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 24.3
27 ** The default toolkit has been changed to Gtk+ version 3.
28 If you don't pass --with-x-toolkit to configure or if you pass
29 --with-x-toolkit=gtk or --with-x-toolkit=yes, configure will try to build
30 with Gtk+ version 3, and if that fails, try Gtk+ version 2.
31 You can explicitly require a specific version by passing
32 --with-x-toolkit=gtk2 or --with-x-toolkit=gtk3 to configure.
35 ** New configure option '--without-all' to disable additional features.
36 This disables most of the features that are normally enabled by default.
39 ** New configure option '--enable-link-time-optimization' to utilize
40 an appropriate feature provided by GCC since version 4.5.0.
43 ** New configure option '--enable-gcc-warnings', intended for developers.
44 If building with GCC, this enables compile-time checks that warn about
45 possibly-questionable C code. On a recent GNU system there should be
46 no warnings; on older and on non-GNU systems the generated warnings
50 ** The configure option '--enable-use-lisp-union-type' has been
51 renamed to '--enable-check-lisp-object-type', as the resulting
52 Lisp_Object type no longer uses a union to implement the compile time
53 check that this option enables.
56 ** The configure option '--disable-maintainer-mode' has been removed,
57 as it was confusingly-named and rarely useful.
60 ** You can use `NO_BIN_LINK=t make install' to prevent the installation
61 overwriting "emacs" in the installation bin/ directory with a link
65 ** The configure options `--program-prefix', `--program-suffix', and
66 `--program-transform-name' apply to more than just the installed
67 binaries. Now they also affect the man pages, icons, and the
68 etc/emacs.desktop file; but not the info pages, since this would break
69 links between the various manuals.
72 ** Emacs uses libtinfo in preference to libncurses, if available.
75 ** On FreeBSD and NetBSD, configure no longer adds /usr/local/lib and
76 /usr/pkg/lib to the linker search path. You must add them yourself if
80 ** The standalone scripts rcs-checkin and vcdiff have been removed
81 (from the bin and libexec directories, respectively). The former is
82 no longer relevant, the latter is replaced by lisp (in vc-sccs.el).
85 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.3
88 ** Emacs no longer searches for `leim-list.el' files beneath the standard
89 lisp/ directory. There should not be any there anyway. If you have
90 been adding them there, put them somewhere else, eg site-lisp.
93 ** The `--no-site-lisp' command line option now works for Nextstep builds.
96 * Changes in Emacs 24.3
99 ** Most y-or-n prompts now allow you to scroll the selected window.
100 Typing C-v or M-v at a y-or-n prompt scrolls forward or backward
101 respectively, without exiting from the prompt.
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 invoke
110 `set-buffer-file-coding-system'.
115 *** `C-h f' (describe-function) can now perform autoloading.
116 When this command is called for an autoloaded function whose docstring
117 contains a key substitution construct, that function's library is
118 automatically loaded, so that the documentation can be shown
119 correctly. To disable this, set `help-enable-auto-load' to nil.
122 *** `C-h f' now reports previously-autoloaded functions as "autoloaded",
123 even after their associated libraries have been loaded (and the
124 autoloads have been redefined as functions).
126 ** Minibuffer changes
128 *** In minibuffer filename prompts, `C-M-f' and `C-M-b' now move to the
129 next and previous path separator, respectively.
131 *** minibuffer-electric-default-mode can rewrite (default ...) to [...].
132 Just set minibuffer-eldef-shorten-default to t before enabling the mode.
134 ** ImageMagick support, if available, is automatically enabled.
135 It is no longer necessary to call `imagemagick-register-types'
136 explicitly to install ImageMagick image types; that function is called
137 automatically at startup, or when customizing an imagemagick- option.
139 *** Setting `imagemagick-types-inhibit' to t now disables the use of
140 ImageMagick to view images. You must call imagemagick-register-types
141 afterwards if you do not use customize to change this.
143 *** The new variable `imagemagick-enabled-types' also affects which
144 ImageMagick types are treated as images. The function
145 `imagemagick-filter-types' returns the list of types that will be
148 *** Images displayed via ImageMagick now support transparency and the
149 :background image spec property.
151 ** Server and client changes
153 *** emacsclient now obeys string values for `initial-buffer-choice',
154 if it is told to open a new frame without specifying any file to visit
155 or expression to evaluate.
157 *** New option `server-auth-key' specifies a shared server key.
160 ** In the Package Menu, newly-available packages are listed as "new",
161 and sorted above the other "available" packages by default.
164 ** `C-x C-q' is now bound to the new minor mode `read-only-mode'.
165 This minor mode replaces `toggle-read-only', which is now obsolete.
168 ** Emacs now generates backtraces on fatal errors.
169 On encountering a fatal error, Emacs now outputs a textual description
170 of the fatal signal, and a short backtrace on platforms like glibc
171 that support backtraces.
174 ** If your Emacs was built from a bzr checkout, the new variable
175 `emacs-bzr-version' contains information about the bzr revision used.
178 ** New variable `create-lockfiles' specifies usage of lockfiles.
179 It defaults to t. Changing it to nil inhibits the creation of lock
180 files (use this with caution).
183 ** Using "unibyte: t" in Lisp source files is obsolete.
184 Use "coding: raw-text" instead.
187 ** Setting `enable-remote-dir-locals' to non-nil allows directory
188 local variables on remote hosts.
191 ** The entry for PCL-CVS has been removed from the Tools menu.
192 The PCL-CVS commands are still available via the keyboard.
194 ** Internationalization changes
196 *** New language environment: Persian.
198 *** New input method `vietnamese-vni'.
200 ** Nextstep (GNUstep / Mac OS X) port changes
202 *** Fullscreen and frame parameter fullscreen is supported.
204 *** A file dialog is used for open/save operations initiated from the
208 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.3
210 ** Navigation command changes
212 *** New binding `M-g c' for `goto-char'.
214 *** New binding `M-g TAB' for `move-to-column'.
216 *** `M-g TAB' (`move-to-column') prompts for a column number if called
217 interactively with no prefix arg. Previously, it moved to column 1.
219 ** Search and Replace changes
221 *** Non-regexp Isearch now performs "lax" space matching.
222 Each sequence of spaces in the supplied search string may match any
223 sequence of one or more whitespace characters, as specified by the
224 variable `search-whitespace-regexp'. (This variable is also used by a
225 similar existing feature for regexp Isearch).
227 *** New Isearch command `M-s SPC' toggles lax space matching.
228 This applies to both ordinary and regexp Isearch.
230 *** New option `replace-lax-whitespace'.
231 If non-nil, `query-replace' uses flexible whitespace matching too.
234 *** Global `M-s _' starts a symbol (identifier) incremental search,
235 and `M-s _' in Isearch toggles symbol search mode.
236 `M-s c' in Isearch toggles search case-sensitivity.
239 ** `C-x 8 RET' is now bound to `insert-char', which is now a command.
240 `ucs-insert' is now an obsolete alias for `insert-char'.
243 ** The `z' key no longer has a binding in most special modes.
244 It used to be bound to `kill-this-buffer', but `z' is too easy to
248 ** New option `delete-trailing-lines' specifies whether
249 M-x delete-trailing-whitespace should delete trailing lines at the end
250 of the buffer. It defaults to t.
254 *** `C-x r +' is now overloaded to invoke `append-to-register.
256 *** New option `register-separator' specifies the register containing
257 the text to put between collected texts for use with M-x
258 append-to-register and M-x prepend-to-register.
261 ** `C-u M-=' now counts lines/words/characters in the entire buffer.
264 ** New command `C-x r M-w' (copy-rectangle-as-kill).
265 It copies the region-rectangle as the last rectangle kill.
268 ** New option `yank-handled-properties' allows processing of text
269 properties on yanked text, in more ways that are more general than
270 just removing them, as done by `yank-excluded-properties'.
273 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.3
277 *** The faces used by Apropos are now directly customizable.
278 These faces are named `apropos-symbol', `apropos-keybinding', and so on;
279 see the `apropos' Custom group for details.
281 *** The old options whose values specified faces to use were removed
282 (i.e. `apropos-symbol-face', `apropos-keybinding-face', etc.).
285 This package has been rewritten to use Tabulated List mode.
287 *** Option `Buffer-menu-buffer+size-width' is now obsolete.
288 Use `Buffer-menu-name-width' and `Buffer-menu-size-width' instead.
293 *** You can customize the header text that appears above each calendar month.
294 See the variable `calendar-month-header'.
297 *** New LaTeX calendar style, produced by `cal-tex-cursor-week2-summary'.
300 *** The calendars produced by cal-html include holidays.
301 Customize `cal-html-holidays' to change this.
306 *** CL's main entry is now (require 'cl-lib).
307 `cl-lib' is like the old `cl' except that it uses the namespace cleanly,
308 i.e. all its definitions have the "cl-" prefix (and internal definitions use
311 If `cl' provided a feature under the name `foo', then `cl-lib' provides it
312 under the name `cl-foo' instead, with the exceptions of the few definitions
313 that had to use `foo*' to avoid conflicts with pre-existing Elisp entities,
314 which have not been renamed to `cl-foo*' but just `cl-foo'.
316 The old `cl' is now deprecated and is mainly just a bunch of aliases that
317 provide the old non-prefixed names. Some exceptions are listed below.
320 *** `cl-flet' is not like `flet' (which is deprecated).
321 Instead it obeys the behavior of Common-Lisp's `flet'.
324 *** `cl-labels' is slightly different from `labels'.
325 The difference is that it relies on the `lexical-binding' machinery (as opposed
326 to the `lexical-let' machinery used previously) to capture definitions in
327 closures, so such closures will only work if `lexical-binding' is in use.
330 *** `cl-letf' is not exactly like `letf'.
331 The only difference is in details that relate to some deprecated usage
332 of `symbol-function' in place forms.
335 *** `progv' was rewritten to use the `let' machinery.
336 A side effect is that vars without corresponding value are bound to nil
337 rather than making them unbound.
340 *** The following methods of extending `setf' are obsolete
341 (use features from gv.el instead):
342 `define-modify-macro' (use `gv-letplace')
343 `defsetf' (use `gv-define-simple-setter' or `gv-define-setter')
344 `define-setf-expander' (use `gv-define-setter' or `gv-define-expander')
345 `get-setf-method' no longer exists (see "Incompatible Lisp Changes")
349 *** New option `compilation-always-kill'.
353 *** `custom-reset-button-menu' now defaults to t.
355 *** Non-option variables are never matched in `customize-apropos' and
356 `customize-apropos-options' (i.e. the prefix argument does nothing for
361 *** `desktop-path' no longer includes the "." directory. Desktop
362 files are now located in ~/.emacs.d by default.
367 *** New variables `dbus-compiled-version' and `dbus-runtime-version'.
370 *** The D-Bus object manager interface is implemented.
373 *** Variables of type :(u)int32 and :(u)int64 accept floating points,
374 if their value does not fit into Emacs's integer range.
377 *** The function `dbus-call-method' works non-blocking now, it can be
378 interrupted by C-g. `dbus-call-method-non-blocking' is obsolete.
381 *** Signals can be sent also as unicast message.
384 *** The argument list of `dbus-register-signal' has been extended,
385 according to the new match rule types of D-Bus. See the manual for
389 *** `dbus-init-bus' supports private connections.
392 *** There is a new function `dbus-setenv'.
397 *** Changes are now highlighted using the same color scheme as in
398 modern VCSes. Deletions are displayed in red (new faces
399 `diff-refine-removed' and `smerge-refined-removed', and new definition
400 of `diff-removed'), insertions in green (new faces `diff-refine-added'
401 and `smerge-refined-added', and new definition of `diff-added').
404 *** The variable `diff-use-changed-face' defines whether to use the
405 face `diff-changed', or `diff-removed' and `diff-added' to highlight
406 changes in context diffs.
409 *** The new command `diff-remove-trailing-whitespace' removes trailing
410 whitespace introduced by a diff.
414 *** `dired-do-async-shell-command' executes each file sequentially
415 if the command ends in `;' (when operating on multiple files).
416 Otherwise, it executes the command on each file in parallel.
418 *** Typing M-n in the minibuffer of `dired-do-chmod', `dired-do-chgrp',
419 `dired-do-chown', `dired-do-touch' pulls the file attributes of the
422 *** When the region is active, `m' (`dired-mark'), `u' (`dired-unmark'),
423 `DEL' (`dired-unmark-backward'), `d' (`dired-flag-file-deletion')
424 mark/unmark/flag all files in the active region.
426 *** The minibuffer default for `=' (`dired-diff) has changed.
427 It is now the backup file for the file at point, if one exists.
428 In Transient Mark mode the default is the file at the active mark.
430 *** `M-=' is no longer bound to `dired-backup-diff' in Dired buffers.
431 The global binding for `M-=', `count-words-region' is in effect.
434 ** Ediff now uses the same color scheme as Diff mode.
436 ** erc will look up server/channel names via auth-source and use the
437 channel keys found, if any.
439 ** Flymake uses fringe bitmaps to indicate errors and warnings.
440 See `flymake-fringe-indicator-position', `flymake-error-bitmap' and
441 `flymake-warning-bitmap'.
445 *** The obsolete variable `follow-mode-off-hook' has been removed.
447 *** Follow mode no longer works by using advice.
448 The option `follow-intercept-processes' has been removed.
452 *** The option `ffap-url-unwrap-remote' can now be a list of strings,
453 specifying URL types which should be converted to remote file names at
454 the FFAP prompt. The default is now '("ftp").
457 `javascript-generic-mode' is now an obsolete alias for `js-mode'.
461 *** New `derived-mode' filter, bound to `/ M'.
462 The old binding for `/ M' (filter by used-mode) is now bound to `/ m'.
464 ** Mouse Avoidance mode
466 *** New variable `mouse-avoidance-banish-position' specifies where the
467 `banish' mouse avoidance setting moves the mouse.
470 ** notifications.el supports now version 1.2 of the Notifications API.
471 The function `notifications-get-capabilities' returns the supported
474 ** In Perl mode, new option `perl-indent-parens-as-block' causes non-block
475 closing brackets to be aligned with the line of the opening bracket.
477 ** In Proced mode, new command `proced-renice' renices marked processes.
481 A new version of python.el, which provides several new features, including:
482 per-buffer shells, better indentation, Python 3 support, and improved
483 shell-interaction compatible with iPython (and virtually any other
486 *** Some user options have been replaced/renamed:
487 Old defcustom: | New defcustom:
488 python-indent | python-indent-offset
489 python-guess-indent | python-indent-guess-indent-offset
490 python-pdbtrack-do-tracking-p | python-pdbtrack-activate
491 python-use-skeletons | python-skeleton-autoinsert
493 *** Some user options have been removed:
495 **** `python-indent-string-contents': Strings are never indented.
497 **** `python-honour-comment-indentation':
498 Comments are never considered as indentation markers themselves.
500 **** `python-continuation-offset': Indentation is automatically
501 calculated in a pep8 compliant way depending on the context.
503 **** `python-shell-prompt-alist', `python-shell-continuation-prompt-alist':
504 Have no direct mapping as the shell interaction is completely different.
506 **** `python-python-command', `python-jython-command':
507 Replaced by `python-shell-interpreter'.
509 **** `inferior-python-filter-regexp', `python-remove-cwd-from-path',
510 `python-pdbtrack-minor-mode-string', `python-source-modes':
513 *** Some commands have been replaced:
514 Old command | New command
515 python-insert-class | python-skeleton-class
516 python-insert-def | python-skeleton-def
517 python-insert-for | python-skeleton-for
518 python-insert-if | python-skeleton-if
519 python-insert-try/except | python-skeleton-try
520 python-insert-try/finally | python-skeleton-try
521 python-insert-while | python-skeleton-while
522 python-find-function | python-nav-jump-to-defun
523 python-next-statement | python-nav-forward-sentence
524 python-previous-statement | python-nav-backward-sentence
525 python-send-buffer | python-shell-send-buffer
526 python-send-defun | python-shell-send-defun
527 python-send-region | python-shell-send-region
528 python-send-region-and-go | Emulate with python-shell-send-region and
529 python-shell-switch-to-shell
530 python-send-string | python-shell-send-string
531 python-switch-to-python | python-shell-switch-to-shell
532 python-describe-symbol | python-eldoc-at-point
534 ** reStructuredText mode
536 *** Rebind nearly all keys making room for more keys and complying
537 better to usage in other modes. Describe bindings with C-c C-h.
539 *** Major revision of indentation working very similar to other
540 modes. TAB is your friend.
542 *** Major revision of filling working fine with most of
543 reStructuredText syntax. Support auto-filling.
545 *** Major revision of comment handling.
547 *** Major revision of fontification working with `jit-lock-mode'.
549 *** Cover reStructuredText syntax more closely. Improve
550 the experience for Sphinx users.
552 *** `rst-insert-list' inserts new list or continues existing lists.
554 *** Extend correct and improve customization.
556 *** Negative prefix argument always works for `rst-adjust'.
558 *** Reset window configuration after displaying TOC.
560 *** Package version in `rst-version'.
562 *** Support `imenu' and `which-func'.
566 *** Pairing of parens/quotes uses electric-pair-mode instead of skeleton-pair.
568 *** `sh-electric-here-document-mode' now controls auto-insertion of here-docs.
570 *** `sh-use-smie' lets you choose a new indentation and navigation code.
574 *** New option `async-shell-command-buffer' specifies what buffer to use
575 for a new asynchronous shell command when the default output buffer
576 `*Async Shell Command*' is already taken by another running command.
580 *** DB2 added `sql-db2-escape-newlines'
582 If non-nil, newlines sent to the command interpreter will be escaped
583 by a backslash. The default does not escape the newlines and assumes
584 that the sql statement will be terminated by a semicolon.
586 ** Tabulated List and packages derived from it
588 *** New command `tabulated-list-sort', bound to `S', sorts the column
589 at point, or the Nth column if a numeric prefix argument is given.
593 The variables `term-default-fg-color' and `term-default-bg-color' are
594 now deprecated in favor of the `term-face' face, that you can
595 customize. Also, it is now possible to customize how are displayed the
596 ANSI terminal colors and styles by customizing the corresponding
597 `term-color-<COLOR>', `term-color-underline' and `term-color-bold'
602 *** The syntax has been extended in order to allow ad-hoc proxy
603 definitions. See the manual for details.
605 *** Remote processes are now supported also on remote Windows host.
609 *** Structs made by `url-generic-parse-url' have nil `attributes' slot.
610 Previously, this slot stored semicolon-separated attribute-value pairs
611 appended to some imap URLs, but this is not compatible with RFC 3986.
612 So now the `filename' slot stores the entire path and query components
613 and the `attributes' slot is always nil.
615 *** New function `url-encode-url' for encoding a URI string.
616 The `url-retrieve' function now uses this to encode its URL argument,
617 in case that is not properly encoded.
622 *** The free software compiler GHDL is supported (and now the default).
624 *** Support for the VHDL-AMS packages has been added/updated.
626 *** Updated to the 2002 revision of the VHDL standard.
628 *** Accepts \r and \f as whitespace.
630 ** Which Function mode
632 *** `which-func-modes' now defaults to t, so Which Function mode, when
633 enabled, applies to all applicable major modes.
636 ** winner-mode-hook now runs when the mode is disabled, as well as when it is
639 ** FIXME something happened to ses.el, 2012-04-17.
641 ** Hooks renamed to avoid obsolete "-hooks" suffix:
642 *** semantic-lex-reset-hooks -> semantic-lex-reset-functions
643 *** semantic-change-hooks -> semantic-change-functions
644 *** semantic-edits-new-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-new-change-functions
645 *** semantic-edits-delete-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-delete-change-functions
646 *** semantic-edits-reparse-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-reparse-change-functions
647 *** semanticdb-save-database-hooks -> semanticdb-save-database-functions
648 *** c-prepare-bug-report-hooks -> c-prepare-bug-report-hook
649 *** rcirc-sentinel-hooks -> rcirc-sentinel-functions
650 *** rcirc-receive-message-hooks -> rcirc-receive-message-functions
651 *** rcirc-activity-hooks -> rcirc-activity-functions
652 *** rcirc-print-hooks -> rcirc-print-functions
653 *** dbus-event-error-hooks -> dbus-event-error-functions
654 *** eieio-pre-method-execution-hooks -> eieio-pre-method-execution-functions
655 *** checkdoc-style-hooks -> checkdoc-style-functions
656 *** checkdoc-comment-style-hooks -> checkdoc-comment-style-functions
657 *** archive-extract-hooks -> archive-extract-hook
658 *** filesets-cache-fill-content-hooks -> filesets-cache-fill-content-hook
659 *** hfy-post-html-hooks -> hfy-post-html-hook
660 *** nndiary-request-create-group-hooks -> nndiary-request-create-group-functions
661 *** nndiary-request-update-info-hooks -> nndiary-request-update-info-functions
662 *** nndiary-request-accept-article-hooks -> nndiary-request-accept-article-functions
663 *** gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-hooks -> gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-functions
665 ** Obsolete packages:
668 In most cases, assoc+member+push+delq work just as well.
669 And in any case it's just a terrible package: ugly semantics, terrible
670 inefficiency, and not namespace-clean.
685 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.3
687 FIXME? erc-desktop-notifications.el, gv.el, profiler.el,
688 gnus-notifications.el, mm-archive.el
691 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.3
694 ** set-buffer-multibyte now signals an error in narrowed buffers.
697 ** (random) by default now returns a different random sequence in
698 every Emacs run. Use (random S), where S is a string, to set the
699 random seed to a value based on S, in order to get a repeatable
700 sequence in later calls.
703 ** The function `x-select-font' can return a font spec, instead of a
704 font name as a string. Whether it returns a font spec or a font name
705 depends on the graphical library.
708 ** If the NEWTEXT arg to `replace-match' contains a substring "\?",
709 that substring is inserted literally even if the LITERAL arg is
710 non-nil, instead of causing an error to be signaled.
713 ** Docstrings starting with `*' no longer indicate user options.
714 Only variables defined using `defcustom' are considered user options.
715 The function `user-variable-p' is now an obsolete alias for
719 ** The return values of `defalias', `defun' and `defmacro' have changed,
720 and are now undefined. For backwards compatibility, defun and
721 defmacro currently return the name of the newly defined function/macro
722 but this should not be relied upon.
725 ** `face-spec-set' no longer sets frame-specific attributes when the
726 third argument is a frame (that usage was obsolete since Emacs 22.2).
729 ** The arguments of `dbus-register-signal' are no longer just strings,
730 but keywords or keyword-string pairs. The old argument list will
731 still be supported for Emacs 24.x.
734 ** The CL package's `get-setf-method' function no longer exists.
735 Generalized variables are now part of core Emacs Lisp, and implemented
736 differently to the way cl.el used to do it. It is not possible to
737 define a compatible replacement for `get-setf-method'. See the file
738 gv.el for internal details of the new implementation.
741 Some Lisp symbols have been renamed to avoid problems with spelling
742 that is incorrect or inconsistent with how Emacs normally spells a word.
745 *** Renamed functions
747 **** hangul-input-method-inactivate -> hangul-input-method-deactivate
748 **** inactivate-input-method -> deactivate-input-method
749 **** quail-inactivate -> quail-deactivate
750 **** robin-inactivate -> robin-deactivate
751 **** viper-inactivate-input-method -> viper-deactivate-input-method
752 **** viper-inactivate-input-method-action ->
753 viper-deactivate-input-method-action
754 **** ucs-input-inactivate -> ucs-input-deactivate
758 The old hooks are still supported for backward compatibility, but they
759 are deprecated and will be removed eventually.
760 **** input-method-inactivate-hook -> input-method-deactivate-hook
761 **** robin-inactivate-hook -> robin-deactivate-hook
762 **** quail-inactivate-hook -> quail-deactivate-hook
765 *** Renamed Lisp variables
766 **** follow-deactive-menu -> follow-inactive-menu
767 **** inactivate-current-input-method-function ->
768 deactivate-current-input-method-function
771 ** Some obsolete functions, variables, and faces were removed:
772 *** `facemenu-unlisted-faces'
773 *** `rmail-decode-mime-charset'
774 *** `last-input-char', `last-command-char', `unread-command-char'.
775 *** `iswitchb-read-buffer'
776 *** `sc-version', `sc-submit-bug-report'
777 *** `set-char-table-default'
778 *** `string-to-sequence' (use `string-to-list' or `string-to-vector').
779 *** `compile-internal'
780 *** `mode-line-inverse-video'
781 *** `cvs-commit-buffer-require-final-newline'
782 (use `log-edit-require-final-newline' instead)
783 *** `cvs-changelog-full-paragraphs'
784 (use `log-edit-changelog-full-paragraphs' instead)
785 *** `cvs-diff-ignore-marks', `cvs-diff-buffer-name'
786 *** `vc-ignore-vc-files' (use `vc-handled-backends' instead)
787 *** `vc-master-templates' (use `vc-handled-backends' instead)
788 *** `vc-checkout-carefully'
792 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.3
794 ** New sampling-based Elisp profiler.
795 Try M-x profiler-start ... M-x profiler-stop; and then M-x profiler-report.
796 The sampling rate can be based on CPU time (only supported on some
797 systems), or based on memory allocations.
800 ** CL-style generalized variables are now in core Elisp.
801 `setf' is autoloaded; `push' and `pop' accept generalized variables.
802 You can define your own generalized variables using `gv-define-simple-setter',
803 `gv-define-setter', etc.
806 ** `defun' also accepts a (declare DECLS) form, like `defmacro'.
807 The interpretation of the DECLS is determined by `defun-declarations-alist'.
811 *** `read-regexp' has a new argument HISTORY; the first argument PROMPT
812 of `read-regexp' accepts a string ending with a colon and space, and its
813 second argument DEFAULTS can be a list of strings accessible via M-n
814 in the minibuffer ahead of other hard-coded useful regexp-related values.
815 More commands use `read-regexp' now to read their regexp arguments.
819 *** New function `completion-table-with-quoting' to handle completion
820 in the presence of quoting, such as file completion in shell buffers.
822 *** New function `completion-table-subvert' to use an existing completion
823 table, but with a different prefix.
827 *** New error type and new function `user-error'.
828 These do not trigger the debugger.
830 *** New option `debugger-bury-or-kill'.
832 *** Set `debug-on-message' to enter the debugger when a certain
833 message is displayed in the echo area. This can be useful when trying
834 to work out which code is doing something.
836 *** New var `inhibit-debugger', automatically set to prevent accidental
837 recursive invocations.
841 *** The functions get-lru-window, get-mru-window and get-largest-window
842 now accept a third argument to avoid choosing the selected window.
844 *** Additional values recognized for option `window-combination-limit'.
846 *** New macro `with-temp-buffer-window'.
848 *** `temp-buffer-resize-mode' no longer resizes windows that have been
851 *** New function `fit-frame-to-buffer' and new options
852 `fit-frame-to-buffer' and `fit-frame-to-buffer-bottom-margin'.
854 *** New option switch-to-buffer-preserve-window-point to restore a
855 window's point when switching buffers.
857 *** New display action functions `display-buffer-below-selected',
858 and `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
860 *** New display action alist entry `inhibit-switch-frame', if non-nil,
861 tells display action functions to avoid changing which frame is
864 *** New display action alist entry `pop-up-frame-parameters', if
865 non-nil, specifies frame parameters to give any newly-created frame.
867 *** New display action alist entry `previous-window', if non-nil,
868 specifies window to reuse in `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
870 *** New display action alist entries `window-height' and `window-width'
871 to specify size of new window created by `display-buffer'.
873 *** The following variables are obsolete, as they can be replaced by
874 appropriate entries in the `display-buffer-alist' function introduced
877 **** `display-buffer-reuse-frames'
879 **** `special-display-regexps'
881 **** `special-display-frame-alist'
883 **** `special-display-buffer-names'
885 **** `special-display-function'
887 **** `display-buffer-function'
889 **** `dired-shrink-to-fit'
893 *** `current-time-string' no longer requires that its argument's year
894 must be in the range 1000..9999. It now works with any year supported
895 by the underlying C implementation.
897 *** `current-time' now returns extended-format time stamps
898 (HIGH LOW USEC PSEC), where the new PSEC slot specifies picoseconds.
899 PSEC is typically a multiple of 1000 on current machines. Other
900 functions that use this format, such as file-attributes and
901 format-time-string, have been changed accordingly. Old-format time
902 stamps are still accepted.
904 *** The format of timers in timer-list and timer-idle-list is now
905 [TRIGGERED-P HI-SECS LO-SECS USECS REPEAT-DELAY FUNCTION ARGS IDLE-DELAY PSECS].
906 The PSECS slot is new, and uses picosecond resolution. It can be
907 accessed via the new timer--psecs accessor.
909 *** Last-modified time stamps in undo lists now are of the form
910 (t HI-SECS LO-SECS USECS PSECS) instead of (t HI-SECS . LO-SECS).
913 ** Floating point functions now always return special values like NaN,
914 instead of signaling errors, if given invalid args, e.g. (log -1.0).
915 Previously, they returned NaNs on some platforms but signaled errors
916 on others. The affected functions are acos, asin, tan, exp, expt,
917 log, log10, sqrt, and mod.
919 ** Interpreted files are eagerly macro-expanded during load.
920 This can significantly speed up execution of non-byte-compiled code,
921 but can also bump into harmless and previously unnoticed cyclic
922 dependencies. These should not be fatal: they will simply cause the
923 macro-calls to be left for later expansion (as before), but will also
924 result in a warning ("Eager macro-expansion skipped due to cycle")
925 describing the cycle.
927 ** Miscellaneous new functions:
931 *** `autoload-do-load'
933 *** `buffer-narrowed-p' tests if the buffer is narrowed.
935 *** `file-name-base' returns a file name sans directory and extension.
937 *** `function-get' fetches a function property, following aliases.
939 *** `posnp' tests if an object is a `posn'.
940 *** `set-temporary-overlay-map' sets up a temporary overlay map.
942 *** `system-users' returns the user names on the system.
944 *** `system-groups' returns the group names on the system.
946 *** `tty-top-frame' returns the topmost frame of a text terminal.
949 ** New macros `setq-local' and `defvar-local'.
952 ** New fringe bitmap `exclamation-mark'.
954 ** Face underlining can now use a wave.
955 See the "Face Attributes" section of the Elisp manual.
957 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
959 *** `automount-dir-prefix'
961 *** `buffer-has-markers-at'
963 *** `macro-declaration-function' (use `macro-declarations-alist')
965 *** `window-system-version'
967 *** `dired-pop-to-buffer' (use `dired-mark-pop-up')
969 *** `query-replace-interactive'
971 *** `font-list-limit' (has had no effect since Emacs < 23)
974 * Changes in Emacs 24.3 on non-free operating systems
977 ** Cygwin builds can use the native MS Windows user interface.
978 Pass --with-w32 to configure. The default remains the X11 interface.
980 ** Two new functions are available in Cygwin builds:
981 `cygwin-convert-path-from-windows' and `cygwin-convert-path-to-windows'.
982 These functions allow Lisp code to access the Cygwin file-name mapping
983 machinery to convert between Cygwin and Windows-native file names.
985 ** When invoked with the -nw switch to run on the Windows text-mode terminal,
986 Emacs now supports mouse highlight, help-echo (in the echo area), and
987 `mouse-autoselect-window'.
990 ** On MS Windows Vista and later Emacs now supports symbolic links.
993 ** On MS Windows, you can pass --without-libxml2 to configure.bat to omit
994 support for libxml2, even if its presence is detected.
997 ** On Mac OS X, the Nextstep port requires OS X 10.4 or later.
1000 ** On Mac OS X, configure no longer automatically adds the Fink /sw
1001 directories to the search path. You must add them yourself if you want them.
1004 * Changes in Emacs 24.2
1006 ** This is mainly a bug-fix release.
1009 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
1011 ** Emacs can be compiled with Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
1012 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
1013 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
1016 ** Emacs can be compiled with GnuTLS support.
1017 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
1018 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
1019 `--without-gnutls'. See below for GnuTLS features.
1021 ** Emacs can be compiled with SELinux support.
1022 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
1023 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
1024 `--without-selinux'. See below for SELinux features.
1026 ** Emacs can be compiled with ImageMagick support.
1027 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
1028 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
1029 `--without-imagemagick'. See below for ImageMagick features.
1030 This feature is not available for the Nextstep or MS ports.
1032 ** Emacs can be compiled with libxml2 support.
1033 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
1034 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
1035 `--without-xml2'. See below for libxml2 features.
1037 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
1038 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
1040 ** New configure option --with-wide-int.
1041 With it, Emacs integers typically have 62 bits, even on 32-bit machines.
1042 On 32-bit hosts, this raises the limit on buffer sizes from about 512 MiB
1045 ** New configure options: --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
1046 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
1047 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
1049 ** New configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
1050 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
1051 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
1053 ** The standalone programs digest-doc and sorted-doc are removed.
1054 Emacs now uses Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
1056 ** The standalone program `fakemail' is removed.
1057 If you need it, feedmail.el provides a superset of the functionality.
1060 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
1062 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
1063 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
1064 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
1066 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
1067 from load-path. -Q now implies this. This option does not affect the
1068 EMACSLOADPATH environment variable (and hence has no effect for
1072 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
1076 *** Many packages now use the `completion-at-point' command,
1077 rather than implementing separate completion commands.
1079 *** `completion-at-point' now handles tags and semantic completion.
1081 *** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
1082 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
1084 *** New option `completion-cycle-threshold' allows completion cycling.
1086 *** New option `completion-category-overrides' for overriding the
1087 default completion style in certain circumstances.
1089 *** New completion style `substring'.
1091 *** Completion of buffer names uses `substring' completion by default.
1093 *** The option `widget-complete-field' has been removed.
1097 *** The first time you try sending mail, Emacs asks for a mail method.
1098 This is implemented by a new default for `send-mail-function', which
1099 is `sendmail-query-once'. This offers to use the smtpmail package, or
1100 to use the old defaults relying on external mail facilities
1101 (`sendmail-send-it' on GNU/Linux and other Unix-like systems, and
1102 `mailclient-send-it' on Windows).
1104 *** Typing C-c m in the buffer made by M-x report-emacs-bug transfers
1105 the report to your desktop's preferred mail client, if there is one.
1106 This uses either the "xdg-email" utility, or Mac OS's "open" command.
1108 *** See Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages for SMTPmail changes
1109 and Mail mode changes
1111 ** Emacs server and client changes
1113 *** New option `server-port' specifies the port for TCP Emacs servers.
1115 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
1117 *** New emacsclient argument --frame-parameters specifies the frame
1118 parameters of any newly-created graphical frame.
1120 *** If emacsclient shuts down due to Emacs signaling an error,
1121 its exit status is 1.
1123 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID.
1124 This opens a client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed, similar
1125 to the --parent-id argument to Emacs.
1127 ** Internationalization changes
1129 *** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
1130 Right-to-left (RTL) scripts, such as Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew, are
1131 displayed in the correct visual order as expected by users of those
1132 scripts. The display reordering is a "full bidirectionality" class
1133 implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm (UBA). Buffers
1134 with no RTL text should look exactly the same as before.
1136 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-display-reordering'.
1137 To disable display reordering in a buffer, change this to nil.
1139 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction'.
1140 If nil (the default), Emacs determines the base direction of each
1141 paragraph from its text, as specified by the UBA. Setting the value
1142 to `right-to-left' or `left-to-right' forces a base direction on each
1145 Paragraphs with right-to-left base direction are displayed starting at
1146 the right window edge.
1148 *** Enhanced support for characters with no glyphs in available fonts,
1149 or, on text terminals, characters that cannot be encoded by the
1150 terminal coding system. The new option `glyphless-char-display-control'
1151 specifies how to display them: as a hexadecimal code in a box, a thin
1152 1-pixel space, an empty box, etc.
1154 *** New input methods for Farsi and Bulgarian
1155 (farsi-isiri-9147, farsi-transliterate-banan, bulgarian-alt-phonetic).
1157 *** `nobreak-char-display' now also highlights Unicode hyphen chars
1158 (U+2010 and U+2011).
1160 *** New Hebrew translation of the Emacs Tutorial.
1161 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
1162 automatically select it.
1164 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
1165 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
1166 from a package repository at http://elpa.gnu.org.
1168 *** M-x list-packages shows a list of packages, which can be
1169 selected for installation.
1171 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
1173 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded automatically when
1174 Emacs starts up. To disable this, set `package-enable-at-startup' to
1175 nil. To specify the packages to load, customize `package-load-list'.
1177 ** Custom theme changes
1179 *** New command `M-x customize-themes', which provides a convenient
1180 interface for enabling and disabling Custom themes.
1182 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
1183 Emacs no longer looks for Custom themes in `load-path'. The default
1184 value of `custom-theme-load-path' says to look for themes in
1185 `custom-theme-directory', followed by a subdirectory of
1186 `data-directory' named "themes/", which contains a small selection of
1187 built-in Custom themes.
1189 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
1190 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
1191 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
1192 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
1194 ** Improved GTK integration
1196 *** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
1197 The function `set-scroll-bar-mode' can change this.
1199 *** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
1200 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose the style. On a Gnome desktop,
1201 the default is taken from desktop settings.
1203 *** GTK tool bars can be placed on any edge of the frame.
1204 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the
1205 values top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has
1208 *** The default colors for selected text (the `region' face) are taken
1209 from the GTK theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
1211 *** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK.
1212 You can disable this by changing `x-gtk-use-system-tooltips' to nil.
1214 ** Graphical interface changes
1216 *** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
1217 Also, the first dash (which does not indicate anything) is just
1218 displayed as a space.
1220 *** `menu-bar-select-buffer-function' lets you choose another operation
1221 instead of `switch-to-buffer' when selecting an item in the Buffers menu.
1223 *** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is
1224 built with Xft. These fonts can be set via X resources, for example:
1225 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
1229 *** Emacs now calls `kill-emacs' if it receives SIGTERM or SIGHUP,
1230 or if it receives a SIGINT signal in batch mode.
1232 *** `kill-emacs-hook' is now also run in batch mode.
1233 Third-party code which adds to `kill-emacs-hook' should check if they
1234 do the right thing in batch mode.
1236 ** Scrolling changes
1238 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
1239 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
1240 of buffer at first key-press (instead they move to top/bottom of buffer)
1241 when `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
1243 *** New option `scroll-error-top-bottom' (see above).
1245 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
1246 scroll a line instead of full screen.
1248 *** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
1249 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
1251 *** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
1252 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
1253 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
1254 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
1255 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
1257 *** "Aggressive" scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
1258 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
1259 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
1260 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
1263 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
1264 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
1266 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up.
1267 Also, the function `copy-file' has an extra optional argument for
1268 preserving SELinux context, and the return value of `backup-buffer'
1269 now includes the SELinux context.
1271 *** New functions `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
1272 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
1276 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
1277 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
1279 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
1280 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
1282 ** File- and directory-local variable changes
1284 *** You can stop directory local vars from applying to subdirectories.
1285 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
1286 settings to indicate that the section should not apply to
1289 *** Directory local variables can apply to some file-less buffers.
1290 Affected modes include dired, vc-dir, and log-edit. For example,
1291 adding "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to .dir-locals.el will
1292 turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should call
1293 `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
1295 *** Using "mode: MINOR-MODE" to enable a minor mode is deprecated.
1296 Instead, use "eval: (minor-mode 1)".
1298 *** The variable `inhibit-first-line-modes-regexps' has been renamed
1299 to `inhibit-local-variables-regexps'. As the name suggests, it now
1300 applies to ALL file local variables, not just -*- lines. The
1301 associated `inhibit-first-line-modes-suffixes' has been renamed in the
1306 *** The `quit-window' command now restores the last buffer displayed
1307 in the quitted window.
1309 *** Resizing an Emacs frame now preserves proportional window sizes,
1310 modulo restrictions like window minimum sizes and fixed-size windows.
1312 *** The behavior of `display-buffer' is now customizable in detail.
1314 **** New option `display-buffer-base-action' specifies a list of
1315 user-determined display "actions" (functions and optional arguments
1316 for choosing the displaying window).
1318 This takes precedence over the default display action, which is
1319 specified by `display-buffer-fallback-action'.
1321 **** New option `display-buffer-alist' maps buffer name regexps to
1322 display actions, taking precedence over `display-buffer-base-action'.
1324 *** New option `window-combination-limit'.
1325 The new option `window-combination-limit' allows to return the space
1326 obtained for resizing or creating a window more reliably to the window
1327 from which such space was obtained.
1329 *** New option `window-combination-resize'.
1330 The new option `window-combination-resize' allows to split a window that
1331 otherwise cannot be split because it's too small by stealing space from
1332 other windows in the same combination. Subsequent resizing or deletion
1333 of the window will resize all windows in the same combination as well.
1335 *** New option `frame-auto-hide-function' lets you choose between
1336 iconifying or deleting a frame when burying a buffer in a dedicated
1337 frame, or quitting a window showing a buffer in a frame of its own.
1339 *** New commands `maximize-window' and `minimize-window'.
1340 These maximize and minimize the size of a window within its frame.
1342 *** New commands `switch-to-prev-buffer' and `switch-to-next-buffer'.
1343 These functions allow to navigate through the live buffers that have
1344 been shown in a specific window.
1346 ** Minibuffer changes
1348 *** The inactive minibuffer has its own major mode `minibuffer-inactive-mode'.
1349 This is handy for minibuffer-only frames, and is also used for the feature
1350 where mouse-1 pops up *Messages*"', which can now easily be changed.
1352 *** Minibuffers set `truncate-lines' to nil.
1353 If you want to change the value to something else, you could use
1354 for example `minibuffer-setup-hook'.
1356 ** `auto-mode-case-fold' is now enabled by default.
1358 ** `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' now defaults to t.
1360 ** New basic faces `error', `warning', `success'.
1361 These are used to highlight text indicating failure, caution or
1362 successful operation.
1364 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
1365 for `list-colors-display'.
1367 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
1370 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
1374 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-kill', instead of
1375 `isearch-yank-line'.
1377 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-pop', instead of
1378 `isearch-yank-kill'.
1380 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-line'.
1382 ** New commands `count-words-region' and `count-words'.
1384 *** M-= is bound to `count-words-region', not `count-lines-region'.
1385 The `count-words-region' command, when called interactively, reports
1386 the number of lines, words, and characters in the region. It is a
1387 superset of the old `count-lines-region', which is now an obsolete
1390 ** The command `just-one-space' (M-SPC), if given a negative argument,
1391 also deletes newlines around point.
1395 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
1396 If non-nil, [delete] and DEL delete the region if it is active and no
1397 prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', those commands kill
1400 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to [delete].
1401 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
1402 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
1404 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
1405 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
1406 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; Lisp
1407 callers should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
1409 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
1411 ** Selection changes.
1413 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections has been
1414 changed to conform with modern X applications. In short, most
1415 commands for killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while
1416 mouse commands use the primary selection.
1418 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
1419 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
1421 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
1422 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
1423 the kill ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
1424 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
1426 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
1427 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
1428 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
1429 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
1430 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
1432 **** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
1434 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
1435 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
1436 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
1438 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
1440 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
1441 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
1442 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
1444 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
1445 exactly equivalent to M-w, C-w, and C-y respectively.
1447 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
1448 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
1449 between applications.
1451 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
1453 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
1454 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
1455 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
1456 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
1457 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
1459 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
1461 *** X clipboard managers are now supported.
1462 To inhibit this, change `x-select-enable-clipboard-manager' to nil.
1464 ** New command `C-x r N' (`rectangle-number-lines') numbers the lines
1465 in the current rectangle. With a prefix argument, this prompts for a
1466 number to count from and for a format string.
1468 ** `redisplay-dont-pause' now defaults to t.
1469 This makes Emacs feel more responsive to editing commands that arrive
1470 at high rate, e.g. if you lean on some key, because stopping redisplay
1471 in the middle (when this variable is nil) forces more expensive
1472 updates later on, and Emacs appears to be unable to keep up.
1474 ** The behavior of <TAB> for active regions in Text mode has changed.
1475 In Text and related modes, typing <TAB> (`indent-for-tab-command')
1476 when the region is active causes Emacs to indent all the lines in the
1477 region, aligning them with the line previous to the first line in the
1478 region (or with the left margin if there is no previous line).
1480 ** When `occur' is called with a prefix argument, matching strings are
1481 collected into the `*Occur*' buffer without line numbers. If there
1482 are parenthesized subexpressions in the specified regexp, `occur'
1483 reads replacement text that may contain \\& and \\N whose convention
1484 follows `replace-match'.
1487 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
1489 ** Archive Mode has basic support for browsing and updating 7z archives.
1493 *** BibTeX mode now supports biblatex.
1494 Use the variable `bibtex-dialect' to select different BibTeX dialects.
1495 `bibtex-entry-field-alist' is now an obsolete alias for
1496 `bibtex-BibTeX-entry-alist'.
1498 *** New command `bibtex-search-entries', bound to C-c C-a.
1500 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `sort-fields', disabled by default.
1502 *** New variable `bibtex-search-entry-globally'.
1506 *** New option `browse-url-mailto-function' specifies how to handle "mailto:"s.
1508 *** The default browser used by the package is now the "xdg-open" program,
1509 on platforms that support it. This calls your desktop's preferred browser.
1511 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
1513 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing "comments".
1514 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
1516 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
1517 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
1519 *** The function specified by `appt-disp-window-function' may be passed
1520 lists of arguments if multiple appointments are due at similar times.
1521 If you are using a custom function for this, you should update it.
1523 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
1525 *** Elements of `calendar-day-abbrev-array' and `calendar-month-abbrev-array'
1526 may no longer be nil, but must all be strings.
1528 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt
1529 package by adding `appt-make-list' to `diary-hook' has been removed.
1530 Use `appt-activate' instead.
1532 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
1533 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
1534 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
1536 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
1537 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
1541 *** New feature to "guess" the style in an existing buffer.
1542 The main entry point is M-x c-guess.
1544 *** Java Mode now supports Java 5.0 (Tiger) and 6 (Mustang).
1546 *** `c-beginning-of-defun' and `c-end-of-defun' now respect nested scopes.
1547 Thus C-M-a will, by default, go to the beginning of the immediate function,
1550 *** "Macros with semicolons" can be registered for correct indentation.
1551 Where such a macro ends a line (no semicolon) the next statement is no longer
1552 parsed as a statement continuation.
1554 ** Comint and modes derived from it use the standard completion code.
1558 *** Compilation mode can be used without Font Lock mode.
1559 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
1561 *** New variable `compilation-filter-start', which is bound while
1562 `compilation-filter-hook' runs. It records the start position of the
1563 text inserted by `compilation-filter'.
1565 *** `compilation-error-screen-columns' and `compilation-first-column'
1566 are obeyed in the editing buffer. So programming language modes can
1567 set them, whereas previously only the value in the *Compilation*
1572 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
1573 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
1574 To turn off the search field, set `custom-search-field' to nil.
1576 *** Options in customize group buffers start out hidden if not customized.
1577 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
1579 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
1581 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
1582 choose a color via `list-colors-display'.
1586 *** It is now possible to access buses other than the default system
1589 *** The `dbus-register-method' and `dbus-register-property' functions
1590 optionally do not register names.
1592 *** The new function `dbus-register-service' registers a known service
1593 name on a D-Bus without also registering a property or a method.
1597 *** C-x C-j (`dired-jump') and C-x 4 C-j (`dired-jump-other-window'),
1598 if called with a prefix argument, read a file name from the minibuffer
1599 instead of using the current buffer.
1601 *** The "dired local variables" feature of Dired-x is obsolete.
1602 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
1606 *** New options `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay',
1607 controlling attempts to autojoin a channel.
1609 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
1610 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
1611 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
1612 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
1616 *** The default value of `eshell-directory-name' has changed
1617 to be an "eshell" directory in `user-emacs-directory'.
1618 The old "~/.eshell/" directory is still used if it exists, though.
1622 *** The M-x gdb command now uses the GDB Machine Interface protocol.
1623 It now supports multithread non-stop debugging and simultaneous
1624 debugging of several threads.
1628 *** RET (`image-toggle-animation') toggles animation, if applicable.
1629 Animation plays once, unless the option `image-animate-loop' is non-nil.
1633 *** New command M-x info-display-manual displays a named Info manual.
1634 If that manual is already visited in some Info buffer, it displays
1635 that buffer. (This is handy if you have many manuals in many *info*
1636 buffers, and don't remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual
1637 you want to consult.) Otherwise, it loads and displays the manual.
1639 *** `e' is now bound to `end-of-buffer' rather than to `Info-edit'.
1640 This is for compatibility with the stand-alone Info reader program,
1641 and also because `Info-edit' is a rarely used command that is disabled
1644 ** Mail mode changes (not Message mode)
1646 *** New command M-x mail-add-attachment for adding MIME attachments
1648 *** The command M-x mail-attach-file was renamed to M-x mail-insert-file.
1649 (Its name is misleading, since it has nothing to do with MIME
1650 attachments.) The old name is now an obsolete alias to the new name.
1652 ** MH-E has been updated to MH-E version 8.3.1.
1653 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
1655 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
1657 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
1659 ** nXML mode no longer binds C-RET to `nxml-complete'.
1660 Completion is now performed via `completion-at-point', bound to C-M-i
1661 or M-TAB. If `nxml-bind-meta-tab-to-complete-flag' is non-nil (the
1662 default), this performs tag completion.
1664 ** Org mode has been updated to version 7.8.09.
1665 See ORG-NEWS for details.
1667 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
1668 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity,
1669 support for more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
1673 *** The command `rmail-epa-decrypt' decrypts OpenPGP data
1674 in the Rmail incoming message.
1676 *** The variable `rmail-message-filter' no longer has any effect.
1677 This change was made in Emacs 23.1 but was not advertised at the time.
1678 Try using `rmail-show-message-hook' instead.
1682 *** M-x shell prompts for the shell path name if the default directory
1683 is a remote file name and neither the environment variable $ESHELL nor
1684 the variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
1686 *** TAB is now bound to the standard `completion-at-point' command,
1687 which now implements the pcomplete rules for shell command completion.
1691 *** SMTPmail now uses encrypted connections (via STARTTLS) by default
1692 if the mail server supports them. This uses either built-in GnuTLS
1693 support, or the starttls.el library. Customize `smtpmail-stream-type'
1696 *** The variable `smtpmail-auth-credentials' has been removed.
1697 By default, the information is now stored in the file ~/.authinfo.
1698 This was the default value of smtpmail-auth-credentials. If you had
1699 customized smtpmail-auth-credentials to a list of user names and
1700 passwords, those settings are not used. During your first connection
1701 to the smtp server, Emacs will prompt for the user name and password,
1702 and offer to save them to ~/.authinfo. Or you can manually copy the
1703 credentials to ~/.authinfo. For example, if you had
1705 (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials
1706 '(("mail.example.org" 25 "jim" "s!cret")))
1708 then the equivalent line in ~/.authinfo would be
1710 machine mail.example.org port 25 login jim password s!cret
1712 See the auth-source manual for more information, e.g. on encrypting
1713 the credentials file.
1715 *** The variable `smtpmail-starttls-credentials' has been removed.
1716 If you had that set, you need to put
1718 machine smtp.whatever.foo port 25 key "~/.my_smtp_tls.key" cert "~/.my_smtp_tls.cert"
1720 in your ~/.authinfo file instead.
1722 *** SMTPmail defaults to using the address in the From: header as the
1723 SMTP MAIL FROM envelope. To override this, set `mail-envelope-from'
1724 to the address you wish to use instead.
1728 *** New options `sql-port', `sql-connection-alist', `sql-send-terminator',
1729 and `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
1731 *** New options controlling prompting for login parameters.
1732 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params',
1733 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
1734 connection is established.
1736 *** The command `sql-product-interactive' now takes a prefix argument,
1737 which causes it to prompt for an SQL product.
1739 *** Product-specific SQL interactive commands now take prefix arguments.
1740 These commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres', `sql-mysql', etc.),
1741 given a prefix argument, prompt for a name for the SQL interactive
1742 buffer. This reduces the need for calling `sql-rename-buffer'.
1744 *** SQL interactive modes suppress command continuation prompts, and
1745 replace tabs with spaces. The first change impacts multiple line SQL
1746 statements entered with C-j between each line, statements yanked into
1747 the buffer and statements sent with `sql-send-*' functions. The
1748 second prevents the MySQL and Postgres interpreters from listing
1749 object name completions when sent text via `sql-send-*' functions.
1751 *** New command `sql-connect' starts a predefined SQLi session,
1752 using the login parameters from `sql-connection-alist'.
1754 *** New "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
1755 This gathers the login params specified for the SQLi session, if it
1756 was not started by a connection, and saves them as a new connection.
1758 *** New commands for listing database objects and details:
1759 sql-list-all and sql-list-table.
1761 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
1765 *** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
1769 *** New inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
1771 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
1772 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
1774 *** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
1775 remote file attributes are cached for better performance.
1777 *** The option `ange-ftp-binary-file-name-regexp' has changed its
1778 default value to "".
1780 *** Handlers for `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
1781 for remote machines which support SELinux.
1783 ** New function `url-queue-retrieve', which behaves like url-retrieve,
1784 but with limits (`url-queue-parallel-processes', `url-queue-timeout') on
1785 the degree of parallelism.
1787 ** VC and related modes
1789 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
1790 The command C-x v + (`vc-pull') runs a "pull" operation, if it is
1791 supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to update the
1792 current branch and working tree. A prefix argument means to prompt
1793 the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
1795 *** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
1797 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
1798 The command C-x v m (`vc-merge') now runs a "merge" operation, if it
1799 is supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to merge
1800 changes from another branch into the current one. It prompts for
1801 specifics, e.g. a merge source.
1803 *** New option `vc-revert-show-diff' controls whether `vc-revert'
1804 shows a diff while querying the user. It defaults to t.
1806 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
1807 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
1808 This is currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial (to support
1809 another backend, define a `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function').
1810 In the Log View buffers made by C-x v L (`vc-print-root-log'), you can
1811 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
1813 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
1814 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
1816 *** The option `vc-initial-comment' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but
1817 this was not advertised at the time.
1819 *** `vc-toggle-read-only' is an obsolete alias for `toggle-read-only'.
1820 Since Emacs 23, it has done the same thing as `toggle-read-only', but
1821 this was not advertised at the time.
1827 *** erc-hecomplete.el (use erc-pcomplete.el instead)
1829 *** partial-completion-mode (complete.el) is obsolete.
1830 You can get a comparable behavior with:
1831 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
1832 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
1834 *** pc-mode.el is obsolete (CUA mode is much more comprehensive).
1836 *** pgg is obsolete (use EasyPG instead).
1838 *** sregex.el is obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
1840 *** s-region.el and pc-select.el are obsolete.
1841 They are superseded by shift-select-mode, enabled by default since 23.1.
1843 *** vc-mcvs.el is obsolete (for lack of a maintainer).
1847 *** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
1848 Its functions and variables have been similarly renamed.
1850 *** In `ido-file-completion-map', C-v is no longer bound to `ido-toggle-vc'.
1851 (This interfered with cua-mode.)
1853 *** f90.el has some support for Fortran 2008 syntax.
1855 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
1857 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
1860 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
1862 ** Occur Edit mode applies edits made in *Occur* buffers to the
1863 original buffers. It is bound to "e" in Occur mode.
1865 ** New global minor mode electric-pair-mode.
1866 When enabled, typing an open parenthesis automatically inserts the
1867 matching closing one.
1869 ** New global minor mode electric-indent-mode.
1870 When enabled, typing certain characters triggers reindentation.
1871 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-indent-chars or
1872 electric-indent-functions.
1874 ** New global minor mode electric-layout-mode.
1875 When enabled, typing certain characters automatically inserts newlines.
1876 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-layout-rules.
1878 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
1879 from which other modes can be derived.
1881 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
1883 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
1884 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
1885 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
1886 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
1889 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
1890 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
1892 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
1893 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
1895 ** New generic mode, xmodmap-generic-mode, for xmodmap files.
1897 ** New emacs-lock.el package.
1898 The previous version has been moved to obsolete/old-emacs-lock.el.
1899 Now, there is a proper minor mode `emacs-lock-mode'. Protection
1900 against exiting Emacs and killing the buffer can be set separately.
1901 The mechanism for automatically turning off protection for buffers
1902 with dead inferior processes has been generalized.
1905 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
1907 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function call now ENABLES
1908 the minor mode unconditionally. This is so that you can write e.g.
1910 (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'foo-mode)
1912 to enable foo-mode in Text mode buffers, removing the need for
1913 `turn-on-foo-mode' style functions. This affects all mode commands
1914 defined by `define-minor-mode'. If called interactively, the mode
1915 command still toggles the minor mode.
1917 ** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
1918 It is now a list of three elements, where the second element is a list
1919 describing the original file's SELinux context. If Emacs or the
1920 system lacks SELinux support, the context list is (nil nil nil nil).
1921 See "Basic SELinux support" above, under "Changes in Emacs 24.1".
1923 ** `char-direction-table' and the `char-direction' function were deleted.
1924 They were buggy and inferior to the new support of bidirectional
1925 editing introduced in Emacs 24. If you need the bidirectional
1926 properties of a character, use `get-char-code-property' with the last
1927 argument `bidi-class'.
1929 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
1930 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
1931 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
1932 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
1934 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
1935 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
1936 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
1939 ** Support for "old-style" backquotes, obsolete for 10+ years, has
1940 been further reduced. Now a backquote not followed by a space is
1941 always treated as a "new-style" backquote. Please remove all
1942 "old-style" backquotes from your code. If your code uses backquotes
1943 as documented in the Elisp manual, and compiles without warning, then
1944 you have nothing to do in this regard. Code not following the
1945 appropriate conventions may fail to compile.
1947 The most common cause of trouble seems to be an old-style backquote
1948 followed by a newline. Another cause of trouble is vector notation
1949 for key sequence notation: instead of [(control ,)] and [(control ')],
1950 you should write [(control ?,)] and [(control ?')], which will work in
1953 ** The macro `eval-at-startup' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but this
1954 was not advertised at the time. The function `custom-initialize-delay'
1955 replaced all known uses.
1957 ** `view-buffer' now treats special mode-class in the same way that
1958 `view-file' has since Emacs 22 (i.e. it won't enable View mode if the
1959 major mode is special).
1961 ** Menu and tool bar changes
1963 *** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
1964 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
1965 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
1966 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
1967 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
1968 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
1970 *** The menu bar bindings's caches are not used any more.
1971 Use (where-is-internal <def> nil t) instead.
1973 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
1974 similar to those created by shift-selection (see Selection changes
1975 above). In previous Emacs versions, these regions were delineated by
1976 `mouse-drag-overlay'; that variable has been removed.
1978 ** The fourth argument of `filter-buffer-substring' has been removed.
1979 If you want to remove text properties from the final result, simply
1980 pass the result through substring-no-properties.
1982 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
1984 ** The following obsolete functions and aliases have been removed
1985 (the appropriate new function is given in parentheses; "not needed"
1986 means you can just remove all calls to the function in question):
1988 *** `comint-kill-output' (`comint-delete-output')
1989 *** `decompose-composite-char' (`char-to-string')
1990 *** `outline-visible' (`outline-invisible-p')
1991 *** `internal-find-face' (`facep')
1992 *** `internal-get-face' (`facep and check-face')
1993 *** `frame-update-faces' (not needed)
1994 *** `frame-update-face-colors' (`frame-set-background-mode')
1995 *** `x-frob-font-weight' and `x-frob-font-slant' (`make-face-*' functions)
1996 *** `x-make-font-bold and x-make-font-demibold (`make-face-bold')
1997 *** `x-make-font-italic' and `x-make-font-oblique' (`make-face-italic')
1998 *** `x-make-font-bold-italic' (`make-face-bold-italic')
1999 *** `x-make-font-unbold' (`make-face-unbold')
2000 *** `x-make-font-unitalic' (`make-face-unitalic')
2001 *** `mldrag-drag-mode-line' (`mouse-drag-mode-line')
2002 *** `mldrag-drag-vertical-line' (`mouse-drag-vertical-line')
2003 *** `iswitchb-default-keybindings' (`iswitchb-mode')
2004 *** `char-bytes' (== 1)
2005 *** `isearch-return-char' (`isearch-printing-char')
2006 *** `make-local-hook' (not needed)
2007 *** `set-screen-height' (`set-frame-height')
2008 *** `set-screen-width' (`set-frame-width')
2010 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed
2011 (the appropriate new variable is given in parentheses):
2013 *** `checkdoc-minor-keymap' (`checkdoc-minor-mode-map')
2014 *** `vc-header-alist' (`vc-BACKEND-header')
2015 *** `directory-sep-char' (== ?/)
2016 *** `font-lock-defaults-alist' (`font-lock-defaults')
2017 *** `e' (`float-e').
2019 ** The following obsolete files were removed:
2020 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
2022 ** The format of the finder-inf.el file has changed, since the Finder
2023 mechanism is now based on the package system. The variable
2024 `finder-package-info' is replaced by `package--builtins' and
2025 `finder-keywords-hash'.
2027 ** When generating autoloads, `update-directory-autoloads' no longer
2028 assumes every inspected file is in your `load-path'. It instead
2029 generates relative names according to the current `load-path'.
2032 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.1
2034 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
2035 The `lexical-binding' variable enables lexical scoping for local
2036 variables. It is typically set via a file-local variable in the first
2037 line of the file, in which case it applies to all the code in that
2040 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
2041 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
2043 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
2044 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
2046 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
2048 *** `defvar' and `defconst' now mark the variable as special (dynamic).
2049 So do `defcustom' and other forms that call `defvar' as a subroutine.
2051 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
2052 declared as dynamically bound.
2054 *** The form ((lambda ...) ...) is deprecated.
2056 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
2057 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
2058 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
2060 ** Changes for bidirectional display and editing
2062 *** New function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction'.
2063 This returns the base direction of the paragraph at point.
2065 *** New function `bidi-string-mark-left-to-right'.
2066 Given a string containing characters from right-to-left scripts, this
2067 function returns another string which can be safely inserted into a
2068 buffer, such that any following text will be always displayed to the
2069 right of that string. (This works by appending an invisible Unicode
2070 "LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK" character if the argument string might need it.)
2072 This is useful when the buffer has overall left-to-right paragraph
2073 direction and you need to insert a string whose contents are not known
2074 in advance, without disrupting the layout of the line.
2078 *** Window tree functions are accessible in Elisp.
2079 Functions are provided to return the parent, siblings or child windows
2080 of any window including internal windows (windows not associated with a
2081 buffer) in the window tree.
2083 **** New function `window-valid-p' gives non-nil for live and internal
2086 **** Window manipulation can deal with internal windows.
2087 Many window handling functions like `split-window', `delete-window', or
2088 `delete-other-windows' as well as the window resizing functions can now
2089 act on any window including internal ones.
2091 *** window-total-height/-width vs window-body-height/-width.
2092 The function `window-height' has been renamed to `window-total-height'
2093 and `window-width' has been renamed to `window-body-width'. The old
2094 names are provided as aliases. Two new functions `window-total-width'
2095 and `window-body-height' are provided.
2097 *** Window parameters specific to window handling functions.
2098 For each window you can specify a parameter to override the default
2099 behavior of a number of functions like `split-window', `delete-window'
2100 and `delete-other-windows'. The variable `ignore-window-parameters'
2101 allows to ignore processing such parameters.
2103 *** New semantics of third argument of `split-window'.
2104 The third argument of `split-window' has been renamed to SIDE and can be
2105 set to any of the values 'below, 'right, 'above, or 'left to make the
2106 new window appear on the corresponding side of the window that shall be
2107 split. Any other value of SIDE will cause `split-window' to split the
2108 window into two side-by-side windows as before.
2110 *** Window resizing functions.
2111 A new standard function for resizing windows called `window-resize' has
2112 been introduced. This and all other functions for resizing windows no
2113 longer delete any windows when they become too small.
2115 *** Deleting the selected window now selects the most recently selected
2116 live window on that frame instead.
2118 *** `adjust-window-trailing-edge' adjustments.
2119 `adjust-window-trailing-edge' can now deal with fixed-size windows and
2120 is able to resize other windows if a window adjacent to the trailing
2121 edge cannot be shrunk any more. This makes its behavior more similar to
2122 that of Emacs 21 without compromising, however, its inability to delete
2123 windows which was introduced in Emacs 22.
2125 *** Window-local buffer lists.
2126 Windows now have local buffer lists. This means that removing a buffer
2127 from display in a window will preferably show the buffer previously
2128 shown in that window with its previous window-start and window-point
2129 positions. This also means that the same buffer may be automatically
2130 shown twice even if it already appears in another window.
2132 *** `switch-to-buffer' has a new optional argument FORCE-SAME-WINDOW,
2133 which if non-nil requires the buffer to be displayed in the currently
2134 selected window, signaling an error otherwise. If nil, another window
2135 can be used, e.g. if the selected one is strongly dedicated.
2137 *** `split-window-vertically' and `split-window-horizontally' renamed
2138 to `split-window-below' and `split-window-right' respectively.
2139 The old names are kept as aliases.
2143 **** The second arg to `display-buffer' and `pop-to-buffer' is now
2144 named ACTION, and takes a display action of the same form as
2145 `display-buffer-base-action' (see Changes, above). A non-nil,
2146 non-list value is treated specially, as the old meaning.
2148 **** New variable `display-buffer-overriding-action'.
2150 **** The procedure of `display-buffer' etc. to choose a window is
2151 determined by combining `display-buffer-overriding-action',
2152 `display-buffer-alist', the ACTION arg, `display-buffer-base-action',
2153 and `display-buffer-fallback-action'. The second and fourth of these
2154 are user-customizable variables.
2156 See the docstring of `display-buffer' for details.
2158 *** New functions `window-state-get' and `window-state-put'.
2159 These functions allow to save and restore the state of an arbitrary
2160 frame or window as an Elisp object.
2164 *** New variable `completion-extra-properties' used to specify extra
2165 properties of the current completion:
2166 - :annotate-function, same as the old completion-annotate-function.
2167 - :exit-function, function to call after completion took place.
2169 *** Functions on `completion-at-point-functions' can return any of the
2170 properties valid for `completion-extra-properties'.
2172 *** `completion-annotate-function' is obsolete.
2174 *** New `metadata' method for completion tables. The metadata thus returned
2175 can specify various details of the data returned by `all-completions':
2176 - `category' is the kind of objects returned (e.g., `buffer', `file', ...),
2177 used to select a style in completion-category-overrides.
2178 - `annotation-function' to add annotations in *Completions*.
2179 - `display-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries in *Completions*.
2180 - `cycle-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries when cycling.
2182 *** `minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map' is not used any more.
2183 Instead, the bindings in `minibuffer-local-filename-completion-map'
2184 are combined with `minibuffer-local-must-match-map'.
2186 *** New variable `completing-read-function' allows overriding the
2187 behavior of `completing-read'.
2189 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
2190 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
2192 ** `pre-command-hook'/`post-command-hook' are not reset to nil on error.
2193 Instead, the offending function is removed.
2197 *** New function `run-hook-wrapped' for running an abnormal hook by
2198 passing the hook functions as arguments to a "wrapping" function.
2199 Like `run-hook-with-args-until-success', it stops at the first
2200 non-nil return value.
2202 *** New macro `with-wrapper-hook' for running an abnormal hook as a
2203 set of "wrapping" filters, similar to around advice.
2204 (A version of this macro was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not
2205 advertised at the time.)
2209 *** New macro `condition-case-unless-debug' (this was actually added in
2210 Emacs 23.1 as condition-case-no-debug, but not advertised)
2212 *** The macro `with-demoted-errors' was added in Emacs 23.1, but not advertised.
2214 *** Variable `stack-trace-on-error' removed.
2216 *** The debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will
2217 jump to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked
2218 instead of jumping all the way to the top-level.
2220 *** Set `debug-on-event' to enter the debugger on events like SIGUSR1.
2221 This can be useful when `inhibit-quit' is set.
2223 ** The new function `server-eval-at' allows evaluation of Lisp forms on
2224 named Emacs server instances.
2226 ** `call-process' and `call-process-region' allow a `(:file "file")' spec
2227 to redirect STDOUT to a file.
2229 ** The function `format-time-string' now supports the %N directive,
2230 for higher-resolution time stamps.
2232 ** New input reading functions
2234 *** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of
2235 characters, discarding any inputs not inside the set.
2237 *** The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name
2238 or RGB triplet, instead of signaling an error if the user provides
2241 **** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
2243 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
2244 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
2245 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
2248 ** Syntax parsing changes
2250 *** New variable `syntax-propertize-function'.
2251 This replaces `font-lock-syntactic-keywords' which is now obsolete.
2252 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
2253 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
2254 Together with this new variable come a new hook
2255 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
2256 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
2257 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
2260 *** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
2262 ** New hook `post-self-insert-hook', run after `self-insert-command'.
2264 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
2266 ** Major and minor mode changes
2268 *** `set-auto-mode' now respects mode: local variables at the end of files,
2269 as well as those in the -*- line.
2271 *** `prog-mode' is a new major mode from which programming modes
2274 **** `prog-mode-hook' can be used to enable features for programming
2275 modes, e.g. (add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'flyspell-prog-mode) to enable
2276 on-the-fly spell checking for comments and strings.
2278 *** New hook `change-major-mode-after-body-hook', run by
2279 `run-mode-hooks' just before any other mode hooks.
2281 *** Enabled globalized minor modes can be disabled in specific major modes.
2282 If the global mode is global-FOO-mode, then run (FOO-mode -1) in the
2283 major mode's hook, where FOO-mode toggles the mode on a per-buffer basis.
2285 *** `define-minor-mode' accepts new keywords :variable, :after-hook.
2287 ** File-handling changes
2289 *** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
2290 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
2291 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
2292 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
2294 *** New file predicates: `file-equal-p', `file-in-directory-p'.
2296 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
2297 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
2298 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
2302 *** Animated images support (currently animated gifs only).
2304 **** `image-animated-p' returns non-nil if an image can be animated.
2306 **** `image-animate' animates a supplied image spec.
2308 **** `image-animate-timer' returns the timer object for an image that
2311 *** `image-extension-data' has been renamed to `image-metadata'.
2312 The old name is an obsolete alias to the new one.
2314 *** Image mode can view any image type that ImageMagick supports.
2315 This requires Emacs to be built with ImageMagick support.
2317 **** New function `imagemagick-types', defined if ImageMagick support
2318 is enabled, returns a list of image file extensions that your
2319 ImageMagick installation supports.
2321 **** New function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick
2322 image types in Image mode and in `create-image' and other helper
2325 **** New option `imagemagick-types-inhibit' excludes certain
2326 ImageMagick image types from `imagemagick-register-types'.
2328 **** With ImageMagick support, there are extra Image mode commands to
2329 resize and rotate images: `image-transform-fit-to-height',
2330 `image-transform-fit-to-width', `image-transform-set-rotation', and
2331 `image-transform-set-scale'.
2333 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
2334 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
2335 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail. For
2336 example, this is used by Rmail to optionally delete a mail window.
2338 ** XML and HTML parsing
2339 If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support, there are two new
2340 functions: `libxml-parse-html-region' (which parses "real world" HTML)
2341 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
2342 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
2344 ** Networking and encryption changes
2346 *** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
2347 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
2348 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
2349 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
2350 must also be supplied.
2352 *** New library gnutls.el.
2353 The new function `gnutls-available-p' returns non-nil if Emacs is
2354 built with GnuTLS support. The main entry points are
2355 `open-gnutls-stream' and `gnutls-negotiate'. It's easiest to use
2356 these functions through `open-network-stream', because that can
2357 upgrade connections through STARTTLS opportunistically or use plain
2358 SSL, depending on your needs. For debugging, set `gnutls-log-level'
2361 *** New primitive `secure-hash' that supports many secure hash algorithms:
2362 md5, sha1, sha2, sha224, sha256, sha384, and sha512. The lisp library
2363 sha1.el has been removed. The `sha1' feature is provided by default.
2367 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
2369 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
2370 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
2371 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
2372 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
2373 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
2374 displayed with a "spinning bar".
2376 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
2377 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
2379 ** New variables `delayed-warnings-list' and `delayed-warnings-hook'.
2380 If delayed-warnings-list is non-nil, the command loop calls
2381 `delayed-warnings-hook' after `post-command-hook'. At present, this
2382 is only used by Emacs on some platforms to display warnings during
2383 startup, which might otherwise not be noticed. This uses the
2384 functions `display-delayed-warnings' and `collapse-delayed-warnings'.
2386 ** rx.el has a new `group-n' construct for explicitly numbered groups.
2388 ** New function `make-composed-keymap' that constructs a new keymap
2389 from multiple input maps. You can use this to make a keymap that
2390 inherits from multiple maps, eg:
2391 (set-keymap-parent newmap (make-composed-keymap othermap parent))
2393 ** New function `string-prefix-p'.
2394 (This was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not advertised at the time.)
2396 ** New reader macro ## that stands for the empty symbol.
2397 This means that the empty symbol can now be read back. Also, #: by itself
2398 (when not immediately followed by a possible symbol character) stands for
2399 an empty uninterned symbol.
2401 ** New math functions `isnan', `copysign', `frexp', `ldexp'.
2403 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
2405 *** `tooltip-use-echo-area' is obsolete.
2406 Rather than setting this to t, disable Tooltip mode instead.
2408 *** buffer-substring-filters is obsolete.
2409 Use `filter-buffer-substring-functions' instead.
2411 *** `byte-compile-disable-print-circle' is obsolete.
2413 *** `deferred-action-list' and `deferred-action-function' are obsolete.
2414 Use `post-command-hook' instead.
2416 *** `font-lock-maximum-size' is obsolete.
2419 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on non-free operating systems
2421 ** On MS Windows, Emacs warns when using the obsolete init file _emacs,
2422 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
2424 ** New configure.bat options
2426 *** --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra runtime checks.
2428 *** --distfiles specifies files to be included in binary distribution.
2430 *** --without-gnutls disables automatic GnuTLS detection.
2432 *** --lib for general library linkage, works with the USER_LIBS build variable.
2434 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
2436 ** The Lisp function `w32-default-color-map' is now obsolete.
2437 (It is only used internally in the Emacs C code.)
2439 ** Customize ns-auto-hide-menu-bar to have the menu-bar hidden, but
2440 reappear on mouse-over. (Requires OS X 10.6 or later.)
2442 ** On Mac OS X, dragging a file into Emacs visits the file, like on
2443 other platforms, rather than inserting its contents into the buffer.
2446 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
2447 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
2449 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
2450 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2451 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
2452 (at your option) any later version.
2454 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2455 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2456 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2457 GNU General Public License for more details.
2459 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2460 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
2465 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"