Add entry for face `menu'.
[bpt/emacs.git] / etc / NEWS
1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 23 Jan 1999
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
4
5 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
6 For older news, see the file ONEWS.
7
8 \f
9 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
10
11 * New packages
12
13 ** delim-col
14
15 Helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
16
17 Here is an example of columns:
18
19 horse apple bus
20 dog pineapple car EXTRA
21 porcupine strawberry airplane
22
23 Doing the following settings:
24
25 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
26 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
27 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
28 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
29
30
31 Selecting the lines above and typing:
32
33 M-x delimit-columns-region
34
35 It results:
36
37 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
38 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
39 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
40
41 delim-col has the following options:
42
43 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
44 before all columns.
45
46 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
47 between each column.
48
49 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
50 after all columns.
51
52 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
53 each column.
54
55 delim-col has the following commands:
56
57 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
58 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
59
60 ** Faces and frame parameters.
61
62 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
63 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
64 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
65 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
66 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
67 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
68 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
69
70 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
71 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
72 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
73 `default' face and vice versa.
74
75 ** New face `menu'.
76
77 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
78 Setting the font of LessTif/Motif menus is currently not supported;
79 attempts to set the font are ignored in this case.
80
81 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
82
83 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
84 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
85 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
86 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
87
88 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
89 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
90 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
91
92 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
93 `ScreenGamma'.
94
95 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
96
97 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
98 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
99 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
100 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
101 the text.
102
103 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
104
105 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
106 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
107 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
108 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
109 specify a font.
110
111 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
112 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
113 under Lisp changes, below.
114
115 ** New default font is Courier 12pt.
116
117 ** When using a windowing terminal, Emacs window now has a cursor of
118 its own. When the window is selected, the cursor is solid; otherwise,
119 it is hollow.
120
121 ** Bitmap areas to the left and right of windows are used to display
122 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
123 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
124 customizing face `fringe'.
125
126 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default. You
127 can change its appearance by modifying the face `modeline'.
128
129 ** LessTif support.
130
131 Emacs now runs with LessTif (see <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will
132 need a version 0.88.1 or later.
133
134 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
135
136 Emacs now uses toolkit scrollbars if available. When configured for
137 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scrollbar. Otherwise, when
138 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
139 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
140 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
141 Emacs.
142
143 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
144 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
145 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
146 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
147 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
148 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
149
150 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
151 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
152 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
153 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
154 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
155 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
156
157 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
158 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
159 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
160 image configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
161 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
162
163 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
164
165 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
166 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
167 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
168
169 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
170
171 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
172 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
173 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
174 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
175 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
176 whitespace.
177
178 ** Busy-cursor.
179
180 Emacs can optionally display a busy-cursor under X. You can turn the
181 display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
182
183 ** Blinking cursor
184
185 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
186 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
187 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
188 the group `cursor'.
189
190 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
191
192 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
193 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
194 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
195 details.
196
197 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
198 have to do anything to activate it.
199
200 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
201
202 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
203 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
204 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
205 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
206
207 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
208
209 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
210
211 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
212
213 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the Motif
214 one.
215
216 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, like in
217 Motif.
218
219 ** Hscrolling in C code.
220
221 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically.
222
223 ** Tool bar support.
224
225 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
226 how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level changes.
227
228 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
229
230 Different parts of the mode line under X have been made
231 mouse-sensitive. Moving the mouse to a mouse-sensitive part in the mode
232 line changes the appearance of the mouse pointer to an arrow, and help
233 about available mouse actions is displayed either in the echo area, or
234 in the tooltip window if you have enabled one.
235
236 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
237
238 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line switches between two
239 buffers.
240
241 - Mouse-2 on the buffer-name switches to the next buffer, and
242 M-mouse-2 switches to the previous buffer in the buffer list.
243
244 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name displays a buffer menu.
245
246 - Mouse-1 on the read-only status in the mode line (`%' or `*')
247 toggles the read-only status.
248
249 - Mouse-3 on the mode name display a minor-mode menu.
250
251 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
252
253 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
254 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialogs' is
255 non-nil.
256
257 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
258
259 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
260 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
261 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
262 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
263 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
264 attributes like overlines, strike-throught, box are ignored.
265
266 ** Sound support
267
268 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
269 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
270 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
271 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
272 to enable sound support.
273
274 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
275 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
276 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
277 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
278 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
279 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
280
281 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
282
283 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
284
285 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
286 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
287 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
288
289 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
290 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi).
291
292 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
293 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
294 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
295
296 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
297
298 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
299 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggessively' is a
300 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
301 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
302
303 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
304 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggessively' is a
305 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
306 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
307
308 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
309 notably at the end of lines.
310
311 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
312 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
313
314 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
315 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
316 after each match to get the replacement text.
317
318 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
319
320 If a message is longer than one line, or mini-buffer contents are
321 longer than one line, Emacs now resizes the mini-window unless it is
322 on a frame of its own. You can control the maximum mini-window size
323 by setting the following variable:
324
325 - User option: max-mini-window-height
326
327 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
328 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
329 specifies a number of lines. If nil, don't resize.
330
331 Default is 0.25.
332
333 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
334
335 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
336 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
337 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
338 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
339 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
340 can be edited from that buffer.
341
342 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
343 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
344 `A' to use all marked entries).
345
346 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
347 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
348
349 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
350 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
351 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
352 been cited.
353
354 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
355 has the following new features:
356
357 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
358 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
359 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
360 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
361
362 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
363 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
364 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
365 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
366 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
367 defaults to 1.
368
369 ** Tooltips.
370
371 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
372 mouse position. To use them, use the Lisp package `tooltip' which you
373 can access via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
374
375 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
376 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
377 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
378 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
379
380 ** Customize changes
381
382 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
383 `State' menu to add comments.
384
385 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
386 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
387 default).
388
389 ** New features in evaluation commands
390
391 The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
392 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
393 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the
394 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
395 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
396
397 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
398 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
399 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
400 start sequences.
401
402 ** Dired changes
403
404 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
405 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
406 is, delete only empty directories.
407
408 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
409 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
410 copy directories recursively.
411
412 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
413 use the -f option when sending mail.
414
415 ** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
416 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
417
418 ** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
419 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
420 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
421
422 ** New modes and packages
423
424 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
425
426 *** hl-line.el provides a minor mode to highlight the current line.
427
428 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
429
430 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
431 Pascal) language.
432
433 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
434 the text at point.
435
436 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
437
438 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
439
440 *** whitespace.el ???
441
442 ** Withdrawn packages
443
444 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
445 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
446 \f
447 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
448
449 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
450 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
451 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
452 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
453
454 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
455 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
456
457 ** New function `propertize'
458
459 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
460 strings with text properties.
461
462 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
463
464 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
465 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
466 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
467 specified value of that property. Example:
468
469 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
470
471 +++
472 ** push and pop macros.
473
474 A simple version of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
475 is now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
476 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
477
478 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
479 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
480 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
481
482 +++
483 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such
484 as [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on.
485
486 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
487 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
488 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
489 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
490 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
491 space, and DEL.
492 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
493 and DEL.
494 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
495 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
496 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
497 [:alpha:] matches letters.
498 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
499 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
500 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
501 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
502 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
503 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
504 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
505 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
506 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
507 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
508 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
509
510 +++
511 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
512
513 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
514
515 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
516
517 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
518 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
519
520 :test TEST
521
522 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
523 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
524 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
525
526 :size SIZE
527
528 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
529 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
530
531 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
532
533 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
534 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
535 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
536 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
537 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
538
539 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
540
541 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
542 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
543 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
544
545 :weakness WEAK
546
547 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value', or t.
548 Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage collection if
549 their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere outside of the
550 hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
551
552 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
553
554 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
555
556 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
557
558 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
559
560 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
561
562 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
563 values are shared.
564
565 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
566
567 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
568
569 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
570
571 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
572
573 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
574
575 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
576
577 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
578
579 Returns the size of TABLE.
580
581 - Function: hash-table-rehash-test TABLE
582
583 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
584
585 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
586
587 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
588
589 - Function: clrhash TABLE
590
591 Clear TABLE.
592
593 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
594
595 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
596 not found.
597
598 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
599
600 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
601 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
602
603 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
604
605 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
606
607 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
608
609 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
610 arguments KEY and VALUE.
611
612 - Function: sxhash OBJ
613
614 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
615
616 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
617
618 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
619 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
620 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
621 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
622 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
623
624 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
625
626 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
627 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
628 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
629
630 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
631 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
632
633 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
634 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
635
636 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
637 (sxhash (upcase a)))
638
639 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
640 'case-fold-string-hash))
641
642 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
643
644 +++
645 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
646
647 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
648 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
649 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
650
651 +++
652 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
653
654 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
655 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
656
657 You can also do several calls to print functions using a common
658 set of #N= constructs; here is how.
659
660 (let ((print-circle t)
661 (print-continuous-numbering t)
662 print-number-table)
663 (print1 ...)
664 (print1 ...)
665 ...)
666
667 +++
668 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
669 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
670 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
671 is too short to reach that column.
672
673 +++
674 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
675 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
676 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
677 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
678
679 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
680 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
681 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
682
683 +++
684 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
685 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
686
687 +++
688 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
689 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
690
691 +++
692 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
693 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
694 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
695 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
696 temporary-file-directory instead.
697
698 +++
699 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
700 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
701 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
702 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
703
704 +++
705 ** assoc-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
706 elements of an alist which have a particular value as the car.
707
708 +++
709 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
710
711 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
712 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
713 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
714
715 +++
716 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
717
718 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
719 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
720 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
721 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
722 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
723 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
724
725 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
726 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
727 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
728 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
729
730 +++
731 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
732
733 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
734 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
735 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
736 result string.
737
738 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
739 string where arguments appear in the result string.
740
741 Example:
742
743 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
744 (s2 "world"))
745 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
746 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
747 (format s1 s2)
748
749 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
750
751 +++
752 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
753
754 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
755 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
756 argument in it.
757
758 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
759 (arg "world"))
760 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
761 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
762 (message msg arg))
763
764 +++
765 ** Sound support
766
767 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
768 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
769
770 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
771 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
772 to enable sound support.
773
774 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
775 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
776 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
777 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
778 sound to play, before playing the sound.
779
780 The following sound properties are supported:
781
782 - `:file FILE'
783
784 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
785 searched relative to `data-directory'.
786
787 - `:volume VOLUME'
788
789 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
790 0..1. This property is optional.
791
792 Other properties are ignored.
793
794 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
795 \f
796 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
797
798 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
799 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
800 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
801 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
802
803 ** New face implementation.
804
805 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
806 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
807
808 +++
809 *** New faces.
810
811 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
812
813 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
814
815 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
816 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
817
818 3. Font height in 1/10pt
819
820 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
821
822 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
823
824 6. Foreground color.
825
826 7. Background color.
827
828 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
829
830 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
831
832 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
833
834 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
835
836 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
837 color.
838
839 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
840 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
841
842 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
843 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
844 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
845 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
846 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each each of the face
847 attributes mentioned above.
848
849 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
850 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
851 created frames.
852
853 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
854 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
855 `fully-specified'.
856
857 +++
858 *** Face merging.
859
860 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
861 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
862 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
863 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
864 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
865 results in a fully-specified face.
866
867 +++
868 *** Face realization.
869
870 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
871 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
872 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
873 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
874 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
875 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
876
877 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
878 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
879 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
880 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
881
882 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
883 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
884 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
885 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
886 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
887
888 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
889 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
890 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
891 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
892 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
893 Emacs.
894
895 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
896 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
897 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
898 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
899
900 ++++
901 **** Clearing face caches.
902
903 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
904 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
905 unused fonts.
906
907 +++
908 *** Font selection.
909
910 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
911 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
912 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
913
914 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
915 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
916 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
917 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
918 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
919
920 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
921 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
922 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
923
924 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
925
926 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
927 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
928 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
929 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
930 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
931 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
932 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
933
934 Setting `face-alternative-font-family-alist' allows the user to
935 specify alternative font families to try if a family specified by a
936 face doesn't exist.
937
938 +++
939 **** Scalable fonts
940
941 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
942 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
943 servers.
944
945 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
946 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means nver use
947 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
948 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
949 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
950 that list. Example:
951
952 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
953
954 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
955
956 +++
957 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
958
959 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
960
961 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
962 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
963 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
964
965 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
966 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
967 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
968 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
969 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
970 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
971 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
972 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
973 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
974 of the face font sort order.
975
976 - Function: x-font-family-list
977
978 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
979 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
980 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
981 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
982
983 - Variable: font-list-limit
984
985 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
986 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
987 matching font. The default is currently 100.
988
989 +++
990 *** Setting face attributes.
991
992 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
993 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
994 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
995 `face-attribute'.
996
997 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
998 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
999
1000 The following attributes are recognized:
1001
1002 `:family'
1003
1004 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
1005 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
1006 and `?' are allowed.
1007
1008 `:width'
1009
1010 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
1011 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
1012 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
1013 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
1014
1015 `:height'
1016
1017 VALUE must be an integer specifying the height of the font to use in
1018 1/10 pt.
1019
1020 `:weight'
1021
1022 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
1023 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
1024 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
1025
1026 `:slant'
1027
1028 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
1029 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
1030 `reverse-oblique'.
1031
1032 `:foreground', `:background'
1033
1034 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
1035
1036 `:underline'
1037
1038 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
1039 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
1040 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
1041 don't underline.
1042
1043 `:overline'
1044
1045 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
1046 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
1047 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
1048 overline.
1049
1050 `:strike-through'
1051
1052 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
1053 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
1054 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
1055 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
1056
1057 `:box'
1058
1059 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
1060 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
1061 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
1062 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
1063 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
1064 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
1065 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
1066 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
1067 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
1068 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
1069 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
1070 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
1071 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
1072 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
1073 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
1074 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
1075 box.
1076
1077 `:inverse-video'
1078
1079 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
1080 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
1081
1082 `:stipple'
1083
1084 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
1085 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
1086 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
1087 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
1088 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
1089 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
1090
1091 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
1092 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
1093
1094 `:font'
1095
1096 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
1097 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
1098 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
1099 versions of Emacs.
1100
1101 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
1102 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
1103 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
1104
1105 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
1106 `defface'.
1107
1108 *** Face attributes and X resources
1109
1110 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
1111 from X resources:
1112
1113 Face attribute X resource class
1114 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
1115 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
1116 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
1117 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
1118 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
1119 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
1120 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
1121 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
1122 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
1123 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
1124 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
1125 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
1126 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
1127 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
1128 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
1129 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
1130 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
1131 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
1132 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
1133 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
1134
1135 +++
1136 *** Text property `face'.
1137
1138 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
1139 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
1140 specification can be
1141
1142 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
1143
1144 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
1145 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
1146 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
1147 for face attribute names.
1148
1149 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
1150 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
1151 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
1152
1153 +++
1154 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
1155
1156 The function `face-register-tty-color' can be used to define colors
1157 for use on TTY frames. It maps a color name to a color number on the
1158 terminal. Emacs defines a couple of default color mappings by
1159 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
1160 `tty-defined-colors'. The function `face-clear-tty-colors' can be
1161 used to clear the mapping table.
1162
1163 +++
1164 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
1165 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
1166
1167 A number of functions such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
1168 forward-paragraph, and beginning-of-line, stop moving when they
1169 come to the boundary between the prompt and the actual contents.
1170 The function erase-buffer does not delete the prompt.
1171
1172 The function minubuffer-prompt-end returns the current position of the
1173 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
1174 Otherwise, it returns zero.
1175
1176 The function buffer-string does not return the portion of the
1177 mini-buffer belonging to the prompt; buffer-substring does.
1178
1179 +++
1180 ** Image support.
1181
1182 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
1183 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
1184 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
1185 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
1186
1187 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
1188 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
1189 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
1190 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
1191 area.
1192
1193 IMAGE is an image specification.
1194
1195 *** Image specifications
1196
1197 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
1198 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
1199 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
1200 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'.
1201
1202 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
1203
1204 `:ascent ASCENT'
1205
1206 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, and specifies the percentage
1207 of the image's height to use for its ascent. Default is 50.
1208
1209 `:margin MARGIN'
1210
1211 MARGIN must be a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put as
1212 margin around the image. Default is 0.
1213
1214 `:relief RELIEF'
1215
1216 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
1217 around an image.
1218
1219 `:algorithm ALGO'
1220
1221 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it. ALGO must
1222 be a symbol specifying the algorithm. Currently only `laplace' is
1223 supported which applies a Laplace edge detection algorithm to an image
1224 which is intended to display images "disabled."
1225
1226 `:heuristic-mask BG'
1227
1228 If BG is not nil, build a clipping mask for the image, so that the
1229 background of a frame is visible behind the image. If BG is t,
1230 determine the background color of the image by looking at the 4
1231 corners of the image, assuming the most frequently occuring color from
1232 the corners is the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must
1233 be a list `(RED GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the
1234 background of the image.
1235
1236 `:file FILE'
1237
1238 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
1239 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
1240 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
1241 may be present in the image specification.
1242
1243
1244 *** Supported image types
1245
1246 **** XBM, iamge type `xbm'.
1247
1248 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
1249 properties supported are
1250
1251 `:foreground FG'
1252
1253 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default
1254 is the frame's foreground.
1255
1256 `:background FG'
1257
1258 BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default is
1259 the frame's background color.
1260
1261 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
1262 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
1263 instead of a `:file' property.
1264
1265 `:width WIDTH'
1266
1267 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
1268
1269 `:height HEIGHT'
1270
1271 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
1272
1273 `:data DATA'
1274
1275 DATA must be either
1276
1277 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
1278 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
1279
1280 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
1281
1282 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
1283 bitmap.
1284
1285 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
1286
1287 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
1288 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
1289 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
1290 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
1291
1292 Additional image properties supported are:
1293
1294 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
1295
1296 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
1297 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
1298 name.
1299
1300 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
1301 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
1302
1303 `:data DATA'
1304
1305 DATA must be a string containing an XPM image. The contents of the
1306 string are of the same format as that of XPM files.
1307
1308 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
1309 to display compressed images.
1310
1311 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
1312
1313 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
1314 mono images are supported. There are no additional image properties
1315 defined.
1316
1317 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
1318
1319 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
1320 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
1321 properties defined.
1322
1323 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
1324
1325 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
1326 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
1327 properties defined.
1328
1329 **** GIF, image type `gif'
1330
1331 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
1332 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
1333
1334 Additional image properties supported are:
1335
1336 `:index INDEX'
1337
1338 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
1339 multi-image GIF file. An error is signalled if INDEX is too large.
1340
1341 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
1342 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
1343 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
1344 every 0.1 seconds.
1345
1346 (defun show-anim (file max)
1347 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
1348 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
1349
1350 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
1351 (when (= idx max)
1352 (setq idx 0))
1353 (let ((img (create-image file nil :index idx)))
1354 (save-excursion
1355 (set-buffer buffer)
1356 (goto-char (point-min))
1357 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
1358 (insert-image img "x"))
1359 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
1360
1361 **** PNG, image type `png'
1362
1363 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
1364 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
1365 properties defined.
1366
1367 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
1368
1369 Additional image properties supported are:
1370
1371 `:pt-width WIDTH'
1372
1373 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
1374 integer. This is an required property.
1375
1376 `:pt-height HEIGHT'
1377
1378 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
1379 must be an integer. This is an required property.
1380
1381 `:bounding-box BOX'
1382
1383 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
1384 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
1385 files. This is an required property.
1386
1387 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
1388 lisp/gs.el.
1389
1390 *** Lisp interface.
1391
1392 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
1393 which are supported in the current configuration.
1394
1395 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
1396 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
1397 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
1398 manually.
1399
1400 *** Simplified image API, image.el
1401
1402 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
1403 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
1404 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
1405 define an image based on available image types. The functions
1406 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
1407 buffer.
1408
1409 +++
1410 ** Display margins.
1411
1412 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
1413 and images.
1414
1415 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
1416 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
1417 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
1418 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
1419 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
1420 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
1421 of the display margins.
1422
1423 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
1424 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
1425 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
1426 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
1427 in this file).
1428
1429 +++
1430 ** Help display
1431
1432 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
1433 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
1434 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
1435 that have a `help-echo' property.
1436
1437 The value of the `help-echo' property must be a string. For tool-bar
1438 items, their key definition is used to determine the help to display.
1439 If their definition contains a property `:help FORM', FORM is
1440 evaluated to determine the help string. Otherwise, the caption of the
1441 tool-bar item is used.
1442
1443 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
1444 help differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window causes the
1445 help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
1446
1447 +++
1448 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
1449
1450 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
1451 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
1452
1453 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
1454 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
1455 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
1456 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
1457 used.
1458
1459 (global-set-key [A-down]
1460 #'(lambda ()
1461 (interactive)
1462 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
1463 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
1464 (global-set-key [A-up]
1465 #'(lambda ()
1466 (interactive)
1467 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
1468 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
1469
1470 +++
1471 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
1472
1473 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
1474 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
1475 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
1476 is called with one argument, POS.
1477
1478 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
1479 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
1480 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
1481 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
1482 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
1483
1484 +++
1485 ** Tool bar support.
1486
1487 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
1488 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
1489 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
1490 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
1491 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
1492 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
1493
1494 *** Tool bar item definitions
1495
1496 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
1497 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
1498 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
1499
1500 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
1501 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
1502 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
1503 property (see below).
1504
1505 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
1506 binding are currently ignored.
1507
1508 The following properties are recognized:
1509
1510 `:enable FORM'.
1511
1512 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
1513 or disabled.
1514
1515 `:visible FORM'
1516
1517 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
1518
1519 `:filter FUNCTION'
1520
1521 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
1522 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
1523 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
1524
1525 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
1526
1527 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
1528 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
1529
1530 `:image IMAGES'
1531
1532 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
1533 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
1534 meaning of each of the four elements:
1535
1536 Index Use when item is
1537 ----------------------------------------
1538 0 enabled and selected
1539 1 enabled and deselected
1540 2 disabled and selected
1541 3 disabled and deselected
1542
1543 `:help HELP-STRING'.
1544
1545 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
1546 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
1547
1548 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
1549
1550 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
1551 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
1552 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
1553
1554 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
1555 raised when the mouse moves over them.
1556
1557 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
1558 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
1559 pixels. Default is 1.
1560
1561 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
1562 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
1563
1564 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
1565
1566 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
1567 a tool bar item. If
1568
1569 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
1570 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
1571 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
1572
1573 is the original tool bar item definition, then
1574
1575 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
1576
1577 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
1578 item.
1579
1580 ** Mode line changes.
1581
1582 +++
1583 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
1584
1585 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
1586 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
1587 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
1588
1589 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
1590 a `local-map' text property.
1591
1592 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
1593 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
1594
1595 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
1596 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
1597 `local-map' property.
1598
1599 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
1600 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
1601 example.
1602
1603 +++
1604 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
1605 variable mode-line-format to nil.
1606
1607 +++
1608 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
1609
1610 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
1611 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
1612 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
1613 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
1614 line.
1615
1616 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
1617 `header-line'.
1618
1619 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
1620 position in the header-line.
1621
1622 +++
1623 ** Text property `display'
1624
1625 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text, and
1626 also control other aspects of how text displays. The value of the
1627 `display' property should be a display specification, as described
1628 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
1629
1630 *** Variable width and height spaces
1631
1632 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
1633 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
1634 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
1635 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
1636 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
1637 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
1638 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
1639
1640 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
1641 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
1642 properties described below.
1643
1644 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
1645 characters having the `display' property.
1646
1647 - :width WIDTH
1648
1649 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
1650 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
1651
1652 - :relative-width FACTOR
1653
1654 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
1655 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
1656 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
1657 width of that character by FACTOR.
1658
1659 - :align-to HPOS
1660
1661 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
1662 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
1663
1664 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
1665
1666 - :height HEIGHT
1667
1668 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
1669 normal line height.
1670
1671 - :relative-height FACTOR
1672
1673 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
1674 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
1675
1676 - :ascent ASCENT
1677
1678 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
1679 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
1680 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
1681 equal to 100.
1682
1683 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
1684
1685 *** Images
1686
1687 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
1688 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
1689 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
1690 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
1691 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
1692 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
1693 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
1694 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
1695 as display specification.
1696
1697 *** Other display properties
1698
1699 - :space-width FACTOR
1700
1701 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
1702 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
1703 integer or float.
1704
1705 - :height HEIGHT
1706
1707 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
1708
1709 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
1710 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
1711 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
1712 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
1713 a font is available counts as a step.
1714
1715 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
1716 as tall as the frame's default font.
1717
1718 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
1719 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
1720
1721 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
1722 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
1723
1724 - :raise FACTOR
1725
1726 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
1727 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
1728 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
1729 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
1730 `:height' subproperty.
1731
1732 *** Conditional display properties
1733
1734 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
1735 has the form `(:when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC
1736 applies only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated.
1737 During evaluattion, point is temporarily set to the end position of
1738 the text having the `display' property.
1739
1740 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
1741 `(:when t SPEC)'.
1742
1743 +++
1744 ** New menu separator types.
1745
1746 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
1747 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
1748 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
1749 to specify other menu separator types.
1750
1751 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
1752
1753 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
1754 separator occurs.
1755
1756 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
1757
1758 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
1759
1760 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
1761
1762 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
1763
1764 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
1765
1766 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
1767
1768 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
1769
1770 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
1771
1772 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
1773
1774 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the the form
1775 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
1776
1777 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
1778
1779 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
1780
1781 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
1782
1783 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
1784
1785 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
1786
1787 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
1788
1789 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
1790
1791 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
1792
1793 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
1794
1795 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
1796
1797 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
1798
1799 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
1800
1801 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
1802
1803 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
1804
1805 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
1806 the corresponding single-line separators.
1807
1808 +++
1809 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
1810
1811 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
1812 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
1813 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
1814 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
1815 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
1816 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
1817 default foreground is black.
1818
1819 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
1820 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
1821 `ScrollBarBackground').
1822
1823 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
1824 settings for scroll bar colors.
1825
1826 +++
1827 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
1828 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
1829
1830 ---
1831 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
1832 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
1833 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
1834 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
1835 the original window start.
1836
1837 ---
1838 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
1839 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
1840 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
1841
1842 +++
1843 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
1844
1845 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
1846 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
1847 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
1848 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
1849
1850 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
1851 fixed-width and fixed-height.
1852
1853 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
1854
1855 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
1856 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
1857 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
1858 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
1859 temporarily to nil, for example
1860
1861 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
1862 (enlarge-window 10))
1863
1864 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
1865 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
1866 \f
1867 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
1868
1869 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
1870
1871 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
1872 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
1873 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
1874
1875 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
1876 is the one that is used.
1877
1878 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
1879 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
1880 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
1881 separate from the command's regular output.
1882 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
1883 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
1884 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
1885 the buffer name.
1886
1887 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
1888 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
1889 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
1890 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
1891
1892 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
1893 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
1894 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
1895 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
1896
1897 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
1898 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
1899 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
1900 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
1901
1902 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
1903 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
1904 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
1905 they never ignore case.
1906
1907 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
1908 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
1909 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
1910 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
1911 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
1912 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
1913 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
1914
1915 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
1916 the same format that was used in the file before.
1917
1918 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
1919 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
1920
1921 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
1922 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
1923 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
1924
1925 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
1926 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
1927 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
1928 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
1929 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
1930 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
1931 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
1932
1933 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
1934 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
1935 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
1936 format. You can now customize these variables.
1937
1938 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
1939 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
1940 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
1941 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
1942
1943 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
1944 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
1945 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
1946
1947 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
1948 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
1949 doesn't have any effect.
1950
1951 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
1952 not one per buffer.
1953
1954 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
1955 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
1956 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
1957
1958 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
1959 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
1960 `auto-show-mode' command.
1961
1962 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
1963 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
1964 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
1965 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
1966 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
1967
1968 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
1969 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
1970
1971 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
1972 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
1973 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
1974
1975 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
1976 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
1977 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
1978 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
1979
1980 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
1981
1982 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
1983 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
1984 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
1985 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
1986 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
1987
1988 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
1989 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
1990
1991 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
1992 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
1993 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
1994 `?' on other systems.
1995
1996 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
1997 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
1998 Unix.
1999
2000 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
2001 current codepage when it starts.
2002
2003 ** Mail changes
2004
2005 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
2006 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
2007 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
2008 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
2009 buffer-file-coding-system.
2010
2011 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
2012 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
2013 mail.
2014
2015 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
2016 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
2017 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
2018 list of possible coding systems.
2019
2020 ** CC Mode changes
2021
2022 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
2023 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
2024 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
2025 docstring for details.
2026
2027 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
2028 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
2029 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
2030 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
2031 lineup functions use this feature currently.
2032
2033 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
2034 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
2035
2036 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
2037 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
2038
2039 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
2040 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
2041 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
2042 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
2043 anonymous classes.
2044
2045 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
2046 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
2047
2048 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
2049 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
2050 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
2051 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
2052
2053 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
2054 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
2055 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
2056 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
2057 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
2058
2059 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
2060
2061 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
2062
2063 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
2064 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
2065
2066 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
2067
2068 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
2069 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
2070 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
2071 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
2072 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
2073
2074 ** Gnus changes.
2075
2076 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
2077 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
2078 Gnus manual for the full story.
2079
2080 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
2081 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
2082 group, which is created automatically.
2083
2084 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
2085 values.
2086
2087 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
2088
2089 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
2090 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
2091
2092 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
2093 `C-u C-c C-c'.
2094
2095 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
2096
2097 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
2098 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
2099
2100 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
2101
2102 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
2103 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
2104
2105 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
2106 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
2107
2108 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
2109 control over simplification.
2110
2111 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
2112
2113 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
2114 limit.
2115
2116 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
2117
2118 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
2119
2120 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
2121 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
2122 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
2123
2124 *** Cancelling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
2125 `a' forces normal posting method.
2126
2127 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
2128 -- `W d'.
2129
2130 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
2131 to a non-nil value.
2132
2133 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
2134 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
2135
2136 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
2137 has been added.
2138
2139 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
2140
2141 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
2142
2143 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
2144 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
2145
2146 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
2147 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
2148
2149 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
2150
2151 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
2152 been added.
2153
2154 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
2155 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
2156
2157 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
2158 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
2159
2160 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
2161
2162 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
2163
2164 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
2165
2166 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
2167
2168 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
2169 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
2170 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
2171
2172 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
2173 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
2174 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
2175 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
2176 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
2177
2178 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
2179 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
2180 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
2181 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
2182
2183 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
2184 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
2185 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
2186 mismatch.
2187
2188 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
2189
2190 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
2191 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
2192
2193 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
2194 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
2195 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
2196 removed from the label.
2197
2198 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
2199 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
2200
2201 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
2202 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
2203
2204 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
2205 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
2206 expressions.
2207
2208 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
2209
2210 ** New/deleted modes and packages
2211
2212 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
2213 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
2214
2215 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
2216 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
2217 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
2218
2219 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
2220 changes with a special face.
2221
2222 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
2223 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
2224 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
2225 \f
2226 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
2227
2228 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
2229 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
2230 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
2231 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
2232 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
2233
2234 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
2235 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
2236 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
2237
2238 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
2239 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
2240 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
2241 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
2242 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
2243 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
2244 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
2245 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
2246 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
2247
2248 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
2249 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
2250 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
2251 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
2252 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
2253 program.
2254
2255 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
2256 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
2257 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
2258 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
2259 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
2260 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
2261
2262 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
2263 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
2264 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
2265 was not documented clearly before.
2266
2267 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
2268 This includes Tetris and Snake.
2269 \f
2270 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
2271
2272 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
2273 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
2274 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
2275 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
2276
2277 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
2278 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
2279 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
2280
2281 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
2282
2283 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
2284 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
2285
2286 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
2287 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
2288 integers.
2289
2290 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
2291 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
2292 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
2293 file names and attributes are returned.
2294
2295 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
2296 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
2297 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its atttributes.
2298 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
2299 returns the result.
2300
2301 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
2302 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
2303
2304 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
2305
2306 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
2307 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
2308 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
2309 optionally.
2310
2311 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
2312 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
2313
2314 **
2315 The new function process-running-child-p
2316 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
2317 terminal to its own child process.
2318
2319 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
2320 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
2321 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
2322 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
2323
2324 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
2325 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
2326
2327 ** easymenu.el Now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
2328 :included is an alias for :visible.
2329
2330 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
2331 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
2332 to move or copy menu entries.
2333
2334 ** Multibyte editing changes
2335
2336 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
2337 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
2338 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
2339 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
2340 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
2341 (setq char (sref str idx)
2342 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
2343 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
2344
2345 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
2346 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
2347 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
2348
2349 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
2350 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
2351 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
2352
2353 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibitted
2354
2355 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
2356 across the boundary.
2357
2358 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
2359 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
2360 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
2361 contains 8-bit characters.
2362 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
2363 contains invalid characters.
2364
2365 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
2366 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
2367 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
2368 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
2369 way.
2370
2371 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
2372 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
2373 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
2374 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
2375
2376 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
2377 compose Thai characters in a string.
2378
2379 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
2380 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
2381 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
2382 menus should always use the third argument.
2383
2384 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
2385 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
2386 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
2387 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
2388
2389 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
2390 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
2391 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
2392 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
2393
2394 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
2395 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
2396 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
2397 echo area contents.
2398
2399 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
2400
2401 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
2402 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
2403 requested feature cannot be loaded.
2404
2405 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
2406 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
2407 means to clear out that attribute.
2408
2409 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
2410 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
2411
2412 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
2413 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
2414 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
2415 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
2416
2417 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
2418 the gap of the current buffer.
2419
2420 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
2421 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
2422 current buffer.
2423
2424 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
2425 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
2426 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
2427 it back in after any modifications have been made.
2428 \f
2429 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
2430
2431 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
2432 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
2433 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
2434 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
2435 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
2436
2437 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
2438 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
2439 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
2440 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
2441 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
2442
2443 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
2444 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
2445 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
2446
2447 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
2448 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
2449 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
2450 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
2451 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
2452 results.
2453
2454 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
2455 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
2456 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
2457 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
2458 \f
2459 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
2460
2461 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
2462 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
2463 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
2464 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
2465
2466 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
2467 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
2468 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
2469 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
2470 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
2471 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
2472 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
2473 region.
2474
2475 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
2476 selective undo.
2477
2478 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
2479 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
2480 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
2481 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
2482 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
2483
2484 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
2485 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
2486 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
2487 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
2488
2489 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
2490 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
2491 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
2492 something that most users not do.
2493
2494 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
2495 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
2496 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
2497 applications.
2498
2499 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
2500 pasting operations.
2501
2502 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
2503 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
2504 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
2505 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
2506 `ps-printer-name'.
2507
2508 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
2509 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
2510 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
2511 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
2512 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
2513 hits a new word.
2514
2515 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
2516 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
2517 to be confused by TeX commands.
2518
2519 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
2520 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
2521 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
2522 of various alternative replacements and actions.
2523
2524 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
2525 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
2526 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
2527 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
2528 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
2529
2530 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
2531 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
2532
2533 ** Changes in input method usage.
2534
2535 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
2536 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
2537 respectively.
2538
2539 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
2540
2541 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
2542 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
2543
2544 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
2545 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
2546
2547 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
2548
2549 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
2550
2551 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
2552 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
2553
2554 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
2555 given in the following case:
2556 o When you are using a complex input method.
2557 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
2558
2559 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
2560 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
2561 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
2562 setting it to t is helpful.
2563
2564 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
2565
2566 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
2567 keys:
2568 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
2569 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
2570 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
2571 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
2572 environment.
2573
2574 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
2575 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
2576 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
2577 get
2578
2579 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
2580
2581 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
2582
2583 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
2584 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
2585
2586 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
2587 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
2588 its owner and group.
2589
2590 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
2591 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
2592
2593 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
2594 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
2595
2596 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
2597 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
2598 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
2599 by the left edge of the rectangle.
2600
2601 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
2602 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
2603 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
2604 for writing keyboard macros.
2605
2606 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
2607 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
2608 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
2609 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
2610 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
2611 info.
2612
2613 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
2614
2615 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
2616 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
2617 contents only.
2618
2619 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
2620 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
2621 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
2622 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
2623
2624 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
2625 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
2626 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
2627
2628 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
2629 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
2630 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
2631 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
2632
2633 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
2634 failure if the command produces no output.
2635
2636 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
2637 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
2638 the mouse.
2639
2640 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
2641 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
2642 function and variable names.
2643
2644 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
2645 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
2646 file-coding-system-alist.
2647
2648 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
2649 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
2650 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
2651 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
2652 according to the current fontset.
2653
2654 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
2655
2656 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
2657 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
2658 nonascii-insert-offset.
2659
2660 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
2661 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
2662 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
2663 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
2664
2665 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
2666 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
2667
2668 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
2669 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
2670
2671 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
2672 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
2673 command keys.
2674
2675 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
2676 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
2677
2678 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
2679 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
2680 all variables that have documentation.
2681
2682 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
2683 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
2684 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
2685 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
2686 it should show; the default is 20.
2687
2688 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
2689 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
2690 of your input.
2691
2692 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
2693 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
2694 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
2695 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
2696 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
2697 Newly added options are included as well.
2698
2699 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
2700 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
2701 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
2702
2703 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
2704 Customize menu.
2705
2706 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
2707 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
2708
2709 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
2710 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
2711 invoked.
2712
2713 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
2714 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
2715 The default is 1.
2716
2717 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
2718 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
2719 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
2720 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
2721 sensibly.
2722
2723 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
2724
2725 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
2726 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
2727 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
2728
2729 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
2730 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
2731 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
2732 every night.
2733
2734 ** All you need to do, to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
2735 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
2736
2737 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
2738 read and post multi-lingual articles.
2739
2740 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
2741 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
2742 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
2743 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
2744 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
2745 made invisible again.
2746
2747 ** Mail reading and sending changes
2748
2749 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
2750 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
2751 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
2752 toggle.
2753
2754 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
2755 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
2756 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
2757 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
2758 rmail-default-body-file.
2759
2760 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
2761 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
2762 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
2763
2764 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
2765 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
2766 is evaluated to insert the signature.
2767
2768 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
2769 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
2770 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
2771 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
2772 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
2773 especially interested in trying feedmail.
2774
2775 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
2776 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
2777 provided by feedmail are:
2778
2779 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
2780 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
2781 there is also a queue for draft messages
2782
2783 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
2784 be prompted for confirmation
2785
2786 **** does smart filling of address headers
2787
2788 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
2789 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
2790 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
2791
2792 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
2793 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
2794 /usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
2795 function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
2796
2797 ** Dired changes
2798
2799 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
2800 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
2801
2802 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
2803 run Dired on the directory name at point.
2804
2805 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
2806 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
2807 for a specified regexp.
2808
2809 ** VC Changes
2810
2811 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
2812 conveniently.
2813
2814 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
2815 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
2816 Dired.
2817
2818 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
2819 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
2820 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
2821 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
2822
2823 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
2824 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
2825 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
2826 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
2827 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
2828
2829 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
2830 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
2831 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
2832 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
2833 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
2834
2835 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
2836 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
2837 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
2838 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
2839
2840 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
2841 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
2842 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
2843
2844 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
2845 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
2846 session to resolve them.
2847
2848 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
2849 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
2850 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
2851 uses as well).
2852
2853 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
2854 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
2855 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
2856 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
2857 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
2858 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
2859 using ediff.
2860
2861 ** Changes in Font Lock
2862
2863 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
2864 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
2865 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
2866 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
2867 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
2868
2869 ** Frame name display changes
2870
2871 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
2872 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
2873 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
2874 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
2875
2876 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
2877 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
2878 menu.
2879
2880 ** Comint (subshell) changes
2881
2882 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
2883 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
2884 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
2885
2886 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
2887
2888 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
2889 that is, the line after the last line you got.
2890 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
2891
2892 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
2893 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
2894 the following line.
2895
2896 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
2897 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
2898 previously sent input.
2899
2900 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
2901 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
2902 as the search string.
2903
2904 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
2905 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
2906
2907 ** C mode changes
2908
2909 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
2910 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
2911 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
2912 definition.
2913
2914 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
2915 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
2916 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
2917 style is still the default however.
2918
2919 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
2920
2921 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
2922 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
2923 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
2924
2925 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
2926 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
2927
2928 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
2929 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
2930
2931 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
2932 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
2933
2934 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
2935 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
2936
2937 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
2938 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
2939 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
2940 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
2941
2942 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
2943
2944 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
2945 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
2946 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
2947
2948 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
2949 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
2950 expanding dynamically.
2951
2952 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
2953 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
2954
2955 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
2956 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
2957 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
2958 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
2959
2960 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
2961
2962 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
2963
2964 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
2965 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
2966 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
2967 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
2968 against the first word in the title.
2969
2970 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
2971 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
2972 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
2973 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
2974 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
2975 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
2976
2977 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
2978 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
2979 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
2980 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
2981
2982 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
2983
2984 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
2985 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
2986 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
2987 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
2988 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
2989 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
2990
2991 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
2992 Editing group once the package is loaded.
2993
2994 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
2995 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
2996 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behaviour.
2997
2998 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
2999 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
3000
3001 ** Ispell changes.
3002
3003 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
3004 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
3005 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
3006
3007 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
3008 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
3009 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
3010 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
3011 include:
3012
3013 o URLs are automatically skipped
3014 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
3015
3016 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
3017
3018 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
3019
3020 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
3021 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
3022 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
3023 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
3024
3025 *** New recursive parser.
3026
3027 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
3028 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
3029 recursive parser scans the individual files.
3030
3031 *** Parsing only part of a document.
3032
3033 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
3034 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
3035 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
3036
3037 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
3038
3039 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
3040
3041 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
3042
3043 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
3044
3045 *** Using multiple selection buffers
3046
3047 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
3048 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
3049
3050 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
3051
3052 *** References to external documents.
3053
3054 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
3055 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
3056 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
3057 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
3058 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
3059 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
3060 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
3061
3062 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
3063
3064 The builtin command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
3065 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
3066
3067 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
3068 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
3069
3070 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
3071
3072 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
3073 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
3074
3075 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
3076
3077 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
3078 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
3079 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
3080 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
3081 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
3082 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
3083 more.
3084
3085 *** Support for the varioref package
3086
3087 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
3088
3089 *** New hooks
3090
3091 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
3092 and citations are created. These hooks are
3093 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
3094 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
3095
3096 *** Citations outside LaTeX
3097
3098 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
3099 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
3100
3101 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
3102
3103 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
3104 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
3105 fontified, use
3106
3107 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
3108
3109 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
3110 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
3111 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
3112 directories that contain the same file name.
3113
3114 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
3115 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
3116 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
3117 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
3118 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
3119 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
3120 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
3121 directory.
3122
3123 ** New modes and packages
3124
3125 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
3126 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
3127 it, but some do not.
3128
3129 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
3130 code.
3131
3132 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
3133 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
3134 around in a buffer.
3135
3136 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
3137
3138 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
3139 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
3140 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
3141 established system of notation similar to Chess.
3142
3143 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
3144 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
3145 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
3146
3147 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
3148 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
3149 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
3150 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
3151 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
3152 the like.
3153
3154 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
3155 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
3156
3157 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
3158 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
3159 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
3160 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
3161
3162 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
3163
3164 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
3165 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
3166 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
3167 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
3168 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
3169 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
3170 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
3171 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
3172 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
3173 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
3174 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
3175
3176 Platform-specific modes:
3177
3178 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
3179 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
3180 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
3181 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
3182 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
3183 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
3184 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
3185 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
3186 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
3187 \f
3188 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
3189
3190 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
3191 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
3192 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
3193 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
3194
3195 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
3196 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
3197 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
3198
3199 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
3200 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
3201 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
3202 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
3203
3204 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
3205 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
3206 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
3207 environment.
3208
3209 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
3210 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
3211 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
3212 current input method for reading this one event.
3213
3214 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
3215 now control whether to output certain characters as
3216 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
3217 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
3218 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
3219 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
3220 \f
3221 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
3222
3223 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
3224 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
3225
3226 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
3227 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
3228 always increases point by 1.
3229
3230 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
3231 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
3232
3233 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
3234
3235 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
3236 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
3237 default value changed. For example,
3238
3239 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
3240 :type 'integer
3241 :group 'foo
3242 :version "20.3")
3243
3244 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
3245 :version "20.3")
3246
3247 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
3248 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
3249 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
3250 `:version' in the top level group.
3251
3252 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
3253
3254 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
3255 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
3256
3257 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
3258 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
3259 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
3260 to themselves.
3261
3262 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
3263 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
3264 values whatever.
3265
3266 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
3267 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
3268 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
3269
3270 ** Frame-local variables.
3271
3272 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
3273 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
3274 local bindings for that variable.
3275
3276 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
3277 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
3278 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
3279 parameter name.
3280
3281 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
3282 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
3283 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
3284 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
3285
3286 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
3287 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
3288 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
3289 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
3290
3291 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
3292 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
3293 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
3294 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
3295 See the documentation in sregex.el.
3296
3297 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
3298 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
3299 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
3300 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
3301
3302 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
3303 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
3304
3305 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
3306 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
3307 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
3308
3309 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
3310 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
3311 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
3312 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
3313
3314 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
3315 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
3316 empty input.
3317
3318 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
3319 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
3320 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
3321 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
3322 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
3323
3324 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
3325 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
3326 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
3327 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
3328
3329 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
3330 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
3331 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
3332 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
3333 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
3334
3335 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
3336 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
3337 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
3338 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
3339
3340 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
3341 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
3342 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
3343
3344 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
3345 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
3346 was directed to display this buffer.
3347
3348 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
3349 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
3350 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
3351 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
3352 set-window-configuration.
3353
3354 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
3355 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
3356 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
3357 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
3358
3359 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
3360 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
3361 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
3362
3363 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
3364 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
3365 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
3366
3367 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
3368 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
3369
3370 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
3371 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
3372
3373 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
3374 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
3375 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
3376
3377 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
3378 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
3379 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
3380 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
3381
3382 ** Menu changes
3383
3384 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
3385 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
3386 better supported.
3387
3388 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
3389 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
3390 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
3391 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
3392 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
3393
3394 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
3395
3396 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
3397 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
3398 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
3399 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
3400
3401 The format is:
3402 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
3403 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
3404 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
3405 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
3406 The supported properties include
3407
3408 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
3409 item is enabled.
3410 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
3411 item should appear in the menu.
3412 :filter FILTER-FN
3413 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
3414 which will be REAL-BINDING.
3415 It should return a binding to use instead.
3416 :keys DESCRIPTION
3417 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
3418 binding for for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
3419 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
3420 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
3421 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
3422 keyboard binding.
3423 :key-sequence nil
3424 This means that the command normally has no
3425 keyboard equivalent.
3426 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
3427 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
3428 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
3429 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
3430 value says whether this button is currently selected.
3431
3432 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
3433 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
3434
3435 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
3436
3437 ** New event types
3438
3439 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
3440 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
3441 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
3442 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
3443
3444 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
3445
3446 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
3447 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
3448 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
3449 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
3450 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
3451 forward, away from the user.
3452
3453 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
3454
3455 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
3456 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
3457 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
3458 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
3459 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
3460
3461 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
3462
3463 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
3464 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
3465 that were dragged and dropped.
3466
3467 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
3468
3469 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
3470
3471 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
3472 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
3473 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
3474
3475 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
3476 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
3477 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
3478
3479 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
3480 in Emacs 19 and before.
3481
3482 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
3483 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
3484
3485 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
3486 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
3487 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
3488 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
3489
3490 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
3491 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
3492 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
3493 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
3494 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
3495
3496 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
3497 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
3498 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
3499 consistent with the new representation.
3500
3501 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
3502 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
3503 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
3504 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
3505
3506 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
3507 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
3508 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
3509
3510 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
3511 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
3512 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
3513
3514 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
3515 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
3516 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
3517
3518 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
3519 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
3520
3521 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
3522 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
3523
3524 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
3525 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
3526 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
3527 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
3528
3529 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
3530 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
3531
3532 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
3533 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
3534 buffer or string being searched.
3535
3536 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
3537 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
3538 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
3539 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
3540 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
3541 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
3542 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
3543
3544 *** Structure of coding system changed.
3545
3546 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
3547 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
3548 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
3549 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
3550 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
3551 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
3552 define-coding-system-alias.
3553
3554 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
3555 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
3556 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
3557 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
3558 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
3559 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
3560 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
3561 `iso-8859-1'.
3562
3563 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
3564 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
3565 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
3566 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
3567
3568 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
3569 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
3570 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
3571 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
3572
3573 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
3574 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
3575 This function requires a user interaction.
3576
3577 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
3578 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
3579 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
3580 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
3581 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
3582 select-safe-coding-system.
3583
3584 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
3585 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
3586 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
3587 was done.
3588
3589 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
3590 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
3591 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
3592
3593 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
3594 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
3595 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
3596 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
3597
3598 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
3599 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
3600 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
3601 converted.
3602
3603 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
3604 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
3605
3606 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
3607 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
3608 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
3609 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
3610 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
3611 range of characters.
3612
3613 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
3614 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
3615
3616 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
3617 in the current buffer at position POS.
3618
3619 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
3620 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
3621 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
3622 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
3623 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
3624 binding input-method-function to nil.
3625
3626 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
3627 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
3628 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
3629 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
3630 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
3631
3632 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
3633 subsequent events of a key sequence.
3634
3635 *** You can customize any language environment by using
3636 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
3637
3638 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
3639 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
3640 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
3641 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
3642 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
3643 \f
3644 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
3645
3646 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
3647 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
3648 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
3649 tree structure.
3650
3651 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
3652 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
3653
3654 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
3655 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
3656 in your .emacs file.)
3657
3658 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
3659 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
3660
3661 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
3662 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
3663
3664 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
3665 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
3666 kills the region.
3667
3668 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
3669 delete the character before point, as usual.
3670
3671 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
3672 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
3673 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
3674
3675 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
3676 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
3677 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
3678 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
3679 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
3680 past.)
3681
3682 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
3683 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
3684 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
3685 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
3686 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
3687
3688 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
3689 and is an alias for it.
3690
3691 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
3692 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
3693
3694 ** Scrolling changes
3695
3696 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
3697 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
3698
3699 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
3700 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
3701 where it started.
3702
3703 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
3704 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
3705 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
3706 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
3707
3708 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
3709 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
3710 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
3711 recenters the window.
3712
3713 ** International character set support (MULE)
3714
3715 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
3716 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
3717 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
3718 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
3719 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
3720 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
3721
3722 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
3723 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
3724 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
3725 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
3726 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
3727
3728 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
3729 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
3730 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
3731 language, to make it possible to type them.
3732
3733 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
3734 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
3735
3736 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
3737 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
3738
3739 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
3740
3741 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
3742
3743 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
3744 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
3745 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
3746 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
3747 characters for their work until they want to change.
3748
3749 *** Input methods
3750
3751 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
3752 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
3753 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
3754 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
3755 support several input methods.
3756
3757 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
3758 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
3759 work.
3760
3761 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
3762 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
3763 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
3764 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
3765 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
3766 letter.
3767
3768 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
3769 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
3770 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
3771 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
3772 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
3773
3774 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
3775 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
3776 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
3777 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
3778
3779 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
3780 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
3781 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
3782 the first guess is wrong.
3783
3784 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
3785 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
3786
3787 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
3788 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
3789 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
3790 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
3791
3792 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
3793 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
3794 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
3795 translate automatically to and from either one.
3796
3797 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
3798
3799 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
3800 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
3801 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
3802 what you want.
3803
3804 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
3805 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
3806 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
3807 multibyte characters in that buffer.
3808
3809 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
3810 character conversion as well.
3811
3812 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
3813
3814 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
3815 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
3816 requires using many fonts.
3817
3818 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
3819 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
3820
3821 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
3822 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
3823 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
3824 you would use a font.
3825
3826 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
3827 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
3828 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
3829
3830 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
3831 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
3832 characters). If another font in the fontset has a different height,
3833 or the wrong width, then characters assigned to that font are clipped,
3834 and displayed within a box if highlight-wrong-size-font is non-nil.
3835
3836 *** Defining fontsets.
3837
3838 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
3839 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
3840 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
3841
3842 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
3843 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
3844 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
3845 standard fontset are created automatically.
3846
3847 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
3848 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
3849 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
3850 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
3851 name is `fontset-startup'.
3852
3853 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
3854 The resource value should have this form:
3855 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
3856 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
3857 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
3858 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
3859 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
3860 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
3861 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
3862 CHARSET-NAME should be the name name of a character set, and
3863 FONT-NAME should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
3864
3865 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
3866 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
3867 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
3868
3869 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
3870 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
3871 following resource,
3872 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
3873 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
3874 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
3875 Here is the substitution rule:
3876 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
3877 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
3878 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
3879 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
3880 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
3881
3882 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
3883 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
3884 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
3885
3886 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
3887 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
3888 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
3889 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
3890 fontsets.
3891
3892 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
3893 defaults for a particular choice of language.
3894
3895 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
3896 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
3897 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
3898 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
3899 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
3900 system for new files that you create.
3901
3902 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
3903 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
3904 whole Emacs session.
3905
3906 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
3907 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
3908 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
3909
3910 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
3911 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
3912 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
3913 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
3914 coding systems that Emacs supports.
3915
3916 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
3917 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
3918 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
3919 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
3920 is used for *the immediately following command*.
3921
3922 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
3923 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
3924
3925 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
3926 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
3927
3928 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
3929 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
3930
3931 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
3932 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
3933 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
3934 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
3935 of the file.
3936
3937 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
3938 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
3939 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
3940 translated into that character code.
3941
3942 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
3943 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
3944
3945 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
3946
3947 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
3948 the coding system for keyboard input.
3949
3950 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
3951 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
3952 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
3953
3954 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
3955
3956 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
3957 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
3958 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
3959 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
3960 designed to work with terminals.
3961
3962 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
3963 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
3964 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
3965 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
3966 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
3967 in the corresponding buffer.
3968
3969 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
3970
3971 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
3972 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
3973 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
3974
3975 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
3976 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
3977 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
3978 want to use.
3979
3980 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
3981 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
3982
3983 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
3984 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
3985 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
3986 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
3987
3988 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
3989 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
3990 related information.
3991
3992 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
3993 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
3994 scripts.
3995
3996 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
3997 information about the support for a particular language.
3998 You specify the language as an argument.
3999
4000 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
4001 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
4002 first dash.
4003
4004 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
4005 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
4006 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
4007 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
4008
4009 A alternativnyj (Russian)
4010 B big5 (Chinese)
4011 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
4012 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
4013 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
4014 E euc-japan (Japanese)
4015 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
4016 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
4017 K euc-korea (Korean)
4018 R koi8 (Russian)
4019 Q tibetan
4020 S shift_jis (Japanese)
4021 T lao
4022 T tis620 (Thai)
4023 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
4024 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
4025 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
4026 v viqr (Vietnamese)
4027 z hz (Chinese)
4028
4029 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
4030 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
4031 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
4032 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
4033
4034 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
4035 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
4036
4037 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
4038 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
4039 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
4040 Rmail files themselves.
4041
4042 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
4043 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
4044
4045 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
4046 for sending mail:
4047
4048 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
4049 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
4050 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
4051 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
4052 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
4053
4054 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
4055 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
4056 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
4057 translations.
4058
4059 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
4060 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
4061 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
4062 without any conversion.
4063
4064 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
4065 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
4066 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
4067 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
4068
4069 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
4070 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
4071
4072 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
4073 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
4074
4075 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
4076 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
4077
4078 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
4079 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
4080 in the buffer before point.
4081
4082 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
4083 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
4084 you are using.
4085
4086 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
4087 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
4088
4089 ** File locking works with NFS now.
4090
4091 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
4092 in the same directory as FILENAME.
4093
4094 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
4095 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
4096 can become a bottleneck.
4097
4098 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
4099 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
4100 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
4101 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
4102 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
4103 so useful that the change is worth while.
4104
4105 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
4106 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
4107 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
4108 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
4109
4110 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
4111 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
4112 show-paren-mode.
4113
4114 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
4115 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
4116 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
4117
4118 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
4119 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
4120 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
4121
4122 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
4123 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
4124 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
4125
4126 ** Changes in View mode.
4127
4128 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
4129 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
4130
4131 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
4132 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
4133
4134 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
4135 previous state.
4136
4137 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
4138 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
4139
4140 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
4141 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
4142 not just the selected window.
4143
4144 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
4145 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
4146 turns View mode on or off.
4147
4148 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
4149 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
4150 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
4151
4152 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
4153 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
4154
4155 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
4156 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
4157 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
4158 which version to compare with.
4159
4160 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
4161 blocks if a match is inside the block.
4162
4163 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
4164 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
4165 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
4166 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
4167
4168 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
4169 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
4170 blocks, all of them or none.
4171
4172 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
4173 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
4174 confirmation first.
4175
4176 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
4177 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
4178 However, the mode will not be changed if
4179 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
4180 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
4181 not suitable for ordinary files, or
4182 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
4183
4184 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
4185
4186 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
4187 these commands do not change the major mode.
4188
4189 ** M-x occur changes.
4190
4191 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
4192 it performs a case-sensitive search.
4193
4194 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
4195 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
4196 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
4197
4198 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
4199 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
4200 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
4201 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
4202 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
4203
4204 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
4205 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
4206 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
4207 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
4208
4209 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
4210 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
4211 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
4212
4213 ** Outline mode changes.
4214
4215 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
4216
4217 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
4218
4219 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
4220 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
4221 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
4222 was already active.
4223
4224 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
4225 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
4226 get confused by it.
4227
4228 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
4229 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
4230
4231 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
4232
4233 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
4234 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
4235 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
4236 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
4237
4238 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
4239 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
4240 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
4241
4242 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
4243 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
4244 values.
4245
4246 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
4247 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
4248 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
4249 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
4250
4251 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
4252 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
4253 can be. The default value is 30.
4254
4255 ** Changes in Mail mode.
4256
4257 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
4258 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
4259 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
4260 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
4261 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
4262 behavior.
4263
4264 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
4265 compose-mail-other-frame.
4266
4267 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
4268 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
4269 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
4270 buffer that shows the original message.
4271
4272 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
4273 with separator lines around the contents.
4274
4275 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
4276 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
4277 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
4278 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
4279
4280 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
4281
4282 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
4283 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
4284 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
4285 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
4286
4287 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
4288 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
4289 /etc/passwd.
4290
4291 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
4292 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
4293 /etc/passwd.
4294
4295 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
4296 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
4297 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
4298 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
4299
4300 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
4301 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
4302 be taken to be magic.
4303
4304 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
4305 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
4306 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
4307
4308 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
4309 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
4310
4311 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
4312 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
4313
4314 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
4315
4316 new key dired.el binding old key
4317 ------- ---------------- -------
4318 * c dired-change-marks c
4319 * m dired-mark m
4320 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
4321 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
4322 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
4323 * u dired-unmark u
4324 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
4325 * ? dired-unmark-all-files M-C-?
4326 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
4327 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
4328 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
4329 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
4330
4331 ** Rmail changes.
4332
4333 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
4334 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
4335 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
4336 each time you run it.
4337
4338 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
4339 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
4340
4341 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
4342 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
4343 means to move in the opposite direction.
4344
4345 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
4346 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
4347
4348 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
4349 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
4350 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
4351 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
4352 for output.
4353
4354 ** Gnus changes.
4355
4356 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
4357
4358 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
4359 Gnus.
4360
4361 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
4362 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
4363
4364 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
4365 article mode line.
4366
4367 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
4368
4369 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
4370
4371 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
4372
4373 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
4374 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
4375 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
4376
4377 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
4378
4379 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
4380
4381 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
4382 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
4383
4384 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
4385 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
4386 used to pick articles.
4387
4388 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
4389 another have been added.
4390
4391 `M-x gnus-change-server'
4392
4393 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
4394 generating lines in buffers.
4395
4396 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
4397 `M-C-_'.
4398
4399 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
4400
4401 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
4402
4403 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
4404
4405 *** Scores can be decayed.
4406
4407 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
4408
4409 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
4410 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
4411
4412 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
4413 the native server.
4414
4415 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
4416
4417 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
4418 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `M-C-d'.
4419
4420 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
4421
4422 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
4423 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
4424
4425 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
4426 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
4427
4428 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
4429 a group.
4430
4431 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
4432 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
4433
4434 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
4435
4436 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
4437
4438 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
4439
4440 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
4441
4442 Use the `Y c' command.
4443
4444 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
4445
4446 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
4447
4448 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
4449
4450 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
4451 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
4452
4453 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
4454
4455 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
4456
4457 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
4458 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
4459
4460 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
4461
4462 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
4463 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
4464 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
4465 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
4466 this issue.)
4467
4468 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
4469 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
4470 particular news group. This can be done by:
4471
4472 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
4473
4474 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
4475 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
4476 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
4477 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
4478 for reading and posting).
4479
4480 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
4481 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
4482 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
4483 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
4484 there.
4485
4486 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
4487 default. Here are some of these default settings:
4488
4489 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
4490 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
4491 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
4492 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
4493 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
4494
4495 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
4496 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
4497
4498 ** CC mode changes.
4499
4500 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
4501 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
4502 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
4503 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
4504 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
4505 loaded.
4506
4507 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
4508 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
4509 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
4510 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
4511 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
4512 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
4513
4514 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
4515 of the current buffer.
4516
4517 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
4518 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
4519 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
4520
4521 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
4522 style that the Python developers like.
4523
4524 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
4525 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
4526 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
4527
4528 ** VC Changes [new]
4529
4530 ** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
4531 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
4532 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
4533
4534 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
4535 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
4536 developers.
4537
4538 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
4539 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
4540
4541 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
4542 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
4543 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
4544 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
4545
4546 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
4547 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
4548
4549 ** Calendar changes.
4550
4551 A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or subclasses
4552 of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow you do this
4553 for the year of the selected date, or the following/previous years.
4554
4555 ** ps-print changes
4556
4557 There are some new user variables for customizing the page layout.
4558
4559 *** Paper size, paper orientation, columns
4560
4561 The variable `ps-paper-type' determines the size of paper ps-print
4562 formats for; it should contain one of the symbols:
4563 `a4' `a3' `letter' `legal' `letter-small' `tabloid'
4564 `ledger' `statement' `executive' `a4small' `b4' `b5'
4565 It defaults to `letter'.
4566 If you need other sizes, see the variable `ps-page-dimensions-database'.
4567
4568 The variable `ps-landscape-mode' determines the orientation
4569 of the printing on the page. nil, the default, means "portrait" mode,
4570 non-nil means "landscape" mode.
4571
4572 The variable `ps-number-of-columns' must be a positive integer.
4573 It determines the number of columns both in landscape and portrait mode.
4574 It defaults to 1.
4575
4576 *** Horizontal layout
4577
4578 The horizontal layout is determined by the variables
4579 `ps-left-margin', `ps-inter-column', and `ps-right-margin'.
4580 All are measured in points.
4581
4582 *** Vertical layout
4583
4584 The vertical layout is determined by the variables
4585 `ps-bottom-margin', `ps-top-margin', and `ps-header-offset'.
4586 All are measured in points.
4587
4588 *** Headers
4589
4590 If the variable `ps-print-header' is nil, no header is printed. Then
4591 `ps-header-offset' is not relevant and `ps-top-margin' represents the
4592 margin above the text.
4593
4594 If the variable `ps-print-header-frame' is non-nil, a gaudy
4595 framing box is printed around the header.
4596
4597 The contents of the header are determined by `ps-header-lines',
4598 `ps-show-n-of-n', `ps-left-header' and `ps-right-header'.
4599
4600 The height of the header is determined by `ps-header-line-pad',
4601 `ps-header-font-family', `ps-header-title-font-size' and
4602 `ps-header-font-size'.
4603
4604 *** Font managing
4605
4606 The variable `ps-font-family' determines which font family is to be
4607 used for ordinary text. Its value must be a key symbol in the alist
4608 `ps-font-info-database'. You can add other font families by adding
4609 elements to this alist.
4610
4611 The variable `ps-font-size' determines the size of the font
4612 for ordinary text. It defaults to 8.5 points.
4613
4614 ** hideshow changes.
4615
4616 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
4617 C++, ; for lisp).
4618
4619 *** Support for java-mode added.
4620
4621 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
4622 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
4623
4624 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the the comments at
4625 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
4626 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
4627
4628 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
4629 robust and a lot faster.
4630
4631 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
4632
4633 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
4634 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
4635 documentation for more details.
4636
4637 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
4638
4639 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
4640 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
4641 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
4642 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
4643 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
4644
4645 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
4646 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
4647 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
4648 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
4649
4650 ** Font Lock mode
4651
4652 *** Custom support
4653
4654 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
4655 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
4656 faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
4657 group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
4658 your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
4659 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
4660
4661 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
4662
4663 *** Maximum decoration
4664
4665 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
4666 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
4667 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
4668 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
4669 to get the old behavior.
4670
4671 *** New support
4672
4673 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
4674
4675 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
4676 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
4677
4678 *** Configurable support
4679
4680 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
4681 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
4682 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
4683 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
4684 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
4685 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
4686 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
4687
4688 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
4689 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
4690 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
4691
4692 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
4693
4694 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
4695 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
4696 for any mode.
4697
4698 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
4699
4700 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
4701
4702 in your ~/.emacs.
4703
4704 *** New faces
4705
4706 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
4707 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
4708 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
4709 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
4710
4711 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
4712
4713 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
4714 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
4715 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
4716
4717 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
4718
4719 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
4720 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
4721 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
4722 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
4723 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
4724 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
4725 Lock mode behaviour and the behaviour of Font Lock mode.
4726
4727 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
4728 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
4729 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
4730 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
4731 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
4732 the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
4733
4734 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
4735
4736 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
4737 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
4738 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
4739 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
4740
4741 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
4742 settings.
4743
4744 ** Ada mode changes.
4745
4746 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
4747 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
4748 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
4749 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
4750 stubs.
4751
4752 *** There are two new commands:
4753 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
4754 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
4755
4756 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
4757 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
4758 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
4759
4760 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
4761 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
4762 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
4763
4764 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
4765 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
4766 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
4767 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
4768
4769 ** Scheme mode changes.
4770
4771 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
4772 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
4773 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
4774 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
4775 have any effect.
4776
4777 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
4778 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
4779 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
4780 variables as buffer-local variables.
4781
4782 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
4783 Use M-x dsssl-mode.
4784
4785 ** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
4786 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
4787 buffer in Emacs.
4788
4789 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
4790 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
4791 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
4792
4793 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
4794 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
4795 the current defun.
4796
4797 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
4798 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
4799
4800 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
4801 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
4802 necessary).
4803
4804 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
4805 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
4806 these register values no longer become completely useless.
4807 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
4808 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
4809 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
4810
4811 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
4812 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
4813 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
4814 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
4815
4816 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
4817 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
4818 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
4819 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
4820 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
4821
4822 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
4823 since it applies only to the current frame.
4824
4825 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
4826 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
4827 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
4828
4829 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
4830 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
4831 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
4832 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
4833 instead of just the file you are editing.
4834
4835 ** RefTeX mode
4836
4837 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
4838 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
4839 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
4840 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
4841 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
4842
4843 C-c ( reftex-label
4844 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
4845 knows which kind of label is needed.
4846
4847 C-c ) reftex-reference
4848 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
4849 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
4850
4851 C-c [ reftex-citation
4852 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
4853 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
4854
4855 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
4856 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
4857
4858 C-c = reftex-toc
4859 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
4860 can quickly jump to every section.
4861
4862 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
4863 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
4864 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
4865 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
4866 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
4867
4868 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
4869
4870 *** Info documentation is now available.
4871
4872 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
4873 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
4874
4875 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
4876 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
4877
4878 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
4879 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
4880
4881 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
4882 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
4883 appropriate functions.
4884
4885 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
4886 entries. They are bound by default to M-C-l and M-C-h.
4887
4888 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
4889 been cleaned.
4890
4891 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
4892 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
4893
4894 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
4895 shall be delimited.
4896
4897 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
4898 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
4899 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
4900
4901 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
4902 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
4903 prefixed with `ALT'.
4904
4905 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
4906 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
4907 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
4908 documentation).
4909
4910 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
4911 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
4912 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
4913
4914 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
4915 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
4916
4917 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
4918 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
4919 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
4920
4921 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
4922
4923 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
4924
4925 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
4926 from alien sources.
4927
4928 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
4929 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
4930 crossref entries.
4931
4932 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
4933 region.
4934
4935 *** Added support for imenu.
4936
4937 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
4938 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
4939 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
4940 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
4941
4942 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
4943 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
4944
4945 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
4946
4947 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
4948 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
4949 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
4950 as an argument.
4951
4952 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
4953 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
4954
4955 ** browse-url changes
4956
4957 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
4958 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
4959 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
4960 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
4961 customization variables.
4962
4963 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
4964
4965 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
4966 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
4967 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
4968
4969 ** Changes in Ediff
4970
4971 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
4972 pops up the Info file for this command.
4973
4974 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
4975 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
4976 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
4977 directories).
4978
4979 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
4980 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
4981 files in the same directory.
4982
4983 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
4984 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
4985 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
4986
4987 ** Changes in Viper
4988
4989 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
4990 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
4991 instead of vip-.
4992 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
4993 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
4994 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
4995 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
4996 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
4997 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
4998 color when Viper is in insert state.
4999 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
5000 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
5001 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
5002
5003 ** Etags changes.
5004
5005 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
5006 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
5007 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
5008 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
5009 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
5010
5011 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
5012
5013 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
5014 constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
5015
5016 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
5017 recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
5018 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
5019
5020 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
5021 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
5022 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
5023 methods and protocols.
5024
5025 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
5026 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
5027 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
5028 paragraph name.
5029
5030 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
5031 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
5032 at least M times and as many as N times.
5033
5034 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
5035 in files has changed slightly.
5036
5037 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
5038 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
5039 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
5040 with old time-stamp-format values.
5041
5042 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
5043 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
5044 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
5045 reasons.
5046
5047 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
5048 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
5049 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
5050 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
5051 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
5052 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
5053
5054 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
5055 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
5056 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
5057
5058 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
5059 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
5060 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
5061 recommended now will continue to work then.
5062
5063 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
5064 details.
5065
5066 ** There are some additional major modes:
5067
5068 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
5069 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
5070 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
5071
5072 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
5073 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
5074 into Emacs.
5075
5076 ** New Lisp packages include:
5077
5078 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
5079
5080 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
5081 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
5082
5083 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
5084
5085 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
5086 in shell buffers.
5087
5088 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
5089 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
5090 and `elint-defun'.
5091
5092 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
5093 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
5094 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
5095 strings or comments.
5096
5097 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
5098 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
5099 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
5100 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
5101 at these points.
5102
5103 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
5104 can visit them by short forms of their names.
5105
5106 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
5107 Emacs Lisp function at point.
5108
5109 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
5110
5111 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
5112 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
5113
5114 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
5115
5116 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
5117
5118 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
5119
5120 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
5121 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
5122
5123 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
5124 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
5125 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
5126 original place after inserting the copy.
5127
5128 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
5129 on the buffer.
5130
5131 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
5132 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
5133 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
5134
5135 Enable mouse-drag with:
5136 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
5137 -or-
5138 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
5139
5140 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
5141 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
5142
5143 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
5144 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
5145
5146 *** ogonek
5147
5148 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
5149 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
5150 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
5151 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
5152 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
5153 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
5154 instance) and vice versa.
5155
5156 To use this package load it using
5157 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
5158 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
5159 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
5160 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
5161 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
5162 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
5163
5164 *** Interface to ph.
5165
5166 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
5167
5168 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
5169 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
5170 these servers.
5171
5172 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
5173
5174 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
5175 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
5176 while the real cursor does not move.
5177
5178 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
5179 for visiting your favorite web sites.
5180
5181 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
5182 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
5183
5184 ** movemail change
5185
5186 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
5187 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
5188 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
5189 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
5190
5191 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
5192 \f
5193 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
5194
5195 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
5196
5197 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
5198 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
5199 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
5200 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
5201 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
5202
5203 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
5204 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
5205 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
5206 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
5207 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
5208 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
5209 \f
5210 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
5211
5212 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
5213 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
5214 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
5215 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
5216
5217 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
5218 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
5219
5220 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
5221 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
5222 "win".
5223
5224 ** Basic Lisp changes
5225
5226 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
5227 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
5228
5229 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
5230 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
5231 or by the user.
5232
5233 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
5234
5235 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
5236
5237 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
5238 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
5239
5240 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
5241 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
5242 its argument.
5243
5244 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
5245
5246 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
5247
5248 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
5249
5250 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
5251 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
5252 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
5253 `format' function.
5254
5255 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
5256 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
5257 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
5258
5259 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
5260 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
5261 adding one of these suffixes.
5262
5263 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
5264 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
5265 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
5266
5267 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
5268 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
5269
5270 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
5271
5272 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
5273 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
5274
5275 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
5276 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
5277
5278 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
5279
5280 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
5281 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
5282
5283 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
5284 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
5285 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
5286 works using `save-current-buffer'.
5287
5288 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
5289 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
5290 of the last form.
5291
5292 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
5293 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
5294 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
5295 as the last form.
5296
5297 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
5298 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
5299 matches.
5300
5301 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
5302
5303 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
5304 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
5305 Then it returns that string.
5306
5307 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
5308
5309 (with-output-to-string
5310 (princ "The buffer is ")
5311 (princ (buffer-name)))
5312
5313 returns "The buffer is foo".
5314
5315 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
5316 is non-nil.
5317
5318 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
5319 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
5320 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
5321
5322 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
5323 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
5324
5325 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
5326 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
5327 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
5328 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
5329 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
5330 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
5331
5332 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
5333 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
5334 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
5335 characters".
5336
5337 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
5338 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
5339 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
5340 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
5341 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
5342
5343 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
5344 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
5345 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
5346 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
5347
5348 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
5349 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
5350
5351 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
5352
5353 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
5354 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
5355 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
5356 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
5357 guaranteed.
5358
5359 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
5360 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
5361 character).
5362
5363 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
5364
5365 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
5366 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
5367 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
5368 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
5369 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
5370
5371 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
5372
5373 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
5374 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
5375 more than the number of characters.
5376
5377 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
5378 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
5379 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
5380 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
5381 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
5382 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
5383
5384 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
5385 and returns a string containing those characters.
5386
5387 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
5388 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
5389 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
5390 character, sref signals an error.
5391
5392 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
5393 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
5394 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
5395
5396 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
5397 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
5398 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
5399
5400 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
5401 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
5402 to a vector of the characters in it.
5403
5404 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
5405 of a string. You call it as follows:
5406
5407 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
5408
5409 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
5410 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
5411 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
5412 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
5413 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
5414
5415 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
5416 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
5417
5418 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
5419 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
5420
5421 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
5422 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
5423 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
5424 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
5425
5426 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
5427
5428 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
5429
5430 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
5431 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
5432 are not included in the resulting value.
5433
5434 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
5435 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
5436 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
5437 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
5438
5439 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
5440 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
5441 character extends across that column), then the padding character
5442 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
5443 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
5444 column START-COLUMN.
5445
5446 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
5447 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
5448 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
5449 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
5450 changed text, before the change.
5451
5452 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
5453 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
5454 one character set for each script, not for each language.
5455
5456 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
5457
5458 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
5459
5460 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
5461 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
5462
5463 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
5464 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
5465 which identify the character within that character set.
5466
5467 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
5468 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
5469 opposite of split-char.
5470
5471 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
5472 of all the characters between BEG and END.
5473
5474 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
5475 of all the characters in a string.
5476
5477 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
5478 and specifying coding systems.
5479
5480 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
5481 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
5482 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
5483 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
5484 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
5485 as what to do about code conversion.)
5486
5487 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
5488 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
5489
5490 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
5491 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
5492 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
5493
5494 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
5495 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
5496 to match against a file name.
5497
5498 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
5499 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
5500 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
5501 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
5502 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
5503 specifies the coding system for encoding.
5504
5505 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
5506 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
5507
5508 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
5509 the coding system to use for network sockets.
5510
5511 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
5512 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
5513 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
5514 service names.
5515
5516 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
5517 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
5518 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
5519 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
5520 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
5521 specifies the coding system for encoding.
5522
5523 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
5524 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
5525
5526 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
5527 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
5528 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
5529 start the subprocess.
5530
5531 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
5532 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
5533 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
5534 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
5535 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
5536
5537 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
5538 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
5539 subprocess.
5540
5541 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
5542 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
5543 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
5544 connection permanently or until overridden.
5545
5546 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
5547 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
5548 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
5549 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
5550 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
5551 system for one operation at a time.
5552
5553 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
5554 files, subprocesses or network connections.
5555
5556 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
5557 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
5558 The value is a cons cell,
5559 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
5560 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
5561 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
5562 input to the subprocess.
5563
5564 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
5565 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
5566
5567 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
5568 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
5569 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
5570
5571 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
5572 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
5573 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
5574 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
5575 customization.
5576
5577 Thus, instead of writing
5578
5579 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
5580 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
5581
5582 you would now write this:
5583
5584 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
5585 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
5586 :type 'boolean
5587 :group foo)
5588
5589 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
5590 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
5591 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
5592 for a description of them.
5593
5594 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
5595 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
5596
5597 (defgroup ispell nil
5598 "Spell checking using Ispell."
5599 :group 'processes)
5600
5601 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
5602 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
5603 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
5604 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
5605 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
5606
5607 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
5608 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
5609 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
5610 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
5611 first-level subgroups.
5612
5613 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
5614
5615 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
5616 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
5617
5618 ** easy-mmode
5619
5620 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
5621 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
5622 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
5623 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
5624 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
5625 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
5626
5627 ** Text property changes
5628
5629 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
5630 text property.
5631
5632 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
5633 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
5634 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
5635 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
5636 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
5637
5638 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
5639 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
5640 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
5641 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
5642
5643 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
5644 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
5645 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
5646
5647 ** Changes in invisibility features
5648
5649 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
5650 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
5651 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
5652 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
5653 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
5654 make the overlay visible.
5655
5656 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
5657 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
5658 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
5659 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
5660 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
5661 t when it should hide it.
5662
5663 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
5664
5665 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
5666 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
5667 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
5668 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
5669 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
5670 Here is an example of how to do this:
5671
5672 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
5673 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
5674 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
5675 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
5676
5677 ...
5678 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
5679
5680 ...
5681 ;; When done with the overlays:
5682 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
5683 ;; Or respectively:
5684 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
5685
5686 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
5687
5688 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
5689 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
5690 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
5691 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
5692
5693 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
5694 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
5695 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
5696
5697 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
5698 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
5699
5700 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
5701 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
5702
5703 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
5704 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
5705 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
5706
5707 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
5708 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
5709 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
5710 determine the syntax type of the character.
5711
5712 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
5713 of the current buffer.
5714
5715 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
5716 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
5717 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
5718
5719 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
5720 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
5721 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
5722 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
5723 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
5724
5725 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
5726 text property.
5727
5728 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
5729 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
5730 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
5731
5732 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
5733 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
5734 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
5735 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
5736 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
5737
5738 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
5739 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
5740 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
5741
5742 ** Changes in face features
5743
5744 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
5745 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
5746
5747 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
5748 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
5749
5750 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
5751 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
5752
5753 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
5754 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
5755
5756 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
5757 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
5758 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
5759 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
5760 overlay property).
5761
5762 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
5763 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
5764
5765 ** Changes in file-handling functions
5766
5767 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
5768 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
5769 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
5770 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
5771
5772 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
5773 begins with ~.
5774
5775 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
5776 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
5777
5778 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
5779 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
5780
5781 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
5782 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
5783
5784 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
5785 character code conversion as well as other things.
5786
5787 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
5788 (formerly it did not).
5789
5790 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
5791 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
5792
5793 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
5794 instead of constant strings.
5795
5796 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
5797 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
5798 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
5799
5800 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
5801 in the same way as before.
5802
5803 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
5804 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
5805 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
5806
5807 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
5808 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
5809 else, and returns nil.
5810
5811 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
5812 directory cannot be listed.
5813
5814 ** Changes in minibuffer input
5815
5816 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
5817 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
5818 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
5819 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
5820 ways:
5821
5822 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
5823 It is available through the history command M-n.
5824
5825 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
5826 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
5827 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
5828 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
5829 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
5830
5831 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
5832 argument in this way.
5833
5834 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
5835 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
5836 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
5837
5838 ** Echo area features
5839
5840 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
5841 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
5842 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
5843 after the echo area is cleared.
5844
5845 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
5846 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
5847
5848 ** Keyboard input features
5849
5850 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
5851 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
5852
5853 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
5854 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
5855 by keyboard macros.
5856
5857 ** Frame-related changes
5858
5859 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
5860 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
5861 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
5862
5863 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
5864 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
5865 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
5866
5867 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
5868 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
5869 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
5870 in the selected frame.
5871
5872 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
5873 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
5874 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
5875
5876 ** X Windows features
5877
5878 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
5879 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
5880 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
5881
5882 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
5883 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
5884
5885 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
5886 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
5887 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
5888
5889 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
5890 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
5891
5892 ** Subprocess features
5893
5894 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
5895 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
5896 automatically.
5897
5898 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
5899 and returns the output from the command as a string.
5900
5901 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
5902 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
5903
5904 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
5905 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
5906
5907 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
5908 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
5909 goes after the other menu items.
5910
5911 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
5912 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
5913 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
5914 are in use.
5915
5916 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
5917 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
5918
5919 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
5920 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
5921 form.
5922
5923 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
5924 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
5925 but its hook is still run.
5926
5927 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
5928 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
5929
5930 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
5931 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
5932 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
5933
5934 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
5935 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
5936 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
5937 warned.
5938
5939 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
5940 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
5941
5942 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
5943 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
5944 functions like display-time.
5945
5946 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
5947 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
5948
5949 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
5950 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
5951 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
5952
5953 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
5954 if there is an error in compilation.
5955
5956 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
5957 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
5958 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
5959 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
5960
5961 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
5962 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
5963 the *scratch* buffer.
5964
5965 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
5966 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
5967 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
5968 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
5969
5970 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
5971 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
5972 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
5973
5974 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
5975 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
5976 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
5977 and compose-mail-other-frame.
5978
5979 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
5980 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
5981 full name of the specified user will be returned.
5982
5983 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
5984 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
5985 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
5986 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
5987 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
5988 files at all.
5989
5990 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
5991 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
5992 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
5993 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
5994
5995 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
5996 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
5997 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
5998 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
5999
6000 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
6001
6002 ** imenu.el changes.
6003
6004 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
6005 item from menu created by imenu.
6006
6007 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
6008 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
6009 select one of those items.
6010 \f
6011 * Emacs 19.34 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
6012 \f
6013 * Changes in Emacs 19.33.
6014
6015 ** Bibtex mode no longer turns on Auto Fill automatically. (No major
6016 mode should do that--it is the user's choice.)
6017
6018 ** The variable normal-auto-fill-function specifies the function to
6019 use for auto-fill-function, if and when Auto Fill is turned on.
6020 Major modes can set this locally to alter how Auto Fill works.
6021 \f
6022 * Editing Changes in Emacs 19.32
6023
6024 ** C-x f with no argument now signals an error.
6025 To set the fill column at the current column, use C-u C-x f.
6026
6027 ** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
6028 conversion. If you type the abbreviation with mixed case, and it
6029 matches the beginning of the expansion including case, then the
6030 expansion is copied verbatim. Using SPC M-/ to copy an additional
6031 word always copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is
6032 all caps.
6033
6034 ** On a non-windowing terminal, which can display only one Emacs frame
6035 at a time, creating a new frame with C-x 5 2 also selects that frame.
6036
6037 When using a display that can show multiple frames at once, C-x 5 2
6038 does make the frame visible, but does not select it. This is the same
6039 as in previous Emacs versions.
6040
6041 ** You can use C-x 5 2 to create multiple frames on MSDOS, just as on a
6042 non-X terminal on Unix. Of course, only one frame is visible at any
6043 time, since your terminal doesn't have the ability to display multiple
6044 frames.
6045
6046 ** On Windows, set win32-pass-alt-to-system to a non-nil value
6047 if you would like tapping the Alt key to invoke the Windows menu.
6048 This feature is not enabled by default; since the Alt key is also the
6049 Meta key, it is too easy and painful to activate this feature by
6050 accident.
6051
6052 ** The command apply-macro-to-region-lines repeats the last defined
6053 keyboard macro once for each complete line within the current region.
6054 It does this line by line, by moving point to the beginning of that
6055 line and then executing the macro.
6056
6057 This command is not new, but was never documented before.
6058
6059 ** You can now use Mouse-1 to place the region around a string constant
6060 (something surrounded by doublequote characters or other delimiter
6061 characters of like syntax) by double-clicking on one of the delimiting
6062 characters.
6063
6064 ** Font Lock mode
6065
6066 *** Font Lock support modes
6067
6068 Font Lock can be configured to use Fast Lock mode and Lazy Lock mode (see
6069 below) in a flexible way. Rather than adding the appropriate function to the
6070 hook font-lock-mode-hook, you can use the new variable font-lock-support-mode
6071 to control which modes have Fast Lock mode or Lazy Lock mode turned on when
6072 Font Lock mode is enabled.
6073
6074 For example, to use Fast Lock mode when Font Lock mode is turned on, put:
6075
6076 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'fast-lock-mode)
6077
6078 in your ~/.emacs.
6079
6080 *** lazy-lock
6081
6082 The lazy-lock package speeds up Font Lock mode by making fontification occur
6083 only when necessary, such as when a previously unfontified part of the buffer
6084 becomes visible in a window. When you create a buffer with Font Lock mode and
6085 Lazy Lock mode turned on, the buffer is not fontified. When certain events
6086 occur (such as scrolling), Lazy Lock makes sure that the visible parts of the
6087 buffer are fontified. Lazy Lock also defers on-the-fly fontification until
6088 Emacs has been idle for a given amount of time.
6089
6090 To use this package, put in your ~/.emacs:
6091
6092 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'lazy-lock-mode)
6093
6094 To control the package behaviour, see the documentation for `lazy-lock-mode'.
6095
6096 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
6097
6098 *** For all entries allow spaces and tabs between opening brace or
6099 paren and key.
6100
6101 *** Non-escaped double-quoted characters (as in `Sch"of') are now
6102 supported.
6103
6104 ** Gnus changes.
6105
6106 Gnus, the Emacs news reader, has undergone further rewriting. Many new
6107 commands and variables have been added. There should be no
6108 significant incompatibilities between this Gnus version and the
6109 previously released version, except in the message composition area.
6110
6111 Below is a list of the more user-visible changes. Coding changes
6112 between Gnus 5.1 and 5.2 are more extensive.
6113
6114 *** A new message composition mode is used. All old customization
6115 variables for mail-mode, rnews-reply-mode and gnus-msg are now
6116 obsolete.
6117
6118 *** Gnus is now able to generate "sparse" threads -- threads where
6119 missing articles are represented by empty nodes.
6120
6121 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
6122
6123 *** Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server.
6124
6125 To disable this: (setq gnus-message-archive-group nil)
6126
6127 *** Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
6128 referred.
6129
6130 *** Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions:
6131
6132 (setq gnus-use-grouplens t)
6133
6134 *** A trn-line tree buffer can be displayed.
6135
6136 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
6137
6138 *** An nn-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
6139 buffers.
6140
6141 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
6142
6143 *** In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode:
6144
6145 `M-x gnus-binary-mode'
6146
6147 *** Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy.
6148
6149 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
6150
6151 *** Gnus can re-send and bounce mail.
6152
6153 Use the `S D r' and `S D b'.
6154
6155 *** Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
6156 is possible.
6157
6158 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
6159
6160 *** Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
6161 groups of groups.
6162
6163 *** Caching is possible in virtual groups.
6164
6165 *** nndoc now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews news
6166 batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything else.
6167
6168 *** Gnus has a new backend (nnsoup) to create/read SOUP packets.
6169
6170 *** The Gnus cache is much faster.
6171
6172 *** Groups can be sorted according to many criteria.
6173
6174 For instance: (setq gnus-group-sort-function 'gnus-group-sort-by-rank)
6175
6176 *** New group parameters have been introduced to set list-address and
6177 expiration times.
6178
6179 *** All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used.
6180
6181 *** There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on
6182 process marked articles on the `M P' submap.
6183
6184 *** The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
6185 articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
6186 bound to keys on the `/' submap.
6187
6188 *** Articles can be made persistent -- as an alternative to saving
6189 articles with the `*' command.
6190
6191 *** All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
6192
6193 *** Article headers can be buttonized.
6194
6195 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head)
6196
6197 *** All mail backends support fetching articles by Message-ID.
6198
6199 *** Duplicate mail can now be treated properly. See the
6200 `nnmail-treat-duplicates' variable.
6201
6202 *** All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
6203 buffer.
6204
6205 *** Frames can be part of `gnus-buffer-configuration'.
6206
6207 *** Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process.
6208
6209 *** Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to filter spam.
6210
6211 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
6212
6213 *** Groups can be made permanently visible.
6214
6215 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
6216
6217 *** Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
6218
6219 *** Gnus respects the Mail-Copies-To header.
6220
6221 *** Threads can be gathered by looking at the References header.
6222
6223 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
6224 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
6225
6226 *** Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
6227 refetching.
6228
6229 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
6230
6231 *** A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
6232 buffer to allow easier treatment.
6233
6234 *** Gnus can suggest where to save articles. See `gnus-split-methods'.
6235
6236 *** Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving.
6237
6238 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
6239
6240 *** gnus-uu can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
6241 articles.
6242
6243 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
6244
6245 *** Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text.
6246
6247 *** Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
6248 cited text to hide is now customizable.
6249
6250 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
6251
6252 *** Boring headers can be hidden.
6253
6254 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-hide-boring-headers)
6255
6256 *** Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
6257
6258 *** Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
6259
6260 The Gnus manual has been expanded. It explains all these new features
6261 in greater detail.
6262 \f
6263 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 19.32
6264
6265 ** The function set-visited-file-name now accepts an optional
6266 second argument NO-QUERY. If it is non-nil, then the user is not
6267 asked for confirmation in the case where the specified file already
6268 exists.
6269
6270 ** The variable print-length applies to printing vectors and bitvectors,
6271 as well as lists.
6272
6273 ** The new function keymap-parent returns the parent keymap
6274 of a given keymap.
6275
6276 ** The new function set-keymap-parent specifies a new parent for a
6277 given keymap. The arguments are KEYMAP and PARENT. PARENT must be a
6278 keymap or nil.
6279
6280 ** Sometimes menu keymaps use a command name, a symbol, which is really
6281 an automatically generated alias for some other command, the "real"
6282 name. In such a case, you should give that alias symbol a non-nil
6283 menu-alias property. That property tells the menu system to look for
6284 equivalent keys for the real name instead of equivalent keys for the
6285 alias.
6286 \f
6287 * Editing Changes in Emacs 19.31
6288
6289 ** Freedom of the press restricted in the United States.
6290
6291 Emacs has been censored in accord with the Communications Decency Act.
6292 This includes removing some features of the doctor program. That law
6293 was described by its supporters as a ban on pornography, but it bans
6294 far more than that. The Emacs distribution has never contained any
6295 pornography, but parts of it were nonetheless prohibited.
6296
6297 For information on US government censorship of the Internet, and what
6298 you can do to bring back freedom of the press, see the web site
6299 `http://www.vtw.org/'.
6300
6301 ** A note about C mode indentation customization.
6302
6303 The old (Emacs 19.29) ways of specifying a C indentation style
6304 do not normally work in the new implementation of C mode.
6305 It has its own methods of customizing indentation, which are
6306 much more powerful than the old C mode. See the Editing Programs
6307 chapter of the manual for details.
6308
6309 However, you can load the library cc-compat to make the old
6310 customization variables take effect.
6311
6312 ** Marking with the mouse.
6313
6314 When you mark a region with the mouse, the region now remains
6315 highlighted until the next input event, regardless of whether you are
6316 using M-x transient-mark-mode.
6317
6318 ** Improved Windows NT/95 support.
6319
6320 *** Emacs now supports scroll bars on Windows NT and Windows 95.
6321
6322 *** Emacs now supports subprocesses on Windows 95. (Subprocesses used
6323 to work on NT only and not on 95.)
6324
6325 *** There are difficulties with subprocesses, though, due to problems
6326 in Windows, beyond the control of Emacs. They work fine as long as
6327 you run Windows applications. The problems arise when you run a DOS
6328 application in a subprocesses. Since current shells run as DOS
6329 applications, these problems are significant.
6330
6331 If you run a DOS application in a subprocess, then the application is
6332 likely to busy-wait, which means that your machine will be 100% busy.
6333 However, if you don't mind the temporary heavy load, the subprocess
6334 will work OK as long as you tell it to terminate before you start any
6335 other DOS application as a subprocess.
6336
6337 Emacs is unable to terminate or interrupt a DOS subprocess.
6338 You have to do this by providing input directly to the subprocess.
6339
6340 If you run two DOS applications at the same time in two separate
6341 subprocesses, even if one of them is asynchronous, you will probably
6342 have to reboot your machine--until then, it will remain 100% busy.
6343 Windows simply does not cope when one Windows process tries to run two
6344 separate DOS subprocesses. Typing CTL-ALT-DEL and then choosing
6345 Shutdown seems to work although it may take a few minutes.
6346
6347 ** M-x resize-minibuffer-mode.
6348
6349 This command, not previously mentioned in NEWS, toggles a mode in
6350 which the minibuffer window expands to show as many lines as the
6351 minibuffer contains.
6352
6353 ** `title' frame parameter and resource.
6354
6355 The `title' X resource now specifies just the frame title, nothing else.
6356 It does not affect the name used for looking up other X resources.
6357 It works by setting the new `title' frame parameter, which likewise
6358 affects just the displayed title of the frame.
6359
6360 The `name' parameter continues to do what it used to do:
6361 it specifies the frame name for looking up X resources,
6362 and also serves as the default for the displayed title
6363 when the `title' parameter is unspecified or nil.
6364
6365 ** Emacs now uses the X toolkit by default, if you have a new
6366 enough version of X installed (X11R5 or newer).
6367
6368 ** When you compile Emacs with the Motif widget set, Motif handles the
6369 F10 key by activating the menu bar. To avoid confusion, the usual
6370 Emacs binding of F10 is replaced with a no-op when using Motif.
6371
6372 If you want to be able to use F10 in Emacs, you can rebind the Motif
6373 menubar to some other key which you don't use. To do so, add
6374 something like this to your X resources file. This example rebinds
6375 the Motif menu bar activation key to S-F12:
6376
6377 Emacs*defaultVirtualBindings: osfMenuBar : Shift<Key>F12
6378
6379 ** In overwrite mode, DEL now inserts spaces in most cases
6380 to replace the characters it "deletes".
6381
6382 ** The Rmail summary now shows the number of lines in each message.
6383
6384 ** Rmail has a new command M-x unforward-rmail-message, which extracts
6385 a forwarded message from the message that forwarded it. To use it,
6386 select a message which contains a forwarded message and then type the command.
6387 It inserts the forwarded message as a separate Rmail message
6388 immediately after the selected one.
6389
6390 This command also undoes the textual modifications that are standardly
6391 made, as part of forwarding, by Rmail and other mail reader programs.
6392
6393 ** Turning off saving of .saves-... files in your home directory.
6394
6395 Each Emacs session writes a file named .saves-... in your home
6396 directory to record which files M-x recover-session should recover.
6397 If you exit Emacs normally with C-x C-c, it deletes that file. If
6398 Emacs or the operating system crashes, the file remains for M-x
6399 recover-session.
6400
6401 You can turn off the writing of these files by setting
6402 auto-save-list-file-name to nil. If you do this, M-x recover-session
6403 will not work.
6404
6405 Some previous Emacs versions failed to delete these files even on
6406 normal exit. This is fixed now. If you are thinking of turning off
6407 this feature because of past experiences with versions that had this
6408 bug, it would make sense to check whether you still want to do so
6409 now that the bug is fixed.
6410
6411 ** Changes to Version Control (VC)
6412
6413 There is a new variable, vc-follow-symlinks. It indicates what to do
6414 when you visit a link to a file that is under version control.
6415 Editing the file through the link bypasses the version control system,
6416 which is dangerous and probably not what you want.
6417
6418 If this variable is t, VC follows the link and visits the real file,
6419 telling you about it in the echo area. If it is `ask' (the default),
6420 VC asks for confirmation whether it should follow the link. If nil,
6421 the link is visited and a warning displayed.
6422
6423 ** iso-acc.el now lets you specify a choice of language.
6424 Languages include "latin-1" (the default) and "latin-2" (which
6425 is designed for entering ISO Latin-2 characters).
6426
6427 There are also choices for specific human languages such as French and
6428 Portuguese. These are subsets of Latin-1, which differ in that they
6429 enable only the accent characters needed for particular language.
6430 The other accent characters, not needed for the chosen language,
6431 remain normal.
6432
6433 ** Posting articles and sending mail now has M-TAB completion on various
6434 header fields (Newsgroups, To, CC, ...).
6435
6436 Completion in the Newsgroups header depends on the list of groups
6437 known to your news reader. Completion in the Followup-To header
6438 offers those groups which are in the Newsgroups header, since
6439 Followup-To usually just holds one of those.
6440
6441 Completion in fields that hold mail addresses works based on the list
6442 of local users plus your aliases. Additionally, if your site provides
6443 a mail directory or a specific host to use for any unrecognized user
6444 name, you can arrange to query that host for completion also. (See the
6445 documentation of variables `mail-directory-process' and
6446 `mail-directory-stream'.)
6447
6448 ** A greatly extended sgml-mode offers new features such as (to be configured)
6449 skeletons with completing read for tags and attributes, typing named
6450 characters including optionally all 8bit characters, making tags invisible
6451 with optional alternate display text, skipping and deleting tag(pair)s.
6452
6453 Note: since Emacs' syntax feature cannot limit the special meaning of ', " and
6454 - to inside <>, for some texts the result, especially of font locking, may be
6455 wrong (see `sgml-specials' if you get wrong results).
6456
6457 The derived html-mode configures this with tags and attributes more or
6458 less HTML3ish. It also offers optional quick keys like C-c 1 for
6459 headline or C-c u for unordered list (see `html-quick-keys'). Edit /
6460 Text Properties / Face or M-g combinations create tags as applicable.
6461 Outline minor mode is supported and level 1 font-locking tries to
6462 fontify tag contents (which only works when they fit on one line, due
6463 to a limitation in font-lock).
6464
6465 External viewing via browse-url can occur automatically upon saving.
6466
6467 ** M-x imenu-add-to-menubar now adds to the menu bar for the current
6468 buffer only. If you want to put an Imenu item in the menu bar for all
6469 buffers that use a particular major mode, use the mode hook, as in
6470 this example:
6471
6472 (add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook
6473 '(lambda () (imenu-add-to-menubar "Index")))
6474
6475 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
6476
6477 *** Field names may now contain digits, hyphens, and underscores.
6478
6479 *** Font Lock mode is now supported.
6480
6481 *** bibtex-make-optional-field is no longer interactive.
6482
6483 *** If bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is non-nil, inserting new
6484 entries is now done with a faster algorithm. However, inserting
6485 will fail in this case if the buffer contains invalid entries or
6486 isn't in sorted order, so you should finish each entry with C-c C-c
6487 (bibtex-close-entry) after you have inserted or modified it.
6488 The default value of bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is nil.
6489
6490 *** Function `show-all' is no longer bound to a key, since C-u C-c C-q
6491 does the same job.
6492
6493 *** Entries with quotes inside quote-delimited fields (as `author =
6494 "Stefan Sch{\"o}f"') are now supported.
6495
6496 *** Case in field names doesn't matter anymore when searching for help
6497 text.
6498
6499 ** Font Lock mode
6500
6501 *** Global Font Lock mode
6502
6503 Font Lock mode can be turned on globally, in buffers that support it, by the
6504 new command global-font-lock-mode. You can use the new variable
6505 font-lock-global-modes to control which modes have Font Lock mode automagically
6506 turned on. By default, this variable is set so that Font Lock mode is turned
6507 on globally where the buffer mode supports it.
6508
6509 For example, to automagically turn on Font Lock mode where supported, put:
6510
6511 (global-font-lock-mode t)
6512
6513 in your ~/.emacs.
6514
6515 *** Local Refontification
6516
6517 In Font Lock mode, editing a line automatically refontifies that line only.
6518 However, if your change alters the syntactic context for following lines,
6519 those lines remain incorrectly fontified. To refontify them, use the new
6520 command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block).
6521
6522 In certain major modes, M-g M-g refontifies the entire current function.
6523 (The variable font-lock-mark-block-function controls how to find the
6524 current function.) In other major modes, M-g M-g refontifies 16 lines
6525 above and below point.
6526
6527 With a prefix argument N, M-g M-g refontifies N lines above and below point.
6528
6529 ** Follow mode
6530
6531 Follow mode is a new minor mode combining windows showing the same
6532 buffer into one tall "virtual window". The windows are typically two
6533 side-by-side windows. Follow mode makes them scroll together as if
6534 they were a unit. To use it, go to a frame with just one window,
6535 split it into two side-by-side windows using C-x 3, and then type M-x
6536 follow-mode.
6537
6538 M-x follow-mode turns off Follow mode if it is already enabled.
6539
6540 To display two side-by-side windows and activate Follow mode, use the
6541 command M-x follow-delete-other-windows-and-split.
6542
6543 ** hide-show changes.
6544
6545 The hooks hs-hide-hooks and hs-show-hooks have been renamed
6546 to hs-hide-hook and hs-show-hook, to follow the convention for
6547 normal hooks.
6548
6549 ** Simula mode now has a menu containing the most important commands.
6550 The new command simula-indent-exp is bound to C-M-q.
6551
6552 ** etags can now handle programs written in Erlang. Files are
6553 recognised by the extensions .erl and .hrl. The tagged lines are
6554 those that begin a function, record, or macro.
6555
6556 ** MSDOS Changes
6557
6558 *** It is now possible to compile Emacs with the version 2 of DJGPP.
6559 Compilation with DJGPP version 1 also still works.
6560
6561 *** The documentation of DOS-specific aspects of Emacs was rewritten
6562 and expanded; see the ``MS-DOS'' node in the on-line docs.
6563
6564 *** Emacs now uses ~ for backup file names, not .bak.
6565
6566 *** You can simulate mouse-3 on two-button mice by simultaneously
6567 pressing both mouse buttons.
6568
6569 *** A number of packages and commands which previously failed or had
6570 restricted functionality on MS-DOS, now work. The most important ones
6571 are:
6572
6573 **** Printing (both with `M-x lpr-buffer' and with `ps-print' package)
6574 now works.
6575
6576 **** `Ediff' works (in a single-frame mode).
6577
6578 **** `M-x display-time' can be used on MS-DOS (due to the new
6579 implementation of Emacs timers, see below).
6580
6581 **** `Dired' supports Unix-style shell wildcards.
6582
6583 **** The `c-macro-expand' command now works as on other platforms.
6584
6585 **** `M-x recover-session' works.
6586
6587 **** `M-x list-colors-display' displays all the available colors.
6588
6589 **** The `TPU-EDT' package works.
6590 \f
6591 * Lisp changes in Emacs 19.31.
6592
6593 ** The function using-unix-filesystems on Windows NT and Windows 95
6594 tells Emacs to read and write files assuming that they reside on a
6595 remote Unix filesystem. No CR/LF translation is done on any files in
6596 this case. Invoking using-unix-filesystems with t activates this
6597 behavior, and invoking it with any other value deactivates it.
6598
6599 ** Change in system-type and system-configuration values.
6600
6601 The value of system-type on a Linux-based GNU system is now `lignux',
6602 not `linux'. This means that some programs which use `system-type'
6603 need to be changed. The value of `system-configuration' will also
6604 be different.
6605
6606 It is generally recommended to use `system-configuration' rather
6607 than `system-type'.
6608
6609 See the file LINUX-GNU in this directory for more about this.
6610
6611 ** The functions shell-command and dired-call-process
6612 now run file name handlers for default-directory, if it has them.
6613
6614 ** Undoing the deletion of text now restores the positions of markers
6615 that pointed into or next to the deleted text.
6616
6617 ** Timers created with run-at-time now work internally to Emacs, and
6618 no longer use a separate process. Therefore, they now work more
6619 reliably and can be used for shorter time delays.
6620
6621 The new function run-with-timer is a convenient way to set up a timer
6622 to run a specified amount of time after the present. A call looks
6623 like this:
6624
6625 (run-with-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
6626
6627 SECS says how many seconds should elapse before the timer happens.
6628 It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the timer
6629 becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments ARGS.
6630
6631 REPEAT gives the interval for repeating the timer (measured in
6632 seconds). It may be an integer or a floating point number. nil or 0
6633 means don't repeat at all--call FUNCTION just once.
6634
6635 *** with-timeout provides an easy way to do something but give
6636 up if too much time passes.
6637
6638 (with-timeout (SECONDS TIMEOUT-FORMS...) BODY...)
6639
6640 This executes BODY, but gives up after SECONDS seconds.
6641 If it gives up, it runs the TIMEOUT-FORMS and returns the value
6642 of the last one of them. Normally it returns the value of the last
6643 form in BODY.
6644
6645 *** You can now arrange to call a function whenever Emacs is idle for
6646 a certain length of time. To do this, call run-with-idle-timer. A
6647 call looks like this:
6648
6649 (run-with-idle-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
6650
6651 SECS says how many seconds of idleness should elapse before the timer
6652 runs. It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the
6653 timer becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments
6654 ARGS.
6655
6656 Emacs becomes idle whenever it finishes executing a keyboard or mouse
6657 command. It remains idle until it receives another keyboard or mouse
6658 command.
6659
6660 REPEAT, if non-nil, means this timer should be activated again each
6661 time Emacs becomes idle and remains idle for SECS seconds The timer
6662 does not repeat if Emacs *remains* idle; it runs at most once after
6663 each time Emacs becomes idle.
6664
6665 If REPEAT is nil, the timer runs just once, the first time Emacs is
6666 idle for SECS seconds.
6667
6668 *** post-command-idle-hook is now obsolete; you shouldn't use it at
6669 all, because it interferes with the idle timer mechanism. If your
6670 programs use post-command-idle-hook, convert them to use idle timers
6671 instead.
6672
6673 *** y-or-n-p-with-timeout lets you ask a question but give up if
6674 there is no answer within a certain time.
6675
6676 (y-or-n-p-with-timeout PROMPT SECONDS DEFAULT-VALUE)
6677
6678 asks the question PROMPT (just like y-or-n-p). If the user answers
6679 within SECONDS seconds, it returns the answer that the user gave.
6680 Otherwise it gives up after SECONDS seconds, and returns DEFAULT-VALUE.
6681
6682 ** Minor change to `encode-time': you can now pass more than seven
6683 arguments. If you do that, the first six arguments have the usual
6684 meaning, the last argument is interpreted as the time zone, and the
6685 arguments in between are ignored.
6686
6687 This means that it works to use the list returned by `decode-time' as
6688 the list of arguments for `encode-time'.
6689
6690 ** The default value of load-path now includes the directory
6691 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp In addition to
6692 /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp. You can use this new directory for
6693 site-specific Lisp packages that belong with a particular Emacs
6694 version.
6695
6696 It is not unusual for a Lisp package that works well in one Emacs
6697 version to cause trouble in another. Sometimes packages need updating
6698 for incompatible changes; sometimes they look at internal data that
6699 has changed; sometimes the package has been installed in Emacs itself
6700 and the installed version should be used. Whatever the reason for the
6701 problem, this new feature makes it easier to solve.
6702
6703 ** When your program contains a fixed file name (like .completions or
6704 .abbrev.defs), the file name usually needs to be different on operating
6705 systems with limited file name syntax.
6706
6707 Now you can avoid ad-hoc conditionals by using the function
6708 convert-standard-filename to convert the file name to a proper form
6709 for each operating system. Here is an example of use, from the file
6710 completions.el:
6711
6712 (defvar save-completions-file-name
6713 (convert-standard-filename "~/.completions")
6714 "*The filename to save completions to.")
6715
6716 This sets the variable save-completions-file-name to a value that
6717 depends on the operating system, because the definition of
6718 convert-standard-filename depends on the operating system. On
6719 Unix-like systems, it returns the specified file name unchanged. On
6720 MS-DOS, it adapts the name to fit the limitations of that system.
6721
6722 ** The interactive spec N now returns the numeric prefix argument
6723 rather than the raw prefix argument. (It still reads a number using the
6724 minibuffer if there is no prefix argument at all.)
6725
6726 ** When a process is deleted, this no longer disconnects the process
6727 marker from its buffer position.
6728
6729 ** The variable garbage-collection-messages now controls whether
6730 Emacs displays a message at the beginning and end of garbage collection.
6731 The default is nil, meaning there are no messages.
6732
6733 ** The variable debug-ignored-errors specifies certain kinds of errors
6734 that should not enter the debugger. Its value is a list of error
6735 condition symbols and/or regular expressions. If the error has any
6736 of the condition symbols listed, or if any of the regular expressions
6737 matches the error message, then that error does not enter the debugger,
6738 regardless of the value of debug-on-error.
6739
6740 This variable is initialized to match certain common but uninteresting
6741 errors that happen often during editing.
6742
6743 ** The new function error-message-string converts an error datum
6744 into its error message. The error datum is what condition-case
6745 puts into the variable, to describe the error that happened.
6746
6747 ** Anything that changes which buffer appears in a given window
6748 now runs the window-scroll-functions for that window.
6749
6750 ** The new function get-buffer-window-list returns a list of windows displaying
6751 a buffer. The function is called with the buffer (a buffer object or a buffer
6752 name) and two optional arguments specifying the minibuffer windows and frames
6753 to search. Therefore this function takes optional args like next-window etc.,
6754 and not get-buffer-window.
6755
6756 ** buffer-substring now runs the hook buffer-access-fontify-functions,
6757 calling each function with two arguments--the range of the buffer
6758 being accessed. buffer-substring-no-properties does not call them.
6759
6760 If you use this feature, you should set the variable
6761 buffer-access-fontified-property to a non-nil symbol, which is a
6762 property name. Then, if all the characters in the buffer range have a
6763 non-nil value for that property, the buffer-access-fontify-functions
6764 are not called. When called, these functions should put a non-nil
6765 property on the text that they fontify, so that they won't get called
6766 over and over for the same text.
6767
6768 ** Changes in lisp-mnt.el
6769
6770 *** The lisp-mnt package can now recognize file headers that are written
6771 in the formats used by the `what' command and the RCS `ident' command:
6772
6773 ;; @(#) HEADER: text
6774 ;; $HEADER: text $
6775
6776 in addition to the normal
6777
6778 ;; HEADER: text
6779
6780 *** The commands lm-verify and lm-synopsis are now interactive. lm-verify
6781 checks that the library file has proper sections and headers, and
6782 lm-synopsis extracts first line "synopsis'"information.
6783 \f
6784 * For older news, see the file ONEWS.
6785
6786 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
6787 Copyright information:
6788
6789 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
6790
6791 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
6792 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
6793 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
6794 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
6795
6796 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
6797 of this document, or of portions of it,
6798 under the above conditions, provided also that they
6799 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
6800 \f
6801 Local variables:
6802 mode: outline
6803 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
6804 end: