list of specifications.
4892 ** The STRING argument of `put-image' and `insert-image' is now
4895 ** Image specifications may contain the property `:ascent center' (see
4899 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
4901 ** The function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors can be used
4902 to make Emacs avoid displaying text with bold black foreground on TTYs.
4904 Some terminals, notably PC consoles, emulate bold text by displaying
4905 text in brighter colors. On such a console, a bold black foreground
4906 is displayed in a gray color. If this turns out to be hard to read on
4907 your monitor---the problem occurred with the mode line on
4908 laptops---you can instruct Emacs to ignore the text's boldness, and to
4909 just display it black instead.
4911 This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
4914 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
4918 ** New face implementation.
4920 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
4921 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
4925 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
4927 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
4929 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
4930 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
4932 3. Font height in 1/10pt
4934 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
4936 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
4938 6. Foreground color.
4940 7. Background color.
4942 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
4944 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
4946 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
4948 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
4950 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
4953 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
4954 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
4956 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
4957 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
4958 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
4959 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
4960 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each of the face
4961 attributes mentioned above.
4963 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
4964 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
4967 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
4968 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
4973 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
4974 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
4975 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
4976 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
4977 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
4978 results in a fully-specified face.
4980 *** Face realization.
4982 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
4983 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
4984 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
4985 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
4986 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
4987 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
4989 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
4990 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
4991 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
4992 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
4994 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
4995 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
4996 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
4997 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
4998 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
5000 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
5001 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
5002 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
5003 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
5004 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
5007 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
5008 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
5009 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
5010 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
5012 **** Clearing face caches.
5014 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
5015 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
5020 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
5021 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
5022 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
5024 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
5025 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
5026 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
5027 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
5028 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
5030 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
5031 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
5032 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
5034 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
5036 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
5037 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
5038 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
5039 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
5040 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
5041 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
5042 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
5044 Setting `face-font-family-alternatives' allows the user to specify
5045 alternative font families to try if a family specified by a face
5048 Setting `face-font-registry-alternatives' allows the user to specify
5049 all alternative font registry names to try for a face specifying a
5052 Please note that the interpretations of the above two variables are
5055 Setting face-ignored-fonts allows the user to ignore specific fonts.
5060 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
5061 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
5064 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
5065 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
5066 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
5067 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
5068 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
5071 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
5073 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
5075 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
5077 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
5079 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
5080 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
5081 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
5083 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
5084 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
5085 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
5086 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
5087 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
5088 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
5089 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
5090 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
5091 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
5092 of the face font sort order.
5094 - Function: x-font-family-list
5096 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
5097 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
5098 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
5099 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
5101 - Variable: font-list-limit
5103 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
5104 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
5105 matching font. The default is currently 100.
5107 *** Setting face attributes.
5109 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
5110 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
5111 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
5114 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
5115 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
5117 The following attributes are recognized:
5121 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
5122 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
5123 and `?' are allowed.
5127 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
5128 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
5129 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
5130 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
5134 VALUE must be either an integer specifying the height of the font to use
5135 in 1/10 pt, a floating point number specifying the amount by which to
5136 scale any underlying face, or a function, which is called with the old
5137 height (from the underlying face), and should return the new height.
5141 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
5142 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
5143 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
5147 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
5148 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
5151 `:foreground', `:background'
5153 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
5157 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
5158 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
5159 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
5164 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
5165 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
5166 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
5171 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
5172 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
5173 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
5174 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
5178 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
5179 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
5180 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
5181 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
5182 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
5183 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
5184 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
5185 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
5186 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
5187 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
5188 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
5189 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
5190 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
5191 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
5192 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
5193 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
5198 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
5199 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
5203 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
5204 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
5205 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
5206 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
5207 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
5208 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
5210 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
5211 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
5215 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
5216 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
5217 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
5220 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
5221 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
5222 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
5224 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
5229 VALUE is the name of a face from which to inherit attributes, or a list
5230 of face names. Attributes from inherited faces are merged into the face
5231 like an underlying face would be, with higher priority than underlying faces.
5233 *** Face attributes and X resources
5235 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
5238 Face attribute X resource class
5239 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
5240 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
5241 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
5242 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
5243 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
5244 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
5245 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
5246 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
5247 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
5248 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
5249 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
5250 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
5251 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
5252 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
5253 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
5254 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
5255 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
5256 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
5257 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
5258 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
5260 *** Text property `face'.
5262 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
5263 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
5264 specification can be
5266 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
5268 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
5269 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
5270 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
5271 for face attribute names.
5273 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
5274 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
5275 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
5277 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
5279 The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
5280 on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
5281 the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
5282 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
5283 `defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
5284 used to clear the mapping table.
5286 ** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
5288 The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
5289 and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
5290 type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
5291 color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
5292 display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
5293 old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
5294 `x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
5295 compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
5296 should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
5297 modify their color-related behavior.
5299 The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
5302 ** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
5304 The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
5305 `display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
5306 `display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
5307 `display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
5308 `display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
5309 `display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
5310 display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
5311 the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
5312 platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
5314 The new function `display-images-p' returns non-nil if a particular
5315 display can display image files.
5317 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
5319 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
5320 To disallow this completely (like previous versions of emacs), customize
5321 the variable `minibuffer-prompt-properties', and turn on the
5322 `Inviolable' option.
5324 The function `minibuffer-prompt-end' returns the current position of the
5325 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
5326 Otherwise, it returns `(point-min)'.
5328 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
5330 There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
5331 buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
5332 property (which can be a text property or an overlay).
5334 Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
5335 forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
5336 to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
5337 not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
5338 commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
5339 boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
5340 `inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
5343 Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
5344 a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
5345 editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
5347 The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
5349 - Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY
5351 Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
5353 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
5354 If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
5355 constrained position if that is different.
5357 If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
5358 positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
5359 ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
5360 constrained to the field that has the same `field' char-property
5361 as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
5362 is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
5363 fields. Additionally, if two fields are separated by another field with
5364 the special value `boundary', then any point within this special field is
5365 also considered to be `on the boundary'.
5367 If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
5368 NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
5369 unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
5370 C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
5371 only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
5373 If the optional argument INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY is non-nil, and OLD-POS has
5374 a non-nil property of that name, then any field boundaries are ignored.
5376 Field boundaries are not noticed if `inhibit-field-text-motion' is non-nil.
5378 - Function: delete-field &optional POS
5380 Delete the field surrounding POS.
5381 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
5382 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
5384 - Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
5386 Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
5387 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
5388 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
5389 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the beginning of its
5390 field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
5392 - Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
5394 Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
5395 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
5396 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
5397 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the end of its field,
5398 then the end of the *following* field is returned.
5400 - Function: field-string &optional POS
5402 Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
5403 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
5404 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
5406 - Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
5408 Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
5409 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
5410 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
5414 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
5415 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
5416 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
5417 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
5419 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
5420 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
5421 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
5422 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
5425 IMAGE is an image specification.
5427 *** Image specifications
5429 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
5430 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
5431 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
5432 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
5433 described below are ignored.
5435 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
5439 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, or the symbol `center'.
5440 If it is a number, it specifies the percentage of the image's height
5441 to use for its ascent.
5443 If not specified, ASCENT defaults to the value 50 which means that the
5444 image will be centered with the base line of the row it appears in.
5446 If ASCENT is `center' the image is vertically centered around a
5447 centerline which is the vertical center of text drawn at the position
5448 of the image, in the manner specified by the text properties and
5449 overlays that apply to the image.
5453 MARGIN must be either a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put
5454 as margin around the image, or a pair (X . Y) with X specifying the
5455 horizontal margin and Y specifying the vertical margin. Default is 0.
5459 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
5464 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it.
5466 ALGO `laplace' or `emboss' means apply a Laplace or ``emboss''
5467 edge-detection algorithm to the image.
5469 ALGO `(edge-detection :matrix MATRIX :color-adjust ADJUST)' means
5470 apply a general edge-detection algorithm. MATRIX must be either a
5471 nine-element list or a nine-element vector of numbers. A pixel at
5472 position x/y in the transformed image is computed from original pixels
5473 around that position. MATRIX specifies, for each pixel in the
5474 neighborhood of x/y, a factor with which that pixel will influence the
5475 transformed pixel; element 0 specifies the factor for the pixel at
5476 x-1/y-1, element 1 the factor for the pixel at x/y-1 etc. as shown
5479 (x-1/y-1 x/y-1 x+1/y-1
5481 x-1/y+1 x/y+1 x+1/y+1)
5483 The resulting pixel is computed from the color intensity of the color
5484 resulting from summing up the RGB values of surrounding pixels,
5485 multiplied by the specified factors, and dividing that sum by the sum
5486 of the factors' absolute values.
5488 Laplace edge-detection currently uses a matrix of
5494 Emboss edge-detection uses a matrix of
5500 ALGO `disabled' means transform the image so that it looks
5505 If MASK is `heuristic' or `(heuristic BG)', build a clipping mask for
5506 the image, so that the background of a frame is visible behind the
5507 image. If BG is not specified, or if BG is t, determine the
5508 background color of the image by looking at the 4 corners of the
5509 image, assuming the most frequently occurring color from the corners is
5510 the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must be a list `(RED
5511 GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the background of the
5514 If MASK is nil, remove a mask from the image, if it has one. Images
5515 in some formats include a mask which can be removed by specifying
5520 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
5521 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
5522 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
5523 may be present in the image specification.
5527 Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
5528 supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
5529 present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
5530 support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
5532 *** Supported image types
5534 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
5536 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
5537 properties supported are
5541 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
5542 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground.
5546 BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
5547 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
5549 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
5550 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
5551 instead of a `:file' property.
5555 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
5559 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
5565 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
5566 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
5568 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
5570 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
5573 4. a string that's an in-memory XBM file. Neither width nor
5574 height may be specified in this case because these are defined
5577 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
5579 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
5580 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
5581 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
5582 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
5584 Additional image properties supported are:
5586 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
5588 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
5589 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
5592 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
5593 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
5595 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
5596 to display compressed images.
5598 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
5600 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
5601 mono images are supported. Additional image properties supported for
5606 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
5607 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground.
5611 BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
5612 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
5614 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
5616 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
5617 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. Additional image properties
5620 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
5622 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
5623 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
5626 **** GIF, image type `gif'
5628 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
5629 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
5631 Additional image properties supported are:
5635 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
5636 multi-image GIF file. An error is signaled if INDEX is too large.
5638 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
5639 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
5640 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
5643 (defun show-anim (file max)
5644 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
5645 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
5647 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
5650 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
5653 (goto-char (point-min))
5654 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
5655 (insert-image img "x"))
5656 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
5658 **** PNG, image type `png'
5660 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
5661 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
5664 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
5666 Additional image properties supported are:
5670 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
5671 integer. This is a required property.
5675 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
5676 must be a integer. This is an required property.
5680 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
5681 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
5682 files. This is an required property.
5684 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
5689 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
5690 which are supported in the current configuration.
5692 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
5693 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
5694 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
5695 manually. Images in the cache are compared with `equal', i.e. all
5696 images with `equal' specifications share the same image.
5698 *** Simplified image API, image.el
5700 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
5701 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
5702 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
5703 define an image based on available image types. The functions
5704 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
5709 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
5712 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
5713 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
5714 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
5715 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
5716 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
5717 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
5718 of the display margins.
5720 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
5721 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
5722 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
5723 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
5728 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
5729 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
5730 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
5731 that have a `help-echo' property.
5733 If the value of the `help-echo' property is a function, that function
5734 is called with three arguments WINDOW, OBJECT and POSITION. WINDOW is
5735 the window in which the help was found.
5737 If OBJECT is a buffer, POS is the position in the buffer where the
5738 `help-echo' text property was found.
5740 If OBJECT is an overlay, that overlay has a `help-echo' property, and
5741 POS is the position in the overlay's buffer under the mouse.
5743 If OBJECT is a string (an overlay string or a string displayed with
5744 the `display' property), POS is the position in that string under the
5747 If the value of the `help-echo' property is neither a function nor a
5748 string, it is evaluated to obtain a help string.
5750 For tool-bar and menu-bar items, their key definition is used to
5751 determine the help to display. If their definition contains a
5752 property `:help FORM', FORM is evaluated to determine the help string.
5753 For tool-bar items without a help form, the caption of the item is
5754 used as help string.
5756 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
5757 the help string differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window
5758 causes the help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
5760 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
5762 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
5763 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
5765 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
5766 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
5767 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
5768 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
5771 (global-set-key [A-down]
5774 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
5775 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
5776 (global-set-key [A-up]
5779 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
5780 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
5782 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
5784 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
5785 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
5786 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
5787 is called with one argument, POS.
5789 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
5790 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
5791 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
5792 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
5793 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
5795 ** Tool bar support.
5797 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
5798 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
5799 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
5800 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
5801 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
5802 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
5804 *** Tool bar item definitions
5806 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
5807 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
5808 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
5810 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
5811 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
5812 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
5813 property (see below).
5815 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
5816 binding are currently ignored.
5818 The following properties are recognized:
5822 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
5827 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
5831 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
5832 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
5833 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
5835 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
5837 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
5838 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
5842 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
5843 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
5844 meaning of each of the four elements:
5846 Index Use when item is
5847 ----------------------------------------
5848 0 enabled and selected
5849 1 enabled and deselected
5850 2 disabled and selected
5851 3 disabled and deselected
5853 If IMAGE is a single image specification, a Laplace edge-detection
5854 algorithm is used on that image to draw the image in disabled state.
5856 `:help HELP-STRING'.
5858 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
5859 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
5861 The function `toolbar-add-item' is a convenience function for adding
5862 toolbar items generally, and `tool-bar-add-item-from-menu' can be used
5863 to define a toolbar item with a binding copied from an item on the
5866 The default bindings use a menu-item :filter to derive the tool-bar
5867 dynamically from variable `tool-bar-map' which may be set
5868 buffer-locally to override the global map.
5870 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
5872 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
5873 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
5874 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
5876 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
5877 raised when the mouse moves over them.
5879 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
5880 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
5881 pixels, or a pair of integers (X . Y) specifying horizontal and
5882 vertical margins . Default is 1.
5884 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
5885 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
5887 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
5889 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
5892 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
5893 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
5894 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
5896 is the original tool bar item definition, then
5898 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
5900 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
5903 ** Mode line changes.
5905 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
5907 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
5908 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
5909 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
5911 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
5912 a `local-map' text property.
5914 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
5915 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
5917 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
5918 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
5919 `local-map' property.
5921 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
5922 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
5925 *** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
5926 evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
5928 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
5929 variable mode-line-format to nil.
5931 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
5933 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
5934 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
5935 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
5936 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
5939 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
5942 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
5943 position in the header-line.
5945 ** Text property `display'
5947 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text,
5948 replace text with other text, display text in marginal area, and it is
5949 also used to control other aspects of how text displays. The value of
5950 the `display' property should be a display specification, as described
5951 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
5953 *** Replacing text, displaying text in marginal areas
5955 To replace the text having the `display' property with some other
5956 text, use a display specification of the form `(LOCATION STRING)'.
5958 If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)', STRING is displayed in the left
5959 marginal area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in
5960 the right marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' STRING
5961 is displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
5962 simpler form STRING as property value.
5964 *** Variable width and height spaces
5966 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
5967 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
5968 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
5969 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
5970 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
5971 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
5972 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
5974 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
5975 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
5976 properties described below.
5978 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
5979 characters having the `display' property.
5983 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
5984 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
5986 - :relative-width FACTOR
5988 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
5989 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
5990 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
5991 width of that character by FACTOR.
5995 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
5996 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
5998 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
6002 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
6005 - :relative-height FACTOR
6007 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
6008 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
6012 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
6013 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
6014 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
6017 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
6021 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
6022 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
6023 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
6024 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
6025 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
6026 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
6027 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
6028 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
6029 as display specification.
6031 *** Other display properties
6033 - (space-width FACTOR)
6035 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
6036 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
6041 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
6043 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
6044 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
6045 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
6046 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
6047 a font is available counts as a step.
6049 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
6050 as tall as the frame's default font.
6052 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
6053 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
6055 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
6056 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
6060 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
6061 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
6062 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
6063 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
6064 `height' subproperty.
6066 *** Conditional display properties
6068 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
6069 has the form `(when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC applies
6070 only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated. During the
6071 evaluation, `object' is bound to the string or buffer having the
6072 conditional display property; `position' and `buffer-position' are
6073 bound to the position within `object' and the buffer position where
6074 the display property was found, respectively. Both positions can be
6075 different when object is a string.
6077 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
6080 ** New menu separator types.
6082 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
6083 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
6084 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
6085 to specify other menu separator types.
6087 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
6089 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
6092 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
6094 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
6096 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
6098 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
6100 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
6102 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
6104 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
6106 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
6108 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
6110 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the form
6111 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
6113 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
6115 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
6117 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
6119 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
6121 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
6123 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
6125 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
6127 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
6129 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
6131 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
6133 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
6135 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
6137 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
6139 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
6141 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
6142 the corresponding single-line separators.
6144 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
6146 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
6147 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
6148 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
6149 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
6150 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
6151 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
6152 default foreground is black.
6154 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
6155 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
6156 `ScrollBarBackground').
6158 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
6159 settings for scroll bar colors.
6161 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
6162 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
6164 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
6165 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
6166 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
6167 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
6168 the original window start.
6170 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
6171 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
6172 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
6174 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
6176 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
6177 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
6178 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
6179 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
6181 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
6182 fixed-width and fixed-height.
6184 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
6186 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
6187 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
6188 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
6189 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
6190 temporarily to nil, for example
6192 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
6193 (enlarge-window 10))
6195 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
6196 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
6198 ** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
6199 terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
6200 to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
6201 overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
6202 horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
6203 support a vertical-bar cursor).
6207 * Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes
6209 ** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard
6212 ** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos.
6214 ** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages.
6216 ** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not
6217 only for character input, but also in incremental search. The
6218 exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets
6219 (e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence
6220 (e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search.
6222 ** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has
6226 * Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change
6228 ** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added.
6232 * Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
6234 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
6235 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
6237 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
6239 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
6241 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
6242 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
6243 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
6245 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
6246 is the one that is used.
6248 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
6249 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
6250 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
6251 separate from the command's regular output.
6252 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
6253 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
6254 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
6257 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
6258 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
6259 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
6260 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
6262 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
6263 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
6264 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
6265 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
6267 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
6268 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
6269 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
6270 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
6272 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
6273 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
6274 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
6275 they never ignore case.
6277 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
6278 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
6279 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
6280 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
6281 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
6282 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
6283 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
6285 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
6286 the same format that was used in the file before.
6288 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
6289 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
6291 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
6292 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
6293 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
6295 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
6296 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
6297 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
6298 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
6299 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
6300 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
6301 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
6303 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
6304 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
6305 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
6306 format. You can now customize these variables.
6308 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
6309 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
6310 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
6311 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
6313 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
6314 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
6315 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
6317 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
6318 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
6319 doesn't have any effect.
6321 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
6324 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
6325 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
6326 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
6328 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
6329 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
6330 `auto-show-mode' command.
6332 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
6333 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
6334 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
6335 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
6336 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
6338 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
6339 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
6341 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
6342 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
6343 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
6345 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
6346 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
6347 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
6348 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
6350 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
6352 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
6353 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
6354 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
6355 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
6356 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
6358 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
6359 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
6361 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
6362 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
6363 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
6364 `?' on other systems.
6366 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
6367 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
6370 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
6371 current codepage when it starts.
6375 *** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
6376 `mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
6377 appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
6378 non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
6379 MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
6380 headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
6384 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
6385 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
6387 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
6388 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
6389 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
6390 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
6391 buffer-file-coding-system.
6393 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
6394 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
6397 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
6398 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
6399 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
6400 list of possible coding systems.
6404 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
6405 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
6406 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
6407 docstring for details.
6409 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
6410 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
6411 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
6412 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
6413 lineup functions use this feature currently.
6415 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
6416 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
6418 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
6419 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
6421 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
6422 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
6423 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
6424 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
6427 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
6428 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
6430 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
6431 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
6432 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
6433 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
6435 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
6436 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
6437 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
6438 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
6439 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
6441 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
6443 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
6445 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
6446 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
6448 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
6450 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
6451 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
6452 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
6453 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
6454 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
6458 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
6459 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
6460 Gnus manual for the full story.
6462 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
6463 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
6464 group, which is created automatically.
6466 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
6469 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
6471 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
6472 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
6474 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
6477 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
6479 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
6480 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
6482 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
6484 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
6485 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
6487 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
6488 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
6490 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
6491 control over simplification.
6493 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
6495 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
6498 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
6500 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
6502 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
6503 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
6504 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
6506 *** Canceling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
6507 `a' forces normal posting method.
6509 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
6512 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
6515 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
6516 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
6518 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
6521 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
6523 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
6525 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
6526 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
6528 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
6529 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
6531 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
6533 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
6536 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
6537 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
6539 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
6540 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
6542 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
6544 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
6546 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
6548 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
6550 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
6551 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
6552 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
6554 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
6555 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
6556 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
6557 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
6558 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
6560 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
6561 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
6562 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
6563 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
6565 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
6566 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
6567 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
6570 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
6572 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
6573 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
6575 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
6576 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
6577 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
6578 removed from the label.
6580 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
6581 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
6583 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
6584 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
6586 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
6587 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
6590 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
6592 ** New/deleted modes and packages
6594 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
6595 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
6597 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
6598 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
6599 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
6601 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
6602 changes with a special face.
6604 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
6605 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
6606 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
6608 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
6610 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
6611 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
6612 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
6613 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
6614 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
6616 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
6617 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
6618 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
6620 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
6621 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
6622 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
6623 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
6624 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
6625 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
6626 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
6627 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
6628 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
6630 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
6631 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
6632 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
6633 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
6634 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
6637 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
6638 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
6639 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
6640 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
6641 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
6642 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
6644 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
6645 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
6646 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
6647 was not documented clearly before.
6649 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
6650 This includes Tetris and Snake.
6652 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
6654 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
6655 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
6656 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
6657 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
6659 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
6660 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
6661 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
6663 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
6665 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
6666 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
6668 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
6669 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
6672 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
6673 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
6674 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
6675 file names and attributes are returned.
6677 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
6678 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
6679 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its attributes.
6680 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
6683 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
6684 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
6686 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
6688 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
6689 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
6690 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
6693 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
6694 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
6697 The new function process-running-child-p
6698 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
6699 terminal to its own child process.
6701 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
6702 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
6703 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
6704 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
6706 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
6707 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
6709 ** easymenu.el now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
6710 :included is an alias for :visible.
6712 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
6713 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
6714 to move or copy menu entries.
6716 ** Multibyte editing changes
6718 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
6719 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
6720 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
6721 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
6722 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
6723 (setq char (sref str idx)
6724 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
6725 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
6727 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
6728 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
6729 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
6731 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
6732 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
6733 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
6735 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibited
6737 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
6738 across the boundary.
6740 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
6741 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
6742 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
6743 contains 8-bit characters.
6744 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
6745 contains invalid characters.
6747 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
6748 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
6749 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
6750 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
6753 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
6754 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
6755 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
6756 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
6758 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
6759 compose Thai characters in a string.
6761 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
6762 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
6763 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
6764 menus should always use the third argument.
6766 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
6767 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
6768 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
6769 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
6771 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
6772 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
6773 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
6774 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
6776 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
6777 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
6778 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
6781 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
6783 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
6784 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
6785 requested feature cannot be loaded.
6787 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
6788 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
6789 means to clear out that attribute.
6791 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
6792 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
6794 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
6795 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
6796 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
6797 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
6799 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
6800 the gap of the current buffer.
6802 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
6803 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
6806 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
6807 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
6808 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
6809 it back in after any modifications have been made.
6811 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
6813 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
6814 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
6815 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
6816 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
6817 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
6819 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
6820 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
6821 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
6822 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
6823 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
6825 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
6826 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
6827 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
6829 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
6830 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
6831 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
6832 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
6833 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
6836 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
6837 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
6838 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
6839 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
6841 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
6843 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
6844 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
6845 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
6846 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
6848 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
6849 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
6850 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
6851 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
6852 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
6853 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
6854 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
6857 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
6860 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
6861 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
6862 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
6863 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
6864 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
6866 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
6867 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
6868 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
6869 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
6871 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
6872 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
6873 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
6874 something that most users not do.
6876 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
6877 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
6878 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
6881 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
6884 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
6885 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
6886 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
6887 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
6890 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
6891 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
6892 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
6893 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
6894 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
6897 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
6898 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
6899 to be confused by TeX commands.
6901 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
6902 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
6903 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
6904 of various alternative replacements and actions.
6906 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
6907 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
6908 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
6909 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
6910 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
6912 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
6913 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
6915 ** Changes in input method usage.
6917 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
6918 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
6921 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
6923 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
6924 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
6926 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
6927 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
6929 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
6931 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
6933 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
6934 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
6936 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
6937 given in the following case:
6938 o When you are using a complex input method.
6939 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
6941 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
6942 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
6943 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
6944 setting it to t is helpful.
6946 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
6948 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
6950 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
6951 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
6952 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
6953 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
6956 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
6957 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
6958 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
6961 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
6963 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
6965 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
6966 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
6968 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
6969 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
6970 its owner and group.
6972 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
6973 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
6975 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
6976 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
6978 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
6979 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
6980 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
6981 by the left edge of the rectangle.
6983 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
6984 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
6985 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
6986 for writing keyboard macros.
6988 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
6989 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
6990 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
6991 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
6992 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
6995 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
6997 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
6998 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
7001 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
7002 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
7003 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
7004 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
7006 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
7007 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
7008 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
7010 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
7011 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
7012 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
7013 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
7015 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
7016 failure if the command produces no output.
7018 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
7019 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
7022 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
7023 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
7024 function and variable names.
7026 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
7027 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
7028 file-coding-system-alist.
7030 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
7031 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
7032 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
7033 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
7034 according to the current fontset.
7036 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
7038 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
7039 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
7040 nonascii-insert-offset.
7042 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
7043 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
7044 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
7045 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
7047 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
7048 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
7050 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
7051 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
7053 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
7054 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
7057 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
7058 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
7060 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
7061 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
7062 all variables that have documentation.
7064 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
7065 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
7066 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
7067 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
7068 it should show; the default is 20.
7070 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
7071 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
7074 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
7075 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
7076 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
7077 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
7078 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
7079 Newly added options are included as well.
7081 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
7082 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
7083 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
7085 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
7088 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
7089 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
7091 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
7092 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
7095 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
7096 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
7099 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
7100 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
7101 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
7102 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
7105 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
7107 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
7108 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
7109 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
7111 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
7112 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
7113 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
7118 *** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
7119 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
7121 *** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
7122 and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
7124 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
7125 read and post multi-lingual articles.
7127 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
7128 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
7129 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
7130 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
7131 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
7132 made invisible again.
7134 ** Mail reading and sending changes
7136 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
7137 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
7138 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
7141 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
7142 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
7143 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
7144 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
7145 rmail-default-body-file.
7147 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
7148 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
7149 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
7151 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
7152 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
7153 is evaluated to insert the signature.
7155 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
7156 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
7157 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
7158 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
7159 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
7160 especially interested in trying feedmail.
7162 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
7163 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
7164 provided by feedmail are:
7166 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
7167 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
7168 there is also a queue for draft messages
7170 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
7171 be prompted for confirmation
7173 **** does smart filling of address headers
7175 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
7176 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
7177 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
7179 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
7180 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
7181 /usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
7182 function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
7186 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
7187 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
7189 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
7190 run Dired on the directory name at point.
7192 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
7193 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
7194 for a specified regexp.
7198 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
7201 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
7202 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
7205 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
7206 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
7207 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
7208 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
7210 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
7211 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
7212 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
7213 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
7214 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
7216 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
7217 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
7218 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
7219 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
7220 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
7222 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
7223 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
7224 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
7225 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
7227 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
7228 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
7229 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
7231 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
7232 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
7233 session to resolve them.
7235 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
7236 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
7237 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
7240 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
7241 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
7242 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
7243 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
7244 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
7245 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
7248 ** Changes in Font Lock
7250 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
7251 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
7252 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
7253 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
7254 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
7256 ** Frame name display changes
7258 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
7259 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
7260 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
7261 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
7263 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
7264 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
7267 ** Comint (subshell) changes
7269 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
7270 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
7271 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
7273 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
7275 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
7276 that is, the line after the last line you got.
7277 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
7279 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
7280 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
7283 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
7284 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
7285 previously sent input.
7287 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
7288 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
7289 as the search string.
7291 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
7292 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
7296 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
7297 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
7298 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
7301 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
7302 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
7303 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
7304 style is still the default however.
7306 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
7308 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
7309 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
7310 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
7312 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
7313 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
7315 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
7316 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
7318 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
7319 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
7321 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
7322 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
7324 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
7325 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
7326 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
7327 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
7329 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
7331 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
7332 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
7333 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
7335 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
7336 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
7337 expanding dynamically.
7339 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
7340 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
7342 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
7343 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
7344 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
7345 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
7347 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
7349 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
7351 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
7352 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
7353 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
7354 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
7355 against the first word in the title.
7357 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
7358 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
7359 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
7360 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
7361 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
7362 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
7364 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
7365 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
7366 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
7367 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
7369 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
7371 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
7372 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
7373 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
7374 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
7375 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
7376 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
7378 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
7379 Editing group once the package is loaded.
7381 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
7382 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
7383 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behavior.
7385 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
7386 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
7390 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
7391 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
7392 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
7394 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
7395 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
7396 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
7397 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
7400 o URLs are automatically skipped
7401 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
7403 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
7405 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
7407 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
7408 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
7409 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
7410 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
7412 *** New recursive parser.
7414 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
7415 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
7416 recursive parser scans the individual files.
7418 *** Parsing only part of a document.
7420 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
7421 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
7422 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
7424 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
7426 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
7428 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
7430 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
7432 *** Using multiple selection buffers
7434 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
7435 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
7437 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
7439 *** References to external documents.
7441 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
7442 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
7443 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
7444 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
7445 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
7446 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
7447 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
7449 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
7451 The built-in command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
7452 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
7454 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
7455 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
7457 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
7459 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
7460 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
7462 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
7464 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
7465 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
7466 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
7467 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
7468 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
7469 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
7472 *** Support for the varioref package
7474 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
7478 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
7479 and citations are created. These hooks are
7480 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
7481 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
7483 *** Citations outside LaTeX
7485 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
7486 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
7488 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
7490 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
7491 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
7494 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
7496 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
7497 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
7498 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
7499 directories that contain the same file name.
7501 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
7502 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
7503 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
7504 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
7505 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
7506 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
7507 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
7510 ** New modes and packages
7512 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
7513 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
7514 it, but some do not.
7516 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
7519 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
7520 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
7523 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
7525 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
7526 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
7527 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
7528 established system of notation similar to Chess.
7530 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
7531 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
7532 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
7534 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
7535 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
7536 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
7537 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
7538 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
7541 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
7542 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
7544 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
7545 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
7546 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
7547 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
7549 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
7551 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
7552 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
7553 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
7554 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
7555 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
7556 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
7557 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
7558 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
7559 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
7560 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
7561 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
7563 Platform-specific modes:
7565 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
7566 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
7567 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
7568 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
7569 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
7570 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
7571 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
7572 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
7573 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
7575 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
7577 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
7578 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
7579 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
7580 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
7582 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
7583 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
7584 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
7586 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
7587 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
7588 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
7589 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
7591 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
7592 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
7593 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
7596 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
7597 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
7598 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
7599 current input method for reading this one event.
7601 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
7602 now control whether to output certain characters as
7603 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
7604 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
7605 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
7606 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
7608 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
7610 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
7611 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
7613 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
7614 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
7615 always increases point by 1.
7617 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
7618 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
7620 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
7622 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
7623 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
7624 default value changed. For example,
7626 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
7631 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
7634 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
7635 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
7636 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
7637 `:version' in the top level group.
7639 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
7641 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
7642 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
7644 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
7645 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
7646 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
7649 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
7650 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
7653 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
7654 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
7655 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
7657 ** Frame-local variables.
7659 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
7660 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
7661 local bindings for that variable.
7663 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
7664 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
7665 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
7668 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
7669 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
7670 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
7671 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
7673 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
7674 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
7675 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
7676 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
7678 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
7679 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
7680 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
7681 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
7682 See the documentation in sregex.el.
7684 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
7685 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
7686 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
7687 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
7689 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
7690 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
7692 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
7693 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
7694 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
7696 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
7697 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
7698 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
7699 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
7701 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
7702 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
7705 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
7706 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
7707 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
7708 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
7709 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
7711 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
7712 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
7713 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
7714 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
7716 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
7717 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
7718 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
7719 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
7720 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
7722 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
7723 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
7724 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
7725 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
7727 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
7728 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
7729 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
7731 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
7732 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
7733 was directed to display this buffer.
7735 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
7736 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
7737 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
7738 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
7739 set-window-configuration.
7741 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
7742 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
7743 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
7744 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
7746 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
7747 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
7748 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
7750 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
7751 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
7752 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
7754 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
7755 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
7757 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
7758 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
7760 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
7761 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
7762 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
7764 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
7765 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
7766 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
7767 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
7771 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
7772 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
7775 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
7776 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
7777 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
7778 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
7779 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
7781 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
7783 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
7784 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
7785 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
7786 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
7789 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
7790 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
7791 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
7792 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
7793 The supported properties include
7795 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
7797 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
7798 item should appear in the menu.
7800 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
7801 which will be REAL-BINDING.
7802 It should return a binding to use instead.
7804 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
7805 binding for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
7806 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
7807 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
7808 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
7811 This means that the command normally has no
7812 keyboard equivalent.
7813 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
7814 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
7815 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
7816 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
7817 value says whether this button is currently selected.
7819 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
7820 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
7822 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
7826 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
7827 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
7828 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
7829 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
7831 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
7833 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
7834 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
7835 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
7836 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
7837 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
7838 forward, away from the user.
7840 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
7842 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
7843 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
7844 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
7845 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
7846 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
7848 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
7850 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
7851 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
7852 that were dragged and dropped.
7854 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
7856 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
7858 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
7859 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
7860 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
7862 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
7863 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
7864 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
7866 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
7867 in Emacs 19 and before.
7869 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
7870 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
7872 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
7873 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
7874 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
7875 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
7877 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
7878 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
7879 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
7880 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
7881 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
7883 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
7884 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
7885 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
7886 consistent with the new representation.
7888 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
7889 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
7890 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
7891 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
7893 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
7894 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
7895 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
7897 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
7898 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
7899 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
7901 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
7902 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
7903 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
7905 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
7906 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
7908 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
7909 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
7911 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
7912 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
7913 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
7914 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
7916 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
7917 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
7919 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
7920 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
7921 buffer or string being searched.
7923 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
7924 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
7925 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
7926 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
7927 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
7928 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
7929 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
7931 *** Structure of coding system changed.
7933 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
7934 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
7935 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
7936 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
7937 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
7938 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
7939 define-coding-system-alias.
7941 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
7942 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
7943 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
7944 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
7945 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
7946 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
7947 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
7950 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
7951 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
7952 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
7953 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
7955 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
7956 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
7957 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
7958 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
7960 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
7961 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
7962 This function requires a user interaction.
7964 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
7965 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
7966 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
7967 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
7968 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
7969 select-safe-coding-system.
7971 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
7972 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
7973 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
7976 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
7977 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
7978 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
7980 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
7981 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
7982 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
7983 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
7985 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
7986 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
7987 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
7990 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
7991 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
7993 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
7994 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
7995 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
7996 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
7997 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
7998 range of characters.
8000 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
8001 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
8003 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
8004 in the current buffer at position POS.
8006 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
8007 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
8008 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
8009 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
8010 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
8011 binding input-method-function to nil.
8013 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
8014 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
8015 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
8016 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
8017 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
8019 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
8020 subsequent events of a key sequence.
8022 *** You can customize any language environment by using
8023 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
8025 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
8026 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
8027 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
8028 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
8029 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
8031 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
8033 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
8034 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
8035 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
8038 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
8039 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
8041 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
8042 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
8043 in your .emacs file.)
8045 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
8046 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
8048 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
8049 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
8051 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
8052 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
8055 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
8056 delete the character before point, as usual.
8058 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
8059 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
8060 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
8062 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
8063 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
8064 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
8065 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
8066 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
8069 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
8070 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
8071 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
8072 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
8073 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
8075 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
8076 and is an alias for it.
8078 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
8079 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
8081 ** Scrolling changes
8083 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
8084 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
8086 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
8087 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
8090 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
8091 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
8092 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
8093 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
8095 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
8096 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
8097 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
8098 recenters the window.
8100 ** International character set support (MULE)
8102 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
8103 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
8104 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
8105 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
8106 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
8107 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
8109 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
8110 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
8111 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
8112 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
8113 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
8115 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
8116 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
8117 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
8118 language, to make it possible to type them.
8120 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
8121 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
8123 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
8124 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
8126 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
8128 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
8130 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
8131 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
8132 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
8133 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
8134 characters for their work until they want to change.
8138 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
8139 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
8140 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
8141 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
8142 support several input methods.
8144 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
8145 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
8148 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
8149 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
8150 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
8151 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
8152 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
8155 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
8156 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
8157 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
8158 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
8159 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
8161 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
8162 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
8163 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
8164 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
8166 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
8167 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
8168 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
8169 the first guess is wrong.
8171 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
8172 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
8174 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
8175 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
8176 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
8177 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
8179 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
8180 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
8181 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
8182 translate automatically to and from either one.
8184 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
8186 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
8187 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
8188 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
8191 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
8192 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
8193 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
8194 multibyte characters in that buffer.
8196 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
8197 character conversion as well.
8199 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
8201 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
8202 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
8203 requires using many fonts.
8205 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
8206 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
8208 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
8209 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
8210 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
8211 you would use a font.
8213 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
8214 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
8215 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
8217 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
8218 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
8221 *** Defining fontsets.
8223 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
8224 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
8225 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
8227 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
8228 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
8229 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
8230 standard fontset are created automatically.
8232 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
8233 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
8234 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
8235 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
8236 name is `fontset-startup'.
8238 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
8239 The resource value should have this form:
8240 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
8241 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
8242 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
8243 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
8244 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
8245 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
8246 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
8247 CHARSET-NAME should be the name of a character set, and FONT-NAME
8248 should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
8250 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
8251 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
8252 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
8254 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
8255 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
8257 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
8258 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
8259 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
8260 Here is the substitution rule:
8261 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
8262 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
8263 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
8264 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
8265 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
8267 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
8268 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
8269 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
8271 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
8272 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
8273 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
8274 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
8277 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
8278 defaults for a particular choice of language.
8280 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
8281 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
8282 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
8283 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
8284 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
8285 system for new files that you create.
8287 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
8288 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
8289 whole Emacs session.
8291 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
8292 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
8293 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
8295 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
8296 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
8297 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
8298 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
8299 coding systems that Emacs supports.
8301 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
8302 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
8303 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
8304 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
8305 is used for *the immediately following command*.
8307 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
8308 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
8310 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
8311 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
8313 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
8314 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
8316 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
8317 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
8318 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
8319 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
8322 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
8323 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
8324 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
8325 translated into that character code.
8327 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
8328 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
8330 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
8332 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
8333 the coding system for keyboard input.
8335 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
8336 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
8337 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
8339 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
8341 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
8342 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
8343 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
8344 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
8345 designed to work with terminals.
8347 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
8348 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
8349 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
8350 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
8351 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
8352 in the corresponding buffer.
8354 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
8356 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
8357 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
8358 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
8360 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
8361 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
8362 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
8365 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
8366 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
8368 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
8369 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
8370 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
8371 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
8373 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
8374 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
8375 related information.
8377 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
8378 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
8381 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
8382 information about the support for a particular language.
8383 You specify the language as an argument.
8385 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
8386 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
8389 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
8390 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
8391 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
8392 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
8394 A alternativnyj (Russian)
8396 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
8397 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
8398 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
8399 E euc-japan (Japanese)
8400 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
8401 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
8402 K euc-korea (Korean)
8405 S shift_jis (Japanese)
8408 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
8409 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
8410 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
8414 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
8415 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
8416 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
8417 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
8419 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
8420 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
8422 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
8423 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
8424 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
8425 Rmail files themselves.
8427 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
8428 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
8430 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
8433 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
8434 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
8435 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
8436 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
8437 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
8439 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
8440 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
8441 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
8444 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
8445 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
8446 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
8447 without any conversion.
8449 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
8450 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
8451 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
8452 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
8454 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
8455 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
8457 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
8458 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
8460 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
8461 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
8463 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
8464 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
8465 in the buffer before point.
8467 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
8468 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
8471 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
8472 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
8474 ** File locking works with NFS now.
8476 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
8477 in the same directory as FILENAME.
8479 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
8480 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
8481 can become a bottleneck.
8483 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
8484 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
8485 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
8486 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
8487 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
8488 so useful that the change is worth while.
8490 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
8491 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
8492 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
8493 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
8495 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
8496 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
8499 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
8500 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
8501 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
8503 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
8504 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
8505 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
8507 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
8508 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
8509 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
8511 ** Changes in View mode.
8513 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
8514 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
8516 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
8517 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
8519 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
8522 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
8523 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
8525 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
8526 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
8527 not just the selected window.
8529 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
8530 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
8531 turns View mode on or off.
8533 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
8534 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
8535 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
8537 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
8538 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
8540 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
8541 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
8542 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
8543 which version to compare with.
8545 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
8546 blocks if a match is inside the block.
8548 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
8549 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
8550 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
8551 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
8553 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
8554 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
8555 blocks, all of them or none.
8557 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
8558 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
8561 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
8562 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
8563 However, the mode will not be changed if
8564 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
8565 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
8566 not suitable for ordinary files, or
8567 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
8569 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
8571 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
8572 these commands do not change the major mode.
8574 ** M-x occur changes.
8576 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
8577 it performs a case-sensitive search.
8579 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
8580 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
8581 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
8583 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
8584 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
8585 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
8586 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
8587 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
8589 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
8590 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
8591 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
8592 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
8594 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
8595 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
8596 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
8598 ** Outline mode changes.
8600 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
8602 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
8604 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
8605 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
8606 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
8609 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
8610 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
8613 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
8614 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
8616 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
8618 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
8619 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
8620 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
8621 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
8623 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
8624 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
8625 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
8627 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
8628 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
8631 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
8632 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
8633 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
8634 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
8636 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
8637 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
8638 can be. The default value is 30.
8640 ** Changes in Mail mode.
8642 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
8643 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
8644 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
8645 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
8646 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
8649 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
8650 compose-mail-other-frame.
8652 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
8653 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
8654 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
8655 buffer that shows the original message.
8657 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
8658 with separator lines around the contents.
8660 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
8661 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
8662 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
8663 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
8665 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
8667 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
8668 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
8669 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
8670 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
8672 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
8673 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
8676 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
8677 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
8680 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
8681 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
8682 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
8683 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
8685 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
8686 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
8687 be taken to be magic.
8689 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
8690 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
8691 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
8693 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
8694 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
8696 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
8697 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
8699 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
8701 new key dired.el binding old key
8702 ------- ---------------- -------
8703 * c dired-change-marks c
8705 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
8706 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
8707 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
8709 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
8710 * ? dired-unmark-all-files C-M-?
8711 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
8712 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
8713 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
8714 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
8718 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
8719 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
8720 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
8721 each time you run it.
8723 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
8724 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
8726 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
8727 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
8728 means to move in the opposite direction.
8730 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
8731 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
8733 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
8734 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
8735 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
8736 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
8741 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
8743 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
8746 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
8747 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
8749 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
8752 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
8754 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
8756 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
8758 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
8759 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
8760 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
8762 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
8764 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
8766 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
8767 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
8769 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
8770 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
8771 used to pick articles.
8773 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
8774 another have been added.
8776 `M-x gnus-change-server'
8778 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
8779 generating lines in buffers.
8781 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
8784 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
8786 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
8788 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
8790 *** Scores can be decayed.
8792 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
8794 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
8795 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
8797 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
8800 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
8802 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
8803 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `C-M-d'.
8805 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
8807 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
8808 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
8810 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
8811 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
8813 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
8816 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
8817 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
8819 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
8821 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
8823 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
8825 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
8827 Use the `Y c' command.
8829 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
8831 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
8833 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
8835 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
8836 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
8838 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
8840 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
8842 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
8843 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
8845 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
8847 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
8848 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
8849 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
8850 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
8853 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
8854 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
8855 particular news group. This can be done by:
8857 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
8859 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
8860 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
8861 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
8862 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
8863 for reading and posting).
8865 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
8866 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
8867 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
8868 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
8871 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
8872 default. Here are some of these default settings:
8874 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
8875 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
8876 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
8877 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
8878 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
8880 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
8881 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
8885 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
8886 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
8887 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
8888 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
8889 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
8892 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
8893 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
8894 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
8895 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
8896 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
8897 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
8899 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
8900 of the current buffer.
8902 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
8903 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
8904 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
8906 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
8907 style that the Python developers like.
8909 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
8910 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
8911 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
8915 *** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
8916 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
8917 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
8919 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
8920 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
8923 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
8924 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
8926 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
8927 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
8928 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
8929 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
8931 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
8932 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
8934 ** Calendar changes.
8936 *** A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or
8937 subclasses of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow
8938 you do this for the year of the selected date, or the
8939 following/previous years.
8941 *** There is now support for the Baha'i calendar system. Use `pb' in
8942 the *Calendar* buffer to display the current Baha'i date. The Baha'i
8943 calendar, or "Badi calendar" is a system of 19 months with 19 days
8944 each, and 4 intercalary days (5 during a Gregorian leap year). The
8945 calendar begins May 23, 1844, with each of the months named after a
8946 supposed attribute of God.
8950 There are some new user variables and subgroups for customizing the page
8953 *** Headers & Footers (subgroup)
8955 Some printer systems print a header page and force the first page to
8956 be printed on the back of the header page when using duplex. If your
8957 printer system has this behavior, set variable
8958 `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' to t.
8960 If variable `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' is non-nil, it prints a
8961 blank page as the very first printed page. So, it behaves as if the
8962 very first character of buffer (or region) were a form feed ^L (\014).
8964 The variable `ps-spool-config' specifies who is responsible for
8965 setting duplex mode and page size. Valid values are:
8967 lpr-switches duplex and page size are configured by `ps-lpr-switches'.
8968 Don't forget to set `ps-lpr-switches' to select duplex
8969 printing for your printer.
8971 setpagedevice duplex and page size are configured by ps-print using the
8972 setpagedevice PostScript operator.
8974 nil duplex and page size are configured by ps-print *not* using
8975 the setpagedevice PostScript operator.
8977 The variable `ps-spool-tumble' specifies how the page images on
8978 opposite sides of a sheet are oriented with respect to each other. If
8979 `ps-spool-tumble' is nil, ps-print produces output suitable for
8980 bindings on the left or right. If `ps-spool-tumble' is non-nil,
8981 ps-print produces output suitable for bindings at the top or bottom.
8982 This variable takes effect only if `ps-spool-duplex' is non-nil.
8983 The default value is nil.
8985 The variable `ps-header-frame-alist' specifies a header frame
8986 properties alist. Valid frame properties are:
8988 fore-color Specify the foreground frame color.
8989 Value should be a float number between 0.0 (black
8990 color) and 1.0 (white color), or a string which is a
8991 color name, or a list of 3 float numbers which
8992 correspond to the Red Green Blue color scale, each
8993 float number between 0.0 (dark color) and 1.0 (bright
8994 color). The default is 0 ("black").
8996 back-color Specify the background frame color (similar to fore-color).
8997 The default is 0.9 ("gray90").
8999 shadow-color Specify the shadow color (similar to fore-color).
9000 The default is 0 ("black").
9002 border-color Specify the border color (similar to fore-color).
9003 The default is 0 ("black").
9005 border-width Specify the border width.
9008 Any other property is ignored.
9010 Don't change this alist directly; instead use Custom, or the
9011 `ps-value', `ps-get', `ps-put' and `ps-del' functions (see there for
9014 Ps-print can also print footers. The footer variables are:
9015 `ps-print-footer', `ps-footer-offset', `ps-print-footer-frame',
9016 `ps-footer-font-family', `ps-footer-font-size', `ps-footer-line-pad',
9017 `ps-footer-lines', `ps-left-footer', `ps-right-footer' and
9018 `ps-footer-frame-alist'. These variables are similar to those
9019 controlling headers.
9021 *** Color management (subgroup)
9023 If `ps-print-color-p' is non-nil, the buffer's text will be printed in
9026 *** Face Management (subgroup)
9028 If you need to print without worrying about face background colors,
9029 set the variable `ps-use-face-background' which specifies if face
9030 background should be used. Valid values are:
9032 t always use face background color.
9033 nil never use face background color.
9034 (face...) list of faces whose background color will be used.
9036 *** N-up printing (subgroup)
9038 The variable `ps-n-up-printing' specifies the number of pages per
9041 The variable `ps-n-up-margin' specifies the margin in points (pt)
9042 between the sheet border and the n-up printing.
9044 If variable `ps-n-up-border-p' is non-nil, a border is drawn around
9047 The variable `ps-n-up-filling' specifies how the page matrix is filled
9048 on each sheet of paper. Following are the valid values for
9049 `ps-n-up-filling' with a filling example using a 3x4 page matrix:
9051 `left-top' 1 2 3 4 `left-bottom' 9 10 11 12
9055 `right-top' 4 3 2 1 `right-bottom' 12 11 10 9
9059 `top-left' 1 4 7 10 `bottom-left' 3 6 9 12
9063 `top-right' 10 7 4 1 `bottom-right' 12 9 6 3
9067 Any other value is treated as `left-top'.
9069 *** Zebra stripes (subgroup)
9071 The variable `ps-zebra-color' controls the zebra stripes grayscale or
9074 The variable `ps-zebra-stripe-follow' specifies how zebra stripes
9075 continue on next page. Visually, valid values are (the character `+'
9076 to the right of each column indicates that a line is printed):
9078 `nil' `follow' `full' `full-follow'
9079 Current Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
9080 1 XXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXX + 1 XXXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
9081 2 XXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXX + 2 XXXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
9082 3 XXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXX + 3 XXXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
9086 7 XXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXX + 7 XXXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
9087 8 XXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXX + 8 XXXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
9088 9 XXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXX + 9 XXXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
9091 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
9092 Next Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
9093 12 XXXXX + 12 + 10 XXXXXX + 10 +
9094 13 XXXXX + 13 XXXXXXXX + 11 XXXXXX + 11 +
9095 14 XXXXX + 14 XXXXXXXX + 12 XXXXXX + 12 +
9096 15 + 15 XXXXXXXX + 13 + 13 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
9097 16 + 16 + 14 + 14 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
9098 17 + 17 + 15 + 15 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
9099 18 XXXXX + 18 + 16 XXXXXX + 16 +
9100 19 XXXXX + 19 XXXXXXXX + 17 XXXXXX + 17 +
9101 20 XXXXX + 20 XXXXXXXX + 18 XXXXXX + 18 +
9104 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
9106 Any other value is treated as `nil'.
9109 *** Printer management (subgroup)
9111 The variable `ps-printer-name-option' determines the option used by
9112 some utilities to indicate the printer name; it's used only when
9113 `ps-printer-name' is a non-empty string. If you're using the lpr
9114 utility to print, for example, `ps-printer-name-option' should be set
9117 The variable `ps-manual-feed' indicates if the printer requires manual
9118 paper feeding. If it's nil, automatic feeding takes place. If it's
9119 non-nil, manual feeding takes place.
9121 The variable `ps-end-with-control-d' specifies whether C-d (\x04)
9122 should be inserted at end of the generated PostScript. Non-nil means
9125 *** Page settings (subgroup)
9127 If variable `ps-warn-paper-type' is nil, it's *not* treated as an
9128 error if the PostScript printer doesn't have a paper with the size
9129 indicated by `ps-paper-type'; the default paper size will be used
9130 instead. If `ps-warn-paper-type' is non-nil, an error is signaled if
9131 the PostScript printer doesn't support a paper with the size indicated
9132 by `ps-paper-type'. This is used when `ps-spool-config' is set to
9135 The variable `ps-print-upside-down' determines the orientation for
9136 printing pages: nil means `normal' printing, non-nil means
9137 `upside-down' printing (that is, the page is rotated by 180 degrees).
9139 The variable `ps-selected-pages' specifies which pages to print. If
9140 it's nil, all pages are printed. If it's a list, list elements may be
9141 integers specifying a single page to print, or cons cells (FROM . TO)
9142 specifying to print from page FROM to TO. Invalid list elements, that
9143 is integers smaller than one, or elements whose FROM is greater than
9144 its TO, are ignored.
9146 The variable `ps-even-or-odd-pages' specifies how to print even/odd
9147 pages. Valid values are:
9149 nil print all pages.
9151 `even-page' print only even pages.
9153 `odd-page' print only odd pages.
9155 `even-sheet' print only even sheets.
9156 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
9157 `even-page', but for values greater than 1, it'll
9158 print only the even sheet of paper.
9160 `odd-sheet' print only odd sheets.
9161 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
9162 `odd-page'; but for values greater than 1, it'll print
9163 only the odd sheet of paper.
9165 Any other value is treated as nil.
9167 If you set `ps-selected-pages' (see there for documentation), pages
9168 are filtered by `ps-selected-pages', and then by
9169 `ps-even-or-odd-pages'. For example, if we have:
9171 (setq ps-selected-pages '(1 4 (6 . 10) (12 . 16) 20))
9173 and we combine this with `ps-even-or-odd-pages' and
9174 `ps-n-up-printing', we get:
9176 `ps-n-up-printing' = 1:
9177 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
9178 nil 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20
9179 even-page 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
9180 odd-page 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
9181 even-sheet 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
9182 odd-sheet 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
9184 `ps-n-up-printing' = 2:
9185 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
9186 nil 1/4, 6/7, 8/9, 10/12, 13/14, 15/16, 20
9187 even-page 4/6, 8/10, 12/14, 16/20
9188 odd-page 1/7, 9/13, 15
9189 even-sheet 6/7, 10/12, 15/16
9190 odd-sheet 1/4, 8/9, 13/14, 20
9192 *** Miscellany (subgroup)
9194 The variable `ps-error-handler-message' specifies where error handler
9195 messages should be sent.
9197 It is also possible to add a user-defined PostScript prologue code in
9198 front of all generated prologue code by setting the variable
9199 `ps-user-defined-prologue'.
9201 The variable `ps-line-number-font' specifies the font for line numbers.
9203 The variable `ps-line-number-font-size' specifies the font size in
9204 points for line numbers.
9206 The variable `ps-line-number-color' specifies the color for line
9207 numbers. See `ps-zebra-color' for documentation.
9209 The variable `ps-line-number-step' specifies the interval in which
9210 line numbers are printed. For example, if `ps-line-number-step' is set
9211 to 2, the printing will look like:
9223 integer an integer specifying the interval in which line numbers are
9224 printed. If it's smaller than or equal to zero, 1
9227 `zebra' specifies that only the line number of the first line in a
9228 zebra stripe is to be printed.
9230 Any other value is treated as `zebra'.
9232 The variable `ps-line-number-start' specifies the starting point in
9233 the interval given by `ps-line-number-step'. For example, if
9234 `ps-line-number-step' is set to 3, and `ps-line-number-start' is set to
9235 3, the output will look like:
9249 The variable `ps-postscript-code-directory' specifies the directory
9250 where the PostScript prologue file used by ps-print is found.
9252 The variable `ps-line-spacing' determines the line spacing in points,
9253 for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
9256 The variable `ps-paragraph-spacing' determines the paragraph spacing,
9257 in points, for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
9260 The variable `ps-paragraph-regexp' specifies the paragraph delimiter.
9262 The variable `ps-begin-cut-regexp' and `ps-end-cut-regexp' specify the
9263 start and end of a region to cut out when printing.
9265 ** hideshow changes.
9267 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
9270 *** Support for java-mode added.
9272 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
9273 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
9275 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the comments at
9276 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
9277 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
9279 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
9280 robust and a lot faster.
9282 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
9284 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
9285 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
9286 documentation for more details.
9288 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
9290 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
9291 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
9292 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
9293 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
9294 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
9296 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
9297 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
9298 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
9299 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
9305 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
9306 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
9307 faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
9308 group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
9309 your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
9310 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
9312 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
9314 *** Maximum decoration
9316 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
9317 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
9318 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
9319 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
9320 to get the old behavior.
9324 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
9326 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
9327 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
9329 *** Configurable support
9331 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
9332 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
9333 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
9334 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
9335 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
9336 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
9337 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
9339 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
9340 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
9341 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
9343 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
9345 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
9346 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
9349 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
9351 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
9357 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
9358 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
9359 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
9360 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
9362 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
9364 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
9365 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
9366 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
9368 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
9370 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
9371 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
9372 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
9373 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
9374 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
9375 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
9376 Lock mode behaviour and the behaviour of Font Lock mode.
9378 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
9379 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
9380 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
9381 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
9382 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
9383 the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
9385 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
9387 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
9388 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
9389 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
9390 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
9392 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
9395 ** Ada mode changes.
9397 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
9398 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
9399 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
9400 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
9403 *** There are two new commands:
9404 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
9405 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
9407 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
9408 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
9409 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
9411 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
9412 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
9413 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
9415 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
9416 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
9417 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
9418 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
9420 ** Scheme mode changes.
9422 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
9423 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
9424 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
9425 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
9428 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
9429 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
9430 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
9431 variables as buffer-local variables.
9433 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
9436 ** Changes to the emacsclient program
9438 *** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
9439 USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
9440 associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
9441 can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
9443 *** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
9444 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
9447 *** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
9448 use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
9449 ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
9450 option takes precedence.
9452 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
9453 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
9454 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
9456 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
9457 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
9460 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
9461 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
9463 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
9464 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
9467 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
9468 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
9469 these register values no longer become completely useless.
9470 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
9471 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
9472 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
9474 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
9475 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
9476 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
9477 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
9479 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
9480 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
9481 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
9482 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
9483 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
9485 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
9486 since it applies only to the current frame.
9488 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
9489 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
9490 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
9492 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
9493 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
9494 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
9495 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
9496 instead of just the file you are editing.
9500 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
9501 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
9502 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
9503 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
9504 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
9507 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
9508 knows which kind of label is needed.
9510 C-c ) reftex-reference
9511 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
9512 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
9514 C-c [ reftex-citation
9515 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
9516 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
9518 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
9519 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
9522 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
9523 can quickly jump to every section.
9525 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
9526 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
9527 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
9528 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
9529 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
9531 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
9533 *** Info documentation is now available.
9535 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
9536 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
9538 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
9539 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
9541 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
9542 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
9544 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
9545 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
9546 appropriate functions.
9548 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
9549 entries. They are bound by default to C-M-l and C-M-h.
9551 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
9554 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
9555 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
9557 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
9560 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
9561 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
9562 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
9564 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
9565 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
9566 prefixed with `ALT'.
9568 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
9569 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
9570 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
9573 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
9574 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
9575 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
9577 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
9578 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
9580 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
9581 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
9582 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
9584 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
9586 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
9588 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
9591 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
9592 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
9595 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
9598 *** Added support for imenu.
9600 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
9601 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
9602 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
9603 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
9605 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
9606 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
9608 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
9610 ** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
9612 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
9613 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
9614 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
9617 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
9618 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
9620 ** browse-url changes
9622 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
9623 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
9624 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
9625 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
9626 customization variables.
9628 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
9630 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
9631 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
9632 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
9636 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
9637 pops up the Info file for this command.
9639 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
9640 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
9641 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
9644 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
9645 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
9646 files in the same directory.
9648 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
9649 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
9650 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
9654 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
9655 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
9657 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
9658 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
9659 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
9660 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
9661 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
9662 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
9663 color when Viper is in insert state.
9664 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
9665 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
9666 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
9670 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
9671 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
9672 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
9673 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
9674 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
9676 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
9678 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
9679 constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
9681 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
9682 recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
9683 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
9685 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
9686 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
9687 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
9688 methods and protocols.
9690 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
9691 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
9692 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
9695 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
9696 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
9697 at least M times and as many as N times.
9699 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
9700 in files has changed slightly.
9702 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
9703 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
9704 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
9705 with old time-stamp-format values.
9707 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
9708 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
9709 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
9712 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
9713 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
9714 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
9715 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
9716 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
9717 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
9719 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
9720 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
9721 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
9723 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
9724 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
9725 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
9726 recommended now will continue to work then.
9728 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
9731 ** There are some additional major modes:
9733 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
9734 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
9735 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
9737 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
9738 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
9741 ** New Lisp packages include:
9743 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
9745 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
9746 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
9748 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
9750 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
9753 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
9754 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
9757 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
9758 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
9759 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
9760 strings or comments.
9762 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
9763 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
9764 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
9765 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
9768 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
9769 can visit them by short forms of their names.
9771 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
9772 Emacs Lisp function at point.
9774 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
9776 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
9777 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
9779 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
9781 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
9783 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
9785 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
9786 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
9788 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
9789 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
9790 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
9791 original place after inserting the copy.
9793 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
9796 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
9797 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
9798 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
9800 Enable mouse-drag with:
9801 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
9803 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
9805 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
9806 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
9808 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
9809 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
9813 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
9814 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
9815 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
9816 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
9817 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
9818 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
9819 instance) and vice versa.
9821 To use this package load it using
9822 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
9823 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
9824 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
9825 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
9826 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
9827 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
9829 *** Interface to ph.
9831 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
9833 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
9834 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
9837 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
9839 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
9840 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
9841 while the real cursor does not move.
9843 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
9844 for visiting your favorite web sites.
9846 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
9847 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
9851 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
9852 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
9853 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
9854 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
9856 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
9858 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
9860 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
9862 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
9863 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
9864 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
9865 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
9866 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
9868 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
9869 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
9870 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
9871 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
9872 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
9873 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
9875 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
9877 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
9878 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
9879 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
9880 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
9882 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
9883 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
9885 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
9886 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
9889 ** Basic Lisp changes
9891 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
9892 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
9894 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
9895 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
9898 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
9900 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
9902 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
9903 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
9905 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
9906 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
9909 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
9911 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
9913 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
9915 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
9916 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
9917 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
9920 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
9921 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
9922 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
9924 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
9925 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
9926 adding one of these suffixes.
9928 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
9929 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
9930 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
9932 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
9933 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
9935 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
9937 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
9938 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
9940 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
9941 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
9943 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
9945 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
9946 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
9948 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
9949 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
9950 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
9951 works using `save-current-buffer'.
9953 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
9954 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
9957 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
9958 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
9959 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
9962 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
9963 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
9966 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
9968 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
9969 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
9970 Then it returns that string.
9972 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
9974 (with-output-to-string
9975 (princ "The buffer is ")
9976 (princ (buffer-name)))
9978 returns "The buffer is foo".
9980 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
9983 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
9984 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
9985 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
9987 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
9988 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
9990 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
9991 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
9992 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
9993 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
9994 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
9995 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
9997 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
9998 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
9999 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
10002 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
10003 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
10004 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
10005 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
10006 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
10008 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
10009 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
10010 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
10011 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
10013 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
10014 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
10016 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
10018 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
10019 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
10020 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
10021 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
10024 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
10025 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
10028 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
10030 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
10031 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
10032 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
10033 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
10034 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
10036 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
10038 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
10039 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
10040 more than the number of characters.
10042 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
10043 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
10044 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
10045 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
10046 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
10047 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
10049 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
10050 and returns a string containing those characters.
10052 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
10053 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
10054 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
10055 character, sref signals an error.
10057 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
10058 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
10059 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
10061 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
10062 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
10063 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
10065 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
10066 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
10067 to a vector of the characters in it.
10069 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
10070 of a string. You call it as follows:
10072 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
10074 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
10075 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
10076 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
10077 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
10078 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
10080 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
10081 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
10083 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
10084 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
10086 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
10087 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
10088 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
10089 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
10091 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
10093 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
10095 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
10096 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
10097 are not included in the resulting value.
10099 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
10100 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
10101 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
10102 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
10104 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
10105 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
10106 character extends across that column), then the padding character
10107 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
10108 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
10109 column START-COLUMN.
10111 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
10112 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
10113 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
10114 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
10115 changed text, before the change.
10117 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
10118 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
10119 one character set for each script, not for each language.
10121 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
10123 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
10125 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
10126 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
10128 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
10129 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
10130 which identify the character within that character set.
10132 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
10133 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
10134 opposite of split-char.
10136 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
10137 of all the characters between BEG and END.
10139 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
10140 of all the characters in a string.
10142 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
10143 and specifying coding systems.
10145 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
10146 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
10147 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
10148 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
10149 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
10150 as what to do about code conversion.)
10152 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
10153 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
10155 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
10156 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
10157 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
10159 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
10160 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
10161 to match against a file name.
10163 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
10164 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
10165 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
10166 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
10167 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
10168 specifies the coding system for encoding.
10170 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
10171 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
10173 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
10174 the coding system to use for network sockets.
10176 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
10177 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
10178 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
10181 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
10182 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
10183 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
10184 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
10185 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
10186 specifies the coding system for encoding.
10188 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
10189 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
10191 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
10192 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
10193 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
10194 start the subprocess.
10196 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
10197 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
10198 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
10199 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
10200 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
10202 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
10203 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
10206 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
10207 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
10208 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
10209 connection permanently or until overridden.
10211 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
10212 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
10213 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
10214 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
10215 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
10216 system for one operation at a time.
10218 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
10219 files, subprocesses or network connections.
10221 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
10222 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
10223 The value is a cons cell,
10224 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
10225 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
10226 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
10227 input to the subprocess.
10229 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
10230 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
10232 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
10233 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
10234 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
10236 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
10237 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
10238 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
10239 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
10242 Thus, instead of writing
10244 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
10245 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
10247 you would now write this:
10249 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
10250 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
10254 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
10255 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
10256 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
10257 for a description of them.
10259 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
10260 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
10262 (defgroup ispell nil
10263 "Spell checking using Ispell."
10266 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
10267 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
10268 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
10269 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
10270 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
10272 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
10273 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
10274 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
10275 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
10276 first-level subgroups.
10278 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
10280 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
10281 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
10285 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
10286 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
10287 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
10288 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
10289 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
10290 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
10292 ** Text property changes
10294 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
10297 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
10298 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
10299 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
10300 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
10301 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
10303 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
10304 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
10305 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
10306 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
10308 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
10309 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
10310 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
10312 ** Changes in invisibility features
10314 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
10315 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
10316 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
10317 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
10318 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
10319 make the overlay visible.
10321 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
10322 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
10323 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
10324 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
10325 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
10326 t when it should hide it.
10328 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
10330 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
10331 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
10332 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
10333 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
10334 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
10335 Here is an example of how to do this:
10337 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
10338 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
10339 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
10340 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
10343 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
10346 ;; When done with the overlays:
10347 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
10348 ;; Or respectively:
10349 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
10351 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
10353 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
10354 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
10355 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
10356 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
10358 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
10359 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
10360 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
10362 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
10363 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
10365 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
10366 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
10368 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
10369 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
10370 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
10372 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
10373 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
10374 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
10375 determine the syntax type of the character.
10377 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
10378 of the current buffer.
10380 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
10381 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
10382 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
10384 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
10385 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
10386 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
10387 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
10388 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
10390 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
10393 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
10394 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
10395 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
10397 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
10398 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
10399 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
10400 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
10401 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
10403 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
10404 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
10405 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
10407 ** Changes in face features
10409 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
10410 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
10412 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
10413 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
10415 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
10416 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
10418 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
10419 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
10421 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
10422 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
10423 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
10424 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
10427 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
10428 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
10430 ** Changes in file-handling functions
10432 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
10433 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
10434 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
10435 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
10437 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
10440 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
10441 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
10443 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
10444 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
10446 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
10447 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
10449 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
10450 character code conversion as well as other things.
10452 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
10453 (formerly it did not).
10455 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
10456 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
10458 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
10459 instead of constant strings.
10461 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
10462 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
10463 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
10465 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
10466 in the same way as before.
10468 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
10469 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
10470 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
10472 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
10473 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
10474 else, and returns nil.
10476 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
10477 directory cannot be listed.
10479 ** Changes in minibuffer input
10481 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
10482 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
10483 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
10484 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
10487 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
10488 It is available through the history command M-n.
10490 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
10491 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
10492 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
10493 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
10494 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
10496 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
10497 argument in this way.
10499 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
10500 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
10501 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
10503 ** Echo area features
10505 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
10506 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
10507 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
10508 after the echo area is cleared.
10510 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
10511 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
10513 ** Keyboard input features
10515 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
10516 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
10518 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
10519 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
10520 by keyboard macros.
10522 ** Frame-related changes
10524 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
10525 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
10526 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
10528 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
10529 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
10530 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
10532 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
10533 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
10534 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
10535 in the selected frame.
10537 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
10538 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
10539 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
10541 ** X Windows features
10543 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
10544 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
10545 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
10547 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
10548 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
10550 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
10551 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
10552 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
10554 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
10555 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
10557 ** Subprocess features
10559 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
10560 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
10563 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
10564 and returns the output from the command as a string.
10566 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
10567 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
10569 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
10570 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
10572 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
10573 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
10574 goes after the other menu items.
10576 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
10577 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
10578 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
10581 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
10582 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
10584 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
10585 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
10588 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
10589 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
10590 but its hook is still run.
10592 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
10593 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
10595 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
10596 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
10597 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
10599 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
10600 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
10601 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
10604 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
10605 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
10607 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
10608 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
10609 functions like display-time.
10611 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
10612 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
10614 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
10615 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
10616 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
10618 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
10619 if there is an error in compilation.
10621 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
10622 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
10623 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
10624 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
10626 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
10627 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
10628 the *scratch* buffer.
10630 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
10631 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
10632 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
10633 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
10635 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
10636 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
10637 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
10639 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
10640 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
10641 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
10642 and compose-mail-other-frame.
10644 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
10645 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
10646 full name of the specified user will be returned.
10648 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
10649 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
10650 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
10651 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
10652 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
10655 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
10656 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
10657 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
10658 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
10660 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
10661 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
10662 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
10663 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
10665 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
10667 ** imenu.el changes.
10669 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
10670 item from menu created by imenu.
10672 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
10673 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
10674 select one of those items.
10676 * For older news, see the file ONEWS
10678 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
10679 Copyright information:
10681 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
10683 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
10684 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
10685 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
10686 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
10688 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
10689 of this document, or of portions of it,
10690 under the above conditions, provided also that they
10691 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
10695 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"