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 ** Face underlining can now use a wave.
92 See the "Face Attributes" section of the Elisp manual.
94 ** String values for `initial-buffer-choice' also apply to emacsclient
95 frames, if emacsclient is only told to open a new frame without
96 specifying any file to visit or expression to evaluate.
99 ** You can prevent the creation of lock files by setting `create-lockfiles'
100 to nil. Use with caution, and only if you really need to.
103 ** Using "unibyte: t" in Lisp source files is obsolete.
104 Use "coding: raw-text" instead.
108 *** New option `mode-line-default-help-echo' specifies the help text
109 (shown in a tooltip or in the echo area) for any part of the mode line
110 that does not have its own specialized help text.
112 *** You can now click mouse-3 in the coding system indicator to
113 invokes `set-buffer-file-coding-system'.
116 ** Setting `enable-remote-dir-locals' to non-nil allows directory
117 local variables on remote hosts.
120 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.2
124 *** Global `M-s _' starts a symbol (identifier) incremental search,
125 and `M-s _' in Isearch toggles symbol search mode.
126 `M-s c' in Isearch toggles search case-sensitivity.
128 ** M-x move-to-column, if called interactively with no prefix arg, now
129 prompts for a column number.
131 ** `mouse-avoidance-banish-position' can now be used to customize
132 `mouse-avoidance-mode' further.
134 ** `C-M-f' and `C-M-b' will now move to the path name separator
135 character when doing minibuffer filename prompts.
137 ** `goto-char' is now bound to `M-g c'.
139 ** New input method `vietnamese-vni'.
142 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.2
144 ** CL's main entry is now (require 'cl-lib).
145 `cl-lib' is like the old `cl' except that it uses the namespace cleanly,
146 i.e. all its definitions have the "cl-" prefix.
148 If `cl' provided a feature under the name `foo', then `cl-lib' provides it
149 under the name `cl-foo' instead, with the exceptions of the few definitions
150 that had to use `foo*' to avoid conflicts with pre-existing Elisp entities,
151 which have not been renamed to `cl-foo*' but just `cl-foo'.
153 The old `cl' is now deprecated and is nothing more than a bunch of aliases that
154 provide the old non-prefixed names.
156 ** A new mode for Python.
157 This provides several new features, including:
158 per-buffer shells, better indentation, Python 3 support, and improved
159 shell-interaction compatible with iPython (and virtually any other
162 *** Some user options have been replaced/renamed:
163 Old defcustom: | New defcustom:
164 python-indent | python-indent-offset
165 python-guess-indent | python-indent-guess-indent-offset
166 python-pdbtrack-do-tracking-p | python-pdbtrack-activate
167 python-use-skeletons | python-skeleton-autoinsert
169 *** Some user options have been removed:
171 **** `python-indent-string-contents': Strings are never indented.
173 **** `python-honour-comment-indentation':
174 Comments are never considered as indentation markers themselves.
176 **** `python-continuation-offset': Indentation is automatically
177 calculated in a pep8 compliant way depending on the context.
179 **** `python-shell-prompt-alist', `python-shell-continuation-prompt-alist':
180 Have no direct mapping as the shell interaction is completely different.
182 **** `python-python-command', `python-jython-command':
183 Replaced by `python-shell-interpreter'.
185 **** `inferior-python-filter-regexp', `python-remove-cwd-from-path',
186 `python-pdbtrack-minor-mode-string', `python-source-modes':
189 *** Some commands have been replaced:
190 Old command | New command
191 python-insert-class | python-skeleton-class
192 python-insert-def | python-skeleton-def
193 python-insert-for | python-skeleton-for
194 python-insert-if | python-skeleton-if
195 python-insert-try/except | python-skeleton-try
196 python-insert-try/finally | python-skeleton-try
197 python-insert-while | python-skeleton-while
198 python-find-function | python-nav-jump-to-defun
199 python-next-statement | python-nav-forward-sentence
200 python-previous-statement | python-nav-backward-sentence
201 python-send-buffer | python-shell-send-buffer
202 python-send-defun | python-shell-send-defun
203 python-send-region | python-shell-send-region
204 python-send-region-and-go | Emulate with python-shell-send-region and
205 python-shell-switch-to-shell
206 python-send-string | python-shell-send-string
207 python-switch-to-python | python-shell-switch-to-shell
208 python-describe-symbol | python-eldoc-at-point
211 - Support for ghdl (free vhdl compiler). Now default.
212 - Add/update support for VHDL-AMS packages.
213 - Update to VHDL'02 standard.
214 - Accept \r and \f as whitespace.
218 Faces for changes now use the same diff color scheme as in modern VCSes
219 where deletions are displayed in red (new faces `diff-refine-removed'
220 and `smerge-refined-removed' and new definition of `diff-removed'),
221 insertions in green (new faces `diff-refine-added' and
222 `smerge-refined-added' and new definition of `diff-added').
223 The variable `diff-use-changed-face' defines whether to use
224 the face `diff-changed', or `diff-removed' and `diff-added'
225 to highlight changes in context diffs.
227 ** Ediff now uses the same color scheme as Diff mode
228 on high color displays.
231 *** Pairing of parens/quotes uses electric-pair-mode instead of skeleton-pair.
232 *** `sh-electric-here-document-mode' now controls auto-insertion of here-docs.
233 *** `sh-use-smie' lets you choose a new indentation and navigation code.
235 ** reStructuredText mode
237 *** Rebind nearly all keys making room for more keys and complying
238 better to usage in other modes. Describe bindings with C-c C-h.
240 *** Major revision of indentation working very similar to other
241 modes. TAB is your friend.
243 *** Major revision of filling working fine with most of
244 reStructuredText syntax. Support auto-filling.
246 *** Major revision of comment handling.
248 *** Major revision of fontification working with `jit-lock-mode'.
250 *** Cover reStructuredText syntax more closely. Improve
251 the experience for Sphinx users.
253 *** `rst-insert-list' inserts new list or continues existing lists.
255 *** Extend correct and improve customization.
257 *** Negative prefix argument always works for `rst-adjust'.
259 *** Reset window configuration after displaying TOC.
261 *** Package version in `rst-version'.
263 ** New `derived-mode' filter for Ibuffer, bound to `/ M'.
264 `/ m' is now bound to filter by used-mode, which used to be bound to `/ M'.
268 *** The faces used by Apropos are now directly customizable.
269 These faces are named `apropos-symbol', `apropos-keybinding', and so on;
270 see the `apropos' Custom group for details.
272 **** The old options whose values specified faces to use were removed
273 (i.e. `apropos-symbol-face', `apropos-keybinding-face', etc.).
276 This package has been rewritten to use Tabulated List mode.
278 *** Option `Buffer-menu-buffer+size-width' is now obsolete.
279 Use `Buffer-menu-name-width' and `Buffer-menu-size-width' instead.
283 *** The calendars produced by cal-html include holidays.
284 Customize cal-html-holidays to change this.
288 *** `custom-reset-button-menu' now defaults to t.
290 *** Non-option variables are never matched in `customize-apropos' and
291 `customize-apropos-options' (i.e. the prefix argument does nothing for
294 ** erc will look up server/channel names via auth-source and use the
295 channel keys found, if any.
299 *** The option `ffap-url-unwrap-remote' can now be a list of strings,
300 specifying URL types which should be converted to remote file names at
301 the FFAP prompt. The default is now '("ftp").
305 *** The obsolete variable `follow-mode-off-hook' has been removed.
307 *** Follow mode no longer works by using advice.
308 The option `follow-intercept-processes' has been removed.
310 ** The `server-auth-key' variable can be used to set a permanent
311 shared key for Emacs Server.
313 ** In Perl mode, new option `perl-indent-parens-as-block' causes non-block
314 closing brackets to be aligned with the line of the opening bracket.
316 ** FIXME something happened to ses.el, 2012-04-17.
318 ** which-function-mode now applies to all applicable major modes by default.
323 *** The syntax has been extended in order to allow ad-hoc proxy
324 definitions. See the manual for details.
327 *** Remote processes are now supported also on remote Windows host.
332 *** New variables `dbus-compiled-version' and `dbus-runtime-version'.
335 *** The D-Bus object manager interface is implemented.
338 *** Variables of type :(u)int32 and :(u)int64 accept floating points,
339 if their value does not fit into Emacs's integer range.
342 *** The function `dbus-call-method' works non-blocking now, it can be
343 interrupted by C-g. `dbus-call-method-non-blocking' is obsolete.
346 *** Signals can be sent also as unicast message.
349 *** The argument list of `dbus-register-signal' has been extended,
350 according to the new match rule types of D-Bus. See the manual for
354 *** `dbus-init-bus' supports private connections.
357 *** There is a new function `dbus-setenv'.
360 ** notifications.el supports now version 1.2 of the Notifications API.
361 The function `notifications-get-capabilities' returns the supported
366 *** Newly-available packages are listed in the Package Menu as "new",
367 and sorted above the other "available" packages by default.
369 ** Tabulated List and packages derived from it
371 *** New command `tabulated-list-sort', bound to `S', sorts the column
372 at point, or the Nth column if a numeric prefix argument is given.
376 *** Structs made by `url-generic-parse-url' have nil `attributes' slot.
377 Previously, this slot stored semicolon-separated attribute-value pairs
378 appended to some imap URLs, but this is not compatible with RFC 3986.
379 So now the `filename' slot stores the entire path and query components
380 and the `attributes' slot is always nil.
382 *** New function `url-encode-url' for encoding a URI string.
383 The `url-retrieve' function now uses this to encode its URL argument,
384 in case that is not properly encoded.
386 ** Obsolete packages:
389 In most cases, assoc+member+push+delq work just as well.
390 And in any case it's just a terrible package: ugly semantics, terrible
391 inefficiency, and not namespace-clean.
406 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.2
408 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.2
411 ** Docstrings starting with `*' no longer indicate user options.
412 Only variables defined using `defcustom' are considered user options.
413 The function `user-variable-p' is now an obsolete alias for
416 ** `face-spec-set' no longer sets frame-specific attributes when the
417 third argument is a frame (that usage was obsolete since Emacs 22.2).
420 ** The arguments of `dbus-register-signal' are no longer just strings,
421 but keywords or keyword-string pairs. The old argument list will
422 still be supported for Emacs 24.x.
424 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed:
426 *** `facemenu-unlisted-faces'
427 *** `rmail-decode-mime-charset'
430 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.2
432 ** `defun' also accepts a (declare DECLS) form, like `defmacro'.
433 The interpretation of the DECLS is determined by `defun-declarations-alist'.
435 ** `macro-declaration-function' is obsolete, use `macro-declarations-alist'.
437 ** New function `set-temporary-overlay-map'.
439 ** New macros `setq-local' and `defvar-local'.
441 ** New error type and new function `user-error'. Doesn't trigger the debugger.
443 ** The functions get-lru-window, get-mru-window and get-largest-window
444 now accept a third argument to avoid chosing the selected window.
448 *** New function `completion-table-with-quoting' to handle completion
449 in the presence of quoting, such as file completion in shell buffers.
451 *** New function `completion-table-subvert' to use an existing completion
452 table, but with a different prefix.
456 *** `current-time-string' no longer requires that its argument's year
457 must be in the range 1000..9999. It now works with any year supported
458 by the underlying C implementation.
460 ** `automount-dir-prefix' is obsolete.
461 ** `buffer-has-markers-at' is obsolete.
463 * Changes in Emacs 24.2 on non-free operating systems
465 ** New configure.bat options on MS-Windows:
467 *** --without-libxml2 omits support for libxml2, even if its presence
470 ** When invoked with the -nw switch to run on the Windows text-mode terminal,
471 Emacs now supports mouse highlight, help-echo (in the echo area), and
472 mouse-autoselect-window.
475 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
477 ** Emacs can be compiled with Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
478 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
479 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
482 ** Emacs can be compiled with GnuTLS support.
483 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
484 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
485 `--without-gnutls'. See below for GnuTLS features.
487 ** Emacs can be compiled with SELinux support.
488 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
489 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
490 `--without-selinux'. See below for SELinux features.
492 ** Emacs can be compiled with ImageMagick support.
493 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
494 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
495 `--without-imagemagick'. See below for ImageMagick features.
496 This feature is not available for the Nextstep or MS ports.
498 ** Emacs can be compiled with libxml2 support.
499 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
500 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
501 `--without-xml2'. See below for libxml2 features.
503 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
504 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
506 ** New configure option --with-wide-int.
507 With it, Emacs integers typically have 62 bits, even on 32-bit machines.
508 On 32-bit hosts, this raises the limit on buffer sizes from about 512 MiB
511 ** New configure options: --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
512 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
513 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
515 ** New configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
516 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
517 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
519 ** The standalone programs digest-doc and sorted-doc are removed.
520 Emacs now uses Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
522 ** The standalone program `fakemail' is removed.
523 If you need it, feedmail.el provides a superset of the functionality.
526 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
528 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
529 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
530 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
532 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
533 from load-path. -Q now implies this. This option does not affect the
534 EMACSLOADPATH environment variable (and hence has no effect for
538 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
542 *** Many packages now use the `completion-at-point' command,
543 rather than implementing separate completion commands.
545 *** `completion-at-point' now handles tags and semantic completion.
547 *** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
548 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
550 *** New option `completion-cycle-threshold' allows completion cycling.
552 *** New option `completion-category-overrides' for overriding the
553 default completion style in certain circumstances.
555 *** New completion style `substring'.
557 *** Completion of buffer names uses `substring' completion by default.
559 *** The option `widget-complete-field' has been removed.
563 *** The first time you try sending mail, Emacs asks for a mail method.
564 This is implemented by a new default for `send-mail-function', which
565 is `sendmail-query-once'. This offers to use the smtpmail package, or
566 to use the old defaults relying on external mail facilities
567 (`sendmail-send-it' on GNU/Linux and other Unix-like systems, and
568 `mailclient-send-it' on Windows).
570 *** Typing C-c m in the buffer made by M-x report-emacs-bug transfers
571 the report to your desktop's preferred mail client, if there is one.
572 This uses either the "xdg-email" utility, or Mac OS's "open" command.
574 *** See Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages for SMTPmail changes
575 and Mail mode changes
577 ** Emacs server and client changes
579 *** New option `server-port' specifies the port for TCP Emacs servers.
581 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
583 *** New emacsclient argument --frame-parameters specifies the frame
584 parameters of any newly-created graphical frame.
586 *** If emacsclient shuts down due to Emacs signaling an error,
587 its exit status is 1.
589 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID.
590 This opens a client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed, similar
591 to the --parent-id argument to Emacs.
593 ** Internationalization changes
595 *** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
596 Right-to-left (RTL) scripts, such as Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew, are
597 displayed in the correct visual order as expected by users of those
598 scripts. The display reordering is a "full bidirectionality" class
599 implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm (UBA). Buffers
600 with no RTL text should look exactly the same as before.
602 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-display-reordering'.
603 To disable display reordering in a buffer, change this to nil.
605 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction'.
606 If nil (the default), Emacs determines the base direction of each
607 paragraph from its text, as specified by the UBA. Setting the value
608 to `right-to-left' or `left-to-right' forces a base direction on each
611 Paragraphs with right-to-left base direction are displayed starting at
612 the right window edge.
614 *** Enhanced support for characters with no glyphs in available fonts,
615 or, on text terminals, characters that cannot be encoded by the
616 terminal coding system. The new option `glyphless-char-display-control'
617 specifies how to display them: as a hexadecimal code in a box, a thin
618 1-pixel space, an empty box, etc.
620 *** New input methods for Farsi and Bulgarian
621 (farsi-isiri-9147, farsi-transliterate-banan, bulgarian-alt-phonetic).
623 *** `nobreak-char-display' now also highlights Unicode hyphen chars
626 *** New Hebrew translation of the Emacs Tutorial.
627 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
628 automatically select it.
630 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
631 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
632 from a package repository at http://elpa.gnu.org.
634 *** M-x list-packages shows a list of packages, which can be
635 selected for installation.
637 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
639 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded automatically when
640 Emacs starts up. To disable this, set `package-enable-at-startup' to
641 nil. To specify the packages to load, customize `package-load-list'.
643 ** Custom theme changes
645 *** New command `M-x customize-themes', which provides a convenient
646 interface for enabling and disabling Custom themes.
648 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
649 Emacs no longer looks for Custom themes in `load-path'. The default
650 value of `custom-theme-load-path' says to look for themes in
651 `custom-theme-directory', followed by a subdirectory of
652 `data-directory' named "themes/", which contains a small selection of
653 built-in Custom themes.
655 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
656 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
657 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
658 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
660 ** Improved GTK integration
662 *** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
663 The function `set-scroll-bar-mode' can change this.
665 *** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
666 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose the style. On a Gnome desktop,
667 the default is taken from desktop settings.
669 *** GTK tool bars can be placed on any edge of the frame.
670 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the
671 values top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has
674 *** The default colors for selected text (the `region' face) are taken
675 from the GTK theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
677 *** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK.
678 You can disable this by changing `x-gtk-use-system-tooltips' to nil.
680 ** Graphical interface changes
682 *** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
683 Also, the first dash (which does not indicate anything) is just
684 displayed as a space.
686 *** `menu-bar-select-buffer-function' lets you choose another operation
687 instead of `switch-to-buffer' when selecting an item in the Buffers menu.
689 *** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is
690 built with Xft. These fonts can be set via X resources, for example:
691 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
695 *** Emacs now calls `kill-emacs' if it receives SIGTERM or SIGHUP,
696 or if it receives a SIGINT signal in batch mode.
698 *** `kill-emacs-hook' is now also run in batch mode.
699 Third-party code which adds to `kill-emacs-hook' should check if they
700 do the right thing in batch mode.
704 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
705 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
706 of buffer at first key-press (instead they move to top/bottom of buffer)
707 when `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
709 *** New option `scroll-error-top-bottom' (see above).
711 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
712 scroll a line instead of full screen.
714 *** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
715 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
717 *** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
718 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
719 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
720 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
721 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
723 *** "Aggressive" scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
724 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
725 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
726 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
729 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
730 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
732 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up.
733 Also, the function `copy-file' has an extra optional argument for
734 preserving SELinux context, and the return value of `backup-buffer'
735 now includes the SELinux context.
737 *** New functions `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
738 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
742 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
743 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
745 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
746 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
748 ** File- and directory-local variable changes
750 *** You can stop directory local vars from applying to subdirectories.
751 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
752 settings to indicate that the section should not apply to
755 *** Directory local variables can apply to some file-less buffers.
756 Affected modes include dired, vc-dir, and log-edit. For example,
757 adding "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to .dir-locals.el will
758 turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should call
759 `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
761 *** Using "mode: MINOR-MODE" to enable a minor mode is deprecated.
762 Instead, use "eval: (minor-mode 1)".
764 *** The variable `inhibit-first-line-modes-regexps' has been renamed
765 to `inhibit-local-variables-regexps'. As the name suggests, it now
766 applies to ALL file local variables, not just -*- lines. The
767 associated `inhibit-first-line-modes-suffixes' has been renamed in the
772 *** The `quit-window' command now restores the last buffer displayed
773 in the quitted window.
775 *** Resizing an Emacs frame now preserves proportional window sizes,
776 modulo restrictions like window minimum sizes and fixed-size windows.
778 *** The behavior of `display-buffer' is now customizable in detail.
780 **** New option `display-buffer-base-action' specifies a list of
781 user-determined display "actions" (functions and optional arguments
782 for choosing the displaying window).
784 This takes precedence over the default display action, which is
785 specified by `display-buffer-fallback-action'.
787 **** New option `display-buffer-alist' maps buffer name regexps to
788 display actions, taking precedence over `display-buffer-base-action'.
790 *** New option `window-combination-limit'.
791 The new option `window-combination-limit' allows to return the space
792 obtained for resizing or creating a window more reliably to the window
793 from which such space was obtained.
795 *** New option `window-combination-resize'.
796 The new option `window-combination-resize' allows to split a window that
797 otherwise cannot be split because it's too small by stealing space from
798 other windows in the same combination. Subsequent resizing or deletion
799 of the window will resize all windows in the same combination as well.
801 *** New option `frame-auto-hide-function' lets you choose between
802 iconifying or deleting a frame when burying a buffer in a dedicated
803 frame, or quitting a window showing a buffer in a frame of its own.
805 *** New commands `maximize-window' and `minimize-window'.
806 These maximize and minimize the size of a window within its frame.
808 *** New commands `switch-to-prev-buffer' and `switch-to-next-buffer'.
809 These functions allow to navigate through the live buffers that have
810 been shown in a specific window.
812 ** Minibuffer changes
814 *** The inactive minibuffer has its own major mode `minibuffer-inactive-mode'.
815 This is handy for minibuffer-only frames, and is also used for the feature
816 where mouse-1 pops up *Messages*"', which can now easily be changed.
818 *** Minibuffers set `truncate-lines' to nil.
819 If you want to change the value to something else, you could use
820 for example `minibuffer-setup-hook'.
822 ** `auto-mode-case-fold' is now enabled by default.
824 ** `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' now defaults to t.
826 ** New basic faces `error', `warning', `success'.
827 These are used to highlight text indicating failure, caution or
828 successful operation.
830 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
831 for `list-colors-display'.
833 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
836 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
840 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-kill', instead of
843 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-pop', instead of
846 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-line'.
848 ** New commands `count-words-region' and `count-words'.
850 *** M-= is bound to `count-words-region', not `count-lines-region'.
851 The `count-words-region' command, when called interactively, reports
852 the number of lines, words, and characters in the region. It is a
853 superset of the old `count-lines-region', which is now an obsolete
856 ** The command `just-one-space' (M-SPC), if given a negative argument,
857 also deletes newlines around point.
861 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
862 If non-nil, [delete] and DEL delete the region if it is active and no
863 prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', those commands kill
866 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to [delete].
867 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
868 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
870 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
871 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
872 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; Lisp
873 callers should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
875 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
877 ** Selection changes.
879 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections has been
880 changed to conform with modern X applications. In short, most
881 commands for killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while
882 mouse commands use the primary selection.
884 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
885 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
887 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
888 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
889 the kill ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
890 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
892 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
893 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
894 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
895 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
896 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
898 **** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
900 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
901 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
902 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
904 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
906 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
907 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
908 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
910 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
911 exactly equivalent to M-w, C-w, and C-y respectively.
913 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
914 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
915 between applications.
917 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
919 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
920 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
921 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
922 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
923 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
925 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
927 *** X clipboard managers are now supported.
928 To inhibit this, change `x-select-enable-clipboard-manager' to nil.
930 ** New command `C-x r N' (`rectangle-number-lines') numbers the lines
931 in the current rectangle. With a prefix argument, this prompts for a
932 number to count from and for a format string.
934 ** `redisplay-dont-pause' now defaults to t.
935 This makes Emacs feel more responsive to editing commands that arrive
936 at high rate, e.g. if you lean on some key, because stopping redisplay
937 in the middle (when this variable is nil) forces more expensive
938 updates later on, and Emacs appears to be unable to keep up.
940 ** The behavior of <TAB> for active regions in Text mode has changed.
941 In Text and related modes, typing <TAB> (`indent-for-tab-command')
942 when the region is active causes Emacs to indent all the lines in the
943 region, aligning them with the line previous to the first line in the
944 region (or with the left margin if there is no previous line).
946 ** When `occur' is called with a prefix argument, matching strings are
947 collected into the `*Occur*' buffer without line numbers. If there
948 are parenthesized subexpressions in the specified regexp, `occur'
949 reads replacement text that may contain \\& and \\N whose convention
950 follows `replace-match'.
953 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
955 ** Archive Mode has basic support for browsing and updating 7z archives.
959 *** BibTeX mode now supports biblatex.
960 Use the variable `bibtex-dialect' to select different BibTeX dialects.
961 `bibtex-entry-field-alist' is now an obsolete alias for
962 `bibtex-BibTeX-entry-alist'.
964 *** New command `bibtex-search-entries', bound to C-c C-a.
966 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `sort-fields', disabled by default.
968 *** New variable `bibtex-search-entry-globally'.
972 *** New option `browse-url-mailto-function' specifies how to handle "mailto:"s.
974 *** The default browser used by the package is now the "xdg-open" program,
975 on platforms that support it. This calls your desktop's preferred browser.
977 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
979 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing "comments".
980 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
982 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
983 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
985 *** The function specified by `appt-disp-window-function' may be passed
986 lists of arguments if multiple appointments are due at similar times.
987 If you are using a custom function for this, you should update it.
989 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
991 *** Elements of `calendar-day-abbrev-array' and `calendar-month-abbrev-array'
992 may no longer be nil, but must all be strings.
994 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt
995 package by adding `appt-make-list' to `diary-hook' has been removed.
996 Use `appt-activate' instead.
998 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
999 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
1000 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
1002 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
1003 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
1007 *** New feature to "guess" the style in an existing buffer.
1008 The main entry point is M-x c-guess.
1010 *** Java Mode now supports Java 5.0 (Tiger) and 6 (Mustang).
1012 *** `c-beginning-of-defun' and `c-end-of-defun' now respect nested scopes.
1013 Thus C-M-a will, by default, go to the beginning of the immediate function,
1016 *** "Macros with semicolons" can be registered for correct indentation.
1017 Where such a macro ends a line (no semicolon) the next statement is no longer
1018 parsed as a statement continuation.
1020 ** Comint and modes derived from it use the standard completion code.
1024 *** Compilation mode can be used without Font Lock mode.
1025 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
1027 *** New variable `compilation-filter-start', which is bound while
1028 `compilation-filter-hook' runs. It records the start position of the
1029 text inserted by `compilation-filter'.
1031 *** `compilation-error-screen-columns' and `compilation-first-column'
1032 are obeyed in the editing buffer. So programming language modes can
1033 set them, whereas previously only the value in the *Compilation*
1038 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
1039 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
1040 To turn off the search field, set `custom-search-field' to nil.
1042 *** Custom options now start out hidden if at their default values.
1043 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
1045 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
1047 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
1048 choose a color via `list-colors-display'.
1052 *** It is now possible to access buses other than the default system
1055 *** The `dbus-register-method' and `dbus-register-property' functions
1056 optionally do not register names.
1058 *** The new function `dbus-register-service' registers a known service
1059 name on a D-Bus without also registering a property or a method.
1063 *** C-x C-j (`dired-jump') and C-x 4 C-j (`dired-jump-other-window'),
1064 if called with a prefix argument, read a file name from the minibuffer
1065 instead of using the current buffer.
1067 *** The "dired local variables" feature of Dired-x is obsolete.
1068 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
1072 *** New options `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay',
1073 controlling attempts to autojoin a channel.
1075 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
1076 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
1077 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
1078 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
1082 *** The default value of `eshell-directory-name' has changed
1083 to be an "eshell" directory in `user-emacs-directory'.
1084 The old "~/.eshell/" directory is still used if it exists, though.
1088 *** The M-x gdb command now uses the GDB Machine Interface protocol.
1089 It now supports multithread non-stop debugging and simultaneous
1090 debugging of several threads.
1094 *** RET (`image-toggle-animation') toggles animation, if applicable.
1095 Animation plays once, unless the option `image-animate-loop' is non-nil.
1099 *** New command M-x info-display-manual displays a named Info manual.
1100 If that manual is already visited in some Info buffer, it displays
1101 that buffer. (This is handy if you have many manuals in many *info*
1102 buffers, and don't remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual
1103 you want to consult.) Otherwise, it loads and displays the manual.
1105 *** `e' is now bound to `end-of-buffer' rather than to `Info-edit'.
1106 This is for compatibility with the stand-alone Info reader program,
1107 and also because `Info-edit' is a rarely used command that is disabled
1110 ** Mail mode changes (not Message mode)
1112 *** New command M-x mail-add-attachment for adding MIME attachments
1114 *** The command M-x mail-attach-file was renamed to M-x mail-insert-file.
1115 (Its name is misleading, since it has nothing to do with MIME
1116 attachments.) The old name is now an obsolete alias to the new name.
1118 ** MH-E has been updated to MH-E version 8.3.1.
1119 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
1121 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
1123 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
1125 ** nXML mode no longer binds C-RET to `nxml-complete'.
1126 Completion is now performed via `completion-at-point', bound to C-M-i
1127 or M-TAB. If `nxml-bind-meta-tab-to-complete-flag' is non-nil (the
1128 default), this performs tag completion.
1130 ** Org mode has been updated to version 7.8.09.
1131 See ORG-NEWS for details.
1133 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
1134 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity,
1135 support for more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
1139 *** The command `rmail-epa-decrypt' decrypts OpenPGP data
1140 in the Rmail incoming message.
1142 *** The variable `rmail-message-filter' no longer has any effect.
1143 This change was made in Emacs 23.1 but was not advertised at the time.
1144 Try using `rmail-show-message-hook' instead.
1148 *** M-x shell prompts for the shell path name if the default directory
1149 is a remote file name and neither the environment variable $ESHELL nor
1150 the variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
1152 *** TAB is now bound to the standard `completion-at-point' command,
1153 which now implements the pcomplete rules for shell command completion.
1157 *** SMTPmail now uses encrypted connections (via STARTTLS) by default
1158 if the mail server supports them. This uses either built-in GnuTLS
1159 support, or the starttls.el library. Customize `smtpmail-stream-type'
1162 *** The variable `smtpmail-auth-credentials' has been removed.
1163 By default, the information is now stored in the file ~/.authinfo.
1164 This was the default value of smtpmail-auth-credentials. If you had
1165 customized smtpmail-auth-credentials to a list of user names and
1166 passwords, those settings are not used. During your first connection
1167 to the smtp server, Emacs will prompt for the user name and password,
1168 and offer to save them to ~/.authinfo. Or you can manually copy the
1169 credentials to ~/.authinfo. For example, if you had
1171 (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials
1172 '(("mail.example.org" 25 "jim" "s!cret")))
1174 then the equivalent line in ~/.authinfo would be
1176 machine mail.example.org port 25 login jim password s!cret
1178 See the auth-source manual for more information, e.g. on encrypting
1179 the credentials file.
1181 *** The variable `smtpmail-starttls-credentials' has been removed.
1182 If you had that set, you need to put
1184 machine smtp.whatever.foo port 25 key "~/.my_smtp_tls.key" cert "~/.my_smtp_tls.cert"
1186 in your ~/.authinfo file instead.
1190 *** New options `sql-port', `sql-connection-alist', `sql-send-terminator',
1191 and `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
1193 *** New options controlling prompting for login parameters.
1194 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params',
1195 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
1196 connection is established.
1198 *** The command `sql-product-interactive' now takes a prefix argument,
1199 which causes it to prompt for an SQL product.
1201 *** Product-specific SQL interactive commands now take prefix arguments.
1202 These commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres', `sql-mysql', etc.),
1203 given a prefix argument, prompt for a name for the SQL interactive
1204 buffer. This reduces the need for calling `sql-rename-buffer'.
1206 *** SQL interactive modes suppress command continuation prompts, and
1207 replace tabs with spaces. The first change impacts multiple line SQL
1208 statements entered with C-j between each line, statements yanked into
1209 the buffer and statements sent with `sql-send-*' functions. The
1210 second prevents the MySQL and Postgres interpreters from listing
1211 object name completions when sent text via `sql-send-*' functions.
1213 *** New command `sql-connect' starts a predefined SQLi session,
1214 using the login parameters from `sql-connection-alist'.
1216 *** New "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
1217 This gathers the login params specified for the SQLi session, if it
1218 was not started by a connection, and saves them as a new connection.
1220 *** New commands for listing database objects and details:
1221 sql-list-all and sql-list-table.
1223 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
1227 *** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
1231 *** New inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
1233 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
1234 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
1236 *** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
1237 remote file attributes are cached for better performance.
1239 *** The option `ange-ftp-binary-file-name-regexp' has changed its
1240 default value to "".
1242 *** Handlers for `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
1243 for remote machines which support SELinux.
1245 ** New function `url-queue-retrieve', which behaves like url-retrieve,
1246 but with limits (`url-queue-parallel-processes', `url-queue-timeout') on
1247 the degree of parallelism.
1249 ** VC and related modes
1251 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
1252 The command C-x v + (`vc-pull') runs a "pull" operation, if it is
1253 supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to update the
1254 current branch and working tree. A prefix argument means to prompt
1255 the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
1257 *** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
1259 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
1260 The command C-x v m (`vc-merge') now runs a "merge" operation, if it
1261 is supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to merge
1262 changes from another branch into the current one. It prompts for
1263 specifics, e.g. a merge source.
1265 *** New option `vc-revert-show-diff' controls whether `vc-revert'
1266 shows a diff while querying the user. It defaults to t.
1268 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
1269 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
1270 This is currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial (to support
1271 another backend, define a `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function').
1272 In the Log View buffers made by C-x v L (`vc-print-root-log'), you can
1273 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
1275 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
1276 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
1278 *** The option `vc-initial-comment' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but
1279 this was not advertised at the time.
1281 *** `vc-toggle-read-only' is an obsolete alias for `toggle-read-only'.
1282 Since Emacs 23, it has done the same thing as `toggle-read-only', but
1283 this was not advertised at the time.
1289 *** erc-hecomplete.el (use erc-pcomplete.el instead)
1291 *** partial-completion-mode (complete.el) is obsolete.
1292 You can get a comparable behavior with:
1293 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
1294 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
1296 *** pc-mode.el is obsolete (CUA mode is much more comprehensive).
1298 *** pgg is obsolete (use EasyPG instead).
1300 *** sregex.el is obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
1302 *** s-region.el and pc-select.el are obsolete.
1303 They are superseded by shift-select-mode, enabled by default since 23.1.
1305 *** vc-mcvs.el is obsolete (for lack of a maintainer).
1309 *** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
1310 Its functions and variables have been similarly renamed.
1312 *** In `ido-file-completion-map', C-v is no longer bound to `ido-toggle-vc'.
1313 (This interfered with cua-mode.)
1315 *** f90.el has some support for Fortran 2008 syntax.
1317 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
1319 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
1322 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
1324 ** Occur Edit mode applies edits made in *Occur* buffers to the
1325 original buffers. It is bound to "e" in Occur mode.
1327 ** New global minor mode electric-pair-mode.
1328 When enabled, typing an open parenthesis automatically inserts the
1329 matching closing one.
1331 ** New global minor mode electric-indent-mode.
1332 When enabled, typing certain characters triggers reindentation.
1333 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-indent-chars or
1334 electric-indent-functions.
1336 ** New global minor mode electric-layout-mode.
1337 When enabled, typing certain characters automatically inserts newlines.
1338 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-layout-rules.
1340 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
1341 from which other modes can be derived.
1343 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
1345 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
1346 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
1347 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
1348 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
1351 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
1352 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
1354 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
1355 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
1357 ** New generic mode, xmodmap-generic-mode, for xmodmap files.
1359 ** New emacs-lock.el package.
1360 The previous version has been moved to obsolete/old-emacs-lock.el.
1361 Now, there is a proper minor mode `emacs-lock-mode'. Protection
1362 against exiting Emacs and killing the buffer can be set separately.
1363 The mechanism for automatically turning off protection for buffers
1364 with dead inferior processes has been generalized.
1367 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
1369 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function call now ENABLES
1370 the minor mode unconditionally. This is so that you can write e.g.
1372 (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'foo-mode)
1374 to enable foo-mode in Text mode buffers, removing the need for
1375 `turn-on-foo-mode' style functions. This affects all mode commands
1376 defined by `define-minor-mode'. If called interactively, the mode
1377 command still toggles the minor mode.
1379 ** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
1380 It is now a list of three elements, where the second element is a list
1381 describing the original file's SELinux context. If Emacs or the
1382 system lacks SELinux support, the context list is (nil nil nil nil).
1383 See "Basic SELinux support" above, under "Changes in Emacs 24.1".
1385 ** `char-direction-table' and the `char-direction' function were deleted.
1386 They were buggy and inferior to the new support of bidirectional
1387 editing introduced in Emacs 24. If you need the bidirectional
1388 properties of a character, use `get-char-code-property' with the last
1389 argument `bidi-class'.
1391 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
1392 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
1393 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
1394 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
1396 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
1397 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
1398 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
1401 ** Support for "old-style" backquotes, obsolete for 10+ years, has
1402 been further reduced. Now a backquote not followed by a space is
1403 always treated as a "new-style" backquote. Please remove all
1404 "old-style" backquotes from your code. If your code uses backquotes
1405 as documented in the Elisp manual, and compiles without warning, then
1406 you have nothing to do in this regard. Code not following the
1407 appropriate conventions may fail to compile.
1409 The most common cause of trouble seems to be an old-style backquote
1410 followed by a newline. Another cause of trouble is vector notation
1411 for key sequence notation: instead of [(control ,)] and [(control ')],
1412 you should write [(control ?,)] and [(control ?')], which will work in
1415 ** The macro `eval-at-startup' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but this
1416 was not advertised at the time. The function `custom-initialize-delay'
1417 replaced all known uses.
1419 ** `view-buffer' now treats special mode-class in the same way that
1420 `view-file' has since Emacs 22 (i.e. it won't enable View mode if the
1421 major mode is special).
1423 ** Menu and tool bar changes
1425 *** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
1426 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
1427 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
1428 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
1429 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
1430 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
1432 *** The menu bar bindings's caches are not used any more.
1433 Use (where-is-internal <def> nil t) instead.
1435 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
1436 similar to those created by shift-selection (see Selection changes
1437 above). In previous Emacs versions, these regions were delineated by
1438 `mouse-drag-overlay'; that variable has been removed.
1440 ** The fourth argument of `filter-buffer-substring' has been removed.
1441 If you want to remove text properties from the final result, simply
1442 pass the result through substring-no-properties.
1444 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
1446 ** The following obsolete functions and aliases have been removed
1447 (the appropriate new function is given in parentheses; "not needed"
1448 means you can just remove all calls to the function in question):
1450 *** `comint-kill-output' (`comint-delete-output')
1451 *** `decompose-composite-char' (`char-to-string')
1452 *** `outline-visible' (`outline-invisible-p')
1453 *** `internal-find-face' (`facep')
1454 *** `internal-get-face' (`facep and check-face')
1455 *** `frame-update-faces' (not needed)
1456 *** `frame-update-face-colors' (`frame-set-background-mode')
1457 *** `x-frob-font-weight' and `x-frob-font-slant' (`make-face-*' functions)
1458 *** `x-make-font-bold and x-make-font-demibold (`make-face-bold')
1459 *** `x-make-font-italic' and `x-make-font-oblique' (`make-face-italic')
1460 *** `x-make-font-bold-italic' (`make-face-bold-italic')
1461 *** `x-make-font-unbold' (`make-face-unbold')
1462 *** `x-make-font-unitalic' (`make-face-unitalic')
1463 *** `mldrag-drag-mode-line' (`mouse-drag-mode-line')
1464 *** `mldrag-drag-vertical-line' (`mouse-drag-vertical-line')
1465 *** `iswitchb-default-keybindings' (`iswitchb-mode')
1466 *** `char-bytes' (== 1)
1467 *** `isearch-return-char' (`isearch-printing-char')
1468 *** `make-local-hook' (not needed)
1469 *** `set-screen-height' (`set-frame-height')
1470 *** `set-screen-width' (`set-frame-width')
1472 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed
1473 (the appropriate new variable is given in parentheses):
1475 *** `checkdoc-minor-keymap' (`checkdoc-minor-mode-map')
1476 *** `vc-header-alist' (`vc-BACKEND-header')
1477 *** `directory-sep-char' (== ?/)
1478 *** `font-lock-defaults-alist' (`font-lock-defaults')
1479 *** `e' (`float-e').
1481 ** The following obsolete files were removed:
1482 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
1484 ** The format of the finder-inf.el file has changed, since the Finder
1485 mechanism is now based on the package system. The variable
1486 `finder-package-info' is replaced by `package--builtins' and
1487 `finder-keywords-hash'.
1489 ** When generating autoloads, `update-directory-autoloads' no longer
1490 assumes every inspected file is in your `load-path'. It instead
1491 generates relative names according to the current `load-path'.
1494 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.1
1496 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
1497 The `lexical-binding' variable enables lexical scoping for local
1498 variables. It is typically set via a file-local variable in the first
1499 line of the file, in which case it applies to all the code in that
1502 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
1503 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
1505 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
1506 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
1508 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
1510 *** `defvar' and `defconst' now mark the variable as special (dynamic).
1511 So do `defcustom' and other forms that call `defvar' as a subroutine.
1513 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
1514 declared as dynamically bound.
1516 *** The form ((lambda ...) ...) is deprecated.
1518 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
1519 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
1520 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
1522 ** Changes for bidirectional display and editing
1524 *** New function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction'.
1525 This returns the base direction of the paragraph at point.
1527 *** New function `bidi-string-mark-left-to-right'.
1528 Given a string containing characters from right-to-left scripts, this
1529 function returns another string which can be safely inserted into a
1530 buffer, such that any following text will be always displayed to the
1531 right of that string. (This works by appending an invisible Unicode
1532 "LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK" character if the argument string might need it.)
1534 This is useful when the buffer has overall left-to-right paragraph
1535 direction and you need to insert a string whose contents are not known
1536 in advance, without disrupting the layout of the line.
1540 *** Window tree functions are accessible in Elisp.
1541 Functions are provided to return the parent, siblings or child windows
1542 of any window including internal windows (windows not associated with a
1543 buffer) in the window tree.
1545 **** New function `window-valid-p' gives non-nil for live and internal
1548 **** Window manipulation can deal with internal windows.
1549 Many window handling functions like `split-window', `delete-window', or
1550 `delete-other-windows' as well as the window resizing functions can now
1551 act on any window including internal ones.
1553 *** window-total-height/-width vs window-body-height/-width.
1554 The function `window-height' has been renamed to `window-total-height'
1555 and `window-width' has been renamed to `window-body-width'. The old
1556 names are provided as aliases. Two new functions `window-total-width'
1557 and `window-body-height' are provided.
1559 *** Window parameters specific to window handling functions.
1560 For each window you can specify a parameter to override the default
1561 behavior of a number of functions like `split-window', `delete-window'
1562 and `delete-other-windows'. The variable `ignore-window-parameters'
1563 allows to ignore processing such parameters.
1565 *** New semantics of third argument of `split-window'.
1566 The third argument of `split-window' has been renamed to SIDE and can be
1567 set to any of the values 'below, 'right, 'above, or 'left to make the
1568 new window appear on the corresponding side of the window that shall be
1569 split. Any other value of SIDE will cause `split-window' to split the
1570 window into two side-by-side windows as before.
1572 *** Window resizing functions.
1573 A new standard function for resizing windows called `window-resize' has
1574 been introduced. This and all other functions for resizing windows no
1575 longer delete any windows when they become too small.
1577 *** Deleting the selected window now selects the most recently selected
1578 live window on that frame instead.
1580 *** `adjust-window-trailing-edge' adjustments.
1581 `adjust-window-trailing-edge' can now deal with fixed-size windows and
1582 is able to resize other windows if a window adjacent to the trailing
1583 edge cannot be shrunk any more. This makes its behavior more similar to
1584 that of Emacs 21 without compromising, however, its inability to delete
1585 windows which was introduced in Emacs 22.
1587 *** Window-local buffer lists.
1588 Windows now have local buffer lists. This means that removing a buffer
1589 from display in a window will preferably show the buffer previously
1590 shown in that window with its previous window-start and window-point
1591 positions. This also means that the same buffer may be automatically
1592 shown twice even if it already appears in another window.
1594 *** `switch-to-buffer' has a new optional argument FORCE-SAME-WINDOW,
1595 which if non-nil requires the buffer to be displayed in the currently
1596 selected window, signaling an error otherwise. If nil, another window
1597 can be used, e.g. if the selected one is strongly dedicated.
1599 *** `split-window-vertically' and `split-window-horizontally' renamed
1600 to `split-window-below' and `split-window-right' respectively.
1601 The old names are kept as aliases.
1605 **** The second arg to `display-buffer' and `pop-to-buffer' is now
1606 named ACTION, and takes a display action of the same form as
1607 `display-buffer-base-action' (see Changes, above). A non-nil,
1608 non-list value is treated specially, as the old meaning.
1610 **** New variable `display-buffer-overriding-action'.
1612 **** The procedure of `display-buffer' etc. to choose a window is
1613 determined by combining `display-buffer-overriding-action',
1614 `display-buffer-alist', the ACTION arg, `display-buffer-base-action',
1615 and `display-buffer-fallback-action'. The second and fourth of these
1616 are user-customizable variables.
1618 See the docstring of `display-buffer' for details.
1620 *** New functions `window-state-get' and `window-state-put'.
1621 These functions allow to save and restore the state of an arbitrary
1622 frame or window as an Elisp object.
1626 *** New variable `completion-extra-properties' used to specify extra
1627 properties of the current completion:
1628 - :annotate-function, same as the old completion-annotate-function.
1629 - :exit-function, function to call after completion took place.
1631 *** Functions on `completion-at-point-functions' can return any of the
1632 properties valid for `completion-extra-properties'.
1634 *** `completion-annotate-function' is obsolete.
1636 *** New `metadata' method for completion tables. The metadata thus returned
1637 can specify various details of the data returned by `all-completions':
1638 - `category' is the kind of objects returned (e.g., `buffer', `file', ...),
1639 used to select a style in completion-category-overrides.
1640 - `annotation-function' to add annotations in *Completions*.
1641 - `display-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries in *Completions*.
1642 - `cycle-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries when cycling.
1644 *** `minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map' is not used any more.
1645 Instead, the bindings in `minibuffer-local-filename-completion-map'
1646 are combined with `minibuffer-local-must-match-map'.
1648 *** New variable `completing-read-function' allows overriding the
1649 behavior of `completing-read'.
1651 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
1652 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
1654 ** `pre-command-hook'/`post-command-hook' are not reset to nil on error.
1655 Instead, the offending function is removed.
1659 *** New function `run-hook-wrapped' for running an abnormal hook by
1660 passing the hook functions as arguments to a "wrapping" function.
1661 Like `run-hook-with-args-until-success', it stops at the first
1662 non-nil return value.
1664 *** New macro `with-wrapper-hook' for running an abnormal hook as a
1665 set of "wrapping" filters, similar to around advice.
1666 (A version of this macro was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not
1667 advertised at the time.)
1671 *** New macro `condition-case-unless-debug' (this was actually added in
1672 Emacs 23.1 as condition-case-no-debug, but not advertised)
1674 *** The macro `with-demoted-errors' was added in Emacs 23.1, but not advertised.
1676 *** Variable `stack-trace-on-error' removed.
1678 *** The debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will
1679 jump to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked
1680 instead of jumping all the way to the top-level.
1682 *** Set `debug-on-event' to enter the debugger on events like SIGUSR1.
1683 This can be useful when `inhibit-quit' is set.
1685 ** The new function `server-eval-at' allows evaluation of Lisp forms on
1686 named Emacs server instances.
1688 ** `call-process' and `call-process-region' allow a `(:file "file")' spec
1689 to redirect STDOUT to a file.
1691 ** The function `format-time-string' now supports the %N directive,
1692 for higher-resolution time stamps.
1694 ** New input reading functions
1696 *** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of
1697 characters, discarding any inputs not inside the set.
1699 *** The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name
1700 or RGB triplet, instead of signaling an error if the user provides
1703 **** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
1705 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
1706 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
1707 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
1710 ** Syntax parsing changes
1712 *** New variable `syntax-propertize-function'.
1713 This replaces `font-lock-syntactic-keywords' which is now obsolete.
1714 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
1715 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
1716 Together with this new variable come a new hook
1717 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
1718 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
1719 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
1722 *** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
1724 ** New hook `post-self-insert-hook', run after `self-insert-command'.
1726 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
1728 ** Major and minor mode changes
1730 *** `set-auto-mode' now respects mode: local variables at the end of files,
1731 as well as those in the -*- line.
1733 *** `prog-mode' is a new major mode from which programming modes
1736 **** `prog-mode-hook' can be used to enable features for programming
1737 modes, e.g. (add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'flyspell-prog-mode) to enable
1738 on-the-fly spell checking for comments and strings.
1740 *** New hook `change-major-mode-after-body-hook', run by
1741 `run-mode-hooks' just before any other mode hooks.
1743 *** Enabled globalized minor modes can be disabled in specific major modes.
1744 If the global mode is global-FOO-mode, then run (FOO-mode -1) in the
1745 major mode's hook, where FOO-mode toggles the mode on a per-buffer basis.
1747 *** `define-minor-mode' accepts new keywords :variable, :after-hook.
1749 ** File-handling changes
1751 *** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
1752 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
1753 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
1754 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
1756 *** New file predicates: `file-equal-p', `file-in-directory-p'.
1758 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
1759 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
1760 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
1764 *** Animated images support (currently animated gifs only).
1766 **** `image-animated-p' returns non-nil if an image can be animated.
1768 **** `image-animate' animates a supplied image spec.
1770 **** `image-animate-timer' returns the timer object for an image that
1773 *** `image-extension-data' has been renamed to `image-metadata'.
1774 The old name is an obsolete alias to the new one.
1776 *** Image mode can view any image type that ImageMagick supports.
1777 This requires Emacs to be built with ImageMagick support.
1779 **** New function `imagemagick-types', defined if ImageMagick support
1780 is enabled, returns a list of image file extensions that your
1781 ImageMagick installation supports.
1783 **** New function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick
1784 image types in Image mode and in `create-image' and other helper
1787 **** New option `imagemagick-types-inhibit' excludes certain
1788 ImageMagick image types from `imagemagick-register-types'.
1790 **** With ImageMagick support, there are extra Image mode commands to
1791 resize and rotate images: `image-transform-fit-to-height',
1792 `image-transform-fit-to-width', `image-transform-set-rotation', and
1793 `image-transform-set-scale'.
1795 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
1796 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
1797 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail. For
1798 example, this is used by Rmail to optionally delete a mail window.
1800 ** XML and HTML parsing
1801 If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support, there are two new
1802 functions: `libxml-parse-html-region' (which parses "real world" HTML)
1803 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
1804 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
1806 ** Networking and encryption changes
1808 *** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
1809 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
1810 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
1811 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
1812 must also be supplied.
1814 *** New library gnutls.el.
1815 The new function `gnutls-available-p' returns non-nil if Emacs is
1816 built with GnuTLS support. The main entry points are
1817 `open-gnutls-stream' and `gnutls-negotiate'. It's easiest to use
1818 these functions through `open-network-stream', because that can
1819 upgrade connections through STARTTLS opportunistically or use plain
1820 SSL, depending on your needs. For debugging, set `gnutls-log-level'
1823 *** New primitive `secure-hash' that supports many secure hash algorithms:
1824 md5, sha1, sha2, sha224, sha256, sha384, and sha512. The lisp library
1825 sha1.el has been removed. The `sha1' feature is provided by default.
1829 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
1831 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
1832 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
1833 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
1834 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
1835 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
1836 displayed with a "spinning bar".
1838 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
1839 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
1841 ** New variables `delayed-warnings-list' and `delayed-warnings-hook'.
1842 If delayed-warnings-list is non-nil, the command loop calls
1843 `delayed-warnings-hook' after `post-command-hook'. At present, this
1844 is only used by Emacs on some platforms to display warnings during
1845 startup, which might otherwise not be noticed. This uses the
1846 functions `display-delayed-warnings' and `collapse-delayed-warnings'.
1848 ** rx.el has a new `group-n' construct for explicitly numbered groups.
1850 ** New function `make-composed-keymap' that constructs a new keymap
1851 from multiple input maps. You can use this to make a keymap that
1852 inherits from multiple maps, eg:
1853 (set-keymap-parent newmap (make-composed-keymap othermap parent))
1855 ** New function `string-prefix-p'.
1856 (This was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not advertised at the time.)
1858 ** New reader macro ## that stands for the empty symbol.
1859 This means that the empty symbol can now be read back. Also, #: by itself
1860 (when not immediately followed by a possible symbol character) stands for
1861 an empty uninterned symbol.
1863 ** New math functions `isnan', `copysign', `frexp', `ldexp'.
1865 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
1867 *** `tooltip-use-echo-area' is obsolete.
1868 Rather than setting this to t, disable Tooltip mode instead.
1870 *** buffer-substring-filters is obsolete.
1871 Use `filter-buffer-substring-functions' instead.
1873 *** `byte-compile-disable-print-circle' is obsolete.
1875 *** `deferred-action-list' and `deferred-action-function' are obsolete.
1876 Use `post-command-hook' instead.
1878 *** `font-lock-maximum-size' is obsolete.
1881 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on non-free operating systems
1883 ** On MS Windows, Emacs warns when using the obsolete init file _emacs,
1884 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
1886 ** New configure.bat options
1888 *** --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra runtime checks.
1890 *** --distfiles specifies files to be included in binary distribution.
1892 *** --without-gnutls disables automatic GnuTLS detection.
1894 *** --lib for general library linkage, works with the USER_LIBS build variable.
1896 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
1898 ** The Lisp function `w32-default-color-map' is now obsolete.
1899 (It is only used internally in the Emacs C code.)
1901 ** Customize ns-auto-hide-menu-bar to have the menu-bar hidden, but
1902 reappear on mouse-over. (Requires OS X 10.6 or later.)
1904 ** On Mac OS X, dragging a file into Emacs visits the file, like on
1905 other platforms, rather than inserting its contents into the buffer.
1908 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1909 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
1911 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1912 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1913 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1914 (at your option) any later version.
1916 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1917 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1918 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1919 GNU General Public License for more details.
1921 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1922 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
1927 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"