1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2003-05-21
2 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005
3 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end for copying conditions.
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
7 For older news, see the file ONEWS
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9 `view-emacs-news' with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
12 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
13 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
14 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
15 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
18 * Installation Changes in Emacs 22.1
20 ** Emacs includes now support for loading image libraries on demand.
21 (Currently this feature is only used on MS Windows.) You can configure
22 the supported image types and their associated dynamic libraries by
23 setting the variable `image-library-alist'.
26 ** New translations of the Emacs Tutorial are available in the following
27 languages: Brasilian, Bulgarian, Chinese (both with simplified and
28 traditional characters), French, and Italian. Type `C-u C-h t' to
29 choose one of them in case your language setup doesn't automatically
33 ** You can build Emacs with Gtk+ widgets by specifying `--with-x-toolkit=gtk'
34 when you run configure. This requires Gtk+ 2.0 or newer. This port
35 provides a way to display multilingual text in menus (with some caveats).
38 ** Emacs can now be built without sound support.
41 ** The `emacsserver' program has been removed, replaced with elisp code.
44 ** Emacs now supports new configure options `--program-prefix',
45 `--program-suffix' and `--program-transform-name' that affect the names of
49 ** By default, Emacs now uses a setgid helper program to update game
50 scores. The directory ${localstatedir}/games/emacs is the normal
51 place for game scores to be stored. This may be controlled by the
52 configure option `--with-game-dir'. The specific user that Emacs uses
53 to own the game scores is controlled by `--with-game-user'. If access
54 to a game user is not available, then scores will be stored separately
55 in each user's home directory.
58 ** Leim is now part of the Emacs distribution.
59 You no longer need to download a separate tarball in order to build
63 ** The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual is now part of the distribution.
65 The ELisp reference manual in Info format is built as part of the
66 Emacs build procedure and installed together with the Emacs User
67 Manual. A menu item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy
68 accessible (Help->More Manuals->Emacs Lisp Reference).
71 ** The Introduction to Programming in Emacs Lisp manual is now part of
74 This manual is now part of the standard distribution and is installed,
75 together with the Emacs User Manual, into the Info directory. A menu
76 item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy accessible
77 (Help->More Manuals->Introduction to Emacs Lisp).
80 ** Support for Cygwin was added.
83 ** Support for FreeBSD/Alpha has been added.
86 ** Support for GNU/Linux systems on S390 machines was added.
89 ** Support for MacOS X was added.
90 See the files mac/README and mac/INSTALL for build instructions.
93 ** Support for GNU/Linux systems on X86-64 machines was added.
96 ** Mac OS 9 port now uses the Carbon API by default. You can also
97 create non-Carbon build by specifying `NonCarbon' as a target. See
98 the files mac/README and mac/INSTALL for build instructions.
101 ** A French translation of the `Emacs Survival Guide' is available.
104 ** Building with -DENABLE_CHECKING does not automatically build with union
105 types any more. Add -DUSE_LISP_UNION_TYPE if you want union types.
108 * Changes in Emacs 22.1
110 ** Languange environment and various default coding systems are setup
111 more correctly according to the current locale name. If the locale
112 name doesn't specify a charset, the default is what glibc defines.
113 This change may result in using the different coding systems as
114 default in some locale (e.g. vi_VN).
117 ** The commands copy-file, rename-file, make-symbolic-link and
118 add-name-to-file, when given a directory as the "new name" argument,
119 convert it to a file name by merging in the within-directory part of
120 the existing file's name. (This is the same convention that shell
121 commands cp, mv, and ln follow.) Thus, M-x copy-file RET ~/foo RET
122 /tmp RET copies ~/foo to /tmp/foo.
125 ** M-o now is the prefix key for setting text properties;
126 M-o M-o requests refontification.
129 ** M-g is now a prefix key. M-g g and M-g M-g run goto-line.
132 ** font-lock-lines-before specifies a number of lines before the
133 current line that should be refontified when you change the buffer.
134 The default value is 1.
137 ** C-u M-x goto-line now switches to the most recent previous buffer,
138 and goes to the specified line in that buffer.
140 When goto-line starts to execute, if there's a number in the buffer at
141 point then it acts as the default argument for the minibuffer.
144 ** Emacs now responds to mouse-clicks on the mode-line, header-line and
145 display margin, when run in an xterm.
148 ** M-SPC (just-one-space) when given a numeric argument N
149 converts whitespace around point to N spaces.
152 ** Control characters and escape glyphs are now shown in the new
156 ** Non-breaking space and hyphens are now prefixed with an escape
157 character, unless the new user variable `show-nonbreak-escape' is set
161 ** The type-break package now allows `type-break-file-name' to be nil
162 and if so, doesn't store any data across sessions. This is handy if
163 you don't want the .type-break file in your home directory or are
164 annoyed by the need for interaction when you kill Emacs.
167 ** display-battery has been replaced by display-battery-mode.
170 ** calculator.el now has radix grouping mode, which is available when
171 `calculator-output-radix' is non-nil. In this mode a separator
172 character is used every few digits, making it easier to see byte
173 boundries etc. For more info, see the documentation of the variable
174 `calculator-radix-grouping-mode'.
177 ** You can now follow links by clicking Mouse-1 on the link.
179 Traditionally, Emacs uses a Mouse-1 click to set point and a Mouse-2
180 click to follow a link, whereas most other applications use a Mouse-1
181 click for both purposes, depending on whether you click outside or
182 inside a link. Now the behavior of a Mouse-1 click has been changed
183 to match this context-sentitive dual behavior.
185 Depending on the current mode, a Mouse-2 click in Emacs may do much
186 more than just follow a link, so the new Mouse-1 behavior is only
187 activated for modes which explicitly mark a clickable text as a "link"
188 (see the new function `mouse-on-link-p' for details). The Lisp
189 packages that are included in release 22.1 have been adapted to do
190 this, but external packages may not yet support this. However, there
191 is no risk in using such packages, as the worst thing that could
192 happen is that you get the original Mouse-1 behavior when you click
193 on a link, which typically means that you set point where you click.
195 If you want to get the original Mouse-1 action also inside a link, you
196 just need to press the Mouse-1 button a little longer than a normal
197 click (i.e. press and hold the Mouse-1 button for half a second before
200 Dragging the Mouse-1 inside a link still performs the original
201 drag-mouse-1 action, typically copy the text.
203 You can customize the new Mouse-1 behavior via the new user options
204 `mouse-1-click-follows-link' and `mouse-1-click-in-non-selected-windows'.
207 ** require-final-newline now has two new possible values:
209 `visit' means add a newline (as an undoable change) if it's needed
210 when visiting the file.
212 `visit-save' means add a newline (as an undoable change) if it's
213 needed when visiting the file, and also add a newline if it's needed
214 when saving the file.
217 ** The new option mode-require-final-newline controls how certain
218 major modes enable require-final-newline. Any major mode that's
219 designed for a kind of file that should normally end in a newline
220 sets require-final-newline based on mode-require-final-newline.
221 So you can customize mode-require-final-newline to control what these
225 ** When the undo information of the current command gets really large
226 (beyond the value of `undo-outer-limit'), Emacs discards it and warns
230 ** line-move-ignore-invisible now defaults to t.
233 ** In Outline mode, hide-body no longer hides lines at the top
234 of the file that precede the first header line.
237 ** In Enriched mode, `set-left-margin' and `set-right-margin' are now
238 by default bound to `C-c [' and `C-c ]' instead of the former `C-c C-l'
242 ** In processing a local variables list, Emacs strips the prefix and
243 suffix are from every line before processing all the lines.
246 ** `apply-macro-to-region-lines' now operates on all lines that begin
247 in the region, rather than on all complete lines in the region.
250 ** global-whitespace-mode is a new alias for whitespace-global-mode.
253 ** There are now two new regular expression operators, \_< and \_>,
254 for matching the beginning and end of a symbol. A symbol is a
255 non-empty sequence of either word or symbol constituent characters, as
256 specified by the syntax table.
258 ** Passing resources on the command line now works on MS Windows.
259 You can use --xrm to pass resource settings to Emacs, overriding any
260 existing values. For example:
262 emacs --xrm "Emacs.Background:red" --xrm "Emacs.Geometry:100x20"
264 will start up Emacs on an initial frame of 100x20 with red background,
265 irrespective of geometry or background setting on the Windows registry.
268 ** The terminal emulation code in term.el has been improved, it can
269 run most curses applications now.
271 ** New features in evaluation commands
274 *** The function `eval-defun' (C-M-x) called on defface reinitializes
275 the face to the value specified in the defface expression.
278 *** Typing C-x C-e twice prints the value of the integer result
279 in additional formats (octal, hexadecimal, character) specified
280 by the new function `eval-expression-print-format'. The same
281 function also defines the result format for `eval-expression' (M-:),
282 `eval-print-last-sexp' (C-j) and some edebug evaluation functions.
285 ** New input method chinese-sisheng for inputting Chinese Pinyin
289 ** New command quail-show-key shows what key (or key sequence) to type
290 in the current input method to input a character at point.
293 ** Convenient commands to switch buffers in a cyclic order are C-x <left>
294 (prev-buffer) and C-x <right> (next-buffer).
297 ** Commands winner-redo and winner-undo, from winner.el, are now bound to
298 C-c <left> and C-c <right>, respectively. This is an incompatible change.
301 ** Help commands `describe-function' and `describe-key' now show function
302 arguments in lowercase italics on displays that support it. To change the
303 default, customize face `help-argument-name' or redefine the function
304 `help-default-arg-highlight'.
307 ** The comint prompt can now be made read-only, using the new user
308 option `comint-prompt-read-only'. This is not enabled by default,
309 except in IELM buffers. The read-only status of IELM prompts can be
310 controlled with the new user option `ielm-prompt-read-only', which
311 overrides `comint-prompt-read-only'.
313 The new commands `comint-kill-whole-line' and `comint-kill-region'
314 support editing comint buffers with read-only prompts.
316 `comint-kill-whole-line' is like `kill-whole-line', but ignores both
317 read-only and field properties. Hence, it always kill entire
318 lines, including any prompts.
320 `comint-kill-region' is like `kill-region', except that it ignores
321 read-only properties, if it is safe to do so. This means that if any
322 part of a prompt is deleted, then the entire prompt must be deleted
323 and that all prompts must stay at the beginning of a line. If this is
324 not the case, then `comint-kill-region' behaves just like
325 `kill-region' if read-only are involved: it copies the text to the
326 kill-ring, but does not delete it.
329 ** You can now use next-error (C-x `) and previous-error to advance to
330 the next/previous matching line found by M-x occur.
333 ** Telnet now prompts you for a port number with C-u M-x telnet.
336 ** New command line option -Q.
338 This is like using -q --no-site-file, but in addition it also disables
339 the menu-bar, the tool-bar, the scroll-bars, tool tips, the blinking
340 cursor, and the fancy startup screen.
343 ** New command line option -nbc or --no-blinking-cursor disables
344 the blinking cursor on graphical terminals.
347 ** C-h v and C-h f commands now include a hyperlink to the C source for
348 variables and functions defined in C (if the C source is available).
351 ** When used interactively, `format-write-file' now asks for confirmation
352 before overwriting an existing file, unless a prefix argument is
353 supplied. This behavior is analogous to `write-file'.
356 ** You can now use Auto Revert mode to `tail' a file.
357 If point is at the end of a file buffer before reverting, Auto Revert
358 mode keeps it at the end after reverting. Similarly if point is
359 displayed at the end of a file buffer in any window, it stays at
360 the end of the buffer in that window. This allows to tail a file:
361 just put point at the end of the buffer and it stays there. This
362 rule applies to file buffers. For non-file buffers, the behavior may
365 If you are sure that the file will only change by growing at the end,
366 then you can tail the file more efficiently by using the new minor
367 mode Auto Revert Tail mode. The function `auto-revert-tail-mode'
371 ** Auto Revert mode is now more careful to avoid excessive reverts and
372 other potential problems when deciding which non-file buffers to
373 revert. This matters especially if Global Auto Revert mode is enabled
374 and `global-auto-revert-non-file-buffers' is non-nil. Auto Revert
375 mode only reverts a non-file buffer if the buffer has a non-nil
376 `revert-buffer-function' and a non-nil `buffer-stale-function', which
377 decides whether the buffer should be reverted. Currently, this means
378 that auto reverting works for Dired buffers (although this may not
379 work properly on all operating systems) and for the Buffer Menu.
382 ** If the new user option `auto-revert-check-vc-info' is non-nil, Auto
383 Revert mode reliably updates version control info (such as the version
384 control number in the mode line), in all version controlled buffers in
385 which it is active. If the option is nil, the default, then this info
386 only gets updated whenever the buffer gets reverted.
389 ** New command `Buffer-menu-toggle-files-only' toggles display of file
390 buffers only in the Buffer Menu. It is bound to `T' in Buffer Menu
394 ** M-x compile has become more robust and reliable
396 Quite a few more kinds of messages are recognized. Messages that are
397 recognized as warnings or informational come in orange or green, instead of
398 red. Informational messages are by default skipped with `next-error'
399 (controlled by `compilation-skip-threshold').
401 Location data is collected on the fly as the *compilation* buffer changes.
402 This means you could modify messages to make them point to different files.
403 This also means you can not go to locations of messages you may have deleted.
405 The variable `compilation-error-regexp-alist' has now become customizable. If
406 you had added your own regexps to this, you'll probably need to include a
407 leading `^', otherwise they'll match anywhere on a line. There is now also a
408 `compilation-mode-font-lock-keywords' and it nicely handles all the checks
409 that configure outputs and -o options so you see at a glance where you are.
411 The new file etc/compilation.txt gives examples of each type of message.
413 ** Compilation mode enhancements:
416 *** New user option `compilation-environment'.
417 This option allows you to specify environment variables for inferior
418 compilation processes without affecting the environment that all
419 subprocesses inherit.
422 ** Grep has been decoupled from compilation mode setup.
425 *** There's a new separate package grep.el.
428 *** M-x grep has been adapted to new compile
430 Hits are fontified in green, and hits in binary files in orange. Grep buffers
431 can be saved and automatically revisited with the new Grep mode.
434 *** Grep commands now have their own submenu and customization group.
437 *** `grep-find' is now also available under the name `find-grep' where
438 people knowing `find-grep-dired' would probably expect it.
441 *** The new variables `grep-window-height', `grep-auto-highlight', and
442 `grep-scroll-output' can be used to override the corresponding
443 compilation mode settings for grep commands.
446 *** New option `grep-highlight-matches' highlightes matches in *grep*
447 buffer. It uses a special feature of some grep programs which accept
448 --color option to output markers around matches. When going to the next
449 match with `next-error' the exact match is highlighted in the source
450 buffer. Otherwise, if `grep-highlight-matches' is nil, the whole
451 source line is highlighted.
454 *** New key bindings in grep output window:
455 SPC and DEL scrolls window up and down. C-n and C-p moves to next and
456 previous match in the grep window. RET jumps to the source line of
457 the current match. `n' and `p' shows next and previous match in
458 other window, but does not switch buffer. `{' and `}' jumps to the
459 previous or next file in the grep output. TAB also jumps to the next
463 ** New options `next-error-highlight' and `next-error-highlight-no-select'
464 specify the method of highlighting of the corresponding source line
465 in new face `next-error'.
468 ** A new minor mode `next-error-follow-minor-mode' can be used in
469 compilation-mode, grep-mode, occur-mode, and diff-mode (i.e. all the
470 modes that can use `next-error'). In this mode, cursor motion in the
471 buffer causes automatic display in another window of the corresponding
472 matches, compilation errors, etc. This minor mode can be toggled with
476 ** M-x diff uses diff-mode instead of compilation-mode.
479 ** M-x compare-windows now can automatically skip non-matching text to
480 resync points in both windows.
483 ** New command `strokes-global-set-stroke-string'.
484 This is like `strokes-global-set-stroke', but it allows you to bind
485 the stroke directly to a string to insert. This is convenient for
486 using strokes as an input method.
491 *** Gnus now includes Sieve and PGG
492 Sieve is a library for managing Sieve scripts. PGG is a library to handle
496 *** There are many news features, bug fixes and improvements.
497 See the file GNUS-NEWS or the node "Oort Gnus" in the Gnus manual for details.
503 *** Desktop saving is now a minor mode, desktop-save-mode. Variable
504 desktop-enable is obsolete. Customize desktop-save-mode to enable desktop
508 *** Buffers are saved in the desktop file in the same order as that in the
512 *** The desktop package can be customized to restore only some buffers immediately,
513 remaining buffers are restored lazily (when Emacs is idle).
517 - desktop-revert reverts to the last loaded desktop.
518 - desktop-change-dir kills current desktop and loads a new.
519 - desktop-save-in-desktop-dir saves desktop in the directory from which
521 - desktop-lazy-complete runs the desktop load to completion.
522 - desktop-lazy-abort aborts lazy loading of the desktop.
525 *** New customizable variables:
526 - desktop-save. Determins whether the desktop should be saved when it is
528 - desktop-file-name-format. Format in which desktop file names should be saved.
529 - desktop-path. List of directories in which to lookup the desktop file.
530 - desktop-locals-to-save. List of local variables to save.
531 - desktop-globals-to-clear. List of global variables that `desktop-clear' will clear.
532 - desktop-clear-preserve-buffers-regexp. Regexp identifying buffers that `desktop-clear'
534 - desktop-restore-eager. Number of buffers to restore immediately. Remaining buffers are
535 restored lazily (when Emacs is idle).
536 - desktop-lazy-verbose. Verbose reporting of lazily created buffers.
537 - desktop-lazy-idle-delay. Idle delay before starting to create buffers.
540 *** New command line option --no-desktop
544 - desktop-after-read-hook run after a desktop is loaded.
545 - desktop-no-desktop-file-hook run when no desktop file is found.
548 ** The saveplace.el package now filters out unreadable files.
549 When you exit Emacs, the saved positions in visited files no longer
550 include files that aren't readable, e.g. files that don't exist.
551 Customize the new option `save-place-forget-unreadable-files' to nil
552 to get the old behavior. The new options `save-place-save-skipped'
553 and `save-place-skip-check-regexp' allow further fine-tuning of this
557 ** You can have several Emacs servers on the same machine.
559 % emacs --eval '(setq server-name "foo")' -f server-start &
560 % emacs --eval '(setq server-name "bar")' -f server-start &
561 % emacsclient -s foo file1
562 % emacsclient -s bar file2
565 ** On window systems, lines which are exactly as wide as the window
566 (not counting the final newline character) are no longer broken into
567 two lines on the display (with just the newline on the second line).
568 Instead, the newline now "overflows" into the right fringe, and the
569 cursor will be displayed in the fringe when positioned on that newline.
571 The new user option 'overflow-newline-into-fringe' may be set to nil to
572 revert to the old behavior of continuing such lines.
575 ** The buffer boundaries (i.e. first and last line in the buffer) may
576 now be marked with angle bitmaps in the fringes. In addition, up and
577 down arrow bitmaps may be shown at the top and bottom of the left or
578 right fringe if the window can be scrolled in either direction.
580 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
581 `indicate-buffer-boundaries' to a non-nil value. The default value of
582 this variable is found in `default-indicate-buffer-boundaries'.
584 If value is `left' or `right', both angle and arrow bitmaps are
585 displayed in the left or right fringe, resp.
587 Value may also be an alist which specifies the presense and position
588 of each bitmap individually.
590 For example, ((top . left) (t . right)) places the top angle bitmap
591 in left fringe, the bottom angle bitmap in right fringe, and both
592 arrow bitmaps in right fringe. To show just the angle bitmaps in the
593 left fringe, but no arrow bitmaps, use ((top . left) (bottom . left)).
596 ** New command `display-local-help' displays any local help at point
597 in the echo area. It is bound to `C-h .'. It normally displays the
598 same string that would be displayed on mouse-over using the
599 `help-echo' property, but, in certain cases, it can display a more
600 keyboard oriented alternative.
603 ** New user option `help-at-pt-display-when-idle' allows to
604 automatically show the help provided by `display-local-help' on
605 point-over, after suitable idle time. The amount of idle time is
606 determined by the user option `help-at-pt-timer-delay' and defaults
607 to one second. This feature is turned off by default.
610 ** New commands `scan-buf-next-region' and `scan-buf-previous-region'
611 move to the start of the next (previous, respectively) region with
612 non-nil help-echo property and display any help found there in the
613 echo area, using `display-local-help'.
616 ** Help mode now only makes hyperlinks for faces when the face name is
617 preceded or followed by the word `face'. It no longer makes
618 hyperlinks for variables without variable documentation, unless
619 preceded by one of the words `variable' or `option'. It now makes
620 hyperlinks to Info anchors (or nodes) if the anchor (or node) name is
621 enclosed in single quotes and preceded by `info anchor' or `Info
622 anchor' (in addition to earlier `info node' and `Info node').
625 ** The max size of buffers and integers has been doubled.
626 On 32bit machines, it is now 256M (i.e. 268435455).
629 ** The -f option, used from the command line to call a function,
630 now reads arguments for the function interactively if it is
631 an interactively callable function.
636 *** The variable `sql-product' controls the highlightng of different
637 SQL dialects. This variable can be set globally via Customize, on a
638 buffer-specific basis via local variable settings, or for the current
639 session using the new SQL->Product submenu. (This menu replaces the
640 SQL->Highlighting submenu.)
642 The following values are supported:
644 ansi ANSI Standard (default)
658 The current product name will be shown on the mode line following the
661 The technique of setting `sql-mode-font-lock-defaults' directly in
662 your .emacs will no longer establish the default highlighting -- Use
663 `sql-product' to accomplish this.
665 ANSI keywords are always highlighted.
667 *** The function `sql-add-product-keywords' can be used to add
668 font-lock rules to the product specific rules. For example, to have
669 all identifiers ending in "_t" under MS SQLServer treated as a type,
670 you would use the following line in your .emacs file:
672 (sql-add-product-keywords 'ms
673 '(("\\<\\w+_t\\>" . font-lock-type-face)))
675 *** Oracle support includes keyword highlighting for Oracle 9i. Most
676 SQL and PL/SQL keywords are implemented. SQL*Plus commands are
677 highlighted in `font-lock-doc-face'.
679 *** Microsoft SQLServer support has been significantly improved.
680 Keyword highlighting for SqlServer 2000 is implemented.
681 sql-interactive-mode defaults to use osql, rather than isql, because
682 osql flushes its error stream more frequently. Thus error messages
683 are displayed when they occur rather than when the session is
686 If the username and password are not provided to `sql-ms', osql is
687 called with the -E command line argument to use the operating system
688 credentials to authenticate the user.
690 *** Postgres support is enhanced.
691 Keyword highlighting of Postgres 7.3 is implemented. Prompting for
692 the username and the pgsql `-U' option is added.
694 *** MySQL support is enhanced.
695 Keyword higlighting of MySql 4.0 is implemented.
697 *** Imenu support has been enhanced to locate tables, views, indexes,
698 packages, procedures, functions, triggers, sequences, rules, and
701 *** Added SQL->Start SQLi Session menu entry which calls the
702 appropriate sql-interactive-mode wrapper for the current setting of
706 ** M-x view-file and commands that use it now avoid interfering
707 with special modes such as Tar mode.
709 ** Enhancements to apropos commands:
712 *** The apropos commands now accept a list of words to match.
713 When more than one word is specified, at least two of those words must
714 be present for an item to match. Regular expression matching is still
718 *** The new option `apropos-sort-by-scores' causes the matching items
719 to be sorted according to their score. The score for an item is a
720 number calculated to indicate how well the item matches the words or
721 regular expression that you entered to the apropos command. The best
722 match is listed first, and the calculated score is shown for each
726 ** The old bindings C-M-delete and C-M-backspace have been deleted,
727 since there are situations where one or the other will shut down
728 the operating system or your X server.
731 ** New minor mode, Visible mode, toggles invisibility in the current buffer.
732 When enabled, it makes all invisible text visible. When disabled, it
733 restores the previous value of `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
736 ** New command `kill-whole-line' kills an entire line at once.
737 By default, it is bound to C-S-<backspace>.
740 ** New commands to operate on pairs of open and close characters:
741 `insert-pair', `delete-pair', `raise-sexp'.
744 ** A prefix argument of C-M-q in Emacs Lisp mode pretty-printifies the
745 list starting after point.
750 *** New faces dired-header, dired-mark, dired-marked, dired-flagged,
751 dired-ignored, dired-directory, dired-symlink, dired-warning
752 introduced for Dired mode instead of font-lock faces.
754 *** New Dired command `dired-compare-directories' marks files
755 with different file attributes in two dired buffers.
758 *** New Dired command `dired-do-touch' (bound to T) changes timestamps
759 of marked files with the value entered in the minibuffer.
762 *** In Dired's ! command (dired-do-shell-command), `*' and `?' now
763 control substitution of the file names only when they are surrounded
764 by whitespace. This means you can now use them as shell wildcards
765 too. If you want to use just plain `*' as a wildcard, type `*""'; the
766 doublequotes make no difference in the shell, but they prevent
767 special treatment in `dired-do-shell-command'.
770 *** In Dired, the w command now copies the current line's file name
771 into the kill ring. With a zero prefix arg, copies absolute file names.
777 *** Omitting files is now a minor mode, dired-omit-mode. The mode toggling
778 command is bound to M-o. A new command dired-mark-omitted, bound to M-O,
779 marks omitted files. The variable dired-omit-files-p is obsoleted, use the
780 mode toggling function instead.
783 ** find-file-read-only visits multiple files in read-only mode,
784 when the file name contains wildcard characters.
787 ** find-alternate-file replaces the current file with multiple files,
788 when the file name contains wildcard characters.
793 *** New ffap commands and keybindings: C-x C-r (`ffap-read-only'),
794 C-x C-v (`ffap-alternate-file'), C-x C-d (`ffap-list-directory'),
795 C-x 4 r (`ffap-read-only-other-window'), C-x 4 d (`ffap-dired-other-window'),
796 C-x 5 r (`ffap-read-only-other-frame'), C-x 5 d (`ffap-dired-other-frame').
799 *** FFAP accepts wildcards in a file name by default. C-x C-f passes
800 it to `find-file' with non-nil WILDCARDS argument, which visits
801 multiple files, and C-x d passes it to `dired'.
806 *** A numeric prefix argument of `info' selects an Info buffer
807 with the number appended to the *info* buffer name (e.g. "*info*<2>").
810 *** isearch in Info uses Info-search and searches through multiple nodes.
811 Before leaving the initial Info node isearch fails once with the error
812 message [initial node], and with subsequent C-s/C-r continues through
813 other nodes. When isearch fails for the rest of the manual, it wraps
814 aroung the whole manual to the top/final node. The user option
815 `Info-isearch-search' controls whether to use Info-search for isearch,
816 or the default isearch search function that wraps around the current
819 *** New search commands: `Info-search-case-sensitively' (bound to S),
820 `Info-search-backward', and `Info-search-next' which repeats the last
821 search without prompting for a new search string.
823 *** New command `Info-history-forward' (bound to r and new toolbar icon)
824 moves forward in history to the node you returned from after using
825 `Info-history-back' (renamed from `Info-last').
827 *** New command `Info-history' (bound to L) displays a menu of visited nodes.
829 *** New command `Info-toc' (bound to T) creates a node with table of contents
830 from the tree structure of menus of the current Info file.
832 *** New command `info-apropos' searches the indices of the known
833 Info files on your system for a string, and builds a menu of the
836 *** New command `Info-copy-current-node-name' (bound to w) copies
837 the current Info node name into the kill ring. With a zero prefix
838 arg, puts the node name inside the `info' function call.
840 *** New face `info-xref-visited' distinguishes visited nodes from unvisited
841 and a new option `Info-fontify-visited-nodes' to control this.
843 *** http and ftp links in Info are now operational: they look like cross
844 references and following them calls `browse-url'.
847 *** Info now hides node names in menus and cross references by default.
848 If you prefer the old behavior, you can set the new user option
849 `Info-hide-note-references' to nil.
851 *** Images in Info pages are supported.
852 Info pages show embedded images, in Emacs frames with image support.
853 Info documentation that includes images, processed with makeinfo
854 version 4.7 or newer, compiles to Info pages with embedded images.
857 *** The default value for `Info-scroll-prefer-subnodes' is now nil.
860 *** Info-index offers completion.
863 ** Support for the SQLite interpreter has been added to sql.el by calling
867 *** The new command bibtex-url browses a URL for the BibTeX entry at
868 point (bound to C-c C-l and mouse-2, RET on clickable fields).
870 *** The new command bibtex-entry-update (bound to C-c C-u) updates
871 an existing BibTeX entry.
873 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `required-fields', enabled by default.
875 *** bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries can take values `plain',
876 `crossref', and `entry-class' which control the sorting scheme used
877 for BibTeX entries. `bibtex-sort-entry-class' controls the sorting
878 scheme `entry-class'. TAB completion for reference keys and
879 automatic detection of duplicates does not require anymore that
880 bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is non-nil.
882 *** If the new variable bibtex-parse-keys-fast is non-nil,
883 use fast but simplified algorithm for parsing BibTeX keys.
885 *** If the new variable bibtex-autoadd-commas is non-nil,
886 automatically add missing commas at end of BibTeX fields.
888 *** The new variable bibtex-autofill-types contains a list of entry
889 types for which fields are filled automatically (if possible).
891 *** The new command bibtex-complete completes word fragment before
892 point according to context (bound to M-tab).
894 *** The new commands bibtex-find-entry and bibtex-find-crossref
895 locate entries and crossref'd entries (bound to C-c C-s and C-c C-x).
896 Crossref fields are clickable (bound to mouse-2, RET).
898 *** In BibTeX mode the command fill-paragraph (bound to M-q) fills
899 individual fields of a BibTeX entry.
901 *** The new variables bibtex-files and bibtex-file-path define a set
902 of BibTeX files that are searched for entry keys.
904 *** The new command bibtex-validate-globally checks for duplicate keys
905 in multiple BibTeX files.
907 *** The new command bibtex-copy-summary-as-kill pushes summary
908 of BibTeX entry to kill ring (bound to C-c C-t).
911 ** When display margins are present in a window, the fringes are now
912 displayed between the margins and the buffer's text area, rather than
913 at the edges of the window.
916 ** A window may now have individual fringe and scroll-bar settings,
917 in addition to the individual display margin settings.
919 Such individual settings are now preserved when windows are split
920 horizontally or vertically, a saved window configuration is restored,
921 or when the frame is resized.
924 ** New functions frame-current-scroll-bars and window-current-scroll-bars.
926 These functions return the current locations of the vertical and
927 horizontal scroll bars in a frame or window.
930 ** Emacs now supports drag and drop for X. Dropping a file on a window
931 opens it, dropping text inserts the text. Dropping a file on a dired
932 buffer copies or moves the file to that directory.
935 ** Under X, mouse-wheel-mode is turned on by default.
937 ** The X resource useXIM can be used to turn off use of XIM, which may
938 speed up Emacs with slow networking to the X server.
940 If the configure option `--without-xim' was used to turn off use of
941 XIM by default, the X resource useXIM can be used to turn it on.
944 ** `undo-only' does an undo which does not redo any previous undo.
947 ** `uniquify-strip-common-suffix' tells uniquify to prefer
948 `file|dir1' and `file|dir2' to `file|dir1/subdir' and `file|dir2/subdir'.
951 ** If the user visits a file larger than `large-file-warning-threshold',
952 Emacs prompts her for confirmation.
955 ** A UTF-7 coding system is available in the library `utf-7'.
958 ** GUD mode has its own tool bar for controlling execution of the inferior
959 and other common debugger commands.
964 The recent file list is now automatically cleanup when recentf mode is
965 enabled. The new option `recentf-auto-cleanup' controls when to do
968 The `recentf-keep' option replaces `recentf-keep-non-readable-files-p'
969 and provides a more general mechanism to customize which file names to
970 keep in the recent list.
972 With the more advanced option: `recentf-filename-handler', you can
973 specify a function that transforms filenames handled by recentf. For
974 example, if set to `file-truename', the same file will not be in the
975 recent list with different symbolic links.
977 To follow naming convention, `recentf-menu-append-commands-flag'
978 replaces the misnamed option `recentf-menu-append-commands-p'. The
979 old name remains available as alias, but has been marked obsolete.
982 ** The default for the paper size (variable ps-paper-type) is taken
988 You can now put the init files .emacs and .emacs_SHELL under
989 ~/.emacs.d or directly under ~. Emacs will find them in either place.
992 ** partial-completion-mode now does partial completion on directory names.
995 ** skeleton.el now supports using - to mark the skeleton-point without
996 interregion interaction. @ has reverted to only setting
997 skeleton-positions and no longer sets skeleton-point. Skeletons
998 which used @ to mark skeleton-point independent of _ should now use -
999 instead. The updated skeleton-insert docstring explains these new
1000 features along with other details of skeleton construction.
1004 Upgraded to MH-E version 7.82. There have been major changes since
1005 version 5.0.2; see MH-E-NEWS for details.
1008 ** The `emacsclient' command understands the options `--eval' and
1009 `--display' which tell Emacs respectively to evaluate the given elisp
1010 expression and to use the given display when visiting files.
1013 ** User option `server-mode' can be used to start a server process.
1016 ** The mode line position information now comes before the major mode.
1017 When the file is maintained under version control, that information
1018 appears between the position information and the major mode.
1021 ** C-x s (save-some-buffers) now offers an option `d' to diff a buffer
1022 against its file, so you can see what changes you would be saving.
1025 ** You can now customize the use of window fringes. To control this
1026 for all frames, use M-x fringe-mode or the Show/Hide submenu of the
1027 top-level Options menu, or customize the `fringe-mode' variable. To
1028 control this for a specific frame, use the command M-x
1032 ** There is a new user option `mail-default-directory' that allows you
1033 to specify the value of `default-directory' for mail buffers. This
1034 directory is used for auto-save files of mail buffers. It defaults to
1038 ** When you are root, and you visit a file whose modes specify
1039 read-only, the Emacs buffer is now read-only too. Type C-x C-q if you
1040 want to make the buffer writable. (As root, you can in fact alter the
1044 ** The new command `revert-buffer-with-coding-system' (C-x RET r)
1045 revisits the current file using a coding system that you specify.
1048 ** The new command `recode-file-name' changes the encoding of the name
1052 ** `ps-print' can now print characters from the mule-unicode charsets.
1054 Printing text with characters from the mule-unicode-* sets works with
1055 ps-print, provided that you have installed the appropriate BDF fonts.
1056 See the file INSTALL for URLs where you can find these fonts.
1059 ** The new options `buffers-menu-show-directories' and
1060 `buffers-menu-show-status' let you control how buffers are displayed
1061 in the menu dropped down when you click "Buffers" from the menu bar.
1063 `buffers-menu-show-directories' controls whether the menu displays
1064 leading directories as part of the file name visited by the buffer.
1065 If its value is `unless-uniquify', the default, directories are
1066 shown unless uniquify-buffer-name-style' is non-nil. The value of nil
1067 and t turn the display of directories off and on, respectively.
1069 `buffers-menu-show-status' controls whether the Buffers menu includes
1070 the modified and read-only status of the buffers. By default it is
1071 t, and the status is shown.
1073 Setting these variables directly does not take effect until next time
1074 the Buffers menu is regenerated.
1077 ** The commands M-x customize-face and M-x customize-face-other-window
1078 now look at the character after point. If a face or faces are
1079 specified for that character, the commands by default customize those
1083 ** New language environments: French, Ukrainian, Tajik,
1084 Bulgarian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, UTF-8, Windows-1255, Welsh, Latin-6,
1085 Latin-7, Lithuanian, Latvian, Swedish, Slovenian, Croatian, Georgian,
1086 Italian, Russian, Malayalam, Tamil, Russian, Chinese-EUC-TW. (Set up
1087 automatically according to the locale.)
1090 ** Indian support has been updated.
1091 The in-is13194 coding system is now Unicode-based. CDAC fonts are
1092 assumed. There is a framework for supporting various
1093 Indian scripts, but currently only Devanagari, Malayalam and Tamil are
1097 ** New input methods: latin-alt-postfix, latin-postfix, latin-prefix,
1098 ukrainian-computer, belarusian, bulgarian-bds, russian-computer,
1099 vietnamese-telex, lithuanian-numeric, lithuanian-keyboard,
1100 latvian-keyboard, welsh, georgian, rfc1345, ucs, sgml,
1101 bulgarian-phonetic, dutch, slovenian, croatian, malayalam-inscript,
1105 ** A new coding system `euc-tw' has been added for traditional Chinese
1106 in CNS encoding; it accepts both Big 5 and CNS as input; on saving,
1107 Big 5 is then converted to CNS.
1110 ** Many new coding systems are available by loading the `code-pages'
1111 library. These include complete versions of most of those in
1112 codepage.el, based on Unicode mappings. `codepage-setup' is now
1113 obsolete and is used only in the MS-DOS port of Emacs. windows-1252
1114 and windows-1251 are preloaded since the former is so common and the
1115 latter is used by GNU locales.
1118 ** The utf-8/16 coding systems have been enhanced.
1119 By default, untranslatable utf-8 sequences are simply composed into
1120 single quasi-characters. User option `utf-translate-cjk-mode' (it is
1121 turned on by default) arranges to translate many utf-8 CJK character
1122 sequences into real Emacs characters in a similar way to the Mule-UCS
1123 system. As this loads a fairly big data on demand, people who are not
1124 interested in CJK characters may want to customize it to nil.
1125 You can augment/amend the CJK translation via hash tables
1126 `ucs-mule-cjk-to-unicode' and `ucs-unicode-to-mule-cjk'. The utf-8
1127 coding system now also encodes characters from most of Emacs's
1128 one-dimensional internal charsets, specifically the ISO-8859 ones.
1129 The utf-16 coding system is affected similarly.
1132 ** New variable `utf-translate-cjk-unicode-range' controls which
1133 Unicode characters to translate in `utf-translate-cjk-mode'.
1136 ** iso-10646-1 (`Unicode') fonts can be used to display any range of
1137 characters encodable by the utf-8 coding system. Just specify the
1138 fontset appropriately.
1141 ** New command `ucs-insert' inserts a character specified by its
1145 ** Limited support for character `unification' has been added.
1146 Emacs now knows how to translate between different representations of
1147 the same characters in various Emacs charsets according to standard
1148 Unicode mappings. This applies mainly to characters in the ISO 8859
1149 sets plus some other 8-bit sets, but can be extended. For instance,
1150 translation works amongst the Emacs ...-iso8859-... charsets and the
1151 mule-unicode-... ones.
1153 By default this translation happens automatically on encoding.
1154 Self-inserting characters are translated to make the input conformant
1155 with the encoding of the buffer in which it's being used, where
1158 You can force a more complete unification with the user option
1159 unify-8859-on-decoding-mode. That maps all the Latin-N character sets
1160 into Unicode characters (from the latin-iso8859-1 and
1161 mule-unicode-0100-24ff charsets) on decoding. Note that this mode
1162 will often effectively clobber data with an iso-2022 encoding.
1165 ** There is support for decoding Greek and Cyrillic characters into
1166 either Unicode (the mule-unicode charsets) or the iso-8859 charsets,
1167 when possible. The latter are more space-efficient. This is
1168 controlled by user option utf-fragment-on-decoding.
1171 ** The new command `set-file-name-coding-system' (C-x RET F) sets
1172 coding system for encoding and decoding file names. A new menu item
1173 (Options->Mule->Set Coding Systems->For File Name) invokes this
1177 ** The scrollbar under LessTif or Motif has a smoother drag-scrolling.
1178 On the other hand, the size of the thumb does not represent the actual
1179 amount of text shown any more (only a crude approximation of it).
1182 ** The pop up menus for Lucid now stay up if you do a fast click and can
1183 be navigated with the arrow keys (like Gtk+, Mac and W32).
1186 ** Dialogs for Lucid/Athena and Lesstif/Motif now pops down when pressing
1187 ESC, like they do for Gtk+, Mac and W32.
1190 ** Dialogs and menus pop down when pressing C-g.
1193 ** The menu item "Open File..." has been split into two items, "New File..."
1194 and "Open File...". "Open File..." now opens only existing files. This is
1195 to support existing GUI file selection dialogs better.
1198 ** The file selection dialog for Gtk+, Mac, W32 and Motif/Lesstif can be
1199 disabled by customizing the variable `use-file-dialog'.
1202 ** For Gtk+ version 2.4, you can make Emacs use the old file dialog
1203 by setting the variable `x-use-old-gtk-file-dialog' to t. Default is to use
1207 ** Emacs can produce an underscore-like (horizontal bar) cursor.
1208 The underscore cursor is set by putting `(cursor-type . hbar)' in
1209 default-frame-alist. It supports variable heights, like the `bar'
1213 ** On X, MS Windows, and Mac OS, the blinking cursor's "off" state is
1214 now controlled by the variable `blink-cursor-alist'.
1216 ** Filesets are collections of files. You can define a fileset in
1217 various ways, such as based on a directory tree or based on
1218 program files that include other program files.
1220 Once you have defined a fileset, you can perform various operations on
1221 all the files in it, such as visiting them or searching and replacing
1225 ** PO translation files are decoded according to their MIME headers
1226 when Emacs visits them.
1229 ** The game `mpuz' is enhanced.
1231 `mpuz' now allows the 2nd factor not to have two identical digits. By
1232 default, all trivial operations involving whole lines are performed
1233 automatically. The game uses faces for better visual feedback.
1235 ** The new variable `x-select-request-type' controls how Emacs
1236 requests X selection. The default value is nil, which means that
1237 Emacs requests X selection with types COMPOUND_TEXT and UTF8_STRING,
1238 and use the more appropriately result.
1241 ** The parameters of automatic hscrolling can now be customized.
1242 The variable `hscroll-margin' determines how many columns away from
1243 the window edge point is allowed to get before automatic hscrolling
1244 will horizontally scroll the window. The default value is 5.
1246 The variable `hscroll-step' determines how many columns automatic
1247 hscrolling scrolls the window when point gets too close to the
1248 window edge. If its value is zero, the default, Emacs scrolls the
1249 window so as to center point. If its value is an integer, it says how
1250 many columns to scroll. If the value is a floating-point number, it
1251 gives the fraction of the window's width to scroll the window.
1253 The variable `automatic-hscrolling' was renamed to
1254 `auto-hscroll-mode'. The old name is still available as an alias.
1258 *** C-c C-c prompts for a command to run, and tries to offer a good default.
1261 *** The user option `tex-start-options-string' has been replaced
1262 by two new user options: `tex-start-options', which should hold
1263 command-line options to feed to TeX, and `tex-start-commands' which should hold
1264 TeX commands to use at startup.
1267 *** verbatim environments are now highlighted in courier by font-lock
1268 and super/sub-scripts are made into super/sub-scripts.
1271 *** New major mode doctex-mode for *.dtx files.
1274 ** New display feature: focus follows the mouse from one Emacs window
1275 to another, even within a frame. If you set the variable
1276 mouse-autoselect-window to non-nil value, moving the mouse to a
1277 different Emacs window will select that window (minibuffer window can
1278 be selected only when it is active). The default is nil, so that this
1279 feature is not enabled.
1282 ** On X, when the window manager requires that you click on a frame to
1283 select it (give it focus), the selected window and cursor position
1284 normally changes according to the mouse click position. If you set
1285 the variable x-mouse-click-focus-ignore-position to t, the selected
1286 window and cursor position do not change when you click on a frame
1290 ** The new command `describe-char' (C-u C-x =) pops up a buffer with
1291 description various information about a character, including its
1292 encodings and syntax, its text properties, how to input, overlays, and
1293 widgets at point. You can get more information about some of them, by
1294 clicking on mouse-sensitive areas or moving there and pressing RET.
1297 ** The new command `multi-occur' is just like `occur', except it can
1298 search multiple buffers. There is also a new command
1299 `multi-occur-by-filename-regexp' which allows you to specify the
1300 buffers to search by their filename. Internally, Occur mode has been
1301 rewritten, and now uses font-lock, among other changes.
1304 ** The default values of paragraph-start and indent-line-function have
1305 been changed to reflect those used in Text mode rather than those used
1306 in Indented-Text mode.
1309 ** New user option `query-replace-skip-read-only': when non-nil,
1310 `query-replace' and related functions simply ignore
1311 a match if part of it has a read-only property.
1314 ** When used interactively, the commands `query-replace-regexp' and
1315 `replace-regexp' allow \,expr to be used in a replacement string,
1316 where expr is an arbitrary Lisp expression evaluated at replacement
1317 time. In many cases, this will be more convenient than using
1318 `query-replace-regexp-eval'. `\#' in a replacement string now refers
1319 to the count of replacements already made by the replacement command.
1320 All regular expression replacement commands now allow `\?' in the
1321 replacement string to specify a position where the replacement string
1322 can be edited for each replacement.
1325 ** query-replace uses isearch lazy highlighting when the new user option
1326 `query-replace-lazy-highlight' is non-nil.
1329 ** The current match in query-replace is highlighted in new face
1330 `query-replace' which by default inherits from isearch face.
1333 ** Emacs normally highlights mouse sensitive text whenever the mouse
1334 is over the text. By setting the new variable `mouse-highlight', you
1335 can optionally enable mouse highlighting only after you move the
1336 mouse, so that highlighting disappears when you press a key. You can
1337 also disable mouse highlighting.
1340 ** You can now customize if selecting a region by dragging the mouse
1341 shall not copy the selected text to the kill-ring by setting the new
1342 variable mouse-drag-copy-region to nil.
1345 ** font-lock: in modes like C and Lisp where the fontification assumes that
1346 an open-paren in column 0 is always outside of any string or comment,
1347 font-lock now highlights any such open-paren-in-column-zero in bold-red
1348 if it is inside a string or a comment, to indicate that it can cause
1349 trouble with fontification and/or indentation.
1352 ** There's a new face `minibuffer-prompt'.
1353 Emacs adds this face to the list of text properties stored in the
1354 variable `minibuffer-prompt-properties', which is used to display the
1358 ** The new face `mode-line-inactive' is used to display the mode line
1359 of non-selected windows. The `mode-line' face is now used to display
1360 the mode line of the currently selected window.
1362 The new variable `mode-line-in-non-selected-windows' controls whether
1363 the `mode-line-inactive' face is used.
1366 ** A menu item "Show/Hide" was added to the top-level menu "Options".
1367 This menu allows you to turn various display features on and off (such
1368 as the fringes, the tool bar, the speedbar, and the menu bar itself).
1369 You can also move the vertical scroll bar to either side here or turn
1370 it off completely. There is also a menu-item to toggle displaying of
1371 current date and time, current line and column number in the
1375 ** Speedbar has moved from the "Tools" top level menu to "Show/Hide".
1378 ** Emacs can now indicate in the mode-line the presence of new e-mail
1379 in a directory or in a file. See the documentation of the user option
1380 `display-time-mail-directory'.
1383 ** LDAP support now defaults to ldapsearch from OpenLDAP version 2.
1386 ** You can now disable pc-selection-mode after enabling it.
1387 M-x pc-selection-mode behaves like a proper minor mode, and with no
1388 argument it toggles the mode.
1390 Turning off PC-Selection mode restores the global key bindings
1391 that were replaced by turning on the mode.
1394 ** Emacs now displays a splash screen by default even if command-line
1395 arguments were given. The new command-line option --no-splash
1396 disables the splash screen; see also the variable
1397 `inhibit-startup-message' (which is also aliased as
1398 `inhibit-splash-screen').
1400 ** Changes in support of colors on character terminals
1403 *** The new command-line option --color=MODE lets you specify a standard
1404 mode for a tty color support. It is meant to be used on character
1405 terminals whose capabilities are not set correctly in the terminal
1406 database, or with terminal emulators which support colors, but don't
1407 set the TERM environment variable to a name of a color-capable
1408 terminal. "emacs --color" uses the same color commands as GNU `ls'
1409 when invoked with "ls --color", so if your terminal can support colors
1410 in "ls --color", it will support "emacs --color" as well. See the
1411 user manual for the possible values of the MODE parameter.
1414 *** Emacs now supports several character terminals which provide more
1415 than 8 colors. For example, for `xterm', 16-color, 88-color, and
1416 256-color modes are supported. Emacs automatically notes at startup
1417 the extended number of colors, and defines the appropriate entries for
1418 all of these colors.
1421 *** Emacs now uses the full range of available colors for the default
1422 faces when running on a color terminal, including 16-, 88-, and
1423 256-color xterms. This means that when you run "emacs -nw" on an
1424 88-color or 256-color xterm, you will see essentially the same face
1428 *** There's a new support for colors on `rxvt' terminal emulator.
1431 ** Emacs can now be invoked in full-screen mode on a windowed display.
1433 When Emacs is invoked on a window system, the new command-line options
1434 `--fullwidth', `--fullheight', and `--fullscreen' produce a frame
1435 whose width, height, or both width and height take up the entire
1436 screen size. (For now, this does not work with some window managers.)
1439 ** Emacs now tries to set up buffer coding systems for HTML/XML files
1443 ** The new command `comint-insert-previous-argument' in comint-derived
1444 modes (shell-mode etc) inserts arguments from previous command lines,
1445 like bash's `ESC .' binding. It is bound by default to `C-c .', but
1446 otherwise behaves quite similarly to the bash version.
1449 ** Changes in C-h bindings:
1451 C-h e displays the *Messages* buffer.
1453 C-h followed by a control character is used for displaying files
1456 C-h C-f displays the FAQ.
1457 C-h C-e displays the PROBLEMS file.
1459 The info-search bindings on C-h C-f, C-h C-k and C-h C-i
1460 have been moved to C-h F, C-h K and C-h S.
1462 C-h c, C-h k, C-h w, and C-h f now handle remapped interactive commands.
1464 - C-h c and C-h k report the actual command (after possible remapping)
1465 run by the key sequence.
1467 - C-h w and C-h f on a command which has been remapped now report the
1468 command it is remapped to, and the keys which can be used to run
1471 For example, if C-k is bound to kill-line, and kill-line is remapped
1472 to new-kill-line, these commands now report:
1474 - C-h c and C-h k C-k reports:
1475 C-k runs the command new-kill-line
1477 - C-h w and C-h f kill-line reports:
1478 kill-line is remapped to new-kill-line which is on C-k, <deleteline>
1480 - C-h w and C-h f new-kill-line reports:
1481 new-kill-line is on C-k
1484 ** Vertical scrolling is now possible within incremental search.
1485 To enable this feature, customize the new user option
1486 `isearch-allow-scroll'. User written commands which satisfy stringent
1487 constraints can be marked as "scrolling commands". See the Emacs manual
1491 ** C-w in incremental search now grabs either a character or a word,
1492 making the decision in a heuristic way. This new job is done by the
1493 command `isearch-yank-word-or-char'. To restore the old behavior,
1494 bind C-w to `isearch-yank-word' in `isearch-mode-map'.
1497 ** C-y in incremental search now grabs the next line if point is already
1498 at the end of a line.
1501 ** C-M-w deletes and C-M-y grabs a character in isearch mode.
1502 Another method to grab a character is to enter the minibuffer by `M-e'
1503 and to type `C-f' at the end of the search string in the minibuffer.
1506 ** M-% typed in isearch mode invokes `query-replace' or
1507 `query-replace-regexp' (depending on search mode) with the current
1508 search string used as the string to replace.
1511 ** Isearch no longer adds `isearch-resume' commands to the command
1512 history by default. To enable this feature, customize the new
1513 user option `isearch-resume-in-command-history'.
1516 ** New user option `history-delete-duplicates'.
1517 If set to t when adding a new history element, all previous identical
1518 elements are deleted.
1521 ** Yanking text now discards certain text properties that can
1522 be inconvenient when you did not expect them. The variable
1523 `yank-excluded-properties' specifies which ones. Insertion
1524 of register contents and rectangles also discards these properties.
1527 ** Occur, Info, and comint-derived modes now support using
1528 M-x font-lock-mode to toggle fontification. The variable
1529 `Info-fontify' is no longer applicable; to disable fontification,
1530 remove `turn-on-font-lock' from `Info-mode-hook'.
1533 ** M-x grep now tries to avoid appending `/dev/null' to the command line
1534 by using GNU grep `-H' option instead. M-x grep automatically
1535 detects whether this is possible or not the first time it is invoked.
1536 When `-H' is used, the grep command line supplied by the user is passed
1537 unchanged to the system to execute, which allows more complicated
1538 command lines to be used than was possible before.
1541 ** The face-customization widget has been reworked to be less confusing.
1542 In particular, when you enable a face attribute using the corresponding
1543 check-box, there's no longer a redundant `*' option in value selection
1544 for that attribute; the values you can choose are only those which make
1545 sense for the attribute. When an attribute is de-selected by unchecking
1546 its check-box, then the (now ignored, but still present temporarily in
1547 case you re-select the attribute) value is hidden.
1550 ** When you set or reset a variable's value in a Customize buffer,
1551 the previous value becomes the "backup value" of the variable.
1552 You can go back to that backup value by selecting "Use Backup Value"
1553 under the "[State]" button.
1556 ** The new customization type `float' specifies numbers with floating
1557 point (no integers are allowed).
1560 ** In GUD mode, when talking to GDB, C-x C-a C-j "jumps" the program
1561 counter to the specified source line (the one where point is).
1564 ** GUD mode improvements for jdb:
1566 *** Search for source files using jdb classpath and class
1567 information. Fast startup since there is no need to scan all
1568 source files up front. There is also no need to create and maintain
1569 lists of source directories to scan. Look at `gud-jdb-use-classpath'
1570 and `gud-jdb-classpath' customization variables documentation.
1572 *** Supports the standard breakpoint (gud-break, gud-clear)
1573 set/clear operations from java source files under the classpath, stack
1574 traversal (gud-up, gud-down), and run until current stack finish
1577 *** Supports new jdb (Java 1.2 and later) in addition to oldjdb
1580 *** The previous method of searching for source files has been
1581 preserved in case someone still wants/needs to use it.
1582 Set gud-jdb-use-classpath to nil.
1584 Added Customization Variables
1586 *** gud-jdb-command-name. What command line to use to invoke jdb.
1588 *** gud-jdb-use-classpath. Allows selection of java source file searching
1589 method: set to t for new method, nil to scan gud-jdb-directories for
1590 java sources (previous method).
1592 *** gud-jdb-directories. List of directories to scan and search for java
1593 classes using the original gud-jdb method (if gud-jdb-use-classpath
1598 *** The STARTTLS elisp wrapper (starttls.el) can now use GNUTLS
1599 instead of the OpenSSL based "starttls" tool. For backwards
1600 compatibility, it prefers "starttls", but you can toggle
1601 `starttls-use-gnutls' to switch to GNUTLS (or simply remove the
1604 *** Do not allow debugger output history variable to grow without bounds.
1607 ** hide-ifdef-mode now uses overlays rather than selective-display
1608 to hide its text. This should be mostly transparent but slightly
1609 changes the behavior of motion commands like C-e and C-p.
1612 ** Unquoted `$' in file names do not signal an error any more when
1613 the corresponding environment variable does not exist.
1614 Instead, the `$ENVVAR' text is left as is, so that `$$' quoting
1615 is only rarely needed.
1619 *** jit-lock can now be delayed with `jit-lock-defer-time'.
1621 If this variable is non-nil, its value should be the amount of Emacs
1622 idle time in seconds to wait before starting fontification. For
1623 example, if you set `jit-lock-defer-time' to 0.25, fontification will
1624 only happen after 0.25s of idle time.
1626 *** contextual refontification is now separate from stealth fontification.
1628 jit-lock-defer-contextually is renamed jit-lock-contextually and
1629 jit-lock-context-time determines the delay after which contextual
1630 refontification takes place.
1633 ** Marking commands extend the region when invoked multiple times. If
1634 you hit M-C-SPC (mark-sexp), M-@ (mark-word), M-h (mark-paragraph), or
1635 C-M-h (mark-defun) repeatedly, the marked region extends each time, so
1636 you can mark the next two sexps with M-C-SPC M-C-SPC, for example.
1637 This feature also works for mark-end-of-sentence, if you bind that to
1638 a key. It also extends the region when the mark is active in Transient
1639 Mark mode, regardless of the last command. To start a new region with
1640 one of marking commands in Transient Mark mode, you can deactivate the
1641 active region with C-g, or set the new mark with C-SPC.
1644 ** Some commands do something special in Transient Mark mode when the
1645 mark is active--for instance, they limit their operation to the
1646 region. Even if you don't normally use Transient Mark mode, you might
1647 want to get this behavior from a particular command. There are two
1648 ways you can enable Transient Mark mode and activate the mark, for one
1651 One method is to type C-SPC C-SPC; this enables Transient Mark mode
1652 and sets the mark at point. The other method is to type C-u C-x C-x.
1653 This enables Transient Mark mode temporarily but does not alter the
1656 After these commands, Transient Mark mode remains enabled until you
1657 deactivate the mark. That typically happens when you type a command
1658 that alters the buffer, but you can also deactivate the mark by typing
1662 ** A prefix argument is no longer required to repeat a jump to a
1663 previous mark, i.e. C-u C-SPC C-SPC C-SPC ... cycles through the
1664 mark ring. Use C-u C-u C-SPC to set the mark immediately after a jump.
1667 ** Movement commands `beginning-of-buffer', `end-of-buffer',
1668 `beginning-of-defun', `end-of-defun' do not set the mark if the mark
1669 is already active in Transient Mark mode.
1672 ** In the *Occur* buffer, `o' switches to it in another window, and
1673 C-o displays the current line's occurrence in another window without
1677 ** When you specify a frame size with --geometry, the size applies to
1678 all frames you create. A position specified with --geometry only
1679 affects the initial frame.
1682 ** M-h (mark-paragraph) now accepts a prefix arg.
1683 With positive arg, M-h marks the current and the following paragraphs;
1684 if the arg is negative, it marks the current and the preceding
1688 ** The variables dired-free-space-program and dired-free-space-args
1689 have been renamed to directory-free-space-program and
1690 directory-free-space-args, and they now apply whenever Emacs puts a
1691 directory listing into a buffer.
1694 ** mouse-wheels can now scroll a specific fraction of the window
1695 (rather than a fixed number of lines) and the scrolling is `progressive'.
1698 ** Unexpected yanking of text due to accidental clicking on the mouse
1699 wheel button (typically mouse-2) during wheel scrolling is now avoided.
1700 This behavior can be customized via the mouse-wheel-click-event and
1701 mouse-wheel-inhibit-click-time variables.
1704 ** The keyboard-coding-system is now automatically set based on your
1705 current locale settings if you are not using a window system. This
1706 may mean that the META key doesn't work but generates non-ASCII
1707 characters instead, depending on how the terminal (or terminal
1708 emulator) works. Use `set-keyboard-coding-system' (or customize
1709 keyboard-coding-system) if you prefer META to work (the old default)
1710 or if the locale doesn't describe the character set actually generated
1711 by the keyboard. See Info node `Single-Byte Character Support'.
1714 ** Emacs now reads the standard abbrevs file ~/.abbrev_defs
1715 automatically at startup, if it exists. When Emacs offers to save
1716 modified buffers, it saves the abbrevs too if they have changed. It
1717 can do this either silently or asking for confirmation first,
1718 according to the value of `save-abbrevs'.
1721 ** Display of hollow cursors now obeys the buffer-local value (if any)
1722 of `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' in the buffer that the cursor
1726 ** The variable `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' can now be set to any
1727 of the recognized cursor types.
1730 ** The variable `auto-save-file-name-transforms' now has a third element that
1731 controls whether or not the function `make-auto-save-file-name' will
1732 attempt to construct a unique auto-save name (e.g. for remote files).
1735 ** There is a new calendar package, icalendar.el, that can be used to
1736 convert Emacs diary entries to/from the iCalendar format.
1739 ** Diary sexp entries can have custom marking in the calendar.
1740 Diary sexp functions which only apply to certain days (such as
1741 `diary-block' or `diary-cyclic') now take an optional parameter MARK,
1742 which is the name of a face or a single-character string indicating
1743 how to highlight the day in the calendar display. Specifying a
1744 single-character string as @var{mark} places the character next to the
1745 day in the calendar. Specifying a face highlights the day with that
1746 face. This lets you have different colors or markings for vacations,
1747 appointments, paydays or anything else using a sexp.
1750 ** The new function `calendar-goto-day-of-year' (g D) prompts for a
1751 year and day number, and moves to that date. Negative day numbers
1752 count backward from the end of the year.
1755 ** The new Calendar function `calendar-goto-iso-week' (g w)
1756 prompts for a year and a week number, and moves to the first
1757 day of that ISO week.
1760 ** The new variable `calendar-minimum-window-height' affects the
1761 window generated by the function `generate-calendar-window'.
1764 ** The functions `holiday-easter-etc' and `holiday-advent' now take
1765 optional arguments, in order to only report on the specified holiday
1766 rather than all. This makes customization of variables such as
1767 `christian-holidays' simpler.
1770 ** The function `simple-diary-display' now by default sets a header line.
1771 This can be controlled through the variables `diary-header-line-flag'
1772 and `diary-header-line-format'.
1775 ** The procedure for activating appointment reminders has changed: use
1776 the new function `appt-activate'. The new variable
1777 `appt-display-format' controls how reminders are displayed, replacing
1778 appt-issue-message, appt-visible, and appt-msg-window.
1781 ** The new functions `diary-from-outlook', `diary-from-outlook-gnus',
1782 and `diary-from-outlook-rmail' can be used to import diary entries
1783 from Outlook-format appointments in mail messages. The variable
1784 `diary-outlook-formats' can be customized to recognize additional
1791 *** The key C-x C-q no longer checks files in or out, it only changes
1792 the read-only state of the buffer (toggle-read-only). We made this
1793 change because we held a poll and found that many users were unhappy
1794 with the previous behavior. If you do prefer this behavior, you
1795 can bind `vc-toggle-read-only' to C-x C-q in your .emacs:
1797 (global-set-key "\C-x\C-q" 'vc-toggle-read-only)
1799 The function `vc-toggle-read-only' will continue to exist.
1802 *** There is a new user option `vc-cvs-global-switches' that allows
1803 you to specify switches that are passed to any CVS command invoked
1804 by VC. These switches are used as "global options" for CVS, which
1805 means they are inserted before the command name. For example, this
1806 allows you to specify a compression level using the "-z#" option for
1810 *** New backends for Subversion and Meta-CVS.
1815 *** When comparing directories.
1816 Typing D brings up a buffer that lists the differences between the contents of
1817 directories. Now it is possible to use this buffer to copy the missing files
1818 from one directory to another.
1821 *** When comparing files or buffers.
1822 Typing the = key now offers to perform the word-by-word comparison of the
1823 currently highlighted regions in an inferior Ediff session. If you answer 'n'
1824 then it reverts to the old behavior and asks the user to select regions for
1827 *** The new command `ediff-backup' compares a file with its most recent
1828 backup using `ediff'. If you specify the name of a backup file,
1829 `ediff-backup' compares it with the file of which it is a backup.
1834 *** New regular expressions features
1836 **** New syntax for regular expressions, multi-line regular expressions.
1837 The syntax --ignore-case-regexp=/regex/ is now undocumented and retained
1838 only for backward compatibility. The new equivalent syntax is
1839 --regex=/regex/i. More generally, it is --regex=/TAGREGEX/TAGNAME/MODS,
1840 where `/TAGNAME' is optional, as usual, and MODS is a string of 0 or
1841 more characters among `i' (ignore case), `m' (multi-line) and `s'
1842 (single-line). The `m' and `s' modifiers behave as in Perl regular
1843 expressions: `m' allows regexps to match more than one line, while `s'
1844 (which implies `m') means that `.' matches newlines. The ability to
1845 span newlines allows writing of much more powerful regular expressions
1846 and rapid prototyping for tagging new languages.
1848 **** Regular expressions can use char escape sequences as in Gcc.
1849 The escaped character sequence \a, \b, \d, \e, \f, \n, \r, \t, \v,
1850 respectively, stand for the ASCII characters BEL, BS, DEL, ESC, FF, NL,
1853 **** Regular expressions can be bound to a given language.
1854 The syntax --regex={LANGUAGE}REGEX means that REGEX is used to make tags
1855 only for files of language LANGUAGE, and ignored otherwise. This is
1856 particularly useful when storing regexps in a file.
1858 **** Regular expressions can be read from a file.
1859 The --regex=@regexfile option means read the regexps from a file, one
1860 per line. Lines beginning with space or tab are ignored.
1862 *** New language parsing features
1864 **** The `::' qualifier triggers C++ parsing in C file.
1865 Previously, only the `template' and `class' keywords had this effect.
1867 **** The gnucc __attribute__ keyword is now recognised and ignored.
1869 **** New language HTML.
1870 Title and h1, h2, h3 are tagged. Also, tags are generated when name= is
1871 used inside an anchor and whenever id= is used.
1873 **** In Makefiles, constants are tagged.
1874 If you want the old behavior instead, thus avoiding to increase the
1875 size of the tags file, use the --no-globals option.
1877 **** New language Lua.
1878 All functions are tagged.
1880 **** In Perl, packages are tags.
1881 Subroutine tags are named from their package. You can jump to sub tags
1882 as you did before, by the sub name, or additionally by looking for
1885 **** In Prolog, etags creates tags for rules in addition to predicates.
1887 **** New language PHP.
1888 Tags are functions, classes and defines.
1889 If the --members option is specified to etags, tags are variables also.
1891 **** New default keywords for TeX.
1892 The new keywords are def, newcommand, renewcommand, newenvironment and
1895 *** Honour #line directives.
1896 When Etags parses an input file that contains C preprocessor's #line
1897 directives, it creates tags using the file name and line number
1898 specified in those directives. This is useful when dealing with code
1899 created from Cweb source files. When Etags tags the generated file, it
1900 writes tags pointing to the source file.
1902 *** New option --parse-stdin=FILE.
1903 This option is mostly useful when calling etags from programs. It can
1904 be used (only once) in place of a file name on the command line. Etags
1905 reads from standard input and marks the produced tags as belonging to
1911 *** Font lock support.
1912 CC Mode now provides font lock support for all its languages. This
1913 supersedes the font lock patterns that have been in the core font lock
1914 package for C, C++, Java and Objective-C. Like indentation, font
1915 locking is done in a uniform way across all languages (except the new
1916 AWK mode - see below). That means that the new font locking will be
1917 different from the old patterns in various details for most languages.
1919 The main goal of the font locking in CC Mode is accuracy, to provide a
1920 dependable aid in recognizing the various constructs. Some, like
1921 strings and comments, are easy to recognize while others like
1922 declarations and types can be very tricky. CC Mode can go to great
1923 lengths to recognize declarations and casts correctly, especially when
1924 the types aren't recognized by standard patterns. This is a fairly
1925 demanding analysis which can be slow on older hardware, and it can
1926 therefore be disabled by choosing a lower decoration level with the
1927 variable font-lock-maximum-decoration.
1929 Note that the most demanding font lock level has been tuned with lazy
1930 fontification in mind, i.e. there should be a support mode that waits
1931 with the fontification until the text is actually shown
1932 (e.g. Just-in-time Lock mode, which is the default, or Lazy Lock
1933 mode). Fontifying a file with several thousand lines in one go can
1934 take the better part of a minute.
1936 **** The (c|c++|objc|java|idl|pike)-font-lock-extra-types variables
1937 are now used by CC Mode to recognize identifiers that are certain to
1938 be types. (They are also used in cases that aren't related to font
1939 locking.) At the maximum decoration level, types are often recognized
1940 properly anyway, so these variables should be fairly restrictive and
1941 not contain patterns for uncertain types.
1943 **** Support for documentation comments.
1944 There is a "plugin" system to fontify documentation comments like
1945 Javadoc and the markup within them. It's independent of the host
1946 language, so it's possible to e.g. turn on Javadoc font locking in C
1947 buffers. See the variable c-doc-comment-style for details.
1949 Currently two kinds of doc comment styles are recognized: Suns Javadoc
1950 and Autodoc which is used in Pike. This is by no means a complete
1951 list of the most common tools; if your doc comment extractor of choice
1952 is missing then please drop a note to bug-cc-mode@gnu.org.
1954 **** Better handling of C++ templates.
1955 As a side effect of the more accurate font locking, C++ templates are
1956 now handled much better. The angle brackets that delimit them are
1957 given parenthesis syntax so that they can be navigated like other
1960 This also improves indentation of templates, although there still is
1961 work to be done in that area. E.g. it's required that multiline
1962 template clauses are written in full and then refontified to be
1963 recognized, and the indentation of nested templates is a bit odd and
1964 not as configurable as it ought to be.
1966 **** Improved handling of Objective-C and CORBA IDL.
1967 Especially the support for Objective-C and IDL has gotten an overhaul.
1968 The special "@" declarations in Objective-C are handled correctly.
1969 All the keywords used in CORBA IDL, PSDL, and CIDL are recognized and
1970 handled correctly, also wrt indentation.
1972 *** Support for the AWK language.
1973 Support for the AWK language has been introduced. The implementation is
1974 based around GNU AWK version 3.1, but it should work pretty well with
1975 any AWK. As yet, not all features of CC Mode have been adapted for AWK.
1978 **** Indentation Engine
1979 The CC Mode indentation engine fully supports AWK mode.
1981 AWK mode handles code formatted in the conventional AWK fashion: `{'s
1982 which start actions, user-defined functions, or compound statements are
1983 placed on the same line as the associated construct; the matching `}'s
1984 are normally placed under the start of the respective pattern, function
1985 definition, or structured statement.
1987 The predefined indentation functions haven't yet been adapted for AWK
1988 mode, though some of them may work serendipitously. There shouldn't be
1989 any problems writing custom indentation functions for AWK mode.
1991 The command C-c C-q (c-indent-defun) hasn't yet been adapted for AWK,
1992 though in practice it works properly nearly all the time. Should it
1993 fail, explicitly set the region around the function (using C-u C-SPC:
1994 C-M-h probably won't work either) then do C-M-\ (indent-region).
1997 There is a single level of font locking in AWK mode, rather than the
1998 three distinct levels the other modes have. There are several
1999 idiosyncrasies in AWK mode's font-locking due to the peculiarities of
2000 the AWK language itself.
2002 **** Comment Commands
2003 M-; (indent-for-comment) works fine. None of the other CC Mode
2004 comment formatting commands have yet been adapted for AWK mode.
2006 **** Movement Commands
2007 Most of the movement commands work in AWK mode. The most important
2008 exceptions are M-a (c-beginning-of-statement) and M-e
2009 (c-end-of-statement) which haven't yet been adapted.
2011 The notion of "defun" has been augmented to include AWK pattern-action
2012 pairs. C-M-a (c-awk-beginning-of-defun) and C-M-e (c-awk-end-of-defun)
2013 recognise these pattern-action pairs, as well as user defined
2016 **** Auto-newline Insertion and Clean-ups
2017 Auto-newline insertion hasn't yet been adapted for AWK. Some of
2018 the clean-ups can actually convert good AWK code into syntactically
2019 invalid code. These features are best disabled in AWK buffers.
2021 *** New syntactic symbols in IDL mode.
2022 The top level constructs "module" and "composition" (from CIDL) are
2023 now handled like "namespace" in C++: They are given syntactic symbols
2024 module-open, module-close, inmodule, composition-open,
2025 composition-close, and incomposition.
2027 *** New functions to do hungry delete without enabling hungry delete mode.
2028 The functions c-hungry-backspace and c-hungry-delete-forward can be
2029 bound to keys to get this feature without toggling a mode.
2030 Contributed by Kevin Ryde.
2032 *** Better control over require-final-newline. The variable that
2033 controls how to handle a final newline when the buffer is saved,
2034 require-final-newline, is now customizable on a per-mode basis through
2035 c-require-final-newline. That is a list of modes, and only those
2036 modes set require-final-newline. By default that's C, C++ and
2039 The specified modes set require-final-newline based on
2040 mode-require-final-newline, as usual.
2042 *** Format change for syntactic context elements.
2043 The elements in the syntactic context returned by c-guess-basic-syntax
2044 and stored in c-syntactic-context has been changed somewhat to allow
2045 attaching more information. They are now lists instead of single cons
2046 cells. E.g. a line that previously had the syntactic analysis
2048 ((inclass . 11) (topmost-intro . 13))
2052 ((inclass 11) (topmost-intro 13))
2054 In some cases there are more than one position given for a syntactic
2057 This change might affect code that call c-guess-basic-syntax directly,
2058 and custom lineup functions if they use c-syntactic-context. However,
2059 the argument given to lineup functions is still a single cons cell
2060 with nil or an integer in the cdr.
2062 *** API changes for derived modes.
2063 There have been extensive changes "under the hood" which can affect
2064 derived mode writers. Some of these changes are likely to cause
2065 incompatibilities with existing derived modes, but on the other hand
2066 care has now been taken to make it possible to extend and modify CC
2067 Mode with less risk of such problems in the future.
2069 **** New language variable system.
2070 See the comment blurb near the top of cc-langs.el.
2072 **** New initialization functions.
2073 The initialization procedure has been split up into more functions to
2074 give better control: c-basic-common-init, c-font-lock-init, and
2075 c-init-language-vars.
2077 *** Changes in analysis of nested syntactic constructs.
2078 The syntactic analysis engine has better handling of cases where
2079 several syntactic constructs appear nested on the same line. They are
2080 now handled as if each construct started on a line of its own.
2082 This means that CC Mode now indents some cases differently, and
2083 although it's more consistent there might be cases where the old way
2084 gave results that's more to one's liking. So if you find a situation
2085 where you think that the indentation has become worse, please report
2086 it to bug-cc-mode@gnu.org.
2088 **** New syntactic symbol substatement-label.
2089 This symbol is used when a label is inserted between a statement and
2090 its substatement. E.g:
2096 *** Better handling of multiline macros.
2098 **** Syntactic indentation inside macros.
2099 The contents of multiline #define's are now analyzed and indented
2100 syntactically just like other code. This can be disabled by the new
2101 variable c-syntactic-indentation-in-macros. A new syntactic symbol
2102 cpp-define-intro has been added to control the initial indentation
2105 **** New lineup function c-lineup-cpp-define.
2106 Now used by default to line up macro continuation lines. The behavior
2107 of this function closely mimics the indentation one gets if the macro
2108 is indented while the line continuation backslashes are temporarily
2109 removed. If syntactic indentation in macros is turned off, it works
2110 much line c-lineup-dont-change, which was used earlier, but handles
2111 empty lines within the macro better.
2113 **** Automatically inserted newlines continues the macro if used within one.
2114 This applies to the newlines inserted by the auto-newline mode, and to
2115 c-context-line-break and c-context-open-line.
2117 **** Better alignment of line continuation backslashes.
2118 c-backslash-region tries to adapt to surrounding backslashes. New
2119 variable c-backslash-max-column which put a limit on how far out
2120 backslashes can be moved.
2122 **** Automatic alignment of line continuation backslashes.
2123 This is controlled by the new variable c-auto-align-backslashes. It
2124 affects c-context-line-break, c-context-open-line and newlines
2125 inserted in auto-newline mode.
2127 **** Line indentation works better inside macros.
2128 Regardless whether syntactic indentation and syntactic indentation
2129 inside macros are enabled or not, line indentation now ignores the
2130 line continuation backslashes. This is most noticeable when syntactic
2131 indentation is turned off and there are empty lines (save for the
2132 backslash) in the macro.
2134 *** indent-for-comment is more customizable.
2135 The behavior of M-; (indent-for-comment) is now configurable through
2136 the variable c-indent-comment-alist. The indentation behavior based
2137 on the preceding code on the line, e.g. to get two spaces after #else
2138 and #endif but indentation to comment-column in most other cases
2139 (something which was hardcoded earlier).
2141 *** New function c-context-open-line.
2142 It's the open-line equivalent of c-context-line-break.
2144 *** New lineup functions
2146 **** c-lineup-string-cont
2147 This lineup function lines up a continued string under the one it
2150 result = prefix + "A message "
2151 "string."; <- c-lineup-string-cont
2153 **** c-lineup-cascaded-calls
2154 Lines up series of calls separated by "->" or ".".
2156 **** c-lineup-knr-region-comment
2157 Gives (what most people think is) better indentation of comments in
2158 the "K&R region" between the function header and its body.
2160 **** c-lineup-gcc-asm-reg
2161 Provides better indentation inside asm blocks. Contributed by Kevin
2164 **** c-lineup-argcont
2165 Lines up continued function arguments after the preceding comma.
2166 Contributed by Kevin Ryde.
2168 *** Better caching of the syntactic context.
2169 CC Mode caches the positions of the opening parentheses (of any kind)
2170 of the lists surrounding the point. Those positions are used in many
2171 places as anchor points for various searches. The cache is now
2172 improved so that it can be reused to a large extent when the point is
2173 moved. The less it moves, the less needs to be recalculated.
2175 The effect is that CC Mode should be fast most of the time even when
2176 opening parens are hung (i.e. aren't in column zero). It's typically
2177 only the first time after the point is moved far down in a complex
2178 file that it'll take noticeable time to find out the syntactic
2181 *** Statements are recognized in a more robust way.
2182 Statements are recognized most of the time even when they occur in an
2183 "invalid" context, e.g. in a function argument. In practice that can
2184 happen when macros are involved.
2186 *** Improved the way c-indent-exp chooses the block to indent.
2187 It now indents the block for the closest sexp following the point
2188 whose closing paren ends on a different line. This means that the
2189 point doesn't have to be immediately before the block to indent.
2190 Also, only the block and the closing line is indented; the current
2191 line is left untouched.
2193 *** Added toggle for syntactic indentation.
2194 The function c-toggle-syntactic-indentation can be used to toggle
2195 syntactic indentation.
2198 ** The command line option --no-windows has been changed to
2199 --no-window-system. The old one still works, but is deprecated.
2202 ** The command `list-text-properties-at' has been deleted because
2203 C-u C-x = gives the same information and more.
2206 ** `buffer-menu' and `list-buffers' now list buffers whose names begin
2207 with a space, when those buffers are visiting files. Normally buffers
2208 whose names begin with space are omitted.
2211 ** You can now customize fill-nobreak-predicate to control where
2212 filling can break lines. The value is now normally a list of
2213 functions, but it can also be a single function, for compatibility.
2215 We provide two sample predicates, fill-single-word-nobreak-p and
2216 fill-french-nobreak-p, for use in the value of fill-nobreak-predicate.
2219 ** New user option `add-log-always-start-new-record'.
2220 When this option is enabled, M-x add-change-log-entry always
2221 starts a new record regardless of when the last record is.
2224 ** SGML mode has indentation and supports XML syntax.
2225 The new variable `sgml-xml-mode' tells SGML mode to use XML syntax.
2226 When this option is enabled, SGML tags are inserted in XML style,
2227 i.e., there is always a closing tag.
2228 By default, its setting is inferred on a buffer-by-buffer basis
2229 from the file name or buffer contents.
2232 ** `xml-mode' is now an alias for `sgml-mode', which has XML support.
2235 ** Lisp mode now uses font-lock-doc-face for the docstrings.
2238 ** Perl mode has a new variable `perl-indent-continued-arguments'.
2241 ** Fortran mode has a new variable `fortran-directive-re'.
2242 Adapt this to match the format of any compiler directives you use.
2243 Lines that match are never indented, and are given distinctive font-locking.
2246 ** F90 mode has new navigation commands `f90-end-of-block',
2247 `f90-beginning-of-block', `f90-next-block', `f90-previous-block'.
2250 ** F90 mode now has support for hs-minor-mode (hideshow).
2251 It cannot deal with every code format, but ought to handle a sizeable
2255 ** The new function `f90-backslash-not-special' can be used to change
2256 the syntax of backslashes in F90 buffers.
2259 ** Prolog mode has a new variable `prolog-font-lock-keywords'
2260 to support use of font-lock.
2263 ** `special-display-buffer-names' and `special-display-regexps' now
2264 understand two new boolean pseudo-frame-parameters `same-frame' and
2268 ** M-x setenv now expands environment variables of the form `$foo' and
2269 `${foo}' in the specified new value of the environment variable. To
2270 include a `$' in the value, use `$$'.
2273 ** File-name completion can now ignore directories.
2274 If an element of the list in `completion-ignored-extensions' ends in a
2275 slash `/', it indicates a subdirectory that should be ignored when
2276 completing file names. Elements of `completion-ignored-extensions'
2277 which do not end in a slash are never considered when a completion
2278 candidate is a directory.
2281 ** The completion commands TAB, SPC and ? in the minibuffer apply only
2282 to the text before point. If there is text in the buffer after point,
2283 it remains unchanged.
2286 ** Enhanced visual feedback in *Completions* buffer.
2288 Completions lists use faces to highlight what all completions
2289 have in common and where they begin to differ.
2291 The common prefix shared by all possible completions uses the face
2292 `completions-common-part', while the first character that isn't the
2293 same uses the face `completions-first-difference'. By default,
2294 `completions-common-part' inherits from `default', and
2295 `completions-first-difference' inherits from `bold'. The idea of
2296 `completions-common-part' is that you can use it to make the common
2297 parts less visible than normal, so that the rest of the differing
2298 parts is, by contrast, slightly highlighted.
2301 ** New user option `inhibit-startup-buffer-menu'.
2302 When loading many files, for instance with `emacs *', Emacs normally
2303 displays a buffer menu. This option turns the buffer menu off.
2306 ** Rmail now displays 5-digit message ids in its summary buffer.
2309 ** Support for `movemail' from GNU mailutils was added to Rmail.
2310 This version of `movemail' allows to read mail from a wide range of
2311 mailbox formats, including remote POP3 and IMAP4 mailboxes with or
2312 without TLS encryption. If GNU mailutils is installed on the system
2313 and its version of `movemail' can be found in exec-path, it will be
2314 used instead of the native one.
2317 ** On MS Windows, the "system caret" now follows the cursor.
2318 This enables Emacs to work better with programs that need to track
2319 the cursor, for example screen magnifiers and text to speech programs.
2322 ** Tooltips now work on MS Windows.
2323 See the Emacs 21.1 NEWS entry for tooltips for details.
2326 ** Images are now supported on MS Windows.
2327 PBM and XBM images are supported out of the box. Other image formats
2328 depend on external libraries. All of these libraries have been ported
2329 to Windows, and can be found in both source and binary form at
2330 http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/. Note that libpng also depends on
2331 zlib, and tiff depends on the version of jpeg that it was compiled
2332 against. For additional information, see nt/INSTALL.
2335 ** Sound is now supported on MS Windows.
2336 WAV format is supported on all versions of Windows, other formats such
2337 as AU, AIFF and MP3 may be supported in the more recent versions of
2338 Windows, or when other software provides hooks into the system level
2339 sound support for those formats.
2342 ** Different shaped mouse pointers are supported on MS Windows.
2343 The mouse pointer changes shape depending on what is under the pointer.
2346 ** Pointing devices with more than 3 buttons are now supported on MS Windows.
2347 The new variable `w32-pass-extra-mouse-buttons-to-system' controls
2348 whether Emacs should handle the extra buttons itself (the default), or
2349 pass them to Windows to be handled with system-wide functions.
2352 ** Emacs takes note of colors defined in Control Panel on MS-Windows.
2353 The Control Panel defines some default colors for applications in much
2354 the same way as wildcard X Resources do on X. Emacs now adds these
2355 colors to the colormap prefixed by System (eg SystemMenu for the
2356 default Menu background, SystemMenuText for the foreground), and uses
2357 some of them to initialize some of the default faces.
2358 `list-colors-display' shows the list of System color names, in case
2359 you wish to use them in other faces.
2362 ** On MS Windows NT/W2K/XP, Emacs uses Unicode for clipboard operations.
2363 Those systems use Unicode internally, so this allows Emacs to share
2364 multilingual text with other applications. On other versions of
2365 MS Windows, Emacs now uses the appropriate locale coding-system, so
2366 the clipboard should work correctly for your local language without
2370 ** Under X11, it is possible to swap Alt and Meta (and Super and Hyper).
2371 The new variables `x-alt-keysym', `x-hyper-keysym', `x-meta-keysym',
2372 and `x-super-keysym' can be used to choose which keysyms Emacs should
2373 use for the modifiers. For example, the following two lines swap
2375 (setq x-alt-keysym 'meta)
2376 (setq x-meta-keysym 'alt)
2379 ** vc-annotate-mode enhancements
2381 In vc-annotate mode, you can now use the following key bindings for
2382 enhanced functionality to browse the annotations of past revisions, or
2383 to view diffs or log entries directly from vc-annotate-mode:
2385 P: annotates the previous revision
2386 N: annotates the next revision
2387 J: annotates the revision at line
2388 A: annotates the revision previous to line
2389 D: shows the diff of the revision at line with its previous revision
2390 L: shows the log of the revision at line
2391 W: annotates the workfile (most up to date) version
2394 ** In pcl-cvs mode, there is a new `d y' command to view the diffs
2395 between the local version of the file and yesterday's head revision
2399 ** In pcl-cvs mode, there is a new `d r' command to view the changes
2400 anyone has committed to the repository since you last executed
2401 "checkout", "update" or "commit". That means using cvs diff options
2405 ** New variable `hs-set-up-overlay' allows customization of the overlay
2406 used to effect hiding for hideshow minor mode. Integration with isearch
2407 handles the overlay property `display' specially, preserving it during
2408 temporary overlay showing in the course of an isearch operation.
2410 ** New command `recode-region' decodes the region again by a specified
2414 * New modes and packages in Emacs 22.1
2417 ** The new package conf-mode.el handles thousands of configuration files, with
2418 varying syntaxes for comments (;, #, //, /* */ or !), assignment (var = value,
2419 var : value, var value or keyword var value) and sections ([section] or
2420 section { }). Many files under /etc/, or with suffixes like .cf through
2421 .config, .properties (Java), .desktop (KDE/Gnome), .ini and many others are
2424 ** The new package dns-mode.el add syntax highlight of DNS master files.
2425 The key binding C-c C-s (`dns-mode-soa-increment-serial') can be used
2426 to increment the SOA serial.
2428 ** The new package flymake.el does on-the-fly syntax checking of program
2429 source files. See the Flymake's Info manual for more details.
2431 ** The library tree-widget.el provides a new widget to display a set
2432 of hierarchical data as an outline. For example, the tree-widget is
2433 well suited to display a hierarchy of directories and files.
2435 ** The wdired.el package allows you to use normal editing commands on Dired
2436 buffers to change filenames, permissions, etc...
2438 ** The thumbs.el package allows you to preview image files as thumbnails
2439 and can be invoked from a Dired buffer.
2442 ** The new python.el package is used to edit Python and Jython programs.
2444 ** The URL package (which had been part of W3) is now part of Emacs.
2447 ** The new global minor mode `size-indication-mode' (off by default)
2448 shows the size of accessible part of the buffer on the mode line.
2450 ** GDB-Script-mode is used for files like .gdbinit.
2453 ** Ido mode is now part of the Emacs distribution.
2455 The ido (interactively do) package is an extension of the iswitchb
2456 package to do interactive opening of files and directories in addition
2457 to interactive buffer switching. Ido is a superset of iswitchb (with
2458 a few exceptions), so don't enable both packages.
2461 ** CUA mode is now part of the Emacs distribution.
2463 The new cua package provides CUA-like keybindings using C-x for
2464 cut (kill), C-c for copy, C-v for paste (yank), and C-z for undo.
2465 With cua, the region can be set and extended using shifted movement
2466 keys (like pc-selection-mode) and typed text replaces the active
2467 region (like delete-selection-mode). Do not enable these modes with
2468 cua-mode. Customize the variable `cua-mode' to enable cua.
2470 In addition, cua provides unified rectangle support with visible
2471 rectangle highlighting: Use S-return to start a rectangle, extend it
2472 using the movement commands (or mouse-3), and cut or copy it using C-x
2473 or C-c (using C-w and M-w also works).
2475 Use M-o and M-c to `open' or `close' the rectangle, use M-b or M-f, to
2476 fill it with blanks or another character, use M-u or M-l to upcase or
2477 downcase the rectangle, use M-i to increment the numbers in the
2478 rectangle, use M-n to fill the rectangle with a numeric sequence (such
2479 as 10 20 30...), use M-r to replace a regexp in the rectangle, and use
2480 M-' or M-/ to restrict command on the rectangle to a subset of the
2481 rows. See the commentary in cua-base.el for more rectangle commands.
2483 Cua also provides unified support for registers: Use a numeric
2484 prefix argument between 0 and 9, i.e. M-0 .. M-9, for C-x, C-c, and
2485 C-v to cut or copy into register 0-9, or paste from register 0-9.
2487 The last text deleted (not killed) is automatically stored in
2488 register 0. This includes text deleted by typing text.
2490 Finally, cua provides a global mark which is set using S-C-space.
2491 When the global mark is active, any text which is cut or copied is
2492 automatically inserted at the global mark position. See the
2493 commentary in cua-base.el for more global mark related commands.
2495 The features of cua also works with the standard emacs bindings for
2496 kill, copy, yank, and undo. If you want to use cua mode, but don't
2497 want the C-x, C-c, C-v, and C-z bindings, you may customize the
2498 `cua-enable-cua-keys' variable.
2500 Note: This version of cua mode is not backwards compatible with older
2501 versions of cua.el and cua-mode.el. To ensure proper operation, you
2502 must remove older versions of cua.el or cua-mode.el as well as the
2503 loading and customization of those packages from the .emacs file.
2505 ** The new keypad setup package provides several common bindings for
2506 the numeric keypad which is available on most keyboards. The numeric
2507 keypad typically has the digits 0 to 9, a decimal point, keys marked
2508 +, -, /, and *, an Enter key, and a NumLock toggle key. The keypad
2509 package only controls the use of the digit and decimal keys.
2511 By customizing the variables `keypad-setup', `keypad-shifted-setup',
2512 `keypad-numlock-setup', and `keypad-numlock-shifted-setup', or by
2513 using the function `keypad-setup', you can rebind all digit keys and
2514 the decimal key of the keypad in one step for each of the four
2515 possible combinations of the Shift key state (not pressed/pressed) and
2516 the NumLock toggle state (off/on).
2518 The choices for the keypad keys in each of the above states are:
2519 `Plain numeric keypad' where the keys generates plain digits,
2520 `Numeric keypad with decimal key' where the character produced by the
2521 decimal key can be customized individually (for internationalization),
2522 `Numeric Prefix Arg' where the keypad keys produce numeric prefix args
2523 for emacs editing commands, `Cursor keys' and `Shifted Cursor keys'
2524 where the keys work like (shifted) arrow keys, home/end, etc., and
2525 `Unspecified/User-defined' where the keypad keys (kp-0, kp-1, etc.)
2526 are left unspecified and can be bound individually through the global
2530 ** The new kmacro package provides a simpler user interface to
2531 emacs' keyboard macro facilities.
2533 Basically, it uses two function keys (default F3 and F4) like this:
2534 F3 starts a macro, F4 ends the macro, and pressing F4 again executes
2535 the last macro. While defining the macro, F3 inserts a counter value
2536 which automatically increments every time the macro is executed.
2538 There is now a keyboard macro ring which stores the most recently
2541 The C-x C-k sequence is now a prefix for the kmacro keymap which
2542 defines bindings for moving through the keyboard macro ring,
2543 C-x C-k C-p and C-x C-k C-n, editing the last macro C-x C-k C-e,
2544 manipulating the macro counter and format via C-x C-k C-c,
2545 C-x C-k C-a, and C-x C-k C-f. See the commentary in kmacro.el
2548 The normal macro bindings C-x (, C-x ), and C-x e now interfaces to
2549 the keyboard macro ring.
2551 The C-x e command now automatically terminates the current macro
2552 before calling it, if used while defining a macro.
2554 In addition, when ending or calling a macro with C-x e, the macro can
2555 be repeated immediately by typing just the `e'. You can customize
2556 this behavior via the variable kmacro-call-repeat-key and
2557 kmacro-call-repeat-with-arg.
2559 Keyboard macros can now be debugged and edited interactively.
2560 C-x C-k SPC steps through the last keyboard macro one key sequence
2561 at a time, prompting for the actions to take.
2564 ** The old Octave mode bindings C-c f and C-c i have been changed
2565 to C-c C-f and C-c C-i. The C-c C-i subcommands now have duplicate
2566 bindings on control characters--thus, C-c C-i C-b is the same as
2567 C-c C-i b, and so on.
2569 ** The printing package is now part of the Emacs distribution.
2571 If you enable the printing package by including (require 'printing) in
2572 the .emacs file, the normal Print item on the File menu is replaced
2573 with a Print sub-menu which allows you to preview output through
2574 ghostview, use ghostscript to print (if you don't have a PostScript
2575 printer) or send directly to printer a PostScript code generated by
2576 `ps-print' package. Use M-x pr-help for more information.
2579 ** Calc is now part of the Emacs distribution.
2581 Calc is an advanced desk calculator and mathematical tool written in
2582 Emacs Lisp. Its documentation is in a separate manual; within Emacs,
2583 type "C-h i m calc RET" to read that manual. A reference card is
2584 available in `etc/calccard.tex' and `etc/calccard.ps'.
2587 ** Tramp is now part of the distribution.
2589 This package is similar to Ange-FTP: it allows you to edit remote
2590 files. But whereas Ange-FTP uses FTP to access the remote host,
2591 Tramp uses a shell connection. The shell connection is always used
2592 for filename completion and directory listings and suchlike, but for
2593 the actual file transfer, you can choose between the so-called
2594 `inline' methods (which transfer the files through the shell
2595 connection using base64 or uu encoding) and the `out-of-band' methods
2596 (which invoke an external copying program such as `rcp' or `scp' or
2597 `rsync' to do the copying).
2599 Shell connections can be acquired via `rsh', `ssh', `telnet' and also
2600 `su' and `sudo'. Ange-FTP is still supported via the `ftp' method.
2602 If you want to disable Tramp you should set
2604 (setq tramp-default-method "ftp")
2607 ** The new global minor mode `file-name-shadow-mode' modifies the way
2608 filenames being entered by the user in the minibuffer are displayed, so
2609 that it's clear when part of the entered filename will be ignored due to
2610 emacs' filename parsing rules. The ignored portion can be made dim,
2611 invisible, or otherwise less visually noticable. The display method may
2612 be displayed by customizing the variable `file-name-shadow-properties'.
2615 ** The ruler-mode.el library provides a minor mode for displaying an
2616 "active" ruler in the header line. You can use the mouse to visually
2617 change the `fill-column', `window-margins' and `tab-stop-list'
2621 ** The minor mode Reveal mode makes text visible on the fly as you
2622 move your cursor into hidden regions of the buffer.
2623 It should work with any package that uses overlays to hide parts
2624 of a buffer, such as outline-minor-mode, hs-minor-mode, hide-ifdef-mode, ...
2626 There is also Global Reveal mode which affects all buffers.
2629 ** The new package ibuffer provides a powerful, completely
2630 customizable replacement for buff-menu.el.
2632 ** The new package table.el implements editable, WYSIWYG, embedded
2633 `text tables' in Emacs buffers. It simulates the effect of putting
2634 these tables in a special major mode. The package emulates WYSIWYG
2635 table editing available in modern word processors. The package also
2636 can generate a table source in typesetting and markup languages such
2637 as latex and html from the visually laid out text table.
2640 ** SES mode (ses-mode) is a new major mode for creating and editing
2641 spreadsheet files. Besides the usual Emacs features (intuitive command
2642 letters, undo, cell formulas in Lisp, plaintext files, etc.) it also offers
2643 viral immunity and import/export of tab-separated values.
2646 ** Support for `magic cookie' standout modes has been removed.
2647 Emacs will still work on terminals that require magic cookies in order
2648 to use standout mode, however they will not be able to display
2649 mode-lines in inverse-video.
2652 ** cplus-md.el has been removed to avoid problems with Custom.
2654 ** New package benchmark.el contains simple support for convenient
2655 timing measurements of code (including the garbage collection component).
2658 ** The new Lisp library fringe.el controls the appearance of fringes.
2660 ** `cfengine-mode' is a major mode for editing GNU Cfengine
2661 configuration files.
2663 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 22.1
2665 ** The new interactive-specification `G' reads a file name
2666 much like `F', but if the input is a directory name (even defaulted),
2667 it returns just the directory name.
2670 ** `suppress-keymap' now works by remapping `self-insert-command' to
2671 the command `undefined'. (In earlier Emacs versions, it used
2672 `substitute-key-definition' to rebind self inserting characters to
2676 ** Mode line display ignores text properties as well as the
2677 :propertize and :eval forms in the value of a variable whose
2678 `risky-local-variable' property is nil.
2680 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 22.1
2683 ** An element of buffer-undo-list can now have the form (apply FUNNAME
2684 . ARGS), where FUNNAME is a symbol other than t or nil. That stands
2685 for a high-level change that should be undone by evaluating (apply
2688 These entries can also have the form (apply DELTA BEG END FUNNAME . ARGS)
2689 which indicates that the change which took place was limited to the
2690 range BEG...END and increased the buffer size by DELTA.
2693 ** The line-move, scroll-up, and scroll-down functions will now
2694 modify the window vscroll to scroll through display rows that are
2695 taller that the height of the window, for example in the presense of
2696 large images. To disable this feature, Lisp code may bind the new
2697 variable `auto-window-vscroll' to nil.
2700 ** If a buffer sets buffer-save-without-query to non-nil,
2701 save-some-buffers will always save that buffer without asking
2705 ** The function symbol-file tells you which file defined
2706 a certain function or variable.
2709 ** Lisp code can now test if a given buffer position is inside a
2710 clickable link with the new function `mouse-on-link-p'. This is the
2711 function used by the new `mouse-1-click-follows-link' functionality.
2714 ** (while-no-input BODY...) runs BODY, but only so long as no input
2715 arrives. If the user types or clicks anything, BODY stops as if a
2716 quit had occurred. while-no-input returns the value of BODY, if BODY
2717 finishes. It returns nil if BODY was aborted.
2720 ** `set-auto-mode' now gives the interpreter magic line (if present)
2721 precedence over the file name. Likewise an <?xml or <!DOCTYPE declaration
2722 will give the buffer XML or SGML mode, based on the new var
2726 ** New function `looking-back' checks whether a regular expression matches
2727 the text before point. Specifying the LIMIT argument bounds how far
2728 back the match can start; this is a way to keep it from taking too long.
2731 ** New functions `make-progress-reporter', `progress-reporter-update',
2732 `progress-reporter-force-update', `progress-reporter-done', and
2733 `dotimes-with-progress-reporter' provide a simple and efficient way for
2734 a command to present progress messages for the user.
2737 ** To manipulate the File menu using easy-menu, you must specify the
2738 proper name "file". In previous Emacs versions, you had to specify
2739 "files", even though the menu item itself was changed to say "File"
2740 several versions ago.
2743 ** read-from-minibuffer now accepts an additional argument KEEP-ALL
2744 saying to put all inputs in the history list, even empty ones.
2747 ** The new variable search-spaces-regexp controls how to search
2748 for spaces in a regular expression. If it is non-nil, it should be a
2749 regular expression, and any series of spaces stands for that regular
2750 expression. If it is nil, spaces stand for themselves.
2752 Spaces inside of constructs such as [..] and *, +, ? are never
2753 replaced with search-spaces-regexp.
2756 ** list-buffers-noselect now takes an additional argument, BUFFER-LIST.
2757 If it is non-nil, it specifies which buffers to list.
2760 ** set-buffer-file-coding-system now takes an additional argument,
2761 NOMODIFY. If it is non-nil, it means don't mark the buffer modified.
2764 ** The new function syntax-after returns the syntax code
2765 of the character after a specified buffer position, taking account
2766 of text properties as well as the character code.
2769 ** The new primitive `get-internal-run-time' returns the processor
2770 run time used by Emacs since start-up.
2773 ** The new function `called-interactively-p' does what many people
2774 have mistakenly believed `interactive-p' did: it returns t if the
2775 calling function was called through `call-interactively'. This should
2776 only be used when you cannot add a new "interactive" argument to the
2780 ** The new function `assoc-string' replaces `assoc-ignore-case' and
2781 `assoc-ignore-representation', which are still available, but have
2782 been declared obsolete.
2785 ** An interactive specification may now use the code letter 'U' to get
2786 the up-event that was discarded in case the last key sequence read for a
2787 previous 'k' or 'K' argument was a down-event; otherwise nil is used.
2790 ** Function `translate-region' accepts also a char-table as TABLE
2794 ** Major mode functions now run the new normal hook
2795 `after-change-major-mode-hook', at their very end, after the mode hooks.
2798 ** `auto-save-file-format' has been renamed to
2799 `buffer-auto-save-file-format' and made into a permanent local.
2802 ** Both the variable and the function `disabled-command-hook' have
2803 been renamed to `disabled-command-function'. The variable
2804 `disabled-command-hook' has been kept as an obsolete alias.
2807 ** Function `compute-motion' now calculates the usable window
2808 width if the WIDTH argument is nil. If the TOPOS argument is nil,
2809 the usable window height and width is used.
2812 ** `visited-file-modtime' and `calendar-time-from-absolute' now return
2813 a list of two integers, instead of a cons.
2816 ** If a command sets transient-mark-mode to `only', that
2817 enables Transient Mark mode for the following command only.
2818 During that following command, the value of transient-mark-mode
2819 is `identity'. If it is still `identity' at the end of the command,
2823 ** Cleaner way to enter key sequences.
2825 You can enter a constant key sequence in a more natural format, the
2826 same one used for saving keyboard macros, using the macro `kbd'. For
2829 (kbd "C-x C-f") => "\^x\^f"
2832 ** The sentinel is now called when a network process is deleted with
2833 delete-process. The status message passed to the sentinel for a
2834 deleted network process is "deleted". The message passed to the
2835 sentinel when the connection is closed by the remote peer has been
2836 changed to "connection broken by remote peer".
2839 ** If the buffer's undo list for the current command gets longer than
2840 undo-outer-limit, garbage collection empties it. This is to prevent
2841 it from using up the available memory and choking Emacs.
2844 ** New function quail-find-key returns a list of keys to type in the
2845 current input method to input a character.
2848 ** New functions posn-at-point and posn-at-x-y return
2849 click-event-style position information for a given visible buffer
2850 position or for a given window pixel coordinate.
2853 ** skip-chars-forward and skip-chars-backward now handle
2854 character classes such as [:alpha:], along with individual characters
2858 ** Function pos-visible-in-window-p now returns the pixel coordinates
2859 and partial visiblity state of the corresponding row, if the PARTIALLY
2863 ** The function `eql' is now available without requiring the CL package.
2866 ** The new primitive `set-file-times' sets a file's access and
2867 modification times. Magic file name handlers can handle this
2871 ** The display space :width and :align-to text properties are now
2872 supported on text terminals.
2875 ** Support for displaying image slices
2877 *** New display property (slice X Y WIDTH HEIGHT) may be used with
2878 an image property to display only a specific slice of the image.
2880 *** Function insert-image has new optional fourth arg to
2881 specify image slice (X Y WIDTH HEIGHT).
2883 *** New function insert-sliced-image inserts a given image as a
2884 specified number of evenly sized slices (rows x columns).
2887 ** New line-height and line-spacing properties for newline characters
2889 A newline may now have line-height and line-spacing text or overlay
2890 properties that control the height of the corresponding display row.
2892 If the line-height property value is t, the newline does not
2893 contribute to the height of the display row; instead the height of the
2894 newline glyph is reduced. Also, a line-spacing property on this
2895 newline is ignored. This can be used to tile small images or image
2896 slices without adding blank areas between the images.
2898 If the line-height property value is a positive integer, the value
2899 specifies the minimum line height in pixels. If necessary, the line
2900 height it increased by increasing the line's ascent.
2902 If the line-height property value is a float, the minimum line height
2903 is calculated by multiplying the default frame line height by the
2906 If the line-height property value is a cons (FACE . RATIO), the
2907 minimum line height is calculated as RATIO * height of named FACE.
2908 RATIO is int or float. If FACE is t, it specifies the current face.
2910 If the line-height property value is a cons (nil . RATIO), the line
2911 height is calculated as RATIO * actual height of the line's contents.
2913 If the line-height value is a cons (HEIGHT . TOTAL), HEIGHT specifies
2914 the line height as described above, while TOTAL is any of the forms
2915 described above and specifies the total height of the line, causing a
2916 varying number of pixels to be inserted after the line to make it line
2917 exactly that many pixels high.
2919 If the line-spacing property value is an positive integer, the value
2920 is used as additional pixels to insert after the display line; this
2921 overrides the default frame line-spacing and any buffer local value of
2922 the line-spacing variable.
2924 If the line-spacing property may be a float or cons, the line spacing
2925 is calculated as specified above for the line-height property.
2928 ** The buffer local line-spacing variable may now have a float value,
2929 which is used as a height relative to the default frame line height.
2932 ** Enhancements to stretch display properties
2934 The display property stretch specification form `(space PROPS)', where
2935 PROPS is a property list now allows pixel based width and height
2936 specifications, as well as enhanced horizontal text alignment.
2938 The value of these properties can now be a (primitive) expression
2939 which is evaluated during redisplay. The following expressions
2942 EXPR ::= NUM | (NUM) | UNIT | ELEM | POS | IMAGE | FORM
2943 NUM ::= INTEGER | FLOAT | SYMBOL
2944 UNIT ::= in | mm | cm | width | height
2945 ELEM ::= left-fringe | right-fringe | left-margin | right-margin
2947 POS ::= left | center | right
2948 FORM ::= (NUM . EXPR) | (OP EXPR ...)
2951 The form `NUM' specifies a fractional width or height of the default
2952 frame font size. The form `(NUM)' specifies an absolute number of
2953 pixels. If a symbol is specified, its buffer-local variable binding
2954 is used. The `in', `mm', and `cm' units specifies the number of
2955 pixels per inch, milli-meter, and centi-meter, resp. The `width' and
2956 `height' units correspond to the width and height of the current face
2957 font. An image specification corresponds to the width or height of
2960 The `left-fringe', `right-fringe', `left-margin', `right-margin',
2961 `scroll-bar', and `text' elements specify to the width of the
2962 corresponding area of the window.
2964 The `left', `center', and `right' positions can be used with :align-to
2965 to specify a position relative to the left edge, center, or right edge
2966 of the text area. One of the above window elements (except `text')
2967 can also be used with :align-to to specify that the position is
2968 relative to the left edge of the given area. Once the base offset for
2969 a relative position has been set (by the first occurrence of one of
2970 these symbols), further occurences of these symbols are interpreted as
2971 the width of the area.
2973 For example, to align to the center of the left-margin, use
2974 :align-to (+ left-margin (0.5 . left-margin))
2976 If no specific base offset is set for alignment, it is always relative
2977 to the left edge of the text area. For example, :align-to 0 in a
2978 header-line aligns with the first text column in the text area.
2980 The value of the form `(NUM . EXPR)' is the value of NUM multiplied by
2981 the value of the expression EXPR. For example, (2 . in) specifies a
2982 width of 2 inches, while (0.5 . IMAGE) specifies half the width (or
2983 height) of the specified image.
2985 The form `(+ EXPR ...)' adds up the value of the expressions.
2986 The form `(- EXPR ...)' negates or subtracts the value of the expressions.
2989 ** Normally, the cursor is displayed at the end of any overlay and
2990 text property string that may be present at the current window
2991 position. The cursor may now be placed on any character of such
2992 strings by giving that character a non-nil `cursor' text property.
2995 ** New macro with-local-quit temporarily sets inhibit-quit to nil for use
2996 around potentially blocking or long-running code in timers
2997 and post-command-hooks.
2999 ** The first face specification element in a defface can specify
3000 `default' instead of frame classification. Then its attributes act as
3001 defaults that apply to all the subsequent cases (and may be overridden
3005 ** New face attribute `min-colors' can be used to tailor the face color
3006 to the number of colors supported by a display, and define the
3007 foreground and background colors accordingly so that they look best on
3008 a terminal that supports at least this many colors. This is now the
3009 preferred method for defining default faces in a way that makes a good
3010 use of the capabilities of the display.
3013 ** Customizable fringe bitmaps
3015 *** New function 'define-fringe-bitmap' can now be used to create new
3016 fringe bitmaps, as well as change the built-in fringe bitmaps.
3018 To change a built-in bitmap, do (require 'fringe) and use the symbol
3019 identifing the bitmap such as `left-truncation or `continued-line'.
3021 *** New function 'destroy-fringe-bitmap' may be used to destroy a
3022 previously created bitmap, or restore a built-in bitmap.
3024 *** New function 'set-fringe-bitmap-face' can now be used to set a
3025 specific face to be used for a specific fringe bitmap. The face is
3026 automatically merged with the `fringe' face, so normally, the face
3027 should only specify the foreground color of the bitmap.
3029 *** There are new display properties, left-fringe and right-fringe,
3030 that can be used to show a specific bitmap in the left or right fringe
3031 bitmap of the display line.
3033 Format is 'display '(left-fringe BITMAP [FACE]), where BITMAP is a
3034 symbol identifying a fringe bitmap, either built-in or defined with
3035 `define-fringe-bitmap', and FACE is an optional face name to be used
3036 for displaying the bitmap instead of the default `fringe' face.
3037 When specified, FACE is automatically merged with the `fringe' face.
3039 *** New function `fringe-bitmaps-at-pos' returns the current fringe
3040 bitmaps in the display line at a given buffer position.
3043 ** Multiple overlay arrows can now be defined and managed via the new
3044 variable `overlay-arrow-variable-list'. It contains a list of
3045 varibles which contain overlay arrow position markers, including
3046 the original `overlay-arrow-position' variable.
3048 Each variable on this list may have individual `overlay-arrow-string'
3049 and `overlay-arrow-bitmap' properties that specify an overlay arrow
3050 string (for non-window terminals) or fringe bitmap (for window
3051 systems) to display at the corresponding overlay arrow position.
3052 If either property is not set, the default `overlay-arrow-string' or
3053 'overlay-arrow-fringe-bitmap' will be used.
3056 ** New function `line-number-at-pos' returns line number of current
3057 line in current buffer, or if optional buffer position is given, line
3058 number of corresponding line in current buffer.
3061 ** The default value of `sentence-end' is now defined using the new
3062 variable `sentence-end-without-space' which contains such characters
3063 that end a sentence without following spaces.
3066 ** The function `sentence-end' should be used to obtain the value of
3067 the variable `sentence-end'. If the variable `sentence-end' is nil,
3068 then this function returns the regexp constructed from the variables
3069 `sentence-end-without-period', `sentence-end-double-space' and
3070 `sentence-end-without-space'.
3073 ** The flags, width, and precision options for %-specifications in function
3074 `format' are now documented. Some flags that were accepted but not
3075 implemented (such as "*") are no longer accepted.
3078 ** New function `macroexpand-all' expands all macros in a form.
3079 It is similar to the Common-Lisp function of the same name.
3080 One difference is that it guarantees to return the original argument
3081 if no expansion is done, which may be tested using `eq'.
3084 ** New function `delete-dups' destructively removes `equal' duplicates
3085 from a list. Of several `equal' occurrences of an element in the list,
3086 the first one is kept.
3089 ** `declare' is now a macro. This change was made mostly for
3090 documentation purposes and should have no real effect on Lisp code.
3093 ** The new hook `before-save-hook' is invoked by `basic-save-buffer'
3094 before saving buffers. This allows packages to perform various final
3095 tasks, for example; it can be used by the copyright package to make
3096 sure saved files have the current year in any copyright headers.
3099 ** The function `insert-for-yank' now supports strings where the
3100 `yank-handler' property does not span the first character of the
3101 string. The old behavior is available if you call
3102 `insert-for-yank-1' instead.
3105 ** New function `get-char-property-and-overlay' accepts the same
3106 arguments as `get-char-property' and returns a cons whose car is the
3107 return value of `get-char-property' called with those arguments and
3108 whose cdr is the overlay in which the property was found, or nil if
3109 it was found as a text property or not found at all.
3113 ** The mouse pointer shape in void text areas (i.e. after the end of a
3114 line or below the last line in the buffer) of the text window is now
3115 controlled by the new variable `void-text-area-pointer'. The default
3116 is to use the `arrow' (non-text) pointer. Other choices are `text'
3117 (or nil), `hand', `vdrag', `hdrag', `modeline', and `hourglass'.
3120 ** The mouse pointer shape over an image can now be controlled by the
3121 :pointer image property.
3124 ** The mouse pointer shape over ordinary text or images may now be
3125 controlled/overriden via the `pointer' text property.
3128 ** Images may now have an associated image map via the :map property.
3130 An image map is an alist where each element has the format (AREA ID PLIST).
3131 An AREA is specified as either a rectangle, a circle, or a polygon:
3132 A rectangle is a cons (rect . ((x0 . y0) . (x1 . y1))) specifying the
3133 pixel coordinates of the upper left and bottom right corners.
3134 A circle is a cons (circle . ((x0 . y0) . r)) specifying the center
3135 and the radius of the circle; r may be a float or integer.
3136 A polygon is a cons (poly . [x0 y0 x1 y1 ...]) where each pair in the
3137 vector describes one corner in the polygon.
3139 When the mouse pointer is above a hot-spot area of an image, the
3140 PLIST of that hot-spot is consulted; if it contains a `help-echo'
3141 property it defines a tool-tip for the hot-spot, and if it contains
3142 a `pointer' property, it defines the shape of the mouse cursor when
3143 it is over the hot-spot. See the variable 'void-area-text-pointer'
3144 for possible pointer shapes.
3146 When you click the mouse when the mouse pointer is over a hot-spot,
3147 an event is composed by combining the ID of the hot-spot with the
3148 mouse event, e.g. [area4 mouse-1] if the hot-spot's ID is `area4'.
3150 ** Mouse event enhancements:
3153 *** Mouse clicks on fringes now generates left-fringe or right-fringes
3154 events, rather than a text area click event.
3157 *** Mouse clicks in the left and right marginal areas now includes a
3158 sensible buffer position corresponding to the first character in the
3159 corresponding text row.
3162 *** Function `mouse-set-point' now works for events outside text area.
3165 *** Mouse events now includes buffer position for all event types.
3168 *** `posn-point' now returns buffer position for non-text area events.
3171 *** New function `posn-area' returns window area clicked on (nil means
3175 *** Mouse events include actual glyph column and row for all event types.
3178 *** New function `posn-actual-col-row' returns actual glyph coordinates.
3181 *** Mouse events may now include image object in addition to string object.
3184 *** Mouse events include relative x and y pixel coordinates relative to
3185 the top left corner of the object (image or character) clicked on.
3188 *** Mouse events include the pixel width and height of the object
3189 (image or character) clicked on.
3192 *** New functions 'posn-object', 'posn-object-x-y', and
3193 'posn-object-width-height' return the image or string object of a mouse
3194 click, the x and y pixel coordinates relative to the top left corner
3195 of that object, and the total width and height of that object.
3198 ** New function `force-window-update' can initiate a full redisplay of
3199 one or all windows. Normally, this is not needed as changes in window
3200 contents are detected automatically. However, certain implicit
3201 changes to mode lines, header lines, or display properties may require
3202 forcing an explicit window update.
3204 ** New function `redirect-debugging-output' can be used to redirect
3205 debugging output on the stderr file handle to a file.
3208 ** `split-string' now includes null substrings in the returned list if
3209 the optional argument SEPARATORS is non-nil and there are matches for
3210 SEPARATORS at the beginning or end of the string. If SEPARATORS is
3211 nil, or if the new optional third argument OMIT-NULLS is non-nil, all
3212 empty matches are omitted from the returned list.
3215 ** `makehash' is now obsolete. Use `make-hash-table' instead.
3218 ** If optional third argument APPEND to `add-to-list' is non-nil, a
3219 new element gets added at the end of the list instead of at the
3220 beginning. This change actually occurred in Emacs-21.1, but was not
3223 ** Major modes can define `eldoc-print-current-symbol-info-function'
3224 locally to provide Eldoc functionality by some method appropriate to
3228 ** New coding system property `mime-text-unsuitable' indicates that
3229 the coding system's `mime-charset' is not suitable for MIME text
3233 ** The argument to forward-word, backward-word, forward-to-indentation
3234 and backward-to-indentation is now optional, and defaults to 1.
3237 ** (char-displayable-p CHAR) returns non-nil if Emacs ought to be able
3238 to display CHAR. More precisely, if the selected frame's fontset has
3239 a font to display the character set that CHAR belongs to.
3241 Fontsets can specify a font on a per-character basis; when the fontset
3242 does that, this value may not be accurate.
3245 ** The new function `window-inside-edges' returns the edges of the
3246 actual text portion of the window, not including the scroll bar or
3247 divider line, the fringes, the display margins, the header line and
3251 ** The new functions `window-pixel-edges' and `window-inside-pixel-edges'
3252 return window edges in units of pixels, rather than columns and lines.
3255 ** The kill-buffer-hook is now permanent-local.
3258 ** `select-window' takes an optional second argument `norecord', like
3262 ** The new macro `with-selected-window' temporarily switches the
3263 selected window without impacting the order of buffer-list.
3266 ** The `keymap' property now also works at the ends of overlays and
3267 text-properties, according to their stickiness. This also means that it
3268 works with empty overlays. The same hold for the `local-map' property.
3271 ** (map-keymap FUNCTION KEYMAP) applies the function to each binding
3275 ** VC changes for backends:
3276 *** (vc-switches BACKEND OPERATION) is a new function for use by backends.
3277 *** The new `find-version' backend function replaces the `destfile'
3278 parameter of the `checkout' backend function.
3279 Old code still works thanks to a default `find-version' behavior that
3280 uses the old `destfile' parameter.
3283 ** The new macro dynamic-completion-table supports using functions
3284 as a dynamic completion table.
3286 (dynamic-completion-table FUN)
3288 FUN is called with one argument, the string for which completion is required,
3289 and it should return an alist containing all the intended possible
3290 completions. This alist may be a full list of possible completions so that FUN
3291 can ignore the value of its argument. If completion is performed in the
3292 minibuffer, FUN will be called in the buffer from which the minibuffer was
3293 entered. dynamic-completion-table then computes the completion.
3296 ** The new macro lazy-completion-table initializes a variable
3297 as a lazy completion table.
3299 (lazy-completion-table VAR FUN &rest ARGS)
3301 If the completion table VAR is used for the first time (e.g., by passing VAR
3302 as an argument to `try-completion'), the function FUN is called with arguments
3303 ARGS. FUN must return the completion table that will be stored in VAR. If
3304 completion is requested in the minibuffer, FUN will be called in the buffer
3305 from which the minibuffer was entered. The return value of
3306 `lazy-completion-table' must be used to initialize the value of VAR.
3309 ** `minor-mode-list' now holds a list of minor mode commands.
3312 ** The new function `modify-all-frames-parameters' modifies parameters
3313 for all (existing and future) frames.
3316 ** `sit-for' can now be called with args (SECONDS &optional NODISP).
3319 ** New standard font-lock face `font-lock-preprocessor-face'.
3322 ** The macro `with-syntax-table' does not copy the table any more.
3325 ** The variable `face-font-rescale-alist' specifies how much larger
3326 (or smaller) font we should use. For instance, if the value is
3327 '((SOME-FONTNAME-PATTERN . 1.3)) and a face requests a font of 10
3328 point, we actually use a font of 13 point if the font matches
3329 SOME-FONTNAME-PATTERN.
3332 ** The function `number-sequence' returns a list of equally-separated
3333 numbers. For instance, (number-sequence 4 9) returns (4 5 6 7 8 9).
3334 By default, the separation is 1, but you can specify a different separation
3335 as the third argument. (number-sequence 1.5 6 2) returns (1.5 3.5 5.5).
3338 ** `file-chase-links' now takes an optional second argument LIMIT which
3339 specifies the maximum number of links to chase through. If after that
3340 many iterations the file name obtained is still a symbolic link,
3341 `file-chase-links' returns it anyway.
3344 ** `set-fontset-font', `fontset-info', `fontset-font' now operate on
3345 the default fontset if the argument NAME is nil..
3348 ** The escape sequence \s is now interpreted as a SPACE character,
3349 unless it is followed by a `-' in a character constant (e.g. ?\s-A),
3350 in which case it is still interpreted as the super modifier.
3351 In strings, \s is always interpreted as a space.
3354 ** New function `set-process-filter-multibyte' sets the multibyteness
3355 of a string given to a process's filter.
3358 ** New function `process-filter-multibyte-p' returns t if
3359 a string given to a process's filter is multibyte.
3362 ** A filter function of a process is called with a multibyte string if
3363 the filter's multibyteness is t. That multibyteness is decided by the
3364 value of `default-enable-multibyte-characters' when the process is
3365 created and can be changed later by `set-process-filter-multibyte'.
3368 ** If a process's coding system is raw-text or no-conversion and its
3369 buffer is multibyte, the output of the process is at first converted
3370 to multibyte by `string-to-multibyte' then inserted in the buffer.
3371 Previously, it was converted to multibyte by `string-as-multibyte',
3372 which was not compatible with the behavior of file reading.
3375 ** New function `string-to-multibyte' converts a unibyte string to a
3376 multibyte string with the same individual character codes.
3379 ** New variables `gc-elapsed' and `gcs-done' provide extra information
3380 on garbage collection.
3383 ** New function `decode-coding-inserted-region' decodes a region as if
3384 it is read from a file without decoding.
3387 ** New function `locale-info' accesses locale information.
3390 ** `save-selected-window' now saves and restores the selected window
3391 of every frame. This way, it restores everything that can be changed
3392 by calling `select-window'.
3395 ** `easy-menu-define' now allows you to use nil for the symbol name
3396 if you don't need to give the menu a name. If you install the menu
3397 into other keymaps right away (MAPS is non-nil), it usually doesn't
3398 need to have a name.
3400 ** Byte compiler changes:
3403 *** `(featurep 'xemacs)' is treated by the compiler as nil. This
3404 helps to avoid noisy compiler warnings in code meant to run under both
3405 Emacs and XEmacs and may sometimes make the result significantly more
3406 efficient. Since byte code from recent versions of XEmacs won't
3407 generally run in Emacs and vice versa, this optimization doesn't lose
3411 *** You can avoid warnings for possibly-undefined symbols with a
3412 simple convention that the compiler understands. (This is mostly
3413 useful in code meant to be portable to different Emacs versions.)
3414 Write forms like the following, or code that macroexpands into such
3417 (if (fboundp 'foo) <then> <else>)
3418 (if (boundp 'foo) <then> <else)
3420 In the first case, using `foo' as a function inside the <then> form
3421 won't produce a warning if it's not defined as a function, and in the
3422 second case, using `foo' as a variable won't produce a warning if it's
3423 unbound. The test must be in exactly one of the above forms (after
3424 macro expansion), but such tests may be nested. Note that `when' and
3425 `unless' expand to `if', but `cond' doesn't.
3428 *** The new macro `with-no-warnings' suppresses all compiler warnings
3429 inside its body. In terms of execution, it is equivalent to `progn'.
3432 ** The new translation table `translation-table-for-input'
3433 is used for customizing self-insertion. The character to
3434 be inserted is translated through it.
3437 ** `load-history' can now have elements of the form (t . FUNNAME),
3438 which means FUNNAME was previously defined as an autoload (before the
3439 current file redefined it).
3442 ** `load-history' now records (defun . FUNNAME) when a function is
3443 defined. For a variable, it records just the variable name.
3446 ** New Lisp library testcover.el works with edebug to help you determine
3447 whether you've tested all your Lisp code. Function testcover-start
3448 instruments all functions in a given file. Then test your code. Function
3449 testcover-mark-all adds overlay "splotches" to the Lisp file's buffer to
3450 show where coverage is lacking. Command testcover-next-mark (bind it to
3451 a key!) will move point forward to the next spot that has a splotch.
3453 *** Normally, a red splotch indicates the form was never completely evaluated;
3454 a brown splotch means it always evaluated to the same value. The red
3455 splotches are skipped for forms that can't possibly complete their evaluation,
3456 such as `error'. The brown splotches are skipped for forms that are expected
3457 to always evaluate to the same value, such as (setq x 14).
3459 *** For difficult cases, you can add do-nothing macros to your code to help
3460 out the test coverage tool. The macro `noreturn' suppresses a red splotch.
3461 It is an error if the argument to `noreturn' does return. The macro 1value
3462 suppresses a brown splotch for its argument. This macro is a no-op except
3463 during test-coverage -- then it signals an error if the argument actually
3464 returns differing values.
3467 ** New function unsafep returns nil if the given Lisp form can't possibly
3468 do anything dangerous; otherwise it returns a reason why the form might be
3469 unsafe (calls dangerous function, alters global variable, etc).
3472 ** The new variable `print-continuous-numbering', when non-nil, says
3473 that successive calls to print functions should use the same
3474 numberings for circular structure references. This is only relevant
3475 when `print-circle' is non-nil.
3477 When you bind `print-continuous-numbering' to t, you should
3478 also bind `print-number-table' to nil.
3481 ** When using non-toolkit scroll bars with the default width,
3482 the scroll-bar-width frame parameter value is nil.
3485 ** The new function copy-abbrev-table returns a new abbrev table that
3486 is a copy of a given abbrev table.
3489 ** The option --script FILE runs Emacs in batch mode and loads FILE.
3490 It is useful for writing Emacs Lisp shell script files, because they
3491 can start with this line:
3493 #!/usr/bin/emacs --script
3496 ** The option --directory DIR now modifies `load-path' immediately.
3497 Directories are added to the front of `load-path' in the order they
3498 appear on the command line. For example, with this command line:
3500 emacs -batch -L .. -L /tmp --eval "(require 'foo)"
3502 Emacs looks for library `foo' in the parent directory, then in /tmp, then
3503 in the other directories in `load-path'. (-L is short for --directory.)
3506 ** A function's docstring can now hold the function's usage info on
3507 its last line. It should match the regexp "\n\n(fn.*)\\'".
3510 ** New CCL functions `lookup-character' and `lookup-integer' access
3511 hash tables defined by the Lisp function `define-translation-hash-table'.
3514 ** The new function `minibufferp' returns non-nil if its optional buffer
3515 argument is a minibuffer. If the argument is omitted it defaults to
3519 ** There is a new Warnings facility; see the functions `warn'
3520 and `display-warning'.
3523 ** The functions all-completions and try-completion now accept lists
3524 of strings as well as hash-tables additionally to alists, obarrays
3525 and functions. Furthermore, the function `test-completion' is now
3526 exported to Lisp. The keys in alists and hash tables may be either
3527 strings or symbols, which are automatically converted with to strings.
3530 ** When pure storage overflows while dumping, Emacs now prints how
3531 much pure storage it will approximately need.
3534 ** The new variable `auto-coding-functions' lets you specify functions
3535 to examine a file being visited and deduce the proper coding system
3536 for it. (If the coding system is detected incorrectly for a specific
3537 file, you can put a `coding:' tags to override it.)
3540 ** The new function `merge-coding-systems' fills in unspecified aspects
3541 of one coding system from another coding system.
3544 ** The variable `safe-local-eval-forms' specifies a list of forms that
3545 are ok to evaluate when they appear in an `eval' local variables
3546 specification. Normally Emacs asks for confirmation before evaluating
3547 such a form, but if the form appears in this list, no confirmation is
3551 ** If a function has a non-nil `safe-local-eval-function' property,
3552 that means it is ok to evaluate some calls to that function when it
3553 appears in an `eval' local variables specification. If the property
3554 is t, then any form calling that function with constant arguments is
3555 ok. If the property is a function or list of functions, they are called
3556 with the form as argument, and if any returns t, the form is ok to call.
3558 If the form is not "ok to call", that means Emacs asks for
3559 confirmation as before.
3562 ** Controlling the default left and right fringe widths.
3564 The default left and right fringe widths for all windows of a frame
3565 can now be controlled by setting the `left-fringe' and `right-fringe'
3566 frame parameters to an integer value specifying the width in pixels.
3567 Setting the width to 0 effectively removes the corresponding fringe.
3569 The actual default fringe widths for the frame may deviate from the
3570 specified widths, since the combined fringe widths must match an
3571 integral number of columns. The extra width is distributed evenly
3572 between the left and right fringe. For force a specific fringe width,
3573 specify the width as a negative integer (if both widths are negative,
3574 only the left fringe gets the specified width).
3576 Setting the width to nil (the default), restores the default fringe
3577 width which is the minimum number of pixels necessary to display any
3578 of the currently defined fringe bitmaps. The width of the built-in
3579 fringe bitmaps is 8 pixels.
3582 ** Per-window fringes settings
3584 Windows can now have their own individual fringe widths and position
3587 To control the fringe widths of a window, either set the buffer-local
3588 variables `left-fringe-width', `right-fringe-width', or call
3589 `set-window-fringes'.
3591 To control the fringe position in a window, that is, whether fringes
3592 are positioned between the display margins and the window's text area,
3593 or at the edges of the window, either set the buffer-local variable
3594 `fringes-outside-margins' or call `set-window-fringes'.
3596 The function `window-fringes' can be used to obtain the current
3597 settings. To make `left-fringe-width', `right-fringe-width', and
3598 `fringes-outside-margins' take effect, you must set them before
3599 displaying the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force
3600 an update of the display margins.
3603 ** Per-window vertical scroll-bar settings
3605 Windows can now have their own individual scroll-bar settings
3606 controlling the width and position of scroll-bars.
3608 To control the scroll-bar of a window, either set the buffer-local
3609 variables `scroll-bar-mode' and `scroll-bar-width', or call
3610 `set-window-scroll-bars'. The function `window-scroll-bars' can be
3611 used to obtain the current settings. To make `scroll-bar-mode' and
3612 `scroll-bar-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
3613 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
3614 of the display margins.
3617 ** The function `set-window-buffer' now has an optional third argument
3618 KEEP-MARGINS which will preserve the window's current margin, fringe,
3619 and scroll-bar settings if non-nil.
3622 ** Renamed hooks to better follow the naming convention:
3623 find-file-hooks to find-file-hook,
3624 find-file-not-found-hooks to find-file-not-found-functions,
3625 write-file-hooks to write-file-functions,
3626 write-contents-hooks to write-contents-functions,
3627 x-lost-selection-hooks to x-lost-selection-functions,
3628 x-sent-selection-hooks to x-sent-selection-functions.
3629 Marked local-write-file-hooks as obsolete (use the LOCAL arg of `add-hook').
3632 ** The new variable `delete-frame-functions' replaces `delete-frame-hook'.
3633 It was renamed to follow the naming conventions for abnormal hooks. The old
3634 name remains available as an alias, but has been marked obsolete.
3637 ** The `read-file-name' function now takes an additional argument which
3638 specifies a predicate which the file name read must satify. The
3639 new variable `read-file-name-predicate' contains the predicate argument
3640 while reading the file name from the minibuffer; the predicate in this
3641 variable is used by read-file-name-internal to filter the completion list.
3644 ** The new variable `read-file-name-function' can be used by lisp code
3645 to override the internal read-file-name function.
3648 ** The new variable `read-file-name-completion-ignore-case' specifies
3649 whether completion ignores case when reading a file name with the
3650 `read-file-name' function.
3653 ** The new function `read-directory-name' can be used instead of
3654 `read-file-name' to read a directory name; when used, completion
3655 will only show directories.
3658 ** The new function `file-remote-p' tests a file name and returns
3659 non-nil if it specifies a remote file (one that Emacs accesses using
3660 its own special methods and not directly through the file system).
3661 The value in that case is an identifier for the remote file system.
3664 ** When a Lisp file uses CL functions at run-time, compiling the file
3665 now issues warnings about these calls, unless the file performs
3666 (require 'cl) when loaded.
3669 ** The `defmacro' form may contain declarations specifying how to
3670 indent the macro in Lisp mode and how to debug it with Edebug. The
3671 syntax of defmacro has been extended to
3673 (defmacro NAME LAMBDA-LIST [DOC-STRING] [DECLARATION ...] ...)
3675 DECLARATION is a list `(declare DECLARATION-SPECIFIER ...)'. The
3676 declaration specifiers supported are:
3679 Set NAME's `lisp-indent-function' property to INDENT.
3682 Set NAME's `edebug-form-spec' property to DEBUG. (This is
3683 equivalent to writing a `def-edebug-spec' for the macro.
3686 ** Interactive commands can be remapped through keymaps.
3688 This is an alternative to using defadvice or substitute-key-definition
3689 to modify the behavior of a key binding using the normal keymap
3690 binding and lookup functionality.
3692 When a key sequence is bound to a command, and that command is
3693 remapped to another command, that command is run instead of the
3697 Suppose that minor mode my-mode has defined the commands
3698 my-kill-line and my-kill-word, and it wants C-k (and any other key
3699 bound to kill-line) to run the command my-kill-line instead of
3700 kill-line, and likewise it wants to run my-kill-word instead of
3703 Instead of rebinding C-k and the other keys in the minor mode map,
3704 command remapping allows you to directly map kill-line into
3705 my-kill-line and kill-word into my-kill-word through the minor mode
3706 map using define-key:
3708 (define-key my-mode-map [remap kill-line] 'my-kill-line)
3709 (define-key my-mode-map [remap kill-word] 'my-kill-word)
3711 Now, when my-mode is enabled, and the user enters C-k or M-d,
3712 the commands my-kill-line and my-kill-word are run.
3714 Notice that only one level of remapping is supported. In the above
3715 example, this means that if my-kill-line is remapped to other-kill,
3716 then C-k still runs my-kill-line.
3718 The following changes have been made to provide command remapping:
3720 - Command remappings are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
3721 `remap', i.e. `(define-key MAP [remap CMD] DEF)' remaps command CMD
3722 to definition DEF in keymap MAP. The definition is not limited to
3723 another command; it can be anything accepted for a normal binding.
3725 - The new function `command-remapping' returns the binding for a
3726 remapped command in the current keymaps, or nil if not remapped.
3728 - key-binding now remaps interactive commands unless the optional
3729 third argument NO-REMAP is non-nil.
3731 - where-is-internal now returns nil for a remapped command (e.g.
3732 kill-line if my-mode is enabled), and the actual key binding for
3733 the command it is remapped to (e.g. C-k for my-kill-line).
3734 It also has a new optional fifth argument, NO-REMAP, which inhibits
3735 remapping if non-nil (e.g. it returns C-k for kill-line and
3736 <kill-line> for my-kill-line).
3738 - The new variable `this-original-command' contains the original
3739 command before remapping. It is equal to `this-command' when the
3740 command was not remapped.
3743 ** New variable emulation-mode-map-alists.
3745 Lisp packages using many minor mode keymaps can now maintain their own
3746 keymap alist separate from minor-mode-map-alist by adding their keymap
3750 ** Atomic change groups.
3752 To perform some changes in the current buffer "atomically" so that
3753 they either all succeed or are all undone, use `atomic-change-group'
3754 around the code that makes changes. For instance:
3756 (atomic-change-group
3758 (delete-region x y))
3760 If an error (or other nonlocal exit) occurs inside the body of
3761 `atomic-change-group', it unmakes all the changes in that buffer that
3762 were during the execution of the body. The change group has no effect
3763 on any other buffers--any such changes remain.
3765 If you need something more sophisticated, you can directly call the
3766 lower-level functions that `atomic-change-group' uses. Here is how.
3768 To set up a change group for one buffer, call `prepare-change-group'.
3769 Specify the buffer as argument; it defaults to the current buffer.
3770 This function returns a "handle" for the change group. You must save
3771 the handle to activate the change group and then finish it.
3773 Before you change the buffer again, you must activate the change
3774 group. Pass the handle to `activate-change-group' afterward to
3777 After you make the changes, you must finish the change group. You can
3778 either accept the changes or cancel them all. Call
3779 `accept-change-group' to accept the changes in the group as final;
3780 call `cancel-change-group' to undo them all.
3782 You should use `unwind-protect' to make sure the group is always
3783 finished. The call to `activate-change-group' should be inside the
3784 `unwind-protect', in case the user types C-g just after it runs.
3785 (This is one reason why `prepare-change-group' and
3786 `activate-change-group' are separate functions.) Once you finish the
3787 group, don't use the handle again--don't try to finish the same group
3790 To make a multibuffer change group, call `prepare-change-group' once
3791 for each buffer you want to cover, then use `nconc' to combine the
3792 returned values, like this:
3794 (nconc (prepare-change-group buffer-1)
3795 (prepare-change-group buffer-2))
3797 You can then activate the multibuffer change group with a single call
3798 to `activate-change-group', and finish it with a single call to
3799 `accept-change-group' or `cancel-change-group'.
3801 Nested use of several change groups for the same buffer works as you
3802 would expect. Non-nested use of change groups for the same buffer
3803 will lead to undesirable results, so don't let it happen; the first
3804 change group you start for any given buffer should be the last one
3808 ** New variable char-property-alias-alist.
3810 This variable allows you to create alternative names for text
3811 properties. It works at the same level as `default-text-properties',
3812 although it applies to overlays as well. This variable was introduced
3813 to implement the `font-lock-face' property.
3816 ** New special text property `font-lock-face'.
3818 This property acts like the `face' property, but it is controlled by
3819 M-x font-lock-mode. It is not, strictly speaking, a builtin text
3820 property. Instead, it is implemented inside font-core.el, using the
3821 new variable `char-property-alias-alist'.
3824 ** New function remove-list-of-text-properties.
3826 The new function `remove-list-of-text-properties' is almost the same
3827 as `remove-text-properties'. The only difference is that it takes
3828 a list of property names as argument rather than a property list.
3831 ** New function insert-for-yank.
3833 This function normally works like `insert' but removes the text
3834 properties in the `yank-excluded-properties' list. However, if the
3835 inserted text has a `yank-handler' text property on the first
3836 character of the string, the insertion of the text may be modified in
3837 a number of ways. See the description of `yank-handler' below.
3840 ** New function insert-buffer-substring-as-yank.
3842 This function works like `insert-buffer-substring', but removes the
3843 text properties in the `yank-excluded-properties' list.
3846 ** New function insert-buffer-substring-no-properties.
3848 This function is like insert-buffer-substring, but removes all
3849 text properties from the inserted substring.
3852 ** New `yank-handler' text property may be used to control how
3853 previously killed text on the kill-ring is reinserted.
3855 The value of the yank-handler property must be a list with one to four
3856 elements with the following format:
3857 (FUNCTION PARAM NOEXCLUDE UNDO).
3859 The `insert-for-yank' function looks for a yank-handler property on
3860 the first character on its string argument (typically the first
3861 element on the kill-ring). If a yank-handler property is found,
3862 the normal behavior of `insert-for-yank' is modified in various ways:
3864 When FUNCTION is present and non-nil, it is called instead of `insert'
3865 to insert the string. FUNCTION takes one argument--the object to insert.
3866 If PARAM is present and non-nil, it replaces STRING as the object
3867 passed to FUNCTION (or `insert'); for example, if FUNCTION is
3868 `yank-rectangle', PARAM should be a list of strings to insert as a
3870 If NOEXCLUDE is present and non-nil, the normal removal of the
3871 yank-excluded-properties is not performed; instead FUNCTION is
3872 responsible for removing those properties. This may be necessary
3873 if FUNCTION adjusts point before or after inserting the object.
3874 If UNDO is present and non-nil, it is a function that will be called
3875 by `yank-pop' to undo the insertion of the current object. It is
3876 called with two arguments, the start and end of the current region.
3877 FUNCTION may set `yank-undo-function' to override the UNDO value.
3880 *** The functions kill-new, kill-append, and kill-region now have an
3881 optional argument to specify the yank-handler text property to put on
3885 *** The function yank-pop will now use a non-nil value of the variable
3886 `yank-undo-function' (instead of delete-region) to undo the previous
3887 yank or yank-pop command (or a call to insert-for-yank). The function
3888 insert-for-yank automatically sets that variable according to the UNDO
3889 element of the string argument's yank-handler text property if present.
3892 ** New function display-supports-face-attributes-p may be used to test
3893 whether a given set of face attributes is actually displayable.
3895 A new predicate `supports' has also been added to the `defface' face
3896 specification language, which can be used to do this test for faces
3897 defined with defface.
3900 ** The function face-differs-from-default-p now truly checks whether the
3901 given face displays differently from the default face or not (previously
3902 it did only a very cursory check).
3905 ** face-attribute, face-foreground, face-background, and face-stipple now
3906 accept a new optional argument, INHERIT, which controls how face
3907 inheritance is used when determining the value of a face attribute.
3910 ** New functions face-attribute-relative-p and merge-face-attribute
3911 help with handling relative face attributes.
3914 ** The priority of faces in an :inherit attribute face-list is reversed.
3915 If a face contains an :inherit attribute with a list of faces, earlier
3916 faces in the list override later faces in the list; in previous releases
3917 of Emacs, the order was the opposite. This change was made so that
3918 :inherit face-lists operate identically to face-lists in text `face'
3922 ** Enhancements to process support
3924 *** Function list-processes now has an optional argument; if non-nil,
3925 only the processes whose query-on-exit flag is set are listed.
3927 *** New set-process-query-on-exit-flag and process-query-on-exit-flag
3928 functions. The existing process-kill-without-query function is still
3929 supported, but new code should use the new functions.
3931 *** Function signal-process now accepts a process object or process
3932 name in addition to a process id to identify the signalled process.
3934 *** Processes now have an associated property list where programs can
3935 maintain process state and other per-process related information.
3937 The new functions process-get and process-put are used to access, add,
3938 and modify elements on this property list.
3940 The new low-level functions process-plist and set-process-plist are
3941 used to access and replace the entire property list of a process.
3943 *** Function accept-process-output now has an optional fourth arg
3944 `just-this-one'. If non-nil, only output from the specified process
3945 is handled, suspending output from other processes. If value is an
3946 integer, also inhibit running timers. This feature is generally not
3947 recommended, but may be necessary for specific applications, such as
3951 *** Adaptive read buffering of subprocess output.
3953 On some systems, when emacs reads the output from a subprocess, the
3954 output data is read in very small blocks, potentially resulting in
3955 very poor performance. This behavior can be remedied to some extent
3956 by setting the new variable process-adaptive-read-buffering to a
3957 non-nil value (the default), as it will automatically delay reading
3958 from such processes, to allowing them to produce more output before
3959 emacs tries to read it.
3962 ** Enhanced networking support.
3964 *** There is a new `make-network-process' function which supports
3965 opening of stream and datagram connections to a server, as well as
3966 create a stream or datagram server inside emacs.
3968 - A server is started using :server t arg.
3969 - Datagram connection is selected using :type 'datagram arg.
3970 - A server can open on a random port using :service t arg.
3971 - Local sockets are supported using :family 'local arg.
3972 - Non-blocking connect is supported using :nowait t arg.
3973 - The process' property list may be initialized using :plist PLIST arg;
3974 a copy of the server process' property list is automatically inherited
3975 by new client processes created to handle incoming connections.
3977 To test for the availability of a given feature, use featurep like this:
3978 (featurep 'make-network-process '(:type datagram))
3980 *** Original open-network-stream is now emulated using make-network-process.
3982 *** New function open-network-stream-nowait.
3984 This function initiates a non-blocking connect and returns immediately
3985 without waiting for the connection to be established. It takes the
3986 filter and sentinel functions as arguments; when the non-blocking
3987 connect completes, the sentinel is called with a status string
3988 matching "open" or "failed".
3990 *** New function open-network-stream-server.
3992 This function creates a network server process for a TCP service.
3993 When a client connects to the specified service, a new subprocess
3994 is created to handle the new connection, and the sentinel function
3995 is called for the new process.
3997 *** New functions process-datagram-address and set-process-datagram-address.
3999 These functions are used with datagram-based network processes to get
4000 and set the current address of the remote partner.
4002 *** New function format-network-address.
4004 This function reformats the lisp representation of a network address
4005 to a printable string. For example, an IP address A.B.C.D and port
4006 number P is represented as a five element vector [A B C D P], and the
4007 printable string returned for this vector is "A.B.C.D:P". See the doc
4008 string for other formatting options.
4010 *** By default, the function process-contact still returns (HOST SERVICE)
4011 for a network process. Using the new optional KEY arg, the complete list
4012 of network process properties or a specific property can be selected.
4014 Using :local and :remote as the KEY, the address of the local or
4015 remote end-point is returned. An Inet address is represented as a 5
4016 element vector, where the first 4 elements contain the IP address and
4017 the fifth is the port number.
4019 *** Network processes can now be stopped and restarted with
4020 `stop-process' and `continue-process'. For a server process, no
4021 connections are accepted in the stopped state. For a client process,
4022 no input is received in the stopped state.
4024 *** New function network-interface-list.
4026 This function returns a list of network interface names and their
4027 current network addresses.
4029 *** New function network-interface-info.
4031 This function returns the network address, hardware address, current
4032 status, and other information about a specific network interface.
4035 ** New function copy-tree.
4038 ** New function substring-no-properties.
4041 ** New function minibuffer-selected-window.
4044 ** New function `call-process-shell-command'.
4047 ** New function `process-file'.
4049 This is similar to `call-process', but obeys file handlers. The file
4050 handler is chosen based on default-directory.
4053 ** The dummy function keys made by easymenu
4054 are now always lower case. If you specify the
4055 menu item name "Ada", for instance, it uses `ada'
4056 as the "key" bound by that key binding.
4058 This is relevant only if Lisp code looks for
4059 the bindings that were made with easymenu.
4062 ** The function `commandp' takes an additional optional
4063 argument. If it is non-nil, then `commandp' checks
4064 for a function that could be called with `call-interactively',
4065 and does not return t for keyboard macros.
4068 ** master-mode.el implements a minor mode for scrolling a slave
4069 buffer without leaving your current buffer, the master buffer.
4071 It can be used by sql.el, for example: the SQL buffer is the master
4072 and its SQLi buffer is the slave. This allows you to scroll the SQLi
4073 buffer containing the output from the SQL buffer containing the
4076 This is how to use sql.el and master.el together: the variable
4077 sql-buffer contains the slave buffer. It is a local variable in the
4080 (add-hook 'sql-mode-hook
4081 (function (lambda ()
4083 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
4084 (add-hook 'sql-set-sqli-hook
4085 (function (lambda ()
4086 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
4089 ** File local variables.
4091 A file local variables list cannot specify a string with text
4092 properties--any specified text properties are discarded.
4095 ** New function window-body-height.
4097 This is like window-height but does not count the mode line
4101 ** New function format-mode-line.
4103 This returns the mode-line or header-line of the selected (or a
4104 specified) window as a string with or without text properties.
4107 ** New function safe-plist-get.
4109 This function is like plist-get, but never signals an error for
4110 a malformed property list.
4113 ** New functions `lax-plist-get' and `lax-plist-put'.
4115 These functions are like `plist-get' and `plist-put' except that they
4116 compare the property name using `equal' rather than `eq'.
4119 ** New function `tool-bar-local-item-from-menu'
4121 The `tool-bar-add-item-from-menu' must not be used (as previously
4122 recommended) for making entries in the tool bar for local keymaps.
4123 Instead, use the function `tool-bar-local-item-from-menu', which lets
4124 you specify the map to use as an argument.
4127 ** The function `atan' now accepts an optional second argument.
4129 When called with 2 arguments, as in `(atan Y X)', `atan' returns the
4130 angle in radians between the vector [X, Y] and the X axis. (This is
4131 equivalent to the standard C library function `atan2'.)
4134 ** You can now make a window as short as one line.
4136 A window that is just one line tall does not display either a mode
4137 line or a header line, even if the variables `mode-line-format' and
4138 `header-line-format' call for them. A window that is two lines tall
4139 cannot display both a mode line and a header line at once; if the
4140 variables call for both, only the mode line actually appears.
4143 ** The new frame parameter `tty-color-mode' specifies the mode to use
4144 for color support on character terminal frames. Its value can be a
4145 number of colors to support, or a symbol. See the Emacs Lisp
4146 Reference manual for more detailed documentation.
4149 ** The new mode-line construct `(:propertize ELT PROPS...)' can be
4150 used to add text properties to mode-line elements.
4153 ** The new `%i' and `%I' constructs for `mode-line-format' can be used
4154 to display the size of the accessible part of the buffer on the mode
4158 ** Indentation of simple and extended loop forms has been added to the
4159 cl-indent package. The new user options
4160 `lisp-loop-keyword-indentation', `lisp-loop-forms-indentation', and
4161 `lisp-simple-loop-indentation' can be used to customize the
4162 indentation of keywords and forms in loop forms.
4165 ** Indentation of backquoted forms has been made customizable in the
4166 cl-indent package. See the new user option `lisp-backquote-indentation'.
4169 ** Already true in Emacs 21.1, but not emphasized clearly enough:
4171 Multibyte buffers can now faithfully record all 256 character codes
4172 from 0 to 255. As a result, most of the past reasons to use unibyte
4173 buffers no longer exist. We only know of three reasons to use them
4176 1. If you prefer to use unibyte text all of the time.
4178 2. For reading files into temporary buffers, when you want to avoid
4179 the time it takes to convert the format.
4181 3. For binary files where format conversion would be pointless and
4185 ** If text has a `keymap' property, that keymap takes precedence
4186 over minor mode keymaps.
4189 ** A hex escape in a string forces the string to be multibyte.
4190 An octal escape makes it unibyte.
4193 ** At the end of a command, point moves out from within invisible
4194 text, in the same way it moves out from within text covered by an
4195 image or composition property.
4197 This makes it generally unnecessary to mark invisible text as intangible.
4198 This is particularly good because the intangible property often has
4199 unexpected side-effects since the property applies to everything
4200 (including `goto-char', ...) whereas this new code is only run after
4201 post-command-hook and thus does not care about intermediate states.
4204 ** field-beginning and field-end now accept an additional optional
4208 ** define-abbrev now accepts an optional argument SYSTEM-FLAG. If
4209 non-nil, this marks the abbrev as a "system" abbrev, which means that
4210 it won't be stored in the user's abbrevs file if he saves the abbrevs.
4211 Major modes that predefine some abbrevs should always specify this
4215 ** Support for Mocklisp has been removed.
4218 ** The function insert-string is now obsolete.
4221 ** The precedence of file-name-handlers has been changed.
4222 Instead of blindly choosing the first handler that matches,
4223 find-file-name-handler now gives precedence to a file-name handler
4224 that matches near the end of the file name. More specifically, the
4225 handler whose (match-beginning 0) is the largest is chosen.
4226 In case of ties, the old "first matched" rule applies.
4229 ** Dense keymaps now handle inheritance correctly.
4230 Previously a dense keymap would hide all of the simple-char key
4231 bindings of the parent keymap.
4234 ** jit-lock obeys a new text-property `jit-lock-defer-multiline'.
4235 If a piece of text with that property gets contextually refontified
4236 (see jit-lock-defer-contextually), then all of that text will
4237 be refontified. This is useful when the syntax of a textual element
4238 depends on text several lines further down (and when font-lock-multiline
4239 is not appropriate to solve that problem). For example in Perl:
4247 Adding/removing the last `e' changes the `bar' from being a piece of
4248 text to being a piece of code, so you'd put a jit-lock-defer-multiline
4249 property over the second half of the command to force (deferred)
4250 refontification of `bar' whenever the `e' is added/removed.
4253 ** describe-vector now takes a second argument `describer' which is
4254 called to print the entries' values. It defaults to `princ'.
4257 ** defcustom and other custom declarations now use a default group
4258 (the last prior group defined in the same file) when no :group was given.
4261 ** emacsserver now runs pre-command-hook and post-command-hook when
4262 it receives a request from emacsclient.
4265 ** The variable `recursive-load-depth-limit' has been deleted.
4266 Emacs now signals an error if the same file is loaded with more
4267 than 3 levels of nesting.
4270 ** If a major mode function has a non-nil `no-clone-indirect'
4271 property, `clone-indirect-buffer' signals an error if you use
4275 ** In `replace-match', the replacement text no longer inherits
4276 properties from surrounding text.
4279 ** The list returned by `(match-data t)' now has the buffer as a final
4280 element, if the last match was on a buffer. `set-match-data'
4281 accepts such a list for restoring the match state.
4284 ** New function `buffer-local-value'.
4286 This function returns the buffer-local binding of VARIABLE (a symbol)
4287 in buffer BUFFER. If VARIABLE does not have a buffer-local binding in
4288 buffer BUFFER, it returns the default value of VARIABLE instead.
4291 ** New function `text-clone-create'. Text clones are chunks of text
4292 that are kept identical by transparently propagating changes from one
4296 ** font-lock can manage arbitrary text-properties beside `face'.
4297 *** the FACENAME returned in font-lock-keywords can be a list
4298 of the form (face FACE PROP1 VAL1 PROP2 VAL2 ...) so you can set
4299 other properties than `face'.
4300 *** font-lock-extra-managed-props can be set to make sure those extra
4301 properties are automatically cleaned up by font-lock.
4304 ** The special treatment of faces whose names are of the form `fg:COLOR'
4305 or `bg:COLOR' has been removed. Lisp programs should use the
4306 `defface' facility for defining faces with specific colors, or use
4307 the feature of specifying the face attributes :foreground and :background
4308 directly in the `face' property instead of using a named face.
4311 ** The new function `run-mode-hooks' and the new macro `delay-mode-hooks'
4312 are used by define-derived-mode to make sure the mode hook for the
4313 parent mode is run at the end of the child mode.
4316 ** define-minor-mode now accepts arbitrary additional keyword arguments
4317 and simply passes them to defcustom, if applicable.
4320 ** define-derived-mode by default creates a new empty abbrev table.
4321 It does not copy abbrevs from the parent mode's abbrev table.
4324 ** `provide' and `featurep' now accept an optional second argument
4325 to test/provide subfeatures. Also `provide' now checks `after-load-alist'
4326 and runs any code associated with the provided feature.
4329 ** Functions `file-name-sans-extension' and `file-name-extension' now
4330 ignore the leading dots in file names, so that file names such as
4331 `.emacs' are treated as extensionless.
4334 ** Functions `user-uid' and `user-real-uid' now return floats if the
4335 user UID doesn't fit in a Lisp integer. Function `user-full-name'
4336 accepts a float as UID parameter.
4339 ** `define-key-after' now accepts keys longer than 1.
4342 ** The local variable `no-byte-compile' in elisp files is now obeyed.
4345 ** The Emacs Lisp byte-compiler now displays the actual line and
4346 character position of errors, where possible. Additionally, the form
4347 of its warning and error messages have been brought more in line with
4348 the output of other GNU tools.
4351 ** New functions `keymap-prompt' and `current-active-maps'.
4354 ** New function `describe-buffer-bindings'.
4357 ** New vars `exec-suffixes' and `load-suffixes' used when
4358 searching for an executable resp. an elisp file.
4361 ** Variable aliases have been implemented:
4363 *** defvaralias ALIAS-VAR BASE-VAR [DOCSTRING]
4365 This function defines the symbol ALIAS-VAR as a variable alias for
4366 symbol BASE-VAR. This means that retrieving the value of ALIAS-VAR
4367 returns the value of BASE-VAR, and changing the value of ALIAS-VAR
4368 changes the value of BASE-VAR.
4370 DOCSTRING, if present, is the documentation for ALIAS-VAR; else it has
4371 the same documentation as BASE-VAR.
4373 *** indirect-variable VARIABLE
4375 This function returns the variable at the end of the chain of aliases
4376 of VARIABLE. If VARIABLE is not a symbol, or if VARIABLE is not
4377 defined as an alias, the function returns VARIABLE.
4379 It might be noteworthy that variables aliases work for all kinds of
4380 variables, including buffer-local and frame-local variables.
4383 ** Functions from `post-gc-hook' are run at the end of garbage
4384 collection. The hook is run with GC inhibited, so use it with care.
4387 ** If the second argument to `copy-file' is the name of a directory,
4388 the file is copied to that directory instead of signaling an error.
4391 ** The variables most-positive-fixnum and most-negative-fixnum
4392 hold the largest and smallest possible integer values.
4395 ** On MS Windows, locale-coding-system is used to interact with the OS.
4396 The Windows specific variable w32-system-coding-system, which was
4397 formerly used for that purpose is now an alias for locale-coding-system.
4400 ** Functions y-or-n-p, read-char, read-key-sequence and the like, that
4401 display a prompt but don't use the minibuffer, now display the prompt
4402 using the text properties (esp. the face) of the prompt string.
4404 ** New function x-send-client-message sends a client message when
4408 ** Arguments for remove-overlays are now optional, so that you can remove
4409 all overlays in the buffer by just calling (remove-overlay).
4413 *** The new package gdb-ui.el provides an enhanced graphical interface to
4414 GDB. You can interact with GDB through the GUD buffer in the usual way, but
4415 there are also further buffers which control the execution and describe the
4416 state of your program. It separates the input/output of your program from
4417 that of GDB and watches expressions in the speedbar. It also uses features of
4418 Emacs 21 such as the display margin for breakpoints, and the toolbar.
4420 Use M-x gdba to start GDB-UI.
4422 *** The new package syntax.el provides an efficient way to find the
4423 current syntactic context (as returned by parse-partial-sexp).
4425 *** The new package bindat.el provides functions to unpack and pack
4426 binary data structures, such as network packets, to and from Lisp
4429 *** The TCL package tcl-mode.el was replaced by tcl.el.
4430 This was actually done in Emacs-21.1, and was not documented.
4433 *** The new package button.el implements simple and fast `clickable buttons'
4434 in emacs buffers. `buttons' are much lighter-weight than the `widgets'
4435 implemented by widget.el, and can be used by lisp code that doesn't
4436 require the full power of widgets. Emacs uses buttons for such things
4437 as help and apropos buffers.
4440 * Installation changes in Emacs 21.3
4442 ** Support for GNU/Linux on little-endian MIPS and on IBM S390 has
4446 * Changes in Emacs 21.3
4448 ** The obsolete C mode (c-mode.el) has been removed to avoid problems
4451 ** UTF-16 coding systems are available, encoding the same characters
4454 ** There is a new language environment for UTF-8 (set up automatically
4457 ** Translation tables are available between equivalent characters in
4458 different Emacs charsets -- for instance `e with acute' coming from the
4459 Latin-1 and Latin-2 charsets. User options `unify-8859-on-encoding-mode'
4460 and `unify-8859-on-decoding-mode' respectively turn on translation
4461 between ISO 8859 character sets (`unification') on encoding
4462 (e.g. writing a file) and decoding (e.g. reading a file). Note that
4463 `unify-8859-on-encoding-mode' is useful and safe, but
4464 `unify-8859-on-decoding-mode' can cause text to change when you read
4465 it and write it out again without edits, so it is not generally advisable.
4466 By default `unify-8859-on-encoding-mode' is turned on.
4468 ** In Emacs running on the X window system, the default value of
4469 `selection-coding-system' is now `compound-text-with-extensions'.
4471 If you want the old behavior, set selection-coding-system to
4472 compound-text, which may be significantly more efficient. Using
4473 compound-text-with-extensions seems to be necessary only for decoding
4474 text from applications under XFree86 4.2, whose behavior is actually
4475 contrary to the compound text specification.
4478 * Installation changes in Emacs 21.2
4480 ** Support for BSD/OS 5.0 has been added.
4482 ** Support for AIX 5.1 was added.
4485 * Changes in Emacs 21.2
4487 ** Emacs now supports compound-text extended segments in X selections.
4489 X applications can use `extended segments' to encode characters in
4490 compound text that belong to character sets which are not part of the
4491 list of approved standard encodings for X, e.g. Big5. To paste
4492 selections with such characters into Emacs, use the new coding system
4493 compound-text-with-extensions as the value of selection-coding-system.
4495 ** The default values of `tooltip-delay' and `tooltip-hide-delay'
4498 ** On terminals whose erase-char is ^H (Backspace), Emacs
4499 now uses normal-erase-is-backspace-mode.
4501 ** When the *scratch* buffer is recreated, its mode is set from
4502 initial-major-mode, which normally is lisp-interaction-mode,
4503 instead of using default-major-mode.
4505 ** The new option `Info-scroll-prefer-subnodes' causes Info to behave
4506 like the stand-alone Info reader (from the GNU Texinfo package) as far
4507 as motion between nodes and their subnodes is concerned. If it is t
4508 (the default), Emacs behaves as before when you type SPC in a menu: it
4509 visits the subnode pointed to by the first menu entry. If this option
4510 is nil, SPC scrolls to the end of the current node, and only then goes
4511 to the first menu item, like the stand-alone reader does.
4513 This change was already in Emacs 21.1, but wasn't advertised in the
4517 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 21.2
4519 ** The meanings of scroll-up-aggressively and scroll-down-aggressively
4520 have been interchanged, so that the former now controls scrolling up,
4521 and the latter now controls scrolling down.
4523 ** The variable `compilation-parse-errors-filename-function' can
4524 be used to transform filenames found in compilation output.
4527 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
4529 See the INSTALL file for information on installing extra libraries and
4530 fonts to take advantage of the new graphical features and extra
4531 charsets in this release.
4533 ** Support for GNU/Linux on IA64 machines has been added.
4535 ** Support for LynxOS has been added.
4537 ** There are new configure options associated with the support for
4538 images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option in `configure'
4541 ** You can build a 64-bit Emacs for SPARC/Solaris systems which
4542 support 64-bit executables and also on Irix 6.5. This increases the
4543 maximum buffer size. See etc/MACHINES for instructions. Changes to
4544 build on other 64-bit systems should be straightforward modulo any
4545 necessary changes to unexec.
4547 ** There is a new configure option `--disable-largefile' to omit
4548 Unix-98-style support for large files if that is available.
4550 ** There is a new configure option `--without-xim' that instructs
4551 Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if these are available.
4553 ** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
4554 the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
4556 ** This version can be built for the Macintosh, but does not implement
4557 all of the new display features described below. The port currently
4558 lacks unexec, asynchronous processes, and networking support. See the
4559 "Emacs and the Mac OS" appendix in the Emacs manual, for the
4560 description of aspects specific to the Mac.
4562 ** Note that the MS-Windows port does not yet implement various of the
4563 new display features described below.
4566 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
4568 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
4570 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
4571 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
4572 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
4573 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
4576 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
4578 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
4579 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
4580 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
4581 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
4584 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
4585 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
4586 under Lisp changes, below.
4588 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
4590 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
4591 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
4592 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
4593 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
4594 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
4595 attributes such as `overline', `strike-through', and `box' are ignored
4598 The command-line options `-fg COLOR', `-bg COLOR', and `-rv' are now
4599 supported on character terminals.
4601 Emacs automatically remaps all X-style color specifications to one of
4602 the colors supported by the terminal. This means you could have the
4603 same color customizations that work both on a windowed display and on
4604 a TTY or when Emacs is invoked with the -nw option.
4606 ** New default font is Courier 12pt under X.
4610 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD (Voxware
4611 driver and native BSD driver, a.k.a. Luigi's driver). Currently
4612 supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio (*.au).
4613 You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes' to enable
4616 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
4618 If a message is longer than one line, or minibuffer contents are
4619 longer than one line, Emacs can resize the minibuffer window unless it
4620 is on a frame of its own. You can control resizing and the maximum
4621 minibuffer window size by setting the following variables:
4623 - User option: max-mini-window-height
4625 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
4626 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
4627 specifies a number of lines.
4631 - User option: resize-mini-windows
4633 How to resize mini-windows. If nil, don't resize. If t, always
4634 resize to fit the size of the text. If `grow-only', let mini-windows
4635 grow only, until they become empty, at which point they are shrunk
4638 Default is `grow-only'.
4642 Emacs now runs with the LessTif toolkit (see
4643 <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will need version 0.92.26, or later.
4645 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
4647 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
4648 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
4651 ** File selection dialog on MS-Windows is supported.
4653 When a file is visited by clicking File->Open, the MS-Windows version
4654 now pops up a standard file selection dialog where you can select a
4655 file to visit. File->Save As also pops up that dialog.
4657 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
4659 Emacs now uses toolkit scroll bars if available. When configured for
4660 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scroll bar. Otherwise, when
4661 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
4662 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
4663 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
4666 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
4667 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
4668 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
4669 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
4670 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
4671 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
4673 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
4674 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
4675 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
4676 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
4677 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
4678 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
4680 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
4681 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
4682 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
4683 imake configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
4684 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
4686 ** Tool bar support.
4688 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
4689 of how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level
4690 changes. Tool-bar global minor mode controls whether or not it is
4691 displayed and is on by default. The appearance of the bar is improved
4692 if Emacs has been built with XPM image support. Otherwise monochrome
4695 To make the tool bar more useful, we need contributions of extra icons
4696 for specific modes (with copyright assignments).
4700 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
4701 mouse position. The Lisp package `tooltip' implements them. You can
4702 turn them off via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
4704 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
4705 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
4706 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
4707 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
4709 ** Automatic Hscrolling
4711 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
4712 `automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
4715 If a window is scrolled horizontally with set-window-hscroll, or
4716 scroll-left/scroll-right (C-x <, C-x >), this serves as a lower bound
4717 for automatic horizontal scrolling. Automatic scrolling will scroll
4718 the text more to the left if necessary, but won't scroll the text more
4719 to the right than the column set with set-window-hscroll etc.
4721 ** When using a windowing terminal, each Emacs window now has a cursor
4722 of its own. By default, when a window is selected, the cursor is
4723 solid; otherwise, it is hollow. The user-option
4724 `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to display the
4725 cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is shown, if
4726 non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown.
4728 ** Fringes to the left and right of windows are used to display
4729 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
4730 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
4731 customizing face `fringe'.
4733 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default.
4734 You can change its appearance by modifying the face `mode-line'.
4735 In particular, setting the `:box' attribute to nil turns off the 3D
4736 appearance of the mode line. (The 3D appearance makes the mode line
4737 occupy more space, and thus might cause the first or the last line of
4738 the window to be partially obscured.)
4740 The variable `mode-line-inverse-video', which was used in older
4741 versions of emacs to make the mode-line stand out, is now deprecated.
4742 However, setting it to nil will cause the `mode-line' face to be
4743 ignored, and mode-lines to be drawn using the default text face.
4745 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
4747 Different parts of the mode line have been made mouse-sensitive on all
4748 systems which support the mouse. Moving the mouse to a
4749 mouse-sensitive part in the mode line changes the appearance of the
4750 mouse pointer to an arrow, and help about available mouse actions is
4751 displayed either in the echo area, or in the tooltip window if you
4754 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
4756 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line goes to the next buffer.
4758 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name goes to the previous buffer.
4760 - Mouse-2 on the read-only or modified status in the mode line (`%' or
4761 `*') toggles the status.
4763 - Mouse-3 on the mode name displays a minor-mode menu.
4765 ** Hourglass pointer
4767 Emacs can optionally display an hourglass pointer under X. You can
4768 turn the display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
4772 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
4773 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
4774 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
4777 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
4779 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
4780 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
4781 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
4784 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
4785 have to do anything to activate it.
4787 ** The default binding of the Delete key has changed.
4789 The new user-option `normal-erase-is-backspace' can be set to
4790 determine the effect of the Delete and Backspace function keys.
4792 On window systems, the default value of this option is chosen
4793 according to the keyboard used. If the keyboard has both a Backspace
4794 key and a Delete key, and both are mapped to their usual meanings, the
4795 option's default value is set to t, so that Backspace can be used to
4796 delete backward, and Delete can be used to delete forward. On
4797 keyboards which either have only one key (usually labeled DEL), or two
4798 keys DEL and BS which produce the same effect, the option's value is
4799 set to nil, and these keys delete backward.
4801 If not running under a window system, setting this option accomplishes
4802 a similar effect by mapping C-h, which is usually generated by the
4803 Backspace key, to DEL, and by mapping DEL to C-d via
4804 `keyboard-translate'. The former functionality of C-h is available on
4805 the F1 key. You should probably not use this setting on a text-only
4806 terminal if you don't have both Backspace, Delete and F1 keys.
4808 Programmatically, you can call function normal-erase-is-backspace-mode
4809 to toggle the behavior of the Delete and Backspace keys.
4811 ** The default for user-option `next-line-add-newlines' has been
4812 changed to nil, i.e. C-n will no longer add newlines at the end of a
4815 ** The <home> and <end> keys now move to the beginning or end of the
4816 current line, respectively. C-<home> and C-<end> move to the
4817 beginning and end of the buffer.
4819 ** Emacs now checks for recursive loads of Lisp files. If the
4820 recursion depth exceeds `recursive-load-depth-limit', an error is
4823 ** When an error is signaled during the loading of the user's init
4824 file, Emacs now pops up the *Messages* buffer.
4826 ** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
4827 compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
4830 The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs's byte
4831 compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
4834 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
4836 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
4837 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
4838 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
4840 ** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
4841 more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
4842 now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
4844 ** Item Save Options on the Options menu allows saving options set
4847 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
4849 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
4850 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
4851 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
4852 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
4853 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
4856 ** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
4857 all frames except the selected one.
4859 ** The new user-option `confirm-kill-emacs' can be customized to
4860 let Emacs ask for confirmation before exiting.
4862 ** The header line in an Info buffer is now displayed as an emacs
4863 header-line (which is like a mode-line, but at the top of the window),
4864 so that it remains visible even when the buffer has been scrolled.
4865 This behavior may be disabled by customizing the option
4866 `Info-use-header-line'.
4868 ** Polish, Czech, German, and French translations of Emacs' reference card
4869 have been added. They are named `pl-refcard.tex', `cs-refcard.tex',
4870 `de-refcard.tex' and `fr-refcard.tex'. Postscript files are included.
4872 ** An `Emacs Survival Guide', etc/survival.tex, is available.
4874 ** A reference card for Dired has been added. Its name is
4875 `dired-ref.tex'. A French translation is available in
4878 ** C-down-mouse-3 is bound differently. Now if the menu bar is not
4879 displayed it pops up a menu containing the items which would be on the
4880 menu bar. If the menu bar is displayed, it pops up the major mode
4881 menu or the Edit menu if there is no major mode menu.
4883 ** Variable `load-path' is no longer customizable through Customize.
4885 You can no longer use `M-x customize-variable' to customize `load-path'
4886 because it now contains a version-dependent component. You can still
4887 use `add-to-list' and `setq' to customize this variable in your
4888 `~/.emacs' init file or to modify it from any Lisp program in general.
4890 ** C-u C-x = provides detailed information about the character at
4891 point in a pop-up window.
4893 ** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
4894 under XFree86. To enable this, use the `mouse-wheel-mode' command, or
4895 customize the variable `mouse-wheel-mode'.
4897 The variables `mouse-wheel-follow-mouse' and `mouse-wheel-scroll-amount'
4898 determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
4900 ** Emacs' auto-save list files are now by default stored in a
4901 sub-directory `.emacs.d/auto-save-list/' of the user's home directory.
4902 (On MS-DOS, this subdirectory's name is `_emacs.d/auto-save.list/'.)
4903 You can customize `auto-save-list-file-prefix' to change this location.
4905 ** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
4907 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
4908 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
4910 ** The new command M-x delete-trailing-whitespace RET will delete the
4911 trailing whitespace within the current restriction. You can also add
4912 this function to `write-file-hooks' or `local-write-file-hooks'.
4914 ** When visiting a file with M-x find-file-literally, no newlines will
4915 be added to the end of the buffer even if `require-final-newline' is
4918 ** The new user-option `find-file-suppress-same-file-warnings' can be
4919 set to suppress warnings ``X and Y are the same file'' when visiting a
4920 file that is already visited under a different name.
4922 ** The new user-option `electric-help-shrink-window' can be set to
4923 nil to prevent adjusting the help window size to the buffer size.
4925 ** New command M-x describe-character-set reads a character set name
4926 and displays information about that.
4928 ** The new variable `auto-mode-interpreter-regexp' contains a regular
4929 expression matching interpreters, for file mode determination.
4931 This regular expression is matched against the first line of a file to
4932 determine the file's mode in `set-auto-mode' when Emacs can't deduce a
4933 mode from the file's name. If it matches, the file is assumed to be
4934 interpreted by the interpreter matched by the second group of the
4935 regular expression. The mode is then determined as the mode
4936 associated with that interpreter in `interpreter-mode-alist'.
4938 ** New function executable-make-buffer-file-executable-if-script-p is
4939 suitable as an after-save-hook as an alternative to `executable-chmod'.
4941 ** The most preferred coding-system is now used to save a buffer if
4942 buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and it is safe for the buffer
4943 contents. (The most preferred is set by set-language-environment or
4944 by M-x prefer-coding-system.) Thus if you visit an ASCII file and
4945 insert a non-ASCII character from your current language environment,
4946 the file will be saved silently with the appropriate coding.
4947 Previously you would be prompted for a safe coding system.
4949 ** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
4950 been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
4952 ** The new Custom option `keyboard-coding-system' specifies a coding
4953 system for keyboard input.
4955 ** New variable `inhibit-iso-escape-detection' determines if Emacs'
4956 coding system detection algorithm should pay attention to ISO2022's
4957 escape sequences. If this variable is non-nil, the algorithm ignores
4958 such escape sequences. The default value is nil, and it is
4959 recommended not to change it except for the special case that you
4960 always want to read any escape code verbatim. If you just want to
4961 read a specific file without decoding escape codes, use C-x RET c
4962 (`universal-coding-system-argument'). For instance, C-x RET c latin-1
4963 RET C-x C-f filename RET.
4965 ** Variable `default-korean-keyboard' is initialized properly from the
4966 environment variable `HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE'.
4968 ** New command M-x list-charset-chars reads a character set name and
4969 displays all characters in that character set.
4971 ** M-x set-terminal-coding-system (C-x RET t) now allows CCL-based
4972 coding systems such as cpXXX and cyrillic-koi8.
4974 ** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
4975 and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
4976 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
4978 ** New language environments `Polish', `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
4979 Latin-8 and Latin-9 correspond respectively to the ISO character sets
4980 8859-14 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign).
4981 GNU Intlfonts doesn't support these yet but recent X releases have
4982 8859-15. See etc/INSTALL for information on obtaining extra fonts.
4983 There are new Leim input methods for Latin-8 and Latin-9 prefix (only)
4986 ** New language environments `Dutch' and `Spanish'.
4987 These new environments mainly select appropriate translations
4990 ** In Ethiopic language environment, special key bindings for
4991 function keys are changed as follows. This is to conform to "Emacs
4992 Lisp Coding Convention".
4994 new command old-binding
4995 --- ------- -----------
4996 f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-buffer f5
4997 S-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-region f5
4998 C-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-mail-or-marker f5
5000 f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-buffer unchanged
5001 S-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-region unchanged
5002 C-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-mail-or-marker unchanged
5004 S-f5 ethio-toggle-punctuation f3
5005 S-f6 ethio-modify-vowel f6
5006 S-f7 ethio-replace-space f7
5007 S-f8 ethio-input-special-character f8
5008 S-f9 ethio-replace-space unchanged
5009 C-f9 ethio-toggle-space f2
5011 ** There are new Leim input methods.
5012 New input methods "turkish-postfix", "turkish-alt-postfix",
5013 "greek-mizuochi", "TeX", and "greek-babel" are now part of the Leim
5016 ** The rule of input method "slovak" is slightly changed. Now the
5017 rules for translating "q" and "Q" to "`" (backquote) are deleted, thus
5018 typing them inserts "q" and "Q" respectively. Rules for translating
5019 "=q", "+q", "=Q", and "+Q" to "`" are also deleted. Now, to input
5020 "`", you must type "=q".
5022 ** When your terminal can't display characters from some of the ISO
5023 8859 character sets but can display Latin-1, you can display
5024 more-or-less mnemonic sequences of ASCII/Latin-1 characters instead of
5025 empty boxes (under a window system) or question marks (not under a
5026 window system). Customize the option `latin1-display' to turn this
5029 ** M-; now calls comment-dwim which tries to do something clever based
5030 on the context. M-x kill-comment is now an alias to comment-kill,
5031 defined in newcomment.el. You can choose different styles of region
5032 commenting with the variable `comment-style'.
5034 ** New user options `display-time-mail-face' and
5035 `display-time-use-mail-icon' control the appearance of mode-line mail
5036 indicator used by the display-time package. On a suitable display the
5037 indicator can be an icon and is mouse-sensitive.
5039 ** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
5040 on the display using several methods
5042 - By setting frame parameter `line-spacing' to PIXELS. PIXELS must be
5043 a positive integer, and specifies that PIXELS number of pixels should
5044 be put below text lines on the affected frame or frames.
5046 - By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
5047 equivalent to specifying the frame parameter.
5049 - By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
5051 - By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
5052 the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
5054 ** The new command `clone-indirect-buffer' can be used to create
5055 an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. The
5056 command `clone-indirect-buffer-other-window', bound to C-x 4 c,
5057 does the same but displays the indirect buffer in another window.
5059 ** New user options `backup-directory-alist' and
5060 `make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
5061 typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
5063 ** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
5064 characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
5066 ** New X resources recognized
5068 *** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
5069 whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
5070 is useful for debugging X problems.
5074 emacs.synchronous: true
5076 *** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
5077 visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
5078 the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
5079 and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
5080 visual class names are
5089 Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
5090 `pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
5093 The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
5094 supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
5095 `visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
5100 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
5102 *** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
5103 specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
5104 default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
5105 resource values are `true' or `on'.
5109 emacs.privateColormap: true
5111 ** Faces and frame parameters.
5113 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
5114 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
5115 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
5116 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
5117 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
5118 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
5119 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
5121 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
5122 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
5123 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
5124 `default' face and vice versa.
5128 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
5130 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
5132 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
5133 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
5134 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
5135 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
5137 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
5138 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
5139 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
5141 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
5144 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
5146 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
5147 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
5148 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
5149 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
5151 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
5153 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
5155 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
5157 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
5160 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
5163 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
5165 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
5166 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
5167 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
5169 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
5170 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi and Less).
5172 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
5173 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
5174 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
5176 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
5178 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
5179 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggressively' is a
5180 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
5181 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
5183 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
5184 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggressively' is a
5185 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
5186 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
5188 ** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either
5189 M-x clone-buffer, C-u m <entry> RET or C-u g <entry> RET.
5190 M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and several other special
5193 ** The command `Info-search' now uses a search history.
5195 ** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
5196 abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
5197 `directory-abbrev-alist'.
5199 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
5200 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
5201 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
5202 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
5203 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
5204 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
5206 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
5208 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
5209 notably at the end of lines.
5211 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
5212 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
5214 ** The function `replace-rectangle' is an alias for `string-rectangle'.
5216 ** The new command M-x string-insert-rectangle is like `string-rectangle',
5217 but inserts text instead of replacing it.
5219 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
5220 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
5221 after each match to get the replacement text.
5223 ** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `e' (or `E') that lets
5224 you edit the replacement string.
5226 ** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB'
5227 (if you load the library `mailabbrev'), lets you complete mail aliases
5228 in the text, analogous to lisp-complete-symbol.
5230 ** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
5232 ** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
5233 to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
5235 ** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
5236 the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X, on MS-Windows, and
5237 MS-DOS, either in the echo area or with tooltips. Many standard menus
5238 displayed by Emacs now have help strings.
5241 ** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
5242 read mail from the menu etc.
5244 ** The environment variable `EMACSLOCKDIR' is no longer used on MS-Windows.
5245 This environment variable was used when creating lock files. Emacs on
5246 MS-Windows does not use this variable anymore. This change was made
5247 before Emacs 21.1, but wasn't documented until now.
5249 ** Highlighting of mouse-sensitive regions is now supported in the
5250 MS-DOS version of Emacs.
5252 ** The new command `msdos-set-mouse-buttons' forces the MS-DOS version
5253 of Emacs to behave as if the mouse had a specified number of buttons.
5254 This comes handy with mice that don't report their number of buttons
5255 correctly. One example is the wheeled mice, which report 3 buttons,
5256 but clicks on the middle button are not passed to the MS-DOS version
5259 ** Customize changes
5261 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
5262 `State' menu to add comments, or give a prefix argument to
5263 M-x customize-set-variable or M-x customize-set-value. Note that
5264 customization comments will cause the customizations to fail in
5265 earlier versions of Emacs.
5267 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
5268 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
5271 *** If Emacs was invoked with the `-q' or `--no-init-file' options, it
5272 does not allow you to save customizations in your `~/.emacs' init
5273 file. This is because saving customizations from such a session would
5274 wipe out all the other customizationss you might have on your init
5277 ** If Emacs was invoked with the `-q' or `--no-init-file' options, it
5278 does not save disabled and enabled commands for future sessions, to
5279 avoid overwriting existing customizations of this kind that are
5280 already in your init file.
5282 ** New features in evaluation commands
5284 *** The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
5285 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
5286 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the new
5287 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
5288 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
5290 The default values for the first two of these variables are 12 and 4
5291 respectively, which means that `eval-expression' now prints at most
5292 the first 12 members of a list and at most 4 nesting levels deep (if
5293 the list is longer or deeper than that, an ellipsis `...' is
5296 <RET> or <mouse-2> on the printed text toggles between an abbreviated
5297 printed representation and an unabbreviated one.
5299 The default value of eval-expression-debug-on-error is t, so any error
5300 during evaluation produces a backtrace.
5302 *** The function `eval-defun' (C-M-x) now loads Edebug and instruments
5303 code when called with a prefix argument.
5307 Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
5308 current user setups (although it's believed that these
5309 incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
5310 However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
5311 back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
5312 compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
5315 *** The hardcoded switch to "java" style in Java mode is gone.
5316 CC Mode used to automatically set the style to "java" when Java mode
5317 is entered. This has now been removed since it caused too much
5320 However, to keep backward compatibility to a certain extent, the
5321 default value for c-default-style now specifies the "java" style for
5322 java-mode, but "gnu" for all other modes (as before). So you won't
5323 notice the change if you haven't touched that variable.
5325 *** New cleanups, space-before-funcall and compact-empty-funcall.
5326 Two new cleanups have been added to c-cleanup-list:
5328 space-before-funcall causes a space to be inserted before the opening
5329 parenthesis of a function call, which gives the style "foo (bar)".
5331 compact-empty-funcall causes any space before a function call opening
5332 parenthesis to be removed if there are no arguments to the function.
5333 It's typically useful together with space-before-funcall to get the
5334 style "foo (bar)" and "foo()".
5336 *** Some keywords now automatically trigger reindentation.
5337 Keywords like "else", "while", "catch" and "finally" have been made
5338 "electric" to make them reindent automatically when they continue an
5339 earlier statement. An example:
5341 for (i = 0; i < 17; i++)
5343 res += a[i]->offset;
5346 Here, the "else" should be indented like the preceding "if", since it
5347 continues that statement. CC Mode will automatically reindent it after
5348 the "else" has been typed in full, since it's not until then it's
5349 possible to decide whether it's a new statement or a continuation of
5352 CC Mode uses Abbrev mode to achieve this, which is therefore turned on
5355 *** M-a and M-e now moves by sentence in multiline strings.
5356 Previously these two keys only moved by sentence in comments, which
5357 meant that sentence movement didn't work in strings containing
5358 documentation or other natural language text.
5360 The reason it's only activated in multiline strings (i.e. strings that
5361 contain a newline, even when escaped by a '\') is to avoid stopping in
5362 the short strings that often reside inside statements. Multiline
5363 strings almost always contain text in a natural language, as opposed
5364 to other strings that typically contain format specifications,
5365 commands, etc. Also, it's not that bothersome that M-a and M-e misses
5366 sentences in single line strings, since they're short anyway.
5368 *** Support for autodoc comments in Pike mode.
5369 Autodoc comments for Pike are used to extract documentation from the
5370 source, like Javadoc in Java. Pike mode now recognize this markup in
5371 comment prefixes and paragraph starts.
5373 *** The comment prefix regexps on c-comment-prefix may be mode specific.
5374 When c-comment-prefix is an association list, it specifies the comment
5375 line prefix on a per-mode basis, like c-default-style does. This
5376 change came about to support the special autodoc comment prefix in
5379 *** Better handling of syntactic errors.
5380 The recovery after unbalanced parens earlier in the buffer has been
5381 improved; CC Mode now reports them by dinging and giving a message
5382 stating the offending line, but still recovers and indent the
5383 following lines in a sane way (most of the time). An "else" with no
5384 matching "if" is handled similarly. If an error is discovered while
5385 indenting a region, the whole region is still indented and the error
5386 is reported afterwards.
5388 *** Lineup functions may now return absolute columns.
5389 A lineup function can give an absolute column to indent the line to by
5390 returning a vector with the desired column as the first element.
5392 *** More robust and warning-free byte compilation.
5393 Although this is strictly not a user visible change (well, depending
5394 on the view of a user), it's still worth mentioning that CC Mode now
5395 can be compiled in the standard ways without causing trouble. Some
5396 code have also been moved between the subpackages to enhance the
5397 modularity somewhat. Thanks to Martin Buchholz for doing the
5400 *** c-style-variables-are-local-p now defaults to t.
5401 This is an incompatible change that has been made to make the behavior
5402 of the style system wrt global variable settings less confusing for
5403 non-advanced users. If you know what this variable does you might
5404 want to set it to nil in your .emacs, otherwise you probably don't
5407 Defaulting c-style-variables-are-local-p to t avoids the confusing
5408 situation that occurs when a user sets some style variables globally
5409 and edits both a Java and a non-Java file in the same Emacs session.
5410 If the style variables aren't buffer local in this case, loading of
5411 the second file will cause the default style (either "gnu" or "java"
5412 by default) to override the global settings made by the user.
5414 *** New initialization procedure for the style system.
5415 When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
5416 variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
5417 take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
5418 is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
5419 settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
5420 possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
5421 Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
5423 By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
5424 special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
5425 the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
5426 of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
5429 Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
5430 when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
5431 function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
5432 call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
5433 then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
5434 values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
5435 only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
5436 function documentation for more info.
5438 The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
5439 especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
5440 with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
5441 intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
5442 such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
5443 is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
5444 configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
5445 global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
5447 (Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
5449 **** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
5450 This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
5452 This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
5453 variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
5454 completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
5455 the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
5456 empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
5459 **** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
5460 In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
5461 c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
5464 *** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
5465 CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
5466 surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
5467 chapter about this in the manual.
5469 **** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
5470 The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
5471 recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
5472 primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
5473 adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
5475 **** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
5476 This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
5477 c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
5479 **** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
5480 This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
5482 It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
5483 Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
5484 A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
5487 Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
5488 causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
5489 the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
5490 available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
5493 **** The variables `c-hanging-comment-starter-p' and
5494 `c-hanging-comment-ender-p', which controlled how comment starters and
5495 enders were filled, are not used anymore. The new version of the
5496 function `c-fill-paragraph' keeps the comment starters and enders as
5497 they were before the filling.
5499 **** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
5500 The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
5501 specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
5504 **** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
5505 It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
5506 prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
5507 you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
5510 *** Fixes to IDL mode.
5511 It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
5512 to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
5513 struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
5514 Thanks to Eric Eide.
5516 *** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
5517 It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
5518 opening braces hangs and when they don't.
5520 **** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
5522 *** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
5523 See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
5524 better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
5525 and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
5527 *** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
5528 previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
5529 the column specified by comment-column.
5531 *** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
5532 In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
5533 is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
5534 prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
5535 contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
5536 don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
5538 *** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
5539 instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
5542 *** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
5544 *** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
5545 c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
5546 c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
5547 variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
5550 *** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
5554 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
5555 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
5556 is, delete only empty directories.
5558 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
5559 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
5560 copy directories recursively.
5562 *** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
5563 in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
5564 the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
5566 *** The new command `dired-find-alternate-file' (usually bound to `a')
5567 replaces the Dired buffer with the buffer for an alternate file or
5570 *** The new command `dired-show-file-type' (usually bound to `y') shows
5571 a message in the echo area describing what type of file the point is on.
5572 This command invokes the external program `file' do its work, and so
5573 will only work on systems with that program, and will be only as
5574 accurate or inaccurate as it is.
5576 *** Dired now properly handles undo changes of adding/removing `-R'
5579 *** Dired commands that prompt for a destination file now allow the use
5580 of the `M-n' command in the minibuffer to insert the source filename,
5581 which the user can then edit. This only works if there is a single
5582 source file, not when operating on multiple marked files.
5586 The Gnus NEWS entries are short, but they reflect sweeping changes in
5587 four areas: Article display treatment, MIME treatment,
5588 internationalization and mail-fetching.
5590 *** The mail-fetching functions have changed. See the manual for the
5591 many details. In particular, all procmail fetching variables are gone.
5593 If you used procmail like in
5595 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
5596 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
5597 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/mail/incoming/")
5598 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "\\.in")
5600 this now has changed to
5603 '((directory :path "~/mail/incoming/"
5606 More information is available in the info doc at Select Methods ->
5607 Getting Mail -> Mail Sources
5609 *** Gnus is now a MIME-capable reader. This affects many parts of
5610 Gnus, and adds a slew of new commands. See the manual for details.
5611 Separate MIME packages like RMIME, mime-compose etc., will probably no
5612 longer work; remove them and use the native facilities.
5614 The FLIM/SEMI package still works with Emacs 21, but if you want to
5615 use the native facilities, you must remove any mailcap.el[c] that was
5616 installed by FLIM/SEMI version 1.13 or earlier.
5618 *** Gnus has also been multilingualized. This also affects too many
5619 parts of Gnus to summarize here, and adds many new variables. There
5620 are built-in facilities equivalent to those of gnus-mule.el, which is
5621 now just a compatibility layer.
5623 *** gnus-mule.el is now just a compatibility layer over the built-in
5626 *** gnus-auto-select-first can now be a function to be
5627 called to position point.
5629 *** The user can now decide which extra headers should be included in
5630 summary buffers and NOV files.
5632 *** `gnus-article-display-hook' has been removed. Instead, a number
5633 of variables starting with `gnus-treat-' have been added.
5635 *** The Gnus posting styles have been redone again and now work in a
5636 subtly different manner.
5638 *** New web-based backends have been added: nnslashdot, nnwarchive
5639 and nnultimate. nnweb has been revamped, again, to keep up with
5640 ever-changing layouts.
5642 *** Gnus can now read IMAP mail via nnimap.
5644 *** There is image support of various kinds and some sound support.
5646 ** Changes in Texinfo mode.
5648 *** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
5652 -------------------------
5656 C-c C-c q @quotation
5658 C-c C-o @<block> ... @end <block>
5661 *** The " key now inserts either " or `` or '' depending on context.
5663 ** Changes in Outline mode.
5665 There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
5666 `outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
5667 the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
5669 ** Changes to Emacs Server
5671 *** The new option `server-kill-new-buffers' specifies what to do
5672 with buffers when done with them. If non-nil, the default, buffers
5673 are killed, unless they were already present before visiting them with
5674 Emacs Server. If nil, `server-temp-file-regexp' specifies which
5675 buffers to kill, as before.
5677 Please note that only buffers are killed that still have a client,
5678 i.e. buffers visited with `emacsclient --no-wait' are never killed in
5681 ** Both emacsclient and Emacs itself now accept command line options
5682 of the form +LINE:COLUMN in addition to +LINE.
5684 ** Changes to Show Paren mode.
5686 *** Overlays used by Show Paren mode now use a priority property.
5687 The new user option show-paren-priority specifies the priority to
5688 use. Default is 1000.
5690 ** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
5691 groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
5693 ** Changes to hideshow.el
5695 *** Generalized block selection and traversal
5697 A block is now recognized by its start and end regexps (both strings),
5698 and an integer specifying which sub-expression in the start regexp
5699 serves as the place where a `forward-sexp'-like function can operate.
5700 See the documentation of variable `hs-special-modes-alist'.
5702 *** During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active,
5703 hidden blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' can
5704 be used in the mode line format to show the line at the beginning of
5707 *** User option `hs-hide-all-non-comment-function' specifies a
5708 function to be called at each top-level block beginning, instead of
5709 the normal block-hiding function.
5711 *** The command `hs-show-region' has been removed.
5713 *** The key bindings have changed to fit the Emacs conventions,
5714 roughly imitating those of Outline minor mode. Notably, the prefix
5715 for all bindings is now `C-c @'. For details, see the documentation
5716 for `hs-minor-mode'.
5718 *** The variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' has been removed, and
5719 hideshow.el now always behaves as if this variable were set to t.
5721 ** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
5723 *** If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes
5724 an entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
5725 log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
5727 **** New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the
5730 *** New command M-x change-log-redate fixes any old-style date entries
5733 *** Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log
5734 entries if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
5735 Unless the file is under version control the search for a file's
5736 version number is performed based on regular expressions from
5737 `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be customized.
5738 Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of a file.
5740 *** Change Log mode now defines its own faces for font-lock highlighting.
5742 ** Changes to cmuscheme
5744 *** The user-option `scheme-program-name' has been renamed
5745 `cmuscheme-program-name' due to conflicts with xscheme.el.
5747 ** Changes in Font Lock
5749 *** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
5750 font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major mode.
5752 *** Multi-line patterns are now supported. Modes using this, should
5753 set font-lock-multiline to t in their font-lock-defaults.
5755 *** `font-lock-syntactic-face-function' allows major-modes to choose
5756 the face used for each string/comment.
5758 *** A new standard face `font-lock-doc-face'.
5759 Meant for Lisp docstrings, Javadoc comments and other "documentation in code".
5761 ** Changes to Shell mode
5763 *** The `shell' command now accepts an optional argument to specify the buffer
5764 to use, which defaults to "*shell*". When used interactively, a
5765 non-default buffer may be specified by giving the `shell' command a
5766 prefix argument (causing it to prompt for the buffer name).
5768 ** Comint (subshell) changes
5770 These changes generally affect all modes derived from comint mode, which
5771 include shell-mode, gdb-mode, scheme-interaction-mode, etc.
5773 *** Comint now by default interprets some carriage-control characters.
5774 Comint now removes CRs from CR LF sequences, and treats single CRs and
5775 BSs in the output in a way similar to a terminal (by deleting to the
5776 beginning of the line, or deleting the previous character,
5777 respectively). This is achieved by adding `comint-carriage-motion' to
5778 the `comint-output-filter-functions' hook by default.
5780 *** By default, comint no longer uses the variable `comint-prompt-regexp'
5781 to distinguish prompts from user-input. Instead, it notices which
5782 parts of the text were output by the process, and which entered by the
5783 user, and attaches `field' properties to allow emacs commands to use
5784 this information. Common movement commands, notably beginning-of-line,
5785 respect field boundaries in a fairly natural manner. To disable this
5786 feature, and use the old behavior, customize the user option
5787 `comint-use-prompt-regexp-instead-of-fields'.
5789 *** Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
5790 and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
5792 *** The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
5793 buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
5794 buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
5796 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
5797 M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
5798 the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
5800 *** Packages based on comint now highlight user input and program prompts,
5801 and support choosing previous input with mouse-2. To control these features,
5802 see the user-options `comint-highlight-input' and `comint-highlight-prompt'.
5804 *** The new command `comint-write-output' (usually bound to `C-c C-s')
5805 saves the output from the most recent command to a file. With a prefix
5806 argument, it appends to the file.
5808 *** The command `comint-kill-output' has been renamed `comint-delete-output'
5809 (usually bound to `C-c C-o'); the old name is aliased to it for
5812 *** The new function `comint-add-to-input-history' adds commands to the input
5815 *** The new variable `comint-input-history-ignore' is a regexp for
5816 identifying history lines that should be ignored, like tcsh time-stamp
5817 strings, starting with a `#'. The default value of this variable is "^#".
5819 ** Changes to Rmail mode
5821 *** The new user-option rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
5822 set to fine tune the identification of the correspondent when
5823 receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
5824 recipient is taken as correspondent of a mail. If nil, the default,
5825 `user-login-name' and `user-mail-address' are used to exclude yourself
5828 Usually you don't have to set this variable, except if you collect
5829 mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
5830 regexp matching your mail addresses.
5832 *** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
5833 to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
5834 Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
5835 with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
5836 for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
5838 *** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
5841 *** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
5842 specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
5845 *** The new user option `rmail-automatic-folder-directives' specifies
5846 in which folder to put messages automatically.
5848 *** The new function `rmail-redecode-body' allows to fix a message
5849 with non-ASCII characters if Emacs happens to decode it incorrectly
5850 due to missing or malformed "charset=" header.
5852 ** The new user-option `mail-envelope-from' can be used to specify
5853 an envelope-from address different from user-mail-address.
5855 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
5856 use the -f option when sending mail.
5858 ** The Rmail command `o' (`rmail-output-to-rmail-file') now writes the
5859 current message in the internal `emacs-mule' encoding, rather than in
5860 the encoding taken from the variable `buffer-file-coding-system'.
5861 This allows to save messages whose characters cannot be safely encoded
5862 by the buffer's coding system, and makes sure the message will be
5863 displayed correctly when you later visit the target Rmail file.
5865 If you want your Rmail files be encoded in a specific coding system
5866 other than `emacs-mule', you can customize the variable
5867 `rmail-file-coding-system' to set its value to that coding system.
5869 ** Changes to TeX mode
5871 *** The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
5874 *** latex-mode now has a simple indentation algorithm.
5876 *** M-f and M-p jump around \begin...\end pairs.
5878 *** Added support for outline-minor-mode.
5880 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
5882 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
5883 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
5884 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
5885 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
5886 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
5887 can be edited from that buffer.
5889 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
5890 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
5891 `A' to use all marked entries).
5893 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
5894 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
5896 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
5897 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
5898 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
5901 ** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
5902 The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
5903 semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
5904 in column 1 are always made leaves.
5906 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
5907 has the following new features:
5909 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
5910 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
5911 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
5912 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
5914 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
5915 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
5916 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
5917 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
5918 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
5921 ** Partial Completion mode now completes environment variables in
5926 *** The command `ispell' now spell-checks a region if
5927 transient-mark-mode is on, and the mark is active. Otherwise it
5928 spell-checks the current buffer.
5930 *** Support for synchronous subprocesses - DOS/Windoze - has been
5933 *** An "alignment error" bug was fixed when a manual spelling
5934 correction is made and re-checked.
5936 *** Italian, Portuguese, and Slovak dictionary definitions have been added.
5938 *** Region skipping performance has been vastly improved in some
5941 *** Spell checking HTML buffers has been improved and isn't so strict
5944 *** The buffer-local words are now always placed on a new line at the
5947 *** Spell checking now works in the MS-DOS version of Emacs.
5949 ** Makefile mode changes
5951 *** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
5953 *** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
5954 Fontlock mode is active.
5958 *** Isearch now puts a call to `isearch-resume' in the command history,
5959 so that searches can be resumed.
5961 *** In Isearch mode, C-M-s and C-M-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
5962 respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
5963 that started the search.
5965 *** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
5966 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
5968 *** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
5970 Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
5971 `isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
5972 search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
5973 before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
5974 highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
5975 `secondary-selection'.
5977 The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
5978 will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
5979 Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
5980 using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
5981 usual snappy response.
5983 If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
5984 matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
5985 set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
5986 isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
5990 VC has been overhauled internally. It is now modular, making it
5991 easier to plug-in arbitrary version control backends. (See Lisp
5992 Changes for details on the new structure.) As a result, the mechanism
5993 to enable and disable support for particular version systems has
5994 changed: everything is now controlled by the new variable
5995 `vc-handled-backends'. Its value is a list of symbols that identify
5996 version systems; the default is '(RCS CVS SCCS). When finding a file,
5997 each of the backends in that list is tried in order to see whether the
5998 file is registered in that backend.
6000 When registering a new file, VC first tries each of the listed
6001 backends to see if any of them considers itself "responsible" for the
6002 directory of the file (e.g. because a corresponding subdirectory for
6003 master files exists). If none of the backends is responsible, then
6004 the first backend in the list that could register the file is chosen.
6005 As a consequence, the variable `vc-default-back-end' is now obsolete.
6007 The old variable `vc-master-templates' is also obsolete, although VC
6008 still supports it for backward compatibility. To define templates for
6009 RCS or SCCS, you should rather use the new variables
6010 vc-{rcs,sccs}-master-templates. (There is no such feature under CVS
6011 where it doesn't make sense.)
6013 The variables `vc-ignore-vc-files' and `vc-handle-cvs' are also
6014 obsolete now, you must set `vc-handled-backends' to nil or exclude
6015 `CVS' from the list, respectively, to achieve their effect now.
6019 The variable `vc-checkout-carefully' is obsolete: the corresponding
6020 checks are always done now.
6022 VC Dired buffers are now kept up-to-date during all version control
6025 `vc-diff' output is now displayed in `diff-mode'.
6026 `vc-print-log' uses `log-view-mode'.
6027 `vc-log-mode' (used for *VC-Log*) has been replaced by `log-edit-mode'.
6029 The command C-x v m (vc-merge) now accepts an empty argument as the
6030 first revision number. This means that any recent changes on the
6031 current branch should be picked up from the repository and merged into
6032 the working file (``merge news'').
6034 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
6035 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) now ask for a directory name from which to work
6038 *** Multiple Backends
6040 VC now lets you register files in more than one backend. This is
6041 useful, for example, if you are working with a slow remote CVS
6042 repository. You can then use RCS for local editing, and occasionally
6043 commit your changes back to CVS, or pick up changes from CVS into your
6046 To make this work, the ``more local'' backend (RCS in our example)
6047 should come first in `vc-handled-backends', and the ``more remote''
6048 backend (CVS) should come later. (The default value of
6049 `vc-handled-backends' already has it that way.)
6051 You can then commit changes to another backend (say, RCS), by typing
6052 C-u C-x v v RCS RET (i.e. vc-next-action now accepts a backend name as
6053 a revision number). VC registers the file in the more local backend
6054 if that hasn't already happened, and commits to a branch based on the
6055 current revision number from the more remote backend.
6057 If a file is registered in multiple backends, you can switch to
6058 another one using C-x v b (vc-switch-backend). This does not change
6059 any files, it only changes VC's perspective on the file. Use this to
6060 pick up changes from CVS while working under RCS locally.
6062 After you are done with your local RCS editing, you can commit your
6063 changes back to CVS using C-u C-x v v CVS RET. In this case, the
6064 local RCS archive is removed after the commit, and the log entry
6065 buffer is initialized to contain the entire RCS change log of the file.
6069 There is a new user option, `vc-cvs-stay-local'. If it is `t' (the
6070 default), then VC avoids network queries for files registered in
6071 remote repositories. The state of such files is then only determined
6072 by heuristics and past information. `vc-cvs-stay-local' can also be a
6073 regexp to match against repository hostnames; only files from hosts
6074 that match it are treated locally. If the variable is nil, then VC
6075 queries the repository just as often as it does for local files.
6077 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, then VC also makes local backups of
6078 repository versions. This means that ordinary diffs (C-x v =) and
6079 revert operations (C-x v u) can be done completely locally, without
6080 any repository interactions at all. The name of a local version
6081 backup of FILE is FILE.~REV.~, where REV is the repository version
6082 number. This format is similar to that used by C-x v ~
6083 (vc-version-other-window), except for the trailing dot. As a matter
6084 of fact, the two features can each use the files created by the other,
6085 the only difference being that files with a trailing `.' are deleted
6086 automatically after commit. (This feature doesn't work on MS-DOS,
6087 since DOS disallows more than a single dot in the trunk of a file
6090 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, and there have been changes in the
6091 repository, VC notifies you about it when you actually try to commit.
6092 If you want to check for updates from the repository without trying to
6093 commit, you can either use C-x v m RET to perform an update on the
6094 current file, or you can use C-x v r RET to get an update for an
6095 entire directory tree.
6097 The new user option `vc-cvs-use-edit' indicates whether VC should call
6098 "cvs edit" to make files writeable; it defaults to `t'. (This option
6099 is only meaningful if the CVSREAD variable is set, or if files are
6100 "watched" by other developers.)
6102 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
6103 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) are now also implemented for CVS. If you give
6104 an empty snapshot name to the latter, that performs a `cvs update',
6105 starting at the given directory.
6107 *** Lisp Changes in VC
6109 VC has been restructured internally to make it modular. You can now
6110 add support for arbitrary version control backends by writing a
6111 library that provides a certain set of backend-specific functions, and
6112 then telling VC to use that library. For example, to add support for
6113 a version system named SYS, you write a library named vc-sys.el, which
6114 provides a number of functions vc-sys-... (see commentary at the top
6115 of vc.el for a detailed list of them). To make VC use that library,
6116 you need to put it somewhere into Emacs' load path and add the symbol
6117 `SYS' to the list `vc-handled-backends'.
6119 ** The customizable EDT emulation package now supports the EDT
6120 SUBS command and EDT scroll margins. It also works with more
6121 terminal/keyboard configurations and it now works under XEmacs.
6122 See etc/edt-user.doc for more information.
6124 ** New modes and packages
6126 *** The new global minor mode `minibuffer-electric-default-mode'
6127 automatically hides the `(default ...)' part of minibuffer prompts when
6128 the default is not applicable.
6130 *** Artist is an Emacs lisp package that allows you to draw lines,
6131 rectangles and ellipses by using your mouse and/or keyboard. The
6132 shapes are made up with the ascii characters |, -, / and \.
6136 - Intersecting: When a `|' intersects with a `-', a `+' is
6137 drawn, like this: | \ /
6141 - Rubber-banding: When drawing lines you can interactively see the
6142 result while holding the mouse button down and moving the mouse. If
6143 your machine is not fast enough (a 386 is a bit too slow, but a
6144 pentium is well enough), you can turn this feature off. You will
6145 then see 1's and 2's which mark the 1st and 2nd endpoint of the line
6148 - Arrows: After having drawn a (straight) line or a (straight)
6149 poly-line, you can set arrows on the line-ends by typing < or >.
6151 - Flood-filling: You can fill any area with a certain character by
6154 - Cut copy and paste: You can cut, copy and paste rectangular
6155 regions. Artist also interfaces with the rect package (this can be
6156 turned off if it causes you any trouble) so anything you cut in
6157 artist can be yanked with C-x r y and vice versa.
6159 - Drawing with keys: Everything you can do with the mouse, you can
6160 also do without the mouse.
6162 - Aspect-ratio: You can set the variable artist-aspect-ratio to
6163 reflect the height-width ratio for the font you are using. Squares
6164 and circles are then drawn square/round. Note, that once your
6165 ascii-file is shown with font with a different height-width ratio,
6166 the squares won't be square and the circles won't be round.
6168 - Drawing operations: The following drawing operations are implemented:
6170 lines straight-lines
6172 poly-lines straight poly-lines
6174 text (see-thru) text (overwrite)
6175 spray-can setting size for spraying
6176 vaporize line vaporize lines
6177 erase characters erase rectangles
6179 Straight lines are lines that go horizontally, vertically or
6180 diagonally. Plain lines go in any direction. The operations in
6181 the right column are accessed by holding down the shift key while
6184 It is possible to vaporize (erase) entire lines and connected lines
6185 (rectangles for example) as long as the lines being vaporized are
6186 straight and connected at their endpoints. Vaporizing is inspired
6187 by the drawrect package by Jari Aalto <jari.aalto@poboxes.com>.
6189 - Picture mode compatibility: Artist is picture mode compatible (this
6192 *** The new package Eshell is an operating system command shell
6193 implemented entirely in Emacs Lisp. Use `M-x eshell' to invoke it.
6194 It functions similarly to bash and zsh, and allows running of Lisp
6195 functions and external commands using the same syntax. It supports
6196 history lists, aliases, extended globbing, smart scrolling, etc. It
6197 will work on any platform Emacs has been ported to. And since most of
6198 the basic commands -- ls, rm, mv, cp, ln, du, cat, etc. -- have been
6199 rewritten in Lisp, it offers an operating-system independent shell,
6200 all within the scope of your Emacs process.
6202 *** The new package timeclock.el is a mode is for keeping track of time
6203 intervals. You can use it for whatever purpose you like, but the
6204 typical scenario is to keep track of how much time you spend working
6205 on certain projects.
6207 *** The new package hi-lock.el provides commands to highlight matches
6208 of interactively entered regexps. For example,
6210 M-x highlight-regexp RET clearly RET RET
6212 will highlight all occurrences of `clearly' using a yellow background
6213 face. New occurrences of `clearly' will be highlighted as they are
6214 typed. `M-x unhighlight-regexp RET' will remove the highlighting.
6215 Any existing face can be used for highlighting and a set of
6216 appropriate faces is provided. The regexps can be written into the
6217 current buffer in a form that will be recognized the next time the
6218 corresponding file is read. There are commands to highlight matches
6219 to phrases and to highlight entire lines containing a match.
6221 *** The new package zone.el plays games with Emacs' display when
6224 *** The new package tildify.el allows to add hard spaces or other text
6225 fragments in accordance with the current major mode.
6227 *** The new package xml.el provides a simple but generic XML
6228 parser. It doesn't parse the DTDs however.
6230 *** The comment operations are now provided by the newcomment.el
6231 package which allows different styles of comment-region and should
6232 be more robust while offering the same functionality.
6233 `comment-region' now doesn't always comment a-line-at-a-time, but only
6234 comments the region, breaking the line at point if necessary.
6236 *** The Ebrowse package implements a C++ class browser and tags
6237 facilities tailored for use with C++. It is documented in a
6238 separate Texinfo file.
6240 *** The PCL-CVS package available by either running M-x cvs-examine or
6241 by visiting a CVS administrative directory (with a prefix argument)
6242 provides an alternative interface to VC-dired for CVS. It comes with
6243 `log-view-mode' to view RCS and SCCS logs and `log-edit-mode' used to
6244 enter check-in log messages.
6246 *** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
6247 without invoking external programs.
6249 The command `M-x woman' formats manual pages entirely in Emacs Lisp
6250 and then displays them, like `M-x manual-entry' does. Unlike
6251 `manual-entry', `woman' does not invoke any external programs, so it
6252 is useful on systems such as MS-DOS/MS-Windows where the `man' and
6253 Groff or `troff' commands are not readily available.
6255 The command `M-x woman-find-file' asks for the file name of a man
6256 page, then formats and displays it like `M-x woman' does.
6258 *** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
6259 authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
6261 The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
6262 the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
6263 the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
6264 Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
6265 even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
6268 On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
6269 matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
6270 probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
6271 contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
6273 *** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
6274 unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
6275 actually modifying content of a buffer.
6277 *** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
6280 Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
6282 The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
6284 ; comment (until end of line)
6288 $A default non-terminal
6289 $"C" default terminal
6290 $?C? default special
6291 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
6292 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
6293 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
6294 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
6295 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
6296 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
6297 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
6298 C+ one or more occurrences of C
6299 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
6300 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
6301 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
6302 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
6303 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
6304 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
6305 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
6307 Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
6309 *** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
6310 align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
6311 determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
6312 example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
6313 equal signs of assignments.
6315 *** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
6316 paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
6318 *** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
6319 list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
6320 buffer menu with this package. See the Custom group `bs'.
6322 *** find-lisp.el is a package emulating the Unix find command in Lisp.
6324 *** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
6325 replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
6326 is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
6327 and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
6328 not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
6329 which answers different needs.
6331 *** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
6332 suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
6333 expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
6334 course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
6335 reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
6338 *** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
6339 containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
6341 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
6343 *** hl-line.el provides `hl-line-mode', a minor mode to highlight the
6344 current line in the current buffer. It also provides
6345 `global-hl-line-mode' to provide the same behavior in all buffers.
6347 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
6349 Please note: if `ansi-color-for-comint-mode' and
6350 `global-font-lock-mode' are non-nil, loading ansi-color.el will
6351 disable font-lock and add `ansi-color-apply' to
6352 `comint-preoutput-filter-functions' for all shell-mode buffers. This
6353 displays the output of "ls --color=yes" using the correct foreground
6354 and background colors.
6356 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
6359 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
6362 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
6364 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
6366 *** whitespace.el is a package for warning about and cleaning bogus
6367 whitespace in a file.
6369 *** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
6370 files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
6371 (very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
6372 interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
6373 often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
6374 uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
6375 codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
6377 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
6379 Here is an example of columns:
6382 dog pineapple car EXTRA
6383 porcupine strawberry airplane
6385 Doing the following settings:
6387 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
6388 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
6389 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
6390 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
6393 Selecting the lines above and typing:
6395 M-x delimit-columns-region
6399 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
6400 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
6401 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
6403 delim-col has the following options:
6405 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
6408 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
6409 between each column.
6411 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
6414 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
6417 delim-col has the following commands:
6419 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
6420 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
6422 *** Recentf mode maintains a menu for visiting files that were
6423 operated on recently. User option recentf-menu-filter specifies a
6424 menu filter function to change the menu appearance. For example, the
6425 recent file list can be displayed:
6427 - organized by major modes, directories or user defined rules.
6428 - sorted by file paths, file names, ascending or descending.
6429 - showing paths relative to the current default-directory
6431 The `recentf-filter-changer' menu filter function allows to
6432 dynamically change the menu appearance.
6434 *** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
6437 *** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
6438 of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
6439 specific to Message mode.
6441 *** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
6442 viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
6443 with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
6445 *** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
6446 interface to access directory servers using different directory
6447 protocols. It has a separate manual.
6449 *** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
6450 for Autoconf, selected automatically.
6452 *** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
6454 *** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
6455 minibuffer with completion.
6457 *** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
6458 with the diary features.
6460 *** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
6461 numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
6463 *** The function `turn-off-auto-fill' unconditionally turns off Auto
6466 *** pcomplete.el is a library that provides programmable completion
6467 facilities for Emacs, similar to what zsh and tcsh offer. The main
6468 difference is that completion functions are written in Lisp, meaning
6469 they can be profiled, debugged, etc.
6471 *** antlr-mode is a new major mode for editing ANTLR grammar files.
6472 It is automatically turned on for files whose names have the extension
6475 ** Changes in sort.el
6477 The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
6478 as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
6479 new user-option sort-numeric-base can be used to specify a default
6482 ** Changes to Ange-ftp
6484 *** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
6485 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
6486 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
6488 *** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
6489 ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
6491 *** Ange-ftp handles the output of the w32-style clients which
6492 output ^M at the end of lines.
6494 ** The recommended way of using Iswitchb is via the new global minor
6495 mode `iswitchb-mode'.
6497 ** Just loading the msb package doesn't switch on Msb mode anymore.
6498 If you have `(require 'msb)' in your .emacs, please replace it with
6501 ** Flyspell mode has various new options. See the `flyspell' Custom
6504 ** The user option `backward-delete-char-untabify-method' controls the
6505 behavior of `backward-delete-char-untabify'. The following values
6508 `untabify' -- turn a tab to many spaces, then delete one space;
6509 `hungry' -- delete all whitespace, both tabs and spaces;
6510 `all' -- delete all whitespace, including tabs, spaces and newlines;
6511 nil -- just delete one character.
6513 Default value is `untabify'.
6515 [This change was made in Emacs 20.3 but not mentioned then.]
6517 ** In Cperl mode `cperl-invalid-face' should now be a normal face
6518 symbol, not double-quoted.
6520 ** Some packages are declared obsolete, to be removed in a future
6521 version. They are: auto-show, c-mode, hilit19, hscroll, ooutline,
6522 profile, rnews, rnewspost, and sc. Their implementations have been
6523 moved to lisp/obsolete.
6525 ** auto-compression mode is no longer enabled just by loading jka-compr.el.
6526 To control it, set `auto-compression-mode' via Custom or use the
6527 `auto-compression-mode' command.
6529 ** `browse-url-gnome-moz' is a new option for
6530 `browse-url-browser-function', invoking Mozilla in GNOME, and
6531 `browse-url-kde' can be chosen for invoking the KDE browser.
6533 ** The user-option `browse-url-new-window-p' has been renamed to
6534 `browse-url-new-window-flag'.
6536 ** The functions `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many' now
6537 operate on the active region in Transient Mark mode.
6539 ** `gnus-user-agent' is a new possibility for `mail-user-agent'. It
6540 is like `message-user-agent', but with all the Gnus paraphernalia.
6542 ** The Strokes package has been updated. If your Emacs has XPM
6543 support, you can use it for pictographic editing. In Strokes mode,
6544 use C-mouse-2 to compose a complex stoke and insert it into the
6545 buffer. You can encode or decode a strokes buffer with new commands
6546 M-x strokes-encode-buffer and M-x strokes-decode-buffer. There is a
6547 new command M-x strokes-list-strokes.
6549 ** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
6550 a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
6552 ** Hexl mode allows to insert non-ASCII characters.
6554 The non-ASCII characters are encoded using the same encoding as the
6555 file you are visiting in Hexl mode.
6557 ** Shell script mode changes.
6559 Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
6560 derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizable, and
6561 sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
6565 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
6567 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
6568 possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
6569 {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
6570 This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
6571 a regular expression. The manual contains details.
6573 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
6574 declarations when given the --declarations option.
6576 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
6577 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
6579 *** You shouldn't generally need any more the -C or -c++ option: etags
6580 automatically switches to C++ parsing when it meets the `class' or
6581 `template' keywords.
6583 *** Etags now is able to delve at arbitrary deeps into nested structures in
6584 C-like languages. Previously, it was limited to one or two brace levels.
6586 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
6589 *** In Fortran, `procedure' is not tagged.
6591 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
6593 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
6596 *** In makefiles, tags the targets.
6598 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
6599 variables are tagged.
6601 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
6603 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
6606 ** Changes in etags.el
6608 *** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
6609 tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
6610 is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
6612 *** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
6613 the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
6615 If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
6616 FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
6617 TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
6618 obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
6620 TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
6622 FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
6623 List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
6625 A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
6627 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
6628 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
6629 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
6631 *** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
6632 of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
6634 *** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
6635 names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
6637 *** You can now search for tags that are part of the filename itself.
6638 If you have tagged the files topfile.c subdir/subfile.c
6639 /tmp/tempfile.c, you can now search for tags "topfile.c", "subfile.c",
6640 "dir/sub", "tempfile", "tempfile.c". If the tag matches the file name,
6641 point will go to the beginning of the file.
6643 *** Compressed files are now transparently supported if
6644 auto-compression-mode is active. You can tag (with Etags) and search
6645 (with find-tag) both compressed and uncompressed files.
6647 *** Tags commands like M-x tags-search no longer change point
6648 in buffers where no match is found. In buffers where a match is
6649 found, the original value of point is pushed on the marker ring.
6651 ** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sequence-nos' to
6652 remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
6653 appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
6655 ** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
6657 ** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
6659 ** The Dabbrev package has a new user-option `dabbrev-ignored-regexps'
6660 containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
6661 expression from that list, are not checked.
6663 ** Emacs can now figure out modification times of remote files.
6664 When you do C-x C-f /user@host:/path/file RET and edit the file,
6665 and someone else modifies the file, you will be prompted to revert
6666 the buffer, just like for the local files.
6668 ** The buffer menu (C-x C-b) no longer lists the *Buffer List* buffer.
6670 ** When invoked with a prefix argument, the command `list-abbrevs' now
6671 displays local abbrevs, only.
6673 ** Refill minor mode provides preliminary support for keeping
6674 paragraphs filled as you modify them.
6676 ** The variable `double-click-fuzz' specifies how much the mouse
6677 may be moved between clicks that are recognized as a pair. Its value
6678 is measured in pixels.
6680 ** The new global minor mode `auto-image-file-mode' allows image files
6681 to be visited as images.
6683 ** Two new user-options `grep-command' and `grep-find-command'
6684 were added to compile.el.
6686 ** Withdrawn packages
6688 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
6689 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
6691 *** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
6693 *** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
6696 * Incompatible Lisp changes
6698 There are a few Lisp changes which are not backwards-compatible and
6699 may require changes to existing code. Here is a list for reference.
6700 See the sections below for details.
6702 ** Since `format' preserves text properties, the idiom
6703 `(format "%s" foo)' no longer works to copy and remove properties.
6704 Use `copy-sequence' to copy the string, then use `set-text-properties'
6705 to remove the properties of the copy.
6707 ** Since the `keymap' text property now has significance, some code
6708 which uses both `local-map' and `keymap' properties (for portability)
6709 may, for instance, give rise to duplicate menus when the keymaps from
6710 these properties are active.
6712 ** The change in the treatment of non-ASCII characters in search
6713 ranges may affect some code.
6715 ** A non-nil value for the LOCAL arg of add-hook makes the hook
6716 buffer-local even if `make-local-hook' hasn't been called, which might
6717 make a difference to some code.
6719 ** The new treatment of the minibuffer prompt might affect code which
6720 operates on the minibuffer.
6722 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
6723 cause `no-conversion' and `emacs-mule-unix' coding systems to produce
6724 different results when reading files with non-ASCII characters
6725 (previously, both coding systems would produce the same results).
6726 Specifically, `no-conversion' interprets each 8-bit byte as a separate
6727 character. This makes `no-conversion' inappropriate for reading
6728 multibyte text, e.g. buffers written to disk in their internal MULE
6729 encoding (auto-saving does that, for example). If a Lisp program
6730 reads such files with `no-conversion', each byte of the multibyte
6731 sequence, including the MULE leading codes such as \201, is treated as
6732 a separate character, which prevents them from being interpreted in
6733 the buffer as multibyte characters.
6735 Therefore, Lisp programs that read files which contain the internal
6736 MULE encoding should use `emacs-mule-unix'. `no-conversion' is only
6737 appropriate for reading truly binary files.
6739 ** Code that relies on the obsolete `before-change-function' and
6740 `after-change-function' to detect buffer changes will now fail. Use
6741 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions' instead.
6743 ** Code that uses `concat' with integer args now gets an error, as
6744 long promised. So does any code that uses derivatives of `concat',
6745 such as `mapconcat'.
6747 ** The function base64-decode-string now always returns a unibyte
6750 ** Not a Lisp incompatibility as such but, with the introduction of
6751 extra private charsets, there is now only one slot free for a new
6752 dimension-2 private charset. User code which tries to add more than
6753 one extra will fail unless you rebuild Emacs with some standard
6754 charset(s) removed; that is probably inadvisable because it changes
6755 the emacs-mule encoding. Also, files stored in the emacs-mule
6756 encoding using Emacs 20 with additional private charsets defined will
6757 probably not be read correctly by Emacs 21.
6759 ** The variable `directory-sep-char' is slated for removal.
6760 Not really a change (yet), but a projected one that you should be
6761 aware of: The variable `directory-sep-char' is deprecated, and should
6762 not be used. It was always ignored on GNU/Linux and Unix systems and
6763 on MS-DOS, but the MS-Windows port tried to support it by adapting the
6764 behavior of certain primitives to the value of this variable. It
6765 turned out that such support cannot be reliable, so it was decided to
6766 remove this variable in the near future. Lisp programs are well
6767 advised not to set it to anything but '/', because any different value
6768 will not have any effect when support for this variable is removed.
6771 * Lisp changes made after edition 2.6 of the Emacs Lisp Manual,
6772 (Display-related features are described in a page of their own below.)
6774 ** Function assq-delete-all replaces function assoc-delete-all.
6776 ** The new function animate-string, from lisp/play/animate.el
6777 allows the animated display of strings.
6779 ** The new function `interactive-form' can be used to obtain the
6780 interactive form of a function.
6782 ** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
6783 between custom options. Example:
6785 (defcustom default-input-method nil
6786 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
6787 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
6788 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
6790 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
6791 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
6793 This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
6794 current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
6795 first in a custom-set-variables statement.
6797 ** The new hook `kbd-macro-termination-hook' is run at the end of
6798 function execute-kbd-macro. Functions on this hook are called with no
6799 args. The hook is run independent of how the macro was terminated
6800 (signal or normal termination).
6802 ** Functions `butlast' and `nbutlast' for removing trailing elements
6803 from a list are now available without requiring the CL package.
6805 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
6806 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
6808 ** The user-option `face-font-registry-alternatives' specifies
6809 alternative font registry names to try when looking for a font.
6811 ** Function `md5' calculates the MD5 "message digest"/"checksum".
6813 ** Function `delete-frame' runs `delete-frame-hook' before actually
6814 deleting the frame. The hook is called with one arg, the frame
6817 ** `add-hook' now makes the hook local if called with a non-nil LOCAL arg.
6819 ** The treatment of non-ASCII characters in search ranges has changed.
6820 If a range in a regular expression or the arg of
6821 skip-chars-forward/backward starts with a unibyte character C and ends
6822 with a multibyte character C2, the range is divided into two: one is
6823 C..?\377, the other is C1..C2, where C1 is the first character of C2's
6826 ** The new function `display-message-or-buffer' displays a message in
6827 the echo area or pops up a buffer, depending on the length of the
6830 ** The new macro `with-auto-compression-mode' allows evaluating an
6831 expression with auto-compression-mode enabled.
6833 ** In image specifications, `:heuristic-mask' has been replaced
6834 with the more general `:mask' property.
6836 ** Image specifications accept more `:conversion's.
6838 ** A `?' can be used in a symbol name without escaping it with a
6841 ** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
6842 is running in batch mode. For example,
6844 (message "%s" (read t))
6846 will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
6849 ** The argument of `down-list', `backward-up-list', `up-list',
6850 `kill-sexp', `backward-kill-sexp' and `mark-sexp' is now optional.
6852 ** If `display-buffer-reuse-frames' is set, function `display-buffer'
6853 will raise frames displaying a buffer, instead of creating a new
6856 ** Two new functions for removing elements from lists/sequences
6859 - Function: remove ELT SEQ
6861 Return a copy of SEQ with all occurrences of ELT removed. SEQ must be
6862 a list, vector, or string. The comparison is done with `equal'.
6864 - Function: remq ELT LIST
6866 Return a copy of LIST with all occurrences of ELT removed. The
6867 comparison is done with `eq'.
6869 ** The function `delete' now also works with vectors and strings.
6871 ** The meaning of the `:weakness WEAK' argument of make-hash-table
6872 has been changed: WEAK can now have new values `key-or-value' and
6873 `key-and-value', in addition to `nil', `key', `value', and `t'.
6875 ** Function `aset' stores any multibyte character in any string
6876 without signaling "Attempt to change char length of a string". It may
6877 convert a unibyte string to multibyte if necessary.
6879 ** The value of the `help-echo' text property is called as a function
6880 or evaluated, if it is not a string already, to obtain a help string.
6882 ** Function `make-obsolete' now has an optional arg to say when the
6883 function was declared obsolete.
6885 ** Function `plist-member' is renamed from `widget-plist-member' (which is
6886 retained as an alias).
6888 ** Easy-menu's :filter now takes the unconverted form of the menu and
6889 the result is automatically converted to Emacs' form.
6891 ** The new function `window-list' has been defined
6893 - Function: window-list &optional FRAME WINDOW MINIBUF
6895 Return a list of windows on FRAME, starting with WINDOW. FRAME nil or
6896 omitted means use the selected frame. WINDOW nil or omitted means use
6897 the selected window. MINIBUF t means include the minibuffer window,
6898 even if it isn't active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means include the
6899 minibuffer window only if it's active. MINIBUF neither nil nor t
6900 means never include the minibuffer window.
6902 ** There's a new function `get-window-with-predicate' defined as follows
6904 - Function: get-window-with-predicate PREDICATE &optional MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES DEFAULT
6906 Return a window satisfying PREDICATE.
6908 This function cycles through all visible windows using `walk-windows',
6909 calling PREDICATE on each one. PREDICATE is called with a window as
6910 argument. The first window for which PREDICATE returns a non-nil
6911 value is returned. If no window satisfies PREDICATE, DEFAULT is
6914 Optional second arg MINIBUF t means count the minibuffer window even
6915 if not active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means count the minibuffer iff
6916 it is active. MINIBUF neither t nor nil means not to count the
6917 minibuffer even if it is active.
6919 Several frames may share a single minibuffer; if the minibuffer
6920 counts, all windows on all frames that share that minibuffer count
6921 too. Therefore, if you are using a separate minibuffer frame
6922 and the minibuffer is active and MINIBUF says it counts,
6923 `walk-windows' includes the windows in the frame from which you
6924 entered the minibuffer, as well as the minibuffer window.
6926 ALL-FRAMES is the optional third argument.
6927 ALL-FRAMES nil or omitted means cycle within the frames as specified above.
6928 ALL-FRAMES = `visible' means include windows on all visible frames.
6929 ALL-FRAMES = 0 means include windows on all visible and iconified frames.
6930 ALL-FRAMES = t means include windows on all frames including invisible frames.
6931 If ALL-FRAMES is a frame, it means include windows on that frame.
6932 Anything else means restrict to the selected frame.
6934 ** The function `single-key-description' now encloses function key and
6935 event names in angle brackets. When called with a second optional
6936 argument non-nil, angle brackets won't be printed.
6938 ** If the variable `message-truncate-lines' is bound to t around a
6939 call to `message', the echo area will not be resized to display that
6940 message; it will be truncated instead, as it was done in 20.x.
6941 Default value is nil.
6943 ** The user option `line-number-display-limit' can now be set to nil,
6946 ** The new user option `line-number-display-limit-width' controls
6947 the maximum width of lines in a buffer for which Emacs displays line
6948 numbers in the mode line. The default is 200.
6950 ** `select-safe-coding-system' now also checks the most preferred
6951 coding-system if buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and
6952 DEFAULT-CODING-SYSTEM is not specified,
6954 ** The function `subr-arity' provides information about the argument
6955 list of a primitive.
6957 ** `where-is-internal' now also accepts a list of keymaps.
6959 ** The text property `keymap' specifies a key map which overrides the
6960 buffer's local map and the map specified by the `local-map' property.
6961 This is probably what most current uses of `local-map' want, rather
6962 than replacing the local map.
6964 ** The obsolete variables `before-change-function' and
6965 `after-change-function' are no longer acted upon and have been
6966 removed. Use `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions'
6969 ** The function `apropos-mode' runs the hook `apropos-mode-hook'.
6971 ** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments,
6972 as promised long ago.
6974 ** The new function `float-time' returns the current time as a float.
6976 ** The new variable auto-coding-regexp-alist specifies coding systems
6977 for reading specific files, analogous to auto-coding-alist, but
6978 patterns are checked against file contents instead of file names.
6981 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
6983 ** The new package rx.el provides an alternative sexp notation for
6984 regular expressions.
6986 - Function: rx-to-string SEXP
6988 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
6992 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
6994 The following are valid subforms of regular expressions in sexp
6998 matches string STRING literally.
7001 matches character CHAR literally.
7004 matches any character except a newline.
7007 matches any character
7010 matches any character in SET. SET may be a character or string.
7011 Ranges of characters can be specified as `A-Z' in strings.
7017 matches any character not in SET
7020 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of a line
7021 in the text being matched
7024 is similar to `line-start' but matches only at the end of a line
7027 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
7028 string being matched against.
7031 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
7032 string being matched against.
7035 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
7036 buffer being matched against.
7039 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
7040 buffer being matched against.
7043 matches the empty string, but only at point.
7046 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
7050 matches the empty string, but only at the end of a word.
7053 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
7056 `(not word-boundary)'
7057 matches the empty string, but not at the beginning or end of a
7061 matches 0 through 9.
7064 matches ASCII control characters.
7067 matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
7070 matches space and tab only.
7073 matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
7077 matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
7081 matches letters and digits. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
7082 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
7085 matches letters. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
7086 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
7089 matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
7092 matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
7095 matches anything lower-case.
7098 matches anything upper-case.
7101 matches punctuation. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
7102 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
7105 matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
7108 matches anything that has word syntax.
7111 matches a character with syntax SYNTAX. SYNTAX must be one
7112 of the following symbols.
7114 `whitespace' (\\s- in string notation)
7115 `punctuation' (\\s.)
7118 `open-parenthesis' (\\s()
7119 `close-parenthesis' (\\s))
7120 `expression-prefix' (\\s')
7121 `string-quote' (\\s\")
7122 `paired-delimiter' (\\s$)
7124 `character-quote' (\\s/)
7125 `comment-start' (\\s<)
7126 `comment-end' (\\s>)
7128 `(not (syntax SYNTAX))'
7129 matches a character that has not syntax SYNTAX.
7131 `(category CATEGORY)'
7132 matches a character with category CATEGORY. CATEGORY must be
7133 either a character to use for C, or one of the following symbols.
7135 `consonant' (\\c0 in string notation)
7137 `upper-diacritical-mark' (\\c2)
7138 `lower-diacritical-mark' (\\c3)
7142 `vowel-modifying-diacritical-mark' (\\c7)
7144 `semivowel-lower' (\\c9)
7145 `not-at-end-of-line' (\\c<)
7146 `not-at-beginning-of-line' (\\c>)
7147 `alpha-numeric-two-byte' (\\cA)
7148 `chinse-two-byte' (\\cC)
7149 `greek-two-byte' (\\cG)
7150 `japanese-hiragana-two-byte' (\\cH)
7151 `indian-two-byte' (\\cI)
7152 `japanese-katakana-two-byte' (\\cK)
7153 `korean-hangul-two-byte' (\\cN)
7154 `cyrillic-two-byte' (\\cY)
7163 `japanese-katakana' (\\ck)
7167 `japanese-roman' (\\cr)
7174 `(not (category CATEGORY))'
7175 matches a character that has not category CATEGORY.
7177 `(and SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
7178 matches what SEXP1 matches, followed by what SEXP2 matches, etc.
7180 `(submatch SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
7181 like `and', but makes the match accessible with `match-end',
7182 `match-beginning', and `match-string'.
7184 `(group SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
7185 another name for `submatch'.
7187 `(or SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
7188 matches anything that matches SEXP1 or SEXP2, etc. If all
7189 args are strings, use `regexp-opt' to optimize the resulting
7192 `(minimal-match SEXP)'
7193 produce a non-greedy regexp for SEXP. Normally, regexps matching
7194 zero or more occurrences of something are \"greedy\" in that they
7195 match as much as they can, as long as the overall regexp can
7196 still match. A non-greedy regexp matches as little as possible.
7198 `(maximal-match SEXP)'
7199 produce a greedy regexp for SEXP. This is the default.
7201 `(zero-or-more SEXP)'
7202 matches zero or more occurrences of what SEXP matches.
7205 like `zero-or-more'.
7208 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
7211 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
7213 `(one-or-more SEXP)'
7214 matches one or more occurrences of A.
7220 like `one-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
7223 like `one-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
7225 `(zero-or-one SEXP)'
7226 matches zero or one occurrences of A.
7232 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a greedy regexp.
7235 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
7238 matches N occurrences of what SEXP matches.
7241 matches N to M occurrences of what SEXP matches.
7244 evaluate FORM and insert result. If result is a string,
7248 include REGEXP in string notation in the result.
7250 *** The features `md5' and `overlay' are now provided by default.
7252 *** The special form `save-restriction' now works correctly even if the
7253 buffer is widened inside the save-restriction and changes made outside
7254 the original restriction. Previously, doing this would cause the saved
7255 restriction to be restored incorrectly.
7257 *** The functions `find-charset-region' and `find-charset-string' include
7258 `eight-bit-control' and/or `eight-bit-graphic' in the returned list
7259 when they find 8-bit characters. Previously, they included `ascii' in a
7260 multibyte buffer and `unknown' in a unibyte buffer.
7262 *** The functions `set-buffer-multibyte', `string-as-multibyte' and
7263 `string-as-unibyte' change the byte sequence of a buffer or a string
7264 if it contains a character from the `eight-bit-control' character set.
7266 *** The handling of multibyte sequences in a multibyte buffer is
7267 changed. Previously, a byte sequence matching the pattern
7268 [\200-\237][\240-\377]+ was interpreted as a single character
7269 regardless of the length of the trailing bytes [\240-\377]+. Thus, if
7270 the sequence was longer than what the leading byte indicated, the
7271 extra trailing bytes were ignored by Lisp functions. Now such extra
7272 bytes are independent 8-bit characters belonging to the charset
7275 ** Fontsets are now implemented using char-tables.
7277 A fontset can now be specified for each independent character, for
7278 a group of characters or for a character set rather than just for a
7279 character set as previously.
7281 *** The arguments of the function `set-fontset-font' are changed.
7282 They are NAME, CHARACTER, FONTNAME, and optional FRAME. The function
7283 modifies fontset NAME to use FONTNAME for CHARACTER.
7285 CHARACTER may be a cons (FROM . TO), where FROM and TO are non-generic
7286 characters. In that case FONTNAME is used for all characters in the
7287 range FROM and TO (inclusive). CHARACTER may be a charset. In that
7288 case FONTNAME is used for all character in the charset.
7290 FONTNAME may be a cons (FAMILY . REGISTRY), where FAMILY is the family
7291 name of a font and REGISTRY is a registry name of a font.
7293 *** Variable x-charset-registry has been deleted. The default charset
7294 registries of character sets are set in the default fontset
7297 *** The function `create-fontset-from-fontset-spec' ignores the second
7298 argument STYLE-VARIANT. It never creates style-variant fontsets.
7300 ** The method of composing characters is changed. Now character
7301 composition is done by a special text property `composition' in
7302 buffers and strings.
7304 *** Charset composition is deleted. Emacs never creates a `composite
7305 character' which is an independent character with a unique character
7306 code. Thus the following functions handling `composite characters'
7307 have been deleted: composite-char-component,
7308 composite-char-component-count, composite-char-composition-rule,
7309 composite-char-composition-rule and decompose-composite-char delete.
7310 The variables leading-code-composition and min-composite-char have
7313 *** Three more glyph reference points are added. They can be used to
7314 specify a composition rule. See the documentation of the variable
7315 `reference-point-alist' for more detail.
7317 *** The function `compose-region' takes new arguments COMPONENTS and
7318 MODIFICATION-FUNC. With COMPONENTS, you can specify not only a
7319 composition rule but also characters to be composed. Such characters
7320 may differ between buffer and string text.
7322 *** The function `compose-string' takes new arguments START, END,
7323 COMPONENTS, and MODIFICATION-FUNC.
7325 *** The function `compose-string' puts text property `composition'
7326 directly on the argument STRING instead of returning a new string.
7327 Likewise, the function `decompose-string' just removes text property
7328 `composition' from STRING.
7330 *** The new function `find-composition' returns information about
7331 a composition at a specified position in a buffer or a string.
7333 *** The function `decompose-composite-char' is now labeled as
7336 ** The new coding system `mac-roman' is primarily intended for use on
7337 the Macintosh but may be used generally for Macintosh-encoded text.
7339 ** The new character sets `mule-unicode-0100-24ff',
7340 `mule-unicode-2500-33ff', and `mule-unicode-e000-ffff' have been
7341 introduced for Unicode characters in the range U+0100..U+24FF,
7342 U+2500..U+33FF, U+E000..U+FFFF respectively.
7344 Note that the character sets are not yet unified in Emacs, so
7345 characters which belong to charsets such as Latin-2, Greek, Hebrew,
7346 etc. and the same characters in the `mule-unicode-*' charsets are
7347 different characters, as far as Emacs is concerned. For example, text
7348 which includes Unicode characters from the Latin-2 locale cannot be
7349 encoded by Emacs with ISO 8859-2 coding system.
7351 ** The new coding system `mule-utf-8' has been added.
7352 It provides limited support for decoding/encoding UTF-8 text. For
7353 details, please see the documentation string of this coding system.
7355 ** The new character sets `japanese-jisx0213-1' and
7356 `japanese-jisx0213-2' have been introduced for the new Japanese
7357 standard JIS X 0213 Plane 1 and Plane 2.
7359 ** The new character sets `latin-iso8859-14' and `latin-iso8859-15'
7360 have been introduced.
7362 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
7363 have been introduced for 8-bit characters in the ranges 0x80..0x9F and
7364 0xA0..0xFF respectively. Note that the multibyte representation of
7365 eight-bit-control is never exposed; this leads to an exception in the
7366 emacs-mule coding system, which encodes everything else to the
7367 buffer/string internal representation. Note that to search for
7368 eight-bit-graphic characters in a multibyte buffer, the search string
7369 must be multibyte, otherwise such characters will be converted to
7370 their multibyte equivalent.
7372 ** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
7373 that offset in the file before writing.
7375 ** The function `add-minor-mode' has been added for convenience and
7376 compatibility with XEmacs (and is used internally by define-minor-mode).
7378 ** The function `shell-command' now sets the default directory of the
7379 `*Shell Command Output*' buffer to the default directory of the buffer
7380 from which the command was issued.
7382 ** The functions `query-replace', `query-replace-regexp',
7383 `query-replace-regexp-eval' `map-query-replace-regexp',
7384 `replace-string', `replace-regexp', and `perform-replace' take two
7385 additional optional arguments START and END that specify the region to
7388 ** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
7389 to `window-buffer-height'.
7391 - Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
7393 Return the number of screen lines in the region between BEG and END.
7394 The number of screen lines may be different from the number of actual
7395 lines, due to line breaking, display table, etc.
7397 Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
7400 If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optional third argument
7401 COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
7403 The optional fourth argument WINDOW specifies the window used for
7404 obtaining parameters such as width, horizontal scrolling, and so
7405 on. The default is to use the selected window's parameters.
7407 Like `vertical-motion', `count-screen-lines' always uses the current
7408 buffer, regardless of which buffer is displayed in WINDOW. This makes
7409 possible to use `count-screen-lines' in any buffer, whether or not it
7410 is currently displayed in some window.
7412 ** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
7413 argument function's results.
7415 ** The functions base64-decode-region and base64-decode-string now
7416 signal an error instead of returning nil if decoding fails. Also,
7417 `base64-decode-string' now always returns a unibyte string (in Emacs
7418 20, it returned a multibyte string when the result was a valid multibyte
7421 ** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
7422 header in the list of headers passed to it.
7424 ** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
7425 ignores differences in case and text representation.
7427 ** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
7428 cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
7431 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
7432 nil don't display a cursor
7433 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
7434 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
7435 others display a box cursor.
7437 ** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
7438 an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
7439 defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
7440 set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
7442 ** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
7443 specifications in string form as accepted by `modify-syntax-entry' to
7444 the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
7445 text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
7449 (string-to-syntax "()")
7452 ** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
7455 *** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
7456 INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
7463 *** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
7468 *** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
7473 *** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
7480 ** The function `documentation-property' now evaluates the value of
7481 the given property to obtain a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
7484 ** If called for a symbol, the function `documentation' now looks for
7485 a `function-documentation' property of that symbol. If it has a non-nil
7486 value, the documentation is taken from that value. If the value is
7487 not a string, it is evaluated to obtain a string.
7489 ** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
7491 ** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
7492 for a regexp in a string.
7494 ** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
7495 `mouse-position-function'.
7497 ** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
7498 that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
7500 ** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
7501 Keywords are now always considered constants.
7503 ** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
7506 ** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
7507 returned by function `recent-keys'.
7509 ** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
7510 can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
7511 Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding C-M-a
7512 etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
7515 ** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
7516 and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
7518 ** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
7519 has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
7520 function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
7521 returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
7524 When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
7525 and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
7526 hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
7527 then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
7529 ** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
7530 In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
7531 and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
7533 ** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
7534 with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
7537 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
7539 Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
7540 TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
7541 saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
7544 ** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
7545 Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
7546 Also back-references like \2 are now considered as an error if the
7547 corresponding subgroup does not exist (or is not closed yet).
7548 Previously it would have been silently turned into `2' (ignoring the `\').
7550 ** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
7551 removed since it wasn't used by anything.
7553 ** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
7554 instead of being optional.
7556 ** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
7557 modify read-only text.
7559 ** New functions and variables for locales.
7561 The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
7562 decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
7563 time functions like strftime. The new variables
7564 `system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
7565 locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
7567 The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
7568 environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
7569 the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
7570 environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
7571 not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
7572 `locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
7573 `locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
7575 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
7576 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
7577 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
7580 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
7581 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
7583 ** New function `propertize'
7585 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
7586 strings with text properties.
7588 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
7590 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
7591 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
7592 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
7593 specified value of that property. Example:
7595 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
7597 ** push and pop macros.
7599 Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
7600 are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
7601 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
7603 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
7604 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
7605 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
7607 ** New dolist and dotimes macros.
7609 Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
7610 are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
7612 (dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
7613 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
7614 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
7615 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
7617 (dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
7618 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
7619 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
7620 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
7622 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such as
7623 [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on. These must be used within a character
7624 class--for instance, [-[:digit:].+] matches digits or a period
7627 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
7628 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
7629 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
7630 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
7631 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
7633 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
7635 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
7636 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
7637 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
7638 [:alpha:] matches letters.
7639 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
7640 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
7641 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
7642 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
7643 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
7644 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
7645 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
7646 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
7647 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
7648 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
7649 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
7651 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
7653 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
7655 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
7657 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
7658 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
7662 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
7663 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
7664 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
7668 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
7669 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
7671 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
7673 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
7674 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
7675 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
7676 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
7677 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
7679 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
7681 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
7682 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
7683 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
7687 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value',
7688 `key-or-value', `key-and-value', or t, meaning the same as
7689 `key-and-value'. Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage
7690 collection if their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere
7691 outside of the hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
7693 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
7695 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
7697 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
7699 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
7701 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
7703 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
7706 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
7708 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
7710 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
7712 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
7714 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
7716 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
7718 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
7720 Returns the size of TABLE.
7722 - Function: hash-table-test TABLE
7724 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
7726 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
7728 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
7730 - Function: clrhash TABLE
7734 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
7736 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
7739 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
7741 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
7742 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
7744 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
7746 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
7748 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
7750 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
7751 arguments KEY and VALUE.
7753 - Function: sxhash OBJ
7755 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
7757 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
7759 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
7760 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
7761 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
7762 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
7763 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
7765 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
7767 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
7768 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
7769 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
7771 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
7772 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
7774 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
7775 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
7777 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
7778 (sxhash (upcase a)))
7780 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
7781 'case-fold-string-hash))
7783 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
7785 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
7787 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
7788 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
7789 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
7791 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
7793 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
7794 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
7796 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
7797 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
7798 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
7799 is too short to reach that column.
7801 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
7802 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
7803 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
7804 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
7806 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
7807 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
7808 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
7810 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
7811 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
7813 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
7814 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
7816 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
7817 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
7818 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
7819 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
7820 temporary-file-directory instead.
7822 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
7823 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
7824 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
7825 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
7827 ** assq-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
7828 elements of an alist which have a car `eq' to a particular value.
7830 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
7832 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
7833 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
7834 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
7836 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
7838 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
7839 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
7840 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
7841 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
7842 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
7843 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
7845 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
7846 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
7847 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
7848 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
7850 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
7852 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
7853 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
7854 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
7857 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
7858 string where arguments appear in the result string.
7862 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
7864 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
7865 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
7868 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
7870 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
7872 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
7873 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
7876 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
7878 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
7879 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
7884 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
7885 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
7887 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
7888 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
7889 to enable sound support.
7891 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
7892 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
7893 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
7894 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
7895 sound to play, before playing the sound.
7897 The following sound properties are supported:
7901 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
7902 searched relative to `data-directory'.
7906 DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
7907 may be present, but not both.
7911 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
7912 0..1. This property is optional.
7916 DEVICE is a string specifying the system device on which to play the
7917 sound. The default device is system-dependent.
7919 Other properties are ignored.
7921 An alternative interface is called as
7922 (play-sound-file FILE &optional VOLUME DEVICE).
7924 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
7926 ** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
7929 ** Changes to garbage collection
7931 *** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
7932 of live and free strings.
7934 *** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
7935 strings that have been consed so far.
7938 * Lisp-level Display features added after release 2.6 of the Emacs
7941 ** The user-option `resize-mini-windows' controls how Emacs resizes
7944 ** The function `pos-visible-in-window-p' now has a third optional
7945 argument, PARTIALLY. If a character is only partially visible, nil is
7946 returned, unless PARTIALLY is non-nil.
7948 ** On window systems, `glyph-table' is no longer used.
7950 ** Help strings in menu items are now used to provide `help-echo' text.
7952 ** The function `image-size' can be used to determine the size of an
7955 - Function: image-size SPEC &optional PIXELS FRAME
7957 Return the size of an image as a pair (WIDTH . HEIGHT).
7959 SPEC is an image specification. PIXELS non-nil means return sizes
7960 measured in pixels, otherwise return sizes measured in canonical
7961 character units (fractions of the width/height of the frame's default
7962 font). FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed.
7963 FRAME nil or omitted means use the selected frame.
7965 ** The function `image-mask-p' can be used to determine if an image
7968 - Function: image-mask-p SPEC &optional FRAME
7970 Return t if image SPEC has a mask bitmap.
7971 FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed. FRAME nil
7972 or omitted means use the selected frame.
7974 ** The function `find-image' can be used to find a usable image
7975 satisfying one of a list of specifications.
7977 ** The STRING argument of `put-image' and `insert-image' is now
7980 ** Image specifications may contain the property `:ascent center' (see
7984 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
7986 ** The function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors can be used
7987 to make Emacs avoid displaying text with bold black foreground on TTYs.
7989 Some terminals, notably PC consoles, emulate bold text by displaying
7990 text in brighter colors. On such a console, a bold black foreground
7991 is displayed in a gray color. If this turns out to be hard to read on
7992 your monitor---the problem occurred with the mode line on
7993 laptops---you can instruct Emacs to ignore the text's boldness, and to
7994 just display it black instead.
7996 This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
7999 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
8003 ** New face implementation.
8005 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
8006 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
8010 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
8012 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
8014 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
8015 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
8017 3. Font height in 1/10pt
8019 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
8021 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
8023 6. Foreground color.
8025 7. Background color.
8027 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
8029 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
8031 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
8033 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
8035 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
8038 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
8039 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
8041 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
8042 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
8043 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
8044 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
8045 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each of the face
8046 attributes mentioned above.
8048 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
8049 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
8052 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
8053 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
8058 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
8059 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
8060 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
8061 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
8062 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
8063 results in a fully-specified face.
8065 *** Face realization.
8067 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
8068 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
8069 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
8070 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
8071 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
8072 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
8074 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
8075 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
8076 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
8077 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
8079 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
8080 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
8081 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
8082 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
8083 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
8085 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
8086 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
8087 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
8088 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
8089 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
8092 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
8093 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
8094 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
8095 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
8097 **** Clearing face caches.
8099 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
8100 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
8105 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
8106 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
8107 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
8109 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
8110 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
8111 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
8112 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
8113 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
8115 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
8116 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
8117 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
8119 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
8121 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
8122 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
8123 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
8124 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
8125 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
8126 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
8127 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
8129 Setting `face-font-family-alternatives' allows the user to specify
8130 alternative font families to try if a family specified by a face
8133 Setting `face-font-registry-alternatives' allows the user to specify
8134 all alternative font registry names to try for a face specifying a
8137 Please note that the interpretations of the above two variables are
8140 Setting face-ignored-fonts allows the user to ignore specific fonts.
8145 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
8146 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
8149 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
8150 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
8151 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
8152 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
8153 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
8156 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
8158 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
8160 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
8162 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
8164 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
8165 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
8166 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
8168 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
8169 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
8170 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
8171 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
8172 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
8173 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
8174 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
8175 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
8176 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
8177 of the face font sort order.
8179 - Function: x-font-family-list
8181 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
8182 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
8183 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
8184 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
8186 - Variable: font-list-limit
8188 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
8189 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
8190 matching font. The default is currently 100.
8192 *** Setting face attributes.
8194 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
8195 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
8196 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
8199 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
8200 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
8202 The following attributes are recognized:
8206 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
8207 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
8208 and `?' are allowed.
8212 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
8213 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
8214 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
8215 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
8219 VALUE must be either an integer specifying the height of the font to use
8220 in 1/10 pt, a floating point number specifying the amount by which to
8221 scale any underlying face, or a function, which is called with the old
8222 height (from the underlying face), and should return the new height.
8226 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
8227 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
8228 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
8232 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
8233 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
8236 `:foreground', `:background'
8238 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
8242 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
8243 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
8244 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
8249 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
8250 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
8251 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
8256 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
8257 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
8258 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
8259 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
8263 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
8264 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
8265 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
8266 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
8267 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
8268 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
8269 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
8270 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
8271 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
8272 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
8273 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
8274 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
8275 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
8276 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
8277 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
8278 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
8283 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
8284 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
8288 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
8289 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
8290 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
8291 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
8292 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
8293 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
8295 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
8296 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
8300 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
8301 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
8302 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
8305 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
8306 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
8307 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
8309 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
8314 VALUE is the name of a face from which to inherit attributes, or a list
8315 of face names. Attributes from inherited faces are merged into the face
8316 like an underlying face would be, with higher priority than underlying faces.
8318 *** Face attributes and X resources
8320 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
8323 Face attribute X resource class
8324 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
8325 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
8326 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
8327 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
8328 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
8329 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
8330 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
8331 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
8332 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
8333 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
8334 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
8335 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
8336 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
8337 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
8338 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
8339 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
8340 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
8341 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
8342 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
8343 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
8345 *** Text property `face'.
8347 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
8348 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
8349 specification can be
8351 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
8353 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
8354 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
8355 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
8356 for face attribute names.
8358 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
8359 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
8360 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
8362 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
8364 The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
8365 on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
8366 the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
8367 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
8368 `defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
8369 used to clear the mapping table.
8371 ** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
8373 The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
8374 and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
8375 type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
8376 color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
8377 display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
8378 old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
8379 `x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
8380 compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
8381 should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
8382 modify their color-related behavior.
8384 The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
8387 ** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
8389 The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
8390 `display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
8391 `display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
8392 `display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
8393 `display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
8394 `display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
8395 display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
8396 the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
8397 platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
8399 The new function `display-images-p' returns non-nil if a particular
8400 display can display image files.
8402 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
8404 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
8405 To disallow this completely (like previous versions of emacs), customize
8406 the variable `minibuffer-prompt-properties', and turn on the
8407 `Inviolable' option.
8409 The function `minibuffer-prompt-end' returns the current position of the
8410 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
8411 Otherwise, it returns `(point-min)'.
8413 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
8415 There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
8416 buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
8417 property (which can be a text property or an overlay).
8419 Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
8420 forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
8421 to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
8422 not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
8423 commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
8424 boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
8425 `inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
8428 Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
8429 a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
8430 editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
8432 The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
8434 - Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY
8436 Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
8438 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
8439 If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
8440 constrained position if that is different.
8442 If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
8443 positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
8444 ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
8445 constrained to the field that has the same `field' char-property
8446 as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
8447 is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
8448 fields. Additionally, if two fields are separated by another field with
8449 the special value `boundary', then any point within this special field is
8450 also considered to be `on the boundary'.
8452 If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
8453 NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
8454 unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
8455 C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
8456 only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
8458 If the optional argument INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY is non-nil, and OLD-POS has
8459 a non-nil property of that name, then any field boundaries are ignored.
8461 Field boundaries are not noticed if `inhibit-field-text-motion' is non-nil.
8463 - Function: delete-field &optional POS
8465 Delete the field surrounding POS.
8466 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
8467 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
8469 - Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
8471 Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
8472 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
8473 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
8474 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the beginning of its
8475 field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
8477 - Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
8479 Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
8480 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
8481 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
8482 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the end of its field,
8483 then the end of the *following* field is returned.
8485 - Function: field-string &optional POS
8487 Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
8488 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
8489 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
8491 - Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
8493 Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
8494 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
8495 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
8499 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
8500 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
8501 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
8502 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
8504 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
8505 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
8506 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
8507 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
8510 IMAGE is an image specification.
8512 *** Image specifications
8514 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
8515 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
8516 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
8517 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
8518 described below are ignored.
8520 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
8524 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, or the symbol `center'.
8525 If it is a number, it specifies the percentage of the image's height
8526 to use for its ascent.
8528 If not specified, ASCENT defaults to the value 50 which means that the
8529 image will be centered with the base line of the row it appears in.
8531 If ASCENT is `center' the image is vertically centered around a
8532 centerline which is the vertical center of text drawn at the position
8533 of the image, in the manner specified by the text properties and
8534 overlays that apply to the image.
8538 MARGIN must be either a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put
8539 as margin around the image, or a pair (X . Y) with X specifying the
8540 horizontal margin and Y specifying the vertical margin. Default is 0.
8544 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
8549 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it.
8551 ALGO `laplace' or `emboss' means apply a Laplace or ``emboss''
8552 edge-detection algorithm to the image.
8554 ALGO `(edge-detection :matrix MATRIX :color-adjust ADJUST)' means
8555 apply a general edge-detection algorithm. MATRIX must be either a
8556 nine-element list or a nine-element vector of numbers. A pixel at
8557 position x/y in the transformed image is computed from original pixels
8558 around that position. MATRIX specifies, for each pixel in the
8559 neighborhood of x/y, a factor with which that pixel will influence the
8560 transformed pixel; element 0 specifies the factor for the pixel at
8561 x-1/y-1, element 1 the factor for the pixel at x/y-1 etc. as shown
8564 (x-1/y-1 x/y-1 x+1/y-1
8566 x-1/y+1 x/y+1 x+1/y+1)
8568 The resulting pixel is computed from the color intensity of the color
8569 resulting from summing up the RGB values of surrounding pixels,
8570 multiplied by the specified factors, and dividing that sum by the sum
8571 of the factors' absolute values.
8573 Laplace edge-detection currently uses a matrix of
8579 Emboss edge-detection uses a matrix of
8585 ALGO `disabled' means transform the image so that it looks
8590 If MASK is `heuristic' or `(heuristic BG)', build a clipping mask for
8591 the image, so that the background of a frame is visible behind the
8592 image. If BG is not specified, or if BG is t, determine the
8593 background color of the image by looking at the 4 corners of the
8594 image, assuming the most frequently occurring color from the corners is
8595 the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must be a list `(RED
8596 GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the background of the
8599 If MASK is nil, remove a mask from the image, if it has one. Images
8600 in some formats include a mask which can be removed by specifying
8605 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
8606 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
8607 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
8608 may be present in the image specification.
8612 Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
8613 supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
8614 present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
8615 support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
8617 *** Supported image types
8619 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
8621 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
8622 properties supported are:
8626 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
8627 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground color.
8631 BG must be a string specifying the image background color, or nil
8632 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
8634 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
8635 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
8636 instead of a `:file' property.
8640 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
8644 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
8650 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
8651 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
8653 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
8655 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
8658 4. a string that's an in-memory XBM file. Neither width nor
8659 height may be specified in this case because these are defined
8662 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
8664 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
8665 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
8666 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
8667 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
8669 Additional image properties supported are:
8671 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
8673 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
8674 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
8677 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
8678 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
8680 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
8681 to display compressed images.
8683 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
8685 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
8686 mono images are supported. Additional image properties supported for
8691 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
8692 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground color.
8696 BG must be a string specifying the image background color, or nil
8697 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
8699 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
8701 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
8702 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
8705 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
8707 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
8708 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
8711 **** GIF, image type `gif'
8713 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
8714 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
8716 Additional image properties supported are:
8720 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
8721 multi-image GIF file. If INDEX is too large, the image displays
8724 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
8725 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
8726 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
8729 (defun show-anim (file max)
8730 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
8731 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
8733 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
8736 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
8739 (goto-char (point-min))
8740 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
8741 (insert-image img "x"))
8742 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
8744 **** PNG, image type `png'
8746 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
8747 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
8750 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
8752 Additional image properties supported are:
8756 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
8757 integer. This is a required property.
8761 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
8762 must be a integer. This is an required property.
8766 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
8767 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
8768 files. This is an required property.
8770 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
8775 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
8776 which are supported in the current configuration.
8778 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
8779 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
8780 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
8781 manually. Images in the cache are compared with `equal', i.e. all
8782 images with `equal' specifications share the same image.
8784 *** Simplified image API, image.el
8786 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
8787 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
8788 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
8789 define an image based on available image types. The functions
8790 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
8795 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
8798 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
8799 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
8800 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
8801 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
8802 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
8803 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
8804 of the display margins.
8806 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
8807 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
8808 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
8809 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
8814 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
8815 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
8816 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
8817 that have a `help-echo' property.
8819 If the value of the `help-echo' property is a function, that function
8820 is called with three arguments WINDOW, OBJECT and POSITION. WINDOW is
8821 the window in which the help was found.
8823 If OBJECT is a buffer, POS is the position in the buffer where the
8824 `help-echo' text property was found.
8826 If OBJECT is an overlay, that overlay has a `help-echo' property, and
8827 POS is the position in the overlay's buffer under the mouse.
8829 If OBJECT is a string (an overlay string or a string displayed with
8830 the `display' property), POS is the position in that string under the
8833 If the value of the `help-echo' property is neither a function nor a
8834 string, it is evaluated to obtain a help string.
8836 For tool-bar and menu-bar items, their key definition is used to
8837 determine the help to display. If their definition contains a
8838 property `:help FORM', FORM is evaluated to determine the help string.
8839 For tool-bar items without a help form, the caption of the item is
8840 used as help string.
8842 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
8843 the help string differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window
8844 causes the help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
8846 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
8848 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
8849 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
8851 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
8852 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
8853 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
8854 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
8857 (global-set-key [A-down]
8860 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
8861 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
8862 (global-set-key [A-up]
8865 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
8866 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
8868 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
8870 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
8871 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
8872 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
8873 is called with one argument, POS.
8875 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
8876 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
8877 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
8878 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
8879 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
8881 ** Tool bar support.
8883 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
8884 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
8885 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
8886 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
8887 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
8888 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
8890 *** Tool bar item definitions
8892 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
8893 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
8894 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
8896 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
8897 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
8898 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
8899 property (see below).
8901 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
8902 binding are currently ignored.
8904 The following properties are recognized:
8908 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
8913 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
8917 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
8918 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
8919 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
8921 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
8923 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
8924 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
8928 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
8929 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
8930 meaning of each of the four elements:
8932 Index Use when item is
8933 ----------------------------------------
8934 0 enabled and selected
8935 1 enabled and deselected
8936 2 disabled and selected
8937 3 disabled and deselected
8939 If IMAGE is a single image specification, a Laplace edge-detection
8940 algorithm is used on that image to draw the image in disabled state.
8942 `:help HELP-STRING'.
8944 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
8945 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
8947 The function `toolbar-add-item' is a convenience function for adding
8948 toolbar items generally, and `tool-bar-add-item-from-menu' can be used
8949 to define a toolbar item with a binding copied from an item on the
8952 The default bindings use a menu-item :filter to derive the tool-bar
8953 dynamically from variable `tool-bar-map' which may be set
8954 buffer-locally to override the global map.
8956 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
8958 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
8959 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
8960 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
8962 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
8963 raised when the mouse moves over them.
8965 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
8966 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
8967 pixels, or a pair of integers (X . Y) specifying horizontal and
8968 vertical margins . Default is 1.
8970 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
8971 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
8973 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
8975 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
8978 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
8979 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
8980 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
8982 is the original tool bar item definition, then
8984 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
8986 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
8989 ** Mode line changes.
8991 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
8993 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
8994 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
8995 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
8997 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
8998 a `local-map' text property.
9000 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
9001 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
9003 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
9004 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
9005 `local-map' property.
9007 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
9008 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
9011 *** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
9012 evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
9014 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
9015 variable mode-line-format to nil.
9017 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
9019 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
9020 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
9021 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
9022 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
9025 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
9028 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
9029 position in the header-line.
9031 ** Text property `display'
9033 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text,
9034 replace text with other text, display text in marginal area, and it is
9035 also used to control other aspects of how text displays. The value of
9036 the `display' property should be a display specification, as described
9037 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
9039 *** Replacing text, displaying text in marginal areas
9041 To replace the text having the `display' property with some other
9042 text, use a display specification of the form `(LOCATION STRING)'.
9044 If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)', STRING is displayed in the left
9045 marginal area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in
9046 the right marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' STRING
9047 is displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
9048 simpler form STRING as property value.
9050 *** Variable width and height spaces
9052 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
9053 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
9054 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
9055 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
9056 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
9057 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
9058 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
9060 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
9061 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
9062 properties described below.
9064 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
9065 characters having the `display' property.
9069 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
9070 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
9072 - :relative-width FACTOR
9074 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
9075 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
9076 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
9077 width of that character by FACTOR.
9081 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
9082 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
9084 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
9088 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
9091 - :relative-height FACTOR
9093 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
9094 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
9098 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
9099 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
9100 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
9103 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
9107 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
9108 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
9109 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
9110 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
9111 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
9112 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
9113 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
9114 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
9115 as display specification.
9117 *** Other display properties
9119 - (space-width FACTOR)
9121 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
9122 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
9127 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
9129 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
9130 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
9131 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
9132 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
9133 a font is available counts as a step.
9135 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
9136 as tall as the frame's default font.
9138 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
9139 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
9141 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
9142 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
9146 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
9147 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
9148 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
9149 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
9150 `height' subproperty.
9152 *** Conditional display properties
9154 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
9155 has the form `(when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC applies
9156 only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated. During the
9157 evaluation, `object' is bound to the string or buffer having the
9158 conditional display property; `position' and `buffer-position' are
9159 bound to the position within `object' and the buffer position where
9160 the display property was found, respectively. Both positions can be
9161 different when object is a string.
9163 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
9166 ** New menu separator types.
9168 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
9169 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
9170 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
9171 to specify other menu separator types.
9173 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
9175 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
9178 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
9180 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
9182 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
9184 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
9186 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
9188 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
9190 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
9192 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
9194 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
9196 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the form
9197 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
9199 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
9201 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
9203 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
9205 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
9207 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
9209 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
9211 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
9213 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
9215 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
9217 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
9219 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
9221 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
9223 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
9225 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
9227 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
9228 the corresponding single-line separators.
9230 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
9232 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
9233 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
9234 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
9235 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
9236 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
9237 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
9238 default foreground is black.
9240 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
9241 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
9242 `ScrollBarBackground').
9244 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
9245 settings for scroll bar colors.
9247 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
9248 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
9250 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
9251 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
9252 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
9253 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
9254 the original window start.
9256 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
9257 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
9258 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
9260 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
9262 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
9263 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
9264 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
9265 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
9267 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
9268 fixed-width and fixed-height.
9270 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
9272 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
9273 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
9274 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
9275 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
9276 temporarily to nil, for example
9278 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
9279 (enlarge-window 10))
9281 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
9282 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
9284 ** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
9285 terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
9286 to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
9287 overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
9288 horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
9289 support a vertical-bar cursor).
9293 * Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes
9295 ** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard
9298 ** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos.
9300 ** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages.
9302 ** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not
9303 only for character input, but also in incremental search. The
9304 exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets
9305 (e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence
9306 (e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search.
9308 ** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has
9312 * Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change
9314 ** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added.
9318 * Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
9320 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
9321 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
9323 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
9325 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
9327 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
9328 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
9329 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
9331 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
9332 is the one that is used.
9334 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
9335 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
9336 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
9337 separate from the command's regular output.
9338 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
9339 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
9340 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
9343 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
9344 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
9345 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
9346 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
9348 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
9349 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
9350 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
9351 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
9353 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
9354 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
9355 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
9356 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
9358 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
9359 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
9360 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
9361 they never ignore case.
9363 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
9364 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
9365 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
9366 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
9367 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
9368 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
9369 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
9371 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
9372 the same format that was used in the file before.
9374 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
9375 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
9377 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
9378 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
9379 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
9381 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
9382 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
9383 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
9384 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
9385 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
9386 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
9387 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
9389 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
9390 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
9391 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
9392 format. You can now customize these variables.
9394 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
9395 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
9396 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
9397 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
9399 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
9400 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
9401 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
9403 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
9404 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
9405 doesn't have any effect.
9407 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
9410 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
9411 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
9412 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
9414 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
9415 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
9416 `auto-show-mode' command.
9418 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
9419 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
9420 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
9421 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
9422 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
9424 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
9425 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
9427 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
9428 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
9429 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
9431 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
9432 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
9433 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
9434 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
9436 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
9438 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
9439 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
9440 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
9441 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
9442 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
9444 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
9445 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
9447 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
9448 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
9449 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
9450 `?' on other systems.
9452 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
9453 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
9456 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
9457 current codepage when it starts.
9461 *** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
9462 `mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
9463 appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
9464 non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
9465 MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
9466 headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
9470 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
9471 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
9473 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
9474 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
9475 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
9476 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
9477 buffer-file-coding-system.
9479 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
9480 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
9483 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
9484 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
9485 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
9486 list of possible coding systems.
9490 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
9491 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
9492 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
9493 docstring for details.
9495 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
9496 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
9497 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
9498 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
9499 lineup functions use this feature currently.
9501 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
9502 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
9504 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
9505 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
9507 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
9508 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
9509 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
9510 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
9513 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
9514 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
9516 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
9517 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
9518 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
9519 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
9521 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
9522 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
9523 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
9524 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
9525 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
9527 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
9529 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
9531 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
9532 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
9534 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
9536 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
9537 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
9538 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
9539 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
9540 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
9544 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
9545 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
9546 Gnus manual for the full story.
9548 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
9549 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
9550 group, which is created automatically.
9552 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
9555 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
9557 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
9558 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
9560 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
9563 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
9565 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
9566 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
9568 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
9570 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
9571 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
9573 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
9574 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
9576 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
9577 control over simplification.
9579 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
9581 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
9584 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
9586 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
9588 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
9589 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
9590 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
9592 *** Canceling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
9593 `a' forces normal posting method.
9595 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
9598 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
9601 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
9602 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
9604 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
9607 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
9609 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
9611 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
9612 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
9614 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
9615 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
9617 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
9619 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
9622 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
9623 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
9625 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
9626 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
9628 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
9630 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
9632 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
9634 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
9636 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
9637 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
9638 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
9640 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
9641 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
9642 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
9643 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
9644 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
9646 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
9647 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
9648 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
9649 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
9651 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
9652 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
9653 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
9656 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
9658 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
9659 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
9661 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
9662 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
9663 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
9664 removed from the label.
9666 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
9667 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
9669 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
9670 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
9672 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
9673 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
9676 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
9678 ** New/deleted modes and packages
9680 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
9681 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
9683 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
9684 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
9685 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
9687 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
9688 changes with a special face.
9690 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
9691 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
9692 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
9694 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
9696 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
9697 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
9698 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
9699 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
9700 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
9702 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
9703 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
9704 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
9706 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
9707 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
9708 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
9709 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
9710 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
9711 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
9712 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
9713 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
9714 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
9716 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
9717 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
9718 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
9719 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
9720 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
9723 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
9724 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
9725 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
9726 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
9727 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
9728 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
9730 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
9731 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
9732 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
9733 was not documented clearly before.
9735 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
9736 This includes Tetris and Snake.
9738 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
9740 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
9741 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
9742 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
9743 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
9745 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
9746 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
9747 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
9749 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
9751 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
9752 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
9754 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
9755 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
9758 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
9759 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
9760 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
9761 file names and attributes are returned.
9763 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
9764 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
9765 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its attributes.
9766 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
9769 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
9770 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
9772 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
9774 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
9775 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
9776 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
9779 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
9780 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
9783 The new function process-running-child-p
9784 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
9785 terminal to its own child process.
9787 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
9788 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
9789 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
9790 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
9792 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
9793 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
9795 ** easymenu.el now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
9796 :included is an alias for :visible.
9798 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
9799 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
9800 to move or copy menu entries.
9802 ** Multibyte editing changes
9804 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
9805 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
9806 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
9807 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
9808 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
9809 (setq char (sref str idx)
9810 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
9811 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
9813 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
9814 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
9815 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
9817 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
9818 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
9819 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
9821 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibited
9823 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
9824 across the boundary.
9826 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
9827 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
9828 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
9829 contains 8-bit characters.
9830 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
9831 contains invalid characters.
9833 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
9834 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
9835 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
9836 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
9839 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
9840 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
9841 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
9842 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
9844 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
9845 compose Thai characters in a string.
9847 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
9848 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
9849 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
9850 menus should always use the third argument.
9852 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
9853 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
9854 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
9855 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
9857 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
9858 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
9859 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
9860 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
9862 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
9863 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
9864 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
9867 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
9869 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
9870 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
9871 requested feature cannot be loaded.
9873 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
9874 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
9875 means to clear out that attribute.
9877 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
9878 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
9880 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
9881 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
9882 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
9883 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
9885 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
9886 the gap of the current buffer.
9888 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
9889 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
9892 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
9893 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
9894 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
9895 it back in after any modifications have been made.
9897 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
9899 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
9900 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
9901 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
9902 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
9903 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
9905 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
9906 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
9907 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
9908 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
9909 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
9911 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
9912 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
9913 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
9915 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
9916 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
9917 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
9918 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
9919 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
9922 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
9923 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
9924 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
9925 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
9927 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
9929 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
9930 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
9931 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
9932 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
9934 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
9935 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
9936 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
9937 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
9938 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
9939 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
9940 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
9943 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
9946 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
9947 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
9948 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
9949 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
9950 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
9952 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
9953 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
9954 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
9955 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
9957 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
9958 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
9959 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
9960 something that most users not do.
9962 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
9963 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
9964 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
9967 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
9970 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
9971 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
9972 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
9973 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
9976 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
9977 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
9978 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
9979 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
9980 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
9983 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
9984 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
9985 to be confused by TeX commands.
9987 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
9988 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
9989 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
9990 of various alternative replacements and actions.
9992 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
9993 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
9994 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
9995 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
9996 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
9998 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
9999 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
10001 ** Changes in input method usage.
10003 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
10004 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
10007 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
10009 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
10010 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
10012 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
10013 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
10015 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
10017 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
10019 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
10020 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
10022 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
10023 given in the following case:
10024 o When you are using a complex input method.
10025 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
10027 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
10028 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
10029 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
10030 setting it to t is helpful.
10032 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
10034 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
10036 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
10037 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
10038 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
10039 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
10042 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
10043 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
10044 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
10047 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
10049 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
10051 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
10052 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
10054 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
10055 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
10056 its owner and group.
10058 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
10059 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
10061 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
10062 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
10064 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
10065 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
10066 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
10067 by the left edge of the rectangle.
10069 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
10070 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
10071 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
10072 for writing keyboard macros.
10074 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
10075 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
10076 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
10077 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
10078 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
10081 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
10083 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
10084 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
10087 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
10088 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
10089 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
10090 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
10092 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
10093 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
10094 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
10096 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
10097 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
10098 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
10099 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
10101 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
10102 failure if the command produces no output.
10104 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
10105 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
10108 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
10109 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
10110 function and variable names.
10112 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
10113 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
10114 file-coding-system-alist.
10116 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
10117 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
10118 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
10119 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
10120 according to the current fontset.
10122 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
10124 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
10125 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
10126 nonascii-insert-offset.
10128 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
10129 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
10130 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
10131 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
10133 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
10134 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
10136 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
10137 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
10139 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
10140 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
10143 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
10144 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
10146 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
10147 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
10148 all variables that have documentation.
10150 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
10151 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
10152 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
10153 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
10154 it should show; the default is 20.
10156 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
10157 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
10160 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
10161 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
10162 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
10163 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
10164 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
10165 Newly added options are included as well.
10167 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
10168 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
10169 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
10171 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
10174 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
10175 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
10177 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
10178 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
10181 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
10182 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
10185 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
10186 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
10187 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
10188 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
10191 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
10193 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
10194 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
10195 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
10197 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
10198 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
10199 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
10204 *** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
10205 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
10207 *** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
10208 and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
10210 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
10211 read and post multi-lingual articles.
10213 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
10214 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
10215 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
10216 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
10217 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
10218 made invisible again.
10220 ** Mail reading and sending changes
10222 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
10223 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
10224 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
10227 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
10228 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
10229 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
10230 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
10231 rmail-default-body-file.
10233 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
10234 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
10235 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
10237 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
10238 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
10239 is evaluated to insert the signature.
10241 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
10242 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
10243 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
10244 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
10245 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
10246 especially interested in trying feedmail.
10248 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
10249 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
10250 provided by feedmail are:
10252 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
10253 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
10254 there is also a queue for draft messages
10256 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
10257 be prompted for confirmation
10259 **** does smart filling of address headers
10261 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
10262 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
10263 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
10265 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
10266 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
10267 /usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
10268 function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
10272 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
10273 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
10275 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
10276 run Dired on the directory name at point.
10278 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
10279 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
10280 for a specified regexp.
10284 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
10287 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
10288 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
10291 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
10292 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
10293 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
10294 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
10296 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
10297 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
10298 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
10299 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
10300 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
10302 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
10303 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
10304 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
10305 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
10306 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
10308 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
10309 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
10310 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
10311 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
10313 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
10314 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
10315 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
10317 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
10318 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
10319 session to resolve them.
10321 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
10322 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
10323 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
10326 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
10327 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
10328 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
10329 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
10330 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
10331 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
10334 ** Changes in Font Lock
10336 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
10337 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
10338 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
10339 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
10340 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
10342 ** Frame name display changes
10344 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
10345 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
10346 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
10347 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
10349 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
10350 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
10353 ** Comint (subshell) changes
10355 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
10356 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
10357 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
10359 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
10361 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
10362 that is, the line after the last line you got.
10363 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
10365 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
10366 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
10367 the following line.
10369 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
10370 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
10371 previously sent input.
10373 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
10374 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
10375 as the search string.
10377 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
10378 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
10382 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
10383 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
10384 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
10387 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
10388 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
10389 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
10390 style is still the default however.
10392 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
10394 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
10395 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
10396 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
10398 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
10399 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
10401 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
10402 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
10404 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
10405 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
10407 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
10408 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
10410 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
10411 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
10412 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
10413 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
10415 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
10417 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
10418 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
10419 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
10421 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
10422 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
10423 expanding dynamically.
10425 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
10426 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
10428 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
10429 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
10430 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
10431 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
10433 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
10435 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
10437 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
10438 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
10439 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
10440 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
10441 against the first word in the title.
10443 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
10444 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
10445 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
10446 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
10447 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
10448 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
10450 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
10451 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
10452 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
10453 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
10455 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
10457 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
10458 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
10459 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
10460 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
10461 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
10462 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
10464 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
10465 Editing group once the package is loaded.
10467 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
10468 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
10469 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behavior.
10471 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
10472 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
10476 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
10477 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
10478 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
10480 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
10481 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
10482 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
10483 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
10486 o URLs are automatically skipped
10487 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
10489 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
10491 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
10493 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
10494 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
10495 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
10496 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
10498 *** New recursive parser.
10500 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
10501 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
10502 recursive parser scans the individual files.
10504 *** Parsing only part of a document.
10506 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
10507 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
10508 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
10510 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
10512 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
10514 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
10516 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
10518 *** Using multiple selection buffers
10520 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
10521 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
10523 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
10525 *** References to external documents.
10527 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
10528 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
10529 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
10530 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
10531 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
10532 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
10533 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
10535 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
10537 The built-in command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
10538 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
10540 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
10541 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
10543 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
10545 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
10546 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
10548 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
10550 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
10551 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
10552 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
10553 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
10554 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
10555 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
10558 *** Support for the varioref package
10560 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
10564 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
10565 and citations are created. These hooks are
10566 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
10567 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
10569 *** Citations outside LaTeX
10571 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
10572 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
10574 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
10576 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
10577 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
10580 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
10582 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
10583 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
10584 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
10585 directories that contain the same file name.
10587 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
10588 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
10589 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
10590 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
10591 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
10592 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
10593 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
10596 ** New modes and packages
10598 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
10599 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
10600 it, but some do not.
10602 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
10605 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
10606 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
10607 around in a buffer.
10609 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
10611 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
10612 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
10613 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
10614 established system of notation similar to Chess.
10616 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
10617 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
10618 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
10620 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
10621 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
10622 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
10623 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
10624 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
10627 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
10628 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
10630 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
10631 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
10632 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
10633 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
10635 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
10637 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
10638 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
10639 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
10640 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
10641 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
10642 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
10643 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
10644 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
10645 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
10646 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
10647 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
10649 Platform-specific modes:
10651 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
10652 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
10653 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
10654 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
10655 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
10656 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
10657 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
10658 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
10659 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
10661 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
10663 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
10664 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
10665 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
10666 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
10668 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
10669 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
10670 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
10672 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
10673 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
10674 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
10675 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
10677 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
10678 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
10679 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
10682 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
10683 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
10684 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
10685 current input method for reading this one event.
10687 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
10688 now control whether to output certain characters as
10689 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
10690 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
10691 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
10692 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
10694 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
10696 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
10697 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
10699 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
10700 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
10701 always increases point by 1.
10703 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
10704 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
10706 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
10708 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
10709 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
10710 default value changed. For example,
10712 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
10717 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
10720 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
10721 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
10722 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
10723 `:version' in the top level group.
10725 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
10727 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
10728 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
10730 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
10731 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
10732 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
10735 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
10736 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
10739 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
10740 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
10741 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
10743 ** Frame-local variables.
10745 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
10746 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
10747 local bindings for that variable.
10749 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
10750 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
10751 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
10754 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
10755 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
10756 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
10757 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
10759 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
10760 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
10761 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
10762 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
10764 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
10765 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
10766 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
10767 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
10768 See the documentation in sregex.el.
10770 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
10771 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
10772 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
10773 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
10775 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
10776 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
10778 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
10779 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
10780 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
10782 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
10783 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
10784 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
10785 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
10787 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
10788 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
10791 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
10792 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
10793 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
10794 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
10795 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
10797 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
10798 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
10799 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
10800 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
10802 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
10803 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
10804 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
10805 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
10806 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
10808 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
10809 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
10810 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
10811 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
10813 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
10814 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
10815 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
10817 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
10818 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
10819 was directed to display this buffer.
10821 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
10822 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
10823 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
10824 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
10825 set-window-configuration.
10827 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
10828 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
10829 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
10830 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
10832 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
10833 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
10834 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
10836 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
10837 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
10838 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
10840 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
10841 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
10843 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
10844 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
10846 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
10847 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
10848 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
10850 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
10851 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
10852 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
10853 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
10857 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
10858 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
10861 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
10862 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
10863 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
10864 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
10865 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
10867 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
10869 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
10870 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
10871 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
10872 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
10875 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
10876 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
10877 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
10878 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
10879 The supported properties include
10881 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
10883 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
10884 item should appear in the menu.
10886 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
10887 which will be REAL-BINDING.
10888 It should return a binding to use instead.
10890 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
10891 binding for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
10892 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
10893 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
10894 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
10897 This means that the command normally has no
10898 keyboard equivalent.
10899 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
10900 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
10901 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
10902 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
10903 value says whether this button is currently selected.
10905 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
10906 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
10908 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
10912 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
10913 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
10914 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
10915 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
10917 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
10919 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
10920 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
10921 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
10922 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
10923 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
10924 forward, away from the user.
10926 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
10928 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
10929 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
10930 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
10931 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
10932 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
10934 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
10936 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
10937 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
10938 that were dragged and dropped.
10940 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
10942 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
10944 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
10945 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
10946 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
10948 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
10949 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
10950 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
10952 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
10953 in Emacs 19 and before.
10955 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
10956 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
10958 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
10959 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
10960 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
10961 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
10963 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
10964 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
10965 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
10966 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
10967 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
10969 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
10970 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
10971 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
10972 consistent with the new representation.
10974 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
10975 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
10976 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
10977 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
10979 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
10980 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
10981 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
10983 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
10984 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
10985 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
10987 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
10988 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
10989 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
10991 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
10992 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
10994 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
10995 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
10997 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
10998 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
10999 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
11000 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
11002 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
11003 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
11005 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
11006 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
11007 buffer or string being searched.
11009 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
11010 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
11011 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
11012 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
11013 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
11014 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
11015 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
11017 *** Structure of coding system changed.
11019 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
11020 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
11021 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
11022 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
11023 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
11024 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
11025 define-coding-system-alias.
11027 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
11028 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
11029 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
11030 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
11031 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
11032 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
11033 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
11036 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
11037 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
11038 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
11039 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
11041 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
11042 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
11043 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
11044 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
11046 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
11047 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
11048 This function requires a user interaction.
11050 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
11051 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
11052 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
11053 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
11054 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
11055 select-safe-coding-system.
11057 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
11058 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
11059 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
11062 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
11063 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
11064 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
11066 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
11067 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
11068 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
11069 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
11071 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
11072 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
11073 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
11076 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
11077 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
11079 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
11080 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
11081 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
11082 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
11083 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
11084 range of characters.
11086 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
11087 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
11089 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
11090 in the current buffer at position POS.
11092 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
11093 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
11094 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
11095 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
11096 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
11097 binding input-method-function to nil.
11099 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
11100 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
11101 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
11102 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
11103 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
11105 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
11106 subsequent events of a key sequence.
11108 *** You can customize any language environment by using
11109 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
11111 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
11112 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
11113 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
11114 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
11115 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
11117 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
11119 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
11120 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
11121 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
11124 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
11125 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
11127 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
11128 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
11129 in your .emacs file.)
11131 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
11132 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
11134 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
11135 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
11137 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
11138 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
11141 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
11142 delete the character before point, as usual.
11144 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
11145 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
11146 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
11148 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
11149 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
11150 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
11151 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
11152 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
11155 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
11156 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
11157 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
11158 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
11159 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
11161 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
11162 and is an alias for it.
11164 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
11165 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
11167 ** Scrolling changes
11169 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
11170 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
11172 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
11173 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
11176 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
11177 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
11178 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
11179 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
11181 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
11182 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
11183 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
11184 recenters the window.
11186 ** International character set support (MULE)
11188 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
11189 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
11190 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
11191 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
11192 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
11193 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
11195 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
11196 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
11197 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
11198 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
11199 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
11201 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
11202 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
11203 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
11204 language, to make it possible to type them.
11206 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
11207 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
11209 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
11210 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
11212 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
11214 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
11216 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
11217 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
11218 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
11219 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
11220 characters for their work until they want to change.
11224 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
11225 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
11226 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
11227 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
11228 support several input methods.
11230 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
11231 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
11234 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
11235 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
11236 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
11237 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
11238 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
11241 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
11242 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
11243 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
11244 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
11245 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
11247 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
11248 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
11249 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
11250 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
11252 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
11253 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
11254 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
11255 the first guess is wrong.
11257 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
11258 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
11260 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
11261 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
11262 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
11263 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
11265 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
11266 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
11267 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
11268 translate automatically to and from either one.
11270 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
11272 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
11273 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
11274 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
11277 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
11278 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
11279 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
11280 multibyte characters in that buffer.
11282 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
11283 character conversion as well.
11285 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
11287 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
11288 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
11289 requires using many fonts.
11291 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
11292 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
11294 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
11295 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
11296 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
11297 you would use a font.
11299 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
11300 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
11301 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
11303 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
11304 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
11307 *** Defining fontsets.
11309 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
11310 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
11311 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
11313 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
11314 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
11315 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
11316 standard fontset are created automatically.
11318 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
11319 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
11320 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
11321 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
11322 name is `fontset-startup'.
11324 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
11325 The resource value should have this form:
11326 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
11327 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
11328 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
11329 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
11330 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
11331 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
11332 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
11333 CHARSET-NAME should be the name of a character set, and FONT-NAME
11334 should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
11336 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
11337 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
11338 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
11340 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
11341 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
11342 following resource,
11343 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
11344 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
11345 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
11346 Here is the substitution rule:
11347 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
11348 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
11349 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
11350 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
11351 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
11353 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
11354 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
11355 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
11357 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
11358 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
11359 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
11360 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
11363 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
11364 defaults for a particular choice of language.
11366 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
11367 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
11368 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
11369 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
11370 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
11371 system for new files that you create.
11373 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
11374 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
11375 whole Emacs session.
11377 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
11378 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
11379 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
11381 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
11382 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
11383 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
11384 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
11385 coding systems that Emacs supports.
11387 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
11388 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
11389 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
11390 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
11391 is used for *the immediately following command*.
11393 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
11394 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
11396 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
11397 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
11399 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
11400 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
11402 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
11403 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
11404 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
11405 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
11408 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
11409 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
11410 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
11411 translated into that character code.
11413 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
11414 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
11416 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
11418 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
11419 the coding system for keyboard input.
11421 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
11422 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
11423 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
11425 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
11427 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
11428 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
11429 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
11430 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
11431 designed to work with terminals.
11433 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
11434 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
11435 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
11436 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
11437 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
11438 in the corresponding buffer.
11440 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
11442 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
11443 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
11444 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
11446 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
11447 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
11448 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
11451 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
11452 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
11454 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
11455 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
11456 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
11457 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
11459 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
11460 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
11461 related information.
11463 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
11464 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
11467 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
11468 information about the support for a particular language.
11469 You specify the language as an argument.
11471 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
11472 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
11475 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
11476 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
11477 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
11478 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
11480 A alternativnyj (Russian)
11482 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
11483 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
11484 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
11485 E euc-japan (Japanese)
11486 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
11487 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
11488 K euc-korea (Korean)
11491 S shift_jis (Japanese)
11494 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
11495 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
11496 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
11497 v viqr (Vietnamese)
11500 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
11501 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
11502 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
11503 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
11505 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
11506 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
11508 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
11509 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
11510 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
11511 Rmail files themselves.
11513 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
11514 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
11516 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
11519 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
11520 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
11521 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
11522 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
11523 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
11525 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
11526 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
11527 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
11530 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
11531 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
11532 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
11533 without any conversion.
11535 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
11536 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
11537 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
11538 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
11540 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
11541 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
11543 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
11544 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
11546 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
11547 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
11549 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
11550 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
11551 in the buffer before point.
11553 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
11554 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
11557 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
11558 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
11560 ** File locking works with NFS now.
11562 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
11563 in the same directory as FILENAME.
11565 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
11566 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
11567 can become a bottleneck.
11569 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
11570 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
11571 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
11572 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
11573 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
11574 so useful that the change is worth while.
11576 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
11577 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
11578 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
11579 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
11581 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
11582 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
11585 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
11586 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
11587 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
11589 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
11590 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
11591 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
11593 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
11594 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
11595 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
11597 ** Changes in View mode.
11599 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
11600 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
11602 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
11603 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
11605 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
11608 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
11609 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
11611 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
11612 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
11613 not just the selected window.
11615 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
11616 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
11617 turns View mode on or off.
11619 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
11620 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
11621 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
11623 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
11624 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
11626 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
11627 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
11628 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
11629 which version to compare with.
11631 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
11632 blocks if a match is inside the block.
11634 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
11635 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
11636 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
11637 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
11639 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
11640 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
11641 blocks, all of them or none.
11643 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
11644 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
11645 confirmation first.
11647 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
11648 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
11649 However, the mode will not be changed if
11650 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
11651 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
11652 not suitable for ordinary files, or
11653 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
11655 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
11657 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
11658 these commands do not change the major mode.
11660 ** M-x occur changes.
11662 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
11663 it performs a case-sensitive search.
11665 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
11666 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
11667 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
11669 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
11670 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
11671 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
11672 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
11673 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
11675 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
11676 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
11677 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
11678 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
11680 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
11681 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
11682 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
11684 ** Outline mode changes.
11686 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
11688 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
11690 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
11691 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
11692 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
11693 was already active.
11695 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
11696 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
11697 get confused by it.
11699 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
11700 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
11702 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
11704 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
11705 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
11706 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
11707 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
11709 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
11710 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
11711 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
11713 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
11714 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
11717 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
11718 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
11719 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
11720 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
11722 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
11723 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
11724 can be. The default value is 30.
11726 ** Changes in Mail mode.
11728 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
11729 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
11730 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
11731 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
11732 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
11735 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
11736 compose-mail-other-frame.
11738 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
11739 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
11740 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
11741 buffer that shows the original message.
11743 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
11744 with separator lines around the contents.
11746 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
11747 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
11748 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
11749 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
11751 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
11753 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
11754 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
11755 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
11756 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
11758 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
11759 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
11762 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
11763 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
11766 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
11767 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
11768 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
11769 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
11771 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
11772 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
11773 be taken to be magic.
11775 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
11776 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
11777 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
11779 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
11780 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
11782 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
11783 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
11785 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
11787 new key dired.el binding old key
11788 ------- ---------------- -------
11789 * c dired-change-marks c
11791 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
11792 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
11793 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
11795 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
11796 * ? dired-unmark-all-files C-M-?
11797 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
11798 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
11799 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
11800 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
11804 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
11805 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
11806 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
11807 each time you run it.
11809 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
11810 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
11812 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
11813 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
11814 means to move in the opposite direction.
11816 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
11817 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
11819 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
11820 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
11821 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
11822 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
11827 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
11829 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
11832 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
11833 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
11835 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
11838 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
11840 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
11842 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
11844 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
11845 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
11846 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
11848 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
11850 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
11852 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
11853 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
11855 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
11856 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
11857 used to pick articles.
11859 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
11860 another have been added.
11862 `M-x gnus-change-server'
11864 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
11865 generating lines in buffers.
11867 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
11870 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
11872 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
11874 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
11876 *** Scores can be decayed.
11878 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
11880 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
11881 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
11883 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
11886 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
11888 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
11889 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `C-M-d'.
11891 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
11893 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
11894 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
11896 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
11897 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
11899 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
11902 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
11903 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
11905 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
11907 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
11909 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
11911 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
11913 Use the `Y c' command.
11915 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
11917 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
11919 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
11921 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
11922 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
11924 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
11926 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
11928 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
11929 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
11931 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
11933 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
11934 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
11935 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
11936 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
11939 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
11940 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
11941 particular news group. This can be done by:
11943 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
11945 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
11946 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
11947 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
11948 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
11949 for reading and posting).
11951 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
11952 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
11953 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
11954 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
11957 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
11958 default. Here are some of these default settings:
11960 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
11961 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
11962 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
11963 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
11964 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
11966 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
11967 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
11969 ** CC mode changes.
11971 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
11972 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
11973 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
11974 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
11975 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
11978 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
11979 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
11980 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
11981 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
11982 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
11983 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
11985 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
11986 of the current buffer.
11988 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
11989 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
11990 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
11992 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
11993 style that the Python developers like.
11995 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
11996 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
11997 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
11999 ** VC Changes [new]
12001 *** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
12002 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
12003 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
12005 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
12006 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
12009 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
12010 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
12012 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
12013 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
12014 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
12015 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
12017 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
12018 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
12020 ** Calendar changes.
12022 *** A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or
12023 subclasses of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow
12024 you do this for the year of the selected date, or the
12025 following/previous years.
12027 *** There is now support for the Baha'i calendar system. Use `pb' in
12028 the *Calendar* buffer to display the current Baha'i date. The Baha'i
12029 calendar, or "Badi calendar" is a system of 19 months with 19 days
12030 each, and 4 intercalary days (5 during a Gregorian leap year). The
12031 calendar begins May 23, 1844, with each of the months named after a
12032 supposed attribute of God.
12034 ** ps-print changes
12036 There are some new user variables and subgroups for customizing the page
12039 *** Headers & Footers (subgroup)
12041 Some printer systems print a header page and force the first page to
12042 be printed on the back of the header page when using duplex. If your
12043 printer system has this behavior, set variable
12044 `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' to t.
12046 If variable `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' is non-nil, it prints a
12047 blank page as the very first printed page. So, it behaves as if the
12048 very first character of buffer (or region) were a form feed ^L (\014).
12050 The variable `ps-spool-config' specifies who is responsible for
12051 setting duplex mode and page size. Valid values are:
12053 lpr-switches duplex and page size are configured by `ps-lpr-switches'.
12054 Don't forget to set `ps-lpr-switches' to select duplex
12055 printing for your printer.
12057 setpagedevice duplex and page size are configured by ps-print using the
12058 setpagedevice PostScript operator.
12060 nil duplex and page size are configured by ps-print *not* using
12061 the setpagedevice PostScript operator.
12063 The variable `ps-spool-tumble' specifies how the page images on
12064 opposite sides of a sheet are oriented with respect to each other. If
12065 `ps-spool-tumble' is nil, ps-print produces output suitable for
12066 bindings on the left or right. If `ps-spool-tumble' is non-nil,
12067 ps-print produces output suitable for bindings at the top or bottom.
12068 This variable takes effect only if `ps-spool-duplex' is non-nil.
12069 The default value is nil.
12071 The variable `ps-header-frame-alist' specifies a header frame
12072 properties alist. Valid frame properties are:
12074 fore-color Specify the foreground frame color.
12075 Value should be a float number between 0.0 (black
12076 color) and 1.0 (white color), or a string which is a
12077 color name, or a list of 3 float numbers which
12078 correspond to the Red Green Blue color scale, each
12079 float number between 0.0 (dark color) and 1.0 (bright
12080 color). The default is 0 ("black").
12082 back-color Specify the background frame color (similar to fore-color).
12083 The default is 0.9 ("gray90").
12085 shadow-color Specify the shadow color (similar to fore-color).
12086 The default is 0 ("black").
12088 border-color Specify the border color (similar to fore-color).
12089 The default is 0 ("black").
12091 border-width Specify the border width.
12092 The default is 0.4.
12094 Any other property is ignored.
12096 Don't change this alist directly; instead use Custom, or the
12097 `ps-value', `ps-get', `ps-put' and `ps-del' functions (see there for
12100 Ps-print can also print footers. The footer variables are:
12101 `ps-print-footer', `ps-footer-offset', `ps-print-footer-frame',
12102 `ps-footer-font-family', `ps-footer-font-size', `ps-footer-line-pad',
12103 `ps-footer-lines', `ps-left-footer', `ps-right-footer' and
12104 `ps-footer-frame-alist'. These variables are similar to those
12105 controlling headers.
12107 *** Color management (subgroup)
12109 If `ps-print-color-p' is non-nil, the buffer's text will be printed in
12112 *** Face Management (subgroup)
12114 If you need to print without worrying about face background colors,
12115 set the variable `ps-use-face-background' which specifies if face
12116 background should be used. Valid values are:
12118 t always use face background color.
12119 nil never use face background color.
12120 (face...) list of faces whose background color will be used.
12122 *** N-up printing (subgroup)
12124 The variable `ps-n-up-printing' specifies the number of pages per
12127 The variable `ps-n-up-margin' specifies the margin in points (pt)
12128 between the sheet border and the n-up printing.
12130 If variable `ps-n-up-border-p' is non-nil, a border is drawn around
12133 The variable `ps-n-up-filling' specifies how the page matrix is filled
12134 on each sheet of paper. Following are the valid values for
12135 `ps-n-up-filling' with a filling example using a 3x4 page matrix:
12137 `left-top' 1 2 3 4 `left-bottom' 9 10 11 12
12141 `right-top' 4 3 2 1 `right-bottom' 12 11 10 9
12145 `top-left' 1 4 7 10 `bottom-left' 3 6 9 12
12149 `top-right' 10 7 4 1 `bottom-right' 12 9 6 3
12153 Any other value is treated as `left-top'.
12155 *** Zebra stripes (subgroup)
12157 The variable `ps-zebra-color' controls the zebra stripes grayscale or
12160 The variable `ps-zebra-stripe-follow' specifies how zebra stripes
12161 continue on next page. Visually, valid values are (the character `+'
12162 to the right of each column indicates that a line is printed):
12164 `nil' `follow' `full' `full-follow'
12165 Current Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
12166 1 XXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXX + 1 XXXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
12167 2 XXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXX + 2 XXXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
12168 3 XXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXX + 3 XXXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
12172 7 XXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXX + 7 XXXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
12173 8 XXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXX + 8 XXXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
12174 9 XXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXX + 9 XXXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
12177 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
12178 Next Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
12179 12 XXXXX + 12 + 10 XXXXXX + 10 +
12180 13 XXXXX + 13 XXXXXXXX + 11 XXXXXX + 11 +
12181 14 XXXXX + 14 XXXXXXXX + 12 XXXXXX + 12 +
12182 15 + 15 XXXXXXXX + 13 + 13 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
12183 16 + 16 + 14 + 14 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
12184 17 + 17 + 15 + 15 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
12185 18 XXXXX + 18 + 16 XXXXXX + 16 +
12186 19 XXXXX + 19 XXXXXXXX + 17 XXXXXX + 17 +
12187 20 XXXXX + 20 XXXXXXXX + 18 XXXXXX + 18 +
12190 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
12192 Any other value is treated as `nil'.
12195 *** Printer management (subgroup)
12197 The variable `ps-printer-name-option' determines the option used by
12198 some utilities to indicate the printer name; it's used only when
12199 `ps-printer-name' is a non-empty string. If you're using the lpr
12200 utility to print, for example, `ps-printer-name-option' should be set
12203 The variable `ps-manual-feed' indicates if the printer requires manual
12204 paper feeding. If it's nil, automatic feeding takes place. If it's
12205 non-nil, manual feeding takes place.
12207 The variable `ps-end-with-control-d' specifies whether C-d (\x04)
12208 should be inserted at end of the generated PostScript. Non-nil means
12211 *** Page settings (subgroup)
12213 If variable `ps-warn-paper-type' is nil, it's *not* treated as an
12214 error if the PostScript printer doesn't have a paper with the size
12215 indicated by `ps-paper-type'; the default paper size will be used
12216 instead. If `ps-warn-paper-type' is non-nil, an error is signaled if
12217 the PostScript printer doesn't support a paper with the size indicated
12218 by `ps-paper-type'. This is used when `ps-spool-config' is set to
12221 The variable `ps-print-upside-down' determines the orientation for
12222 printing pages: nil means `normal' printing, non-nil means
12223 `upside-down' printing (that is, the page is rotated by 180 degrees).
12225 The variable `ps-selected-pages' specifies which pages to print. If
12226 it's nil, all pages are printed. If it's a list, list elements may be
12227 integers specifying a single page to print, or cons cells (FROM . TO)
12228 specifying to print from page FROM to TO. Invalid list elements, that
12229 is integers smaller than one, or elements whose FROM is greater than
12230 its TO, are ignored.
12232 The variable `ps-even-or-odd-pages' specifies how to print even/odd
12233 pages. Valid values are:
12235 nil print all pages.
12237 `even-page' print only even pages.
12239 `odd-page' print only odd pages.
12241 `even-sheet' print only even sheets.
12242 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
12243 `even-page', but for values greater than 1, it'll
12244 print only the even sheet of paper.
12246 `odd-sheet' print only odd sheets.
12247 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
12248 `odd-page'; but for values greater than 1, it'll print
12249 only the odd sheet of paper.
12251 Any other value is treated as nil.
12253 If you set `ps-selected-pages' (see there for documentation), pages
12254 are filtered by `ps-selected-pages', and then by
12255 `ps-even-or-odd-pages'. For example, if we have:
12257 (setq ps-selected-pages '(1 4 (6 . 10) (12 . 16) 20))
12259 and we combine this with `ps-even-or-odd-pages' and
12260 `ps-n-up-printing', we get:
12262 `ps-n-up-printing' = 1:
12263 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
12264 nil 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20
12265 even-page 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
12266 odd-page 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
12267 even-sheet 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
12268 odd-sheet 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
12270 `ps-n-up-printing' = 2:
12271 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
12272 nil 1/4, 6/7, 8/9, 10/12, 13/14, 15/16, 20
12273 even-page 4/6, 8/10, 12/14, 16/20
12274 odd-page 1/7, 9/13, 15
12275 even-sheet 6/7, 10/12, 15/16
12276 odd-sheet 1/4, 8/9, 13/14, 20
12278 *** Miscellany (subgroup)
12280 The variable `ps-error-handler-message' specifies where error handler
12281 messages should be sent.
12283 It is also possible to add a user-defined PostScript prologue code in
12284 front of all generated prologue code by setting the variable
12285 `ps-user-defined-prologue'.
12287 The variable `ps-line-number-font' specifies the font for line numbers.
12289 The variable `ps-line-number-font-size' specifies the font size in
12290 points for line numbers.
12292 The variable `ps-line-number-color' specifies the color for line
12293 numbers. See `ps-zebra-color' for documentation.
12295 The variable `ps-line-number-step' specifies the interval in which
12296 line numbers are printed. For example, if `ps-line-number-step' is set
12297 to 2, the printing will look like:
12309 integer an integer specifying the interval in which line numbers are
12310 printed. If it's smaller than or equal to zero, 1
12313 `zebra' specifies that only the line number of the first line in a
12314 zebra stripe is to be printed.
12316 Any other value is treated as `zebra'.
12318 The variable `ps-line-number-start' specifies the starting point in
12319 the interval given by `ps-line-number-step'. For example, if
12320 `ps-line-number-step' is set to 3, and `ps-line-number-start' is set to
12321 3, the output will look like:
12335 The variable `ps-postscript-code-directory' specifies the directory
12336 where the PostScript prologue file used by ps-print is found.
12338 The variable `ps-line-spacing' determines the line spacing in points,
12339 for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
12342 The variable `ps-paragraph-spacing' determines the paragraph spacing,
12343 in points, for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
12346 The variable `ps-paragraph-regexp' specifies the paragraph delimiter.
12348 The variable `ps-begin-cut-regexp' and `ps-end-cut-regexp' specify the
12349 start and end of a region to cut out when printing.
12351 ** hideshow changes.
12353 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
12356 *** Support for java-mode added.
12358 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
12359 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
12361 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the comments at
12362 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
12363 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
12365 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
12366 robust and a lot faster.
12368 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
12370 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
12371 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
12372 documentation for more details.
12374 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
12376 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
12377 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
12378 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
12379 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
12380 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
12382 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
12383 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
12384 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
12385 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
12391 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
12392 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
12393 faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
12394 group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
12395 your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
12396 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
12398 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
12400 *** Maximum decoration
12402 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
12403 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
12404 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
12405 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
12406 to get the old behavior.
12410 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
12412 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
12413 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
12415 *** Configurable support
12417 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
12418 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
12419 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
12420 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
12421 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
12422 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
12423 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
12425 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
12426 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
12427 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
12429 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
12431 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
12432 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
12435 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
12437 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
12443 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
12444 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
12445 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
12446 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
12448 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
12450 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
12451 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
12452 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
12454 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
12456 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
12457 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
12458 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
12459 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
12460 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
12461 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
12462 Lock mode behavior and the behavior of Font Lock mode.
12464 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
12465 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
12466 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
12467 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
12468 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
12469 the command M-o M-o (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
12471 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
12473 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
12474 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
12475 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
12476 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
12478 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
12481 ** Ada mode changes.
12483 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
12484 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
12485 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
12486 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
12489 *** There are two new commands:
12490 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
12491 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
12493 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
12494 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
12495 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
12497 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
12498 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
12499 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
12501 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
12502 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
12503 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
12504 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
12506 ** Scheme mode changes.
12508 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
12509 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
12510 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
12511 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
12514 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
12515 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
12516 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
12517 variables as buffer-local variables.
12519 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
12520 Use M-x dsssl-mode.
12522 ** Changes to the emacsclient program
12524 *** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
12525 USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
12526 associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
12527 can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
12529 *** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
12530 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
12533 *** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
12534 use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
12535 ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
12536 option takes precedence.
12538 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
12539 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
12540 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
12542 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
12543 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
12546 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
12547 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
12549 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
12550 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
12553 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
12554 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
12555 these register values no longer become completely useless.
12556 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
12557 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
12558 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
12560 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
12561 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
12562 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
12563 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
12565 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
12566 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
12567 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
12568 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
12569 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
12571 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
12572 since it applies only to the current frame.
12574 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
12575 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
12576 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
12578 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
12579 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
12580 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
12581 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
12582 instead of just the file you are editing.
12586 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
12587 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
12588 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
12589 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
12590 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
12593 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
12594 knows which kind of label is needed.
12596 C-c ) reftex-reference
12597 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
12598 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
12600 C-c [ reftex-citation
12601 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
12602 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
12604 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
12605 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
12608 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
12609 can quickly jump to every section.
12611 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
12612 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
12613 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
12614 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
12615 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
12617 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
12619 *** Info documentation is now available.
12621 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
12622 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
12624 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
12625 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
12627 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
12628 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
12630 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
12631 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
12632 appropriate functions.
12634 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
12635 entries. They are bound by default to C-M-l and C-M-h.
12637 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
12640 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
12641 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
12643 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
12644 shall be delimited.
12646 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
12647 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
12648 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
12650 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
12651 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
12652 prefixed with `ALT'.
12654 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
12655 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
12656 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
12659 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
12660 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
12661 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
12663 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
12664 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
12666 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
12667 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
12668 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
12670 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
12672 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
12674 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
12675 from alien sources.
12677 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
12678 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
12681 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
12684 *** Added support for imenu.
12686 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
12687 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
12688 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
12689 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
12691 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
12692 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
12694 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
12696 ** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
12698 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
12699 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
12700 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
12703 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
12704 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
12706 ** browse-url changes
12708 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
12709 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
12710 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
12711 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
12712 customization variables.
12714 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
12716 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
12717 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
12718 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
12720 ** Changes in Ediff
12722 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
12723 pops up the Info file for this command.
12725 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
12726 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
12727 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
12730 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
12731 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
12732 files in the same directory.
12734 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
12735 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
12736 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
12738 ** Changes in Viper
12740 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
12741 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
12743 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
12744 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
12745 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
12746 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
12747 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
12748 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
12749 color when Viper is in insert state.
12750 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
12751 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
12752 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
12756 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
12757 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
12758 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
12759 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
12760 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
12762 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
12764 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
12765 constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
12767 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
12768 recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
12769 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
12771 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
12772 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
12773 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
12774 methods and protocols.
12776 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
12777 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
12778 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
12781 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
12782 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
12783 at least M times and as many as N times.
12785 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
12786 in files has changed slightly.
12788 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
12789 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
12790 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
12791 with old time-stamp-format values.
12793 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
12794 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
12795 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
12798 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
12799 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
12800 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
12801 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
12802 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
12803 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
12805 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
12806 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
12807 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
12809 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
12810 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
12811 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
12812 recommended now will continue to work then.
12814 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
12817 ** There are some additional major modes:
12819 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
12820 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
12821 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
12823 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
12824 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
12827 ** New Lisp packages include:
12829 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
12831 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
12832 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
12834 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
12836 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
12839 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
12840 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
12843 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
12844 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
12845 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
12846 strings or comments.
12848 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
12849 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
12850 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
12851 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
12854 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
12855 can visit them by short forms of their names.
12857 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
12858 Emacs Lisp function at point.
12860 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
12862 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
12863 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
12865 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
12867 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
12869 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
12871 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
12872 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
12874 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
12875 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
12876 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
12877 original place after inserting the copy.
12879 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
12882 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
12883 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
12884 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
12886 Enable mouse-drag with:
12887 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
12889 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
12891 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
12892 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
12894 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
12895 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
12899 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
12900 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
12901 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
12902 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
12903 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
12904 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
12905 instance) and vice versa.
12907 To use this package load it using
12908 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
12909 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
12910 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
12911 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
12912 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
12913 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
12915 *** Interface to ph.
12917 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
12919 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
12920 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
12923 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
12925 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
12926 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
12927 while the real cursor does not move.
12929 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
12930 for visiting your favorite web sites.
12932 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
12933 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
12937 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
12938 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
12939 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
12940 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
12942 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
12944 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
12946 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
12948 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
12949 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
12950 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
12951 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
12952 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
12954 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
12955 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
12956 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
12957 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
12958 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
12959 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
12961 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
12963 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
12964 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
12965 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
12966 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
12968 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
12969 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
12971 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
12972 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
12975 ** Basic Lisp changes
12977 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
12978 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
12980 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
12981 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
12984 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
12986 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
12988 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
12989 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
12991 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
12992 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
12995 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
12997 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
12999 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
13001 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
13002 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
13003 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
13006 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
13007 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
13008 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
13010 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
13011 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
13012 adding one of these suffixes.
13014 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
13015 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
13016 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
13018 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
13019 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
13021 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
13023 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
13024 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
13026 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
13027 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
13029 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
13031 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
13032 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
13034 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
13035 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
13036 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
13037 works using `save-current-buffer'.
13039 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
13040 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
13043 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
13044 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
13045 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
13048 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
13049 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
13052 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
13054 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
13055 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
13056 Then it returns that string.
13058 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
13060 (with-output-to-string
13061 (princ "The buffer is ")
13062 (princ (buffer-name)))
13064 returns "The buffer is foo".
13066 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
13069 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
13070 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
13071 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
13073 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
13074 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
13076 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
13077 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
13078 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
13079 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
13080 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
13081 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
13083 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
13084 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
13085 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
13088 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
13089 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
13090 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
13091 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
13092 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
13094 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
13095 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
13096 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
13097 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
13099 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
13100 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
13102 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
13104 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
13105 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
13106 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
13107 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
13110 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
13111 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
13114 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
13116 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
13117 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
13118 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
13119 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
13120 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
13122 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
13124 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
13125 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
13126 more than the number of characters.
13128 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
13129 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
13130 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
13131 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
13132 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
13133 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
13135 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
13136 and returns a string containing those characters.
13138 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
13139 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
13140 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
13141 character, sref signals an error.
13143 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
13144 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
13145 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
13147 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
13148 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
13149 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
13151 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
13152 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
13153 to a vector of the characters in it.
13155 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
13156 of a string. You call it as follows:
13158 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
13160 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
13161 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
13162 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
13163 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
13164 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
13166 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
13167 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
13169 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
13170 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
13172 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
13173 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
13174 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
13175 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
13177 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
13179 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
13181 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
13182 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
13183 are not included in the resulting value.
13185 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
13186 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
13187 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
13188 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
13190 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
13191 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
13192 character extends across that column), then the padding character
13193 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
13194 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
13195 column START-COLUMN.
13197 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
13198 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
13199 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
13200 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
13201 changed text, before the change.
13203 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
13204 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
13205 one character set for each script, not for each language.
13207 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
13209 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
13211 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
13212 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
13214 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
13215 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
13216 which identify the character within that character set.
13218 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
13219 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
13220 opposite of split-char.
13222 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
13223 of all the characters between BEG and END.
13225 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
13226 of all the characters in a string.
13228 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
13229 and specifying coding systems.
13231 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
13232 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
13233 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
13234 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
13235 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
13236 as what to do about code conversion.)
13238 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
13239 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
13241 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
13242 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
13243 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
13245 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
13246 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
13247 to match against a file name.
13249 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
13250 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
13251 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
13252 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
13253 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
13254 specifies the coding system for encoding.
13256 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
13257 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
13259 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
13260 the coding system to use for network sockets.
13262 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
13263 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
13264 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
13267 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
13268 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
13269 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
13270 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
13271 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
13272 specifies the coding system for encoding.
13274 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
13275 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
13277 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
13278 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
13279 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
13280 start the subprocess.
13282 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
13283 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
13284 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
13285 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
13286 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
13288 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
13289 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
13292 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
13293 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
13294 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
13295 connection permanently or until overridden.
13297 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
13298 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
13299 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
13300 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
13301 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
13302 system for one operation at a time.
13304 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
13305 files, subprocesses or network connections.
13307 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
13308 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
13309 The value is a cons cell,
13310 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
13311 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
13312 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
13313 input to the subprocess.
13315 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
13316 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
13318 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
13319 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
13320 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
13322 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
13323 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
13324 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
13325 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
13328 Thus, instead of writing
13330 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
13331 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
13333 you would now write this:
13335 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
13336 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
13340 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
13341 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
13342 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
13343 for a description of them.
13345 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
13346 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
13348 (defgroup ispell nil
13349 "Spell checking using Ispell."
13352 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
13353 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
13354 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
13355 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
13356 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
13358 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
13359 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
13360 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
13361 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
13362 first-level subgroups.
13364 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
13366 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
13367 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
13371 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
13372 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
13373 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
13374 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
13375 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
13376 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
13378 ** Text property changes
13380 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
13383 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
13384 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
13385 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
13386 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
13387 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
13389 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
13390 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
13391 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
13392 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
13394 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
13395 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
13396 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
13398 ** Changes in invisibility features
13400 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
13401 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
13402 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
13403 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
13404 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
13405 make the overlay visible.
13407 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
13408 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
13409 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
13410 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
13411 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
13412 t when it should hide it.
13414 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
13416 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
13417 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
13418 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
13419 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
13420 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
13421 Here is an example of how to do this:
13423 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
13424 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
13425 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
13426 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
13429 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
13432 ;; When done with the overlays:
13433 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
13434 ;; Or respectively:
13435 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
13437 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
13439 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
13440 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
13441 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
13442 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
13444 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
13445 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
13446 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
13448 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
13449 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
13451 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
13452 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
13454 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
13455 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
13456 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
13458 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
13459 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
13460 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
13461 determine the syntax type of the character.
13463 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
13464 of the current buffer.
13466 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
13467 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
13468 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
13470 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
13471 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
13472 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
13473 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
13474 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
13476 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
13479 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
13480 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
13481 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
13483 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
13484 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
13485 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
13486 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
13487 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
13489 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
13490 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
13491 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
13493 ** Changes in face features
13495 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
13496 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
13498 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
13499 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
13501 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
13502 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
13504 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
13505 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
13507 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
13508 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
13509 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
13510 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
13513 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
13514 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
13516 ** Changes in file-handling functions
13518 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
13519 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
13520 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
13521 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
13523 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
13526 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
13527 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
13529 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
13530 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
13532 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
13533 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
13535 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
13536 character code conversion as well as other things.
13538 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
13539 (formerly it did not).
13541 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
13542 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
13544 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
13545 instead of constant strings.
13547 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
13548 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
13549 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
13551 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
13552 in the same way as before.
13554 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
13555 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
13556 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
13558 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
13559 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
13560 else, and returns nil.
13562 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
13563 directory cannot be listed.
13565 ** Changes in minibuffer input
13567 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
13568 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
13569 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
13570 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
13573 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
13574 It is available through the history command M-n.
13576 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
13577 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
13578 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
13579 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
13580 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
13582 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
13583 argument in this way.
13585 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
13586 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
13587 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
13589 ** Echo area features
13591 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
13592 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
13593 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
13594 after the echo area is cleared.
13596 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
13597 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
13599 ** Keyboard input features
13601 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
13602 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
13604 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
13605 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
13606 by keyboard macros.
13608 ** Frame-related changes
13610 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
13611 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
13612 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
13614 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
13615 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
13616 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
13618 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
13619 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
13620 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
13621 in the selected frame.
13623 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
13624 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
13625 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
13627 ** X Windows features
13629 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
13630 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
13631 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
13633 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
13634 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
13636 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
13637 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
13638 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
13640 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
13641 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
13643 ** Subprocess features
13645 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
13646 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
13649 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
13650 and returns the output from the command as a string.
13652 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
13653 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
13655 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
13656 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
13658 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
13659 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
13660 goes after the other menu items.
13662 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
13663 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
13664 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
13667 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
13668 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
13670 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
13671 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
13674 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
13675 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
13676 but its hook is still run.
13678 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
13679 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
13681 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
13682 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
13683 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
13685 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
13686 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
13687 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
13690 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
13691 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
13693 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
13694 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
13695 functions like display-time.
13697 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
13698 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
13700 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
13701 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
13702 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
13704 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
13705 if there is an error in compilation.
13707 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
13708 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
13709 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
13710 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
13712 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
13713 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
13714 the *scratch* buffer.
13716 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
13717 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
13718 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
13719 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
13721 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
13722 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
13723 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
13725 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
13726 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
13727 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
13728 and compose-mail-other-frame.
13730 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
13731 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
13732 full name of the specified user will be returned.
13734 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
13735 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
13736 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
13737 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
13738 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
13741 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
13742 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
13743 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
13744 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
13746 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
13747 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
13748 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
13749 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
13751 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
13753 ** imenu.el changes.
13755 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
13756 item from menu created by imenu.
13758 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
13759 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
13760 select one of those items.
13762 * For older news, see the file ONEWS
13764 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
13765 Copyright information:
13767 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
13769 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
13770 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
13771 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
13772 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
13774 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
13775 of this document, or of portions of it,
13776 under the above conditions, provided also that they
13777 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
13781 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"
13784 arch-tag: 1aca9dfa-2ac4-4d14-bebf-0007cee12793