]> code.delx.au - gnu-emacs/blob - etc/NEWS
merge trunk
[gnu-emacs] / etc / NEWS
1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
5
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
8
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 24.
10
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.
13
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.
16
17 Temporary note:
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.
22
23 \f
24 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.3
25
26 ---
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.
33
34 ---
35 ** New configure option '--without-all' to disable additional features.
36 This disables most of the features that are normally enabled by default.
37
38 ---
39 ** New configure option '--enable-link-time-optimization' to utilize
40 an appropriate feature provided by GCC since version 4.5.0.
41
42 ---
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
47 may be useful.
48
49 ---
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.
54
55 ---
56 ** The configure option '--disable-maintainer-mode' has been removed,
57 as it was confusingly-named and rarely useful.
58
59 ---
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
62 to emacs-VERSION.
63
64 ---
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.
70
71 ---
72 ** Emacs uses libtinfo in preference to libncurses, if available.
73
74 ---
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
77 you want them.
78
79 ---
80 ** On Mac OS X, configure no longer automatically adds the Fink /sw
81 directories to the search path. You must add them yourself if you want them.
82
83 ---
84 ** The standalone scripts rcs-checkin and vcdiff have been removed
85 (from the bin and libexec directories, respectively). The former is
86 no longer relevant, the latter is replaced by lisp (in vc-sccs.el).
87
88 ---
89 ** The native Windows user interface is available for Cygwin. Passing
90 --with-w32 will configure a Cygwin emacs to use the Windows user
91 interface instead of the default, X11.
92
93 \f
94 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.3
95
96 +++
97 ** Emacs no longer searches for `leim-list.el' files beneath the standard
98 lisp/ directory. There should not be any there anyway. If you have
99 been adding them there, put them somewhere else, eg site-lisp.
100
101 ---
102 ** The `--no-site-lisp' command line option now works for Nextstep builds.
103
104 \f
105 * Changes in Emacs 24.3
106
107 ** minibuffer-electric-default-mode can rewrite (default ...) to [...].
108 Just set minibuffer-eldef-shorten-default to t before enabling the mode.
109
110 +++
111 ** Most y-or-n prompts now allow you to scroll the selected window.
112 Typing C-v or M-v at a y-or-n prompt scrolls forward or backward
113 respectively, without exiting from the prompt.
114
115 ---
116 ** In minibuffer filename prompts, `C-M-f' and `C-M-b' now move to the
117 next and previous path separator, respectively.
118
119 ** Mode line changes
120 ---
121 *** New option `mode-line-default-help-echo' specifies the help text
122 (shown in a tooltip or in the echo area) for any part of the mode line
123 that does not have its own specialized help text.
124
125 *** You can now click mouse-3 in the coding system indicator to
126 invokes `set-buffer-file-coding-system'.
127
128 ** Help changes
129
130 +++
131 *** `C-h f' (describe-function) can now perform autoloading.
132 When this command is called for an autoloaded function whose docstring
133 contains a key substitution construct, that function's library is
134 automatically loaded, so that the documentation can be shown
135 correctly. To disable this, set `help-enable-auto-load' to nil.
136
137 ---
138 *** `C-h f' now reports previously-autoloaded functions as "autoloaded",
139 even after their associated libraries have been loaded (and the
140 autoloads have been redefined as functions).
141
142 ** ImageMagick support, if available, is automatically enabled.
143 It is no longer necessary to call `imagemagick-register-types'
144 explicitly to install ImageMagick image types; that function is called
145 automatically at startup, or when customizing a relevant imagemagick-
146 option.
147 +++
148 *** Setting `imagemagick-types-inhibit' to t now disables the use of
149 ImageMagick to view images. You must call imagemagick-register-types
150 afterwards if you do not use customize to change this.
151 +++
152 *** The new variable `imagemagick-enabled-types' also affects which
153 ImageMagick types are treated as images. The function
154 `imagemagick-filter-types' returns the list of types that will be
155 treated as images.
156 ---
157 *** Images displayed via ImageMagick now support transparency and the
158 :background image spec property.
159
160 ** Server and client changes
161 +++
162 *** emacsclient now obeys string values for `initial-buffer-choice',
163 if it is told to open a new frame without specifying any file to visit
164 or expression to evaluate.
165 ---
166 *** New option `server-auth-key' specifies a shared server key.
167
168 ** In the Package Menu, newly-available packages are listed as "new",
169 and sorted above the other "available" packages by default.
170
171 +++
172 ** `C-x C-q' is now bound to the new minor mode `read-only-mode'.
173 This minor mode replaces `toggle-read-only', which is now obsolete.
174
175 ** Emacs now generates backtraces on fatal errors.
176 On encountering a fatal error, Emacs now outputs a textual description
177 of the fatal signal, and a short backtrace on platforms like glibc
178 that support backtraces.
179
180 ---
181 ** If your Emacs was built from a bzr checkout, the new variable
182 `emacs-bzr-version' contains information about the bzr revision used.
183
184 +++
185 ** New variable `create-lockfiles' specifies usage of lockfiles.
186 It defaults to t. Changing it to nil inhibits the creation of lock
187 files (use this with caution).
188
189 +++
190 ** Using "unibyte: t" in Lisp source files is obsolete.
191 Use "coding: raw-text" instead.
192
193 +++
194 ** Setting `enable-remote-dir-locals' to non-nil allows directory
195 local variables on remote hosts.
196
197 ---
198 ** The entry for PCL-CVS has been removed from the Tools menu.
199 The PCL-CVS commands are still available via the keyboard.
200
201 ** Internationalization changes
202 ---
203 *** New language environment: Persian.
204 ---
205 *** New input method `vietnamese-vni'.
206
207 ** NextStep/OSX port changes.
208 ---
209 *** OSX 10.4 or newer is required to build Emacs.
210 ---
211 *** Fullscreen and frame parameter fullscreen is supported.
212 ---
213 *** A file dialog is used for open/save operations initiated from the
214 menu/toolbar.
215
216 \f
217 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.3
218
219 ** Navigation command changes
220 +++
221 *** New binding `M-g c' for `goto-char'.
222 +++
223 *** New binding `M-g TAB' for `move-to-column'.
224 +++
225 *** `M-g TAB' (`move-to-column') prompts for a column number if called
226 interactively with no prefix arg. Previously, it moved to column 1.
227
228 ** Search and Replace changes
229 +++
230 *** Non-regexp Isearch now performs "lax" space matching.
231 Each sequence of spaces in the supplied search string may match any
232 sequence of one or more whitespace characters, as specified by the
233 variable `search-whitespace-regexp'. (This variable is also used by a
234 similar existing feature for regexp Isearch).
235 +++
236 *** New Isearch command `M-s SPC' toggles lax space matching.
237 This applies to both ordinary and regexp Isearch.
238 +++
239 *** New option `replace-lax-whitespace'.
240 If non-nil, `query-replace' uses flexible whitespace matching too.
241 The default is nil.
242
243 *** Global `M-s _' starts a symbol (identifier) incremental search,
244 and `M-s _' in Isearch toggles symbol search mode.
245 `M-s c' in Isearch toggles search case-sensitivity.
246
247 +++
248 ** `C-x 8 RET' is now bound to `insert-char', which is now a command.
249 `ucs-insert' is now an obsolete alias for `insert-char'.
250
251 ---
252 ** The `z' key no longer has a binding in most special modes.
253 It used to be bound to `kill-this-buffer', but `z' is too easy to
254 accidentally type.
255
256 +++
257 ** New option `delete-trailing-lines' specifies whether
258 M-x delete-trailing-whitespace should delete trailing lines at the end
259 of the buffer. It defaults to t.
260
261 ** Register changes
262 +++
263 *** `C-x r +' is now overloaded to invoke `append-to-register.
264 +++
265 *** New option `register-separator' specifies the register containing
266 the text to put between collected texts for use with M-x
267 append-to-register and M-x prepend-to-register.
268
269 +++
270 ** `C-u M-=' now counts lines/words/characters in the entire buffer.
271
272 +++
273 ** New command `C-x r M-w' (copy-rectangle-as-kill).
274 It copies the region-rectangle as the last rectangle kill.
275
276 ** New option `yank-handled-properties' allows processing of text
277 properties on yanked text, in more ways that are more general than
278 just removing them, as done by `yank-excluded-properties'.
279
280 \f
281 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.3
282
283 ** Apropos
284 ---
285 *** The faces used by Apropos are now directly customizable.
286 These faces are named `apropos-symbol', `apropos-keybinding', and so on;
287 see the `apropos' Custom group for details.
288 ---
289 *** The old options whose values specified faces to use were removed
290 (i.e. `apropos-symbol-face', `apropos-keybinding-face', etc.).
291
292 ** Buffer Menu
293 This package has been rewritten to use Tabulated List mode.
294 ---
295 *** Option `Buffer-menu-buffer+size-width' is now obsolete.
296 Use `Buffer-menu-name-width' and `Buffer-menu-size-width' instead.
297
298 ** Calendar
299
300 +++
301 *** You can customize the header text that appears above each calendar month.
302 See the variable `calendar-month-header'.
303
304 +++
305 *** New LaTeX calendar style, produced by `cal-tex-cursor-week2-summary'.
306
307 +++
308 *** The calendars produced by cal-html include holidays.
309 Customize `cal-html-holidays' to change this.
310
311 ** CL
312
313 *** CL's main entry is now (require 'cl-lib).
314 `cl-lib' is like the old `cl' except that it uses the namespace cleanly,
315 i.e. all its definitions have the "cl-" prefix (and internal definitions use
316 the "cl--" prefix).
317
318 If `cl' provided a feature under the name `foo', then `cl-lib' provides it
319 under the name `cl-foo' instead, with the exceptions of the few definitions
320 that had to use `foo*' to avoid conflicts with pre-existing Elisp entities,
321 which have not been renamed to `cl-foo*' but just `cl-foo'.
322
323 The old `cl' is now deprecated and is just a bunch of aliases that
324 provide the old non-prefixed names.
325
326 *** `cl-flet' is not like `flet' (which is deprecated).
327 Instead it obeys the behavior of Common-Lisp's `flet'.
328
329 *** `cl-labels' is slightly different from `labels'.
330 The difference is that it relies on the `lexical-binding' machinery (as opposed
331 to the `lexical-let' machinery used previously) to capture definitions in
332 closures, so such closures will only work if `lexical-binding' is in use.
333
334 *** `progv' was rewritten to use the `let' machinery.
335 A side effect is that vars without corresponding value are bound to nil
336 rather than making them unbound.
337
338 ** Compilation mode
339
340 *** New option `compilation-always-kill'.
341
342 ** Customize
343
344 *** `custom-reset-button-menu' now defaults to t.
345
346 *** Non-option variables are never matched in `customize-apropos' and
347 `customize-apropos-options' (i.e. the prefix argument does nothing for
348 these commands now).
349
350 ** Desktop
351
352 *** `desktop-path' no longer includes the "." directory. Desktop
353 files are now located in ~/.emacs.d by default.
354
355 ** D-Bus
356
357 +++
358 *** New variables `dbus-compiled-version' and `dbus-runtime-version'.
359
360 +++
361 *** The D-Bus object manager interface is implemented.
362
363 +++
364 *** Variables of type :(u)int32 and :(u)int64 accept floating points,
365 if their value does not fit into Emacs's integer range.
366
367 +++
368 *** The function `dbus-call-method' works non-blocking now, it can be
369 interrupted by C-g. `dbus-call-method-non-blocking' is obsolete.
370
371 +++
372 *** Signals can be sent also as unicast message.
373
374 +++
375 *** The argument list of `dbus-register-signal' has been extended,
376 according to the new match rule types of D-Bus. See the manual for
377 details.
378
379 +++
380 *** `dbus-init-bus' supports private connections.
381
382 +++
383 *** There is a new function `dbus-setenv'.
384
385 ** Diff mode
386
387 *** Changes are now highlighted using the same color scheme as in
388 modern VCSes. Deletions are displayed in red (new faces
389 `diff-refine-removed' and `smerge-refined-removed' and new definition
390 of `diff-removed'), insertions in green (new faces `diff-refine-added'
391 and `smerge-refined-added' and new definition of `diff-added').
392
393 *** The variable `diff-use-changed-face' defines whether to use the
394 face `diff-changed', or `diff-removed' and `diff-added' to highlight
395 changes in context diffs.
396
397 *** The new command `diff-remove-trailing-whitespace' fixes trailing
398 whitespace problems introduced by the diff.
399
400 ** Dired
401
402 *** `dired-do-async-shell-command' executes each file sequentially
403 if the command ends in `;' (when operating on multiple files).
404 Otherwise, it executes the command on each file in parallel.
405
406 *** Typing M-n in the minibuffer of `dired-do-chmod', `dired-do-chgrp',
407 `dired-do-chown', `dired-do-touch' pulls the file attributes of the
408 file at point.
409
410 *** When the region is active, `m' (`dired-mark'), `u' (`dired-unmark'),
411 `DEL' (`dired-unmark-backward'), `d' (`dired-flag-file-deletion')
412 mark/unmark/flag all files in the active region.
413
414 *** The minibuffer default for `=' (`dired-diff) has changed.
415 It is now the backup file for the file at point, if one exists.
416 In Transient Mark mode the default is the file at the active mark.
417
418 *** `M-=' is no longer bound to `dired-backup-diff' in Dired buffers.
419 The global binding for `M-=', `count-words-region' is in effect.
420
421 ** Ediff now uses the same color scheme as Diff mode.
422
423 ** erc will look up server/channel names via auth-source and use the
424 channel keys found, if any.
425
426 ** Flymake uses fringe bitmaps to indicate errors and warnings.
427 See `flymake-fringe-indicator-position', `flymake-error-bitmap' and
428 `flymake-warning-bitmap'.
429
430 ** Follow mode
431
432 *** The obsolete variable `follow-mode-off-hook' has been removed.
433
434 *** Follow mode no longer works by using advice.
435 The option `follow-intercept-processes' has been removed.
436
437 ** FFAP
438
439 *** The option `ffap-url-unwrap-remote' can now be a list of strings,
440 specifying URL types which should be converted to remote file names at
441 the FFAP prompt. The default is now '("ftp").
442
443 ** Generic-x
444 `javascript-generic-mode' is now an obsolete alias for `js-mode'.
445
446 ** Ibuffer
447
448 *** New `derived-mode' filter, bound to `/ M'.
449 The old binding for `/ M' (filter by used-mode) is now bound to `/ m'.
450
451 ** Mouse Avoidance mode
452
453 The new variable `mouse-avoidance-banish-position' can now be used to
454 customize Mouse Avoidance mode further.
455
456 +++
457 ** notifications.el supports now version 1.2 of the Notifications API.
458 The function `notifications-get-capabilities' returns the supported
459 server properties.
460
461 ** In Perl mode, new option `perl-indent-parens-as-block' causes non-block
462 closing brackets to be aligned with the line of the opening bracket.
463
464 ** In Proced mode, new command `proced-renice' renices marked processes.
465
466 ** Python mode
467
468 A new version of python.el, which provides several new features, including:
469 per-buffer shells, better indentation, Python 3 support, and improved
470 shell-interaction compatible with iPython (and virtually any other
471 text based shell).
472
473 *** Some user options have been replaced/renamed:
474 Old defcustom: | New defcustom:
475 python-indent | python-indent-offset
476 python-guess-indent | python-indent-guess-indent-offset
477 python-pdbtrack-do-tracking-p | python-pdbtrack-activate
478 python-use-skeletons | python-skeleton-autoinsert
479
480 *** Some user options have been removed:
481
482 **** `python-indent-string-contents': Strings are never indented.
483
484 **** `python-honour-comment-indentation':
485 Comments are never considered as indentation markers themselves.
486
487 **** `python-continuation-offset': Indentation is automatically
488 calculated in a pep8 compliant way depending on the context.
489
490 **** `python-shell-prompt-alist', `python-shell-continuation-prompt-alist':
491 Have no direct mapping as the shell interaction is completely different.
492
493 **** `python-python-command', `python-jython-command':
494 Replaced by `python-shell-interpreter'.
495
496 **** `inferior-python-filter-regexp', `python-remove-cwd-from-path',
497 `python-pdbtrack-minor-mode-string', `python-source-modes':
498 No longer relevant.
499
500 *** Some commands have been replaced:
501 Old command | New command
502 python-insert-class | python-skeleton-class
503 python-insert-def | python-skeleton-def
504 python-insert-for | python-skeleton-for
505 python-insert-if | python-skeleton-if
506 python-insert-try/except | python-skeleton-try
507 python-insert-try/finally | python-skeleton-try
508 python-insert-while | python-skeleton-while
509 python-find-function | python-nav-jump-to-defun
510 python-next-statement | python-nav-forward-sentence
511 python-previous-statement | python-nav-backward-sentence
512 python-send-buffer | python-shell-send-buffer
513 python-send-defun | python-shell-send-defun
514 python-send-region | python-shell-send-region
515 python-send-region-and-go | Emulate with python-shell-send-region and
516 python-shell-switch-to-shell
517 python-send-string | python-shell-send-string
518 python-switch-to-python | python-shell-switch-to-shell
519 python-describe-symbol | python-eldoc-at-point
520
521 ** reStructuredText mode
522
523 *** Rebind nearly all keys making room for more keys and complying
524 better to usage in other modes. Describe bindings with C-c C-h.
525
526 *** Major revision of indentation working very similar to other
527 modes. TAB is your friend.
528
529 *** Major revision of filling working fine with most of
530 reStructuredText syntax. Support auto-filling.
531
532 *** Major revision of comment handling.
533
534 *** Major revision of fontification working with `jit-lock-mode'.
535
536 *** Cover reStructuredText syntax more closely. Improve
537 the experience for Sphinx users.
538
539 *** `rst-insert-list' inserts new list or continues existing lists.
540
541 *** Extend correct and improve customization.
542
543 *** Negative prefix argument always works for `rst-adjust'.
544
545 *** Reset window configuration after displaying TOC.
546
547 *** Package version in `rst-version'.
548
549 *** Support `imenu' and `which-func'.
550
551 ** SH Script mode
552
553 *** Pairing of parens/quotes uses electric-pair-mode instead of skeleton-pair.
554
555 *** `sh-electric-here-document-mode' now controls auto-insertion of here-docs.
556
557 *** `sh-use-smie' lets you choose a new indentation and navigation code.
558
559 ** Shell
560
561 *** New option `async-shell-command-buffer' specifies what buffer to use
562 for a new asynchronous shell command when the default output buffer
563 `*Async Shell Command*' is already taken by another running command.
564
565 ** SQL Mode
566
567 *** DB2 added `sql-db2-escape-newlines'
568
569 If non-nil, newlines sent to the command interpreter will be escaped
570 by a backslash. The default does not escape the newlines and assumes
571 that the sql statement will be terminated by a semicolon.
572
573 ** Tabulated List and packages derived from it
574
575 *** New command `tabulated-list-sort', bound to `S', sorts the column
576 at point, or the Nth column if a numeric prefix argument is given.
577
578 ** Term
579
580 The variables `term-default-fg-color' and `term-default-bg-color' are
581 now deprecated in favor of the `term-face' face, that you can
582 customize. Also, it is now possible to customize how are displayed the
583 ANSI terminal colors and styles by customizing the corresponding
584 `term-color-<COLOR>', `term-color-underline' and `term-color-bold'
585 faces.
586
587 ** Tramp
588 +++
589 *** The syntax has been extended in order to allow ad-hoc proxy
590 definitions. See the manual for details.
591 +++
592 *** Remote processes are now supported also on remote Windows host.
593
594 ** URL
595
596 *** Structs made by `url-generic-parse-url' have nil `attributes' slot.
597 Previously, this slot stored semicolon-separated attribute-value pairs
598 appended to some imap URLs, but this is not compatible with RFC 3986.
599 So now the `filename' slot stores the entire path and query components
600 and the `attributes' slot is always nil.
601
602 *** New function `url-encode-url' for encoding a URI string.
603 The `url-retrieve' function now uses this to encode its URL argument,
604 in case that is not properly encoded.
605
606 ** VHDL mode
607
608 *** The free software compiler GHDL is supported (and now the default).
609
610 *** Support for the VHDL-AMS packages has been added/updated.
611
612 *** Updated to the 2002 revision of the VHDL standard.
613
614 *** Accepts \r and \f as whitespace.
615
616 ** which-function-mode now applies to all applicable major modes by default.
617
618 ---
619 ** winner-mode-hook now runs when the mode is disabled, as well as when it is
620 enabled.
621
622 ** FIXME something happened to ses.el, 2012-04-17.
623
624
625 ** Obsolete packages:
626 +++
627 *** assoc.el
628 In most cases, assoc+member+push+delq work just as well.
629 And in any case it's just a terrible package: ugly semantics, terrible
630 inefficiency, and not namespace-clean.
631 ---
632 *** bruce.el
633 ---
634 *** ledit.el
635 ---
636 *** mailpost.el
637 +++
638 *** mouse-sel.el
639 ---
640 *** patcomp.el
641 +++
642 *** cust-print.el
643
644 \f
645 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.3
646
647 FIXME? erc-desktop-notifications.el, gv.el, profiler.el,
648 gnus-notifications.el, mm-archive.el
649
650 \f
651 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.3
652
653 ** set-buffer-multibyte now signals an error in narrowed buffers.
654
655 +++
656 ** (random) by default now returns a different random sequence in
657 every Emacs run. Use (random S), where S is a string, to set the
658 random seed to a value based on S, in order to get a repeatable
659 sequence in later calls.
660
661 ---
662 ** The function `x-select-font' can return a font spec, instead of a
663 font name as a string. Whether it returns a font spec or a font name
664 depends on the graphical library.
665
666 ** If the NEWTEXT arg to `replace-match' contains a substring "\?",
667 that substring is inserted literally even if the LITERAL arg is
668 non-nil, instead of causing an error to be signaled.
669
670 +++
671 ** Docstrings starting with `*' no longer indicate user options.
672 Only variables defined using `defcustom' are considered user options.
673 The function `user-variable-p' is now an obsolete alias for
674 `custom-variable-p'.
675
676 +++
677 ** The return values of `defalias', `defun' and `defmacro' have changed,
678 and are now undefined. For backwards compatibility, defun and
679 defmacro currently return the name of the newly defined function/macro
680 but this should not be relied upon.
681
682 ---
683 ** `face-spec-set' no longer sets frame-specific attributes when the
684 third argument is a frame (that usage was obsolete since Emacs 22.2).
685
686 +++
687 ** The arguments of `dbus-register-signal' are no longer just strings,
688 but keywords or keyword-string pairs. The old argument list will
689 still be supported for Emacs 24.x.
690
691 ** Spelling changes.
692 Some Lisp symbols have been renamed to avoid problems with spelling
693 that is incorrect or inconsistent with how Emacs normally spells a word.
694
695 *** Renamed functions
696
697 **** hangul-input-method-inactivate -> hangul-input-method-deactivate
698 **** inactivate-input-method -> deactivate-input-method
699 **** quail-inactivate -> quail-deactivate
700 **** robin-inactivate -> robin-deactivate
701 **** viper-inactivate-input-method -> viper-deactivate-input-method
702 **** viper-inactivate-input-method-action ->
703 viper-deactivate-input-method-action
704 **** ucs-input-inactivate -> ucs-input-deactivate
705
706 *** Renamed hooks
707 The old hooks are still supported for backward compatibility, but they
708 are deprecated and will be removed eventually.
709
710 **** input-method-inactivate-hook -> input-method-deactivate-hook
711 **** robin-inactivate-hook -> robin-deactivate-hook
712 **** quail-inactivate-hook -> quail-deactivate-hook
713
714 *** Renamed Lisp variables
715
716 **** follow-deactive-menu -> follow-inactive-menu
717 **** inactivate-current-input-method-function ->
718 deactivate-current-input-method-function
719
720 ** Some obsolete functions, variables, and faces were removed:
721
722 *** `facemenu-unlisted-faces'
723 *** `rmail-decode-mime-charset'
724 *** `last-input-char', `last-command-char', `unread-command-char'.
725 *** `iswitchb-read-buffer'
726 *** `sc-version', `sc-submit-bug-report'
727 *** `set-char-table-default'
728 *** `string-to-sequence' (use `string-to-list' or `string-to-vector').
729 *** `compile-internal'
730 *** `mode-line-inverse-video'
731 *** `cvs-commit-buffer-require-final-newline'
732 (use `log-edit-require-final-newline' instead)
733 *** `cvs-changelog-full-paragraphs'
734 (use `log-edit-changelog-full-paragraphs' instead)
735 *** `cvs-diff-ignore-marks', `cvs-diff-buffer-name'
736 *** `vc-ignore-vc-files' (use `vc-handled-backends' instead)
737 *** `vc-master-templates' (use `vc-handled-backends' instead)
738 *** `vc-checkout-carefully'
739 *** `modeline'
740
741 \f
742 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.3
743
744 ** New sampling-based Elisp profiler.
745 Try M-x profiler-start ... M-x profiler-stop; and then M-x profiler-report.
746 The sampling rate can be based on CPU time (only supported on some
747 systems), or based on memory allocations.
748
749 ** CL-style generalized variables are now in core Elisp.
750 `setf' is autoloaded; `push' and `pop' accept generalized variables.
751
752 ** `defun' also accepts a (declare DECLS) form, like `defmacro'.
753 The interpretation of the DECLS is determined by `defun-declarations-alist'.
754
755 ** Completion
756
757 *** New function `completion-table-with-quoting' to handle completion
758 in the presence of quoting, such as file completion in shell buffers.
759
760 *** New function `completion-table-subvert' to use an existing completion
761 table, but with a different prefix.
762
763 ** Debugger changes
764
765 *** New error type and new function `user-error'.
766 These do not trigger the debugger.
767
768 *** New option `debugger-bury-or-kill'.
769
770 *** Set `debug-on-message' to enter the debugger when a certain
771 message is displayed in the echo area. This can be useful when trying
772 to work out which code is doing something.
773
774 *** New var `inhibit-debugger', automatically set to prevent accidental
775 recursive invocations.
776
777 ** Minibuffer
778
779 *** `read-regexp' has a new argument HISTORY; the first argument PROMPT
780 of `read-regexp' accepts a string ending with a colon and space, and its
781 second argument DEFAULTS can be a list of strings accessible via M-n
782 in the minibuffer ahead of other hard-coded useful regexp-related values.
783 More commands use `read-regexp' now to read their regexp arguments.
784
785 ** Window changes
786
787 *** The functions get-lru-window, get-mru-window and get-largest-window
788 now accept a third argument to avoid choosing the selected window.
789
790 *** Additional values recognized for option `window-combination-limit'.
791
792 *** New macro `with-temp-buffer-window'.
793
794 *** `temp-buffer-resize-mode' no longer resizes windows that have been
795 reused.
796
797 *** New function `fit-frame-to-buffer' and new options
798 `fit-frame-to-buffer' and `fit-frame-to-buffer-bottom-margin'.
799
800 *** New display action functions `display-buffer-below-selected',
801 `display-buffer-at-bottom' and `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
802
803 *** New display action alist entry `inhibit-switch-frame', if non-nil,
804 tells display action functions to avoid changing which frame is
805 selected.
806
807 *** New display action alist entry `pop-up-frame-parameters', if
808 non-nil, specifies frame parameters to give any newly-created frame.
809
810 *** New display action alist entry `previous-window', if non-nil,
811 specifies window to reuse in `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
812
813 *** New display action alist entries `window-height' and `window-width'
814 to specify size of new window created by `display-buffer'.
815
816 *** The following variables are obsolete, as they can be replaced by
817 appropriate entries in the `display-buffer-alist' function introduced
818 in Emacs 24.1:
819 +++
820 **** `display-buffer-reuse-frames'
821 **** `special-display-regexps'
822 **** `special-display-frame-alist'
823 **** `special-display-buffer-names'
824 **** `special-display-function'
825 **** `display-buffer-function'
826 **** `dired-shrink-to-fit'
827
828 ** Time
829 ---
830 *** `current-time-string' no longer requires that its argument's year
831 must be in the range 1000..9999. It now works with any year supported
832 by the underlying C implementation.
833 ---
834 *** `current-time' now returns extended-format time stamps
835 (HIGH LOW USEC PSEC), where the new PSEC slot specifies picoseconds.
836 PSEC is typically a multiple of 1000 on current machines. Other
837 functions that use this format, such as file-attributes and
838 format-time-string, have been changed accordingly. Old-format time
839 stamps are still accepted.
840 ---
841 *** The format of timers in timer-list and timer-idle-list is now
842 [TRIGGERED-P HI-SECS LO-SECS USECS REPEAT-DELAY FUNCTION ARGS IDLE-DELAY PSECS].
843 The PSECS slot is new, and uses picosecond resolution. It can be
844 accessed via the new timer--psecs accessor.
845
846 +++
847 ** Floating point functions now always return special values like NaN,
848 instead of signaling errors, if given invalid args, e.g. (log -1.0).
849 Previously, they returned NaNs on some platforms but signaled errors
850 on others. The affected functions are acos, asin, tan, exp, expt,
851 log, log10, sqrt, and mod.
852
853 ** Interpreted files are eagerly macro-expanded during load.
854 This can significantly speed up execution of non-byte-compiled code,
855 but can also bump into harmless and previously unnoticed cyclic
856 dependencies. These should not be fatal: they will simply cause the
857 macro-calls to be left for later expansion (as before), but will also
858 result in a warning ("Eager macro-expansion skipped due to cycle")
859 describing the cycle.
860
861 ** Miscellaneous new functions:
862
863 *** `autoloadp'
864 *** `autoload-do-load'
865 +++
866 *** `buffer-narrowed-p' tests if the buffer is narrowed.
867 *** `file-name-base' returns a file name sans directory and extension.
868 *** `function-get' fetches a function property, following aliases.
869 +++
870 *** `posnp' tests if an object is a `posn'.
871 *** `set-temporary-overlay-map' sets up a temporary overlay map.
872 +++
873 *** `system-users' returns the user names on the system.
874 +++
875 *** `system-groups' returns the group names on the system.
876 *** `tty-top-frame' returns the topmost frame of a text terminal.
877
878 ** New macros `setq-local' and `defvar-local'.
879
880 ** New fringe bitmap `exclamation-mark'.
881
882 ** Face underlining can now use a wave.
883 See the "Face Attributes" section of the Elisp manual.
884
885 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
886
887 *** `automount-dir-prefix'
888 *** `buffer-has-markers-at'
889 *** `macro-declaration-function' (use `macro-declarations-alist')
890 *** `window-system-version'
891 *** `dired-pop-to-buffer' (use `dired-mark-pop-up')
892 *** `query-replace-interactive'
893
894 \f
895 * Changes in Emacs 24.3 on non-free operating systems
896
897 +++
898 ** On MS Windows, you can pass --without-libxml2 to configure.bat to omit
899 support for libxml2, even if its presence is detected.
900
901 ** When invoked with the -nw switch to run on the Windows text-mode terminal,
902 Emacs now supports mouse highlight, help-echo (in the echo area), and
903 `mouse-autoselect-window'.
904
905 ** Two new functions are available in Cygwin builds:
906 `cygwin-convert-path-from-windows' and `cygwin-convert-path-to-windows'.
907 These functions allow Lisp code to access the Cygwin file-name mapping
908 machinery to convert between Cygwin and Windows-native file names.
909
910 ** On MS Windows Vista and later Emacs now supports symbolic links.
911 \f
912 * Changes in Emacs 24.2
913
914 ** This is mainly a bug-fix release.
915
916 \f
917 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
918
919 ** Emacs can be compiled with Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
920 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
921 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
922 --without-gconf.
923
924 ** Emacs can be compiled with GnuTLS support.
925 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
926 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
927 `--without-gnutls'. See below for GnuTLS features.
928
929 ** Emacs can be compiled with SELinux support.
930 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
931 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
932 `--without-selinux'. See below for SELinux features.
933
934 ** Emacs can be compiled with ImageMagick support.
935 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
936 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
937 `--without-imagemagick'. See below for ImageMagick features.
938 This feature is not available for the Nextstep or MS ports.
939
940 ** Emacs can be compiled with libxml2 support.
941 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
942 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
943 `--without-xml2'. See below for libxml2 features.
944
945 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
946 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
947
948 ** New configure option --with-wide-int.
949 With it, Emacs integers typically have 62 bits, even on 32-bit machines.
950 On 32-bit hosts, this raises the limit on buffer sizes from about 512 MiB
951 to about 2 GiB.
952
953 ** New configure options: --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
954 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
955 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
956
957 ** New configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
958 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
959 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
960
961 ** The standalone programs digest-doc and sorted-doc are removed.
962 Emacs now uses Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
963
964 ** The standalone program `fakemail' is removed.
965 If you need it, feedmail.el provides a superset of the functionality.
966
967 \f
968 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
969
970 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
971 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
972 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
973
974 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
975 from load-path. -Q now implies this. This option does not affect the
976 EMACSLOADPATH environment variable (and hence has no effect for
977 Nextstep builds).
978
979 \f
980 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
981
982 ** Completion
983
984 *** Many packages now use the `completion-at-point' command,
985 rather than implementing separate completion commands.
986
987 *** `completion-at-point' now handles tags and semantic completion.
988
989 *** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
990 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
991
992 *** New option `completion-cycle-threshold' allows completion cycling.
993
994 *** New option `completion-category-overrides' for overriding the
995 default completion style in certain circumstances.
996
997 *** New completion style `substring'.
998
999 *** Completion of buffer names uses `substring' completion by default.
1000
1001 *** The option `widget-complete-field' has been removed.
1002
1003 ** Mail changes
1004
1005 *** The first time you try sending mail, Emacs asks for a mail method.
1006 This is implemented by a new default for `send-mail-function', which
1007 is `sendmail-query-once'. This offers to use the smtpmail package, or
1008 to use the old defaults relying on external mail facilities
1009 (`sendmail-send-it' on GNU/Linux and other Unix-like systems, and
1010 `mailclient-send-it' on Windows).
1011
1012 *** Typing C-c m in the buffer made by M-x report-emacs-bug transfers
1013 the report to your desktop's preferred mail client, if there is one.
1014 This uses either the "xdg-email" utility, or Mac OS's "open" command.
1015
1016 *** See Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages for SMTPmail changes
1017 and Mail mode changes
1018
1019 ** Emacs server and client changes
1020
1021 *** New option `server-port' specifies the port for TCP Emacs servers.
1022
1023 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
1024
1025 *** New emacsclient argument --frame-parameters specifies the frame
1026 parameters of any newly-created graphical frame.
1027
1028 *** If emacsclient shuts down due to Emacs signaling an error,
1029 its exit status is 1.
1030
1031 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID.
1032 This opens a client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed, similar
1033 to the --parent-id argument to Emacs.
1034
1035 ** Internationalization changes
1036
1037 *** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
1038 Right-to-left (RTL) scripts, such as Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew, are
1039 displayed in the correct visual order as expected by users of those
1040 scripts. The display reordering is a "full bidirectionality" class
1041 implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm (UBA). Buffers
1042 with no RTL text should look exactly the same as before.
1043
1044 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-display-reordering'.
1045 To disable display reordering in a buffer, change this to nil.
1046
1047 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction'.
1048 If nil (the default), Emacs determines the base direction of each
1049 paragraph from its text, as specified by the UBA. Setting the value
1050 to `right-to-left' or `left-to-right' forces a base direction on each
1051 paragraph.
1052
1053 Paragraphs with right-to-left base direction are displayed starting at
1054 the right window edge.
1055
1056 *** Enhanced support for characters with no glyphs in available fonts,
1057 or, on text terminals, characters that cannot be encoded by the
1058 terminal coding system. The new option `glyphless-char-display-control'
1059 specifies how to display them: as a hexadecimal code in a box, a thin
1060 1-pixel space, an empty box, etc.
1061
1062 *** New input methods for Farsi and Bulgarian
1063 (farsi-isiri-9147, farsi-transliterate-banan, bulgarian-alt-phonetic).
1064
1065 *** `nobreak-char-display' now also highlights Unicode hyphen chars
1066 (U+2010 and U+2011).
1067
1068 *** New Hebrew translation of the Emacs Tutorial.
1069 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
1070 automatically select it.
1071
1072 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
1073 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
1074 from a package repository at http://elpa.gnu.org.
1075
1076 *** M-x list-packages shows a list of packages, which can be
1077 selected for installation.
1078
1079 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
1080
1081 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded automatically when
1082 Emacs starts up. To disable this, set `package-enable-at-startup' to
1083 nil. To specify the packages to load, customize `package-load-list'.
1084
1085 ** Custom theme changes
1086
1087 *** New command `M-x customize-themes', which provides a convenient
1088 interface for enabling and disabling Custom themes.
1089
1090 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
1091 Emacs no longer looks for Custom themes in `load-path'. The default
1092 value of `custom-theme-load-path' says to look for themes in
1093 `custom-theme-directory', followed by a subdirectory of
1094 `data-directory' named "themes/", which contains a small selection of
1095 built-in Custom themes.
1096
1097 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
1098 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
1099 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
1100 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
1101
1102 ** Improved GTK integration
1103
1104 *** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
1105 The function `set-scroll-bar-mode' can change this.
1106
1107 *** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
1108 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose the style. On a Gnome desktop,
1109 the default is taken from desktop settings.
1110
1111 *** GTK tool bars can be placed on any edge of the frame.
1112 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the
1113 values top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has
1114 entries for this.
1115
1116 *** The default colors for selected text (the `region' face) are taken
1117 from the GTK theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
1118
1119 *** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK.
1120 You can disable this by changing `x-gtk-use-system-tooltips' to nil.
1121
1122 ** Graphical interface changes
1123
1124 *** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
1125 Also, the first dash (which does not indicate anything) is just
1126 displayed as a space.
1127
1128 *** `menu-bar-select-buffer-function' lets you choose another operation
1129 instead of `switch-to-buffer' when selecting an item in the Buffers menu.
1130
1131 *** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is
1132 built with Xft. These fonts can be set via X resources, for example:
1133 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
1134
1135 ** Exiting changes
1136
1137 *** Emacs now calls `kill-emacs' if it receives SIGTERM or SIGHUP,
1138 or if it receives a SIGINT signal in batch mode.
1139
1140 *** `kill-emacs-hook' is now also run in batch mode.
1141 Third-party code which adds to `kill-emacs-hook' should check if they
1142 do the right thing in batch mode.
1143
1144 ** Scrolling changes
1145
1146 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
1147 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
1148 of buffer at first key-press (instead they move to top/bottom of buffer)
1149 when `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
1150
1151 *** New option `scroll-error-top-bottom' (see above).
1152
1153 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
1154 scroll a line instead of full screen.
1155
1156 *** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
1157 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
1158
1159 *** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
1160 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
1161 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
1162 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
1163 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
1164
1165 *** "Aggressive" scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
1166 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
1167 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
1168 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
1169 margin.
1170
1171 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
1172 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
1173
1174 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up.
1175 Also, the function `copy-file' has an extra optional argument for
1176 preserving SELinux context, and the return value of `backup-buffer'
1177 now includes the SELinux context.
1178
1179 *** New functions `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
1180 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
1181
1182 ** Trash changes
1183
1184 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
1185 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
1186
1187 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
1188 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
1189
1190 ** File- and directory-local variable changes
1191
1192 *** You can stop directory local vars from applying to subdirectories.
1193 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
1194 settings to indicate that the section should not apply to
1195 subdirectories.
1196
1197 *** Directory local variables can apply to some file-less buffers.
1198 Affected modes include dired, vc-dir, and log-edit. For example,
1199 adding "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to .dir-locals.el will
1200 turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should call
1201 `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
1202
1203 *** Using "mode: MINOR-MODE" to enable a minor mode is deprecated.
1204 Instead, use "eval: (minor-mode 1)".
1205
1206 *** The variable `inhibit-first-line-modes-regexps' has been renamed
1207 to `inhibit-local-variables-regexps'. As the name suggests, it now
1208 applies to ALL file local variables, not just -*- lines. The
1209 associated `inhibit-first-line-modes-suffixes' has been renamed in the
1210 corresponding way.
1211
1212 ** Window changes
1213
1214 *** The `quit-window' command now restores the last buffer displayed
1215 in the quitted window.
1216
1217 *** Resizing an Emacs frame now preserves proportional window sizes,
1218 modulo restrictions like window minimum sizes and fixed-size windows.
1219
1220 *** The behavior of `display-buffer' is now customizable in detail.
1221
1222 **** New option `display-buffer-base-action' specifies a list of
1223 user-determined display "actions" (functions and optional arguments
1224 for choosing the displaying window).
1225
1226 This takes precedence over the default display action, which is
1227 specified by `display-buffer-fallback-action'.
1228
1229 **** New option `display-buffer-alist' maps buffer name regexps to
1230 display actions, taking precedence over `display-buffer-base-action'.
1231
1232 *** New option `window-combination-limit'.
1233 The new option `window-combination-limit' allows to return the space
1234 obtained for resizing or creating a window more reliably to the window
1235 from which such space was obtained.
1236
1237 *** New option `window-combination-resize'.
1238 The new option `window-combination-resize' allows to split a window that
1239 otherwise cannot be split because it's too small by stealing space from
1240 other windows in the same combination. Subsequent resizing or deletion
1241 of the window will resize all windows in the same combination as well.
1242
1243 *** New option `frame-auto-hide-function' lets you choose between
1244 iconifying or deleting a frame when burying a buffer in a dedicated
1245 frame, or quitting a window showing a buffer in a frame of its own.
1246
1247 *** New commands `maximize-window' and `minimize-window'.
1248 These maximize and minimize the size of a window within its frame.
1249
1250 *** New commands `switch-to-prev-buffer' and `switch-to-next-buffer'.
1251 These functions allow to navigate through the live buffers that have
1252 been shown in a specific window.
1253
1254 ** Minibuffer changes
1255
1256 *** The inactive minibuffer has its own major mode `minibuffer-inactive-mode'.
1257 This is handy for minibuffer-only frames, and is also used for the feature
1258 where mouse-1 pops up *Messages*"', which can now easily be changed.
1259
1260 *** Minibuffers set `truncate-lines' to nil.
1261 If you want to change the value to something else, you could use
1262 for example `minibuffer-setup-hook'.
1263
1264 ** `auto-mode-case-fold' is now enabled by default.
1265
1266 ** `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' now defaults to t.
1267
1268 ** New basic faces `error', `warning', `success'.
1269 These are used to highlight text indicating failure, caution or
1270 successful operation.
1271
1272 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
1273 for `list-colors-display'.
1274
1275 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
1276
1277 \f
1278 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
1279
1280 ** Search changes
1281
1282 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-kill', instead of
1283 `isearch-yank-line'.
1284
1285 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-pop', instead of
1286 `isearch-yank-kill'.
1287
1288 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-line'.
1289
1290 ** New commands `count-words-region' and `count-words'.
1291
1292 *** M-= is bound to `count-words-region', not `count-lines-region'.
1293 The `count-words-region' command, when called interactively, reports
1294 the number of lines, words, and characters in the region. It is a
1295 superset of the old `count-lines-region', which is now an obsolete
1296 alias for it.
1297
1298 ** The command `just-one-space' (M-SPC), if given a negative argument,
1299 also deletes newlines around point.
1300
1301 ** Deletion changes
1302
1303 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
1304 If non-nil, [delete] and DEL delete the region if it is active and no
1305 prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', those commands kill
1306 instead.
1307
1308 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to [delete].
1309 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
1310 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
1311
1312 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
1313 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
1314 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; Lisp
1315 callers should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
1316
1317 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
1318
1319 ** Selection changes.
1320
1321 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections has been
1322 changed to conform with modern X applications. In short, most
1323 commands for killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while
1324 mouse commands use the primary selection.
1325
1326 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
1327 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
1328
1329 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
1330 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
1331 the kill ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
1332 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
1333
1334 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
1335 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
1336 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
1337 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
1338 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
1339
1340 **** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
1341
1342 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
1343 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
1344 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
1345
1346 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
1347
1348 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
1349 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
1350 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
1351
1352 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
1353 exactly equivalent to M-w, C-w, and C-y respectively.
1354
1355 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
1356 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
1357 between applications.
1358
1359 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
1360
1361 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
1362 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
1363 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
1364 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
1365 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
1366
1367 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
1368
1369 *** X clipboard managers are now supported.
1370 To inhibit this, change `x-select-enable-clipboard-manager' to nil.
1371
1372 ** New command `C-x r N' (`rectangle-number-lines') numbers the lines
1373 in the current rectangle. With a prefix argument, this prompts for a
1374 number to count from and for a format string.
1375
1376 ** `redisplay-dont-pause' now defaults to t.
1377 This makes Emacs feel more responsive to editing commands that arrive
1378 at high rate, e.g. if you lean on some key, because stopping redisplay
1379 in the middle (when this variable is nil) forces more expensive
1380 updates later on, and Emacs appears to be unable to keep up.
1381
1382 ** The behavior of <TAB> for active regions in Text mode has changed.
1383 In Text and related modes, typing <TAB> (`indent-for-tab-command')
1384 when the region is active causes Emacs to indent all the lines in the
1385 region, aligning them with the line previous to the first line in the
1386 region (or with the left margin if there is no previous line).
1387
1388 ** When `occur' is called with a prefix argument, matching strings are
1389 collected into the `*Occur*' buffer without line numbers. If there
1390 are parenthesized subexpressions in the specified regexp, `occur'
1391 reads replacement text that may contain \\& and \\N whose convention
1392 follows `replace-match'.
1393
1394 \f
1395 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
1396
1397 ** Archive Mode has basic support for browsing and updating 7z archives.
1398
1399 ** BibTeX mode
1400
1401 *** BibTeX mode now supports biblatex.
1402 Use the variable `bibtex-dialect' to select different BibTeX dialects.
1403 `bibtex-entry-field-alist' is now an obsolete alias for
1404 `bibtex-BibTeX-entry-alist'.
1405
1406 *** New command `bibtex-search-entries', bound to C-c C-a.
1407
1408 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `sort-fields', disabled by default.
1409
1410 *** New variable `bibtex-search-entry-globally'.
1411
1412 ** Browse-url
1413
1414 *** New option `browse-url-mailto-function' specifies how to handle "mailto:"s.
1415
1416 *** The default browser used by the package is now the "xdg-open" program,
1417 on platforms that support it. This calls your desktop's preferred browser.
1418
1419 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
1420
1421 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing "comments".
1422 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
1423
1424 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
1425 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
1426
1427 *** The function specified by `appt-disp-window-function' may be passed
1428 lists of arguments if multiple appointments are due at similar times.
1429 If you are using a custom function for this, you should update it.
1430
1431 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
1432
1433 *** Elements of `calendar-day-abbrev-array' and `calendar-month-abbrev-array'
1434 may no longer be nil, but must all be strings.
1435
1436 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt
1437 package by adding `appt-make-list' to `diary-hook' has been removed.
1438 Use `appt-activate' instead.
1439
1440 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
1441 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
1442 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
1443
1444 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
1445 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
1446
1447 ** CC Mode
1448
1449 *** New feature to "guess" the style in an existing buffer.
1450 The main entry point is M-x c-guess.
1451
1452 *** Java Mode now supports Java 5.0 (Tiger) and 6 (Mustang).
1453
1454 *** `c-beginning-of-defun' and `c-end-of-defun' now respect nested scopes.
1455 Thus C-M-a will, by default, go to the beginning of the immediate function,
1456 not the top level.
1457
1458 *** "Macros with semicolons" can be registered for correct indentation.
1459 Where such a macro ends a line (no semicolon) the next statement is no longer
1460 parsed as a statement continuation.
1461
1462 ** Comint and modes derived from it use the standard completion code.
1463
1464 ** Compilation mode
1465
1466 *** Compilation mode can be used without Font Lock mode.
1467 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
1468
1469 *** New variable `compilation-filter-start', which is bound while
1470 `compilation-filter-hook' runs. It records the start position of the
1471 text inserted by `compilation-filter'.
1472
1473 *** `compilation-error-screen-columns' and `compilation-first-column'
1474 are obeyed in the editing buffer. So programming language modes can
1475 set them, whereas previously only the value in the *Compilation*
1476 buffer was used.
1477
1478 ** Customize
1479
1480 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
1481 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
1482 To turn off the search field, set `custom-search-field' to nil.
1483
1484 *** Options in customize group buffers start out hidden if not customized.
1485 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
1486
1487 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
1488
1489 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
1490 choose a color via `list-colors-display'.
1491
1492 ** D-Bus
1493
1494 *** It is now possible to access buses other than the default system
1495 or session bus.
1496
1497 *** The `dbus-register-method' and `dbus-register-property' functions
1498 optionally do not register names.
1499
1500 *** The new function `dbus-register-service' registers a known service
1501 name on a D-Bus without also registering a property or a method.
1502
1503 ** Dired-x
1504
1505 *** C-x C-j (`dired-jump') and C-x 4 C-j (`dired-jump-other-window'),
1506 if called with a prefix argument, read a file name from the minibuffer
1507 instead of using the current buffer.
1508
1509 *** The "dired local variables" feature of Dired-x is obsolete.
1510 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
1511
1512 ** ERC changes
1513
1514 *** New options `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay',
1515 controlling attempts to autojoin a channel.
1516
1517 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
1518 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
1519 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
1520 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
1521
1522 ** Eshell changes
1523
1524 *** The default value of `eshell-directory-name' has changed
1525 to be an "eshell" directory in `user-emacs-directory'.
1526 The old "~/.eshell/" directory is still used if it exists, though.
1527
1528 ** gdb-mi
1529
1530 *** The M-x gdb command now uses the GDB Machine Interface protocol.
1531 It now supports multithread non-stop debugging and simultaneous
1532 debugging of several threads.
1533
1534 ** Image mode
1535
1536 *** RET (`image-toggle-animation') toggles animation, if applicable.
1537 Animation plays once, unless the option `image-animate-loop' is non-nil.
1538
1539 ** Info
1540
1541 *** New command M-x info-display-manual displays a named Info manual.
1542 If that manual is already visited in some Info buffer, it displays
1543 that buffer. (This is handy if you have many manuals in many *info*
1544 buffers, and don't remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual
1545 you want to consult.) Otherwise, it loads and displays the manual.
1546
1547 *** `e' is now bound to `end-of-buffer' rather than to `Info-edit'.
1548 This is for compatibility with the stand-alone Info reader program,
1549 and also because `Info-edit' is a rarely used command that is disabled
1550 by default.
1551
1552 ** Mail mode changes (not Message mode)
1553
1554 *** New command M-x mail-add-attachment for adding MIME attachments
1555
1556 *** The command M-x mail-attach-file was renamed to M-x mail-insert-file.
1557 (Its name is misleading, since it has nothing to do with MIME
1558 attachments.) The old name is now an obsolete alias to the new name.
1559
1560 ** MH-E has been updated to MH-E version 8.3.1.
1561 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
1562
1563 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
1564
1565 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
1566
1567 ** nXML mode no longer binds C-RET to `nxml-complete'.
1568 Completion is now performed via `completion-at-point', bound to C-M-i
1569 or M-TAB. If `nxml-bind-meta-tab-to-complete-flag' is non-nil (the
1570 default), this performs tag completion.
1571
1572 ** Org mode has been updated to version 7.8.09.
1573 See ORG-NEWS for details.
1574
1575 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
1576 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity,
1577 support for more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
1578
1579 ** Rmail
1580
1581 *** The command `rmail-epa-decrypt' decrypts OpenPGP data
1582 in the Rmail incoming message.
1583
1584 *** The variable `rmail-message-filter' no longer has any effect.
1585 This change was made in Emacs 23.1 but was not advertised at the time.
1586 Try using `rmail-show-message-hook' instead.
1587
1588 ** Shell mode
1589
1590 *** M-x shell prompts for the shell path name if the default directory
1591 is a remote file name and neither the environment variable $ESHELL nor
1592 the variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
1593
1594 *** TAB is now bound to the standard `completion-at-point' command,
1595 which now implements the pcomplete rules for shell command completion.
1596
1597 ** SMTPmail
1598
1599 *** SMTPmail now uses encrypted connections (via STARTTLS) by default
1600 if the mail server supports them. This uses either built-in GnuTLS
1601 support, or the starttls.el library. Customize `smtpmail-stream-type'
1602 to change this.
1603
1604 *** The variable `smtpmail-auth-credentials' has been removed.
1605 By default, the information is now stored in the file ~/.authinfo.
1606 This was the default value of smtpmail-auth-credentials. If you had
1607 customized smtpmail-auth-credentials to a list of user names and
1608 passwords, those settings are not used. During your first connection
1609 to the smtp server, Emacs will prompt for the user name and password,
1610 and offer to save them to ~/.authinfo. Or you can manually copy the
1611 credentials to ~/.authinfo. For example, if you had
1612
1613 (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials
1614 '(("mail.example.org" 25 "jim" "s!cret")))
1615
1616 then the equivalent line in ~/.authinfo would be
1617
1618 machine mail.example.org port 25 login jim password s!cret
1619
1620 See the auth-source manual for more information, e.g. on encrypting
1621 the credentials file.
1622
1623 *** The variable `smtpmail-starttls-credentials' has been removed.
1624 If you had that set, you need to put
1625
1626 machine smtp.whatever.foo port 25 key "~/.my_smtp_tls.key" cert "~/.my_smtp_tls.cert"
1627
1628 in your ~/.authinfo file instead.
1629
1630 *** SMTPmail defaults to using the address in the From: header as the
1631 SMTP MAIL FROM envelope. To override this, set `mail-envelope-from'
1632 to the address you wish to use instead.
1633
1634 ** SQL mode
1635
1636 *** New options `sql-port', `sql-connection-alist', `sql-send-terminator',
1637 and `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
1638
1639 *** New options controlling prompting for login parameters.
1640 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params',
1641 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
1642 connection is established.
1643
1644 *** The command `sql-product-interactive' now takes a prefix argument,
1645 which causes it to prompt for an SQL product.
1646
1647 *** Product-specific SQL interactive commands now take prefix arguments.
1648 These commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres', `sql-mysql', etc.),
1649 given a prefix argument, prompt for a name for the SQL interactive
1650 buffer. This reduces the need for calling `sql-rename-buffer'.
1651
1652 *** SQL interactive modes suppress command continuation prompts, and
1653 replace tabs with spaces. The first change impacts multiple line SQL
1654 statements entered with C-j between each line, statements yanked into
1655 the buffer and statements sent with `sql-send-*' functions. The
1656 second prevents the MySQL and Postgres interpreters from listing
1657 object name completions when sent text via `sql-send-*' functions.
1658
1659 *** New command `sql-connect' starts a predefined SQLi session,
1660 using the login parameters from `sql-connection-alist'.
1661
1662 *** New "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
1663 This gathers the login params specified for the SQLi session, if it
1664 was not started by a connection, and saves them as a new connection.
1665
1666 *** New commands for listing database objects and details:
1667 sql-list-all and sql-list-table.
1668
1669 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
1670
1671 ** TeX modes
1672
1673 *** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
1674
1675 ** Tramp
1676
1677 *** New inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
1678
1679 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
1680 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
1681
1682 *** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
1683 remote file attributes are cached for better performance.
1684
1685 *** The option `ange-ftp-binary-file-name-regexp' has changed its
1686 default value to "".
1687
1688 *** Handlers for `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
1689 for remote machines which support SELinux.
1690
1691 ** New function `url-queue-retrieve', which behaves like url-retrieve,
1692 but with limits (`url-queue-parallel-processes', `url-queue-timeout') on
1693 the degree of parallelism.
1694
1695 ** VC and related modes
1696
1697 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
1698 The command C-x v + (`vc-pull') runs a "pull" operation, if it is
1699 supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to update the
1700 current branch and working tree. A prefix argument means to prompt
1701 the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
1702
1703 *** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
1704
1705 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
1706 The command C-x v m (`vc-merge') now runs a "merge" operation, if it
1707 is supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to merge
1708 changes from another branch into the current one. It prompts for
1709 specifics, e.g. a merge source.
1710
1711 *** New option `vc-revert-show-diff' controls whether `vc-revert'
1712 shows a diff while querying the user. It defaults to t.
1713
1714 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
1715 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
1716 This is currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial (to support
1717 another backend, define a `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function').
1718 In the Log View buffers made by C-x v L (`vc-print-root-log'), you can
1719 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
1720
1721 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
1722 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
1723
1724 *** The option `vc-initial-comment' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but
1725 this was not advertised at the time.
1726
1727 *** `vc-toggle-read-only' is an obsolete alias for `toggle-read-only'.
1728 Since Emacs 23, it has done the same thing as `toggle-read-only', but
1729 this was not advertised at the time.
1730
1731 ** Obsolete modes
1732
1733 *** abbrevlist.el
1734
1735 *** erc-hecomplete.el (use erc-pcomplete.el instead)
1736
1737 *** partial-completion-mode (complete.el) is obsolete.
1738 You can get a comparable behavior with:
1739 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
1740 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
1741
1742 *** pc-mode.el is obsolete (CUA mode is much more comprehensive).
1743
1744 *** pgg is obsolete (use EasyPG instead).
1745
1746 *** sregex.el is obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
1747
1748 *** s-region.el and pc-select.el are obsolete.
1749 They are superseded by shift-select-mode, enabled by default since 23.1.
1750
1751 *** vc-mcvs.el is obsolete (for lack of a maintainer).
1752
1753 ** Miscellaneous
1754
1755 *** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
1756 Its functions and variables have been similarly renamed.
1757
1758 *** In `ido-file-completion-map', C-v is no longer bound to `ido-toggle-vc'.
1759 (This interfered with cua-mode.)
1760
1761 *** f90.el has some support for Fortran 2008 syntax.
1762
1763 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
1764
1765 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
1766
1767 \f
1768 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
1769
1770 ** Occur Edit mode applies edits made in *Occur* buffers to the
1771 original buffers. It is bound to "e" in Occur mode.
1772
1773 ** New global minor mode electric-pair-mode.
1774 When enabled, typing an open parenthesis automatically inserts the
1775 matching closing one.
1776
1777 ** New global minor mode electric-indent-mode.
1778 When enabled, typing certain characters triggers reindentation.
1779 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-indent-chars or
1780 electric-indent-functions.
1781
1782 ** New global minor mode electric-layout-mode.
1783 When enabled, typing certain characters automatically inserts newlines.
1784 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-layout-rules.
1785
1786 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
1787 from which other modes can be derived.
1788
1789 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
1790
1791 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
1792 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
1793 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
1794 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
1795 secrets.
1796
1797 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
1798 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
1799
1800 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
1801 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
1802
1803 ** New generic mode, xmodmap-generic-mode, for xmodmap files.
1804
1805 ** New emacs-lock.el package.
1806 The previous version has been moved to obsolete/old-emacs-lock.el.
1807 Now, there is a proper minor mode `emacs-lock-mode'. Protection
1808 against exiting Emacs and killing the buffer can be set separately.
1809 The mechanism for automatically turning off protection for buffers
1810 with dead inferior processes has been generalized.
1811
1812 \f
1813 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
1814
1815 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function call now ENABLES
1816 the minor mode unconditionally. This is so that you can write e.g.
1817
1818 (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'foo-mode)
1819
1820 to enable foo-mode in Text mode buffers, removing the need for
1821 `turn-on-foo-mode' style functions. This affects all mode commands
1822 defined by `define-minor-mode'. If called interactively, the mode
1823 command still toggles the minor mode.
1824
1825 ** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
1826 It is now a list of three elements, where the second element is a list
1827 describing the original file's SELinux context. If Emacs or the
1828 system lacks SELinux support, the context list is (nil nil nil nil).
1829 See "Basic SELinux support" above, under "Changes in Emacs 24.1".
1830
1831 ** `char-direction-table' and the `char-direction' function were deleted.
1832 They were buggy and inferior to the new support of bidirectional
1833 editing introduced in Emacs 24. If you need the bidirectional
1834 properties of a character, use `get-char-code-property' with the last
1835 argument `bidi-class'.
1836
1837 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
1838 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
1839 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
1840 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
1841
1842 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
1843 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
1844 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
1845 of the header line.
1846
1847 ** Support for "old-style" backquotes, obsolete for 10+ years, has
1848 been further reduced. Now a backquote not followed by a space is
1849 always treated as a "new-style" backquote. Please remove all
1850 "old-style" backquotes from your code. If your code uses backquotes
1851 as documented in the Elisp manual, and compiles without warning, then
1852 you have nothing to do in this regard. Code not following the
1853 appropriate conventions may fail to compile.
1854
1855 The most common cause of trouble seems to be an old-style backquote
1856 followed by a newline. Another cause of trouble is vector notation
1857 for key sequence notation: instead of [(control ,)] and [(control ')],
1858 you should write [(control ?,)] and [(control ?')], which will work in
1859 older Emacsen too.
1860
1861 ** The macro `eval-at-startup' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but this
1862 was not advertised at the time. The function `custom-initialize-delay'
1863 replaced all known uses.
1864
1865 ** `view-buffer' now treats special mode-class in the same way that
1866 `view-file' has since Emacs 22 (i.e. it won't enable View mode if the
1867 major mode is special).
1868
1869 ** Menu and tool bar changes
1870
1871 *** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
1872 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
1873 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
1874 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
1875 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
1876 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
1877
1878 *** The menu bar bindings's caches are not used any more.
1879 Use (where-is-internal <def> nil t) instead.
1880
1881 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
1882 similar to those created by shift-selection (see Selection changes
1883 above). In previous Emacs versions, these regions were delineated by
1884 `mouse-drag-overlay'; that variable has been removed.
1885
1886 ** The fourth argument of `filter-buffer-substring' has been removed.
1887 If you want to remove text properties from the final result, simply
1888 pass the result through substring-no-properties.
1889
1890 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
1891
1892 ** The following obsolete functions and aliases have been removed
1893 (the appropriate new function is given in parentheses; "not needed"
1894 means you can just remove all calls to the function in question):
1895
1896 *** `comint-kill-output' (`comint-delete-output')
1897 *** `decompose-composite-char' (`char-to-string')
1898 *** `outline-visible' (`outline-invisible-p')
1899 *** `internal-find-face' (`facep')
1900 *** `internal-get-face' (`facep and check-face')
1901 *** `frame-update-faces' (not needed)
1902 *** `frame-update-face-colors' (`frame-set-background-mode')
1903 *** `x-frob-font-weight' and `x-frob-font-slant' (`make-face-*' functions)
1904 *** `x-make-font-bold and x-make-font-demibold (`make-face-bold')
1905 *** `x-make-font-italic' and `x-make-font-oblique' (`make-face-italic')
1906 *** `x-make-font-bold-italic' (`make-face-bold-italic')
1907 *** `x-make-font-unbold' (`make-face-unbold')
1908 *** `x-make-font-unitalic' (`make-face-unitalic')
1909 *** `mldrag-drag-mode-line' (`mouse-drag-mode-line')
1910 *** `mldrag-drag-vertical-line' (`mouse-drag-vertical-line')
1911 *** `iswitchb-default-keybindings' (`iswitchb-mode')
1912 *** `char-bytes' (== 1)
1913 *** `isearch-return-char' (`isearch-printing-char')
1914 *** `make-local-hook' (not needed)
1915 *** `set-screen-height' (`set-frame-height')
1916 *** `set-screen-width' (`set-frame-width')
1917
1918 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed
1919 (the appropriate new variable is given in parentheses):
1920
1921 *** `checkdoc-minor-keymap' (`checkdoc-minor-mode-map')
1922 *** `vc-header-alist' (`vc-BACKEND-header')
1923 *** `directory-sep-char' (== ?/)
1924 *** `font-lock-defaults-alist' (`font-lock-defaults')
1925 *** `e' (`float-e').
1926
1927 ** The following obsolete files were removed:
1928 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
1929
1930 ** The format of the finder-inf.el file has changed, since the Finder
1931 mechanism is now based on the package system. The variable
1932 `finder-package-info' is replaced by `package--builtins' and
1933 `finder-keywords-hash'.
1934
1935 ** When generating autoloads, `update-directory-autoloads' no longer
1936 assumes every inspected file is in your `load-path'. It instead
1937 generates relative names according to the current `load-path'.
1938
1939 \f
1940 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.1
1941
1942 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
1943 The `lexical-binding' variable enables lexical scoping for local
1944 variables. It is typically set via a file-local variable in the first
1945 line of the file, in which case it applies to all the code in that
1946 file.
1947
1948 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
1949 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
1950
1951 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
1952 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
1953
1954 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
1955
1956 *** `defvar' and `defconst' now mark the variable as special (dynamic).
1957 So do `defcustom' and other forms that call `defvar' as a subroutine.
1958
1959 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
1960 declared as dynamically bound.
1961
1962 *** The form ((lambda ...) ...) is deprecated.
1963
1964 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
1965 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
1966 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
1967
1968 ** Changes for bidirectional display and editing
1969
1970 *** New function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction'.
1971 This returns the base direction of the paragraph at point.
1972
1973 *** New function `bidi-string-mark-left-to-right'.
1974 Given a string containing characters from right-to-left scripts, this
1975 function returns another string which can be safely inserted into a
1976 buffer, such that any following text will be always displayed to the
1977 right of that string. (This works by appending an invisible Unicode
1978 "LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK" character if the argument string might need it.)
1979
1980 This is useful when the buffer has overall left-to-right paragraph
1981 direction and you need to insert a string whose contents are not known
1982 in advance, without disrupting the layout of the line.
1983
1984 ** Window changes
1985
1986 *** Window tree functions are accessible in Elisp.
1987 Functions are provided to return the parent, siblings or child windows
1988 of any window including internal windows (windows not associated with a
1989 buffer) in the window tree.
1990
1991 **** New function `window-valid-p' gives non-nil for live and internal
1992 windows.
1993
1994 **** Window manipulation can deal with internal windows.
1995 Many window handling functions like `split-window', `delete-window', or
1996 `delete-other-windows' as well as the window resizing functions can now
1997 act on any window including internal ones.
1998
1999 *** window-total-height/-width vs window-body-height/-width.
2000 The function `window-height' has been renamed to `window-total-height'
2001 and `window-width' has been renamed to `window-body-width'. The old
2002 names are provided as aliases. Two new functions `window-total-width'
2003 and `window-body-height' are provided.
2004
2005 *** Window parameters specific to window handling functions.
2006 For each window you can specify a parameter to override the default
2007 behavior of a number of functions like `split-window', `delete-window'
2008 and `delete-other-windows'. The variable `ignore-window-parameters'
2009 allows to ignore processing such parameters.
2010
2011 *** New semantics of third argument of `split-window'.
2012 The third argument of `split-window' has been renamed to SIDE and can be
2013 set to any of the values 'below, 'right, 'above, or 'left to make the
2014 new window appear on the corresponding side of the window that shall be
2015 split. Any other value of SIDE will cause `split-window' to split the
2016 window into two side-by-side windows as before.
2017
2018 *** Window resizing functions.
2019 A new standard function for resizing windows called `window-resize' has
2020 been introduced. This and all other functions for resizing windows no
2021 longer delete any windows when they become too small.
2022
2023 *** Deleting the selected window now selects the most recently selected
2024 live window on that frame instead.
2025
2026 *** `adjust-window-trailing-edge' adjustments.
2027 `adjust-window-trailing-edge' can now deal with fixed-size windows and
2028 is able to resize other windows if a window adjacent to the trailing
2029 edge cannot be shrunk any more. This makes its behavior more similar to
2030 that of Emacs 21 without compromising, however, its inability to delete
2031 windows which was introduced in Emacs 22.
2032
2033 *** Window-local buffer lists.
2034 Windows now have local buffer lists. This means that removing a buffer
2035 from display in a window will preferably show the buffer previously
2036 shown in that window with its previous window-start and window-point
2037 positions. This also means that the same buffer may be automatically
2038 shown twice even if it already appears in another window.
2039
2040 *** `switch-to-buffer' has a new optional argument FORCE-SAME-WINDOW,
2041 which if non-nil requires the buffer to be displayed in the currently
2042 selected window, signaling an error otherwise. If nil, another window
2043 can be used, e.g. if the selected one is strongly dedicated.
2044
2045 *** `split-window-vertically' and `split-window-horizontally' renamed
2046 to `split-window-below' and `split-window-right' respectively.
2047 The old names are kept as aliases.
2048
2049 *** Display actions
2050
2051 **** The second arg to `display-buffer' and `pop-to-buffer' is now
2052 named ACTION, and takes a display action of the same form as
2053 `display-buffer-base-action' (see Changes, above). A non-nil,
2054 non-list value is treated specially, as the old meaning.
2055
2056 **** New variable `display-buffer-overriding-action'.
2057
2058 **** The procedure of `display-buffer' etc. to choose a window is
2059 determined by combining `display-buffer-overriding-action',
2060 `display-buffer-alist', the ACTION arg, `display-buffer-base-action',
2061 and `display-buffer-fallback-action'. The second and fourth of these
2062 are user-customizable variables.
2063
2064 See the docstring of `display-buffer' for details.
2065
2066 *** New functions `window-state-get' and `window-state-put'.
2067 These functions allow to save and restore the state of an arbitrary
2068 frame or window as an Elisp object.
2069
2070 ** Completion
2071
2072 *** New variable `completion-extra-properties' used to specify extra
2073 properties of the current completion:
2074 - :annotate-function, same as the old completion-annotate-function.
2075 - :exit-function, function to call after completion took place.
2076
2077 *** Functions on `completion-at-point-functions' can return any of the
2078 properties valid for `completion-extra-properties'.
2079
2080 *** `completion-annotate-function' is obsolete.
2081
2082 *** New `metadata' method for completion tables. The metadata thus returned
2083 can specify various details of the data returned by `all-completions':
2084 - `category' is the kind of objects returned (e.g., `buffer', `file', ...),
2085 used to select a style in completion-category-overrides.
2086 - `annotation-function' to add annotations in *Completions*.
2087 - `display-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries in *Completions*.
2088 - `cycle-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries when cycling.
2089
2090 *** `minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map' is not used any more.
2091 Instead, the bindings in `minibuffer-local-filename-completion-map'
2092 are combined with `minibuffer-local-must-match-map'.
2093
2094 *** New variable `completing-read-function' allows overriding the
2095 behavior of `completing-read'.
2096
2097 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
2098 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
2099
2100 ** `pre-command-hook'/`post-command-hook' are not reset to nil on error.
2101 Instead, the offending function is removed.
2102
2103 ** New hook types
2104
2105 *** New function `run-hook-wrapped' for running an abnormal hook by
2106 passing the hook functions as arguments to a "wrapping" function.
2107 Like `run-hook-with-args-until-success', it stops at the first
2108 non-nil return value.
2109
2110 *** New macro `with-wrapper-hook' for running an abnormal hook as a
2111 set of "wrapping" filters, similar to around advice.
2112 (A version of this macro was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not
2113 advertised at the time.)
2114
2115 ** Debugger changes
2116
2117 *** New macro `condition-case-unless-debug' (this was actually added in
2118 Emacs 23.1 as condition-case-no-debug, but not advertised)
2119
2120 *** The macro `with-demoted-errors' was added in Emacs 23.1, but not advertised.
2121
2122 *** Variable `stack-trace-on-error' removed.
2123
2124 *** The debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will
2125 jump to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked
2126 instead of jumping all the way to the top-level.
2127
2128 *** Set `debug-on-event' to enter the debugger on events like SIGUSR1.
2129 This can be useful when `inhibit-quit' is set.
2130
2131 ** The new function `server-eval-at' allows evaluation of Lisp forms on
2132 named Emacs server instances.
2133
2134 ** `call-process' and `call-process-region' allow a `(:file "file")' spec
2135 to redirect STDOUT to a file.
2136
2137 ** The function `format-time-string' now supports the %N directive,
2138 for higher-resolution time stamps.
2139
2140 ** New input reading functions
2141
2142 *** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of
2143 characters, discarding any inputs not inside the set.
2144
2145 *** The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name
2146 or RGB triplet, instead of signaling an error if the user provides
2147 invalid input.
2148
2149 **** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
2150
2151 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
2152 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
2153 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
2154 obsolete alias.
2155
2156 ** Syntax parsing changes
2157
2158 *** New variable `syntax-propertize-function'.
2159 This replaces `font-lock-syntactic-keywords' which is now obsolete.
2160 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
2161 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
2162 Together with this new variable come a new hook
2163 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
2164 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
2165 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
2166 syntactic rules.
2167
2168 *** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
2169
2170 ** New hook `post-self-insert-hook', run after `self-insert-command'.
2171
2172 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
2173
2174 ** Major and minor mode changes
2175
2176 *** `set-auto-mode' now respects mode: local variables at the end of files,
2177 as well as those in the -*- line.
2178
2179 *** `prog-mode' is a new major mode from which programming modes
2180 should be derived.
2181
2182 **** `prog-mode-hook' can be used to enable features for programming
2183 modes, e.g. (add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'flyspell-prog-mode) to enable
2184 on-the-fly spell checking for comments and strings.
2185
2186 *** New hook `change-major-mode-after-body-hook', run by
2187 `run-mode-hooks' just before any other mode hooks.
2188
2189 *** Enabled globalized minor modes can be disabled in specific major modes.
2190 If the global mode is global-FOO-mode, then run (FOO-mode -1) in the
2191 major mode's hook, where FOO-mode toggles the mode on a per-buffer basis.
2192
2193 *** `define-minor-mode' accepts new keywords :variable, :after-hook.
2194
2195 ** File-handling changes
2196
2197 *** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
2198 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
2199 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
2200 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
2201
2202 *** New file predicates: `file-equal-p', `file-in-directory-p'.
2203
2204 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
2205 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
2206 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
2207
2208 ** Image API
2209
2210 *** Animated images support (currently animated gifs only).
2211
2212 **** `image-animated-p' returns non-nil if an image can be animated.
2213
2214 **** `image-animate' animates a supplied image spec.
2215
2216 **** `image-animate-timer' returns the timer object for an image that
2217 is being animated.
2218
2219 *** `image-extension-data' has been renamed to `image-metadata'.
2220 The old name is an obsolete alias to the new one.
2221
2222 *** Image mode can view any image type that ImageMagick supports.
2223 This requires Emacs to be built with ImageMagick support.
2224
2225 **** New function `imagemagick-types', defined if ImageMagick support
2226 is enabled, returns a list of image file extensions that your
2227 ImageMagick installation supports.
2228
2229 **** New function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick
2230 image types in Image mode and in `create-image' and other helper
2231 functions.
2232
2233 **** New option `imagemagick-types-inhibit' excludes certain
2234 ImageMagick image types from `imagemagick-register-types'.
2235
2236 **** With ImageMagick support, there are extra Image mode commands to
2237 resize and rotate images: `image-transform-fit-to-height',
2238 `image-transform-fit-to-width', `image-transform-set-rotation', and
2239 `image-transform-set-scale'.
2240
2241 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
2242 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
2243 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail. For
2244 example, this is used by Rmail to optionally delete a mail window.
2245
2246 ** XML and HTML parsing
2247 If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support, there are two new
2248 functions: `libxml-parse-html-region' (which parses "real world" HTML)
2249 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
2250 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
2251
2252 ** Networking and encryption changes
2253
2254 *** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
2255 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
2256 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
2257 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
2258 must also be supplied.
2259
2260 *** New library gnutls.el.
2261 The new function `gnutls-available-p' returns non-nil if Emacs is
2262 built with GnuTLS support. The main entry points are
2263 `open-gnutls-stream' and `gnutls-negotiate'. It's easiest to use
2264 these functions through `open-network-stream', because that can
2265 upgrade connections through STARTTLS opportunistically or use plain
2266 SSL, depending on your needs. For debugging, set `gnutls-log-level'
2267 greater than 0.
2268
2269 *** New primitive `secure-hash' that supports many secure hash algorithms:
2270 md5, sha1, sha2, sha224, sha256, sha384, and sha512. The lisp library
2271 sha1.el has been removed. The `sha1' feature is provided by default.
2272
2273 ** Isearch
2274
2275 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
2276
2277 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
2278 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
2279 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
2280 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
2281 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
2282 displayed with a "spinning bar".
2283
2284 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
2285 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
2286
2287 ** New variables `delayed-warnings-list' and `delayed-warnings-hook'.
2288 If delayed-warnings-list is non-nil, the command loop calls
2289 `delayed-warnings-hook' after `post-command-hook'. At present, this
2290 is only used by Emacs on some platforms to display warnings during
2291 startup, which might otherwise not be noticed. This uses the
2292 functions `display-delayed-warnings' and `collapse-delayed-warnings'.
2293
2294 ** rx.el has a new `group-n' construct for explicitly numbered groups.
2295
2296 ** New function `make-composed-keymap' that constructs a new keymap
2297 from multiple input maps. You can use this to make a keymap that
2298 inherits from multiple maps, eg:
2299 (set-keymap-parent newmap (make-composed-keymap othermap parent))
2300
2301 ** New function `string-prefix-p'.
2302 (This was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not advertised at the time.)
2303
2304 ** New reader macro ## that stands for the empty symbol.
2305 This means that the empty symbol can now be read back. Also, #: by itself
2306 (when not immediately followed by a possible symbol character) stands for
2307 an empty uninterned symbol.
2308
2309 ** New math functions `isnan', `copysign', `frexp', `ldexp'.
2310
2311 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
2312
2313 *** `tooltip-use-echo-area' is obsolete.
2314 Rather than setting this to t, disable Tooltip mode instead.
2315
2316 *** buffer-substring-filters is obsolete.
2317 Use `filter-buffer-substring-functions' instead.
2318
2319 *** `byte-compile-disable-print-circle' is obsolete.
2320
2321 *** `deferred-action-list' and `deferred-action-function' are obsolete.
2322 Use `post-command-hook' instead.
2323
2324 *** `font-lock-maximum-size' is obsolete.
2325
2326 \f
2327 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on non-free operating systems
2328
2329 ** On MS Windows, Emacs warns when using the obsolete init file _emacs,
2330 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
2331
2332 ** New configure.bat options
2333
2334 *** --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra runtime checks.
2335
2336 *** --distfiles specifies files to be included in binary distribution.
2337
2338 *** --without-gnutls disables automatic GnuTLS detection.
2339
2340 *** --lib for general library linkage, works with the USER_LIBS build variable.
2341
2342 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
2343
2344 ** The Lisp function `w32-default-color-map' is now obsolete.
2345 (It is only used internally in the Emacs C code.)
2346
2347 ** Customize ns-auto-hide-menu-bar to have the menu-bar hidden, but
2348 reappear on mouse-over. (Requires OS X 10.6 or later.)
2349
2350 ** On Mac OS X, dragging a file into Emacs visits the file, like on
2351 other platforms, rather than inserting its contents into the buffer.
2352
2353 \f
2354 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
2355 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
2356
2357 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
2358 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2359 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
2360 (at your option) any later version.
2361
2362 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2363 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2364 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2365 GNU General Public License for more details.
2366
2367 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2368 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
2369
2370 \f
2371 Local variables:
2372 mode: outline
2373 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
2374 end: