1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 24.
11 See files NEWS.23, NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18,
12 and NEWS.1-17 for changes in older Emacs versions.
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
18 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
19 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
20 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
21 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
24 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.2
26 ** New configure option '--enable-gcc-warnings', intended for developers.
27 If building with GCC, this enables compile-time checks that warn about
28 possibly-questionable C code. On a recent GNU system there should be
29 no warnings; on older and on non-GNU systems the generated warnings
32 ** The configure option '--disable-maintainer-mode' has been removed,
33 as it was confusingly-named and rarely useful.
36 ** Emacs uses libtinfo in preference to libncurses, if available.
39 ** On FreeBSD and NetBSD, configure no longer adds /usr/local/lib and
40 /usr/pkg/lib to the linker search path. You must add them yourself if
44 ** On Mac OS X, configure no longer automatically adds the Fink /sw
45 directories to the search path. You must add them yourself if you want them.
48 ** The standalone scripts rcs-checkin and vcdiff have been removed
49 (from the bin and libexec directories, respectively). The former is
50 no longer relevant, the latter is replaced by lisp (in vc-sccs.el).
52 ** The configuration option '--enable-use-lisp-union-type' has been
53 renamed to '--enable-check-lisp-object-type', as the resulting
54 Lisp_Object type no longer uses a union to implement the compile time
55 check that this option enables.
58 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.2
60 ** Emacs no longer searches for `leim-list.el' files beneath the standard
61 lisp/ directory. There should not be any there anyway. If you have
62 been adding them there, put them somewhere else, eg site-lisp.
65 * Changes in Emacs 24.2
67 ** New functions `system-users', `system-groups' return lists of the user
68 name, group names known to the system (where possible).
70 ** If your Emacs was built from a bzr checkout, the new variable
71 `emacs-bzr-version' contains information about which bzr revision was used.
73 ** ImageMagick support, if available, is automatically enabled.
74 It is no longer necessary to call `imagemagick-register-types'
75 explicitly to install ImageMagick image types; that function is called
76 automatically at startup, or when customizing a relevant imagemagick-
79 *** Setting `imagemagick-types-inhibit' to t now disables the use of
80 ImageMagick to view images. You must call imagemagick-register-types
81 afterwards if you do not use customize to change this.
83 *** The new variable `imagemagick-enabled-types' also affects which
84 ImageMagick types are treated as images. The function
85 `imagemagick-filter-types' returns the list of types that will be
88 *** Images displayed via ImageMagick now support transparency and the
89 :background image spec property.
91 ** String values for `initial-buffer-choice' also apply to emacsclient
92 frames, if emacsclient is only told to open a new frame without
93 specifying any file to visit or expression to evaluate.
96 ** You can prevent the creation of lock files by setting `create-lockfiles'
97 to nil. Use with caution, and only if you really need to.
100 ** Using "unibyte: t" in Lisp source files is obsolete.
101 Use "coding: raw-text" instead.
105 *** New option `mode-line-default-help-echo' specifies the help text
106 (shown in a tooltip or in the echo area) for any part of the mode line
107 that does not have its own specialized help text.
109 *** You can now click mouse-3 in the coding system indicator to
110 invokes `set-buffer-file-coding-system'.
113 ** Setting `enable-remote-dir-locals' to non-nil allows directory
114 local variables on remote hosts.
117 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.2
121 *** Global `M-s _' starts a symbol (identifier) incremental search,
122 and `M-s _' in Isearch toggles symbol search mode.
123 `M-s c' in Isearch toggles search case-sensitivity.
125 ** M-x move-to-column, if called interactively with no prefix arg, now
126 prompts for a column number.
128 ** `mouse-avoidance-banish-position' can now be used to customize
129 `mouse-avoidance-mode' further.
131 ** `C-M-f' and `C-M-b' will now move to the path name separator
132 character when doing minibuffer filename prompts.
134 ** `goto-char' is now bound to `M-g c'.
136 ** New input method `vietnamese-vni'.
139 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.2
141 ** CL's main entry is now (require 'cl-lib).
142 `cl-lib' is like the old `cl' except that it uses the namespace cleanly,
143 i.e. all its definitions have the "cl-" prefix.
145 If `cl' provided a feature under the name `foo', then `cl-lib' provides it
146 under the name `cl-foo' instead, with the exceptions of the few definitions
147 that had to use `foo*' to avoid conflicts with pre-existing Elisp entities,
148 which have not been renamed to `cl-foo*' but just `cl-foo'.
150 The old `cl' is now deprecated and is nothing more than a bunch of aliases that
151 provide the old non-prefixed names.
154 - Support for ghdl (free vhdl compiler). Now default.
155 - Add/update support for VHDL-AMS packages.
156 - Update to VHDL'02 standard.
157 - Accept \r and \f as whitespace.
161 Faces for changes now use the same diff color scheme as in modern VCSes
162 where deletions are displayed in red (new faces `diff-refine-removed'
163 and `smerge-refined-removed' and new definition of `diff-removed'),
164 insertions in green (new faces `diff-refine-added' and
165 `smerge-refined-added' and new definition of `diff-added').
166 The variable `diff-use-changed-face' defines whether to use
167 the face `diff-changed', or `diff-removed' and `diff-added'
168 to highlight changes in context diffs.
170 ** Ediff now uses the same color scheme as Diff mode
171 on high color displays.
174 *** Pairing of parens/quotes uses electric-pair-mode instead of skeleton-pair.
175 *** `sh-electric-here-document-mode' now controls auto-insertion of here-docs.
176 *** `sh-use-smie' lets you choose a new indentation and navigation code.
178 ** reStructuredText mode
180 *** Rebind nearly all keys making room for more keys and complying
181 better to usage in other modes. Describe bindings with C-c C-h.
183 *** Major revision of indentation working very similar to other
184 modes. TAB is your friend.
186 *** Major revision of filling working fine with most of
187 reStructuredText syntax. Support auto-filling.
189 *** Major revision of comment handling.
191 *** Major revision of fontification working with `jit-lock-mode'.
193 *** Cover reStructuredText syntax more closely. Improve
194 the experience for Sphinx users.
196 *** `rst-insert-list' inserts new list or continues existing lists.
198 *** Extend correct and improve customization.
200 *** Negative prefix argument always works for `rst-adjust'.
202 *** Reset window configuration after displaying TOC.
204 *** Package version in `rst-version'.
206 ** New `derived-mode' filter for Ibuffer, bound to `/ M'.
207 `/ m' is now bound to filter by used-mode, which used to be bound to `/ M'.
211 *** The faces used by Apropos are now directly customizable.
212 These faces are named `apropos-symbol', `apropos-keybinding', and so on;
213 see the `apropos' Custom group for details.
215 **** The old options whose values specified faces to use were removed
216 (i.e. `apropos-symbol-face', `apropos-keybinding-face', etc.).
219 This package has been rewritten to use Tabulated List mode.
221 *** Option `Buffer-menu-buffer+size-width' is now obsolete.
222 Use `Buffer-menu-name-width' and `Buffer-menu-size-width' instead.
226 *** The calendars produced by cal-html include holidays.
227 Customize cal-html-holidays to change this.
231 *** `custom-reset-button-menu' now defaults to t.
233 *** Non-option variables are never matched in `customize-apropos' and
234 `customize-apropos-options' (i.e. the prefix argument does nothing for
237 ** erc will look up server/channel names via auth-source and use the
238 channel keys found, if any.
242 *** The option `ffap-url-unwrap-remote' can now be a list of strings,
243 specifying URL types which should be converted to remote file names at
244 the FFAP prompt. The default is now '("ftp").
248 *** The obsolete variable `follow-mode-off-hook' has been removed.
250 *** Follow mode no longer works by using advice.
251 The option `follow-intercept-processes' has been removed.
253 ** The `server-auth-key' variable can be used to set a permanent
254 shared key for Emacs Server.
256 ** In Perl mode, new option `perl-indent-parens-as-block' causes non-block
257 closing brackets to be aligned with the line of the opening bracket.
259 ** FIXME something happened to ses.el, 2012-04-17.
261 ** which-function-mode now applies to all applicable major modes by default.
266 *** The syntax has been extended in order to allow ad-hoc proxy
267 definitions. See the manual for details.
270 *** Remote processes are now supported also on remote Windows host.
275 *** New variables `dbus-compiled-version' and `dbus-runtime-version'.
278 *** The D-Bus object manager interface is implemented.
281 *** Variables of type :(u)int32 and :(u)int64 accept floating points,
282 if their value does not fit into Emacs's integer range.
285 *** The function `dbus-call-method' works non-blocking now, it can be
286 interrupted by C-g. `dbus-call-method-non-blocking' is obsolete.
289 *** Signals can be sent also as unicast message.
292 *** The argument list of `dbus-register-signal' has been extended,
293 according to the new match rule types of D-Bus. See the manual for
297 *** `dbus-init-bus' supports private connections.
300 *** There is a new function `dbus-setenv'.
303 ** notifications.el supports now version 1.2 of the Notifications API.
304 The function `notifications-get-capabilities' returns the supported
309 *** Newly-available packages are listed in the Package Menu as "new",
310 and sorted above the other "available" packages by default.
312 ** Tabulated List and packages derived from it
314 *** New command `tabulated-list-sort', bound to `S', sorts the column
315 at point, or the Nth column if a numeric prefix argument is given.
319 *** Structs made by `url-generic-parse-url' have nil `attributes' slot.
320 Previously, this slot stored semicolon-separated attribute-value pairs
321 appended to some imap URLs, but this is not compatible with RFC 3986.
322 So now the `filename' slot stores the entire path and query components
323 and the `attributes' slot is always nil.
325 *** New function `url-encode-url' for encoding a URI string.
326 The `url-retrieve' function now uses this to encode its URL argument,
327 in case that is not properly encoded.
329 ** Obsolete packages:
332 In most cases, assoc+member+push+delq work just as well.
333 And in any case it's just a terrible package: ugly semantics, terrible
334 inefficiency, and not namespace-clean.
349 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.2
351 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.2
354 ** Docstrings starting with `*' no longer indicate user options.
355 Only variables defined using `defcustom' are considered user options.
356 The function `user-variable-p' is now an obsolete alias for
359 ** `face-spec-set' no longer sets frame-specific attributes when the
360 third argument is a frame (that usage was obsolete since Emacs 22.2).
363 ** The arguments of `dbus-register-signal' are no longer just strings,
364 but keywords or keyword-string pairs. The old argument list will
365 still be supported for Emacs 24.x.
367 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed:
369 *** `facemenu-unlisted-faces'
370 *** `rmail-decode-mime-charset'
373 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.2
375 ** `defun' also accepts a (declare DECLS) form, like `defmacro'.
376 The interpretation of the DECLS is determined by `defun-declarations-alist'.
378 ** `macro-declaration-function' is obsolete, use `macro-declarations-alist'.
380 ** New function `set-temporary-overlay-map'.
382 ** New macros `setq-local' and `defvar-local'.
384 ** New error type and new function `user-error'. Doesn't trigger the debugger.
386 ** The functions get-lru-window, get-mru-window and get-largest-window
387 now accept a third argument to avoid chosing the selected window.
391 *** New function `completion-table-with-quoting' to handle completion
392 in the presence of quoting, such as file completion in shell buffers.
394 *** New function `completion-table-subvert' to use an existing completion
395 table, but with a different prefix.
399 *** `current-time-string' no longer requires that its argument's year
400 must be in the range 1000..9999. It now works with any year supported
401 by the underlying C implementation.
403 ** `automount-dir-prefix' is obsolete.
404 ** `buffer-has-markers-at' is obsolete.
406 * Changes in Emacs 24.2 on non-free operating systems
408 ** New configure.bat options on MS-Windows:
410 *** --without-libxml2 omits support for libxml2, even if its presence
413 ** When invoked with the -nw switch to run on the Windows text-mode terminal,
414 Emacs now supports mouse highlight, help-echo (in the echo area), and
415 mouse-autoselect-window.
418 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
420 ** Emacs can be compiled with Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
421 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
422 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
425 ** Emacs can be compiled with GnuTLS support.
426 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
427 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
428 `--without-gnutls'. See below for GnuTLS features.
430 ** Emacs can be compiled with SELinux support.
431 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
432 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
433 `--without-selinux'. See below for SELinux features.
435 ** Emacs can be compiled with ImageMagick support.
436 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
437 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
438 `--without-imagemagick'. See below for ImageMagick features.
439 This feature is not available for the Nextstep or MS ports.
441 ** Emacs can be compiled with libxml2 support.
442 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
443 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
444 `--without-xml2'. See below for libxml2 features.
446 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
447 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
449 ** New configure option --with-wide-int.
450 With it, Emacs integers typically have 62 bits, even on 32-bit machines.
451 On 32-bit hosts, this raises the limit on buffer sizes from about 512 MiB
454 ** New configure options: --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
455 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
456 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
458 ** New configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
459 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
460 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
462 ** The standalone programs digest-doc and sorted-doc are removed.
463 Emacs now uses Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
465 ** The standalone program `fakemail' is removed.
466 If you need it, feedmail.el provides a superset of the functionality.
469 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
471 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
472 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
473 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
475 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
476 from load-path. -Q now implies this. This option does not affect the
477 EMACSLOADPATH environment variable (and hence has no effect for
481 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
485 *** Many packages now use the `completion-at-point' command,
486 rather than implementing separate completion commands.
488 *** `completion-at-point' now handles tags and semantic completion.
490 *** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
491 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
493 *** New option `completion-cycle-threshold' allows completion cycling.
495 *** New option `completion-category-overrides' for overriding the
496 default completion style in certain circumstances.
498 *** New completion style `substring'.
500 *** Completion of buffer names uses `substring' completion by default.
502 *** The option `widget-complete-field' has been removed.
506 *** The first time you try sending mail, Emacs asks for a mail method.
507 This is implemented by a new default for `send-mail-function', which
508 is `sendmail-query-once'. This offers to use the smtpmail package, or
509 to use the old defaults relying on external mail facilities
510 (`sendmail-send-it' on GNU/Linux and other Unix-like systems, and
511 `mailclient-send-it' on Windows).
513 *** Typing C-c m in the buffer made by M-x report-emacs-bug transfers
514 the report to your desktop's preferred mail client, if there is one.
515 This uses either the "xdg-email" utility, or Mac OS's "open" command.
517 *** See Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages for SMTPmail changes
518 and Mail mode changes
520 ** Emacs server and client changes
522 *** New option `server-port' specifies the port for TCP Emacs servers.
524 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
526 *** New emacsclient argument --frame-parameters specifies the frame
527 parameters of any newly-created graphical frame.
529 *** If emacsclient shuts down due to Emacs signaling an error,
530 its exit status is 1.
532 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID.
533 This opens a client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed, similar
534 to the --parent-id argument to Emacs.
536 ** Internationalization changes
538 *** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
539 Right-to-left (RTL) scripts, such as Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew, are
540 displayed in the correct visual order as expected by users of those
541 scripts. The display reordering is a "full bidirectionality" class
542 implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm (UBA). Buffers
543 with no RTL text should look exactly the same as before.
545 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-display-reordering'.
546 To disable display reordering in a buffer, change this to nil.
548 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction'.
549 If nil (the default), Emacs determines the base direction of each
550 paragraph from its text, as specified by the UBA. Setting the value
551 to `right-to-left' or `left-to-right' forces a base direction on each
554 Paragraphs with right-to-left base direction are displayed starting at
555 the right window edge.
557 *** Enhanced support for characters with no glyphs in available fonts,
558 or, on text terminals, characters that cannot be encoded by the
559 terminal coding system. The new option `glyphless-char-display-control'
560 specifies how to display them: as a hexadecimal code in a box, a thin
561 1-pixel space, an empty box, etc.
563 *** New input methods: farsi, farsi-translit, bulgarian-alt-phonetic.
565 *** `nobreak-char-display' now also highlights Unicode hyphen chars
568 *** New Hebrew translation of the Emacs Tutorial.
569 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
570 automatically select it.
572 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
573 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
574 from a package repository at http://elpa.gnu.org.
576 *** M-x list-packages shows a list of packages, which can be
577 selected for installation.
579 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
581 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded automatically when
582 Emacs starts up. To disable this, set `package-enable-at-startup' to
583 nil. To specify the packages to load, customize `package-load-list'.
585 ** Custom theme changes
587 *** New command `M-x customize-themes', which provides a convenient
588 interface for enabling and disabling Custom themes.
590 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
591 Emacs no longer looks for Custom themes in `load-path'. The default
592 value of `custom-theme-load-path' says to look for themes in
593 `custom-theme-directory', followed by a subdirectory of
594 `data-directory' named "themes/", which contains a small selection of
595 built-in Custom themes.
597 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
598 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
599 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
600 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
602 ** Improved GTK integration
604 *** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
605 The function `set-scroll-bar-mode' can change this.
607 *** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
608 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose the style. On a Gnome desktop,
609 the default is taken from desktop settings.
611 *** GTK tool bars can be placed on any edge of the frame.
612 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the
613 values top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has
616 *** The default colors for selected text (the `region' face) are taken
617 from the GTK theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
619 *** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK.
620 You can disable this by changing `x-gtk-use-system-tooltips' to nil.
622 ** Graphical interface changes
624 *** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
625 Also, the first dash (which does not indicate anything) is just
626 displayed as a space.
628 *** `menu-bar-select-buffer-function' lets you choose another operation
629 instead of `switch-to-buffer' when selecting an item in the Buffers menu.
631 *** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is
632 built with Xft. These fonts can be set via X resources, for example:
633 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
637 *** Emacs now calls `kill-emacs' if it receives SIGTERM or SIGHUP,
638 or if it receives a SIGINT signal in batch mode.
640 *** `kill-emacs-hook' is now also run in batch mode.
641 Third-party code which adds to `kill-emacs-hook' should check if they
642 do the right thing in batch mode.
646 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
647 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
648 of buffer at first key-press (instead they move to top/bottom of buffer)
649 when `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
651 *** New option `scroll-error-top-bottom' (see above).
653 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
654 scroll a line instead of full screen.
656 *** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
657 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
659 *** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
660 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
661 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
662 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
663 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
665 *** "Aggressive" scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
666 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
667 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
668 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
671 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
672 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
674 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up.
675 Also, the function `copy-file' has an extra optional argument for
676 preserving SELinux context, and the return value of `backup-buffer'
677 now includes the SELinux context.
679 *** New functions `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
680 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
684 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
685 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
687 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
688 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
690 ** File- and directory-local variable changes
692 *** You can stop directory local vars from applying to subdirectories.
693 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
694 settings to indicate that the section should not apply to
697 *** Directory local variables can apply to some file-less buffers.
698 Affected modes include dired, vc-dir, and log-edit. For example,
699 adding "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to .dir-locals.el will
700 turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should call
701 `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
703 *** Using "mode: MINOR-MODE" to enable a minor mode is deprecated.
704 Instead, use "eval: (minor-mode 1)".
706 *** The variable `inhibit-first-line-modes-regexps' has been renamed
707 to `inhibit-local-variables-regexps'. As the name suggests, it now
708 applies to ALL file local variables, not just -*- lines. The
709 associated `inhibit-first-line-modes-suffixes' has been renamed in the
714 *** The `quit-window' command now restores the last buffer displayed
715 in the quitted window.
717 *** Resizing an Emacs frame now preserves proportional window sizes,
718 modulo restrictions like window minimum sizes and fixed-size windows.
720 *** The behavior of `display-buffer' is now customizable in detail.
722 **** New option `display-buffer-base-action' specifies a list of
723 user-determined display "actions" (functions and optional arguments
724 for choosing the displaying window).
726 This takes precedence over the default display action, which is
727 specified by `display-buffer-fallback-action'.
729 **** New option `display-buffer-alist' maps buffer name regexps to
730 display actions, taking precedence over `display-buffer-base-action'.
732 *** New option `window-combination-limit'.
733 The new option `window-combination-limit' allows to return the space
734 obtained for resizing or creating a window more reliably to the window
735 from which such space was obtained.
737 *** New option `window-combination-resize'.
738 The new option `window-combination-resize' allows to split a window that
739 otherwise cannot be split because it's too small by stealing space from
740 other windows in the same combination. Subsequent resizing or deletion
741 of the window will resize all windows in the same combination as well.
743 *** New option `frame-auto-hide-function' lets you choose between
744 iconifying or deleting a frame when burying a buffer in a dedicated
745 frame, or quitting a window showing a buffer in a frame of its own.
747 *** New commands `maximize-window' and `minimize-window'.
748 These maximize and minimize the size of a window within its frame.
750 *** New commands `switch-to-prev-buffer' and `switch-to-next-buffer'.
751 These functions allow to navigate through the live buffers that have
752 been shown in a specific window.
754 ** Minibuffer changes
756 *** The inactive minibuffer has its own major mode `minibuffer-inactive-mode'.
757 This is handy for minibuffer-only frames, and is also used for the feature
758 where mouse-1 pops up *Messages*"', which can now easily be changed.
760 *** Minibuffers set `truncate-lines' to nil.
761 If you want to change the value to something else, you could use
762 for example `minibuffer-setup-hook'.
764 ** `auto-mode-case-fold' is now enabled by default.
766 ** `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' now defaults to t.
768 ** New basic faces `error', `warning', `success'.
769 These are used to highlight text indicating failure, caution or
770 successful operation.
772 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
773 for `list-colors-display'.
775 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
778 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
782 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-kill', instead of
785 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-pop', instead of
788 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-line'.
790 ** New commands `count-words-region' and `count-words'.
792 *** M-= is bound to `count-words-region', not `count-lines-region'.
793 The `count-words-region' command, when called interactively, reports
794 the number of lines, words, and characters in the region. It is a
795 superset of the old `count-lines-region', which is now an obsolete
798 ** The command `just-one-space' (M-SPC), if given a negative argument,
799 also deletes newlines around point.
803 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
804 If non-nil, [delete] and DEL delete the region if it is active and no
805 prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', those commands kill
808 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to [delete].
809 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
810 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
812 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
813 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
814 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; Lisp
815 callers should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
817 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
819 ** Selection changes.
821 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections has been
822 changed to conform with modern X applications. In short, most
823 commands for killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while
824 mouse commands use the primary selection.
826 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
827 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
829 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
830 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
831 the kill ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
832 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
834 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
835 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
836 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
837 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
838 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
840 **** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
842 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
843 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
844 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
846 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
848 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
849 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
850 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
852 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
853 exactly equivalent to M-w, C-w, and C-y respectively.
855 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
856 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
857 between applications.
859 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
861 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
862 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
863 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
864 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
865 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
867 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
869 *** X clipboard managers are now supported.
870 To inhibit this, change `x-select-enable-clipboard-manager' to nil.
872 ** New command `C-x r N' (`rectangle-number-lines') numbers the lines
873 in the current rectangle. With a prefix argument, this prompts for a
874 number to count from and for a format string.
876 ** `redisplay-dont-pause' now defaults to t.
877 This makes Emacs feel more responsive to editing commands that arrive
878 at high rate, e.g. if you lean on some key, because stopping redisplay
879 in the middle (when this variable is nil) forces more expensive
880 updates later on, and Emacs appears to be unable to keep up.
882 ** The behavior of <TAB> for active regions in Text mode has changed.
883 In Text and related modes, typing <TAB> (`indent-for-tab-command')
884 when the region is active causes Emacs to indent all the lines in the
885 region, aligning them with the line previous to the first line in the
886 region (or with the left margin if there is no previous line).
888 ** When `occur' is called with a prefix argument, matching strings are
889 collected into the `*Occur*' buffer without line numbers. If there
890 are parenthesized subexpressions in the specified regexp, `occur'
891 reads replacement text that may contain \\& and \\N whose convention
892 follows `replace-match'.
895 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
897 ** Archive Mode has basic support for browsing and updating 7z archives.
901 *** BibTeX mode now supports biblatex.
902 Use the variable `bibtex-dialect' to select different BibTeX dialects.
903 `bibtex-entry-field-alist' is now an obsolete alias for
904 `bibtex-BibTeX-entry-alist'.
906 *** New command `bibtex-search-entries', bound to C-c C-a.
908 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `sort-fields', disabled by default.
910 *** New variable `bibtex-search-entry-globally'.
914 *** New option `browse-url-mailto-function' specifies how to handle "mailto:"s.
916 *** The default browser used by the package is now the "xdg-open" program,
917 on platforms that support it. This calls your desktop's preferred browser.
919 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
921 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing "comments".
922 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
924 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
925 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
927 *** The function specified by `appt-disp-window-function' may be passed
928 lists of arguments if multiple appointments are due at similar times.
929 If you are using a custom function for this, you should update it.
931 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
933 *** Elements of `calendar-day-abbrev-array' and `calendar-month-abbrev-array'
934 may no longer be nil, but must all be strings.
936 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt
937 package by adding `appt-make-list' to `diary-hook' has been removed.
938 Use `appt-activate' instead.
940 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
941 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
942 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
944 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
945 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
949 *** New feature to "guess" the style in an existing buffer.
950 The main entry point is M-x c-guess.
952 *** Java Mode now supports Java 5.0 (Tiger) and 6 (Mustang).
954 *** `c-beginning-of-defun' and `c-end-of-defun' now respect nested scopes.
955 Thus C-M-a will, by default, go to the beginning of the immediate function,
958 *** "Macros with semicolons" can be registered for correct indentation.
959 Where such a macro ends a line (no semicolon) the next statement is no longer
960 parsed as a statement continuation.
962 ** Comint and modes derived from it use the standard completion code.
966 *** Compilation mode can be used without Font Lock mode.
967 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
969 *** New variable `compilation-filter-start', which is bound while
970 `compilation-filter-hook' runs. It records the start position of the
971 text inserted by `compilation-filter'.
973 *** `compilation-error-screen-columns' and `compilation-first-column'
974 are obeyed in the editing buffer. So programming language modes can
975 set them, whereas previously only the value in the *Compilation*
980 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
981 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
982 To turn off the search field, set `custom-search-field' to nil.
984 *** Custom options now start out hidden if at their default values.
985 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
987 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
989 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
990 choose a color via `list-colors-display'.
994 *** It is now possible to access buses other than the default system
997 *** The `dbus-register-method' and `dbus-register-property' functions
998 optionally do not register names.
1000 *** The new function `dbus-register-service' registers a known service
1001 name on a D-Bus without also registering a property or a method.
1005 *** C-x C-j (`dired-jump') and C-x 4 C-j (`dired-jump-other-window'),
1006 if called with a prefix argument, read a file name from the minibuffer
1007 instead of using the current buffer.
1009 *** The "dired local variables" feature of Dired-x is obsolete.
1010 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
1014 *** New options `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay',
1015 controlling attempts to autojoin a channel.
1017 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
1018 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
1019 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
1020 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
1024 *** The default value of `eshell-directory-name' has changed
1025 to be an "eshell" directory in `user-emacs-directory'.
1026 The old "~/.eshell/" directory is still used if it exists, though.
1030 *** The M-x gdb command now uses the GDB Machine Interface protocol.
1031 It now supports multithread non-stop debugging and simultaneous
1032 debugging of several threads.
1036 *** RET (`image-toggle-animation') toggles animation, if applicable.
1037 Animation plays once, unless the option `image-animate-loop' is non-nil.
1041 *** New command M-x info-display-manual displays a named Info manual.
1042 If that manual is already visited in some Info buffer, it displays
1043 that buffer. (This is handy if you have many manuals in many *info*
1044 buffers, and don't remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual
1045 you want to consult.) Otherwise, it loads and displays the manual.
1047 *** `e' is now bound to `end-of-buffer' rather than to `Info-edit'.
1048 This is for compatibility with the stand-alone Info reader program,
1049 and also because `Info-edit' is a rarely used command that is disabled
1052 ** Mail mode changes (not Message mode)
1054 *** New command M-x mail-add-attachment for adding MIME attachments
1056 *** The command M-x mail-attach-file was renamed to M-x mail-insert-file.
1057 (Its name is misleading, since it has nothing to do with MIME
1058 attachments.) The old name is now an obsolete alias to the new name.
1060 ** MH-E has been updated to MH-E version 8.3.1.
1061 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
1063 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
1065 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
1067 ** nXML mode no longer binds C-RET to `nxml-complete'.
1068 Completion is now performed via `completion-at-point', bound to C-M-i
1069 or M-TAB. If `nxml-bind-meta-tab-to-complete-flag' is non-nil (the
1070 default), this performs tag completion.
1072 ** Org mode has been updated to version 7.8.09.
1073 See ORG-NEWS for details.
1075 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
1076 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity,
1077 support for more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
1079 ** Python mode has been replaced with fgallina's python.el.
1080 Per-buffer shells, solid automatic indentation, Python 2 and 3 support
1081 out of the box, a revamped shell interaction compatible with iPython
1082 (and virtually any other text based shell) plus other goodies are
1085 *** Defcustom replacements.
1087 | Old defcustom | New defcustom |
1088 |-------------------------------+-----------------------------------|
1089 | python-indent | python-indent-offset |
1090 | python-guess-indent | python-indent-guess-indent-offset |
1091 | python-pdbtrack-do-tracking-p | python-pdbtrack-activate |
1092 | python-use-skeletons | python-skeleton-autoinsert |
1094 *** Removed defcustoms.
1096 `python-indent-string-contents': Strings are never indented.
1098 `python-honour-comment-indentation': Comments are never considered as
1099 indentation markers themselves.
1101 `python-continuation-offset': Removed, indentation is automatically
1102 calculated in a pep8 compliant way depending on the context.
1104 `python-shell-prompt-alist', `python-shell-continuation-prompt-alist':
1105 Have no direct mapping as the shell interaction is completely
1108 `python-python-command', `python-jython-command': Are somehow replaced
1109 by `python-shell-interpreter'.
1111 `inferior-python-filter-regexp', `python-remove-cwd-from-path': Have
1112 no mapping whatsoever, they are removed.
1114 `python-pdbtrack-minor-mode-string': Removed, pdbtracking has no minor
1117 `python-source-modes': Removed, This mode makes no distinction between
1118 jython and python files.
1120 *** Command replacements.
1122 | Old command | New command |
1123 |---------------------------+------------------------------|
1124 | python-insert-class | python-skeleton-class |
1125 | python-insert-def | python-skeleton-def |
1126 | python-insert-for | python-skeleton-for |
1127 | python-insert-if | python-skeleton-if |
1128 | python-insert-try/except | python-skeleton-try |
1129 | python-insert-try/finally | python-skeleton-try |
1130 | python-insert-while | python-skeleton-while |
1131 | python-find-function | python-nav-jump-to-defun |
1132 | python-next-statement | python-nav-forward-sentence |
1133 | python-previous-statement | python-nav-backward-sentence |
1134 | python-send-buffer | python-shell-send-buffer |
1135 | python-send-defun | python-shell-send-defun |
1136 | python-send-region | python-shell-send-region |
1137 | python-send-region-and-go | [0] |
1138 | python-send-string | python-shell-send-string |
1139 | python-switch-to-python | python-shell-switch-to-shell |
1140 | python-describe-symbol | python-eldoc-at-point |
1142 [0] Can be emulated by python-shell-send-region +
1143 python-shell-switch-to-shell
1147 *** The command `rmail-epa-decrypt' decrypts OpenPGP data
1148 in the Rmail incoming message.
1150 *** The variable `rmail-message-filter' no longer has any effect.
1151 This change was made in Emacs 23.1 but was not advertised at the time.
1152 Try using `rmail-show-message-hook' instead.
1156 *** M-x shell prompts for the shell path name if the default directory
1157 is a remote file name and neither the environment variable $ESHELL nor
1158 the variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
1160 *** TAB is now bound to the standard `completion-at-point' command,
1161 which now implements the pcomplete rules for shell command completion.
1165 *** SMTPmail now uses encrypted connections (via STARTTLS) by default
1166 if the mail server supports them. This uses either built-in GnuTLS
1167 support, or the starttls.el library. Customize `smtpmail-stream-type'
1170 *** The variable `smtpmail-auth-credentials' has been removed.
1171 By default, the information is now stored in the file ~/.authinfo.
1172 This was the default value of smtpmail-auth-credentials. If you had
1173 customized smtpmail-auth-credentials to a list of user names and
1174 passwords, those settings are not used. During your first connection
1175 to the smtp server, Emacs will prompt for the user name and password,
1176 and offer to save them to ~/.authinfo. Or you can manually copy the
1177 credentials to ~/.authinfo. For example, if you had
1179 (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials
1180 '(("mail.example.org" 25 "jim" "s!cret")))
1182 then the equivalent line in ~/.authinfo would be
1184 machine mail.example.org port 25 login jim password s!cret
1186 See the auth-source manual for more information, e.g. on encrypting
1187 the credentials file.
1189 *** The variable `smtpmail-starttls-credentials' has been removed.
1190 If you had that set, you need to put
1192 machine smtp.whatever.foo port 25 key "~/.my_smtp_tls.key" cert "~/.my_smtp_tls.cert"
1194 in your ~/.authinfo file instead.
1198 *** New options `sql-port', `sql-connection-alist', `sql-send-terminator',
1199 and `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
1201 *** New options controlling prompting for login parameters.
1202 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params',
1203 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
1204 connection is established.
1206 *** The command `sql-product-interactive' now takes a prefix argument,
1207 which causes it to prompt for an SQL product.
1209 *** Product-specific SQL interactive commands now take prefix arguments.
1210 These commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres', `sql-mysql', etc.),
1211 given a prefix argument, prompt for a name for the SQL interactive
1212 buffer. This reduces the need for calling `sql-rename-buffer'.
1214 *** SQL interactive modes suppress command continuation prompts, and
1215 replace tabs with spaces. The first change impacts multiple line SQL
1216 statements entered with C-j between each line, statements yanked into
1217 the buffer and statements sent with `sql-send-*' functions. The
1218 second prevents the MySQL and Postgres interpreters from listing
1219 object name completions when sent text via `sql-send-*' functions.
1221 *** New command `sql-connect' starts a predefined SQLi session,
1222 using the login parameters from `sql-connection-alist'.
1224 *** New "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
1225 This gathers the login params specified for the SQLi session, if it
1226 was not started by a connection, and saves them as a new connection.
1228 *** New commands for listing database objects and details:
1229 sql-list-all and sql-list-table.
1231 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
1235 *** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
1239 *** New inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
1241 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
1242 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
1244 *** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
1245 remote file attributes are cached for better performance.
1247 *** The option `ange-ftp-binary-file-name-regexp' has changed its
1248 default value to "".
1250 *** Handlers for `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
1251 for remote machines which support SELinux.
1253 ** New function `url-queue-retrieve', which behaves like url-retrieve,
1254 but with limits (`url-queue-parallel-processes', `url-queue-timeout') on
1255 the degree of parallelism.
1257 ** VC and related modes
1259 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
1260 The command C-x v + (`vc-pull') runs a "pull" operation, if it is
1261 supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to update the
1262 current branch and working tree. A prefix argument means to prompt
1263 the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
1265 *** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
1267 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
1268 The command C-x v m (`vc-merge') now runs a "merge" operation, if it
1269 is supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to merge
1270 changes from another branch into the current one. It prompts for
1271 specifics, e.g. a merge source.
1273 *** New option `vc-revert-show-diff' controls whether `vc-revert'
1274 shows a diff while querying the user. It defaults to t.
1276 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
1277 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
1278 This is currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial (to support
1279 another backend, define a `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function').
1280 In the Log View buffers made by C-x v L (`vc-print-root-log'), you can
1281 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
1283 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
1284 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
1286 *** The option `vc-initial-comment' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but
1287 this was not advertised at the time.
1289 *** `vc-toggle-read-only' is an obsolete alias for `toggle-read-only'.
1290 Since Emacs 23, it has done the same thing as `toggle-read-only', but
1291 this was not advertised at the time.
1297 *** erc-hecomplete.el (use erc-pcomplete.el instead)
1299 *** partial-completion-mode (complete.el) is obsolete.
1300 You can get a comparable behavior with:
1301 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
1302 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
1304 *** pc-mode.el is obsolete (CUA mode is much more comprehensive).
1306 *** pgg is obsolete (use EasyPG instead).
1308 *** sregex.el is obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
1310 *** s-region.el and pc-select.el are obsolete.
1311 They are superseded by shift-select-mode, enabled by default since 23.1.
1313 *** vc-mcvs.el is obsolete (for lack of a maintainer).
1317 *** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
1318 Its functions and variables have been similarly renamed.
1320 *** In `ido-file-completion-map', C-v is no longer bound to `ido-toggle-vc'.
1321 (This interfered with cua-mode.)
1323 *** f90.el has some support for Fortran 2008 syntax.
1325 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
1327 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
1330 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
1332 ** Occur Edit mode applies edits made in *Occur* buffers to the
1333 original buffers. It is bound to "e" in Occur mode.
1335 ** New global minor mode electric-pair-mode.
1336 When enabled, typing an open parenthesis automatically inserts the
1337 matching closing one.
1339 ** New global minor mode electric-indent-mode.
1340 When enabled, typing certain characters triggers reindentation.
1341 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-indent-chars or
1342 electric-indent-functions.
1344 ** New global minor mode electric-layout-mode.
1345 When enabled, typing certain characters automatically inserts newlines.
1346 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-layout-rules.
1348 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
1349 from which other modes can be derived.
1351 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
1353 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
1354 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
1355 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
1356 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
1359 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
1360 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
1362 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
1363 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
1365 ** New generic mode, xmodmap-generic-mode, for xmodmap files.
1367 ** New emacs-lock.el package.
1368 The previous version has been moved to obsolete/old-emacs-lock.el.
1369 Now, there is a proper minor mode `emacs-lock-mode'. Protection
1370 against exiting Emacs and killing the buffer can be set separately.
1371 The mechanism for automatically turning off protection for buffers
1372 with dead inferior processes has been generalized.
1375 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
1377 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function call now ENABLES
1378 the minor mode unconditionally. This is so that you can write e.g.
1380 (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'foo-mode)
1382 to enable foo-mode in Text mode buffers, removing the need for
1383 `turn-on-foo-mode' style functions. This affects all mode commands
1384 defined by `define-minor-mode'. If called interactively, the mode
1385 command still toggles the minor mode.
1387 ** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
1388 It is now a list of three elements, where the second element is a list
1389 describing the original file's SELinux context. If Emacs or the
1390 system lacks SELinux support, the context list is (nil nil nil nil).
1391 See "Basic SELinux support" above, under "Changes in Emacs 24.1".
1393 ** `char-direction-table' and the `char-direction' function were deleted.
1394 They were buggy and inferior to the new support of bidirectional
1395 editing introduced in Emacs 24. If you need the bidirectional
1396 properties of a character, use `get-char-code-property' with the last
1397 argument `bidi-class'.
1399 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
1400 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
1401 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
1402 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
1404 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
1405 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
1406 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
1409 ** Support for "old-style" backquotes, obsolete for 10+ years, has
1410 been further reduced. Now a backquote not followed by a space is
1411 always treated as a "new-style" backquote. Please remove all
1412 "old-style" backquotes from your code. If your code uses backquotes
1413 as documented in the Elisp manual, and compiles without warning, then
1414 you have nothing to do in this regard. Code not following the
1415 appropriate conventions may fail to compile.
1417 The most common cause of trouble seems to be an old-style backquote
1418 followed by a newline. Another cause of trouble is vector notation
1419 for key sequence notation: instead of [(control ,)] and [(control ')],
1420 you should write [(control ?,)] and [(control ?')], which will work in
1423 ** The macro `eval-at-startup' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but this
1424 was not advertised at the time. The function `custom-initialize-delay'
1425 replaced all known uses.
1427 ** `view-buffer' now treats special mode-class in the same way that
1428 `view-file' has since Emacs 22 (i.e. it won't enable View mode if the
1429 major mode is special).
1431 ** Menu and tool bar changes
1433 *** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
1434 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
1435 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
1436 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
1437 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
1438 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
1440 *** The menu bar bindings's caches are not used any more.
1441 Use (where-is-internal <def> nil t) instead.
1443 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
1444 similar to those created by shift-selection (see Selection changes
1445 above). In previous Emacs versions, these regions were delineated by
1446 `mouse-drag-overlay'; that variable has been removed.
1448 ** The fourth argument of `filter-buffer-substring' has been removed.
1449 If you want to remove text properties from the final result, simply
1450 pass the result through substring-no-properties.
1452 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
1454 ** The following obsolete functions and aliases have been removed
1455 (the appropriate new function is given in parentheses; "not needed"
1456 means you can just remove all calls to the function in question):
1458 *** `comint-kill-output' (`comint-delete-output')
1459 *** `decompose-composite-char' (`char-to-string')
1460 *** `outline-visible' (`outline-invisible-p')
1461 *** `internal-find-face' (`facep')
1462 *** `internal-get-face' (`facep and check-face')
1463 *** `frame-update-faces' (not needed)
1464 *** `frame-update-face-colors' (`frame-set-background-mode')
1465 *** `x-frob-font-weight' and `x-frob-font-slant' (`make-face-*' functions)
1466 *** `x-make-font-bold and x-make-font-demibold (`make-face-bold')
1467 *** `x-make-font-italic' and `x-make-font-oblique' (`make-face-italic')
1468 *** `x-make-font-bold-italic' (`make-face-bold-italic')
1469 *** `x-make-font-unbold' (`make-face-unbold')
1470 *** `x-make-font-unitalic' (`make-face-unitalic')
1471 *** `mldrag-drag-mode-line' (`mouse-drag-mode-line')
1472 *** `mldrag-drag-vertical-line' (`mouse-drag-vertical-line')
1473 *** `iswitchb-default-keybindings' (`iswitchb-mode')
1474 *** `char-bytes' (== 1)
1475 *** `isearch-return-char' (`isearch-printing-char')
1476 *** `make-local-hook' (not needed)
1477 *** `set-screen-height' (`set-frame-height')
1478 *** `set-screen-width' (`set-frame-width')
1480 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed
1481 (the appropriate new variable is given in parentheses):
1483 *** `checkdoc-minor-keymap' (`checkdoc-minor-mode-map')
1484 *** `vc-header-alist' (`vc-BACKEND-header')
1485 *** `directory-sep-char' (== ?/)
1486 *** `font-lock-defaults-alist' (`font-lock-defaults')
1487 *** `e' (`float-e').
1489 ** The following obsolete files were removed:
1490 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
1492 ** The format of the finder-inf.el file has changed, since the Finder
1493 mechanism is now based on the package system. The variable
1494 `finder-package-info' is replaced by `package--builtins' and
1495 `finder-keywords-hash'.
1497 ** When generating autoloads, `update-directory-autoloads' no longer
1498 assumes every inspected file is in your `load-path'. It instead
1499 generates relative names according to the current `load-path'.
1502 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.1
1504 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
1505 The `lexical-binding' variable enables lexical scoping for local
1506 variables. It is typically set via a file-local variable in the first
1507 line of the file, in which case it applies to all the code in that
1510 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
1511 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
1513 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
1514 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
1516 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
1518 *** `defvar' and `defconst' now mark the variable as special (dynamic).
1519 So do `defcustom' and other forms that call `defvar' as a subroutine.
1521 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
1522 declared as dynamically bound.
1524 *** The form ((lambda ...) ...) is deprecated.
1526 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
1527 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
1528 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
1530 ** Changes for bidirectional display and editing
1532 *** New function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction'.
1533 This returns the base direction of the paragraph at point.
1535 *** New function `bidi-string-mark-left-to-right'.
1536 Given a string containing characters from right-to-left scripts, this
1537 function returns another string which can be safely inserted into a
1538 buffer, such that any following text will be always displayed to the
1539 right of that string. (This works by appending an invisible Unicode
1540 "LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK" character if the argument string might need it.)
1542 This is useful when the buffer has overall left-to-right paragraph
1543 direction and you need to insert a string whose contents are not known
1544 in advance, without disrupting the layout of the line.
1548 *** Window tree functions are accessible in Elisp.
1549 Functions are provided to return the parent, siblings or child windows
1550 of any window including internal windows (windows not associated with a
1551 buffer) in the window tree.
1553 **** New function `window-valid-p' gives non-nil for live and internal
1556 **** Window manipulation can deal with internal windows.
1557 Many window handling functions like `split-window', `delete-window', or
1558 `delete-other-windows' as well as the window resizing functions can now
1559 act on any window including internal ones.
1561 *** window-total-height/-width vs window-body-height/-width.
1562 The function `window-height' has been renamed to `window-total-height'
1563 and `window-width' has been renamed to `window-body-width'. The old
1564 names are provided as aliases. Two new functions `window-total-width'
1565 and `window-body-height' are provided.
1567 *** Window parameters specific to window handling functions.
1568 For each window you can specify a parameter to override the default
1569 behavior of a number of functions like `split-window', `delete-window'
1570 and `delete-other-windows'. The variable `ignore-window-parameters'
1571 allows to ignore processing such parameters.
1573 *** New semantics of third argument of `split-window'.
1574 The third argument of `split-window' has been renamed to SIDE and can be
1575 set to any of the values 'below, 'right, 'above, or 'left to make the
1576 new window appear on the corresponding side of the window that shall be
1577 split. Any other value of SIDE will cause `split-window' to split the
1578 window into two side-by-side windows as before.
1580 *** Window resizing functions.
1581 A new standard function for resizing windows called `window-resize' has
1582 been introduced. This and all other functions for resizing windows no
1583 longer delete any windows when they become too small.
1585 *** Deleting the selected window now selects the most recently selected
1586 live window on that frame instead.
1588 *** `adjust-window-trailing-edge' adjustments.
1589 `adjust-window-trailing-edge' can now deal with fixed-size windows and
1590 is able to resize other windows if a window adjacent to the trailing
1591 edge cannot be shrunk any more. This makes its behavior more similar to
1592 that of Emacs 21 without compromising, however, its inability to delete
1593 windows which was introduced in Emacs 22.
1595 *** Window-local buffer lists.
1596 Windows now have local buffer lists. This means that removing a buffer
1597 from display in a window will preferably show the buffer previously
1598 shown in that window with its previous window-start and window-point
1599 positions. This also means that the same buffer may be automatically
1600 shown twice even if it already appears in another window.
1602 *** `switch-to-buffer' has a new optional argument FORCE-SAME-WINDOW,
1603 which if non-nil requires the buffer to be displayed in the currently
1604 selected window, signaling an error otherwise. If nil, another window
1605 can be used, e.g. if the selected one is strongly dedicated.
1607 *** `split-window-vertically' and `split-window-horizontally' renamed
1608 to `split-window-below' and `split-window-right' respectively.
1609 The old names are kept as aliases.
1613 **** The second arg to `display-buffer' and `pop-to-buffer' is now
1614 named ACTION, and takes a display action of the same form as
1615 `display-buffer-base-action' (see Changes, above). A non-nil,
1616 non-list value is treated specially, as the old meaning.
1618 **** New variable `display-buffer-overriding-action'.
1620 **** The procedure of `display-buffer' etc. to choose a window is
1621 determined by combining `display-buffer-overriding-action',
1622 `display-buffer-alist', the ACTION arg, `display-buffer-base-action',
1623 and `display-buffer-fallback-action'. The second and fourth of these
1624 are user-customizable variables.
1626 See the docstring of `display-buffer' for details.
1628 *** New functions `window-state-get' and `window-state-put'.
1629 These functions allow to save and restore the state of an arbitrary
1630 frame or window as an Elisp object.
1634 *** New variable `completion-extra-properties' used to specify extra
1635 properties of the current completion:
1636 - :annotate-function, same as the old completion-annotate-function.
1637 - :exit-function, function to call after completion took place.
1639 *** Functions on `completion-at-point-functions' can return any of the
1640 properties valid for `completion-extra-properties'.
1642 *** `completion-annotate-function' is obsolete.
1644 *** New `metadata' method for completion tables. The metadata thus returned
1645 can specify various details of the data returned by `all-completions':
1646 - `category' is the kind of objects returned (e.g., `buffer', `file', ...),
1647 used to select a style in completion-category-overrides.
1648 - `annotation-function' to add annotations in *Completions*.
1649 - `display-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries in *Completions*.
1650 - `cycle-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries when cycling.
1652 *** `minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map' is not used any more.
1653 Instead, the bindings in `minibuffer-local-filename-completion-map'
1654 are combined with `minibuffer-local-must-match-map'.
1656 *** New variable `completing-read-function' allows overriding the
1657 behavior of `completing-read'.
1659 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
1660 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
1662 ** `pre-command-hook'/`post-command-hook' are not reset to nil on error.
1663 Instead, the offending function is removed.
1667 *** New function `run-hook-wrapped' for running an abnormal hook by
1668 passing the hook functions as arguments to a "wrapping" function.
1669 Like `run-hook-with-args-until-success', it stops at the first
1670 non-nil return value.
1672 *** New macro `with-wrapper-hook' for running an abnormal hook as a
1673 set of "wrapping" filters, similar to around advice.
1674 (A version of this macro was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not
1675 advertised at the time.)
1679 *** New macro `condition-case-unless-debug' (this was actually added in
1680 Emacs 23.1 as condition-case-no-debug, but not advertised)
1682 *** The macro `with-demoted-errors' was added in Emacs 23.1, but not advertised.
1684 *** Variable `stack-trace-on-error' removed.
1686 *** The debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will
1687 jump to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked
1688 instead of jumping all the way to the top-level.
1690 *** Set `debug-on-event' to enter the debugger on events like SIGUSR1.
1691 This can be useful when `inhibit-quit' is set.
1693 ** The new function `server-eval-at' allows evaluation of Lisp forms on
1694 named Emacs server instances.
1696 ** `call-process' and `call-process-region' allow a `(:file "file")' spec
1697 to redirect STDOUT to a file.
1699 ** The function `format-time-string' now supports the %N directive,
1700 for higher-resolution time stamps.
1702 ** New input reading functions
1704 *** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of
1705 characters, discarding any inputs not inside the set.
1707 *** The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name
1708 or RGB triplet, instead of signaling an error if the user provides
1711 **** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
1713 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
1714 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
1715 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
1718 ** Syntax parsing changes
1720 *** New variable `syntax-propertize-function'.
1721 This replaces `font-lock-syntactic-keywords' which is now obsolete.
1722 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
1723 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
1724 Together with this new variable come a new hook
1725 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
1726 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
1727 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
1730 *** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
1732 ** New hook `post-self-insert-hook', run after `self-insert-command'.
1734 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
1736 ** Major and minor mode changes
1738 *** `set-auto-mode' now respects mode: local variables at the end of files,
1739 as well as those in the -*- line.
1741 *** `prog-mode' is a new major mode from which programming modes
1744 **** `prog-mode-hook' can be used to enable features for programming
1745 modes, e.g. (add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'flyspell-prog-mode) to enable
1746 on-the-fly spell checking for comments and strings.
1748 *** New hook `change-major-mode-after-body-hook', run by
1749 `run-mode-hooks' just before any other mode hooks.
1751 *** Enabled globalized minor modes can be disabled in specific major modes.
1752 If the global mode is global-FOO-mode, then run (FOO-mode -1) in the
1753 major mode's hook, where FOO-mode toggles the mode on a per-buffer basis.
1755 *** `define-minor-mode' accepts new keywords :variable, :after-hook.
1757 ** File-handling changes
1759 *** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
1760 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
1761 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
1762 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
1764 *** New file predicates: `file-equal-p', `file-in-directory-p'.
1766 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
1767 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
1768 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
1772 *** Animated images support (currently animated gifs only).
1774 **** `image-animated-p' returns non-nil if an image can be animated.
1776 **** `image-animate' animates a supplied image spec.
1778 **** `image-animate-timer' returns the timer object for an image that
1781 *** `image-extension-data' has been renamed to `image-metadata'.
1782 The old name is an obsolete alias to the new one.
1784 *** Image mode can view any image type that ImageMagick supports.
1785 This requires Emacs to be built with ImageMagick support.
1787 **** New function `imagemagick-types', defined if ImageMagick support
1788 is enabled, returns a list of image file extensions that your
1789 ImageMagick installation supports.
1791 **** New function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick
1792 image types in Image mode and in `create-image' and other helper
1795 **** New option `imagemagick-types-inhibit' excludes certain
1796 ImageMagick image types from `imagemagick-register-types'.
1798 **** With ImageMagick support, there are extra Image mode commands to
1799 resize and rotate images: `image-transform-fit-to-height',
1800 `image-transform-fit-to-width', `image-transform-set-rotation', and
1801 `image-transform-set-scale'.
1803 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
1804 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
1805 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail. For
1806 example, this is used by Rmail to optionally delete a mail window.
1808 ** XML and HTML parsing
1809 If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support, there are two new
1810 functions: `libxml-parse-html-region' (which parses "real world" HTML)
1811 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
1812 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
1814 ** Networking and encryption changes
1816 *** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
1817 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
1818 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
1819 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
1820 must also be supplied.
1822 *** New library gnutls.el.
1823 The new function `gnutls-available-p' returns non-nil if Emacs is
1824 built with GnuTLS support. The main entry points are
1825 `open-gnutls-stream' and `gnutls-negotiate'. It's easiest to use
1826 these functions through `open-network-stream', because that can
1827 upgrade connections through STARTTLS opportunistically or use plain
1828 SSL, depending on your needs. For debugging, set `gnutls-log-level'
1831 *** New primitive `secure-hash' that supports many secure hash algorithms:
1832 md5, sha1, sha2, sha224, sha256, sha384, and sha512. The lisp library
1833 sha1.el has been removed. The `sha1' feature is provided by default.
1837 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
1839 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
1840 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
1841 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
1842 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
1843 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
1844 displayed with a "spinning bar".
1846 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
1847 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
1849 ** New variables `delayed-warnings-list' and `delayed-warnings-hook'.
1850 If delayed-warnings-list is non-nil, the command loop calls
1851 `delayed-warnings-hook' after `post-command-hook'. At present, this
1852 is only used by Emacs on some platforms to display warnings during
1853 startup, which might otherwise not be noticed. This uses the
1854 functions `display-delayed-warnings' and `collapse-delayed-warnings'.
1856 ** rx.el has a new `group-n' construct for explicitly numbered groups.
1858 ** New function `make-composed-keymap' that constructs a new keymap
1859 from multiple input maps. You can use this to make a keymap that
1860 inherits from multiple maps, eg:
1861 (set-keymap-parent newmap (make-composed-keymap othermap parent))
1863 ** New function `string-prefix-p'.
1864 (This was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not advertised at the time.)
1866 ** New reader macro ## that stands for the empty symbol.
1867 This means that the empty symbol can now be read back. Also, #: by itself
1868 (when not immediately followed by a possible symbol character) stands for
1869 an empty uninterned symbol.
1871 ** New math functions `isnan', `copysign', `frexp', `ldexp'.
1873 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
1875 *** `tooltip-use-echo-area' is obsolete.
1876 Rather than setting this to t, disable Tooltip mode instead.
1878 *** buffer-substring-filters is obsolete.
1879 Use `filter-buffer-substring-functions' instead.
1881 *** `byte-compile-disable-print-circle' is obsolete.
1883 *** `deferred-action-list' and `deferred-action-function' are obsolete.
1884 Use `post-command-hook' instead.
1886 *** `font-lock-maximum-size' is obsolete.
1889 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on non-free operating systems
1891 ** On MS Windows, Emacs warns when using the obsolete init file _emacs,
1892 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
1894 ** New configure.bat options
1896 *** --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra runtime checks.
1898 *** --distfiles specifies files to be included in binary distribution.
1900 *** --without-gnutls disables automatic GnuTLS detection.
1902 *** --lib for general library linkage, works with the USER_LIBS build variable.
1904 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
1906 ** The Lisp function `w32-default-color-map' is now obsolete.
1907 (It is only used internally in the Emacs C code.)
1909 ** Customize ns-auto-hide-menu-bar to have the menu-bar hidden, but
1910 reappear on mouse-over. (Requires OS X 10.6 or later.)
1912 ** On Mac OS X, dragging a file into Emacs visits the file, like on
1913 other platforms, rather than inserting its contents into the buffer.
1916 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1917 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
1919 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1920 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1921 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1922 (at your option) any later version.
1924 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1925 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1926 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1927 GNU General Public License for more details.
1929 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1930 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
1935 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"