]> code.delx.au - gnu-emacs/blob - etc/NEWS.24
Ibuffer change marks
[gnu-emacs] / etc / NEWS.24
1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2016 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 \f
18 * Changes in Emacs 24.5
19
20 ** This is mainly a bug-fix release, but there are some other changes.
21
22 ** The default value of `history-length' has increased to 100.
23
24 ** The variable `redisplay-dont-pause' is obsolete.
25
26 \f
27 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.5
28
29 ** `call-process-shell-command' and `process-file-shell-command' no longer
30 take "&rest args".
31
32 ** The option `browse-url-firefox-startup-arguments' no longer has an effect.
33
34 ** ERC
35
36 *** New option `erc-rename-buffers'.
37
38 *** New faces `erc-my-nick-prefix-face' and `erc-nick-prefix-face'.
39
40 *** `erc-format-@nick' displays all user modes instead of only op and voice.
41
42 *** The display of irc commands in the current buffer has been disabled.
43
44 *** `erc-version' now follows the Emacs version.
45
46 ** Obsolete packages
47
48 *** cc-compat.el
49
50 *** crisp.el (moved to elpa.gnu.org)
51
52 *** tpu-edt.el, ws-mode.el
53 These emulations of old editors are believed to be no longer relevant
54 - contact emacs-devel@gnu.org if you disagree.
55
56 *** vi.el, vip.el (try M-x viper instead)
57
58 \f
59 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.4
60
61 ** Emacs can now be compiled with ACL (access control list) support.
62 This happens by default if a suitable support library is found at
63 build time, like libacl on GNU/Linux. To prevent this, use the
64 configure option `--disable-acl'. See below for the features this provides.
65
66 ** Emacs can now be compiled with file notification support.
67 This happens by default if a suitable system library is found at
68 build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
69 `--without-file-notification'. See below for file-notify features.
70 This feature is not available for the Nextstep port.
71
72 ** Emacs can now be compiled with zlib support.
73 This happens by default if zlib is present, which it normally is.
74 To prevent this, use the configure option `--without-zlib'.
75 This provides the function `zlib-decompress-region'; see below for details.
76
77 ** The configure option `--without-compress-info' has been generalized,
78 and renamed to `--without-compress-install'. It now prevents compression
79 of _any_ files during installation.
80
81 ** The configure option `--with-crt-dir' has been removed.
82 It is no longer needed, as the crt*.o files are no longer linked specially.
83
84 ** Directories passed to configure option `--enable-locallisppath' are
85 no longer created during installation.
86
87 ** Emacs for Nextstep (Mac OS X, GNUstep) can be built with ImageMagick support.
88 This requires pkg-config to be available at build time.
89
90 \f
91 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.4
92
93 ** When initializing `load-path', an empty element in the EMACSLOADPATH
94 environment variable (either leading, e.g., ":/foo"; trailing, e.g.,
95 "/foo:"; or embedded, e.g., "/foo::/bar") is replaced with the default
96 load-path (the one that would have been used if EMACSLOADPATH was unset).
97 This makes it easier to _extend_ the load-path via EMACSLOADPATH
98 (previously, EMACSLOADPATH had to specify the complete load-path,
99 including the defaults). (In older versions of Emacs, an empty element
100 was replaced by ".", so use an explicit "." now if that is what you want.)
101
102 ** The -L option, which normally prepends its argument to load-path,
103 will instead append, if the argument begins with `:' (or `;' on MS Windows;
104 i.e., `path-separator').
105
106 ** If you use either site-load.el or site-init.el to customize the dumped
107 Emacs executable, any changes to `load-path' that these files make
108 will no longer be present after dumping. To affect a permanent change
109 to `load-path', use the `--enable-locallisppath' option of `configure'.
110
111 ** The user option `initial-buffer-choice' can now specify a function
112 to set up the initial buffer.
113
114 \f
115 * Changes in Emacs 24.4
116
117 ** Support for ACLs (access control lists).
118 This requires a suitable support library to be found at build time.
119 On GNU/Linux, the POSIX ACL interface is used via libacl.
120 On MS-Windows, the NT Security APIs are used to emulate the POSIX interface.
121 ACLs are extended file attributes, used e.g. for finer-grained permissions.
122
123 *** Emacs preserves the ACL entries of files when backing up.
124
125 *** New functions `file-acl' and `set-file-acl' get and set file ACLs.
126
127 ** Support for menus on text-mode terminals.
128 If the terminal supports a mouse, clicking on the menu bar, or on
129 sensitive portions of the mode line or header line, will drop down the
130 menu defined at that position. Likewise, clicking C-mouse-1, C-mouse-2, or
131 C-mouse-3 on the text area will pop up the menus defined for those locations.
132
133 If the text terminal does not support a mouse, you can activate the
134 first menu-bar menu by typing F10, which invokes `menu-bar-open'.
135
136 If you want the previous behavior, where F10 invoked `tmm-menubar',
137 customize the option `tty-menu-open-use-tmm' to a non-nil value.
138 (Typing M-` always invokes `tmm-menubar', even if `tty-menu-open-use-tmm'
139 is nil.)
140
141 ** New option `load-prefer-newer' affects how the `load' function chooses
142 the file to load. If this is non-nil, then when both .el and .elc
143 versions of a file exist, and the caller did not explicitly specify
144 which one to load, then the newer file is loaded. The default, nil,
145 means to always load the .elc file.
146
147 ** Multi-monitor support
148
149 *** New functions `display-monitor-attributes-list' and
150 `frame-monitor-attributes' can be used to obtain information about
151 each physical monitor on multi-monitor setups.
152
153 *** The functions `display-pixel-width' and `display-pixel-height' now
154 behave consistently among the platforms: they return the pixel width
155 or height for all physical monitors associated with the given display
156 as if they were on X. To get information for each physical
157 monitor, use the new functions above. Similar notes also apply to
158 `x-display-pixel-width', `x-display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
159 `display-mm-height', `x-display-mm-width', and `x-display-mm-height'.
160
161 ** New function `zlib-decompress-region', which decompresses gzip- and
162 zlib-format compressed data using built-in zlib support (if available).
163
164 ** The *Messages* buffer is created in `messages-buffer-mode',
165 a new major mode, with read-only status. Any code that might create
166 the *Messages* buffer should call the function `messages-buffer' to do
167 so and set up the mode.
168
169 ** The cursor stops blinking after 10 blinks (by default) on X and Nextstep.
170 You can change the default by customizing `blink-cursor-blinks'.
171
172 ** In keymaps where SPC scrolls forward, S-SPC now scrolls backward.
173 This affects View mode, etc.
174
175 ** The default value of `make-backup-file-name-function' is no longer nil.
176 Instead it defaults to a function that does what the nil value used to.
177
178 ** Help
179
180 *** The command `apropos-variable' is renamed to `apropos-user-option'.
181 `apropos-user-option' shows all user options, while `apropos-variable'
182 shows all variables. When called with a universal prefix argument,
183 the two commands swap their behaviors. When `apropos-do-all' is
184 non-nil, they output the same results.
185
186 *** The key `?' now describes prefix bindings, like `C-h'.
187
188 *** The command `describe-function' has been extended for EIEIO.
189 Running it on constructors will show a full description of the
190 generated class. For generic functions, it will show all
191 implementations together with links to the source. The old commands
192 `describe-class', `describe-constructor' and `describe-generic' were
193 removed.
194
195 *** The function `quail-help' is no longer an interactive command.
196 Use `C-h C-\' (`describe-input-method') instead.
197
198 ** Frame and window handling
199
200 *** New commands `toggle-frame-fullscreen' and `toggle-frame-maximized',
201 bound to <f11> and M-<f10>, respectively.
202
203 *** New hooks `focus-in-hook', `focus-out-hook'.
204 These are normal hooks run when an Emacs frame gains or loses input focus.
205
206 *** The function `window-in-direction' now takes additional arguments
207 for specifying a reference point, wrapping the selection around frame
208 borders, and specifying ways to select the minibuffer window.
209
210 *** Emacs can now change frame sizes in units of pixels, rather than
211 text rows or columns. When maximizing a frame or making it fullscreen,
212 remaining extra pixels are no longer given to the minibuffer, the rightmost
213 fringe, or other unusable space, but are distributed among the text
214 areas of the frame's windows. If the new option `frame-resize-pixelwise'
215 is non-nil, all frame size changes happen pixelwise and set the
216 corresponding size hints for the window manager.
217
218 *** Emacs can now change window sizes in units of pixels.
219 Mouse-dragging a mode line or window divider now changes the size of
220 adjacent windows pixelwise. If the new option `window-resize-pixelwise'
221 is non-nil, functions like `balance-windows-area' and `fit-window-to-buffer'
222 resize windows pixelwise. Most functions for changing or accessing
223 window sizes now have an additional argument that allows changes to apply,
224 or values to be returned, in pixels instead of lines/columns.
225
226 *** The functions `window-body-height' and `window-body-width' now never
227 count partially visible lines or columns if called with a nil PIXELWISE
228 argument.
229
230 *** Emacs can now draw dividers between adjacent windows. To put
231 dividers between side-by-side/vertically stacked windows customize the
232 frame parameters `right-divider-width' and `bottom-divider-width' to
233 some positive integer. You can drag dividers with the mouse (they show
234 a corresponding cursor when the mouse hovers over them). You can change
235 the appearance of dividers by customizing the faces `window-divider',
236 `window-divider-first-pixel', and `window-divider-last-pixel'. The last
237 two are useful to provide a 3D effect, or to better distinguish dividers
238 from surrounding display objects.
239
240 *** New functions to return the pixel sizes of window components, namely
241 `window-scroll-bar-width', `window-mode-line-height',
242 `window-header-line-height', `window-right-divider-width', and
243 `window-bottom-divider-width'.
244
245 *** The new function `window-text-pixel-size' returns the size of the
246 text of a window's buffer in pixels. This allows functions like
247 `fit-frame-to-buffer' and `fit-window-to-buffer' to accurately fit a
248 window to its buffer as it will be displayed.
249
250 *** `fit-window-to-buffer' can now resize windows in both dimensions.
251 This behavior is controlled by the new option
252 `fit-window-to-buffer-horizontally'. The new option
253 `fit-frame-to-buffer' allows you to fit the window's frame to its buffer.
254
255 *** `fit-frame-to-buffer' now fits frames in both dimensions. The new
256 options `fit-frame-to-buffer-margins' and `fit-frame-to-buffer-sizes'
257 control the size of the frame and its position on screen.
258
259 *** Temp Buffer Resize Mode can now adjust the height and width of
260 windows and frames. The new option `temp-buffer-max-width' allows you to
261 control the width of temporary buffer windows. Moreover, if the new
262 option `fit-frame-to-buffer' is non-nil and the buffer appears in the
263 root window of a frame, Temp Buffer Resize Mode will try to adjust the
264 width and/or height of the frame.
265
266 *** `split-window' is now a non-interactive function, not a command.
267 As a command, it was a special case of `C-x 2' (`split-window-below'),
268 and as such superfluous. After being reimplemented in Lisp, its
269 interactive form was mistakenly retained.
270
271 *** The functions `window-size' and `window-total-size' now have an
272 optional argument to return a rounded size value.
273
274 *** `window-state-put' now allows you to put a window state into internal
275 windows too.
276
277 *** New option `scroll-bar-adjust-thumb-portion'.
278 Available only on X, this option allows you to control over-scrolling
279 using the scroll bar (i.e., dragging the thumb down even when the end
280 of the buffer is visible).
281
282 *** New display actions functions for `display-buffer':
283
284 **** `display-buffer-at-bottom' chooses or creates a window at the
285 bottom of the selected frame.
286
287 **** `display-buffer-no-window' to not display the buffer in a window.
288
289 *** New display action alist entry `allow-no-window' to indicate the
290 caller of `display-buffer' is ready to handle the case of not displaying
291 the buffer in a window.
292
293 *** `display-buffer-in-previous-window' is now a member of
294 `display-buffer-fallback-action'.
295
296 ** Lisp evaluation
297
298 *** `eval-defun' on an already defined defcustom calls the :set function,
299 if there is one.
300
301 *** The commands `eval-expression' (`M-:'), `eval-last-sexp' (`C-x C-e'),
302 and `eval-print-last-sexp' (`C-j' in Lisp Interaction mode) can take a
303 zero prefix argument. This disables truncation of lists in the output,
304 equivalent to setting `(eval-expression-)print-length' and
305 `(eval-expression-)print-level' to nil. Additionally, it causes integers
306 to be printed in other formats (octal, hexadecimal, and character).
307
308 *** New hook `eval-expression-minibuffer-setup-hook' run by
309 `eval-expression' on entering the minibuffer.
310
311 ** `cache-long-line-scans' is now non-nil, and renamed to `cache-long-scans',
312 because it affects caching of paragraph scanning results as well.
313 There is no reason to set this to nil except for debugging purposes.
314
315 ** `emacs-bzr-version' has been renamed to `emacs-repository-version',
316 and works for git too, if you fetch the repository notes.
317
318 ** The default value of `comment-use-global-state' is now t,
319 and this variable has been marked obsolete.
320
321 ** `write-region-inhibit-fsync' now defaults to t in batch mode.
322
323 ** The option `set-mark-default-inactive' has been deleted.
324 This unfinished feature was introduced by accident in Emacs 23.1;
325 simply disabling Transient Mark mode does the same thing.
326
327 \f
328 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.4
329
330 ** Indentation
331
332 *** `electric-indent-mode' is now enabled by default.
333 Typing RET reindents the current line and indents the new line.
334 `C-j' inserts a newline but does not indent. In some programming modes,
335 additional characters are electric (eg `{').
336
337 *** New buffer-local `electric-indent-local-mode'.
338
339 *** The behavior of `C-x TAB' (`indent-rigidly') has changed.
340 When invoked without a prefix argument, it now activates a transient
341 mode in which typing <left>, <right>, <S-left>, and <S-right> adjusts
342 the text indentation in the region. Typing any other key resumes
343 normal editing behavior.
344
345 *** `tab-stop-list' is now implicitly extended to infinity by repeating
346 the last step. Its default value is changed to nil, which means a tab
347 stop every `tab-width' columns.
348
349 ** Uniquify is enabled by default, with `post-forward-angle-brackets' style.
350 In other words, if you visit two files that have the same base name,
351 then rather than creating buffers basename and basename<2>,
352 Emacs uses basename<dirA> and basename<dirB>. To change this,
353 customize `uniquify-buffer-name-style'. Set it to nil for the old behavior.
354
355 ** New command `C-x SPC' (`rectangle-mark-mode') makes a rectangular region.
356 Most commands are still unaware of it, but kill/yank do work on the rectangle.
357
358 ** New option `visual-order-cursor-movement'.
359 If this is non-nil, cursor motion with arrow keys will follow the
360 visual order of characters on the screen: <left> always moves to the
361 left, <right> always moves to the right, disregarding the surrounding
362 bidirectional context.
363
364 ** New command `delete-duplicate-lines'.
365 This searches the region for identical lines, and removes all but one
366 copy of each repeated line. The lines need not be sorted.
367
368 ** New command `cycle-spacing' acts like a smarter `just-one-space'.
369 When called in succession, it cycles between spacing conventions:
370 one space, no spaces, original spacing.
371
372 ** `blink-matching-paren' now only highlights the matching open-paren
373 by default, instead of moving the cursor. Set this variable to `jump' to
374 restore the old behavior.
375
376 ** The new function `fill-single-char-nobreak-p' can stop fill from breaking
377 a line after a one-letter word, which is an error in some typographical
378 conventions. To use it, add it to the `fill-nobreak-predicate' hook.
379
380 ** Registers
381
382 *** All interactive commands that read a register (`copy-to-register', etc.)
383 now display a temporary window after `register-preview-delay' seconds
384 that summarizes existing registers. To disable this, set that option to nil.
385 Interactive commands that read registers and want to make use of this
386 should use `register-read-with-preview' to read register names.
387
388 *** New command `frameset-to-register' bound to `C-x r f', replacing
389 `frame-configuration-to-register'. It offers similar functionality,
390 plus enhancements like the ability to restore deleted frames.
391 (`frame-configuration-to-register' still exists, but no longer has a
392 key binding.)
393
394 *** New command `C-x C-k x' (`kmacro-to-register') stores keyboard
395 macros in registers.
396
397 \f
398 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.4
399
400 ** Backtrace and debugger
401
402 *** New Lisp debugger command `v' (`debugger-toggle-locals') toggles the
403 display of local variables of the current stack frame.
404
405 *** The Lisp debugger's `e' command (`debugger-eval-expression') now includes
406 the lexical environment when evaluating the code in the context at point
407 (and so allows you to access lexical variables).
408
409 *** New minor mode `jit-lock-debug-mode' helps you debug code run via JIT Lock.
410
411 ** Battery information can now be retrieved from BSD's `apm' utility.
412
413 ** In the Buffer Menu, `M-s a C-o' shows matches for a regexp in marked buffers.
414
415 ** Calc
416
417 *** Calc by default now uses the Gregorian calendar for all dates, and
418 uses January 1, 1 AD as its day number 1. Previously Calc used the
419 Julian calendar for dates before September 14, 1752, and it used
420 December 31, 1 BC as its day number 1; the new scheme is more
421 consistent with Calendar's calendrical system and day numbering.
422
423 *** The new option `calc-gregorian-switch' lets you configure if
424 (and when) Calc switches from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar.
425
426 *** Support for ISO 8601 dates.
427
428 ** Calendar and Diary
429
430 *** New faces `calendar-weekday-header', `calendar-weekend-header',
431 and `calendar-month-header'.
432
433 *** New option `calendar-day-header-array'.
434
435 *** New variable `diary-from-outlook-function', used by the command
436 `diary-from-outlook'.
437
438 *** The variable `calendar-font-lock-keywords' is obsolete.
439
440 ** CEDET
441
442 *** EDE
443
444 **** The cpp-root project now supports executing a compile command.
445 It can be set through the new :compile-command slot or the
446 buffer-local variable `compile-command'.
447
448 **** Better selection of include directories for the 'linux' project.
449 Include directories now support out-of-tree build directories and
450 target architecture auto-detection.
451
452 *** Semantic
453
454 **** Improved detection of used namespaces in current scope in C++.
455
456 **** Parsing of default values for variables and function arguments in C/C++.
457 They are also displayed by the summarize feature in the mode line.
458
459 **** Improved parsing of function pointers in C/C++.
460 This also includes parsing of function pointers as function arguments.
461
462 **** Parsing of C/C++ preprocessor macros that open new scope.
463 For example, this enables parsing of macros that open new namespaces.
464
465 **** Support for 'this' pointer in inline member functions in C++.
466
467 ** CFEngine mode
468
469 *** Support for completion, ElDoc, and Flycheck has been added.
470
471 *** The current CFEngine syntax is parsed from "cf-promises -s json".
472 There is a fallback syntax available if you don't have cf-promises or
473 if your version doesn't support that option. See option `cfengine-cf-promises'.
474
475 ** cl-lib
476
477 *** New macro `cl-tagbody'.
478 This executes statements while allowing for control transfer to labels.
479
480 *** letf is now just an alias for cl-letf.
481
482 ** CUA mode
483
484 *** CUA mode now uses `delete-selection-mode' and `shift-select-mode'.
485 Hence, you can now enable it independently from those modes, and from
486 `transient-mark-mode'.
487
488 *** `cua-highlight-region-shift-only' is now obsolete.
489 You can disable `transient-mark-mode' to get the same result.
490
491 *** CUA's rectangles can now be used without CUA by calling the command
492 `cua-rectangle-mark-mode'.
493
494 ** Delete Selection mode can now be used without Transient Mark mode.
495
496 ** Desktop
497
498 *** `desktop-save-mode' by default now auto-saves an existing desktop file
499 after `desktop-auto-save-timeout'. To disable this, customize that option
500 to nil (or zero).
501
502 *** Desktop now saves and restores the frame/window configuration.
503 To disable this, set `desktop-restore-frames' to nil.
504 See also related options `desktop-restore-reuses-frames',
505 `desktop-restore-in-current-display', and `desktop-restore-forces-onscreen'.
506
507 ** New Dired minor mode `dired-hide-details-mode' toggles whether details,
508 such as file ownership or permissions, are visible in Dired buffers.
509 See the new options `dired-hide-details-hide-symlink-targets' and
510 `dired-hide-details-hide-information-lines' for customizing what to hide.
511
512 ** You can enable ElDoc inside the `eval-expression' minibuffer with:
513 (add-hook 'eval-expression-minibuffer-setup-hook 'eldoc-mode)
514 The results display in the mode line.
515
516 ** Electric Pair mode
517
518 *** New option `electric-pair-preserve-balance', enabled by default.
519 If non-nil, pairing/skipping only kicks in when that help the balance
520 of parentheses and quotes; i.e., the buffer should end up at least as
521 balanced as before.
522
523 You can further control this behavior by adjusting the predicates
524 stored in `electric-pair-inhibit-predicate' and `electric-pair-skip-self'.
525
526 *** New option `electric-pair-delete-adjacent-pairs', enabled by default.
527 In `electric-pair-mode', the commands `backward-delete-char' and
528 `backward-delete-char-untabify' are now bound to electric variants
529 that delete the closer when invoked between adjacent pairs.
530
531 *** New option `electric-pair-open-newline-between-pairs', enabled by default.
532 In `electric-pair-mode', inserting a newline between adjacent pairs
533 opens an extra newline after point, which is indented if
534 `electric-indent-mode' is also set.
535
536 *** New option `electric-pair-skip-whitespace', enabled by default.
537 This controls if skipping over closing delimiters should jump over any
538 whitespace slack. Setting it to `chomp' makes it delete this
539 whitespace. See also the variable `electric-pair-skip-whitespace-chars'.
540
541 *** New variables control the pairing in strings and comments.
542 You can customize `electric-pair-text-pairs' and
543 `electric-pair-text-syntax-table' to tweak pairing behavior inside
544 strings and comments.
545
546 ** New EPA option `epa-mail-aliases'.
547 You can set this to a list of email address aliases that `epa-mail-encrypt'
548 should use to find keys.
549
550 ** New ERC option `erc-accidental-paste-threshold-seconds'.
551 If set to a number, this can be used to avoid accidentally pasting large
552 amounts of data into the ERC input.
553
554 ** New ERT macro `skip-unless' allows skipping ERT tests.
555
556 ** Eshell
557
558 *** `eshell' now supports visual subcommands and options.
559 Eshell has been able to handle "visual" commands (interactive,
560 non-line oriented commands such as top that require display
561 capabilities not provided by eshell) by running them in an Emacs
562 terminal emulator. See `eshell-visual-commands'.
563
564 This feature has been extended to subcommands and options that make a
565 usually line-oriented command a visual command. Typical examples are
566 "git log" and "git <command> --help", which display their output in a
567 pager by default. See `eshell-visual-subcommands' and `eshell-visual-options'.
568
569 *** New Eshell-Tramp module.
570 External su and sudo commands are now the default; the internal,
571 Tramp-using variants can still be used by enabling the eshell-tramp module.
572
573 ** New F90 mode option `f90-smart-end-names'.
574
575 ** New option `gnutls-verify-error', if non-nil, means that Emacs
576 should reject SSL/TLS certificates that GnuTLS determines as invalid.
577 (This option defaults to nil at present, but this is expected to change
578 in a future release.)
579
580 ** Hi-Lock
581
582 *** New global command `M-s h .' (`highlight-symbol-at-point') highlights
583 the symbol near point.
584
585 *** New option `hi-lock-auto-select-face'. When non-nil, hi-lock commands
586 will cycle through faces in `hi-lock-face-defaults' without prompting.
587
588 ** Icomplete is now more similar to Ido.
589
590 *** Icomplete by default now applies to all forms of minibuffer completion.
591 The variable `icomplete-with-completion-tables' (now a user option)
592 controls this. To restore the old behavior, set it back to
593 '(internal-complete-buffer).
594
595 *** You can navigate through and select completions using the keys
596 from `icomplete-minibuffer-map'.
597
598 *** The string that separates potential completions is now a customizable
599 option (`icomplete-separator'). The default is " | " rather than ",".
600
601 *** New face `icomplete-first-match'; and new options
602 `icomplete-hide-common-prefix' and `icomplete-show-matches-on-no-input'.
603
604 *** The option `icomplete-show-key-bindings' has been removed.
605
606 ** Ido
607
608 *** An Ido user manual is now included.
609
610 *** The option `ido-use-virtual-buffers' can now take the value `auto'.
611 This means to use virtual buffers if the current ido input does not match
612 an existing buffer.
613
614 *** The variable `ido-decorations' can optionally have two new elements,
615 which are the brackets to use around the sole remaining completion.
616
617 ** Image mode
618
619 *** New commands `n' (`image-next-file') and `p' (`image-previous-file')
620 visit the next image file and the previous image file in the same
621 directory, respectively.
622
623 *** New commands to show specific frames of multi-frame images.
624 `f' (`image-next-frame') and `b' (`image-previous-frame') visit the
625 next or previous frame. `F' (`image-goto-frame') shows a specific frame.
626
627 *** New commands to speed up, slow down, or reverse animation.
628 `a +' (`image-increase-speed') and `a -' (`image-decrease-speed') to
629 speed up and slow down the animation. `a r' (`image-reverse-speed')
630 to reverse it and `a 0' (`image-reset-speed') to reset it.
631
632 *** The command `image-mode-fit-frame' deletes other windows.
633 When toggling, it restores the frame's previous window configuration.
634 It also has an optional frame argument, which can be used by Lisp
635 callers to fit the image to a frame other than the selected frame.
636
637 ** New Imenu option `imenu-generic-skip-comments-and-strings'.
638
639 ** Info
640
641 *** New Info face `info-index-match', used to highlight matches in index
642 entries displayed by `Info-index-next', `Info-virtual-index' and
643 `info-apropos'.
644
645 *** The Info-edit command is obsolete. Editing Info nodes by hand
646 has not been relevant for some time.
647
648 ** JS Mode
649
650 *** New option `js-switch-indent-offset'.
651
652 *** Better indentation of multiple-variable declarations.
653 If a declaration spans several lines, variables on the following lines
654 are lined up to the first one.
655
656 *** Recognition and better indentation of continuations in array comprehensions.
657
658 ** MH-E has been updated to version 8.6 - see separate MH-E-NEWS file.
659
660 ** Octave mode
661
662 *** Font locking for Texinfo comments and new keywords.
663
664 *** Completion in Octave file buffers.
665
666 *** ElDoc support.
667
668 *** Jump to definition.
669
670 *** Documentation lookup/search.
671
672 ** OPascal mode is the new name for Delphi mode
673
674 *** All delphi-* variables and functions have been renamed to opascal-*.
675 Obsolete aliases exist for those likely to have been used externally.
676
677 *** The option `delphi-newline-always-indents' has been removed.
678 Use `electric-indent-mode' instead.
679
680 *** The TAB key runs the standard `indent-for-tab-command', not `delphi-tab'.
681
682 ** Package
683
684 *** The package library now supports digital signing of packages.
685 Maintainers of package archives should consider signing their packages
686 to enhance security.
687
688 **** If the user option `package-check-signature' is non-nil,
689 Emacs tries to check package signatures at install time.
690 The value `allow-unsigned' allows installation of unsigned packages.
691
692 **** The user option `package-unsigned-archives' lists archives where
693 Emacs will not try to check signatures.
694
695 *** New option `package-pinned-packages'. This is useful if you have multiple
696 archives enabled, with more than one offering a given package that you want.
697
698 *** In the `list-packages' buffer, you can use `f' (`package-menu-filter')
699 to filter the list of packages by a keyword.
700
701 *** In the `describe-package' buffer, there are now buttons listing the
702 keywords related to the package. Click on a button to see other packages
703 related to that keyword.
704
705 *** The format of `archive-contents' files, generated by package
706 repositories, has changed to allow a new (fifth) element in the data
707 vectors, containing an associative list with extra properties.
708 (For example, `describe-package' uses the `:url' extra property to
709 display a "Homepage" header.)
710
711 ** In Prolog mode, `prolog-use-smie' has been removed,
712 along with the non-SMIE indentation code.
713
714 ** Python mode
715
716 *** Out of the box support for CPython, iPython and readline based shells.
717 **** `python-shell-completion-module-string-code' is no longer used.
718
719 *** Automatic shell prompt detection. New user options:
720 **** `python-shell-interpreter-interactive-arg'.
721 **** `python-shell-prompt-detect-enabled'.
722 **** `python-shell-prompt-detect-failure-warning'.
723 **** `python-shell-prompt-input-regexps'.
724 **** `python-shell-prompt-output-regexps'.
725
726 *** Python shell support for remote hosts via tramp.
727
728 *** Correct display of line numbers for code sent to the Python shell.
729
730 ** Remember
731
732 *** The new command `remember-notes' creates a buffer that is saved on exit.
733 You can use it as a more permanent *scratch* buffer.
734
735 *** Remember can now store notes in separate files.
736 To use this, add `remember-store-in-files' to the `remember-handler-functions'
737 option. The files are saved in `remember-data-directory' using
738 names specified by `remember-directory-file-name-format'.
739
740 ** Rmail
741
742 *** Customize `rmail-mbox-format' to influence some minor aspects of
743 how Rmail displays non-MIME messages.
744
745 *** The `unrmail' command now converts from BABYL to mboxrd format,
746 rather than mboxo. Customize `unrmail-mbox-format' to change this.
747
748 ** Ruby mode
749
750 *** Improved syntax highlighting and indentation.
751
752 *** New `electric-indent-mode' integration.
753
754 *** New option `ruby-encoding-magic-comment-style'.
755
756 *** New option `ruby-custom-encoding-magic-comment-template'.
757
758 *** New option `ruby-align-to-stmt-keywords'.
759
760 *** New option `ruby-align-chained-calls'.
761
762 *** More Ruby file types have been added to `auto-mode-alist'.
763
764 ** Search and Replace
765
766 *** New global command `M-s .' (`isearch-forward-symbol-at-point')
767 starts a symbol (identifier) incremental search forward with the
768 symbol found near point added to the search string initially.
769
770 *** `C-x 8 RET' in Isearch mode reads a character by its Unicode name
771 and adds it to the search string.
772
773 *** `M-s i' in Isearch mode toggles whether search matches invisible text.
774
775 *** `query-replace' skips invisible text when `search-invisible' is nil,
776 and opens overlays with hidden text when `search-invisible' is `open'.
777
778 *** A negative prefix argument of replacement commands replaces backward.
779 `M-- M-%' replaces a string backward, `M-- C-M-%' replaces a regexp
780 backward, `M-s w words M-- M-%' replaces a sequence of words backward.
781
782 *** By default, prefix arguments do not now terminate Isearch mode.
783 Set `isearch-allow-prefix' to nil to restore the old behavior.
784
785 *** More Isearch commands accept prefix arguments, namely
786 `isearch-printing-char', `isearch-quote-char', `isearch-yank-word',
787 `isearch-yank-line'.
788
789 *** Word search now matches whitespace at the beginning/end
790 of the search string if it contains leading/trailing whitespace.
791 In an incremental word search or when using a non-nil LAX argument
792 of `word-search-regexp', the lax matching can also match part of
793 the first word (in addition to the lax matching of the last word).
794 The same rules are now applied to the symbol search, with the difference
795 that it matches symbols, and non-symbol characters between symbols.
796
797 ** New SES command `ses-rename-cell' allows assignment of names to SES cells.
798
799 ** The shell.el option `explicit-bash-args' includes --noediting by default.
800 All non-ancient Bash versions support this option.
801
802 ** Shell Script mode
803
804 *** The SMIE indentation engine is now used by default - see `sh-use-smie'.
805
806 *** `sh-mode' now has its own setting for `add-log-current-defun-function'.
807
808 ** SMIE
809
810 *** You can customize the SMIE indentation of a mode via `smie-config'.
811 The command `smie-config-guess' can help you derive the appropriate
812 indentation settings, if you provide it with an indented sample file.
813 Use `smie-config-save' to save the result.
814
815 *** You can customize the SMIE indentation of a file by adding an entry to
816 the file's local variables of the form: `eval: (smie-config-local '(RULES))'.
817
818 *** New commands `smie-config-show-indent' and `smie-config-set-indent'.
819
820 ** SQL mode
821
822 *** Improved login monitoring and appropriate response to login failures.
823 New variable `sql-login-delay' defines maximum wait time for a connection.
824
825 *** Oracle support.
826 SQL*Plus script placeholders are properly highlighted and identified
827 in `sql-placeholders-filter'. When starting SQL*Plus, `sql-oracle-options'
828 are passed before the logon parameter, as required. The default now
829 includes `-L', to limit the number of logon attempts per invocation.
830
831 ** New Term mode option `term-suppress-hard-newline'.
832
833 ** Todo mode has been rewritten and enhanced.
834 The Todo mode user manual describes all commands and most user
835 options. To support some of these features, a new file format is
836 used, which is incompatible with the old format; however, you can
837 convert old todo and done item files to the new format on initializing
838 the first new todo file, or at any later time with the provided
839 conversion command. The previous version of todo-mode.el has been
840 renamed to otodo-mode.el and is now obsolete. New features include:
841
842 *** Support for multiple todo files and archive files of done items.
843
844 *** Renaming, reordering, moving, merging, and deleting categories.
845
846 *** Sortable tabular summaries of categories and the item types they contain.
847
848 *** Cross-category lists of items filtered by specific criteria.
849
850 *** More fine-grained interaction with the Emacs diary, by being able to
851 decide for each todo item whether it appears in the Fancy Diary display.
852
853 *** Highly flexible new item insertion and item editing.
854
855 *** Moving items between categories, storing done items in their category
856 or in archive files, undoing or unarchiving done items.
857
858 *** Reprioritizing items by inputting a numerical priority.
859
860 *** Extensive customizability of operation and display, including many faces.
861
862 ** Trace
863
864 *** `trace-function' and `trace-function-background' no longer prompt for
865 the output buffer. Unless you use a prefix argument, they output to
866 `trace-buffer'.
867
868 *** With a prefix argument, `trace-function' and `trace-function-background'
869 will prompt for a "context". This is a Lisp expression, whose value at the
870 time the function is entered/exited is printed along with the function's
871 name and arguments.
872
873 ** Tramp
874
875 *** New connection method "adb", which allows to access Android
876 devices by the Android Debug Bridge. The variable `tramp-adb-program'
877 can be used to adapt the path of the "adb" program, if needed.
878
879 *** Handlers for `file-acl' and `set-file-acl' for remote machines
880 that support POSIX ACLs.
881
882 *** Handlers for `file-notify-add-watch' and `file-notify-rm-watch'
883 for remote machines that support filesystem notifications.
884
885 *** The experimental url syntax for remote file names has been removed.
886
887 *** The connection methods "plink1", "ssh1", "ssh2", "scp1", "scp2",
888 "scpc" and "rsyncc" are discontinued. The ssh option
889 "ControlMaster=auto" is set automatically in all ssh-based methods,
890 when possible. See `tramp-use-ssh-controlmaster-options'.
891
892 ** New URL command `url-cookie-list' displays the current cookies,
893 and allows you to interactively remove cookies.
894
895 ** VC and related modes
896
897 *** In VC directory mode, `D' displays diffs between VC-controlled
898 whole tree revisions.
899
900 *** In VC directory mode, `L' lists the change log for the current VC
901 controlled tree in a window.
902
903 *** In VC directory mode, `I' shows a log of changes that will be
904 received with a pull operation.
905
906 *** `C-x v G' (globally) and `G' (in VC directory mode) ignores a file
907 under current version control system. When called with a prefix
908 argument, you can remove a file from the ignored file list.
909
910 ** VHDL mode
911
912 *** New options: `vhdl-actual-generic-name', `vhdl-beautify-options'.
913
914 *** New commands: `vhdl-fix-statement-region', `vhdl-fix-statement-buffer'.
915
916 ** The Woman commands `woman-default-faces' and `woman-monochrome-faces'
917 are obsolete. Customize the `woman-*' faces instead.
918
919 ** More packages look for ~/.emacs.d/<foo> additionally to ~/.<foo>.
920 Affected files:
921 ~/.emacs.d/timelog replaces ~/.timelog
922 ~/.emacs.d/vip replaces ~/.vip
923 ~/.emacs.d/viper replaces ~/.viper
924 ~/.emacs.d/ido.last replaces ~/.ido.last
925 ~/.emacs.d/kkcrc replaces ~/.kkcrc
926 ~/.emacs.d/quickurls replaces ~/.quickurls
927 ~/.emacs.d/idlwave/ replaces ~/.idlwave/
928 ~/.emacs.d/bdfcache.el replaces ~/.bdfcache.el
929 ~/.emacs.d/places replaces ~/.emacs-places
930 ~/.emacs.d/shadows replaces ~/.shadows
931 ~/.emacs.d/shadow_todo replaces ~/.shadow_todo
932 ~/.emacs.d/strokes replaces ~/.strokes
933 ~/.emacs.d/notes replaces ~/.notes
934 ~/.emacs.d/type-break replaces ~/.type-break
935 Also the following files used by the now obsolete otodo-mode.el:
936 ~/.emacs.d/todo-do replaces ~/.todo-do
937 ~/.emacs.d/todo-done replaces ~/.todo-done
938 ~/.emacs.d/todo-top replaces ~/.todo-top
939
940 ** Obsolete packages
941
942 *** iswitchb.el; use icomplete-mode.
943
944 *** longlines.el; use visual-line-mode.
945
946 *** meese.el.
947
948 *** sup-mouse.el.
949
950 *** terminal.el; use term.el instead.
951
952 *** the old version of todo-mode.el (renamed to otodo-mode.el).
953
954 *** xesam.el (owing to the cancellation of the XESAM project).
955
956 *** yow.el; use fortune.el or cookie1.el instead.
957
958 \f
959 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.4
960
961 ** New package eww.el provides a built-in web browser.
962 This requires Emacs to have been compiled with libxml2 support.
963
964 ** New package nadvice.el offers lighter-weight advice facilities.
965 It is layered as:
966
967 *** `add-function'/`remove-function', which can be used to add/remove code on
968 any function-carrying place, such as process filters or `<foo>-function' hooks.
969
970 *** `advice-add'/`advice-remove' to add/remove a piece of advice on a named
971 function, much like `defadvice' does.
972
973 ** New package frameset.el provides a set of operations to save a frameset
974 (the state of all or a subset of the existing frames and windows, somewhat
975 similar to a frame configuration), both in-session and persistently, and
976 restore it at some point in the future.
977
978 ** New package filenotify.el provides an interface for file system
979 notifications. It requires that Emacs be compiled with one of the
980 low-level libraries gfilenotify.c, inotify.c or w32notify.c.
981
982 ** New minor modes `prettify-symbols-mode' and `global-prettify-symbols-mode'
983 display specified symbols as composed characters. E.g., in Emacs Lisp mode,
984 this replaces the string "lambda" with the Greek lambda character.
985
986 ** New minor mode `superword-mode', which overrides the default word motion
987 commands to treat "symbol_words" as a single word, similar to what
988 `subword-mode' does.
989
990 \f
991 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.4
992
993 ** The default file coding for Emacs Lisp files is now utf-8.
994 (See `file-coding-system-alist'.) In most cases, this change is
995 transparent, but files that contain unusual characters without
996 specifying an explicit coding system may fail to load with obscure
997 errors. You should either convert them to utf-8 or add an explicit
998 `coding:' cookie.
999
1000 ** Default process filters and sentinels are not nil any more.
1001 Instead they default to a function that does what the nil value used to do.
1002
1003 ** Overlay priority does not have to be nil or a non-negative integer.
1004 Overlay priority can be other kinds of Lisp objects. We didn't yet
1005 decide whether other types of values are stable enough, and therefore
1006 don't feel it's right to document them. For now, don't assume in your
1007 code that the values of overlay priority can only be either nil or an
1008 integer, always test them with an appropriate predicate to be one or
1009 the other. If you need to sort arbitrary overlays into priority
1010 order, `overlays-at' can now optionally do this.
1011 You should still only specify integer priorities on overlays you create.
1012
1013 ** The cars of the elements in `interpreter-mode-alist' are now
1014 treated as regexps rather than literal strings.
1015
1016 ** `overriding-terminal-local-map' no longer replaces the local keymaps.
1017 It used to disable the minor mode, major mode, and text-property keymaps,
1018 whereas now it simply has higher precedence.
1019
1020 ** `kill-region' has lost its `yank-handler' optional argument.
1021
1022 ** `(input-pending-p)' no longer runs other timers that are ready to run.
1023 The new optional CHECK-TIMERS parameter allows for the prior behavior.
1024
1025 ** `defvar' and `defcustom' in a let-binding affect the "external" default.
1026
1027 ** The syntax of ?» and ?« is now punctuation instead of matched parens.
1028 Some languages match those as »...«, and others as «...», so it is
1029 better for Emacs to stay neutral by default.
1030
1031 ** `read-event' does not always decode chars in ttys any more. As was the case
1032 in Emacs 22 and before, `read-event' (and `read-char') by default read raw
1033 bytes from the terminal. If you want to read decoded chars instead (as was
1034 always the case in Emacs-23, for example), pass a non-nil
1035 `inherit-input-method' argument.
1036
1037 ** In `symbol-function', nil and "unbound" are indistinguishable.
1038 `symbol-function' does not signal a `void-function' error any more.
1039 To determine if a symbol's function definition is void, use `fboundp'.
1040
1041 ** `defadvice' does not honor the `freeze' flag and cannot advise
1042 special-forms any more.
1043
1044 ** `dolist' no longer binds VAR while evaluating the RESULT form,
1045 when lexical binding is enabled. Previously, VAR was bound to nil,
1046 which often led to spurious unused-variable warnings.
1047
1048 ** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
1049 The second argument is no longer an SELinux context, instead it is an
1050 alist of extended attributes as returned by the new function
1051 `file-extended-attributes'. The attributes can be applied to another
1052 file using `set-file-extended-attributes'.
1053
1054 ** By default `copy-file' no longer copies file permission bits to an
1055 existing destination; and it sets the file permission bits of a newly
1056 created destination to those of the source, masked by the default file
1057 permissions. To copy the file permission bits, pass t as the
1058 PRESERVE-PERMISSIONS argument of `copy-file'.
1059
1060 ** `visited-file-modtime' now returns -1 for nonexistent files.
1061 Formerly it returned a list (-1 LOW USEC PSEC), but this was ambiguous
1062 in the presence of files with negative time stamps.
1063
1064 ** Frame-local variables that affect redisplay do not work any more.
1065 More specifically, redisplay does not bother to check for a frame-local
1066 value when looking up variables.
1067
1068 ** In compiled Lisp files, the header no longer includes a timestamp.
1069
1070 ** The option `inhibit-local-menu-bar-menus' has been removed.
1071
1072 \f
1073 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.4
1074
1075 ** Change to the Emacs Lisp coding conventions: the package descriptor
1076 and name of global variables, constants, and functions should be separated
1077 by two hyphens if the symbol is not meant to be used by other packages.
1078
1079 ** The second argument of `eval' can now specify a lexical environment.
1080
1081 ** New macro `define-alternatives' can be used to define generic commands.
1082 Generic commands are interactive functions whose implementation can be
1083 selected among several alternatives, as a matter of user preference.
1084
1085 ** Numeric comparison functions =, <, >, <=, >= can now take many arguments.
1086
1087 ** New functions `special-form-p' and `macrop'.
1088
1089 ** New macro `with-eval-after-load'.
1090 This is like the old `eval-after-load', but better behaved.
1091
1092 ** If you give a symbol a `defalias-fset-function' property, `defalias'
1093 on that symbol will use the associated value as a function to call
1094 in place of `fset'.
1095
1096 ** New variable `enable-dir-local-variables'.
1097 Directory-local variables are ignored if this is nil. This may be
1098 useful for modes that want to ignore directory-locals while still
1099 respecting file-local variables.
1100
1101 ** `read-regexp' now uses the new variable `read-regexp-defaults-function'
1102 as a function to call to provide default values.
1103
1104 ** New functions `group-gid' and `group-real-gid'.
1105
1106 ** New function `get-pos-property'.
1107
1108 ** New hook `pre-redisplay-function'.
1109
1110 ** `byte-compile-interactive-only-functions' is now obsolete.
1111 To specify that a command should only be called interactively, give it
1112 a non-nil `interactive-only' property.
1113
1114 ** New function `string-suffix-p'.
1115
1116 ** `split-string' now takes an optional argument TRIM.
1117 The value, if non-nil, is a regexp that specifies what to trim from
1118 the start and end of each substring.
1119
1120 ** Completion
1121
1122 *** The separator used by `completing-read-multiple' is now a regexp.
1123 The default `crm-separator' has been changed to allow surrounding spaces
1124 around the comma.
1125
1126 *** New function `completion-table-with-cache' is a wrapper for
1127 `completion-table-dynamic' that caches the result of the last lookup.
1128
1129 *** New function `completion-table-merge' to combine several
1130 completion tables by merging their completions.
1131
1132 *** The `common-substring' argument of `display-completion-list',
1133 which has been documented as obsolete since Emacs 23.1, is now _really_
1134 obsolete, and no longer advertised. Instead either call
1135 `completion-hilit-commonality' to add the highlighting; or use
1136 `completion-all-completions', which returns highlighted strings.
1137
1138 ** Encoding and decoding of text
1139
1140 *** New coding-system `prefer-utf-8'.
1141 This is like `undecided' but prefers UTF-8 on decoding if the text to
1142 be decoded does not contain any invalid UTF-8 sequences. On encoding,
1143 any non-ASCII characters are automatically encoded as UTF-8.
1144
1145 *** New attributes of coding-systems whose type is `undecided'.
1146 Two new attributes, `:inhibit-null-byte-detection' and
1147 `:inhibit-iso-escape-detection', determine how to detect encoding of
1148 text that includes null bytes and ISO-2022 escape sequences, respectively.
1149 Each of these attributes can be either nil, zero, or t. If t, decoding
1150 text ignores null bytes and ISO-2022 sequences, respectively. If nil,
1151 null bytes cause text to be decoded with no-conversion, and ISO-2022
1152 sequences cause Emacs to assume the text is encoded in one of the ISO-2022
1153 encodings, such as iso-2022-7bit. If zero, Emacs consults the variables
1154 `inhibit-null-byte-detection' and `inhibit-iso-escape-detection'.
1155 The new attribute `:prefer-utf-8', if non-nil, causes Emacs to prefer
1156 UTF-8 encoding and decoding, whenever possible.
1157
1158 These attributes are only meaningful for coding-systems of type `undecided'.
1159 (The type of a coding-system is determined by its `:coding-type' attribute
1160 and can be accessed by calling the `coding-system-type' function.)
1161
1162 ** Error-handling
1163
1164 *** New function `define-error'.
1165
1166 *** `with-demoted-errors' takes an additional argument `format'.
1167
1168 *** Errors from timer functions are no longer silently discarded,
1169 but are reported as messages. So you may see "Error running timer"
1170 messages from code that was failing silently till now. Set
1171 `debug-on-error' non-nil to get a real error and a backtrace.
1172
1173 ** Faces
1174
1175 *** Face specs set via Custom themes now replace the `defface' spec
1176 rather than inheriting from it. In other words, setting a face via a
1177 theme now behaves like setting it via Customize: you only need to
1178 specify the attributes that you want, you don't need to unset those
1179 that you don't want.
1180
1181 *** The function `face-spec-set' is now like `setq' for face specs.
1182 Its third arg now accepts values specifying a face spec type (defface,
1183 custom, or override spec), and the relevant spec is set accordingly.
1184
1185 *** New face spec attribute :distant-foreground
1186 specifies foreground to use if background color is near the foreground
1187 color that would otherwise have been used.
1188
1189 *** New function `add-face-text-property', which can be used to
1190 conveniently prepend/append new face properties.
1191
1192 *** New face characteristic (supports :underline (:style wave))
1193 specifies whether or not the terminal can display a wavy line.
1194
1195 ** File-handling
1196
1197 *** Support for filesystem notifications.
1198 Emacs now supports notifications of filesystem changes, such as
1199 creation, modification, and deletion of files. This requires the
1200 `glib' API, or the 'inotify' API (on GNU/Linux systems only). On
1201 MS-Windows systems, this is supported for Windows XP and newer.
1202
1203 *** The 9th element returned by `file-attributes' is now unspecified.
1204 Formerly, it was t if the file's gid would change if file were deleted
1205 and recreated. This value has been inaccurate for years on many
1206 platforms, and nobody seems to have noticed or cared.
1207
1208 *** The 6th argument to `copy-file' has been renamed to
1209 PRESERVE-PERMISSIONS as it now handles ACL entries and the traditional
1210 Unix file permission bits as well as SELinux context.
1211
1212 *** The function `file-ownership-preserved-p' now has an optional
1213 argument GROUP which causes it check for file group too. This can be
1214 used in place of the 9th element of `file-attributes'.
1215
1216 *** The function `set-visited-file-modtime' now accepts a 0 or -1 argument,
1217 with the same interpretation as the returned value of `visited-file-modtime'.
1218
1219 ** Image API
1220
1221 *** `image-animated-p' is now `image-multi-frame-p'.
1222 It returns non-nil for any image that contains multiple frames,
1223 whether or not it specifies a frame delay.
1224
1225 *** New variable `image-default-frame-delay' gives the frame delay for
1226 animated images which do not specify a frame delay.
1227
1228 *** New functions `image-current-frame' and `image-show-frame' for getting
1229 and setting the current frame of a multi-frame image.
1230
1231 ** ImageMagick
1232
1233 *** ImageMagick images now support the :max-width and :max-height keywords.
1234
1235 *** When using `create-image' with image data, you can pass a :format
1236 attribute (via the property-list argument) in order to help
1237 ImageMagick detect the image type. The value should be a MIME
1238 content-type that is found in the new variable `image-format-suffixes'.
1239
1240 ** Revert and Autorevert
1241
1242 *** If Emacs is compiled with file notification support, it uses notifications
1243 instead of checking file time stamps. To disable this, set the user option
1244 `auto-revert-use-notify' to nil. Alternatively, you can specify a regular
1245 expression matching directories to be excluded from file notifications via
1246 `auto-revert-notify-exclude-dir-regexp'.
1247
1248 *** The default values of `buffer-stale-function', `revert-buffer-function',
1249 and `revert-buffer-insert-file-contents-function' are no longer nil.
1250 Instead they default to functions that do what the nil value used to.
1251
1252 *** `buffer-stale-function' is now used for buffers visiting files too.
1253
1254 *** The new user option `auto-revert-remote-files' enables reversion
1255 of remote files, if non-nil.
1256
1257 ** Terminal
1258
1259 *** Functions to pop up menus and dialogs now work on all terminals,
1260 including TTYs. This includes `x-popup-menu', `x-popup-dialog',
1261 `message-box', `yes-or-no-p', etc.
1262
1263 The function `display-popup-menus-p' will now return non-nil for a
1264 display or frame whenever a mouse is supported on that display or frame.
1265
1266 *** New hook `tty-setup-hook', run at the end of initializing a text terminal.
1267
1268 *** The hook `term-setup-hook' is obsolete. It is entirely equivalent
1269 to `emacs-startup-hook'. See also the new `tty-setup-hook'.
1270
1271 ** Minor internal changes to the details of lock files.
1272 The lock for DIR/FILE is now _always_ DIR/.#FILE.
1273 If DIR/.#FILE already exists and is not an Emacs lock file,
1274 Emacs makes no attempt to lock DIR/FILE. (Previously, it fell back to
1275 numbered lock files DIR/.#FILE.0...).
1276 On file systems that do not support symbolic links, the lock is now a
1277 regular file with contents being what would have been in the symlink.
1278
1279 ** New bool-vector set operation functions:
1280 *** `bool-vector-exclusive-or'
1281 *** `bool-vector-union'
1282 *** `bool-vector-intersection'
1283 *** `bool-vector-set-difference'
1284 *** `bool-vector-not'
1285 *** `bool-vector-subsetp'
1286 *** `bool-vector-count-consecutive'
1287 *** `bool-vector-count-population'
1288
1289 ** New library subr-x.el with miscellaneous small utility functions:
1290 *** `hash-table-keys'
1291 *** `hash-table-values'
1292 *** `string-blank-p'
1293 *** `string-empty-p'
1294 *** `string-join'
1295 *** `string-reverse'
1296 *** `string-trim-left'
1297 *** `string-trim-right'
1298 *** `string-trim'
1299 *** `string-remove-prefix'
1300 *** `string-remove-suffix'
1301
1302 ** The `time-to-seconds' alias to `float-time' is no longer marked obsolete.
1303
1304 ** The spelling of the rx.el category `chinese-two-byte' has been
1305 corrected (the first 'e' was missing).
1306
1307 ** EIEIO namespace cleanup, obsolete-aliasing functions to use `eieio-' prefix:
1308 *** object-name -> eieio-object-name
1309 *** object-class -> eieio-object-class
1310 *** object-class-fast -> eieio--object-class
1311 *** object-class-name -> eieio-object-class-name
1312 *** object-name-string -> eieio-object-name-string
1313 *** object-num-slots -> eieio--object-num-slots
1314 *** object-set-name-string -> eieio-object-set-name-string
1315 *** class-of -> eieio-object-class
1316 *** class-name -> eieio-class-name
1317 *** class-parent -> eieio-class-parent
1318 *** class-parents -> eieio-class-parents
1319 *** class-parents-fast -> eieio-class-parents-fast
1320 *** class-children -> eieio-class-children
1321 *** class-num-slots -> eieio--class-num-slots
1322 *** class-precedence-list -> eieio-class-precedence-list
1323 *** class-direct-subclasses -> eieio-class-children
1324 *** class-direct-superclasses -> eieio-class-parents
1325
1326 ** Obsoleted functions
1327 *** `log10'
1328 *** `dont-compile'
1329 *** `lisp-complete-symbol'
1330 *** `field-complete'
1331 *** `minibuffer-completion-contents'
1332 *** `isearch-nonincremental-exit-minibuffer'
1333 *** `isearch-filter-visible'
1334 *** `generic-make-keywords-list'
1335 *** `get-upcase-table' (use `case-table-get-table' instead).
1336
1337 ** `with-wrapper-hook' is obsoleted by `add-function'.
1338 The few hooks that used with-wrapper-hook are replaced as follows:
1339 *** `abbrev-expand-function' obsoletes `abbrev-expand-functions'.
1340 *** `completion-in-region-function' obsoletes `completion-in-region-functions'.
1341 *** `filter-buffer-substring-function' obsoletes `filter-buffer-substring-functions'.
1342
1343 \f
1344 * Changes in Emacs 24.4 on Non-Free Operating Systems
1345
1346 ** New Core Text based font backend for Mac OS X 10.5 and newer.
1347 To use the old font backend, use the following on the command line:
1348 % defaults write org.gnu.Emacs FontBackend ns
1349 GNUstep and Mac OS X 10.4 use the old font backend.
1350
1351 ** Improved fullscreen support on Mac OS X 10.7 and newer, where the
1352 default fullscreen method is now "native" fullscreen. To use the
1353 old style fullscreen, customize `ns-use-native-fullscreen' to nil.
1354
1355 ** On Mac OS X 10.7 and newer, Emacs can use sRGB colorspace, and does so
1356 by default. Customize `ns-use-srgb-colorspace' to go back to the old method.
1357 Note that this does not apply to images.
1358
1359 ** The procedure for building Emacs on MS-Windows has changed.
1360 It is now built by running the same configure script as on all other
1361 platforms. This requires the MSYS environment and MinGW development
1362 tools. See the updated instructions in nt/INSTALL for details.
1363
1364 Using the Posix configure script and Makefiles also means a change in
1365 the directory structure of the Emacs installation on Windows. It is
1366 now the same as on GNU and Unix systems. In particular, the auxiliary
1367 programs, such as cmdproxy.exe and hexl.exe, are in
1368 libexec/emacs/VERSION/i686-pc-mingw32 (where VERSION is the Emacs
1369 version), version-independent site-lisp is in share/emacs/site-lisp,
1370 version-specific Lisp files are in share/emacs/VERSION/lisp and in
1371 share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, Info docs are in share/info, and data
1372 files are in share/emacs/VERSION/etc. (Emacs knows about all these
1373 directories and will find the files in there automatically; there's no
1374 need to set any variables due to this change.)
1375
1376 ** Emacs on Windows 2000 and later can now access files and directories
1377 whose names cannot be encoded in the current system codepage.
1378
1379 The new variable `w32-unicode-filenames' controls this feature: if it
1380 is t, Emacs uses Unicode APIs to pass file names to system calls,
1381 which lifts the limitation of file names to the current locale.
1382
1383 ** Lock files now work on MS-Windows.
1384 This helps to prevent losing your edits if the same file is being
1385 edited in another Emacs session or by another user. See the node
1386 "Interlocking" in the Emacs User Manual for the details. To disable
1387 file locking, customize `create-lockfiles' to nil.
1388
1389 ** The "generate a backtrace on fatal error" feature now works on MS-Windows.
1390 The backtrace is written to the 'emacs_backtrace.txt' file in the
1391 directory where Emacs was running.
1392
1393 ** The `network-interface-list' and `network-interface-info' functions
1394 are now available on MS-Windows.
1395
1396 ** The variable `buffer-file-type' is no longer supported.
1397 Setting it has no effect, and %t in the mode-line format is ignored.
1398 Likewise, `file-name-buffer-file-type-alist' is now obsolete, and
1399 modifying it has no effect.
1400
1401 \f
1402 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.3
1403
1404 ** The default X toolkit is now Gtk+ version 3.
1405 If you don't pass `--with-x-toolkit' to configure, or if you use
1406 `--with-x-toolkit=gtk' or `--with-x-toolkit=yes', configure will try
1407 to build with Gtk+ version 3, and if that fails, try Gtk+ version 2.
1408 You can explicitly require a specific version by passing
1409 `--with-x-toolkit=gtk2' or `--with-x-toolkit=gtk3' to configure.
1410
1411 ** New configure option `--enable-link-time-optimization', to utilize
1412 an appropriate feature provided by GCC since version 4.5.0.
1413
1414 ** New configure option `--without-all' to disable most of the optional
1415 features (image support, etc.) that are normally enabled by default.
1416
1417 ** New configure option `--enable-gcc-warnings' (for developing/debugging
1418 Emacs). If building with GCC, this enables compile-time checks that
1419 warn/give errors about possibly-questionable C code. On a recent GNU
1420 system there should be no warnings; on older and on non-GNU systems
1421 the results may be useful to developers.
1422
1423 ** The configure option `--enable-use-lisp-union-type' has been
1424 renamed to `--enable-check-lisp-object-type', as the resulting
1425 Lisp_Object type no longer uses a union to implement the compile time
1426 check that this option enables.
1427
1428 ** The configure option `--disable-maintainer-mode' has been removed,
1429 as it was confusingly-named and rarely useful.
1430
1431 ** The configure options `--program-prefix', `--program-suffix', and
1432 `--program-transform-name' apply to more than just the installed
1433 binaries. Now they also affect the man pages, icons, and the
1434 etc/emacs.desktop file; but not the info pages, since this would break
1435 links between the various manuals.
1436
1437 ** You can use `NO_BIN_LINK=t make install' to prevent the installation
1438 overwriting "emacs" in the installation bin/ directory with a link
1439 to "emacs-VERSION".
1440
1441 ** Emacs uses libtinfo in preference to libncurses, if available.
1442
1443 ** On FreeBSD and NetBSD, configure no longer adds /usr/local/lib and
1444 /usr/pkg/lib to the linker search path. You must add them yourself if
1445 you want them.
1446
1447 ** The standalone scripts `rcs-checkin' and `vcdiff' have been removed
1448 (from the bin and libexec directories, respectively). The former is
1449 no longer relevant, the latter is replaced by lisp (in vc-sccs.el).
1450
1451 \f
1452 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.3
1453
1454 ** Emacs no longer searches for `leim-list.el' files beneath the standard
1455 lisp/ directory. There should not be any there anyway. If you have
1456 been adding them there, put them somewhere else; e.g., site-lisp.
1457
1458 ** The `--no-site-lisp' command line option now works for Nextstep builds.
1459
1460 \f
1461 * Changes in Emacs 24.3
1462
1463 ** Help
1464
1465 *** `C-h f' (`describe-function') can now perform autoloading.
1466 When this command is called for an autoloaded function whose docstring
1467 contains a key substitution construct, that function's library is
1468 automatically loaded, so that the documentation can be shown
1469 correctly. To disable this, set `help-enable-auto-load' to nil.
1470
1471 *** `C-h f' now reports previously-autoloaded functions as "autoloaded",
1472 even after their associated libraries have been loaded (and the
1473 autoloads have been redefined as functions).
1474
1475 ** ImageMagick
1476
1477 *** Images displayed via ImageMagick now support transparency and the
1478 :background image specification property.
1479
1480 *** When available, ImageMagick support is automatically enabled.
1481 It is no longer necessary to call `imagemagick-register-types'
1482 explicitly to install ImageMagick image types; that function is called
1483 automatically at startup, or when customizing an imagemagick- option.
1484
1485 *** Setting `imagemagick-types-inhibit' to t now disables the use of
1486 ImageMagick to view images. (You must call `imagemagick-register-types'
1487 afterwards if you do not use customize to change this.)
1488
1489 *** The new variable `imagemagick-enabled-types' also affects which
1490 ImageMagick types are treated as images. The function
1491 `imagemagick-filter-types' returns the list of types that will be
1492 treated as images.
1493
1494 ** Minibuffer
1495
1496 *** In minibuffer filename prompts, `C-M-f' and `C-M-b' now move to the
1497 next and previous path separator, respectively.
1498
1499 *** `minibuffer-electric-default-mode' can shorten "(default ...)" to "[...]"
1500 in minibuffer prompts. Just set `minibuffer-eldef-shorten-default'
1501 non-nil before enabling the mode.
1502
1503 ** Mode line
1504
1505 *** New option `mode-line-default-help-echo' specifies the help text
1506 (shown in a tooltip or in the echo area) for any part of the mode line
1507 that does not have its own specialized help text.
1508
1509 *** You can now click mouse-3 in the coding system indicator to invoke
1510 `set-buffer-file-coding-system'.
1511
1512 ** Server and client
1513
1514 *** emacsclient now obeys string values for `initial-buffer-choice',
1515 if it is told to open a new frame without specifying any file to visit
1516 or expression to evaluate.
1517
1518 *** New option `server-auth-key' specifies a shared server key.
1519
1520 ** Emacs now generates backtraces on fatal errors.
1521 On encountering a fatal error, Emacs now outputs a textual description
1522 of the fatal signal, and a short backtrace on platforms like glibc
1523 that support backtraces.
1524
1525 ** `C-x C-q' is now bound to the new minor mode `read-only-mode'.
1526 This minor mode replaces `toggle-read-only', which is now obsolete.
1527
1528 ** Most `y-or-n' prompts now allow you to scroll the selected window.
1529 Typing `C-v' or `M-v' at a y-or-n prompt scrolls forward or backward
1530 respectively, without exiting from the prompt.
1531
1532 ** In the Package Menu, newly-available packages are listed as "new",
1533 and sorted above the other "available" packages by default.
1534
1535 ** If your Emacs was built from a repository checkout, the new variable
1536 `emacs-bzr-version' contains information about the bzr revision used.
1537
1538 ** New option `create-lockfiles' specifies usage of lockfiles.
1539 It defaults to t. Changing it to nil inhibits the creation of lock
1540 files (use this with caution).
1541
1542 ** New option `enable-remote-dir-locals', if non-nil, allows directory-local
1543 variables on remote hosts.
1544
1545 ** The entry for PCL-CVS has been removed from the Tools menu.
1546 The PCL-CVS commands are still available via the keyboard.
1547
1548 ** Using "unibyte: t" in Lisp source files is obsolete.
1549 Use "coding: raw-text" instead.
1550
1551 ** In the buffer made by `M-x report-emacs-bug', the `C-c m' binding
1552 has been changed to `C-c M-i' (`report-emacs-bug-insert-to-mailer').
1553 The previous binding, introduced in Emacs 24.1, was a mistake, because
1554 `C-c LETTER' bindings are reserved for user customizations.
1555
1556 ** Internationalization
1557
1558 *** New language environment: Persian.
1559
1560 *** New input method `vietnamese-vni'.
1561
1562 ** Nextstep (GNUstep / Mac OS X) port
1563
1564 *** Support for fullscreen and the frame parameter fullscreen.
1565
1566 *** A file dialog is used for open/save operations initiated from the
1567 menu/toolbar.
1568
1569 \f
1570 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.3
1571
1572 ** Search and Replace
1573
1574 *** Non-regexp Isearch now performs "lax" space matching.
1575 Each sequence of spaces in the supplied search string may match any
1576 sequence of one or more whitespace characters, as specified by the
1577 variable `search-whitespace-regexp'. (This variable is also used by a
1578 similar existing feature for regexp Isearch.)
1579
1580 *** New Isearch command `M-s SPC' toggles lax space matching.
1581 This applies to both ordinary and regexp Isearch.
1582
1583 *** New option `replace-lax-whitespace'.
1584 If non-nil, `query-replace' uses flexible whitespace matching too.
1585 The default is nil.
1586
1587 *** Global `M-s _' starts a symbol (identifier) incremental search,
1588 and `M-s _' in Isearch toggles symbol search mode.
1589 `M-s c' in Isearch toggles search case-sensitivity.
1590
1591 ** Navigation commands
1592
1593 *** New binding `M-g c' for `goto-char'.
1594
1595 *** New binding `M-g TAB' for `move-to-column'.
1596
1597 *** `M-g TAB' (`move-to-column') prompts for a column number if called
1598 interactively with no prefix arg. Previously, it moved to column 1.
1599
1600 ** New option `yank-handled-properties' allows processing of text
1601 properties on yanked text, in ways that are more general than just
1602 removing them (as is done by `yank-excluded-properties').
1603
1604 ** New option `delete-trailing-lines' specifies whether
1605 M-x delete-trailing-whitespace should delete trailing lines at the end
1606 of the buffer. It defaults to t.
1607
1608 ** `C-u M-=' now counts lines/words/characters in the entire buffer.
1609
1610 ** `C-x 8 RET' is now bound to `insert-char', which is now a command.
1611 `ucs-insert' is now an obsolete alias for `insert-char'.
1612
1613 ** The `z' key no longer has a binding in most special modes.
1614 It used to be bound to `kill-this-buffer', but `z' is too easy to
1615 accidentally type.
1616
1617 ** New command `C-x r M-w' (`copy-rectangle-as-kill').
1618 It copies the region-rectangle as the last rectangle kill.
1619
1620 ** Registers
1621
1622 *** `C-x r +' is now overloaded to invoke `append-to-register'.
1623
1624 *** New option `register-separator' specifies the register containing
1625 the text to put between collected texts for use with
1626 M-x append-to-register and M-x prepend-to-register.
1627
1628 \f
1629 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.3
1630
1631 ** Common Lisp emulation (CL)
1632
1633 *** CL's main entry is now (require 'cl-lib).
1634 `cl-lib' is like the old `cl' except that it uses the namespace cleanly;
1635 i.e., all its definitions have the "cl-" prefix (and internal definitions
1636 use the "cl--" prefix).
1637
1638 If `cl' provided a feature under the name `foo', then `cl-lib'
1639 provides it under the name `cl-foo' instead; with the exceptions of the
1640 few `cl' definitions that had to use `foo*' to avoid conflicts with
1641 pre-existing Elisp entities. These have been renamed to `cl-foo'
1642 rather than `cl-foo*'.
1643
1644 The old `cl' is now deprecated and is mainly just a bunch of aliases that
1645 provide the old, non-prefixed names. Some exceptions are listed below:
1646
1647 *** `cl-flet' is not like `flet' (which is deprecated).
1648 Instead it obeys the behavior of Common-Lisp's `flet'.
1649 In particular, in cl-flet function definitions are lexically scoped,
1650 whereas in flet the scoping is dynamic.
1651
1652 *** `cl-labels' is slightly different from `labels'.
1653 The difference is that it relies on the `lexical-binding' machinery
1654 (as opposed to the `lexical-let' machinery used previously) to capture
1655 definitions in closures, so such closures will only work if `lexical-binding'
1656 is in use.
1657
1658 *** `cl-letf' is not exactly like `letf'.
1659 The only difference is in details that relate to some deprecated usage
1660 of `symbol-function' in place forms.
1661
1662 *** `progv' was rewritten to use the `let' machinery.
1663 A side effect is that variables without corresponding values are bound
1664 to nil rather than being made unbound.
1665
1666 *** The following methods of extending `setf' are obsolete
1667 (use features from gv.el instead):
1668 `define-modify-macro' (use `gv-letplace')
1669 `defsetf' (use `gv-define-simple-setter' or `gv-define-setter')
1670 `define-setf-expander' (use `gv-define-setter' or `gv-define-expander')
1671 `get-setf-method' no longer exists (see "Incompatible Lisp Changes")
1672
1673 ** Diff mode
1674
1675 *** Changes are now highlighted using the same color scheme as in
1676 modern VCSes. Deletions are displayed in red (new faces
1677 `diff-refine-removed' and `smerge-refined-removed', and new definition
1678 of `diff-removed'), insertions in green (new faces `diff-refine-added'
1679 and `smerge-refined-added', and new definition of `diff-added').
1680
1681 *** The variable `diff-use-changed-face' defines whether to use the
1682 face `diff-changed', or `diff-removed' and `diff-added' to highlight
1683 changes in context diffs.
1684
1685 *** The new command `diff-delete-trailing-whitespace' removes trailing
1686 whitespace introduced by a diff.
1687
1688 ** Ediff now uses the same color scheme as Diff mode.
1689
1690 ** Python mode
1691
1692 A new version of python.el, which provides several new features, including:
1693 per-buffer shells, better indentation, Python 3 support, and improved
1694 shell-interaction compatible with iPython (and virtually any other
1695 text based shell).
1696
1697 *** Some user options have been replaced/renamed, including (old -> new):
1698 **** python-indent -> python-indent-offset
1699 **** python-guess-indent -> python-indent-guess-indent-offset
1700 **** python-pdbtrack-do-tracking-p -> python-pdbtrack-activate
1701 **** python-use-skeletons -> python-skeleton-autoinsert
1702
1703 *** Some user options have been removed, including:
1704
1705 **** `python-indent-string-contents': Strings are never indented.
1706
1707 **** `python-honour-comment-indentation':
1708 Comments are always considered as indentation markers.
1709
1710 **** `python-continuation-offset': Indentation is automatically
1711 calculated in a pep8 compliant way depending on the context.
1712
1713 **** `python-shell-prompt-alist', `python-shell-continuation-prompt-alist':
1714 Have no direct mapping as the shell interaction is completely different.
1715
1716 **** `python-python-command', `python-jython-command':
1717 Replaced by `python-shell-interpreter'.
1718
1719 **** `inferior-python-filter-regexp', `python-remove-cwd-from-path',
1720 `python-pdbtrack-minor-mode-string', `python-source-modes':
1721 No longer relevant.
1722
1723 *** Some commands have been replaced (old -> new):
1724 **** python-insert-class -> python-skeleton-class
1725 **** python-insert-def -> python-skeleton-def
1726 **** python-insert-for -> python-skeleton-for
1727 **** python-insert-if -> python-skeleton-if
1728 **** python-insert-try/except -> python-skeleton-try
1729 **** python-insert-try/finally -> python-skeleton-try
1730 **** python-insert-while -> python-skeleton-while
1731 **** python-find-function -> python-nav-jump-to-defun
1732 **** python-next-statement -> python-nav-forward-sentence
1733 **** python-previous-statement -> python-nav-backward-sentence
1734 **** python-beginning-of-defun-function -> python-nav-beginning-of-defun
1735 **** python-end-of-defun-function -> python-nav-end-of-defun
1736 **** python-send-buffer -> python-shell-send-buffer
1737 **** python-send-defun -> python-shell-send-defun
1738 **** python-send-region -> python-shell-send-region
1739 **** python-send-region-and-go -> emulate with python-shell-send-region
1740 and python-shell-switch-to-shell
1741 **** python-send-string -> python-shell-send-string
1742 **** python-switch-to-python -> python-shell-switch-to-shell
1743 **** python-describe-symbol -> python-eldoc-at-point
1744
1745 ** D-Bus
1746
1747 *** New variables `dbus-compiled-version' and `dbus-runtime-version'.
1748
1749 *** The D-Bus object manager interface is implemented.
1750
1751 *** Variables of type :(u)int32 and :(u)int64 accept floating points,
1752 if their value does not fit into Emacs's integer range.
1753
1754 *** The function `dbus-call-method' is now non-blocking.
1755 It can be interrupted by `C-g'. `dbus-call-method-non-blocking' is obsolete.
1756
1757 *** Signals can also be sent as unicast messages.
1758
1759 *** The argument list of `dbus-register-signal' has been extended,
1760 according to the new match rule types of D-Bus.
1761
1762 *** `dbus-init-bus' supports private connections.
1763
1764 *** There is a new function `dbus-setenv'.
1765
1766 ** `desktop-path' no longer includes the "." directory.
1767 Desktop files are now located in ~/.emacs.d by default.
1768
1769 ** Dired
1770
1771 *** `dired-do-async-shell-command' executes each file sequentially
1772 if the command ends in `;' (when operating on multiple files).
1773 Otherwise, it executes the command on each file in parallel.
1774
1775 *** Typing `M-n' in the minibuffer of `dired-do-chmod', `dired-do-chgrp',
1776 `dired-do-chown', and `dired-do-touch' yanks the attributes of the
1777 file at point.
1778
1779 *** When the region is active, `m' (`dired-mark'), `u' (`dired-unmark'),
1780 `DEL' (`dired-unmark-backward'), and `d' (`dired-flag-file-deletion')
1781 mark/unmark/flag all files in the active region.
1782
1783 *** The minibuffer default for `=' (`dired-diff') has changed.
1784 It is now the backup file for the file at point, if one exists.
1785 In Transient Mark mode the default is the file at the active mark.
1786
1787 *** `M-=' is no longer bound to `dired-backup-diff' in Dired buffers.
1788 The global binding for `M-=', `count-words-region' is in effect.
1789
1790 ** ERC
1791
1792 *** New module "notifications", which can send a notification when you
1793 receive a private message or your nickname is mentioned.
1794
1795 *** ERC will look up server/channel names via auth-source and use any
1796 channel keys found.
1797
1798 *** New option `erc-lurker-hide-list', similar to `erc-hide-list', but
1799 only applies to messages sent by lurkers.
1800
1801 ** reStructuredText mode
1802
1803 *** Keybindings (see `C-c C-h'), TAB indentation, filling and auto-filling,
1804 fontification, comment handling, and customization have all been revised
1805 and improved.
1806
1807 *** Support for `imenu' and `which-function-mode'.
1808
1809 *** The reStructuredText syntax is more closely covered.
1810 Sphinx support has been improved.
1811
1812 *** `rst-insert-list' inserts new list or continues existing lists.
1813
1814 *** A negative prefix argument always works for `rst-adjust'.
1815
1816 *** The window configuration is reset after displaying a TOC.
1817
1818 *** The constant `rst-version' describes the rst.el package version.
1819
1820 ** Ruby mode
1821
1822 *** Support for percent literals and recognition of regular expressions
1823 in method calls without parentheses with more methods, including Cucumber
1824 steps definitions.
1825
1826 *** Improved syntax highlighting and indentation.
1827
1828 *** New command `ruby-toggle-block', bound to `C-c {'.
1829
1830 *** Some non-standard keybindings/commands have been removed:
1831
1832 **** `ruby-electric-brace'; use `electric-indent-mode' instead.
1833
1834 **** `ruby-mark-defun'; use `mark-defun'.
1835
1836 **** `ruby-beginning-of-defun' and `ruby-end-of-defun' are replaced by
1837 appropriate settings for the variables `beginning-of-defun-function'
1838 and `end-of-defun-function'.
1839
1840 **** Non-standard keybindings for `backward-kill-word', `comment-region',
1841 `reindent-then-newline-and-indent' and `newline' have been removed.
1842
1843 ** Shell Script mode
1844
1845 *** Pairing of parens/quotes uses `electric-pair-mode' instead of skeleton-pair.
1846
1847 *** `sh-electric-here-document-mode' now controls auto-insertion of here-docs.
1848
1849 *** `sh-use-smie' lets you choose a new indentation and navigation code.
1850
1851 ** VHDL mode
1852
1853 *** The free software compiler GHDL is supported (and now the default).
1854
1855 *** Support for the VHDL-AMS packages has been added/updated.
1856
1857 *** Updated to the 2002 revision of the VHDL standard.
1858
1859 *** Accepts \r and \f as whitespace.
1860
1861 ** Apropos
1862
1863 *** The faces used by Apropos are now directly customizable.
1864 These faces are named `apropos-symbol', `apropos-keybinding', and so on;
1865 see the `apropos' Custom group for details.
1866
1867 *** The old options whose values specified faces to use have been removed
1868 (i.e. `apropos-symbol-face', `apropos-keybinding-face', `apropos-label-face',
1869 `apropos-match-face' and `apropos-property-face'.).
1870
1871 ** Buffer Menu
1872
1873 *** This package has been rewritten to use Tabulated List mode.
1874
1875 *** Option `Buffer-menu-buffer+size-width' is now obsolete.
1876 Use `Buffer-menu-name-width' and `Buffer-menu-size-width' instead.
1877
1878 ** Calc
1879
1880 *** Algebraic simplification mode is now the default.
1881 To restrict to the limited simplifications given by the former
1882 default simplification mode, use `m I'.
1883
1884 ** Calendar
1885
1886 *** You can customize the header text that appears above each calendar month.
1887 See the variable `calendar-month-header'.
1888
1889 *** New LaTeX calendar style, produced by `cal-tex-cursor-week2-summary'.
1890
1891 *** The calendars produced by cal-html include holidays.
1892 Customize `cal-html-holidays' to change this.
1893
1894 ** CEDET
1895
1896 *** The major modes from the parser generators "Bovine" and "Wisent"
1897 are now properly integrated in Emacs. The file suffixes ".by" and ".wy"
1898 are in `auto-mode-alist', and the corresponding manuals are included.
1899
1900 *** EDE
1901
1902 **** Menu support for the "Configuration" feature. This allows users to
1903 choose the active configuration (such as debug or install) from the menu.
1904
1905 **** New command `ede-set' to interactively set project-local variables.
1906
1907 **** Support for compiling, debugging, and running in "generic" projects.
1908
1909 **** Autoconf editing support for M4 macros with complex arguments.
1910
1911 **** Compilation support for the "linux" project type.
1912
1913 **** "simple" projects have been removed; use "generic" projects instead.
1914
1915 *** Semantic
1916
1917 **** Support for parsing #include statements inside a namespace in C/C++.
1918
1919 **** Improved support for 'extern "C"' declarations in C/C++.
1920
1921 **** The ability to ignore more common special C/C++ preprocessor symbols,
1922 such as '__nonnull' and '__asm'. Add '__cplusplus' macro when parsing C++.
1923 If available, include cdefs.h as an additional source of preprocessor symbols.
1924
1925 **** Improved C/C++ function pointer parsing.
1926
1927 **** In Python, support for converting imports to include file names.
1928
1929 **** Ability to dynamically determine the Python load path.
1930
1931 **** Support for the Python 'WITH' and 'AT' keywords.
1932
1933 **** Improved tooltip completion.
1934
1935 *** SRecode
1936
1937 **** The SRecode manual is now included.
1938
1939 **** Tag generation supports constructor/destructor settings and system
1940 include differentiation.
1941
1942 **** Addition of 'Framework' support: Frameworks are specified when a
1943 particular kind of library (such as Android) is needed in a common language
1944 mode (like Java).
1945
1946 **** Support for nested templates and let variables override based on priority.
1947
1948 **** Support for merging tables from multiple related modes, such as
1949 default -> c++ -> arduino.
1950
1951 ** Compile has a new option `compilation-always-kill'.
1952
1953 ** Customize
1954
1955 *** `custom-reset-button-menu' now defaults to t.
1956
1957 *** Non-option variables are never matched in `customize-apropos' and
1958 `customize-apropos-options' (i.e., the prefix argument does nothing for
1959 these commands now).
1960
1961 ** Term
1962
1963 *** The variables `term-default-fg-color' and `term-default-bg-color'
1964 are now deprecated in favor of the customizable face `term'.
1965
1966 *** You can customize how to display ANSI terminal colors and styles
1967 by customizing the corresponding `term-color-<COLOR>',
1968 `term-color-underline' and `term-color-bold' faces.
1969
1970 ** Tramp
1971
1972 *** The syntax has been extended in order to allow ad-hoc proxy definitions.
1973
1974 *** Remote processes are now also supported on remote MS-Windows hosts.
1975
1976 ** URL
1977
1978 *** Structs made by `url-generic-parse-url' have nil `attributes' slot.
1979 Previously, this slot stored semicolon-separated attribute-value pairs
1980 appended to some imap URLs, but this is not compatible with RFC 3986.
1981 So now the `filename' slot stores the entire path and query components,
1982 and the `attributes' slot is always nil.
1983
1984 *** New function `url-encode-url' for encoding a URI string.
1985 The `url-retrieve' function now uses this to encode its URL argument,
1986 in case that is not properly encoded.
1987
1988 ** notifications.el supports now version 1.2 of the Notifications API.
1989 The function `notifications-get-capabilities' returns the supported
1990 server properties.
1991
1992 ** Flymake uses fringe bitmaps to indicate errors and warnings.
1993 See `flymake-fringe-indicator-position', `flymake-error-bitmap' and
1994 `flymake-warning-bitmap'.
1995
1996 ** The FFAP option `ffap-url-unwrap-remote' can now be a list of strings,
1997 specifying URL types that should be converted to remote file names at
1998 the FFAP prompt. The default is now '("ftp").
1999
2000 ** New Ibuffer `derived-mode' filter, bound to `/ M'.
2001 The old binding for `/ M' (filter by used-mode) is now bound to `/ m'.
2002
2003 ** New option `mouse-avoidance-banish-position' specifies where the
2004 `banish' mouse avoidance setting moves the mouse.
2005
2006 ** In Perl mode, new option `perl-indent-parens-as-block' causes non-block
2007 closing brackets to be aligned with the line of the opening bracket.
2008
2009 ** In Proced mode, new command `proced-renice' renices marked processes.
2010
2011 ** New option `async-shell-command-buffer' specifies the buffer to use
2012 for a new asynchronous `shell-command' when the default output buffer
2013 `*Async Shell Command*' is already in use.
2014
2015 ** SQL mode has a new option `sql-db2-escape-newlines'.
2016 If non-nil, newlines sent to the command interpreter will be escaped
2017 by a backslash. The default does not escape the newlines and assumes
2018 that the sql statement will be terminated by a semicolon.
2019
2020 ** New command `tabulated-list-sort', bound to `S' in Tabulated List mode
2021 (and modes that derive from it), sorts the column at point, or the Nth
2022 column if a numeric prefix argument is given.
2023
2024 ** `which-func-modes' now defaults to t, so Which Function mode, when
2025 enabled, applies to all applicable major modes.
2026
2027 ** `winner-mode-hook' now runs when the mode is disabled, as well as when
2028 it is enabled.
2029
2030 ** Follow mode no longer works by using advice.
2031 The option `follow-intercept-processes' has been removed.
2032
2033 ** `javascript-generic-mode' is now an obsolete alias for `js-mode'.
2034
2035 ** Hooks renamed to avoid obsolete "-hooks" suffix:
2036 *** semantic-lex-reset-hooks -> semantic-lex-reset-functions
2037 *** semantic-change-hooks -> semantic-change-functions
2038 *** semantic-edits-new-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-new-change-functions
2039 *** semantic-edits-delete-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-delete-change-functions
2040 *** semantic-edits-reparse-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-reparse-change-functions
2041 *** semanticdb-save-database-hooks -> semanticdb-save-database-functions
2042 *** c-prepare-bug-report-hooks -> c-prepare-bug-report-hook
2043 *** rcirc-sentinel-hooks -> rcirc-sentinel-functions
2044 *** rcirc-receive-message-hooks -> rcirc-receive-message-functions
2045 *** rcirc-activity-hooks -> rcirc-activity-functions
2046 *** rcirc-print-hooks -> rcirc-print-functions
2047 *** dbus-event-error-hooks -> dbus-event-error-functions
2048 *** eieio-pre-method-execution-hooks -> eieio-pre-method-execution-functions
2049 *** checkdoc-style-hooks -> checkdoc-style-functions
2050 *** checkdoc-comment-style-hooks -> checkdoc-comment-style-functions
2051 *** archive-extract-hooks -> archive-extract-hook
2052 *** filesets-cache-fill-content-hooks -> filesets-cache-fill-content-hook
2053 *** hfy-post-html-hooks -> hfy-post-html-hook
2054 *** nndiary-request-create-group-hooks -> nndiary-request-create-group-functions
2055 *** nndiary-request-update-info-hooks -> nndiary-request-update-info-functions
2056 *** nndiary-request-accept-article-hooks -> nndiary-request-accept-article-functions
2057 *** gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-hooks -> gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-functions
2058
2059 ** Obsolete packages
2060
2061 *** assoc.el
2062 In most cases, assoc+member+push+delq work just as well.
2063 And in any case it's just a terrible package: ugly semantics, terrible
2064 inefficiency, and not namespace-clean.
2065 *** bruce.el
2066 *** cust-print.el
2067 *** ledit.el
2068 *** mailpost.el
2069 *** mouse-sel.el
2070 *** patcomp.el
2071
2072 \f
2073 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.3
2074
2075 ** Docstrings starting with `*' no longer indicate user options.
2076 Only variables defined using `defcustom' are considered user options.
2077 The function `user-variable-p' is now an obsolete alias for
2078 `custom-variable-p'.
2079
2080 ** The return values of `defalias', `defun' and `defmacro' have changed,
2081 and are now undefined. For backwards compatibility, `defun' and
2082 `defmacro' currently return the name of the newly defined
2083 function/macro, but this should not be relied upon.
2084
2085 ** `random' by default now returns a different random sequence in
2086 every Emacs run. Use `(random S)', where S is a string, to set the
2087 random seed to a value based on S, in order to get a repeatable
2088 sequence in later calls.
2089
2090 ** If the NEWTEXT arg to `replace-match' contains a substring "\?",
2091 that substring is inserted literally even if the LITERAL arg is
2092 non-nil, instead of causing an error to be signaled.
2093
2094 ** `select-window' now always makes the window's buffer current.
2095 It does so even if the window was selected before.
2096
2097 ** The function `x-select-font' can return a font spec, instead of a
2098 font name as a string. Whether it returns a font spec or a font name
2099 depends on the graphical library.
2100
2101 ** `face-spec-set' no longer sets frame-specific attributes when the
2102 third argument is a frame (that usage was obsolete since Emacs 22.2).
2103
2104 ** `set-buffer-multibyte' now signals an error in narrowed buffers.
2105
2106 ** The CL package's `get-setf-method' function no longer exists.
2107 Generalized variables are now part of core Emacs Lisp, and implemented
2108 differently to the way cl.el used to do it. It is not possible to
2109 define a compatible replacement for `get-setf-method'. See the file
2110 gv.el for internal details of the new implementation.
2111
2112 ** The arguments of `dbus-register-signal' are no longer just strings,
2113 but keywords or keyword-string pairs. The old argument list will
2114 still be supported for Emacs 24.x.
2115
2116 ** Miscellaneous name changes
2117 Some Lisp symbols have been renamed to correct their spelling,
2118 or to be more consistent with standard Emacs terminology.
2119
2120 *** Renamed functions
2121 **** hangul-input-method-inactivate -> hangul-input-method-deactivate
2122 **** inactivate-input-method -> deactivate-input-method
2123 **** quail-inactivate -> quail-deactivate
2124 **** robin-inactivate -> robin-deactivate
2125 **** viper-inactivate-input-method -> viper-deactivate-input-method
2126 **** viper-inactivate-input-method-action ->
2127 viper-deactivate-input-method-action
2128 **** ucs-input-inactivate -> ucs-input-deactivate
2129
2130 *** Renamed hooks
2131 The old hooks are still supported for backward compatibility, but they
2132 are deprecated and will be removed eventually.
2133 **** input-method-inactivate-hook -> input-method-deactivate-hook
2134 **** robin-inactivate-hook -> robin-deactivate-hook
2135 **** quail-inactivate-hook -> quail-deactivate-hook
2136
2137 *** Renamed variables
2138 **** follow-deactive-menu -> follow-inactive-menu
2139 **** inactivate-current-input-method-function ->
2140 deactivate-current-input-method-function
2141
2142 ** Some obsolete functions, variables, and faces have been removed:
2143 *** `last-input-char', `last-command-char', `unread-command-char'
2144 *** `facemenu-unlisted-faces'
2145 *** `rmail-decode-mime-charset'
2146 *** `iswitchb-read-buffer'
2147 *** `sc-version', `sc-submit-bug-report'
2148 *** `set-char-table-default'
2149 *** `string-to-sequence' (use `string-to-list' or `string-to-vector')
2150 *** `compile-internal'
2151 *** `modeline'
2152 *** `mode-line-inverse-video'
2153 *** `follow-mode-off-hook'
2154 *** `cvs-commit-buffer-require-final-newline'
2155 (use `log-edit-require-final-newline' instead)
2156 *** `cvs-changelog-full-paragraphs'
2157 (use `log-edit-changelog-full-paragraphs' instead)
2158 *** `cvs-diff-ignore-marks', `cvs-diff-buffer-name'
2159 *** `vc-ignore-vc-files' (use `vc-handled-backends' instead)
2160 *** `vc-master-templates' (use `vc-handled-backends' instead)
2161 *** `vc-checkout-carefully'
2162
2163 \f
2164 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.3
2165
2166 ** CL-style generalized variables are now in core Elisp.
2167 `setf' is autoloaded; `push' and `pop' accept generalized variables.
2168 You can define your own generalized variables using `gv-define-simple-setter',
2169 `gv-define-setter', etc.
2170
2171 ** Emacs tries to macroexpand interpreted (non-compiled) files during load.
2172 This can significantly speed up execution of non-byte-compiled code,
2173 but can also bump into previously unnoticed cyclic dependencies.
2174 These are generally harmless: they will simply cause the macro calls
2175 to be left for later expansion (as before), but will result in a
2176 warning ("Eager macro-expansion skipped due to cycle") describing the cycle.
2177 You may wish to restructure your code so this does not happen.
2178
2179 ** New sampling-based Elisp profiler.
2180 Try M-x profiler-start, do some work, and then call M-x profiler-report.
2181 When finished, use M-x profiler-stop. The sampling rate can be based on
2182 CPU time or memory allocations.
2183
2184 ** `defun' also accepts a (declare DECLS) form, like `defmacro'.
2185 The interpretation of the DECLS is determined by `defun-declarations-alist'.
2186
2187 ** New macros `setq-local' and `defvar-local'.
2188
2189 ** Face underlining can now use a wave.
2190
2191 ** `read-regexp' has a new argument HISTORY; the first argument PROMPT
2192 of `read-regexp' accepts a string ending with a colon and space, and its
2193 second argument DEFAULTS can be a list of strings accessible via `M-n'
2194 in the minibuffer ahead of other hard-coded useful regexp-related values.
2195 More commands use `read-regexp' now to read their regexp arguments.
2196
2197 ** Completion
2198
2199 *** New function `completion-table-with-quoting' to handle completion
2200 in the presence of quoting, such as file completion in shell buffers.
2201
2202 *** New function `completion-table-subvert' to use an existing completion
2203 table, but with a different prefix.
2204
2205 ** Debugger
2206
2207 *** New error type and new function `user-error'.
2208 These do not trigger the debugger.
2209
2210 *** New option `debugger-bury-or-kill', saying what to do with the
2211 debugger buffer when exiting debug.
2212
2213 *** Set `debug-on-message' to enter the debugger when a certain
2214 message is displayed in the echo area. This can be useful when trying
2215 to work out which code is doing something.
2216
2217 *** New var `inhibit-debugger', automatically set to prevent accidental
2218 recursive invocations.
2219
2220 ** Window handling
2221
2222 *** New command `fit-frame-to-buffer' adjusts the frame height to
2223 fit the contents.
2224
2225 *** The command `fit-window-to-buffer' can adjust the frame height
2226 if the new option `fit-frame-to-buffer' is non-nil.
2227
2228 *** New macro `with-temp-buffer-window', similar to
2229 `with-output-to-temp-buffer'.
2230
2231 *** `temp-buffer-resize-mode' no longer resizes windows that have been
2232 reused.
2233
2234 *** New option `switch-to-buffer-preserve-window-point' to restore a
2235 window's point when switching buffers.
2236
2237 *** New display action alist entries `window-height' and `window-width'
2238 specify the size of new windows created by `display-buffer'.
2239
2240 *** New display action alist entry `pop-up-frame-parameters', if
2241 non-nil, specifies frame parameters to give any newly-created frame.
2242
2243 *** New display action alist entry `inhibit-switch-frame', if non-nil,
2244 tells display action functions to avoid changing which frame is
2245 selected.
2246
2247 *** New display action alist entry `previous-window', if non-nil,
2248 specifies window to reuse in `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
2249
2250 *** New display action functions `display-buffer-below-selected',
2251 and `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
2252
2253 *** The functions `get-lru-window', `get-mru-window' and `get-largest-window'
2254 now accept a third argument to avoid choosing the selected window.
2255
2256 *** Additional values recognized for option `window-combination-limit'.
2257
2258 *** The following variables are obsolete, as they can be replaced by
2259 appropriate entries in the `display-buffer-alist' function introduced
2260 in Emacs 24.1:
2261 **** `dired-shrink-to-fit'
2262 **** `display-buffer-reuse-frames'
2263 **** `display-buffer-function'
2264 **** `special-display-buffer-names'
2265 **** `special-display-frame-alist'
2266 **** `special-display-function'
2267 **** `special-display-regexps'
2268
2269 ** Time
2270
2271 *** `current-time-string' no longer requires that its argument's year
2272 must be in the range 1000..9999. It now works with any year supported
2273 by the underlying C implementation.
2274
2275 *** `current-time' now returns extended-format time stamps
2276 (HIGH LOW USEC PSEC), where the new PSEC slot specifies picoseconds.
2277 PSEC is typically a multiple of 1000 on current machines. Other
2278 functions that use this format, such as `file-attributes' and
2279 `format-time-string', have been changed accordingly. Old-format time
2280 stamps are still accepted.
2281
2282 *** The format of timers in `timer-list' and `timer-idle-list' is now
2283 [TRIGGERED-P HI-SECS LO-SECS USECS REPEAT-DELAY FUNCTION ARGS IDLE-DELAY PSECS].
2284 The PSECS slot is new, and uses picosecond resolution. It can be
2285 accessed via the new `timer--psecs' accessor.
2286
2287 *** Last-modified time stamps in undo lists now are of the form
2288 (t HI-SECS LO-SECS USECS PSECS) instead of (t HI-SECS . LO-SECS).
2289
2290 ** EIEIO
2291
2292 *** Improved security when handling persistent objects:
2293
2294 **** `eieio-persistent-read' now features optional arguments for specifying
2295 the class to load, as well as a flag stating whether subclasses are allowed;
2296 if provided, other classes will be rejected by the reader. For
2297 compatibility with existing code, if the class is omitted only a
2298 warning is issued.
2299
2300 **** New specialized reader for pulling in classes and signaling errors
2301 without evaluation of suspicious code.
2302
2303 **** All slots that contain objects must have a :type. Slots with lists
2304 of objects must use a new type predicate for a list of an object type.
2305
2306 *** Support for `find-function' and similar utilities, through the addition
2307 of filename support to generated symbols.
2308
2309 ** Floating point functions now always return special values like NaN,
2310 instead of signaling errors, if given invalid args; e.g., (log -1.0).
2311 Previously, they returned NaNs on some platforms but signaled errors
2312 on others. The affected functions are acos, asin, tan, exp, expt,
2313 log, log10, sqrt, and mod.
2314
2315 ** New fringe bitmap `exclamation-mark'.
2316
2317 ** Miscellaneous changes to special forms and macros
2318
2319 *** `defun' and `defmacro' are now macros rather than special forms.
2320
2321 *** `kbd' is now a function rather than a macro.
2322
2323 ** Miscellaneous new functions
2324
2325 *** `set-temporary-overlay-map' sets up a temporary keymap that
2326 takes precedence over most other maps for a short while (normally one key).
2327
2328 *** `autoloadp' tests if its argument is an autoloaded object.
2329
2330 *** `autoload-do-load' performs the autoloading operation.
2331
2332 *** `buffer-narrowed-p' tests if the buffer is narrowed.
2333
2334 *** `file-name-base' returns a file name sans directory and extension.
2335
2336 *** `function-get' fetches a function property, following aliases.
2337
2338 *** `posnp' tests if an object is a `posn'.
2339
2340 *** `system-users' returns the user names on the system.
2341
2342 *** `system-groups' returns the group names on the system.
2343
2344 *** `tty-top-frame' returns the topmost frame of a text terminal.
2345
2346 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
2347 *** `automount-dir-prefix' (use `directory-abbrev-alist')
2348 *** `buffer-has-markers-at'
2349 *** `macro-declaration-function' (use `macro-declarations-alist')
2350 *** `window-system-version' (provides no useful information)
2351 *** `dired-pop-to-buffer' (use `dired-mark-pop-up')
2352 *** `query-replace-interactive'
2353 *** `font-list-limit' (has had no effect since Emacs < 23)
2354
2355 \f
2356 * Changes in Emacs 24.3 on Non-Free Operating Systems
2357
2358 ** Cygwin builds can use the native MS Windows user interface.
2359 Pass `--with-w32' to configure. The default remains the X11 interface.
2360
2361 ** Two new functions are available in Cygwin builds:
2362 `cygwin-convert-file-name-from-windows' and
2363 `cygwin-convert-file-name-to-windows'. These functions allow Lisp
2364 code to access the Cygwin file-name mapping machinery to convert
2365 between Cygwin and Windows-native file and directory names.
2366
2367 ** When invoked with the -nw switch to run on the Windows text-mode terminal,
2368 Emacs now supports `mouse-highlight', help-echo (in the echo area), and
2369 `mouse-autoselect-window'.
2370
2371 ** On MS Windows Vista and later Emacs now supports symbolic links.
2372
2373 ** On MS Windows, you can pass `--without-libxml2' to configure.bat to omit
2374 support for libxml2, even if its presence is detected.
2375
2376 ** On Mac OS X, the Nextstep port requires OS X 10.4 or later.
2377
2378 ** On Mac OS X, configure no longer automatically adds the Fink "/sw"
2379 directories to the search path. You must add them yourself if you want them.
2380
2381 \f
2382 * Changes in Emacs 24.2
2383
2384 ** This is mainly a bug-fix release.
2385
2386 \f
2387 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
2388
2389 ** Emacs can be compiled with Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
2390 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
2391 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
2392 --without-gconf.
2393
2394 ** Emacs can be compiled with GnuTLS support.
2395 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
2396 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
2397 `--without-gnutls'. See below for GnuTLS features.
2398
2399 ** Emacs can be compiled with SELinux support.
2400 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
2401 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
2402 `--without-selinux'. See below for SELinux features.
2403
2404 ** Emacs can be compiled with ImageMagick support.
2405 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
2406 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
2407 `--without-imagemagick'. See below for ImageMagick features.
2408 This feature is not available for the Nextstep or MS ports.
2409
2410 ** Emacs can be compiled with libxml2 support.
2411 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
2412 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
2413 `--without-xml2'. See below for libxml2 features.
2414
2415 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
2416 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
2417
2418 ** New configure option --with-wide-int.
2419 With it, Emacs integers typically have 62 bits, even on 32-bit machines.
2420 On 32-bit hosts, this raises the limit on buffer sizes from about 512 MiB
2421 to about 2 GiB.
2422
2423 ** New configure options: --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
2424 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
2425 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
2426
2427 ** New configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
2428 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
2429 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
2430
2431 ** The standalone programs digest-doc and sorted-doc are removed.
2432 Emacs now uses Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
2433
2434 ** The standalone program `fakemail' is removed.
2435 If you need it, feedmail.el provides a superset of the functionality.
2436
2437 \f
2438 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
2439
2440 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
2441 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
2442 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
2443
2444 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
2445 from load-path. -Q now implies this. This option does not affect the
2446 EMACSLOADPATH environment variable (and hence has no effect for
2447 Nextstep builds).
2448
2449 \f
2450 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
2451
2452 ** Completion
2453
2454 *** Many packages now use the `completion-at-point' command,
2455 rather than implementing separate completion commands.
2456
2457 *** `completion-at-point' now handles tags and semantic completion.
2458
2459 *** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
2460 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
2461
2462 *** New option `completion-cycle-threshold' allows completion cycling.
2463
2464 *** New option `completion-category-overrides' for overriding the
2465 default completion style in certain circumstances.
2466
2467 *** New completion style `substring'.
2468
2469 *** Completion of buffer names uses `substring' completion by default.
2470
2471 *** The option `widget-complete-field' has been removed.
2472
2473 ** Mail changes
2474
2475 *** The first time you try sending mail, Emacs asks for a mail method.
2476 This is implemented by a new default for `send-mail-function', which
2477 is `sendmail-query-once'. This offers to use the smtpmail package, or
2478 to use the old defaults relying on external mail facilities
2479 (`sendmail-send-it' on GNU/Linux and other Unix-like systems, and
2480 `mailclient-send-it' on Windows).
2481
2482 *** Typing `C-c m' in the buffer made by `M-x report-emacs-bug'
2483 transfers the report to your desktop's preferred mail client, if there
2484 is one. This uses either the "xdg-email" utility, or Mac OS's "open"
2485 command.
2486
2487 *** See Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages for SMTPmail changes
2488 and Mail mode changes
2489
2490 ** Emacs server and client changes
2491
2492 *** New option `server-port' specifies the port for TCP Emacs servers.
2493
2494 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
2495
2496 *** New emacsclient argument --frame-parameters specifies the frame
2497 parameters of any newly-created graphical frame.
2498
2499 *** If emacsclient shuts down due to Emacs signaling an error,
2500 its exit status is 1.
2501
2502 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID.
2503 This opens a client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed, similar
2504 to the --parent-id argument to Emacs.
2505
2506 ** Internationalization changes
2507
2508 *** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
2509 Right-to-left (RTL) scripts, such as Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew, are
2510 displayed in the correct visual order as expected by users of those
2511 scripts. The display reordering is a "full bidirectionality" class
2512 implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm (UBA). Buffers
2513 with no RTL text should look exactly the same as before.
2514
2515 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-display-reordering'.
2516 To disable display reordering in a buffer, change this to nil.
2517
2518 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction'.
2519 If nil (the default), Emacs determines the base direction of each
2520 paragraph from its text, as specified by the UBA. Setting the value
2521 to `right-to-left' or `left-to-right' forces a base direction on each
2522 paragraph.
2523
2524 Paragraphs with right-to-left base direction are displayed starting at
2525 the right window edge.
2526
2527 *** Enhanced support for characters with no glyphs in available fonts,
2528 or, on text terminals, characters that cannot be encoded by the
2529 terminal coding system. The new option `glyphless-char-display-control'
2530 specifies how to display them: as a hexadecimal code in a box, a thin
2531 1-pixel space, an empty box, etc.
2532
2533 *** New input methods for Farsi and Bulgarian
2534 (farsi-isiri-9147, farsi-transliterate-banan, bulgarian-alt-phonetic).
2535
2536 *** `nobreak-char-display' now also highlights Unicode hyphen chars
2537 (U+2010 and U+2011).
2538
2539 *** New Hebrew translation of the Emacs Tutorial.
2540 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
2541 automatically select it.
2542
2543 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
2544 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
2545 from a package repository at http://elpa.gnu.org.
2546
2547 *** M-x list-packages shows a list of packages, which can be
2548 selected for installation.
2549
2550 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
2551
2552 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded automatically when
2553 Emacs starts up. To disable this, set `package-enable-at-startup' to
2554 nil. To specify the packages to load, customize `package-load-list'.
2555
2556 ** Custom theme changes
2557
2558 *** New command `M-x customize-themes', which provides a convenient
2559 interface for enabling and disabling Custom themes.
2560
2561 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
2562 Emacs no longer looks for Custom themes in `load-path'. The default
2563 value of `custom-theme-load-path' says to look for themes in
2564 `custom-theme-directory', followed by a subdirectory of
2565 `data-directory' named "themes/", which contains a small selection of
2566 built-in Custom themes.
2567
2568 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
2569 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
2570 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
2571 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
2572
2573 ** Improved GTK integration
2574
2575 *** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
2576 The function `set-scroll-bar-mode' can change this.
2577
2578 *** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
2579 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose the style. On a Gnome desktop,
2580 the default is taken from desktop settings.
2581
2582 *** GTK tool bars can be placed on any edge of the frame.
2583 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the
2584 values top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has
2585 entries for this.
2586
2587 *** The default colors for selected text (the `region' face) are taken
2588 from the GTK theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
2589
2590 *** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK.
2591 You can disable this by changing `x-gtk-use-system-tooltips' to nil.
2592
2593 ** Graphical interface changes
2594
2595 *** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
2596 Also, the first dash (which does not indicate anything) is just
2597 displayed as a space.
2598
2599 *** `menu-bar-select-buffer-function' lets you choose another operation
2600 instead of `switch-to-buffer' when selecting an item in the Buffers menu.
2601
2602 *** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is
2603 built with Xft. These fonts can be set via X resources, for example:
2604 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
2605
2606 ** Exiting changes
2607
2608 *** Emacs now calls `kill-emacs' if it receives SIGTERM or SIGHUP,
2609 or if it receives a SIGINT signal in batch mode.
2610
2611 *** `kill-emacs-hook' is now also run in batch mode.
2612 Third-party code which adds to `kill-emacs-hook' should check if they
2613 do the right thing in batch mode.
2614
2615 ** Scrolling changes
2616
2617 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
2618 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
2619 of buffer at first key-press (instead they move to top/bottom of buffer)
2620 when `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
2621
2622 *** New option `scroll-error-top-bottom' (see above).
2623
2624 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
2625 scroll a line instead of full screen.
2626
2627 *** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
2628 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
2629
2630 *** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
2631 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
2632 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
2633 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
2634 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
2635
2636 *** "Aggressive" scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
2637 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
2638 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
2639 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
2640 margin.
2641
2642 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
2643 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
2644
2645 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up.
2646 Also, the function `copy-file' has an extra optional argument for
2647 preserving SELinux context, and the return value of `backup-buffer'
2648 now includes the SELinux context.
2649
2650 *** New functions `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
2651 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
2652
2653 ** Trash changes
2654
2655 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
2656 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
2657
2658 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
2659 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
2660
2661 ** File- and directory-local variable changes
2662
2663 *** You can stop directory local vars from applying to subdirectories.
2664 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
2665 settings to indicate that the section should not apply to
2666 subdirectories.
2667
2668 *** Directory local variables can apply to some file-less buffers.
2669 Affected modes include dired, vc-dir, and log-edit. For example,
2670 adding "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to .dir-locals.el will
2671 turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should call
2672 `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
2673
2674 *** Using "mode: MINOR-MODE" to enable a minor mode is deprecated.
2675 Instead, use "eval: (minor-mode 1)".
2676
2677 *** The variable `inhibit-first-line-modes-regexps' has been renamed
2678 to `inhibit-local-variables-regexps'. As the name suggests, it now
2679 applies to ALL file local variables, not just -*- lines. The
2680 associated `inhibit-first-line-modes-suffixes' has been renamed in the
2681 corresponding way.
2682
2683 ** Window changes
2684
2685 *** The `quit-window' command now restores the last buffer displayed
2686 in the quitted window.
2687
2688 *** Resizing an Emacs frame now preserves proportional window sizes,
2689 modulo restrictions like window minimum sizes and fixed-size windows.
2690
2691 *** The behavior of `display-buffer' is now customizable in detail.
2692
2693 **** New option `display-buffer-base-action' specifies a list of
2694 user-determined display "actions" (functions and optional arguments
2695 for choosing the displaying window).
2696
2697 This takes precedence over the default display action, which is
2698 specified by `display-buffer-fallback-action'.
2699
2700 **** New option `display-buffer-alist' maps buffer name regexps to
2701 display actions, taking precedence over `display-buffer-base-action'.
2702
2703 *** New option `window-combination-limit'.
2704 The new option `window-combination-limit' allows to return the space
2705 obtained for resizing or creating a window more reliably to the window
2706 from which such space was obtained.
2707
2708 *** New option `window-combination-resize'.
2709 The new option `window-combination-resize' allows to split a window that
2710 otherwise cannot be split because it's too small by stealing space from
2711 other windows in the same combination. Subsequent resizing or deletion
2712 of the window will resize all windows in the same combination as well.
2713
2714 *** New option `frame-auto-hide-function' lets you choose between
2715 iconifying or deleting a frame when burying a buffer in a dedicated
2716 frame, or quitting a window showing a buffer in a frame of its own.
2717
2718 *** New commands `maximize-window' and `minimize-window'.
2719 These maximize and minimize the size of a window within its frame.
2720
2721 *** New commands `switch-to-prev-buffer' and `switch-to-next-buffer'.
2722 These functions allow to navigate through the live buffers that have
2723 been shown in a specific window.
2724
2725 ** Minibuffer changes
2726
2727 *** The inactive minibuffer has its own major mode `minibuffer-inactive-mode'.
2728 This is handy for minibuffer-only frames, and is also used for the feature
2729 where mouse-1 pops up *Messages*"', which can now easily be changed.
2730
2731 *** Minibuffers set `truncate-lines' to nil.
2732 If you want to change the value to something else, you could use
2733 for example `minibuffer-setup-hook'.
2734
2735 ** `auto-mode-case-fold' is now enabled by default.
2736
2737 ** `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' now defaults to t.
2738
2739 ** New basic faces `error', `warning', `success'.
2740 These are used to highlight text indicating failure, caution or
2741 successful operation.
2742
2743 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
2744 for `list-colors-display'.
2745
2746 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
2747
2748 \f
2749 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
2750
2751 ** Search changes
2752
2753 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-kill', instead of
2754 `isearch-yank-line'.
2755
2756 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-pop', instead of
2757 `isearch-yank-kill'.
2758
2759 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-line'.
2760
2761 ** New commands `count-words-region' and `count-words'.
2762
2763 *** M-= is bound to `count-words-region', not `count-lines-region'.
2764 The `count-words-region' command, when called interactively, reports
2765 the number of lines, words, and characters in the region. It is a
2766 superset of the old `count-lines-region', which is now an obsolete
2767 alias for it.
2768
2769 ** The command `just-one-space' (M-SPC), if given a negative argument,
2770 also deletes newlines around point.
2771
2772 ** Deletion changes
2773
2774 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
2775 If non-nil, [delete] and DEL delete the region if it is active and no
2776 prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', those commands kill
2777 instead.
2778
2779 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to [delete].
2780 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
2781 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
2782
2783 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
2784 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
2785 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; Lisp
2786 callers should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
2787
2788 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
2789
2790 ** Selection changes.
2791
2792 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections has been
2793 changed to conform with modern X applications. In short, most
2794 commands for killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while
2795 mouse commands use the primary selection.
2796
2797 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
2798 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
2799
2800 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
2801 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
2802 the kill ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
2803 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
2804
2805 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
2806 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
2807 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
2808 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
2809 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
2810
2811 **** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
2812
2813 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
2814 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
2815 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
2816
2817 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
2818
2819 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
2820 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
2821 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
2822
2823 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
2824 exactly equivalent to M-w, C-w, and C-y respectively.
2825
2826 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
2827 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
2828 between applications.
2829
2830 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
2831
2832 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
2833 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
2834 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
2835 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
2836 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
2837
2838 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
2839
2840 *** X clipboard managers are now supported.
2841 To inhibit this, change `x-select-enable-clipboard-manager' to nil.
2842
2843 ** New command `C-x r N' (`rectangle-number-lines') numbers the lines
2844 in the current rectangle. With a prefix argument, this prompts for a
2845 number to count from and for a format string.
2846
2847 ** `redisplay-dont-pause' now defaults to t.
2848 This makes Emacs feel more responsive to editing commands that arrive
2849 at high rate, e.g. if you lean on some key, because stopping redisplay
2850 in the middle (when this variable is nil) forces more expensive
2851 updates later on, and Emacs appears to be unable to keep up.
2852
2853 ** The behavior of <TAB> for active regions in Text mode has changed.
2854 In Text and related modes, typing <TAB> (`indent-for-tab-command')
2855 when the region is active causes Emacs to indent all the lines in the
2856 region, aligning them with the line previous to the first line in the
2857 region (or with the left margin if there is no previous line).
2858
2859 ** When `occur' is called with a prefix argument, matching strings are
2860 collected into the `*Occur*' buffer without line numbers. If there
2861 are parenthesized subexpressions in the specified regexp, `occur'
2862 reads replacement text that may contain \\& and \\N whose convention
2863 follows `replace-match'.
2864
2865 \f
2866 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
2867
2868 ** Archive Mode has basic support for browsing and updating 7z archives.
2869
2870 ** BibTeX mode
2871
2872 *** BibTeX mode now supports biblatex.
2873 Use the variable `bibtex-dialect' to select different BibTeX dialects.
2874 `bibtex-entry-field-alist' is now an obsolete alias for
2875 `bibtex-BibTeX-entry-alist'.
2876
2877 *** New command `bibtex-search-entries', bound to C-c C-a.
2878
2879 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `sort-fields', disabled by default.
2880
2881 *** New variable `bibtex-search-entry-globally'.
2882
2883 ** Browse-url
2884
2885 *** New option `browse-url-mailto-function' specifies how to handle "mailto:"s.
2886
2887 *** The default browser used by the package is now the "xdg-open" program,
2888 on platforms that support it. This calls your desktop's preferred browser.
2889
2890 ** Calc
2891
2892 *** Support for musical notes.
2893
2894 *** Support for logarithmic units.
2895
2896 *** No longer uses the tex prefix for TeX specific unit names when
2897 using TeX or LaTeX mode.
2898
2899 *** New option to highlight selections using faces.
2900
2901 *** `calc-histogram' has the option of using a vector to determine the bins.
2902
2903 *** New "O" option prefix.
2904
2905 *** Use the "O" prefix to "d r" (`calc-radix') to turn on twos-complement mode.
2906
2907 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
2908
2909 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing "comments".
2910 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
2911
2912 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
2913 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
2914
2915 *** The function specified by `appt-disp-window-function' may be passed
2916 lists of arguments if multiple appointments are due at similar times.
2917 If you are using a custom function for this, you should update it.
2918
2919 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
2920
2921 *** Elements of `calendar-day-abbrev-array' and `calendar-month-abbrev-array'
2922 may no longer be nil, but must all be strings.
2923
2924 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt
2925 package by adding `appt-make-list' to `diary-hook' has been removed.
2926 Use `appt-activate' instead.
2927
2928 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
2929 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
2930 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
2931
2932 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
2933 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
2934
2935 ** CC Mode
2936
2937 *** New feature to "guess" the style in an existing buffer.
2938 The main entry point is M-x c-guess.
2939
2940 *** Java Mode now supports Java 5.0 (Tiger) and 6 (Mustang).
2941
2942 *** `c-beginning-of-defun' and `c-end-of-defun' now respect nested scopes.
2943 Thus C-M-a will, by default, go to the beginning of the immediate function,
2944 not the top level.
2945
2946 *** "Macros with semicolons" can be registered for correct indentation.
2947 Where such a macro ends a line (no semicolon) the next statement is no longer
2948 parsed as a statement continuation.
2949
2950 ** Comint and modes derived from it use the standard completion code.
2951
2952 ** Compilation mode
2953
2954 *** Compilation mode can be used without Font Lock mode.
2955 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
2956
2957 *** New variable `compilation-filter-start', which is bound while
2958 `compilation-filter-hook' runs. It records the start position of the
2959 text inserted by `compilation-filter'.
2960
2961 *** `compilation-error-screen-columns' and `compilation-first-column'
2962 are obeyed in the editing buffer. So programming language modes can
2963 set them, whereas previously only the value in the *Compilation*
2964 buffer was used.
2965
2966 ** Customize
2967
2968 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
2969 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
2970 To turn off the search field, set `custom-search-field' to nil.
2971
2972 *** Options in customize group buffers start out hidden if not customized.
2973 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
2974
2975 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
2976
2977 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
2978 choose a color via `list-colors-display'.
2979
2980 ** D-Bus
2981
2982 *** It is now possible to access buses other than the default system
2983 or session bus.
2984
2985 *** The `dbus-register-method' and `dbus-register-property' functions
2986 optionally do not register names.
2987
2988 *** The new function `dbus-register-service' registers a known service
2989 name on a D-Bus without also registering a property or a method.
2990
2991 ** Dired-x
2992
2993 *** C-x C-j (`dired-jump') and C-x 4 C-j (`dired-jump-other-window'),
2994 if called with a prefix argument, read a file name from the minibuffer
2995 instead of using the current buffer.
2996
2997 *** The "dired local variables" feature of Dired-x is obsolete.
2998 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
2999
3000 ** ERC changes
3001
3002 *** New options `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay',
3003 controlling attempts to autojoin a channel.
3004
3005 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
3006 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
3007 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
3008 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
3009
3010 ** Eshell changes
3011
3012 *** The default value of `eshell-directory-name' has changed
3013 to be an "eshell" directory in `user-emacs-directory'.
3014 The old "~/.eshell/" directory is still used if it exists, though.
3015
3016 ** gdb-mi
3017
3018 *** The M-x gdb command now uses the GDB Machine Interface protocol.
3019 It now supports multithread non-stop debugging and simultaneous
3020 debugging of several threads.
3021
3022 ** Image mode
3023
3024 *** RET (`image-toggle-animation') toggles animation, if applicable.
3025 Animation plays once, unless the option `image-animate-loop' is non-nil.
3026
3027 ** Info
3028
3029 *** New command M-x info-display-manual displays a named Info manual.
3030 If that manual is already visited in some Info buffer, it displays
3031 that buffer. (This is handy if you have many manuals in many *info*
3032 buffers, and don't remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual
3033 you want to consult.) Otherwise, it loads and displays the manual.
3034
3035 *** `e' is now bound to `end-of-buffer' rather than to `Info-edit'.
3036 This is for compatibility with the stand-alone Info reader program,
3037 and also because `Info-edit' is a rarely used command that is disabled
3038 by default.
3039
3040 ** Mail mode changes (not Message mode)
3041
3042 *** New command M-x mail-add-attachment for adding MIME attachments
3043
3044 *** The command M-x mail-attach-file was renamed to M-x mail-insert-file.
3045 (Its name is misleading, since it has nothing to do with MIME
3046 attachments.) The old name is now an obsolete alias to the new name.
3047
3048 ** MH-E has been updated to MH-E version 8.3.1.
3049 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
3050
3051 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
3052
3053 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
3054
3055 ** nXML mode no longer binds C-RET to `nxml-complete'.
3056 Completion is now performed via `completion-at-point', bound to C-M-i
3057 or M-TAB. If `nxml-bind-meta-tab-to-complete-flag' is non-nil (the
3058 default), this performs tag completion.
3059
3060 ** Org mode has been updated to version 7.8.09.
3061 See ORG-NEWS for details.
3062
3063 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
3064 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity,
3065 support for more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
3066
3067 ** Rmail
3068
3069 *** The command `rmail-epa-decrypt' decrypts OpenPGP data
3070 in the Rmail incoming message.
3071
3072 *** The variable `rmail-message-filter' no longer has any effect.
3073 This change was made in Emacs 23.1 but was not advertised at the time.
3074 Try using `rmail-show-message-hook' instead.
3075
3076 ** Shell mode
3077
3078 *** M-x shell prompts for the shell path name if the default directory
3079 is a remote file name and neither the environment variable $ESHELL nor
3080 the variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
3081
3082 *** TAB is now bound to the standard `completion-at-point' command,
3083 which now implements the pcomplete rules for shell command completion.
3084
3085 ** SMTPmail
3086
3087 *** SMTPmail now uses encrypted connections (via STARTTLS) by default
3088 if the mail server supports them. This uses either built-in GnuTLS
3089 support, or the starttls.el library. Customize `smtpmail-stream-type'
3090 to change this.
3091
3092 *** The variable `smtpmail-auth-credentials' has been removed.
3093 By default, the information is now stored in the file ~/.authinfo.
3094 This was the default value of smtpmail-auth-credentials. If you had
3095 customized smtpmail-auth-credentials to a list of user names and
3096 passwords, those settings are not used. During your first connection
3097 to the smtp server, Emacs will prompt for the user name and password,
3098 and offer to save them to ~/.authinfo. Or you can manually copy the
3099 credentials to ~/.authinfo. For example, if you had
3100
3101 (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials
3102 '(("mail.example.org" 25 "jim" "s!cret")))
3103
3104 then the equivalent line in ~/.authinfo would be
3105
3106 machine mail.example.org port 25 login jim password s!cret
3107
3108 See the auth-source manual for more information, e.g. on encrypting
3109 the credentials file.
3110
3111 *** The variable `smtpmail-starttls-credentials' has been removed.
3112 If you had that set, you need to put
3113
3114 machine smtp.whatever.foo port 25 key "~/.my_smtp_tls.key" cert "~/.my_smtp_tls.cert"
3115
3116 in your ~/.authinfo file instead.
3117
3118 *** SMTPmail defaults to using the address in the From: header as the
3119 SMTP MAIL FROM envelope. To override this, set `mail-envelope-from'
3120 to the address you wish to use instead.
3121
3122 ** SQL mode
3123
3124 *** New options `sql-port', `sql-connection-alist', `sql-send-terminator',
3125 and `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
3126
3127 *** New options controlling prompting for login parameters.
3128 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params',
3129 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
3130 connection is established.
3131
3132 *** The command `sql-product-interactive' now takes a prefix argument,
3133 which causes it to prompt for an SQL product.
3134
3135 *** Product-specific SQL interactive commands now take prefix arguments.
3136 These commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres', `sql-mysql', etc.),
3137 given a prefix argument, prompt for a name for the SQL interactive
3138 buffer. This reduces the need for calling `sql-rename-buffer'.
3139
3140 *** SQL interactive modes suppress command continuation prompts, and
3141 replace tabs with spaces. The first change impacts multiple line SQL
3142 statements entered with C-j between each line, statements yanked into
3143 the buffer and statements sent with `sql-send-*' functions. The
3144 second prevents the MySQL and Postgres interpreters from listing
3145 object name completions when sent text via `sql-send-*' functions.
3146
3147 *** New command `sql-connect' starts a predefined SQLi session,
3148 using the login parameters from `sql-connection-alist'.
3149
3150 *** New "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
3151 This gathers the login params specified for the SQLi session, if it
3152 was not started by a connection, and saves them as a new connection.
3153
3154 *** New commands for listing database objects and details:
3155 sql-list-all and sql-list-table.
3156
3157 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
3158
3159 ** TeX modes
3160
3161 *** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
3162
3163 ** Tramp
3164
3165 *** New inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
3166
3167 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
3168 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
3169
3170 *** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
3171 remote file attributes are cached for better performance.
3172
3173 *** The option `ange-ftp-binary-file-name-regexp' has changed its
3174 default value to "".
3175
3176 *** Handlers for `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
3177 for remote machines which support SELinux.
3178
3179 ** New function `url-queue-retrieve', which behaves like url-retrieve,
3180 but with limits (`url-queue-parallel-processes', `url-queue-timeout') on
3181 the degree of parallelism.
3182
3183 ** VC and related modes
3184
3185 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
3186 The command C-x v + (`vc-pull') runs a "pull" operation, if it is
3187 supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to update the
3188 current branch and working tree. A prefix argument means to prompt
3189 the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
3190
3191 *** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
3192
3193 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
3194 The command C-x v m (`vc-merge') now runs a "merge" operation, if it
3195 is supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to merge
3196 changes from another branch into the current one. It prompts for
3197 specifics, e.g. a merge source.
3198
3199 *** New option `vc-revert-show-diff' controls whether `vc-revert'
3200 shows a diff while querying the user. It defaults to t.
3201
3202 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
3203 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
3204 This is currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial (to support
3205 another backend, define a `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function').
3206 In the Log View buffers made by C-x v L (`vc-print-root-log'), you can
3207 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
3208
3209 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
3210 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
3211
3212 *** The option `vc-initial-comment' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but
3213 this was not advertised at the time.
3214
3215 *** `vc-toggle-read-only' is an obsolete alias for `toggle-read-only'.
3216 Since Emacs 23, it has done the same thing as `toggle-read-only', but
3217 this was not advertised at the time.
3218
3219 ** Obsolete modes
3220
3221 *** abbrevlist.el
3222
3223 *** erc-hecomplete.el (use erc-pcomplete.el instead)
3224
3225 *** partial-completion-mode (complete.el) is obsolete.
3226 You can get a comparable behavior with:
3227 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
3228 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
3229
3230 *** pc-mode.el is obsolete (CUA mode is much more comprehensive).
3231
3232 *** pgg is obsolete (use EasyPG instead).
3233
3234 *** sregex.el is obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
3235
3236 *** s-region.el and pc-select.el are obsolete.
3237 They are superseded by shift-select-mode, enabled by default since 23.1.
3238
3239 *** vc-mcvs.el is obsolete (for lack of a maintainer).
3240
3241 ** Miscellaneous
3242
3243 *** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
3244 Its functions and variables have been similarly renamed.
3245
3246 *** In `ido-file-completion-map', C-v is no longer bound to `ido-toggle-vc'.
3247 (This interfered with cua-mode.)
3248
3249 *** f90.el has some support for Fortran 2008 syntax.
3250
3251 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
3252
3253 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
3254
3255 \f
3256 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
3257
3258 ** Occur Edit mode applies edits made in *Occur* buffers to the
3259 original buffers. It is bound to "e" in Occur mode.
3260
3261 ** New global minor mode electric-pair-mode.
3262 When enabled, typing an open parenthesis automatically inserts the
3263 matching closing one.
3264
3265 ** New global minor mode electric-indent-mode.
3266 When enabled, typing certain characters triggers reindentation.
3267 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-indent-chars or
3268 electric-indent-functions.
3269
3270 ** New global minor mode electric-layout-mode.
3271 When enabled, typing certain characters automatically inserts newlines.
3272 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-layout-rules.
3273
3274 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
3275 from which other modes can be derived.
3276
3277 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
3278
3279 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
3280 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
3281 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
3282 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
3283 secrets.
3284
3285 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
3286 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
3287
3288 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
3289 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
3290
3291 ** New generic mode, xmodmap-generic-mode, for xmodmap files.
3292
3293 ** New emacs-lock.el package.
3294 The previous version has been moved to obsolete/old-emacs-lock.el.
3295 Now, there is a proper minor mode `emacs-lock-mode'. Protection
3296 against exiting Emacs and killing the buffer can be set separately.
3297 The mechanism for automatically turning off protection for buffers
3298 with dead inferior processes has been generalized.
3299
3300 \f
3301 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
3302
3303 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function call now ENABLES
3304 the minor mode unconditionally. This is so that you can write e.g.
3305
3306 (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'foo-mode)
3307
3308 to enable foo-mode in Text mode buffers, removing the need for
3309 `turn-on-foo-mode' style functions. This affects all mode commands
3310 defined by `define-minor-mode'. If called interactively, the mode
3311 command still toggles the minor mode.
3312
3313 ** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
3314 It is now a list of three elements, where the second element is a list
3315 describing the original file's SELinux context. If Emacs or the
3316 system lacks SELinux support, the context list is (nil nil nil nil).
3317 See "Basic SELinux support" above, under "Changes in Emacs 24.1".
3318
3319 ** `char-direction-table' and the `char-direction' function were deleted.
3320 They were buggy and inferior to the new support of bidirectional
3321 editing introduced in Emacs 24. If you need the bidirectional
3322 properties of a character, use `get-char-code-property' with the last
3323 argument `bidi-class'.
3324
3325 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
3326 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
3327 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
3328 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
3329
3330 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
3331 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
3332 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
3333 of the header line.
3334
3335 ** Support for "old-style" backquotes, obsolete for 10+ years, has
3336 been further reduced. Now a backquote not followed by a space is
3337 always treated as a "new-style" backquote. Please remove all
3338 "old-style" backquotes from your code. If your code uses backquotes
3339 as documented in the Elisp manual, and compiles without warning, then
3340 you have nothing to do in this regard. Code not following the
3341 appropriate conventions may fail to compile.
3342
3343 The most common cause of trouble seems to be an old-style backquote
3344 followed by a newline. Another cause of trouble is vector notation
3345 for key sequence notation: instead of [(control ,)] and [(control ')],
3346 you should write [(control ?,)] and [(control ?')], which will work in
3347 older Emacsen too.
3348
3349 ** The macro `eval-at-startup' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but this
3350 was not advertised at the time. The function `custom-initialize-delay'
3351 replaced all known uses.
3352
3353 ** `view-buffer' now treats special mode-class in the same way that
3354 `view-file' has since Emacs 22 (i.e. it won't enable View mode if the
3355 major mode is special).
3356
3357 ** Menu and tool bar changes
3358
3359 *** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
3360 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
3361 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
3362 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
3363 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
3364 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
3365
3366 *** The menu bar bindings's caches are not used any more.
3367 Use (where-is-internal <def> nil t) instead.
3368
3369 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
3370 similar to those created by shift-selection (see Selection changes
3371 above). In previous Emacs versions, these regions were delineated by
3372 `mouse-drag-overlay'; that variable has been removed.
3373
3374 ** The fourth argument of `filter-buffer-substring' has been removed.
3375 If you want to remove text properties from the final result, simply
3376 pass the result through substring-no-properties.
3377
3378 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
3379
3380 ** The following obsolete functions and aliases have been removed
3381 (the appropriate new function is given in parentheses; "not needed"
3382 means you can just remove all calls to the function in question):
3383
3384 *** `comint-kill-output' (`comint-delete-output')
3385 *** `decompose-composite-char' (`char-to-string')
3386 *** `outline-visible' (`outline-invisible-p')
3387 *** `internal-find-face' (`facep')
3388 *** `internal-get-face' (`facep and check-face')
3389 *** `frame-update-faces' (not needed)
3390 *** `frame-update-face-colors' (`frame-set-background-mode')
3391 *** `x-frob-font-weight' and `x-frob-font-slant' (`make-face-*' functions)
3392 *** `x-make-font-bold' and `x-make-font-demibold' (`make-face-bold')
3393 *** `x-make-font-italic' and `x-make-font-oblique' (`make-face-italic')
3394 *** `x-make-font-bold-italic' (`make-face-bold-italic')
3395 *** `x-make-font-unbold' (`make-face-unbold')
3396 *** `x-make-font-unitalic' (`make-face-unitalic')
3397 *** `mldrag-drag-mode-line' (`mouse-drag-mode-line')
3398 *** `mldrag-drag-vertical-line' (`mouse-drag-vertical-line')
3399 *** `iswitchb-default-keybindings' (`iswitchb-mode')
3400 *** `char-bytes' (== 1)
3401 *** `isearch-return-char' (`isearch-printing-char')
3402 *** `make-local-hook' (not needed)
3403 *** `set-screen-height' (`set-frame-height')
3404 *** `set-screen-width' (`set-frame-width')
3405
3406 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed
3407 (the appropriate new variable is given in parentheses):
3408
3409 *** `checkdoc-minor-keymap' (`checkdoc-minor-mode-map')
3410 *** `vc-header-alist' (`vc-BACKEND-header')
3411 *** `directory-sep-char' (== ?/)
3412 *** `font-lock-defaults-alist' (`font-lock-defaults')
3413 *** `e' (`float-e').
3414
3415 ** The following obsolete files were removed:
3416 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
3417
3418 ** The format of the finder-inf.el file has changed, since the Finder
3419 mechanism is now based on the package system. The variable
3420 `finder-package-info' is replaced by `package--builtins' and
3421 `finder-keywords-hash'.
3422
3423 ** When generating autoloads, `update-directory-autoloads' no longer
3424 assumes every inspected file is in your `load-path'. It instead
3425 generates relative names according to the current `load-path'.
3426
3427 \f
3428 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
3429
3430 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
3431 The `lexical-binding' variable enables lexical scoping for local
3432 variables. It is typically set via a file-local variable in the first
3433 line of the file, in which case it applies to all the code in that
3434 file.
3435
3436 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
3437 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
3438
3439 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
3440 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
3441
3442 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
3443
3444 *** `defvar' and `defconst' now mark the variable as special (dynamic).
3445 So do `defcustom' and other forms that call `defvar' as a subroutine.
3446
3447 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
3448 declared as dynamically bound.
3449
3450 *** The form ((lambda ...) ...) is deprecated.
3451
3452 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
3453 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
3454 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
3455
3456 ** Changes for bidirectional display and editing
3457
3458 *** New function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction'.
3459 This returns the base direction of the paragraph at point.
3460
3461 *** New function `bidi-string-mark-left-to-right'.
3462 Given a string containing characters from right-to-left scripts, this
3463 function returns another string which can be safely inserted into a
3464 buffer, such that any following text will be always displayed to the
3465 right of that string. (This works by appending an invisible Unicode
3466 "LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK" character if the argument string might need it.)
3467
3468 This is useful when the buffer has overall left-to-right paragraph
3469 direction and you need to insert a string whose contents are not known
3470 in advance, without disrupting the layout of the line.
3471
3472 ** Window changes
3473
3474 *** Window tree functions are accessible in Elisp.
3475 Functions are provided to return the parent, siblings or child windows
3476 of any window including internal windows (windows not associated with a
3477 buffer) in the window tree.
3478
3479 **** New function `window-valid-p' gives non-nil for live and internal
3480 windows.
3481
3482 **** Window manipulation can deal with internal windows.
3483 Many window handling functions like `split-window', `delete-window', or
3484 `delete-other-windows' as well as the window resizing functions can now
3485 act on any window including internal ones.
3486
3487 *** window-total-height/-width vs window-body-height/-width.
3488 The function `window-height' has been renamed to `window-total-height'
3489 and `window-width' has been renamed to `window-body-width'. The old
3490 names are provided as aliases. Two new functions `window-total-width'
3491 and `window-body-height' are provided.
3492
3493 *** Window parameters specific to window handling functions.
3494 For each window you can specify a parameter to override the default
3495 behavior of a number of functions like `split-window', `delete-window'
3496 and `delete-other-windows'. The variable `ignore-window-parameters'
3497 allows to ignore processing such parameters.
3498
3499 *** New semantics of third argument of `split-window'.
3500 The third argument of `split-window' has been renamed to SIDE and can be
3501 set to any of the values 'below, 'right, 'above, or 'left to make the
3502 new window appear on the corresponding side of the window that shall be
3503 split. Any other value of SIDE will cause `split-window' to split the
3504 window into two side-by-side windows as before.
3505
3506 *** Window resizing functions.
3507 A new standard function for resizing windows called `window-resize' has
3508 been introduced. This and all other functions for resizing windows no
3509 longer delete any windows when they become too small.
3510
3511 *** Deleting the selected window now selects the most recently selected
3512 live window on that frame instead.
3513
3514 *** `adjust-window-trailing-edge' adjustments.
3515 `adjust-window-trailing-edge' can now deal with fixed-size windows and
3516 is able to resize other windows if a window adjacent to the trailing
3517 edge cannot be shrunk any more. This makes its behavior more similar to
3518 that of Emacs 21 without compromising, however, its inability to delete
3519 windows which was introduced in Emacs 22.
3520
3521 *** Window-local buffer lists.
3522 Windows now have local buffer lists. This means that removing a buffer
3523 from display in a window will preferably show the buffer previously
3524 shown in that window with its previous window-start and window-point
3525 positions. This also means that the same buffer may be automatically
3526 shown twice even if it already appears in another window.
3527
3528 *** `switch-to-buffer' has a new optional argument FORCE-SAME-WINDOW,
3529 which if non-nil requires the buffer to be displayed in the currently
3530 selected window, signaling an error otherwise. If nil, another window
3531 can be used, e.g. if the selected one is strongly dedicated.
3532
3533 *** `split-window-vertically' and `split-window-horizontally' renamed
3534 to `split-window-below' and `split-window-right' respectively.
3535 The old names are kept as aliases.
3536
3537 *** Display actions
3538
3539 **** The second arg to `display-buffer' and `pop-to-buffer' is now
3540 named ACTION, and takes a display action of the same form as
3541 `display-buffer-base-action' (see Changes, above). A non-nil,
3542 non-list value is treated specially, as the old meaning.
3543
3544 **** New variable `display-buffer-overriding-action'.
3545
3546 **** The procedure of `display-buffer' etc. to choose a window is
3547 determined by combining `display-buffer-overriding-action',
3548 `display-buffer-alist', the ACTION arg, `display-buffer-base-action',
3549 and `display-buffer-fallback-action'. The second and fourth of these
3550 are user-customizable variables.
3551
3552 See the docstring of `display-buffer' for details.
3553
3554 *** New functions `window-state-get' and `window-state-put'.
3555 These functions allow to save and restore the state of an arbitrary
3556 frame or window as an Elisp object.
3557
3558 ** Completion
3559
3560 *** New variable `completion-extra-properties' used to specify extra
3561 properties of the current completion:
3562 - :annotation-function, same as the old completion-annotate-function.
3563 - :exit-function, function to call after completion took place.
3564
3565 *** Functions on `completion-at-point-functions' can return any of the
3566 properties valid for `completion-extra-properties'.
3567
3568 *** `completion-annotate-function' is obsolete.
3569
3570 *** New `metadata' method for completion tables. The metadata thus returned
3571 can specify various details of the data returned by `all-completions':
3572 - `category' is the kind of objects returned (e.g., `buffer', `file', ...),
3573 used to select a style in completion-category-overrides.
3574 - `annotation-function' to add annotations in *Completions*.
3575 - `display-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries in *Completions*.
3576 - `cycle-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries when cycling.
3577
3578 *** `minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map' is not used any more.
3579 Instead, the bindings in `minibuffer-local-filename-completion-map'
3580 are combined with `minibuffer-local-must-match-map'.
3581
3582 *** New variable `completing-read-function' allows overriding the
3583 behavior of `completing-read'.
3584
3585 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
3586 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
3587
3588 ** `pre-command-hook'/`post-command-hook' are not reset to nil on error.
3589 Instead, the offending function is removed.
3590
3591 ** New hook types
3592
3593 *** New function `run-hook-wrapped' for running an abnormal hook by
3594 passing the hook functions as arguments to a "wrapping" function.
3595 Like `run-hook-with-args-until-success', it stops at the first
3596 non-nil return value.
3597
3598 *** New macro `with-wrapper-hook' for running an abnormal hook as a
3599 set of "wrapping" filters, similar to around advice.
3600 (A version of this macro was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not
3601 advertised at the time.)
3602
3603 ** Debugger changes
3604
3605 *** New macro `condition-case-unless-debug' (this was actually added in
3606 Emacs 23.1 as condition-case-no-debug, but not advertised)
3607
3608 *** The macro `with-demoted-errors' was added in Emacs 23.1, but not advertised.
3609
3610 *** Variable `stack-trace-on-error' removed.
3611
3612 *** The debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will
3613 jump to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked
3614 instead of jumping all the way to the top-level.
3615
3616 *** Set `debug-on-event' to enter the debugger on events like SIGUSR1.
3617 This can be useful when `inhibit-quit' is set.
3618
3619 ** The new function `server-eval-at' allows evaluation of Lisp forms on
3620 named Emacs server instances.
3621
3622 ** `call-process' and `call-process-region' allow a `(:file "file")' spec
3623 to redirect STDOUT to a file.
3624
3625 ** The function `format-time-string' now supports the %N directive,
3626 for higher-resolution time stamps.
3627
3628 ** New input reading functions
3629
3630 *** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of
3631 characters, discarding any inputs not inside the set.
3632
3633 *** The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name
3634 or RGB triplet, instead of signaling an error if the user provides
3635 invalid input.
3636
3637 **** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
3638
3639 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
3640 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
3641 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
3642 obsolete alias.
3643
3644 ** Syntax parsing changes
3645
3646 *** New variable `syntax-propertize-function'.
3647 This replaces `font-lock-syntactic-keywords' which is now obsolete.
3648 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
3649 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
3650 Together with this new variable come a new hook
3651 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
3652 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
3653 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
3654 syntactic rules.
3655
3656 *** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
3657
3658 ** New hook `post-self-insert-hook', run after `self-insert-command'.
3659
3660 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
3661
3662 ** Major and minor mode changes
3663
3664 *** `set-auto-mode' now respects mode: local variables at the end of files,
3665 as well as those in the -*- line.
3666
3667 *** `prog-mode' is a new major mode from which programming modes
3668 should be derived.
3669
3670 **** `prog-mode-hook' can be used to enable features for programming
3671 modes, e.g. (add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'flyspell-prog-mode) to enable
3672 on-the-fly spell checking for comments and strings.
3673
3674 *** New hook `change-major-mode-after-body-hook', run by
3675 `run-mode-hooks' just before any other mode hooks.
3676
3677 *** Enabled globalized minor modes can be disabled in specific major modes.
3678 If the global mode is global-FOO-mode, then run (FOO-mode -1) in the
3679 major mode's hook, where FOO-mode toggles the mode on a per-buffer basis.
3680
3681 *** `define-minor-mode' accepts new keywords :variable, :after-hook.
3682
3683 ** File-handling changes
3684
3685 *** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
3686 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
3687 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
3688 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
3689
3690 *** New file predicates: `file-equal-p', `file-in-directory-p'.
3691
3692 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
3693 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
3694 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
3695
3696 ** Image API
3697
3698 *** Animated images support (currently animated gifs only).
3699
3700 **** `image-animated-p' returns non-nil if an image can be animated.
3701
3702 **** `image-animate' animates a supplied image spec.
3703
3704 **** `image-animate-timer' returns the timer object for an image that
3705 is being animated.
3706
3707 *** `image-extension-data' has been renamed to `image-metadata'.
3708 The old name is an obsolete alias to the new one.
3709
3710 *** Image mode can view any image type that ImageMagick supports.
3711 This requires Emacs to be built with ImageMagick support.
3712
3713 **** New function `imagemagick-types', defined if ImageMagick support
3714 is enabled, returns a list of image file extensions that your
3715 ImageMagick installation supports.
3716
3717 **** New function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick
3718 image types in Image mode and in `create-image' and other helper
3719 functions.
3720
3721 **** New option `imagemagick-types-inhibit' excludes certain
3722 ImageMagick image types from `imagemagick-register-types'.
3723
3724 **** With ImageMagick support, there are extra Image mode commands to
3725 resize and rotate images: `image-transform-fit-to-height',
3726 `image-transform-fit-to-width', `image-transform-set-rotation', and
3727 `image-transform-set-scale'.
3728
3729 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
3730 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
3731 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail. For
3732 example, this is used by Rmail to optionally delete a mail window.
3733
3734 ** XML and HTML parsing
3735 If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support, there are two new
3736 functions: `libxml-parse-html-region' (which parses "real world" HTML)
3737 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
3738 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
3739
3740 ** Networking and encryption changes
3741
3742 *** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
3743 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
3744 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
3745 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
3746 must also be supplied.
3747
3748 *** New library gnutls.el.
3749 The new function `gnutls-available-p' returns non-nil if Emacs is
3750 built with GnuTLS support. The main entry points are
3751 `open-gnutls-stream' and `gnutls-negotiate'. It's easiest to use
3752 these functions through `open-network-stream', because that can
3753 upgrade connections through STARTTLS opportunistically or use plain
3754 SSL, depending on your needs. For debugging, set `gnutls-log-level'
3755 greater than 0.
3756
3757 *** New primitive `secure-hash' that supports many secure hash algorithms:
3758 md5, sha1, sha2, sha224, sha256, sha384, and sha512. The lisp library
3759 sha1.el has been removed. The `sha1' feature is provided by default.
3760
3761 ** Isearch
3762
3763 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
3764
3765 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
3766 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
3767 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
3768 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
3769 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
3770 displayed with a "spinning bar".
3771
3772 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
3773 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
3774
3775 ** New variables `delayed-warnings-list' and `delayed-warnings-hook'.
3776 If delayed-warnings-list is non-nil, the command loop calls
3777 `delayed-warnings-hook' after `post-command-hook'. At present, this
3778 is only used by Emacs on some platforms to display warnings during
3779 startup, which might otherwise not be noticed. This uses the
3780 functions `display-delayed-warnings' and `collapse-delayed-warnings'.
3781
3782 ** rx.el has a new `group-n' construct for explicitly numbered groups.
3783
3784 ** New function `make-composed-keymap' that constructs a new keymap
3785 from multiple input maps. You can use this to make a keymap that
3786 inherits from multiple maps, eg:
3787 (set-keymap-parent newmap (make-composed-keymap othermap parent))
3788
3789 ** New function `string-prefix-p'.
3790 (This was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not advertised at the time.)
3791
3792 ** New reader macro ## that stands for the empty symbol.
3793 This means that the empty symbol can now be read back. Also, #: by itself
3794 (when not immediately followed by a possible symbol character) stands for
3795 an empty uninterned symbol.
3796
3797 ** New math functions `isnan', `copysign', `frexp', `ldexp'.
3798
3799 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
3800
3801 *** `tooltip-use-echo-area' is obsolete.
3802 Rather than setting this to t, disable Tooltip mode instead.
3803
3804 *** buffer-substring-filters is obsolete.
3805 Use `filter-buffer-substring-functions' instead.
3806
3807 *** `byte-compile-disable-print-circle' is obsolete.
3808
3809 *** `deferred-action-list' and `deferred-action-function' are obsolete.
3810 Use `post-command-hook' instead.
3811
3812 *** `font-lock-maximum-size' is obsolete.
3813
3814 \f
3815 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on Non-Free Operating Systems
3816
3817 ** On MS Windows, Emacs warns when using the obsolete init file _emacs,
3818 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
3819
3820 ** New configure.bat options
3821
3822 *** --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra runtime checks.
3823
3824 *** --distfiles specifies files to be included in binary distribution.
3825
3826 *** --without-gnutls disables automatic GnuTLS detection.
3827
3828 *** --lib for general library linkage, works with the USER_LIBS build variable.
3829
3830 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
3831
3832 ** The Lisp function `w32-default-color-map' is now obsolete.
3833 (It is only used internally in the Emacs C code.)
3834
3835 ** Customize ns-auto-hide-menu-bar to have the menu-bar hidden, but
3836 reappear on mouse-over. (Requires OS X 10.6 or later.)
3837
3838 ** On Mac OS X, dragging a file into Emacs visits the file, like on
3839 other platforms, rather than inserting its contents into the buffer.
3840
3841 \f
3842 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
3843 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
3844
3845 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
3846 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
3847 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
3848 (at your option) any later version.
3849
3850 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
3851 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
3852 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
3853 GNU General Public License for more details.
3854
3855 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
3856 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
3857
3858 \f
3859 Local variables:
3860 coding: utf-8
3861 mode: outline
3862 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
3863 end: